Howdilly ho, Losterinos! Jae-Z is still in Austin for South by Southwest, so I am guest blogging this week. And don’t worry, I’m not going to come up with a bunch of wacky nicknames for everyone, or end the blog with a music video.
It’s tough to decide which version of Earth was more interesting tonight…oh, who am I kidding, the Earth-1 story was definitely better. Crazy Claire tried to kill Kate, while Sayid looked on impotently. He’s clearly reeling from the guilt of knowing that he allowed Evil Locke/Smokey to enter the temple and lay waste to the righteous who refused to go with him. I’m sure he’s also depressed over the “knowledge” that he’s infected, whatever that means. Me, I’m not so convinced that anyone is infected. Yes, Rashomon (damn it, I swore I wouldn’t hand out nicknames) said he was infected, but while we watched the similarly infected Claire put an axe in a guy’s stomach, Evil Locke explained tonight just what it was that fed that insanity, and it wasn’t sickness or disease – it was the need for an enemy, much like Guy Pearce’s character in “Memento.” It drove her, but once she had no need for it and discovered that Kate was not her enemy, Claire turned out to be a reasonable and normal, if mournful, person. Does this mean that there is indeed nothing wrong with Sayid? Or does this mean that we haven’t yet seen exactly what is wrong with either of them?
Stupid “Lost.” Eight episodes left, and they’re still providing more questions than answers.
Sawyer’s flash-sideways is Hugo-ian in that he’s the opposite of his Earth-1 counterpart. Jack’s still a doctor and Kate’s still a fugitive, but here, Sawyer’s a cop, and he uses his fake Dharma last name as a safe word when his mark pulls back the hammer to shoot him. I just love that he’s able to nail the wife of his intended target before dropping the bomb on her when she won’t play ball. Who wouldn’t sign up for undercover work if they knew it would get them so much sex?
And that wasn’t the only sex Detective James Ford would have this week, as he later bedded a Kidman-esque redhead archaeologist named Charlotte, but completely blew it (her words, later) when he flipped his lid after walking in on her looking at the folder dedicated to the man who led Ford’s father to kill his mother, then himself. The scene was actually one of the clumsiest in the entire history of “Lost,” as Charlotte went plowing through his stuff like she was a con herself…and who knows, maybe she is. (The truth: probably not, since they’re running out of time, but she sure as hell acted like one.) The bigger question, though, is: who leaves a folder that important, that potentially incriminating, in their top drawer? The whole thing was just, to quote my wife, ridiculous.
The big takeaway from the flash-sideways was that the individual stories finally appear to be coming together, as John/Sawyer confesses to his partner Miles about his extracurricular attempts to hunt down the man who destroyed his family, only to be slammed into by a runaway Kate, whom he later runs down in an alley. Up to this point, the Earth-2 story lines have been largely independent of the others, but now it looks as though everyone is going to start getting tied together. Whether they become aware of their other selves, though, is still up in the air. Truth be told, I’m not sure how I feel about that. God knows, I wouldn’t want to talk to another version of me. One’s enough.
Which brings us to the main story line, where Evil Locke asks Sawyer to travel to Hydra Island (where he finds the dress Kate wore when they first hooked up) to confirm Evil Locke’s suspicions that there are people there who mean him harm. Of course, there are, and they’re well armed (Charles Widmore doesn’t do cheap), and Sawyer does what he does best: he lies, which is precisely why Locke sent him there in the first place. Of course, Evil Locke doesn’t know that Sawyer intends to doublecross both Widmore and Locke…or maybe he does. It could be yet another test. Either way, Widmore’s posse is building a Smokey-proof fence, so this could make for a fun battle royale.
God love Jin. The love he has for his wife is so sweet. Which of course makes me think that they won’t meet until the series finale…and will die before they get to embrace one last time. Come on, this is “Lost” we’re talking about. They’re not going to give us some ribbon-bowed, flowery happy ending. People are gonna die. Jin and Sun have spent almost two years in TV time apart. You better believe that their reunion will come with a catch.
Well, that’s it for me this week. Wow, that was so much fun! Thanks for playing with me today. Heeeeere we go: Yooooooooo gabba gabbaaaaaaaa! (*packs up boom box, exits stage left*)
