Summary: In the flashsideways, Locke is rushed to the hospital alongside Sun. Sawyer interrogates Kate, and gets a lead on a suspect for a shooting: Sayid. Sawyer and Miles go to his house and arrest him. Desmond runs into Claire and gets her to meet a lawyer, Ilana. Ilana recognizes Claire as the mysterious person on Christian's will and introduces her to Jack. Jack suddenly gets a call from the hospital and goes in to operate on a patient: Locke. On the island, Jack finally meets MIB and confirms that the vision of his father was in fact MIB. Jakc agrees to work with MIB for the moment. Zoe arrives and demands MIB return Desmond. She has the camp fire off a mortar strike as a threat. MIB plans to storm Hydra Island and tells Sawyer to get the boat. Sawyer takes Kate and leaves instructions for all of the others to separate from MIB and meet up at a dock so they can escape on the boat. Jack gets everyone to sneak away, but leaves Claire and Sayid behind as they can't be trusted. Claire follows them and is upset, but Kate convinces her to go with them. MIB sends Sayid to kill Desmond, and it is unclear if he goes through with it. The boat goes to Hydra Island, but Jack changes his mind and decides to go back, unwilling to leave the island. Upon reaching Hydra Island, Jin and Sun reunite. Widmore decides to capture everyone instead of letting them go. Widmore fires mortar strikes at MIB's camp. MIB sneaks into the jungle with Jack.
The Good: This was an in-between episode that seems to connect the slow-paced middle of the season with the final stretch of the season. It did its job effectively and there were plenty of developments and great moments in this episode that I enjoyed. Just about every character received some good scenes. I thought Desmond's argument to convince Sayid not to shoot him was superbly written and it fits with Sayid's story. I do wish that Sayid had been handled better in recent episodes to make this moment even more meaningful (see: The Bad), but on its own it is a terrific scene. I also really liked Jack's conversation with MIB, and it felt like Jack was sizing up what his purpose is on the island. I was glad to see Jack asking if MIB was Christian, and it is sensible that Jack would connect that MIB would take the appearance of other dead people as well as Locke. Jack's decision later in the episode to jump off the boat is another brilliant moment that was executed really well (see: Best Moment). It was good drama watching Sawyer enact his plan to get everyone off the island, and Jack choosing to stay behind is the perfect climax for this story. Lastly, I was pleased to see Jin and Sun finally reunite, even if the scene wasn't as good as I was hoping (see: The Bad). The flashsideways story is finally picking up some momentum now. Not having a centric character helped the flashsideways finally pick up some momentum. Recent episodes (barring "Happily Ever After") have had a strong feeling of filler in the flashsideways, and it has felt like the story isn't heading anywhere worthwhile. But that changed in this episode. The characters have intersected in a number of really interesting ways, and it's fun to watch these many encounters. From Jack operating on Locke to Sawyer arresting Sayid, there were plenty of joyful ways that characters intersected with each other. Plus, we got some really delightful moments. Sawyer talking up Kate was a delight and a throwback to their interactions in the earlier seasons. I also really liked seeing Desmond following Claire, trying to lead her to meet Ilana. He was so unintentionally creepy, and Claire's increasing awkwardness and fear was genuinely funny to watch. The Bad: A lot of the characters' journeys to get to this point in the season have been botched, and that took away a lot from this episode. I think the biggest example is Sayid, who has hardly done anything since his turn to the dark side in "Sundown". It's remarkable that 7 episodes after his turn, we still have no context on what this means for him. Is he actually infected? Can he be saved from this? Is he even capable of being human anymore? Is he the same Sayid as before? And of course, how did he come back to life? None of these questions have been answered, and that has caused me to disconnect with Sayid as a character. We need to see what has happened to him, we can't just be told vaguely that he's evil now. I'm not sure of what to make of Desmond persuading Sayid because I'm so disconnected from Sayid. I don't have any idea if Sayid is capable of being redeemed, and that prevents me from buying into the idea of Sayid sparing Desmond's life. As a result, the moment completely lacks emotional impact, and the excellent writing of the scene is wasted. We need more clarity on the character of Sayid for his story to be impactful. Claire is another character whose story is suffering badly. I'm stunned that we haven't been given a centric episode for her yet, especially since we still haven't found out what happened to her after she was taken by Christian in season 4. Just like Sayid, the character of Claire is so painfully unclear, and that is preventing me from emotionally engaging with her. One key moment is Claire's acknowledgement that she knows MIB is also Christian. This feels so strange because in "Lighthouse" she had implied that she thought that MIB (she calls him "my friend") was different from her father. But now she suddenly seems to understand that they are the same? This doesn't make any sense and I'm not sure what to feel. Furthermore, Claire says that she completely trusts MIB, and yet she leaves alongside Kate and the others immediately after. That's horrible character writing, and I've been thoroughly unsatisfied with how Claire has been handled this season. And as the cherry on top for the poor handling of Sayid and Claire, everybody else is willing to leave them on the island with MIB without a second thought. Claire is a bit more excusable since she has gone crazy, but abandoning Sayid so suddenly after all that they have been through together is tough to buy into. You would think that Hurley at the very least would make a case for saving Sayid. Instead they just claim that "he's changed", and use that as grounds to abandon him. That is awful, and it perfectly highlights how poorly the writers have handled both Sayid and Claire. I was disappointed by Jin and Sun's reunion. They have been apart for 2 seasons now, and both character's development has been stunted because of their separation. So the moment they reunited needed to be a seminal moment to justify the last two seasons. And it really wasn't. In what world do they reunite as a throwaway scene at the end of a set-up episode? This should absolutely have happened at the end of a Jin/Sun episode so that we could really feel the emotion as they reunite. This reunion would have been far better off if it had happened in "The Package" instead. Furthermore, Sun suddenly remembering English made me roll my eyes. What a stupid moment. Who thought it was a good idea to have Sun lose the ability to speak for this pathetic pay-off moment? Their reunion is emotional enough, we don't need any other nonsensical tropes in this moment. Lastly, I was bothered by the fact that they were both speaking English. Sun has no reason to believe that Jin speaks fluent English. They should absolutely have been speaking Korean with each other. There were some other little things that bothered me. In the flashsideways, Desmond is still way too mysterious for me to connect with his story. There's no way that he knew that attempting to murder Locke would put him in Jack's care, yet that's the implication that the story gives. Furthermore, there's no way that he would be lucky enough that Claire would go to the exact building where Ilana just happens to be working. Also, Ilana's cameo has to be one of the show's weakest. She hardly even feels like herself and that perfectly encapsulates how weak of a character she was. Lastly, Jack learning that Claire is his half-sister did not work at all. The issue is that we have already seen this exact same scene happen before in the other timeline. Seeing it again in a different scenario went into some uncanny valley territory, and it made me feel really weird and uncomfortable. The Unknown: Did Sayid kill Desmond? I highly doubt it. MIB tells Jack that for his plan to work the way he intended, he needed Locke to be brought back to the island. Eloise was the one that told Jack that Locke had to be brought back. Does this mean that Eloise is working with MIB? Or is it just a coincidence? Why was Sun screaming "it's him" about Locke? Is she remembering him as MIB? Claire tells Jack that "you decided the moment you let [MIB] talk to you". This is in-line with Dogen telling Sayid that he has to kill MIB before he talks. Is this just a neat parallel, or is it suggesting that MIB does have some magical powers of persuasion? We still aren't entirely sure what he is capable of. Was MIB actually the one that brought Sayid back to life? How did he do this? Does MIB actually want the candidates to leave? Why is it so important for him? I suspect that he is manipulating them somehow. Best Moment: Jack's conversation with Sawyer on the boat. His apology for getting Juliet killed is a heartfelt moment, and his decision to stay behind makes perfect sense. Likewise, Sawyer is completely understandable in his treatment of Jack, having had enough of the island and destiny after all that he has lost. Their conflict works really well, and Jack ultimately jumping off the boat is a really strong character moment. Character of the Episode: Jack. Conclusion: This should have been an excellent set-up episode with a lot of powerful moments and big developments. But the poor storytelling in the middle section of the season has impacted this episode and a lot of the key moments didn't quite deliver. This is still solid television, but it is disappointing to see "Lost" making significant missteps that damage the story in its final run. Score: 60
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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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