February 23, 2010

I’m loving this season of Lost so far. I was skeptical of this Flash Sideways idea, but I’m loving the concurrent storylines. Tonight’s episode was filled with lots to talk about, so let’s get started.

In the opening sequence, as Jack was getting dressed, I thought to myself, “He’s going to see the scar”, and sure enough, there it was. But as much as I’d like to take credit for figuring that one out, what I was referring to was the scar he got in the Pilot episode when Kate stitched him up on the beach, and not the appendectomy scar. So alas, I was only correct by coincidence. Full disclosure.

As he pulled up to the school, I said out loud, “What the hell? Jack doesn’t have a kid!” Turns out I was wrong…that’s a pretty big reveal.

Dogen to Jack – “Everything is an option.” This line clearly means a lot more than the context of that specific conversation. Jack and Dogen are having a little Honesty Party, aren’t they?

Miles is relegated to one snarky line per episode he appears in, now? Tic-Tac-Toe with leaves and branches. Hurley - "Tie again.” Miles - “Shocker.” Either give Miles a purpose or kill him off.

I get seriously excited every time Jacob appears on screen. As I said in my post for last year’s season finale…you can’t introduce such an enigmatic and charismatic character and not use him well. I’m glad he is around this season, and whenever he shows up, it makes me happy.
Did we really need to see so many closeup shots of Jin’s mangled leg? Seriously…four separate times? And then Claire-sseau (yeah, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has come up with that nickname but I’m going with it) actually asked him, “Think you can walk?” Hey, crazy lady…you just nearly chopped his foot off with a bear trap…not likely!

I loved the cheat sheet on Hurley’s arm, but I really wanted to see the conversation between Hurley and Jacob that gave him all that info. But then again, didn’t we all?

“It’s bad enough you made me write down, like, way too much stuff, and now I just lied to a Samurai.” I love Hurley.

An Indiana Jones reference and an Obi-Wan Kenobi reference in the first 15 minutes? Geeks unite…this episode rocks!

Claire-sseau keeps ranting about her son and “infection”. Hmmm. Wait a minute…there’s Justin! And Justin knows her? What the hell? And what the hell did she mean when Jin asked her if she was there for the three years? She said “Not by myself.” Interesting. Who is this ‘friend’ she is referring to? And by the way, the last time she saw Jin, he could barely speak English. Not even a line noting “Your English is much better”?

I wasn’t a fan of the Kate and Jack drive-by at the river. “I hope you find what you’re looking for”? Weak.

When Jack was helping his mom look for the will, his mother referenced that David was very upset at ‘the funeral’. So, did they still have the funeral without the body? I thought that she was upset on the phone earlier that they couldn’t have the funeral without the body. Was she talking about a different funeral? And then she noted that it was good that Jack didn’t have the drink when she offered it to him, which would lead us to believe that Jack’s alcohol problems are/were present at some point in the Flash-Sideways. But if that’s the case, and it’s good that he’s not drinking, then WHY IS HIS MOTHER OFFERING HIM A DRINK?

The return to the caves was a neat touch. I was waiting for them to show the white and black stones in the Adam and Eve skeletons after last week’s moment with Flocke and the stones, but it was not to be. I loved when Hurley gave the hypothetical “maybe this could be us” argument.

Ok, I have to say, when Jack took off for David’s mother’s house, my anticipation level was through the roof. Who was it going to be? Sarah? Penny? Miss Klugh??? I was peaking…and then they don’t even show us! We’d better find out soon.

And then we see Dogen at the piano audition? Is that relevant, or just another happenstance meeting to entertain the viewers? Remember when Jack was playing the piano when he was living at the Dharmaville barracks for Ben’s surgery?
Why was Justin so defiant and aggressive with Claire-sseau when she was threatening him, but then calm and composed when she appeared to have calmed down after Jin told her about Kate and Aaron? And then that axe in the chest…wow…see you later, Justin. Quite a graphic episode.

The scene with Jack and David after the audition was very emotional. As a dad, and a son, obviously, I saw a lot of parallels in my own life in this scene, and it was difficult to watch at times. It made me remember how grateful I am to have a wonderful son who is my best friend in the world, and who I will always be proud of.

“Me and you trekking through the jungle with no real idea what we’re doing. Good times.” Man, Hurley is getting some good lines tonight.

Last week we get the hidden cave and ladders on the coastline, and this week, a lighthouse? (In case the title of the episode didn’t give it away that THAT was coming.) I don’t know if I buy it, but I was still excited to see what it means.

“Does it say anything on your arm about the door being jammed?” Ok, so they gave Jack a good line too.
The whole sequence up in the lighthouse was pretty awesome. I spotted the 108 degrees on Hurley’s arm before he said it, and it was another one of those GASP moments. When we saw the names on the dial, and saw that the numbers assigned to each name matched up with what Sawyer saw on the cave ceiling last week, that’s definite confirmation that Flocke was telling the truth. But his toss-aside “Jacob had a thing with numbers” was definitely NOT true, as now we see that the names corresponded with the angles on the mirror at the top of the lighthouse. (By the way, I spotted #20 – Rousseau on the dial.) And the whole dial itself was very similar to the Frozen Donkey Wheel, which leads me to my new Lost slogan, "When you turn shit, big things happen."
As I mentioned last week, I thought that whoever was #108 was going to be relevant. I guess it’s not Kate, since Jacob said ‘he’ needs to find the Island. I hope it’s not some metaphorical way to say that Jack needed to ‘find’ the Island by realizing how important he was, but I don’t think it was. Unless the #23 on the dial isn’t actually Jack, but instead Christian Shepherd. That would explain the house in the reflection as Christian and Jack both lived there. Maybe I’m grasping at straws. Probably. But either way…who the hell is #108!?

“Am I interrupting?”

“John?

“That’s not John. THIS is my friend.”

Chills.

One funny story to close out this recap. My friend Ron watches Lost and we discuss the show quite often. Today he was saying to me that in the Flash-Sideways, he was noticing that Locke was one of those bald guys who always has it shaved right down so that his head is glistening, as if he uses a straight razor on his dome every morning in the shower. But on the Island, he stays that bald and doesn’t get the stubble you would expect.

My response to him, “So, in the show about a magical Island with time travel and smoke monsters, your major continuity flaw is the amount of stubble on the bald guy’s head?”
Until next week…