[Movie] L O S T [possible spoilers]

I was upset when Dan died. He was quickly turning into one of my favorite characters, and certainly one of the most interesting. I feel like, along with Mr. Eko, he died before he could get really interesting. Oh well.

A great episode despite that one huge annoyance and the stupid fucking obligatory LOST gunfight. The first thing that ever pissed me off about this show was when they introduced guns into the series, and whenever guns appear on screen I roll my eyes instantly. Tonight was no exception, though I did enjoy Dan's reaction to having the gun. It was actually somewhat believable!

How ya doing, buddy?

I thought Season 4 was the best overall season, but with the lamest ending. Season 5 was solid all the way through and had one of the best finales of the series (with the exception of what happened at the VERY end). I'm extremely pumped for Season 6 and honestly don't know what to expect. I'm hoping this show gets the terrific finale it deserves. With the way the show's been building to its conclusion, if it's anything less than brilliant, I'll be disappointed. We shall see!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

First hour was terrific, second hour was decent. I just wanted to address this for you fellow Losties:

Spoiler:

Am I the only one who still finds it COMPLETELY FUCKING RIDICULOUS that Juliet survived the fall down the mine shaft last season?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Krelian

Spoiler:

I can't really bring myself to accept that the losties were on the island for two months and didn't even stumble across the walls of the damn thing. Hum.

I've asked myself that same question numerous times.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

Meanwhile, I'm left wondering about Christian Shepard's role in this whole mess. Also, Claire. Where did she disappear to?

Man in Black possessed Locke's body, correct?

Locke came to the island in a coffin, correct?

Christian Shepard came to the island in a coffin, too.

Not sure what it all *means*, but I think we can pretty much conclude that the Man in Black was controlling Christian's body since the very beginning.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

So if this is true, Christian Shepard becomes null and void as a living character?

Correct.

I can't figure out why he was being possessed but all signs point to it being the case. You'll notice that back in season 5, when Christian leads Sun and Lapidus to the Dharma 'hood, he tells them that Locke is coming. Then, when Locke arrives, Christian is nowhere to be found. Spooooooky!

FELIPE NO

I think the inside joke refers to the black and white rocks found on those two bodies in the cave back in season 1 (referred to Adam and Eve). I'm assuming that the white rock represents Jacob and the black rock represents UnLocke (my favorite name for this guy so far).

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Spoiler:

I love me some Ben Linus, and I love the redemption that he found in both timelines. Terrific.

The episode felt rather aimless until the very end when Widmore's sub popped up. I was wondering when the hell he would show up, and I'm glad he finally did. Should be an interesting few weeks!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

This was my least favorite episode of the season. It was pretty decent but I really hated the way they wrote Miles and Sawyer in the flash sideways. It was just ass terrible.

Miles:
I need to trust you, so I hacked into your credit card account and saw that you were in Sydney and now I demand you to reveal your secrets because you should (and need to) trust me.

Sawyer:
No.

Miles:
I'm surprised at this outcome! We're not partners anymore!

God, my eyes rolled so hard I thought I was going to do a backflip. I loved the idea of Sawyer actually being a cop and that he fucking nabs Kate in the end, but overall I thought his flash sideways was pretty meh. Charlotte, one of the Losties who I'm glad is dead, didn't annoy the shit out of me in this episode, so that's good.

The island stuff gave us some intriguing bits about the Man in Black (he has a mother, so he's human, yet he's also smokey?) but didn't offer much more than that for me until the end when Sawyer conned both Widmore and the Man in Black.

Also:

Sawyer:
What's in this locked door we are drawing a lot of attention to?

Zoe:
Nothing, stop being curious about it. Now, the director will cut back to you walking away from it, giving the audience one last peek before being they add it to their Lost Mystery Excel spreadsheet. Now, walk over here, giving the audience the visual allegory of a man walking away from unfinished business.

Sawyer:
Here I come!

*facepalm*

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I wouldn't call it the worst (a position held only for season 3) but this is definitely somewhat disappointing so far. As much as I enjoyed seasons 4 and 5, none of them really stuck with me the way 1 and 2 did. 4 and 5 just had consistently good episodes and not as much utter garbage that 3 did.

This season... Eh, I dunno. I can tell it's all building towards something so I'm going to reserve judgement until that point. The flash sideways's have to serve some purpose, damn it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I really wish I'd seen more of Richard between the time of his arrival and the present day. I think they spent way too much time with him chained up in the ship, especially considering how much longer the episode was (ended at 10:05 I think). That stuff could have been cut down and edited without losing anything, easily.

Otherwise I was very pleased last night, which hasn't happened too often this season. Some intriguing information about the island itself, and a few mysteries we all long suspected about Richard were finally revealed.

Last night my friend brought up how impossible it would have been for a wooden ship to not just take down but DESTROY a stone statue and I have to agree with her even though my other devout Lostie friends tried to argue that it was definitely possible (lol). I've all but learned to stop caring about the obvious logical failings of the show but I mean really, there's no way that would have happened in general, nor is there any way it would have happened without the jungle getting completely leveled.

Also, I'm wondering how Richard and the slaves saw the island during a deathly hurricane when Jacob and the Man in Black saw it during a sunny afternoon stroll... Hmm...

Nitpicking, sure, but hey that's what I do. I enjoyed last night, for sure. Looking forward to next week.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Another week, another blah episode. Some thoughts:

- This episode was all story and no plot. No forward progression was made with the exception of Sayid John Rambo-ing it to Hydra Island, and the rest of the two groups getting ready to move forward to Hydra island at the very end of the episode. This whole episode was basically an excruciatingly slow buildup to EVENTUAL forward movement by our characters. Christ, just get the fuck on with it. At 9PM we went from "we're getting ready to go" and at 10PM our characters advanced to "okay now we're REALLY getting ready to go!"

- Sun losing her ability to speak English is one of the stupidest plot devices I've ever seen on this show. Really unsure of why the writers chose to go down that path but all I could think of was "are you kidding me?" I'll put money down now that when her and Jin reunite she'll get her English-speaking ability back. Even the characters think it's stupid that she can't speak English, so maybe it was intentional that my eyes rolled when this happened.

- Once again, the flash-sideways was lame and felt completely useless. I refer you to my previous comments on flash sideways's in regards to my hopes that it will all make sense and matter someday.

- Desmond's back, that's cool.

- I feel like the show is going to culminate in a big, loud, stupid action scene which these guys have great difficulty doing.

- There was a big 180 break when Locke and Sun were talking that bothered the hell out of me due to how easy it would have been to fix.

Meh. I know I say this every week, but here's hoping next week's episode is better. I'm really just tuning in week to week out of obligation at this point, and that really bums me out. If it was any other show I wouldn't even bother, but there are so many god damn loose ends I feel like I NEED to watch in the event that something is actually revealed. I never thought this show would lose its grip over me so enormously, but c'est la vie I guess.

I was speaking idiomatically.

While I loathe the direction the show has taken, this episode has finally made some sort of effort to progress the show forward, even though the entire episode ironically covered probably no more than 5 actual minutes of time.

With this week's episode, it appears that the flash sideways's are indeed some sort of "parallel" timeline of sorts. It's not entirely real, but it DOES exist on some plane of reality. It looks like it's, thankfully, not a "what if they never came to the island" scenario and instead does somehow tie into the current going-ons.

How that ties in, I don't know. How much I care, still relatively little. I'm actually somewhat intrigued now, which is an upgrade from being frustrated and apathetic. I wish they hadn't spent the entirety of this season building to that tiny reveal and instead actually made some forward progression a few weeks ago, but either way it feels good to be moving forward FINALLY.

Random thoughts:

- Nobody helped Desmond or Charlie when they drove off the pier? The fact that there were two guys in the background watching from the yacht made me angry as hell.

- Nobody else ran after Charlie in the hospital? Come on.

- The classic Lost mystery building was back in full swing when they kept hinting at Daniel's return, including the obligatory "DRAW ATTENTION TO THE BACK OF HIS HEAD FOR 39 SECONDS" shot.

- I love Desmond, I love Penneh, and it was heartwarming to see that they still have the ability to make me swoon whenever they're on screen together.

- Another frustrating Lost archetype was back. We the audience don't know exactly what happened, but thankfully Desmond knows EVERYTHING and doesn't feel the need to share it with us or with Whidmore, who trusts Desmond and assumes that he does indeed know everything and is not leading him on.

Overall I don't have much to add. The episode was good because they finally stopped dicking around and actually, you know, did something. In the grand scheme there are far better episodes, but this one was the little ray of hope in a shit-stained final season. The best thing I can say is that I hate the show slightly less after last night's episode.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

That was a great read, Krel. I shared it with my non-internet friends and will tell you if they have any input.

FELIPE NO

HOO-GO!

Two good episodes in a row? My faith may just be restored yet. Forward progression is the name of the game here. The sickeningly slow pace that has tainted this season for me is pretty much gone. They're continuing their sprint towards the finish line and I'm loving it.

- First off, WOW. Elana being blown up was a welcome surprise. Like most characters that were introduced after season 4, I never really cared much for her, and when I saw her manhandling that dynamite I was just like "that shit's gonna blow up, bitch!" And then BOOM! My wish came true. Such catharsis! I love how none of the characters really cared for her either. The respect for human life has hit an all-time low with this death. Best moment during their grieving process:

"Now what?"
"Lets get MORE fucking dynamite."

- I felt a real heavy sense of dread this week, especially towards the end. When Locke and Desmond got to that well, All I could think was "well, that's all we'll be seeing of Desmond for a while." Also, most of the island stuff leading up to the gangs reuniting felt incredibly unsettling.

- The whispers were finally revealed to little fanfare. I always figured they had to do with dead folks and it's nice to know it's true. I have a feeling it will come into play at some point but part of me thinks that it might be the last we hear of it.

- Desmond running over John Locke was fucking CRAZY. Matt had a good theory about why he did that, but I'll let him present it if he chooses to.

- I've never been crazy about the show's score but the music in this week's episode blew me away. They hit all the right notes (hur hur) and it sounded different than it usually does. It added to the sense of dread I was feeling the whole time.

- Libby looked haggard, but it was nice to see her again.


I find that with each new episode I like, I'm finding more and more reasons why I've been hating the bulk of this season. Tonight's latest revelation - Conflict! With the exception of tonight, I feel like this entire season has lacked conflict. This prevalent theme of everything happening for a reason has kinda siphoned the sense of conflict this show typically has.

Every season always has some kind of central conflict to drive the show forward. Season 1, they wanted off the island. Season 2, what the fuck is the hatch? Season 3, who are the Others and when can we get the hell off this island dude, seriously? Season 4... Well, you get what I mean.

I've felt like there's been nothing at stake this whole season, no conflict to drive these characters forward. The stakes for this season have only recently been hinted at, and those stakes they're hinting at are "everything," which is something everyone has heard in at least 400 movies in the past 10 seconds.

Unlike all of those movies, I'm starting to feel like maybe the entire universe as we know it really IS at stake here. I feel like something big is about to go down very soon, hopefully next week, and I'm getting extremely excited about this show again.

Thumbs up.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

What the hell is this, three great episodes in a row? It's like Lost is good again or something. Why couldn't the rest of this season be paced the way the last three have been? Last night's in particular chugged along with deafening speed, moving everything forward extremely well, and ending it on a great cliffhanger that we have to wait 2 weeks for. Curses!

- I just wanted to comment on my biggest letdown of this episode, which was Sun and Jin's reunion. I was pleasantly surprised it happened this soon, but man, did I call her getting her voice back when she reunited with Jin or what? Thankfully they put the kibosh on that stupid fucking plot development. But ugh, WHY oh WHY did Lapidus have to interrupt that beautiful scene with "DERRRR, looks like somebody's got her voice back!" UGH!! Almost ruined the moment for me. Also, that scene was probably half the length it should have been. I was hoping for a longer, more Lost-esque slow-motion reunion scene for them. Either way, it was powerful, but not nearly as powerful as it should be. I should have been weeping, and I merely welled up.

- Anybody else notice Sun in a stretcher looking over at the mashed up John Locke in the flash-sideways saying "It's him! It's him!" Very interesting...

- Lots of terrific character stuff last night. Pretty much everybody had a great moment, including Sayid, who hasn't done a whole lot since the temple fatwa happened.

- I was hoping the flash sideways crap would be wrapped up this week but alas, it looks like we're stuck with it for a bit longer. Though honestly, since we've been clued in as to what they might be, I've been enjoying them a little more lately. Last night's in particular because the episode was so well-paced.

- Dude, pick on me all you want, but leave John Locke alone. The Man in Black calling him a fool is like calling me a fool, because I believed, man. I believed just like John Locke did. Don't call me a fool, you son of a bitch.

- I hope the boat crew isn't expecting to use any of those guns now that they've dumped them in the salt water ocean twice now. Morons.

- Called it - Christian Shephard was the Man in Black. Nice to know that, and also nice to know that he was supposedly helping them out the entire time. Kinda makes me want to re-watch the entire series again right now.

I'll leave you with a theory to chew on - You know how MIB says that he's going to give Sayid whatever he wants, which happens to be Nadia? I wonder if this is in reference to the alternate timeline? Since Nadia is alive and well in that timeline, I have to wonder if maybe everything that's ever been promised to these characters is in reference to what's been going on in the alterna-timeline. Hmm...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by saru

If the smoke monster can't leave the Island, then what was up with the scene with Oceanic 6 Jack seeing his dad in some lobby while fixing a smoke alarm?

I think you answered your own question

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by The Dopefish

Bad news:

Eh... On one hand, I don't really like how they're coming out and announcing this. David Chase didn't say "don't worry, my finale will be very Sopranos-ish and won't please everybody." I'd prefer if they said nothing at all and let the finale speak for itself, because now I and other people are going to be building up even MORE expectations for it.

On the other hand, now I know I can set my expectations for answers low, which is both disappointing and somewhat exciting. I'm bi-curious about this. Disappointing because, well, it's Lost, and the only thing we want are answers. Exciting because it might be cool to have more to speculate on once the show has finished. It will have to be handled well, though. They can't just end the show on a cliffhanger. Time will tell. Less than a month now, people!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Ugh. You guys.

Spoiler:

Ugh

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Muzza

Spoiler:

And is it just me or was that episode a waste in regards to developing/concluding the flash-sideway plot?

I felt the same way, however:

Spoiler:

I think they're at least building towards resolution with it, now. The flash sideways's have had a few beats. The first 2/3 of the season when they felt useless, then the Desmond episode when they clued us in on what's going on, and now this final beat where Jack is going to figure it all out. This would be the first episode with that. It will all be wrapped up soon.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Mouthful of Pirates

Not exactly.

Spoiler:

Sawyer killed Sun, Jin and Sayid.

Don't forget Frank "Aw Hell" Lapidus.

Spoiler:

These latest events are strongly hinting at Jack becoming the next Jacob. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of informative backstory next week, and I'm stupidly excited to finally learn a bit about the two characters most shrouded in mystery.

Also, I wouldn't write Kate off as being invincible just because she's a main character. The writing is flawed but that would be a pretty massive oversight. I think her purpose has yet to be revealed. Here's hoping.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'd be lying if I said that this week's episode was anything other than a let-down of biblical proportions.

Warning, long:

I was excited as all hell to finally learn the origin story of Jacob and the still-unnamed MIB. They had a chance to shed some light the two most mysterious characters in the show and... Well... They kinda squandered it. Okay fine, they didn't completely squander it. I suppose we know a few new things about them.

- They're twin brothers
- Their birth mother came from outside the island
- Their "adoptive" mother is a weirdo who once served under the Bartlett administration.
- Jacob isn't just protecting the island, he's protecting some golden light. Maybe the Triforce of Wisdom?
- "Adam and Eve" are the MIB and Alison Janney.

That's kinda it. If there was any doubt that the Adam and Eve skeletons were these two people, it was completely erased with the abundant amount of flashbacks to drive the point home for a less astute audience. It was nice at first, but then they kept going with it and it just felt a little stale. I really REALLY wish they hadn't ended the episode when it did. Like with Richard, I was hoping for a larger scope in this flashback, and if any two people deserved it, it's these two. I'm dying to find out how Jacob and MIB's rivalry got started, but they ended it at a very mysterious point that I will get to down below after I rant for a bit.

An increasingly annoying Lost archetype reared its ugly head once again in the form of this very enlightening conversation:

"You must protect the light"
"What does it do?"
"I can't say"
"Does it kill you?"
"No. It's worse than death"
"I've heard enough to undertake this mammoth responsibility, hand me the wine!"

Seriously, lately this show has just been maddeningly sloppy in how it writes in these mysteries. They are no longer genuine mysteries and are instead byproducts of characters behaving stupidly. How can you tell me with a straight face that this mystery of what the light is couldn't have been wrapped up in that conversation if it was written by writers who know how people talk and behave? It easily could have. Hell, she could have just as easily said "I don't know but I know that it's important, so quit being a brat and guard it, dick."

But no, they chose to just forcefully and arbitrarily withhold information. It's such shitty writing that it drives me crazy, and it pains me to say that because this show is generally very well-written, and even though I've always hated the dialogue since season 1, it's never annoyed me quite as much as it did tonight. I feel like the writers knocked it out of the park when it comes to creating and connecting the mysteries and developing this rich character-driven mythology, but have time and time again, especially lately, completely failed in actually PRESENTING these mysteries to the audience. It's almost a parody of itself at this point because whenever we're presented a mystery it's usually because some character is just not spilling the beans for NO reason whatsoever. This latest one with Jacob's faux-mom is just the most retarded one of them all. There's no excuse for this kind of shitty writing, even for a mystery show. Hell, even in how they dodged saying the MIB's name felt stupid and forced. The only person who calls their brother "brother" more than Jacob did tonight is Buster Bluth.

However, this episode wasn't a complete wash. There is one rather LARGE and intriguing mystery that surprisingly enough developed naturally and not through idiotic dialogue. I'm referring, of course, to when the smoke monster came flying out of the cave of light and then Jacob found his brother dead nearby. This tells us one thing: The MIB may not be smokey. Smokey may be something else entirely. I feel like Smokey is now this "light" that Alison Janney talked about, and Jacob needs to protect it from escaping the island. Or something. And maybe their rivalry stems from MIB's desire to leave and Jacob's duty to keep him there. That's my best guess here. I was really hoping for a little insight on why Jacob and MIB have been playing this game they've been playing for seemingly an eternity and instead they dragged out this origin story that probably could have taken up 15 minutes of screen time total.

I mean, we know that smokey can exist as someone without their body as proven by John Locke's corpse which was sitting in the sun for a while earlier this season. It's now been all but proven that the smoke monster and the man in black are two separate entities. Perhaps smokey simply takes on the form of someone who haunts you? Christian with Jack, MIB with Jacob, Yemi with Eko... It kinda makes sense, right?

The light in the cave is kinda mystical, kinda gay, but very intriguing. I have a feeling that it will never be explained and will instead serve as a metaphor for the power that all men seek or something of the sort. The power to make them more than mere men. The Pandora's Box theory comes to mind and it very well could be the ultimate answer the writers choose to go with. If this island indeed contains Pandora's Box, it will be a good blanket answer for the mysteries that the show has left unanswered.

Anyway, tonight pretty much flushed all the good vibes I was finally getting from this show right down the shitter. We now have two more episodes to go and my patience is dwindling. Sigh.

FELIPE NO

Man, only six more days until Lost is completely over and done with. Ain't that some shit.

Hopes are high for tomorrow night's. We're in the home stretch now!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Personally, I'm not at all convinced that they thought up all this shit from the start. Which is fine. I just wish they wouldn't try and convince us that they did. The whole Adam and Eve reveal last week just felt kinda meh because they built it up as being one of the biggest reveals of the series, and claimed that when they reveal the Adam and Eve secret, it will show just how much was actually planned from the beginning. I call bullshit.

The biggest problem is just how vocal Damon and Carlton have been with all the podcasts and interviews and shit. They continually say how the show should/will speak for itself but all they do is speak for it every week. They set themselves up for failure when they talk about the show. Their radio silence should have begun years ago.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I feel somewhat neutral about this week because it felt like an incomplete episode and more of a build towards the end. I'm leaning more towards "like," though.

Spoiler:

This episode featured some of the best Ben moments of the whole series. His subtle hint of sadness/pride when Rousseau (woohoo!) said that he's like a father to her, juxtaposed almost immediately with some truly heinous, evil deeds show just how terrific Michael Emerson is. The best moment was when he offed Widmore (did NOT expect that to happen) and said "he's not allowed to save his daughter." Fucking EPIC moment.

Speaking of which, I'm happy that the useless-as-fuck bow-legged moron Zoe got killed in a brutal way, though I now bemoan the probable lack of a hardcore reverse cowgirl sex scene between her and Sawyer. Come on, a man can dream, right?

Jack is the new Jacob. Glad they didn't waste a fuckload of time with that inevitable reveal and instead just got right down to business. I hope to see Jacob again on Sunday but am not going to be heartbroken if I don't see him anymore.

Sideways Hurley is 100% in on the mystery along with Desmond. Interesting.

If Alpert is dead, I will *never* forgive the writers for making his death completely and utterly inconsequential. That would be a MASSIVE fail.

Flocke wants to destroy the island. I love it. Finally some long-term seasonal conflict has been introduced this season... It only took 16 episodes for them to introduce it.

I predict that Ben is going to play a larger role as the villain on Sunday. He's certainly reverting to his old ways and even though it was a rather quick shift, unlike a lot of character changes on this show, I believed it. Mostly because Ben is one of the most interesting and well-written characters on the show.

We're in the home stretch now. Not much to speculate on on my end because all will be revealed on Sunday. I hope.

Fingers are crossed for a mindblowing finale.

There's nowhere I can't reach.