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
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
|