Summary: In the flash-sideways, Kate escapes in the taxi and abandons Claire after stealing her stuff. After removing her handcuffs, Kate realizes Claire was pregnant, and after feeling bad, she returns to her. Kate helps Claire out and takes her to the hospital when she has a false labour. On the island, Dogen learns what happened to Sayid and runs some tests on him which involve torture. They tell Jack he is sick and tell him to give Sayid a pill. Jack refuses and swallows it himself, but Dogen forces it out of him, revealing that it's poison. He tells him Sayid has been "claimed" and that this will corrupt him. Sawyer leaves the temple, and Kate and Jin go after him with Aldo and Justin. Kate knocks them out and continues on her own. She finds Sawyer at the barracks but isn't able to get much out of him in his grief. Jin heads back to the temple but Aldo and Justin find him. Aldo prepares to kill him but he's shot by Claire.
The Good: This episode had some engaging parts. The temple storyline remains very interesting. The mystery of what happened to Sayid was explored nicely, and I'm glad that Sayid resurrecting was treated like a huge deal. The episode builds up a lot to the Jack/Dogen scene towards the end where Dogen reveals everything he knows about what happened to Sayid, suggesting that we might finally get to see the "sickness" that Rousseau talked about back in "Solitary", one of the show's longest running mysteries. The scenes between Jack and Dogen were also really well done. Dogen was frustrating at first (see: The Bad), but he's growing as a character and the final scenes made him much more interesting than he initially seemed. Jack had a really good episode full of decisions as he debates what to do with the pill. His decision to take it himself to force Dogen's hand was an excellent moment and was suitably dramatic. Sawyer continues to be really compelling. His grief is heartbreaking to see, and the reveal that he planned to marry Juliet was really sad. Kate gets some good scenes too when she realizes how broken Sawyer is and that there's nothing that she can do to help him. I liked the build-up to the Claire reveal. The traps set all over the place built up some interest and the ending scene where she appears and ruthlessly kills Aldo was a huge surprise. Its been a long time since we've seen Claire, and with her apparently having been "claimed", I'm sure that she's going to feel like a very different person now. The cliffhanger works so well because you can't help but get excited to see how Claire has changed. We got some more lovely references in the flash-sideways. Seeing Ethan as the doctor (and using his real last name Goodspeed) was a delight, and we got a terrific line when he tells Claire he doesn't want to unnecessarily stick her with needles if he doesn't have to. The Bad: This episode feels like it is killing time. There isn't much happening here that is compelling, and I found myself wishing that the episode pick up the pace so we could move on to more interesting things. It doesn't help that this is a Kate episode, since Kate has always been one of the least compelling characters on the show. There wasn't anything interesting done with her in the entire episode, and all of the most interesting moments involved Jack or Sawyer instead of her. The vagueness of the others really annoyed me for much of the episode. We should have learned about Sayid's situation very early in the episode, but instead we have to sit through what felt like endless scenes of Dogen and his translator making vague statements about infection and medicine, not explaining important details oto anybody. It's so frustrating because the lack of communication is done for no reason other than to hide details from the viewers, because it makes no sense that Dogen doesn't reveal what he knows to Jack in order to get Jack to trust him. Furthermore, if Jack's group is so important, why doesn't Dogen share what he knows with them so that they understand the situation they are in? It makes no sense that he keeps so much secret. This kind of frustration feels a lot like early season 3, which I thought the writers had learned from. I'm not pleased to see them making the same mistakes again. The flash-sideways story was a nice story of bonding for Kate and Claire but it made no sense. Your telling me that Claire is seriously going to confide in a criminal who hijacked a taxi and threatened her at gunpoint just because she felt lonely? Seriously? Anyone in her shoes would be terrified of Kate! I can't buy into them forming a bond because Claire should be terrified to be with her after what she did at the start of the episode. Furthermore, how is it that nobody called the cops on Kate? Claire didn't call them, and neither did that taxi driver since Kate is miraculously able to keep using that taxi without arousing suspicion. There is so much ridiculousness in this storyline that it becomes impossible to take it seriously. Furthermore, I'm not convinced that this flash-sideways world is any more than just silly Easter eggs and references. There hasn't been anything yet to convince me that this is a story that is worth telling. Some other small things bothered me. It was cool seeing Aldo again but he was so needlessly aggravating in a way that made me not enjoy his presence at all. Jin's choice to return to the temple perplexed me. Sun isn't there! Why wouldn't he want to get away so that he could look for her on his own? You can see the writer's fingerprints all over Jin's decision to go back. There was no logical reason for the character to return, he only did because it was needed for the story. I feel like I've seen Sayid get tortured 100 times in this show. I think it was done to parallel "Solitary" in this episode, but it feels so repetitive since the irony of the torturer being tortured has happened so much now. The Unknown: Why is it so important that the group stays in the temple? Why is it so bad if some of them leave? What is this infection that Sayid has? Is it the same thing that happened to Rousseau's team? How is this going to affect Sayid? Is the person we are seeing even Sayid anymore? How will he change? Apparently the same thing happened to Claire too. How? Do you have to die in order to be "claimed"? Is this MIB's work or is it unrelated? Is there a connection between the two timelines? Kate lingered on Jack for a while as if she knew she remembered him, and Claire's statement that she just knew the baby's name would be Aaron is a little strange. Best Moment: Sawyer talking about Juliet's death on the dock and accepting responsibility for it was really sad. The way that Sawyer has changed throughout the seasons after key moments in his life has been really impressive. He's definitely one of the best written characters on the show. Character of the Episode: Sawyer. Conclusion: This was a weak and frustrating episode in a lot of ways. There were good scenes, but not enough to distract from the fundamental problems. I expect a lot more from "Lost". Score: 53
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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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