Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Thoughts on LOST: The Package

I know, I know....these things are getting later and later. Sorry...I'll try to do better.

OK, let's get on with it so that I can maybe post this before tonight's episode!

- Really weird way to start the show, looking through the night-vision goggles...I wasn't sure my DVR had recorded the right channel for a second and I was about to freak out.

I kind of miss the old openings, where we would focus on somebody's eye.

- Nice to get some confirmation that our characters do actually speak to each other off-camera at times...Sawyer told Jin about the cave and the names on the wall. For the first few seasons, it seemed like nobody ever talked to each other, so nobody knew what was going on.

- I don't think Smocke really needs all of the Candidates to leave with him. I think he needs them all in one place so that he can kill them easily.

Remember, Jacob told him last week that if MIB kills him, there would just be somebody to take his place...MIB's response was that he would just kill that person, too. Well, if these are all of the remaining candidates to take Jacob's place, then if he can kill ALL of them, he'll never have to worry about that again.

- The Sideways story this week was just OK for me, so I don't know that I will spend a ton of time on it...again, I think the producers are making a mistake by not letting us know the significance of these stories, and it will only be after we know what the significance is that we will be able to appreciate them fully.

So, in the first part of this Sideways story, we find out that Jin is still working for Mr. Paik, but he and Sun are not married.

- Sayid is now completely dead inside...interesting to me that although Sayid and Claire were both "claimed", it appears to be having very different effects on them. Sayid is dead on the inside, he doesn't feel anything. But Claire seems almost the opposite....it's like she feels everything TOO much, and doesn't really know what to do with those emotions. Why the difference, and does it have something to do with whether they were "good" or "bad" when they were still alive?

Smocke tells Sayid that this "deadness" will probably be better for him, because it will help him get through what's coming. That....does not sound good.

- Jin is DONE sitting around with all of these crazy versions of what used to be his friends, and he is totally frustrated with Sawyer for actually listening to Smocke and doing what he says. Which Sawyer responds to with the feeble argument that he is playing both sides. That overly passive, wait-and-see approach of just sitting back and letting these two fight it out is not good enough for Jin, and it wouldn't be good enough for me, either.

But I don't know why he is even going to bother going back to the Temple first...doesn't he know that Smocke killed everybody that was there? Is this just another ploy by the writers to keep Jin and Sun separated for a few more weeks worth of episodes? Why, yes....I believe it is.

- Doesn't matter, anyway...Widmore's team is obviously as well trained as the old Others with tranq guns.

I know we find out why they needed Jin specifically...but why ONLY take him? If they take Sayid, Kate, Claire, and Sawyer, haven't they effectively decimated Locke's army?

- So glad that Miles is getting a few lines this week.

And I love that Lapidus admonished him, not for making fun of Hurley...but for making him think about bacon.

Mmmmm.....bacon.

- Yeah, Sun is pretty much done with the whole waiting game, too...I loved that she went back to her garden, continuing the call-backs to earlier seasons.

- Further proof that Jack has become the Man of Faith, as he tries to convince Sun that they have a purpose, a destiny.

I am going to be really surprised at this point if Jack does NOT become Jacob's replacement...maybe Hurley can be the new Richard Alpert?

- OK, so Jin and Sun aren't married, but they are still...um..."involved". Not sure if my kids (or my parents, for that matter) are reading, so I'll leave it at that.

Again, that's nice, but...does it mean anything? Other than the whole, "their-love-is-so-strong-it-exists-in-both-timelines" type thing?

- Couple of interesting notes about Smocke visiting Sun in her garden...first, she cut her hand right before he got there. Not sure what that means, if anything, but it was obvious, so I figured I would point it out in case it DOES mean something.

Also, when Locke first gets there, he says, "...Bad day?" This is the exact phrase he greeted her with way back in the season 2 episode "....And Found".

Couple of things about that, too...number one, I always think it's cool when some of the real Locke's memories/personality bubble up to the surface of Smocke, and this is another example of that.

Secondly, the scene in "...And Found" that this is taken from is one of my favorite Locke moments, when he tells Sun that he used to be angry and frustrated all the time, but now he is not lost anymore. Interesting juxtaposition that the scene would be replicated with Smocke, who is the very definition of angry and frustrated.

- Smocke continues to offer EXACTLY what his latest "target" wants...this time it's telling Sun that he will take her to Jin.

- This is twice that we have seen Smocke try to chase somebody down without changing into Smokey...maybe it's because he doesn't want to kill Sun, and he's afraid of what might happen if he changes before he catches her?

- Back to the Sideways...so, in this timeline, Sun was not actually coming to America to run away FROM Jin, but to run away WITH Jin. But, apparently she doesn't speak English in this timeline? So, she probably never had the affair with that alien-looking bald guy? I'm just guessing, here...I thought at first that she was faking not speaking English, but in the later scene in the bank it looked like she really didn't know what the bank lady was saying.

- She catches her reflection in the mirror, just like the rest of them have...it's interesting, but I am just ready to know what it means. Have I made that point yet?

- KEAMY!! YEAH!!

- Hey, wait...why didn't Smocke just scoop Sun up and take her back to the camp with him? My guess is that they have to CHOOSE a side....they can't be forced.

- And now Jin is in Room 23...man, never thought we would see THIS place again. Remember, this is where they were apparently brainwashing Karl, and also where Walt was placed back when the Others kidnapped him.

Hey, I remember Walt...wasn't he like the most specialest little boy on Earth at one point? Wonder what he's up to these days?

- The words from the Room 23 video are "Think About Your Life", "We are the causes of our own suffering", and "Everything Changes". I could definitely make some application to what we have seen in the Sideways timeline...but I won't, yet.

- The LOST recapper for Television Without Pity is calling the girl with the glasses Liz Roslin, because she looks exactly like a combination of Liz Lemon from 30 Rock and President Laura Roslin from BSG. Pretty darn close.

- So now we know why they took Jin...but what do they need the electromagnetism for? I think that electromagnetism can somehow be harnessed and used to control Smokey...sort of like what they do with the sonic fences, but on a much larger scale.

- Everytime somebody even talks about taking the outrigger to the other Island, I get irritated about the fact that we will probably never know who was shooting at Sawyer, Juliet, et. al last season.

- Was Smocke lying to Claire when he said her name wasn't on the wall? Because the name Littleton WAS on the wall....maybe it was Aaron and not her? But, if so, why was it crossed out?

And, for that matter, why was Kate's name crossed out on the cave wall, but not in the lighthouse? I think, as others have mentioned, that the cave belonged only to Smokey/MIB/Smocke, not Jacob, and that his list was not the "official" list. So is Kate still a Candidate?

Not that it matters...I think the only Candidate that still matters at this point is Jack. Not long ago that would have pissed me off, but I gotta tell you...I'm really digging Jack this season.

- Smocke is still offering Claire exactly what she wants...he can't offer her Aaron anymore, at least not on the Island, but he can keep her on the hook by promising her Kate's head on a platter.

- Smokey can't travel across water, but Smocke can. Interesting...and I wonder if that has something to do with why Smocke had to take his shoes off back when he first went from Hydra Island to the main Island back in "Dead is Dead".

Quick side note...as I was looking back trying to figure out which episode that scene was in, I found the one where Frank and Sun first arrived back at the Island and noticed that they heard Smokey when they got there, and then they later meet up with Christian. How did THAT work, since Smocke was still back on Hydra? I would have to go back and watch those episodes again...the more I think about it, the more I think that the timeline works that maybe Smokey had not actually "become" Smocke yet, but I'm not sure.

- Not sure what Jin was doing in the bathroom when Omar found him...was he posing? Maybe that was his "look at my reflection in the mirror" moment?

- Keamy: "Stop it. I feel like I'm in a Godzilla movie".

Ha! He's funny AND he doesn't know the difference between Japanese and Korean! What a guy!

- Mikhail looks funny with both eyes....luckily, that is not a problem for long.

- Knowing what we know now, that Keamy and Mikhail already knew all about Jin and Sun's relationship, and that Mr. Paik knew as well...it really makes these scenes even more sad. Keamy knows there is no money in that bank account, he just wants to get Jin and Sun separated so that Sun won't see what's going to happen to Jin.

- My very favoritest exchange of the night:

BEN: Oh, for the fourth time...I was gathering mangoes and she was already unconscious when I found her! Why won't you believe me?
ILLANA: Because you are speaking.

HA!!!!

- LOVED the scene when Smocke showed up at the beach. His reaction to Widmore's folks firing at him was hilarious...he was genuinely amused. "I come in peace".

- Smocke tells Widmore that Widmore knows more than he was letting on, "judging by these pylons". This is part of my theory about Widmore somehow using the electromagnetic pockets on the Island to "trap" Smocke there.

And the "wise man" who once told Smocke that war is coming to the Island was, of course, Widmore himself. And another cool instance of Smocke "remembering" something that happened to original Locke.

Dude...I miss Locke.

- Sun is NOT in favor of Richard's plan to blow up the plane. Obviously.

- Sideways...Sun's evil daddy closed her account. And Mikhail is right...why do you THINK he closed the account? DUH.

- No, Keamy did not tell Jin that he couldn't have him figuring out what was going to happen "on the Island" like many people apparently thought...but that would have been cool.

- Keamy tells Jin that "some people just aren't meant to be together"...but I seriously doubt that this series ends with Jin and Sun still separated. Not gonna happen.

- Hey, Smocke ain't got nothing on Charles Widmore when it comes to manipulating people. "Here, Jin...take a look at these pictures. They are of your daughter, who happens to be one of the Top 5 cutest babies on the planet. Oh, that's right...you've never even seen her until right this very second. Man...I would hate for anything bad to happen to her. Wouldn't you?"

- Doesn't Sayid seem...MEANER than he did the last time we saw this scene of him finding Jin in the freezer? Although, it was nice of him to give Jin the box cutter to cut himself out, even if he didn't stick around long enough to actually see if he escaped. Wouldn't it have sucked if Jin had dropped it?

- Wow...Keamy survived? That is one tough dude.

- Of COURSE Mikhail got shot directly in the eye...course correction and all that.

If he really IS the same Mikhail we saw on the Island, though, there is no way that will be enough to kill him.

By the way...did Keamy ever die?

- Just like I don't think there is any way Jin and Sun end up separated, I don't think there is any way Sun loses her baby. Call me a naive optimist.

- I really love Jack and Sun together...again, it takes me back to the early seasons, before prolonged exposure to Kate turned Jack into an annoying whiny douche.

Oh, and also....stubborn tomato=Ji Yeon. "Nobody told it it was supposed to die".

- Smocke offered his hand to Sun earlier, and she refused to take it...Jack offers, and she accepts. Symbolic, yes, but also...if we are still hanging on to the theory that the characters' actions on the Island somehow affect the Sideways (which I am only about 60% sold on at this point), then this is another reason why I think Ji Yeon survives.

- And...Desmond is The Package! What a great nickname! No, I do NOT want to know how he got it!

- I think Desmond recognized Sayid...so this is the Desmond from the original timeline, not the Sideways, right?

Or....are there even two versions of Desmond? He is special and unique, after all...maybe he is able to go back and forth, and that's why he "disappeared" from the plane in LA X?


Overall, an enjoyable episode for me...I'm definitely enjoying the on-Island stories a lot more than the Sideways at this point, and that will continue to be the case until we find out what relevance the Sideways timeline has.

Tonight...a Desmond episode, written by Damon and Carlton, directed by Jack Bender? Yes, please!!!

Namaste.

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