Summary: Aaron gets sick and Claire is concerned. Rousseau shows up and warns Claire that Aaron may be infected. Claire talks to Libby about her amnesia and she starts to slowly remember what happened when she was taken by Ethan. Claire remembers being in a medical facility which has vaccines for the sickness. She goes with Kate to where this facility was with Rousseau's help. Claire doesn't find any vaccines but remembers that she was helped by a teenage girl, likely Rousseau's daughter. Claire returns to camp and Aaron is fine. Meanwhile, Eko finds out that Jack and Locke are hiding somebody in the hatch. He gets Jack to take him to Henry where Eko apologizes for killing two others.
The Good: I was surprised by the slight change in the flashback formula. Instead of getting flashes to a time before the plane crash, this episode flashes back to Claire's memories when she was taken by Ethan. This slight change makes the episode a lot more interesting as the flashbacks give us some vital information about the others while also letting us explore another Dharma station, which is engrossing and entertaining. And as a bonus, we even get the return of Ethan. The story was entertaining, and it was a good plot to have Claire attempting to find the medical facility again. We're never quite sure of what she's going to find there and that adds a degree of tension to the episode. There's also some good stuff here for Rousseau. We get to see her at her lonely best here as she seems so detached from Claire and Kate emotionally. It's evident that Rousseau is only there in the hopes that she may find Alex, so it's pretty heartbreaking when she realizes that Alex isn't there and that she must keep on living alone. Everything happening at the hatch was pretty interesting. The introduction of Henry has focused the plot on the hatch for the moment, and I really like that. This season was in dire need of a focused plot because it was extremely messy during the first 13 episodes. Everything surrounding Henry made for some compelling television. Locke has been going through a lot of frustration off-screen this season and I've mentioned before how unsatisfying that felt. Now with Henry introduced, Locke's frustration are starting to be explored and this storyline is starting to become meaningful, especially with that ending scene. On the other hand we have Eko who steals the show. Eko quickly determines that Jack and Locke are hiding something and he acts on it to further his own interests. What's so fascinating is that we aren't entirely sure what Eko's motives are so his ensuing conversation with Henry is filled with suspense and fascination, comfortably making it the best scene of the episode (see: Best Moment). The Bad: Unfortunately the character journey for Claire falls flat because she is thoroughly unlikable the entire time. She is pretty annoying and whiny and she is rude to literally everyone. She disturbs Jack really late at night and continues to complain to him about everything. Then she's rude and hostile to Sun who she asks to watch over Aaron. Finally, her interactions with Rousseau are downright horrible. Sure, Rousseau did try to take Aaron, but Claire still comes off as unnecessarily rude, especially since she needs Rousseau to help her get back to the facility and Rousseau seems willing to help. Then we have Kate who has apparently become Claire's mom off-screen considering how she turns Claire's business into her own. It's frustrating to watch Kate treat everybody like they are inferior, particularly Libby who she is unfairly mean to. I don't know why the writers think that making characters behave rudely for no reason will help us sympathize with them. "Lost" has a problem of making its characters keep unnecessary secrets. I've complained a lot about this season's poor handling of the hatch, and now it's threatening to go down the same route with Henry by having Locke and Jack inexplicably keep his presence a secret. We aren't given any good reason as to why they wouldn't tell everyone that he is there. Another issue that I'm noticing is the show's newfound desire to focus on plot instead of character. Season 1 was so good because there were outstanding character arcs in every episode that amplified an exciting island storyline. But season 2 seems to be more fixated on plot than character, especially with recent episodes like "One of Them" and "The Hunting Party" which, while great episodes, were much more interested in building up the plot instead of telling us a fresh and powerful character story. Don't get me wrong, episodes focused on plot can still be great, but they aren't as memorable as the emotions that season 1 episodes made me feel. I'm not too please with Henry trying to sow conflict between Jack and Locke. The prisoner causing dissent between his captors is such a predictable story that I've seen several times before, so I hope that we get something else instead. The Unknown: We learn so many interesting things about the others here. Judging by what Kate finds in the lockers, it appears that the others' ragged appearance may be a show. Kate finds ragged clothing, fake beards and theatrical glue. This discovery, furthered by the presence of a beardless Zeke in the flashbacks, suggests that there may be a lot more to the others than what we've seen so far. Zeke mentions a possible leader among the others. Who is this leader? Is there a hierarchy among the others? How many of them are there? What positions of power exist in their community? What is the vaccination for? Is there actually a sickness? The others seem to be concerned about it. Why hasn't it affected the survivors yet? Best Moment: Eko and Henry's conversation is fascinating. After getting beaten up by Sayid, Henry looks suitably horrified when he sees the intimidating Eko enter the room. Eko is so fascinating to watch here and he does something surprising: he gives Henry a confession. Eko confesses his guilt for killing the two others back in "The Other 48 Days" because he needed to get it off his chest. It's a wonderful bit of character building for Eko, and the show expertly uses his mysterious and unpredictable nature to really surprise us and make us think that he's doing something much more sinister than what he actually does. Character of the Episode: Eko Conclusion: This episode advanced the plot nicely and had some good moments, but the poor character development for Claire and her annoying behaviour really drag this episode down. Score: 62
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|