"We have to go back!"
-Jack
L O S T
Dude.
OK, anybody who doesn't think that Lindelof and company aren't throwing their absolute fastball, please step in front of Hurley's bus right now. Just as the our favorite portly numerologist was redeeming himself (even if only he thought he needed redeeming) and his previously-stupid-but-now-in-retrospect-magnificent episode by awesomely driving his retooled bus smack into the Other's chief commando, so the Lost creators were redeeming themselves (even if only impatient viewers thought they needed redeeming) by driving the grill of the plot right into our faces.
And that sentence is just as laborious and tortured as we are all going to be for the next 10 months or so. While we wait. And wait. And wait.
Want to know how awesome my wife is? She nailed it. Two minutes in, she says, "I think this is a flash forward." That, my friends, is how awesome my wife is. I like to think I'd have spotted it, but I'll never know, because once she saw it, I couldn't ever entirely un-see it. The more I watched, the more it fit. The cell phone that came out in 2007. The way Jack looked just a little bit older. The way they were keeping it just vague enough, not showing us much, not answering things like who was in the coffin. They're putting the mystery in the flashback and the answers on the island. Why would they do that? Why would they do that?
Because Jack succeeded. He got them all rescued. And, because Jack is always wrongest when he's obsessive-est, Jack was wrong wrong wrong to do so. Something isn't right. And now he can't get back to the island. 70 flashback episodes in a row . . . and a flash forward. Like the rock who suddenly pushes with position and total air, and watches all the maniacs around him fold to his 'aces'. Well played on all streets, Lost. Well played.
Third season of Lost is perhaps the most solid run of dramatic/sci-fi we've ever had.
I'll say it again: Dude.
Strap in. This could be a long one.
What We Know
Just the new facts, ma'am. Just the new facts.
* Locke's alive and Charlie's dead.
* Dead in post-island world? Somebody. Somebody neither family nor friend, but who drives Jack to a near suicide attempt.
* Not dead in post-island world? Jack's dad. Unless Jack has gone totally bonkers, which is a possibility, Jack's dad is still working at the hospital. Isn't that . . . interesting?
* Kate in post-island world? Not very fugitivey. I don't think you get your murder rap erased just because you were in a plane crash. So something is up. Also, she has to answer to somebody who will be "wondering where I am." Also, too much make-up.
* Also, Jack is (according to new chief of surgery Dr. Hammil) a hero two times over. What's the second time? Getting everybody rescued? Saving his ex-wife way back when? What?
* Jack's ex-wife is pregnant. Warrants mentioning. Will she have . . . complications?
* Either the island chose to appear as Walt, or Walt is back.
* Locke can't kill his dad, can't kill his friend, but he is a lady-killer.
* Charlie would do well to keep his mouth shut when captured. Of course, that's a moot point at this stage of the game. I guess you could say he'd also do well to keep his mouth shut and try to swim through the grenaded porthole.
* Mikhail can be killed . . . but only for a little while. This is similar to the "Richard doesn't age" weirdness in that it can no longer be considered a plot fart. If you kill Patchy Harpoonheart, be sure to cut him into little bits, burn the bits, and scatter the ashes.
* Both Locke and Ben seem to have good reason to believe that the rescuers were not what they seem. Ben seems to think this means death. Locke seems to think that it is a betrayal of destiny, of what is 'supposed' to happen.
* Penny is able to transmit to the Looking Glass station, and has apparently been trying to do so continuously, given that she was right there as soon as Charlie turned off the jammer.
* The newly dead: Charlie, Tom, Naomi, two Looking-Glass Others, seven Raid The Camp Others. That's a lot of dead Others. Who's friggin' left for Ben to manipulate?
* The maybe-dead: Ben (killed by Jack as planned?), everybody else.
* Rousseau is socially awkward.
* I have absolutely no idea anymore. None. I like it that way.
* OK, I have some ideas. Keep reading.
Implications and New Questions
* Who's in the coffin? Not family of Jack. Not friend of Jack. Somebody whose death makes Jack very sad, even though he doesn't particularly like this person. Kate seemed to take the suggestion that she would be at the funeral as an insult (to be fair, this is how Kate takes the suggestion that . . . well, anything, really). The only people it 100% for sure is not? Kate and Jack's ex-wife. It needs to be somebody who was on the island, I think. Needs to be somebody who was brought back.
Candidates: Since I think that whoever they called to rescue them probably forced EVERYBODY off the island, I'm thinking Locke is the most likely culprit. Then, Ben. Then . . . Sawyer? Juliet?
* Just how much of the show is going to change because of this episode? I truly hope we're going to see more or all flash forwards. Who doesn't want a Ben-forward now, or a Locke-forward, or even Kate? How much of this post-island world are they going to show us?
I'm referring to 'post-island world' throughout this post. The reason for this is that I do not think that they have returned home. I think they are in a world where everything is almost like it was, but not quite.
I think they are in a world/dimension where Oceanic 815 went down and they all died. I think when they were 'rescued', they took the place of their dead selves. What else is different in this place? What else is wrong?
"You go upstairs and get my father," screams DruggyJack (and great job by Matthew Fox, another actor from the show who reached his peak this season, in seeming like he'd taken a Jim-Morrison-level dose of pills). 'Get my father?' Your father who is dead? Whose coffin you were transporting when Oceanic 815 went down? Go get him? Reeeeeeally . . . .
"He'll be wondering where I am," said Kate. Who is that? We are supposed to think Sawyer, which means that it probably ain't Sawyer. Is it her step-dad? The one she killed? Is that why she's not on the run anymore?
Something is wrong in Post-Island world. Believe that.
* Walt. He was 'more trouble than he was worth' said Ben, way back at the end of Season 2. "Is he ever someplace he shouldn't be?" Michael was asked. What's with Walt? What's his significance? We all thought that the island would save him, or Jacob would. Or are they all connected in some way? Walt is Jacob is the island? The connections and implications here are likely the subject of one or more of our future seasons.
* Here are the factions involved: The Losties, The Others/Hostiles/Mitelos, The Dharma Initiative, and this other group, the ones who have "been trying to find the island for a very long time." Apparently, this group has now found the island, thanks to Jack. This can't be good.
* What's with Penny? How does she have contact to the Looking Glass, and from her living room by all appearances? Did she seem at all sinister to you this time around?
* "Not Naomi's Ship." Odd final message. Shouldn't that be "Not Penny's Ship?" I mean, it's still Naomi's ship, even if Penny wasn't the one who sent her, right?
Random Thoughts (No Thoroughbred Selections)
* What a beautiful moment they gave Charlie there. The peace of it, the stillness of it. Enjoy the movie career, Monaghan; we'll miss you.
* It really bugs me that Charlie didn't just put on the damn scuba gear before pushing the buttons. That's all it would have taken. Seriously, man.
* Ben. Some advice. If you want a spinal surgeon to perform live-saving surgery on your spine, don't terrorize his group and kidnap people from it. Just ask. If you don't want your daughter's boyfriend to get her pregnant, don't kidnap him and brainwash him Clockwork Orange-style. Talk to her about sex and get some of those Dharma-brand condoms and birth control pills. If you don't want Jack to use the phone, don't make him think you'll kill his friends. JUST. TELL. HIM. SPECIFICALLY. WHY. YOU. DON'T. WANT. HIM. TO. USE. THE. PHONE.
For a smart guy, Ben's dumb.
* "Do you want to help me tie him up?" Best line of the night. Mother/daughter bonding at it's finest.
* Fairly obvious they didn't kill Jin/Sayid/Bernard there. You need to give those guys a death scene, not an off-camera execution. Well, not Bernard. Him I thought they'd killed a year ago and we just hadn't noticed.
* Fantastic that even when he's trying to kill himself, Jack still has to pull people from wreckage.
* I'm going to go nuts waiting for the next season to start. I'm on Lost-tilt.
L O S T
Links
More cool Loststuff here:
Lostepedia: Talk about destroying workplace productivity. Some people must make this the full-time job. This is the Lost-hub on the net.
Salon.com: Review of the show that is spot, on, despite questionable and egregious use of the word 'gobsmackingly',
TVwoP Boards: Some of this stuff is dumb, some very insightful.
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10 comments:
I was thinking...now that all these Others have died, if there was any possibility of the Others and the Losties joining together to combat this new group once/if we find out that they're not who they were supposed to be?
As for Jack being a hero twice over, wouldn't the first time be from saving the Losties, and the second from him saving that woman and her kid?
I could have swarn Charlie wrote, "Not Penny's Boat" on his hand.
Mike, I like your thinking. We haven't seen the last of Ben, Richard, and Mikhail, that's for sure.
Unimpressed, you're 100% right. I'm a dummy.
For discussion: Who's more badass, Sayid or Mikhail?
Sayid, that neck breaking was straight out of the book of badass #1, Jack Bauer.
Great post, as always. Some quick thoughts:
1. Sayid is obviously the more badass, but I had to love Mikhail's look on his face when he was outside with the grenade. Very comedic-villainish.
2. My first vote for the body in the coffin is Ben. Makes sense why no one attended - he had no connection to anyone outside the island. Ben only shows up out of regret for leaving in the first place. Although (and I won't leave any spoilers), some other websites have alluded to a name in the newspaper article that would suggest it's not Ben.
3. I don't really know where to go from here. I could see some leaving the island, I could see all leaving.
Longest 8 months ever.
Charlie wrote "NOT PENNY'S BOAT", and did not write about Naomi. Whatever the case, interesting thoughts, Goat, but I'm not feeling the whole parallel reality thing. My guess is that they escaped from the island and everything is going to shit, so they'll have to go back to the island to finish off whatever they did. The person in the coffin is likely Sawyer, which would explain Kate's indignant response. I don't really understand her future-self yet, though. Also, I figured out the flash-forward quickly too, but then became disuaded by things like the Nirvana song on the radio. I told wifey Kim that the song came out in the early 2000s (it was released post-humously), and then when he took out the cell phone she responded that it looked like a new cell. I could only argue that the flashback/fwd had to be 2000 or after. Also, I think he may have said, "Get the Chief of Surgery and if I'm more drunk than my father, he can fire me!" That allows his father to be dead, and he was asking for confirmation that his father was worse than he was.
Jordan, FWIW he did not say "get the chief of surgery"....he said "go get my father upstairs, and if I'm more drunk than him...." Now, if you wanted to argue that he meant the metaphorical "upstairs" and not the literal "upstairs", then maybe his dad is dead after all....
Maybe by "My Father Upstairs", he was refering to God.
In which case, he's calling God a drunk.
Which would explain the tree frog episode.
If your wife was truly awesome, she would have made nachos and brought a cooler of beer. Calling a TV isn't all that awesome.
She may be awesome in other ways but this one is truly not giving any awe.
Fair enough, perhaps this instance of plot intuition makes her merely 'impressive.'
Her awesomeness remains for many other reasons, however.
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