Lost: Season 5, Episode 16: "The Incident: Parts 1 and 2"

Lost:
Season 5, Episode 16/17: “The Incident Parts 1 and 2”:
Grade: 8.9

Where do I even begin? I have no idea. I have no idea what is going on anymore. I had prepared myself for two things. One was for Juliet’s death. We still do not for sure whether or not she is dead because well, if they have reversed everything and since she was technically alive before she set off the H bomb will she still be alive when we see how things are reversed now that they have changed time in 1977 and thus the present? Or is Miles right and did the H Bomb going off simply create the Incident rather than destroy it? He cannot be right otherwise everyone is dead. So basically these people are on a time loop? Ugh I have no idea. All I know is that I think Juliet is dead and I guess Locke is dead even though OtherLocke is walking around now. And what about Sayid who we last say bleeding to death? Ok let us just get right into it. I am going to be all over the place here.

First of all what did I think? Well overall I thought the 2 hour finale was fantastic for many reasons but in the long run I was hoping for more answers. I knew that the finale would be a cliffhanger. I figured that the bomb would go off but that we would not see the effects of it. But I was hoping I would get a few more answers to things that will tide me over until February. Instead I have a few reveals that lead to infinite amounts of questions. I am hoping Lost can pull this story off in its last season and does not leave me utterly disappointed with its answers the way Battlestar Galactica did. I mean that show always did an amazing job with its characters and it delivered on those moments in the final eps but the answers I received felt rushed and confusing. Even though Battlestar is still one of the most criminally underwatched and underrated shows to ever come around, its flaws are something that I hope Lost can o in a different direction with. So anyways overall there were many things going on here to make for some incredible TV and a lot of that has to do with Jacob.

So we finally meet Jacob. And guess what? He’s not one of the characters we already know. It’s some guy that has been around for a long time. Some being. Oh God I cannot even begin to go into it. But nevertheless I thought Mark Pellegrino nailed it. Second cast member from Mullholland Drive! He was so awesome in this role. My favorite moments of the episode were the ones in which Jacob visits each of the characters at different points, key moments in their lives. And he touches every single one of them. He visits young Kate as she steals for the first time and tells her not to steal. He gives young Sawyer a new pen to write his note to “Mr. Sawyer” at his parents funeral, he touches Locke right after he is thrown out the window by his father. I would argue he brings him back to life actually. He visits Jin and Sun on their wedding day, he asks Sayid how to get somewhere on a map which causes Nadia to get hit by the car, he visits Jack on the day of the “angel hair pasta” incident in surgery that Jack speaks of in the very first episode of the show and finally he visits Hurley most recently after he gets out of jail and tells him to go back to the island and gives him Charlie’s guitar case which probably has something else in it besides Charlie’s guitar. Oh and he visits Ilana which I will get to when I talk about her later. He does not visit Juliet or Miles I would guess because they were not on the original 815 flight. He visits all of them. Why? To get them on the island? To set them on specific paths? And is he good or bad? He seems good. He was wearing white in the very first scene, a scene which I will talk about in a second and a scene which I believe will be easily the most dissected during the 8 months we have to mull over Season 5 of Lost.

The first scene took place I believe when the Black Rock first crashed onto the island. The Black Rock has to be ridiculously important to the end of the series. I think that the castaways were originally on the Black Rock. I think they are in a time loop and Jacob and the man in black somehow are watching and waiting for something to eventually happen with this group of people as they witness this cycle over and over again as these same people make it back time and time again over hundreds of years for some grand purpose while they slowly make progress towards the ultimate goal. Do not ask me how any of this makes sense. I have no idea But this is my grand theory of Lost and I am sticking to it. I believe the H Bomb going off propels the castaways to their final loop where, because OtherLocke fucked things up, everything will come to a head in the next cycle which I believe will constitute Season 6. I think the season will begin with the castaways still on the island but returning in 2007 on the island with everyone else somehow. I literally have no idea how any of this can make any sense but I really do believe that the show will eventually get to a grand plan that is something along these lines.
So that first scene. People are assuming the man in black was Esau, Jacob’s brother in the book of Genesis. Jacob is wearing white. “Esau” is wearing black. They discuss extremely ambiguous stuff that I will not get into because all of the other reviews certainly are. But the man says “Do you know how badly I want to kill you?” and Jacob says “Yes”. He talks about finding a loophole someday and being able to do this. This for me confirms that the man in black or “Esau” is actually OtherLocke. Why? Well, because he has Ben kill Jacob, that’s why, and it harkens back directly to that first scene. Somehow he is not allowed to kill Jacob and Ben and his situation provided the loophole he wanted. Jacob seemed to allow himself to die though. And furthermore, he egged Ben on to do it. We had that brilliant character moment with Ben when he asks “What about me?” to Jacob and Jacob says “What about you?” not in a mean way but with an honesty that felt sincere but for Ben that was enough to kill him. Jacob then says “they’re coming” most likely referring to Jack and company. This did not make OtherLocke happy as he pushed dead Jacob into the fire. So enough about Jacob; let us get into other stuff.

We learn from Ilana, Bram and crew that Locke is in fact still dead. They bring his body in a crate and show Richard the dead body as OtherLocke and Ben are in the statue. So this means Locke is dead. And this means that he won’t come back? Is that the end of his character? Because if so, I cannot even begin to describe how totally depressing and tragic that is. I seriously cannot handle the idea that it is not him. He thinks he has some grand purpose and he goes off the island, tries to get everyone back, fails, tries to kill himself but before he can Ben persuades him not to and then he kills Locke anyways? That is his end? Christ that sucks. And that new bad ass Locke that we were all loving? Not even Locke. This will seriously take me months to accept. Then we get the stuff with Ilana. Jacob visited her to ask for help. She clearly had known him before and she was wrapped up in bandages. Hmmm. She asks Richard “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” and he replies in Latin “He who will save us all”. She mentions candidates and such, whatever that means. Because of Ilana, Richard and company now know about the OtherLocke deception so hopefully that will come to a head as soon as things get organized next season.

I’ve pretty much gone through the 2007 stuff so let us get into 1977. So we got to see Rose and Bernard and VINCENT!!!!!!! I’m mostly excited about the Vincent part. Because Vincent rules. Basically they have been chilling for three years. Wow. What a twist. Notice the sarcasm there. Rose and Bernard are a little too okay with dying for my taste. It was cool to see them together with everyone again for a little while. Kate, Sawyer and Juliet go off the sub and find Rose and Bernard and eventually find Jack, Sayid, Hurley, Jin and Miles who all met up after a gunfight in which Sayid was shot. I will just point out here that Sayid’s part in the rest of the finale is to just bleed slowly to death. And furthermore as we shall see, everyone finds time to drudge up their love drama as Sayid bleeds to death and they do not even seem to mind. In fact when Sawyer asks for 5 minutes to talk to Jack , Jack does not even tell them that Sayid was shot. Everyone just leaves him in the van!

So now we have a section of the finale which focuses on everyone sorting out their issues and eventually deciding to go along with Jack’s plan. Here is where we get the Jack-Sawyer scene. It’s a great scene. It’s been a long time since Jack and Sawyer sat and had a talk. So this was a delight. Jack tells Sawyer that he wants to change everything because he wants to forget about Kate. Sawyer tells Jack to tell her how he feels but he says it is too late. Here is where we get the first of two characters who literally are willing to set off an H Bomb and will probably die as long as they can forget about a certain someone. Who are these people and why are they so insane? And I will never understand why Kate is worth all of this heartache. She sucks hardcore in this finale. Honestly, you can still see in her face just how undecided she still is about everything.
Then Jack and Sawyer get into a massive fight; easily the biggest they have ever had, with a possibility of being the most brutal beatdown in the shows history. They punch and kick for a while but eventually Sawyer gets the better of Jack and just beats the piss out of him. What an awesome scene this was. Truly one of the best scenes of the season. So emotionally charged and exciting at the same time. Then Juliet breaks up the fight. She thinks Jack is right. She has changed her mind. Why? Because she thinks that because of the way Sawyer looked at Kate that she realizes that even though Sawyer would never leave her, it’s more because he made a choice and he is sticking to it, not because it’s what his heart wants. I thought her flashback (the only non Jacob one in the bunch which tells me she is most likely dead) was a bit forced. We understood what was going on and I do not think we needed that scene from Juliet’s childhood to tell us about what she was going through. He denies this and she says if she never has to meet him than she never has to lose him. Jesus. And she would be the second person who literally is willing to blow up an H Bomb if it means that she never met another character in this case Sawyer. Some people are confused as to why she did this but it makes sense to me. I think Juliet just wanted to be in control this time around with what happened even though Sawyer would not have left her. It is just so totally depressing and she deserved so much more. If this was not enough, they had to give her one of the most depressing and painful death scenes I’ve seen on television. They all arrive at the station where Douchebag Radzinsky is still drilling. A gunfight ensues.

Jack gets to drop the bomb into the site. This particular moment before Jack drops the bomb in has got to be the best single moment of the finale. We see everyone’s faces as they look at each other knowing that these are either their last moments or that these are their last moments knowing each other. It is incredibly powerful and emotional. But it does not go off and instead the incident begins and everything metal begins to get pulled. Fuckhead Phil gets struck with a rebar in the chest. Yay! And Douchebag Radzinsky decides to get into a Jeep. Wow. You are an idiot. In the midst of everything, a chain wraps around Juliet’s midsection and drags her into the pit. Sawyer and Kate try to hold on. It is the most heartbreaking scene. Sawyer says “Don’t you dare let go!” Sawyer at this point is freaking out because he sees where this is going. In the meantime the chains are tightening around Juliet more and must be ludicrously painful for her. Elizabeth Mitchell is along with Claire Danes one of the top criers in the biz because her sobs during this scene were gut wrenching. This was not acting crying; this was real sobbing. This goes on for a while and she goes down and Sawyer emits the most emotion I have ever seen from him on the show. Along with “The Brig” which was more anger, this is his most emotive moment. He starts sobbing and I am sobbing and everyone is sobbing and it’s horrifying. It turns out that Juliet is still alive somehow and then has another gut wrenching scene in which she uses her last moments to beat the bomb into detonation as she sobs and screams in the last minute of the finale. She succeeds and the last thing we see is her face as it fades away because of the white light seemingly coming from the bomb as the Lost logo comes onto the screen in black against the new white background. This show will be the death of me. Incredible last 10 minutes. Incredible. Until February 2010 everyone!

Lost: Season 5, Episode 15: "Follow the Leader"

Lost:

Season 5, Episode 15: "Follow the Leader"

Grade: 8.3

It is sort of hard to write this review after having seen the finale last night. I would have liked to have written this before I had seen it but such was not the way of things. I won’t really talk specifically about the finale yet but I’m not going to theorize about things that might or might not happen in the finale when we already know what happened in the finale. My plan is to set up where each of the characters are going into the finale and through that talk about the plot.
1977: Jack: Jack going into the finale has found a purpose again. A purpose unlike any he has had before. The problem with Jack is that no matter what the consequences may be, he has always been someone who when he has a goal in mind he is going to get it done. He has not even stopped to think or care about what might happen if things do not work the way he plans. I find it so fascinating how Jack’s perception of things now follows Locke’s perception. Jack has changed a lot since Season 1 but he still carries that same determination. Jack gets knocked out in the most painful way ever and is brought to the Others’ camp with Kate. They get Richard and Eloise to go along with their plan to get Jughead and have it replace the Incident and hopefully wipe out everything that has happened to them this entire time. Jack makes it clear to Kate that he is OK with not having ever met her because in fact, it make things easier for Jack. He insinuates that it was not worth it. Ohh harsh. But deservedly so since Kate totally sucks. So Jack is left at the end of the penultimate episode underground with Jughead ready to transfer it out of there and across the island.
Kate: In the last three episodes of the show Kate has really just proven to me how much I cannot stand her. I cannot believe the amount of drama that rises up over this woman. She literally ruins everything totally destroying the men she comes across because she cannot commit to anything or make a decision. Ever after all of this it is still completely unclear who she wants to be with although at this point I think it’s Sawyer since she seems to have exhausted her relationship with Jack. But still, she is so devastated and angry when she realizes that Jack is willing to give up ever having known her in order to erase things. Really though Kate? After the shit she has put these guys through no wonder he wants to forget her. Hell I want to forget her at this point. However despite all of this at this point of the season I was totally on her side in terms of her leaving the Jughead mission. I thought it was crazy too.
Oh fuck this. This character thing is getting confusing. I’ll just do it through the story.
1977: We had to see Daniel’s death again. That was fun except that it was not. Even though Eloise sucks because well, she does, I definitely liked how willing she was to believe what Jack and Kate told her and to go along with his plan. Teamwork is always nice on this show between unexpected characters. Widmore as a younger man sucks. Yet present day Widmore is awesome. It seems that Eloise at this point is already pregnant I assume with Daniel. I hope at some point we get to learn more about their relationship. Sayid pops up and shoots someone when Kate almost gets shot for trying to leave. So Sayid has been gone for basically ever. Since he shot Ben, he’s been AWOL. Well here he is, all proud that he shot Ben and convinced that it does not change anything. The exchange in which he found out that Ben is not dead was classic. I’ll talk a bit more about Sayid in relation to the finale when I get to it. I wonder what else there is for the character to do. Basically Sayid agrees with Jack’s plan because he really does not care whether he lives or dies and if there is a chance to change things, then he will take it. Nice to see Jack and Sayid working together. They all swim to the underground tunnels except for Kate who goes back because she does not agree with what they are doing. Their story ends with them reaching the bomb.
On the Sawyer/Juliet front they are pretty much interrogated by Douchebag Radzinsky and Fuckhead Phil for the episode. Sawyer gets the crap beat out of him while Fuckhead Phil actually has the nerve to hit Juliet thus becoming Fuckhead Phil. Even though Horace does not nearly enough to stop them from getting beaten at least he does into approve of it. Something I find really amusing is how everyone listens to Douchebag Radzinsky and nobody will just hit him on the head with something. This continues into the finale and it’s just so weird how he’s in charge. You can really see during these scenes how loyal Sawyer and Juliet are to each other. You can just see a bond during these scenes that is so adorable and touching. Chang tells Douchebag Radzinsky to stop drilling but apparently because this idiot is now in charge nobody stops drilling. Sawyer and Juliet make a deal with Chang to tell them what they want to know but in exchange they get to go on the submarine. The moment between them on the submarine was so adorable. And then everything was ruined by the arrival of Kate on the sub. And Juliet and Sawyer’s faces as she sat next to them were basically the same exact reaction that I had on my face.
Jin, Miles and Hurley pretty much just hang out and watch things as they happen. Pierre comes over and tests Hurley about 1977 to figure out whether or not they really are from the future which was hilarious. “Who is the President of the United States?” “…alright dude, we’re from the future.” Pierre also figures out that Miles really is his son which was also really great. Miles also gets to see Pierre yell at his mother to leave and he realizes that I was the only way Pierre could get Miles and his mother to leave the island.
2007:
Richard tells Sun when she asks him about the picture of the castaways in the 70’s that he watched them all die. Looking at what happens in the finale I am so totally confused as to what this means. We got to revisit the moment when Locke is given the compass by Richard from Richard and now resurrected Locke or based on the finale we’ll just call him “Locke”. So I guess the fact that Locke is “Locke” explains how he would know where Jacob lives and the fact that that moment with Richard and Locke during the time jump was coming at that exact moment. Then Locke pulls a WTF and makes a speech to the Others in which he asks them to go with him to Jacob to see him. So Locke is leading a pilgrimage. What I love about these scenes is basically the way that Richard and Ben react to everything “Locke” does in this episode. We never see them in this totally submissive position. Ben’s “Why do think you think I’ve tried to kill him?” line is the best of the episode. We then learn that “Locke’s” mission is not to figure out how to get to the 1977 people but to kill Jacob. WTF?! Well it makes more sense now after seeing the finale since I have my own theories about “Locke” and what he is. The moment is still a great one though. And thus we set ourselves up for the finale. Overall not a very character focused episode at all but one that successfully sets up the finale and the events that will unfold there.

Lost: Season 5, Episode 14: "The Variable"

Lost:
Season 5, Episode 14: “The Variable”
Grade: 9.3

Honestly I don’t even want to review this because I am trying to forget it happened. Not because it was bad; in fact along with “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” I would say it’s up for Season 5’s best award so far. The episode definitely has elements that I am confused about which makes me in turn again confused about what I am supposed to be thinking about and what will actually be answered. But you do not realize just how great it is until those tragic last minutes when you realize that Eloise knew the entire time that she shot and killed her own son and literally paved the way for that to eventually happen.

People were confused about whether it was clear that Daniel is dead or not; it is official that he is. Who knows if he will make another appearance somehow but he is dead. Thus the episode ends Daniel’s death officially making him the most tragic character on Lost ever. This for me is not an arguable point. As the episode progressed I actually had the feeling that the episode was heading this way. When we got the news that the “Major-ish” character was not as major as we first thought reported by Ausiello I figured he must actually know now and I thought about that being around the time when this episode probably would have screened. Then just the vibe they created around Daniel in the episode; they made him to be a tragedy. There was the way everyone saw him as this crazy pathetic weirdo coot and the flashbacks basically summing up the shittiness of his life only to show how ironically it ends. Then Jack gives him a gun that is fully loaded and make a point of showing that Daniel has no idea what he is doing. Then they have shots of him holding onto the gun basically just flailing it. His plan then we find out goes against every single thing he has been saying this old time and ends up being (although maybe there is validity to it, we shall see) a totally desperate and poorly planned attempt to change things so Charlotte can be brought back. Then despite his best efforts not to, he ends up being the creepy guy Charlotte remembers as a child so whoop de do on the fail of supplying that memory for her. Then when Daniel just walks into the group of Others in the final moments just totally unaware of how unprepared and inexperienced he is and Jack tells Kate to let him go because he knows they should not go with him, I knew it was totally over for the poor guy and I had to sit and watch hoping and praying that I was wrong as I saw that I was right and that we lost Daniel Faraday who happens to be in my Top 5 on the show. He is easily my favorite character that has died so far. He is my Charlie. He will always be my Charlie. Let’s just get into the ep shall we?

Flashbacks:

Basically these flashbacks were a rundown on Daniel’s life and a checklist of the reasons that Daniel Faraday’s life could not have been any shittier.

- Reason number 1: Eloise his mother is an evil wench and early in life puts him on the path of his murder by not letting him play piano anymore. We see that very early in life, Daniel has never really gotten to do what he wanted. What a fun childhood that must have been.

- Reason Number 2: Eloise is a bitch to Daniel’s girlfriends and only really cares about going on his path to death! Seriously what the fuck is it with this woman? Honestly, the question has been floating around since the episode aired; why did Eloise have to make sure this happened? I guess either she really is all for sticking to the whatever happened, happened theory and doing her best to making sure everything went down just so. Or since we are clearly going to see stuff happen during the rest of the season maybe we will see why Daniel’s death needed to specifically happen. Either way, this woman is fucked up. We also see that Eloise does not give a shit about any other aspect of his life than that of his work

- Reason Number 3: Everything that happened to Theresa is just so damn depressing. Seriously that freaking sucks.

- Reason Number 4: Daniel gets dismissed and leaves Oxford; they remove any evidence of him ever having been there and all of this stuff with Theresa happened and all of his work and accomplishments were pointless.

- Reason Number 5: But of course Daniel’s twitchiness and general weirdness is explained by us finding out (even though I think we had known this from “Jughead”) that Daniel had tried out the experiments on himself and had serious memory issues because of it. That sounds fun. Daniel going back to the island would rid him of his problem. I loved the continuation of the scene from “Confirmed Dead” when Daniel has his reaction to the news that 815 went down. It had already been one of my favorite scenes in Lost history for its ambiguity and even though the ambiguity is now taken out of it, it is somehow retained because the facts of the situation in that moment are exactly the same as they were before. I also loved the scene between Daniel and Widmore. Honestly, Jeremy Davies in this episode needs a fucking Emmy or something. Seriously; he was incredible. Unbelievable.

- Reason Number 6: Then we get the scene which was very interesting before the episode ended but now is just a million times more intriguing; Eloise urging Daniel to go to the island. The reason Daniel goes? Because Eloise tells him it would make him proud. Can I just crawl under a rock and cry for the rest of my life? Seriously it gets no more tragic than this. And of course he cries just like in every scene in this episode with Daniel where he either looks like he is going to cry or in fact does.

The 70’s:
It turns out Daniel was in Ann Arbor. Scandalous. He manages to fuck things up slightly for everyone in the episode. First he tells Jack that destiny did not bring him to the island and in fact his presence is harmful. I would still like to know how he knows this. So basically Jack’s whole reason for living goes down the shitter. Then he goes and has his scene which takes place in the first scene of Season 5 which was extremely satisfying to see. Then he tells Chang that Miles is his son who reluctantly does not agree although I think he is in denial. Miles is deeply pissed off which prevents him from offering to drive Daniel later in the episode.

Then we have Jack find out about Phil who is being kept in the closet by Sawyer and Juliet. It was really depressing throughout the whole episode to see Sawyer and Juliet truly realize that the lives they built for themselves all this time was something they had to leave. They tried so hard to keep their life in Dharma but it just did not work out that way.

Everyone discusses options as to what to do. I loved this scene a lot just because so much of the cast was in it. Sawyer and Juliet are going to head for the beach while Jack, Kate and Daniel are going to head for the Others to find Eloise. While they go to do that they pick up guns and get into a gunfight with Psycho Radzinsky and two others. This was a pretty sick scene; one I did not entirely expect to see. Daniel gets shot (not the last time he will in the ep : ( Sawyer and Juliet have a nice scene together as they lament over the loss of the life they built but soon that ends when they are caught by Radzinsky on his way back from his gun battle with Jack, Kate and Daniel. That’s where we end off with them.

We learn that Daniel’s brilliant except it’s not brilliant, it’s sad and desperate plan to stop things from happening is to set off the hydrogen bomb. And then Jack and Kate and Daniel have some really great conversations and then we all know how the episode ends. Okay I cannot go on mainly because I am low on time and high on depression even thinking about this. There is so much more I could go into though.

Reason 7: He fulfilled his job as creepy dude from Charlotte’s past

Reason 8: Shot by his own fucking mother who knew the entire time that she was going to shoot him and he realizes this in his last moments.

Overall this was an incredible episode; one that would mean so much more on a second viewing. The scene with Daniel and Charlotte broke my heart. The last scene broke my heart. The entire episode broke my heart as we saw a brilliant portrait of a tragic character who had no idea the horrible fate that his entire life he spent working to get to. RIP Daniel Faraday. You were one of the most unique characters in television. I will miss you and I will never forget you and how amazing you were.

Lost: Season 5, Episode 13: "Some Like it Hoth"

Lost:
Season 5, Episode 13: "Some Like it Hoth"
Grade: 8.0
I have gone from finding Miles pretty freaking annoying to really truly adoring him. Honestly I just think he’s boss. We were supposed to get character back stories to the “freighter people” way long ago but because of the writers’ strike, they are just now getting to them (poor Charlotte misses out and I guess Frank has not really become a significant enough character to garner an episode to himself). This week we get the first of two, this one being Miles. We find out two things that we basically already knew. One was that Miles’ father is Pierre Chang. That rumor had been going around for months now. It was still very satisfying to see their interaction and to see the scene when Miles watches his father read to adorable baby Miles. The second thing we already figured was that Miles was motivated to go to the island purely by money. Wow big shocker that Miles likes his dinero. Let us discover what else was found out for us other than Hurley is attempting to write the screenplay to Empire before it is made. Seriously. Not joking.

Flashbacks:

- We see infant Miles who happens to be the cutest child of all time. His abilities started very early in life.

- Later in life a younger Miles looks basically the way he did in X3. He also tries to unsuccessfully find out information about his father.

- We next see how Miles will lie about talking to dead people if he does not have the access to the body that he needs as long as money is being offered to him. We also see Naomi again which was very cool.

- Naomi tests Miles’ abilities’ out by providing him with a dead body and asking him to figure out stuff. He declines the offer to go to the island but agrees when 1.6 million is offered to him.

- Then Bram, the one who with Ilana had the guns in the previous episode take Miles, who was just about to eat a lovely fish taco, in a van and is asked for the second time on the series (not Miles, just the show’s showing of the question in general) “What lies in the shadow of the statue”? He has no clue. Miles is then offered information about his fatherand his abilities but at this point in his life, Miles just wants money and when they won’t give him twice what Naomi offered, they throw him out of the van. This was the most interesting sequence in terms of a scene that I think is going to be very very important later in terms of the question and Bram’s presence in the episode. Again, “teams” are mentioned. I am very excited to officially find out what these teams are. I guess its Ben vs. Charles but it must be more complex than that right?

- Personally in terms of the character study of Miles, I found the last scene to be the most moving. I still think he should have assured th guy that he did in fact have abilities and was not a sham because well it’s what I would do if I were him but whatever. It’s a very obvious parallel to Miles’ own situation but it really worked and I found myself really fascinated just because we were getting to see Miles finally take center stage for an episode in the story. Ok; 70’s stuff.

The Seventies:
Ugh while I love Miles, he really is the idiot that caused all of this subsequent shit to go down by not erasing that damn tape! Can I just explain how fucking creepy I find Horace and Radzinsky and the whole ultra secretive, cult-y vibe they have going for them? :Shiver:.

Speaking of people causing trouble; seriously Kate? Seriously? You really needed to butt into everyone’s business yet again and try to comfort Roger? I know she felt bad and I would have the same urge to do that as well if I had established the weird slight interaction she had with Roger at that point but honestly putting yourself in the middle of things is the absolute last thing Jack, Kate and Hurley want to be doing right now. Jack gets that at the moment; Kate not so much.

Anyways Miles gets a package (dead body; subtle Dharma). Hurley gets roped into this excursion because he is so blissfully unaware sometimes when something is actually happening. Basically the body was a guy named Alvarez who had his tooth filling ripped out through his head because of the electromagnetic stuff they were working with.

Roger figures out that Ben is missing. Roger’s solution is to understandably freak out but more importantly doe a typical Roger and drinks some more beer. Jack tries to calm Roger down. It’s so cute that he was covering Roger’s work shift. Phil in the meantime finds out about the tape and Sawyer pulls a typical Sawyer and knocks Phil out.

I had never thought about Hurley and Miles each having different abilities involving dead people. I wonder why they each have them and whether we will find this out. Since Lindelof and Cuse have stated they are not going to address the Libby story, I find myself questioning immediately what else are they not going to answer? I get that they really don’t have time to being back a thread that has been totally cut off but does this mean the same thing about Walt? Walt, Hurley and Miles have abilities and I wonder if they will be explained to us? So anyways to see Miles and Hurley compare abilities was funny but also very insightful.

The ride in the van between Hurley and Miles and Chang was classic. While I definitely think it’s a bit over the top for Hurley to be prying into something that truly is none of his business and something that Miles is so adamant about ignoring I see where Hurley is coming from. Who the hell gets that sort of opportunity? Hurley is sort of right to egg on the situation when he sees such a unique chance passing by voluntarily. I also loved the way Hurley brought up his own situation with his father. Cheech and Hurley are adorable.

Then of course we get the poignant Miles watching Baby Miles and Father Chang scene. And then we have the end which last week I was extremely excited about in fact I was flipping my lid. Now looking back I’m just totally depressed as we see the end of the episode which will be the beginning of next week’s episode which will be the start of the devastation, the tragedy, the horrifyingly depressing thing that is “The Variable”

Lost: Season 5, Episode 12: "Dead is Dead"

Lost: Season 5, Episode 12:
“Dead is Dead”
Grade: 8.6
Here is my attempt to catch up on Lost reviews. I had been looking forward to this Ben episode all season because well, its Ben, my favorite character on Lost and since we have gotten so few flashbacks with him and know not nearly as much as I would like to about him, this was highly anticipated by myself and by so many others as well. While not a complete Lost classic in my book (I’m talking like top 10 material here), its easily one of the best of the season and of the series and is an extremely solid episode with so many good moments to be had including the always creepy and awesome Michael Emerson turning in a fantastic performance as always.

Flashbacks:
So many goodies in this episode for long time fans of the show (can there be any other kind). Honestly having events that we have heard about happening on the show actually happen before us is so ridiculously satisfying. We see Widmore talking to young Ben for the first time and seeing that Widmore immediately resented Ben’s presence there. We get a younger Ben although still played by Emerson with a very young Ethan. We see Ben not able to kill Danielle or the baby so he just steals the baby. Ben’s weakness is children. He cannot kill them. Okay so Ben may not be completely evil after all. Why? Because he cannot kill a child. Okay so then we get to see why Charles was exiled from the island; he had a relationship off the island (hence Penny’s existence). I used to be so in the loop with what we knew and did not know but I swear I am starting to get so ridiculously mixed up with things here. It’s not the show’s fault; its mine. I mean I get everything that is happening and why it is. I just get confused sometimes about what we know and don’t know and what questions we should be asking ourselves. Then we get the long awaited scene with Penny and Ben’s visit to her. Ben picked a bad time to go because well, Desmond just happened to be back from grocery shopping! And he brought with him an incredibly bullet proof bag of groceries just for safekeeping (joking obviously as we will see in last night’s episode that Desmond did indeed get hit with the bullet). Basically I had been dreading this scene forever because I was convinced that the “major-ish” character who was supposed to die was going to be Penny. (It turns out the reality was far worse indeed). Either way this was still a great scene and I had so much tension in me leading up to this. But pretty much it just ended with Ben getting his millionth major beat down although this one was special due to the massive amount of blood that poured out his mouth underwater. Lovely.

Real Time:
As I have said before Ben/Locke is my favorite interaction on this show. Ben/Locke scenes are at worst quite intriguing and at best ‘edge of my seat’ captivating. The question everyone seems to have is yet again how much does Ben know? Do we believe that he was really that surprised about Locke being alive? Honestly I do believe him. I especially liked the scene between him and Sun. It showed him trying to get Sun to be cautious of Locke because of his resurrection but he also conveyed what to me was genuine fright to seeing Locke alive. Plus how often do we get Ben/Sun moments? Seriously.

Ben trying to come off as friendly to Caesar was very very very amusing. Total fail. What we suspected was correct; Ben killed Locke in an effort to get everyone back but needed information from him which is why he first talked Locke out of killing himself. And poor Locke just wants an apology. When all is said and done on this show I cannot see myself being more intrigued by anyone more than either Ben or Locke. I hated Locke for a while and I still cannot stand him sometimes but I’ve said it many many times and I will say it again; I do believe Locke to be the most original character on the show and his presence on this is never something I will see again.

Ben shoots someone. Big surprise. Specifically he shoots Caesar a.k.a the Poor Man’s Jack Shepard. I am starting to wonder about Caesar’s significance on the show. Is he still alive? Clearly Ilana has some significance due to her fucking psychotic behavior in this episode. We get the first of two times the extremely important (I am assuming) question of “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” Clearly stuff has happened within this new group of survivors and unfortunately it looks like poor Frank has walked right into the middle of it.

So Ben and Sun and Locke go off on their journey to the smoke monster so that he can be judged. Another question; do we believe that Ben really did not know about everyone being back in Dharma times? While Alpert’s line about Ben not remembering things if he is taken in by the Others is definitely evidence to support that he does not in fact remember wouldn’t he at least remember Sawyer or Juliet who he had been living near with for 3 years? Honestly information like this is stuff that I want Ben to find out because I truly believe he has no idea that this happened. In which case I’m starting to get confused about people’s motivations here. Which characters know that the 815 survivors go back to Dharma times and that it is there job for them to be there? I have no idea. Ben clearly does not because I really believe he had no idea that he was in the same vicinity as them. Charles? Hell I have no idea what these people’s motivations are! Charles must know because again he was in the same area and with where we are now wouldn’t he see Daniel and Kate and Jack (while J and K have not yet made their appearance to the Others again yet I assume they will). Eloise sure as hell does…omg such a bitch. Still no idea. None as to what anyone wants at this point.

Ok so Ben goes to see the smoke monster. Throughout the episode we get to see a great and refreshingly new dynamic between Ben and Locke and that is Locke being in the dominant position and vice versa for Ben. Ben hates now being in charge of things and having to follow people and it really shows in the episode to the point where Locke awesomely calls him out on it at some point. Also, I just have to give a shout out to the awesomeness that is Locke in this episode. Seriously, he just kills it with the amount of bad ass he displays.

Once again I’ll start this paragraph with Ben goes to see the smoke monster. He wants to be forgiven for Alex’s death although he initially went because of his coming back to the island even though he was not supposed to. Basically he is judged and is forgiven although with a warning from the smoke monster in the form of Alex saying do not try to kill Locke again and to follow what he says to do and that he will be destroyed if he fails to follow Locke’s leadership. So clearly this Ben/Locke dynamic will stay in play for a while. Another question is whether Ben would dare to actually try to come up with an alternative plan. Again I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he won’t. I think he will definitely think about it but Ben knows more than almost anyone what the island is capable of and he is far from being a moron.

I must say I am completely intrigued by everything going on in the 2007 story because as I said before I have no idea where it is going. None. In the 70’s we are leading up to “The Incident”. 2007? I have no idea where this is heading; especially the Ilana stuff. Overall the episode just once again proves Lost’s brilliance.

Lost: Season 5, Episode 9: "Namaste"

Lost: Season 5, Episode 9: “Namaste” Grade: 8.2

First of all let me just say that I think the thing I liked most about this episode was the way it felt. The 70's vibe, all of the characters having to interact in a different and discreet way, the outfits, the music, having Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid see Sawyer and company living a different life and having our characters interact with different characters from Lost lore such as Pierre Chang and little Ben Linus was just so completely weird. But in a really great way. It’s the feeling I’ve always gotten from anything involving 70's Dharma. Just a creepy surreal feel. And this amplified that feeling quite a bit. Overall while not a lot seemed to happen (which is still saying that more happened in this episode than in single episodes of most tv shows) this episode was more about setting the stage for the rest of the season and setting in that strange feeling that the situation gives off.

While I said they have found a way to keep a slight character focus in each episode they had none here.

Going through the episode we can see a lot of the predicaments that the show is setting up. I love Hurley and Sawyer, so to see their reunion was adorable. Even Jack and Sawyer seemed happy to see each other. The happiness between the characters was short lived though as we will see later. I love how the characters basically accepted that it was the 70's pretty quickly. These people will believe anything at this point. I mean while they have little time to process that information, they still have little reaction outside of Hurley’s “uh...what?” Sawyer essentially works his ass off the entire day to unsure that the three of them are able to be accepted into Dharma, by getting their names on the manifest for the submarine that was coming in that day, the last one for 6 months.

I loved Jin’s reaction to hearing Sun was on the plane. Immediately left. The immediacy was adorable.

We meet Radzinsky, creator of the Hatch Door Map and the Swan, he worked with Kelvin Inman in the Hatch typing in the numbers before he killed himself leaving Inman alone to type them in until of course Desmond arrived. So that was interesting. I wonder how much more of the show he will be in.

We learn that Amy’s baby was Ethan. So it looks like more than one (Ben) survived the eventual purge that was to happen years later. Juliet’s reaction to the baby being Ethan was priceless. When you stop to actually think about that, Juliet holding a baby that she knows as a grown up, knows what happens to them etc, it so bizarre, contributing to the many bizarre aspects of this episode which makes it so good.

So Sayid got the shit end of this deal. Really and truly. While Jack, Kate and Hurley are stuck in the most insane situation, they should thank God that they are not in Sayid’s position. I really liked the way Naveen played this episode; its exactly what Sayid would do. He observed, stayed silent, tried to figure things out in his head; the whole episode he just basically took mental notes. So Sayid is now considered a Hostile. This brings up a very interesting predicament. Sawyer is obviously going to do everything he can to get Sayid out of this situation. But I do not think he is going to risk what he has to do it. He will have to give up at a certain point pulling the “I did what I could” card. Jack will certainly not stand for this when the time comes and sparks will fly. But since Sayid seems to be on the run on the next episode judging by the summary, I guess we won’t have to witness that particular predicament.

On the way to the processing center, Sawyer tells Jack, Kate and Hurley that Daniel told him some theories about what is possible and impossible after time traveling and says that Faraday is no longer there. Well whoop de do. Awesome. Except not. I cannot wait to see where he is.

Can I just say how fucking cool it is that the guy who plays Phil is the one from Mulholland Drive in the masterpiece of a scene that is the diner scene? It just completely lends itself to the feeling of the episode.

Ok the Processing Center scene. Part of me was hoping Juliet would totally fuck Kate over and leave her hanging. But she did not. Whether purposely or accidentally she almost did though which gave me a “I’m calling the shots” vibe from Juliet that ruled whatever the intension was.

So Jack is inducted by Pierre Chang. Weirdest part of the episode. Jack will be doing janitorial work. This is so hilarious. Is Lost becoming a comedy?

The sense that we get from Jack, Kate and Hurley is that they are going to have a really tough time just sitting around. I definitely feel bad for their predicament. If you think about it, Jack and company have no idea why they are even back. We have no idea still why Kate and Hurley came and honestly thinking back its sort of hard to pinpoint why exactly Jack went. So now they are in the 70's working for Dharma and...doing what? They have no idea what their purpose is. And I would imagine their would be a big “Ok now what?” feeling of frustration, anger, confusion and impatience between them which you can already completely see is something that they are saddled with. Jack will have the hardest time and I will talk about that when we get to the scene between Jack and Sawyer which is now.

Juliet and Jack’s reunion was really sweet even if I don’t want them together. But his thinking that he had the wrong house was just a little amusing. Just a bit. Basically this scene has reignited the power struggle between Jack and Sawyer except this time Sawyer is calling the shots and Sawyer sure as hell makes sure that Jack understands that he is no longer in a position of power. Something I loved about the episode was how they really are driving home that fact that is has been 3 years. These people are different now. They are not the same people as before. The two groups of people have completely different priorities now. Sawyer and company want to keep their life that they have built and keep each other safe, including Jack and them. Jack and companies priority is well they don’t even have an idea. To figure out why they have been sent back I suppose. But their priority is certainly not to become comfortable living the Dharma lifestyle. The problem is that I understand where both Jack and Sawyer are coming from in this scene. Jack has no idea about anything that is happening so his frustration is valid. They have no idea why they came back and they are frustrated that they are out of the loop. Understandable. However Jack really has no right to criticize Sawyer for reading a book. Excuse me did he not just spend all day freaking working his ass off just so you could be safe within the community. I mean come on Jack, he’s been working all day risking everything just to make you guys safe so don’t insult him for sitting around at home reading after a long day’s work. He did all he could do at the moment. I understand where Sawyer is coming from as well and ultimately am on his side for this one even though I understand Jack’s frustration and impatience and even though Sawyer decided to go on a massive and sort of douche if not somewhat deserved power trip in this scene. Why should Sawyer have to give up everything for these people? He shouldn’t have to is the answer. I mean Jack is being stupid to begin with by visiting him at his house the first night. I understand his curiosity but hugging Juliet in the front door is ridiculous. So Sawyer takes the opportunity to tell him that Jack as a leader simply reacted to things and that he himself was a thinker and thinks through things and thus he is better or some such crap like that and blamed Jack for stuff that I honestly do not even think he is to blame for. I don’t know. It was schmucky even if he was in the right in terms of reacting to what Jack said and to the situation in general. So this has set up the two sides that we will have and it is going to be so interesting to see how this all plays out and quite uncomfortable since I love all of these characters except Kate and do not want to see them pitted against each other.

And then Sayid interacted with Little Ben Linus who is of course totally fascinated by the Others (since he thinks Sayid is one). I love the kid who plays little Ben; I think he is perfect so I am really excited to see how everyone interacts with him. It looks to me like Sayid has already figured out that its little Ben after hearing what his first name is and seeing what he looks like. So have Sawyer and co. already interacted with Ben? I hope we get answers to that. I really do.

On the 2007 front, we basically saw everything in between the events of the crash and Locke waking up. Frank landed the plane safely thanks to the partially built runway that the Others had apparently been building at some point. The big question I have is why did Sun not disappear with the rest of the Oceanic 6 and land on the correct island? I want an answer for that; if they just did it for plot purposes without giving an explanation I will be very upset. We learn that Caesar and Ilana have not met before and that Caesar is taking the Jack leadership role within this group of survivors. Sun follows Ben, Frank follows Sun, Ben is as creepy as is humanely possible not even trying to hide it anymore. Sun knocks Ben out before they are about to travel to the main island. I really do not think that this was the best idea just with how much Ben knows about the island. I really think Sun should have just gone with him and taken the chance. The smoke monster makes an unseen appearance and there are whispers and everything is abandoned and Christian Shepard appears competing with Ben for the Biggest Creeper Award. She asks where Jin is and he tells her to follow him. After a big lead up, Christian shows her Jin...in a picture. Whoop de freaking doo. Talk about underwhelming. Oh well. Oh and apparently she has a bit of a journey ahead of her. WTF? What the hell is with Christian and these supposed journeys for people? God there is so much on this show that I cannot wait to be explained.

Overall this was a great episode, but not mainly because of the content, which was good, but ultimately was more set up than anything, but for the feel of the episode and they way that they did set up the predicaments and the next portion of the season in an intriguing way. Anyways...until next week’s “He’s Our You”...

"Lost" Season 5, Episode 8: "La Fleur" Grade: B

"Lost"

Season 5, Episode 8:

"La Fleur" Grade: B

I know it has been a while since this episode aired so I do not know it as well as some other episodes of the show. So this will be a bit all over the place but bear with me as I attempt to jot down some observations.

-This episode was mainly focused on Sawyer and his evolution over the course of 3 years and his second chance at a life with his decision to settle down with Dharma Initiative instead of leaving the island on the submarine like he could have. I love where Sawyer is right now. I think it has set up a future dilemma with the return of Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid and Sawyer's attempts to be able to keep the life that he has and to not revert back to his old ways when trouble arises. I think his evolution from point A to point B is compeltely realistic and I say boo to the people that think he has lost his edge considering that its been what, one episode that we see him like this and that he is happy? Sorry that a character you supposedly like is actually happy. Fucking sadists. As for him being with Juliet, I am thrilled. Why am I thrilled? Because Juliet is the best female character on the show and someone who I think fits nicely with Sawyer. I think it shows more potential for them as a couple then it does for Kate and Sawyer because if Kate had been in Juliet's place she would have needed to leave at some point. I hate Kate and I am thrilled Sawyer has found someone he deserves and vice versa. Two things that suck about this though. One is that Juliet is about to get screwed over again with the return of Kate. Sawyer lying immediately to Juliet about the phone call is not a good sign. Two: They skipped the three years that Juliet and Sawyer and the others spent with Dharma. We skipped over all of Sawyer and Juliet's happy time! WIll we see flashbacks within these three years to see maybe some stuff they all learned about Dharma and maybe some other stuff with Sawyer and Juliet?

- We see Jin, Sawyer, Juliet and Miles in the three years later segments. We do not see Daniel. Where the hell was Daniel?

-Jin must have learned perfect English at this point and also must be best buds with Sawyer at this point. YAY!!!

- Where are Rose and Bernard? I mean tthey are not my favorite characters but I do care about them and want to know what happened to them.

-We basically saw the 4 toed statue from behind!!! What is it? Its Egyptian but from the back of it there are many figures it could be. Does this mean that the island was once home to an ancient Egyptian civilzation?? Who knows at this point.

- So we have Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, Miles, Jin, Juliet and Daniel in 1977 and Frank, Sun, Ben, Locke, Caesar and Ilana in some other unspecified future time. I have no idea, absolutely no idea where the second story is going to go. I cannot even venture a guess and it makes me so excited.

-So Horace is now with new character Amy a.k.a Michelle Dessler from 24!!!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!! I love that Michelle is on this show. She is fantastic.

-However Horace being with Amy begs the question; what happened to Olivia?

-Loved the Richard Alpert eyeliner reference.

-"Thanks anyway Plato"

-How did Sawyer and company manage to become a part of Dharma?

-How was Horace able to say within 5 minutes of meeting Sawyer that he's "not Dharma material"?

-I loved Sawyer's speech about forgetting Kate's face. Because the viewers need to be able to fully grasp that its been longer than the entire 4 seasons put together that these people have been in Dharma. We need to be able to fully grasp how truly long it is because its hardly been anytime for us. It worries me if they will be able to treat the time jump in a way that works. I want to feel it has been 3 years for these people. Lots has probably happened. But Sawyer saying he could not remember Kate's face was so needed in that it really has been that long.

-Favorite Moment:

Daniel sees Charlotte as a child. Wow that was heartbreaking. I worry about Daniel. Between the state we last saw him in and the fact that we have not seen him in the 3 years later segments worries me.

Ok so that is pretty much it for this week. There are many more thoughts I did have but cannot remember right now. So until next week!

Lost: Season 5, Episode 7: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

Lost

Season 5, Episode 7: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

Grade: A-

Another stunning installment into the world of Lost. Since this is the first episode that I posted a youtube reaction post to it ill be much easier to write the review for since I can essentially just take from that.

This episode also followed the pattern of the previous episode with its frame story (in this case Locke being back on the island and ressurected) and than flashing back to see how we got from him leaving the island to him getting back onto the island.

This is the first episode of Lost that I have cried during in a while. Why did I cry? Simple: because John Locke makes me cry. I cannot handle how fundamentally depressing his character is to me. I just feel lonliness when I look at him sometimes.

SOMEONE GIVE TERRY O'QUINN AND MICHAEL EMERSON A FUCKING EMMY ALREADY!! Honestly its just ridiculous how continually their work is looked over on the show and this episode should win Terry O Quinn an Emmy. It just should.

Anyways, what we learned:

1. LOCKE IS ALIVE!!! He has been resurrected and is on the island. But not the main island but on the Hydra Island with new characters Caesar and Ilena. He appears as a Christ like figure with his ressurection and the hooded cloak and the awesomeness. Honestly I did not expect his resurrection to be automatic. I thought their would have to be some sort of ceremony honestly. But this way is better. Not a sign of hokiness at all as usual.

2. Locke and Widmore hung out for a bit!!! Locke's leg being reset was gross. Locke and Widmore had an interesting conversation where we learned...

3. Ben exiled Charles from the island. I believe everything that was said by Charles but I do not know if he is good. They are yanking us every which way in terms of whether or not Charles is good or bad and if Ben is good or bad. I'd like to put forth this theory: Both are bad. This is my theory and I am sticking with it. Whoever said that either of them had to be good in the first place? I'm not suggesting they are working together; they hate each other. But they are both using the Losties for their own gains and both are fucking with them. Eventually they will all learn that they have just been pawns.

4. Abbadon dies. Well that sucks. I liked him. He brought a new level of creepiness to the show. I love how cryptic he is. That came out of nowhere. And now we know that Ben killed him. Okay so my new strategy is that if anything mysterious is happening (i.e someone is trying to take Aaron away, someone kills Abbadon, etc) Ben did it.

5. We learned that Jack, Kate and Sayid are huge schmucks to Locke. Okay so while I can understand where they are all coming from given their history with him, seriously way to take someone down a few pegs unneccesarily and eventually lead to his attempted suicide. I felt so bad for him. Kate was the biggest prick of them all. Her assumptions about him were cruel and after Locke opens up about Helen to her and says he was obsessed with something else and it ruined the relationship she goes ahead and comments on how he is still the same. What a bitch.

6. Walt did not go on the plane because Locke never asked him too. This makes perfect sense. Why put him through more? Will Walt be the only character on this show to walk away with a chance at a normal life?

7.Helen is dead. Is she really though? If a plane crash can be fakes surely one death can. Charles does not want Locke to be given a purpose on the island so to make sure all ties have been cut between Locke and off-island they lie and say Helen died. Now she could very well be dead. But I don't know. She could be dead of a brain aneurysm just like Abbadon said. She could be dead but not of a brain aneurysm or she might not be dead. I do not know if this will be answered or not or if it is just to be assumed she is but I found it a little fishy.

8. Locke intended to commit suicide not to get back to the island, but simply to end his life. So this disturbed me so greatly I cannot even explain how much this effected me. I cannot handle John Locke as a character. I just can't And this is why. By the end of the episode he considers himself to be a failure and he sees himself the way everyone else sees him and wants to end his life... as he sobs...and as I sob.

9. Ben killed Locke. In the best scene of the season thus far Ben comes in at the last second and manages to stop Locke from killing himself but afterwards gets a little info from him and then kills Locke himself. I saw this coming half way through the scene but holy crap that did not make it any less effective. Seriously...show this scene and I guarentee an Emmy for either Michael Emerson or Terry O' Quinn.

10. Hurley, Sun, Jack, Kate and Sayid vanished before the plane crashed. WTF? I have no theories on this.

11. Ben is on the Hydra Island and is injured and he is where Locke is.

Questions:

1. Do Caesar and Ilana not trust each other?

2. What of the war that Widmore says is coming?

3. Is Widmore or Ben evil? Or both as my theory suggests?

4. WHy did Ben exile Widmore from the island?

5. Clearly both Widmore and Ben want everyone back on the island but why? Do they have different reasons or the same reason but they want to use that same reason for their own gains or what?

6. Obviously the dream Walt had will come true but what will it entail?

7. Is Helen really dead?

8. Why did Ben kill Locke?

Other Observations/Thoughts:

-The scene between Locke and Walt was very satisfying to see since it harks back to the important relationship between Locke and Walt going back to Season 1. It was rewarding to see them speak again, to know that Locke cared enough about Walt not to drag him back into everything again and that Locke was the only one that visited Walt.

- As I said the scene between Locke and Ben was the best of the season so far.

- Locke sobbing = me sobbing.

- Overall this was an incredible character study on John Locke, one that reminds us how incredibly constructed his character is and how remarkably performed it is by Terry O' Quinn. This was a disturbing and heart breaking episode that showed us a lot of things we already knew but gave us some new information and questions to ponder over and also gave us a really incredible psychological insight into Locke that we have not gotten in a while.

Lost Season 5, Episode 6: 316

Lost

Season 5, Episode 6: "316"

Grade: A-

So everyone is back on the island. I did not expect this to happen this soon although I did expect it to happen within the next few episodes. Opening the episode as a parellel to the first scene of Season 1 Episode was a treat. Jack wakes up in the woods and has to help someone in this case Hurley. He does an awesomely absurd dive off of the cliff into the water. Hurley, Kate and Jack are together on the island again. We do not know where Sayid and Sun are. But as we know from the next episode we know where Locke, Ben, Caesar and Ilena are. It is extremely clever how the show has kept the flashback and flashforward status in its own way without actually doing what it did at earlier points in the show. In this episode we see that Jack and Kate and Hurley are back on the island and than the episode goes back and shows how they got there.

Mrs. Hawking's explanation about cetain things came off as a little bit absurd. I understand and can actually get behind most of what was said but the way she described it felt a bit hammy and campy. I like campy but Lost is not a campy show so it stood out a bit to me.

Things we Found Out:

1. The island is not done with Desmond. What does this mean? Did Ben kill Penny at the docks? Becuase it sure looked like he did or at least he tried to. This is one of many things that the episode kept from us so that they could go back to them later. This is the one of the genius aspects of Lost. The way they give us information.

2. A new station off the island called The Lamp Post. It was created over a pocket of electromagnetic energy which connects to the other pockets around the world one of which is on the island. The pendulum tells where the island will be in the future.

3. John committed suicide and wrote a suicide note to Jack. It says "I wish you had believed me". Oh boy did I feel that one. The note held a creepy overtone to it that just contains so much stuff involving Jack and Locke's relationship.

4. Locke's body acts as a substitute for Christian's father. Jeez. I still do not really get this idea of recreating the plane crash as closely as possible but for some reason it feels right and in spirit I understand it.

5. Frank Lapidus is piloting the flight. Its so nice to see Frank back. But...he needs a beard.

6. I am assuming about 3 years have passed since Jin, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles and Daniel have been working for Dharma and Jin is in a Dharma suit, with the van and a gun recognizing Jack Kate and Hurley. What a sick way to end the episode.

7. Ben went back to the island with them.

Ok so here are some questions that stick out.

1. Did Ben kill Penny? I sincerely hope not. I love Penny so much and if he killed her I will be sincerely pissed off. His scene at the phone booth was creepy as hell. The reason I am scared that he succeeded in this is that it would somehow give Desmond some reason for the island to not be done with him. Maybe he will try to kill Ben because he killed Penny and this will lead him back onto the island.

2. What made Kate decide to go to the island? And where is Aaron? And why did she ask Jack never to ask about that? And why did she have sex with him as if she were on a mission?

3. Why did Hurley decide to go back to the island?

4. Why did Sayid decide to go back to the island and what is the deal with Ilena?

5. Why was Caesar on the plane and who is he?

6. What was the deal with the scene between Jack and his grandfather? They spend a lot of time on it in a way that fit very awkwardly with the usual pacing of Lost and it makes me wonder if the scene will hold greater significance in the future.

Some thoughts and observations:

This was a great episode that gave us some new information, moved the story forward in extreme ways and also gave us some new fascinating questions that are just as intriguing as some of the big ones we have but are questions that are likely to all be answered in the next 10 episodes. I love the idea of the suicide note. I also love the idea of the Losties being stuck in the 70's and the potential it presents to give us some backstory on things we have all been theorizing about for years. It lends a surreal quality to everything. I think the things I am most fascinated about are what happened to Aaron and what happened with Ben? I loved the scene with Ben and Jack on the plane as it this episode provided me with a big reminder that Ben is fucking evil. First he apparently kills someone or something and then when Jack asks what about the other people on the plane and what will happen to them, Ben says "Who cares?". Ben you constantly remind me why you are my favorite character on the show.

-I also love the throwbacks to Season 1 in the ways that the Oceanic 6 tried to recreate the original plane crash. Sitting in the same seats, Sayid subbing as Kate the first time as prisoner, Hurley having Charlie's guitar (or a guitar, not sure which) and reading a Spanish comic (Y:The Last Man). Ben being late just like Hurley was late last time. Locke replacing Jack's dad, etc.

-How adorable was it that Hurley bought the remainding seats so that nobody else's lives would be in danger?

- There are a lot of religious overtones to Lost at times particularly with Locke sort of being like a Christ figure in the next episode and the idea of Jack, Kate and Hurley experiencing a sort of baptism in the pond with their return to the island much like Charlotte's scene when she returns to the island.

- Reading up on some stuff that happened in the episode I found that Jack says "Was it my fault?" asking about Locke's death. Ben responds "No, Jack, it wasn't your fault." Knowing what happens in the next episode - fucked up.

So yeah, this was another incredible episode really following along with Season 4 in that each episode is extremely important in some way and there is no longer any and I mean ANY time being wasted on this show. Every episode is insane.

Favorite Scene: Ben and Jack on the plane

Favorite Line of the Entire Season:

Jack: "How can you read?"

Ben: "My mother taught me"

Get it, its funny because thats not what Jack meant with the question but its also ironic because Ben's mother died giving birth to him. Genius.

"Lost" Season 5, Episode 5: "This Place is Death" Grade: A

"Lost" Season 5, Episode 5:

"This Place is Death"

Grade: A

OK I do not even know where to start with this episode. I literally was tweaking for the entire 43 minutes. While it did not have as much of a focus as we are used to seeing on "Lost" I still felt a lot happened and the amount of information and new intrigue thrown at us was more than I could ask for in an entire season I will just go through the episodes by each what the fuck moment?

1. An entire smoke monster scene in the first 10 minutes?! What the fuck!?

Ok seeing the smoke monster in full is always a big deal. It rarely happens and this time we learned something new and ridiculously awesome.....

2. The smoke monster is guarding some sort of temple?! What the fuck!?

Ok we always knew it was guarding something and even though we have no idea what it means, its still really cool to finally see where it is coming out of....

3. The smoke monster ripped someone's arm off?!?! What the fuck?!

That was sick and fantastic.

4. The smoke monster took the French crew minus Danielle into said temple and they came back out of it but it had infected them with some kind of sickness and this is how they went insane. What the fuck?!

Okay so the smoke monster provided the sickness that infected her crew. And she did not get sick because she did not go inside. Because Jin told her not to! Omg how cool is it that this is all coming together? Getting to see that moment with Danielle and the father of her baby, Robert was such a nostalgic rewarding moment. In the short 2 minutes you can see exactly how she got from point A to point B and its incredible how they pulled that off.

5. This is not a wtf moment but Sawyer's reunion with Jin is just too adorable for words. I love seeing how much Sawyer really does love Hurley and Jin because he really has grown attached to those two.

6. Charlotte tells Jin not to let Sun come back to the island and that "this place is death". Shit like this seriously confuses me. I have been under the impression that going back to the island is indeed what everyone needs to do. But when Claire and Charlotte say things like this, it gets me confused and wondering whether they really should go back to the island.

7. We learn Charlotte's history in her final moments: She was born on the island, she spent some of her childhood there, her mother took her away from the island and told her it was all imagined and since then she has dedicated her life to finding this island. Wow talk about depressing and tragic. This would have been a What the Fuck!? moment if everyone watching hadn't basically figured it out by now. But then she dropped this mindfuck of a bombshell on us;

8. She tells Daniel that she remembers a "crazy" man from her childhood who scared her. This man had told her that she must never come back to the Island or she would die. WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?! Ok it was at this point when I was just about ready to throw in the towel for the night and give up because of the awesomeness taking place. Then we get the creepiest, coolest death filled with tragedy and childhood. Charlotte's last words are incredible.It was a tragically and beautifully creepy moment. I loved Charlotte so I am pretty devastated she's gone.

9. Locke gets a stick through his leg...what the fuck? This poor man has been through enough with his leg already. Wasn't he just shot there too?

10. Who is waiting down at the well for Locke? JACK'S DAD. What the fuck?! Insane. He needs to die. Christian leads him down the path. Its all insane.

Its been a while since I had started this post so I'll end it here. But anyway great incredible episode. Not as much of a focus as some other episodes but I still loved seing a bunch of really satisying little moments and seeing really great nuggets of info for the people who really soak up the mythology of the show like I do.

"Lost" Season 5, Episode 4: "The Little Prince"

"The Little Prince"

Grade: B+

I was not blown away by this episode on first viewing just because it took time to slow down for stuff. The more I think about it though the more I absolutely loved it though and really appreciated that it took time to assess what has been going on and to really take a breather from it all while still moving the story forward a bit.

This was a sort of breather episode where we got to slow down a bit and assess what has been going on. I am still a bit confused about the jumps in time and what the rules are but I know they are not misused as in "Heroes". Can I just say that when people refer to "Lost" and "Heroes" in the same sentence it makes me want to gouge my eyes out? Two shows could not be anymore different in quality. To compare "Heroes" to "Lost" is giving way more credit to "Heroes" than is deserved and is astoundingly insulting to "Lost" and the quality of it. "Heroes" does not deserve to lick the boots of "Lost".

Anyways. Wednesday provided a moment that could be my favorite of the season thus far and that would be Sawyer seeing Season 1 Kate deliver Claire's baby. How touching/cool was that moment? It was beautiful. Locke's recall of his freak out moment in season 1 following Boone's death was insightful as well. As Jensen said, Kate delivering Claire's baby now has special significance because she is raising it.

-Daniel said to Miles that the nose bleeds might be happening in order of time duration on the island. So is Miles really Marvin Candle's son? And does Daniel know this or is he geniunely being quizzical?

-"Thank the Lord!" "I take that back!" Hilarious

- I am happy we pretty much have all of the Oceanic 6 together so we can get all of this moving along more quickly than I had expected.

Theory! I think that the show will continually try to get us to like Ben and get us used to the idea that while he is always on his own side, that he is genuinely trying to help them out. Then I think he will kill Penny when he finds out she is in L.A and subsequently the audience will have to further grapple about how we feel about him.

-Lesson learned: Never leave Sun with kids. As Jensen put it: where the hell is Ji-Yeon!?

-Jin is alive! Yay! I had already known that but I did not know when he was coming back. Fantastic return. Young Danielle Rousseau is perfect. She is cute and young and looks abit like her and has presence. I could not be happier about that.

-Hurley = happiest person to be in jail ever.

- I like seeing Jack trying to pull it all together now that he has a purpose.

-Kate giving Jack a chance was really nice and touching. I liked all of their intereactions this week.

- Who is trying to constantly shoot Sayid with tranq darts?

Theory/Prediction! Juliet and Sawyer will become a couple!

(Kate looking in shock at Ben)

Jack: "Don't worry he's with us"

Kate's reaction to all of this was great.

As was her exchanging looks with Ben as she realized he was the one trying to take Aaron away so he could basically blackmail her into going back to the island.

I wonder if we will find out the significance of Claire telling Kate "Don't you dare bring him back!"

Oh this is all becoming too good to be true. While a few are complaining about the time travel aspect it is something that has been hinted at since Season 3. Most everyone is getting a huge kick out of it including myself who loves how this device is letting us see glimpses of the past thus is filling in bits of information to us thus letting us see stuff as opposed to just having it told to us thus making the world of Lost so much fuller and so much more satisying and whole.

I wish I could go into dozens of other parts of the episode but I cannot. I can only afford short observational reviews like this one. Until next week's Episode 5 "This Place is Death" Bye!

Season 5 Episodes in Order:

1. "Jughead" (3)

2. "The Little Prince" (4)

3. "Because You Left" (1)

4. "The Lie" (2)

"Lost" Season 5, Episode 3: "Jughead"

"Jughead"
Grade: A-

I would just like to say how much I appreciate this show and its existence. I will defend it to the death. What it has had the guts to do is incredible. So many shows are about making it accessible, inviting people to watch and while "Lost" has that with its recap specials and such this show has been very much the opposite, creating a special kind of television viewing. This kind of viewing has been adament about stripping away bit by bit the people who cannot keep up whether it be time constraints, disliking the show's progression or an unwillingness to throw oneself into it. This is not a show that can really be casually watched and if it is, the viewer is simply not getting what they could out of it. This show has gradually attained a special language in which episodes literally only make sense to the people that keep up and pay attention and in so many cases do outside research in confirming what we know. And even then it gets confusing easily. It has created an interactive viewing experience. One that has essentially purposefully attempted to weed out anyone who is unwilling to commit the time to the show so we are left with a majority of people who are an insane group of fans who are grateful to have a show that is this involving, complex, wonderfully time consuming and blissfully entertaining. I am so happy to be a part of this. It will change television and the mediums ambitions I truly believe will shift slightly as a result of this show's complexity. Much like "Twin Peaks" or "The X-Files" it makes you feel like you are a part of something and it is taking that idea a step further than either of these shows have as they paved the way for something like "Lost" to exist.

That being said; what a great episode. It really showed the potential of the new plotting devices without the flashbacks or forwards in a way we did not see in the previous two episodes which while great, felt a bit all over the place.

So is Charlotte dead? I hope not since I am way into her and Daniel. The crush I have for him grows literally with each episode and I am excited that he seems to be so important to the overall arc of this show. I wonder what the deal is with Widmore funding his research, with Theresa, with everything? What's the deal with Ellie? Widmore was an Other? WTF?! Revelations abound. Was "Jughead" the item contained in the Hatch? I am so confused.... Meanwhile, Sawyer and Juliet are totally getting together at some point. I am calling this.

I love the use of time travel in the show and how its usage is not simply thrown in but is really thought out by what we have learned from it so far and the rules that come with it. It honestly feels somewhat plausible. Its genius usage of the idea so far and has shown that this show can honestly do anything.

Ok so Penny and Desmond are going to L.A...Ben is in L.A...Ben wants Penny dead....Please do not let this happen.

Other stuff...Ok so if it has been three years since they left the island then something does not make sense. Why did Desmond have the memory recall when it had only been one day they had left the island from Daniel's perspective? This actually makes no sense...

The Locke-Alpert conversation was probably the highlight for me. Oh my God what a perfect example of why I watch this show.

Oh and Desmond and Penny's son being named Charlie basically ripped my heart out.

Oh my God this is a horrible review. I will try to do better next week. : )

Episode Order for Season 5:

1. Jughead (3)
2. Because You Left (1)
3. The Lie (2)