Be my Baby
Last night's episode was, overall, a solid story, but did not serve to advance the plot forward much. I consider it to be more of a groundwork building episode, as in: Sun is a ticking time bomb that is going to go off in two months. Since 1 month of Island Time = 1 Season of Lost, expect the resolution to Sun's pregnancy in the fifth and final season.
Seasons in the Sun
Last week's episode was entitled Catch 22, which also very aptly applies to this episode (and possible the entire series) as well. Sun is telling Jin she "loves him madly" when a stranger on a park bench asks her if she is the bride pictured in the newspaper. When Sun answers yes, the woman then reveals that Jin is the son of a fisherman and a prostitute and if Sun doesn't want to shame her family, she will pay her $100,000. Sun has previously been led to believe by Jin that his family is dead. Sun goes to visit Jin's dad, Mr. Kwon who aside from being a really nice guy, tells Sun he raised Jin on his own and Jin himself believes that his mother is dead. Mr. Kwon also tells Sun that if Jin ever finds out the truth about his mother, the shame of it would kill him. There was a little point in here that may have gotten lost: Mr. Kwon admits to Sun that he is not sure that he is even Jin's father. Think of all the interesting possibilities that this would open up!
So Sun knows that she must now pay off the wench (whom she rightly assumes is Jin's mother), but where to get the money? Of course, ask Daddy. As she is walking up the stairs at the Paik Corporate Headquarters, Patrick Swayze's voice keeps running through my head: "Yeah, it takes a lot of guts to run to Daddy, Baby." Papa Paik wants to know why Sun wants the money and she refuses to tell him who it is for, other than it will prevent someone that she loves very deeply from experiencing great shame. When Papa Paik balks about giving it to her, Sun says that in exchange, she will keep pretending that she doesn't know what it is that he does. Papa seems more than a little miffed at this, then makes her the offer she can't refuse: If she takes the money, Jin must come work for him. And here's our Catch-22, since Sun eventually ended up falling out of love and contemplating leaving Jin because of the violent man he had become working for her father.
Nobody puts Baby in the Corner
Meanwhile, back on the island, Jack is acting more and more like Benry, creeping up on Sun in her garden and asking all sorts of probing questions about her pregnancy. Sun is completely creeped out and rightly so--she thinks the Others want her baby. She asks Kate if Kate thinks Jack is working with the Others. Out of her loyalty to Jack, Kate tells her no, but she doesn't look completely convinced. She then blurts out to Sun that the Others were taking the babies to do experiments on them. At which point, Sun completely loses her cool, goes over to Juliet and starts grilling her. Juliet tells her that pregnant women die on this island.
Later that night, Juliet sneaks into Sun's tent, slaps a hand over her mouth and tells her if she wants answers, to come with her. Now, I know we all want to believe in the goodness of Juliet, but remember the prime directive:
JULIET IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED
Why wouldn't Juliet simply take Sun aside and offer to take her to the hatch where she can perform the ultrasound and answer her questions if all she wants to do is to be able to tell someone "good news"--after all, it's not exactly a secret on ht ebeach that Juliet is a fertility specialist -- Kate knew all about it. But no! Instead Juliet feels the need to slip into Sun's tent in the dead of night, slap a hand over her face and wake her up from a dead sleep in the most unsettling of all possible manners. MmmmHmmm, that's right. Now I see your brains working. Juliet is a mercenary and Jack is helping her. Why else would she be there on her undercover mission except that Jack spilled the beans about Sun's pregnancy to her? Forget that little "I hate you" confessional after she reported the results of the ultra sound to Ben--she could have been saying that about anyone--even herself.
In any event, the biggest question answered of course is that Jin is the father--so in another Catch 22, by the island curing Jin's impotency, it has also issued a death sentence to his wife. Now we need to know what kind of "samples" Juliet needs to collect from the other Losties--Kate was mentioned by name. I believe that the Others threw Kate and Sawyer together just to see if they could get Kate pregnant as well and that's the sample they are looking to get.
Walk on the Wild Side
Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, some really interesting things are happening with our happy campers. Naomi, she of parachute and beacon fame, is semi-conscious with a big stick poking up through her chest. Her lungs are filling with blood. She is speaking in all sorts of languages--Hurley recognizes Spanish, then later Italian and Portugese. As the men argue over to what to do to help her, Hurley shoots a flare into the sky, basically announcing there location to everyone. All of a sudden, who should come crashing through the jungle but Mikhail. Now what the hell is he doing there? Did he see the beacon and come looking for the parachutist, or is has he just wandered across their path in the jungle. And really, what the HELL is he doing there? Didn't his brain explode a couple of weeks ago in the Otherville sonic fence? Or did he just bite down on an Alka-Seltzer and give a really really good imitation of having his brain explode? Or did he really die and the island brought him back? This line of reasoning might explain why he and Miss Clue were so anxious to die when they were at the Flame--they knew the island would save them, and if the Losties thought they were dead, they would effectively escape from their captivity.
So Mikhail, it turns out, was a former medic for the Soviet Army and conveniently knows a little battlefield medicine, enough to get our girl Naomi out of danger in exchange for his release back into the wild. After Charlie and Desmond argue over whether or not to comply with this request, eventually, Desmond wins the argument (as he should - nobody should ever listen to Charlie) and Mikhail and his eyepatch disappear into the jungle. But before he leaves, a barely conscious Naomi utters a parting remark in another language. "What did she say?" they all want to know. Mikhail says "She said Thank You." An awkward pause ensues--nobody really believes that all she said was Thank You. A very reliable source (thanks Sig) has uncovered that it is possible that the language Naomi was speaking was Portuguese and the phrase she uttered was "I am not alone."
When will I see you again?
Next week's episode looks completely awesome. The producers are promising a payoff on the Anthony Cooper - Locke-Sawyer story. Can't wait.
As a side note, how annoying is it that Channel 6 keeps breaking into the end of the show with the stupid lottery drawing? I mean, do we really need to see the balls drawn live? Can't we just see the numbers on a crawl at the bottom of the screen? Or couldn't they just hold off on the lottery drawing until the show is over? Who do I write to to complain about this?
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Catch-22 SE3 EP22
“Do you need me to make you a mix tape?”
A pox on ABC for moving the time slot of Lost to the ungodly hour of 10:00. Yes, yes, I know we wouldn’t get any of the tasty Sawyer/Kate sex scenes in an earlier time slot, but I actually fell asleep for the last 20 minutes of the show. I woke up in a panic at 11:15 then could not get back to sleep for about an hour because I was so upset that I missed the show. Hence, your dedicated Lost chronicler is now watching the downloaded version of the show on the internet at home Thursday night while simultaneously dutifully composing your Lost update. So, sorry for the delay, and without further ado….
This is future crap, isn’t it?
Ok, first of all huge props to the super geeky Superman vs. Flash Charlie/Hurley debate. That was awesome.
How many of you out there were relieved when Charlie caught that arrow in the neck not even two minutes into the episode? I was like, “YES! Now we don’t have to waste a whole hour wondering: is this FINALLY the episode where Charlie buys it? Plus, if they took care of that at the very beginning of the show, then the rest of this show is going to be just awesome.” Of course, I was completely wrong, but oh well, wouldn’t be the first time.
So our Des has another wicked flash forward, sees Charlie die (again) and concludes that Penny is on her way to find him. Trouble is, Des doesn’t know which order the scenes from the flash forward are in, so everybody who he sees in the vision must accompany him on his little excursion to the “wire” so that the events he has foreseen will unfold as they should.
The name of the book with the copy of the Des/Pen photo that they found in the knapsack with the satellite phone was Ardil 22, which is Portuguese for Catch-22. The folks who were working for Penny in the Season 2 finale at the artic station were Portuguese. Therefore, our parachutist—Naomi—was probably sent by Penny to find Desmond—after all, she knew who he was right after they took off her helmet.
FYI, I believe this is the only way onto the island—wherever that chick was ejected or catapulted from, and it COULD have been a helicopter, but who knows? —she was unconscious when she landed. I suppose that’s how they got Juliet there and just carried her to the sub before she regained consciousness. I mean, Naomi probably wasn’t offered a sedative, was she?
By the way, Des altered the outcome of the vision himself—by saving Charlie (again) and presumably thereby altering the outcome of who arrived on the island—instead of Penny, it’s Naomi (whom we have no clue about), i.e. Catch-22. Charlie, of course, reacts in typical Charlie fashion, which, instead of being grateful for Desmond saving his life (again), he’s pissed off that Desmond knew that Charlie was in for another near death experience and didn’t tell him about it. Oh well, if one annoying character gets another week on TV, I’d rather it be Charlie than Sanjaya, so good week overall.
Desmond’s Flash Back
May I just say right off the bat that I can listen to Scots talk all day long? More recurring themes of courage, or more accurately, lack thereof. Seems our Des was dating Ruth for 6 years then left her at the altar when he ran away to the monastery (which neatly explains what I guess the marketing geniuses at ABC would call a major Lost mystery reveal: Why does Desmond call everyone “Brother”?). The name of the wine – Moriah-- that they make at the monastery has biblical significance as the land where Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his sons in the biblical version of a Catch 22. Additionally, the mines that the Fellowship of the Ring had to travel through to get to Mordor were called the mines of Moria and the Lord of the Rings starred none other than our Charlie as Merry the Hobbit. Coincidence? I think not.
And YES YES YES—the picture on the monk’s desk is the lady from the jewelry store in Desmond’s “time traveling” episode. So no wonder our Monk friend fires Des and tells him that the monastery is not where he was meant to end up—this guy obviously has some kind of inside track on the future if he knows our girl from the jewelry store. Sho’nuff, fresh from being fired, Des is asked to load up the nice lady’s car with cases of wine and the nice lady is none other than Penny. “If you hadn’t been fired from the monastery,” says Pen, “Then we wouldn’t have met.”
Jack/Juliet/Sawyer/Kate
Don’t Jack and Sawyer get along nice when Jack isn’t interested in Kate anymore? Sawyer seems much better with this new dynamic than Kate does, since Kate practically threw herself at Jack only to be met not only with patented Jack indifference, but then she got to watch him get all cozy with the ice queen Juliet. Which makes Kate so upset that she has to jump Sawyer in a 10pm worthy sex scene. Sawyer knows he’s second best, and outwardly acts like he doesn’t care, but we’ve all seen the way he looks at Kate; Sawyer will take what he can get and consider himself lucky.
I don’t like this new Jack who used to care about everything going on in camp and now only seems concerned about Juliet. He seems too laid back for me—Jack was a man of action, if nothing else. Now he seems content to sit back and wait for “something to happen” like he tells Kate. Sorry, guys, but I just don’t trust him anymore. He’s too smart to be duped by Juliet, so he has to be in on it. Also, a couple people have said Jack’s gotten new tattoos. I myself did not notice, however as I said before, I was watching the inside of my eyelids for about a third of the show last night.
Classic Sawyer lines worth mentioning: “You two arguing over who’s your favorite Other?” “If we don’t play (ping pong) every 108 minutes, the island’s going to explode.” And my favorite, “You need me to make you a mix tape?”
Geeking out over the Stephen King Connection….
So all the religious references in this episode got me to thinking that Lost seems to be building to an ultimate struggle between good and evil. We’re not really sure who the “good” side is and who the “bad” side is, but since we’re all rooting for the Lostaways and the Others are creepy, lets just say the good side is the Beach and the bad side is Otherville.
Over the summer I read this awesome geek article in Entertainment Weekly where the producers and writers of the show had this geek fantasy of a conversation and they mentioned that Charlie was patterned off of one of the characters in King’s “The Stand”. You’ll remember in previous Other flashback’s, Juliet’s book club was reading King’s “Carrie”. So after all of this by way of introduction, for some reason it occurred to me today that there is more than one Lostaway patterned off of a character in “The Stand”.
Now The Stand happens to be my very favorite Stephen King novel and I’ve read quite a few of them. If you’ve read The Stand, you’re gonna love this theory. If you haven’t, read it and then you’ll love the novel and the theory will seem like pure genius. If you’re not inclined to read it, sit there and be quiet till I’m through.
In The Stand, there is a great plague that wipes out 99.6% of humanity. The .4% of survivors begin to have supernatural dreams that compel them to begin a pilgrimage to one of two places: Hemingford Home, Nebraska (and later, Boulder Colorado) for the “good” people and Las Vegas, Nevada for the “Others”. The “good ones” are coalescing around a character called “Mother Abigail”. The Others, who are not necessarily bad so much as they are tainted, flawed, or weak in spirit are drawn to the Dark Man, Randall Flagg. In The Stand, Glen Bateman, the philosophy professor, proposes to Stuart, one of the leaders, that he thinks that most of the techies will go to Vegas because they like order. The Others seem to all be researchers of some sort, so I’m classifying them as techies and therefore “bad” for our purposes here. Most of the main characters in The Stand correspond to at least one character in Lost, as I see it below:
The Stand=Lost
Franny=Claire/Kate
Stuart=Jack
Nick=Desmond
Larry=Charlie/Sawyer
Glen=Locke
Ralph=Sayid
Nadine=Juliet
Tom Cullen=Hurley
Lloyd=Benry
Trashcan Man=???
Mother Abigail=???
Randall Flagg=Christian Sheppard (Jack and Claire’s dad) ?
I’m pretty sure this means absolutely nothing, but I thought it was a cool analogy. If you’ve read The Stand, I’d love to know what you think of my analysis.
OK, as I said, I missed the whole last 20 minutes including scenes for next week, but I think it’s a Sun/Jin flashback. I know we have another juicy juicy Locke backstory coming up that may or may not tie in with Sawyer and may or may not verify one of our favorite theories (Locke’s dad is the real Sawyer and also Roy DeSoto from Emergency) My guess is that when the mysterious Jacob is revealed, he will be played by Randolph Mantooth.
Until next week……
A pox on ABC for moving the time slot of Lost to the ungodly hour of 10:00. Yes, yes, I know we wouldn’t get any of the tasty Sawyer/Kate sex scenes in an earlier time slot, but I actually fell asleep for the last 20 minutes of the show. I woke up in a panic at 11:15 then could not get back to sleep for about an hour because I was so upset that I missed the show. Hence, your dedicated Lost chronicler is now watching the downloaded version of the show on the internet at home Thursday night while simultaneously dutifully composing your Lost update. So, sorry for the delay, and without further ado….
This is future crap, isn’t it?
Ok, first of all huge props to the super geeky Superman vs. Flash Charlie/Hurley debate. That was awesome.
How many of you out there were relieved when Charlie caught that arrow in the neck not even two minutes into the episode? I was like, “YES! Now we don’t have to waste a whole hour wondering: is this FINALLY the episode where Charlie buys it? Plus, if they took care of that at the very beginning of the show, then the rest of this show is going to be just awesome.” Of course, I was completely wrong, but oh well, wouldn’t be the first time.
So our Des has another wicked flash forward, sees Charlie die (again) and concludes that Penny is on her way to find him. Trouble is, Des doesn’t know which order the scenes from the flash forward are in, so everybody who he sees in the vision must accompany him on his little excursion to the “wire” so that the events he has foreseen will unfold as they should.
The name of the book with the copy of the Des/Pen photo that they found in the knapsack with the satellite phone was Ardil 22, which is Portuguese for Catch-22. The folks who were working for Penny in the Season 2 finale at the artic station were Portuguese. Therefore, our parachutist—Naomi—was probably sent by Penny to find Desmond—after all, she knew who he was right after they took off her helmet.
FYI, I believe this is the only way onto the island—wherever that chick was ejected or catapulted from, and it COULD have been a helicopter, but who knows? —she was unconscious when she landed. I suppose that’s how they got Juliet there and just carried her to the sub before she regained consciousness. I mean, Naomi probably wasn’t offered a sedative, was she?
By the way, Des altered the outcome of the vision himself—by saving Charlie (again) and presumably thereby altering the outcome of who arrived on the island—instead of Penny, it’s Naomi (whom we have no clue about), i.e. Catch-22. Charlie, of course, reacts in typical Charlie fashion, which, instead of being grateful for Desmond saving his life (again), he’s pissed off that Desmond knew that Charlie was in for another near death experience and didn’t tell him about it. Oh well, if one annoying character gets another week on TV, I’d rather it be Charlie than Sanjaya, so good week overall.
Desmond’s Flash Back
May I just say right off the bat that I can listen to Scots talk all day long? More recurring themes of courage, or more accurately, lack thereof. Seems our Des was dating Ruth for 6 years then left her at the altar when he ran away to the monastery (which neatly explains what I guess the marketing geniuses at ABC would call a major Lost mystery reveal: Why does Desmond call everyone “Brother”?). The name of the wine – Moriah-- that they make at the monastery has biblical significance as the land where Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his sons in the biblical version of a Catch 22. Additionally, the mines that the Fellowship of the Ring had to travel through to get to Mordor were called the mines of Moria and the Lord of the Rings starred none other than our Charlie as Merry the Hobbit. Coincidence? I think not.
And YES YES YES—the picture on the monk’s desk is the lady from the jewelry store in Desmond’s “time traveling” episode. So no wonder our Monk friend fires Des and tells him that the monastery is not where he was meant to end up—this guy obviously has some kind of inside track on the future if he knows our girl from the jewelry store. Sho’nuff, fresh from being fired, Des is asked to load up the nice lady’s car with cases of wine and the nice lady is none other than Penny. “If you hadn’t been fired from the monastery,” says Pen, “Then we wouldn’t have met.”
Jack/Juliet/Sawyer/Kate
Don’t Jack and Sawyer get along nice when Jack isn’t interested in Kate anymore? Sawyer seems much better with this new dynamic than Kate does, since Kate practically threw herself at Jack only to be met not only with patented Jack indifference, but then she got to watch him get all cozy with the ice queen Juliet. Which makes Kate so upset that she has to jump Sawyer in a 10pm worthy sex scene. Sawyer knows he’s second best, and outwardly acts like he doesn’t care, but we’ve all seen the way he looks at Kate; Sawyer will take what he can get and consider himself lucky.
I don’t like this new Jack who used to care about everything going on in camp and now only seems concerned about Juliet. He seems too laid back for me—Jack was a man of action, if nothing else. Now he seems content to sit back and wait for “something to happen” like he tells Kate. Sorry, guys, but I just don’t trust him anymore. He’s too smart to be duped by Juliet, so he has to be in on it. Also, a couple people have said Jack’s gotten new tattoos. I myself did not notice, however as I said before, I was watching the inside of my eyelids for about a third of the show last night.
Classic Sawyer lines worth mentioning: “You two arguing over who’s your favorite Other?” “If we don’t play (ping pong) every 108 minutes, the island’s going to explode.” And my favorite, “You need me to make you a mix tape?”
Geeking out over the Stephen King Connection….
So all the religious references in this episode got me to thinking that Lost seems to be building to an ultimate struggle between good and evil. We’re not really sure who the “good” side is and who the “bad” side is, but since we’re all rooting for the Lostaways and the Others are creepy, lets just say the good side is the Beach and the bad side is Otherville.
Over the summer I read this awesome geek article in Entertainment Weekly where the producers and writers of the show had this geek fantasy of a conversation and they mentioned that Charlie was patterned off of one of the characters in King’s “The Stand”. You’ll remember in previous Other flashback’s, Juliet’s book club was reading King’s “Carrie”. So after all of this by way of introduction, for some reason it occurred to me today that there is more than one Lostaway patterned off of a character in “The Stand”.
Now The Stand happens to be my very favorite Stephen King novel and I’ve read quite a few of them. If you’ve read The Stand, you’re gonna love this theory. If you haven’t, read it and then you’ll love the novel and the theory will seem like pure genius. If you’re not inclined to read it, sit there and be quiet till I’m through.
In The Stand, there is a great plague that wipes out 99.6% of humanity. The .4% of survivors begin to have supernatural dreams that compel them to begin a pilgrimage to one of two places: Hemingford Home, Nebraska (and later, Boulder Colorado) for the “good” people and Las Vegas, Nevada for the “Others”. The “good ones” are coalescing around a character called “Mother Abigail”. The Others, who are not necessarily bad so much as they are tainted, flawed, or weak in spirit are drawn to the Dark Man, Randall Flagg. In The Stand, Glen Bateman, the philosophy professor, proposes to Stuart, one of the leaders, that he thinks that most of the techies will go to Vegas because they like order. The Others seem to all be researchers of some sort, so I’m classifying them as techies and therefore “bad” for our purposes here. Most of the main characters in The Stand correspond to at least one character in Lost, as I see it below:
The Stand=Lost
Franny=Claire/Kate
Stuart=Jack
Nick=Desmond
Larry=Charlie/Sawyer
Glen=Locke
Ralph=Sayid
Nadine=Juliet
Tom Cullen=Hurley
Lloyd=Benry
Trashcan Man=???
Mother Abigail=???
Randall Flagg=Christian Sheppard (Jack and Claire’s dad) ?
I’m pretty sure this means absolutely nothing, but I thought it was a cool analogy. If you’ve read The Stand, I’d love to know what you think of my analysis.
OK, as I said, I missed the whole last 20 minutes including scenes for next week, but I think it’s a Sun/Jin flashback. I know we have another juicy juicy Locke backstory coming up that may or may not tie in with Sawyer and may or may not verify one of our favorite theories (Locke’s dad is the real Sawyer and also Roy DeSoto from Emergency) My guess is that when the mysterious Jacob is revealed, he will be played by Randolph Mantooth.
Until next week……
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
One of Us SE3 EP16
“She is under my protection.”Show of hands, please. Who bought into the whole Juliet-as-victim-of-the-Others thing? Yeah, yeah, I know. I almost did too, until I remembered the prime directive:
JULIET IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED
Best episode of the season, so far. Let's get into it....
Juliet's Backstory
Ok, we were given so much information during this episode that I am sure I'm going to forget some stuff. When last we visited a Juliet backstory, Juliet had successfully gotten her cancer-ridden sister pregnant (through what we can only assume were very unconventional means) even though her reproductive system has been ravaged by chemo. This brings her to the attention of the Hateterat (?--not sure if I'm remembering the name right) Corporation, aka Others, Inc. They take her away for what they originally promise to be 6 months but ends up being three years. Preson & Steve floated the theory that the submarine in which Juliet wakes up from at the end of her journey was nothing more that a prop--that she was made to think that that was how one got off an on the island. It doesn't much matter whether the sub can get you off the island anymore anyway since Locke blew it up last week. We soon find out why the Others are so interested in Juliet: apparently, residents of the island cannot reproduce. Not only can they NOT reproduce, but getting pregnant is apparently fatal to the women of Otherville. This raises several issues:
1. Ben claims he was born on the island. Was he the last one?
2. Alex, as we originally suspected, cannot be Ben's biological daughter. However, did Rousseau give birth to her on the island or before? As my colleague pointed out, it would be more than awkward to be travelling on a research vessel with an infant.
3. Claire is the first woman to give birth on the island since, presumably, Ben's mom.
4. Is Juliet infiltrating the Lostaways to get to Sun? For that matter, has Sun somehow been impregnated by the Others as part of their dubious experimentation process?
It's interesting to note the contrasts between Juliet of the backstory and Juliet on Island Time. The Backstory Juliet seems quite doormatty--in an earlier episode she hid in the lab from her estranged ex-husband who apparently had a stranglehold of control over her, then she wished him dead. That Juliet had soft messy curls and seemed almost timid at times. Juliet on Island time is completely cold and ruthless. Witness also that her hair is is is more severe and, it's probably just an intentional trick of makeup, but she looks thinner and more square-jawed and her eyes more icy blue. The bottom line is what happened to Juliet over the course of her three years on the island that has so fundamentally changed her character?
Ben's Tumor
Ben makes a deal with Juliet to stay on the island if he cures her sister's cancer. The Others, at least those we've seen, all seem to be a community of researchers and they've apparently figured out the cure for cancer, which they are willing to sell to Juliet's sister for the price of her staying on the island. This directive came right from the top: Jacob. Juliet agrees and goes on with her life, (sleeping with Goodwin even though she was supposedly married to Ben...? What's up with that?) until she discovers a big ole tumor in Ben's back. No one ever comes out and says it's cancer, but Juliet is clearly shaken and doubts Ben's word, calling him a liar. Ben, determined to calm Juliet and dispell her doubts takes her on a field trip through the jungle on a....
...Visit to the Flame
First of all, I love Ben's annoyance with Mikhail--he "never has his walkie on" and calling to him not to shoot them. We then see them bring up the news account on the missing Flight 815 which confirms that the outside world still exists. Ben patches through to someone named "Richard" who proceeds to surrepticiously broadcast footage of Juliet's cured sister and her now three-year-old child. Juliet reacts with great emotion, wanting now to go home more than ever, but she acknowledges that Ben has indeed kept his word. Mikhail has already begun to gather information about the Lostaways when we join him at the Flame.
The return to the beach
Sawyer was the one to watch during this scene. The expression on his face when he first saw Jack was almost one of...disappointment? Could it be our Sawyer was starting to dig on being a leader? Then when he spots Kate, the pure joy and relief. I was so glad to see Kate fall into his arms--I think she may have gained a whole new appreciation for Sawyer after her week away with Jack and Juliet.
I'm afraid Jack has been compromised....
Is Jack's ego out of control, or has he switched teams? When Sayid first threatens to make Juliet talk, Jack steps in and says that she'll talk when she wants to and furthermore, Sayid is to leave her alone. "She is under my protection," says Jack, which when you think about it is a really hokey thing to say, but Jack means it. He stares Sayid down, though I have no doubt Sayid can probably kick Jack's butt. The next one to question Juliet's presence is Charlie. And Jack tells him"I trust her and that should be enough for you." He then defends her presence to the rest of the group by saying she was left behind just like him, almost as if he's daring them to question his authority. I think Jack is in deep with Juliet. Whether he knows of Ben's plotting with Juliet to infiltrate the camp is a matter for debate. But his authoritarian manner upon returning to camp says he's not a leader I would trust to have the best interests of the Lostaways at heart any more. Jack wants OFF the island and since he presumes that's what Juliet wants as well, he has thrown his lot in with her. At the end of the episode, we see Juliet setting up her camp with the touching/sad Lost piano music playing while interspersed with shots of Ben and Juliet plotting her infiltration of the Lostaway camp. When Jack catches her eye, the expression on Juliet's face is unreadable: is she regretting her doublecross of Jack (I truly believe she has feelings for Jack) or is she cementing their bond?
Redemption
Look in the episodes ahead for more themes of redemption. The Lostaways who have committed some truly heinous acts pre-crash (Kate and Sawyer, Sayid, Jin) will be lining up against the Others and those aligned with them. I would not be surprised at all to see a new cohesion around Sawyer as the Lostaways figure out Jack's allegiance with the Others. If Jack's father is truly Jacob (as Sig has postulated) than this theory fits in with the handing over the island to the first born son. It remains to see what will what side Claire will take since Jack is her brother and Charlie is definitely going to die.
The Moral Police
Sayid and Sawyer ambush Juliet as she goes into the jungle to fetch "Ethan's medical bag." Sawyer and Sayid (rightly) don't trust her. Juliet, however, is not intimitdated by two men who are easily the most intimidating on the beach. She asks who they are to think they are the moral police to be judging her--asking Sayid how many people did you torture before you stopped and asking about one person by name (I didn't catch the name) and asking Sawyer if anyone else knows that he shot a man in cold blood right befoe he go on the plane. Sawyer and Sayid, two pretty tough guys, are completely demoralized by this and they let her go. The bigger issue, though is how the HELL did she know all that? Presumably she just told these guys stuff about them that only they knew.
And speaking of moral police, who the heck is Juliet to be lecturing Sayid and Sawyer--the Others are the ones with their little judgmental lists and the "You're a good one" "You're a bad one" calls.
Other tidbits of note
The book club was reading "Carrie" which is a nice little nod to fellow Lostie Stephen King (upon whose characters from The Stand some of our Lostaways are based). Ben found it depressing. The plane crash has not only conveniently provided Ben with the exact spinal specialist he needs, but one very pregnant and one almost pregnant woman upon whom Juliet can continue her experimentation. Claire's sickness was caused by some kind of an implant that Ben activated just prior to Jack, Juliet, Sayid and Kate's return to the beach in order to create a "crisis" which Juliet will be able to solve in order to gain the Lostaway's trust. Whatever Juliet needs to accomplish over on the beach will be done in a week since Ben says he will see he in a week as he hands her a gas mask.
5 more episodes and my previews were ruined by the stupid lottery drawing minimizing the comming attractions. Damn you, ABC! But it looks like it could be a Desmond episode next week and, as you all know, I'm definitely all for that.
JULIET IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED
Best episode of the season, so far. Let's get into it....
Juliet's Backstory
Ok, we were given so much information during this episode that I am sure I'm going to forget some stuff. When last we visited a Juliet backstory, Juliet had successfully gotten her cancer-ridden sister pregnant (through what we can only assume were very unconventional means) even though her reproductive system has been ravaged by chemo. This brings her to the attention of the Hateterat (?--not sure if I'm remembering the name right) Corporation, aka Others, Inc. They take her away for what they originally promise to be 6 months but ends up being three years. Preson & Steve floated the theory that the submarine in which Juliet wakes up from at the end of her journey was nothing more that a prop--that she was made to think that that was how one got off an on the island. It doesn't much matter whether the sub can get you off the island anymore anyway since Locke blew it up last week. We soon find out why the Others are so interested in Juliet: apparently, residents of the island cannot reproduce. Not only can they NOT reproduce, but getting pregnant is apparently fatal to the women of Otherville. This raises several issues:
1. Ben claims he was born on the island. Was he the last one?
2. Alex, as we originally suspected, cannot be Ben's biological daughter. However, did Rousseau give birth to her on the island or before? As my colleague pointed out, it would be more than awkward to be travelling on a research vessel with an infant.
3. Claire is the first woman to give birth on the island since, presumably, Ben's mom.
4. Is Juliet infiltrating the Lostaways to get to Sun? For that matter, has Sun somehow been impregnated by the Others as part of their dubious experimentation process?
It's interesting to note the contrasts between Juliet of the backstory and Juliet on Island Time. The Backstory Juliet seems quite doormatty--in an earlier episode she hid in the lab from her estranged ex-husband who apparently had a stranglehold of control over her, then she wished him dead. That Juliet had soft messy curls and seemed almost timid at times. Juliet on Island time is completely cold and ruthless. Witness also that her hair is is is more severe and, it's probably just an intentional trick of makeup, but she looks thinner and more square-jawed and her eyes more icy blue. The bottom line is what happened to Juliet over the course of her three years on the island that has so fundamentally changed her character?
Ben's Tumor
Ben makes a deal with Juliet to stay on the island if he cures her sister's cancer. The Others, at least those we've seen, all seem to be a community of researchers and they've apparently figured out the cure for cancer, which they are willing to sell to Juliet's sister for the price of her staying on the island. This directive came right from the top: Jacob. Juliet agrees and goes on with her life, (sleeping with Goodwin even though she was supposedly married to Ben...? What's up with that?) until she discovers a big ole tumor in Ben's back. No one ever comes out and says it's cancer, but Juliet is clearly shaken and doubts Ben's word, calling him a liar. Ben, determined to calm Juliet and dispell her doubts takes her on a field trip through the jungle on a....
...Visit to the Flame
First of all, I love Ben's annoyance with Mikhail--he "never has his walkie on" and calling to him not to shoot them. We then see them bring up the news account on the missing Flight 815 which confirms that the outside world still exists. Ben patches through to someone named "Richard" who proceeds to surrepticiously broadcast footage of Juliet's cured sister and her now three-year-old child. Juliet reacts with great emotion, wanting now to go home more than ever, but she acknowledges that Ben has indeed kept his word. Mikhail has already begun to gather information about the Lostaways when we join him at the Flame.
The return to the beach
Sawyer was the one to watch during this scene. The expression on his face when he first saw Jack was almost one of...disappointment? Could it be our Sawyer was starting to dig on being a leader? Then when he spots Kate, the pure joy and relief. I was so glad to see Kate fall into his arms--I think she may have gained a whole new appreciation for Sawyer after her week away with Jack and Juliet.
I'm afraid Jack has been compromised....
Is Jack's ego out of control, or has he switched teams? When Sayid first threatens to make Juliet talk, Jack steps in and says that she'll talk when she wants to and furthermore, Sayid is to leave her alone. "She is under my protection," says Jack, which when you think about it is a really hokey thing to say, but Jack means it. He stares Sayid down, though I have no doubt Sayid can probably kick Jack's butt. The next one to question Juliet's presence is Charlie. And Jack tells him"I trust her and that should be enough for you." He then defends her presence to the rest of the group by saying she was left behind just like him, almost as if he's daring them to question his authority. I think Jack is in deep with Juliet. Whether he knows of Ben's plotting with Juliet to infiltrate the camp is a matter for debate. But his authoritarian manner upon returning to camp says he's not a leader I would trust to have the best interests of the Lostaways at heart any more. Jack wants OFF the island and since he presumes that's what Juliet wants as well, he has thrown his lot in with her. At the end of the episode, we see Juliet setting up her camp with the touching/sad Lost piano music playing while interspersed with shots of Ben and Juliet plotting her infiltration of the Lostaway camp. When Jack catches her eye, the expression on Juliet's face is unreadable: is she regretting her doublecross of Jack (I truly believe she has feelings for Jack) or is she cementing their bond?
Redemption
Look in the episodes ahead for more themes of redemption. The Lostaways who have committed some truly heinous acts pre-crash (Kate and Sawyer, Sayid, Jin) will be lining up against the Others and those aligned with them. I would not be surprised at all to see a new cohesion around Sawyer as the Lostaways figure out Jack's allegiance with the Others. If Jack's father is truly Jacob (as Sig has postulated) than this theory fits in with the handing over the island to the first born son. It remains to see what will what side Claire will take since Jack is her brother and Charlie is definitely going to die.
The Moral Police
Sayid and Sawyer ambush Juliet as she goes into the jungle to fetch "Ethan's medical bag." Sawyer and Sayid (rightly) don't trust her. Juliet, however, is not intimitdated by two men who are easily the most intimidating on the beach. She asks who they are to think they are the moral police to be judging her--asking Sayid how many people did you torture before you stopped and asking about one person by name (I didn't catch the name) and asking Sawyer if anyone else knows that he shot a man in cold blood right befoe he go on the plane. Sawyer and Sayid, two pretty tough guys, are completely demoralized by this and they let her go. The bigger issue, though is how the HELL did she know all that? Presumably she just told these guys stuff about them that only they knew.
And speaking of moral police, who the heck is Juliet to be lecturing Sayid and Sawyer--the Others are the ones with their little judgmental lists and the "You're a good one" "You're a bad one" calls.
Other tidbits of note
The book club was reading "Carrie" which is a nice little nod to fellow Lostie Stephen King (upon whose characters from The Stand some of our Lostaways are based). Ben found it depressing. The plane crash has not only conveniently provided Ben with the exact spinal specialist he needs, but one very pregnant and one almost pregnant woman upon whom Juliet can continue her experimentation. Claire's sickness was caused by some kind of an implant that Ben activated just prior to Jack, Juliet, Sayid and Kate's return to the beach in order to create a "crisis" which Juliet will be able to solve in order to gain the Lostaway's trust. Whatever Juliet needs to accomplish over on the beach will be done in a week since Ben says he will see he in a week as he hands her a gas mask.
5 more episodes and my previews were ruined by the stupid lottery drawing minimizing the comming attractions. Damn you, ABC! But it looks like it could be a Desmond episode next week and, as you all know, I'm definitely all for that.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Left Behind SE3 EP 15
“I was betrayed by someone who was supposed to love me”Well, boohoo Kate. Join the club.
Kate's Backstory
It was nice to see Cassie again, Sawyer's mark from a previous episode and the mother of his baby--which I believe was revealed at some point towards the end of an episode earlier this year. "Just two girls in trouble, helping each other out." A nice parallel with the island-time action, but more on that later. We see Cassie pulling the necklace con that Sawyer taught her when her mark threatens to call the cops. Kate recognizes it as a con and plays along with Cassie so that the mark doesn't call the cops. Cassie in turn recognizes a kindred spirit in Kate in that they are both in trouble, so Cassie agrees to help Kate speak to her mother.
At first I found it hard to believe that Kate's cold-blooded murder of her dirtbag stepfather could warrant the level of fed interest in her, then I remembered the bank robbery (from season one) and the death of the doctor (who was her friend) while on the run. It makes me wonder what else we haven't seen yet that is a part of Kate's rap sheet--because so far, everything she has done, though illegal and wrong, could sort of be understood--like you could learn these things about Kate and still be her friend. Locke, however, knows her whole story--or at least the Others' version of it--and whatever else she did it was bad enough to make him turn his back on her. But I digress. We're still in backstory here.
So Kate's dishrag mom throws her over for the Sawyer-esque wife beatin' dirtbag she was married to (aka Kate's real dad) saying, "You can't help who you fall in love with." Kate says she killed "Wayne" for her mother--but her mother says "No, you killed him for you." Which makes me wonder if perhaps he did go after her after all, in spite of Kate's protestations to the contrary. Kate's mom then tells her that she won't turn her in this time, but the next time she sees her she will call for help--which is exactly what she did when Kate saw her in the hospital (flashback from season 1). We also revisit the Good Man-Great Man-Bad Man theme again this week when Kate tells Cassie that her mother's husband (she doesn't call him her father) was a "Bad Man". Cassie then tells Kate that she was impregnated by a con-man who stole her life savings--another "Bad Man".
The I-was-betrayed-by-someone-who-was-supposed-to-love-me Club
Kate gets Cassie to help her talk to her mom by telling her that she was betrayed by someone who was supposed to love her. I guess we can count Locke, Sawyer, Charlie, Jack, Sun, Jin, and even Claire as members of that club as well. Each one of them was betrayed by a close family member who should have had their best interests at heart and instead "threw them under the bus."
Kate and Juliet are in this thing together
Ok, love the whole Kate/Juliet interaction. When Kate goes to whack her with the pool cue and Juliet comes in and totally kicks her ass--that was awesome. I'm so used to seeing Kate kick butt, that actually seeing Kate get beat up was a bit of a shock. Juliet is scary. She is ice cold, ruthless and very dangerous--Sawyer picked up on that the first time he laid eyes on her and if that wasn't enough to convince them, seeing her blow Danny away without even thinking about it was pretty chilling. I'd like to reiterate here if I may that
JULIET IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
Witness how she blatantly lied to Kate about A.) having the key all along and B) acting all scared and "What was that?" when the black smoke monster starts chasing them. My daughter and I were like, "How can she NOT know about the monster?" Turns out of course, that she did know about it and know enough about it to know that when she entered her perimeter security code that the Other-ville fence would keep it out. Her motive for lying to Kate is to make her think that they were both "in it together" (Hence the tie-in to the back story) which also begs the question that since Juliet and the Others seem to know so much about the Lost-aways, did Juliet have specific knowledge of that incident in Kate's past and chose to exploit it for her own purposes? My guess is yes. I think Juliet is just as, if not more, manipulative than Benry. And it was effective since even after Kate dislocates Juliet's shoulder, Kate starts apologizing and then asking her if she's ok. She doesn't want to like her, but Juliet is like an infection--she's clearly gotten under Jack's skin. Speaking of which, could falling under the "spell" of the Others be the "sickness" Rousseau talked about in season 1?
Jack-Juliet-Kate triangle
Juliet and Kate seem to both be marking Jack as their territory, however, Kate seems genuinely devastated when she finds out the Jack knows about her and Sawyer and Juliet tells her she broke his heart. She is bawling her eyes out, begging Jack for forgiveness--playing on what she assumes are Jack's feelings for her when she tells him she's sorry he couldn't leave and it's all her fault. She is looking for Jack to comfort her and tell her its all right--but like he was when she followed Jack, Locke and Sayid into the jungle to look for Michael and ended up getting captured by Zeke aka Mr. Friendly aka Tom, Jack is pissed off at her. And perhaps more startling to Kate than Jack's coldness towards her is that his first thoughts upon waking are for Juliet. Kate's demeanor instantly changes once she realizes her place in Jack's world has been taken by Juliet.
"She's coming."
Did you really think Jack was going to leave Juliet behind, Sayid? Jack's rationalization, she was left behind just like they were, seems a little weak. Clearly he is under her spell. Even though next week we see scenes of Sayid threatening to torture Juliet, I still think that because Jack trusts Juliet, now Jack is not to be trusted. Juliet was left behind on purpose. And speaking of left behind, where the hell did they go? I'm thinking that they're not far...
What's up with Locke?
And speaking of being under the spell of the Others, clearly we have some issues with Locke at this point. Of course, Benry had stated when he was being held captive in the hatch that Locke was one of the "good ones" and that Benry came for him. This is why the Others are not far away: Locke told Kate he was never going to leave the island.
The return of the Monster
No, we still don't know what it is, but what a relief that the writers haven't forgotten about it. It appeared to be taking pictures of Juliet when her and Kate took cover in the grove--I believe Juliet's experience with the Monster was similar to Eko's last season and Locke's in season 1. Apparently, the Others' perimeter security is enough to hold it at bay, and either Juliet knew that without a doubt or she has nerves of steel to stand on the other side of the perimeter and face it. Probably a combination of both.
The Lost-aways need a new leader
Meanwhile, back on the beach, Hurley is playing a little con on the con man. I picked up on it pretty quickly, but it still did not spoil the story-line for me. Hurley and Sawyer play really well off each other and Hurley is turning into the perfect foil for Sawyer. First betting him over ping pong and not letting Sawyer use any of his patented insulting Sawyer nicknames for a week, then this week tricking him into being nice to everybody. You could even see Sawyer digging on being accepted and making people happy. It was a nice secondary story line providing some much needed comic relief. By the way, was anyone else waiting for Charlie to start choking on the roast boar?
Next week
Juliet: "If I told you everything I know about the island, you would kill me."
Sayid: "And what do you think I will do if you DON'T tell me?"
Kate's Backstory
It was nice to see Cassie again, Sawyer's mark from a previous episode and the mother of his baby--which I believe was revealed at some point towards the end of an episode earlier this year. "Just two girls in trouble, helping each other out." A nice parallel with the island-time action, but more on that later. We see Cassie pulling the necklace con that Sawyer taught her when her mark threatens to call the cops. Kate recognizes it as a con and plays along with Cassie so that the mark doesn't call the cops. Cassie in turn recognizes a kindred spirit in Kate in that they are both in trouble, so Cassie agrees to help Kate speak to her mother.
At first I found it hard to believe that Kate's cold-blooded murder of her dirtbag stepfather could warrant the level of fed interest in her, then I remembered the bank robbery (from season one) and the death of the doctor (who was her friend) while on the run. It makes me wonder what else we haven't seen yet that is a part of Kate's rap sheet--because so far, everything she has done, though illegal and wrong, could sort of be understood--like you could learn these things about Kate and still be her friend. Locke, however, knows her whole story--or at least the Others' version of it--and whatever else she did it was bad enough to make him turn his back on her. But I digress. We're still in backstory here.
So Kate's dishrag mom throws her over for the Sawyer-esque wife beatin' dirtbag she was married to (aka Kate's real dad) saying, "You can't help who you fall in love with." Kate says she killed "Wayne" for her mother--but her mother says "No, you killed him for you." Which makes me wonder if perhaps he did go after her after all, in spite of Kate's protestations to the contrary. Kate's mom then tells her that she won't turn her in this time, but the next time she sees her she will call for help--which is exactly what she did when Kate saw her in the hospital (flashback from season 1). We also revisit the Good Man-Great Man-Bad Man theme again this week when Kate tells Cassie that her mother's husband (she doesn't call him her father) was a "Bad Man". Cassie then tells Kate that she was impregnated by a con-man who stole her life savings--another "Bad Man".
The I-was-betrayed-by-someone-who-was-supposed-to-love-me Club
Kate gets Cassie to help her talk to her mom by telling her that she was betrayed by someone who was supposed to love her. I guess we can count Locke, Sawyer, Charlie, Jack, Sun, Jin, and even Claire as members of that club as well. Each one of them was betrayed by a close family member who should have had their best interests at heart and instead "threw them under the bus."
Kate and Juliet are in this thing together
Ok, love the whole Kate/Juliet interaction. When Kate goes to whack her with the pool cue and Juliet comes in and totally kicks her ass--that was awesome. I'm so used to seeing Kate kick butt, that actually seeing Kate get beat up was a bit of a shock. Juliet is scary. She is ice cold, ruthless and very dangerous--Sawyer picked up on that the first time he laid eyes on her and if that wasn't enough to convince them, seeing her blow Danny away without even thinking about it was pretty chilling. I'd like to reiterate here if I may that
JULIET IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
Witness how she blatantly lied to Kate about A.) having the key all along and B) acting all scared and "What was that?" when the black smoke monster starts chasing them. My daughter and I were like, "How can she NOT know about the monster?" Turns out of course, that she did know about it and know enough about it to know that when she entered her perimeter security code that the Other-ville fence would keep it out. Her motive for lying to Kate is to make her think that they were both "in it together" (Hence the tie-in to the back story) which also begs the question that since Juliet and the Others seem to know so much about the Lost-aways, did Juliet have specific knowledge of that incident in Kate's past and chose to exploit it for her own purposes? My guess is yes. I think Juliet is just as, if not more, manipulative than Benry. And it was effective since even after Kate dislocates Juliet's shoulder, Kate starts apologizing and then asking her if she's ok. She doesn't want to like her, but Juliet is like an infection--she's clearly gotten under Jack's skin. Speaking of which, could falling under the "spell" of the Others be the "sickness" Rousseau talked about in season 1?
Jack-Juliet-Kate triangle
Juliet and Kate seem to both be marking Jack as their territory, however, Kate seems genuinely devastated when she finds out the Jack knows about her and Sawyer and Juliet tells her she broke his heart. She is bawling her eyes out, begging Jack for forgiveness--playing on what she assumes are Jack's feelings for her when she tells him she's sorry he couldn't leave and it's all her fault. She is looking for Jack to comfort her and tell her its all right--but like he was when she followed Jack, Locke and Sayid into the jungle to look for Michael and ended up getting captured by Zeke aka Mr. Friendly aka Tom, Jack is pissed off at her. And perhaps more startling to Kate than Jack's coldness towards her is that his first thoughts upon waking are for Juliet. Kate's demeanor instantly changes once she realizes her place in Jack's world has been taken by Juliet.
"She's coming."
Did you really think Jack was going to leave Juliet behind, Sayid? Jack's rationalization, she was left behind just like they were, seems a little weak. Clearly he is under her spell. Even though next week we see scenes of Sayid threatening to torture Juliet, I still think that because Jack trusts Juliet, now Jack is not to be trusted. Juliet was left behind on purpose. And speaking of left behind, where the hell did they go? I'm thinking that they're not far...
What's up with Locke?
And speaking of being under the spell of the Others, clearly we have some issues with Locke at this point. Of course, Benry had stated when he was being held captive in the hatch that Locke was one of the "good ones" and that Benry came for him. This is why the Others are not far away: Locke told Kate he was never going to leave the island.
The return of the Monster
No, we still don't know what it is, but what a relief that the writers haven't forgotten about it. It appeared to be taking pictures of Juliet when her and Kate took cover in the grove--I believe Juliet's experience with the Monster was similar to Eko's last season and Locke's in season 1. Apparently, the Others' perimeter security is enough to hold it at bay, and either Juliet knew that without a doubt or she has nerves of steel to stand on the other side of the perimeter and face it. Probably a combination of both.
The Lost-aways need a new leader
Meanwhile, back on the beach, Hurley is playing a little con on the con man. I picked up on it pretty quickly, but it still did not spoil the story-line for me. Hurley and Sawyer play really well off each other and Hurley is turning into the perfect foil for Sawyer. First betting him over ping pong and not letting Sawyer use any of his patented insulting Sawyer nicknames for a week, then this week tricking him into being nice to everybody. You could even see Sawyer digging on being accepted and making people happy. It was a nice secondary story line providing some much needed comic relief. By the way, was anyone else waiting for Charlie to start choking on the roast boar?
Next week
Juliet: "If I told you everything I know about the island, you would kill me."
Sayid: "And what do you think I will do if you DON'T tell me?"
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