Matt's TV Reviews

101 Things I Loved About TV This Year

2011-01-01T13:20:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately I haven't gotten my top 10 shows list done yet, so in the mean time, here is a list of the 101 Things on TV I loved this year. They can be anything from a specific moment to an episode or story arc.

Yes some of the videos are in reverse. I don't know why.

24: Jack ambushing Logan’s motorcade

30 Rock: Tracy Jordan’s bloopers from his Boys and Girls Club PSA

30 Rock: Alec Baldwin, still one of the most dependable actors on TV

Breaking Bad: Proof that showrunners shouldn’t be afraid of making it up as they go along (so long as the writers are on the level of Breaking Bad’s)

Breaking Bad: The best cold opens on TV

Breaking Bad: The rest of the episodes were pretty astounding too

Breaking Bad: Bryan Cranston winning Best Actor at the Emmys for the third year straight and Aaron Paul getting his due

Breaking Bad: The climax of “One Minute” (capping off what may be their best episode, NSFW)

Breaking Bad: “Half Measures”

Chuck: “Chuck Vs. The Beard”

Community & Parks and Recreation: Seeing these two shows’ ensembles gel into two of the best comedic casts on TV

Community: “Modern Warfare”

Community: The “Layla” montage in “Contemporary American Poultry”

Community: “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” Watch episode on Hulu.

Community: That they had a subplot occur solely in the background in the “The Psychology of Letting Go”

Conan O’Brien: His farewell speech on The Tonight Show

Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler finally getting some Emmy love

Daria: Finally out on DVD

Doctor Who: The touching end to “Vincent and the Doctor”

Doctor Who: Using time travel for a clever spin on “A Christmas Carol”

Doctor Who: The smooth transition from the Tennant/Davies era to the Smith/Moffat one

Friday Night Lights: Realizing how much Tim Riggins has grown from the first season

Friday Night Lights: Seeing Michael B. Jordan on another great show

Friday Night Lights: That they were able to move on with a new cast of high school characters rather than shoehorning the old ones in unrealistic ways

Friday Night Lights: Zach Gilford delivering a devastating performance in “The Son”

Friday Night Lights: Buddy Garrity standing up to the arrogant Dillon Panther boosters

Fringe: Seeing Anna Torv blossom into a really talented actress

Fringe: Seeing John Noble continue to make Walter Bishop one of TV’s most fascinating characters

Fringe: The attention to detail in making every difference between “Over Here” and “Over There” even more special

Fringe: The alternate opening title sequences

glee: Burt Hummel, one of the best TV dads on now

glee: Kurt singing “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”

glee: The “Bohemian Rhapsody” sequence

HolyMauryMotherofGod.Tumblr.com

How I Met Your Mother: “Natural History”

How I Met Your Mother: The creative rebound of the sixth season

How I Met Your Mother: The “Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit” song

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Three words: Lethal Weapon 5

Jeff Zucker’s Reign of Terror at NBC coming to an end

Jimmy Kimmel calling out Leno on his nonsense

Justified: The writing cartwheels they took to keep Walton Goggins around

Live Tweeting Awards shows

Lost: Jack’s epic jumping punch

Lost: The final scene

Lost: The moments of realization when the characters connected in the flash sideways, in particular Charlie, Kate & Claire and Juliet & Sawyer

Louie & Party Down: Proof that you can make something great even on a microscopic budget

Louie: The heckler throw down (NSFW)

Mad Men: How Kiernan Shipka went from a non-entity in season one to a fully realized character now

Mad Men: The art design of Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce

Mad Men: The shot of Peggy riding the bicycle in the empty studio

Mad Men: That Betty Draper’s role was significantly reduced this year

Netflix: The continued expansion of their “Watch Instant” library

Parks and Recreation: Ron Swanson. Enough said.

Party Down: “Steve Guttenberg’s Birthday”

Party Down: Kyle’s band Karma Rocket unfortunate song choice for a Jewish wedding (NSFWish)

Saturday Night Live: “I Just Had Sex”, the best digital short since “Motherlover” (NSFW, but not as much as some of the videos here)

Saturday Night Live: Kanye West’s performance of “Power”

Saturday Night Live: Backlash be damned, Betty White hosting

South Park: The dozens of call backs crammed into their 200^th episode two parter

South Park: How the excessive censorship by the network in the 201^st episode unintentionally made their point better than they planned.

Supernatural: The Winchester’s Chevy Impala

Supernatural: Bobby, the guy you want having your back

Supernatural: The classic rock soundtrack

Terriers: That killer theme song

Terriers: “Quid Pro Quo”

The Good Guys: The nerdy lab tech Samantha

The In-Betweeners: Jay’s foul mouth (Very NSFW)

The In-Betweeners: “Thorpe Park”

The Office: The writers keeping Jim and Pam together

The Office: Andy’s disastrous Sweeney Todd performance

The Simpsons: The controversial opening designed by Banksy

The Venture Bros.: Hank going film noir in “Everybody Comes to Hank’s”

The Venture Bros.: Henchman 21’s character arc

The Venture Bros.: Steven Rattazzi’s line reading as Dr. Orpheus (below is th music usually accompanying the more dramatic quotes).

The Venture Bros.: The multiple interpretations of what a “Rusty Venture” is (way, way, way, NSFW)

The Venture Bros.: “Operation: P.R.O.M.”

The Walking Dead: One of the best pilots in years

The week of May 2-May 8

The shows I caught up with or am catching up with

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Community

Doctor Who

House

How I Met Your Mother

Parks and Recreation

Sons of Anarchy

Supernatural

The Venture Bros.

Non-romantic pairs:

Troy and Abed (Community)

Sam and Dean (Supernatural)

The Doctor and Amy (Doctor Who)

Walter and Jesse (Breaking Bad)

Don and Peggy (Mad Men)

Britt and Hank (Terriers)

Pete White and Billy Quizboy (Venture Bros.)

Romantic pairs:

Henry and Casey (Party Down)

Eric and Tami (Friday Night Lights)

Marshall and Lily (How I Met Your Mother)

Britt and Katie (Terriers)

The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch (Venture Bros.)

Jim and Pam (The Office)

Liz and Jack (The Good Guys)

The Walking Dead: Season 1, Episode 5 Review: Wildfire

2010-12-05T02:34:00.000-05:00

Wildfire

Original Airdate: November 28, 2010

Writer: Glen Mazzara
Director: Ernest Dickerson

Of course the massacre would be a turning point of the season, one thing from the comic that needed to stay for the show. Besides establishing how dangerous this world is, it puts the Shane and Rick conflict to a near boil. Although Rick believes that the weapons he retrieved kept the zombies from killing everyone, taking four strong people away from camp left them vulnerable to the attack in the first place. He knows it and the loss of those people on top of not being able to help Jim informs his desperation in the end, slamming on the door in hopes that anyone inside will let them in. Shane isn’t letting Rick off easy, but Rick’s growing influence in the group is wearing him down to where he contemplates killing Rick in a “hunting accident” before Dale busts him.

Also important to the episode is how the survivors treat the dead and undead after an attack. It’s seems out of character for Rick not to take issue with the idea that the zombies get burned while the killed survivors get buried. As Rick made them take note, the zombies were once people and eventually they all will become zombies themselves. That lesson seems short lived, but maybe this just represents the theory Rick presents doesn’t work when it practice these former people slaughtered a ton of your newly formed family.

Then comes the issue of what they do with those killed by zombies or just bitten and quickly falling apart from it. For this no one is affected more than Andrea, who spends most of the episode holding a vigil for Amy. This really nails the hard toll the zombie apocalypse takes on a person. How do you react when someone you love dies and you know they will come back? Can you stand by while a guy drives a pick axe through their skull? What if you wait and they come back, can you do what’s necessary or will grief and guilt override it? I also liked how they handled Amy’s reanimation. Instead of her awaking at full strength and pulling Andrea’s neck to her mouth, it’s like she’s waking up.

During the clean up Carol has a good character developing moment, cathartically pulverizing her abusive husband’s skull to a point where it made the guy who is doing this for fun uncomfortable. I still like to think the excessive skull bashing and the torn apart corpse was more for his character being terribly written and serving no purpose. Of the comic characters, she and Sophia are the least defined in the series, so maybe they’ll go in a different direction if they’re around for season two. Besides seeing the live action version of the comic, an adaptation can be a fun was to explore an untraveled route.

As the bodies are being taken care of, Rick and Shane quarrel about what to do next. It’s between Shane’s idea of Fort Benning, 100 miles away and the likelier safe spot or Rick’s of the CDC headquarters, closer and possibly a place to find out more about what happened. Rick wins the argument as fuel is low and the Winnebago is falling apart without the hose the van had and just further eats at Shane.

Before the exodus, Morales and his family decide to go their own way in hopes of finding their family. Considering how minor a character Morales and especially his family was, I’m not too frustrated that they went nowhere, but for a season that only had six episodes, why bother introducing so many characters that did little to nothing for the season arc?

Also dispatched is poor Jim, who was bit during the attack, but kept it secret until the morning after. Thankfully they spare us the “survivor hiding a zombie bite” story seen in a lot of zombie movies and address it head on, where it becomes another part of the episode’s theme of how the survivors deal with the dead or soon to be dead. Daryl’s ready to put him down before he so much as dies as preventative measure, but Rick sees hope in getting him to the CDC where he could be cured. Instead, Jim decides that he won’t be able to make it and asks to be left behind. While true to the comics, I wonder why no one brings up the idea that when he comes back he could be a threat to others. Then again, at this point, there isn’t as much for him to go for.

The last act switches things up with the introduction of Dr. Jenner, a scientist who has been studying the zombie outbreak alone in the CDC’s bunker. Being the last survivor in the facility, it’s a lonely and hard life. For all intents and purposes, he is The Walking Dead’s Desmond Hume. When Dr. Jenner is at his lowest, ready to get smashed and kill himself, the survivors come pounding on his door, just like Desmond when Locke slammed the hatch door. In fact, it’s hard not to compare the final shot of this episode with the ending of Lost.

The stage setter for the finale, “Wildfire” does a good job reminding us of the stakes, thinning down the massive cast and getting the survivors to what should be an interesting stage for the season finale. The last act feels a little like this episode ran short and the finale ran long, another symptom of cramming storylines from a 12 episode season to a 6 episode one. Hopefully this is another thing that’ll be fixed when they get a full season.

Overall Score: 8/10

DON'T READ, SPOILERS BELOW (Highlight if you've read the comics)

Purists have probably not liked most of the first season as far as fidelity is concerned. Outside of the first episode, extensive liberties have been taken bringing the show to a TV format. Now they’re introducing the government’s last gasp of a response. This is something the comics have chosen to ignore completely because without the systems of communication in place, how are they to know what happened? That lack of knowledge helps drive the comic’s reality. Giving the TV survivors insight into the chaos is a risky move, but could be interesting, and I doubt they’ll be there for long.

The Walking Dead: Season 1, Episode 4: Vatos

2010-11-28T12:44:00.004-05:00

Vatos

Original Airdate: November 21, 2010

Writer: Robert Kirkman
Director: Johan Renck

In a series that’s gotten a lot of buzz, this episode may have been the most anticipated since the pilot. Written by comics creator Robert Kirkman, it’s another piece of the never ending debate over how much fidelity an adaptation should have to its source material. While the series to date has captured the tone of the comics and many of its key themes, plot wise they’ve taken liberties for better or worse. In fact, almost everything save for this episode’s ending is wildly divergent. It’s an important piece of the show creating its identity separate from the comics, but what happens after the man responsible for the source dips his toes into the new waters? The result is an episode that respects the idea that the show going its way and by doing so endorses the show runners to make the show they want to make.

After finding Merle’s severed hand, the rescue team goes about figuring out what he did next. Finding another (conveniently never mentioned before) stairway, they surmise that he was able to cauterize the wound and escape. Merle’s status in the episode sets him up to be one of the wild cards of the final two episodes, with him being the likeliest culprit in the van’s theft. He’s not with the vatos and he could’ve easily gotten back to the camp, but isn’t there when the zombies arrive. So where did he go?

With Merle’s location unknown, they head to the street to retrieve the guns. The mission goes off without a hitch until a teenager sneaks up on Daryl. In the resulting panic Glenn is taken by the kid’s friends while the rescue team takes the kid, Miguel, as their hostage. The AV Club questioned whether this hostage standoff and the vatos storyline were entirely necessary for the episode. While it probably will have little impact on the series as a whole, for the episode it was a nice break from the grim situation, something we’ll likely see less of as the series continues.

Considering the shallow at best characterization of Merle and Ed, I went into the vatos storyline not expecting much.: they’re thugs, the end. However, this subplot thankfully surprised me as it revealed the vatos, run by former janitor Guillermo and nurse Felipe, have taken refuge in an elderly care facility. As time passed they’ve assembled a crew of the patients’ loved ones and created a nice sanctuary for themselves, but are still tough to those who threaten it. Though I don’t expect to see them again, I wonder how this camp will change in even a few months as the medicine supplies continue their inevitable decline. What about their plan to evacuate with the vehicles they’re working on? What’s going to happen when the reality sets in that moving the old people out of Atlanta will be nearly impossible? It’s a good idea to have a story like this so near the opening, as it can serve as a good contrast for later seasons. Maybe this is something Kirkman had wanted to do in the comics, but couldn’t or didn’t think of it until later.

At the camp things are tense with Jim digging several graves on a nearby hilltop. He gets some good characterization in this episode, as a man watched zombies eat his family, sorrowfully explaining that the only reason he got away was because they were busy eating them. All the survivors have some major loss like that, like Andrea and Amy worrying about their parents and Andrea later mourning the death of her sister, but it has taken a particularly hard toll on him. It helps to humanize him. As much as we’d like to think that we’d be the dashing hero laying zombies to waste, really most of us would be in shock after losing people we loved in the most horrific way.

The episode ends with a major set piece for both this season and the first trade it’s based on: the zombies invade the main camp and lay all the redshirts to waste. They do the audience a big favor by dispatching the one note Ed, whose presence was so brief it’s puzzling as to why they even bothered putting him on the show aside from the “I’m glad he died first” guy. Maybe this was another result of condensing storylines for a shorter season.

Besides that being part of the comic’s story, they had to kill someone we were sympathetic to and that was Amy. It was telegraphed from the episode’s opening, as she and Andrea pondered their parents’ fate in Florida and Andrea preparing to surprise Amy with the mermaid, not to mention that despite the fact that conventional employment is obsolete and Amy’s age, she was just two days away from retirement.

Amy’s death is the first, and certainly far from last, death of a major character this series will see. The comic is like the series 24, which was similarly ruthless in offing characters regardless of how long they were around or how much fans loved them. Both series’ willingness to kill characters serves a purpose to the narrative: no one is safe and that the stakes are almost unbearably high. In The Walking Dead world where consequences and responsibility are of the utmost importance, death has to be omnipresent to justify it.

The one part of the end that didn’t work for me was Jim’s line about why he dug the graves. Maybe it’s just from watching other supernatural shows and movies, but that line came off as if they want us to believe Jim is psychic. There was a better way to convey the idea that Jim’s PTSD mindset manifesting the idea that he thinks they’re all dead anyway. That’s one of the appeals to Walking Dead: it’s set in a world not far removed from ours.

The gore of the first four episodes proved this is not one for the squeamish, but the first slaughter of actual characters shows how dangerous this world can be. It’s a show all about high stakes and grave consequences, so the body count will need to be high. With that comes the risk of alienating viewers, but shows like 24 and Lost have been able to dispatch characters without hurting the show’s momentum (well, less so for the former). When the show gets to season two and doesn’t have to condense the story to accommodate a shorter order, it’ll be interesting to see how far it goes.

Overall Score: 9/10 Abuelas

DON’T READ, SPOILERS BELOW:

(Spoilers for the comics are below, do not read if you plan on reading them or want to go through the TV series with an unspoiled perspective. Highlight to read.)

In my “Guts” review, I wondered if they were going to try to make Andrea a piece of a potential love quadrangle between her, Rick, Lori and Shane. Instead here we get a hint that they will be going ahead with their original plan of the Andrea/Dale coupling. This relationship I’m interesting in seeing if they can pull it off more than the more gruesome moments. They shrunk the age gap by about ten years (to see if they could pull it off with Emma Bell or someone her age would be even more impressive). So far so good: it’s not much, but Jeffrey DeMunn and Laurie Holden have some good chemistry.

Gobble This: Top 12 TV Turkeys of 2010

2010-11-25T03:32:00.003-05:00

Another year of TV is almost done, and for the most part (at least the first half) shaped up to be one of the best in recent years. However, there is always something disappointing or downright bad in TV, so here are 12 things that let me down, made me mad or had me reaching for the remote.

12. 3D TV –Not to say 3D is always bad, there is a place for it and 3D gaming sounds like a good use for the technology but it has a long way to go before being a worthy addition to the living room. Between the dearth of 3D programming and the expensive glasses you need for it to work, 3D TV’s just come off as something used by doofuses with too much money.

11. The Office’s “The Banker” episode – No doubt even hardcore fans of The Office have to acknowledge the show has fallen from its glory days of the second and third seasons, but I don’t think they thought the writers would be this desperate to do an unapologetic clip show in 2010. The Office’s audience is hip enough to dismiss that instantly, especially when shows like The Simpsons did post-modern clip shows 15 years ago or their own fans make better montages and put them on YouTube. They could’ve done something clever or meta with a clip show, considering the long-forgotten-but-still-used-as-the-show’s-narrative-foundation documentary conceit.

10. Snubbing Jay Pharoah on SNL – Judging by how much airtime the new cast members of Saturday Night Live get, you’d assume the break out star was Vanessa Bayer, who is fine, but those watching the show know the true break out is Jay Pharoah. Pharoah is perhaps the best impressionist the show has seen since Darrell Hammond, uncannily mimicking Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Jay-Z. Unfortunately he is barely on the show outside of a bit on Weekend Update. This guy needs a “Lazy Sunday” style breakout.

9. The pacing of the final season of Lost – Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the final season, and its finale was extremely satisfying, but man, it was the least consistent of the seasons at a time when it needed to be. The first half was slow, testing the patience of fans over a controversial subplot that felt like a waste of valuable time, then with a third or so left, the pace kicked in and suddenly big character moments, some of which were building for seasons, took a backseat to momentum. That’s not even counting that about a quarter of the regular characters were given nothing to do (what exactly was Ilana’s purpose anyway?) For a show that prided itself in its character development this was a disappointment. Luckily they pulled it together, but I can’t help but wonder what the season would’ve been if they tightened the pacing of the first two thirds, had the Desmond episode earlier or maybe had an episode or two in the end to give those later character moments time to breathe.

8. Caprica – Call it a swing and a miss. The show had a great pedigree from talented writers, stellar production values and a top notch cast. It had interesting ideas about social networking and our online identity. So why was it so boring? Fans expected something like Battlestar Galactica, but instead got was a scattershot of subplots that had little in common and wound up thrown together in an awkward fashion. Moore and company are trying again with Blood and Chrome which while may be fan service hopefully can deliver on the captivating drama Caprica lacked.

7. Chuck and Sarah on Chuck – Chuck, the cult action-spy-comedy, has quickly fallen out of favor with me. There are several reasons, from the revolving door of indistinguishable, boring antagonists to the show’s need to change but never willing to stray too far off the status quo. Most annoying, is how they completely botched the romance between leads Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski. The two have great chemistry, but ultimately have fallen into the same pratfalls that happen to many TV romances, often straining believability. They weren’t intimate because…the writers didn’t want them to and when they got together, they had them bicker because that’s how the will they or won’t they cycle works. The Jim and Pam romance on The Office is proof that you can write a romance that develops over time without a bunch of ridiculous drama and it still be compelling (The Office’s diminishing returns stem elsewhere). If only Chuck’s writers would be willing to challenge themselves to find the story in them being together and happy.

6. glee’s tribute episodes – Like any good musical, when the numbers on the increasingly erratic glee are in service of story or character, it works. However, the show’s growing use of tribute episodes, featuring songs centered around an artist or musical, throw any sense of character or story continuity out the window in pursuit of sucking up to the specific artist. The Madonna episode was serviceable to be fair, but the Britney Spears episode was the epitome of lazy writing, using the same device to set up shot for shot do overs of Spears’ music videos. Then there was the Rocky Horror episode, which tried to tie in to the show’s theme of the outsider, then backpedaling over a major reason why one of Rocky Horror’s characters was an outsider.

5. V – Had I seen Outsourced or $#!+ My Dad Says, I probably would count them, but I can’t judge stuff I haven’t seen. So I have to go with the show I watched every episode of, the horrendous reboot of the cult 80s alien invasion saga. Like every failed Lost clone, the characters were morons in service of lazy writing, the character development was paper thin and the cast was at best worthy of much better material (poor Elizabeth Mitchell). Somehow they avoided the axe, but when it comes back—whenever that may be—how can they fix it, and will anyone be watching if they do?

4. The 2010 Academy Awards – I’m sure I could do a whole list for the snubs the Emmy’s committed, but instead I’ll focus on the other lame awards show I watched. This year’s Oscars proved to be especially useless outside of commentary on Twitter. On top of the interpretive dances they can’t seem to understand no one likes (which cut Best Original Song performances, a far better use of airtime), there was the blatant pandering to tweens, that rude woman who interrupted her co-winner because they hate each other and meaningless montages. The most egregious infraction was barely acknowledging the achievements of Lauren Bacall, Roger Corman and Gordon Willis, who were among the winners of various lifetime achievement awards, making them stand in the audience and bow rather than take the stage. Besides the stupidity of not having at least Corman and Bacall give speeches, the Academy created some unintentional irony: celebrating cinema’s rich history, but snubbing those who made it so.

3. Dana Walsh on 24 – While some may go with the amnesia plot or the cougar, this character’s storyline is without a doubt the worst thing the show has ever done. Her story, involving a fake identity, a redneck ex-boyfriend trying to rob something or other, took up so much time and went nowhere. What makes it the worst is how it wasted Katee Sackhoff, fresh of Battlestar Galactica. She deserved so much better. At least she got a couple paychecks for her trouble.

2. The fall 2010 season – It may be the worst season since the strike season of 2007-2008, with non-starters like The Event & Undercovers, mediocre McShows like Hawaii 5-0 that became huge hits and gems like Terriers or the quickly yanked Lone Star that go unwatched. It’s hard to believe a year ago there were two break out hits in Modern Family and glee. If there is any silver lining, it’s that some great, but under watched shows like Community are getting a pass when they would probably be cancelled in a more competitive year.

1. Jay Leno and NBC – A complete disaster for nearly everyone involved: The Tonight Show as a franchise means nothing to anyone under 35, Jay Leno took a guy’s dream job and wrecked a network’s schedule all in one season and NBC, once a dominating force in TV, is in a distant fourth among network TV stations. How could it not be number one?

The Walking Dead: Season 1, Episode 3: Tell It to the Frogs

2010-11-21T10:30:00.001-05:00

Tell It to the Frogs

Original Airdate: November 14, 2010

Writer: Frank Darabont, Charles H. Eglee and Jack LoGiudice
Director: Gwyneth Horder-Payton

During almost every season of 24 the writers, struggling to keep up with writing a story on the fly, would usually give the CTU agent who has had little to do to that point a crazy family member or friend who would inevitably show up in CTU and cause a bunch of chaos in an already chaotic day. These subplots were often the worst part of the show. It added nothing to the main story and wasted valuable screen time that could’ve been used to have Jack Bauer throat punch dudes. Three episodes into The Walking Dead and it seems that it is suffering from a similar problem. They’ve introduced two characters who are behaving in a way no one would in this situation. First it was Merle the hot headed racist, now we have misogynist Ed, Carol’s husband. What is it about this group and their ability to attract one note heavies? One of the important pieces of The Walking Dead is taking a group of strangers who never would interact otherwise and make them build a new society, but that can come naturally from their differences, not someone acting hostile because the show needs drama. Don’t get me or my choice to open with a long rant wrong, the show is very good, but they can do better.

The episode opens proper with the reunion of Rick and his family. Of course, this means Shane’s time playing house with Lori and Carl is over. Through their fast paced affair, there’s no doubt Shane fell in love with Lori. He also grew close to Carl, acting like a father to him. He knows he has to step aside because she is Rick’s wife, but that isn’t easy. It comes to a head when Shane takes Carl out to catch frogs and has an angry confrontation with Lori. He is unable to cope with it and with no healthy outlet, he pulverizes Ed’s face when Ed slaps his wife.

Shane and Lori’s relationship has put their likeability in question. Did they get involved too soon after Rick “died”? The Walking Dead world is so heightened that it’s hard to judge them based on that. Considering all the death and destruction they’ve witnessed, who wouldn’t find comfort with a friend and sex would be one of the few pleasures they have left. Those who don’t buy that think they were involved before the fall, considering the marital problems Rick and Lori were having. There is also discussion that Lori used her sexuality to garner special treatment from Shane. The latter of those two seems ridiculous unless Shane acts like Ed when he’s of camera. What is harder to sympathize with is Shane’s decision to lie to Lori about Rick’s fate. She naturally feels guilty, but know she got involved because of a lie makes it even worse. Not to let Shane off the hook, but perhaps he lied about Rick’s fate because that was the only way he could get her and Carl to safety and it snowballed from there. Obviously it isn’t going to be easily forgotten or forgiven.

The second issue of the episode is if Rick should return to Atlanta to rescue Merle, who has quickly gone insane from exposure and the trauma of being left alone, and retrieve Rick’s supplies from the tank. Rick feels responsible for leaving him there, as does T-Dog for dropping the key. While consequences are important on this show, so is the idea of personal responsibility. It’s crucial to survival, but can also stick you in a dangerous position.

This decision is also informed by the point in the story they are in. Rick is still new to this world, and makes decisions he would as someone sworn to serve and protect would and not one in a world filled constantly asking you to make greater sacrifices for your survival. It’ll be interesting to see, if it goes that long, what season five Rick would do in a similar situation, something they’ve addressed in the books.

Even if that’s not what he intends, Rick’s mission is the first step in a shift of the camp’s leadership. An episode earlier Shane butted heads with Amy when he refused to send more people to Atlanta to help the original search party; here Rick gets to head back to find Merle and the bag of guns. Shane is a tough leader, but he needs to be because the stakes are so high. However, zombie world novice Rick still feels the value of human life, even of a bad guy, is worth risking it all. He’s also earning points in the camp, appreciating Carol’s ironing and accepting Glenn’s input while navigating Atlanta.

On the rescue team is Merle’s brother Daryl (Norman Reedus of Boondock Saints fame). It may be another broad character, but Daryl is far better written than Merle, even if Michael Rooker is a better actor. Unlike Merle and Ed, he has valid reasons to be angry. First a zombie/omen of doom snacks on the deer he killed, leaving them to snack on squirrels and frogs (among other things zombies have presumably done to him). Then he finds out his brother was left behind and almost everyone is content with leaving him to rot.

They return to the scene to find the rooftop abandoned, save for one hand, a nearby saw and a surprising dearth of blood, setting up the story for the next episode. Since the chains weren’t broken and no zombies were on the roof, it’d be safe to assume that Merle has not been eaten or turned. This cliffhanger reminded me a little of 24, down to the hacksaw.

Halfway through this abbreviated first season, the show has become a phenomenon, garnering AMC its highest ratings for original programming on top of a lot of critical praise from fans new and old. However, the new characters and some really clunky dialogue are keeping the show from joining the ranks of Breaking Bad and Mad Men. The established characters are integrated well, so maybe this is just the result of a condensed first season and them having to be a little broader. AMC will no doubt let them give them a longer leash next year, and hopefully they can make the most of it.

Overall Score: 8/10 Crossbows

DON’T READ, SPOILERS BELOW

Although the Rick-Lori-Shane triangle is one of the few elements from the book intact from the source material, they have taken a few liberties that change the stage for viewers only as well as the comics fans. The biggest of which is that we didn’t see Lori and Carl until Rick did in the books. Doing it that way kept us in the dark like Rick, making his desperation to find them more palpable. Showing them alive and well in the camp for two episodes instead makes it about the audience knowing of Lori and Shane’s romance long before Rick. That changes the impact of the reunion scene. Originally, it would be seen as touching, a glimmer of hope among people who could really use some. While that element is still there, it’s more the old status quo crashing into the new.

The Walking Dead: Season 1, Episode 2 Review: Guts

2010-11-08T16:46:00.002-05:00

Guts

Original Airdate: November 7, 2010

Writer: Frank Darabont
Director: Michelle Maxwell MacLaren

In the first episode review, I touched briefly upon the debate over how faithful an adaptation needs to be. This issue is particularly heated among the comic book community, who are very protective of the books they love because they’ve seen so many ruined when made by people who “don’t get” what the original is about, leaving the main stream to jump to the wrong conclusions because the adaptation did the original a disservice. Some demand complete fidelity to the source material, a feat that often makes for a forgettable adaptation. Ultimately, a good adaptation should get the spirit of the original, but be free to take liberties. What works on the page doesn’t always work in another medium. The on going narrative of TV, much like a monthly comic narrative, should be about keeping what works and jettisoning or changing what doesn’t. They have a great guide for stories for the next seven seasons if they went that long, but they shouldn’t be married to the material. Take another show that’s based of a series of books, albeit non-comic, Dexter. To be fair, I haven’t read those books, but the plot summaries for them sound like bad fan fiction. Dexter knew when to go in a unique direction and the series benefited. Walking Dead can do that too. The pilot’s changes benefited the show, developing the characters in a way that would’ve been too time-consuming on the page, but one change feels awkward and may need to be reworked if it’s going to be a part of the series in the long run.

After the prologue, the episode picks up where last week’s left off, with Rick awaiting another message from the guy on the other line. The guy is none other than Glenn, who is with a group of survivors from Shane’s camp looking for supplies in the city (Glenn was alone in the comic, a change remarked upon briefly before they go in the sewers). Rick has a window of escape, as the horde are busy feasting on the horse and most on the tank have left him to feed on something not in a can. He starts off with a handy shovel, baretta and a last resort grenade to help him get to Glenn. Unfortunately he drops the shovel and, knowing he can’t go back like he couldn’t for the weapons bag, shoots every zombie in his path to Glenn, “ringing the dinner bell” for the undead nearby. Consequences continue to be important to the show, as Rick’s 20 second run creates a problem he spends the rest of the episode trying to solve.

The group, also including Andrea and four new characters, wind up stuck a department store. It’s like Dawn of the Dead, except those zombies aren’t waiting for bikers to break in. Slowly but surely they’re using rocks to break the glass doors, creating a ticking clock scenario. Through a process of elimination, Rick decides he and Glenn will head to a construction site, swipe one of the trucks, and use the loading dock to get the survivors to safety. Before that, however, they are going to smear the remains of a zombie all over them to cloak their scent, something done in the comics.

Although it is part of the zombie narrative, usually not much thought is given to the idea that the zombies were once people unless a main character becomes one. It makes sense because that sobering fact ruins the fun of a good zombie kill. This episode deals with it head on, and it’s refreshing to see it done so frankly. Before going through with the brutal act, he finds the man’s wallet. Finding out whom this guy was, giving him a personality besides a token “geek” is followed by Rick hacking him to pieces while the rest gather the eponymous guts to create his new ensemble. While Rick tries to remind people of what they’ve lost, The Walking Dead is no place for sentimentality.

The attempt works swimmingly until nature intervenes, showering the streets and washing away Glenn and Rick’s security blankets. They manage to make it to the lot with a few good axe kills along the way. While the pilot was sparse in its action, this episode makes up for it. The chase scenes are very intense, especially considering the high stakes the world has set up. While it’s a close call, Glenn manages to create a distraction driving a car whose alarm is blaring. Rick’s plan redeems himself and all but one survivor makes it on the truck.

The big misfire of the episode was Merle Dixon, a character not in the comics and the one left behind. Nothing against Michael Rooker, who did a great job, but the writing was ham fisted most of the episode. His racial epithets and Mel Gibson inspired lines came off so awkwardly, you wonder why anyone in the search party would ever allow this guy to go with them picking berries, much less an expedition into zombie central. It’s an interesting idea to have the survivors deal with someone in the group who is going to be trouble, as well as the notion that even in the direst of circumstances, some people can’t let go of their hatred. However, it was so over the top that it felt like an easy choice. A good character is in there—a combination of Lost’s Sawyer and Justified’s Boyd—they just need to develop him better, assuming he isn’t zombie chow next week.

His psychotic behavior putts him in the penalty box, as Rick handcuffs him to a pipe on the roof. While they never discuss what they’re going to do, the question of what they’re going to do with a maniac like him runs throughout. This is a guy who is ready to pulverize someone over a fight he instigates over very little. Regardless, T-Dog tries to get him out of the handcuff, but his clumsiness and a slippery roof sends the key down a drain. The emphasis on the tool bag seems a little much for something that won’t be followed up on, and may be important in the next episode.

So with the liberties what do we have? It’s still a very entertaining episode with good action and suspense. Although Merle’s characterization is stereotypical, I’m willing to forgive it if they can develop him further and explain why he’s in the red at all times. One of the great things about long form story-telling, writers and performers can fine tune the character and find something that works, even if they start on the wrong foot.

Overall Score: 8/10 Zombie smeared coats

DON’T READ, SPOILERS INSIDE (OR BELOW)

This is the segment that includes SPOILERS for the comics, so if you’re new to Walking Dead and are intending to read them later or keep a fresh perspective not affected by its events, stop reading here.

Another change in the series is making Andrea older (Andrea and Amy were twins in the book), and it seems like they’re setting up a romance between Andrea and Rick, something that seems a little controversial among fans considering how important the Andrea/Dale relationship is to the comics. I guess they want to increase romantic tension, as things between Lori and Shane are getting hot and heavy. They seem to be telegraphing it with the intense introduction as Andrea threatened to kill Rick for the problems he made for them and later them exchanging small talk as Andrea wanted to take the mermaid jewelry for her sister. Perhaps I’m over reading it, but it’s something seen in a lot of relationship stories.

NEW SERIES: The Walking Dead: Season 1, Episode 1 Review: Days Gone Bye

2010-11-07T03:30:00.004-05:00

Days Gone Bye

Original Airdate: October 31, 2010

Writer: Frank Darabont

Based on Material by: Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard & Tony Moore
Director: Frank Darabont

Since Danny Boyle’s 2003 film 28 Days Later (which, despite the intense debate among the zombie fandom, will be considered a zombie film), zombies have invaded popular culture like vampires have. From films, video games, books and even board games, the fans of the undead have had no shortage of entertainment. Then we have The Walking Dead, a monthly comic series that started in 2003. What separates Walking Dead from other zombie fiction is its interest in the long term circumstances of survivors of the zombie apocalypse. The fact that zombie movies had to end always bothered Robert Kirkman. Whoever is left escapes the horde, but where do they go from there? The zombies are still there, the world is still over. What happens next? Walking Dead seeks to answer that question.

While it could’ve been a good film or series of films, creator Robert Kirkman took the wise route of bringing it to TV. TV has been the place for writers to craft a long form visual story, especially in the past decade. A movie would be a difficult place to convey the book’s sense of long term survival. Enter AMC, which has been able to overcome the fact that they don’t play a lot of classic films anymore with their amazing original programming. The first two shows they green lit, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, are two of the best shows on TV, garnering tons of critical raves as well as many awards. So the bar is set really high and judging by the pilot, Walking Dead may meet it.

Before going further, a note: I’ve read the comics (through trade #12). However, to accommodate those new to Walking Dead, any comments I have that would be considered spoilers I’ll try to place out of the range of the main review, past the episode’s score.

It starts off on the right note, as Rick shoots a zombie girl in the head. Killing a child, even one who is no longer human, isn’t easy to watch. That they showed the hit and the gore effectively sets the show’s mood. The survivors are in a brutal, unforgiving world, and they need to do whatever is necessary to survive, including stomach churning moments like this one. In a few minutes it shows us what type of show it’s going to be, and if you don’t like it, they gave you a perfect window to tune out.

Unlike a lot of pilots, which get bogged down in exposition introducing every character to the point where it becomes a blur, this episode focuses heavily on one, small town sheriff’s deputy Rick. He has to carry the show, and Andrew Lincoln did a great job with that, especially in the long stretches of the episode where he’s alone. We see him on his last day of work, making small talk with his partner Shane before they get word of a high speed chase. This scene expands upon the comic’s introduction, which had to be short because the comic didn’t have enough room for a lengthy scene before the zombies showed up. It is a slower scene after the prologue, but it also introduces us to Rick and Shane, as well as the trouble in Rick and Lori’s marriage. It’s important to set that up because the sense that Rick and Shane were friends before compounds the impact of when inevitably Rick finds them and learns of their relationship.

Much like Jim in 28 Days Later, Rick misses the apocalypse because he’s in the hospital (In Rick’s case he’s recovering from a gunshot wound) so he serves as the audience’s proxy too. There is no timeline as to how long Rick has been under, nor how long since the dead rose and destroyed society. We’re in the dark almost as much as Rick is until he comes across a father and son squatting in his former neighbor’s home, who initially confused him for a zombie.

Morgan (played by Jericho favorite Lennie James) and son Duane get Rick caught up as to what happened. We learn the rules about zombies, which while not divergent from conventional zombie mythology, is important to introduce in the beginning. One of the biggest dilemmas of supernatural fiction is setting up the rules, sticking to them, and not making the rules sound like a lecture, and luckily Walking Dead does them well. The execution works because it is so closely connected to the character. Morgan lost his wife to the zombie plague, and now has to deal with the mother of his child wandering the neighborhood they’re now living in. Morgan knows he should’ve put her down, but can’t muster up the courage when she sees him as he peers through the scope of a sniper rifle.

Walking Dead is about pushing regular people past the breaking point into a life filled with impossible choices that range from horrible to slightly less horrible. So it makes sense to have a law man at the center of the series. Rick’s life before the fall was probably black and white: he upheld the law and didn’t have much outside of his marriage that didn’t make sense to him. Now he has to adjust his moral code to figure his way among this devastating landscape. It’s exemplified in the scene where he comes across the horrifying image of the leg less zombie. He initially runs away, but after learning the truth, returns to her to put her down. The old way of doing things is obsolete, and now Rick has to find a new way.

This is perhaps the best example of a show fully showing what the stakes for the characters are since Lost. As Rick and Morgan tell Duane, every bullet counts, and they have to mean it when they pull the trigger. Besides the lack of consistent ammo delivery, a gunshot brings forth throngs of the undead. Consequences matter on this show. A false move, something not checked, and you’re dead. Take the ballad of Leon, the deputy from the beginning. No doubt what made not have his gun ready at the stand off ultimately killed him when faced with the zombie menace. While Rick knows the importance of being careful, he still has a lot to learn in this world. Going into Atlanta on an easily spooked horse got him ambushed and trapped in a tank, away from his bag of guns. Then without thinking, he shoots the zombie soldier, temporarily stunning him.

Rick is in Atlanta in hopes of finding his wife and son, who he has reason to believe may be alive. Unfortunately when his car radio picks up the transceiver in the camp his wife and son happen to be in, he can’t hear their side of the conversation warning him not to go there. This leads to the image of Rick on horseback heading to Atlanta used in the ads and the ending set piece, the ambush as he is in a tank surrounded by zombies, who no doubt aren’t full from that ill fated horse.

There’s a glimmer of hope, as a young man reaches the tank’s communication system and talks to Rick. Fans of the comic know who this guy is, and I’ll refrain from saying. That’s another thing worth talking about: the show has put the spotlight on the comic, exposing it to people who have never picked up a comic book in their lives. Most of the reaction I’ve heard is from the hard core fans or people who’ve at least read the books, but as the show goes on, I want to hear more from those new to Walking Dead about what happens next without the bias of knowing where the comic’s story goes next.

AMC deserves a lot of credit for the production value of their shows. Mad Men and Breaking Bad look amazing, and Walking Dead is no exception. From the wrecked cars to dilapidated buildings, the apocalypse looks vivid in a way you may not expect on a basic cable budget, as amazing as some of those shows can be. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the pilot had a bigger budget than a regular episode, and I wonder how they will maintain this sense of devastation. No discussion of this show would be complete without discussing the amazing make up work. These are some of the best looking zombies I’ve ever seen, so to speak. They put a lot of work into showing zombies, from freshly dead to long rotting, with horrifying detail.

One small problem I had with the show, the CGI used to increase the gore (or flies). The gore done by make up and props looks amazing, and AMC deserves serious credit for letting them go this far, but some of those effects, like the leg less girl’s execution, had distracting post production splatter thrown in. Clearly they want to up the gore to reinforce the high stakes the characters are in, but this feels like explicit gore to enhance controversy or to compensate for something, which considering the wealth of the material and quality of this pilot, is unnecessary at best.

Something they should be commended on is how they know how to generate good, well earned scares. They could’ve gone for some startling moments, like a zombie appearing before Rick as he went down the stairway in the dark, but instead they go for situations, like Morgan’s wife staring into the peephole, jiggling the doorknob as Rick watches the outside, to generate unease. Every frame of this show is filled with dread. Making the audience jump is easy and a little bit cheap; making them squirm is a lot harder.

This is one of the most impressive pilots I’ve seen in a while. The world, its hero and the stakes are superbly established. The writing is confident and Darabont knows the right balance of fidelity to the source material and freedom to pursue what works in the new medium, an important piece of any adaptation. It gets the spirit of the books right, and hopefully that will continue throughout this six episode run and the possible future.

Overall Score: 9/10 Headshots

Lost: Season 6, Episode 16 Review: What They Died For

2010-06-30T15:03:00.000-04:00

What They Died For

Original Airdate: May 18, 2010

Writer: Edward Kistis & Adam Horowitz and Elizabeth Sarnoff
Director: Paul Edwards

Probably the hardest part of amateur TV criticism is falling behind on reviews because not getting paid means it has to take a backseat to real life. By the time you write them, answers have been given and the space given to speculation is moot. My policy in my reviews is not to spoil future episodes of a series, even when said series is long over. So these reviews are tough to write, made even harder because I know how the series ends. If things are a little more disjointed than usual, that’s the reason.

The final four, who it’s been pointed out in Lostpedia among many sources were the same four Michael had to assemble at the end of season two, aren’t in as bad a shape as originally thought (if I ever get shot in the arm, I hope it’s on a TV show or in a movie), but Sawyer feels guilty that not trusting Jack lead to the deaths on the sub. Sawyer can’t be blamed for what he did despite his feelings and we’ll never know for sure if Jack was correct, but Jack consoles Sawyer by telling them that only Johnny is responsible and he must be killed for that.

En route to finding Desmond, Hurley encounters what we now know is the young Jacob, who leads them to the intense, final tribal council. I joke, but this felt a lot like Survivor. Jacob even acts a bit like Jeff Probst. However, instead of a million dollars, it’s about passing on the role of island protector. To no one’s surprise, Jack unhesitatingly takes the job. This has been a long time coming, heavily choreographed since the flash forward storyline. It’s the obvious choice, but sometimes an obvious choice can still be dramatically satisfying.

After this episode, a lot of people reevaluated their feelings towards the controversial “Across the Sea”, cutting it some slack because that episode informs Jacob’s decisions at the tribal council: how he wished he had a choice in becoming protector and how he took choice away from his brother and made him the monster. It’s why Jacob lets them choose who wants the title. Even Kate, who crossed out because she became a mother, had the option of taking it. Now Jacob’s actions leading to this have been subject of a lot of debate. Jacob didn’t give them the choice to come to the island initially. While there is a lot more to it than those sentences, ultimately I think Jacob is aware of his shortcomings as leader, which explains why his process of finding a successor was different from Mother’s.

Picking up where three episodes ago left off, Richard, Ben and Miles arrive at Dharmaville followed by Widmore and Zoe (this season has been filled with characters who went nowhere huh?) and Johnny not far behind. Before they get company, they remind us of the conflict between Ben and Widmore when Miles stumbles upon Alex’s spiritual essence and Richard answers that burning question of what happened to Alex’s body after the mercenary attack in season four (he buried her). Giving Hurley the ability to speak to the dead took a lot of the wind out of Miles, who the writers seem to have given up on figuring out what to do with him, so it’s nice to revisit this to help the narrative.

The payoff of the Widmore/Ben feud is another disappointment resulting in the ever decreasing runway of the series. Before Johnny showed up, Widmore was well set to be the Big Bad of the series, especially in the fourth season. Then Ben swore revenge and almost went through with it. Adding Widmore’s arrival this season seemed to set the stage for the inevitable showdown, but it fizzled. Not to mention there was no moment with Desmond besides Desmond attacking him in “Happily Ever After”, and for a rivalry that was building up for even longer than Ben and Widmore, I expected a more explosive ending.

Ben’s revenge challenges the redemptive measures he’s been taking for the past season and a half and a sudden reversion right before the end is a little jarring, but ultimately Ben is Ben, and Widmore is responsible for murdering the only person Ben ever loved. This isn’t too different than Sawyer murdering Anthony Cooper. It also helps get him in Johnny’s good graces, who as we saw hurl Richard into the jungle like a toy, wasn’t in the mood for diplomacy.

While 815 Ben turns one corner, so does LA X Ben, awoken after confronting Desmond in the parking lot. They could’ve used Alex as his revelatory catalyst, but if Alex isn’t his constant, getting punched in the face repeatedly works as well because of 815 Ben’s frequent beatings. Apart from that, he also gets to bond with Alex after he’s released from the hospital, and gets a home cooked meal from Rousseau, who cleans up really well. One of the few spoilers I came across was a report that Mira Furlan declined any request to return to the show, so that turning out to be false was a welcome surprise. It makes sense to pair them up in the LA X world because of their bond to their daughter in the 815 world.

Elsewhere the flash sideways in this episode are all about setting up the end. Desmond’s planues to be more and more elaborate. Hitting Locke turned into not only to be about helping Locke “let go”, but it helped him break out Kate & Sayid from jail, thanks to crooked cop Ana-Lucia. This plan makes the Prison Break plan look simple. The explanation for the flash sideways explains a lot of these leaps in logic and maybe Desmond being awoken to what the world is allows him to be this precise, but man everything needed to happen the way it did for Desmond’s elaborate plan to work.

This was a really solid penultimate chapter. With enjoyable cameos from old regulars and the pieces coming together, the added intensity of the show’s imminent end is felt throughout, especially with that final scene. Knowing where it ends changes my initial reaction, but it doesn’t alter it too significantly because the assembling of pieces in the puzzle is really compelling, especially with the final picture about to be seen.

Overall Score: 8/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 15 Review: Across the Sea

2010-05-23T10:36:00.002-04:00

Across the Sea

Original Airdate: May 11, 2010

Writer: Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof

Director: Tucker Gates

Midway through The Shield’s second season they spent a whole episode, “Co-Pilot”, going back to the first day of The Barn, the nickname of the station in Farmington. It showed how many of the cast members spent their first day and is basically the closest the show had to an origin story episode. It’s also a very controversial one as it has little to do with that season’s arc and completely breaks up the story’s momentum. “Across the Sea” is Lost’s “Co-Pilot”. Right after the end game started and a third of the cast got killed, the show goes way back and focuses on the supporting cast (save for Johnny, only in Titus Welliver form) and one new person for a whole episode. The only glimpse we get of the main cast is in stock footage from the first season. While it makes sense to help explain why Johnny is who he is, it breaks off the momentum pretty dramatically.

It starts millennia ago, when the presumed sole inhabitant of the island, who we’ll call Mother because these reviews should sound like they’re being written by Norman Bates, welcomes a shipwrecked woman of presumed Ancient Roman origin. When the woman, Claudia, gives birth to twins, Mother realizes something is up and murders Claudia. She later explains she wanted to keep them unspoiled, but perhaps like Jacob she had a list of candidates and Jacob and an unnamed person were on that list.

OK, they’ve been teasing the fact that Johnny’s name since his formal introduction hasn’t been mentioned, but the birth scene is the cruelest of cruel teases. “I only picked one name”? Really? Even if they somehow muted the line it would’ve been better than this. Why not just say “I don’t have a name” from the start? Bringing the Buffy comparison back, The First didn’t have a name, and they didn’t tease giving it one as I remember. Obviously there are going to be things about Lost we’ll be debating forever, but what’s the fun in guessing his name?

Mother raises the twins in isolation from the other survivors of Claudia’s shipwreck because she wants to keep them “good”, even using her magic powers to keep them from killing each other. Interestingly, Johnny’s philosophy on humanity came from a woman he called insane and justifiably blamed for his problems, even quoting her the day Richard’s boat arrived centuries later. Despite living with her longer, Jacob advocates free will and develops some hope for humanity.

She raises Johnny with the belief that he’ll take up the title of protector of the island, which creates some tension even decades later when Mother settles on making Jacob that person. However, like their relationship with their mother, this one is complicated. They both lash out in the heat of the moment and as soon as the blade is in or the body sucked in to the source, they regret it. Who knows what would have happened if Johnny had not been beaten unconscious and Jacob forgave him.

After finding out the truth about his real mother, Johnny decides to live with the Shipwreck people, and confirms the suspicions Mother put in his head. However, his manipulative streak begins as he sees them as a “means to an end”. They are the people responsible for the Frozen Donkey Wheel, presumably not this one, and have tunneled into the earth to figure out what’s causing metal to behave mysteriously (Shaggy 2 Dope must’ve been a member of this tribe), but Johnny sees it as a route to The Source. The explanation for the didn’t quite work, and perhaps should’ve been left a mystery: as if there’s some explanation for a device going into a section of energy and being used to get off the island.

That seems to be a theme of the episode: people trying to explain things long before the age of modern science. The Source is clearly electromagnetism, but they don’t know what that is, so they go with light because it is bright. One explanation they never give is what would happen if Johnny were to leave. Of course, his Smokey form could cause a lot of damage in the real world, but Jacob was dealing with a big unknown. It’s possible that nothing would happen, although considering him killing those people in “The Candidate”, we believe that the worst case scenario is right.

While the last episode set up Johnny as the big bad of the series, this episode makes us sympathize with him. His whole life he was misled and lied to. He spent the first 13 years of his life in the company of only his brother and adoptive mother, who tricked them into thinking she was their biological mother. He was told he could never leave the island, but never given a straight answer as to why. When he tried as an adult, his path was blocked and the people helping him killed. He doesn’t even get a name in all the years he’s spent on the island.

This episode also gives us a new perspective on Jacob and it is not flattering. He’s a bit of a brat and despite being in his early 40s, acts like a child. However, his actions and making Johnny the man he is today was a sobering event where he knew he had to grow up. He saw what it was like to be forced to accept a title he didn’t want and how his problems ruined his brother and took away his choice as well, something that collected with his “good” nature made him advocate for choice, even if the execution of these ideas was flawed.

There’s been a good amount of debate brewing over if Johnny’s consciousness became the Smoke Monster, or if the Smoke Monster was some piece of the island that was released and took Johnny consciousness with it. I’m inclined to think the latter, as his leaving the island would mean the “light” goes out everywhere. Although how they can kill him without putting out this light isn’t clear assuming that’s right.

Although this episode reveals the birth of Smokey as we know him, there are suggestions that some other version existed before. Claudia’s light around her may be related to the light in those electromagnetic pockets all over the island. Or this could be the same thing Young Ben saw when he was in Dharmaville and saw his dead mother. Then there is Mother’s massacre of the shipwreck society Johnny co-opted, as well as filling up the well with dirt, something that seems unbelievable for one person to do alone.

Ending the episode, it’s revealed that Mother and Johnny’s human form were the Adam & Eve skeletons Jack & Kate found in the caves back in season one. Despite being a small piece of the mythology, these two skeletons received a lot of speculation over the years and thanks to the introduction of time travel the idea that it could be characters in the present became an inviting possibility. Fans drew to Carlton Cuse’s claim that those skeletons were proof that there was a plan all along. This outcome probably wasn’t what they were expecting: a character that’s never been mentioned before and a person’s human form who we didn’t actually meet until the last season’s finale. I’m not sure that’s something I would point to aside from Locke calling them “Adam & Eve” and them being the source so to speak of the Losties’ problems on the island.

“Across the Sea” is easily the most controversial Lost episode since “Expose”. Is it as bad as the detractors say? No. It is odd to have a Damon & Carlton penned episode not be well received, though. It is awkwardly put in at this late point in the game, which feels like they wanted to give the lead cast the week off to prepare for the final episodes. The kid actors are a little clunky in the way a lot of kid actors are and Allison Janney, while a very talented actress, feels a little too modern to be playing this figure from ancient times (or that could be my associations with West Wing). After seeing the next episode this episode is a little better, but like many of the disappointing episodes, the scope feels too big for one episode to do it justice, especially now when we’re going full speed to the finale.

Overall Score: 7/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 14 Review: The Candidate

2010-05-22T11:07:00.000-04:00

The Candidate

Original Airdate: May 4, 2010

Writer: Elizabeth Sarnoff and Jim Galasso

Director: Jack Bender

It just got real.

They had to establish the high stakes for these final episodes, and they do so by wiping out three major characters who have been with the show since the Pilot, leaving only 10 survivors of 815 are still alive or unknown status, and only half will play any significant role in the finale. If anyone was still in denial over this being the end going in, any trace of that has been sunken faster than that submarine, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

One of the most complicated relationships of the series has been between Jack and Locke. They butted heads through most of the first four seasons, but after Jack left and Locke died, Jack reevaluated how he felt about John’s beliefs, sending him on he journey that leads him to embrace being a man of faith. It’s a relationship that has worked far better than the triangle, which the writers seem to have given up on after fans kept saying how little they cared. So it makes sense for them to share a centric episode as 815 Jack takes up Locke’s mantle while LA X Jack tries to fix Locke.

LA X Jack discovers that Locke’s original injury can possibly be reversed. He goes to some extreme lengths to find out more, from stopping by Bernard’s dentist office and the rest home Cooper is living in, despite Helen’s wishes to the contrary. The unstoppable force of Jack collides with the immovable object of Locke, who doesn’t want any operation because he feels guilty over the plane crash that paralyzed him and made his father a vegetable. This spot on the timeline means that Cooper’s kidney con in the 90s never happened, as well as Locke’s defenestration. LA X Locke’s desire for punishment mirrors 815 Jack’s various ways of beating himself up over his failures and while Jack is ready to accept many of those, Locke isn’t ready.

LA X Jack takes a step in the right direction by inviting Claire to stay with him. I can’t imagine that’s an easy thing to do to accept the secret love child of your father into your life like she’s always been family, but seeing what Locke is putting himself through because he can’t let go and his father’s fate are Jack’s cautionary tales.

He also gets a few more “Hey you were on the plane too” from Claire and Bernard. How is it that all the people who were on 815 remember the flight number a week after the flight? I’ve only flown a few times and that was over a decade ago, but I don’t think that information would stay with most people beyond the terminal.

815 Jack faces “being with” Johnny as they prepare to take Sawyer and co. from Widmore’s custody, in the polar bear cages that Kate forgot how to escape from. Although Jack is helping out with the rescue plans of everyone else, he remains adamant about refusing to leave the Island to the point of defiantly saying “John Locke told me I needed to stay” before shoving Johnny in the water. Considering this episode’s development of Johnny character, he may have used that and waited long enough to draw out Widmore’s goons so they would shoot someone, making Jack betray his wishes to stay on the island for the sake of a friend.

The big part of the 815 timeline story is to reveal Johnny’s motivations and further showcase his ability as a master manipulator. Finding the C4 on the plane bought him some goodwill, so much so that he tells them what he’s going to do to them and they don’t figure it out until it’s too late. Obviously he took into account Sawyer’s ability to lie and want to split without him and took that into consideration with the homemade bomb.

Jack’s belief that the bomb wouldn’t kill them was probably right: Johnny couldn’t kill the Candidates directly, but he knew a thing or two about loopholes. Tampering with the bomb takes it off his hands much like him handing Ben a knife allowed Ben to kill Jacob with it. Unfortunately Sawyer has come into Jack’s former role, not trusting Jack to let the bomb timer go to zero.

Knowing the bomb would go off, Sayid runs off with the bomb as far as he can before it detonated. Following “Sundown”, a lot of people thought Johnny “claimed” Sayid and was no longer the character we knew. He stumbled through the rest of the season, saying he didn’t feel anything. Then came the moment in “The Last Recruit” where he was tasked with dispatching Desmond, held in that not so deep well. When it came to pulling the trigger, Desmond asked him if he could look his love in the eye after telling her what he did to bring her back. Of course, Sayid didn’t pull the trigger (despite that cool, misleading trailer), and that ties into when they were on the Kahana and heard Michael’s similar story about how his deal backfired and cost him everything. Sparing Desmond and later informing Jack of it before taking the bomb away from them is his redemption. It wasn’t a grand sacrifice, but perhaps that makes it nobler.

No sooner do we say goodbye to Sayid then we get the heart crushing moment of the episode, the deaths of Sun & Jin. After being apart for so long, fans wanted these two to have a happy ending (I even said so in a review posted 30 minutes before the episode aired. Man, I need to be more punctual for the next show I review). Killing them both makes these stakes real: people we’ve been following for years are gone, and now no one (except Hurley) is safe.

However, I agree with the major qualm with this otherwise heartbreaking scene: Jin not leaving the sub and deciding to die with Sun. That’s pretty rough to orphan the daughter you have never met knowingly. They say Ji Yeon is with Sun’s mother, but do we really want Ji Yeon raised in the culture her mobster grandfather lives in? Not having your parents is tough enough, but that makes it even worse. Maybe if Ji Yeon were a grown up it would be easier, but she’s still a toddler. Did they do this confirm Sun was the Kwon candidate since Jin basically killed himself by staying behind?

Of the many deaths, the door getting revenge on Frank (the cage door he kicked earlier in the episode was this door’s father!) is an even less dignified exit than Ilana. At least she’s confirmed dead. Despite being a situation where he’s unlikely to survive, the producers haven’t acknowledged his death as they did Sayid, Sun & Jin’s. Granted Frank hasn’t been around since the beginning, but could this lack of concern for his fate be symptomatic of how he is one of these characters like Ilana, Miles and I would now count Claire who the writers haven’t utilized well this season.

The four surviving members reach the shore, devastated both emotionally and physically. It really hits home when Hurley breaks down. The only one not sobbing is unconscious. As said at the start, it just got real: some major cards were revealed and several key players didn’t make it to the end, and on top of that, we have Johnny leaving the bewildered and perpetually abandoned Claire to “finish what he started”. Although the actual finale is 2 ½ hours long, like some people (like Battleship Pretension/Previously On... host David Bax) have said, it feels like it’s already here.

Overall Score: 9/10

Don’t Stop Believin’: Top 12 Favorite Finales of the Past 10 Years

2010-05-22T00:18:00.002-04:00

This Sunday and Monday, two shows that have meant a lot to me in the past 10 years will take their final bows, Lost and 24. Of course, final episodes carry a lot of high expectations, expectations that usually aren’t met. Sometimes, and I’ve been seeing this in the Lost fandom, people expect it to be disappointing because they’ve been burned so many times before. It’s not easy to make a satisfying resolution to a series fans have been following for years, but sometimes you get that ending that does everything right, even if it doesn’t get to finish the story they set out to tell. It may lead to heated debates among the fans for years after it aired, or it may just put a period on the wonderful experience that is good TV, but regardless, they ended on a high note. While I try to omit discussing elements I consider shocking, there are obvious SPOILERS, so you’ve been warned.

12. Prison Break, “Rate of Exchnage” & “Killing Your Number” (May 15, 2009) – This is a series finale far better than this show ever deserved. It took its convoluted storyline, which was often so ridiculous it made 24 look like The Wire in terms of realism, and tied up the major loose ends and gave almost every major character closure. There were two additional episodes that went straight to DVD, but this is more than enough. It’s nice that even an average show can come up with a satisfying resolution.

11. The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien, (January 22, 2010) – Regardless of how Conan took being ousted in the late night war/NBC PR nightmare in private, he was 100% class on camera. Instead of lamenting the loss of his job, something he knew no one wanted to hear in this economy, he reflected on a great chapter in his life which was now over and despite its ending was grateful for it. Also his passionate speech to his young viewers to forsake futile cynicism, saying it’ll get you no where, is something viewers of all ages can learn from.

10. Freaks & Geeks, “Discos and Dragons” (July 8, 2000) – Freaks & Geeks the show was picked around by NBC much like the characters on the show were by bullies. They threw it on Saturday night, moved it around, pulled episodes at the last minute for Dateline repeats and burnt off three episodes in the summer, leaving three other episodes for syndication. Luckily, the writers were smart enough to craft this bittersweet finale. It showed many of the characters growing a little bit, leaving the comfort of their social circles and figuring out who they are. It left the door open for an interesting direction in the never made season two, but they knew this was it, and plays them out wonderfully to The Grateful Dead’s “Ripple”.

9. The Sopranos, “Made in America” (June 10, 2007) – One of the most controversial finales of all time, many people were ready for blood (or calling the cable company) when The Sopranos cut to black in 2007, but as time has gone on people have warmed up to this final chapter. The Sopranos wasn’t a show interested in tying up lose ends, with some of the best episodes introducing things that may have only been mentioned in passing afterward, and this ending reflects that. While many fans wanted to see whether Tony would get whacked or sent to jail, the ending shows that it doesn’t matter. The series ends on the idea that Tony will always be looking over his shoulder for a police badge or hitman’s gun and never have a moment of peace because of his work and by not getting resolution, we feel it too.

8. Angel, “Not Fade Away” (May 19, 2004) – Another show suddenly canceled, fans tried to keep this show afloat, including trying to get a straight answer as to why the now defunct WB would axe one of its biggest hits. You can see the writers were touched by this devotion, as Angel’s final (on screen) battle could symbolize the show’s fans refusing to give up. Some were upset that the show ended without a definitive ending or pay off to the Shanshu mystery (the aftermath has been covered in comic tie ins), but like The Sopranos, this is fitting end for the show. As touched upon, nothing he does will make up for the lives he took and evil can never be fully defeated. Angel’s fight never ends, so why should the show portray it any other way.

7. The Wire, “–30–“ (March 9, 2008) – David Simon’s masterpiece didn’t have the final season many wanted, but its finale is so good it pardons Simon’s axe grinding of the Baltimore Sun and the state of modern news. As the series ends, the circle of life continues in Baltimore, with people assuming the roles vacated by characters we’ve been following the past five seasons. As Slim put it in an earlier episode, “Game’s same, just got more fierce.” Some characters get redemption, and they aren’t necessarily the ones who deserve it. It’s all true to David Simon’s vision.

6. Carnivale, “New Canaan, CA” (March 27, 2005) – Yeah, Carnivale’s first season is a slog. It runs at a snail’s pace even compared to other HBO shows, a network not known for break neck pacing. However its second season makes up for it from the premiere and it doesn’t let down through this killer finale. Whereas some shows knowing cancelation is eminent will craft a decent finale for the sake of closure, creator Daniel Knauf stuck to his original six season plan: there are some major showdowns, but major pieces are left open (What does Sofie being the Omega mean?) It’s almost too awesome for its own good.

5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Chosen” (May 20, 2003) – Although many fans argue the show ran two seasons too long, the final showdown between the Potentials, made into full Slayers, and The First’s army of Uber-vamps (you know, vampires that actually kill people) was not only an amazing battle, but it was a great culmination of the shows’ themes of feminism and the turmoil of growing up. In the end, loses were had, but Buffy emerges victorious, ready to do whatever she wants as a fully realized adult. The world needs more Buffys and fewer Bellas.

4. Arrested Development, “Development Arrested” (February 10, 2006) – Another show that knew it was coming for some time, AD must’ve had this “In case of cancelation” story ready. It wrapped up most of the major storylines while continuing the great gags, call backs and wordplay. It doesn’t even need the much discussed (and in all likelihood dead) film, it stands as a near perfect sitcom and a complete masterwork.

3. The Office, “Christmas Special” (December 26 & 27, 2003,

airdate) – For a show known for being brutally uncomfortable & awkward, who knew they’d make a happy ending this touching? After the second series kicked many of its leads to the ground, this special brings them up again. Without resorting to something cheap like David Brent getting his job back or Dawn becoming a famous artist, it shows that finding happiness in everyday life can be as satisfying for the viewer as significant success.

2. Six Feet Under, “Everyone’s Waiting” (August 21, 2005) – It wasn’t always a smooth ride for one of the brightest stars of HBO’s golden age, but the finale made it worth sitting through the weak points (“That’s My Dog” anyone? Thought not). The emotional farewell to the Fishers is punctuated by a six minute montage to Sia’s “Breathe Me” as we get a look at the future of our main characters, including their inevitable deaths. It’s an epilogue that had fans reaching for the tissues and one few will ever forget. This could’ve easily been my number one.

1. The Shield, “Family Meeting” (November 28, 2008) – All TV series wish they could have a finale as satisfying as the brutal one-two punch of penultimate episode “Possible Kill Screen” & the finale “Family Meeting” of the flagship FX drama. Like many of this decade’s great TV anti-heroes, fans had been speculating what would come of Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis in the role of his career) and his Strike Team, and I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted this. His fate, as well as those of the Strike Team & the other cops in the Barn, is appropriate, unexpected and makes for a superb capper to the show. It’s fitting that the last five minutes are dialogue free, because fans were speechless after this aired.

Lost: Season 6, Episode 13 Review: The Last Recruit

2010-05-17T14:31:00.002-04:00

The Last Recruit

Original Airdate: April 20, 2010

Writer: Paul Zbyszewski and Graham Roland

Director: Stephen Semel

In the start of the final third of the final season, this episode is all about setting that massive stage for the conflict that will determine not only the fates of our heroes and their enemies, but possibly of the world and existence in general. So everything is in a pressure cooker, and while the end game is in effect, the plot is in such a hurry that some things don’t get the time they need and would’ve gotten earlier, which lets down the usually strong elements of the show.

Things are colliding more than ever in the flash sideways. Desmond’s working his magic on helping Claire, and acting like a creepy stalker in the process. He brings her to Ilana, a lawyer and not blown up, who in turn hosts the meeting between Claire and Jack, revealing that they are brother and sister. It’s still awkward in this timeline. Also awkward, the sudden chumminess between Jack and his formerly estranged son (yeah, they’re never going to tell us who the mother is, she’s worse than Ted Mosby’s future wife).

Elsewhere, in the time it took LA X Sayid to drive home the LAPD were notified of the shooting, identified the victims, found surveillance video of Sayid leaving the crime, identified Sayid, found out who he was staying with and arrived at the house. That efficiency of time makes Jack Bauer look like a slacker. Usually on Lost they’ve done a great job keeping the timelines consistent, not easy considering the past couple seasons, but here the chronology is all over the place. It’s not just Sawyer and Miles using 24’s wormholes: Sun, who was shot the day after 815 landed, made it to the hospital at the same time as Locke, who was hit by Desmond a week afterward.

Regardless of the egregious time discrepancy, LA X Sun can safely be deemed to have timeline bleed over as well, recoiling in horror as she is being wheeled into the hospital along Locke, who may be experiencing something similar as well. Even if the rest haven’t, the Losties are starting to recognize each other: Jack & Claire finding each other, Kate pointing out she ran into Sawyer at LAX and of course Jack discovering the emergency patient he’s operating on is Locke. The irony is that such coincidences were often never discussed or noticed in the 815 timeline, but obviously these connections are far more important in this timeline than Easter eggs to attentive fans.

While still not in one place, the LA X Losties are being gathered into 3 places: the hospital, Ilana’s law office and the police station. We have Desmond, who didn’t get busted for the hit and run, trying to assemble them, presumably in one place. It’s a lot like the island storyline the past three seasons, as various chunks of the survivors go back and forth in various factions. It doesn’t explain why Hurley isn’t around any of those places, but perhaps that motive will explain itself soon.

Back to the island and the 815 timeline, Jack has his sit down with Johnny, and sees the man he now believes get torn apart. Johnny’s summation of Locke’s life, for a Locke fan, really hurt because it’s further insult to injury for a character who has been taken down as far as a character can go. However, that Johnny would be so hateful seems like telegraphing an eventual redemption for Locke. It could be through Jack, who is a clear believer now, but it doesn’t satisfy Locke’s character as well.

Johnny also says that he, as Christian, lead Jack to the caves back in the first season. Despite his shoddy record with telling the truth, a lot of people believe it. This reveal adds a new layer of debate for the post-mortem appearances of Christian, especially when he shows up in the same scene as Johnny. It also recalls the final mobisode, where Christian encounters Vincent running around after the crash and tells the dog to find Jack. With Johnny confirming that he can use the forms of the dead, much like The First on Buffy, he may have taken Vincent’s form assuming he stayed in 1977 and died in the interim 27 years. Vincent in this scene could’ve been Smokey and in other moments where it appeared that something wasn’t right with that dog. Regardless, it’s unlikely we’re going to get a definitive answer of which Christian is a ghost, Smokey or “other”, and I’m OK with that being a topic of never ending debate.

The morning after the Losties reunion, Zoe arrives at camp demanding the return of what Johnny took, i.e. Desmond. Johnny doesn’t budge, not even when the heavy artillery comes knocking (that must’ve been really hard not to flinch, but if anyone could do it, it would be Terry O’Quinn). As the conflict between Johnny and Widmore has come to a head, Sawyer gets the rest of the 815ers (sorry, Sayid, Cindy, Zack, Emma and briefly Claire) with Frank to take the Elizabeth to Hydra and leave the island via Widmore’s sub. There’s some turbulence as Claire figures out they’re leaving without her, but Kate proves to be useful asking for forgiveness is what happened and the hope of them getting back together.

A geek sidebar: how is that Sawyer, who has referenced Star Wars on several occasions, wouldn’t get the Anakin reference? He missed Episode III, which was released eight months after the crash, but all the hype behind the first two prequel movies would’ve gotten to him. It’s not like Anakin turning evil was supposed to be some big twist.

Much like Kate trying to get Claire back to her son motivates her reaching out to Claire after Sawyer said she wasn’t invited, Jack feels his purpose in returning has not yet been fulfilled and literally jumps ship to return to the main island, despite heading right back to Johnny’s side. His status as a man of faith has been growing a lot, and now it’s completed. Listening to his dialogue, it sounds an awful lot like what Locke in the first season would say in this situation. That said, there’s been discussion about being “with” Johnny and if that makes him “The Last Recruit”. This episode title is pretty ambiguous regarding who it refers to and for what, but Jack is a likely candidate (little c), but is it really that easy to go on Johnny’s side just by talking to him?

After almost two seasons apart, Jin & Sun finally reunite and unfortunately, the moment falls short. Besides the fact that a lot of people, including me, thought the fence was still on and their reunion would be undercut by them getting zapped (they do say to turn off the fence followed by the power down sound, but no one was paying attention to that), this is another symptom of the show’s pacing, and that’s a shame. The reunion of these two should’ve been a bigger, but the story has to keep moving so it’s cut shorter than this moment deserved, not to mention Frank’s cheese ball line.

Despite being one the best episodes of Lost and TV in general, “The Constant” has sparked a conversation that has annoyed me to no end, a grievance I’m well aware is stupid and overblown like many nerd hang ups. The overuse of the term constant (Kate is Sawyer’s constant, Sawyer is Juliet’s constant, etc.) when there’s no need for it to come up. The constant idea makes sense in “The Constant” because Desmond finding his ends his suffering and saves his life. Nobody except for Charlotte and Minkowski has been a situation like that. However, using the constant argument for Sun & Jin, explaining how Sun’s aphasia going away when they reunite, is one of the few times where the constant element makes sense in the conversation.

The set end date and episodes has been largely good for the quality of the show, but I have to wonder if this season would’ve been better off with a couple more episodes so these problems with continuity and emotional beats wouldn’t be an issue. Things are heading to its climax much quicker than the show usually travels. Despite the story rushing at points, this episode does a good job setting up the big conflict. I just wish it wasn’t at such a rush to get there because this is it.

Overall Score: 8/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 12 Review: Everybody Loves Hugo

2010-05-12T13:54:00.002-04:00

Everybody Loves Hugo

Original Airdate: April 13, 2010

Writer: Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Director: Daniel Attias

Following last week’s game changer, the flash sideways story expands upon the notion of the timelines bleeding over each other. Clearly that is a huge piece of the series’ end game. Finally, the producers’ assurance that they were important to the story is coming to fruition, even if it’s unclear where it will go from here. It also doesn’t hurt to have to focus be on Hurley who like Desmond, Locke & Ben, is pretty dependable to crank out a good episode.

LA X Hurley, never referred to as Hurley as far as I’ve noticed, mentioned in the premiere that he thought he was the luckiest guy on earth. Chang, alive and with two arms (wonder if he recognized Hurley), introduces why his life is so good: his winning the lottery was the beginning of him becoming a fast food magnate and a philanthropist, establishing museum wings and centers for kids in need (LA X George Costanza is also good person as his “Human Fund” is mentioned). However, much like LA X Desmond, he doesn’t have someone in his life except for his overbearing mother and like Desmond, an encounter with someone else sets the gears in motion.

The LA X world has a lot of wish fulfillment: Daniel gets to be a musician, Ben gets to see Alex be successful and the picnic Hurley and Libby never got is shared by their LA X counterparts. Although Hurley and Libby’s relationship was short, when it’s brought up again it still elicits a strong response. Of course, it helps that it so deeply affected the heart and soul of the show. Seeing Hurley speaking at Libby’s grave, much like he did in “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead”, breaks our collective heart. In LA X world, they get their second chance. Cynthia Watros & Jorge Garcia have terrific chemistry. Libby’s initial pain that Hurley doesn’t believe her is really well played, and sets up their kiss on the beach, which is disarmingly sweet.

With the emphasis of love last week, it makes sense that LA X Libby’s kiss brought Hurley flashes of their time together in the 815 world. So extreme emotions, whether it is trauma or love, can bring about the flashes. Some have also pointed out that those in the LA X world who first discovered it are dead in the 815 world (Charlie, Daniel & now Libby), and that probably is a deliberate choice. In the master timeline, the closest we’ve come that is Juliet’s remark about “going Dutch” and possibly Sun’s aphasia.

It seems that LA X Desmond is some kind of matchmaker. However, the rug is quickly pulled out as he stalks and eventually runs over Locke (great job on the stunts here). This shocking twist has generated one popular and intriguing theory: Desmond wants to get everyone to the hospital. Jack is there, Sun is heading there and now Locke is as well. It doesn’t explain why Hurley and Libby don’t wind up there, but that may be explained later. What Desmond plan is is still unclear: how exactly does someone unite timelines, but this development is a sign that Desmond is going to extremes to make sure his plan works. The way Locke is splayed on the concrete, looking like 815 Locke in “The Incident” following his fall, had to be deliberate.

In the main timeline, the plan to destroy the plane and keep Johnny from leaving hits a snag when Michael’s ghost shows up warning Hurley that if they succeed everyone dies. With the island spirits working to keep Johnny at bay, I wonder why they would send Michael, the man responsible for Libby’s death and Hurley’s broken heart to convince Hurley. This may tie into an answer to one of the long standing mysteries.

Checking a major mystery off the list, the whispers are explained as the whispers of the dead who haven’t moved on. For some reason, Hurley’s been able to tune in to this frequency more sharply than the rest. This is the writers’ way of having their cake and eating it too. They frequently debunked the idea that the island is purgatory countless times, but it turns out it is for the people who died there, not those alive.

This explanation works for me: Michael’s story didn’t get a good resolution for a character around since the Pilot. Besides the lack of closure with Walt (something that sadly seems unlikely to be resolved in the series), the redemption he got didn’t seem enough to make up for his crimes. This answer adds a twist to Christian’s “You can go now” message before the bomb went off on the Kahana. Now it reads like “Nice try, but you failed.” Helping Hurley defeat Johnny can be that redemption.

Also, why doesn’t he say anything being about sorry for killing Ana-Lucia? Did she deserve it? Her death wasn’t a punitive measure for her crimes, but to facilitate Ben’s escape. The writers have said killing off Libby was to give Michael’s betrayal more emotional impact since Ana-Lucia didn’t go off well with viewers, but that attitude shouldn’t boil over to the on screen stuff.

Then comes the first explosive (get it?) twist when Ilana goes up. So what was the purpose of her anyway? They introduce her early in season five, hint that she is important to the plot, then Arzt her before she does anything significant. What did she do that couldn’t have been fulfilled by Richard, Ben or another character? Ilana, like Miles & Frank, was a character the writers didn’t know what to do with this season. This is sometimes a problem with ensembles as large as Lost’s, and usually they do a better job, but in Ilana’s case, they ran out of time and couldn’t give her character much besides a glorious exit. Nikki & Paolo had a better arc than this. This is like an Austin Powers joke: giving a red shirt a background (or the promise of one) and killing them off abruptly. Once the initial shock wore out, the disappointment set in.

Her death motivates Richard to destroy the plane despite Hurley doing everything, including blow up the Black Rock and its supply of dynamite, to stop him. In the flaming wreckage, Hurley’s growing position of leadership is put to the test. Ultimately Hurley betrays his moral compass and refusal to deny a lie by playing the “Jacob only I can see tells me” card. Richard calls his bluff, and leads to Team Jacob splitting with Richard, Ben & Miles heading to Dharmaville as possible x-factors and Hurley, Jack, Sun and a doubting Frank heading to Johnny’s camp to negotiate. Here’s another test for Hurley as a leader: having a bad hand and having to play it anyway.

Not doing as much leading is Jack, whose character has improved a lot since the heartsick mopster at the end of season five. He’s accepted that unfortunately nothing he does can make up for the fact that the Jughead mission got Juliet killed, but is willing to let go of his messiah complex, one thing that’s made liking Jack difficult. Of course, no one in the 815 timeline save Desmond has a clue of the LA X universe, which may change his attitude when they collide.

At Johnny’s camp, more cracks form in his resolve with the return of the apparitions and Desmond’s arrival. It’s hard to gauge what Desmond is thinking, but he is unusually calm considering the circumstances. No doubt the trip to LA X world affected him, but what is his plan besides survive the fall down the well? Whatever it is, Desmond is a threat to Johnny, presumably because of his second electromagnetic blast, who decides to throw him down the well. Despite that, he gets three of the candidates in his camp when Hurley’s crew arrives. Sun’s looking for the absent Jin, Frank is still wondering if he chose the right side and Jack facing the big bad using the disguise of the man he regrets not listening to.

Going into the final third of the season and final 6 hours, things for the big showdown are falling into place. Unfortunately some things are rushed, but the sweetness of the love story and the escalating flash sideways work. In the final episodes, there’s a lot of ground to cover and little time for it. Let’s hope the big things are handled better than dynamite in Ilana’s care.

Overall Score: 8/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 11 Review: Happily Ever After

2010-05-08T20:44:00.000-04:00

Happily Ever After

Original Airdate: April 6, 2010

Writer: Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
Director: Jack Bender

The season’s most controversial element has been the flash sideways storyline. As the series heads to its climax, many fans (including myself) who stuck with the show during the slower moments in seasons two and three were scratching our heads wondering what was the point. Despite the producers’ advising us to take it as seriously as the main timeline, it was hard to as this storyline was completely divorced of the main story and for all intents and purposes, it was another show. While some of the episodes played out their flash sideways well (The Substitute, Dr. Linus), it didn’t change the idea that it didn’t affect what was happening in the storyline we’ve been following since the beginning. Then comes this episode, which gives this storyline much needed direction and perspective.

Picking up shortly after the end of “The Package”, Desmond comes out of his drugged out fog to find out he is back on the island, a place he made abundantly clear he never wanted to go to ever again despite Hawking’s warnings. Needless to say, he does not take it well, and is combative until the moment the energy envelops him. Henry Ian Cusick, as he does in every centric episode he’s had, shines here. When he finds out he’s back, his face twitches just so that is really impressive.

Widmore reveals a little about why he brought Desmond back to the Island. He’s the only person known to survive a cataclysmic electromagnetic event (less can be said about that unfortunate tech caught in the wrong place when the power switch was flipped) and this test is apparently of the utmost importance in bringing down Johnny. With Widmore’s experiments, I wonder how much of Desmond’s condition Widmore knows about. Did he expect Desmond to be propelled into the flash sideways world?

After the test is done, Widmore says Desmond will have to make a “sacrifice” for the sake of everyone else. I think we all hope this sacrifice doesn’t mean he will be forever separated from Penny. With the dark nature this season, fans have assumed the worst despite not knowing what Widmore wants Desmond to do. With Locke dead, Desmond has assumed the role of the Job figure of Lost. He’s had so much bad fortune, that another sacrifice is pretty insulting.

The blast sends him to the flash sideways timeline, effectively disproving the theory that the flash sideways are the epilogues for the characters. This theory never sounded good for a satisfying conclusion; perhaps the episode title is a possible dig at that theory. Even if the writers still insist on not calling it one, it is an alternate reality.

LA X Desmond, who was on the plane after all, turns to be a successful businessman and right hand man to Charles Widmore, here a good friend despite never meeting Widmore’s wife, son and daughter. However, as soon pointed out, something is clearly missing: he has never been in love. Despite 815 Desmond stumbling through his life, his stint in jail (guess we’ll never know how he got there), spending three years in isolation in The Swan and being continually thumbed at by Charles Widmore for being poor, he always had his love for Penny to make everything OK. So when the timelines begin to bleed over, getting that blast of “spectacular, consciousness-altering love” gives him a mission he probably never felt in this timeline.

Perhaps this is retcon for the sake of correcting a prop error, but LA X Minkowski points out that Desmond doesn’t have a wedding ring on. Many fans noted he had one on in “LA X” and speculated on who the wife was, whether it was Penny, Ruth or someone else. It turns out it was just an error and in all likelihood Cusick’s wedding ring. This is just another humbling moment that some stuff fans speculate on for hours is some mistake.

It’s appropriate that LA X Minkowski, who can get Desmond anything he needs, whether it’s seats at a fancy restaurant, flight manifests or compensated female company, be the one to help Desmond on his journey, as their 815 interactions in “The Constant” were important to Desmond’s quest to find his constant. It’s also nice to see Academy Award winner Fisher Stevens back on the show.

LA X Widmore puts Desmond on the task of babysitting the strung out Charlie, who wound up in jail for the heroin in “LA X”, a task that seems beneath Desmond’s status if not for the importance of Charlie to Daniel. Here Charlie’s insights into what happened to him not only set the foundation for Desmond’s story, but illuminate something about the flash sideways and their nature.

As he choked on the bag of heroin, LA X Charlie had a vision, presumably Claire, and realized that he was in love with her, despite having no recollection of her. To convince Desmond that it is real, he takes the wheel of the car Desmond is driving and plunges it into a nearby harbor. As Desmond saves Charlie, he sees 815 Charlie’s hand with “Not Penny’s Boat” written on it. So trauma and heavy magnetism can cause flashes of the 815 world. This could explain why 815 Sun can’t speak English after hitting her head. Seeing “Not Penny’s Boat” was the first crack, but when LA X Desmond gets the MRI, with the flashes of his life with Penny and how that love shaped 815 Desmond’s life, the dam is destroyed. Now he has a quest: find Penny and who she is.

Fortunately for Desmond, his boss’ wife and son shed some light on the situation. When Desmond overhears Penny’ name on the guest list at the concert Drive Shaft was planning with Daniel, LA X Eloise (Widmore) intervenes. She claims what Desmond is doing is a “violation”. LA X Eloise is a special case among the LA X universe since, because Jughead’s detonation split the timelines, she still has the memories leading up to it. She may be a similar “temporal policeman” that she was in the other reality (I wonder if either Eloise knows which timeline is supposed to be correct), assuming Daniel’s notebook remained after Jack’s plan worked. Calling it a “violation” is telling.

Although turned away by Eloise, he is stopped by Daniel (thankfully not showing him earlier wasn’t because they couldn’t get Jeremy Davies so they got an extra to wear a wig). LA X Daniel has lived a life pursuing music as 815 Daniel wanted to had his mother not interfered, but he too is experiencing timeline bleed over, scribbling advanced physics equations only 815 Daniel would understand. He believes that their timeline may be wrong and that his counterpart did something to change it.

LA X Daniel also points him in the direction of Penny, his half sister. Making that connection, he returns to the 815 timeline. Unlike other Desmond episodes where his consciousness jumps around the timeline like “Flashes Before Your Eyes” and “The Constant”, it’s not clear how aware 815 Desmond was of what happened to LA X Desmond since LA X Desmond didn’t react unusually as 815 Desmond did in those episodes, but it’s clear LA X Desmond knows something and wants to show the passengers of 815 something. What that means is up for debate, but he clearly knows something about the shared fate 815 Desmond had with the rest of the plane. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s going to be rounding up Nikki & Paolo, but it is taking the flash sideways to an interesting place.

As 815 Desmond prepares for the next step in Widmore’s mission, Sayid ambushes them, leaves Zoe to tell the tale and takes Desmond to Johnny’s group. Obviously Johnny has some seriously good senses to realize Desmond is there, and that he is a clear and present danger to him, more important than grabbing back Jin.

This episode was a great, vital turning point in the season. It took an element that was questionable in its usefulness in a series’ final hours and made it relevant to the story. While it’s unknown what plans LA X Desmond has and I’m worried about how well this storyline will be pulled off, it’s a step in the right direction. Despite it rewarding our patience, I still wish this happened earlier.

Overall Score: 9/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 10 Review: The Package

2010-05-04T20:15:00.002-04:00

As if I needed another reason to hate V.

The Package

Original Airdate: March 30, 2010
Writer: Paul Zbyszewski and Graham Roland
Director: Paul Edwards

One of the first interesting choices in the flash sideways was the twist in “Sundown” where Jin is found bound and gagged in the restaurant freezer by Sayid after mowing down a room full of thugs. It raised speculation like the best past interactions in flashbacks/forwards. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much in the way of shocking details of how they got there, but it seems like things are heading somewhere beyond whose lives are better and whose are worse with the second half underway.

Among the expected answers, it’s revealed that LA X Sun & Jin aren’t married, but Jin is still working for her father, and that they are carrying their affair in secret. Sun still plans on running away, only in the LA X world she’s doing it so they can be together in America. Jin has no such plans, and is worried that someone will spot them together, altering the context behind him being upset over Sun’s undone top button from possessive to paranoid.

Their brief bliss doesn’t last long, as Keamy Walken comes asking for the money customs confiscated. Since they don’t have it, Jin is taken as collateral while master translator LA X Mikhail (who has two eyes for most of the episode) takes Sun to the bank, only to find Mr. Paik covered his bases by freezing her getaway money.

Like Sawyer’s flash sideways in “Recon”, Sun & Jin’s ends openly where Sun gets shot and reveals she’s pregnant. While I criticized Sawyer’s story for feeling incomplete, this one doesn’t have the problems of a busy storyline like “Recon”. It’s simple: wackiness ensues when they don’t have Keamy’s money instead of cramming too many elements of back story into a short segment.

Through the parallel Jin & Sun story, the themes of fate vs. free will are the forefront again. There is LA X Keamy arguing that LA X Jin & Sun “just aren’t meant to be together”. However, Jack has the slightly goofy “stubborn tomato” argument. Ultimately I think the show wants to have the individual triumph with choice rather than submit to the will of the universe because most people want Jin & Sun to have a happy ending.

In the 815 universe, Johnny leaves on an errand, presumably to recruit Sun for his mission, which leaves the remaining followers vulnerable to Widmore’s nerds (they finally acknowledge that Widmore didn’t hire mercenaries, but scientists, for this mission). Who in turn take Jin, claiming his knowledge of possible locations of electromagnetism could be valuable. This act is the next step in the escalating war, which Johnny formally declares when he meets with Widmore.

A few more details about Johnny are revealed: while he can travel from Hydra Island to the main island in Locke’s form, he can’t float over in the Smoke Monster form. This could help to explain the mud sink Ben used to “summon” the Smoke Monster in “The Shape of Things to Come”. Perhaps that water was blocking Smokey’s route to Dharmaville and they had to wait until Smokey happened to come by.

Johnny’s plan about the candidates also gets out, which doesn’t sit well with his first follower Claire. Even though he tries to pacify her by washing his hands of anything she may do to Kate once all six candidates are under his command, the cracks are becoming more obvious in his leadership. Claire also could be shaping up to be a Trashcan Man figure here, a character from the stand who is spurned by their Man in Black.

Sayid reveals a little more to his resurrection, as he no longer feels any emotion. If Sayid is truly “claimed”, like Dogen said, this condition is different from Claire’s, who Dogen said suffered from the same affliction. Compared to Sayid, Claire is overrun with emotion where she makes Rousseau look normal. Johnny suggest that may be good for what’s to come, and sends him on a counter mission in Widmore’s camp.

Elsewhere at the beach camp, a lot of people criticized Sun’s aphasia for being too much like a soap opera or Gilligan’s Island. Honestly, I would’ve been fine with the idea that “the island” is stopping her from speaking English. Later episodes hint that there may be something to explain her aphasia, but this device is so overused in soaps that it borders on parody and even though there are some good moments here, they don’t quite sell it enough for this concept to work.

The big emotional moment of the episode was Jin seeing the pictures of Ji Yeon, the first time he’s ever seen her. I echo the sentiment that Sun & Jin’s separation is stretching a little thin, not having the benefit of being a background element of a long term story. Sun has been even compared negatively to Michael in season two. However, this was a satisfying tease.

Widmore’s mission, surprisingly, turns out to be in support of keeping Johnny from leaving the island. With Widmore seemingly helping Locke get on the path to getting killed and Bram’s warning that Widmore was on the wrong side, that he changed sides is interesting. It could be a case of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, and I usually enjoy the dynamic of mortal enemies working together to topple a worse adversary. It could also be misdirection and he’ll turn evil in the end.

Then there’s the ham fisted reveal that the package is none other than Desmond, last seen in a hospital last season in this time line. From Sawyer pointing out the locked room in “Recon” to Widmore saying the package was a “who” not a “what” to the desire to learn about the electromagnetic pockets, who else was it going to be besides maybe Walt? It was so obvious that people in denial insist that there must be another twist in there. Luckily this mystery didn’t last more than a few episodes, which makes it easy to forgive.

For the inevitable tell all on Lost someone’s going to write either when the money runs out or to cash in on the Lost dollar, certainly something’s going to be written about Henry Ian Cusick. Despite being a credited lead character, he has been in only a handful of episodes since the first third of season five, and didn’t even play a part in the finale. It’s hard to see this prolonged absence and not think it has something to do with his legal trouble, much like people who got DUIs and whose characters were killed off shortly afterward. Why keep on an actor as a lead, where he gets paid regardless of whether he appears, when you can have him be a recurring guest star? It feels very odd. I don’t want this to turn too tabloid: I’ve never met either party involved in the legal scuffle and I don’t know whose side is correct, that’s why I haven’t mentioned it until now. Any future mention of this will only be used in context of a review of an episode.

Overall this episode is an average entry. It had a few decent elements like Keamy showing up one more time, but there were also awkward moments like the aphasia part, Miles acting as he would’ve when he first got on the island and the unsurprising reveal of how Jin wound up in that freezer. However, the flash sideways are picking up steam, becoming more than just a sidebar in the season.

Overall Score: 7/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 9 Review: Ab Aeterno

2010-04-29T14:42:00.000-04:00

Ab Aeterno

Original Airdate: March 23, 2010

Writer: Melinda Hsu Taylor and Greggory Nations
Director: Tucker Gates

Richard Alpert is an interesting character as far as the evolution of his role is concerned. Initially, he was just a plot point: he recruited Juliet and hung out in Dharmaville, the end. However, in “The Man Behind the Curtain”, the reveal that he looked in 1977 the same as he does in the present added an intriguing layer. Since then, the anticipation for a Richard centric episode picked up where the anticipation for a Rousseau centric episode left off. On a show like Lost, the characters who know something always stand out, and who better than someone who has been on the island longer than almost everyone else? Taking a break from the flash-sideways storyline, this episode consists largely of one single flashback of how Richard arrived on the island and the beginning of the current cycle of Jacob’s social experiment. There are some long awaited answered delivered here, which as the season heads into its second half, should be coming at a much faster pace.

Richard’s story begins in 1867, the earliest flashback by a few days. Richard, then known as Ricardo, cares for his dying wife, who desperately needs medicine. After trying to bargain it out of the doctor, a scuffle breaks out and the doctor is killed, similar to Desmond accidentally killing Kelvin. Of course, running away with something from a dead body (and possibly because of other social systems in place), is going to make the “it was an accident” story impossible to believe.

The death of the doctor turns out to be for nothing, as Isabella died while Richard was away. So the first segment establishes the two things that have haunted Richard for 140 years: not getting absolution for accidentally killing the doctor and not being able to save the love of his life. This also introduces the second important piece of Richard’s back story, his faith. Offering the cross as payment, learning English by reading the Bible and pleading for absolution for his sins reinforce this as well. Richard is an unquestioning believer, so when one of his fellow prisoners on the Black Rock spots Tawaret and claim it is the Devil, it’s easy for him to believe he is in hell and that any chance he can have to receive absolution or redemption would be taken.

Alpert being on the Black Rock trumps all the obvious answers of the past few seasons, from “Michael is the inside man on the freighter” and “Eloise is Daniel’s mother”. This is just one flaw of doing a story on episodic television: the audience can get a hold of how the writers think, and while the best writers always try to stay a few steps ahead of their fans, inevitably some details get lost.

This episode answers three major questions: what was Alpert’s involvement on the Black Rock, how the ship wound up in the jungle and how the statue broke down. For a long time, I had a huge issue with the idea that a wooden ship could somehow bring down a rock statue, but the pressure of a tidal wave would be more than enough to do it. It probably would’ve been wrecked more when it crashed on the island, but maybe I’m making too much about it.

Another interesting detail: Richard’s arrival is the first of many groups to arrive during storms: Rousseau’s team, Desmond, the Freighties would follow. Of those who crashed, only 815 happened during a clear day (316 landed).

Johnny sees a golden opportunity and makes Richard believe that Jacob has taken Isabella, safe to assume he was just taking her form, and wearing him down by leaving him there around his rotting comrades. Of course, this is another parallel to The Stand, where Randall Flagg rescues a starving Lloyd from the prison where he is the sole survivor of the outbreak of Captain Tripps, only in this case the Lloyd stand in sided with the Mother Abigail stand in.

Freeing Richard made him putty in Johnny’s hands, ready to kill “the devil”. Much like Ben in season five, Johnny manipulates Richard to do his bidding. Knowing that Richard crashing occurred within 24 hours of Johnny & Jacob’s first encounter, it adds a context similar to Ben finding out he has a tumor within a few days before Jack crashed on the island. It’s like if the island has some weird wish fulfillment program.

Richard comes across the statue, and much like The Dude, gets roughed up by a character played by Mark Pellegrino. From here he realizes that he is not dead and joins with Jacob, something Johnny isn’t too pleased with. A few interesting details here: the knife Johnny gives Richard is the same one (or looks close enough to) that Dogen gave Sayid in “Sundown” and they even give similar instructions. They also made a point of accenting the fact that Johnny touched Richard, something other characters haven’t done or make a point of not doing.

While recruiting Richard, Jacob explains the purpose of the island with an analogy for wine. This, where the cork is the island keeping Johnny from getting out, is a little wonky. A better one would be that the island is the bottle, and Jacob’s magic is the cork, which makes Johnny smashing the bottle at the end possibly foreshadow what is going to happen.

The final scene between Jacob and Johnny is interesting. While we’re supposed to believe Johnny is the bad guy (and has loads of evidence to support that), his motivations make sense. Titus Welliver really pulls off the frustration of a guy who was betrayed and lost his “humanity”. Of course, we still don’t know what he did to warrant this treatment from Jacob, but the second guessing adds a nice layer to what’s going on.

Certainly some people are unhappy over the explanation that Richard’s unaging came from Jacob touching him. While I can understand not being happy over an answer (something that will surely be an issue in the final episode) what did these fans expect? Was there a reasonable explanation for a guy not aging in 140 years? If the Star Wars prequels taught us anything, it’s that trying to excessively explain something inherently magical destroys its magic (midichlorians anyone?) Fantasy writers tow a thin line, and Lost generally does that balancing act well.

Richard’s flashbacks explain a lot about his current state of crazily running through the jungle trying to take up Johnny on his open door invitation to return to his side. Through 140 years, Richard’s felt that working for Jacob was penance for accidentally killing the doctor. Now his leader is gone and he can’t die or be reunited with his beloved. The penance he’s been working for for over a century seems to have been lost.

As he has been all season, Hurley proves to be a valuable helper, using his gift to have Richard communicate with Isabella in a way more vivid than has been shown before. Perhaps that was the island intervening, or maybe Johnny’s attempt to be manipulative went the other way thanks to Hurley’s intervention. Regardless, it takes the purposeless Richard a new goal: keep Johnny from leaving, or else “[they] all go to hell”.

One thing that doesn’t fit in this episode is Ilana’s flashback. Expanding upon her first, Jacob’s visit explains that her mission, which she has been training for her whole life, is to protect the remaining six candidates. Besides placing her flashback close to her arrival on the island, it doesn’t add much to the episode that couldn’t have been done with the exposition that was happening at the beach.

So the Richard episode more or less lived up to the hype. Did I enjoy it as much as most people, who compared it on the level of “The Constant”? No, the Isabella/Richard catharsis, while good, pales to Desmond and Penny’s phone call. Maybe I wanted too much, like the four hour back story covering all 140 years, the first time out, but upon second viewing I saw a lot more of the positive knowing what it was compared to what I wanted it to be. It had some great character development and revealed a lot more to the long standing rivalry between Jacob and Johnny, not to mention a great performance from Nestor Carbonell, who really utilized his time in the spotlight.

Overall Score: 9/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 8 Review: Recon

2010-04-19T17:27:00.004-04:00

Recon

Original Airdate: March 16, 2010

Writer: Elizabeth Sarnoff and Jim Galasso
Director: Jack Bender

After the best flash sideways to date in “Dr. Linus”, this episode is a step down. Perhaps it is just the inevitable disappointment after a great episode, but also the flash sideways suffered from tackling too much for so little screen time. It felt at best like a “Part 1” subplot and at worst like a bigger story that got hacked to pieces with a machete. The main story is far better, setting up Widmore’s arrival and the questions that come from that.

Unlike past flash sideways, Sawyer’s LA X life is a mixed bag. He has a more respectable career as an LAPD detective (where was Ana-Lucia?), using his overall talent at conning for undercover work. He also must be a Jimmy McNulty sized legend in the department as his back up in the sting operation presumably were listening in as he had sex with the very attractive Jodi Lyn O’Keefe.

However, he has not gotten over his parents’ deaths and still vows revenge on Anthony Cooper. So despite being on good terms with Locke in this reality, LA X Anthony Cooper still has a checkered past. So does that mean he still is the man who ruined Sawyer’s life or is he mistaken? With that and the redemption some characters have found in the LA X timeline, this could end with LA X Sawyer forgiving Cooper for what he’s done instead of exacting a brutal revenge when he finds him.

He also is pretty sloppy with his plans. It turns out he did nothing to stop LA X Kate at the airport because he didn’t want anyone to know he was at the airport instead of Palm Springs (are there no video cameras in LAX?) Then he calls up the Anthony Cooper suspects at his desk with his phone. I’ve seen enough CSIs and Dexters to know this is going to raise a red flag when Cooper’s body shows up.

While I enjoy seeing the cameos from past cast members, I didn’t buy the romance between Charlotte and Sawyer. It makes sense Chang would know Charlotte if her parents worked in Dharma with him, but clearly this was meant to be Juliet. It would’ve had a bigger emotional impact had it been her getting too close to his past, but sadly Elizabeth Mitchell is busy on another show, so instead of cutting it, they replaced the woman. They needed that bit to drive that wedge between him and Miles, but Sawyer’s lies about where he was could’ve done the trick just as well.

Charlotte rejecting Sawyer motivates Sawyer to talk to Miles, but an episode of Little House on the Prairie convinces him to apologize in the first place. The “Previously On…” podcast, among other places, criticized this shorthand as lazy. While there is some truth to this, Sawyer’s epiphany should’ve been rewritten when they couldn’t get Elizabeth Mitchell back, it calls back season three, where Sawyer mentioned watching it when he was sick at home as a child. That show was a source of comfort for him during a tough time, so the connection with his past telling him to move on worked.

The end of the flash sideways, where LA X Sawyer runs into Kate, doesn’t feel like the pay off this story was heading to this episode. It feels like something they wanted to do, so it literally crashed into the plot. They must’ve been trying for something ambiguous, as Sawyer is out for himself despite aligning with Johnny’s group. However, it seems like the episode would’ve been better built around LA X Sawyer finding LA X Cooper and what he would’ve done to him.

On the island, Johnny and the rest of the survivors from the Temple massacre arrive at camp. Here he tries to comfort Zack & Emma after he tells them the Smoke Monster killed them, well aware that he and it are the same. Despite hating Jacob, he is as manipulative as his counterpart ever was. It seems that the siege was to get people behind him, it didn’t matter who he killed.

It turns out their plan to get off the island isn’t going to be as easy as expected, with Sawyer having to head to Hydra Island to see if the Ajira plane is still flyable and to gain the trust of the people still on there. Considering the Smoke Monster can break off into several pieces, it may not be hard to believe that part flew over to the other island and saw what happened. Sending Sawyer over had to be part of a contingency plan to accommodate the new arrivals.

Sawyer arrives to find the remaining survivors, or at least some of them, of Ajira 316 dead and a woman named Zoe pretending to be one of them. It turns out she is one of the people on Widmore’s submarine, which apparently didn’t hire any mercenaries. It’s not far fetched to believe Widmore’s people are the ones responsible for the remaining survivors’ deaths, which he denies, but admits that that will be viewed with a jaundiced eye. In Widmore’s defense, the bodies have already begun to rot and are swarmed by flies, something that wouldn’t happen in the short time Widmore has been back.

So he strikes a deal with Widmore: lie about their presence and lead Johnny to their door. However, as soon as he gets back to the main land, he alerts Johnny that he lied to Widmore and tells him everything. It’s all a part of his plan to distract them while he hijacks the sub and makes a run. Sawyer’s gotten a lot of grilling from fans who think this is a little far fetched. Piloting a plane is hard enough assuming they can get Frank to do it, let alone forcing whoever in Widmore’s team to operate the sub and get them off the island. Despite Holloway’s attempts to sell it, it still sounds naïve.

As Sawyer’s in it for himself, what does this mean to his promise to Jin to help him get off the island as well? Sawyer has taken a dark turn this year, but he worked with Jin for three years during their time in Dharma. Will he make one last redemptive action or screw over others for his rescue? Not to mention there is the inevitable obstacle of those still unexplained people who attacked the Losties in the outrigger during the flashes. Those people have to be a group of the people on the island now.

Back in Johnny’s camp, Kate and Claire hash out their differences and it is, to say the least, awkward. It’s worsened with Johnny not realizing that maybe making Claire angry for three years and able to access sharp objects was a bad idea. While intervening, there appears to be some weird father-daughter relationship going on, possibly because Christian was one of Johnny’s forms.

While trying to console the shaken Kate, Johnny reveals a little bit about himself when he recalls that he, like Aaron, had a crazy mother and that her behavior caused “growing pains”. This could further add to the theory that Johnny and Jacob are brothers, with Johnny’s mother favoring Jacob. There is an odd feeling like he expects Kate to do something about Claire so Aaron won’t have to live with the problems Johnny did or if Johnny is Aaron thanks to time loops and other island magic. Regardless, Claire is convinced Kate was acting in Aaron’s best interest (tell her he’s with her mother already) and they make nice, but its pat nature feels forced or hiding a more malicious agenda.

So for Sawyer’s presumed last episode, we get a mixed bag. The flash sideways were too expansive to get full coverage, possibly to deal with the fact that this is probably the last episode of it. The main island storyline is a lot better, and luckily this episode is just a speed bump on the road to the finale.

Overall Score: 7/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 7 Review: Dr. Linus

2010-04-10T11:31:00.001-04:00

Dr. Linus

Original Airdate: March 9, 2010

Writers: Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz

Director: Mario Van Peebles

Ben’s story since “The Shape of Things to Come” has involved him reevaluating his values. Seeing the only person he truly loved get gunned down before his eyes was more than enough for him to wonder if all he’s done for the island was worth it. It lead him to lash out, having Sayid kill a bunch of guys and killing Locke personally as a last ditch effort to reunite the Oceanic 6. Despite all that he lost and what he did, he felt unappreciated and ignored by the man he served (which if Miles’ claim that Jacob still believed in Ben up to dying is true, was a serious misunderstanding) and in that frustration came the war. So Ben has a lot to atone for, and that growing burden becomes a key issue in this episode. Clearly, LA X Ben’s lecture on Napoleon was pretty spot on for himself and this episode is all about his “greatest test”. After the dark turn last week, here is the other side to a bad man and if he’ll seek redemption. In fact, it’s appropriate Ben be the one to see Sayid, who he’s partially responsible for turning dark, over the pool in the last episode. Seeing that darkness informs much his choices and perhaps the remainder of his arc.

In the strongest flash sideways to date, LA X Ben faces a moral dilemma: should he choose to advance his career and possibly help the struggling school by forcing the philandering principal out or stay quiet and ensure Alex gets a recommendation for Yale from said principal? LA X Ben has the same ambitions 815 Ben has, but instead of belief in an island he believes in taking care of his students. However, as with those on Jacob’s side, LA X Ben puts Alex over his ambitions, giving her the future 815 Ben didn’t when he had to choose between protecting himself and his daughter.

A valid argument against LA X Ben backing down is the fact that Reynolds has no bargaining chip against Ben. Ben has the e-mails and more than enough proof to bring him down and keep him from not destroying Alex’s future. However, the episode is all about proving that Ben is capable of redemption, and not playing dirtier for the sake of someone he cares about is a strong indicator of that. Arzt could use it later though.

Things are also better between Ben & his father. Roger, who ironically is being kept alive by gas Ben gives him in this reality, is more open with his regrets that he didn’t do enough to ensure a better future for his son. He also says the island was still there when they left, so if Jughead sunk the island, it took enough time for them to reunite and leave.

Back on the island, Ben’s biggest lie about Jacob comes out when Miles reads Jacob’s ashes, leaving Ben to face serious consequences. He faces a tough judge in Ilana, who doesn’t go too far from being deadly serious, especially regarding a man she considered like a father. As punishment, she tethers him and forces him at gunpoint to dig his grave. Since Ben didn’t aggressively stop the reading or hurt anyone to avoid this punishment, he may be ready to accept judgment for what he’s done.

As Ben finishes digging, Johnny shows up and offers him a deal: he’s free of Ilana’s bondage, and when he leaves with his people, Ben will get control of the island. Again, this adds to Johnny’s lies. When trying to get Sawyer on board, he dismisses the island as just a rock, but here he claims it’s still important to protect. Of course, each version is meant to sway their listener, and further points to Johnny being a bad guy.

Free, Ben high tails it to the jungle, where he comes across the rifle placed for him. He confronts Ilana and the burdens he’s been carrying spill out. This is definitely stuff Emmy reels are made for, and while people can criticize these moments for baiting, Emerson destroys in this scene. He continues to deserve all the praise he gets for giving Ben so many layers. Ben isn’t an easy character to sympathize with, but his case for redemption is convincing: no matter how well he redeems himself, it can never take back those he betrayed and lost and that knowledge has broken him.

Elsewhere Jack & Hurley, the latter of whom clearly doesn’t want to return to the ravished Temple, encounter the disheveled Richard roaming the jungle. It is an interesting direction for Richard, who previously has always been cool and in control. However, after Jacob’s death he is left without direction and wondering if his decades in service of the island were for nothing and that without said purpose he is ready to die.

Richard’s comment that those touched by Jacob can’t kill themselves puts several past events in a new context. Both Jack & Locke were stopped from killing themselves off island, and Michael’s multiple attempts in “Meet Kevin Johnson” were attributed to the island not being done with him. We haven’t seen Jacob touch Michael, but it can be assumed that it happened off camera, which explains how no measure he took worked until he was told he could go. This will probably be the closest we get to a definitive answer and I’m OK with that. Magic to some degree will answer most of these questions, but there is some reason behind a wizard like Jacob’s giving people a gift by his touch that it makes it better than a deus ex machina.

Jack completes his transformation to leader of faith in his confrontation with Richard over the dynamite. After seeing that Jacob had been watching him, he now believes he had bigger plans for Jack than getting Arzted. It’s a refreshing change from the non-involved lovelorn Jack who needed to man up last year, and necessary if he’s going to be the man Jacob needs in the war.

The nice reunion on the beach is quickly undercut with the shocking return of Widmore to the island. He hasn’t been mentioned since last season, and his absence this year was noticeable, even if they wanted to set up this twist (still cool though). It may be safe to assume Widmore is the person Jacob wanted to bring to the island, but why?

Recalling one of Lost’s influences, The Stand, the people on the island are split into two factions: Team Johnny & Team Jacob. Unfortunately Team Jacob is seriously outnumbered, outgunned and doesn’t have someone who can turn into a giant cloud of smoke and lay dozens to waste. Again, I’m inclined to think the good guys side with Jacob. While Jacob has manipulated, Johnny is giving out false promises everywhere to get people on his side. Also going into the big showdown, Randall Flagg’s team was the dominant side as well (Flagg has also been referred to as “The Man in Black”).

In the odds and ends of the episode, it’s revealed Frank slept late and missed piloting 815 (I still hope there’s time for his flashback), Sun now knows she’s a candidate and the favorite miscellaneous bit, the “shout out” to everyone’s least favorite redshirts Nikki & Paolo. Miles apparently dug up the grave, something no one else seemed to notice, and took those 8 million dollar MacGuffins for himself. There’s probably not going to be any blowback for this, but it’s just one of those callbacks for the hardcore fans.

Michael Emerson once again proves to be one of the finest actors working on TV. Of course, it helps that he gets such great material to work with. As the last episode darkly showed Sayid forsaking redemption, it was nice to see a character try so hard to claim it, even if no rewards would reclaim what he lost.

Overall Score: 9/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 6 Review: Sundown

2010-04-07T13:25:00.002-04:00

Sundown

Original Airdate: March 2, 2010

Writer: Paul Zbyszewski and Graham Roland

Director: Bobby Roth

Note: I’ve grown tired of referring to the person occupying Locke’s body by the nickname Man in Locke. So until he is given a name, I will refer to him as Johnny, both because he has the form of John Locke, and Man in Black, what he’s referred to officially, is best known as the nickname for legendary country singer Johnny Cash. For reviews I’m behind on, I will not incorporate any real name given until the episode that happens in.

Playing off our expectations of following season one’s centric episodes and the word play of the title, this episode instead focuses on Sayid (100 episodes after his first one). The characters lives are falling into two categories, and LA X Sayid’s life is closer to LA X Kate’s than LA X Jack & Locke. While Sayid at first seems to have a fine life, he doesn’t feel he deserves the love of his life Nadia, who married his brother Omer despite the lingering feelings between her and Sayid. Then when he is called upon to help Omer when he falls into debt with mobsters, he returns to his nature to act brutally and more with his emotions than reason.

In one of the best sideways appearances, Keamy shows up as the man to whom Omer owes money. Keamy’s core personality, ruthless and out for money, makes him a good fit for a gangster. Like every gangster in recent memory, he has an affinity for cooking (when did this become a thing for TV and movie mobsters?) Kevin Durand is having a lot of fun here, channeling Christopher Walken way more than he was in the fourth season.

A pattern has emerged in the flash sideways: those who have sided with Jacob found redemption in their flash sideways, while those who side with Johnny find themselves falling back on old habits. Sayid reverts to his violent past as he ambushes LA X Keamy’s men and doesn’t forgive Keamy when he promises to forget Omer’s debt.

No sooner are the guys dispatched does Sayid hear Jin banging on the side of the refrigerator door. This encounter really boosts the flash-sideways standing. It reminds me of season one where these collisions would spark hours of discussion and debate. It’s a step in the right direction.

In the master timeline, Sayid is also asked to intervene in the growing island conflict by killing Johnny. Ever since his resurrection, The Others have been wary of Sayid, and failing Dogen’s test isn’t helping either. After a well choreographed fight scene and brief banishment, Dogen sends Sayid on this mission to prove that there’s still good in him. It is up for debate whether Dogen meant this as a redemptive measure or if Johnny was right that Dogen assumed that Sayid would’ve been killed on sight. Johnny did speak before Sayid stabbed him, but how that affects the potency of the knife is weird. Also Dogen isn’t above manipulating events so he doesn’t dirty his hands.

Considering his history with Dogen, Sayid believes the latter. Many people assume that being “claimed” means that Johnny has you on his side. While I’ve stated my issues with possession and character development, it’d make sense that Sayid would go against Dogen considering he’s tried to kill him. Thankfully the writers aren’t using possession as a shortcut.

Johnny also lures Sayid with the promise of bringing Nadia back to him. This is another promise to someone on his side that uses what they value most against them. He’s already lied to Claire about Aaron, so are we to believe he is the necromancer he claims?

Sayid returns with the warning Claire was unable to give: choose Johnny or be killed and they have to make a choice by sundown. Johnny seems to have a great knack for planning, as no sooner does Sayid kill Dogen & Lennon does he come roaring in. This may point to “claiming” allowing Johnny to have some access into what Sayid is going through, and therefore was able to get Sayid to do what he wanted them to do.

Before drowning, Dogen reveals his backstory: after partying with co-workers following a promotion, he gets in an accident leaving his son in a grave condition. He makes a deal with Jacob to save his son but he must come to the island and he can never see his son again. Ultimately his story is a lot like Juliet’s, although she didn’t know that she would never see Rachel again. Dogen’s baseball is like “Downtown” in that they are the only reminders they have of those they left behind. To illustrate the concept of Team Jacob having a better life in the LA X world, we see Dogen with his son in LA, presumably happy.

As Dogen is drowned in the pond and Lennon’s body is thrown in shortly after, some have wondered if they can return the way Sayid did. If they did, odds are they would wind up on Johnny’s side. Besides the show not needing more characters, they served their purpose: Lennon was a supporting character at best, and Dogen, while interesting, told his story and any loose ends can be told in a flashback. Besides, him dying allowed the massacre to take place.

The massacre itself was an amazing capper to the episode. Seeing the Monster tear apart the Temple and everyone unfortunate to cross his path really felt like the first major battle of the war that’s been teased since last season, with the Jacob side brutally defeated. Closing the first third of the season, things look really bad. Redemption is forgone, bodies are strewn about the Temple and creepy Claire sings “Catch a Falling Star”. If Johnny is supposed to be the side of good, it’s going to be a hard sell to make us think otherwise.

During the chaos, Ilana, Ben, Frank & Sun wind up at the Temple, and quickly decide to hightail it out with Miles in tow. While it makes sense for them to head to the Temple, this appearance felt a little out of place, or at least the staging, like if the Scooby gang showed up in the Mystery Machine van. However, a little goofy amidst an awesome climax is pretty forgivable.

The other plot point of the episode is Kate finding Claire, thrown in the “Silence of the Lambs” hole in the Temple. Like Jin last week, why is Kate holding back valuable information? It’s four simple words: Aaron’s with your mother. No one has bothered to tell her that her mother is awake and her precious son is under her care. Of course, Kate doesn’t do herself any favors by playing up the hero card like Jack did last season and as Sawyer did in that scenario, Claire isn’t buying it. While characters withholding is a fact of Lost, there’s a limit on that.

Regardless, in Kate’s pursuit of Claire she sides with Johnny, something he apparently didn’t account for, judging by his expression. So ultimately he has way more people along for the ride than he does believers in his cause. Most of the Others now on his side switched presumably out of fear of death, Jin is prisoner and Kate is there because she wants to reunite Claire with her son. Ultimately Johnny probably doesn’t care too much about any of them so long as he gets what he wants, but is Kate a big enough x factor to cause him to tinker with that plan?

This is easily the darkest episode of Lost, with the huge body count, the open dismissal of redemption in selfish pursuits with the presumed good side decimated. No wonder Jacob got Hurley & Jack as far away from that as possible. The war is here and its impact makes an indelible impression.

Overall Score: 8/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 5 Review: Lighthouse

2010-04-03T15:53:00.001-04:00

Lighthouse

Original Airdate: February 23, 2010

Writer: Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof

Director: Jack Bender

I’m far from alone when I say that Lost episodes written by showrunners Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof and directed by Jack Bender are among the series best. They’re behind many of the series’ great episodes: their work on “The Constant” is more than enough to warrant a lot of good will, but with that comes high expectations. When I first saw this episode, I couldn’t help but feel let down that it wasn’t a masterpiece. However, upon seeing it again I found a lot more to like and while it isn’t on the level of the all time greats, it’s more than solid.

The episode begins with LA X Jack noticing a scar from having his appendix removed, something he doesn’t remember having happened. Although his mother claims it was removed when he was a boy, they want us to connect this with the mysterious mark on his neck in “LA X”. Some have theorized that these flashsideways are actually flashforwards, making them an epilogue for these characters. While this theory doesn’t explain the appearance of dead characters in them, it is interesting, and I’d be curious to see how such a theory can be explained if it’s true.

Contrasting 815 Jack’s pursuit of his father’s last lost weekend in “White Rabbit”, LA X Jack is struggling to be a part of his son’s life. The ingredients are there for the daddy issues: separated parents, a stubborn teenager & and a stressful situation dealing with Christian’s passing and the outing of secrets. However, despite LA X Jack’s character being similar to 815 Jack, LA X Jack uses that uncompromising nature to stay a part of his son’s life, sneaking into his ex’s house to find out about his son’s piano recital (something the mother apparently did not attend).

Keeping the mother a secret created an expectedly large amount of speculation (is this woman the same one Ted Mosby is waiting for on How I Met Your Mother). This could possibly be as simple as “she’s not important to Jack’s flashsideways story”, but that is not enough for most fans. It seems the likeliest candidate is Juliet, who was briefly involved with Jack in season four before that angle was jettisoned. Of course, Elizabeth Mitchell is tied to V, which can make getting her to Hawaii difficult if not impossible.

In the 815 timeline, Jacob shows up to give Hurley and important mission: take Jack with him to the lighthouse, where they will light the way for an important visitor. Jacob wants to help Jack become the leader he was meant to be. Unfortunately, Jack has been bogged in failure, from guilt over Locke’s death and the failure to protect most of the 815 survivors and the lie concocted during their rescue to his belief that his plan to change the future failed. On top of that, he is reminded of his troublesome relationship with his father when he comes across his coffin again.

During their quest through the jungle Jack & Hurley return to the caves, which haven’t been seen since the second season. This is a particularly nice tie to the beginning of the show. They never gave a good reason for everyone to pack up and return to the beach camp, but I’ve always assumed that the stigma of the soundstage the caves were filmed on, which was the site of a tragic massacre, was too much to deal with. Regardless, returning there Jack sees his father’s coffin, and that old pain comes back.

They also come upon the Adam & Even skeletons (much like Montand, none of the Losties buried these two in the month plus they lived there). Hurley, with all the time travel knowledge learned last season, hypothesizes that maybe these skeletons are some of the Losties who died after another jump “to dinosaur times”. As he is the voice of the audience, this theory is incredibly popular. Thanks to time travel, theories of their identity have ranged from Kate & Jack or Sawyer, Jin & Sun, Desmond & Penny and Rose & Bernard (my pick as they may not have flashed to 2007 with the rest of the 77 Losties). The writers have promised that the answer to their identities will be proof that there was always a bigger plan, and hopefully this appearance is to assure the viewers that they haven’t forgotten about this loose thread.

Not to say there isn’t a little winking about the desire for closure. As they find the caves, they stumble upon Shannon’s inhaler, the MacGuffin behind Sawyer’s first flashback episode. The location of Shannon’s inhaler is hardly a pressing question on anybody’s “Must answer before end of series” list (it was even jokingly referenced at Comic Con), so throwing that in there must be a light jab to hardcore fans who irrationally want every question answered.

They arrive at the lighthouse, which apparently no one has seen or referenced in 6 years. While I usually give Lost a pass, the “we weren’t looking for it” excuse Hurley gave just doesn’t fly. Granted, I’m happy they’re focusing on the story and not getting bogged in geography but this and the close proximity of the statue to the main beach don’t ring true. As far as it being unknown is concerned, the location scouts really help as this section of jungle doesn’t resemble anything we’ve seen so far.

At the top they find on the compass rose used to point the mirror names corresponding with each degree. Much like Man in Locke’s cave, most are crossed off except for those remaining candidates. Since most are similar, I wonder if the list in the cave is cribbed from this one, or vice versa (the former seeming more likely as the cave is far sloppier). When the compass turns to one of the numbers of active candidates, you can see something from their past, like the temple where Jin & Sun were married and Jack’s childhood home.

After not getting an audience with Jacob as to why he’s been watched his whole life, Jack flips out and destroys the lighthouse mirrors. I was a little frustrated when this happened, like to say openly “no answers right now”, but it does tie into Jack’s larger story. 815 Jack doesn’t get the moment of clarity that LA X Jack does, but has to “look out at the ocean for a little while”. It was more about getting him to this point on the road than what he was expected to do.

Despite no longer having the lighthouse, Jacob isn’t worried about the person coming to the island or Jack’s leadership, believing both will find a way of happening. His ulterior motive was to get Jack & Hurley out of the Temple because someone is coming and bad things will happen. This recalls Dogen’s comment to Jack about his choice to leave The Temple, “Everything is an option. But I would have to stop you.” Despite his clinging to the notion of free will, Jacob & The Others still intervene in some way to protect their interests, ie, the candidates at the Temple who haven’t been “claimed”.

Elsewhere, Claire’s turn as the new Rousseau (or Clousseau, despite having little to do with the Pink Panther and yes, I know that one is spelt with one s) shows the woman we knew from the first four seasons has been driven to madness far more extreme than anything we saw from Rousseau, from burying an axe into Justin’s chest to the bizarre baby made from sticks and a polar bear skull. Of course, she had a little help getting crazy.

Claire claims that she was with her “friend”, Man in Locke, for the past three years in the jungle. This may add further credence to the idea that Christian was Man in Locke the whole time. He is also the one who lied to her about who held Aaron, taking what she most valued and using it against her (a time tested Ben manipulative device). Through this deception comes a querulous relationship with The Others, who presumably burned her and stuck her with needles as they did with Sayid. Hopefully the series has time for one more centric story to fill in this last significant story of the three year gap, since this is just foundation.

What I don’t get is why Jin isn’t more forthcoming with information. He may not know that Aaron is with Claire’s mother, fair enough, but he can’t illuminate a little bit on the chaos the Island 7 and Oceanic 6 dealt with around the point she went missing. Sure he could believe she’s too mad to believe him and the episode doesn’t need unnecessary exposition, but I think he would believe knowing the truth may bring Claire from the brink.

So ultimately this episode’s biggest problem is high expectations. We want a “The Constant” every time out, but that is hard to live up to. While I may have been disappointed the first time around, the second viewing was much better, as Jack’s character got a redemptive moment in the flashsideways that he needed in this reality. What that still means is up for debate.

Overall Score: 8/10

Lost: Season 6, Episode 4 Review: The Substitute

2010-03-31T17:45:00.002-04:00

The Substitute

Original Airdate: February 16, 2010

Writer: Elizabeth Sarnoff & Melinda Hsu Taylor

Director: Tucker Gates

Note: To avoid further confusion, when necessary, characters belonging to the flashsideways story will be referred to with a “LA X” prefix. Those belonging to the original timeline will have an “815” prefix.

The producers have said this season is meant to mirror the first, down to having many centric episodes correspond with the ones given back in season one. Next is Locke, and his flash sideways contrast his original flashback. His first episode “Walkabout”, besides being one of the series’ high points, revealed that under the cool demeanor was a man riddled with insecurity, loneliness & anger. Here in the flashsideways world, while he is the same character, he is not alone and can handle the problems he faces.

Instead of 815 Locke being mistreated by everyone he meets, those LA X Locke encounters, specifically those 815 Locke met on the island, help him deal with his problems: Hurley gives him a reference to a temp agency after he is fired from the box company Hurley owns, Rose gives him perspective as her acceptance of her cancer causes Locke to accept his much less lethal fate, & Ben, ironically, gives Locke a friend. It also helps that this Locke still has Helen, his fiancée here, in his life. Unlike Kate, whose life is at the same level it was in the master timeline, Locke’s life is unquestionably better, even if things don’t always go his way.

Having people in his life has kept the frustration in LA X Locke’s life at bay. Had 815 Locke fallen from his wheelchair and got stuck amidst the sprinklers, he would’ve had a fit instead of laughed it off. Of course LA X Locke’s life still has its disappointments, like Randy’s bullying (although he deserved punishment for wasting company money on a conference he never attended), his wheelchair lift’s failure to work, and after getting fired having to answer silly questions about what animal you’d like to be (from the woman who told Hurley’s fortune in the original timeline). However, LA X Locke’s contacts help him avoid becoming the target 815 Locke was. In fact, LA X Locke is very practical, the ultimate irony in this flash sideways is Locke, who we’ve known elsewhere as the man of faith, substitute teaching science.

As they plan their wedding, Helen mentions inviting Locke’s father. That obviously means they had a much healthier relationship in this reality. He didn’t put Locke against Helen and break them up, and it can be safe to say he didn’t push him out the window either that paralyzed him. Since he’s in a wheelchair anyway, the big question is how it happened in this reality. A possible hint comes when he shows interest in a construction job, where we can infer an accident caused it.

Continuing the connections that happen anyway, Locke meets none other than Ben Linus, teaching European history (which sounds like a perfect fit for Ben). Instead of their hostile meeting in season two, these versions bond over appreciation for tea, a “gentleman’s drink” as Ben says. Unlike LA X Kate & Claire’s connection, which was forced to a fault, this one feels more natural. Ben, as I joked, fits that type of teacher role well. Not to mention these characters are just so much fun to see together.

Besides the fun connection, it adds a layer to what exactly Jack & co. changed in 1977. Seeing the island sunk in “LA X”, I’d assumed everyone on the island who didn’t flash to 2007 died in the explosion and subsequent sinking. Ben surviving and making it to the main land means that just about anyone could’ve gotten off, and that maybe the island ending up sinking much later than originally thought. On the other hand, it also could mean the flash sideways have nothing to do with the bomb going off, playing off our expectations for a twist.

Back in the main storyline, Man in Locke goes about recruiting & playing mind games with Alpert. This shatters Alpert’s cool demeanor, which may have been part of his plan knowing he wouldn’t go on board. He finds a perfect recruit, however, in Sawyer. Man in Locke knows the broken man Sawyer has become, blasting nihilistic music while drinking himself to oblivion, makes him a perfect candidate (so to speak) to join his team. Sawyer doesn’t care about anything, but in Man in Locke, he sees answers, and possibly closure.

While Alpert warns Sawyer that he can’t trust Man in Locke and that the promise of answers is a trap, Man in Locke takes Sawyer to the cave, and a big piece of mythology returns. He reveals that Sawyer, along with Sayid, Hurley, Jack & one of the Kwons, are “candidates”, something Ilana introduced last season. Being a candidate means that Jacob thinks they may take up the throne when he’s gone. Each candidate is indicated with one of the numbers, which adds a lot of importance to them. I still doubt we’ll get a concrete answer to what the numbers mean, but connecting them to something like this is very interesting.

Although I don’t trust Man in Locke, he has some valid points. Jacob’s actions have been manipulative, planting seeds in the Losties heads to give them the illusion of choice. However, I don’t think anyone should go through the series taking Man in Locke’s words at face value clearly hasn’t been watching this show for five years. Man in Locke, much like Jacob, knows a lot about manipulation. The promise of answers and exit from the island is a good way to do it.

Much like Locke’s original episode showed the cracks in his confident exterior, here we see the first cracks in Man in Locke’s when a vision of a young boy with blood drenched hands appears. People have speculated that this kid is a young Jacob, or a being more powerful than either Jacob or Man in Locke. His warning that he can’t kill “him” (do they know how to use pronouns on this show or what?) could indicate some judge in this feud, and that unleashes the facet of Locke’s personally plagued with frustration. While teasing an important piece of Man in Locke’s background, having that piece of Locke come through may be where Locke will ultimately get his redemption, since this episode makes clear that Locke will not be resurrecting.

Ilana, Lapidus, Sun & Ben decide to bury the real Locke at Boone hill, which apparently is within walking distance of the four toed statue despite it taking the survivors 2 seasons to find it in the first place. There, they give Locke a proper burial. While Ben’s eulogy was uncomfortably awkward, but I think stands within his larger redemptive arc and his remorse for triggering the larger conflict they are embroiled in. He knows Locke deserved better, and all of this is his fault.

One thing that struck me was some of the directorial choices. I loved the smoke monster POV shot flying across the landscape, reminiscent of the evil force going through the forest in Evil Dead. Also some of the cinematography drew more attention to itself, but actually enhanced the viewing. So often on TV episodes stylistically look the same (for the sake of constricting time frame of shooting) that it’s nice when they change it up, even a little bit.

Despite still having the issue with how the flashsideways pertain to the main action, this episode’s subplot has me warming up to the concept. Of course Locke’s character tends to have among the best centric episodes, and this one, similar to “Walkabout” help sell people on the series, helped make the flashsideways much easier to digest.

Overall Score: 9/10

Dispatch #22: 5 Years of Reviews Capped With My 30 Favorite Shows of the 00s.

2010-03-25T23:55:00.005-04:00

Hey readers,

Five years ago, I published my first episodic review, for 24’s “Day 4: 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM” (I gave it a 6/10). In honor of that, and because some people are still getting out best of the decade lists (it’s not easy for critics who don’t get paid), I bring you my top 30 favorite shows of the decade. Why 30? Because there’s no way I could only do 10, or even 20. Hopefully this can help make up for lack of consistent releases, which should be changing.

This was a fantastic decade for TV. The 00s were to TV what the late 60s-70s were to American cinema. The long suffering TV geek, avoiding the glares of snobs who dismissed the medium as the “idiot box”, had a lot to celebrate and point to for proof of what TV was capable of. Not only the quality of the shows, but its sheer volume was astounding. It had something for every viewer, from those who wanted complex epics told over seasons to ones that just told self-contained stories. Technology, between online video & the TV-DVD marker, has made these series easier to get a hold of, and HD broadcasting has made them look better than ever. Certainly we’ll be reaping the benefits of these shows for a long time.

Please note: The list starts at 27 because there are a few ties.

27. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX, 2005-Present)

Its latter seasons are keeping it from being higher on the list, but its first three were solidly funny. It’s Always Sunny takes the concept of Seinfeld, horrible people hurting others and themselves because of their own self involvement, to its logical conclusion, one that could only be done on cable.

26. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS, 2000-Present)

Procedurals have gotten under the skin of many critics who feel like they homogenize TV and leave little room for originality. They seem to forget how entertaining a formulaic show can be when done right. CSI, the blockbuster spun out of our post-OJ fascination with forensics, took an interesting spin on the crime drama where the guys collecting the evidence, not the beat detectives or police officers, were the heroes.

25. Mad Men (AMC, 2007-Present)

I’ve said occasionally on other blog entries that for much of the series run, I found Mad Men to be seriously overrated. I couldn’t get over the often smug winking the show did at how people were back then, as if the series was made solely to anger republicans who can’t stop talking about the post-WWII, pre-“The 1960s” era. Obviously the show is meant to deconstruct nostalgia by having the people who manufactured it as the focus, but they went a little overboard. After really enjoying the third season, I want to go back and see what I missed the first time. With immaculate production value & superb acting, it’s the first show that feels like an heir to The Sopranos’ style where setting mood and painting a picture take precedence over conventional plot.

24. Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008-Present)

Certainly it doesn’t take long for a show to make an impression and this one, cementing AMC as the budding darling for quality cable TV, is a prime example. Bryan Cranston gets to show some range in a role few who saw his comedic side in Malcolm in the Middle would’ve ever expected to see. As Cranston’s White goes further down the slope of meth production, so the series goes darker, analyzing what can happen in a dangerous culture with a man who has nothing to lose.

23. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (WB, UPN, 1997-2003)

Shows that are split between decades often get the short end of the stick, but Buffy’s 00s output was nothing to be ashamed of: from the trippy “Restless” to the meditation on mortality in “The Body” to the song & dance of “Once More With Feeling” to the feminist empowerment of “Chosen”. Even though it went too long and got too dark in the latter seasons, it still had greatness sprinkled throughout the run.

22. Venture Bros. (Cartoon Network, 2003-Present)

I’ve been quick to dismiss a lot of Adult Swim’s original programming as mindless stoner humor with no attention span. Venure Bros. makes me rethink that claim. While Venture Bros does have a lot of the absurdity AS is famous for, it also explores themes of failure and disappointment without losing its humor. In a way, Venture Bros. is a deconstruction of the cartoons of the 60s and 70s the way Watchmen is a deconstruction of the superhero mythos. It also has the most fleshed out cartoon ensemble since The Simpsons.

21. Planet Earth (BBC, Discovery, 2006)

If there was ever a reason to get on board with HD, it was this mind blowing documentary miniseries. Camera crews, some working for months at a time with state of the art technology, captured life from every climate on this planet in unbelievable detail. Don’t settle for standard definition: when you make the move to HD (if you haven’t already), make sure to check this one out.

20. House (Fox, 2004-Present)

Procedurals get criticized for emphasizing story over character development, but no one could claim that on David Shore’s medical blockbuster. At the center lies Hugh Laurie’s Greg House, a man who can’t stand people, but his brilliance at treating their ailments is unparalleled. Using CSI-esque techniques, it spins the medical drama into a mystery solving procedure, turning whodunits into what caused it. While the average viewer can’t play along, it’s nonetheless entertaining.

19. Six Feet Under (HBO, 2001-2005)

At its worst, it was pretentious and preachy (if you couldn’t figure it out, Alan Ball is not a fan of George W. Bush). At its best it was a great observation of mortality and how life should be lived. Like everything on HBO, it was beautifully produced and had one of the best ensembles around, from Michael C. Hall, who had a great decade, to Richard Jenkins.

18. Battlestar Galactica (SciFi, 2003-2009)

Science fiction has always lent itself to allegory, and this remake of the 1970s cult favorite is no exception. From the beginning it was clear this wouldn’t be your parents’ Galactica, as the series served as one of the decades’ defining commentaries on the War on Terror. It was dark, complex and often challenging, as the human survivors swayed from representing America to representing Iraqi insurgents. Though the series didn’t plan ahead as much as the series needed which lead to an uneven end, the journey and examination of what makes us human remained strong.

17. Survivor & The Amazing Race (CBS, 2000-Present, 2001-Present)

Survivor, which helped get CBS to the top of the ratings (which they owned for the rest of the decade), may be easy to blame for the piles of sludge that make up a lot of reality TV. However, Survivor has taken the high road with the drama existing in the game and not on exploiting people. It’s a simple concept and they’ve kept it fresh for almost 10 years. The Amazing Race goes that same route ratcheting suspense out of every moment as it sends its players around the world.

16. Deadwood (HBO, 2004-2006)

Much like The Wire is about a society on the verge of collapse, Deadwood is about such a society being built. Filled with fantastic actors from Ian McShane’s iconic portrayal of Al Swearengen to Timothy Olyphant’s Seth Bullock and containing some of the most complex, Shakespearean dialogue ever to be shown on TV (where its profanity is an art-form), it’s one of those shows that fully realizes its volatile environment, populated by people looking to make their fortune, and where nothing stands in the way of it.

15. 30 Rock (NBC, 2006-Present)

The NBC series about the behind the scenes machinations of a sketch comedy show made by a talented writer that premiered in the fall of 2006 that had a number divisible by 30 in the title that succeeded, 30 Rock had different ambitions than Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60, but it succeeded where Studio 60 failed. It was a goofy cartoon and a smart satire of show business & politics, picking up where Arrested Development left off. Not to mention, the comedic duo of Tina Fey & Alec Baldwin (the latter of whom is clearly having a lot of fun) is one of the decade’s best.

14. Dexter (Showtime, 2006-Present)

If only every great TV actor had the rebound Michael C. Hall did. Hall went from playing neurotic David Fischer on Six Feet Under to the title role here, a serial killer preying on those who prey on others. While many criticize the supporting cast for being uneven or not as well developed, character study of a sociopath trying to relate to others while coping with his dark desires remains fascinating.

13. Friday Night Lights (NBC, Direct 101, 2006-2011)

There has been a lot of talk about middle America in the past 10 years, and it ranges from people calling them rednecks to people patronizing them as proudly ignorant “Joe Six Packs”. Thankfully the writers behind this beloved but critically under seen gem never go the easy route (except for that rough patch in season two). Instead they focus on making well rounded, fully realized characters, played by very talented actors. That NBC hasn’t made this show a massive hit just goes on the ever expanding list of failures the network has made in the past 10 years.

12. How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 2005-Present)

The “Death of the Sitcom” has been a catchphrase for critics ever since Seinfeld ended 12 years ago. It can be easy to see why: traditional sitcoms are glut with thinly veiled excuses for gags and characters acting merely as punchline delivery services. However, creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas show there is still room for traditional sitcoms to be fresh with flashbacks and asides used to help build jokes and recurring bits. Besides the show’s high concept and clever writing, they’ve never forgotten about quality character development either, building a solid ensemble with fantastic chemistry.

11. Chappelle’s Show (Comedy Central, 2003-2006)

The untimely demise of this show and its fallout might’ve diminished the decade's defining sketch comedy show, but the show, to borrow a phrase from the show, is "scandal-proof". Sketches like the night with Wayne Brady & the instant classic Rick James episode are still as hilarious as they are quotable. It had some of the edgiest comedy on TV from the past 10 years, but was always served with a smile, which explains how massively popular it became.

10. South Park (Comedy Central, 1997-Present)

South Park’s trajectory is similar to another groundbreaking animated show, The Simpsons, in that the writing got tighter and funnier after commercial overkill early in the run. It was reborn with the film “Bigger, Longer, and Uncut” and spent the next decade refining their satiric jabs at anything in their path. Technology also gave them an advantage no animated show has ever had: topicality. Their remarkable ability to take something from the headlines and put it into a show within days of it happening is something you don’t see even in scripted situational TV. Certainly many have tried shock humor to diminishing returns, but South Park always had a brain to their humor, even if it was fart jokes.

9. The Shield (FX, 2002-2008)

The show that put FX on the map, The Shield could easily be dismissed as another cop show. Vic Mackey is the “loose canon” cop who is going to land his bosses in trouble for his behavior. However, the seven season arc is much more a tragedy of the decline and fall of Mackey and his team of crooked cops patrolling one of the worst districts in LA. It pushed the limits of what you could see on basic cable, but it wasn't just shock for its own sake. Its well crafted story and powerhouse performances (from CCH Pounder, Walton Goggins and of course Michael Chiklis) elevate it into one of the decade’s best crime dramas.

8. The Office (UK) (BBC, 2001-2003) & The Office (US) (NBC, 2005-Present)

Ricky Gervais’ original is an exercise in how to wring every bit of discomfort from awkward social interactions. In just 7 ½ hours, it’s perfect. This set the bar high for the remake, which after the disaster of the American remake of Coupling, had skeptics waiting for it to fail. However, they were able to overcome it thanks to fleshing out the ensemble with a lot of great, funny characters, developing one of the most involving and realistic long term TV romances ever as well as finding its voice rather than shamelessly ripping off its source (besides the first episode).

7. 24 (Fox, 2001-2010)

Certainly 24 didn’t have any expectations of being more than a thrill ride going in, but the effects of 9/11, which happened 2 months before its premiere, changed its path permanently. Rather than avoid the associations people had with the show, they embraced them, taking our worst nightmares of terrorism and turning them into escapist fun. Sure it veered into absurd plot twists that came out of the writers desperately trying to fit enough content for 24 episodes, and the recent seasons have left a lot to be desired, but when it works no one does exciting popcorn TV better.

6. Freaks & Geeks (NBC, 1999-2000)

Most depictions of high school from TV tend to see things from a glossy, artificial perspective. Freaks & Geeks is the rare exception. It exposes the horrors of high school, the hilarious, embarrassing, heartbreaking & poignant, in a way no other high school show has done before or since. It was awkward years before it became fashionable. While the show failed commercially, it’s great that so many of its cast and crew have thrived in the second half of the decade. If only NBC knew then what they had when they had it.

5. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart & The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 1996-Present, 2005-Present)

Certainly the Bush White House gave comics a lot of material, but what separates these is the immense wit and biting commentary they brought with them. While some critics may decry that young people get their news from the brilliant satirists, what they see has declining standards in our youth is really the declining standard of journalism. Stewart, Colbert & Co. are among the sharpest critics of modern news, satirizing the operation & influence of news as well as the events themselves.

4. The Sopranos (HBO 1999-2007)

No doubt this list would read differently had The Sopranos never aired. Its first season was a revelation and it sent a very clear message: everyone else needed to step up. With its tale of a man dealing with his family, both home and in his criminal enterprise, it was proof you could see something on TV that was comparable to the best cinema. Sure controversy surrounded the later years as creator David Chase was unwilling to provide closure to many dangling loose threads like the final scene and seemed to have open contempt for those who wanted it, but the show, from the production to the acting, made up for it most of the time.

3. Lost (ABC, 2004-2010)

In the wake of HBO’s golden age, many critics feared that they wouldn’t find anything on network TV that had the goals and ambitions of cable. They had reason to worry, many shows like this on network TV have been quickly canceled. Luckily, everything happened exactly as it did for Lost, one of several series that rejuvenated a lagging ABC. With its ethnically diverse cast and its sprawling story, Lost has kept audiences guessing for years and even in its final season, it’s anyone’s guess how it will end. While it may not have always been a smooth ride, those who stayed along have reaped many rewards.

2. Arrested Development (Fox, 2003-2006)

It’s unfortunate that a show like Arrested Development never caught the commercial break it deserved. Despite awards, accolades and a few stunts, the people never tuned in, or long enough to make a difference. Those who left unfortunately missed one of the most satisfying TV viewing experiences the decade had. Nobody did meta comedy, clever word play and recurring jokes that build over episodes or seasons like Mitchell Hurwitz’s masterpiece, often described as “Royal Tenenbaums meets COPS”. Its attention to detail makes Arrested Development naturally rewatchable with details and jokes coming out through multiple viewings. Whether the movie actually gets made, the series itself is more than enough to stand as a brilliant, hilarious story.

1. The Wire (HBO, 2002-2008)

If you ask your TV geek friend what series you should watch if you could only watch one series from the past 10 years, it’s going to be this one. You may already be sick of them talking about it, but seeing is believing. Deserving of all the praise it gets, David Simon’s epic of crime and corruption in a modern American city is the best example of the visual novel many serialized shows strive for. Each episode contains half a dozen subplots with dozens of main and supporting characters, yet never in the 60 episode run did any moment not get the time it deserved (an element Simon surely learned from his time as a newspaper reporter). It ran the gambit from the halls of power to nadir of the streets and from the devastating to the hilarious while rarely losing consistency. To paraphrase the home improvement store employee in the classic season four opener, every other show on this list is second best. Considering the caliber of shows that came out in the past decade, that’s saying something.

Lost: Season 6, Episode 3 Review: What Kate Does

2010-03-16T18:10:00.001-04:00

What Kate Does
Original Airdate: February 9, 2010
Writer: Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Director: Paul Edwards

This episode has taken a lot of flack from viewers to the point where it is one of the most derided episodes since “Stranger in a Strange Land”. It’s no where near as bad, but it is the weakest of season six to date (I’m on episode 7). The alternate reality storyline was a tough enough sell as it was, but then the first regular episode is a Kate episode, whose character tends not to have the best episodes. Sadly, it’s not enough to sell the on the fence viewers on this season’s concept, which is still wonky as far as its importance in the series as the finale draws near. The other stuff going on is interesting, but this piece weighs down the rest.

This is another “what’s the point” arc. Does it matter if Kate gets away since as far as we know it has no bearing on what Kate does in the main storyline? It just goes back to the writers continually failing to do much substantial with her character besides a piece in the love triangle, which now seems caput. The importance of Aaron in her story did help and “Whatever Happened, Happened” is one of her best episodes, but that spillover doesn’t go far here.

Kate suggests that she’s innocent of the crime she’s on the run from, which considering the differences elsewhere may be true. Whether she is guilty in this reality, she’s a terrible criminal in this one. I’ve seen more than enough movies to know that Kate should’ve ditched the cab as soon as possible (maybe when Kate was in, I don’t know, a chop shop!) Sure LA’s a big city, but that cab had to be reported stolen pretty quick right? Then she returns to Claire to help her out. Clearly Kate 2 hasn’t lived the life Kate has.

I also don’t buy how the garage owner and Claire are so willing to go along with Kate’s operation. Yeah, Kate’s hot, but is she hot enough not to generate a reaction when she tells the mechanic she’s on the run for murder? How seedy is this chop shop? Perhaps because he’s running an illegal operation he can expect that and his laughing implies he thinks she’s joking, but Claire’s turnaround is unbelievable. They suggest that there may be some degree of cross timeline recognition, especially from Jack, but if someone holds a gun to your head and takes you hostage, then comes back to give you your things, the last thing I’d do is go with them. Glossing over the character development for their point isn’t Lost’s style.

While Kate’s flash sideways didn’t add much to the episode and the character development a little sloppy, it continues the idea that the alternate timeline will group together people much as they did on the island. Ethan, here going by his father’s last name rather than the unexplained “Rom”, helps take care of pregnant Claire, albeit in a more helpful and less mysterious and creepy way. Kate also becomes involved, and Aaron’s name is the same.

In the main timeline, Sawyer’s downward spiral continues as he splits from the Temple, disgusted that Sayid lives while Juliet dies, and heads to the dilapidated Dharmaville. Here he finds the engagement ring he was going to use to propose to Juliet (the irony in that, thanks to the time loops, neither were aware of when they lived there in the 2000s). A lot of fans have pointed out Josh Holloway’s scene at the pier as some of his strongest acting and I would agree. Playing breakdowns isn’t easy, but this one is believable from a guy who isn’t known for being forthcoming with his emotions losing the one thing that made him truly happy.

At the temple everyone is freaking out over the resurrection of Sayid. He’s not a zombie, to Hurley’s relief/disappointment. Through various implements of torture, The Others determine he is “infected” or “claimed”. This in all likelihood is connected to the sickness, something that hasn’t been explored since the first season (I think the immunizations from season two were more psychological games than practical health care). It’s also a safe guess that being “claimed” means The Nemesis has you (it’s unknown whether The Others at The Temple are aware that The Nemesis has taken a human form. Again, I have some issues with possession being used to substitute character development, but this season has already firmly established that fate vs. free will is going to be a huge part of the story.

Choice comes into play when The Others want Jack to convince Sayid to take the pill, believing it must be taken voluntarily (or under that illusion). They won’t say what’s in it, what exactly Sayid is sick from or what it specifically will do. Jack, hopefully sick of the Others runaround, calls them on their bluff and tries to take the pill himself. Only then do they admit the pill is poison and that it is the only way to treat people who have encountered said infection.

With the frequent ties to the past, they decide to bring back the one supporting Other who isn’t dead or featured in one of the worst episodes of Lost ever, Aldo, last seen being knocked out in a prison break in season three. Aldo is played by Rob McElhenny, best known for his work on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In the three years since his first appearance I got caught up on Sunny and I have to admit it was a little distracting having him here. He’s very funny on Sunny, but that show and Lost are in completely different worlds. Part of me expected Claire to shout “Wild card b-----s!” when she killed him. It’s not on him, but more the familiarity that comes with watching a TV character every week.

The big cliffhanger moment is the return of Claire, who has become the new Rousseau. Suddenly disappearing during the chaos at the end of season four and being completely absent during the present timeline in season five (the stock footage doesn’t count), Claire has been speculated on for some time and is the last piece of the three year jump left untold. Last we saw of her she was in the cabin acting stoned with “Christian” and in the three years since then she apparently came across this crew of Others who tried to treat her with what Sayid had. This may tie into the long held belief among some viewers that Claire died in the mercenary attack in season four and was brought back similar to Sayid’s return this season.

Ultimately this episode suffers like many Kate episodes from the personal subplot, since the rest of the episode is pretty solid. It’s not Evangeline Lilly’s fault, as she does the best with what they give her, but the writers haven’t been able to do much with her character and make it stick. They also have a tall order of making the flash sideways interesting, but while it reinforces the themes, here it just doesn’t work.

Overall Score: 7/10

Lost: Season 6, Episodes 1-2 Review: LA X

2010-03-16T18:07:00.001-04:00

LA X
Original Airdate: February 2, 2010
Writer: Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
Director: Jack Bender

Of course, one of the biggest discussions “The Incident” provoked during the hiatus was what season six would be like, since there was no hint at the end besides the inverted Lost title card and Lindelof & Cuse swapping names for the writing credit of the finale’s second hour. It all depended on whether Jack’s plan worked. Most fans did not want it to work because it would’ve negated the past five years, slapping the audience in the face for their allegiance. Here we get a definite answer to whether Jack’s plan worked: sort of. If the time travel plot wasn’t enough for people, this season drops alternative reality in their lap. We’re presented with two realities: the original timeline we’ve followed for 5 years and a new one, where the bomb sunk the island and Oceanic 815 lands in LAX. In an interview with EW, Damon Lindelof said “[T]he survivors of Oceanic 815…thought the only effect [of detonating the bomb] was going to be that their plane never crashes.” Clearly that is not the case as there are plenty of differences between the Jughead reality and the master reality.

It starts from a different interpretation of the scene in the pilot just before the plane breaks apart. Here Jack is nervous when the plane hits turbulence & Rose comforts him, which is the opposite of what happened. He also has some red mark on his upper chest. Hurley thinks he’s the luckiest guy on earth, but still won the lottery. Boone left Australia without Shannon, and didn’t fly first class. Several supporting characters who died are nowhere to be seen either. There are other details explained in videos shown at Comic Con, but they may be considered spoilers.

There may be a new passenger, or is he? Some have speculated whether Desmond actually was on the plane, as he appeared only briefly, sat next to Jack, but wasn’t around aside from the beginning. This may tie in to his abilities he gained when he set off the pocket of electromagnetism, making him the Keanu Reeves in The Matrix of Lost. Fans also saw he had a wedding ring on. Considering Widmore was on the island when Jughead went off, this could mean Desmond’s courtship with Penny was different, or perhaps he never met Penny at all. There may not have been a race around the world at all, which would mean Desmond & Jack didn’t meet at the stadium 3 years before 815 crashed, which may mean Jack remembers Desmond from another context, presumably the one from this reality.

There are a lot more changes, and while the concept of alternate timelines certainly offers interesting storytelling venues, in the premiere I had a sense of “that’s nice, but what does this mean to the storyline I’ve been following for 5 years?” And this is from the person who defended a lot of the season two & three episodes that were derided for being filler. Of course, a lot has changed since then. This is the final season, where long awaited answers are supposed to come. There aren’t many hours left and this sojourn into alternate realities doesn’t seem like a good use of their time. Second & third season they had all the time in the world, but as the season is the end, it makes me worried that things I wanted to see are going to take a backseat to this.

Also there is the question of stakes. As of the end of the episode, not even a hint is given towards how this reality affects the one we’re invested in. Does it matter if Kate gets away from the Marshal or gets ambushed by the police in a way that makes the end of Bonnie & Clyde look like nothing? Even if they had crazy Desmond go up to Jack and scream “This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be!” it would’ve established some risk, but for now, it just feels like speculative fan fiction. Lindelof & Cuse don’t want this subplot to be referred to as an alternate reality and that it is relevant to the master timeline, but so far not many connections can be made so far.

Back to the main action, the 77 Losties arrive in 2007, an hour after Jacob’s death. It results in a heated confrontation between Jack & Sawyer, the latter of whom is furious over their belief that the plan failed and Juliet was lost for nothing. There is a brief glimmer of hope when she’s heard yelling for help atop the wreckage of the imploded Swan station, but the hope is short lived. The gut punch of losing Juliet threatens has made Sawyer a shell of a man, one who has perhaps lost all the progress he’s made in the course of the past two seasons.

Juliet’s death brought a lot of criticism. Her plunging down the shaft was tough enough, so why bring her back only to kill her, something we could’ve assumed? I’m not against Elizabeth Mitchell picking up one more paycheck before leaving, but this carry over just reeks of them doing this as a refresher for viewers who don’t obsess with the series for months at a time.

With Miles’ reading, it can be gathered that those who die become aware of the alternate timeline. Juliet’s over discussed remark about “going Dutch” could be her going back and forth from the realities much like Desmond & Charlotte jumped through time. This is another example of how even in the alternate reality, some things are destined to happen.

As Juliet dies, Hurley’s vision of Jacob causes him to step up in a big way in an attempt to save the still dying Sayid. It’s interesting to see how previous follower Hurley is becoming an important leader on the island, perhaps fulfilling his destiny to replace Jacob, perhaps to help overcome his demons. Whatever it is, it’s a great tip to the audience to see favorite Hurley take charge. It also confirms that Hurley’s visions of dead people aren’t in his head, as Jacob’s mission takes them to the Temple.

Elsewhere, the Smoke Monster is revealed to be a facet of Man in Locke, who can’t penetrate a line of ash, but knows a thing or two about loopholes (I’m ashamed I didn’t get the joke that the guy named Bram died from a piece of wood going through his heart). This could’ve been assumed from the Monster confronting Ben and telling him to do whatever the man he believed was Locke told him, since it was in his best interest. Regardless, the punchline “I’m sorry you had to see me like that” was priceless.

Part 2

The 77 (now 07) gang wind up at The Temple, which it turns out we only saw the outer wall protecting it to this point. It’s also inferable that Montand was killed by the Smoke Monster (and nobody bothered to clean it up in the interim 19 years) and took his form, which adds a lot to the story of what happened to Rousseau (perhaps driving her mad was all part of his plan?)

Here they encounter more new characters: Lennon, played by John Hawkes (man, do they love Deadwood or what) & Dogen, played by Hiroyuki Sanada. They confront the captured Losties and almost execute them, but Hurley’s guitar case finally comes into play. While a lot of discussion happened about the contents of this case, I never got to into it; as far as I cared it was just a MacGuffin. Here it turns out to be a weird magic trick Jacob performed, stuffing a list of names into a giant ankh that says if Sayid isn’t saved they are in serious trouble. OK.

They take Sayid to the spring, which looks like a hot tub. They worry that the spring isn’t clear, which presumably is because Jacob has died, but they carry on with their plan. Here drowning someone in the spring can save their life (a lot of this stuff I’m just accepting as weird for Lost’s sake, but hopefully there is some explanation for all of it). It doesn’t work, and Jack tries to revive Sayid like he did with Charlie in season one, down to Kate getting hysterical over it. Already this season is filled with a lot of mirrors to the first one, which makes sense as the series ends.

That doesn’t last when Sayid suddenly rises some time after being pronounced dead. What happened to Sayid and why he’s still alive are two very important questions, and perhaps Young Ben’s resuscitation in season five can illuminate it. Presumably this is what happened to Young Ben, and obviously he’s alive to tell the tale, but he didn’t rise from the dead, something Ben claimed nobody had seen before, even on this island. What does Sayid’s return mean?

After the failed resurrection, Hurley informs them that Jacob has died and to Dogen & Lennon, it’s clear it has hit the fan in the worst way. The Temple goes into lockdown, and sets up a flare presumably to warn the rest of The Others on the island. It’s seen by those at the stand off on the beach, but clearly it is too late.

Terry O’Quinn, who has always been fantastic, gets to show some range playing the heavy and is clearly having fun doing so. In the second half Man in Locke illuminates Ben on his motivation: the desire to return home. Like any villain, this is important to show he’s more than just evil because he is. Between all the ash lines he’s a prisoner. We don’t know what conditions that imprisonment is from or where he calls home, but it is a good start to Man in Locke’s character development.

In the midst of this is Ben, who is shell shocked and trying to figure out what he’s going to do as the man who broke the dam that was keeping the island safe. Of course, telling Richard he killed Jacob is off the table, especially after discovering the real Locke on the beach. This may be setting up Ben’s redemption arc, which has been brewing since last season.

The other reveal about Man in Locke is that Richard has encountered him in the past, and when Richard was in chains at that. Now some may claim this means Richard was a slave on the Black Rock, but I’m going to assume by Nestor Carbonell’s ethnicity that he was prisoner of that ship.

Overall, this season premiere was a mixed bag, but still good. The mixed bag comes from the flash sideways. I’m not going to get into what Jin & Sun possibly not being married, Sun not speaking English or Jack & Locke’s conversation at lost luggage claim mean because I don’t know what they mean in terms of the story we’ve followed all these years. Readers know I’m not one to skip details (for better or worse) and my reviews tend to be much longer, but it just doesn’t seem worth talking about because it doesn’t affect the main storyline. Regardless of flashbacks/forwards, they informed us of why the characters made the choices they made. These are just what ifs. I certainly hope they make them relevant, and latter episodes work them in much better, but this start wasn’t enough to sell me.

Overall Score: 8/10

Lost: Season 5, Episodes 16-17 Review: The Incident

2010-03-16T18:05:00.000-04:00

The Incident
Original Airdate: May 13, 2009
Writers: Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
Director: Jack Bender

With just one season to go, it’s time to clarify many of the opaque elements of the series and answer long burning questions, and few are as big as the mysterious ruler of the island Jacob. He’s directed the decisions of the Others for centuries, but has been only a shadow on the show to this point. Now it’s time we meet him and learn his story. However, like many of the mysteries of Lost, they have to add a lot more questions to get to answers. For Jacob we have to meet his Nemesis (played by Titus Welliver).

He joins Jacob enjoying lunch and the two argue while watching a ship arrive on the island. Apparently Jacob has brought people to the island before as a part of a social experiment and The Nemesis says it always ends in them being corrupted and destroying each other. The Nemesis clearly has issues with Jacob’s plans, but doesn’t do anything to intervene. There are several reasons he could be mad at Jacob’s plan and the writers are well trained in giving us enough information to have an idea, but not enough to keep people speculating during the breaks.

The scene ends with The Nemesis promising that he will kill Jacob someday, as soon as he can find a “loophole”. This parallels Ben telling Widmore that he can’t kill him despite having the motivation in “The Shape of Things to Come”. Whether these two arrangements are the same is up for debate, as neither Ben nor Widmore are supernatural beings (as far as we know).

Some have questioned which one of these two is the “good” one. Certainly Jacob’s plan to bring people to the island is manipulative and wrong, but his Nemesis is hardly a saint. Both actors have played heavies: Titus Welliver was one of Al Swearengen’s lieutenants on Deadwood (garnering the nickname “Deadwood Guy” or DWG from the popular Jay & Jack podcast) and Mark Pellegrino has played thugs in various movies & TV shows, and pre-Lost was best known to me as Rita’s abusive ex-husband on Dexter. Of course, Lost plays in grey often, so this casting must’ve been deliberate.

In another mirror from season two, we get the best glimpse of the Four Toed Statue to date (I like to think the last flash the Island 5 went through was to this day). It turns out it is a statue of Tawaret, the Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility. While adding to the pieces of ancient mythology scattered throughout the island, its destruction may be a possible reason for the problems with fertility on the island.

This prologue and knowing The Nemesis’ actions set up two major pieces of the episode: The Nemesis completing his plan while Jacob intervenes in many of the Losties’ lives, possibly in anticipation of this plan. Jacob’s appearances range all over the timeline, from decades before 815’s crash to a day before 316’s departure and they all influence their behavior. By giving the store owner money for the lunch box, Kate doesn’t learn a lesson about breaking the law; giving Sawyer a pen allows him to finish his letter and not get over his parent’s deaths; asking directions from Sayid positions Nadia in the right spot to be hit by the car, setting Sayid on his path for revenge. Though not directly influential, Sun’s second thought about ditching Jin at the airport may be her not taking their love for granted as Jacob advised on their wedding day.

There’s also a revealing look at the 316ers with Ilana’s flashback. Jacob met her at a run down hospital, presumably Russian and possibly makeshift, suggesting Ilana may be involved in something in Chechnya (or NotChechnya, home of the terrorists from the fifth season of 24). Ilana, and by extension Bram and the other guys, are reserves of Jacob, since much of the muscle of the Others were killed by the Losties in the third season finale.

Back in the “present” timeline, Jack & Sayid figure out that the core of the bomb will have more than enough firepower for their plan. However, getting the core out of the bomb turns out to be far easier than moving it, as the only safe avenue above water is through the locked down Dharma compound. They try to sneak out in Dharma jumpsuits. but just before they can get away Roger Linus spots them and shoots Sayid in the gut. By now we usually expect if anyone we know gets shot it’ll be in a spot that, at least on TV, is easy to treat so our heroes won’t be out of action too long, but a gut shot certainly makes the end games of the series really clear: our favorite characters may not be so lucky in firefights anymore.

Through their assistance it’s revealed that Hawking is pregnant with Daniel, making her killing him all the more potent. However, in the “the writers suck at math” tradition, this would make Daniel 18 when Desmond found him at Oxford in “The Constant”. It’s a little hard to believe Daniel was doing all of that when he was a college freshman. For all the discussion of people who have been confused by the time travel, I instead focus on the numbers not working.

Elsewhere Ilana, Bram & her team arrive on the the main island with Frank as prisoner. They wouldn’t put it that way, considering Frank a “candidate”. They certainly come off as Others in their behavior, from insisting that they are the good guys to remaining quiet about their operation. They arrive at Jacob’s cabin, and remark that the ring of ash has been broken and that someone else has lived there. Much like the reveal at the end with Locke, it causes us to reevaluate what we’ve seen so far. Was The Nemesis passing himself off as Jacob? It would explain Ben making sure The Others kept the island top secret, and his plea for help to Locke in “The Man Behind the Curtain” could be taken another way as well. Not to mention, last we saw of Claire she was “safe” with “Christian” in the cabin. There is also the question of whether the ash line was meant to keep The Nemesis in the circle or keep him out of it.

Back in 1977 the Sub Trio return to the shore and encounter Rose & Bernard, who survived the flaming arrow attack and are now living a quiet life in “retirement” with Vincent. Fans had been hoping we’d see them again and they’d get more than “assume they died” as a final chapter, and this certainly feels like the ending they deserved. There’s a tone of finality, as Rose & Bernard have carved out a nice life for themselves and don’t care about what the Losties do, so long as they spend this time together. It also adds a lot of fuel to the theory that they are the Adam & Eve found in the caves back in season one.

While giving them a good end, seeing Rose & Bernard together makes Juliet realize further that she couldn’t have the same thing with Sawyer. This has been brewing ever since Kate returned and fans are like children whose parents are divorcing in hating Kate for this. To borrow a recent TV headline, Kate is Jay Leno & Juliet is Conan O’Brien. I’m not sure why the writers drop the ball so much when it comes to Kate, but she has a lot of ground to make up for.

In 2007, the Others with Sun, Ben & Locke in tow stop upon the Losties’ old camp site, which has become dilapidated from 3 years of neglect and exposure to the elements. From this there are a few glimpses of the past, with the quarantine sign still lodged in the sand to Sun uncovering Charlie’s ring. These moments, along with Jacob showing up at milestones in the characters’ lives, setting up a major theme of the final season, which also drove the first season: who the characters are.

Part 2

Basically, this two parter is a 10/10, but one piece keeps it from getting that perfect ranking. Sawyer, Juliet & Kate’s attitude changes don’t make any sense. All three of them are better off because the timeline happened the way it did. Sawyer would have to deal with that murder charge he faced for the man he killed in Australia. Kate isn’t going to get off the murder charge without that story the Oceanic Six cooked. Her reasoning makes some sense as she wants to reunite Claire with her son (a thing Jack rightfully points out wouldn’t have happened as Claire was heading to LA to give Aaron to adoptive parents), but since coming back she hasn’t even mentioned Claire, in fact, the Losties forgeting about Claire is a little odd. Sure things have been crazy from the jump, but was there no room for a throwaway line saying they haven’t been able to find her?

However, of the three, Juliet’s is probably the most egregious. Doesn’t she realize that by changing the timeline, her sister (you know, the important person in her background that got her to the island and drove her motivation throughout the third and fourth seasons) is likely dead and by proxy, her nephew Julien is never born. So to explain Juliet’s motivations they throw in this flashback at the last moment where she learns of her parents’ divorce. This is horribly sloppy and unearned. It’s a “Hey, we need to explain why she would do a complete 180, so let’s tack on this that hasn’t been mentioned until this point?” Characters drive the story, not the opposite. The three are only doing this because the story needs them to do this. They couldn’t have been overpowered by The Others or something?

Amidst the craziness of the 77 Losties, Miles is ready to take the role of Captain Sensible. He is the first person to bring up the point that perhaps the steps they’ve taken to alter the future are the steps that will ensure it will happen, something common in this type of story and something no one else seems to have realized (and in doing so makes all of them a little bit dumber). Regardless, they’ve gotten far too deep to go back.

There are a few more Jacob interactions in this part, with Hurley and Locke, which sparked a lot of discussion. Hurley’s is noteworthy because Jacob’s agenda isn’t ambiguous. He asks Hurley to return. Hurley has been an increasingly important player of the mythology as the series has gone on, so Hurley’s return to the island appears to be part of a larger plan. Fans have also noted when he is discharged from jail he gets money, a pen, food & directions (to the cab port), things Jacob gave or solicited from Losties in the past. This could mean Hurley is the next Jacob as he has all the things Jacob had, but it could also be something to keep fans guessing for eight months.

As for Locke, Jacob appearing on the day his father defenestrated him had some wondering if Jacob’s touch brought Locke back from the dead, as he didn’t move until touched. Falls from lesser heights have killed people, and Locke gave that gasp people brought back to life make in TV & movies. If it is true that Jacob saved Locke’s life, he figured to give him just enough to save him but not his legs.

With those in 2007, the showdown draws nearer as Man in Locke persuades Ben to be the one to kill Jacob. While Ben is reluctant, Man in Locke makes a convincing argument: Ben has done everything in his power in service of the island and in return has gotten sick, watched the only person he loved shot in front of him and exiled from the place he swore to protect. In the downward spiral Ben has been on, he has relinquished a lot of that man in control and surrendered to Man in Locke’s will.

Man in Locke persuading Ben to kill Jacob is awfully similar to the way Jacob gets people to do what he wants. It’s no wonder The Others have been as successful at manipulating people. Man in Locke got Ben to tune in to that sense of being forsaken he’s felt since Locke surpassed him in the Island’s eyes. For Jacob, he tells people what he wants in the illusion of choice. His suggestion that Hurley return to the island is peppered with suggestions that seeing dead people (which I always read as part of his mental break) was a gift.

Learning Locke is The Nemesis (I like the title Man in Locke to refer to him in this state) puts things in a different perspective, from the Smoke Monster as Alex telling Ben to do what Man in Locke told him to do to the comment that watching Richard help Locke felt like an out of body experience. The desire to bring everybody back to the island also deserves reevaluation as it was his brain child. Had Man in Locke not put that idea in Locke’s head, Locke wouldn’t have gotten himself killed, making himself to be the vessel for his loophole. Ultimately it leaves everyone as pieces in the chess game between these two supernatural people. This also may tie Man in Locke to Widmore, who gave Locke a blank check to do whatever necessary to fulfill this plan.

So it turns out Locke wasn’t back from the dead, but his form was used. Locke has to be one of the biggest dopes in the history of TV. Gil from The Simpsons catches more breaks than this guy. While it may be fitting, it’s a major down note for the character to end on: just a pawn in someone else’s power play. It reminds me a little of the way Snape ended in “Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince” (Spoiler alert). JK Rowling made it seem like Snape was pure evil all along, but in the final installment, there was a lot more to the story. As Harry Potter is an influence on Lost, perhaps this isn’t the final curtain for the perpetually conned tragic figure.

It all leads to the confrontation between Jacob & Ben, the latter unaware of the loophole. Besides the culmination of a heretofore unseen feud, it’s the tipping point for Ben, who has been kicked around for some time in service of the island. Jacob, surprisingly, doesn’t beg Ben to spare him, but rather throws Ben’s concerns back at him with a degrading “What about you?” At which point Ben loses it. It’s interesting how calm Jacob is with the stakes at hand. Perhaps he sees himself like in Star Wars (do I need to do a spoiler warning?) where Obi-Wan warned Darth Vader “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”

Thirty years before this confrontation, the Incident occurs with the 77 Losties ambushing the Dharma workers and throwing the bomb down the shaft. As season two ended with the button not being pushed and the electromagnetism going haywire in this finale we see the original event that created those failsafes: the drill opens that pocket of energy and all things metal are pulled in. A well deserved metal pipe plunges through Phil’s heart, part of the apparatus for the drill crushes Chang’s hand (finally explaining what caused that) & a loose chain wraps around Juliet’s waist and pulls her under. While I briefly rolled my eyes at that, the emotional farewell as Sawyer tried desperately to save her was heartbreaking. This relationship succeeds at everything where the Kate-Jack-Sawyer triangle fails.

As the episode ends on a flash, this penultimate season finale mirrors the first season finale “Exodus Part III”, where Jack & Locke stare down into the hatch for the first time. There was no indicator of what was down there: could’ve been anything (and I doubt most people thought it was going to be a Scotsman pushing a button every 108 minutes.) Just like here there’s no hint of what the final season would be, which left fans with a variety of theories in the 8 months in between. Five years in, it’s great that it can still keep fans guessing.

Overall Score: 9/10

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

2010-02-02T15:54:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-02T15:44:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-02T15:29:00.001-05:00

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