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
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
|