Summary: Flashbacks show that Locke found a new community after leaving Helen that has helped him find peace. He picks up Eddie, a hitchhiker, and introduces him to the community, who are illegal weed growers. Eddie turns out to be a cop, and Locke ends up ruining the community by bringing him in. On the island, Locke wakes up unable to talk. With Charlie's help, he builds a sweat lodge and receives a vision from the island telling him to save Eko who has been captured by a polar bear. With Charlie's help, Locke saves Eko and brings him back to the camp. Hurley also returns and finds a naked Desmond who seems to have had a premonition about Locke. Locke returns to camp with Eko and Charlie and announces that they are going to work to bring back Jack, Kate and Sawyer.
The Good: This is an effective reset episode for Locke. After losing his way last season, this episode fulfills its purpose of restoring Locke's faith and having him return to being the wise leader he was looking to become at the end of season 1. The story is well done and has plenty of island mystique to go along with Locke's mission to save Eko. Charlie has a pretty good episode too. He's consistently funny and I enjoyed watching his utter disdain for Locke as he throws out sarcastic replies to almost everything. I don't like that Charlie has been made into such a prick, but I do commend the writers for going along with the direction they sent his character instead of inexplicably returning Charlie to his season 1 self. I really liked the editing in this episode. A lot of this episode was shot very well and a couple sequences strike me as particularly effective. The opening moments of the episode obviously paralleled the opening moments of "Pilot Part 1", which nicely symbolized how this moment was like a rebirth for Locke. I thought that the scene was filmed perfectly to reflect this feeling and it conveyed the point of this episode perfectly. I absolutely loved the sweat lodge/airport sequence with Boone. "Lost" is really good at these dream sequences and I think that this one is the best one we have seen so far (see: Best Moment). The Bad: The polar bear threat didn't work for me. After such an exciting start to the episode, it felt disappointing to have the main dramatic hook be saving Eko from a polar bear, something that feels extremely irrelevant after all that has transpired in recent times. I never felt like anyone was in danger throughout the episode and the tension was never up to par. It also doesn't help that the few shots that showed the polar bear were quite atrocious. The flashbacks also failed pretty badly for me. The whole story was completely uninteresting to watch, and now that it's over, I still don't know what purpose it serves in the long run. It's just another case of Locke putting his faith in something only to be let down. The only "twist" this time is that Locke tries to clean up his own mess. The story does mirror the island story in some parts which I give it credit for, but it completely fails at creating a story that is worth telling. We don't learn anything new about Locke from this, making this flashbacks feel meaningless and unnecessary. In the end this episode falls victim to the biggest problems that flashbacks cause: disjointed pacing, repetitive storytelling, and a decrease in suspense and overall interest in the story. It's a shame because "Lost" is usually so good at avoiding these trappings. The complete lack of concern from the camp regarding everything that happened continues to bother me. Nobody cares enough to ask Locke where he has been or what has happened, and it feels so awkward. Furthermore we see Hurley arrive in camp and nobody even asks him what happened to everyone else. Then when Hurley finally reveals what happened (why didn't he just tell everyone immediately????), people have the nerve to get angry at him for not telling them. Well why don't you guys just ask him yourselves! The people in the camp completely fail to behave like normal humans in this episode and it is frustrating to see. As a final quibble, Locke nearly kills Hurley in this episode yet it is brushed off like nothing happened. The Unknown: How and why did Locke lose his voice? Was this a test from the island, similar to when he lost the ability to walk back in "Deus Ex Machina". Did Desmond get a vision from the island about Locke's speech? He definitely had a premonition of some kind based off of his comments to Hurley. Does Desmond have a connection to the island now? How did this happen? And why? I'm curious to learn more about this. We see another case of somebody being possessed while unconscious. First it was Sawyer back in "What Kate Did" and now it's Eko. How does this keep happening? What is causing it? Is it the island? Best Moment: Boone appears to Locke in the sweat lodge and wheels him around in a wheelchair in an airport. The scene is shot superbly well to feel dreamlike and strange, creating a fantastic atmosphere. And then we are treated to some wonderful pieces of visual storytelling as all of the main characters are shown in situations reflecting their current positions on the island. The scene is done so artfully and the strangeness in its presentation makes it impossible to look away, and immensely satisfying to experience. Character of the Episode: Locke. Conclusion: This episode has a purpose and it accomplishes that purpose. Unfortunately, the episode doesn't do much else to wow me and is a fairly ordinary episode overall. Score: 57
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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