BuzzSugar

Lost Episodes 16 and 17, "The Incident, Parts 1 and 2"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:30:58 -0700

I don't know about you, but I fell asleep with the images from the Lost season finale swirling in my head and woke up thinking about it, and my dreams were probably all Lost, all the time, too. I'm still confused - but almost in a good way - and feeling pretty satisfied. As far as season finales go, I think this one is pretty kickass. What do you think?

Certainly can't say much more without revealing spoilers a-plenty, so to chat about the two parts of the Lost finale read more.

Jacob's touches - Much of the episode is devoted to showing us how Jacob met - and, significantly, physically touched - various characters during small moments in each of their lives:

He pays for the (New Kids on the Block!) lunchbox that "Katie" steals as a (ridiculously cute) young'n.
He shows up at the funeral for Sawyer’s mother and father and hands Little Sawyer a pen as Little Sawyer is writing a letter to the man responsible for his parents' deaths.
Jacob asks Sayid for directions at the intersection where Nadia is promptly killed.
He goes to see a heavily bandaged Ilana in the hospital (he's her only visitor) and he asks for her help, which she quickly agrees to give him.
He's outside the building (reading Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge) when Locke plummets to the ground from a window, and when he touches Locke, his eyes fly open. Jacob says, "Don’t worry everything’s going to be all right. I’m sorry this happened to you."
Jacob shows up at Jin and Sun's wedding and tells them never to take their special love for granted.
Jack recalls feeling humiliated by his dad during a surgery early in his career, and soon after they have a little talk about it ("Are you sure I'm the one who doesn’t 'believe in you,' Jack?"), Jacob shows up and hands Jack the Apollo candy bar that Jack had been trying to extract from a stubborn vending machine.
Hurley hops in a cab with Jacob after being discharged from jail. There, Jacob tells Hurley that he's not crazy and that maybe, he's actually blessed instead of cursed.
Interestingly, Juliet's flashback does not include Jacob - just the moment when her parents announced that they were getting a divorce.
And we don't see "the moment," but Richard tells Locke that he is ageless because of Jacob.

"I'm definitely not dead." - Jacob. So what the heck is he?!

Leaders, in charge, leaders, in charge . . . - Sun wonders who Jacob is and Ben tells her he's the man in charge of the island - not "the leader," mind you. That's Locke. And that's "a title that I've discovered is incredibly temporary." Later Eloise tells Jack not to "misunderstand who's in charge here," as she wants to go before him up to the Dharma village, but then Richard swiftly knocks her out, saying he's protecting his "leader."

Timeless beauty - Forget Richard (though I do find him seriously attractive in this episode), Sun is truly an ageless beauty. She just looks gorgeous on her wedding day, saying her vows: "I have loved you since the day we first met. I will love the man you will become as we spend our lives together. With this ring I make my promises."

"Oh, hell no." - The heart and humor of this episode for me is the run-in with Bernard and Rose. First off, Bernard sounds like Sawyer with his muttering of "Son of a bitch!" They manage to make the other Losties look like hyper children as Rose and Bernard explain that they chose to live a private, peaceful life together (in "retirement") over going to work for Dharma or something. And they don't care about this silly bomb business. "So we die. We just care about being together. That's all that matters in the end." I just want to know why I felt like crying at Bernard gently offering tea to Juliet? I feel like such a sap. (But also, Vincent!)

A valid question from Miles: "Has it occurred to any of you that your buddy is actually gonna cause the thing he says he’s trying to prevent? Perhaps that little nuke is the incident. So perhaps the best thing to do is nothing?"

Que será, será - Jack's all about the destiny stuff now ("If it's meant to be, it's meant to be"), but Sawyer doesn't "speak destiny." I feel like their big crazy man-fight was a looooong time coming. And I will admit that I sort of enjoyed watching Sawyer pummel Jack.

Teamwork! - I love all the Lostie teamwork in this episode. Hurley, Jin, and Miles zoom up in a Dharma van and grab Jack and a wounded Sayid, and later Sawyer, Juliet, Kate, Miles, and Jin come roaring up, guns blazing, to protect Jack from the Others. Juliet repeats an oft-uttered line from this show: "Live together, die alone."

"We're the good guys." - Another familiar phrase, this time said by Bram about the little group he has with Ilana. They search around for Jacob, find his cabin, torch his cabin, and move on to the statue foot - all the while lugging around a large metal crate. Ilana poses the question ("What lies in the shadow of the statue?") to "Ricardos," who answers her in Latin: "He who will protect/save us all." Ilana smiles, introduces herself to Richard, and shows him what's in the crate: Locke's freaking body.

Anti-climax before a climax - Just before Jack drops the bomb core into the pit all the lovebirds exchange meaningful glances, and they all cringe for the explosion . . . which doesn't happen. But then metal things start flying down the pit, causing Phil to be impaled, Dr. Chang to have his arm crushed (so that's how that happens!) and Juliet to get dragged down the pit by chains. In the moment when Juliet is pulled toward the pit I couldn't help but think of that new movie Drag Me to Hell - it was so horror movie-ish. It gets worse, of course, as Sawyer tries desperately to save her but she ends up flying down the pit anyway. And then she bangs on the bomb with a rock until the fifth season of Lost ends with a white screen.

Poor Ben - The way Locke gets Ben to want to kill Jacob is pretty great - and he has a good point. Ben has suffered and sacrificed tremendously for this dude he was never allowed to even meet. Ben wonders plaintively why Jacob wanted Locke and not him. "What was it that was so wrong with me? What about me?"

Ch-ch-ch-changes - Locke promises Ben that things will change with Jacob gone. I can't wait to see how . . .

Loopholes - In the beginning of this whole thing, a man expresses to Jacob how much he wants to kill him (but clearly cannot, because Jacob would be dead by now if he could) and he vows to find a "loophole." In the end, Locke gets Ben to kill Jacob for him - and this is the loophole. So who is that guy at the beginning? And in the beginning they reference "them." "They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same." And then at the end, just before Locke kicks the wounded Jacob into the fire, Jacob sputters out, "They're coming."

Lost Episode 15, "Follow the Leader"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:30:33 -0700

Wow, we're already just a week away from the fifth season finale of Lost. I feel like this season has flown by - and I've been pretty much satisfied with it. What about you?

And what did you think of this week's episode? It features Richard quite a bit and I found myself really enjoying that. I hope we find out more about this man that time forgot. Otherwise this episode is a jumble of stuff having to do with a hydrogen bomb, island tunnels and romantic dramas. To chat about it all, read more.

Before Faraday is shot, Jack wonders, "What if this is our one chance to put things back the way they're supposed to be?"
Richard the Ageless is working on a ship in a bottle when Locke ambles up with a dead boar, jabbering on about errands and his newfound purpose. Ben explains to Sun that Richard is "a kind of . . . adviser. And he's had that job for a very, very long time." So Sun asks Richard if he recognizes Kate, Hurley, etc. and Richard replies, "I remember meeting them, very clearly, because . . . I watched them all die."
Locke: "I don't think we went through all this for nothing, Sun." I'm pretty sure the Lost audience is hoping you're right about that one, Locke.
This exchange between Kate and Jack made me sad. At Jack's suggestion that they can just wipe away all the misery they've gone through, Kate vehemently insists, "It was not all misery."
Jack: "Enough of it was."
Between Jack getting whacked in the face with Young and Strapping Charles Widmore's gun and Sawyer being beaten by Radzinsky, this is a pretty bloody episode.
Ha! Dr. Chang grills Hurley. "So you fought in the Korean war."
". . . There's no such thing. . . . Alright, dude, we're from the future. Sorry."
Miles: "If Faraday said, 'Get people off the island,' I'd do it." So, Dr. Chang takes his son-from-the-future's advice and starts to get people to leave the island.
I'm not positive, but I thought I heard Charles murmuring to Eloise something about "her condition," with his hand hovering by her belly. That is crazy if she's pregnant when she shoots her son. . . .
Locke asks Richard to bring him to Jacob. "I am the leader now, right?"
Locke brings Richard and Ben to the place where the past Locke finds himself on the island, after being shot, and explains to Richard what's going to happen (take out the bullet, tell past Locke that he needs to get the others to come back to the island, etc.). Locke and Ben look on (Ben: "This must be quite the out-of-body experience"), and Ben wonders how Locke knew when to be in that location. Locke: "The island told me. Didn't it ever tell you things?" Then it dawns on Locke that Ben's never seen Jacob.
I was just wondering where Sayid was when he comes to Kate and Jack's rescue in the jungle! And in a sexy black tank top, no less.
Miles realizes now that his father was mean to his mother so that she would leave with Baby Miles and they'd be safe. Awww.
Sawyer strikes a deal with Radzinsky and Co. and draws them a map to the hostiles in exchange for a submarine ride back to the "real world" (as Juliet puts it). Sawyer takes a last look at the island. "Good riddance." And he still gets a surly nickname in this episode, calling the guy handcuffing them on the submarine "Nemo."
Richard, Jack, Sayid and Eloise swim to an opening that brings them up to some tunnels and Eloise leads them to the bomb. "Well! Now what?"
Haha - Richard: "I'm starting to think John Locke is gonna be trouble."
Ben: "Why do you think I tried to kill him?"
John addresses the group, saying that he'd like to know who this guy is who's giving orders. "I'm gonna go and see Jacob. Right now. And I'd like all of you to come with me."
Don't you just hate it when you're sitting handcuffed in a submarine across from your boyfriend, about to leave a weird mystical island and your boyfriend's former love comes down and is handcuffed right next to you? Awk-ward.
Ben: "Then why are we going to Jacob?"
Locke: "So I can kill him." Locke wants to kill Jacob??

Lost Episode 14, "The Variable"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:30:13 -0700

It sort of feels like we shared this episode of Lost with other projects that needed some promotin', though I actually thought it was cool when the black behind the opening Lost logo turns into stars, which turns into a Star Trek promo. And . . . it kind of worked on me. I'm more excited now to see that movie on the big screen, what with the scary roaring creatures and all.

Also, during the commercial breaks, did you notice the super-quick flashes of images followed by the text "What did you see?"? You can see all the spots here, and this is apparently the official site for the ABC show that these spots are for, Flash Forward. The effect is a little different watching them online, but as I watched those things on TV I thought they were incredibly creepy.

Anyway! On to the actual show. What did you think of "The Variable"? To talk about it, read more.

When Eloise Hawking goes to see Penny in the hospital where Desmond's been taken after his fight with Ben, she says her son is responsible for all this, prompting an exchange that made me chuckle:
Penny: "Your son is Benjamin Linus?"
Eloise: "Good Lord, no! My son is Daniel Faraday."
Faraday tells Jack that his mother was wrong about destiny, that he doesn't belong there at all. Here's yet another situation in which one character believes in destiny (Eloise) and the other believes in free will (Faraday).
Dr. Chang echoes the words uttered by Eloise when she and Ben are trying to gather the Oceanic Six: "Then God help us all."
"Dr. Chang, Miles is your son." No time for easing into great revelations!
Check out the hair on Faraday at his graduation! He reminds me of a Lego man, with his little eyes and all that hair. Anyway, though we see glimpses of Eloise being kind to her son (the inscription in his journal: "No matter what, remember, I will always love you"), she is mostly cold and withholding - perhaps because she knows what happens in Faraday's future?

"Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy." Ha! It's like chuckle time at Juliet and Sawyer's - Sawyer calls Faraday "H.G. Wells" and delivers my favorite line of the night: "Your mother . . . is an Other?" It's not so funny, however, when Sawyer gently calls Kate his old pet name for her, "Freckles," and Juliet gives Kate the code for the fence so they can get to the hostiles. "It's over here for us anyway," Juliet says pointedly. This appears to have a double meaning, no? It's over here for . . . us.
When Widmore goes to meet with Faraday (and especially when he says he's "old friends" with Eloise), I had this suspicion that Widmore would reveal he's Faraday's father. The reveal comes later, but it turns out that's true. Huh. During their meeting, Widmore moves a Wired magazine on the couch, with a headline "The Impossible Gets Real!" Widmore tells Faraday he's "a man of tremendous gifts and it would be a shame to see them go to waste."
Daniel talking to Little Charlotte reminds me so much of The Time Traveler's Wife - right down to the girl's red hair. Aaaaand this scene makes me feel like crying.
So, Paul Giamatti (OK, Radzinsky) and his buddies start shooting and Faraday is grazed in the neck. He realizes, "This is our present. . . . Any one of us can die, Jack."
Faraday explains: "I'd been spending so much time focused on the constants, I forgot about the variables. And do you know what the variables in these equations are, Jack? Us. We're the variables. People! We think, we reason, we make choices, we have free will. We can change our destiny." So, he wants to detonate a hydrogen bomb.
Back (er, forward) at the Marina Medical Center, Eloise is apologizing to Penny. "For the first time in a long time, I don't know what's going to happen next." But Desmond is OK! Yay. "I promised you, Penny. I promised you. I'd never leave you again."
So Eloise sent her (and Widmore's) son back to the island, knowing that her past self would shoot him. Wow. She kind of does win the sacrifice argument, Widmore.

Lost Episode 13: "Some Like it Hoth"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:30:13 -0700

My favorite part of this Lost episode? The Star Wars talk.

Otherwise, it's a whole lot of Miles and his father issues. This show has a long history of daddy issues. Some mom issues, too, but mostly dad stuff. I like Miles's stories because of his whole communicating-with-the-dead ability, though after some tense episodes, this one's a little on the tame side in comparison. I'm still curious to find out how Miles came to have his gift. To chat about "Some Like it Hoth," read more.

As a sweet little kid, with no trace yet of the snarky, sarcastic guy we now know, Miles finds a dead guy who he can "hear." Later, he exploits grieving people, taking their money to talk with their dead loved ones.
Horace brings Miles into his "circle of trust," and has him pick up a "package," which turns out to be a dead guy who "fell into a ditch" ("The ditch had a gun?"). Miles needs to bring the body to Chang at the Orchid and Hurley has to bring his sandwiches there, so Hurley wants to carpool to maybe prevent global warming.
Flashback to a younger, more pierced Miles asking his sick mother why he is the way he is, and what the deal was with his dad. She says his father kicked them out when Miles was just a baby. "Your dad has been dead a long time." Miles wants to find his father's body.
Hurley finds out about Miles's ability and tells him he can talk to dead people, too, but Miles explains, "What I can do has nothing to do with chatting with ghosts, you nitwit. It's a feeling, a sense. When somebody's dead their brain stops functioning which means there's no more talking. There's just who they were and what they knew before they died."
Hurley: "You're just jealous my power's better than yours." Meanwhile, "Love Will Keep Us Together" plays on the radio, which I think is kinda funny, especially since there seems to be a sort of friendship developing between Hurley and Miles.
At the Orchid construction site, Chang is not happy that Hurley knows about the body, and he threatens to ship Hurley to the Hydra island where he can weigh polar bear feces for "their ridiculous experiments" if Hurley tells anyone.
Naomi approaches Miles and brings him to a dead body. Miles says the guy's name is Felix, and he was on his way to deliver something to Widmore. He seems disturbed by the information he gathers from Felix. Naomi explains that she's going on an expedition to an island where there are a number of deceased individuals who can provide valuable information. In exchange for Miles's help, Widmore will pay him $1.6 million (ahhh, so this is why, in "Eggtown," Miles blackmails Ben for exactly twice that amount: $3.2 million).
Hurley asks Miles about "all the Dharma dudes" who are going to die - doesn't he want to save them? "I can't save them! They're gonna get killed no matter what I do. So, why bother?"
Chang says he has a 3-month-old son named Miles. Hurley asks if Chang is a fan of jazz, like Miles Davis. "My wife is. I like country." Hurley suggests they all get together for a beer sometime. "How awesome would that be?" Then he sees construction workers building their hatch, "the one that crashed our plane."
Bram, of Bram and Ilana, tries to convince Miles not to go to work for Charles Widmore. "Do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?"
Miles: "No, can't say that I do."
Bram: "Then you're not ready to go to the island. But if you come with us, all those things you've spent your life trying to find out, you'll know. You'll know who you are, Miles. Why it is you've got a gift. And most of all, you'll know about your father." When Miles refuses, Bram tells him, "You're playing for the wrong team."
Hurley thinks it's awesome that Miles can now hang out with his dad. "Maybe he'll let you hold baby you, or you can change your own diaper." This happened on an episode of Heroes, in which Claire held and played with a baby version of herself, and I found it kind of creepy.
I love this so much: Since it's 1977, Hurley thinks he'll send George Lucas the script to his Star Wars sequel. So he's writing The Empire Strikes Back . . . "with a couple of improvements." Then he uses Star Wars as a cautionary tale for Miles, saying that Luke was mad at his dad too, and instead of "putting away the lightsaber and talking about it, he overreacted and got his hand cut off. I mean, they worked it out eventually, but at what cost? . . . That all could have been avoided if they'd just, you know, communicated."
Sawyer tells Miles to erase the security tape that shows Sawyer and Kate bringing Little Ben through the sonic fence, but later Phil finds it and comes to Sawyer. Naturally, Sawyer hits him and tells Juliet to get some rope.
Baby Miles is ridiculously cute, and I myself felt a little choked up to see Adult Miles watching his dad playing with Baby Miles.
Chang needs Miles's help bringing in scientists from Ann Arbor, and one of these scientists is - yay! - Daniel Faraday! Hallelujah, the Faraday's back.

Lost Episode 12: "Dead Is Dead"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:30:07 -0700

"I've found sometimes that friends can be significantly more dangerous than enemies, John."

Wise words from Ben, whose episode this week made me rather sad, to be honest. It's nice to have some blanks from the past filled in - though the fillings always come with more holes being drilled, more questions to mull over. I do like that this episode of Lost also gives us a closer look at some of the mythological aspects of the island. What do you make of it all? Happy to see Smokey again? To discuss "Dead Is Dead," read more.

Oooh, young Charles Widmore is pretty handsome (not unlike Russell Crowe, in my opinion). He comes galloping in on horseback and is not happy about Richard bringing Ben to their temple. Richard claims Jacob wanted it this way and "the island chooses who the island chooses, you know that."
Widmore assures Ben, "You're among friends, we'll take care of you." Aaaaaand see above quote from Ben re: friends being more dangerous than enemies.
In present-day island time, Ben has come back to be judged by Smokey ("We don't even have a word for it, but I believe you call it 'the Monster'").
Sidenote: It's funny to go from watching Lost to seeing Michael's (Harold Perrineau) face in the Unusuals promos.
What is in that crate that Ilana and her buddies are messing with?
In a flashback, Ben goes to kill Rousseau, but instead spares her and takes baby Alex, warning Rousseau, "If you want your child to live, every time you hear whispers you run the other way." Charles wants the baby dead, but Ben says that if killing her is what Jacob wants, "then here she is. You do it." Obviously, nobody kills the baby Alex and she grows up with Ben as her "dad."
Ben explains to Locke that he killed Locke "because it was in the best interests of the island." Locke says he just wanted an apology, but anyway, he decides to help Ben "be judged." So they set off for the main island, and when Cesar tries to stop them, Ben takes out Cesar's gun and shoots him! Best line of the night: "Consider that my apology."

They go to Ben's old house so he can summon the monster, and there they encounter Sun and Lapidus. Sun presents the old Dharma photo with Jin, Kate, Hurley, etc. all lined up. Ben claims to not know that these Losties were in the Dharma Initiative but Ben's . . . kind of a liar.
Aww, Lapidus is so protective of Sun. "For God's sake, watch your back." Later, though, it's Lapidus who needs saving as Ilana hits him and demands to know "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" She orders someone to tie up Lapidus - he's going with them.
Ben summons the monster by . . . draining some mucky water? Huh.
In a flashback we see Widmore being banished from the island and saying ominous, foreshadowy things about Ben being banished from the island someday, and that if the island wants Alex dead, she'll be dead, and Ben will realize that he "cannot fight the inevitable." Ben points out that Widmore broke the rules - he had a daughter "with an outsider." But who??
Sun suspects that Ben knew the island would bring Locke back to life but Ben solemnly denies this. "Dead is dead. You don't get to come back from that, not even here. So the fact that John Locke is walking around this island? Scares the living hell out of me."
In the docks flashback, we see what many folks predicted several episodes ago: Ben tried to kill Penny. As tense as this scene is, I laughed out loud when Ben says to Widmore over the phone, "I'm looking at Our Mutual Friend right now. . . . It's the name of the boat Penny's on." Ben points the gun at Penny, but little Charlie comes out and then - yay, Desmond to the rescue!
I love that now Ben is following Locke, unsure of the answers. Locke, triumphant and satisfied: "Well, now you know what it was like to be me." Locke says they're not going into the temple, they're going under it. When they get there, Ben tells Sun that if she ever gets off the island to tell Desmond he's sorry.
What do you think of this whole moment under the temple? Ben falls into a lower chamber with walls covered in hieroglyphs. Smoke(y) starts to seep from a grate and envelopes Ben and he sees images of Alex from when he saved her as an infant to when he denies Alex means anything to him and she's shot. Gently, the smoke retreats and Alex appears to tell Ben to listen to everything Locke says and to follow him. Ben promises and Alex disappears. I'm not sure I liked this seeing-images-in-Smokey part of the episode.
Ben looks up at Locke, stricken. "It let me live."

Lost Episode 11: "Whatever Happened, Happened"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:30:20 -0700

I love that Hurley tries to understand the situation better by way of Back to the Future, studying his fingers to see if he's disappearing. Hey, ask any Lost viewer - whatever helps you understand, go with it.

This episode is so relationship-y! So much Kate/Sawyer stuff with a little Juliet and Jack thrown in for extra drama. I am glad to know what happens with Little Ben and to find out Kate's motivations for returning to the island. But overall I think I'd like less sappy, more Smokey, please. My favorite parts are when Hurley and Miles try to figure out all the space/time stuff. What about you? To discuss this week's episode, read more.

It's interesting to think about all these people scrambling around to help save Ben (first Jin, then Juliet, Kate, and Sawyer), a kid who grows up to bring much pain into their lives. Though as Juliet points out, "he's not Ben yet, he's just a kid."
Kate, while driving to give Cassidy money and tell her about Sawyer, hears the Patsy Cline song "She's Got You," which was previously on Lost during the episode "Eggtown" - it plays during a scene with both Kate and Claire. In this episode there's the new meaning of Kate and Cassidy being two women who love (or loved) one man (Sawyer).
Later, Kate and Cassidy are hanging out like girlfriends, and Clementine calls her "Auntie Kate." Maybe some Aaron/Clementine action in the future?
Jack refuses to perform surgery on Ben again. Er, for the first time. "I've already done this once. I've already saved Benjamin Linus. And I did it for you, Kate. I don't need to do it again. Did you ever think that maybe the island just wants to fix things itself? That maybe I was just getting in the way?" What do you think about this idea of Jack's?
This bit of irony (as found on Lostpedia) is pretty intriguing: "Jack refused to save the young Ben because of who he would become. As a result, Kate had to take Ben to Richard, which is what made Ben the man Jack hated."
Hurley's Back to the Future logic: "We came back in time to the island and changed stuff. So if Little Ben dies, he'll never grow up to be Big Ben, who's the one that made us come back here in the first place. Which means we can't be here and therefore, dude, we don't exist."

I actually found Miles and Hurley's discussions about the time stuff really helpful. Miles: "Once Ben turned that wheel, time isn't a straight line for us anymore. Our experiences in the past and the future occurred before these experiences right now. . . . Any of us can die because this is our present." But Ben couldn't die because this is his past. But, as Hurley points out, when Ben was captured and Sayid first tortured him, why didn't Ben remember being shot by that same guy? Well, Miles never thought of that.
Flashback to Kate and Aaron in a store. Kate becomes distracted by a call from Jack, and when she looks up, Aaron is gone. A super creepy blond lady has Aaron by the hand and says she was about to make an announcement.
Cassidy says that Kate took Aaron because Sawyer broke her heart and how else was she supposed to fix it? I have a hard time buying this theory, though Kate seems to think it's true.
Tense confrontation in the bathroom between Juliet and a half-nekkid Jack. Juliet gets upset: "We didn't need saving! . . . You came back here for you." Jack simply says he came back because he was supposed to.
Kate tells Sawyer how Clementine's doing. "She's already got a little attitude" (just like her dad!). Sawyer says he was no more fit to be Kate's boyfriend than he was to be Clementine's father. Kate points out that he's doing fine with Juliet, and Sawyer says he's done a lot of growing up over the past three years, etc. etc.
Turns out Kate brings Aaron over to Claire's mother's so she can go back to the island to find Claire. That's a bit of a relief! I'd thought something terrible might have happened to little Aaron that made Kate go back.
"Back" on the island, Richard tells Kate and Sawyer that if he takes Little Ben, "he'll forget this ever happened and his innocence will be gone. He will always be one of us." Sawyer and Kate hand him over and Richard brings Ben to the Temple. First, though, one of the Others says in a low voice to Richard that he "shouldn't do this without asking Ellie" and he mentions Charles (Widmore, presumably), but Richard cuts him off: "Let him find out. I don't answer to either of them."
Then we see big Ben waking up to Locke saying, "Welcome back to the land of the living."

Lost Episode 10: "He's Our You"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:30:13 -0700

"A 12-year-old Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich. How do you think I'm doing?"

Haaaaaa. I loved this week's Sayid-centric episode of Lost - and not just because it's Sayid-centric (I don't think). The show just keeps squeezing my brains, and I appreciate any episode that provides a few answers (like what the deal is with Ilana . . . if her story in this episode is true) along with the zany, time-warpy confusion.

If you saw the episode and want to chat about it, read more.

The episode opens with a flashback to the adorable little Sayid easily and calmly snapping a chicken's neck, for which he is praised, as being able to do such things is an indication of manliness. Later, Ben gives a whole speech about how killing is in Sayid's nature.
Now (or, "now," in 1977), the 12-year-old Ben keeps bringing Sayid sandwiches (chicken salad this time, ugh) and now a book: A Separate Reality by Carlos Castaneda. Castaneda alleges that the book is nonfiction, based on his time spent as an apprentice to a sorcerer, and focuses on the practice of "seeing" while under the influence of mind-altering plants.
Ben wonders if Richard sent Sayid, and says he's been patiently waiting to join Richard. He tells Sayid, "if you're patient, too, I think I can help you."
In another flashback, Sayid meets up with Ben after killing a man named Andropow in Moscow, and Ben says they're done. "You've taken care of everyone who posed a threat to your friends." I wonder how Andropow posed a threat? Now there's no one else in Widmore's organization that Sayid needs to go after. He's "free."
Later, however, we see how Ben manipulates Sayid into doing what he wants once again: He visits Sayid in Santo Domingo and says that Locke's dead, probably as a kind of retribution for all the people Sayid killed, which means that Sayid's in danger and so is Hurley. He thinks Sayid will want to kill the man staked outside Hurley's institution because "you're capable of things that most other men aren't. Every choice in your life, whether it was to murder or to torture, it hasn't really been a choice at all, has it? It's in your nature, it's what you are. You're a killer, Sayid." But Sayid disagrees and claims "I don't like killing." What do you think about this? Is Sayid a natural born killer?

When Sayid won't say what his deal is, Horace and the other Dharmies think he's a spy. So, they bring him to creepy old Oldham, their torturer guy (or, as Saywer puts it to Sayid, "our you"), who drugs him. In this state, Sayid says he was handcuffed because he was "a bad man." He tells everything he knows - how he got to the island (both times), and all about the Swan station and how they're all going to die. He says he is from the future, and then starts laughing hysterically.
Ha! Hurley's surprised that Kate didn't foresee Juliet and Sawyer getting together: "I thought it was kind of obvious. I mean, who couldn't see that coming?" I get why the Kate/Sawyer/Juliet stuff was in this episode but I find it kind of blah. Juliet thinks everything's over with Sawyer because Kate's back, but Sawyer assures her he's "got this under control." Later Juliet checks to make sure Kate knows that she's with Sawyer. She does.
When the Dharma guys are voting on whether or not to kill Sayid, Amy pulls the baby card and says they have no choice. The majority vote for Sayid's death and Sawyer tells him, "They just took a vote. Even a new mom wants you dead." Hahaha . . . sad.
Ilana seduces Sayid (after enjoying some MacCutcheon whiskey - remember that stuff?), then pulls a gun on him. She says she was hired by the family of the guy Sayid killed on the golf course. She's supposed to bring him to Guam (via Ajira Airways). I think it's funny when Sayid politely asks Ilana, "Can I ask you a favor? Can we take the next plane?" He later asks Ilana if she's working for Benjamin Linus, but she claims not to know who that is. I'd like to know what kind of badge or whatever she flashes to get the handcuffed Sayid on the plane.
Sawyer: "Why'd you come back?"
Kate: "I don't know why everyone else came back. I just know why I did." And then holy cow a van on fire comes barreling up and crashes into a house. Sawyer growls at Jack, "Three years no burning buses, y'all are back for one day!"
During a replay of the scene at the docks, Sayid says to Ben: "If I see you again, it will be extremely unpleasant for us both." This . . . is true
Ben helps Sayid escape, but in the woods they encounter Jin and Sayid grabs Jin's gun. Sayid says to 12-year-old Ben, regarding something he says to him in the future, "You were right about me. I am a killer." Then Sayid shoots the 12-year-old Ben.

Lost Episode Nine: "Namaste"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:30:42 -0700

Namaste, Lost fans. This week's episode doesn't focus on one character's experience or flashbacks, but instead gives us the stories of what's going on with the passengers of the Ajira Airways flight - in both of the time periods (that sentence probably makes no sense whatsoever to non-Lost watchers). There's some creepy stuff in this episode and a lot of setting-up for future relationship drama (Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, Jack) along with a bit of alpha dog tension between Sawyer and Jack.

Do you like that Sawyer's in charge now? Did you totally know who that kid was as soon as he entered the cell area with the sandwich bag? And did you predict the identity of Amy's baby?! To chat about this week's episode, read more.

In 2008. . . .

So, that runway. . . . was made by the Others as a landing strip. Now, the Ajira Airways flight 316 is able to land with relative smoothness (well, except for the unfortunate impaling of Lapidus's copilot).
I definitely thought Caesar and Ilana knew each other when we saw them in "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," though this episode, when Caesar tells Ilana his name on the plane, makes me wonder. I'm a little bit wary of these two. I really want to know what their deal is.
Lapidus tells everyone to hunker down, but Cesar wants to search the buildings he’s spotted. Ben tells Sun to start looking for Jin on the main island, but Lapidus warns her against going in a boat to the main island with Ben. I really like that Lapidus is protective of Sun, though it turns out she don't need no stinkin' protection. Is it terrible that my first reaction is to laugh out loud when Sun whacks Ben on the back of the head? Also: a little cheering.

Sun and Lapidus take the boat over to the main island and come upon the old Dharma houses. A door creaks open all spooky horror film-like and Christian Shepard appears. Sun asks for her husband and Christian shows her a photograph from 1977, a picture of the new Dharma recruits that year.

Speaking of 1977. . . .

Awww, Sawyer's reunion with Hurley is so adorable. Hurley bear hugs him, and Sawyer calls him Kong - before calling him by his real first name, Hugo. Sawyer informs everyone that he and Jin are in the Dharma Initiative and it's 1977.
I love it when Jin loses his cool. He's just trying to convey to Radzinsky at the Flame station that it's rather important he find out if anyone saw a plane on the island. Meanwhile, Radzinsky is a most hilarious control freak, and he's working on a model of the Swan.
OMG: Amy says she and Horace are naming the baby Ethan!
Amy: "So when are you and James gonna have one of these?"
Juliet: "I don't know. The timing's gotta be right." Aw, the sad irony of "timing" on this show.
Jin finds Sayid and Sawyer goes to the Flame to pretend to question Sayid before putting him in a cell. It think it's funny that Sayid includes a little dramatic flair in his answer as he plays along with Sawyer's instruction to identify himself as a hostile: "We do not refer to ourselves as ‘hostile,’ but yes, I am one of them."

Sawyer's got his hands full in this episode! And he's thinking quick on his feet. He tells Jack, Kate and Hurley to pretend to be the new recruits so they go to get checked in and watch the orientation video with Pierre Chang (a.k.a. Dr. Marvin Candle, among other names). Then Chang himself checks in Jack! It's sort of odd for a moment to see Chang actually interacting with the Losties. And hilariously, based on Jack's aptitude tests, he'll be doing janitorial work.
Juliet pretends to check in Kate and they "introduce" themselves to each other. There's totally more Kate/Juliet drama coming up in the next episodes.
Phil tells the new recruits to say "Namaste" for the photo. Hurley: "Nama-what?"
Phil also suggests to Jack, "I wouldn't call him 'James.' He hates it."
I'm not sure why, but I got choked up at the sight of Jack being choked up to see Juliet. That was kind of weird.
Now Jack wonders what Sawyer's going to do about Sayid, etc. and he makes a comment about Sawyer not doing anything but reading a book. Sawyer points out that Winston Churchill supposedly read a book every night to help him think better, and Sawyer wants to think better - as opposed to just reacting, like Jack used to do when he was the big boss of everyone. Touché, Sawyer.
I knew that kid with the sandwich would be Ben, now I just want to see how he'll play into the storyline of the Losties in 1977. . . .

In the previews for next week, Sayid says, "Now I know exactly why I'm here." Cannot wait to find that out!

Lost Episode Eight: "LaFleur"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:30:25 -0800

This just might be my favorite kind of Lost episode - all Sawyer, all the time. We get to find out what the heck went on on the island while the Oceanic Six were on the mainland, doing their respective things. So the story of Miles, Juliet, Faraday and Sawyer continues and we meet a few more Dharma Initiative people (Dharmites? Dharmaheads?).

As is the case every week, I'm just trying to process everything now, in the harsh post-Lost morning light. After the jump I'm trying to divide up what goes on in the show during the "Three Years Earlier" sections and what happens during the "Three Years Later" sections. To take a look and share your thoughts, read more.

First off, before that "final" flash that lands the group on the island in 1974, they find themselves in a time/place where there's a giant statue. Probably safe to say this will tie into the four-toed statue that we've glimpsed before and that the show creators have promised to bring back somehow. And now, the headaches and nosebleeds have stopped - Juliet thinks it's over, "John did it."

Three Years Earlier - 1974

Faraday is despondent over Charlotte's death, and he confirms that "Wherever we are - whenever we are now - we're here for good." Later on, in a sweet/sad moment he sees a little redheaded child that he thinks is Charlotte.
We meet some Dharma folks, primarily Amy (whose husband Paul is killed by two Others, before the two Others are killed by Sawyer and Juliet), and Horace. Amy leads the group through the "sonic fence" - they all collapse and Amy goes through unharmed, taking out earplugs.
Sawyer wakes up on a couch with Horace watching him (this exact interaction will be replayed later but in reverse, with Horace waking up hungover and Sawyer watching him). Sawyer lies to Horace, calling himself Mr. LaFleur ("It's Creole, I improvised") and saying he was on a salvage vessel, "looking for a famous lost wreck. It's an old slaver, out of Portsmouth, England, called the Black Rock." Horace instructs Sawyer to get on the submarine leaving in the morning for Tahiti because only Dharma Initiaive people can stay and Sawyer is "not Dharma material."
I enjoy a good voice of reason every once in a while on this show, like when Miles wonders about the sub to Tahiti: "How is that bad news?" Of course, Sawyer follows up with a classic name-calling: "Hold your horses, Bonsai, no one's getting on a sub."
Richard Alpert shows up and tells Horace that the fence "may keep other things out but not us. The only thing that does keep us out, Horace, is our truce, which you've now broken." Horace says a bunch of Dharma stuff to his "people," like "Call the Arrow. Tell them we're at Condition One. Take the heavy ordinance. And make sure the fence is at maximum." Sawyer goes out and talks to Alpert (or, haha, "your buddy out there with the eyeliner"), who says he still needs some kind of justice for his two men who were killed. Also, he wants the body of Amy's husband. Amy agrees to let him have it, though she takes an ankh necklace from Paul first.
Horace softens a bit toward Sawyer, saying he can stay two weeks, look for the rest of his people and wait for the sub to return. Juliet wants to leave on the next sub, but Sawyer convinces her to stay the two weeks with him. Awww, so ridiculously cute when he asks her "Who's gonna get my back?" I love the Sawyer-Juliet pair-up.

Three Years Later - 1977

It was driving me insane trying to figure out where I know Phil from, the Dharma guy with the eyebrows who busts in on the other guy, Jerry, and the girl, Rosie, dancing. I finally got it: The actor is Patrick Fischler, and he plays Jimmy Barrett on Mad Men. Man, that drove me nuts.
Also, I got a kick out of this thing on Lostpedia about the possible connection between the characters of Phil, Jerry and Rosie and the Grateful Dead.
Anywho, "now" (in 1977), Horace and Amy are having a baby together, though they get into a fight about Paul when Horace finds the ankh necklace and Horace gets fall-down drunk - just in time for Amy to go into labor.
And now Sawyer - oh, excuse me, Mr. LaFleur - appears to be a leader within the Dharma folks. Miles even calls him "Boss!" Miles, Jin and Sawyer are all seen wearing those Dharma coveralls, and both Sawyer and Jin have now driven around in those new-looking Dharma vans.
Sawyer with glasses or without glasses? Discuss.
Though resistant to the idea at first (with very good reason, I'd say), Juliet ends up performing a C-section and, to her surprise and relief, both Amy and her new baby boy survive just fine.
Later, Sawyer nearly kills me with adorableness when he goes to Juliet's with a flower and tells her she was amazing. They are all schmoopy-lovey-dovey - even trading "I love you"s.
And anyone who ever learned what "foreshadowing" meant probably saw the Kate-Sawyer reunion coming a mile away during Sawyer's little speech to Horace about whether three years is long enough to get over someone:

I had a thing for a girl once. And I had a shot at her. But I didn't take it. And for a little while I'd lay in bed every night wondering if it was a mistake. Wondering if I'd ever stop thinking about her. But now I can barely remember what she looks like. Her face is . . . she's just gone, and she ain't never coming back. So. Is three years long enough to get over someone? Absolutely.
Soon after, Sawyer gets the call about Jin finding Hurley, Jack, and that girl he's so over, Kate. They all meet up in "the North Valley."

Lost Episode Seven: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:30:41 -0800

After a series of crazy-twisty-"whoa!" episodes of Lost, this week's "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" is practically straightforward. The majority of the episode is spent with Locke traveling around trying to convince everyone to go back to the island, and when things don't go so well with that plan, Locke takes matters into his own hands. I remember feeling like the final two parts of the season finale last year ("There's No Place Like Home") were super great - but also raised a ton of questions, some of which were satisfyingly answered in this episode.

What did you think? Are you anxious to get back to the island and see what the heck's going on there? If you caught this week's episode and care to chat about it, read more.

That guy from the airport (who said he was sorry Jack's friend died) is named Caesar and he knows the woman who kept Sayid in custody, Ilana. (Where the heck is Sayid, anyway?) But they're not quite so friendly that Caesar would tell Ilana he's taking a gun (after looking through a room which includes the April 19, 1954 issue of Life magazine with the main story "Color Pictures of the Hydrogen Test").
It's crazy that Locke ends up with these people while Hurley, Kate and Jack end up near each other. Also, the pilot (Frank Lapidus) ended up with "some woman" (Sun?) and took one of those boats on the beach.
We go back to when John moved the wheel and he finds himself in Tunisia. He's taken to a medical clinic of some sort and his injured leg is set (and aaaah that scene made me wince). It turns out that desert Tunisia place is "the exit," according to Charles Widmore, who appears at Locke's bedside, marveling, "I met you when I was 17. Now all these years later, here we are. You look exactly the same."
Widmore explains some stuff to Locke: He was the leader of the Others for more than three decades before he was exiled by Ben. Now Widmore wants to help Locke get himself and the others back to the island "because there's a war coming, John, and if you're not back on the island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win."
So, Widmore gives Locke the new name Jeremy Bentham, named after a British philosopher. ("Your parents had a sense of humor when they named you, why can't I?" Haha, oh Widmore. You card.) The real Jeremy Bentham was a proponent of utilitarianism (says Wiki), and I find this quote of his particularly interesting: "Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think." The chain of causes and effects are fastened to their throne. . ."
Widmore struggles to get Locke to trust him over Ben ("I haven't tried to kill you. Can you say the same for him?") and begins the first in a series of discussions over whether or not Locke is "special." He says the island needs Locke.
So Locke, back in the dreaded wheelchair again, starts to travel around with Matthew Abaddon, Widmore's trusty agent, to try and collect the other Losties. They go to Santo Domingo where Sayid claims he was manipulated into thinking that he was protecting everyone on the island, and he gently suggests that Locke wants to go back to the island because he has nowhere else to go.
Locke and Abaddon find Walt, who has dreamt about him. In his dream, he sees Locke in a suit, surrounded by people who want to hurt him. Locke really just wanted to make sure Walt was OK? That's nice. He lets him know, "Last I heard your dad was on a freighter near the island."
In Santa Rosa, Locke goes to visit Hurley who, in a moment of great comic relief, thinks Locke is dead. He freaks out when he spots Abaddon though ("That dude is far from OK!"). Then in L.A., a weary Kate says she thinks Locke is desperate to be on the island because he didn't love somebody. Locke says he did love someone but it didn't work out. "I was angry. I was obsessed." Kate doesn't skip a beat with her response: "And look how far you've come." Ouch!
This is when Abaddon reveals to Locke what he does, reminding him that he encouraged Locke to go on the walkabout which led to Locke getting onto the island in the first place. "I help people get to where they need to get to, John. That's what I do for Mr. Widmore."
Locke visits the grave of his former love, Helen Norwood, who Abaddon says died of a brain aneurysm. Abaddon reinforces the whole destiny thing: "No matter what you do your path leads back to the island." And then I jumped a mile at Abaddon getting shot! In a relatively calm episode, it's nice that there are some super crazy moments like this thrown in.
Locke speeds away, gets into a car accident and ends up in Jack's hospital - where Jack is having none of Locke's destiny mumbo-jumbo. With a touch of cruelty, Jack says, "Maybe you're just a lonely old man that crashed on an island" before getting up to leave. Locke stops him by saying he's seen Jack's dad, Christian (ha: "He didn't look dead to me!")
Man. After everyone telling Locke he's just a pathetic, lonely old man who never knew love, I started to feel a little depressed.
Locke writes his one-line note to Jack and goes about the business of committing suicide when Ben shows up just in the nick of time. He explains that "Charles Widmore is the reason I moved the island!" Ben says he wanted to keep Widmore away so Locke could lead, and again tries to convince Locke that he's important. Poor Locke feels like a failure, but Ben tries to convince him otherwise: "John, you can't die. You've got too much work to do. We've got to get you back to that island so that you can do it."
This scene seemed vaguely biblical to me with Locke standing on the table, about to die, and Ben kneeling below him (before he unties the rope). Locke starts to weep, which breaks my heart just a little bit.
Somehow I suspected that Ben would end up killing Locke in that scene, but the strangulation - brutal! I couldn't actually watch it all the way. Does that make me a wuss? Ben then makes it look like Locke did it himself and leaves saying, "I'll miss you, John. I really will."
Back on the island, Locke chats with Caesar before going to the room with all the people who got hurt - including Ben, sleeping like a baby. "He's the man who killed me."