Lost Marathon: Season 5, Episode 2 Review: The Lie
The Lie
Original Airdate: January 21, 2009
Writer: Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Director: Jack Bender
The first episode this season was unusual in that it didn’t have a central character focus. Clearly at this point of the game plot has caught up to character in importance. However, one of Lost’s strengths is the diverse characters, and a formula is helpful when making a weekly TV show. Here they tweak the formula to accommodate the difference in time. Unlike previous seasons’ centric episodes, the focal character doesn’t have a flashback or forward storyline to establish their motivation, with the exception of an establishing one in the prologue. This angle works both for the character focus that makes up many episodes as well as the plot.
The Oceanic Six’s lie has been a growing burden for them, but it has affected no one greater than Hurley. Hurley always had a problem with lying about where they were, especially after the island disappeared. Of the castaways, Hurley’s moral compass is the most stable. He’ll do something bad only to help those he cares about, and lying about the island and going on without those he left behind was too much for him. That guilt reached a critical mass when he got in the high speed chase last season, and here it turns again as he tries to avoid capture by the police.
In his panicked pursuit, he either hallucinates or envisions Ana-Lucia. It was cool to see Ana-Lucia again; I didn’t hate her as a lot of people did. It was also appropriate that she pop up in the vision of Hurley being pulled over since she was a cop (not because of the legal trouble that some still insist was why she was killed off). We’re going to see a lot of old faces this season with the time jumps, and returning to things and people from the past works well as a narrative closes.
So the only place he can think of to lay low at is at his parents’ place. For all the parental issues of most of the cast, it’s nice to see one of them have loving and supportive parents. While his dad was absent for more than half of his life and returned largely motivated by Hurley’s lotto winnings, he still cares about Hurley a lot and is willing to lie to the cops for him. Mr. Reyes’ behavior again brings up the question of why he was such a bad dad in the first place.
Then Hurley's mother arrives and discovers that Sayid, who neither of Hurley’s parents recognize despite being a major celebrity connected to their son, is barely breathing and needs medical attention. The Reyes certainly deserved an explanation before they got to this point, and Hurley's mom got one as he recapped the previous four seasons in 30 seconds. Of course condensing all the bizarre occurrences of almost 90 episodes is going to sound unbelievable. It’s a wink to fans, who Hurley has always been the voice of. Despite her confusion, Hurley's mom believes him and it’s sweet on top of being funny.
With all the dark material off island, Hurley has moments of comic relief that don’t distract from the story. From his remark in the first hour that Sayid should eat more comfort food to calm his life down to his choice of T-shirt at the gas station and propping up Sayid Weekend at Bernie’s style to the laugh out loud moment of him throwing the snack at Ben, they haven't forgotten that Hurley is the heart and soul of the show and he can’t be perpetually suffering.
As expected, Ben's plan to convince Hurley to join them fails. Ben is likely right, but his history will always bring his side into question, something he seems uncharacteristically naïve about, although that may point to him being so convinced that he’s right that any skepticism is unfathomable for him. The big contradiction here is that Jack, who crossed into cynicism with his belief that faith was a waste of time, is now Ben’s best friend.
On the note of getting the rest of the Six to return, why Ben doesn’t just shoot each of them in the neck with a tranquilizer and take them? OK, that’s a little tough for someone like Sayid as we’ve seen, but Ben doesn’t have the resources with the Others extended off island network. Is returning to the island the way Ben plans something that they need to be conscious during? This is probably just a plot hole, as taking away their choice takes away from the drama.
As Ben maneuvers some, Sun makes a power play of her own towards Kate. The obvious reason is because Kate’s raising Aaron, who is very important. Of course Sun is manipulating Kate by guilt tripping her over not getting Jin as she promised, and then asking about Jack. She talks to Kate in the tone people use when they say the disclaimer “I’m not bitter”, but they clearly are.
There’s been a lot of discussion over Sun’s photo of Ji Yeon. Ji Yeon is around two years old, yet the only picture her mother has is of her as a newborn? If this was her niece she only sees on Christmas I could buy that. Anyone who knows anything about new parents knows they’re going to take more pictures than what could fit on the largest SD card. Is Sun that consumed with revenge that she’s not a presence in her daughter’s life?
Back on the island, there aren’t as many recognizable faces left on the beach from the crash. So what better time to bring Neil “Frogurt”, who has only been seen in a mobisode, onto the show? He was obnoxious in that, threatening to steal Libby from Hurley, and continues to be here. Of course, that doesn’t last long as he is struck by flaming arrows and engulfed in flames. Someone had to die for the threat to be considered real, and so the red shirts finally live up to their role.
The time jumps are being used, among other things, to “course correct” the background survivor cast. Unlike Battlestar Galactica’s minor pilots, the writers never developed the background cast beyond Rose & Bernard. They tried with Nikki & Paolo, but it was too late. Since then they haven’t done much besides take hits from the mercenaries and the flaming arrow squad, so the death count, while high, isn’t as brutal as if major characters were killed.
The survivors scatter, but before they can go too far from the massacre, three men accost Sawyer and Juliet. One of whom prepares to cut off Juliet’s hand before Locke intervenes. Of course, “Jones” calling it “their island” is a clear hint that these are Others, who are the only people who claim possession of the island. Without going into future episodes, seeing them initially reminded me of stories about World War II soldiers found in the South Pacific who thought the war was still going on long after 1945, albeit the people here are in better shape.
On top of their dilemmas, Charlotte is showing averse affects from the time travel and Daniel seems to know what it is, namely temporal displacement as her symptoms mirror Desmond’s and Minkowski's, except she only has some memory loss. While the result is the same, her time travel is different since she’s physically jumping back as opposed to only her consciousness.
The final scene sets the stakes high for the upcoming episodes. Confirming that she is a real person, Ms. Hawking intensely scrawls calculations about the island, determining that there is only a 70 hour window to return the six to the island. While I originally assumed that the whole season would revolve around getting the Six back, the tight deadline implies that it won’t be that long. Perhaps this was in anticipation of fans who didn’t want to wait a whole season to bring them back.
There was a good amount of criticism about the off island events. With the inevitability that they would return to the Island, it takes something out of the stakes, whereas the on island stuff was deliberately not explored since the flash forwards first came out. I didn’t mind it, as the shifting Oceanic Six interested me.
Another complaint about the premiere was its over reliance on not showing certain characters faces at first. Sometimes it works like with Chang or Hawking, but it’s unnecessary for Frank. Putting the two episodes together made this more evident. Lost is a show with a lot of mystery, so surprises and teases can be great, but devices like this are best in moderation.
This episode, coupled with “Because You Left”, does a good job of setting up the stakes for the season. As the gap between answers and questions closes, the formula had to be altered, but luckily they did so in a way that doesn’t totally throw out what we knew and loved about the show in the first place.
The Oceanic Six’s lie has been a growing burden for them, but it has affected no one greater than Hurley. Hurley always had a problem with lying about where they were, especially after the island disappeared. Of the castaways, Hurley’s moral compass is the most stable. He’ll do something bad only to help those he cares about, and lying about the island and going on without those he left behind was too much for him. That guilt reached a critical mass when he got in the high speed chase last season, and here it turns again as he tries to avoid capture by the police.
In his panicked pursuit, he either hallucinates or envisions Ana-Lucia. It was cool to see Ana-Lucia again; I didn’t hate her as a lot of people did. It was also appropriate that she pop up in the vision of Hurley being pulled over since she was a cop (not because of the legal trouble that some still insist was why she was killed off). We’re going to see a lot of old faces this season with the time jumps, and returning to things and people from the past works well as a narrative closes.
So the only place he can think of to lay low at is at his parents’ place. For all the parental issues of most of the cast, it’s nice to see one of them have loving and supportive parents. While his dad was absent for more than half of his life and returned largely motivated by Hurley’s lotto winnings, he still cares about Hurley a lot and is willing to lie to the cops for him. Mr. Reyes’ behavior again brings up the question of why he was such a bad dad in the first place.
Then Hurley's mother arrives and discovers that Sayid, who neither of Hurley’s parents recognize despite being a major celebrity connected to their son, is barely breathing and needs medical attention. The Reyes certainly deserved an explanation before they got to this point, and Hurley's mom got one as he recapped the previous four seasons in 30 seconds. Of course condensing all the bizarre occurrences of almost 90 episodes is going to sound unbelievable. It’s a wink to fans, who Hurley has always been the voice of. Despite her confusion, Hurley's mom believes him and it’s sweet on top of being funny.
With all the dark material off island, Hurley has moments of comic relief that don’t distract from the story. From his remark in the first hour that Sayid should eat more comfort food to calm his life down to his choice of T-shirt at the gas station and propping up Sayid Weekend at Bernie’s style to the laugh out loud moment of him throwing the snack at Ben, they haven't forgotten that Hurley is the heart and soul of the show and he can’t be perpetually suffering.
As expected, Ben's plan to convince Hurley to join them fails. Ben is likely right, but his history will always bring his side into question, something he seems uncharacteristically naïve about, although that may point to him being so convinced that he’s right that any skepticism is unfathomable for him. The big contradiction here is that Jack, who crossed into cynicism with his belief that faith was a waste of time, is now Ben’s best friend.
On the note of getting the rest of the Six to return, why Ben doesn’t just shoot each of them in the neck with a tranquilizer and take them? OK, that’s a little tough for someone like Sayid as we’ve seen, but Ben doesn’t have the resources with the Others extended off island network. Is returning to the island the way Ben plans something that they need to be conscious during? This is probably just a plot hole, as taking away their choice takes away from the drama.
As Ben maneuvers some, Sun makes a power play of her own towards Kate. The obvious reason is because Kate’s raising Aaron, who is very important. Of course Sun is manipulating Kate by guilt tripping her over not getting Jin as she promised, and then asking about Jack. She talks to Kate in the tone people use when they say the disclaimer “I’m not bitter”, but they clearly are.
There’s been a lot of discussion over Sun’s photo of Ji Yeon. Ji Yeon is around two years old, yet the only picture her mother has is of her as a newborn? If this was her niece she only sees on Christmas I could buy that. Anyone who knows anything about new parents knows they’re going to take more pictures than what could fit on the largest SD card. Is Sun that consumed with revenge that she’s not a presence in her daughter’s life?
Back on the island, there aren’t as many recognizable faces left on the beach from the crash. So what better time to bring Neil “Frogurt”, who has only been seen in a mobisode, onto the show? He was obnoxious in that, threatening to steal Libby from Hurley, and continues to be here. Of course, that doesn’t last long as he is struck by flaming arrows and engulfed in flames. Someone had to die for the threat to be considered real, and so the red shirts finally live up to their role.
The time jumps are being used, among other things, to “course correct” the background survivor cast. Unlike Battlestar Galactica’s minor pilots, the writers never developed the background cast beyond Rose & Bernard. They tried with Nikki & Paolo, but it was too late. Since then they haven’t done much besides take hits from the mercenaries and the flaming arrow squad, so the death count, while high, isn’t as brutal as if major characters were killed.
The survivors scatter, but before they can go too far from the massacre, three men accost Sawyer and Juliet. One of whom prepares to cut off Juliet’s hand before Locke intervenes. Of course, “Jones” calling it “their island” is a clear hint that these are Others, who are the only people who claim possession of the island. Without going into future episodes, seeing them initially reminded me of stories about World War II soldiers found in the South Pacific who thought the war was still going on long after 1945, albeit the people here are in better shape.
On top of their dilemmas, Charlotte is showing averse affects from the time travel and Daniel seems to know what it is, namely temporal displacement as her symptoms mirror Desmond’s and Minkowski's, except she only has some memory loss. While the result is the same, her time travel is different since she’s physically jumping back as opposed to only her consciousness.
The final scene sets the stakes high for the upcoming episodes. Confirming that she is a real person, Ms. Hawking intensely scrawls calculations about the island, determining that there is only a 70 hour window to return the six to the island. While I originally assumed that the whole season would revolve around getting the Six back, the tight deadline implies that it won’t be that long. Perhaps this was in anticipation of fans who didn’t want to wait a whole season to bring them back.
There was a good amount of criticism about the off island events. With the inevitability that they would return to the Island, it takes something out of the stakes, whereas the on island stuff was deliberately not explored since the flash forwards first came out. I didn’t mind it, as the shifting Oceanic Six interested me.
Another complaint about the premiere was its over reliance on not showing certain characters faces at first. Sometimes it works like with Chang or Hawking, but it’s unnecessary for Frank. Putting the two episodes together made this more evident. Lost is a show with a lot of mystery, so surprises and teases can be great, but devices like this are best in moderation.
This episode, coupled with “Because You Left”, does a good job of setting up the stakes for the season. As the gap between answers and questions closes, the formula had to be altered, but luckily they did so in a way that doesn’t totally throw out what we knew and loved about the show in the first place.
Overall Score: 8/10
posted by Matt @ 10:56 AM
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