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selenakI'm really enjoying this season.
This time, we get ensemble flashforwards, and though the goings-on on the island are suspenseful, the looks at the future are the meat of the episode. At first I thought that we've been consistently moving backwards with the flash forwards, but then I realised it's more of a zig zag thing, if that makes any sense. The first one was Jack in his bearded addict state; then came Hurley going into a mental institution, which was clearly years earlier; then came Kate's trial, which going by Aaron's age was post-Hurley but of course pre Bearded!Jack; then Sayid as an assassin working for Ben, which since as I recall he catches a news clip from Hurley's arrest happens simultanously with institutionalized!Hurley; then Jack making house with Kate and screwing up, which is post-trial and post-Hurley's flash forward; then Ben teaming up with Sayid and paying Charles Widmore a visit, which seems to have happened earlier than any of the others except for the ones we get in this episode.
Giving us the immediate aftermath of the Oceanic Six coming back was once again a great narrative choice. A linear episode of this would have felt mostly like the Scouring of the Shire in LotR, coming after the grand climax; instead, it heightens the suspense. And is not a little heartbreaking, given Sayid's reunion with Nadia is overshadowed by the audience's knowledge she will die, and Hurley's reunion with his family by the awareness that in a while, he'll be so desperate that he prefers life in an asylum. His father giving him the car would have been THE ideal present... if not for those cursed numbers. And it's that car he's driving and crashing in the opening flashforward of the season. Poor Hurley.
By far the most awesome flash forward was Sun's, of course. The show offers us three daughters of ruthless fathers who have been used as tools in their father's power games. Alex is dead, we don't know yet what will become of Penny, though at least we do know she's independently searching for Desmond, but Sun is the one who finally turns the game around, revealing her inner Don. We've seen glimpses of Sun's capacity for quiet ruthlessness before, with Jin's blackmailing mother, for example, or with Juliet, and of course we had several scenes proving that while Jin thought he was protecting her from awareness of her father's nature and business, Sun was far from naive about either. All of which lead up to this flash forward, and it was glorious. Go Sun!
Jack did not irritate me either on the island or in the future, as this time risking himself at least had a point instead of being about his control issues, as in the operation episode, and the Claire's your sister reveal in the future was played really well. Mind you, Jack giving a speech for his dead father who is possibly the most undead person walking around the island was highly ironic anyway.
Good to know that whichever crew is still on the freighter really isn't keen on their lethal mercenaries and willing to help our lot. As is Daniel Farraday. Not so good that Keame seems to have anticipated this and packed the freighter full of explosives which presumably go off if it leaves. Michael, I hope your recent experience with explosives will come in useful. Speaking of Michael, I really liked the awkward reunion scene with Sun and Jin. They were the Castaways he'd become closest to on the island, and Jin not going angry the way Sayid did makes sense to me; Jin knows all about bad choices (and working for questionable employers and atonement).
Finally, Team Move The Island: of course Ben has always has a plan, but given Alex' demise, it doesn't always have to work out the way he wants it to. We'll see. I hope this isn't the point where he transports himself off the island and ends up in the Tunisian desert, because then I wouldn't get any more Ben and Locke scenes, and I would miss those. So would Michael Emerson.
This time, we get ensemble flashforwards, and though the goings-on on the island are suspenseful, the looks at the future are the meat of the episode. At first I thought that we've been consistently moving backwards with the flash forwards, but then I realised it's more of a zig zag thing, if that makes any sense. The first one was Jack in his bearded addict state; then came Hurley going into a mental institution, which was clearly years earlier; then came Kate's trial, which going by Aaron's age was post-Hurley but of course pre Bearded!Jack; then Sayid as an assassin working for Ben, which since as I recall he catches a news clip from Hurley's arrest happens simultanously with institutionalized!Hurley; then Jack making house with Kate and screwing up, which is post-trial and post-Hurley's flash forward; then Ben teaming up with Sayid and paying Charles Widmore a visit, which seems to have happened earlier than any of the others except for the ones we get in this episode.
Giving us the immediate aftermath of the Oceanic Six coming back was once again a great narrative choice. A linear episode of this would have felt mostly like the Scouring of the Shire in LotR, coming after the grand climax; instead, it heightens the suspense. And is not a little heartbreaking, given Sayid's reunion with Nadia is overshadowed by the audience's knowledge she will die, and Hurley's reunion with his family by the awareness that in a while, he'll be so desperate that he prefers life in an asylum. His father giving him the car would have been THE ideal present... if not for those cursed numbers. And it's that car he's driving and crashing in the opening flashforward of the season. Poor Hurley.
By far the most awesome flash forward was Sun's, of course. The show offers us three daughters of ruthless fathers who have been used as tools in their father's power games. Alex is dead, we don't know yet what will become of Penny, though at least we do know she's independently searching for Desmond, but Sun is the one who finally turns the game around, revealing her inner Don. We've seen glimpses of Sun's capacity for quiet ruthlessness before, with Jin's blackmailing mother, for example, or with Juliet, and of course we had several scenes proving that while Jin thought he was protecting her from awareness of her father's nature and business, Sun was far from naive about either. All of which lead up to this flash forward, and it was glorious. Go Sun!
Jack did not irritate me either on the island or in the future, as this time risking himself at least had a point instead of being about his control issues, as in the operation episode, and the Claire's your sister reveal in the future was played really well. Mind you, Jack giving a speech for his dead father who is possibly the most undead person walking around the island was highly ironic anyway.
Good to know that whichever crew is still on the freighter really isn't keen on their lethal mercenaries and willing to help our lot. As is Daniel Farraday. Not so good that Keame seems to have anticipated this and packed the freighter full of explosives which presumably go off if it leaves. Michael, I hope your recent experience with explosives will come in useful. Speaking of Michael, I really liked the awkward reunion scene with Sun and Jin. They were the Castaways he'd become closest to on the island, and Jin not going angry the way Sayid did makes sense to me; Jin knows all about bad choices (and working for questionable employers and atonement).
Finally, Team Move The Island: of course Ben has always has a plan, but given Alex' demise, it doesn't always have to work out the way he wants it to. We'll see. I hope this isn't the point where he transports himself off the island and ends up in the Tunisian desert, because then I wouldn't get any more Ben and Locke scenes, and I would miss those. So would Michael Emerson.
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-16 04:47 pm (UTC)Well, they'll have to have at least one more scene together, since Ben gave Locke his nifty telescope baton. I'm wondering if Ben will do double duty in the finale again, though, both in present and in flash time.
And I don't think the C4 goes off when the freighter moves away from the island - it goes off when Keamy gets killed, because it is connected to his dead man switch (thus the whole conversation between the navigator and Desmond about the interfering signal that kept them from going closer to the island). Which is of course lovely, given that they have no real communication with the people going after the helicopter and that except for Sun and Aaron, the freighter is full of red shirts and regulars who are still unaccounted for.
Two weeks can be a long time, can't they? *g*
no subject
Date: 2008-05-17 05:12 am (UTC)Well, I suppose someone could remember Jack has a phone, but yes. Otherwise just a recipe for disaster, and very cunning deploy of characters.
And what's that about two weeks? The Americans don't have Eurovision, do they?
no subject
Date: 2008-05-17 05:44 am (UTC)Oh, yes, but they cunningly mentioned that the radio room is still out of order, so they have no means to contact Jack.
And what's that about two weeks? The Americans don't have Eurovision, do they?
No, but they have Grey's Anatomy, which also needs a two hour finale, for some reason. The next two parts of the Lost finale are on May 29th.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-16 05:39 pm (UTC)Which makes his "I understand" so awesome - he really does understand more than just the words.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-17 05:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-16 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-17 05:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-16 08:26 pm (UTC)[Edit] I hope this isn't the point where he transports himself off the island and ends up in the Tunisian desert
No, because he looks different (no facial injuries, longer hair IIRC, different and clean clothes) and he knows about Nadia's death. He's later.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-17 05:15 am (UTC)Oh, you're right. That would make complete sense!
Good point about Ben, too. I'm relieved.