Lost 4.01 The Beginning of the End
Feb. 1st, 2008 06:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI tried to resist, as Lost works best when watched as an entire season, but my curiosity got the better of me.
That intro was a clever tease, first faking us out by making it appear as a Jack episode (depending on your take on Jack, that makes you go "oh no" or not), and then revealing it's a Hurley one. Nonetheless, the Jack info from the teaser ties with the one from his short appearance near the end. More about that in a minute.
Seems the flashforwards from last season's finale really signalled a new era: more flashforwards, and it so works, both in setting up/revealing more about the new mystery, and in highlighting the characters in a way the flashbacks couldn't have done anymore, because we already know the most important bits from their pasts. So this time it's Hurley's turn, and we're again in big time mindmessing country as in his season 2 episode, Dave. The contrast between Hurley's happiness on the island (before he finds out about Charlie's death, of course), cannonballing into the sea in a moment of pure joy, and the one moment of happiness he has in the present/future, when the officer tells him he can put him back into a mental institution and Hurley sees that not as a threat but a promise and hugs the officer in gratitude, is heartbreaking. So we have two for two people so far whom leaving the island send into a spiral of despair. It seems to have worked faster on Hurley than on Jack (who in his brief appearances has not yet arrived at the Bearded!Breakdown! stage from his own flashforwards but shows first signs, with the alcohol added to his morning drink and the twitching), but Hurley also gives us more background.
"Oceanic 6": that would be Jack, Kate, Hurley, whoever was in the coffin, and....? My money is on Sun as one candidate because of her pregnancy and the island spelling doom for pregnant women, but somehow I don't think the other is Jin. I think it's Juliet, who as has been established a plenty last season really, really wants off the island. (My current coffin candidate is still Ben, with Locke as a second guess, but I just can't work out how they'd have gotten either man to ever leave the island.) Incidentally, I think Michael is around as well but doesn't count as one of the 6, because the only reason Hurley could have to lie about having known (or rather, not) Ana Lucia (clever tie-in via her partner, btw!) would be to cover for Michael who murdered her. (Also, Perrineau was in the credits; presumably a cut scene.)
It's also clear all of the 6 must have agreed on keeping silent about what happened to the others. Mysterious Not!Lawyer wants to know whether they're still alive and on the island, but Hurley doesn't tell; I take it they are, and that's one of the reasons why both Bearded!Jack in the s3 finale and Hurley in this flashforward at the end are insistent they have to go back there. One very obvious other reason being that neither Jack nor Hurley appear to have been able to readjust. (As opposed to Kate; she looked pretty adjusted to me in the finale flashfoward.)
Undead!Charlie: like Boone in Locke's vision from last season has aquired new hairstyle in the hereafter and like Vision!Boone doesn't come across as the genuine article to me but as a projection of the person in question, i.e. Hurley, though one aided by another force, since he can be seen.
Meanwhile, back on the island: I thought they handled the grief for Charlie well, from Hurley shutting himself off until he tells Claire and then breaks down to Jack and Kate remembering the time they went to the cockpit with Charlie, all the way back at the start of s1. Naomi remaining alive a bit longer before succumbing to her death was good storytelling as it reemphasized she was a person; very likely one up to no good in regards to Our Heroes, but a human being, with her own family and people she loved, who will grieve for her, and Locke killed her. When you let a character take such a step, you need to show just what it means, not make it easy (a la Mikhail the ever returning one) on the audience. Speaking of characters crossing the line, next we get Jack pulling the trigger on Locke and then, finding out Locke hadn't loaded the gun, trying to beat him into a pulp. Timeline-wise, this isn't too long after he beat Ben into a pulp, but that had been just after listening to what he thought were the executions of Bernard, Jin and Sayid, granted. Still. By now, though, we have a pattern, and it started imo when Jack started to not just to be okay with but order Sayid to use torture on Ben-posing-as-Henry-Gale back in s2. It also ties with the flashback we saw last season where he attacked his father when being on a paranoid rampage regarding his ex wife: Jack when driven lashes out in an increasingly brutal way.
Locke trying to persuade the group to come with him instead of waiting for the suddenly suspect rescuers, and succeeding with some of them, made me first think why he bothers - basically, he doesn't need them to remain on the island, and if it's just that he needs human society in addition to the island, well, the Others are willing to adopt him - and then realise something: it does tie both with the flashback where he lives in that hippie community and with the hold his father had over him. He's seeking out families to belong to, or constructing them, and for all his loner-dom, he did grow attached to his fellow castaways. Plus, yes, I think in addition to his own issues he genuinenly believes that Naomi's group is going to bring doom. (Presumably that was the message delivered through vision!Walt.)
So does Ben. Loved the scene with him and Danielle Rousseau. Well, I loved all the Ben scenes, but that one especially. Because they're both 100% sincere (which otherwise you can hardly ever be sure about with Ben) and right from their pov. For Rousseau, he's the man who has abducted her daughter (in addition to being, you know, a dangereous sociopath) and has no claim on Alex; for Ben, she is his daughter just as much as she's Danielle's.
(Benjamin Linus, meet Daniel Holtz. Though actually Ben scores better in the father department there, because he didn't abduct Alex to get revenge originally. Anyway, the fact remains, raising a child makes you that child's parent as much as biology does.)
Hurley seeing Jacob: mmmmm. What do Hurley, Locke and Ben have in common? No, not the fact they see dead people; that happens to other persons on this island, too. And not that they all had lousy fathers who either emotionally or literary deserted them; again, Jin appears to be the only one on this island who had a decent (actually sweet and kind, more than decent) dad. But all three have, shall we see, episodes, are less than stable emotionally and have been called crazy by other characters. I'd say that appears as a prime condition for being able to see Jacob.
Who chose whom to go with: Hurley and Claire going with Locke I could have predicted, ditto Kate with Jack. Rose choosing Jack over "that man" was only a surprise if you think of her talk with Locke two seasons earlier re: their mutually healed bodies, but not if you think she just witnessed Locke killing a woman basically in front of her. Also, since she knows his secret she probably thinks he's acting out of purely selfish motives, and since Rose is willing to confront her own mortality when leaving the island, that makes her disgusted with him. Sawyer choosing Locke, not Jack was a surprise. I think the reason he gave Kate - survival - is his main one, but the fact that Locke told him about Juliet and that they, err, shared the Anthony Cooper experience might also factor in; what it comes down most to, I guess is that he trusts Locke's instincts when it comes to the island more than Jack's. One more thing about Sawyer: given that he had several bonding scenes with Hurley last season, his kindness towards him in this episode is nice character continuity.
That intro was a clever tease, first faking us out by making it appear as a Jack episode (depending on your take on Jack, that makes you go "oh no" or not), and then revealing it's a Hurley one. Nonetheless, the Jack info from the teaser ties with the one from his short appearance near the end. More about that in a minute.
Seems the flashforwards from last season's finale really signalled a new era: more flashforwards, and it so works, both in setting up/revealing more about the new mystery, and in highlighting the characters in a way the flashbacks couldn't have done anymore, because we already know the most important bits from their pasts. So this time it's Hurley's turn, and we're again in big time mindmessing country as in his season 2 episode, Dave. The contrast between Hurley's happiness on the island (before he finds out about Charlie's death, of course), cannonballing into the sea in a moment of pure joy, and the one moment of happiness he has in the present/future, when the officer tells him he can put him back into a mental institution and Hurley sees that not as a threat but a promise and hugs the officer in gratitude, is heartbreaking. So we have two for two people so far whom leaving the island send into a spiral of despair. It seems to have worked faster on Hurley than on Jack (who in his brief appearances has not yet arrived at the Bearded!Breakdown! stage from his own flashforwards but shows first signs, with the alcohol added to his morning drink and the twitching), but Hurley also gives us more background.
"Oceanic 6": that would be Jack, Kate, Hurley, whoever was in the coffin, and....? My money is on Sun as one candidate because of her pregnancy and the island spelling doom for pregnant women, but somehow I don't think the other is Jin. I think it's Juliet, who as has been established a plenty last season really, really wants off the island. (My current coffin candidate is still Ben, with Locke as a second guess, but I just can't work out how they'd have gotten either man to ever leave the island.) Incidentally, I think Michael is around as well but doesn't count as one of the 6, because the only reason Hurley could have to lie about having known (or rather, not) Ana Lucia (clever tie-in via her partner, btw!) would be to cover for Michael who murdered her. (Also, Perrineau was in the credits; presumably a cut scene.)
It's also clear all of the 6 must have agreed on keeping silent about what happened to the others. Mysterious Not!Lawyer wants to know whether they're still alive and on the island, but Hurley doesn't tell; I take it they are, and that's one of the reasons why both Bearded!Jack in the s3 finale and Hurley in this flashforward at the end are insistent they have to go back there. One very obvious other reason being that neither Jack nor Hurley appear to have been able to readjust. (As opposed to Kate; she looked pretty adjusted to me in the finale flashfoward.)
Undead!Charlie: like Boone in Locke's vision from last season has aquired new hairstyle in the hereafter and like Vision!Boone doesn't come across as the genuine article to me but as a projection of the person in question, i.e. Hurley, though one aided by another force, since he can be seen.
Meanwhile, back on the island: I thought they handled the grief for Charlie well, from Hurley shutting himself off until he tells Claire and then breaks down to Jack and Kate remembering the time they went to the cockpit with Charlie, all the way back at the start of s1. Naomi remaining alive a bit longer before succumbing to her death was good storytelling as it reemphasized she was a person; very likely one up to no good in regards to Our Heroes, but a human being, with her own family and people she loved, who will grieve for her, and Locke killed her. When you let a character take such a step, you need to show just what it means, not make it easy (a la Mikhail the ever returning one) on the audience. Speaking of characters crossing the line, next we get Jack pulling the trigger on Locke and then, finding out Locke hadn't loaded the gun, trying to beat him into a pulp. Timeline-wise, this isn't too long after he beat Ben into a pulp, but that had been just after listening to what he thought were the executions of Bernard, Jin and Sayid, granted. Still. By now, though, we have a pattern, and it started imo when Jack started to not just to be okay with but order Sayid to use torture on Ben-posing-as-Henry-Gale back in s2. It also ties with the flashback we saw last season where he attacked his father when being on a paranoid rampage regarding his ex wife: Jack when driven lashes out in an increasingly brutal way.
Locke trying to persuade the group to come with him instead of waiting for the suddenly suspect rescuers, and succeeding with some of them, made me first think why he bothers - basically, he doesn't need them to remain on the island, and if it's just that he needs human society in addition to the island, well, the Others are willing to adopt him - and then realise something: it does tie both with the flashback where he lives in that hippie community and with the hold his father had over him. He's seeking out families to belong to, or constructing them, and for all his loner-dom, he did grow attached to his fellow castaways. Plus, yes, I think in addition to his own issues he genuinenly believes that Naomi's group is going to bring doom. (Presumably that was the message delivered through vision!Walt.)
So does Ben. Loved the scene with him and Danielle Rousseau. Well, I loved all the Ben scenes, but that one especially. Because they're both 100% sincere (which otherwise you can hardly ever be sure about with Ben) and right from their pov. For Rousseau, he's the man who has abducted her daughter (in addition to being, you know, a dangereous sociopath) and has no claim on Alex; for Ben, she is his daughter just as much as she's Danielle's.
(Benjamin Linus, meet Daniel Holtz. Though actually Ben scores better in the father department there, because he didn't abduct Alex to get revenge originally. Anyway, the fact remains, raising a child makes you that child's parent as much as biology does.)
Hurley seeing Jacob: mmmmm. What do Hurley, Locke and Ben have in common? No, not the fact they see dead people; that happens to other persons on this island, too. And not that they all had lousy fathers who either emotionally or literary deserted them; again, Jin appears to be the only one on this island who had a decent (actually sweet and kind, more than decent) dad. But all three have, shall we see, episodes, are less than stable emotionally and have been called crazy by other characters. I'd say that appears as a prime condition for being able to see Jacob.
Who chose whom to go with: Hurley and Claire going with Locke I could have predicted, ditto Kate with Jack. Rose choosing Jack over "that man" was only a surprise if you think of her talk with Locke two seasons earlier re: their mutually healed bodies, but not if you think she just witnessed Locke killing a woman basically in front of her. Also, since she knows his secret she probably thinks he's acting out of purely selfish motives, and since Rose is willing to confront her own mortality when leaving the island, that makes her disgusted with him. Sawyer choosing Locke, not Jack was a surprise. I think the reason he gave Kate - survival - is his main one, but the fact that Locke told him about Juliet and that they, err, shared the Anthony Cooper experience might also factor in; what it comes down most to, I guess is that he trusts Locke's instincts when it comes to the island more than Jack's. One more thing about Sawyer: given that he had several bonding scenes with Hurley last season, his kindness towards him in this episode is nice character continuity.
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no subject
Date: 2008-02-01 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-01 06:06 pm (UTC)There is a cut scene online from this episode which has Sawyer and Juliet talking, and he asks her that very thing - how, once they look at the passenger manifest, will she explain who she is? And she doesn't reply. Which indicates to me she has a plan.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-01 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-02 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-01 05:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-01 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-02 02:26 am (UTC)I loved Rousseau smacking Ben down. That was gorgeous.
The Sawyer character stuff is pretty good, too, and the flash-forwards are a good concept. The one burning question I have is, why the hell isn't Kate in prison? How did she get out of that? Did juries simply refuse to convict her on grounds of sympathy, because the rest of the Oceanic crowd showed up and said "hey, she's a hero, she helped us"?
no subject
Date: 2008-02-02 06:03 am (UTC)This is the island of superhealing. (Except if you're Ben. Or Mr. Eko.) And it had just enabled Locke to survive being shot in the gut by Ben and left tö die for three days without food and water, so Naomi living a few hours longer is basically playing by the rules.*g*
Kate: good question. Granted, Jack met her in secret, but there is no way her face wasn't on every paper along with the other five faces once they made it off the island. Perhaps she got a presidential pardon because someone told Dubya his popularity was sinking in 2004?
no subject
Date: 2008-02-02 07:22 am (UTC)I was basically done with the show after last season -- I hate the beginning of it and just came back for the finale -- but I'm really liking this. Intriguing.