Author: Bert

I was wrong. There was one more episode inbetween.

The Episode

It was so obvious, and I still don’t get why I hadn’t figured it out. We saw the Oceanic Six’s side of the three years. We saw John Locke’s side of the three years. Why did I think for a minute that we wouldn’t see the three years go by for Team Island? When I heard Sawyer say “As long as it takes”, and then “three years later” popped, my heart skipped a beat. And I felt stupid – the good, Lostian way.

I was a bit suspicious of having a Sawyer episode. Sure, it’s been a while (two seasons!) but they never really were good… mediocre at best, but never good. This episode changes all that: Sawyer, who has redeemed himself in those three years and became a walking woman’s wet dream that will also do your dishes on the side, has suddenly become more interesting than he was before. Odd, seeing how they stripped him of practically everything that made him interesting in the beginning of the show. They did this with Kate, but it didn’t work quite as well as for Sawyer. Maybe they learned from their mistakes? Or maybe Kate’s just a less interesting character than Sawyer?

I was so, so happy to see Juliet and Sawyer together. It’s not that they are the match made in heaven (unless opposites really do attract), but I realised that these two characters are the two in this quadrangle that I wish to see happy. I don’t care about Jack or Kate (let them be miserable and angsty together), but those two… I wish nothing but the best for them. And that can’t be in the penultimate season. So expect them to be broken up fast.

On the mysterious islandy side, we got a glimpse of the statue. The fact that we saw it from behind has the mean something. Or is it just because it’s logical that statues look out at the sea (e.g. Alexandria)? At any rate: the thing looked very Egyptian. In case you hadn’t guessed yet: that puts it in the group containing the smoke monster and the temple. Interesting thought.

Ending up in the seventies means a few things. First: Dharma. Second: Widmore. Third: Ben. I’ve been thinking: if Ben banished Widmore from the island… maybe it wasn’t a power surge? Maybe he was trying to protect him from the purge? There’s so little things we do not know yet, but I have a gut feeling we’ll find it out sooner rather then later. While we’re in the seventies, might as well visit good old young Ben.

The Questions

No relevant questions this week. Tune in next time! Even though I fear the questions section will be kind of empty until they leave the Dharma Age.

In All

This episode was an emotional roller coaster. We saw Sawyer come so far in three years time, there was Amy who
ashed between weak strong, Juliet found her happiness, Daniel’s grief over Charlotte… I did miss a little reveals in the second half of the episode, though, and I hated the cliffhanger. I mean: no one can possibly be rooting for Kate to end up with Sawyer after they’ve seen how cute Sawyer looks with a Juliet on him?

Favourite Quote :
Sawyer: “Let me talk to him.”
Horace: “Excuse me?”
Sawyer: “Your buddy out there with the eyeliner. Let me talk to him.”

For the first time in nearly three seasons of LOST, we have no clue about what’s going to happen anymore. The last flash-forward string has been tied up, and now we get back to – what, exactly?

The Episode

I was totally psyched for this episode, and I have to say: it did not disappoint. There were so many little things, so many details that were tied up and now I feel that it finally time for the show to move back to where it’s all going on: the island. It didn’t really feel like the big reveal that I was hoping for, but I actually didn’t mind one bit: instead of the expected lore-heavy episode, I got a good old emotional Locke episode with a solid script and great acting. Oh, and the Locke theme music, which we haven’t heard for a while.

I loved how Locke went through yet another emotional downwards spiral. He was full of hope when he started by visiting Sayid, but when Jack left the room, we started to understand that John Locke’s suicide might not have been the act of sacrifice it had been intended, but more like… an actual suicide. I didn’t get the whole Ben killing Locke thing, but that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

This episode was the first one that really made me think about who the good and the bad guys are on this show. I know: they’ve been playing this theme since season one, but this episode was the first one to truly make me doubt and wonder. Why was this? The change of mind that made Ben kill Locke? His creepy astonishment at hearing that Jin is alive? The emotion with which Charles Widmore told Locke about his fate? It’s probably a mix of all of the above. In a way, I hope there will be no “good guys” and “bad guys”, just differences of opinion and a fight between neighbours that got truly out of hand. Truly Postmodern.

Something completely different: was it just me, or were Jack and Kate really, really nasty to Locke? This was the first time I truly believed they were looking at what they think is a crazy old man who keeps killing and blowing up stuff in a tantrum to get his own way. They owe resurrected Locke an apology if you ask me. But they did deliver the lines while keeping a sense of “goodness” in their characters: they weren’t being evil, they were just fed up with him. Nice job.

The Questions

We now know how Locke ended up in the coffin (question 1). Sooner than expected if you ask me – but just at the right time. The series can move on now. We now also know – given that we watched carefully – that the island is, I think, in several places at the same time. Team Locke is on Alcatraz, the little Dharma island, in what I think is 2008. Reason for thinking this is that the Hydra station looks old and dusty – unlike the Dharma heyday. We found out in 316 that Jack, Hurley, Kate and Jin ended up in the seventies – very much like that same Dharma heyday. What could this mean? On a final note, we found out a bit more about Widmore and Ben and their creepy struggle. Ben apparently “banished” Widmore, who spent more than three decades on the island. Could this have happened during the purge? Does it have anything to do with Annie?

In All…

The episode was way less complicated than I thought it would be. That’s okay though: it delivered in a way I thought it wouldn’t deliver. And there it delivered well, with brilliant performances by everyone, but mostly Terry O’Quinn, Michael Emerson and Matthew Fox. There is always something special about the scarce moments where two of those three meet… and this week, we got a whole lotta meetin’

Favourite Quote:
Matthew Abbadon: Boy’s gotten big.

And to think that I couldn’t wait for this episode to be over so “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” would come fast. This episode repeatedly hit me completely by surprise – like a drive-by on a foggy night, or that uncle with his baseball bat. Or, you know, something less creepy.

The Episode…

So how do you tell a story like this one? You need to take seven people and get them to reunite and start working on a greater goal. The problem is: these people are all over the place and have no reason to help the one that’s trying to reunite them in the first place. You give them their own reasons for wanting to go back. Which means you have to tell their stories. Which means you actually have to take time to do so. LOST just wants those people back on the island, so what do they do? They just throw everyone on the plane in the most suspicious circumstances ever (Kate losing Aaron, Ben bloody and beaten – again, Hurley with a guitar, Sayid with – get this – a sky marshall, oh and let’s not forget that Latino that has absolutely nothing to do with this all which makes it extra suspicious). And then you casually hint: “oh, them? We’ll tell you about them later.” It seems so logical while I’m writing it, but it rocked me off my feet.

This episode had so many little things: Jack waking up in the jungle, pilot-style, beardless Lapidus, and last but not least the wonderfully executed tension surrounding Locke’s suicide note. They could have made it long, pages long, but – in typical LOST style – they opted for “less is more”: one sentence that cut through my (and Jack’s) bones. John made some questionable decisions at times, but it looks like he’s finally starting to get to Jack. Now I’m sure that in the next episode, we’ll be seeing Locke at his lowest.

There were some brilliant performances in this episode. I was shocked when Ben – who displayed another layer of emotions we didn’t think he had – called Jack, bathing in blood, scared. I was moved when Jack was putting on Locke’s shoes (nice to see the tennis shoes being explained). I screamed when Desmond yelled how he lost four years of his life by listening to Hawking – I was hoping they wouldn’t forget. And when they all came together on that airplane… I couldn’t wait to see it crash. Which it didn’t.

The Questions…

Question 3 appears to be resolved. Everyone – except for Aaron, thank God; and Desmond, damn you God – gets back. We don’t know how yet, except for the fact that they went by airplane. This episode also made me ponder about Question 6 – whether our crew ended up on the island by accident. We always thought they did (because Desmond didn’t push the button) but if they have to recreate the conditions of their own crash in order to get back to the island, doesn’t that mean that those conditions might have caused the first one in the first place? …My head hurts.

In all…

I think this episode – and probably also the next – will be the middle ones of this season. They provide the starting track for the rest of the season, with everyone back on the island and with bigger goals to be accomplished. This episode was very, very low on complicated mindfucks – in comparison to the first five – but it delivered a more than solid character arc with an unexpected … well, start, seeing how they told their story. This was truly the best season five episode yet. I can’t wait until the next!

Favourite Quote:
John Locke: “I wish you had believed me.”

They weren’t kidding!

The Episode…

Let’s get this out of the way first: poor, poor Charlotte. Sure, she was my least favourite character of the freighter folk, but to see her die… That was really, really sad. A great performance by Rebecca Mader, and by her make-up team who made her look half past dead (nice contrast with the
flaming hair, by the way). I was kind of starting to hope that no one would die anymore, seeing how all characters are extremely engaging and interesting. Guess my hope was in vein.

Last week’s question was kind of anwered (or: I figured out a coherent answer to it). If they’re holding it, it stays. That’s why the rope broke on Locke – Sawyer grabbed it and the top part flashed along with him. Simple and clean. Speaking of which: I’m calling it now. In “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” – in two weeks – we will see the return of John Locke in the wheelchair. I mean, the man had his leg bones break through his flesh, that can’t be good. The island giveth and taketh? If that’s not the case, it is great irony, and a nice piece of storytelling.

Christian couldn’t help Locke up. Does that mean he can’t interact with the world of the living? Why was he holding little Aaron back in Season 4? Or was it that Locke had to find his own way? I loved seeing Christian again – John Terry is a great actor, and his character might not get a lot of screentime, but when he does… Another call: Locke will reincarnate just like Christian did when he returns to the island with the Oceanic Six.

The Questions…

Now we know what’s up with Charlotte. Shame there’s no flashback – but seeing how we’ll be seeing her younger self later in the season, I wouldn’t quite forget about her just yet. In the end, we found out rather little about the freighter folk, but I did make two interesting observations. First: the monster is “just” a security system for that temple (THE temple, by the way?). Second: did the crew get sick, like Rousseau said back in Season one? They did seem… brainwashed or something. An interesting thought worth pondering.

In all…

I really liked this episode. There was a lot of moving forward islandwise, and my fear of having the flashes on the island used as an all-too convenient plot device seemed exaggerated, seeing how Locke already left the island and the flashes might stop altogether now. The story’s moving along, and I think that starting from the next episode, things will switch into an even higher – but more intelligible – gear.

Favourite Quote:
Daniel: So…you speak any other languages?
Charlotte: Just Klingon.

So you think you’ve got it all figured out. So you glance at the title and you know what the episode’s going to be about. Then the last five minutes take that title and completely turn it around. And I couldn’t be happier that they did.

The Episode…

I’m not the biggest fan of Kate and Jack. They’ve never truly convinced me (see my review of Something Nice Back Home back in Season 4), and always felt a bit puberescent – too simple to be an interesting love story. For those wondering: yes, the same thing goes for Sawyer and Kate in my opinion. However, this week’s episode was a step in the right direction. When Jack knelt next to Kate’s car and the two exchanged glances, you could see the core of what their relationship is about: they are two broken people who understand each other through and through, but have been through so much that things between them are simply broken beyond repair. That one moment showed that – congratulations, we’ve gone a step in the right direction.

What the fuck moment of the week: Jin’s alive and has once again shipwrecked and wound up with others – this time Danielle’s crew. It’s finally time to find out about Montand and his fricken arm! Hurrah! Danielle looks quite normal; I guess killing your crew and husband and then having your baby stolen by Ben Linus takes the sanity out of you. As opposed to the Tunesian French in Confirmed Dead in Season 4, this French sounded very good. I’m very curious to see where they go with this!

After every episode, Cake Sensei and me try to find the sense in the little things. These talks tend to get longer with every episode into season five. It is dawning on me that people seem to grasp the concept of time travel used on the show less and less. What Cake Sensei and me have a hard time understanding, though, is why some objects seem to flash while others don’t. The camp flashed away because it hadn’t been built yet. Same with the disappearing explosion of the hatch. But what with Sawyer’s rifle from 1954? Locke’s compass? The catamaran? They all stayed? Is it because those objects are currently being used? Especially the catamaran is a bit of a strange case in my opinion. I hope this gets cleared up soon – it all feels a bit too convenient.

Oh, and by the way: I’m calling it right now. The people shooting at our Losties in the catamaran… where our very own losties. They were shooting at themselves.

The Questions…

Nothing much this week, but next week will be all about question 7 – Rousseau’s expedition.

In All…

A nifty episode. It’s good to see everything come together: the Oceanic Six are all in the same place again and the people on the island are slowly but surely starting their move to the Orchid station. Seeing how the next episode will feature Jin’s adventures with the French crew, I don’t think the story will advance much in the next episode though…

Favourite Quote:
Sawyer: Thank you lord! …I take that back!

The Episode…

Jeez, what an episode. Let’s make a (non-exhaustive) list of things that were absolutely insane reveals. Charles Widmore (who will henceforth always be known as Jonesey in my book) on the island? Richard Alpert being told to be present at John Locke’s birth? The dark past of Daniel Faraday? The Others speaking Latin? Desmond and Penny having a baby? Or maybe: there is a huge fucking hydrogen bomb on the island?!

One of the things that stuck with me troughout the episode was how impressive the work of some actors on this show is. Penny and Desmond – even though they are permanently together now – share this inexplicable chemistry together, and that is not only due to the daring script move of getting them back together but also due to the fact that Henry Ian Cusik and Sonya Walger are both great, emotional actors. The same goes for Daniel Faraday: Jeremy Davies does things with this role that are so unconventional and in my opinion tiring (for the actor) that he puts the role on an entirely new level. Every other sentence and its portrayal is simply awesome.

I was also happy to see Richard Alpert show up again. The compass thing is freaky: Richard gave it to Locke in the first episode, after having received it from Locke back in 1954 (so we know now). Has the compass been in a timeloop? where did it come from? Maybe it exists outside of time – kind of like Richard Alpert I guess. Richard seemed incredibly hostile in this episode, more than otherwise. I think we are missing a piece of the puzzle here – maybe Faraday and the rest of the Losties already met the Others before that moment?

The Questions…

Finally! A little closure on one of the freighter folk (Question 4)! We now know a little bit more about Faraday’s increasingly dark past. It’s obvious that he didn’t hurt that girl on purpose, though. If we read between the lines, we can also figure out some new info on Ben and Charles. Maybe Charles didn’t agree with the other Others anymore, got banished from the island and then tried finding it again? Maybe he started the Dharma initiative to do so? A few pieces of this puzzle are still missing but we are starting to see the bigger picture.

In all…

How do you judge an episode that was over way too fast? Even though I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire hour and loads of stuff got revealed, I kind of got the feeling that things were only starting when they
flashed away from 1954 and Charlotte went bloody-nosed. I would say that the next episode will bring solace, but I know it won’t: they’re gone from 1954, and we will have to wait until they
flash back to it to find out how this story continues. Shame. But hey, we’ve got some off-island people too that are craving for our attention!

Favourite Quote:
Daniel: If I try anything{what, you’re gonna – you’re gonna shoot me? Is that right? Yeah, that would be perfect because, of course, rifl
e fire right next to – what would you call this – hydrogen bomb? Yes, fantastic idea. Really… inspired.

How do you continue after such a mind-boggling premiere? You change the picture in typical LOST-style, and instead of delivering an episode that is mystery-focused, you go back to the very core of the show: the characters.

The Episode…

In line with last Season, this season also kicks off with a Hurley-centered episode (I kind of see Because You Left as a prologue, a short setting of the framework in which this chapter of the story will enroll). It seems Hurley is considered a great character for making bridges between seasons (bridges which at times can be confusing), which doesn’t really seem so unlikely. Anyway: I love it when they dig into Hurley. Jorge Garcia just seems to keep on adding layers to what essentially started as an uninteresting
at character in the background. Kudos!

Ben did some remarkable things again – it’s interesting to see his off-island in
uences. We saw him take a package out of an air vent, show up at a butcher’s (brilliantly shown and cut, in my opinion) and – perhaps most breath-taking of all – in a church, in front of Ms. Hawking. Nice to see her again, even if the actress doesn’t really convince me. Is she Daniel Faraday’s mother? I’m willing to bet she is… And what was she doing in that basement? Looking for the island, perhaps? I also love the fact that a new confrontation between Ms. Hawking and Desmond is only a matter of time. Say what you will: the writers really know how to get the most out of their characters (unless they kill them off).

The Lie marked the end of Frogurt. Haven’t seen a redshirt go out with such a bang since Arzt back in season 1. Nice exit Neil! Who were the people who shot Team Island? Are they the same people that tried to cut off Juliet’s arm? They wore jumpsuits – people said they were Dharma but I’m not buying it. Where’s the Dharma logo, for instance? I thought they were Danielle’s crew, but they sound a wee bit too English for that. Although… no one said the crew was French – we just knew Rousseau herself was. Although Montand isn’t exactly a British name.

The Questions…

Will I be right after all? Will the answer to question 7 (Rousseau’s expedition) be answered soon? Are these her crewmates? About question 9 (Charles versus Ben): we now know that Ben’s allied with a lot of people – what I suspected to be a personal feud between two powerful people (analogous to the game of chess between Charles Xavier and Magneto in X-Men) might just turn out to be a hidden war between two much larger forces…

In All…

I loved this episode. It was full of this sad yet funny awkwardness that is Hurley – but, just like in The Beginning of the End (season 4’s Hurley episode) the drama overweighed the fun (see the quote below if you don’t understand what I mean). It had some nice plot twists (Ana Lucia’s “Don’t get arrested” got an entirely different meaning at the end of the episode – could the ghosts be siding with Ben then?) and a great set-up for next week’s episode (Jones’ crew).

Favourite Quote:
Hurley: Okay. See, we did crash, but it was on this crazy island. And we waited for rescue, and there wasn’t any rescue. And there was a smoke monster, and then there were other people on the island. We called them the Others, and they started attacking us. And we found some hatches, and there was a button you had to push every 108 minutes or… well, I was never really clear on that. But… the Others didn’t have anything to do with the hatches. That was the DHARMA Initiative. The Others killed them, and now they’re trying to kill us. And then we teamed up with the Others because some worse people were coming on a freighter. Desmond’s girlfriend’s father sent them to kill us. So we stole their helicopter and we
flew it to their freighter, but it blew up. And we couldn’t go back to the island because it disappeared, so then we crashed into the ocean, and we
floated there for a while until a boat came and picked us up. And by then, there were six of us. That part was true. (Whispers) But the re… But the rest of the people… who were on the plane? They’re still on that island.

With the words “It’s good to be back” branded in its forehead, LOST emerged back on our screens. And with reason: not only was the fourth season absolutely stellar, it also got rewarded with a bonus: an extra episode this season, resulting in a double-feature premiere. And what kind of a premiere! Let’s start at the beginning – the first hour: Because You Left.

The Episode…

The cat’s out of the bag. For anyone still wondering what Season Five – and with that, what seems like the very core of LOST’s insanely complex story – is about, the answer is given in the first five minutes of this very episode: killing Hitler – I mean time travel. All of a sudden, and in typical LOST-fashion, the scope of the series widened again: Season 1 was about surviving, Season 2 showed us the Dharma initiative, Season 3 went beyond that and introduced us to the Others and Season 4 finally showed us what happened beyond the island. With every step, more things started making sense. The presence of the hatch – something completely and utterly insane in season 1 – became intelligible when Dharma was introduced in Season 2.

Now, we essentially have the same thing: a lot of things start making more sense. The presence of Adam and Eve back in Season 1? Ben knowing all? Richard not aging? Doesn’t seem so far-fetched anymore from where I’m standing.

So the island is unstuck in time. Or is it? For Richard, it seemed as if John Locke disappeared (as opposed to the other way around). So what is really happening? I personally do think the island is skipping and not the people on it – but why does someone like Richard not skip, while our Losties do? Is his bond with the island too strong? Does he have a Constant (maybe Jacob)? The question towards Richard becomes increasingly interesting as the question towards Ben slowly gets unraveled.

I’m really enjoying the course the story-telling in Season 5 seems to take: there’s no more flashbacks, no more flashforwards – but the whole thing does flash. It still feels like LOST, but it’s an entirely different approach (even if it is the most obvious choice at this point in the story). I do hope that the entire season won’t be as hectic as this first episode, though. There was a lot of flashing going on, but it lacked the archimedical point that LOST episodes usually have (which normally revolve around the now non-existant
flash-character).

The Questions…

Nice answer to the second question: the island hasn’t just gone back in time, it’s skipping in time. It’s going all over the place. Nice idea: it will allow the writers to make sense of a lot of past stuff (like they did in the prologue by telling us what the Arrow station was for). Other than that, none of the questions got tackled – but one question completely solved isn’t so bad either.

In All…

If you think Season 4 was insane, you will soon see that Season 5 decides to kick things up a notch in the bizzare department. In absolute essence, though, even Season 5 is still about the characters. And they are what made this episode believable: on the one hand, there is someone as sofisticated and confused as Daniel Faraday explaining whatever happened to the island (“we can never make another street”), and on the other there is someone like Sawyer, who just wants a damn shirt. It works. Jack might have shaven off that horrible beard (may it rest in peace) but he still acts like bearded Jack: mildly confused, tired – not at all hero-like. Sayid might have stopped working for Ben, but he is at the darkest point in his journey. The characters work: obviously all Bernard cares about is pleasing his down-to-earth Rose, even if the island is going bananas. Everyone has evolved, but no one truly has changed.

Heroes, you should be writing that down. It’s important.

Favourite Quote:
Sawyer: “Open up! It’s the ghost of Christmas future!”.