Friday, May 08, 2009

Lost Season Five: Episode 15

The penultimate week of Lost is usually the least exciting of the season. Character development and shocking twists give way to making sure everyone is in the right place for an action-packed finale. There was a lot of that in 'Follow The Leader' but there were also enough cool moments not to make it an entire waste of time.

- Jack's pretending he's the leader again, vowing to finish off Faraday's job of setting an H-Bomb off. Jack has had plenty of dumb ideas before but this one really takes the cake. In typical Jack mode, he hasn't actually thought about what he's trying to do. He just thinks setting off the bomb will ensure the crash never takes place. At least this time he isn't being blindly followed by Kate.

- I've asked this question before a million times but I must ask it again. What game is Ben playing? Is he heeding Smokey's advice and warning Locke that he might have to contend with Richard, or is he just playing them against each other. My bet is on the latter.

- Also interesting is that Ben has never met Jacob. Recall in season three that Locke was able to see Jacob while Ben wasn't. And Jacob's words to Locke were chilling: "Help me." Could it be that Jacob is some kind of sage who has been captured by the Others? And why would Locke want to kill him? I guess the Island told him to but why would the Island want Jacob dead?

- Priceless exchange between Dr Chang and Hurley, which led to Hurley confirming they're from the future. "There was no Korean War," indeed. Nice to know that Chang didn't abandon his wife and Miles; he only kicked them out because his son from the future told him to.

- Richard, probably because he has seen everything there is to see on the Island, has never seemed flustered. When Jack tells him he wants to detonate an H-Bomb, there is no change of expression on his face. But when Locke tells him that he died, we see the first signs of surprise. Also note that when Richard saw Locke he said that something about him was different. Locke explained this as his new-found confidence but I sense Locke isn't really alive. I think he's like Christian and Claire.

- We also found out what Eloise meant when she said that for the first time she doesn't know what's going to happen next. Thanks to Faraday's diary everything has been mapped out for her. Now that he's dead, this has all changed.

- Oh man, the return of the dreaded love triangle. When Kate got on the sub my heart sank. Please Lost, don't waste any time on this. You only have one short season left.

- I think it's pretty well established by now that the Leader of the Others is a figurehead. The true power lies with Richard, 'the advisor". He's more like Dick Cheney than Tom Hagen.

- When Richard tells Sun that "I saw them all die", is he lying. Richard has generally been truthful, so my guess is that he thinks they died in the H-Bomb, which they will somehow survive.

4 comments:

supe said...

my name is john locke.

ok, i'm not but he's freakin' awesome! moreso in this episode. hah! in bug eyes' face! he's so owned now.

i think i finally value juliet's quiet grimacing, simply because kate's constant spotlight grabbing is annoying me. (i have this thing about comparing things, bad habit i know.)

loved this episode, it's classic lost. also loved the parallel stories, including the two errand-running parties with richard alpert in both of them. quite cool really.
i originally was quite excited about elouise hawking's character, but last episode revealed her to be a bit of an average joe (albeit an other), so was a bit disappointing really.

but that's where locke comes in. yippee!

plus this time round i'm rooting for jack and with sayeed on his side, i'm sure there'll be plenty of adventure to come.

Nadir Hassan said...

The finale is going all kinds of amazing. Hopefully we'll finally get a good look at Jacob. There's no way Jack can succeed. If Faraday is right then there's no crash and I don't think Lost can pull the rug from under our feet like that. I do think Jack will detonate the H-bomb killing just about everyone, which would be completely in keeping with his character.

Kalsoom said...

Do we have any proof that all of this hasn't happened before - even though Eloise said she had no idea what was going to happen next, everything that has happened so far happened - Farraday being shot by his mother, Dr. Chang telling his wife he has to leave the island (hence why Miles thinks his father abandons him in the future), Farraday telling little Charlotte to never come back to the island - although Farraday says people are the variables in time travel, it seems that so far they are all acting in accordance with what we believe happened in the "past".

I am convinced that Richard Alpert is Jacob but in the sense of the Wizard of Oz - and Richard is actually the wizard, i.e. the guy behind the curtain letting everyone believe the wizard is some magical large-than-life person. Although it doesn't fit with the Christian/Claire thing, it may be why he was so pissed off when Locke wanted to take everyone to see Jacob - would his whole cover be blown?

After watching the amazing JJ Abrams' Star Trek this weekend, the issue of time travel made me think the guy is pure genius. It also made me realize that time in the sense of Lost is not linear, but circular or running parallel to the time it impacts in the future. I know I'm on a loopy tangent, but I find the whole issue of time/space really interesting.

Anonymous said...

Kalsoom: I do think Farraday is wrong and even if they try to change things, nothing is going to be any different. Farraday seemed so eager to ensure that Charlotte doesn't die that he ignored his own science.

Richard may be more powerful than whoever the leader is but I don't think we know enough about Jacob to really guess what's up. Hopefully we'll see Jacob in the finale and learn everything about him next season.

Oh, I also loved Star Trek but J.J. Abrams stopped being involved with Lost sometime around season two. It's been all Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof since then. So they should get credit (or blame if you find it too confusing)for the time travel plotlines.