Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Lost Watch: Boom! And We're Back

This one goes out to Drew, by request.

Spoiler warnings are in effect as always. You've been warned, all of you folk out there who don't watch the show. And for all of you folk out there who don't- get on it. No excuses. The show rocks, and after the stunner of a season opener, it looks like it's gonna rock harder than ever.

"Lost" is back with a mothereffin' vengeance. After a sophomore season that stumbled when it should have soared, the creators of the top rated mind fuck of a show seem to have figured out what we hungry Lost heads have been missing since the excellent first season- a sense that this story is moving forward and is actually heading in some direction, while at the same time knocking us off our collective feet by turning the same story in a whole new direction.

The first three minutes of season three are as good as any of the best moments of season two. The scene starts with a meeting of a book club of all things in a normal looking suburban neighborhood. A woman we do not recognize is being chewed out by a member of the club for choosing a trashy book instead of artsy literature (a Stephen King novel, and knowing what a huge Lostie Mr. King is, I'm sure he was pleased as punch to see one of his novels featured in such a key scene.) The snob makes a snide remark about somebody named Ben not approving. The woman gets angry, claiming she doesn't care what Ben thinks, that last time she checked "we still have free will." In the middle of their argument, the ground begins to shake- so we, as an audience, think we've been clued in. This is probably a suburban neighborhood in Los Angeles. We- being the geeks we are- know that this is an episode that is going to deal with Jack during the flashback portions. This scene is clearly a flashback, and this woman must know Jack somehow, right? Then the woman and her book club run outside.

Oceanic Flight 815 is splitting apart right above their heads.

HOLY SHIT.

The suburban neighborhood is on the fucking island.

Ben steps out of the shadows- it's the captured "Other" from last season (one of the actually interesting subplots that got dragged out for far too long last season,) who called himself Henry Gale. He barks some orders to the group, including the "Other" who pretended to be a passenger all the way back in season one, kidnapping Claire's baby.

A series of wider and wider shots shows us just where this normal looking neighborhood is- right smack in the middle of "mystery island."

Bam. Welcome to season three of "Lost."

The rest of the episode brings us back to the "present" in our story. I put that word in parentheses because we're not really sure when this whole thing takes place for sure. In theory, after the full two seasons of the show, the castaways have only been on the island for a few months- but that's only in theory.

Jack, Kate, and Sawyer have been kidnapped by los Others and separated, Jack is kept in a creepy, windowless basement and locked in a room, ala the "Saw" movies. Sawyer is thrown into a weird cage that is clearly a psychological experiment for animals. Kate is pulled from her cell and told to put on a nice dress, then is taken to a nice breakfast on the beach with the artist formerly known as Henry Gale, who we now know is named Ben.

As stated above, most of this episode is about Jack. The girl from the book club talks to him, communicating through a glass wall. Jack is defiant at first, stubbornly attempting to escape even as he is told his attempts are futile and could get him killed. He is able to get out of his cell, but when he tries to open a door down the hall, a wall of water comes rushing in. Turns out they are in an underwater hatch called the Hydra. An underwater hatch is like ten thousand times cooler than "the Swan" hatch that we spent almost all season hanging out in. Locke would be totally jealous. He refuses to stand down to accept food from her, doing his best hero act to try and defy his captors. The flashbacks are actually interesting as well for the first time in a long time for this character- we flash back to after Jack's wife has left him, as he goes on an obsessive quest to find out who she was sleeping with when his marriage ended. Inside his cell, Jack is slowly broken down by the woman, who tells him that she knows everything about him- and his wife. Jack is finally able to let go, and when he is given the opportunity to ask her anything about him, he just asks if she is happy. It seems like a triumphant moment for Jack, as he is finally able to let go and stop obsessing, But then Ben tells the mystery woman "good job," while smiling creepily. They've just manipulated him, broken him down. But we're not sure to what end yet.

Overall, it was pretty classic "Lost." We are given a few great nuggets of info, but just enough to create a hundred more questions in our obsessive little fanboy and girl minds. And, like I said, there actually feels like there is some sort of narrative momentum finally winding up in the show. Things are actually building to...something. We can't be sure what they are actually building to...but that's the fun of the show.

It's nice to know that the show is finally moving in the right direction...or any direction at all, after the frustratingly looping narrative of season 2. We'll see where things develop from here, but things are looking very good, since series co-creator and Hollywood it-guy JJ Abrams has returned to the show.

And man, those first three minutes were amazing.

So far, the fall TV season has proved disappointing- “Studio 60” continues to waver, maintaining a pretty boring streak of episodes without, you know, compelling conflict, while “Friday Night Lights” the most kickass show of the season so far, floundered in the ratings and probably won’t make it more than a few more episodes- it’s nice to have “Lost” back, and kicking ass the way it should be.

1 comment:

Zachary Knoles said...

I still think that your dislike of Lost's season two has less to do with the episodes themselves and more to do with having to wait two, three, sometimes four weeks between seeing them. If you'd watched them all at once like I did, you'd see my point!

Also, if you thought this week's episode of Studio 60 didn't have any compelling conflict, I think you're probably going to like the show about as much as you liked The West Wing.

I just got back from The Departed -- where's your write-up on that?!