Category: L O S T

Strippers! Guns! Billy Dee Williams! Combine them together, add water and you’ve got one of the best Lost openings ever. One of the highlights of a surprisingly good episode featured a focus on two of the show’s initially-superfluous, Barbie & Ken guest stars, Nikki and Paulo. And “we all know what happens to guest stars,” don’t we? The standard conceit of the expendable guest star meeting their untimely demise is nothing new on the show, as Dr. Arzt the science teacher, Colleen the significant “Other,” the Captain of Flight 815, Kelvin Inman, and even Boone & Shannon can all attest to.

Anyway, what Paulo and Nikki may not have in common with those ill-fated characters is a moral compass. We quickly discover their capacity for dastardly activity, poisoning a wealthy Australian TV producer they’ve been conning in order to steal an $8 million bag of diamonds. I don’t think they made Jacob’s list. And they seem to meet a fitting fate, one right out of a Hitchcock movie or Twilight Zone episode, being buried alive. I wasn’t sure the writers would have the balls to actually go through with it (shades of Charlie’s aborted death by hanging in season one), but that was a heckuva moment to end the show with. Creep City, amirite?! I suppose we might see them again at some point, perhaps when Cerberus gets bored appearing as Locke’s father, but for now Paulo & Nikki will be long-remembered for their gruesome exit from the show and perhaps transcend the category of “throwaway guest star.” Though, they were pretty much thrown away, weren’t they?

Continue reading “Billy Dee Strikes Back”

Headache + sleep deprivation = bullet points.

In the interests of focus however, we do finally seem to have a clear picture of the purpose behind Locke’s actions, even if John himself isn’t quite sure what the proverbial finish line holds. He realizes he serves at the pleasure of the Island, and will do whatever is necessary to live by the precepts he thinks his environment is dictating to him. An obvious allegory to mankind living in harmony with the world around it, Locke is the conservationist Greenpeace to Ben’s consumptionist Wal-Mart. (That comparison works, right?) Nurture the earth, and it’ll nurture you. So, if you happen to break your back, just pick up some litter and Mother Nature will have you walking inside of a week!

Anyway, we know Locke is willing to do whatever it takes to preserve the Island and his place on it–but just how far would he go? And is he preserving the Island, or the more selfish preservation of his miraculous recovery from paralysis?

Whichever, Locke/Terry O’Quinn continues to be my favorite part of the show. The Locke-centric episodes, along with Desmond’s, have been by far the most entertaining and interesting of the series. The writers really seem to get up for writing this particular character, and O’Quinn is equal to the task every time. More, please.

Continue reading “Giant Hamsters”

I don’t have much to say about the “rescue by seagull” plot this week, so let’s get to something I’m more interested in: Locke and “The List.” Locke’s always been a guy to march to the beat of his own drum, one that seemed to be in tune with embracing the Island and its will. But that drumbeat is beginning to sound a lot like that of the Others. He knowingly set off the explosives that destroyed The Flame, he willingly sacrificed Mikhail to the barracks defense perimeter, but what really stood out to me was Mikhail’s discussion of “The List.” We’ve heard mentions of this List since season one. The kids taken by the Others were on The List; a number of the Tail section survivors were on a list; Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer were on a list. I’ll have to confirm this, but I believe an Other mentioned that Locke was on a list at one time as well. [edit: Ben told Locke [the Others] were coming to get him back in season two. He’s on their list. Thanks to Jombi.]

Continue reading “You're going the right way”

The bad thing about tonight’s episode: it probably raises more questions than it answers. The good? The next episode is only six days away. Ignore that. It’s nice to know we’ve got an uninterrupted slate of new episodes from here on out. No more two and three-week hiatuses makes Lost fans happy, despite their apparently dwindling numbers. (Last week’s episode had a series-low audience of 12.78 million viewers.) I’m still enjoying the ride, questions be damned.

Thursday Morning Quarterback Edit: Ignore the preceding paragraph, preserved solely for posterity’s sake. I think I’m going to start waiting until the next day to publish these. My vast reservoir of writing talent can only truly come through after sixteen revisions. Plenty of questions raised and re-raised, but on the whole, last night’s episode had plenty of answers, albeit answers to (relatively) inconsequential questions.

I think the biggest item-of-note to take from “Enter 77” was the revelation of the Others being on the island long before the Dharma Initiative, when I tended to believe it was just the opposite. This is all under the assumption that Flame Station staffer Mikhail “Patchy” Bakunin was telling the truth to Sayid and Kate.

Continue reading “Up in Flames”

Based on how tonight’s episode started, I was ready to join the ever-growing chorus of Lost fans complaining about the show and it’s lack of real developments in the form of “answers.” We get more cliched, manufactured melodrama courtesy of Sawyer and Kate looking sad and glancing at each other over shoulders, and Hurley’s dad telling him about the power of hope and making your own luck, and the genesis of Hugo’s rotund physique, etc, etc. Boo frickity hoo. And gee, juxtaposing a rabbit’s foot with Hurley’s curse wasn’t too heavy-handed. Thankfully, all that stuff was in the rear view mirror after the first commercial break, as we got something of a lighter episode centering around a Dharma/VW hippie bus Hurley finds in the middle of the jungle. It’s amazing how much stuff these castaways keep finding within a stone’s throw of their beach. I’m guessing they’ll find a helicopter, a trampoline and a McDonald’s before the season’s through.

Continue reading “Tricia Tanaka is hot”

Apologies for the shortness of this entry; I’m tired and I wanna go to bed. I had a little drink about an hour ago and it went straight to my head. Plus, there’s not too much to analyze this episode, outside of some general thematic stuff. The major theme of tonight’s episode seemed to be one of belonging. The Others are a family–a dysfunctional one, to be sure–but a family nonetheless, led by a still firmly-in-control Ben. Each of the Others belongs to something larger–a singular purpose (which we have yet to discover). Sawyer and Kate. Jack and Juliet. Karl and Alex. All have grown closer to the other, each searching for someone they feel they belong with. The castaways that the Others kidnapped, in the brief glimpse we got of them, look to have become a part of the Others–and comfortably so. Perhaps they found that sense of belonging after being told the truth about what the Others are there on the Island for. Then again, maybe they had a few sessions in the brainwashing chamber.

Continue reading “Together”

Well, that episode sure isn’t going to silence any critics. If anything, it’ll add more fuel to the fire of those who want to know what the eff is going on and why the show’s not answering any of their questions. Patience, all who have ants in their pants; the answers will come in time, but not in this post.

Speaking of time, the last episode made sure viewers have become aware of its importance (MITTELOS=LOST TIME), and tonight’s ep takes it a step further by turning our perception of it on its head. What at first seems to be a traditional flashback to Desmond’s past turns out to be an altogether new look at the past…in present time. I feel like Doc Brown should be stepping in right about now to say something about flux capacitors. Let me get some bullet points out of the way so I can try and make some sense of all this with an all-encompassing, awe-inspiring conclusion.

Continue reading “Course Corrections”

And we’re back. While I surmise that many Lost fans are thrilled at the show’s return after a lengthy hiatus, I’m sure a large segment of those fans are approaching the relaunch of season three with some hesitancy, having not been satisfied with the (apparent) lack of “answers” found in the first six episodes. I disagree strongly, but it seems the general sentiment of the viewing public-at-large is that the show keeps raising myriad questions while answering a fraction of them. I beg to differ, as I think most every “question” raised in the first two seasons has been answered…except, of course, for the end-all, be-all, meaning of life question: “what is the ultimate purpose of the Island?” I think we’ve had more than enough questions answered thus far, from the Numbers to the Others to Dharma to Alvar Hanso and on and on. Save the big one for the series finale in (hopefully no more than) two more years.

Anyway, on to tonight’s show, our first to feature Other flashbacks back on the mainland, focusing on the beleaguered Dr. Juliet Burke, who we find out to be just as much a captive on the Island as Jack and the rest of the castaways. In fact, the events that led her to be such a captive are the main focus of the episode’s plot. The main event being her smarmy ex-husband getting hit by a bus–wouldn’t you know it?–a day or so after she wished the very same to Dr. Albert of the Mittelos Bioscience corporation. Mittelos. Kind of a strange name, eh? So is a name like Mittelwerk. Thomas Mittelwerk, the evil doctor who overthrew Alvar Hanso and took control of the Hanso Foundation, which–as we all know–funded the early incarnation of the Dharma Initiative on the Island. Mittelwerk seems like the sort of guy who could arrange a murder by bus. With me so far? I didn’t think so.

Continue reading “Lost Time”