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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

TV Watch: Lost, The Last Recruit

If I had to sum up this episode in one phrase, it would be: getting the band back together.

This was a quietly good episode. It didn't blow up nearly as much stuff (but explosions seem to becoming more common). There wasn't a lot of revelation (OK, so Christian was the Smoke Monster, like duh). The plot didn't move drastically forward, this was another one about getting the pieces in place for the next scene.

But - look at what we did get, the small bits:

Sayid steps away from the dark side
Who's Anakin? (hee hee). Easy money that Sayid did not shoot Desmond. I'd say Desmond has probably gotten his walking legs again, in fact. There was decent evidence that Dark Sayid was just lost to us, an empty shell of the character we had seen before - but Desmond managed to kick him where it counts, and he may well be back on the path of redemption.

Claire gets a bit of humanity
I think one of the great fails of the show is obscuring what actually happened to Claire (unless we have more information upcoming). We know she disappeared, left Aaron, showed up in The Cabin with who know suspect was the Man In Black (not Jacob) and took over Crazy French Lady's position as Lead Other Killer. Here we see what may have been driving her nuts was not The Sickness (if there ever was or is such a thing) but abandonment. Left behind by her son and her friends, she went native. The look in Claire's eyes when she watched her fellow Losties rush into the jungle without her was precious - and Kate's speech to bring her back into the fold was excellent.

Sun recognizes The Man In Black
I'm now safely within the camp that Sun's plot-induced aphasia was just dumb, but the scene in the LA X world where she recognizes Locke as The Man In Black. Or at least, that seems the most reasonable explanation for her freaking out when he's wheeled next to her since it seems like she has never encountered Locke in LA X nor has any reason to fear him. LA X is coming apart at the seams.

Finally, my prediction for the week: Jack is totally the next Jacob. Sorry Hurley and Desmond fans. It's the classic squaring off of Jack and Locke, only now Jack is the Man of Faith and Locke is the Man In Black. Also, the Losties better hope they packed some sandals.

I think they're staying for some time. The island is certainly not done with them yet.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

http://joshuatopolsky.tumblr.com/post/538450900/lost-they-dont-actually-have-an-explanation

Just sharing. I seem to recall leaving a comment here ... or maybe it was you writing (sorry!) about how the whole thing might not be completely explained. I thought I said at the time I was ok with that.

And I still am.

Unknown said...

Ha. I did say something like that, when you referred to a GUT:

"The older I get, the more at peace I am with some things having no answer. It would be a brave choice, I think, to do that with some parts of this show. However, it requires a delicate touch, so I'm dubious about whether this crew can pull it off."

On this old post:
http://cathodetan.blogspot.com/2010/02/tv-watch-lost-substitute.html

Josh said...

We'll certainly get more of these small confirmations (yes, the whispers are dead people trapped on the island, yes - Old Smokey was Christian) - and probably plenty of stuff left by the wayside or simply out of sorts (some people are noting on Dead Christian's off island adventures, for instance).

What I'm hoping is that they'll give us enough that should we rewatch it - they mysteries will feel like "oh right, because X is Y" and not like "well, that was a random cliffhanger."

I'm hopeful too at this point. There has been a lot of meat this season, very little fluff. It feels like we're going to end on a solid note, even if we don't get the whole symphony.

Steve said...

Thanks God Sayid is back. He was always my favorite character and his dark brooding mindless character this year was really grating on me.

With Sayid and Claire both having taken a turn away from the dark side, it does make me wonder what all that "sickness" BS was about. I mean he acted like it was a pretty firm diagnosis, but now it seems to be little more than witch doctor mumbo jumbo.

As for Jack, yes, I agree completely. I figured it would only possibly be Jack or Sawyer, but more and more we're going the Jack direction.

One thing I found interesting in this episode was Claire's statement that once Locke talks to you, you're doomed. The thing is, that's a cop out. You just say, "oh I'm batting for the wrong team because I had no choice," and then you go do horrible things for selfish reasons with that as an excuse. It's the soldiers following orders vibe.