"The Package"

JANUARY 28, 2011

FOCUS: JIN, SUN
EPISODE: 6.10
AIRED: MARCH 30, 2010

It’s hard to believe that there are only seven episodes left of Lost and yet the writers STILL haven’t reunited Jin and Sun. While “The Package” seems to be leaning toward making this happen, at the end they’re still separated, and another hour closer to their grand exit. They ALMOST make up for it by finally bringing back Desmond at the end of the episode after being absent for the entire season, but still – bring the Kwons back together, you monsters!

There are two huge problems with their lengthy separation. One is that the chemistry between the two actors has always been one of the most successful pairings on the show, and by keeping them apart they’ve denied us one of the stronger emotional ties folks had to the characters. While they constantly repeat their wish to find the other, it’s nothing like the bond they have when they’re actually together. Plus, they’ve been separated before (in season 2), and it was a wonderful, teary moment when they reunited after 7-8 episodes – it’s not like keeping them apart longer is somehow going to make it “better” drama; keeping these two apart for even ONE episode is enough. It’s like having the mentality that someone staying in a shower for two hours will somehow be wetter than someone who was in it for 5 minutes. Wet is wet, man.

The other problem is that the flash sideways rob us of that emotion anyway. It’s kind of hard to feel sad about them being “apart” when half the episode has them side by side, including a very sweet foreplay scene that recalls Jin’s anger about Sun’s unbuttoned blouse albeit in a completely different context. Even knowing what these scenes really mean doesn’t diminish the fact that they robbed the storyline of its intended emotional impact, at least for me.

Thus, the most emotionally charged and sweet moment in the episode has little to do with Jin, but Jack earning Sun’s trust back once and for all. She was pretty pissed at him in S5, and their once close bond had deteriorated before that anyway due to Juliet, Jin’s “death”, etc. But the scene where he finds a way for her to communicate and holds out his hand for her – awww. Good stuff, and it also features the return of Jack the charming, noble hero from S1, who had been sort of M.I.A. what with all of the yelling and Other-hating.

As for the sideways stuff, well you know how I feel about any sort of violence in the “waiting room”, so I’m not going to go into that again. However I will say that I absolutely loved Kevin Durand’s performance here. He’s an actor I really dig anyway, but his sideways Keamy is very different from his real world Keamy; he’s sort of channeling John Malkovich at times, and also a little bit of Alan Rickman from Die Hard – the charming/scummy villain.

I could definitely do without the scenes of Sawyer and Kate yapping. Kate looks amazing (something about her hair), so that’s fine, but even the first time around I didn’t care much for Sawyer’s little Yojimbo-esque maneuvers, so they’re even more dull the second time around. And unless it’s with me, and me only, I don’t want to see Kate just sitting around doing nothing except drinking. Come on guys, there’s only 7 hours left (subtracting “Across The Sea”) – DO SOMETHING.

And what’s with Sayid saying he can’t feel anything anymore? I guess we can surmise that his soul is what has been “claimed” and in its place is the “darkness” or “virus” or whatever, but it doesn’t seem to affect him much in a few episodes, does it? Of all the subplots they’ve dropped over the years that annoyed me, I actually would have been perfectly OK with them just forgetting about Sayid’s Temple adventures (which they more or less DID, but they should have done it before this new, never explained development).

Oh well. At least tomorrow has a lot of Desmond.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"This Place Is Death"

JANUARY 7, 2011

FOCUS: JIN, SUN
EPISODE: 5.5
AIRED: FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Yay, Charlotte’s dead! Of all the main characters, I am pretty sure she is my least favorite – she was cold, uninteresting, and just downright unpleasant most of the time, with a ludicrous (and error-filled) back-story to boot. But her death in “This Place Is Death” serves two purposes; in addition to amusing me, it also raises the stakes on the time travel shit – you can DIE from this crap (just like the ratings! Hey-o!). A common problem with any continuing narrative is making sure that the audience understands how dangerous something is, and we usually just have to take their word for it. Not on Lost! Cast members are barely safer than the average extra.

Or should that be "safer than John Locke’s leg"? For what seems like the 59th time on this show, he falls and hurts his leg again (for a magical healing island that he supposedly has been “chosen” by, it sure injures him a hell of a lot). The first time, it was like “Oh no!”, because a. we still liked Locke and b. didn’t want him to have to be crippled again. But they’ve gone to that well (heh) too many times now, and he’s no longer as sympathetic anyway.

This scene is pretty interesting in retrospect, because Christian (who if I am remembering correctly is the Man in Black/smoke monster at this point, right?) won’t help him walk, when we now know that this being allows Locke to “live” again when he takes his place. The “Locke as smoke monster” shit really annoyed me, but at least there seems to be some evidence that it wasn’t something they pulled out of their ass during season 6.

Speaking of inconsistencies, nothing we see of Danielle’s past matches up with what she has related in the present day, but I guess she didn’t want to tell Sayid or whoever about the Asian guy who would disappear at random (don’t forget – according to Daniel, everything that happened, happened! Jin has ALWAYS met Danielle before she had her baby!). Jin’s plan to “prove” he’s dead also makes little sense – wouldn’t his word be enough for her? He’d have to pry the wedding ring off his dead hand (not to mention bury him without it – harsh) to make it so? And Jin knows Locke isn’t a fan of this plan – he could just as easily use it as proof he was alive (which is exactly what Ben does).

Also, since when does Jin not want to save his friends? He’s risked his life on several occasions to help Michael, Sawyer, etc – if Locke is telling him it’s the only way to keep all of them from getting hurt/killed, why doesn’t he trust him? Guess it’s because it’s only the 2nd time these two have ever spoken. On that note, his reunion with Sawyer is pretty sweet – good bro-hugging and genuine emotion all around! I also loved Ben freaking out on Jack and Sun for talking about wanting to kill him right in front of him – they have a point, but so does he – he HAS been quite protective of the Oceanic Six (he let them leave in the first place, for starters). Makes up for the sad moment where Sayid tells Jack to fuck off – they had been strong allies almost from the first episode, so this bummed me out. Then again, Sayid’s character is completely ruined from the moment he gets on the Ajira plane anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter.

And can we get a break on the fucking Geronimo Jackson references? It's the dumbest running gag in entertainment history.

Tomorrow – Jack and Kate play Blue Valentine!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Ji Yeon"

DECEMBER 22, 2010

FOCUS: JIN, SUN
EPISODE: 4.7
AIRED: MARCH 13, 2008

A common problem I have with movies that are built around twists is that I've seen so many, I can spot the "off" things that give the twist away, such as no one speaking to a certain character (Sixth Sense, though that one actually fooled me - it's just the one I can mention without giving away a largely unknown secret) or a certain vague quality to dialogue, indicating that the writer is trying to make you think they are talking about something different than they are. Well, I'm not sure what it was about "Ji Yeon", but I somehow knew after about 10 minutes or so that Jin and Sun were not in the same time period during the flashes.

There are certain hints - Jin's "antique" cell phone and the fact that no one was bugging him about being an Oceanic Six member, like everyone else's flash-forwards, but if that's what tipped me off, it must have been subconsciously, because I only really realized these things on a second viewing. I think it's more that they were separate for the whole episode - they ALWAYS had a scene together in their other episodes, even the one that took place before they met! Now, I'm not saying it's a bad twist, and it actually sort of foreshadowed a future element of the show (people existing in different time periods), but I suspect that some fans wouldn't have been as annoyed if they had seen it coming. Some folks don't like being tricked, and when they are, they just get angry (I myself just feel stupid for missing it).

Once again, though, the bulk of what makes the episode interesting is the stuff in the B story, i.e. the developments on the freighter. Zoe Bell popping up and committing suicide, the introduction of the captain, and of course, FINALLY, the "non-opening credits" reveal of who Ben's spy was on the boat, all make for perfectly satisfying, worthwhile Lost. I also like that Desmond really doesn't know who Michael is, something that a casual viewer probably didn't realize. Desmond took off while Michael was still with the Others, and returned when Michael was with Jack and company en route to "rescue Walt". I wish they had a scene of Sayid explaining who he was to Desmond though; after this the fact that they didn't know one another was never really addressed.

I also enjoy the flashes. Jin's story is goofy fun, because it puts one of the most volatile guys on the show in a situation out of a bad episode of some family sitcom, or the film Jingle All The Way. And Sun's is nice because it's good to know she had her baby and both were healthy. Also, as I mentioned yesterday, Hurley's response to the fact that no one else was coming ("Good!") was particularly odd - since when doesn't Hurley want to see the others? It was obviously before he went nuts again (since it couldn't be too far into the future if she was just having her baby), so this moment was and remains very awkward. But hilarious, because of Jorge Garcia's otherwise unending love of everyone.

But the island stuff is a bore. First of all - they build an episode around Sun and Jin possibly wanting to stay on the island, when we know they DON'T because the other half of the episode is about her living in the real world post-island! And I've already discussed my dislike of the "affair" subplot (and I find it rather stupid that Jin actually thinks it might not be his - unless she fucked the dude right before they got on the plane, how could it be? You've been there for over 3 months and she's not even showing yet), so Juliet using it to keep Sun around is fairly weak. I do like the scene of him and Bernard on the boat though, and I'm happy they didn't drag it out forever like their last big fight (in S1), but it's still a bland and forgettable story.

Which is a shame, because I've frequently complained about the lack of character moments in this season, and their stuff does keep the mythology nonsense largely off the table for this one (at least on the island), so that's actually a good thing. I just don't particularly care about this subplot of their history, and the introduction of the flash forwards and such renders a lot of it moot anyway.

Tomorrow - Harold Perrineau's season-long "starring" credit pays off when they give him an entire episode more or less to himself!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"D.O.C."

DECEMBER 5, 2010

FOCUS: SUN
EPISODE: 3.18
AIRED: APRIL 25, 2007

Why are all of the Sun and Jin flashbacks really just Sun flashbacks? Was S1's "In Translation" the only one that was truly Jin-centric? “D.O.C.” is no different; Jin is only in like 2 of the flashbacks, and it’s a sort of romantic comedy version of the guy, where he’s the perfect husband and tells her how beautiful she is pretty much every time he speaks. Meanwhile, Sun’s off playing hardball with her dad, getting icy with ex-hooker mothers, and enjoying tea with Jin’s dad (who is easily the most understanding and forgiving man in the world – “your son told me you were dead.” “I don’t blame him. Tea?”).

Anyway, it’s one of their better episodes, thanks to one of the first signs of post-Island Sun, who was angry and defiant all the time. I love when she talks to her dad, and the threat to the blackmailing mom is pretty scary. Hell, she’s even like that ON the island for once, charging at Juliet and such. Go Sun! Apparently Yun Jin Kim is a huge star in Korea; this is one of the episodes where it’s easy to see why.

Also, it’s the 2nd episode this month to have a female driven island plot, with Sun and Juliet going off to the Dharma station with all the medical equipment so they could give Sun an ultrasound and determine the date of conception. It’s a bit of a stretch – we know she was screwing around with that bald dude, but he died, was buried, etc – even if that was the same WEEK as their plane crash, wouldn’t she have noticed she was pregnant long before she did? There’s about 40 days’ difference between the time the baby was conceived from the last time she hooked up with Lee (again, assuming that their affair/his death occurred the week of the Oceanic plane crash, which seems rather unlikely), if he was the father then she’d be in her second trimester by now.

Meanwhile, Desmond and the others are trying to deal with Naomi (aka Not Penny), who has a branch in her lung. Luckily Mikhail runs in from somewhere and saves her. And it’s here that Desmond says “you’ve killed more of them than they have of you”, which is a line I remembered vaguely but couldn’t recall if I had missed it. I certainly didn’t remember that it was Desmond who said it – which now sort of confuses me: how did HE know that? He wasn’t around for S1 or most of S2 – did someone fill him in with all the details of their conflict with the Others? I can just picture Hurley and Desmond eating mangos with Hurley bringing him up to speed. “So Ethan killed Scott (or Steve), but then Charlie killed Ethan, so we were even. But Sawyer and Kate shot a couple of them on our way to get kidnapped, and Sun killed Colleen, so we’re ahead now.”

Another nitpicky thing I never really thought about – how does Naomi have that particular photo of Desmond and Penny? It was taken by a guy on the street and given to Desmond, who has seemingly held onto it through thick and thin. How’d they get a copy? And why THAT picture? This is the drawback of having a well written cast of characters – mishaps stick out a lot more. Mistakes like this on something like 24 I wouldn’t even notice, let alone care about.

According to the Lostpedia, this is the last traditional episode of Lost in terms of flashbacks, as the rest of them would include flashbacks to things that happened on the Island (or flash forwards, or flashes to the most complicated and rule-heavy afterlife of all time). I will miss them! Sometimes the flashbacks were more interesting than the island adventures (I could always use a few more stories of Jack and Christian butting heads), and more often than not it kept an episode from being a total waste (i.e. “The Long Con” – terrible island story, but a decent Sawyer flashback). Adieu.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"The Glass Ballerina"

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

FOCUS: JIN, SUN
EPISODE: 3.2
AIRED: OCTOBER 11, 2006

If you’re a Red Sox fan, or even a baseball fan in general, you have to love the final scene of “The Glass Ballerina” more than pretty much anything else on this show (unless you are a Yankee or Cardinal fan, in which case it probably pissed you off. To you I say – HAH!). Paying off Jack’s metaphor for people never changing: “That’s why the Red Sox will never win the World Series” (something that might have carried more weight if the episode aired before they DID, but whatever), Ben – who finally introduces himself formally here – proves to Jack that they have contact to the outside world by showing him a clip of the final play in Game 4, something I’ve probably watched 30 times in my life but got goose-bumps seeing it used in such an awesome way here. The look on Jack’s face is priceless; my only complaint is that he doesn’t ask Ben to let him watch the whole game.

It’s easily the best moment in an otherwise middling episode, where we STILL don’t know what happened to the Hatch, and have a backstory revealing that one of our most likeable characters is kind of a b---h (not broth). It’s like, OK, so as a little girl Sun let the poor maid get fired over something she did, fine. But then they reveal that she WAS indeed cheating on Jin with that Jae Lee dude, a revelation that only serves to create some drama about her pregnancy later in the season. Otherwise, I just don’t get what any of this serves? Just to make sure we understand that Sun wasn’t perfect either? Is it too much to ask that ONE of our characters wasn’t kind of a scumbag in the past? I could see if she was still seeing him and maybe getting too close, but they’re naked in bed together – the line is well past being crossed. Poor Jin. He beats folks to a pulp to earn her love and this is how she repays him.

Plus he never even finds out, thus he is deprived of the satisfaction of knowing that the guy who destroyed his nice car at least had it coming. Like, he’d be super-pissed, but seeing the guy go splat right in front of him would probably make him feel a little better. Now he’s just like “thanks a lot, random guy who I had no beef with, now I need a new car.” Again, poor Jin.

The Kate and Sawyer stuff is pretty good though. I don’t think I need to explain why I like these particular scenes with Kate so much, so I’ll let a screenshot do all the talking:

But Sawyer is in fine form here too; his reaction to Pickett’s suggestion that she take her dress off to work is priceless (“How dare you?”), and you have to applaud a guy who decides to gather intel on his captors by making out with a beautiful woman – best example of two birds with one stone ever. And while I’m totally on Jack’s side in the whole love triangle stuff, I must admit his “you taste like strawberries” line is better than anything Jack’s ever done. It also suggests she hasn’t brushed her teeth since the day before (when Ben had her over for breakfast), which tickles me for some reason.

Speaking of Ben, telling Jack it was just “a week ago” that he was the one being held captive was pretty weird – it had been what, 6-7 months for us? Hell even watching them back to back, he escaped more than a week ago for me. In fact, Season 3 in particular takes place over a very limited amount of time (3 weeks, I think?), which was always hard for me to wrap my brain around. 24 always got around this potential issue by flashing forward a year or two in between seasons (and replacing the entire cast save Jack and Chloe, more or less), but by now S2 was a distant memory for us. It’s also weird how good they were with continuity with some things, like Ben’s facial wounds, but totally gave up on others – Jin’s hair, for example, seems to grow at a Chia pet rate.

Tomorrow – we finally find out what happened at the Hatch! According to Lostpedia, it was supposed to be the season’s 2nd episode (and this would be the 3rd), but they swapped them for whatever reason. Yeah, because we were way more concerned with whether or not Sun, Jin, and Sayid accomplished anything with their little mission (answer: nope) than whether or not 3 of the most intriguing characters got blown up. Big difference between keeping us in suspense and just being dicks, Darlton.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"The Whole Truth"

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

FOCUS: SUN
EPISODE: 2.16
AIRED: MARCH 22, 2006

As I mentioned before, starting in Season 2, my job hours occasionally kept me from watching Lost live, as I had done for every S1 episode. And as I mentioned yesterday, the show was getting back on track around this point in the season. So when I discovered that my Tivo had cut "The Whole Truth" about 90 seconds short, right around when Ben started explaining what he'd do if he WAS an Other, I pretty much freaked out and almost considered switching jobs (not long after this I discovered that my office had the East coast network feeds and more often than not I'd just watch it there, with the added bonus of not having to worry about seeing spoilers online). This was before Hulu and all that, so I had to download the damn thing off a torrent site (sorry) to see the end. And yes, I waited up all night until it downloaded.

Of course, it wasn't really worth all the effort, because at the end of the episode we STILL don't know if Ben is an Other or not. Or even if they have milk in the hatch! Speaking of "the hatch", it never really occurred to me - why do they call it the hatch? Wasn't the hatch the door that they use to get INTO it? Wouldn't "bunker" or even "the Swan" make more sense? Locke even refers to it as "My hatch" at one point. I think I'll start referring to my car as "the door".

Anyway, another good episode, and one of my favorite Jin/Sun episodes (though this one is fully a Sun episode - Jin only appears in two of the 5-6 flashback scenes). You get more of Jin speaking English (but also another backwards talking scene!) - his "I. Love. You." to Sun at the end of the episode is probably one of his all-time most "awww" moments, and I still laugh at the part where he understands Sawyer's earlier comment ("Daddy-o"). And it explains why he was always so nice to Claire, because we learn he wanted a child very badly, only to discover it wasn't possible. Poor bastard.

But what makes it a good episode is that they find a use for many of the other characters, an increasing rarity. Jack and Locke have a great scene in the bathroom, with Locke shaving while Jack showers, because the steam opens his pores and there's no shaving cream (which is odd - they have every other goddamn thing in there, why not shaving cream?), and their seeming truce is becoming fractured. Then we have Sawyer revealing he has somehow managed to reclaim his stash of medical supplies, including a birth control test, for some reason. And I love that he's reading "Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret".

Then we have Sayid, Charlie, and Ana Lucia (odd team) going off to find Ben's balloon, which includes its share of tense moments, like when Ana discovers Charlie has a gun. I particularly like that he admonishes her for killing someone the last time she had a gun, despite the fact that the same could be said for him. And how creepy is it when Sayid is just watching her sleep? Good stuff.

One thing really bugs me though - the final scene between Jin and Sun, when she swears to him that she never had an affair, because we learn in S3 or S4 that she was lying. But watching the scene again, there isn't a hint of falsehood in her statement, nor does she appear to feel guilty once he walks away. So it just feels like they forgot about this scene when writing the future episode, or poor writing HERE if they knew that she was lying to her husband's face.

Tomorrow: AWESOME EPISODE! Big-time bummer for Locke, the crazy black-light map on the blast door, and the reveal of the real Henry Gale! I'm excited.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"...And Found"

OCTOBER 29, 2010

FOCUS: JIN, SUN
EPISODE: 2.5
AIRED: OCTOBER 19, 2005

As promised in yesterday's review, "...And Found" is an episode that hit home for me, albeit a few days later. The episode has a few plots, but one of them is about Sun losing her wedding ring, with a big part of the problem being that it's something she's just so used to having on she became unaware of it. I didn't think much of it at the time, but 4 days after it aired, I was in an insane panic, because I myself lost my ring.

At that point I had been married for 4 months (almost to the day) and thus had started getting used to having it on. And I remember the date because I was packing up my car in order to leave for Los Angeles the next morning*. While taking the final bag out to my car, I noticed my ring was gone. So I ran back into my room and looked on the desk where I kept it at night (I don't sleep with jewelry), in my pockets, around the floor, etc. Then I became convinced that it was packed, so I tore apart every bag in the car (luckily, my wife wasn't home at the time, so I didn't have to pretend I was looking for something else to keep her from killing me). Then the worst thought came - I had taken a bag of trash out to the dumpster... it might be in there! Into the damn thing I went, taking every single bag out (and, let's face it, a lot of stuff was not in bags) and disassembling my own, used snot rags, not-totally-empty microwave meal plastic trays, fruit peels... the works. Flash-forward a disgusting half hour or so later: still no ring. I was devastated, and began debating whether to tell my wife or do like Jack did and get a replica. As I went to start typing an email (or something), my keyboard wobbled, as one of the little stands on the back had become closed. I picked it up to fix it... and there was my ring. Somehow it had slid under the board, and in my panic, despite it being an obvious place to look, I skipped over it.

Long story short - upon repeat viewings, I felt myself sympathizing with Sun more than any other single event/character in the show ever. Glad she found hers too!

Even without the personal connection, this is a damn fine episode, because a lot of it is built around the relationships these folks have formed over the last 50 days. You got Jin risking his life to find Michael on one side of the island, and Kate, Hurley, Locke, and Jack (separately) each having a nice moment with Sun about her ring (Hurley's story about "A buck thirty-five in nickels" is a particular highlight), each offering their own brand of comfort. And then in the flashbacks, we have the story of how Jin and Sun met. It could have been a mess to essentially have two episodes' worth of flashbacks in one, but the writers make it work without short changing anyone.

Basically, they're both simple but important stories - we learn about the pressure Sun was getting to find a mate, and we also learn that Jin has his pride but also does not forget where he came from and will stick up for someone in need. And of course, had he not quit his job after his boss berated him for helping a poor man not unlike himself, he might not have met Sun, so that's a damn good/lucky quality to have. And we know Sun will end up nailing that bald dude eventually, so I guess she got to have her cake and eat it too.

Jin's English is starting to improve as well - he can convey simple ideas ("Walt." "Go." "Fish.") and seemingly understand the other folks in general terms. The scene where he fishes is pretty awesome, not just because it proved he was smarter than the others, but he also got to upstage Ana Lucia in the process. Our hero!

The episode also contains one of the show's most memorably unsettling moments, when Jin and Eko (whose name we finally learn in this one) hide as the Others pass. First of all, none of them have shoes, which is weird, but the shot of that teddy bear being dragged along with them is mega spooky. We also get a glimpse at (dead) Goodwin, who we'll learn all about in two episodes, and will provide the final link to prove that Lost is a show after my own heart, albeit in a Kevin Bacon-y way.

Where are we?

*I chose this particular week partially because Lost wouldn't be on and thus I wouldn't have to worry about missing it while on the road. Keep that in mind for my review of tomorrow's episode!

PLEASE, GO ON...

"House Of Rising Sun"

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

FOCUS: SUN
EPISODE 1.6
AIRDATE: OCTOBER 20, 2004

At the point it aired, “House Of The Rising Sun” was the weakest episode of Lost in my opinion (which is kind of funny when you consider the episode begins with Kate asking Jack about his tattoos – a question that will be answered in the ABSOLUTE worst episode of the show’s entire run). It’s technically fine, and the island stuff is good, but the flashbacks are just kind of dull, whereas the previous ones were just as if not more compelling than the island activity.

The problem is that Jin and Sun weren’t as interesting in their pre-crash life as they eventually became. The other back-stories were sort of unique or at least presented a compelling mystery, but Jin and Sun... had a troubled marriage due to his job. And even though they hide the nature of what he does for her father, it’s pretty obvious, so when they get around to spelling it out it’s hardly a big revelation. And the flashbacks come down to whether or not Sun will take the plane or escape. Spoiler: she takes the plane. Duh. And this would continue to be an issue for me; very few of the Jin and/or Sun-centric episodes ever felt as strong as the others. The one about their pregnancy struggle was one exception, but most were at least a hair or two below average.

Like I said, the island stuff works on this one. We start to get glimpses of something that will be a major element of the show – the idea of “two” camps. Jack wants everyone to move to the cave, Sayid (and Kate) want to stay on the beach so that any possible rescue chance will not be missed. Due to the fact that this is a TV show and thus conflict is needed, no one bothers to suggest rotating shifts where a few folks will go to the beach to keep the fire going and look for a ship or plane, but that’s OK. What makes it work is that neither man is “wrong”, and that will also continue to be a major theme when it comes to the group splitting over an issue – you’re always able to see each side’s point, without anyone ever being completely wrong or right.

We also get yet another beach fight, with Jin going apeshit and beating up Michael, only to be broken up by Sayid (who tackles Jin in spectacular fashion) and Sawyer, for some reason (he seems like the kind of guy who’d let them fight, especially since he doesn’t like anyone at this point). So far every episode has featured two characters coming to blows, which I think Hurley makes a joke about in one of the next couple episodes. It’s sort of contrived that Sun doesn’t explain what’s going on to Michael sooner though; I guess she wanted to wait until her flashbacks were done.

It’s also the first episode where a main character doesn’t appear, in this case Claire. So far the show had done a good job of giving everyone a moment or two to themselves, even if they weren’t significant to that episode’s story. But she’s MIA, and as the show proceeded, you’d have episodes like the ones at the beginning of Season 3, where you don’t see anyone besides the three captured by the Others. In fact we might have already passed the point where you’d see every character in a regular episode (meaning, not counting season finale/premieres), as we have characters in the caves and some on the beach, not to mention a steadily growing storyline of what else is on the island.

And you can tell the show is getting more complicated, because even though this is only the 6th episode (5th if you count the pilot as 1), the “previously, on Lost” thing at the top of the show runs a full minute and a half! That has to be a record; even shows that were MORE convoluted (Prison Break) never topped 45 seconds. But there’s some irony about that – the show was still at a stage where someone could jump on board and the “previously” thing would actually be enough for them to know what was going on. By season 5, they didn’t even really need to bother – the only ones still watching were the die hard fans (even the finale didn’t set any ratings records, rare for a show of this stature).

Oh, and this one introduces Adam and Eve, a mystery that would be solved in the most annoying way possible in a very (too) late season six episode. On the other hand, this is the 2nd episode in a row without any lingering mysteries that Darlton never bothered to explain, so that’s good. And hey, even a sub-par Lost episode (at least, for the first 3 seasons) was still better than anything else on network TV at the time.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...