(S03E03) Wow, I don't even know where to begin... get comfortable, because I'm gonna end up writing a lot. Spectacular. Although, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised because this episode just continued the up and down trend established last season. A few so-so or mediocre episodes and then we get this. The other day, while writing this Dexter post, I said that there's no reason why Lost can't feed us viewers a whole ton of info and clues (you know, keep us entertained) while at the same time, leave us on a note that makes us want to do something wildly inappropriate like punch a child or at the very least, knock over your TV set. This was one of those episodes. It's over, it was good great, but we're still in the dark... so what did we learn?
A Locke-centric episode. Always my favorite ones. But we hadn't seen Locke at all this season thus far. As Charlie quipped when he saw his bald compadre, he didn't call, didn't write. You get the idea. But Locke is back, as is Desmond (who was butt-naked by the way, but I'll get back to that) and it seems Eko is the only one MIA after the hatch explosion. It's gone by the way. The hatch is now a big ol' crater.
So Locke has returned. He just woke up... it was very Terminator-ish. He just opened his eyes and stood up. Like he was re-born. All that was missing was that electrically-charged purple bubble. Only problem? He can't talk. So, with some help from Charlie, Locke built a little hut (or a "sweat lodge"... something from his past), lit a fire in it, ate some mashed up paste (what was that stuff, some of Charlie's smack?), and began to hallucinate. So who shows up? Boone! Now I knew Ian Somerhalder was going to be back, but I didn't think it was this early in the season. Very nice surprise. It makes sense though, that in Locke's mind, Boone is the voice of the island.
The following scene was very cool and it reminded me a little of that weird British Lost promo. Boone, wise dead spirit that he is now, pushed John through an airport terminal in a wheelchair, telling him what needed to be done. There's the explanation of your episode title. It was cool though. Jack, Kate, and Sawyer were being inspected by a TSA employee... Ben (aka Henry, aka Benry)! Very telling of their situation. The lasting visual? Hurley as the airline ticketing agent. He's the one who can tell you where everyone went. Hats off to the writers, well done scene. All the metaphors made perfect sense.
John grasped one mission from Boone's preachings though: Save Eko. Back to reality and as I said earlier, John has been re-born as the knife-wielding bad-ass that he is. It's hunting time, which is the reason for his flashbacks. We picked up with John after he was betrayed by his father and he had left his potential wife, Helen. Not sure how long it's been, but now he lives with some sort of commune that grows peaches and marijuana. But they're his family and they seem to accept him for who he is, until he brings home a friendly hitch-hiker that happens to be an undercover cop. Nothing new there though -- story of John's life (or should I say "Johnathan's" ... anyone else notice the name on his firearms registry?). He's used to getting betrayed. He could have killed that cop; the hunter mentality was in him. Only the island lets him live that life though.
Using those tracking skills, Locke found Eko trapped in a cave with a second polar bear. He saves the priest's life. OK, wait, back to the flashbacks. Anyone else think that the stand-off in the woods with the cop was going to lead to John's leg issues? For about 10 seconds, I really though Locke was going to take a few shots in the leg(s). But he didn't. OK, enough with the flashbacks.
At one point, Locke and Charlie found Hurley (on his way back from The Others' dock) in the woods. Then they split up again and Hurley found the very naked Desmond. Observation number one? Desmond looks ridiculous in Hurley's giant tie-dyed T-shirt. Observation number two? Something is up with Desmond. He talked about some kind of speech that John made about saving Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Hurley was completely confused. As he should have been because John didn't make that speech until he and Charlie got back to the beach with Eko. But Desmond knew about it beforehand. So it seems he's gone all John the Baptist on us and now he's some kind of prophet -- sees or hears things before they actually happen. Except only Hurley knows about it.
Parting thoughts. Anyone else put off by how they introduced Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro) and Nikki (Kiele Sanchez)? It was just weird to me, how they were there and knew everybody. Last year, introducing the Tailies was easy because they were their own group and they merged, so to speak. But Nikki and Paulo have been part of the 48, there since the crash. To have contact now seems odd but I'm sure it'll be fine after we get some more info on them.
Also, what significance does the hatch have if it can be blown up and nothing seems to happen? Desmond and Locke seem permanently changed by it, and I'm sure Eko will be when he wakes up. However, if pushing the button was so important, I feel like more should have happened post-explosion. Additionally, other than Desmond's theory, can we be sure that his error is what caused flight 815 to take a nosedive? I'm thinking no, and his new psychic(?) abilities give him some insight as to what really happened.
Another random point: Eddie, the undercover cop in Locke's flashback had a "Jeronimo Jackson" T-shirt on. Wasn't that the name of one of the bands that was in the hatch's record collection? Nice little tidbit from the writers. Too bad all of the records are probably a melted pile of plastic goop now.
And finally, I normally don't pull funny quotes from this show, but I lost it when Hurley dropped this one.
Hurley (in complete disbelief of Desmond's explanation for being nude): "So, like, the hatch blew off your underwear?"
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
10-19-2006 @ 12:00AM
Carl Winslow said...
Locke's awakening in this ep was made to mirror Jack's awakening from the pilot.
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10-19-2006 @ 12:07AM
Danny Cohen said...
It was a similar idea, yes. The opening shot, however, of someone's eye has been used many times.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:33AM
Ben said...
Was it just me, or did Locke's character just seem off? Like, I understand that he was supposed to be reeling from the implosion and changed, but he just didn't seem like himself at all. He is usually very straight-forward and truthful, but he seemed to just be going around in circles with Charlie not bothering to tell him anything. Also, Locke has never seemed like the kind of person who would let Charlie just make joke after joke about him without showing at least some anger. And why would Locke only think to take a lighter and a can of hair spray with him to hunt the bear? Sawyer's cache of guns should have been readily available and Locke clearly knows something about hunting. And finally, Locke lived on a commune with a giant greenhouse full of weed? Where did that come from? And how did he wind up at a box factory?
Other than my issues with Locke, which, because they were mainly at the start of the episode tainted the viewing for me, I thought the episode was pretty good. I loved the airport sequence and also liked the fact that rather than have the "monster" of the island take Eko like I had assumed would happen, it was a polar bear. I did think it was a little too coincidental that Hurley could just bump into Locke and Charlie and then five minutes later bump into Desmond.
Finally, two things I noticed. Number one, and I could be completely wrong about this, but didn't Charlie say something about Sayid shooting the first polar bear? And then Locke agreed with him? Because if I remember correctly, it was Sawyer that shot the first bear. Number two, when Locke was coming out of the sweat lodge, there was a split second flash of a growling animal. When I first saw it, I thought it was a wolf, but now I think it may have been the polar bear. Did anyone else catch it and have a theory?
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10-19-2006 @ 10:33AM
Bob Baft said...
I thought Charlie said "Sawyer shot the bear". He should know, he was there.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:33AM
SouthBeachCasa said...
I thought the whole polar bear thing was sort of cheap and weird. Almost a B movie feel to it. So you're telling me the polar bear dragged Mr. Eko all the way back to the cave and then suddenly when John showed up the bear grabbed Eko's arm and started to pull him away? It just corny and weird. I was actually hoping to understand a little more about why in the hell a polar bear is even there. That was the onyl part I didn't like. The rest was great.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:34AM
Jeremy Lacey said...
I disagree. What I am most liking about this season is that they are getting back to the character stories. While the dream sequence was spot on, Locke's flashback this week, however, was so inconsequential to anything and everything. Yes, we get it, Locke is a dupe. The abrupt ending to it was annoying as well. Also, Locke's paralyzation has officially crossed the line of mysterious to irritating, even the "big" kate mystery is already answered. Furthermore, the intro of these two supposed main characters, Nikki and Paulo, was terrible and not organic at all. We're to believe that while, yes, there are others on the island, these two randoms are also swept up in all the island drama of hatches and others? I think not. It was almost as if they wanted to put focus on these new characters, but it was too little too late. The commercials are also starting to grate on me. Sure we get 6 weeks then 17 weeks straight, but the trade-off of a commercial seemingly every 5 minutes is almost not worth it. While not every episode of Lost is perfect, this one didnt meet my good moments to bad moments ratio.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:34AM
Ryan S. said...
I think that goop that Locke spread on his face was the same stuff he used on Boone in season one when Boone hallucinated Shannon dying.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:34AM
FrakYou said...
Wow. I can't believe nobody caught the religious references with Desmond. Its not "John the Baptist". Its Jesus. He looked like the traditional depiction of Jesus with the brown hair and beard. The shirt Hurley gave him looked like the Shroud of Turin. He just came back from the dead. You frakers must all be pagans or something.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:34AM
Erica said...
Long hair and tie-dye does not Jesus make.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:35AM
Allen said...
We come back from commercial at minute 42. At minute 47 it's back to American Express. What the fuck? No we get 5 minutes of show and 3 minutes of commercials? Is anyone monitoring this? Is it just me or is this show loaded with ads?
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10-19-2006 @ 10:35AM
Wil said...
What happened to the continuity with Charlie from the end of last season? He was punchy and joking, and didn't give any hint at all that he'd been near a massive explosion or implosion or whatever.
It's a tiny detail, but it makes me feel like the writers are making shit up as they go along, and that sort of thing really annoys me and makes me feel like a chump for tuning in to watch the show.
As much as I wanted to really like the Locke flashback (they are always my favorites) we have seen three flashbacks this year and none of them have told us anything new about the characters. Have the writers run out of backstory information on them already?
I instantly hated the new characters. They are too beautiful, and were introduced in a forced and non-organic way. Again, it feels like someone (writers, producers, network?) just doesn't have a lot of respect for the audience.
The metaphors were great, Hurley was great, Locke's speech was fine, and though I'm a massive heathen, I instantly got the Jesus reference with Desmond (my son calls his apparent new abilities "Desmond Vu," which is tremendously entertaining to me.)
I thought this episode was okay, though not as enjoyable as last week's, but next week's episode looked exceedingly lame to me; Lost is probably going to be moved from "must see" to "I'll catch it on DVD" TV in a few episodes.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:35AM
Wil said...
Oh, and I'm completely fed up with the commercials. The frequency of the commercials severely disrupts the dramatic tension and flow of the show.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:36AM
Aaren said...
Yea dude, pretty much everybody looked like Jesus back then, they all had long hair and a beard.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:36AM
Akbar Fazil said...
god...you people bitching about commercials.
GET A GORRAM TIVO!
or even yet, there is this little thing called a VCR.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:36AM
Tammy said...
If anyone has that big of a problem with all commercials, get tivo and watch it after its taped...
Thats what I do!! LOL
Very lame show tonight!!!
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10-19-2006 @ 10:36AM
Maurice Tift said...
There is so much to say about this episode. I was spellbound by everything, then I cracked up when Hurley explained to Desmond all of the things that had happened when the hatch blew (or imploded). When Desmond mentioned Locke's speech, it was pretty spooky. Some very unusual things have apparently happened to Locke, Desmond and Eko.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:36AM
Del said...
I hope they continue with the trend of showing each of the Losties at their worst in FB's. We got Jack a paranoid stalker, Sun a killing liar, Locke a militia-cult member.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:37AM
Burz said...
Desmond's beard was really thick, and could have only grown in many days. Charlie and Locke also had more facial hair. I know their on an island, but either this was blatant disregard for obvious continuity, or they "had" time to grow their facial har. I think the hatch threw Desmond (and maybe Locke/Charlie/Eko) into the future then brought them back. I bet this is what will be revealed at the end of ep. 6 that seems like the show is "jumping the shark" thats all over the messageboars... just a thought
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10-19-2006 @ 10:37AM
Allen said...
Um....we have TiVo, ass. It's still annoying to break up scenes every 5 minutes.
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10-19-2006 @ 10:37AM
Akbar Fazil said...
Then may I suggest Allen that you either learn to use your FF button on your Tivo or wait for the DVD.
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