Summary: A flashback shows Jacob living in the statue, talking to a man in a black shirt who is looking for a loophole to kill him. We are also shown Jacob interacting with Kate, Sawyer, Jin, Sun, Sayid, Jack, Hurley and Locke in key moments of their lives. In the present, Locke tells Ben that he wants him to kill Jacob, particularly because of how Ben has been ignored for his many sacrifices. The group eventually gets to the statue and Richard shows Locke and Ben the way in. Ilana's group goes to the cabin and determines that Jacob isn't there; someone else had been using it. They make their way to the statue and show what's in the box: Locke's dead body, found in the plane. Inside the statue, Locke is revealed to be the man in the black shirt from the flashbacks. Ben kills Jacob. In 1977, Sayid follows Daniel's instructions to isolate the bomb's core. Richard knocks out Eloise and takes her back. Sayid and Jack sneak through the barracks with the bomb but Sayid is spotted and shot by Roger. Hurley, Miles and Jin arrive in a Dharma van to save them and take them to The Swan. Juliet decides to go back to the island and she helps Kate escape. Sawyer comes too. They encounter Rose and Bernard back on the island. The trio stop Jack's van and Sawyer talks with Jack to convince him to stop. When it doesn't work, they fight until Juliet breaks it up. Juliet decides to let Jack go. Jack arrives at The Swan and after a gunfight, he throws the bomb down the drilling hole. It doesn't work and the incident happens. Phil is killed, Dr. Chang's arm is crushed, and Juliet gets dragged into the drilling hole. Juliet miraculously survives and she sees the bomb. She smashes it with a rock until it explodes.
The Good: This felt like a finale. The pacing was excellent and there was a constant sense of suspense and mystery throughout the episode. This felt like a big climax, and I really enjoyed myself for the entire runtime of the episode. I really loved the introduction to Jacob (see: Best Moment). This character is the closest thing we have seen to a god, and "Lost" introduced him in perfect fashion. It takes a lot of guts to finally show us this quintessential character and have him be murdered in the same episode. The highlight with Jacob is definitely in the flashbacks. It was really interesting to see Jacob interact with the main characters, and we also got a good reason to see some of the key moments in their lives. Under the guise of Jacob's visits, we got to see some terrific moments like Nadia's death, Jin and Sun's wedding, Sawyer writing his letter, what happened to Hurley to get him on Flight 316, and Jack's first surgery which he described back in "Pilot Part 1". These scenes were excellent and acted very well. Plus there was a lot of intrigue as Jacob noticeably made physical contact with all of the characters and interfered in their lives in meaningful ways (possibly reviving Locke, getting Hurley on the plane, saving Sayid's life, reminding Jin and Sun of their love). I thoroughly enjoyed these scenes, and I'm excited to see what it's all building up to. The present-day storyline of going to Jacob was handled really well. It built up suspense really well and concluded with a spectacular twist that caught me off guard and completely changed everything. There was a lot of excitement built throughout the episode for this meeting with Jacob, built up by numerous things: Locke and Ben's conversations, Ilana's trip to the cabin, and of course, the excellent Jacob flashbacks throughout the episode. And at the end of the journey we are hit with a real shock, and it's one that makes perfect sense. Locke was still in the coffin. The person we have seen on the island this entire time is not Locke! This twist caught me completely off-guard and it completely changes everything, while also simultaneously answering a lot of the questions I had about Locke in the last few episodes. The twist is brilliantly executed, and its timing is perfect. Immediately the stakes get raised for the confrontation between Ben, Locke and Jacob, now that we know that this impostor is not somebody who we can trust. The episode ties back to its opening scene beautifully, revealing that the man in the black shirt is who we are seeing right now in Locke's body. The twist works on every level and it gives us a really memorable reveal in this episode. But also, the reveal has an undertone of real sadness to it. This means that Locke really is dead, and that being strangled by Ben after almost killing himself after losing his confidence really is how his story ends. It's horribly sad and tragic, and the realization that Locke's story has ended like this is a gutpunch. It also retroactively makes "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" an even better episode on rewatch because now it can be watched with the added context that this really is the end of Locke. Ben killing Jacob was set up through the entire episode and it ended up being one of the most satisfying and emotional moments of the episode. Once again, "Lost" has proven that Ben is one of the deepest and best characters on the show with what he was put through in this episode. Throughout the episode, "Locke" slowly convinces Ben that he needs to be the one to kill Jacob. Looking back, it's easy to see that "Locke" has been manipulating Ben this entire time, a wonderful bit of irony. He plays on Ben's emotions towards Jacob, and turns Ben's own jealousy and sense of inferiority in the face of the enlightened Locke against him. Ben ends up falling for the trap entirely, and when he comes face to face with Jacob, all he can think about is the resentment that had been building inside his head. Ben lets out an impassioned speech, possibly the most vulnerable we have ever seen the character. Ben's anger and sadness at being overlooked materializes wonderfully in this scene, and his anguished cry of "what about me" is tremendous. Even better is Jacob's response. We know from the opening scene that what is really happening here is another manifestation of the philosophical debate about humanity that these two beings were having with each other. Ben's choice here is a life-or-death situation for Jacob to prove to "Locke" that humanity does have good in them. Jacob reminds Ben that he has a choice, but Ben isn't hearing what Jacob is saying. Ben is too angry and filled with resentment. And so when Jacob replies "what about you?" to Ben, Ben snaps. It's likely that Jacob would have been hoping that Ben would prove his worth by not killing Jacob, but Ben is too angry and hearing Jacob question his worth is too much to take. So Ben kills him, and a choice that I can only imagine will have huge ramifications down the road (see: The Unknown). It's such a brilliant move to have Ben be the one to kill Jacob. Throughout this season we have been reminded over and over how despicable and manipulative Ben is. Even though we can sympathize with him, he is definitely not a good person. So naturally, he's the perfect person for the man in black to bring in front of Jacob, the perfect example of the weakness in humanity. Ben has seemingly messed everything up for all of our other characters specifically because of how awful he has been. This sets up a pretty good story for everyone else to try to prove that the man in black is wrong about humanity. I'm really excited to see where the philosophical aspects of this story will go in season 6. The 1977 storyline was really strong. It started as a story of two halves with the characters split across two locations, and each storyline has some really nice character moments. First there is Jack and Sayid, who are working towards getting the bomb over to The Swan. This story develops patiently but once everyone is ready to move out, things get more exciting. Richard has a good moment as he steps in to protect Eloise, refusing to go along with what seems like a suicide mission. There was a great pay-off for the Roger storyline, as Roger recognizes Sayid, and in a shocking moment, fatally shoots him in the abdomen. This was a really big moment early in the episode, and I do wonder if Sayid's story may be ending soon. He got some nice moments after getting shot as he resigns himself to death and accepts that he likely deserves his fate. On the other hand, Jack once again shows how he as changed as he not only endangers Sayid, but also doesn't do everything possible to save him, focusing on his own destiny with the bomb instead of getting Sayid the medical help that he needs. Meanwhile on the sub, we have Kate, Sawyer and Juliet. This story unfolds really nicely as it starts with Sawyer standing his ground and refusing to get involved with the craziness Jack is bringing down onto everyone. But then Juliet decides that they have to go back, and so they get off the sub. This decision works pretty well, even if some of Juliet's other decisions do not (see: The Bad). There is a terrific moment as Juliet looks back at the sub, accepting that she may have just lost her only chance of escape from this island that has held her prisoner for over 6 years by now. Following this, we get a real delight as Rose and Bernard return! They have been missing since "The Lie" and it's great to see them set up together living in a cabin in the jungle, happy and relaxed. Bernard's speech about being with the person you love is a beautiful moment that nicely establishes the theme of love that would permeate much of the second half of this episode. The developments in the first half of this episode lead up to a tremendous moment as both storylines collide with an excellent shot of Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet standing in the road to block the van. The episode then moves into a conflict between Jack and Sawyer. This conflict works brilliantly because these two have been opposed for much of the second half of the season. Jack's unhappiness leads him to hunt for a greater purpose, in stark contrast to Sawyer who already found his purpose and happiness in the time that Jack was gone. Jack finding his way has come at the expense of Sawyer, so it's great to see Sawyer get a chance to let out his frustrations. Some of the moments in this conflict were melodramatic (see: The Bad), but it did well to set up the climax of the episode as everyone arrives at The Swan to ensure that this bomb goes off. The last gunfight is good, if not great, but what really makes this sequence is the build up to Jack dropping the bomb. The scene feels monumental, and as usual, "Lost" does a terrific job of focusing on the emotion of this story rather than the plot. The brief sequence of everyone taking their final looks at each other while waiting to pop out of existence was remarkably powerful, and it was an emotional high point of this finale. Then, naturally, everything goes wrong and that builds up to the other big emotional high point of this finale: Juliet's fall. I thought that the chaos during the incident was really well shot, and Juliet being dragged down into the shaft was a horrifying and sad image. Josh Holloway did a tremendous job a he tries to save Juliet, and it was heartbreaking to watch Sawyer witness her fall, while Juliet simultaneously comes to understand that Sawyer truly does love her like he said he does. But the episode isn't done there. Somehow Juliet manages to survive, and in an excellent scene (minus one moment where Juliet's blood disappears), she smashes the bomb until it detonates, leaving us on a massive cliffhanger comparable to the fantastic ending to "Exodus" back in season 1. As you can see by the size of this paragraph, the second half of the 1977 storyline was packed with drama and exciting moments, to the point where even if it wasn't all perfectly executed, it was so thrilling to watch that it doesn't matter much if there were flaws. The story as a whole works really well and it's an excellent conclusion to what was a really well written Dharma Initiative storyline. Plus there were also some nice moments for the side characters in the Dharma Initiative. The episode neatly used dramatic irony with Radzinsky, as we know that his actions that caused the incident will lead to him being punished by staying in The Swan and pushing the button until the end of his days. I was also pleased to see Miles tell Dr. Chang to get as far away as possible, paralleling how Dr. Chang sent his family as far away as possible. And we even get to see the injury that likely caused Dr. Chang to amputate his arm and replace it with a fake as we see in The Swan orientation video. And of course we get a pretty satisfying death scene for Phil. The Bad: I've praised recent episodes for really nailing down character motivations to make it easy to understand their actions in these insane and intense circumstances. By introducing a bunch of love-triangle ridiculousness into this episode, a good portion of that hard work was unfortunately undone. This episode nailed a lot of things, but its biggest problem was the implication of some really stupid melodramatic love-based motivations in the 1977 storyline. I've praised Jack's arc in this season as him searching to find purpose in the wake of the terrible things that happened with him after he left the island. But this episode throws away that depth to suggest that he's only doing this because he screwed up with Kate. That's a real slap in the face to simplify Jack to this extent after how well he has been written lately. Juliet is the other character who was badly hurt in this episode. It was ridiculous how she kept flip-flopping on her motivations on the basis of a few looks Sawyer made towards Kate. I understand the emotional value of Juliet's story, and it does pay off nicely at the end of the episode with Sawyer doing everything and more to save Juliet. But in execution, the story comes off as melodramatic and frustrating. Juliet should have had more consistent motivations throughout this episode, and changing her mind so much just because she is insecure about Sawyer is a flimsy motivation at best. Also, Juliet's one flashback scene is really out of place in the episode (the only flashback without Jacob), and it feels like a last-minute attempt to explain why Juliet is behaving so irrationally. It does not work. Some small things bothered me as well. In the last episode Richard claimed that he watched everyone die. And yet he wasn't even there at the incident? That moment from last episode has become a notable plot hole. Sayid felt like a plot device for much of this episode. Somehow he knows about Daniel being explicit with his timetable, even though Daniel was dead before Sayid returned. And somehow Sayid is able to work with a NUCLEAR BOMB because of his army experience. That is too much to believe. I was also upset at how the Dharma Initiative members all stopped fighting and talking once they lost the gunfight. They should have done everything in their power to stop Jack from detonating the bomb, since that would likely mean the death of everybody. The Unknown: I have tons and tons of questions. Who is the man in the black shirt? Why does he want to kill Jacob? Why does he need a loophole? Jacob is apparently able to bring people to the island. Was the ship he brought in the opening scene the black rock? Is this how everyone else has gotten to the island? Jacob brought them in? Is this why Flight 316 needed to mimic Flight 815? So Jacob would recognize everyone and bring them back? Why does Jacob bring people to the island? We also learn that Jacob is responsible for Richard's immortalized state. How does he do this? What other powers does he have? How many other things has he been responsible for? Why is Jacob interacting with so many of the characters who ended up on Flight 815? I noticed that he made physical contact with all of them. Did he give them some sort of power? How? Why? What are his plans for these people? Was Jacob responsible for Locke's survival after he was shoved out of the window by his father? Also, I noticed that Jacob specifically wore gloves when talking to Ilana, likely to ensure he wouldn't touch her by mistake. What is so special about everyone else? What is Jacob's relationship with Ilana anyways? Why did he help her? Why did he need her help? What happened to Ilana that caused her to be so injured? Bram claims that Frank is not a candidate? What does it mean to be a candidate? A candidate for what? Who are the candidates? The burning of the cabin is an interesting scene. Why didn't it start a forest fire? Is the cabin in a sort of different dimension from everything? Is that how it is capable of moving? Did Jacob make it capable of doing this? Ilana mentions that Jacob hasn't used it in a long time and that someone else has been using it. Is this someone else Christian? Does this mean that Christian may not have been working for Jacob? Could he be working for the man in black instead? Why was there ash around the cabin? I remember seeing it before in "The Man Behind the Curtain". Why is it important that the circle of ash was disrupted? It seems that the guitar case Hurley's been carrying is of significance. What is in there? Why did Jacob give it to Hurley? Is Locke really dead then? That's very sad. How was the man in black able to impersonate him? What will happen now that Jacob is dead? I'm sure that killing someone who is practically a deity will have some major consequences. I can't imagine that the man in the black shirt being in control will be a good thing. Also, as Jacob dies, he says "they're coming". Who? Will Juliet and Sayid survive? I presume if the past actually is changed, then it won't matter that they have fatal injuries. But will the bomb exploding actually work? Or is Miles right and the bomb will actually cause the incident instead? Best Moment: The opening scene was perfect in every way. It's become a signature move for "Lost" to start episodes in a completely random scene that has seemingly no relevance to anything we are watching. And yet it's so gripping to watch. We know it's important, so trying to figure out why is thrilling. As the clues come together (we see the island, the ship, the line that Jacob brought them here), we begin to realize that what we're watching is essentially two gods arguing with each other, a story that not only parallels the Ben/Widmore dynamic (with the existence of rules stopping them from killing each other), but one that suggests that everything we have seen in this show has in fact been happening for a reason. And in watching Jacob and this mysterious other man talk, we are getting the closest glimpse at the truth we have ever gotten. The scene is written magnificently to engage you in the possibilities of what is really happening, and every second of this scene is a delightful thrill-ride. A fantastic way to start the episode. Character of the Episode: It's tough to choose with so many characters getting time to shine. I think I'll go with Ben. Conclusion: Once again "Lost" ends a season with a thrilling, game-changing episode packed with suspense, epic moments, emotion, and shocking reveals. Season 5 has been a consistent season but it didn't hit the highs of previous seasons. That is, until now. This lived up to its role as a season finale of "Lost" and it delivered in almost every way. Overall, I enjoyed season 5 a lot. It had ups and downs, but I think it was the most consistently enjoyable season in terms of quality. There wasn't a single bad episode in its entire run. Season 5's biggest problem was definitely how complicated the story got, and at times the complexity would overshadow the emotional story being told. But for the most part, "Lost" maintained its strong emotional core by focusing on characters and how they feel even as the story got more complex. I think this season changed and adapted to the developments in the story really well, and its been thrilling to watch where the show goes. I really enjoyed the Dharma Initiative storyline, as well as the time travel storyline. The Oceanic Six storyline is probably the low point of the season since it ended as such a convoluted mess with an unsatisfying conclusion. But as the show revealed more details, it did retroactively improve that storyline a little bit. As a whole, this was one of the better seasons of "Lost" so far, filled with excitement and drama as the show prepares for its conclusion. Score: 85
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Summary: In 1977, Sawyer negotiates a place on the sub for him and Juliet after Radzinsky takes over the Dharma Initiative. Jack convinces Eloise to take him and Kate to the bomb that was buried. Along the way they run into Sayid. Kate chooses to go back to the Dharma Initiative and is put on the sub with Sawyer and Juliet. Dr. Chang discovers that Hurley, Miles and Jin are actually from the future and works to prevent the incident. Jack, Sayid, Eloise and Richard go to the bomb, which is in underground tunnels underneath the barracks. In the present, Locke meets with Richard again. The island guides Locke and allows him to guide Richard to giving the compass to Locke's past self as seen in "Because You Left". Locke orders Richard to take him, and everyone else, to Jacob. Locke admits to Ben that he plans to kill Jacob.
The Good: The part of this episode that I enjoyed the most was how it handled the character motivations in 1977. There were several really nice character moments throughout the episode. I was really pleased with Jack and Kate's conflict. This season has forced Kate to really see how Jack has changed after Locke's death, and she is very upset with how crazy he sounds. And he does sound crazy. Jack is trying to detonate a bomb to change the future, and he has much less evidence of this working than Locke did with anything he ever believed in. Jack is desperate to find his purpose, and it's pushing him towards doing something completely absurd. Kate, fittingly, does not buy into it. She does need to go back to the present day to find Claire, but her horror at how Jack has become just like Locke prevents her from being okay with going along with him. The characters have been outlined incredibly well, and this allows their conflict to work perfectly. Sayid's return is also really well done. Sayid is in a similar place to Jack. He is looking for a purpose because he's still on the island and he has no idea what to do. So he latches onto the one possibility he has of getting things back to normal. It makes sense for Sayid, and I'm once more impressed with how well the characters' motivations have been laid out in this storyline. Sawyer and Juliet are similarly effective. They just want to keep living their lives together because the last 3 years in the Dharma Initiative were far better than any of their other days on the island. So it makes total sense that Sawyer's solution is to get on the sub with Juliet so that they can get away from all of the craziness. Meanwhile, Locke's mission in the present remains really engaging, primarily because of Terry O'Quinn's continually terrific performance this season. Locke is so charismatic and almost intimidating in a lot of these scenes, and it really feels like the power dynamic has shifted. Both Richard and Ben are continually flabbergasted by Locke's newfound confidence, and for once it feels like these key knowledgeable characters are playing catch-up with Locke. The dynamic has changed in a really exciting way, and it sets up for a series of really interesting twists and reveals with Locke, like the curious resolution of the compass story (see: The Unknown) and Locke's decision to go see Jacob, ultimately planning to kill him. These moments are handled extremely well and they make me very excited to see the season finale. There were some really nice small moments in this episode. Hurley being unable to pretend like he isn't from the future was a hilarious moment, particularly his assumption that the Korean War didn't even exist. I also love that the question that brought him down was "who is the president of the United States", which is the exact question that Hurley was concerned somebody would ask him a few episodes back. The moment is executed brilliantly. I also really liked Miles realizing that his father only did what he had to in order to get his mother to leave the island. It's a strong character moment to continue Miles' story this season. Sawyer's "good riddance" to the island as he boarded the sub was a nice line, reminiscent of who Sawyer was before he became LaFleur. The Bad: I have a couple of minor problems. Locke getting Richard to hand the compass to himself creates a paradox where the compass was somehow never actually created so it can't possibly exist. "Lost" has had paradoxes before, so it seems like this is something we just need to accept in this universe. But it still feels awkward. It's clear that Richard getting to meet all of these characters back in 1977 was a retcon. If he had met everyone before and remembered them, then why didn't he say anything about them to Ben in season 3? Surely Richard would have wanted to meet with these people again if he knew they were going to inevitably time travel back to 1977. Lastly, the submarine CGI looks absolutely terrible. That was an unnecessary shot and it did not look good at all. The Unknown: How is Richard an advisor? Why doesn't he lead himself? Who assigned Richard to be an advisor? Apparently everyone dies in 1977 and Richard witnesses it. I presume this would happen during the incident. How does this happen? Does everyone actually die? What's the significance of Locke creating a paradox by getting Richard to give the compass to his past self? Why did the island need it to happen in this way? How is Locke getting information from the island? We've known that the island has some sort of sentience for a while now due to the dreams and visions. But how is it directly communicating with Locke? And why? Did the island tell Locke to kill Jacob? Are the island and Jacob not working together? Is Jacob an enemy to the island? It seems that Ben has never actually seen Jacob. Does that mean that the scene at the cabin with Ben, Locke and Jacob was fake? Why did so much stuff get thrown around then? And who is it in the cabin? Is it just Christian? How does Christian fit into all of this? How is he alive anyways? How does this work? How does Ben know about the cabin but not Jacob? I have endless questions about this. How are Sawyer, Kate and Juliet going to get back to the island? I'm sure that they won't just leave. Will Jack's crazy plan actually work? How will they get the bomb to The Swan? Best Moment: I'm tempted to go with the shock ending reveal that Locke plans to kill Jacob, but Dr. Chang outsmarting Hurley in a matter of seconds is too funny to pass up. Character of the Episode: Hurley. Conclusion: This episode was purely set up. There's nothing particularly memorable here and the pieces are being moved into place for the finale. Does that make this a bad episode? Not at all. It just doesn't put in the effort to be something more than a transitional set-up episode. This is simply a solid hour of "Lost". Score: 62 Summary: Flashbacks show Daniel's past. Eloise raised him from childhood to always be focused on his work. After the incident with Theresa, Daniel gets a memory condition and is approached by Widmore who offers him to go to the island. Eloise encourages Daniel to accept the offer. In the present, Desmond recovers from his gunshot wound. Eloise meets with Widmore who reveals he is Daniel's father. On the island, Daniel goes to Dr. Chang to ensure he gets people to evacuate the island. The incident will be happening later in the afternoon. Daniel has a plan to get everyone where they need to be and Jack and Kate choose to help him. They go to the hostiles after a gunfight with Radzinsky and other Dharma people. Sawyer refuses to help Daniel and he organizes a plan for everyone else to live in the jungle. Radzinsky goes to Sawyer's house and finds out what happened to Phil. He captures Sawyer and Juliet. Daniel reveals that he plans to detonate a hydrogen bomb to prevent the incident and change the future. Daniel goes into the hostiles' camp with a gun to speak with Eloise, but he is shot and killed by her.
The Good: Finally we get an episode about Daniel, and this one really delivered. Daniel's story ended up being one of the saddest and most tragic in the entire show. Through the flashbacks we get to see a story of what could have been. Daniel seemed happy playing the piano, and he seemed happy with Theresa. But Eloise remained cold and distant, knowing that none of these things would be in Daniel's future. She knew that his fate was death at her hands, but she pushed him towards it anyways. It's an inherently sad story, and the way that the episode tells it is masterful. We don't realize the emotional weight of Eloise's decision to push Daniel to keep working until the very end of the episode. Seeing Eloise shoot and kill him is a stunning moment, and it completely changes how we view the episode and the characters involved. The emotional impact is similar to in season 1 with episodes like "Walkabout" and "Confidence Man" that totally subverted our understanding of the central characters we had been following. It's a tremendous piece of storytelling, and it gives this episode the emotional punch that it was looking for. Meanwhile on the island, we see Daniel objecting to Eloise's beliefs about fate. The episode is very fast-paced and it focuses on Daniel doing everything possible to change the future. There is a constant edge-of-your-seat tension throughout the episode, created by the rapid pace and the episode's sense of importance. Daniel returns and instantly starts working on his new theory about the variables, one that we learn more and more about as the episode goes on. The information is doled out to us at a really good pace, and we get a lot of excellent, dramatic scenes throughout the episode. The scenes with Dr. Chang were great, and it was a real shock to see Daniel admit he's from the future. There was also a lovely bit of suspense as Daniel also reveals that Miles is Dr. Chang's son. Following that, the episode gets into an excellent group conflict (discussed more below), a stunning scene between Daniel and Charlotte (see: Best Moment), and then an excellent, well-written shoot-out as Radzinsky catches Daniel, Jack and Kate at the motor pool. Then following that we get an outstanding reveal as Daniel unveils his plan to detonate a hydrogen bomb, which is such an insane and dramatic idea, but it works unbelievably well as a dramatic reveal that increases the stakes. The episode has so many terrific moments throughout and it is a joy to watch them all. But the glue holding it all together is Jeremy Davies' performance as Daniel. He gives such a convincing and charismatic performance, and it elevates all of these moments. For example, Daniel has never used a gun, so Jeremy Davies holds the gun with a sense of real awkwardness throughout the episode. Daniel's mistake of showing the gun to Radzinsky is perfectly sensible, since I could completely buy that Daniel may have entirely forgotten that he was even holding a gun. It's a subtle detail, but it works really well. The group conflict in this episode was handled really well. The rift in beliefs between Jack and Sawyer are what make this so compelling. Where Jack is looking for a purpose now that he's on the island, Sawyer has already found one in his life in the Dharma Initiative. These characters' motivations are easy to understand and they are laid bare for us to see, and that makes it very easy to understand the conflict that occurs once Daniel returns with plans to change the future. I enjoyed the debate scene, and I thought that every character made decisions that fit with what we understood about them. The Bad: Part of the tragedy of this episode depends on us feeling for and understanding Eloise as a character. Unfortunately, I think the episode falls short in this regard, and it diminishes the impact of this episode. The problem with Eloise is that we never understand why she is so devoted to ensuring that what's supposed to happen happens. We aren't given a convincing reason for her to sacrifice her relationship with Daniel to send him to his death. And because of that, her actions feel emotionally disconnected from us. I still think that it's powerful to rewatch the episode, seeing how everything Eloise does is to send Daniel to his fate, but it's missing that personal connection that "Lost" is usually so good at establishing. Eloise could have been written better to give this story an even greater impact. The scenes involving Desmond are fine, but like in "Dead is Dead", they feel tacked on to the episode. Obviously Desmond isn't going to die here. The Widmore reveal is pretty good, but I can't help but think that the reveal could have been integrated into the story in a more compelling way. The Unknown: How does Eloise know so much? What did she mean that for the first time in a long time she doesn't know what would happen next? What changed that made this happen? How did she know what was going to happen to begin with? Does it have something to do with Daniel? Or is it something else entirely? What's going to happen to Sawyer and Juliet? What will Radzinsky do with them? Is there any chance that Daniel's free will theory is still right? The end of the episode seems to prove him wrong in a dark and depressing way, but is there still a chance that he could be right? Could the past be changed by preventing the incident? Best Moment: Daniel's moment with Charlotte hit the hardest for me. Jeremy Davies is so good in this scene and you feel his pain when he says that he wanted to avoid talking to her but he realized that he has no choice if he wants to go through with his plan. It's absolutely tragic. Character of the Episode: Daniel. Conclusion: This was a terrific, heartbreaking episode of "Lost". Daniel's story is excellent, and the drama on the island is incredibly intense and suspenseful. As has been the case with much of season 5, there are flaws here that prevent this from being a top-quality episode. But as a whole, this is an excellent, game-changing episode that sets up the season's climax. Score: 75 Summary: Flashbacks show a younger Miles discover his abilities. When his mom dies, he goes to her and learns about his father, who is dead. Later, Miles is recruited by Naomi to work for Widmore. Miles is picked up by Bram who warns him not to go on the freighter but he doesn't listen. On the island, Miles is recruited by Horace to work for the inner circle, and is unable to delete footage of Sawyer on the security cameras. Miles drives a dead body down to Dr. Chang at The Orchid alongside Hurley. Miles reveals that Dr. Chang is his dad. Hurley tries to get them to reconnect and he encourages Miles to give his dad a second chance. Miles sees his father playing with his past self. Scientists from Ann Arbor arrive, including Daniel. Phil sees the security footage and confronts Sawyer but Sawyer knocks him out and ties him up.
The Good: It was nice to finally get some backstory on Miles who has been around for a while without contributing a whole lot. Getting to know his full story for the first time makes this episode feel similar to one you would see back in season 1. This feel is also established by the slower pace of this episode. There isn't as much plot movement in this episode compared to the last few, and that helps this episode keep its focus squarely on Miles and his storyline. It's a welcome change, especially after "Dead is Dead" was the complete opposite and got overwhelmed by its focus on the convoluted plot rather than character. It was good to learn more about Miles' personal life and struggles, particularly involving his father. He goes through a good arc here as he learns to give his father a second chance, while having a nice storyline in the flashbacks involving Mr. Gray. Miles claims that he's all about money, but returning his money to Mr. Gray for the sole purpose of proving a point about being a good father highlights that Miles does need that father figure in his life more than he needs the money. The island story explores Miles' daddy issues in a pretty fun way. Hurley is an excellent foil for Miles in this episode, and the opposite way that he handled his relationship with his father provides a direct lesson for Miles. To this episode's benefit, it isn't heavy-handed at all with this storytelling. Hurley and Miles start the episode as a really funny character pairing, with Hurley providing plenty of laugh-out-loud moments that made me really enjoy his presence. But when the story hit its more serious beats, it felt organic. We knew Hurley was trying to help, evidenced by his hilarious attempt to bring Dr. Chang and Miles together, so it makes sense when Hurley gives Miles some personal advice to help him resolve his issues. The story is written tremendously well. Plus we also get some really fun conversation about talking with dead people, contrasting both Miles' and Hurley's experiences. I also got a big laugh out of Hurley trying to write the script for The Empire Strikes Back. The flashbacks had some really interesting moments. It was good to see Naomi again, and her deal to Miles explains why he asked Ben for 3.2 million dollars. The sudden kidnapping by Bram is a big scene that seems to function to set up the storyline going on with Ilana on the island. I'm interested to learn more about this new mysterious group that "Lost" chose to introduce to us so late in the season. The Bad: Nothing I'd call bad. This isn't as important or revelatory of an episode as the last few episodes, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The Unknown: Who was Bram? Who is he working for? Why haven't we seen him before? He asks the question about the shadow of the statue that Ilana asked in the last episode. Are they connected? How? What are their goals? Why did they warn Miles to not go on the freighter? Who else have they contacted? What's going to happen with Phil and Roger? Will Sawyer be able to keep Phil hidden? Will Roger complain to Horace and put some heat onto Kate? What happened to the person who died? Did electromagnetism cause his fillings to kill him? We see The Swan is being built now. Will we get to see what the incident was? What has Daniel been doing at Ann Arbor? How will his return impact the story? Why did Dr. Chang abandon his wife and Miles? He seems to be a caring father in the past. What changed? Best Moment: Miles seeing his father playing with baby Miles was a beautiful moment to cap off the episode. The episode does a fantastic job of building up to this emotional conclusion as Miles finally gives his dad a chance and sees that maybe he wasn't such a bad person after all. Character of the Episode: I want to give it to Hurley, but this was all about Miles and he deserves it. Conclusion: Some people may call this filler, but that would greatly undersell this episode. There was less plot progression here than in previous episodes, but the writing was excellent and we got a wonderful story for Miles, giving us an episode that felt similar to season 1 "Lost". This certainly isn't one of the show's best episodes, but it's still really good. Score: 69 Summary: Flashbacks show Ben take Alex from Rousseau and object to Widmore's demands to kill her. Eventually Ben grows up and gets Widmore banished for breaking the rules and making a family off the island. Ben takes over as leader. After Ben leaves Eloise, he finds Penny and Desmond and tries to kill Penny but isn't able to bring himself to do it. Desmond beats up Ben and throws him in the water. In the present, Locke decides to go with Ben, who plans to be judged by the smoke monster for getting Alex killed. Caesar tries to stop them but Ben kills him. Ben and Locke go to the barracks where they find Sun and Lapidus. Lapidus goes back to the other island, but he's knocked out by Ilana who has taken control. Locke starts having sudden realizations of knowledge and he takes Ben to the temple to be judged. Ben goes under the temple and is judged by the smoke monster. His life is spared, but he's told to obey Locke and never betray him again.
The Good: This episode was huge and it did a lot of things really well. Ben's story in this episode is excellent. The death of Alex last season was a massive moment for the character, and is one of season 4's most memorable moments in my opinion. It's so great to see "Lost" explore the impact that Alex's death had on Ben outside of the simple Hollywood approach of grief and revenge. So many TV shows and movies simplify dealing with a loved one's death in this way. Ben's guilt is shown to us really well throughout the episode. The flashbacks center around Ben's relationship with Alex, and he frequently thinks back to her in the present. The episode builds and builds to that tremendous climax when Ben finally sees Alex again and the scene delivers hugely (see: Best Moment). We can tell based off of Ben's face that his guilt over letting Alex die will ensure that he keeps his promise to obey every word Locke says. Having Ben feel such intense guilt for what he did humanizes him really well, and it reminds me that even though this man is a ruthless and manipulative murderer, he is still a human being with struggles and fears and conflicts. Ben has to be one of the best villains ever conceived in television because we are still somehow able to understand him and everything he does and even sympathize with him. What's so satisfying about this episode is how it forces Ben into the back seat. In every one of Ben and Locke's conversations before, Ben always looked to be in control. But that's changed now. I have no idea what death has done to Locke (see: The Unknown), but he's changed and become far more confident now. Seeing this new version of Locke is incredible, and he almost feels like an entirely new character. He's so mysterious and enigmatic, and I can't wait to get the next Locke-centric episode to really find out what's going on with him. It's fascinating to watch how the Ben/Locke dynamic has changed. Suddenly Locke seems to be almost entirely in control of their conversations and he knows everything whereas Ben knows nothing. The juxtaposition between the past and present in this relationship is excellent, and I loved how the episode drew attention to it ("that's what it felt like to be me"). The dialogue between Ben and Locke is top-notch as always, and the superb writing and acting in this episode hits the same highs as "The Man From Tallahassee". There are so many delightful lines, and many moments where I laughed out loud. But there were also some genuinely terrifying moments, my favourite being when Ben admits to Sun that he didn't expect Locke to revive and that he's terrified by the fact that Locke is walking around normally again. Seeing Ben so shaken throughout the episode makes Locke's resurrection feel like a monumental moment, and it excites me for more scenes between the two of them. Caesar's death early in the episode surprised me because I was sure that he would be a more important character. I'm completely fine with it though. Watching Ben manipulate and kill this poor guy for the sake of getting back in Locke's good book was a really nicely executed story. It's Ben doing what he does best in an attempt to regain control, and yet it doesn't work and Locke still plows forward, filled with confidence. Plus watching Ben play the oblivious bystander is absolutely hilarious. One particular moment in this episode that I loved was when Ben declared to Sun that "something is going to come out of that jungle. Something I can't control" while anticipating the smoke monster's appearance. And then Locke walks out. It's a delightful moment that highlights the change in the Locke/Ben dynamic, and is one of my favourite parts of the episode. Again, the dialogue and writing in this episode was excellent, and easily its strongest aspect. The Bad: This season has been missing something in its episodes to prevent them from hitting the highs of previous seasons. There has been too much emphasis on plot and mystery and that makes it pretty difficult to follow along and understand the stakes sometimes. This episode was hurt the most by this problem. Ben being "judged" by the smoke monster left me with far too many questions, and I think that diminished the emotional impact of the episode. Instead of focusing on the heart of the episode with Ben's guilt over what happened with Alex, or with the Ben/Locke dynamic, I spent far too much time contemplating the convoluted details that made up this plot (see: The Unknown). I assume most of this stuff will be answered, but even if it is, it doesn't fix how much of this episode I spent confused and frustrated by how little I understood of the main plot. I can't help but be disappointed with how the vagueness of the story took away from this episode, and others in this season. I was also let down by the flashbacks. Don't get me wrong, it was great to finally get background on Ben and Widmore as leaders of the others. But the story felt rushed. The flashbacks here had to tackle the Ben/Widmore stuff while also touching in on Ben's attempt to kill Penny. That's too much to tackle, and both storylines suffered as a result. The Ben/Widmore story felt particularly underwhelming. It was well-written and well-acted, but there was no heart to the story. Watching those scenes just felt like watching the writers check off a list of reveals to ensure that they get through everything that they need to. The emotional core to the story was missing, and things progressed so quickly that we were often being told details instead of being shown them. That's weak writing, and I think that it was a waste to cram the Ben/Widmore stuff into an already packed episode instead of giving it its own episode. I'm not a fan of how "Lost" handled Ben's attempt to kill Penny. The show tried too hard to make us think that Ben killed Penny to the point where it felt manipulative. Things like Ben telling Sun to apologize to Desmond feel so unnecessary, and they only exist to cheaply make us think that Ben killed Penny before the episode reveals that he actually didn't. It's a simple and flat story centered only around thrills, and this type of storytelling is well below what "Lost" is capable of. And to think that this weak story is the reason that the Widmore/Ben flashbacks were rushed. What a disappointment. I expected more from both flashback storylines and I was ultimately let down by what we were given. The Unknown: Richard says that Jacob wants him to save Ben. Is this true? Why? Does Jacob choose the next leader of the others? Is this why Richard stepped down? Because Jacob told him to? Why does Ben have to be judged? We've never seen anyone be judged before. Is this something the others regularly do? Why? Why does the smoke monster judge people? What is the purpose of it? Does the smoke monster reflect the will of the island or something like that? Or is it tied to Jacob somehow? How does this all add up? Why is there a system to summon the smoke monster in the barracks? Is this connected to the areas under the temple? I presume that the smoke monster lives down there. Why does it obey the others and help them? Was this area built by the others? Or the Dharma Initiative? Or was it built before then? Did the smoke monster cause Ben to have a vision of Alex? How did it do that? I recall in season 3 that the smoke monster was also potentially causing Eko to have visions of Yemi before it killed him. How and why does the smoke monster create these visions? If Alex is a manifestation of the smoke monster, then why does the smoke monster want Ben to obey Locke? How did Locke come back to life? Ben suggests that this is completely abnormal. So why is Locke back? How? And how does he know so many more things than before? How did he gain so much confidence suddenly? Was there really something hugely special about him all along? What is it? We also get confirmation from Ben that the whispers are linked to the others. How? What are the whispers? How do the others control them? What are the rules that Ben and Widmore keep talking about? I assumed they were an agreement between the two of them, as in they won't kill each other or each other's family. But now we're being told that the rules are obeyed by the others because it's against the rules for Ben to return to the island, just like it's against the rules for Widmore to have a family off the island. What are these rules? What's in the big box that Ilana and her men were carrying? Who are these people? Why did they ask Frank about the shadow of the statue? What does it mean? What's the answer? Is Desmond okay? He seemed to be fine, but he did just get shot by Ben. Maybe that's what Ben was apologizing for? Best Moment: Ben confronting the smoke monster. The sequence building up to this scene is mysterious and suspenseful, and seeing the smoke monster literally envelop Ben and haunt him with his past was frightening. The scene was dripping with mythology, and yet it also had a strong emotional core as Ben was forced to relive his daughter's death and feel that guilt once again. The ensuing confrontation with Alex was horrifying with how Ben was being threatened by his own dead daughter. Ben is shaken and changed by this moment, and I found that to be very compelling, and realistic. The whole sequence was a masterful mixture of suspense and emotion. Character of the Episode: Ben. Conclusion: This episode did a lot of things, and most of it I enjoyed greatly. The dialogue and writing was excellent, and I'm as invested in the characters, mystery and plot of the show as ever. But the disappointing flashbacks and the convoluted plot hurts this episode a lot, bringing down what could have been another outstanding episode of "Lost". Score: 69 Summary: Flashbacks show Kate meeting Cassidy and giving her support on Sawyer's behalf. Later, after almost losing Aaron in a grocery store, Kate decides to leave Aaron in the care of Claire's mother while she returns to the island to bring Claire back. On the island, Jin brings Ben back to Juliet who can't save him. She asks Jack to save Ben but Jack refuses to do it. Kate decides to take Ben to the others and Juliet helps her sneak out. Sawyer catches up[ with Kate and helps her the rest of the way. Richard takes Ben and takes him to the temple. Juliet confronts Jack about his decision and Jack explains that he is waiting to find his purpose. In the present, Ben wakes up and finds Locke staring down at him.
The Good: Kate's flashback story in this episode is excellent. Much like Sayid's last episode, this episode fills in some gaps and tells us what resulted in Kate choosing to return to the island. The story here is really well told. Kate as a mother works surprisingly well, and Evangeline Lily thrives in the role. Her performance in this episode is outstanding and makes me buy into the idea of Kate settling down and finding inner peace in parenting Aaron. But the peace is only temporary. The guilt of leaving Claire behind and taking her baby is haunting Kate and it manifests in a brilliant scene at the grocery store (see: Best Moment). As a result, Kate decides she has to go back, and we get the climax of this story: Kate finds Claire's mother and leaves Aaron in her care, vowing to bring Claire back. Impressively, the episode has set up this scene so that it has a significant emotional resonance, and Kate's motives to do this make perfect sense. The show also goes a step further by giving us a terrific farewell scene between Kate and Aaron, one that has quite a bit of impact. You get the sense that Kate is sacrificing something to do what she believes is right, and that does more to make me like and relate to this character than anything else the series has done with Kate. It's a well-written story arc with some great emotional weight. The story with Cassidy was pretty well done too. It was nice to see "Lost" continue the relationship that these two built back in "Left Behind", and I thought that their scenes together were well done. Cassidy helped illuminate Kate's inner struggle in an organic way, helping Kate come to terms with why Aaron is so important to her and why Sawyer leaving her behind hurt her so much. It's a really smart way to examine Kate, and adds some extra depth to what was already a pretty compelling flashback story. The island story had a lot of good moments, and there was tension throughout with Ben's life in the balance. I was pleased to see Kate play a central role in saving him, and the episode did a good job of setting up this decision by having Kate form a small connection with Roger. Roger is surprisingly sympathetic in this episode and I really liked that. "Lost" always does tremendously well with making its characters a mix of good and bad, instead of focusing too far on good or bad. Jack's role in this episode was terrific. His choice to not save Ben was fantastic and helped shed light on Jack's motives and the inner change he experienced before returning to the island. Hearing him say that he doesn't yet know why he's come back to the island was a fantastic moment, especially with how it echoes Locke. Lastly, I reallyu laughed at Miles trying to explain time travel to Hurley. There were some really funny jokes in there and Hurley also asked some really good, important questions. The Bad: Though Kate and Sawyer did have an excellent scene towards the end of the episode, I found it difficult to buy into the storyline of Kate being screwed over by Sawyer and having to get over him. Especially since she quickly ended up getting with Jack afterwards, and since we have never seen her feel conflicted about Sawyer at any point after she left the island. It feels like a forced storyline, and it's much weaker than the storyline with Aaron. I have some nitpicks too. Richard saying that Ben's "innocence will be gone" is one of those frustratingly vague lines that is needlessly mysterious. I can't tell if the writers are using this to raise even more questions, or if they were too lazy to come up with an actual effect that this healing process would have on Ben. I would have liked to have something more specific to explain why this healing that Richard did would have been bad for Ben in the long run. I never liked the idea of Juliet calling her people "the others". Juliet lived with them for 3 years, it makes no sense that she would call them "others" instead of "my people" or something else like that. The Unknown: What will happen to Ben now? What did Richard mean when he said that Ben's innocence would be gone? Where did he take Ben? To the smoke monster? We know the monster guards the temple. Richard mentions Charles and Ellie, and I can only presume that they are Widmore and Eloise. We know Richard was leader before, so why did he step down for these two? I'm curious to learn more about how the leadership of the other changed, and also why it had to change from Richard. Was it Jacob's decision? How will Kate, Sawyer and Juliet explain Ben's disappearance? Will they be discovered? What is Locke going to do with Ben? Best Moment: Kate losing Aaron in the grocery store was an excellent scene. The way the episode staged a perfectly normal occurrence as a mysterious and scary event was perfect, and it brilliantly brought up Kate's inner conflict to set up her decision to go back to the island to find Claire. Character of the Episode: Kate. Conclusion: Kate's always been a weak spot for "Lost" and her episodes typically haven't been the best. But this was probably the best we have seen from the character yet, as we got a really compelling flashback story that added more weight to an exciting and dramatic island story. This is the best Kate-centric episode so far, and a great episode overall. Score: 70 Summary: Flashbacks show Sayid has always been ruthless since his childhood. Ben tells Sayid his work is done after another assassination. Later, Ben contacts Sayid to tell him that Hurley is beign watched. After leaving the marina, Ilana pretends to be interested in Sayid to lower his guard and capture him. She is taking him to Guam as a bounty hunter. In 1977, Sawyer tries to get Sayid out of captivity but Sayid doesn't cooperate. Horace takes Sayiod to Oldham who gives him a truth serum. They think Sayid is crazy when he says who he is, but Radzinski is convinced he's a spy when Sayid mentions The Swan. After a conference, it is agreed that they will kill Sayid. However, Ben breaks Sayid out and tries to go with him. Sayid is discovered by Jin and Sayid knocks him out. Sayid shoots Ben with Jin's gun.
The Good: The island story was tense and exciting, and it felt important. Sayid's imprisonment is a big problem, and seeing Sawyer attempt to resolve it as the situation gets worse and worse is really intense television. Sayid is difficult to work with here, but it makes sense as Sayid had no desire to be back on the island, and he wasn't afforded the same luxury as Kate, Hurley and Jack of slowly coming to accept that he's in 1977. Sayid is very much confused and alone in his journey, and that makes him feel isolated from his friends. I thought that all of Sayid's choices in this episode were very engrossing. There was very strong drama with every decision Sayid made. From choosing not to work with Sawyer, to deciding to murder Ben, the episode did a fantastic job of connecting us to Sayid's emotional state to make these choices have an emotional impact. Surprisingly, the episode really shined when Sayid's agency was stripped away and he was taken to Oldham. Once again we get the lovely irony of the torturer being tortured for information, and the set-up for the scene is intense. I genuinely didn't know what was going to happen when Oldham went to work with Sayid. Hearing Sayid speak the truth was excellent drama because you were never sure how much he would reveal. Luckily he was cut off when he started to reveal really bad stuff (like who Sawyer was), but the scene still maintained that intensity. It all built to a lovely climax as Sayid laughed at how he was talking with a bunch of people who are destined to die. Naveen Andrews did a terrific job here, and the scene was really well done. The flashbacks in this episode are quite good. I was surprised to get a deeper look at Sayid's childhood, especially since his childhood hasn't been mentioned at all for the entire series. It was interesting to see his upbringing, and it neatly tied into the idea of Sayid always being a natural killer. It was good to finally see how Sayid and Ben's professional relationship ended, and to also see what happened to Sayid after he left the marina. These flashbacks did well to fill in gaps in the story. But more than that, they also nicely set up Sayid's emotional story in this episode. We get to see Sayid grappling with himself about who he is and what his purpose is. He's good at killing, and torturing, and being ruthless, but we can see that he doesn't want any of that. He's very conflicted. And surprisingly, by the end of the episode, Sayid actually doubles down on being a killer. He doesn't better himself, he actually does worse than that. The episode seemed to be building towards Sayid sparing Ben, especially after Sayid witnessed how Roger abused Ben. But Sayid doesn't make that decision. Instead he finds purpose in his return to the island by killing Ben, and because of that he is able to pull the trigger. It's a stunning twist that leaves me really excited for what's to come in the next episode, and it raises lots of questions about how this will impact the world (see: The Unknown). I also really appreciate that Sayid is shown crying after killing Ben. One thing "Lost" always does well is that it roots its big moments in the emotional state of its characters, making it emotionally powerful on top of being significant to the plot. The Bad: I feel like Sayid needed a better motive to not work with Sawyer. It feels like Sawyer should have either tried harder to get Sayid to listen to him, or Sayid should have had a more convincing and personal argument as to why he isn't cooperating. It very much feels like he didn't listen to Sawyer because the plot demanded it, which is very poor writing. The story of the Oceanic Six remains a mess, even with this episode clarifying a lot of things. Even with the answers we received, I have way too many questions (see: The Unknown). I still don't understand who the people were that attacked the Oceanic Six. Did they work for Widmore or Ben? I have no idea. It was an interesting mystery at first, but now that the story is entirely complete and we still don't have answers, I can comfortably say that making this so mysterious was a mistake and weakened the story. I'm also not a fan of the idea of having key questions answered in flashbacks in the way that they were in this episode. The storytelling is non-linear in a way that disrupts the emotional experience that these characters are going through. It would have been much better for the story had we seen these moments between Sayid and Ben before Sayid went to get Hurley from the mental hospital. The Unknown: Sayid has a brother apparently. Where has he been the entire show? What's happened to him? So was the man outside Hurley's mental institution Widmore's man or Ben's man? I still have no idea, and we get conflicting information about this. On one hand, Ben tells us it's Widmore's man, but it's Ben so can we really trust him? Sayid certainly did not. Was Ilana taking Sayid on Ajira 316 really just a coincidence? Or is there something else at play with her? She didn't seem to know who Ben was, but maybe she was lying. Did Sayid just kill Ben? Does this mean that Daniel was wrong about the rules of time travel? How will this effect the world and the story? Is Ben actually dead? Or can he survive somehow? Best Moment: Sayid's interrogation by Oldham. Character of the Episode: Sayid. Conclusion: This was an excellent episode that had a wonderful central story for Sayid, and wove that into a suspenseful plot with a phenomenal cliffhanger that leaves you desperate for more. There were some problems, and they prevent this episode from scoring higher, but I still loved this episode. Score: 74 Summary: In 1977, Sawyer organizes it so Jack, Kate and Hurley join the Dharma Initiative as new recruits. Jin goes to The Flame to find the plane but doesn't find anything. He instead finds Sayid and is forced to apprehend him as a hostile. Sawyer takes over and gets Sayid in a cell at The Barracks. Sayid meets young Ben. Jack speaks with Sawyer who is still planning their next move. In the present, Sun follows Ben who wants to return to the main island. He takes her to an outrigger but Sun knocks him out and leaves with Frank instead. They go to The Barracks where they meet Christian. Christian shows them that Jack, Kate and Hurley joined the Dharma Initiative in 1977.
The Good: This episode had a lot of really fun plot developments across three different storylines. Watching Sawyer try to find a way to assimilate Kate, Jack and Hurley was really engaging. The story was packed with lovely moments of character reuniting after years apart, showcasing the bonds between these characters. But on top of that, it was tense and exciting to see if this plan would actually work. There are some really nice moments throughout, and I thought that the characters were handled nicely. Jack in particular had a great episode, and I got a laugh out of seeing his reaction when he realizes he's just a janitor. The final scene between Jack and Sawyer (spearheaded by an excellent reunion between Jack and Juliet) was really well written and had a lot of lovely moments (see: Best Moment). The Sayid storyline was more unpredictable and it's the first big problem that we're going to have to see sorted out. Sayid is unlucky enough to be apprehended by Radzinski, and he's found himself in a difficult situation, split up from everyone else, with nobody around to explain anything to him. I love how this wa emphasized throughout the episode with Sayid's shocked look once Jin points a gun at him, and with the glances shared between Sawyer and Sayid as the episode goes on. This storyline has been set up tremendously. Sun had a really good episode too. It was great to see her manipulate Ben for her own needs, showing us a new bit of ruthlessness within her that the season had been hinting at for a while now. Her determination to find Jin gives her story some more emotional weight as well. One of the episode's highlights has to be the spooky sequence in the barracks which felt similar to the amazing cabin scene in "The Man Behind the Curtain". While this wasn't quite on the same level, it was a tense moment and it gave us another encounter with Christian, furthering the mystery of who he is and what his goals are. The Bad: This was pretty much just a transitional episode. Don't get me wrong, it was fun and had a lot of good scenes, but it didn't come together as a complete experience like most other episodes of "Lost" do. The Unknown: We got to meet Radzinski surprisingly. Apparently he is building The Swan. What else will we learn about this? Why didn't Sun go back in time with the rest of the Oceanic Six? What happened to Daniel? Did he die? Why isn't he with Dharma anymore? Is Horace and Amy's baby the Ethan from season 1? That's a surprising reveal. Was he recruited by the others similarly to Ben? The monster was lurking around where Sun and Frank were. Will they encounter it? Why did Christian choose to help them? Who is he exactly? What are his goals? Is Phil suspicious of Sawyer? He gave a strange look towards Jack when he went to meet with Sawyer? What will become of Sayid meeting Ben? Best Moment: The Jack/Sawyer scene at the end had the most emotional weight to it. It's nice to see how both characters have grown. Sawyer has become a real leader while Jack has finally started to value letting things go. It's great to see Sawyer criticize Jack's ineffective leadership style, and to see Jack actually bask in not being in charge anymore. Of course Jack still bickers with Sawyer and gets defensive, because even with his development, he's still the same person. The episode does a nice job of showing change in these characters while still having them feel like the same people. Character of the Episode: Sawyer. Conclusion: This was a really solid episode that moved the story forward. It didn't have the emotional focus of the last three episodes, but there were plenty of great moments here, and I'm even more excited now for what's to come in the rest of the season. Score: 67 Summary: In 1974, Sawyer's group comes across Amy who is about to be murdered y others. Her husband, Paul, has already been killed. They save her and murder the two others. Amy is part of the Dharma Initiative and she takes the group back to the barracks. Sawyer meets Horace and lies about who they are. Horace wants them to leave the island on the sub, but after Sawyer talks to Richard and protects the truce that was almost broken when they murdered the two others, Horace lets them stay. In 1977, Sawyer, going by LaFleur, brings back a drunken Horace, who started tossing dynamite at trees after fighting with Amy, now his wife, about Paul. Amy is pregnant and goes into labour. Sawyer goes to Juliet who delivers the baby successfully. Sawyer gives Horace advice, suggesting that 3 years were enough for Amy to get over Paul. Sawyer returns home and he is now romantically involved with Juliet. Sawyer gets a call from Jin and goes to meet him. He sees that Jack, Kate and Hurley have returned.
The Good: Sawyer's story in this episode is really incredible. What's most impressive is how the emotional core of his story sneaks into the episode in the final 10 minutes, and yet it integrates everything we have seen up until that point in a meaningful way. Sawyer's story in this episode is about moving on and finding a new happy life in the 3 years that the Oceanic Six have been gone. He gets over Kate, falls in love with Juliet in what is a shockingly organic relationship, and cements a new lifestyle that he is content with. The end of the episode is when this story is driven in because we get to see how happy Sawyer is with his new life. His chemistry with Juliet is excellent, and the scene where he essentially asks her to stay for two weeks just for him is really sweet, and it expertly sets up the reveal of their relationship. But the highlight scene is definitely Sawyer's speech to Horace, convincing him that three years is enough to get over somebody. It's a brilliant moment for numerous reasons. For one, it expertly ties together the extended amount of time that this episode spends on Paul, Amy, and Horace, justifying their presence as a situation for Sawyer to personally relate with. But most importantly, this scene shows us how Sawyer has moved on from Kate after she left the island, and that he found real happiness in his life with the Dharma Initiative. Sawyer saying that he hardly remembers what Kate looks like is both really sad and really beautiful. It's a lovely way to encapsulate the very real emotion of moving on. This idea builds until the final moments of the episode as Kate re-enters Sawyer's world and puts his new life with Juliet in serious jeopardy. We're going to see who Sawyer really is with how he handles Kate's return, and that lingering shot of his face at the end of the episode terrifically captures the inner conflict that has just erupted inside of Sawyer. The rest of the episode is quite good outside of Sawyer. I really enjoyed how the episode was structured, and how it slowly revealed information. The story of Amy, Paul and Horace is expertly told across two different time periods, allowing us to understand these characters and their relationships with each other. It's also very entertaining to follow Sawyer's group in 1974 to find out what happens that gets them to join the Dharma Initiative. I really enjoyed seeing Sawyer use his experience in lying and conning to make peace with both Horace and Richard, and the excellent dialogue is a big reason why. This story is enjoyable on its own as you first go through the episode, but the emotional heft of Sawyer's arc elevates it to something more. Some of the other characters get some nice moments. Jeremy Davies does a fantastic job here. His grief for Charlotte feels very real, and the performance is heartbreaking and memorable in every way. Jin being the one to keep searching for Locke makes perfect sense since he's got Sun to get back too. It's fitting that Jin is the only one who wasn't able to settle in with his new life. Juliet gets a lovely little story in this episode as she finally gets to successfully deliver a baby on the island. It's a big moment for her and you can't help but be happy for her. The Bad: One thing I've noticed is that "Lost" does too many birth scenes. Way too many. We've already seen multiple this season, and they are starting to become somewhat tedious and repetitive. The suspense of a birth scene can only be done so many times. The Unknown: How will Sawyer handle Kate's return? Will this cause trouble in his relationship with Juliet? What was the huge statue that Miles saw? Is it the four-toed statue before it was destroyed? Who built it? When? What happened on the island that made it lethal to give birth? Clearly whatever it was hasn't happened yet. How will Sawyer explain the sudden arrivals of Jack, Kate and Hurley? What happened to Daniel? Where is he in 1977? Best Moment: Sawyer's speech to Horace is beautiful and perfectly captures the emotions of moving on in life. Simply beautiful. Character of the Episode: Sawyer. Conclusion: This was a superb character piece and a really interesting and exciting episode of drama. I'm excited to see where the story goes from here. Score: 76 Summary: In flashbacks, Locke wakes up in Tunisia and is found by Widmore. Widmore tells Locke he will help him bring the others back and sends Abaddon to be his driver. Locke visits Sayid, Walt, Hurley and Kate but fails to convince anyone and has his confidence shaken. Locke asks to see Helen but discovers that she died. Abaddon is suddenly shot and killed and while escaping, Locke crashes and is taken to a hospital where he meets Jack, who he also fails to convince. Distraught, and believing he is a failure, Locke decides to commit suicide but is stopped by Ben, who reveals he killed Abaddon. Ben reinforces that Locke is special and talks him out of killing himself, but after Locke reveals that he needs to go see Eloise next, Ben kills him anyways. On the island, Caesar and Ilana investigate the island where they crashed. They discover Locke who has resurrected.
The Good: This episode is the Terry O'Quinn show and he is outstanding. It feels so good to get a successful "Lost" episode that's grounded emotionally in a single character's journey, something that season 5 hasn't done yet. This episode finally gives us that through a really powerful story about Locke, detailing what he went through when he left the island. There's some really brilliant character examination done here, made even better by Terry O'Quinn's performance, and it's combined with some tremendous plot development as we finally get more insight on Ben and Widmore and their motivations. Locke's journey in this episode is beautifully written to deconstruct the faith that he has relied so much on since season 1. The past few seasons have rarely toyed with the idea that Locke might be wrong. Everything seems pointed towards Locke being special and having a huge destiny that he has to live up to an accept. But this episode focuses in the opposite direction by asking us if Locke is even special at all. What if he really is just a lonely old man that crashed on an island? The episode not only asks us this question, but it forces Locke to ask himself this question. And throughout his experiences, Locke slowly starts to believe that maybe he isn't special, and this deconstruction of everything he believes in is so tragic and powerful to watch. It starts with Locke's conversation with Sayid. Locke seems like his usual energetic self when speaking with Sayid, but the conversation doesn't go as planned. Sayid empathizes with Locke and brings up the possibility of him being manipulated (more on this later), an idea that shakes Locke to the core and reminds him of past manipulations involving his father. It doesn't change his mindset yet, but it gets him thinking, something that Terry O'Quinn masterfully articulates to us. The ensuing conversations make it worse and worse for Locke. The talk with Hurley is horrifying as Hurley seems genuinely terrified of both Locke and Abaddon, forcing Locke to really believe that he might be being manipulated. Then his talk with Kate is painful because Kate evidently pities him and doesn't even try to hide that she does. Combined with Sayid's suggestion that Locke only wants to go back to the island to have purpose, Kate's words force Locke to contemplate if he really is just being manipulated into finding some worth in his life when there isn't one. He really starts to believe that he's just some nobody that is giving into his own delusions. You get the sense that Locke had hoped that the others wouldn't have found happiness off the island, and yet they have. So he's unsure of what to do next and he questions if maybe he'd be better off without the island. Which leads to the tragic realization that Helen died, and that Locke could very well have had a good life with her had he not thrown it away for his own obsessions. It's a really sorrowful moment when Locke learns her fate, and you get the sense that Locke believes less and less that he actually is important. This leads to the final conversation with Jack, riddled with the same fire that Jack and Locke have had since the start of the show. And though he tried his best, Locke failed again. And it's Jack that gets Locke to face the cold truth that the entire episode has been building up to: what if you were just a lonely old man that crashed on an island? This takes us to Locke finally attempting suicide. Rather than Locke simply doing what he had to to bring everyone back, this scene had a very unexpected emotion to it. Echoing Abaddon's words earlier in the episode, Locke killing himself felt more like a choice than destiny. He wasn't dying because it was his destiny; he was dying because he was a sad and lonely failure who had nothing in this world to live for. It's brutal, it's sad, and it perfectly encapsulates how depressingly pathetic Locke's life is if he never was anything special. Then, as another brilliant twist, Ben shows up. Ben manages to talk Locke out of suicide, and does something shocking: he gives Locke hope. He reinforces that Locke is special and important, and that he definitely can't die. He gives Locke that hope again and for a little bit it seems like things will be okay for Locke and that his faith is justified. Then Ben gets the little bit of information he needed and he murders Locke. It's a brutal, heartbreaking twist that paints Ben as the manipulative pile of garbage that he is, while capturing real tragedy with Locke's death, having him die so suddenly right after rediscovering his hopeful faith. Locke's death raises the important question of if he was being manipulated in the entire episode, and I think that he was. We know that Ben was manipulating Locke at the end of the episode, and every word of Locke being special was a filthy lie. Ben had no intention of letting Locke return to the island. So once Ben got the information he needed from Locke, he murdered him so that he could be the unquestionable leader of the others once he returned. And Widmore seemed to have been doing the same thing. I really like the idea that Ben and Widmore are two sides of the same coin. They are ruthless, selfish and manipulative and they would do anything to anyone to ensure that they get back to the island so they can lead. Poor Locke seems to have been caught up in this battle, and I think that he spent the entirety of the episode doing Ben and Widmore's bidding so that they could get back to the island instead. That's a really sad realization and one that makes Locke's story feel hopeless and miserable. But what's even more brilliant about this episode is its suggestion that there is still hope. Locke doesn't die here. He's somehow managed to come back to life on the island! And that's where "Lost" gives us hope that the manipulative and hateful nature of Ben and Widmore will not be the successful power in the show. Despite them manipulating Locke and ultimately killing him, Locke does have a destiny. He has been given important tasks by Jacob and it looks like he does have a bigger purpose than just being a lonely old man. The episode proves that by miraculously bringing Locke back to life. I'm very excited to see how death has changed Locke and how he will approach his destiny differently, and how he will handle the forces of Ben and Widmore who will definitely oppose him. On top of this brilliant story for Locke, the episode works really well at tying up a lot of loose ends. With Locke's flashbacks, I think that we have finally seen everything we need to see about characters and their motivations prior to season 5, with all of the gaps in character's individual arcs fulfilled. The only thing I can think of that is missing is the reason why Sayid stopped working for Ben, which I presume will be addressed in a future episode. The Bad: The opening scene takes away a lot of the impact from this episode. Locke's death is well-written, fitting, and horribly sad, but its impact is somewhat nullified by the reveal that Locke comes back to life at the start of the episode. This absolutely should have happened at the very end of the episode as a glimmer of hope. Its position at the start of the episode hurts the emotional journey of the episode by making it tougher to invest in Locke's flashback sequence since we know that he's going to be alright and that his death won't be permanent. Abaddon's death was a huge disappointment. He's been one of the show's most mysterious characters for a while now, and relegating him to just being one of Widmore's guys for a single episode before killing him off is extremely unsatisfying. It also doesn't explain how Abaddon knew about Locke needing to go on a walkabout. It was nice to get answers about who Abaddon is and why he's important, but the answers we got did not live up to the mystery that this character was built up with. Some of the conversations in this episode didn't entirely work. Locke's conversation with Kate felt incredibly awkward and rushed. These two didn't have much of a relationship in the show prior to this, but I did expect more from that scene. The discussion of love aided Locke's storyline, but it should have been told in a more organic fashion. The conversation that Locke and Kate had felt disjointed and should have been longer. I also wasn't pleased with how short Walt and Locke's conversation was. They had a good relationship on the island and it would have been nice to see more from them. I think that it also would have been smart to incorporate Walt in the story a little more, especially with how he's supposed to be special. I expect we'll see more from him later. The Unknown: Who are Caesar and Ilana? Are they just ordinary people caught up in this mess? How did Locke come back to life? Was it the island? He really is special. Did death change him in any way? He doesn't seem to be as bothered by his wavering faith as he was before dying. What does he plan to do with Ben? We learn a lot about Ben and Widmore in this episode but I still have questions. Widmore claims that Ben fooled him into leaving. Why was he exiled? Did Ben set him up? What is the war that Widmore is talking about? Is it the one between him and Ben? Why does Locke have to be back on the island for that? Is this Widmore just manipulating him like Ben claims? Or does he genuinely believe that there is something special about Locke? It would line up with Widmore's motives to use Locke so he can get back to the island. However, we don't know if Widmore operates in the same manipulative way as Ben. The island did bring Locke back to life so it seems that Locke being on the island is very important. But why? And how does this connect back to Jacob? What was Walt's dream about? Was it a vision of Locke being back on the island? Why did people want to hurt him? Who were they? Abaddon said that it's his job to get people where they need to go. What does this mean? How does he knows where people are supposed to go? Is he just working for Widmore? How did he know about the walkabout and Locke needing to go on one to get to the island? There's no way that Widmore knew about that. Best Moment: Ben killing Locke was a surprise, and a nasty culmination to their scene as Ben's actions make it perfectly clear that he and Widmore are just two disgusting people trying to use Locke for their own ends, and Locke dies as a consequence of getting caught in their rivalry. Ben's cold "I'm going to miss you John" after staging the scene to look like suicide is chilling and infuriating. Any time that Ben starts to seem like a better person, he goes and does something irredeemable like this. "Lost" has created a really special character with Ben. Character of the Episode: Locke. Conclusion: After having an inconsistent start to the season with little focus on character, it feels good to see "Lost" deliver two back-to-back episodes with a lot of character focus. While this one is also flawed in a few ways, I think it's a much better experience than "316" and tells a hugely compelling story for Locke while also tying up a lot of plot threads and setting the stage for the rest of season 5. This was a terrific episode, the best of the season so far. Score: 79 Summary: In flashforwards, Desmond furiously leaves once he realizes everyone is trying to get back to the island. Eloise explains that they have to replicate the circumstances of Flight 815 to get back to the island and Jack needs to give Locke something of his father's. Jack goes to see his granddad Ray and gets a pair of his father's boots from him to give to Locke. Kate comes to Jack's place at night, having decided to go back to the island but refuses to say what happened to Aaron. At the airport, Sayid is brought in in handcuffs and Hurley has also managed to find his way there. Ben shows up at the last minute with injuries. The plane takes off and Frank is revealed to be the pilot. The plane crashes, but Jack, Kate and Hurley suddenly find themselves on the island after a flash. They are discovered by Jin wearing a Dharma Initiative uniform.
The Good: Jack's story here was really good. We've gotten used to seeing Jack be the stubborn and logical guy who needs hard proof for everything that he does. Yet "316" pushes him in a way that forces him to grow out of this, accepting faith in the way that Locke always wanted him to. We see Jack's change in a number of great scenes in this episode. For one, we see him accept the ridiculousness of what he has to do to get back to the island. We know that Locke would go along with it without a second thought, but naturally Jack angrily declares how absurd it all is. But he's going through a change, and for the first time we actually see Jack calm himself down and accept something that makes no logical sense. He finally takes that leap of faith and it feels like a huge character moment for him. Additionally, we can see the effect that this change has on Jack for the rest of the episode. When Kate asks Jack to never ask about Aaron, Jack actually agrees and doesn't ever ask her what happened to him. When Hurley and Sayid show up at the airport, Jack is the one who points out how insane it is that they both managed to get to the same flight as if it was destiny. And Jack is the one who almost always asks questions about everything that's going on. For once, we see him remain quiet and not question every little detail. He finally seems to have discovered what destiny means, and is transitioning to being a fervent believer like Locke was. This story is told very well throughout the episode and gives it an emotional core, something that the other episodes in season 5 have been lacking so far. A key aspect that helps Jack go over the edge and start believing is Locke's death. It's great to see Locke's death weigh on Jack even after Jack is off the pills and is actively on his way back to the island. It also gives Matthew Fox a good chance to show off his talent as he portrays Jack's pain and guilt in a very subtle way, as Jack tries to accept what happened to Locke and move on. But of course, Jack can't evade Locke's suicide letter, and the emotional highlight of the episode comes when he finally reads it. The simple message of "I wish you had believed me" is incredibly powerful and perfectly frames the regret and deep sorrow that Jack feels after his stubborn refusal to believe anything that Locke said caused so many bad things to happen (Locke's death, the freighter finding the island, leaving everyone else behind). The episode does a lot of other little things that work really well. The opening sequence is terrific, and watching Jack's return parallel "Pilot Part 1" was a delight. The ending scene is also excellent, and a Dharma Initiative Jin finding his old friends is a perfect cliffhanger that leaves me really excited to see what comes next. As ever, Ben has a lot of nice moments in this episode. His stone-cold "who cares" when Jack questions what will happen to the other passengers was terrific. I also got a good laugh out of Ben saying "my mother taught me" after Jack asks how he can read. It's a good line made funnier when you remember that Ben's mother died in childbirth. Even in innocuous interactions like this, Ben still goes out of his way to lie. Lastly, I really liked Hurley buying out the remaining 78 seats to save lives. It's in-character for Hurley to do something like this and is a good reminder of how good-hearted he is. The Bad: The one huge problem with Jack learning not to ask questions is that we don't get answers for questions that we, the audience, are asking. While Jack not asking questions is good for him, it's horrible for all of us watching because we desperately want to know what is going on. It ends up being incredibly frustrating how important questions go unanswered throughout the episode, and it makes this episode feel incredibly unsatisfactory from a plot perspective. For example, the episode starts with Desmond telling everyone that Eloise is crazy and that she ruined his life and nobody should listen to her. Nobody asks a single question after this to get more clarity. Nothing. It's ridiculous that Jack and Sun don't care to learn more about Eloise, and it's frustrating to get no answers about Eloise after waiting so long to see her reappear in the show. And now with the story shifting back to the island, will we ever get more answers about Eloise? Seeing the Lamp Post was good and answered one question, but we really needed more. Furthermore, Eloise's vague statements got frustrating really quickly. Any time that a character asked her a question or there was a chance for her to explain the importance of what is happening, she deflects the question and dances around a satisfying answer. It gets unbelievably frustrating and it becomes apparent that the writers had no clue how to answer these questions anyways, which is a huge disappointment. We never understand why it's important that everyone has to return and we also don't understand why they have to recreate the circumstances of the first flight. Having some stakes here would have done wonders to get me invested but we get nothing from Eloise. And to cap off the frustration, there's a moment when Jack asks Ben for more clarification, but instead Ben ignores the question and launches into a monologue about Thomas the Apostle. I'm sure that it's thematically significant, but it's ultimately an incredible frustrating moment because of how the writers went out of their way to not answer our questions. While I really liked the opening scene, it hurt the drama of the episode to know that they will return to the island by the end. Instead of being excited when the plane took off, I was readying up for the inevitable. It would have enriched the drama if we didn't already know that everyone will get to the island by the end of the episode. Frank's appearance is a lot of fun, but it's absurd that he wouldn't panic when he realizes that the plane is going back to the island. Surely he would at least try something to prevent going back to the island. The Unknown: Who built the Lamp Post? Why doesn't the Dharma Initiative still use it? When did Eloise take control of it? Why do they have to recreate the circumstances of the first flight? Why not just enter the established window that they can get to the island? If you need specific circumstances to find the island, how do the others travel to the island? What does Eloise mean by saying the effects will be unpredictable if not everybody returns? Why would it be unpredictable? Did Ben kill Desmond or Penny? I'm very concerned after seeing what happened to him. What happened to Kate that made her choose to come back to the island? Where is Aaron? How did Sayid get arrested? Why? Why was he being taken to Guam? How did Hurley find out about the flight? How did he get out of jail? Did he run into Eloise somehow? What is Hurley hiding from Jack? Why did Jack, Kate and Hurley go back in time? Wasn't their return supposed to stop the time travel from happening? Instead they further contributed to it. Was this one of the unpredictable effects Eloise was talking about? What happened to Sun, Sayid and Ben? Did they go back in time too? If not, what happened to them on the plane? Did the plane crash? What happened to Sawyer's group? Are they all members of the Dharma Initiative now? How long have they been there? What time period did Jack, Kate and Hurley show up in? Best Moment: Jack reading Locke's letter. Character of the Episode: Jack. Conclusion: This was a truly mixed episode. I really loved some aspects of it but was disappointed and frustrated by other aspects. In the end it's a solid episode, but one that should have been much better than it was. Score: 64 Summary: In flashforwards, Sun threatens Ben at gunpoint but Ben claims that Jin is still alive and offers Sun proof. Kate realizes Jack still wants to go back to the island and angrily leaves. Ben takes Jack and Sun to meet Eloise and they run into Desmond. On the island, Jin experiences Rousseau's group being attacked by the smoke monster. The group walks into the temple after it and they come back changed. Later, Jin sees Rousseau kill Robert. After another flash, Jin finds Sawyer's group. They continue towards The Orchid, but after a few flashes, Charlotte collapses. Daniel stays behind with her and she dies. Meanwhile, the group finds The Orchid but a flash makes it vanish. They find a well and Locke goes inside of it. Another flash occurs and the well is gone, Locke falls into a cavern. Locke is met by Christian who gives him more instructions. Locke accepts his destiny and corrects the frozen donkey wheel.
The Good: One of the biggest disappointments of season 4 was the anticlimactic death of Rousseau. I was really hoping that one day we would get a centric episode for her. Luckily, that partially materialized in the first half of this episode. Watching Jin experience what happened to Rousseau's crew was tremendous and some of the most entertaining and engaging storytelling that we've gotten out of the time travel aspect of the show so far. The show does a fantastic job of making us understand why Rousseau was so crazy; wouldn't you be after witnessing the insanity that we see in this episode? The scenes with the smoke monster were horrifying and felt like they were straight out of a horror movie. There was so much more mystery introduced in this episode regarding the smoke monster and I'm really excited to learn more about it and the mysterious temple. I'm really glad that we were also shown the moment of Rousseau killing Robert. We've heard her describe the moment before and it was harrowing and brutal. But experiencing it ended up being surprisingly impactful and I really enjoyed that scene. The rest of the island story continued the suspenseful fast pacing of the season. Charlotte's death was an effective dramatic moment and seeing her almost childlike state of ignorance as her brain gets scrambled was horrifying. Daniel's grief after she dies was excellent and gave some power to the moment. The final scenes with Locke were superb. They were mysterious and game-changing in a way that would fit right in with a season finale. It was really powerful to see Locke come to terms with the fact that he's going to have to die. The flashforward story had some excellent scenes too. The drama at the marina lived up to the exciting cliffhanger of the last episode with Kate's anger towards Jack and Sun's anger towards Ben being really well executed. Also, Ben being frustrated after being threatened with death by both Sun and Jack was terrific. It makes me really wonder about Ben's intentions, and there's a nice sense of irony with how Ben is finally trying to do something helpful and is being threatened by the very people he's trying to help. Lastly, I really like how Ben used the wedding ring as proof that Jin is still alive. Locke intended to use it to keep Sun away, but naturally Ben turns it around and uses it to bring Sun back. The Bad: Charlotte never became a fully fleshed out character. As a result, her death was lacking in emotional impact, and I only felt something because of Jeremy Davies' acting. Charlotte deserved to have more screen-time to stand out more as a character. She has to be one of the dullest main cast members in the entire series. This episode doesn't quite work as well as some of the other great episodes of the series. I think part of that is because of how vague the story has been so far. For example, we know that this time travel issue happened "because they left", but why? Why did it happen? And how will bringing them back stop it? I get that this is part of the mystery, but it's difficult to fully engage in the urgency of the story if I don't understand what is at stake. It's also difficult to see how bringing the Oceanic Six back will help everyone else, especially if they are travelling through time. Trying to actually think about the story really ends up hurting your brain and things don't make sense like they should. Another frustrating moment is with Eloise at the end of the episode. In "The Lie" she says that everyone needs to be brought together or "god help us all", yet now she can apparently make do with just Jack and Sun. What????? That makes no sense and it completely destroys the sense of urgency that this storyline had been building. And we never got a concrete answer as to why Ben went after Kate or what his goals were. It would be nice to shed more light on these things instead of leaving us to connect the dots ourselves. This episode does a lot of things right, but unnecessarily leaving things unclear is definitely hurting the show. This was technically a Jin/Sun episode. Unfortunately, the episode was so packed with other events that their story got lost in the shuffle. I thought that the stories of Jin deciding not to bring Sun back, and Sun learning that Jin was still alive were solid, but they was hugely overshadowed by everything else that was happening. The Unknown: I have a seemingly endless list of questions after this one.\\ Why did the smoke monster attack Rousseau's group? What was the goal? Why did it take Montand into the temple? What did it do to him? What did it do to the others? It seems that the monster is what caused the sickness that Rousseau described back in "Solitary". What exactly did it do? We also here Robert say the "security system" line from "Solitary". How does he know it is a security system? Why is it protecting the temple? What is in there? Is this temple the same one that the others use? Does the smoke monster protect them? Is this why Ben was able to summon it back in "The Shape of Things to Come"? I have a ton of questions about this temple, the smoke monster, and its connection to the others. How was Ben keeping everyone safe? Is he referring to murdering Widmore's men? Was Widmore after the Oceanic Six? Why? We know that he likely was responsible for Nadia's death. But why? What is his goal? He's allied with Sun too. How does that tie in to everything? How did Charlotte know about the well? Was she on the island before The Orchid was built? What is the significance of the memory she has of Daniel? Why does he tell her not to come back to the island? Was Daniel grief-stricken and determined to keep her safe? Was he attempting to change time somehow? We know that Daniel will end up with the Dharma Initiative eventually. How does that tie into things? Is Christian aware of all the time travel that's happening? Or was he only able to speak with Locke because he chronologically appeared at The Orchid after his talk with Christian in "Cabin Fever"? How does Christian know about Eloise? How is Eloise connected to this story? Is she Daniel's mother? How does she connect with everything that's going on? What is she going to do with everyone that showed up at the end of the episode? What will happen to Sawyer's group now that Locke has fixed the wheel? Will they be sent back to their time? Or do they have to wait for the Oceanic Six to return for that to happen? Will they get stuck in the past? Perhaps during the Dharma Initiative days? That could explain why Daniel was with them in the opening scene of "Because You Left", Best Moment: Rousseau shooting Robert. It's so tragic to see Robert talk down Rousseau only to try to shoot her anyways. The scene is executed terrifically. Character of the Episode: Rousseau. Conclusion: This episode was really fast-paced and jam-packed with exciting moments and big developments. However, I think there was a bit too much here and a lot of the story didn't get the clarity that it needed. This is still a very good episode, but one that could have used some slowing down. Score: 68 Summary: In flashforwards, Sayid is attacked by somebody with Kate's address. Jack goes to Kate, who is following the lawyer who confronted her. Kate lets Jack get in and they go together. They get nowhere and Jack convinces Kate to meet with him and Sayid at the marina. Sun comes along with Aaron. Kate is angry upon seeing Ben and figures out that the lawyer works for him. On the island, Charlotte wakes up and is okay. The group decides to head back to the beach, and on the way Sawyer witnesses Kate helping Claire give birth. Another flash happens and the beach camp is back. The group finds an outrigger on the beach, likely from another plane crash. They take the outrigger to go around the island, but are attacked on the way. Another flash happens and they get to land. Elsewhere, Rousseau's camp crashes on the island and they find Jin in the water, dehydrated but alive.
The Good: This season has had a sense of urgency in both storylines. The flashforwards have a time limit to get everyone together so the episode has a rush to ensure that everyone is together. On the island, the nosebleeds are becoming a bigger problem, and this provides the urgency in that storyline. Daniel, Locke and the others need to find a way to stop these flashes from happening, and due to the imminent threat, this story is also exciting to watch. "Lost" is using fast pace and urgency really well to make the drama more engaging. The developments in this episode were solid. The island story has some great moments involving the time travel. Sawyer seeing Kate was a surprisingly emotional moment, and I really appreciate how this moment was executed. Sawyer losing Kate has been emphasized really well in this season, and it's sad to see Sawyer try to maintain his tough exterior while going through this pain. It was nice to see how this moment affected Sawyer for the rest of the episode. The time travel also introduced another mystery involving the outriggers, which I'm interested in. I also really laughed at Sawyer's "thank you lord... I take that back!" The flashforward story also had some nice developments. Kate's investigation of Norton was interesting to watch and there was a nice red herring with Claire's mother talking to him. Naturally, the one after Kate was Ben (whenever something happens it's ALWAYS Ben), and it seems like he's been orchestrating something involving the Oceanic Six. Perhaps he's been the one terrorizing them in an attempt to bring them together. This is a really interesting twist and I'm invested in finding out what his plan is. I was glad to see Jack and Kate together again. It's evident that while Kate is upset at him, she does still love him and was happy to see him back in good health (no beard!) and caring for her again. That made the ending scene of the episode more impactful as Kate realizes that Jack may not be reaching out to her to return to her life and that he still wants to go back. This marina scene provides a really exciting set-up for the next episode with Sun seeing Ben and Kate readying to blow up at Jack. The Bad: The one development I don't like is Jin's survival. It's just absurdly unbelievable that Jin would somehow have survived this long in the water. Furthermore, he was right in the middle of the explosion that sunk the freighter. How can you propose that he survived that? Also, it must be incredibly lucky for Jin to be travelling through time along with everyone else, especially seeing how far away he was from the island. There are a few too many contrivances here for Jin's survival to be a good reveal. This episode doesn't feel coherent in a way that all of the great "Lost" episodes are. Season 5 seems to have done away with having character-centric episodes to the same degree as the last 4 seasons, and that hurts an episode like this one. While the story progression is good, this episode is not a memorable standalone experience. While that definitely doesn't make this episode bad, it holds it back from being better. The Unknown: Who was the man in the hospital working for? Was he also sent by Ben? I don't see how anybody else would know where Sayid was except for Ben. I think it's likely that all the attacks were orchestrated by Ben. It doesn't make sense for others to be after the Oceanic Six. It seems that both Miles and Charlotte have been on the island before. Could this be why both of them were chosen by Widmore to be part of the science team on the freighter? Who left the outriggers? And who started shooting from the other outrigger? Apparently this was from the airline Ajira. Will we see another plane crash before the series ends? Could this be the airline that brings the Oceanic Six back to the island? Jin interacting with Rousseau was a huge surprise and a delight. But how is it that Rousseau doesn't remember him? Of course I can't blame her for forgetting Jin's face after 16 years. But I wonder if there's another reason. Will we see what happened to Rousseau's team after they landed on the island? Is Sun going to try to kill Ben? What will happen next? Best Moment: Sawyer seeing Kate again was a really powerful scene and I love the impact that it had on him for the rest of the episode. Character of the Episode: Sawyer. Conclusion: This episode had more strong story progression, but it doesn't do a whole lot to stand out. In the end, it's a solid but unspectacular episode. Score: 65 Summary: In flashforwards, Desmond goes to Oxford to find Daniel's mother but finds that all records of Daniel have been wiped from the institute. Desmond is directed to visit Theresa, a girl who Daniel left in a catatonic state. Desmond learns that Widmore funded Daniel's research and learns from him that Daniel's mother is in LA. He and Penny decide to go there. On the island, Juliet determines that the people who attacked them are the others. Daniel, Miles and Charlotte are captured by one of them, Ellie. The others think that they are US soldiers and Daniel goes along with it. He discovers that the soldiers left a hydrogen bomb on the island and that they were killed after refusing to leave. Daniel is taken to the bomb by Ellie since he claims he can disable it. Daniel tells Ellie to bury the bomb. Sawyer and Juliet arrive to save Daniel. Locke enters the camp and speaks with Richard but doesn't get anything useful out of him. The time jumps again and the others' camp is gone. Charlotte has a deadly nosebleed and falls unconscious, possibly dying.
The Good: Desmond's story is disconnected from the rest of the episode but it's still really engaging. For the most part, it starts as a mysterious exploration of Daniel's past, with Desmond learning more and more shady details about Daniel's time in Oxford. The mystery is developed really well, and the scenes with Desmond are good. What was missing was the emotional aspect, and I was worried that Desmond would be a simple bystander in his own episode. But the mention of Widmore completely turned that on its head, and it eventually became clear that this episode was about Desmond overcoming his own cowardice to confront Widmore to save the people on the island. The confrontation with Widmore is a terrific scene with Desmond taking control of the conversation to get what he needs. Widmore's response suggests that he does respect this response, and I was surprised to see genuine concern from him regarding Penny. Clearly Widmore is scared of the threat that Ben poses to her. That confrontation was a really suspenseful and well-written scene that served as a strong climax for Desmond's story. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The island story is superb, and it's dripping with tension and mystery. What impressed me the most is the pacing, which has been outstanding since season 4 started. This was particularly exceptional though. The slow reveal of the story with the others fighting against US soldiers who left a bomb on the island was perfectly paced to make every small reveal have an impact on us. Moments like Daniel bringing up the hydrogen bomb, Juliet determining the two men are others, and Locke learning that the man he's been hunting is Widmore were a delight to watch. I'm also very pleased to see the time travel being used to resolve some loose threads remaining in the series. We know that the US army is involved with the others because of the army knofe from "The Other 48 Days", and it was so satisfying to see that built into a complete storyline that also gives us some fascinating insight into the history of the others, something that I hope we will learn much more about in these final two seasons. It was also nice to get confirmation that there is a process in choosing the next leader of the others, and even though all the little details likely don't line up with previous seasons, it's good to get some idea of how the others function, especially with how badly season 3 failed at giving us concrete answers about the others. Surprisingly, this episode doesn't have much emotional resonance, which is rare for "Lost". But even without that, this still managed to be terrific because of how satisfying it was to watch. We know and love all the characters in this episode, and they have been written very well since the start of the series. Because of that, "Lost" is able to do a fast-paced plot-heavy episode with tremendous success because if you are still watching at this point, you are already invested in everything that is happening. Without actively having a reason to emotionally engage, we are somehow able to be invested in what's happening anyways. It's a testament to the success of this show that an episode like this is so engaging and so much fun to watch without having a particularly compelling emotional core. I was still utterly fascinated by Locke's conversation with Richard, Daniel's investigation of the bomb and the ending moments of the episode as Charlotte potentially seems to have died. These dramatic moments were elevated to a higher level because "Lost" has been so consistently surprising and interesting for four seasons straight now. Having a consistent high quality always pays dividends when you get to the later episodes of a TV show and this is a prime example of that. The Bad: The one weak aspect of this story is Daniel's romance with Charlotte. Charlotte still hasn't been properly fleshed out as a character (likely an unfortunate consequence of the shortened season 4) so it's difficult to understand her or what her relationship with Daniel is. As a result, I can't properly buy into Daniel's love for her as an emotional beat in the story. It makes moments like Daniel's confession of love and the horrifying final scene less powerful than they could have been. I wish that Charlotte had been given more time to develop as a character in the last season. The Unknown: What happens to the bomb? Do the others bury it like Daniel said they should? What did Daniel do to Theresa? Why did he immediately leave afterwards? Does this have something to do wiith why he was a "head case"? Why was Widmore invovled with funding his research? Did Widmore put him up to the task? Is this why Daniel was on the boat? He's Widmore's scientist? Why does Ellie remind Daniel of somebody? Does he know who she is? Will Penny's choice to go with Desmond be a terrible idea? We know Ben wants to kill her and he is in LA. Is Charlotte dead? Best Moment: Desmond's scene with Widmore. Character of the Episode: Daniel. Even though this was a Desmond episode, Daniel was at the center of everything. Conclusion: This was a superbly paced episode, and one that delivers hugely because of how good "Lost" has been up until this point. This was really gripping to watch and I enjoyed every second of it. Score: 73 Summary: In the flashforwards, Hurley takes Sayid to his house to protect him and explains things to his parents who half understand. Sayid is taken to Jack who helps him recover. Jack sends Ben to pick up Hurley, but Hurley is terrified and turns himself into the cops. Ben visits the lady from "Flashes Before Your Eyes" and is given 70 hours to gather everyone to go back to the island. Kate speaks with Sun who has returned to LA. On the island, the survivors try to start a fire to have food but struggle. Suddenly, they are attacked by flaming arrows and scatter into the jungle. Juliet and Sawyer stay together but are accosted by two men in US army uniforms. Juliet's hand is almost chopped off but Locke arrives and saves them.
The Good: Hurley is of course the stand-out of the episode and a lot of the content surrounding him is quite good. The scenes of him on the run are wacky fun in true Hurley style, and I especially enjoyed the silly yet suspenseful scene in the convenience store. We also get a nice cameo from Ana Lucia as Hurley's visions manifest to get him to find a way to save Sayid. Naturally it all goes back to his relationship with his parents, who have been key figures in Hurley's previous episodes. The stories that Hurley tells sound so obviously insane (see: Best Moment), and there is likely no reason at all for his parents to believe him or help him. But it's telling that they do try to help him out, and it says a lot about their relationship with Hurley. It feels refreshing to see good, caring parents for once in "Lost". The end of the episode leads up to a terrific moment as Hurley is confronted by Ben (and comically throws a hot pocket at him). Ben, as ever, puts on a compelling argument and for once we're actually siding with him because Ben will genuinely help Hurley here. But Hurley heeds Sayid's warning, and in a brilliant moment, he refuses to listen to a word that Ben says and lets himself get arrested, grinning giddily at Ben as he's taken away. It's an excellent moment, and a surprising twist in the story. I also really liked Kate and Sun's meeting. Sun has changed into a more hardened character and she's become really fascinating to watch. I like the detail that she remembered how Kate was supposed to go get Jin but she never did. That was something I completely forgot about, but it makes perfect sense that Sun would remember this and feel bitter about it. I think that Sun absolving Kate of this and forgiving her was a beautiful moment. I also really like how Sun commanded their conversation the entire time. She has changed significantly and I'm excited to see how big of a role she will have in the story going forwards. The Bad: The stuff on the island in this episode didn't quite do it for me. Neil came right out of nowhere to suddenly exist, all to have a comically terrible death scene mere minutes after his introduction. I understand that he was in the "Lost" webisodes, but to shoehorn him into the show so sloppily and kill him off cheaply is really bad. I also wasn't a huge fan of the flaming arrow attack since it seemed unfeasibly well coordinated, and also incredibly dangerous seeing that these arrows were being fired into the jungle. The issue with the flashforward storyline is that not much actually happened in this episode. It was very much an in-between episode to set up future events. The writers tried to give it some added stakes with the focus on Hurley's regret about lying, but a problem emerges because we don't know why Hurley regrets lying so much. It's treated like a huge deal, but I just don't buy that Hurley is so torn up about lying and why it was so difficult for him. The story feels remarkably shallow and it isn't enough to center a character-centric episode on. The final scene was unfortunately quite frustrating. It's a big reveal to see the lady from "Flashes Before Your Eyes" again, but the scene is ruined by a lot of unnecessary vagueness. Ben asks what will happen if he doesn't get the Oceanic Six together in 70 hours and the only answer we get is "god help us all". But... why???? The show isn't telling us any stakes and is instead replacing stakes with unnecessary mystery, and that badly damages my emotional investment in this storyline. This episode had a lot of unnecessarily vague dialogue when we should have been getting answers, and I found that to be very frustrating. The Unknown: Was the Ana Lucia vision just another manifestation of Hurley's craziness, or was it something else? Who is the person going after Kate? Who would only want to take Aaron from her without it going public? How is Ben going to get Hurley out of prison? Also, who is Jill? Is she one of the others? Ben alludes to other people checking in, so it's clear that he's planning something. What is he up to? Who is the mysterious lady from "Flashes Before Your Eyes"? Where is she? What is the facility that she is in? I noticed a Dharma Initiative logo in there. Does she work for Dharma? Also, what is the huge pendulum thing? It seems to be marking a location. Is she locating the island? Who fired the flaming arrows? Was it these mysterious army men that captured Sawyer and Juliet? Are they US military? Why did they claim that the island was theirs? Was this before the others arrived? Or did the others originate as US military soldiers? Best Moment: Hurley telling his story about what happened on the island. It's all true, but "Lost" does a terrific job of showcasing how insane Hurley sounds as he tells this story. It's a sweet moment when his mother chooses to believe him rather than betray him to the police. Character of the Episode: Hurley. Conclusion: This episode had some good aspects but it's bogged down by some silly writing and the sense that this is all just set-up with a rather flat character-centric story for Hurley slapped on top. It's entertaining to watch, but well below the standards for "Lost". Score: 60 Summary: The opening scene shows Dr. Marvin Candle responding to an incident in The Orchid concerning time travel. Daniel is there. In flashforwards, Jack and Ben arrange to contact everyone. Sun meets with Widmore. Kate is contacted by a lawyer who wants a blood sample of her and Aaron so she runs away. Hurley and Sayid are on the run and they are attacked at their safehouse. Sayid is shot by a dart and goes unconscious. On the island, the beach camp has vanished. Daniel explains to everyone that they are all likely skipping through time randomly. A flash of light occurs every time they are whisked to a new time period. The group goes to the hatch and Sawyer tries to contact Desmond but it doesn't work. The group decides to head back to the beach. Daniel has an idea and manages to contact Desmond, telling him he's special. Daniel tasks Desmond with going to find his mother in Oxford. In the present, Desmond wakes up and remembers this, choosing to go to Oxford. Locke is also skipping through time, but Richard and the others are not. He sees the Beechcraft crash and is shot in the leg by Ethan before time jumping again. He is met by Richard who tells him that he needs to bring back everyone who left and that he needs to die to accomplish this.
The Good: The pacing of this episode reminds me of the excellent "Confirmed Dead" from last season. There's a lot going on in this episode, and the pacing is superb, making this feel like a pure thrill ride and the plot for season 5 gets kicked into motion. The island story is excellent. Implementing time travel is always a big risk, but "Lost" is so far doing it really well by establishing set rules and following them. Daniel is used perfectly here to give out explanations and simplify time travel for anybody that gets confused, and Jeremy Davies' eccentric performance adds a lot to these expository scenes. I'm really excited by the implementation of time travel since I do enjoy sci-fi, and this is an excellent way for the show to adapt and give us some answers about the history of the island and its inhabitants. I hope that the potential of time travel is utilized properly. The writers do well to not allow the time travel to completely take over the episode. Even though much of this episode works as exposition, there is still a very dramatic story being told here. Sawyer's presence adds some much needed emotion as he's forced to come to terms with everyone on the helicopter likely being dead after going to the freighter. As ever, Sawyer is really compelling here, and his anger throughout the episode feels justified. There is also a level of tension that comes up towards the end of the episode as Charlotte experiences a nose-bleed. Nobody seems to panic (except Daniel), but of course we know how serious this is after watching "The Constant", and it seems like the time skipping needs to be stopped soon or there will be deaths. This is an excellent source of constant tension that will likely elevate the suspense of the island scenes in coming episodes. I also really appreciated the subversion away from the rules of time travel at the end of the episode. It's always difficult to find a way to make time travel dramatic, but "Lost" accomplishes this through the use of Desmond who is considered to be special (likely because of his experiences in "Flashes Before Your Eyes" and "The Constant"). Sure, not everything makes perfect sense with Daniel talking to Desmond, but there always has to be a certain level of suspension of disbelief in time travel stories, so I don't think that it is an issue. Locke's scenes are really well done. We can already see the potential of time travel in action here as we get to actually see the Beechcraft crash onto the island, and there's also a fantastic cameo from Ethan, who is the latest to be responsible for another leg injury for Locke. These scenes don't add a whole lot to the story, but they are essential for easing us in to the idea of time travel and the kind of situations that could potentially pop up in this season. Another excellent scene is the meeting with Richard, which raises plenty of questions (see: The Unknown). There is so much mystery here and their conversation is written in a way that really fascinates us into asking questions to find out where the story is going without giving too much away. The scenes in the flashforwards are pretty solid too. It's mostly just set-up for the rest of the season, but the content here is enjoyable to watch. Jack and Ben are just setting out to contact everyone, yet the hilarious irony is that everyone else is making it perfectly clear that they want nothing to do with Ben. It was awesome seeing another nicely choreographed Sayid fight. The opening scene of the episode was superb. While its become customary for "Lost" to surprise us in its season premiers, I was still thrilled by the reveals that we got in this scene. I was overjoyed to finally get a glimpse into the Dharma Initiative for the first time since "The Man Behind the Curtain", and the reveal that time travel would be a significant plot point of the season had me grinning from ear to ear. Daniel's presence raises tons of questions, and it doesn't give too much away. It's a perfect reveal to kick off the season, and I'm really excited to find out how and why he ends up working at the Dharma Initiative. The Bad: This episode is hurt by the fact that it has no centric characters, so the emotional core isn't there. The craziness of the plot makes up for much of this, but that level of emotional engagement is noticeably missing and it prevents this episode from being better. If Ethan met Locke before he crashed on the island, why didn't he remember him? Are we really supposed to believe that he just forgot? Or that he didn't mention this experience to anybody else? This seems inconsistent. The Unknown: Why is Daniel working at Dharma? What is his goal? Did the Dharma Initiative succeed at manipulating time? It seems that the frozen donkey wheel was there before the Dharma Initiative got to the island. Who put it there? What other time periods will we explore while the island is skipping through time? What will be revealed to us from these time periods? Why does Sun want to kill Ben? Is he the second person she blames for Jin's death? Why? She shouldn't know about how Ben killed Keamy to detonate the bomb. Did Locke tell her this? Who are the men that are trying to kill Sayid and Hurley? Who do they work for? Widmore? Ben? Somebody else? Is Desmond special because of his exposure to electromagnetism or is it something else? To what extent can he break the rules of time travel? How did Richard know all of these things to tell Locke? Like the bullet, and Locke needing to die to brign everyone back to the island. Does Richard have time-travelling powers that make him aware to it, similar to the mysterious lady from "Flashes Before Your Eyes"? Or is something else going on. Could this have happened because it's Richard from the future telling this to Locke? What is the significance of that compass? Best Moment: The opening scene gave me chills and it sets up the season perfectly. Character of the Episode: Daniel. Conclusion: This was a plot-driven sci-fi episode that had a lot of surprising and exciting developments that set the stage for the rest of the season. The emotional edge was missing, but I can't ask for a more exciting platform for season 5. Score: 70 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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