Lost: Season 5, Episode 15 Review: Follow the Leader

Follow the Leader
Original Airdate: May 6, 2009
Writer: Paul Zbyszewski & Elizabeth Sarnoff
Director: Stephen Williams

As the series has gone on, the idea of designating every episode as being centric to a character or more has become not as essential to telling the story. Technically, this episode is classified as a Richard-centric episode, although it isn’t the Richard episode fans were probably expecting. Certainly Richard’s backstory is one we all really want to know about, but Richard is more the piece connecting the two time frames (if only there was a word for that). This episode has more in common with “Because You Left” & “Namaste”, in that it is far more about plot, which makes sense to have an episode like this at the end of the season as it was beginning and middle.

The leader in question is Locke, who returns and turns The Others society upside down, a little like he did in “The Man Behind the Curtain”, only this time he comes out demanding that everyone go see Jacob, as well as bringing up serious questions about how they can follow a man they’ve never seen and as far as they know, may not exist. His new leadership is much more overhaul of the status quo than a passing of the torch.

By the end of the episode, Richard’s observation that Locke is different is more than a stray quote. Knowing when the flash where Richard helped Locke with his gunshot wound in the season premiere took place is one thing that may be similar to Locke’s instincts in the first season and his desire to be more open reflects a character who has been manipulated too often by secretive people, but it’s the quote at the end that’s telling, where he declares that he doesn’t care about the other survivors so much as his ultimate goal: killing Jacob. Locke would never dismiss the other people on the island for the sake of his grand mission. Of course, knowing what the finale holds explains that.

Another element of time travel that spurred a lot of debate was the compass, which this episode reveals exists in a time loop. Since Richard gave it to Locke in 2007, who gave it to Richard in 1954, where did it originate in the first place? Not to mention that as it goes through this time loop it’ll wear down and break. I know a lot of people have speculated about this to death, but for me, that’s one of the fun parts of time travel fiction.

In 1977 the various groups prepare their Plan Bs: Jack & Sayid get ready to set off the bomb, Jin, Hurley & Miles head to the beach and Sawyer, Juliet & Kate are exiled off the island. Jack has his motivations for setting off the nuclear bomb, but seriously, wimpy Jack is starting to get annoying. His ultimate motivation to forget about Kate is just selfish and whiny. He mentions saving those who died, but he’s far more interested in getting over a girl? Are you 15 Jack and reading Twilight?

Regardless, he gets assistance when Sayid finally resurfaces after a few episodes in the jungle. Sayid certainly has a lot of motivation to help Jack: if it works, his love Nadia will live, as well as make up for him making Ben the man he is (there wasn’t enough wah wah trumpet for the reaction he gets after saying he killed Ben Linus) and if doesn’t, he has enough of a death wish that he wins either way.

Hawking begins her path to Temporal Policemanhood by helping Jack & Sayid get to the bomb. Of course, the shock of shooting her son from the future is enough to have her go with the plan to alter future. Obviously, according to the timeline we’ve followed for the past 5 seasons, that plan failed, dooming her to make sure she kills her son. However, for 1977, she justifiably wants to do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Of course, Kate isn’t on board with the plan to reset the clock. Why would she? She got away with a murder that would’ve landed her in jail for the rest of her life because of what she went through on the island. Not to mention she’s right when he compares Jack’s dedication and Sayid shooting a kid to the darkest parts of Locke’s obsession. Jack’s turnaround is just heading to the other extreme.

Back at Dharmaville, Sawyer and Juliet are harshly grilled by Radzinsky and his security detail. I give Eric Lange & Patrick Fischler as Radzinksy and Phil respectfully a lot of credit: these guys have been great antagonists to the Losties and here they are really awful. I don’t think I’ve ever been rooting so much for a fictional character to kill himself as Radzinsky. As for Phil, punching Juliet certainly had fans ready for him to get comeuppance.

With their hands tied both literally and figuratively, Sawyer and Juliet bargain their freedom, resulting in exile from the island. Though they have to face the real world without any friends or family being aware of their existence, they have each other, and knowledge that can make them rich, as Sawyer jokes on the dock. However, this happy moment is quickly torn asunder when Kate shows up. Come on Kate, you had a really good centric episode and seemed to have direction, now we fall back into old habits.

One small problem I had: when Radzinsky asks who the third infiltrator is, Phil says the fat guy. Then they cut to Hurley grabbing as much food as he can. Seriously? Was Giacchino’s tuba guy out sick as well? I know that Hurley grabbing food makes sense as supplies for him, Jin & Miles, but that transition felt cheap.

Jin, Hurley and Miles find an unlikely ally in Chang. After finding them on the run, Chang quizzes Hurley on 1977, and Hurley fails hilariously (Hurley believing the Korean War was a trick question was particularly funny). There’s even a nice call back to Hurley’s concern about being asked who the president is (Carter), which is where Hurley officially gives up. So Chang takes it upon himself to get the evacuation going.

While watching the evacuation of the island, Miles figures out that Chang, who previously loved him and his mother, rudely demanded they leave because he knew that was the only way they would listen. Certainly the reveals here and from his flashback are huge moments in Miles’ life that finally illuminate pieces of his past. Maybe he can heal from this.

With the evacuation, I wonder why Ethan returned, as he’s seen with Ben as a young boy, yet Charlotte & Miles didn’t return until almost 30 years later. Seems odd unless he was brought back via off island recruiting.

The penultimate episode of the season leading to the two hour finale has been pretty solid the past three seasons and this episode is no exception. It separates the Losties like most finales and certainly sets the stakes pretty high for what they want to do and what that will mean for the rest of the series.

Overall Score: 8/10

Lost: Season 5, Episode 14 Review: The Variable

The Variable
Original Airdate: April 29, 2009
Writer: Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Director: Paul Edward

Every show with a complex mythology needs a Daniel Faraday. He managed to give the exposition for the hard to comprehend rules of time travel and be a fully realized character in his own right. However, the time traveling adventures are starting to wind down, resulting in this swan song. This compounds the problem from the last episode, keep the momentum of the story going to its season’s climax and tell a centric story that covers a lot of background because it is the character’s last. They really only succeed in one.

Ultimately Daniel’s story reveals a lot more about Hawking. By giving Daniel that through line, it makes the story more consistent than Miles’ flashback. Killing her son, with the obvious psychological ramifications, set her life on a path to make that happen for the sake of preserving the timeline. Her son ended up suffering his whole life; giving up his love of music to study science, leaving his love Teresa in a coma while damaging his memory due to his experiments, then heading to the island in hopes of healing his mind where he’s ultimately killed. That’s evil, but she believes it’s a necessary one, which is a more challenging perspective.

Through this journey she becomes the temporal policeman who helps Desmond not reconcile with Penny before he is supposed to so he can make the crash happen and the one who runs the off island operation to get the Oceanic Six back so they can cause the situation the season has been building towards. Now that the event she’s planned for 30 years has happened, she’s left uncertain and that is scary for her. These reveals add a lot of interesting layers to her decisions, as chilling as they may be.

It does reinforce the puppet nature of many of the characters’ decisions. Their lives are guided by forces more powerful than they are and have no choice to refuse. Ultimately I think this will resolve with some affirmation of the characters becoming masters of their destiny, but this season still has a few more people pulling the strings to reveal.

Confirming Hawking as the Other Ellie makes three of the four freighties directly tied to the island: two with Dharma, one with the Others. With that in mind, where does that leave Frank? He was originally meant to fly 815, but fate intervened. Hopefully we’ll get an explanation for why those four were picked, but as the story goes on we may be able to infer enough to be satisfied.

One big event from the flashbacks is Widmore coming to Daniel’s home and confessing to planting the fake plane at the bottom of the ocean. Of course Widmore is one of the least trustworthy people on the show and one of its major villains, but here I think he’s telling the truth because he has no reason not to: Daniel’s memory is fried and can be bought off with the promise of being healed on the island.

In 1977, Daniel charges around like a lunatic after getting the picture of the new Dharma recruits, taking him to where we first saw him this season in the Orchid construction site, which seems out of character for him. Yes the return of some of the Oceanic Six to 1977 may have been something that didn’t happen, but storming into The Others camp guns blazing is quite the gambit for a plan that may not work. If it does, the timeline changes he never goes to the island, but if it doesn’t, he just rots in the jungle.

The stakes are high enough that he doesn’t have to be reckless in his planning. He’s talking about setting off the bomb we saw in “Jughead” at the Swan construction site, which he thinks would alter history so the Swan doesn’t bring down the plane and by extension, the past three years don’t happen. The idea of rewriting the story so the last five seasons never happened is enough. For the characters they get a second chance, but for the audience we’re left wondering how, if it works, they can do it without making the previous five seasons be for nothing. “Whatever happened, happened” is one of the writers’ essential rules to the point where it was a critical piece of several stories and that change doesn’t sit well with many viewers. That kind of reboot should only be used as the nuclear option to course correct a show that’s gone way off the rails and while Lost is complicated, it hasn’t gone off the deep end in a bad way.

There is also the question of whether Daniel’s plan to prevent the future assures it will happen. This has been a common thing in fiction involving prophesy, from Oedipus to Harry Potter. They tease it here: as Daniel originally promised not to warn young Charlotte in Dharmaville, he does it before they split.

There have been rumors that say Daniel was killed off the show because Lost, like many shows in prime time, had to cut costs because of the hard economic times. This also could be why he hasn’t been seen in a few episodes, much like Sayid (I don’t know if leads get paid regardless of being in an episode). It’s unfortunate that a show like Lost has to trim down, especially with a large ensemble with characters that we’ve grown to love or love watching, but this way felt rushed and out of character.

As their tranquil life in Dharma ends, so Juliet realizes her life with Sawyer is over when he calls Kate Freckles, meaning he still has feelings for her. While I don’t care much for the Kate-Sawyer-Jack triangle as mentioned many times, Juliet and Sawyer has been one of the best surprises of the season. At worst it could’ve been bad fan fiction, but Holloway and Mitchell made it one of the more believable couplings on the show, which makes the realization that it’s over more dramatic than the larger triangle it’s connected to.

And a quick side note: Jack, playing the “I didn’t ask why you came back but by bringing it up again just opens the wounds again” card was a real jerk move.

Off island, it turns out Desmond’s milk wasn’t quite bullet proof, but he survives. While he reaffirms Penny that he won’t leave her again, the audience knows the warning that the island isn’t done with him is right. What that means to Penny, who is played by an actress now on another show, could mean more doom, but hopefully the series ends with them on a happy note. They do have to get him interested in returning to the island, and with Hawking and Widmore in LA, they certainly have avenues to do so.

Another strike for the episode is that it is meant to be a counter to one of the series’ high points, “The Constant”. Sure it deals with the other piece in equations, but to remind us of such a great episode and not be up to that classic makes its shortcomings all the more noticeable.

There were also some complaints that Daniel’s death makes a video released at the previous year’s Comic Con not canon. In the video Chang, addressing the camera run by Daniel, advised people in the future to reform Dharma (a part of that summer’s ARG). With Daniel gone, it means that video doesn’t exist on the show. For me, this is a non-issue as while it is contradicted by the show, it doesn’t contradict anything on the show. If they explained what the smoke monster was in the video and then contradicted that, then I’d be upset.

For a 100th episode, this episode feels like a let down. They let down a character to kill him off for the sake of the drama, but it doesn’t feel right for the character. The writers’ hands were tied and while it ties together far better than Miles’ backstory, the result is another disappointment.

Overall Score: 7/10

Lost: Season 5, Episode 13 Review: Some Like It Hoth

Some Like It Hoth
Original Airdate: April 15, 2009
Writer: Melinda Hsu Taylor and Greg Nations
Director: Jack Bender

While critics and fans warmly embraced the freighties, they were introduced late in the game, especially when plot has caught up with character development for importance. The one episode they had devoted to back story (not counting Michael’s) was split among five of them and so we only got the foundation. With a little more than twenty episodes left, it’s unlikely the surviving three will get more than an episode each. So for possibly Miles’ only episode they have to explain how he became a part of the Kahana’s “science team”, his issues with his father and his gift while dealing with the building action of the story. While the pieces are well done, it doesn’t have anything to tie it together besides Miles.

Much like Sayid, being in 1977 gives Miles an opportunity to deal with a major piece of his history, in Miles’ case it’s his life long struggle living without a father. While Sayid quickly reacted in a way he thought would save himself a lot of torment, Miles didn’t take the opportunity to make up for lost time and start any relationship with his dad in three years. It speaks to the differences in the characters: Sayid is a man governed by his emotions whereas Miles hides his under layers of sarcasm and put downs.

Since Miles’ father left them when he was a baby, his perception was informed by his mother, who was justifiably angry at Chang for leaving them. They went from a nice life in Dharmaville to seedy apartments and leaving Miles alone to deal with his mother when she gets sick. That anger permeates throughout his life, as seen when he confronts the father who wanted Miles to find out if his dead son loved him, telling the father he should’ve done that while he was still alive.

So on a trip to hide the death of one of the Swan’s construction crew, he winds up on a road trip with Hurley, who is delivering sandwiches to the same location Horace told Miles to deliver the body. Hurley was the only person who could tell Miles what he needed to hear. He too dealt with an absentee father for most his life. He speaks to dead people, but as he says, his power is better. However, Hurley has overcome his daddy issues by giving his dad a second chance. Certainly glimpsing his father lovingly caring for his baby self offered some solace to all that pain he suffered, but ultimately it is bittersweet.

The other major piece of Miles’ backstory is how he came to be on the freighter. Turns out his freelance medium work caught the eye of Widmore (or maybe he found him first because he had a tie to the island). Some have speculated on the ambiguous reading of Felix, Miles’ “audition”. Since it wouldn’t be smart to have an outsider read a man they killed, it’s a safe guess that The Others killed Felix to get the information Friendly handed Michael in “Meet Kevin Johnson”.

But Widmore isn’t the only person who noticed Miles; he also caught the attention of the people seen with the mysterious container, as Bram warns Miles not to take up Widmore’s offer. Through this exchange we learn two things: there’s a war coming and Widmore is on the opposing team. The scene also explains that Miles asked Ben for 3.2 million dollars a season earlier because he wanted to know if Ben was on Bram’s side and as far as he knows, he isn’t.

Among the landmarks that take us to the finale is the reveal that The Swan station is already under top secret construction. The problems are there from the jump when Miles is put in charge of covering up the death of Alvarez, a Dharma worker whose tooth filling was ripped out of his skull like a bullet in reverse. It’s also interesting that the construction is taking place in Other territory. So ultimately Dharma is breaching the truce just because they can. The true agenda of Dharma, personified by Radzinsky is coming to a critical point with the perceived face, personified by Horace.

The other big turning point is the façade Sawyer created for the Island Five and the Ajira 77ers finally falling. It was inevitable to happen, from the interest Kate had in Young Ben getting on Roger’s radar to the biggest piece, the video incriminating Sawyer and Kate in Young Ben’s disappearance. They managed to put a bandage on it by knocking out Phil, but that’s not going to last and they know it.

The nerdiest bit of the episode, one that lead to one of my favorite instances of Wikipedia vandalism, was Hurley writing The Empire Strikes Back “with a couple improvements”. While this humor doesn’t fit the tone of the rest of the episode, it’s still fun (although wouldn’t Hurley know that Luke gets his hand cut off before he learns of Vader’s paternity?)

Daniel’s return reeks of the writers not knowing how to end the episode. It just comes out of no where and while it may coincide with the story heading to its climax, it doesn’t work in context. It’s obvious why it’s there, but the end of the episode was better off leaving with Miles watching his father care for his newborn self.

This episode felt like it could’ve been a Hurley episode in early drafts. He’s featured prominently, all the episodes after “Namaste” featured one of the characters who returned and he and Sun were the two left & there are moments of comedy and pop culture references down to the pun in the title. However, if the writers realized what was mentioned in the first paragraph, they must’ve scrapped it in favor of giving Miles a shot in the spotlight.

Overall this episode is a mess, but the pieces are well done. They had to cram a lot of information about Miles’ background and ultimately not much ties it together neatly. It’s crunch time for the writers and while this episode is a disappointment, hopefully this is just a hiccup and not a sign of what’s to come.

Overall Score: 7/10

Lost: Season 5, Episode 12 Review: Dead Is Dead

Dead Is Dead
Original Airdate: April 8, 2009
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan and Elizabeth Sarnoff
Director: Stephen Williams

Of all the morsels divvied out in “316”, none created more discussion than the shot of Ben bloodied and soaked calling Jack at the pier. Fans figured that it would have to do with Penny and Desmond, placing one of the most beloved couplings on the show in jeopardy. Ben’s injuries and moisture implied things went wrong, but there was always the chance he pulled off the hit in a much sloppier way than he intended and needed more time for clean up. If Ben were to shatter this relationship forever it would’ve made him irredeemable in the eyes of the viewer, no matter what he did afterward. Ultimately that’s a spring board for one of the big questions of this episode: is it possible for a person who has lied and hurt so many people to be redeemed?

Through the episode weave two major threads regarding Ben: his potential for redemption and his relationship with Widmore. The latter is explained through the flashbacks as 77 Widmore is apprehensive of Young Ben being accepted into their circle, clearly feeling the signal that his time as leader is going to end. The tensions come to a head over Ben going off mission by sparing the Rousseaus and taking Alex, then they skip ahead a few years to see Widmore’s exile. Of course that leaves a lot of details to be fleshed out, but the brief moment touches on the key themes well.

Ultimately Widmore is angry at Ben for going against what he believes were the island’s orders to kill Rousseau and her daughter. Ironically, going against The Others’ key beliefs (Ben’s comments imply that Penny is the child Widmore fathered with “an outsider”) was what lead to Widmore being voted off the island. It may be an easy way to show him in a sympathetic light, but Ben, despite his faith and loyalty to the island, doesn’t see how murdering a child fits the island’s interests. As Widmore’s lead off, he comments that if the island wants it, it’ll happen. That could add a disturbing layer to Keamy’s team, sent in part to kill Rousseau and Alex as they were intended to 16 years previous.

The Widmore/Ben power struggles are important in its relation to Ben’s fear over his place on the island with Locke around. Of all the miracles he’s witnessed, he’s never seen resurrection, so he feels his status is seriously threatened and that he’ll have a similar fate to Widmore. He’s acted against the island’s wishes like Widmore whereas Locke has been far steadier. So he tries to get Locke out of the way by working up Caesar against Locke. He certainly knows a thing about a group of plane crash survivors worrying over the unknown element and uses that to his advantage. He changes his mind, knowing Locke can help him find his forgiveness and kills Caesar with a shotgun blast to the gut at close range.

A lot of people may have been disappointed that Caesar died so soon. He is a good example of the red herring: he was emphasized among the survivors of 316 and possibly hinted at as important to the story, but was just the latest body to the pile. One thing that is annoying about this is that Caesar somehow didn’t notice a shotgun even of that size was removed from his person. Ben can be stealthy, but not that much.

Ben’s desire to be judged obviously stems from his guilt over Alex’s death. Alex was the one person he truly loved (his Juliet obsession doesn’t count) and her last memory is of him denying it. This is compounded with Widmore’s warnings that the island’s wishes will be fulfilled eventually, possibly making Ben feel that his guilt is the island punishing him for not doing what it wanted. Not wanting to kill an innocent person to fulfill vague wishes that may not exist helps make Ben more sympathetic, which sounds a little ridiculous, but is sold well through Emerson.

Ben proves he is worthy of redemption because when he assumed Widmore’s role and has his chance for revenge, he didn’t go as dark. As he spared Rousseau when he learned she was a mother, so did he hesitate to kill Penny when Charlie spoke up. He knew what life was like without a mother and knew he couldn’t inflict it on anyone else. Then as Desmond pummeled Ben, Ben took those punches without response. That Ben even wanted to be judged shows a sign of redemption. All Widmore did was seek comfort at the bottom of a MacCutcheon’s. Ben’s still no saint (see the Caesar incident), but he has the capability to do some good.

The “trial” is an emotional scene, played really well by Emerson, who could’ve gone way over the top in his grief. Mirroring season two’s scan of Eko, which presented a collage of images from Eko’s life, Ben sees scenes of his querulous relationship with Alex and its tragic ending. It’s an intensified experience, one that literally engulfs Ben.

It turns out the only thing worse than being found guilty by The Monster is to be forgiven, as it appears as Alex to warn Ben not to go forward with any idea he has of killing Locke to keep his position safe. Clearly, if The Monster tells you to do something, you do it and there is no margin of error. Knowing where the season is headed, it’s pretty clear who The Smoke Monster is working for (I’ll delve into that in a future review), which makes this moment more interesting in retrospect.

As true with most of its appearances, more of The Monster mystery is uncovered. Its origins are ancient, as its home appears to be The Temple where art shows something that could be The Monster terrorizing Anubis or something similar. The hole Ben crawled into in “The Shape of Things To Come” to summon it is actually shown as something probably older than the temple. I’m not going to go into detail analyzing the sink Ben unplugged to summon it because that may just be some weird thing that won’t be explained.

One quick note: when Ben returns to his home for the first time since the siege, there’s a brief shot of the Risk game board that he used with Hurley and Locke. Some figured this means that Hurley’s comments in “The Shape of Things to Come” are somehow key to unraveling the mystery. It’s more likely that this is a nod to them paying close attention to detail, a sharp contrast from Young Ben’s magical moving bullet wound.

Ben’s last centric episode, “The Shape of Things to Come” was a highlight of the series. It showed why Michael Emerson is one of the most talented actors working today as well as why Ben is one of TV’s most fascinating characters. So a drop off is expected (like the drop from “The Constant” to “Jughead”), but there are still a lot of good moments and themes explored, and Michael Emerson is amazing doing just about anything on this show.

Overall Score: 8/10

Lost: Season 5, Episode 11 Review: Whatever Happened, Happened

Whatever Happened, Happened
Original Airdate: April 1, 2009
Writers: Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
Director: Bobby Roth

Next on the “Why be on board” roster is Kate, and how she went from being determined never to see any of them again to collapsing at Jack’s house. Kate’s been criticized for not being developed beyond her position in the love triangle. The decision to have her take care of Aaron was clearly a way to bring some life to her story. While her other episode this season was underwhelming, the new direction was refreshing, and works a lot better here despite it being far from a perfect episode.

At the heart of the episode is Kate as protector for Aaron and Young Ben. The flashbacks flesh out Kate’s three years raising Aaron, in particular her time with her old partner-in-crime and mother of Sawyer’s baby Cassidy. This isn’t anything most people hadn’t already suspected since they explained that Kate was doing something for Sawyer on the main land, but it is a nice call back.

Interestingly, Kate tells Cassidy the truth about what happened. Perhaps this was due to Cassidy being an experienced con woman, but this tidbit may explain in part why Kate was OK with the lie, aside from the full pardon: she had someone to talk to about her experience.

It leads to Cassidy to call Sawyer out for abandoning her and his daughter and question his motivation for jumping out of the plane in the first place. While this serves to add doubt to Kate’s feelings, it felt odd she wouldn’t jump to defend him. This wasn’t the Sawyer from the first two and a half seasons: he clearly jumped out to make sure the Oceanic Six made it to the boat, not jumping ship out of fear of commitment. Ultimately it’s a contrivance to fit with the present action of Sawyer distancing himself because of his relationship with Juliet, but still tagging along the mission to save Ben.

The stronger parallel between Kate’s flashback and present is her role as caregiver and protector. Obviously she dealt with some of that with Aaron in the first part of the season and deals with it again as her guilt over basically conning Aaron turns to paranoia. As much flack as I give Kate, I have to give credit for Evangeline Lilly’s performance. She does a great job carrying this episode and as far as the flashbacks are concerned these are some of the strongest Kate has had since before her past was explained. The part where she frantically scoured the grocery store after losing Aaron got to a lot of parents that I heard from and read about. Her performance certainly pushes my rating up a bit.

After the grocery store scene, she decides to place Aaron with the only relative she knows of, as it is the closest to making it right, while resolving to return to the island to bring the rightful mother back to her child. It explains her appearance at Jack’s home: she’s completely drained after making one of the hardest decisions of her life. Of course that is the big hanging piece of this story. Claire has been missing for 3 years, and one can wonder how she would feel about Kate’s arrangements (in an interesting coincidence Kate sings “Catch a Falling Star”, a song Claire requested the would be adopted parents sing, to Aaron). Unfortunately in the main story, the chaos to deal with immediately pushes Claire to the side as far as important threads are concerned.

It would’ve been nice to have Claire mentioned in the present, but clearly Kate’s experiences raising Aaron and losing him motivate her to save the young version of a man who tormented her and her friends for years. Clearly her time as a mother affected her judgment, as it’d be harder for her to be so gung ho about saving Young Ben.

Between Young Ben’s shooting and the flaming bus crash, the noose continues to tighten around the 77ers. It doesn’t help when the heat goes directly to Jack who, like Roger, owns a set of maintenance keys. So the new 77ers hit the mattresses in one of the Dharma homes, a fate that seems to fit the new Jack, content with letting things play out without taking an active role in it.

Of course, the big thing about Jack’s non-involvement is that by not helping Young Ben he’s breaking his Hypocratic oath to do no harm. Jack’s swung around to the other side of the faith/science spectrum, and it isn’t much better there.

During the crisis Roger is proven not to be a completely horrible dad as he confides in Kate about dealing with raising a son alone. While it doesn’t justify child abuse, seeing this other side of Roger helps show he’s not just a one dimensional jerk, and it can also be something Kate could tell Ben later (assuming they make it to the same time line).

They may have meant to explain this, but why is no one batting an eye to Juliet, a mechanic as far as Dharma is concerned, performing major surgery? Shouldn’t that be a tip that they aren’t who they say they are? Did Dharma just give people jobs by picking them out of a hat rather than on merit (which is a horrible way to assign work unless everyone’s a surgeon)?

Clearly Hurley & Miles’ conversation explaining the rules of time travel was added in anticipation for all the head scratching fans have done this season. While initially this scene bothered me by continuing to make this scenario more complicated for those who were falling fast in any understanding, the wink to the audience hit more the second time. Hurley is the voice of the audience, so of course he’d be confused, and amongst his confusion Miles, who takes place of MIA Daniel, explains the rules: for the time travelers this is their present and for those they’re visiting it is their past. Whatever happened here always happened and they can’t change that, meaning Ben can’t die because he’s alive to torment the Losties 30 years later. It’s reinforcing the paradox rule the writers set up, but clearly they’re out to challenge it this season with the uncertainty of Young Ben’s fate in this episode.

That Richard could heal Young Ben at the expense of Young Ben having no memory of what happened is a cheap out. Yes, having the Losties interact with Young Ben would be problematic with them meeting him decades later and him giving no sign of previous acquaintance, but the characters seem to forget that Ben is a talented liar. He was certainly convincing back when he pretended to be Henry Gale, couldn’t he have pretended not to recognize the Losties before meeting them? Not to mention they totally missed on explaining that the “her” Juliet reminded Ben of was herself.

There’s also a problem with the implication that the healing will make Young Ben one of them. He doesn’t need much motivation to go to their side anyway, why add a supernatural element? This kind of influence on character development doesn’t work. Regardless, it helps reinforce the notion that the survivors are ultimately responsible for their problems as their actions in the last two episodes allow Young Ben become Ben.

One blooper that deserves some critique is that Young Ben’s gunshot wound moves from his left chest to his lower right abdomen. It seems like a really obvious mistake someone would’ve picked up, as if they knew the original location of the bullet would’ve certainly killed him, so they gave him a gut shot to bleed out slowly. For consecutive episodes, the lack of continuity is really discouraging.

For a character who hasn’t always had the most to do, this Kate episode is a much desired improvement. It gives her character some much needed depth, and Lilly is up for the challenge. It also has interesting questions about time travel, the “kill Hitler when he’s young” conundrum and while it takes an easy out, the character development is really strong.

Overall Score: 8/10

Lost: Season 5, Episode 10 Review: He's Our You

He’s Our You
Original Airdate: March 25, 2009
Writer: Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Director: Greg Yaitanes

The biggest mysteries introduced in “316” were about how some opposed to returning wound up on the plane. It’s no surprise that the subsequent episodes would explain what happened that changed their minds or forced their hands. First up is Sayid, who would fall into the latter category. This returns to the more traditional flashback formula, albeit flashbacks for a time after the original crash, but taking place after the main action thanks to the time loops.

The Oceanic Six who went to 1977 had a lot to deal with, and one of the biggest was dealing with a 12-year-old Ben Linus, then an innocent boy dealing with an abusive father. That revelation hit Sayid the hardest. Besides Locke, Sayid has had the most contested relationship with Ben of the lead castaways. Sayid’s anger and distrust for The Others stemmed from Shannon’s death, but ironically found himself killing people Ben listed after Nadia’s demise.

I originally suspected he went rogue after the Ilsa incident in “The Economist”. However, it turns out Ben ended Sayid’s rampage after a hit in Russia. It lacks some dramatic effect this way, so why would Ben call it off now? Perhaps his list was real, even if ultimately it’s treated like a MacGuffin.

With no more vendetta to fulfill, Sayid turns to building houses for charity. It doesn’t last long as Ben soon finds him with information of Locke’s death, which he perpetrated and manipulated to Sayid, and Hurley’s surveillance, which unleashes the calculated killer in Sayid once more. While Sayid is often the Captain Sensible of the castaways regarding strategy, his emotions continue to drive his decisions when he loses his cool.

Throughout the episode Ben shows his talents manipulating Sayid, dangling pieces of information that will make him want to kill. For all we know the man Sayid gunned down in “There’s No Place Like Home” was just some unlucky dude waiting to pick someone up. Of course, that comes back to bite him when Sayid finds himself in 1977 and, thinking he can alter history, tries to kill Ben.

There are parallels throughout the episode for season two’s “The 23rd Psalm”. At the heart are the choices of two men who have lived lives filled with violence. Each begins with the central character killing in place of their brother, who is reluctant (one wonders what Sayid’s brother did during Saddam’s reign) then ultimately making major events push them from that end towards redemption. Although it was in part to write the actor out, Eko would later change his mind, which could mean there is redemption possible for Sayid.

Sayid shooting Young Ben was a shocking moment not because he tried, but that he succeeded. Since time travel was introduced in season three, Lindelof & Cuse have made it clear in interviews that there wouldn’t be paradox. Whatever happened in the past happened and no matter what events would course correct to correspond with the present. Meaning Young Ben can’t die from his gunshot wound. The rules weren’t explained to Sayid, even cursory like Sawyer did to Kate, Hurley & Jack. This begins the big question of the season: despite what we’ve been told, can the past be altered?

It’s also shocking for them to shoot a 12 year old and show it. On 24 a few seasons ago they ignored following up on a similar scenario where a girl would’ve certainly been killed to protect the villains. They never even mention her or her mother, someone who worked with and was trusted by one of the main characters. Here, it’s the jaw dropper to cap the episode. Perhaps the only way they got away with it is because this kid grows up to be Ben, but still.

Sayid’s flashbacks offer our first glimpse of one of the new 316ers off island life. Here we see Ilana playing a possible one night stand until she takes Sayid into custody for the death of Mr. Avelino. Of course we already doubt that story, and her being at the exact bar and waiting until they’re alone to bust him points to her not being an agent of any kind (she didn’t even have a badge to flash).

The belief that Dharma is some front for an illegitimate operation gains further traction with their decision to execute Sayid. It’s interesting to see how they are operating since The Island isn’t a sovereign nation in the traditional sense. The conflict with The Others has caused them to create their own law, which leads them to imprison people and execute without due process. It’s telling of how Dharma acclimated to the island than the 815ers, especially when Dharma had easier access to the main land.

The episode drops the ball and never fully regains it with Oldham, the “He” in the title. Throughout the episode he’s hinted at as this guy you don’t want to cross. However, the pay off is limp. His method of torture is tying Sayid down and giving him acid? Granted, drugging someone isn’t a nice thing to do, but considering most of Dharma probably indulged in drugs, this is hardly an interrogation that would inspire so much fear among Dharma.

Oldham reminds me a little of Isabel, the Others’ ‘sheriff’ from season three, in this respect. There was this build up and no pay off. She’s never seen, heard from or mentioned again (and pronounced dead by the producers in an interview, a less ceremonious send off than Poochie). Oldham has a similar fate, like they knew this was a mess and decided to pretend like it never happened.

Like their arrival signified the end of happy times at Dharma, this episode shows the new arrivals actively ending it. Besides Sayid’s action, by being there Kate is throwing a wrench into Juliet and Sawyer’s relationship (of course Kate being a Dharma mechanic doesn’t hurt that cliché). This may be where the antipathy towards Kate picks up steam. People embraced Juilet and Kate’s the other woman.

Despite the big twist and major question asked by the twist, this episode is a misfire. While I compare it to “The 23rd Psalm”, the writing there was much tighter. Ultimately the disappointing lead up to Oldham really damaged the episode. While he could’ve been a psychopath who somehow convinced Sayid to do what he did in the end, it just fell flat.

Overall Score: 6/10

Lost: Season 5, Episode 9 Review: Namaste

Namaste
Original Airdate: March 18, 2009
Writer: Paul Zbyszewski and Brian K. Vaughan
Director: Jack Bender

As the last episode showed, the Island Five thrived inside the Dharma community. It was a pretty good gig, but the arrival of the returning castaways is the beginning of the end of such domestic bliss. It starts with a not quite smooth transition of the three of them, and it only gets worse when Sayid is mistaken for an Other. Much like the season premiere, this episode doesn’t have a clear centric focus, but rather spends its time setting up the two main threads for the rest of the season: the people in 2007 figuring out how to get back to those who went to 1977 and the 1977 people busy dealing with Dharma. Some may be critical to have the principal leads dispersed even longer, but this is something that has happened a lot since the first season, especially the last two.

By going forward without everyone, they “rolled the dice” as the producers say and ultimately Ajira 316’s passengers wound up in two times. Everyone besides the ones seen in “316” and Sayid went to 2007. Why they went is mainly decided by what works best for the plot, but on one podcast I listen to (I believe it was Lostcast), two interesting connections between the main characters who stayed and the four who went came up. The four who went were all contacted by Locke, and those who stayed were connected directly to Widmore. Whether or not it means something, it’s an interesting layer.

After two seasons, it’s safe to say that the runway Kate & Sawyer broke rocks for wasn’t just a demoralizing exercise, but done in preparation for this arrival. Assuming all of that is true, it means The Others have an impressive amount of precognition and can maneuver themselves accordingly. How they can is still unknown, but may tie in to other elements like them not shifting with the castaways when Ben moved the island.

For those in 2007, they hide the truth from those around them to a lesser degree than the 77ers. Certainly Sun knows a thing about hidden agendas among survivors of a plane crash and how their story may be too incredible to believe. Frank also encounters this when he tries to assure his passengers while Ceasar questions Frank’s much calmer than expected attitude. This element isn’t nearly much of an issue because Frank and Sun are long gone before Locke mentions that he’s been there before.

The vets (aside from Locke) decide to head to the main land. Ben’s injuries are explained as Sun smacking him with the oar and as no surprise, Sun and Frank were the ones who took the outrigger to the main island. There they see things at the Barracks have fallen apart. While I’m not sure that much damage can be done from 3 years being abandoned, there’s an obvious hint that the Smoke Monster has taken residency there, which, compounded with the whispers, may explain why Christian is there as well.

Sun & Frank encounter Christian in one of the abandoned houses. If he is acting on behalf of Jacob as he says, he needs to get everyone back on the same time line and that it is a long, arduous process. It’s another lead meant to raise speculation for what it means, whether it’s moving the island or something more. For both sides, there’s no clear solution on how to reunite besides the 77ers being patient, avoiding the purge and meeting up when they’re in their 50s and 60s (and of course not coming into contact with themselves from the first four seasons).

While the 07ers know those who disappeared are 30 years in the past, the 77ers have no way of knowing where their counterparts went or if they are still alive. All they have is the possibility of the plane appearing on anything Dharma monitors. Of course, knowing his wife was on the flight sends Jin to the Flame to investigate, where we meet none other than Radzinsky, the man behind the blast door map and who was previously seen as an aged bloodstain on The Swan’s ceiling.

Radzinsky and Phil will quickly become the most justifiably hated characters in the series. He is a control freak, obsessed with glory with a little bit of mad scientist thrown in. In his scenes, Radzinsky is shown building a model for what will become The Swan hatch, meaning the Incident that would require its construction hasn’t happened yet. Previously, I thought what happened after Desmond turned the key was the closest we’d get to an answer as to what the Incident was, but apparently they wanted to explore more.

Elsewhere, Sawyer manages to get the people he was reunited with in “LaFleur” into the Dharma Initiative under the guise of them being among the new recruits who happened to be coming in that day. While the Island 5’s recruitment had rough edges, this one is always teetering on the brink of disaster. Luckily they don’t have modern technology, where they could quickly find out that those who wound up in 77 are either children or newborns. However, they could’ve figured it out among the Island 5, which contributes to the “Dharma is a front so they don’t ask too many questions” theory for those who don’t want to see it as a plot hole.

No hint is given that the Island 5 had as much difficulty assimilating as the new arrivals aside from their introduction. They don’t slip with anything referencing anything that has happened after 1977. Sawyer calling The Others “Hostiles” represents how well they’ve blended into Dharma society. Even after finding out who Amy’s child is, Juliet reacts subtly that only a person who knew to look for would notice.

Not naming the baby in “LaFleur” lead to a lot of discussion over who the baby was (and in long dormant drafts for that episode, I once pondered that maybe it was Jacob who figured out how to appear in 1954). It turns out the baby was Ethan, a development that annoys me more than it should. This makes Ethan 27 years old when he died. Much like Rebecca Mader doesn’t look 34, William Mapother doesn’t look 27, not to mention details of his medical prowess seem far fetched for someone that age. Yes some actors on the show are playing characters much younger than they are, but in the cases of the two actors mentioned, they look their ages.

Age problems aside, Ethan is probably another person who helped Ben conspire with The Others in the purge, something made more chilling since his father, like Ben’s, is one of the victims (and when Ethan was 15 no less). Ben hinted that he wasn’t the only person to switch sides, so this is a welcome follow up to that. Amy’s fate is up in the air, and many have theorized she is Amelia, the woman Juliet spoke to before the book club the day of the crash.

After the rough start, they get their jobs and Jack is none too pleased to be a “Work Man”. Jack’s new job is Sawyer’s payback. Sawyer had to step up and bear the burden of keeping the few surviving castaways together after most of them were slaughtered. Sawyer protected them, so he resents Jack barging in wanting to be the hero after being away so long, not to mention that there is no imminent danger known to them. It’s another step in emasculating Jack, taking him from being the leader to waiting for a sign.

The cliff hanger was expected with the arrival of the Losties to 1977, the captured Sayid meeting a young Ben Linus (the camera work and lighting really did a good job making Sterling Beaumon look more like Michael Emerson). There is irony in this meeting, besides Ben meeting Sayid before vice versa, when Ben was first captured he pretended he wasn’t part of The Others whereas Sayid pretended he was, and both did so out of fear of execution. Clearly this is why the writers chose to send Sayid way back to 1977.

Critic’s note: for the sake of clarity, Ben when played by Sterling Beaumon will be referred to as “Young Ben” whereas Ben when played by Michael Emerson will be referred to as “Ben”.

Of course on Lost, every minor detail from a word choice to a facial expression gets dissected to death. However, the people behind this show are mere mortals like we are and make mistakes. Case in point, in the original airing, there is a woman in the background (behind Sun) when Sun and Frank meet Christian. A lot of people, myself included, guessed that perhaps this person was Claire, last seen under Christian’s care. It turns out that the woman was just a crew member who got in the shot. Whenever these bloopers make it into the final cut (which is inevitable even among the best shows) it always makes me question all the elaborate speculation I’ve made and how much of it was over flubs like this one.

This episode did a good job setting up the new status quo of the second half of the season. It would’ve been nice to have a character take center stage, but the way the story was, it didn’t seem likely that it would fit. For a show built heavily around character development, focusing on plot works almost as well.

Overall Score: 8/10