Thursday, March 19, 2009

Namaste

Okay, a few thoughts on the latest Lost. As always, spoilers will be involved.

First, it was more interstitial than major, filling in some holes and not moving us too far forward. But it was fun, and it occurred to me that I'm equally interested in what's happening in the present and the past. (Other ground they have to cover is the near past, and why the Oceanic 6 got on the plane--I'm not sure how or when they'll work that in.)

Lots of interesting interaction with the Lost gang getting back together after three years. While the reunion was touching, they had to figure things quickly. Lucky Sawyer is head of security (and Amy is on a baby break)--it gives them the perfect cover. In earlier seasons, fans often complained that they never talked or shared secrets. Now they actually have to keep their mouths shut to avoid being discovered. (Earlier this season Hurley found a shirt in a gas station that fit. Now it turns out that the Dharma Initiative makes jumpsuits in his size, too.)

Maybe the most interesting thing is the new dynamic. In the first season or two, there was a generally jockeying for power, but Jack was considered the leader and Sawyer was often frustrated, trying to prove himself (especially to Kate). Now we're on Sawyer's turf. He's in charge and, though he's saving them, they (especially Jack) have to pretty much take whatever Sawyer offers, as he makes more than clear.

Then there's the question of the Juliet-Sawyer-Kate triangle (I guess you could throw in Jack there, too). Sawyer's always had strong feelings for Kate, but I can't believe the reformed, got-it-together head of security would abandon Juliet at this point. If he did, imagine the gossip from the Dharma bums--"can you believe it? LaFleur is with that new chick."

Sawyer did a decent job getting the newbies integrated into the DI. The show seems to be suggesting both Phil and Radzinky are suspicious, though, and with some loose ends--not just prisoner Sayid, but the whole layout--there might be trouble, and who knows how long the party will last.

There were a few leads missing in action. No Locke, because we saw what happened before he showed up after the crash. As expected, Lapidus landed on the runway. His copilot died. The Island is not a safe place for pilots. Also as expected, Sun took the outrigger to the main island with Lapidus. (We knew one of them would lay out Ben--it was Sun, who's always been crafty. I should also add that I think Ben, for all his cleverness, holds the record for most regularly beaten up TV character.) I'd actually forgotten what was happening on the island in the present. The poor Others, who finally got Locke as their leader, only to have him flash away. For what it's worth, neither Sun nor Ben yet know Locke is alive. Don't know who'll be more surprised.

Sun and Lapidus met up with Christian, who may be a ghost, but can take photos of walls and hand them over. I was glad he told Sun where Jin is. At least she knows he's alive on the island--to bad it's 30 years ago. What was not explained was why Sun was the only Oceanic Sixer not to make the time jump--especially as she wanted more than anyone to meet someone in the past. Is the island just being perverse?

Also no Faraday. Either he's left the barracks or has left the DI completely. We do know he at least worked a while over at the Orchid. Could he be planning to make his escape to Tunisia? Has he already? (Doubt that, though maybe he'll get out, and then need to get out of his time loop, where he cries when he sees the Oceanic flight go down, he'll have to get Desmond to do something for him again.) As I've stated before, I think Faraday will be the cause of "the incident" that Pierre Change has discussed.

We also got to see the Flame in its full glory, and a model of the Swan before it's built.

Another small mystery solved--Horace and Amy's child is Ethan. He'll survive the purge and become one of the Others.

The big question is where do we go from here. The Losties gotta get together and work something out--they can't just hang around forever with the Initiative. (They gotta show initiative.) Also, Locke and Ben can't just hang around on the small island, but what's their next move? We know where Ben wants to go, but will the crash survivors and Locke let him? And finally, who moves where? Sun wants to get to Jin (and Christian says she's got a lot to do) but does she want to go back 30 years (isn't that the plot of Back To The Future?)? Wouldn't it be better to get the other Losties back to the present? Do the Losties want to get back to the present? They don't even know what happened to the plane they were in, much less Sun is back in 2007.

The big surprise at the end was good, but I saw it coming. Two weeks ago, I assumed there was no way Ben could be at the DI yet. But then I thought about it. Here's a guy who always has lots of information and only lets it out when it serves him. The one guy who could know about all the Losties having been with Dharma in the 70s (if that, indeed, is the plan) and not tell anyone would be him. The hardest to explain would probably be Julet, since she's recruited and he later gets sweet on her. On the other hand, does having photos of former DI employees who'd later become Losties tell Ben and Alpert, among other things, who they can't kill? (On the other hand, isn't Juliet in any of those photos? Was she not allowed in the processing building, or were they hidden from her during her time with the Others?)

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I didn't like how Jack and Sawyer were at it almost immediately. I know that may lead to more drama, but you'd think after three years aeparated, figuring they'd never see each other again, the reunion would lead to at least a few days of good feelings.

Also, why did they need to return. Locke believed it was to save the time flashers, but they were saved as soon as he left. He didn't need to bring anyone back. Also, I wonder how Jack about returning, now that he's stuck as a janitor in 1977.

12:35 PM, March 19, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Many good points!

The only thing I didn't like was that the Six adjusted to the time travel concept so quickly. It seems as if Sayid even figured it out on his own. I'm not saying I want Jack to be skeptical again -- like Scully, who remains skeptical even after nine years of being convinced she was wrong on miracle after miracle. But even if you believe that a moving island can be found by a plane, it's still a leap to believe that you're now in 1977.

I wonder if maybe Ben is brand new on the island, and the moment they realize he's there they will have to travel to 2008 to avoid him seeing them. If that happens, I assume the scene at the beginning of season five, with Desmond in the Orchid, is a glimpse of how they return to 2008.

The Ethan angle is a bit weird. If Ben is, say, ten years old in 1977, then the purge is late 1980s or very early 1990s (I don't care for the canonical date of 1992, but they'll probably stick to it). That makes Ethan a teenager. Does he join the Others of his own initiative before the Purge? Why? I thought that the Others only attract guys who hate their fathers (and people who enter the Temple). But Ethan's dad is nice. Yet if he doesn't join them, how did he avoid being gassed?

3:16 PM, March 19, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Swan now makes more sense. Radzinski was presumably on duty there during the purge; that saved his life. But he was lonely, and after recruiting Kelvin Inman as his assistant, he committed suicide. Oddly, even though he's a big-shot (he designed the Swan), he apparently doesn't know about all the Dharma stations, since he drew the blast-door map and labeled the Pearl with a question mark.

3:16 PM, March 19, 2009  
Blogger LAGuy said...

It is a big jump to accept time travel, though it had been somewhat intimated with Desmond. The question of how credulous should they be is always hard. When Jack met Jeremy Bentham in the hospital, he kept insisting neither of them were special, but he was already torn apart enough inside to know it wasn't true. And now back on the island it's almost as if Jack is the man of faith, Sawyer the man of science.

I was also thinking they may have to beat a hasty retreat now that they realize Ben is there. But that would still leave all those photos up on the wall. (I assume you mean Faraday at the Orchid, not Desmond--and I still think he's working on his own theory. Speaking of which, Ben said Charlotte was born in 1979. I've read that she was supposed to be older but the actress didn't want that, so we now have to assume that the Charlotte character lies about her age since she was running around the Dharma barracks in 1974.)

As for Ethan, the Others like to recruit kids, and a child actually born on the island is a big thing to them, apparently. I've also heard a theory that his mother Amy is already an undercover Hostile--when the Losties first met her, her husband is being killed because he found out. The other theory, which doesn't necessarioy contradict this, is she's Amelia (note the name similarity) whom Juliet later hangs out with. (Or is she the Sheriff? Are they ever coming back to that character?) And I wouldn't say Horace is nice. All members of DI are a bit spooky, and Horace is the head honcho.

As for Radzinsky, it was a nice callback. He's more involved in DI than you would have thought. There's always been a lot of mystery behind The Swan. As for recruiting Inman, you have to wonder what he was doing on the island. He's an important American military figure. Perhaps he was doing special ops, finding this island where a bunch of guys on a mission in 1954 were killed, and then the island mysteriously disappeared.

I should give a spoiler warning, but it occurs to me that to anyone who doesn't watch the show, confronting all these proper nouns would be so confusing that they'd just stay away without my telling them.

4:35 PM, March 19, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I find it hard to believe that Amy could be Amelia. That would require that she was friends with Juliet for three years in her thirties, then Juliet leaves, then 25 years later a new Juliet is friends with her for three years who looks exactly like the other Juliet except she hasn't aged.

I had thought that nobody remembers our heroes. But when you suggested Ben might remember them, I wondered... and rewatching the episode, I noticed that he denies it twice (he denies on the plane knowing where the vanished people went, and he denies to Sun knowing where Jin is). Which makes me think you're probably right that he does know.

The geography is a bit odd. The Pala Ferry went to three docks we know of: on the Hydra Island, the dock at the end of Season Two (apparently not far from the Pearl), and the dock where the submarine stays.

This last dock is apparently very close to the barracks, and is next to the boathouse where Miles was captive, and it seems that the Dharma Processing Building is near that dock. Which means from the Purge until 2005 it was in the heart of New Otherton. So why didn't the Others clean it out and throw away all the old photos?

By the way, the Others' superpowers seem to vary. Early on, they could move silently through the forest, untrackable even by Rousseau, and they didn't wear shoes even in the brambles. That hardly seems to fit with Amelia and Juliet's lives, with their book club and their baked desserts. Maybe Ben lost favor with Jacob because he let the Others get too soft?

For what it's worth, Lindelof said that the Sheriff was one of the Others killed at the end of Season Three. When it was pointed out that this was implausible, he said that they needed a "house cleaning". So I guess she's a character that they decided didn't work out. Maybe she was originally going to have the role that Richard later assumed?

12:13 PM, March 20, 2009  
Blogger LAGuy said...

Here are couple other things I heard that the producers said.

First, originally Alpert was going to tell Locke to go on a walkabout, but the actor wasn't available, so Abaddon did it.

Second, the Others don't have superpowers. They just have (beyond fanatical devotion that makes them brave and unquestioning in following orders) special training, in fighting, in Latin and in other things. And since they already know their way around the island, and know in general what's going on, and don't have to worry much about their safety or where their next meal is coming, they have a huge "home court" advantage against any newbies to the island.

12:36 PM, March 20, 2009  

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