We’ll hire a dog to burn down a hospital
A somewhat lighter episode of Lost tonight, though it never felt like we were treading water until a sure-to-be-more-action-packed episode in two weeks. We filled in some gaps in Miles’ backstory, and well…alright, maybe we were treading water a bit. But it was some enjoyable treading.
C’mon, it was enjoyable, right?
Continue reading “What a wonderful smell you've discovered!”
Hot damn! Much unlike last week’s three minutes of awesome preceded by 57 minutes of yawn, tonight’s episode kept me interested from start to finish. That last three minutes certainly packed a punch, but the episode as a whole kept me at rapt attention throughout. And therein might lie a crack in the mostly impenetrable facade of Lost. If Locke and/or Ben and/or Smokey ain’t onscreen, the show can be quite a bit less interesting.
Continue reading “As long as the dead guy says there's a reason…”
Perfect timing for an episode that didn’t do much to advance the time travel plot but did manage to take some time and answer a burning question or two, particularly when I don’t have a lot of time to write about it. This’ll be a somewhat abbreviated post because, quite frankly, this whole week’s been a punch in the face so far, and I could use some sleep. Let’s see if I can finish this up before midnight. Time’s a-wastin’.
Well, I had some more boring talk of the role reversals of our castaways all scoped out and ready to go, but thankfully, you were all saved from that by the dramatic close to the episode. How can I not start with a drugged-out Sayid shooting Ben in the chest, seemingly killing the youngin’? I stared at the screen in slack-jawed amazement for a good 5-6 seconds before I realized this occurred on an Island where the reality is that a paraplegic can walk again (Locke) and a terminal cancer patient becomes perfectly healthy (Rose — where are she and Bernard, by the way?).
Lacking any over-arching thematic elements I wish to discuss in great and exhaustive detail, and after a day full of exhausting meetings where I ramble on and on about important iniatives that could better the organization and being met with blank stares, I feel like writing most of this recap will need to be vis a vis auto-pilot. Apologies; I should be back to my old, rambling self next week. For now, just insert my standard ranting about the love triangle/parallelogram/octagon between Jack, Juliet, Kate and Sawyer (we may want to throw Hurley in there after his bro-mantic hug with Sawyer) here.
I do wonder, at times, how this show will hold up in the long run. Certainly, Lost requires you to have been onboard since the very beginning. Otherwise, you’ll liable to be, well, lost. Heh. It’s been a long ride since Oceanic 815 crashed on the Island. How, then, do we judge individual episodes? Is it fair to judge each of them on their own, out of the contextual fabric of everything that’s come before and will come after?
I remember, way back when in season 3, trying to decipher the newspaper article Jack came upon while gallivanting across the Pacific in an alcohol-soaked, prescription-drug-fueled haze, intent on either ending his life or having his plane crash on the Island once again. Jack had come to a crisis of faith and would’ve rather died than live with the choices he’d made. He’d become a pathetic, hopeless man who had nothing left to live for; no purpose.
We’re back…in 2004…or maybe 1984 (more on that later). The very first shot of the episode was that of Jack’s eye from the series premiere nearly five years ago. I’m pretty sure it’s the same footage of his eye from that premiere as well, for what it’s worth. Time flies, eh? I’m not sure anyone would’ve predicted our castaways off the Island before the series ended, let alone early in season 5, with six of them trying to get back there. What a long, strange trip it’s been.
So we ended last week with the Oceanic 6 one Hurley acquittal away from being reconstituted and ready to head off to the Island. Of course, as TV shows are wont to do, things are never that easy, and I fear we might have to sit through a few episodes of melodramatic whining before everyone wises up and realizes they all have to head back (I particularly enjoyed Ben furthering that cause by yelling at Jack and Sun in the van, telling them he’s gone through hell trying to savae their asses while they sit around and complain). Based on the pace the show’s maintained thus far in season 5, however, I don’t think we’ll have to wait that long. And hell, they can stay reluctant and go on vacation for all I care, as long as we keep getting more pieces of the Island’s backstory filled in.
The fifth season of Lost continues at a breakneck pace, one I can only hope continues to be the norm through the remainder of the series. In light of its defined stop date at season 6, I’ve gotta think the writers will have plenty to pack into the remaining 30-some episodes. I’m giddy.
