Ahhh, good to be back on Tivo for Lost. Second to last episode ever, last Tuesday episode ever! Well, let's say last weekday episode ever, because it has moved around the schedule in its time, so it's not like you can really associate a single day with it. I know I said I liked "Across the Sea" but that could easily change if this ends up being an hour devoted to a whole new group of characters who build the statue...actually, I'd still watch that.
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0:00 - Normally I balk at the "Previous on Lost" but this week felt like we'd taken another break. Guess "Across the Sea" was more jarring a departure than I thought.
0:01 - Sideways-Jack's cut makes a reappearance. Much worse than we saw on the plane. Is Desmond succeeding in making the sideways world fall apart? Is the whole world itself bleeding more noticeably?
0:02 - Totally forgot Claire was staying with Jack now. Thought it was Charlotte for a second.
0:02 - Why is Desmond pretending Christian's coffin has been found? Maybe he'll put Sideways-Locke in it, make a Hoffs-Drawlar situation.
0:04 - The bullet went straight through Kate...*ANGRY YELL*! I thought I was done being angry about Faraday's death, but why didn't his bullet go right through?!
0:07 - Uh oh, looks like Sawyer is realizing he just had his own Jughead on the sub.
0:08 - I was really happy Sideways-Ben stopped Desmond from hitting Locke again; that would've been excessive. A great move by Desmond to show Ben his island-self by pummeling him like he did on the docks after being shot. I guess it is a little insulting to have Ben Linus lecture you about hurting people.
0:10 - FINALLY Richard, Ben, and Miles are back! Great line by Miles about having lived in the Dharma village 30 years before Ben "otherwise known as last week." Uh oh that Ben didn't show any emotion over walking past Alex's grave...that's classic Ben, and classic Ben ain't good.
0:11 - Ben's line about how the monster was the one summoning him has lots of Lost depth to it. Was he referring to Smokey being the one in the cabin? Was he referring to being a piece in Smokey's long-con loophole? I'm guessing he was referring to the latter, and his frustration at finding out that he was never king of the island, he was just a pawn like everyone else.
0:12 - Bah, the noise in the kitchen was Zoe...HEY it's Widmore too! That was my reaction, word for word.
0:17 - So it WAS Widmore who rigged the explosives on the plane. Not a huge deal, but always nice to get some clarification.
0:18 - I thought for a second that Widmore's outrigger would prove to be the one the time-traveling group shot at, but Locke showed up before Zoe could get to it. Guess the ship has sailed on that mystery (ZING!). Also have to wonder what the equipment was in the boat since they can't get to it no.
0:19 - Ben's correction to the nurse about his being Dr. Linus not Mr. Linus was very island-Ben, as was his dead stare into the mirror. His humility about saving Locke was not though, and it was odd seeing him share a mystery with Locke (the fact that he saw something during the fight, and whether the idea of letting go meant anything to Locke) without knowing or lying about the answer.
0:21 - I'm starting to wonder if what makes Desmond special isn't that he is resistant to something as everyday as electromagnetism, but rather the light at the heart of the island. The thing that either destroys or is destroyed when it's reached may not affect Desmond the way it does everyone else. He's pulling the strings in the sideways world so effectively that it seems like he is tuned into more than just the island reality, he seems to have Jacob's ability to see and understand the big picture; the ability to "make the thread" himself.
0:21 - There was something simple and great about Sawyer asking Jack about the bomb and whether or not Smokey could kill them. He and Jack have never managed to see eye-to-eye, but now they've both had failures in judgment that have killed their friends and loved ones, and they seem to understand each other better as a result. Or at least they seem capable of giving each other a break.
0:23 - There was something really sad about Jacob revealing that he had until the fire went out, and then they would never see him again. At least that drives him to action; "we're very close to the end Hugo."
0:29 - WHAT THE HELL?! Did Richard really just get killed in a second? No, no way, I accepted Frank but there is NO WAY that Richard just died like that. Yes, Kate surviving a gunshot wound to the chest with no damage has a lot to do with my feelings on this.
0:30 - I don't get Ben right now. He seems so Zombie Sayid. Still, I guess it's a credit to the character that even though his nature is self-preservation and selling people out, I was still a little shocked when he told Smokey that Widmore was in his closet. Miles's decision to run is seeming pretty smart right now.
0:32 - How many more shows will ever be able to pull off an "in an alternate universe Danielle, whose daughter was kidnapped by Ben, says that he's coming over for dinner even if she has to kidnap him" joke? I'm guessing zero.
0:33 - One of the big questions of the episode, how much of Dr. Linus's reaction to Danielle saying he was the closest thing Alex ever had to a father was his sideways-self, and how much was his island-self? Sure, it might have been touching for Dr. Linus to hear that, but he's only been helping Alex through high school. Ben raised her on the island for years and years, always carrying the burden that he stole her, then her rejection of him, and then his accidental abandonment of her in his negotiation with Keamy. To get that compliment from Rousseau herself would've been a big moment for Ben, and I think Dr. Linus was tapping into that.
0:36 - Although many mysteries about Charles Widmore just got thrown into the abyss, I really liked this scene. Even though it's killing me that Ben is allowing himself to be a Smokey pawn again, I have Jacob's hope that Ben will be good in the end. His reaction to Widmore's attempted bargain with Smokey is understandable, "he doesn't get to save his daughter." Also Zoe is dead, nice knowing you...I guess? Desmond is apparently Jacob's "failsafe," just as he turned out to be in the hatch.
0:38 - What a relief for Hurley that everyone can see Jacob, and what a relief for the audience that he's finally finished watching from afar. The games are over, the experiment has become too dangerous, and now he needs to step in and explicitly tell everyone what to do. Someone is walking away from that fire as the new protector. Funny, ABC wanted a fictional version of Survivor, and they're getting a final tribal council.
0:45 - BAH! I had such high hopes for Sideways-Jack after his meeting with Bernard, but instead he and Locke hare having the same disagreements about fate and coincidence. It's funny though how we switch from that right back to Jack staring across the fire to the very man who made the destiny that he spent all that time denying.
0:49 - I hope after the scene around the fire people will be kinder to "Across the Sea." We needed that backstory to appreciate Jacobs flaws and burden when he explained why he brought the castaways to the island. It was also nice to have someone slap away the yearning to get back to their miserable off-island lives. John Locke understood it, and in Dharma times Sawyer did too, but when they want to be petulant they always go back to the idea that all was fine and the island screwed it up. Jacob bats Sawyer's lament away, challenging him on how awful and lonely their lives were before coming to the island. Also, I doubt that Jacob bringing people to the island was always a candidate search or always a bid to prove Smokey wrong, but rather a combination of the two. His main goal was to prove Smokey wrong about people, to change his mind, change his desire, and save his own life from Smokey's wrath. His secondary goal was probably to pick certain people from those groups who were candidates to replace him in case he ran out of time before Smokey's loophole. Those were the people who were given numbers, viewed from the lighthouse, and added to the wall.
0:49 - Oh! Big news is that Jack is the one that took the job, but it was always going to be him, right? Another advantage of seeing the story within "Across the Sea" is it added much more weight to Jacob's insistence that the candidates have a choice of who takes the job, rather than just picking one and making them do it like he had to.
0:56 - So apparently the heart of the island is beyond the bamboo field where Jack first woke up after the crash. I remember a video clip somewhere of Ghost Christan urging Vincent to run over and wake Jack up. Now we know that was Smokey, but I wonder if he knew the significance of the field. Also, it seems like you have to know or be told where the heart is in order to find it since Smokey hasn't in hundreds of years and Jack is adamant that there's nothing out there. Very Harry Potter.
0:59 - Yet more proof that Desmond automatically makes everything better. After suffering through so much of the sideways world, with one line ("we are going to a concert") everything comes together. I assumed the concert David was talking about was one of his piano recitals, and maybe it is, but there's a chance that it's Faraday's Driveshaft-Fusion concert hosted by Eloise at Chang's museum. I was surprised that Hurley seems to know everything now, including who Ana Lucia is. I guess we'll find out if getting everyone together at the concert is somehow going to finally tear the duct tape universe apart.
1:00 - I love the exchange between Ben and Smokey about walking places. First the answer is genius and chilling, that Smokey walks to feel his feet on the ground and remember he was human once. Second it was a way of saying "hey, do you REALLY want the last episodes of this show to be an endless series of random question and answer sessions just like that?"
1:01 - So season 2 it was blowing up the hatch, season 3 was shutting down the Looking Glass, Season 4 was blowing up the freighter, season 5 was blowing up jughead, and now it looks like season 6's finale will revolve around destroying the island entirely. Is Jacob THAT wrong though about how to stop Smokey from leaving? That his final resort weapon can be used for the same purpose and actually be a help to Smokey? Maybe that's not what Widmore was tasked with doing, and it'll be a different plan for Smokey.
Overall an excellent setup episode. They can often be hollow and boring, but this one made sure to answer some questions while moving people around, forming alliances, and bestowing godlike powers onto Jack. Now Sunday's finale can hit the ground running, but I don't think it will. I think we're going to get one last cryptic opening, possibly with Jacob appearing to Widmore and showing him the error of his ways. "The Incident" started with Jacob and Smokey on the beach and set up the conflict for the rest of the show from then on. I think the opening scene of the finale is going to set up the more direct conflict of Smokey and Ben versus Jack and the Losties.
Status: *ding ding ding* Three Thumbs Up
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