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
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|