I started this post on LOST last week and then never had time to finish it. I liked the second episode last night a little better, but so much of it this season is over-the-top far-fetched (not like smoke monsters and polar bears WEREN’T far-fetched), that it’s a bit annoying. I guess that’s what they have to do in order to answer all the questions that have been raised over the past five seasons. Anyway …
Because I’m not a fiction writer (although I kind of hope I will be someday), I’ll probably do a poor job of making writing analogies in this post, but I really need to talk about the premiere of Lost and how terrible I thought it was. First, let me say that I am a HUGE fan of Lost. I’ve never missed an episode, although I am not one of those fanatics who has seen every episode multiple times, who reads the chat forums, and who knows every last detail and clue. I would like to be, but I don’t have the time. So, along those lines of my not remembering every detail, and of only half watching the pre-premiere summary, I have no idea if we knew about the temple beforehand. But here are my thoughts on the rest of the show.
Jack in LA-that’s where we expected the show to go. We knew when Juliette blew the island up that they’d land in Los Angeles and go on living without having met each other (otherwise, no show, right?). My thought was that the series would revolve around them somehow meeting up despite not having met and somehow all coming together, and possibly to the island, anyway. As though it were their destiny. We are following that storyline, but it seems to be an alternate reality to the on-the-island story-line, and an alternate reality is a bit off-the-deep-end for me. (The fact that Juliette says “It worked” suggests that it is the REAL reality, and yet, how did she know it worked BEFORE she died, when she told Sawyer she had something to tell him?) It’s all bets off in this season – anything goes – and it’s boring when people who die come back to life because there’s no longer any emotional investment, like there was when the others died (Libby, Ana Lucia, Danielle, Alex, Charlie …)
If I have to see Jack desperately try to bring someone back to life while someone else stands next to him and says, “Stop, Jack. He’s gone” again, I’m going to scream. We GET it. We get that Jack has issues, that he desperately wants to save lives, to do the right thing, to make up for his past mistakes and to prove he’s a winner, not a loser.
The whole good vs. evil thing – the gray-haired friend of Jacob who was sitting next to him on the beach and wanted to kill him is a shape-shifter. He can make himself John Locke, he can make himself the evil human-killing smoke, he can make himself anyone or anything. Jacob is the God-like figure on the island. This guy is Satan. He was God’s friend, but then he got greedy, so God cast him out and he became Satan, always at war with God. We’ve read Paradise Lost. We get it. (yawn) and the fact that he can turn himself into anyone or anything opens the show up to all kinds of possibilities – when Danielle’s daughter appeared to Locke, was that him? When Christian and Claire appeared, was that him? Who and what and when was it him and not the person we thought it was? What’s annoying about this gimmick is the producers can use it to explain anything from the past by saying that it didn’t really happen, that it was HIM, whoever he is. I don’t know his name.
The temple. Yet ANOTHER group of strange people who have secrets and want to kill others on the island? When does it end? First there was Danielle, then the Others, then the Dharma Initiative, then the people on the ship (Farraday, Miles, and their military gang), then the French group, then Ilana’s gang, now the people at the temple headed by a Japanese guy, a wizard, and the stewardess from the back of the plane. More mysteries – this water – why do they drown Sayid? Why does Sayid come back to life? It was so predictable that he was going to come back to life – because unlike Juliette, whom they buried instantly, they left Sayid lying out, uncovered, on the floor – just waiting for him to sit up and talk.
What else annoyed me about the premiere? I liked seeing Charlie in the bathroom and Boone (and Frogurt and Artz) on the plane, but where was Shannon? Why wasn’t she with Boone? And where was everyone else? Jack walked up and down the aisles – wouldn’t we have seen Ana Lucia, Libby, the annoying couple who got buried alive? Walt? Michael? …
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That was as far as I got with that post. And last night’s episode had some interesting twists – Claire “infected” (Danielle used to talk about how she killed her husband because he was infected, but that was SO long ago that it’s difficult for us to make that connection. Why didn’t they show her saying that in the previews at the beginning of the episode?) and Ethan treating the pregnant Claire in the hospital the same way he did on the island, only with a very different intent.
By the way, I don’t remember the prison break or Kate punching the guard out. Can someone remind me when that happened? And the temple – is it new or was it mentioned in previous seasons? What do you think? Was the premiere as annoying to you as it was to me?
The temple's been mentioned before. It was kinda of overgrown with weeds. Assuming it's the same temple. The Japanese guy and the others at the temple are Others. Maybe a different tribe of them (non-Ben) but Others. Jacob is Mr. Good, and the Man in Black (Esau?) is Mr. Evil. And presumably they've been on this island since ancient times, hence the statue of Anubis and all the Greek that Jacob writes on stuff. What the hell is all means is beyond me.
I don't know that I found the premiere annoying, but the dead rising again is kind of stretching my tolerance. Not that it's been stretched by time travel or anything…
I feel like i need to watch the entire series again from the beginning. Someone suggested in an article that the conversation between Kate and Jack when Jack was trying to save Sayid was repeated on purpose, to show that history repeats itself, and also to show that people CAN change. But there is a fine line between making repeated scenes significant and making them annoying. I'll still eagerly await every episode, though, no matter how good or bad it gets.
1) the people at the Temple are the Others. That the flight attendant from the plane is with them is mystifying. But that the children are with them–well, that answers a question about where the children went.
2) I am wondering who Sayid has become (Ben was also saved in the same way as a child, and he was "never the same" again)
3) Shannon chose to stay with her dude and thus wasn't on the plane with Boone. In the alternate reality, circumstances have changed, and thus some of the folks are not on the plane. The heated question about why/how Desmond was on the plane for that brief moment is up for debate: on the one hand. if the island didn't exist, then Desmond wouldn't have ended up on the island. on the other hand, he did appear for a brief moment, perhaps only when they were flying over the submerged island?
4) Kate was in the animal cages with Sawyer. She broke out and bopped the dude on the head with a rifle.
5) Temple was mentioned previously. Jin went with Rousseau into the temple. Also, the temple was where Kate took Ben (when Kate drove a wounded Ben-as-a-child to the Others) to get healed. Richard took Ben into the temple–and now we know what was done to heal Ben.
6) where Ana Lucia, etc., were is interesting. That's a question yet to be addressed. Same with Michael/Walt.
Lots of little tweaks as well–the fact that Rose reassures Jack on the plane (in the "original" scene, Jack reassures Rose)…and how Hurley is "lucky" in the alternate reality….
It's all good! Have faith. 🙂
Christine – Another tweak someone pointed out – Cindy (the stewardess) only gives Jack one drink instead of two on the plane – so I guess things are "better" in the new reality – and we saw her disappear when they were running from the Others, so it's no surprise that she ended up with them.
Interesting that Ben was healed in that temple. And I guess the temple also explains why Richard doesn't age. I see now that the people there are Others, but I still find it annoying that we are being introduced to a new group of characters this late in the game.
Shannon chose to stay with her dude? My impression while watching the premiere was that the new reality happened after the plane shook – but all the tweaks suggest that past history has been altered as well – and when Kate says she's innocent – maybe she really is this time. And Locke told Boone he did his walkabout. I don't think he did in the original reality.
And yes, mystery as to why Desmond is on the plane. And afterward he disappears, which suggests that maybe he can bounce between realities? (like he bounced between the present and future before?)
Also, someone suggested that Juliette's babbling before she died (about going out for coffee?) may have been her glimpsing that alternate reality and meeting up with Sawyer there.
Another thought – if the gray-haired guy is in Locke – is someone in Sayid? Gray-haired guy, too, which is why they want to kill him? Or Jacob? Okay, this could go on forever. I need to go to bed!
The alternate reality began in 1977, when the island was presumably destroyed by the Jughead blast (remember we see its sunken remains as the post-shaking 815 flies over). So the island is long gone and Desmond could not have ended up there and could have been on the plane (I like your observation that he can slip through time — he is special that way.) With no island, the numbers would never have been broadcast and Hurley would not have been exposed to them and considered himself cursed, but somehow he still won the lottery and is a successful CEO (he was all business on the on the phone on the plane and said he was the luckiest guy alive). Widmore would have been killed in the blast but I think Penny was born and raised off-island anyway, so she and Desmond could be together. (By the way, during his conversation with Jack, I recalled Desmond's farewell line to Jack in a previous episode — "See you in another life, brother." Now he has seen Jack in another life. Hmmmmm…..)
I agree with you that the shape-shifting is a colossal cheat and increasingly tiresome device used by TV writers — it appears everywhere, even in otherwise good shows like Fringe. If used sparingly (like maybe Man In Black can take the shape of ONE person — e.g., Locke) to drive a story line, OK. But if he can just assume any form he wants, you can't trust anything you see on the screen. Boo. But I think there's a difference between Claire and Christian — MIB seems only able to assume the form of the dead, which is why he needed Locke murdered and brought back to the island. I think when we saw Christian and Claire in the cabin, Christian was the MIB and Claire was the "claimed" or infected, under his control. And it was MIB as Christian who helped Locke turn the wheel, because it was MIB's plan to get Locke off the island and back dead. (But why did he help Sun and Lapidus?)
I like showing the two timelines, and I think it's consistent with what they've been saying in the show. Farraday was adamant that what's past is past and that's true for the characters we've known in the show. When they went back to 1977, it was essentially still 2007 for them; that is, they had lived their lives through a series of points and the move to 1977 was just another point along that path. Jack was still 40 years old and aging, it's just that the trajectory of his life crossed overly an earlier point in time. But he was still living his early life somewhere else on earth when he was on the island in 1977. So I think it's satisfying that we do get to see what would have happened if the Incident hadn't occurred, while still seeing the characters we know play out their story.
And who did Jacob refer to when he said "They're coming"? I think it was the castaways who were about to return from 1977.
RJ – thanks for the clarifications about the alternate reality. I really feel like I want to watch the entire series again from the beginning, but I don't have time. I like the theory that Christian was MIB and Claire infected, and I can't wait to see what "infected" means. But that brings us back to Sayid. If Sayid died, then he must be operated by MIB now, right? Or will he turn out to be "possessed" by Jacob and save everyone from the evil MIB? But then why would the Others want to kill him?
You can watch the whole show, fyi, on hulu . . . or on netflix (then it has no commercials). .. I have never watched this show . . . except once in awhile if I was in a hotel and bored and caught a show here and there. .. so a few weeks ago, I watched the whole thing. . it was great fun. . . and now the whole story is fresh . . .
It does not eliminate confusion. . . it is clear to me that keeping viewers off balance is done intentionally and I don't think the writers ever had an overridging story line that they followed . . . but it is great fun to have recently watched the whole thing.
Tizzielish – I so wish I had time to watch all seven seasons in a row! I did that with the Sopranos before its last season, and it's so fun to have all the details fresh in your mind.