I'm behind on my "Lost" blogging. Sorry. I'm going to kill three birds with one stone and discuss the last three weeks of "Lost" in one monster post. Here goes:
Episode Title: The Constant
Air Date: 2/28/2008
In a fourth season that has consistently been kicking all kinds of ass, this was the motherfucker of all "Lost" episodes. It was a Desmond-centric episode all about Vonnegut-inspired time travel. That's right, due to what Daniel Faraday describes as "complications" caused by flying from the island, Desmond Hume becomes unstuck in time. Poor Des, who was the unlucky bastard that got stuck pressing those infernal buttons in the original hatch until Locke showed up, is now jumping back and forth between being on the freighter just off the island and to his time serving in the army, which he signed up for after leaving Penny for the first time. Never has a man, fictional or real, suffered more because of his fear of commitment.
Daniel tells Desmond to go find.. Daniel, or the younger version of Daniel, who is at Oxford trying to create a machine that will...well unstuck people in time. Desmond's consciousness keeps skipping back and forth, and Daniel warns him that it could kill him...unless he finds a "constant" to keep him grounded, which of course turns out to be the love he keeps leaving, Penny.
Desmond first slips back to the past while he, Sayid, and the new helicopter pilot are flying from the island...a flight that takes twenty minutes from their point of view and THREE DAYS from the point of view of the islanders. Talk about relativity.
On the freighter, they meet the "communications officer," who has also gone nuts and is slipping back and forth in time...just because he looked at the island through a telescope. And bonus, the communications officer is played by "Hackers" and "Short Circuit 2" (which far superior to the first "Short Circuit" film, duh,) star Fisher Stevens. Who promptly dies after his brain is fried by the time jumps, giving Demond a grim motivation to give Penny a call and find his constant.
The episode ends with Daniel reading an old notebook, which now has notes about Desmond within. In the book, Danile writes "Desmond Hume will be MY constant," which means that a.) Daniel is going to become unstuck in time as well or b.) Daniel hearts Desmond.
Overall, "The Constant" was the stunning mindblower to top the rest of season four's constant line of stunning mindblowers.
Episode Title: The Other Woman
Air Date: 3/6/2008
It was inevitable that the week after a mindfucking time travel episode featuring Desmond, the next episode would be a letdown, but the Juliet-centric "The Other Woman" turned out to be the worst episode of season four so far. Which is to say, it was still pretty damned good overall.
Basically, we learn that Juliet had an affair with one of the Others, Goodwin, who was memorably killed by Ana Lucia in season 2 after she realizes he was posing as one of the Oceanic crash survivors. Goodwin was married to the bitchy Harper, who seems like she's the Other-town shrink or something. Turns out Goodwin was sent off on the dangerous infiltration mission precisely because of his affair with Juliet...because Ben Linus apparently has a thing for skinny blonde fertility doctors. That's right, Ben is obsessed with Juliet and considers her "his." This leads to a weirdly inappropriate kiss between Jack and Juliet after she confesses her feeling for him, which seems wrong since he so totally likes Kate, I mean OMG. This whole subplot was a little too 90210 for me, but it is cool to find out that Ben has real, human emotions, even if they are of the creepily possessive variety.
Anyway, the bitchy new character, Harper, somehow shows up in the present to warn Juliet that Daniel and cutie new arrival Charlotte are on their way to "The Tempest" station, and she tells her that they plan on releasing the gas that Ben used to kill all the Dharma folk back in the day. When Juliet catches up to them, it turns out they are actually trying to neutralize the gas so Ben can't use it on them- or anyone else.
In Other-town, Ben finally lets Locke in on a little secret- the freighter off the island is run by one Charles Whitmore. That's right, Penny's dad is looking for the island- and Benjamin claims he wants to exploit it. This might not be true, but it's enough information to trade off Benjamin getting let out of the basement and moving into his own house...much to the chagrin of roomies Sawyer and Hurley (man, that's a sitcom setup right there.)
Overall, this was the least exciting episode of season four, but it set up things which will clearly become important a little bit down the line. Not the show's finest hour, but they can't all be mindblowing time travel adventures, can they?
Episode Title: Ji Yeon
Air Date: 3/13/2008
So we're finally caught up. The Sun and Jin-centric "Ji Yeon," was a trickily structured little episode that had a nice little twist packed in. In the flashbacks, we see Sun about to give birth to the baby she realized she was having back on the island...and we see Jin rushing to get to the hospital, buying a stuffed panda for a newborn on the way. So happy ending for those two, huh, they're both part of the Oceanic 6! Except...there were already 5 survivors revealed as part of the six. Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, and baby Aaron makes five. So two more people home from the island does not add up at all. Turns out at the end that the producers were messing with us, and cross cutting between a Jin FLASHBACK and a Sun FLASHFORWARD. So Sun is the sixth and final survivor to make it home. Which turns out to be heartbreaking, because in the "present" on the island, Sun and Jin have a lovely little episode where he finally finds out that she cheated on him back in Korea...and he forgive her, admitting that he was a cold jerk when they were first married who deserved what he got, but now he's a better man who loves her very much. The final flash forward has Hurley showing up to see Sun's baby as the two of them go and visit Jin's grave. BUT WAIT! Jin's grave says he died when Oceanic crashed...which is obviously a lie and part of the whole coverup that the Oceanic 6 have agreed to be a part of. Does this mean Jin died in some sort of struggle that ended with the six leaving? Or does this possibly mean that Jin (and others) are still alive, back on mystery island? I am deeply of the belief that there are plenty of crash survivors still kicking it back on the island... why else would ghost Charlie tell Hurley to go back and tell them that "they need you?"
Meanwhile, on the freighter, Sayid and Desmond finally get to meet the captain. Even though somebody slips them a note that warns them not to trust him, the badass cap'n turns out to be more direct and forthcoming than anyone would have expected (especially for a character on this particular series, where every single new person is a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a mindfuck with hidden agendas that usually make them too guarded to admit whether it's cold enough outside to bring a coat, let alone give any real information about themselves or anything ever.) The Captain tells Sayid that a recovery of Oceanic 815 was staged, leading him to ask where "one would get 324 dead bodies." He tells them that the faked recovery is one of the reasons his employer is interested in finding Benjamin Linus...and admits that his employer is Charles Whitmore, which comes as quite a shock to Desmond. But the final twist in the episode is when the bald asshole doctor takes Sayid and Desmond to their new living quarters, a roach infested room with blood splattered creepily on the wall. When the bad doctor says, dryly, "that shouldn't still be there," he calls the ship's janitor over. When he introduces Desmond and Sayid to the clean up guy, Kevin Johnson, everyone's favorite Iraqi torture artist has to keep his shit together... because it's none other than MOTHERFUCKING MICHAEL. That's right, gone since the season 2....let me repeat that, SEASON 2...finale, the man who betrayed his friends for the sake of his son is back in the motherfucking house.
So I guess we know who Ben's spy is, don't we?
Next week is the eighth episode of season four, and the last before a long hiatus caused by the writer's strike. But since it's gonna be a Michael episode, it promises to be a good one. And in their ghoulish and exploitive way, the promos for the eighth episode promise that "NEXT WEEK...SOMEONE....WILL...DIE!"
Hang onto your butts.
Showing posts with label Sun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sun. Show all posts
Friday, March 14, 2008
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Lost Watch: Were They Dead Before The Plane Even Crashed?
Episode Title: D.O.C. Air Date: 4/25/07
Now that’s what I’m talking about.
“Lost” delivered an episode so full of information, intrigue, and even a bit of action that it boggles the mind why there were so many weeks this season where it felt like there was absolutely no progress in the storyline.
And oh yeah, they realized they could focus on two different storylines in one episode. Instead of leaving us with blue balls after last week's episode in which Demond and co. found the parachuting woman in the trees by dedicating the whole hour to Sun, the episode was about both her story and the crew dealing with the newcomer to the island. Imagine that. Editing.
Last night was a Sun-centric episode, and in an early flashback a woman tells her that Jin’s mother (who he thought was dead) was a prostitute and demands $100,000 to keep the shame of knowing the truth from him. Sun finds Jin’s father, a sweet old fisherman, and he implores her not to let him know the truth about his mother, to let him think she died when he was a baby. So Sun goes to her rich and powerful crime lord father to get the hush money. The money leaves an unknowing Jin forever in his debt, which leads to him being turned into the angry and violent muscle-man who can’t get his wife pregnant.
Which is why there was such a mystery about who Sun’s babydaddy is in the first place. She was sleeping with another man before they crashed on the island, and a doctor told her that Jin was impotent. Though Juliet tells her that the island somehow makes people more fertile, she also finds out that every woman who becomes pregnant on the island died. Juliet takes her to the “fertility hatch” to find out when the Date of Conception was.
If the baby was conceived pre-island, it’s not her husbands. If it was conceived on island, Sun will most likely die. As she says to Juliet, “either way, I lose.”
In the end, it turns out that the baby was conceived on-island. Sun is happy- because it is her husband’s child, and even though the news is essentially a death sentence, she is at peace(and when Juliet tells her she has two months, we know that this thread will probably not resolved until the end of next season.)
Meanwhile, across the island, Sun’s husband is with Desmond, Hurley, and Charlie as they continue their “camping trip” from last week’s episode. They crew is caring for the woman they found hanging from the tree, who is bleeding to death with a branch stuck in her side. Too far away from camp to get Jack, the four of them are desperate to help her…until the previously presumed dead Eye-Patch-Sporting-Russian-Other (hereafter referred to as E.P.S.R.O.) shows up. After a foot chase in which he attempts to escape, Jin chases him down and kicks his ass, karate style. The Russian says he can help the dying woman- but only if they agree to let her go once she is safe.
He patches her up and, despite Charlie’s protests, Desmond lets him go- but not before E.P.S.R.O. attempts to steal the satellite phone the woman had with her. Jin catches him, and all he can say in his defense is “you would not have respected me had I not tried.”
Fair enough.
The best scenes of the fast paced and story packed episode came at the end. After Juliet finishes helping Sun, she goes to the back of the fertility hatch and picks up a tape recorder. She records a message for Ben, telling him that Sun is pregnant and that he will have samples from the other females soon. “Other samples?”
After clicking the recorder off, she says one last thing she can’t let him hear but clearly wants to say to Ben: “I hate you.” Our poor Juliet is conflicted about where her loyalties lie. By the end of the season, something’s gonna have to give with her.
The shocker moment came last night when Hurley was talking to the still confused and groggy tree woman. She looks around and asks where she is. Hurley tells her they are on an island, and they are the survivors of Oceanic Airlines flight 815 out of Sydney. The woman looks confused and tells him that it’s impossible that they were on that flight- because “they found the airplane and there were no survivors.”
Did you hear that? That’s the sound of thousands of “Lost” fans who all believe the popular theory that all the survivors are dead and the island is actually a purgatory high fiveing. The appearance of E.P.S.R.O., who tells Desmond “I already died last week,” would seem to confirm the theory further. But not so fast everyone! I think the “recovered plane with no survivors” information is a clever ruse by the writers to lead us back down that path again. Last season’s Hurley-centric episode “Dave,” in which a friend from the big guy’s past (the bald guy who played either Ricky or Ronnie on Aaron Sorkin’s not quite but soon to be cancelled “Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip,”) tries to convince him to jump off a cliff because they are already dead anyway, was a direct denial of the island as purgatory theory. My theory about last night’s last scene revelation is that there was some sort of cover up about the crashed plane back in the real world, maybe by Dharma, so that everyone who had family members in the crash would stop looking for them.
Which means the survivors are more screwed than they thought they had been for the first two seasons- not only are they on an island far off course from where everyone would be looking for them, it turns out nobody is even looking for them in the first place.
If the crazy, internet born theory about everyone being dead is untrue, it still leaves a whole raft of questions to be answered? Why is E.P.S.R.O. still alive? What does that fence actually do to people? Why is the smoke monster scared of it? What’s going to happen to Sun? What kinds of “samples” is Juliet trying to collect from the lovely ladies of “Lost?” Where the hell did the woman in the tree come from, and how did she know Desmond?
Tune in next week for some answers and, most likely, even more questions.
Now that’s what I’m talking about.
“Lost” delivered an episode so full of information, intrigue, and even a bit of action that it boggles the mind why there were so many weeks this season where it felt like there was absolutely no progress in the storyline.
And oh yeah, they realized they could focus on two different storylines in one episode. Instead of leaving us with blue balls after last week's episode in which Demond and co. found the parachuting woman in the trees by dedicating the whole hour to Sun, the episode was about both her story and the crew dealing with the newcomer to the island. Imagine that. Editing.
Last night was a Sun-centric episode, and in an early flashback a woman tells her that Jin’s mother (who he thought was dead) was a prostitute and demands $100,000 to keep the shame of knowing the truth from him. Sun finds Jin’s father, a sweet old fisherman, and he implores her not to let him know the truth about his mother, to let him think she died when he was a baby. So Sun goes to her rich and powerful crime lord father to get the hush money. The money leaves an unknowing Jin forever in his debt, which leads to him being turned into the angry and violent muscle-man who can’t get his wife pregnant.
Which is why there was such a mystery about who Sun’s babydaddy is in the first place. She was sleeping with another man before they crashed on the island, and a doctor told her that Jin was impotent. Though Juliet tells her that the island somehow makes people more fertile, she also finds out that every woman who becomes pregnant on the island died. Juliet takes her to the “fertility hatch” to find out when the Date of Conception was.
If the baby was conceived pre-island, it’s not her husbands. If it was conceived on island, Sun will most likely die. As she says to Juliet, “either way, I lose.”
In the end, it turns out that the baby was conceived on-island. Sun is happy- because it is her husband’s child, and even though the news is essentially a death sentence, she is at peace(and when Juliet tells her she has two months, we know that this thread will probably not resolved until the end of next season.)
Meanwhile, across the island, Sun’s husband is with Desmond, Hurley, and Charlie as they continue their “camping trip” from last week’s episode. They crew is caring for the woman they found hanging from the tree, who is bleeding to death with a branch stuck in her side. Too far away from camp to get Jack, the four of them are desperate to help her…until the previously presumed dead Eye-Patch-Sporting-Russian-Other (hereafter referred to as E.P.S.R.O.) shows up. After a foot chase in which he attempts to escape, Jin chases him down and kicks his ass, karate style. The Russian says he can help the dying woman- but only if they agree to let her go once she is safe.
He patches her up and, despite Charlie’s protests, Desmond lets him go- but not before E.P.S.R.O. attempts to steal the satellite phone the woman had with her. Jin catches him, and all he can say in his defense is “you would not have respected me had I not tried.”
Fair enough.
The best scenes of the fast paced and story packed episode came at the end. After Juliet finishes helping Sun, she goes to the back of the fertility hatch and picks up a tape recorder. She records a message for Ben, telling him that Sun is pregnant and that he will have samples from the other females soon. “Other samples?”
After clicking the recorder off, she says one last thing she can’t let him hear but clearly wants to say to Ben: “I hate you.” Our poor Juliet is conflicted about where her loyalties lie. By the end of the season, something’s gonna have to give with her.
The shocker moment came last night when Hurley was talking to the still confused and groggy tree woman. She looks around and asks where she is. Hurley tells her they are on an island, and they are the survivors of Oceanic Airlines flight 815 out of Sydney. The woman looks confused and tells him that it’s impossible that they were on that flight- because “they found the airplane and there were no survivors.”
Did you hear that? That’s the sound of thousands of “Lost” fans who all believe the popular theory that all the survivors are dead and the island is actually a purgatory high fiveing. The appearance of E.P.S.R.O., who tells Desmond “I already died last week,” would seem to confirm the theory further. But not so fast everyone! I think the “recovered plane with no survivors” information is a clever ruse by the writers to lead us back down that path again. Last season’s Hurley-centric episode “Dave,” in which a friend from the big guy’s past (the bald guy who played either Ricky or Ronnie on Aaron Sorkin’s not quite but soon to be cancelled “Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip,”) tries to convince him to jump off a cliff because they are already dead anyway, was a direct denial of the island as purgatory theory. My theory about last night’s last scene revelation is that there was some sort of cover up about the crashed plane back in the real world, maybe by Dharma, so that everyone who had family members in the crash would stop looking for them.
Which means the survivors are more screwed than they thought they had been for the first two seasons- not only are they on an island far off course from where everyone would be looking for them, it turns out nobody is even looking for them in the first place.
If the crazy, internet born theory about everyone being dead is untrue, it still leaves a whole raft of questions to be answered? Why is E.P.S.R.O. still alive? What does that fence actually do to people? Why is the smoke monster scared of it? What’s going to happen to Sun? What kinds of “samples” is Juliet trying to collect from the lovely ladies of “Lost?” Where the hell did the woman in the tree come from, and how did she know Desmond?
Tune in next week for some answers and, most likely, even more questions.
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