Tag: Lost (Page 12 of 12)

It only makes sense that following last week’s awesome episode, tonight’s show would be comparably worse. Them’s the rules of “Lost,” I’m afraid, and though we got some more insight into the events leading up to Jack’s eventual post-rescue breakdown, the action on the island was considerably tame.

I mean, does Jack’s appendicitis really qualify for that level of dramatic tension? Hardly, but when Juliet announces that she’s going to have to operate, everyone freaks out, including Jack, who becomes so unruly during the actual surgery that Bernard eventually just knocks him out with some chloroform. Before all that, however, Faraday and Charlotte head to the medical hatch to pick up some supplies for the surgery, and since everyone has decided that they’re no longer to be trusted following Bernard’s Morse code trickery last week, Jin and Sun tag along with orders that if they try to run away, they’re to shoot them in the legs. That’s always a nice way to make someone feel at home, no?

Of course, I honestly believe that none of the original freighter folk (Faraday, Charlotte, Lapidus and Miles) are bad people, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’ve been placed in an incredibly awkward and high-tension position. For all the hoo-hah caused about their possible disloyalty, however, it seems like the only reason that entire subplot was written was so that Jin could approach Charlotte about her ability to speak Korean. Charlotte denies it at first, but when Jin threatens (in Korean, of course) to break Daniel’s fingers, she gives in. And what exactly does Jin want in trade for keeping Charlotte’s secret? A promise that when the helicopter arrives, she’ll take Sun away from the island.

Meanwhile, Sawyer, Claire and Miles are still making their way back to camp, and with the exception of their discovery of Danielle and Karl’s bodies half-buried in the ground, it was a pretty pointless subplot. Sure, we got to see Sawyer verbally attack Miles like he was the second coming of Hurley, but it wasn’t really going anywhere until Claire mysteriously wandered into the jungle, supposedly with her father. Sawyer goes looking for her, but all he finds is evidence of bad parenting at its absolute worst – poor Aaron all alone underneath a tree.

Claire wasn’t the only one seeing visions of Dr. Christian Shepherd, though. In Jack’s flash-forward, the good doctor discovered that not all good things last forever, and after a brief romantic stint with Kate, he eventually breaks things off following her admission that she went behind his back in order make good on a promise to Sawyer. Was Jack jumping to conclusions perhaps a little too quickly? You bet, but wouldn’t you too if you were seeing your dead father walking around your workplace? Of course, and though Jack gets some happy pills from a friend of his (cue bushy beard and mental breakdown), he’s still understandably freaked out by a recent visit from Hurley who claims that all of the Oceanic Six are really dead. I’m not exactly sure how to react to this sudden increase in the supernatural (Miles can talk to dead people, Hurley can see Charlie, Jack and Claire can see their father), but I’m definitely looking forward to finding out.

After a few slow weeks threatened to ruin everything that Carlton Cuse and Co. worked so hard to build to this year, “Lost” returned from its month-long break with both guns literally blazing. Tonight’s episode wasn’t particularly revealing, but it did feature more action than I’ve seen in an entire season, and if this is any indication of how a “Lost” movie might turn out, count me in. Of course, the fact that I enjoyed it so much while simultaneously battling an unexpected sickness speaks volumes of just how good it really was, and while I’d usually follow that up with a play-by-play breakdown of the episode, I’ve decided to take the easier route by pointing out some of my favorite moments:

– The expression on Sawyer’s face when Ben handed him the shotgun was priceless. He went from “Holy shit, Ben’s going to shoot me” to “Holy shit, Ben’s my ally” in a matter of milliseconds.

– Sawyer’s Vietnam moment was equally enjoyable. It had bullet-ridden redshirts, picnic décor-turned-battle shields, and even a rocket launcher. Now we know where all that extra money from the strike went.

– Not to be upstaged by a bunch of Army men, Ben called upon the powers of the Black Smoke Monster to open up a can of SFX-powered whoop-ass. It’s been a while since Smokey last showed his amorphous face, but boy was it awesome.

– Not only is Ben a Jedi Master when it comes to mind games, but he’s apparently pretty handy with a retractable baton as well. Kudos to Michael Emerson for channeling his inner Neo, but now I want more.

– Ben used Desmond’s boat to get off the island? Fair enough, but then where the hell is Desmond? Hmm… maybe he’s on the island with Penny.

– We already knew that Sayid was a card-carrying member of the Dharma Assassin Death Squad (DADS), but the fact that Ben tricked him into thinking it was his idea really tickles us.

– Emerson is the king of the intimidating one-liner, but when he told Charles Widmore that he was going to track down his daughter (Penelope) and kill her, well, I couldn’t help but cheer him on. Could he really have been a good guy all this time?

– “That’s not what he said.” Bernard knows morse code? Ruh-roh, a certain paranoid physicist is in trouble…

If you were sad to see Michael go at the end of season two, well, tonight was your night. If you were like me, however, and felt like his departure couldn’t come any sooner, then you were probably cursing the TV gods for bringing him back. In what quickly became a special “Lost” version of “Where Are They Now?,” tonight’s episode did little more than run through what Michael has been up to since leaving the island. It was a major departure from the basic narrative structure of the series (though they’ve done something like this once or twice before), and it was easily the worst episode of the season.

After failing to commit suicide by driving his car into a dock container (is that really the best he could come up with?), Michael goes to visit Walt at his mother’s house. Unfortunately, Walt won’t talk to his father after what happened on the island, and so Michael tries to kill himself (again) using a gun he swapped Jin’s watch for at a local pawnshop. Before he can pull the trigger, though, Michael is visited by an unexpected guest in the alley. It’s Tom (AKA Mr. Friendly), and he doesn’t waste any time in letting Michael know that Ben has been keeping tabs on him since his departure. He also insists that Michael can’t kill himself because “the island won’t let [him].”Nevertheless, being the sorry-ass idiot that he is, Michael decides to test this theory out, and the gun jams.

Whether or not this means Tom was actually telling the truth is a moot point, because after seeing footage of the wreckage on TV, Michael is quick to agree to go undercover and play hero to his “friends.” Given a new identity (Kevin Johnson) and a job as a deckhand on the freighter, Michael’s first day on board brings him a present from Ben. It’s a giant fucking bomb, but after activating it, he discovers that it doesn’t quite work. Instead, Ben wants Michael to simply sabotage the ship so that it will never reach the island, but when Michael relays his tale to his fellow Losties, Sayid turns him over to the boat’s captain as a traitor.

Now, you’re probably asking yourself, “Is that it?” In so many words, yes, it is. There was also a brief subplot involving Ben’s sending away of Alex, Karl and Rousseau to the island’s Temple station, but after Alex’s beau and mommy were gunned down in the jungle, who actually thought it was the freighter folk doing the shooting? It’s obviously Ben’s people doing what they do best – killing innocents – and I could give a rat’s ass what happens to his daughter. Get back to the good stuff already!

In the end, I don’t believe there was a single thing the average viewer actually learned from watching this episode, aside from the revelation that writing a character off a show and then bringing him back is never a good idea. I mean, did we really need Michael to return? Ben’s spy could have just been some random dude they’ve never met before – at least then we wouldn’t have to sit through an entire episode filling in the gaps. I have faith (little as it may be) that the writers know where they’re going with this angle, but if Michael doesn’t make it out alive this season (and part of me wishes he won’t), I’m going to be pissed off. It’s ultimately lose-lose, but if I had to choose, I’d rather waste a single night than put up with that whiny bitch for the rest of the series.

One more week of these sorry-ass misdirections and I might just be forced to send a letter to ABC with the words “JUST HOW STUPID DO YOU THINK WE ARE?” written in black marker. I mean, really, did anyone for a minute think that both Sun and Jin were going to make it off the island alive? The mathematics simply didn’t allow for it. With all but one of the identities of the Oceanic 6 confirmed, Sun was a strong favorite to round out the group. After all, you couldn’t leave both mothers on the island, right?

As for Jin, well, I won’t say that I’m not disappointed. Daniel Dae Kim is one of my favorite cast members, and aside from getting screwed on Day One when J.J. Abrams was handing out backstories, his existence on the show is virtually useless. That’s the problem with killing someone in the future. They’re still alive in the present. Of course, if the writers really wanted to throw us all for a loop, they’d reveal in the final season that Jin isn’t dead at all, but rather just one of the unlucky many who were left behind.

The episode itself was pretty uneventful. The flash-forward and flashback sequences took a major event (Sun’s delivery) and stretched it into a Looney Toons-esque plot that finds Jin trying to buy a stuffed panda for who you’re supposed to assume is his baby. It’s not, but as I mentioned before, anyone who considers themselves a fan of the show probably figured that out right way. (Psst, his haircut totally gave it away).

Their time on the island wasn’t any more exciting. After speaking with Faraday about getting off the island, Sun decides that if they’re not going to be rescued, they might as well spend the rest of their days in Locke’s camp. Juliet tries to convince her otherwise, but when Sun won’t listen, she tells Jin the bad news (about Sun’s condition) and then follows that up with even worse news (about Sun’s affair). Ouch. In the end, however, Jin forgave her – seemingly based entirely on his time spent with Bernard fishing.

Over on the freighter, Sayid and Desmond are finally granted a meeting with the Captain, and he’s surprisingly forthcoming. Not only is he well aware of the saboteur on board, but he also clues them in to the staged wreckage recovery that Faraday and Lapidus were watching in the season premiere. He’s even provided them sleeping quarters (with a complimentary suicidal headshot bloodstain), which spawned the funniest moment of the night from the boat’s doctor – “Damnit, that shouldn’t still be there.” Oh yeah, and they also met another member of the crew: Kevin Johnson… or as Sayid knows him, Michael.

Unfortunately, the moment was completely wasted by rumors and confirmation by the show’s producers (both in interviews and in the show’s credits) of Harold Perrineau’s return. Can you imagine how freaking cool that reveal would have been had Carlton Cuse and Co. actually been able to keep their mouths shut? Sure, there would have been countless theories about Ben’s “man on the boat” regardless of whether they said something, but it still feels like a giant waste of what could have been the season’s coolest mystery. Oh well.

Who would’ve thought Juliet was a homewrecker? Not me, but after a trip back to her past this week, we now have a better understanding of Juliet’s relationship with Ben. Unfortunately, with the exception of the revealing flashback, and a couple other treats for the fans, tonight’s show didn’t even come close to the quality of previous episodes.

Juliet’s flashback originally had me believing it was actually a flash-forward. As she’s speaking with a therapist named Harper (an almost unrecognizable Andrea Roth), the two discuss her status as a celebrity. Could Juliet be the final member of the Oceanic Six? Nope. Instead, she’s referring to her arrival on the island, and before long, her popularity level has plummeted when she begins having an affair with Harper’s husband, Goodwin. Surprisingly, Harper couldn’t care less, but she does offer a warning to keep their relationship a secret from Ben.

As it turns out, Ben has a massive crush on the good doctor, and when Oceanic Flight 815 crash lands on their island, it gives him the perfect excuse to split the pair apart. Ben sends Goodwin away to spy on the Tailies, and as we already know, that didn’t end very well. When Ben hears the news, he escorts Juliet to Goodwin’s body, and reclaims her as his own. It was pretty creepy stuff, but, well, that’s Ben for you.

Back on the island, Juliet has a completely new set of problems. It seems Faraday and Charlotte have managed to slip away into the jungle, and when Juliet and Jack split up to go looking for them, Juliet is greeted by Harper. Warning her that the freighter duo is on their way to the Tempest (the island’s electrical station) to release the toxin gas, Harper gives instructions from Ben to stop them by any means necessary. Oh yeah, and then she just sort of disappears. Was it Juliet’s imagination? Not possible, since Jack saw her too, but aside from that simple observation, I have no idea what else it could be.

Regardless of the specifics, Juliet and Jack continue their search, coming across a semi-conscious Kate in the process. After explaining her disastrous run-in with Faraday and Charlotte (which included spying a bag of gas masks before getting a knock to the back of the head), Kate joins the duo on their search. When they arrive at the Tempest, Faraday is already hard at work at a computer terminal, but claims that he’s trying to disable the gas so Ben can’t use it against his people. Confident that Faraday and Charlotte are probably correct in their assessment of Ben, Juliet lets them go.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, Locke has just struck a deal with Ben. In exchange for his freedom, Ben has promised Locke the answers he so desperately wants. He even goes one step further by showing him the identity of the freighter crew’s boss via a VHS tape hidden in a safe. The video shows Charles Widmore, and though I’m not exactly sure Ben is telling the truth, he seems to believe that Mr. Widmore is trying to exploit the island as a sort of miracle-giving tourist spot. Could that really be true, or does Ben still have a few aces up his sleeve? If history has taught us anything, it’s probably the latter.