"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...

"Ab Aeterno"

JANUARY 27, 2011

FOCUS: RICHARD
EPISODE: 6.9
MARCH 23, 2010

Of the two "alt" episodes a lot of fans hate from S6, "Ab Aeterno" is definitely the better. In fact I don't really mind it at all - it tells a good story, fills in the details of one of the more mysterious characters on the show, provides a lot of answers, and (retrospectively) features Hurley taking on an important role in the Island's "story" outside of talking to Jacob, which will of course pay off in the finale.

And it occurs halfway through the season, not during the crucial final hours the way "Across The Sea" did. Not much exciting is going on, and the episode still has a few minutes with our heroes to keep the ongoing storylines from being abandoned for a week (unlike "Sea", in which we spent the entire episode with Jacob and the Man in Black, 2000 years ago). Ben finally address the plot hole about not remembering Sayid (seems he doesn't remember being shot at all), Sun gets to explain something to Jack for once, and I particularly love Ben's reaction to Jack finding out that Locke isn't actually Locke. It's obviously not the meat of the episode, but it's a good segment all the same.

Plus, I genuinely enjoyed the Richard story. I liked the character, but I never found him particularly sympathetic (nor did they give us a reason to) - something that they change and then some in the first few minutes. It's bad enough his wife dies, but he also accidentally kills a guy, gets last rites from the shittiest priest in the world, is bought as a slave, and ends up being chained to the wall of a wrecked ship for a couple days (weeks?) only to be freed by the bad guy. Christ, this dude is just not having a good week.

(And this part explains why the statue is broken AND how the Black Rock ended up in the middle of the jungle in one shot! Impressive.)

Then we get MiB and Jacob sort of laying out their case to Richard as they each try to get him on their team. Obviously we know how it ends up (since this isn't 24, Richard doesn't suddenly reveal in this episode that he's been on the bad guy's side for the entire time, which would be stupid), but it's an interesting tug-of-war all the same. Also, I don't think anyone was expecting this episode to reveal the nature of the Island, which turned out to be fairly interesting. Whether it actually ties in with what we've learned about it thus far would take too much mental work (I am sort of baffled that an island that houses all of the "bad" in the world would have magical healing powers though - does that mean Rose is evil too?), but it's certainly better than most fan theories I read ("It's the set of a reality show!").

And what's wrong with giving Nestor Carbonell his own episode? Dude's been on the show for 3-4 years now, and never given much to do beyond say a few cryptic things and make the audience wonder why he didn't seem to age - I think he's earned his own 45 minutes, don't you? And they make up for it - he gets to ride a horse, kill a dude, run around, cry, speak another language... they don't waste his abilities, that's for sure.

Only two things kind of bug me. One is the Ilana flashback, because she's all burned and already close with Jacob, two things that are never explained. Without this scene, we would have only had one unexplained mystery, now there's two. The other was the explanation for Richard's immortality. I guess the idea is he was so afraid of going to hell that he'd simply rather never die, but it comes off more like he just can't think of anything else to ask for. Given the tragedy of his request, I wish they had let him think for a moment and really milk the moment. It wasn't even until this second time around that it dawned on me why he would ask for it.

Otherwise, I don't really get why folks hate on this one. I get that people want to spend time with our heroes, but at this point, Richard IS one of our heroes, and while they maybe should have done this sooner, it's better than doing it in the penultimate regular episode like "Across The Sea". In fact, it might even be one of the better episodes of the season.

Tomorrow - the writers introduce a character named Desmond, who was apparently a major character in previous seasons? I don't recall him! (/end sarcasm)

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Recon"

JANUARY 26, 2011

FOCUS: SAWYER
EPISODE: 6.8
AIRED: MARCH 16, 2010

It’s not particularly terrible, but “Recon” is the weakest episode of the season thus far (audiences seemingly agreed – it was the 2nd lowest rated episode of all time), due to a rather dull flash sideways tale, yet another annoying new character (Zoe, who I had completely forgotten about), and way too much dilly-dally. We’re 10 hours away from the end of the entire show – why are we spending an entire episode on Sawyer wandering back and forth, playing folks against each other?

Worse, why is his flash sideways all about him hiding a secret that we already know about? Apart from the fact that he got the name “Anthony Cooper” this time around (which they DON’T keep secret), his back-story is exactly the same – mom killed, dad suicide, con man named Cooper, wants to kill him, blah blah blah. Perhaps if in this timeline Anthony Cooper was someone who had tried to save his mother’s life or something, it could be valid, but the structure of this tale is bizarrely front-loaded with the changes – we know right away that Sawyer’s a cop in this timeline, and that Miles is his partner, etc – making it less and less interesting as it went.

And what the hell is the point of having him hook up with Charlotte? And don't make any "heaven" jokes. Wouldn’t Ana Lucia have made a lot more sense? “Hey, there’s this cop in the 18th precinct...” The two have lousy chemistry and no history in the real timeline, rendering this one of the more baffling “connections” in the sideways world. It’s more like they realized Charlotte wasn’t an interesting character but already booked Rebecca Mader to come back for a guest spot and couldn’t think of anything else. Zzzzz...

The episode also seems geared toward trying to make you sympathize with Locke/MIB and perhaps make their struggle not so (sigh) black and white, which is ridiculous because, well, they dress in black and white, making it fairly easy for the audience to peg which one’s the hero and which one’s the villain. He compliments Sawyer, protects Kate, etc – plus he seems to want to stop Widmore, who has been seen only as a villain up until this point. Again, there’s only 10 hours left in this tale (and you have to cut that number in half due to the flash sideways) – we don’t have time for perspective shifts anymore. Explain things and move directly toward the final confrontation.

Somewhere in this episode, the other passengers on the Ajira flight are killed. It’s actually kind of hilarious how casually this bit of information is revealed – Sawyer just finds a big pile of their bodies. He asks who killed them, and doesn’t get an answer... and that’s pretty much the last we ever hear about them. Between these saps, the various freighter personnel, the Others, the Dharma folk, and the original Oceanic anonymous survivors, Lost must have racked up a higher body count than any “Disney” show in history. And it’s almost sort of macabre and upsetting how no one else on the show seems to care. These are LIVES, people!

Tomorrow – the history of Richard!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Dr. Linus"

JANUARY 25, 2011

FOCUS: BEN
EPISODE: 6.7
AIRED: MARCH 9, 2010

If I had any time, I’d string together all of the major Ben episodes (not just his “centric” ones, but his introduction, the reveal he’s an Other, etc) and marvel at the change he made over the course of the five seasons he was on the show. Ben (and Michael Emerson’s performance) were such an integral and enjoyable part of the series, it was almost odd to go back to S1, when he wasn’t even mentioned let alone present. And with perhaps the exception of Jack, he made the biggest change as a character, which came more or less to its conclusion in “Dr. Linus”, which cemented him once and for all as a good guy.

Of course, the writers had been leading him in that direction for a while now, but he was still showing his manipulative side here, lying about how Jacob died, only for Miles to use his superpower to expose him. But by the episode’s end, he had made amends, apologized to Ilana (who claims Jacob was like a father to her, and we’ll just have to take her word for it I guess), and had been seemingly accepted by the group for once – Sun even lets him help her put the tarp on her little tent. I guess they could have had Jack and/or Hurley shake hands or hug him when they returned to the beach and went through the familiar “reunion” routine, but I suppose that would be pushing it.

Especially since, despite being a mostly good episode, the writing gets painfully on the nose more than once, with Ben discussing both on the island and in the flash sideways how different life would have been had this happened or not happened, as if we didn’t get it yet. Having Ben and Jack hug it out might have killed all of the episode’s goodwill, which in retrospect would be even MORE upsetting since this is an other instance of the “waiting room” having a strong emotional story that in many ways serves as a character redeeming themselves for their biggest failing in life, in this case Ben’s failure to save Alex. As I mentioned yesterday, these sort of stories were far more logical and meaningful than Sayid’s typically action heavy tale, and validates the whole “Lost Heaven” idea, especially when you know that’s what it is.

The Jack and Richard stuff is also quite good, as we finally learn a bit about Richard’s agelessness (love Hurley asking him if he’s either a cyborg or a vampire), and their faceoff in the Black Rock is pretty sweet too. I almost sort of wish that Richard panicked and put the fuse out himself, just to maybe put some doubt into Jack’s mind again (he’s pretty much a firm believer now, or, fittingly, a “Man of Faith”), but you can’t deny it’s a pretty awesome scene. It’s also the rare time Richard ever really talked to anyone besides Locke or Ben; it’s a shame that he was finally added to the main cast this season but never really got integrated with the rest of the characters.

This episode also has one of the more annoying instances of the sudden rain that has plagued the show from the very beginning. It rains all the time in Hawaii, and being a TV show set almost entirely outside, they can’t very well just go to a cover set or delay filming. So you’ll often see it raining in a scene even though it wasn’t raining in the scenes before or after, and there’s not much they/you can do about it. But here, it’s actually raining pretty strongly in HALF of a scene! Jack and Hurley are chatting, and on Hurley’s shot it’s clear, but on Jack’s it’s pouring, and you can’t even HEAR it, rendering the scene very distracting and fake. If it were up to me (and nothing ever should be), I would have digitally added rain on Hurley’s coverage and added in the appropriate sound effect, so it would at least be consistent for the scene.

Also, while I could certainly live with never hearing their names again, I love the sort of “epilogue” to the Nikki and Goddamn Paulo story, with Miles bringing up their diamonds very casually as a funny shoutout, and then seemingly robbing their graves at some point to get the diamonds for himself, which should more than take care of his 3.2 million dollar wish. Lucky bastard. I need to have the power to talk to the dead! All I want is like 50 grand to pay off my debt and buy a new car, jeesh.

Final note - according to the Lostpedia, the role of the principal was written specifically for William Atherton. Way to creatively cast, Lost writers – have William Atherton playing an asshole. Too bad they couldn’t work in Reginald VelJohnson as a cop or maybe Michael Cera as a socially awkward annoyance.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Sundown"

JANUARY 24, 2011

FOCUS: SAYID
EPISODE: 6.6
AIRED: MARCH 2, 2010

I probably should have made this clear when S6 started, but I’ve only seen the season once, as opposed to 3-4 times for the other seasons. Thus, given my poor memory, overload of Lost lore from rewatching S1-5 yet again, and the fact that my brain is constantly being bombarded with horror movie shit, I am having trouble remembering a lot of stuff from this season. Thus, episodes like “Sundown” are just confusing me all over again, because I can remember how Sayid went out (saving his friends), but not how he stopped being the evil bastard we see here.

Granted, he did think Dogen was trying to kill him again, and perhaps he was (Dogen may have figured either way one of his enemies would be dead), but he didn’t follow the guy’s instructions either – Locke/MIB totally spoke before Sayid stabbed him, which was the only condition Dogen told him to follow. It’s not like he said he had to do it at the stroke of midnight while standing on salted earth and wearing a muumuu, he just had to stab the guy before he said anything. So what does Sayid do? Sits there like a moron while Locke walks up to him, then AFTER he says “Hello Sayid”, he stabs. Christ, man, speed up!

So he goes back to Dogen, and after the guy finally starts revealing his human side, Sayid tackles him (in pretty spectacular fashion I must say), kills him, and then kills Lennon for good measure. And while I love the idea of these two being dead and thus not annoying me anymore (albeit without ever explaining who the fuck they were or why they were important), I hate that it comes at the hands of one of the show’s most noble characters. Ben? Sure. Sawyer? Hell, why not? But Sayid killing two guys in cold blood because of some unexplained “darkness” inside him – it’s a decent shock, sure, but it’s such a terrible way to start the final chapter of a great character.

And unlike Nikki and Paulo, this was part of their plan! The season was too “fresh” for this to be the result of fan backlash against these characters (indeed, footage from this episode appeared in the S6 teaser that began airing prior to the season premiere), and according to John Hawkes they only wanted him for 3-4 episodes, so again – there is nothing to suggest that this was some sort of premature conclusion to their storyline that had to occur due to factors beyond their control. Their plan was to introduce two new, mysterious characters and kill them off before they ever got any real development (in Lennon’s case, he was never even identified!). Whatever.

This episode also has my favorite example of why the “waiting room” was such a clumsily implemented story – Sayid KILLS people in it, and finds Jin tied up and beaten. Again, this is some sort of pre-afterlife, why is it so violent!? I understand the need to provide drama and maybe even give them some sort of challenge to overcome before they move on, but it should have played out more like Kate and Jack’s episodes (personal demons being expunged – i.e. Kate’s guilt about taking Aaron away from Claire), not with shootouts and appearances from villains. I mean, I’m happy to see Keamy again (I would have taken the offer for eggs, for the record), but not at the expense of logic.

One thing the episode sort of foreshadowed was that Nadia was not meant to be with Sayid, I guess. In the afterlife, she’s married to his brother, and although he still wants to smash her rotten (he even carries a picture around with him – Jesus Christ dude, TACT), his real soul mate will eventually be revealed to be Shannon. So this episode at least set us up for that horrible outcome. Thanks, “Sundown”.

Oh, I like the completely random team of Ben, Frank, Ilana, Sun, and Miles, by the way. It’s funny how many characters never really met before (I think this is the first time Miles has met Ilana and Sun), or were paired in odd ways – Miles and Kate were running together for a while; the previous episode had Jin and Claire talking for I think the first time since the first season, etc. Season 6 is all about bringing everyone together, on and off the island!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Lighthouse"

JANUARY 23, 2011

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 6.5
AIRED: FEBRUARY 23, 2010

Oooh, spooky – the 108th hour of Lost aired on the 23rd of the month. They DID plan this whole show out! I shouldn’t joke though, as “Lighthouse” is actually a really good episode, focusing on pretty much the last bit of Jack’s resistance to the idea that they were on the island for a reason being washed away due to a magic lighthouse. Lost being the only show that could get away with introducing a magic lighthouse, I quite liked this concept, with each bearing on the lighthouse wheel corresponding to a Candidate’s house (which seems kind of worthless though - what if they go to work?).

I also liked that it was a rare team-up between Jack and Hurley. In 6 years, I am pretty sure this was their only island adventure together without anyone else around, despite what Hurley claims is a return to “old times”. They make for a good pair, and I wish it wasn’t so rare that they got to play off of each other. It’s cute that Hurley thinks he’d be a good dad too.

And it’s a fitting line, since the flash sideways deals with Jack’s son. Whaaa? While the other changes in the sideways world were largely “well since the island isn’t there, this person is now on the mainland” based, with the basics still the same – Claire still an unfit mother, Kate on the run, Locke in a wheelchair, etc. But where the hell did Jack’s son come from? How did the lack of an island have THIS much of a change in his life? We don’t see the mother in this episode, and we find out later who it is, which makes more sense out of it (another “they didn’t have an Island to be on” explanation). Thus, knowing what all these scenes mean, Hurley’s comment takes on a new meaning – perhaps this comment was fresh in Jack’s mind as he was dying (which occurs in, what, a few days?), and part of his “letting go” process was accepting that he was never going to be a father, which is kind of depressing. Poor Jack.

But this subplot also kind of annoys me once you realize that it wasn’t real, since it was one of the few genuine moments of emotion that we got in the season prior to the big finale. Jack talking to his mom, realizing that his kid might be afraid of him the same way he was of his own father; the big teary moment after the concert, etc – these are all terrific character moments. And they’re not real. What IS real? Claire killing a guy with an axe and a guy named Dogen trying to stop Hurley from pressing magic stones.

Oh, and a reminder of Adam and Eve, with Hurley even helpfully offering a popular fan theory, that the skeletons were those of some Oceanic survivors (Rose and Bernard or Kate and Sawyer being the most popular theories, if memory serves), as the result of time travel. Of course, that wasn’t true, but just the fact that it was brought up really awkwardly was a pretty big clue that it would be one mystery they didn’t plan to leave unanswered. You know, like the one about Christian’s body. I had actually forgotten about it until Jack explained about the coffin (I guess no one mentioned it when they were LIVING there?) – why did Christian’s body disappear? If it was “taken” by the Man in Black so he could appear as Christian at various points throughout the seasons, why was Locke’s body left intact? One way is “wrong”, no matter how you slice it, and this is an instance of a time they should have just kept ignoring it, rather than remind the audience about their sloppy writing.

I also don’t get why they brought up Jack’s appendix. They went to the trouble of applying the scar makeup to Matthew Fox, but never made any sense out of it. His mom tells us that he had it out when he was 7, so there’s an explanation – but one that doesn’t make any sense when you consider the true nature of these scenes. Why does his dying “fantasy” include elaborate explanations for things that happened to him on the island? I mean, I’m sure I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: I don’t mind the concept of this being their “waiting room” before moving on in the afterlife, I just hate how needlessly confusing and inconsistent it is.

For no real reason I’d like to point out that I also (re-)watched the movie Let Me In today, and the kid who played Jack’s son also played the bully in that film, so it was kind of funny to see him playing a total jerk who picked on the type of kid he himself was playing here (especially when you consider Jack himself was bullied as a kid). LEVELS, man.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"The Substitute"

JANUARY 22, 2011

FOCUS: LOCKE
EPISODE: 6.4
AIRED: FEBRUARY 16, 2010

I can't recall how long they kept it up for, but one of the things I liked about S6 was that it was following the "order" of the first season with regards to which character it focused on. So like "Walkabout" was the 4th hour (3rd airing) of the first season, following a Kate episode, "The Substitute" is the 4th hour of Season Six, following yesterday's "What Kate Does". The episodes aren't as GOOD, sadly, but it's a nice little reference of sorts for people who can remember such things.

One thing I noticed about the "flash sideways" version of Locke this time around - he's got more of a sense of humor about his condition. When he falls out of the chair early on, and then the sprinkler system turns on, he almost laughs at the absurdity - the old Locke would have started screaming or hitting shit. Power of Katey Sagal I guess, who returns after a lengthy absence. It's also one of those things that sort of makes me wonder if they knew that these flashes were indeed part of the afterlife, because again - how complicated is this "waiting room"? And besides, wouldn't Locke consider Helen (who doesn't go to Lost Heaven, for the record) a more important part of his life than fucking around on the Island? Just doesn't add up.

The episode is also Dogen/Lennon free, making it the least annoying episode of the season thus far. I particularly love how drunken Sawyer instantly recognizes what no one else has been able to for the past week or so (how long was S5 in Lost-time? Lostpedia stopped keeping track) - that Locke isn't Locke. In fact Sawyer himself didn't pick up on it during their brief encounters last season, so maybe Dharma whiskey has some sort of vitamins in it that improves your perception? Or it's just another example of a character completely changing his demeanor once the audience knows what he technically should have known all along. I'm currently being bugged by this sort of nonsense on Supernatural too (spoilers!), where we learn that Sam no longer has a soul, and then he began acting like Chip from Not Quite Human, failing to understand basic sarcasm and such.

The highlight of the episode is of course the big reveal, that Jacob had pegged six of our heroes as possible replacements some time ago (and of course Jack would be #23, though Hurley would have made more sense - and it would have made Dave's joke about Leonard from "Dave" even funnier). I wish they had dwelled on a few of the crossed out names a bit more, however - we see a ton of names but none of them are really legible. I would have applauded seeing "Arzt" up there. They could have worked in a good Scott/Steve joke too. But as goofy as it is, I like the idea that it really was pre-determined that all of these people would end up on the Island, and perhaps it was just coincidence or an amazing stroke of luck that they ended up arriving at the same time; if Desmond or any of the Freighter Folk were candidates, the concept would be less hard to swallow I think, but we don't get to see any of the other names.

The episode also offers one of the best one-two laughs in the show's history, when Ben gives his wonderfully awful eulogy: "John Locke was a believer, he was a man of faith, he was a much better man than I will ever be. And I'm very sorry I murdered him", followed by Frank's response ("Weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to."). Good ol' Frank. It's weird that Jeff Fahey was finally added to the main cast (the other freighter folks were added right away) for the 6th season when he barely had any screentime or anything of significance to do until the very end of it, but at least it was a sort of "guarantee" that he would be around for a while.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...