LOST-A-POOLOZA!!! 5x09 to 5x13 Episode Reviews
Well, the bill has come due, and I’m finally catching up with the four LOST episodes I neglected while laboring over my mammoth “Daybreak” review during an arduous personal and professional three-week period. Part of that was also due to the general foot-dragging that occurs whenever I’m frustrated with a show’s progress / developments. So far Season 5 is shaping up much like Season 2: lumpy, with varying sides of awesomeness and tediousness.
So, enough procrastinating -- on with the (shortened) reviews, including this week’s installment, cleverly titled “Some Like It Hoth.”
5x09 “Namaste”
You've always been the Janitor here, Mr. Shephard....
Well, if there’s any doubt left that Sawyer is now The Man, “Namaste” dispelled them with ease, as he proved that he’s a far better leader than Jack ever was (Lesson One: Don’t take credit for your victories) as he used all of his newfound power and innate charm to protect “his” people. This episode was full of crazy, fun plot movement as the 316 returnees were inducted one way or another into the Dharma Initiative, explored Hydra Island (but how did The Others know to build the runway in the first place???), and hung out with Christian Shephard / Jacob’s new corporeal envoy.
It was also a LOST-Babies fest, as we (re) met a bearded and crazy looking Radzinski, a.k.a. the stain on his Swan's ceiling, L’il Ethan (looks like we did know Amy’s baby after all), and of course the inevitable reveal of L’il Ben. I enjoyed this ongoing shell game, but wonder how many familiar faces we’re going to meet and how distracting their reveals will be.
Nevertheless, it was hilarious to see Jack's demotion and smackdown by Sawyer, touching to see Jin and Sun’s separate but equal determination to reunite with each other, and the whole Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Juliet quadrangle so stealthy underplayed. Good job guys (except for the cheesy airplane crash effects)!
Episode Grade: A-
5x10 “He’s Our You”
Sayid Jarrah, International Man of Assassination
Jeez, does this guy ever get cut some slack? I though we were done with Sayid’s torture-atonement arc, but here it is again, Sayid once again tied up and answering to the sins of his past. It seems that karma constantly pays it forward for the man for whom killing was always easy. This episode marked a return to a more classical LOST flashback structure, as we discovered the circumstances behind Sayid’s return to the Island. Clearly the narrative holes set up in 316 are being plugged in now (in an interesting symmetry with Season One’s 815-centric flashbacks), and it appears that the remaining episodes will be devoted to each of the returnee’s stories.
I think at this point it seems as if all human reaction has been leeched out of the show, when the supposed killing of an 11-year old raises more plot issues than sympathy. The fact that it’s Ben Linus getting shot may have had something to do with it, but all I could think of (instead of how horrible it was) was that Darlton had just broken a major rule they'd set up at the beginning of the season. Clearly Ben wasn’t going to die, but they had some ‘splaining to do. Either way, it’s pretty clear that Sayid had had it up to here with Ben’s manipulations, and finally decided to do something about it.
In other news, Roger Linus is still a dick, Hurley may have found his true calling, the ROME chick was a bounty hunter who clearly knows more than she should, and I got a hearty laugh out of Sayid’s LSD inspired confession (just as I did from Hurley’s confession to his mother in “The Lie”). Oh and is it me, or does Radzinsky remind you of a young Alan Ginsberg?
Episode Grade: B-
5x11 “Whatever Happened, Happened”
One Two Three -- Shut up Jack!
Whew, Aaron lives. You had me kind of worried there, show.
So Kate did the right thing at last, handing Aaron back to his Grandmother and trying to atone for her own sins by saving another child who perhaps didn’t deserved to be saved. As widely speculated, it was Clementine that Sawyer told Kate to go and find right before his big helicopter jump, and it was Kate's interaction with the bitter single mom that pushed her over the edge (along with some serious Claire déjà vu). “Whatever Happened” was classic Season Two LOST, sluggishly paced and dramatically obvious with a WTF finale.
Back in the 70’s it seems as if Ben (for being so little and taking a bullet at such close range) was doing remarkably well for being treated and dragged through the jungle WHILE UNCONCIOUS FROM SHOCK AND BLEEDING OUT INTERNALLY. Jack continues to endear himself to the rest of the castaways by refusing to operate on Ben or respecting Saywer and Juliet’s hard work in integrating themselves into Dharma. Regardless, now we know why The Others wanted Paul’s body, and perhaps how Christian is up and about again after his death.
The highlight of the week was Hurley and (an exasperated) Miles’ alternate (string theory) time line conversation, and the fact that they actually brought up BACK TO THE FUTURE within the text of the show. I really got a kick out of that, especially seeing how much I’ve been referencing that trilogy in my reviews.
Episode Grade: C+
5x12 “Dead Is Dead”
Benjamin Linus and the Temple of Smokey
The bill has also come due for crafty ‘ol Ben, and sociopath that he’s been since his miraculous resurrection, it was his secret heart that saved him from Smokey’s judgment in the end (and the Hume family as well). As a direct sequel to one of last season’s best episodes (“The Shape Of Things To Come”), “Dead is Dead” was almost by default one of this year’s best shows as well, although at this point any Ben-centric episodes is solid gold. Chalk it up to Brian K. Vaughn at the typewriter.
As an unusually mythology heavy episode, we got whole heaps of answers (with more new follow-up questions of course) about Smokey, Widmore, Sayid's Marshall, Alex, and of course, why Ben was soaking wet and beaten to a pulp in “316” (Whew, you scared me there, show. Again.). Given what we’ve leaned about the temple (a combination sanctuary, resurrection hub and Smokey hang out pad), this is going to be a critical location from now on. Sooo… is the four-toed statue Anubis, and not Horus? Is the Island the repository of the lost Egyptian culture that built the Pyramids?
Naturally Emerson and O’Quinn tore it up (as they always do when they’re paired together) and now that there’s been a substantial power shift between the two, that dynamic should be even more delicious. And even though we still don’t know Ben’s ultimate end game, it’s only a matter of time before Ben breaks his word to The Island, and undoubtedly all hell will break loose at that point. BTW, I don’t believe Saïd Taghmaoui is dead. At least, I sure hope not. What a waste of a good character actor.
Episode Grade: A-
5x13 “Some Like It Hoth”
Lawrence Kasdan, eat your heart out!
I think it’s officially time to issue a moratorium on LOST characters with Daddy issues. In fact, it’s harder to name a character who doesn’t have them (Rose, Bernard, uh, Vincent?) and it’s one of the reasons IN TREATMENT has been such a joy this season (Paul has Mommy issues). The Asian Cole Sear joins a long sad club of People Whose Lives Would Just Be Better If Daddy Said He Loved Them, and Miles' journey towards accepting Dad - predictably revealed to be Pierre Chang -- in “Some Like Hoth” was a decidedly lighter episode than last week’s, and basically was another variant on the whole “Weekend At Bernies” vibe Season 5 has had.
If you liked the Hurley / Miles scenes from “Whatever Happened”, welcome to SnarkFest II, as the two of them shared another amusing road trip in a Dharma Bus. We finally understand why Miles wanted not 1.5 or 1.7 Million from Ben, and that Bram and the Marshall may indeed be part of a third player on the board (other than Widmore and Alpert). Plus, the return of Daniel and the rest of the Dharma Braintrust / leadership from Ann Arbor (The DeGroots, perhaps? Hanso?). Overall, this one was mostly set up for the final two episodes.
FYI, if Hurley was a real STAR WARS fan, he would first pass along a very kind note to Leigh Brackett to tell her how much her brief contribution to ESB helped redefine the series and the lives of millions of Sci Fans, and then send his “revised script” to Lawrence Kasdan, the actual screenwriter of EMPIRE, and tell him GRAND CANYON rocked but DREAMCATCHER didn’t.
Episode Grade: B-
++++
Whew. All caught up. Alas, I will be on vacation when "The Variable" airs in two weeks, so I'll be behind again soon enough...