Lost Season Five: Episode 9
Perhaps it was the anticipation caused by the two-week break but I really enjoyed Lost this week. 'Namaste' did not break any new structural ground and there were no gasp-worthy twists but even the weaker actors like Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly were in great form while Sawyer's new-found authority and the calmness that accompanies it has allowed Josh Holloway to show off his acting range. And the tantalizing glimpses of Dharma life from the first four seasons have now been fully fleshed out. Is it any surprise that the Hostiles were able to gas these guys so easily; they're really nothing more than a bunch of hippies with a knack for science singing songs in their commune.
- The most pressing question that needs to be answered is why Sun is the only member of the Oceanic Six to be stuck in a different timeline. My guess is that John Locke, as the leader of The Others (or at least the figurehead leader), did not want Sun to come back to the island because of Jin's request, and so she is separated from the rest of the gang.
- The scene between Sayid and young Ben sets up all sorts of possibilities. Most likely, Sayid will unsuccessfully (remember, Daniel said the future can't be changed) try to kill young Ben to exact revenge for whatever betrayal Ben perpetrated back when they were off the island. But it is also possible that Ben is already leaning towards The Others and Sayid will have to come an alliance of convenience with them to escape from his holding cell.
- A sharp-eyed commentator on one of the forums posted a screenshot of the scene between Sun and Christian Shepherd. There is another woman hovering in the background. The ghostly apparation is probably Claire but could also be the newly-departed Charlotte.
- Seeing Lapidus' co-pilot speared by a branch reminded me of the pilot when the pilot (no pun intended) was also brutally killed. The Island doesn't seem to like those who bring visitors.
- The reunion at the start of the episode was really quite touching. Reunions are something the show has always handled really well. Jin and Sawyer returning with the Tailies in season 2, Sawyer and Kate escaping The Others in season 3, Desmond and Penny and the Oceanic 6 and their families in season 4 and Jin returning from the dead in season 5 were all brilliant. For a show about a bunch of survivors stuck on an island, Lost really does have a lot of separations.
- While I want Sawyer to stick with Juliet and could really do without a protracted love triangle, or quadrilateral if you include Jack, I really loved the scene between Juliet and Kate. I wouldn't be surprised if Juliet deliberately left Kate out of the new recruits list just so she could show her who was in charge.
- Sawyer really asserted his leaderhsip in the scene with Jack and he seems to be far more successful in his new role then Jack and Locke ever were. He's managed to keep everyone alive and living comfortably in the Dharma compound. Will Jack be happy in his new subordinate role or is a power struggle, perhaps mirroring that between Dharma and The Others, in the offing?
- It was Ethan! And boy did Juliet recoil when Michelle Dreschller told her the baby's name.
- You really need good recall to catch everything on Lost. Radzinsky, the guy who found Sayid, had been last mentioned three years ago in season two. In Desmond's flashback, his hatch-mate Kelvin tells him that he was living down there with Razdinsky. Kelvin, by the way, was the dude in the US army who introduced Sayid to torture. So this means that not everyone in Dharma was killed during the Purge.
- The most pressing question that needs to be answered is why Sun is the only member of the Oceanic Six to be stuck in a different timeline. My guess is that John Locke, as the leader of The Others (or at least the figurehead leader), did not want Sun to come back to the island because of Jin's request, and so she is separated from the rest of the gang.
- The scene between Sayid and young Ben sets up all sorts of possibilities. Most likely, Sayid will unsuccessfully (remember, Daniel said the future can't be changed) try to kill young Ben to exact revenge for whatever betrayal Ben perpetrated back when they were off the island. But it is also possible that Ben is already leaning towards The Others and Sayid will have to come an alliance of convenience with them to escape from his holding cell.
- A sharp-eyed commentator on one of the forums posted a screenshot of the scene between Sun and Christian Shepherd. There is another woman hovering in the background. The ghostly apparation is probably Claire but could also be the newly-departed Charlotte.
- Seeing Lapidus' co-pilot speared by a branch reminded me of the pilot when the pilot (no pun intended) was also brutally killed. The Island doesn't seem to like those who bring visitors.
- The reunion at the start of the episode was really quite touching. Reunions are something the show has always handled really well. Jin and Sawyer returning with the Tailies in season 2, Sawyer and Kate escaping The Others in season 3, Desmond and Penny and the Oceanic 6 and their families in season 4 and Jin returning from the dead in season 5 were all brilliant. For a show about a bunch of survivors stuck on an island, Lost really does have a lot of separations.
- While I want Sawyer to stick with Juliet and could really do without a protracted love triangle, or quadrilateral if you include Jack, I really loved the scene between Juliet and Kate. I wouldn't be surprised if Juliet deliberately left Kate out of the new recruits list just so she could show her who was in charge.
- Sawyer really asserted his leaderhsip in the scene with Jack and he seems to be far more successful in his new role then Jack and Locke ever were. He's managed to keep everyone alive and living comfortably in the Dharma compound. Will Jack be happy in his new subordinate role or is a power struggle, perhaps mirroring that between Dharma and The Others, in the offing?
- It was Ethan! And boy did Juliet recoil when Michelle Dreschller told her the baby's name.
- You really need good recall to catch everything on Lost. Radzinsky, the guy who found Sayid, had been last mentioned three years ago in season two. In Desmond's flashback, his hatch-mate Kelvin tells him that he was living down there with Razdinsky. Kelvin, by the way, was the dude in the US army who introduced Sayid to torture. So this means that not everyone in Dharma was killed during the Purge.
Labels:
Minority Reports,
Miscellaneous
9 comments:
yippee, i watched this episode with popcorn and the lights dimmed.
i definitely enjoyed this one - apart from the focus on the return of the oceanic bunch. those were;
jacob is christian shepherd. who would have thought? ok you guys had already guessed it, i was quite frankly clueless.
all encounters with jacob are as terrifying as those with the smoke monster.
anyone else see a likeness between amityville horror and jacob's cosy little shack?
(i (accidentally) watched a few scenes of amityville when i was little, and it kind of stuck.)
amy's baby is ethan. (yuck!) i shamelessly guffawed out loud as juliet all but threw the baby back the mother at that discovery, recoil is an understatement.
juliet-jack and kate-sawyer!
uh-oh! not again.
not that i'm the love guru but sawyer and juliet have zero chemistry together, maybe the above formula may work? but oh crap, why couldn't it be brunette-brunette and blonde-blonde?
by mixing brunette-blonde genes, the kids will most likely be fugly redheads - and look like little ben!
oh wait, did i hear it right? amy asks juliet: ''when are you and JIN going to have one of these (a baby)?''.
anyway, what did you think f little ben?
he looked cute up to the point he said his name. never seen sayid so afraid before, and of a little kid.
sun must have really knocked ben's lights out as in the previous episode where we see locke resurrected, ben looks bloody incapacitated.
good shot sun!
right, it's been how many episodes without brutha? hopefully we'll see him next episode.
replying to your comment on the new-ish readers blog post: not sure about my comments but kalsoom's comments on Lost are always pretty clever.
do you know any website that has a good chronological order of the storyline in lost (both on the island events and flashbacks/flashforwards off of the island)?
i'm slowly losing it (and my mind).
"Weaker actors like Matthew Fox" ??? Man that guy really polarizes opinion doesn't he?
He's probably the only actor on the show to deliver a performance as viscerally scintillating as the one in that S3 finale and for that I'll always consider him one of the best but to each their own!
but anonymous surely you must agree that jack shepherd, the character is a complete airhead? maybe, just maybe that means matthew fox is doing a good job playing a naive twit, but i'm not convinced. good acting is executed by pretty much everyone else but matthew fox and naveen andrews.
saying that i loved how sawyer rounded jack's leadership abilities up perfectly in this episode and put him in his rightful place - as a janitor.
jack was the archetypal hero in the first few seasons but i'm glad lost has finally moved away from that format.
btw re-reading this post, i just noticed that screenshot. that's pretty clever! i missed that, but i do remember a brief time while sun and lapidus are conversing with jacob and a door creaks open mysteriously (and it's not even windy) as if someone's walking in, could be straight after that , that this female ghost figure walks in.
i think it's charlotte, from the screenshot i can see the hair has more of a red hue. i'm still not convinced claire died. she only followed christian, her father into the jungle and she was full-well healthy at the time.
Supe - I don't actually think Jack's a "twit!" Pig-headed, prickly, condescending, imperfect and fundamentally flawed - YES. And I think Fox does a great job at selling us someone who clearly been broken down over time. He's a "deconstructed" hero - if even a hero at all.
And it was his performance that actually made that 'face-off' with Sawyer the great scene it was. It's was all in the subtle way he took in all the changes as he walked in to see Sawyer sitting on his "mini" throne reading a book. His bemused chuckles, his shifting posture as soon as Sawyer starts with the "power games." I think Fox excels at nuance like no other on this show and some people really need to start divorcing their dislike of the character with that of the actor who excels on a consistent basis in my opinion.
As for the smackdown itself; maybe there were elements of truth in some of Sawyer pop-shots but he's a fine one to talk considering how he pretty much sat on his ass for 3seasons straight, hoarding medicine, food and other supplies whilst Jack was single-handedly trying to maintain a semblence of order in an Island where pregnant women and kids were getting kindapped, smoke monsters and polar bears were out trying to kill people, some individuals were struggling to breathe (Shannon) while others needed their legs amputated (Boone), people were getting shot at(Ana Lucia/Libby), Ben and his gang decided to show up and start mindfucking with everyone and countless other issues. And all the while Jack trying to keep a roof over the survivors heads and still finding them food, electricty, water etc. Doesn't really compare to Sawyer stumbling into a comfy little village and living a life of luxury in Dharmaville does it?
It's also rich of Sawyer to start laying on the death-toll blame given all the circumstances I've mentioned above and considering Sawyer's actually murdered 3 people himself. And lets not be forgetting the number of times Jack's had to save HIS ass throughout the show. Bet you Sawyer didn't have any complaints when Jack's tactical masterstroke that allowed Sawyer and Kate the chance to escape being shot at by Ben's crew in s3. That Jack - what a "twit" indeed!
If "real" leadership on this show means hoarding necessary supplies and being a dick to everyone 24/7, instead of being pro-active and geniunely trying to take care of other survivors, I'll pass thanks.
In any case, I pretty much loved how Sawyer attacked Jack with everything he had and Jack still managed to get the upper hand by walking away with a nonchalant "yeah". Sawyer looked PISSED. LOL. Jack knows that when shit really hits the fan, that only THEN will Sawyer's true leadership skills be tested. Anyone can get in a jumpsuit, concoct a lie, and run with it so as to live comfortably for the next couple of years. That isn't leadership; that's just Sawyer running one his usual Long Cons.
I look forward to Jack doing what Sawyer's always done best - being an unhelpful dick and letting others do the dirty work. And in Jim LaFleur style, perhaps he can wait until the situation becomes 10times easier before deciding to step forward and try playing the hero.
Freckles: Your best bet is www.lostpedia.org. That site is awesome when it comes to Lost.
Supe: I'm not sure if Christian is actually Jacob or if he's just Jacob's representative. When Locke saw Jacob for a second in season three, the dude looked bearded.
I loved little Ben. Apart from the glasses, he has Ben's facial expressions down pat. D
The last time we saw Desmond was when he stormed out on Mrs Hawking. And it doesn't look like we'll be seeing him anytime soon.
I happen to love Naveen Andrews and wish he had a bigger role on the show. He would be a natural leader of the Losties.
The theory on Claire is that he was killed by Keamy's rocket attack on her house and what emerged was a ghost. The best evidence for that is the way Miles (who can communicate with the dead) kept looking at her weirdly.
Anonymous1232: I actually thought Matthew Fox's best moment was that look on his face when he found out Claire was his half-sister.
We clearly disagree about his acting abilities. I think Fox has made a compelling character seem too one-dimensional. I also disagree about Sawyer's leadership abilities. Sure he was a jerk in season one, but is there any doubt that he now cares about the people far more than Jack? He turned down an opportunity to leave the island just so could wait for Locke to bring everyone back. Jack was more than happy to leave the island with the freighter folks even though he figured out that they weren't interested in rescue.
anon,
cheers for that trip down memory lane, who can forget shannon and boone? the sick, incestuous step-sibling duo.
about sawyer hogging the stash back in the day, well, good job he was protected it, as it all came in handy later on.
nice try anon, but nothing you say will make me appreciate jack any more.
even that nonchalant answer he gives sawyer.
as bubs put it, he's pretty 'one-dimensional'. i did like him in the very beginning though.
i think locke's the only original lostie i've loved from the start and he hasn't pissed me off yet. he won me over from the moment he smiled over at walt in the first episode with the orange peel in his mouth, looking like a madman.
anyway, in my humble opinion, between sawyer and that prissypants shepherd - it's lefleur all the way.
bubs,
sayid was easily one of my favourites in the initial episodes but i've become quite disinterested and bored of his iron-clad resolve.
on the one hand you get old' shepherd who never lets up an opportunity to get teary eyed and then you get sayid and his mono-mood. ok, maybe it's the scriptwriters' fault that he didn't even cry at nadia's funeral.
it's just, something has got to give, he needs to give his tough guy persona a break. the last time we saw him emotionally unstable was during one of his flashbacks back in season 1 or 2 when he comes face to face with an iraqi woman who fell victim to his torture. that was an awesome episode. very memorable.
about claire, oh man! now that you say it, it finally makes sense. i'm sure i've repeated this question and got the answer about keamy's rocket. now that you've elaborated i can recall the scene after the blast and miles repeatedly asks her if she's ok or something? aaww, bless claire, another one bites the dust.
"Anonymous1232: I actually thought Matthew Fox's best moment was that look on his face when he found out Claire was his half-sister. We clearly disagree about his acting abilities. I think Fox has made a compelling character seem too one-dimensional."
The Claire-Sister reveal is one of many examples where Fox basically hands out a masterclass in how to act without saying little or nothing at all. He did something similar in "Exodus" when Sawyer tells him about his dad - again he managed to take something that we as the audience already know and process the reaction in such a way that it hits us as though we never really knew at all - basically making a known "known" into an unknown all over again. Erm, where's Fox's Emmy again? :D
I should also add that when someone on this show actually comes close to topping his performance in 'Through the Looking Glass' where he ran every single gamut of human emotion in under 2 hrs, then maybe you and me can start talking about the definition of "one-dimensional."
"Because I want it to crash Kate" is still the single most haunting line ever delivered on Lost imo. But yes, lets agree to disagree on Fox.
"Sure he was a jerk in season one, but is there any doubt that he now cares about the people far more than Jack?"
S1 only? Lets try 3 seasons straight, until the writers decided Sawyer needed to do something other than being the Shirltess Wonder and delivering comic one liners by giving him his "CLAIRRRRE" protector role in S4. If we’re talking about caricatures, I think Sawyer pretty much takes the cake. Admittedly though, Josh Holloway’s charisma has pretty much carried him through. Kudos to him for becoming such a fan favourite.
And no, I don't think you can say one "cares" more than the other. Jack's been saving lives since day dot. And maybe he is driven to "saving" others in order to prove Daddy wrong and show that he does "have what it takes" but I maintain that he is essentially a good guy with altruistic intentions at heart, but is damaged at best. If you don't find that compelling, that's your prerogative. Each to their own.
"He turned down an opportunity to leave the island just so could wait for Locke to bring everyone back. Jack was more than happy to leave the island with the freighter folks even though he figured out that they weren't interested in rescue."
Turned down an opportunity? If I recall, Sawyer never wanted to leave - whether that be 1977 or 2004. Didn't he tell Kate that he had nothing to go back for and that they could make nice in Otherville instead?
I think Damon and Carlton pretty much admitted that he was looking for an opportunity to bail and he took it by jumping out of the helicopter.
As for Jack calling the freighter folk. If I remember it right, the only word he had to go on that the rescue attempt wasn't genuine, was that of Locke - and lets face it; when has Locke EVER actually sat down with Jack and told him what the fuck was going on? No, he'd rather ramble on endlessly about how "special" the place was, how "fate" had brought them altogether and that a "miracle" was going to happen - never actually explaining himself - even describing the death of Boone as a "sacrifice the Island demanded". Pfft! If I was Jack, I'd tell him to get out of my face with that shit too! As far as Jack's concerned, Locke has done NOTHING but block their attempts to leave the Island from the start - knocking out Sayid when he was trying to get a transmission in S1, blowing up the submarine in S3 and knifing an innocent woman in the back in s4.
No sane person would think Locke had any valid point to make by the time he made his grand entrance by killing that Namoi chick.
And lets not be forgetting that people actually WANTED to leave too. It wasn't Jack making a unilateral decision on everyone's behalf- they all seemed pretty chuffed when he made that call. High fives and smiles all abound.
"about sawyer hogging the stash back in the day, well, good job he was protected it, as it all came in handy later on."
"Protecting" the stash. Yeah good one, lol. I love Sawyer being the lovable prick as much as the next person, but lets not re-write history because LaFleur's tickled your fancy.
anon,
okay, now i'm laughing too, but laughing more at my typo; ''he was protected it''?
thanks for pointing that out but don't be so smug about it please!?
to be honest, not really, sawyer is charming and funny but in a brotherly kind of way, if that makes sense.
looks wise jack is more my type but then his personality is kind of off-putting and i'm disturbingly not as fickle as i thought.
the best of the bunch just has to be desmond, but then oh dilemma, i also refer to him as 'bruthah'!
and yes i stand by ''was protected the stash'' he was a sight better 'responsible' with it and how clearly his possessiveness demonstrated how much he valued every item in it.
aah, whatever, it's all subjective really.
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