LOST: Week 2

So...this is my first blog of the season. For the most part, I will be writing throughout the episode, and then putting the pieces together after. This might help make the annoying commercial breaks go by all the smoother.

I thought I should give this a try, after seeing other TV show types of blogs and thinking, hey, I would enjoy writing like that. I figured I might as well start with the last season of LOST too, because I don't know the next time there'll be another communal following of a show that I'll experience like this one. (That doesn't mean I think LOST is the best TV show ever. Or my favorite. But that's a story for another time. What's my favorite show? You can check my profile for that answer. All in the game, yo.)

Some warnings: I am publishing this note on facebook because I think that will give the greatest interest in comment replies. At the same time, I know that on Newsfeed and stuff, it'll be easier for spoilers to pop up. I will try not to include any spoilers in the first portions of my notes, since those are previewed. I have a couple requests for any comments:

1. I ask that any comments made are also somewhat cryptic so that people won't really be able to tell what you're talking about if they haven't seen the episode. Good example: What happened at the end of the episode was so crazy! Bad example: if Jack had died in tonight's episode, don't say "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE JACK DIED AND SAWYER TURNED OUT TO BE WALT!". Know what i'm sayinnnnnn'? If this ends up spoiling stuff and people get mad, we can just make this only for my infrequently updated blog (whereyounhappens.blogspot.com).

2. Please don't mention anything about previews or any commercials or things that you hear about. Some people try to avoid such things, and it would be unfortunate for them to see about them here.

If you don't wanna be tagged on future notes, whether it's because you don't wanna be spoiled, aren't keeping track with LOST, or don't care or whatnot, just untag yourself from this note. I'll just retag the people left on this note, along with anyone else who wants to be tagged. Let me know if you wanna be tagged!

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read on if you haven't seen the episode from February 9th.

First, some leftover thoughts from last week:

-Faheem and I agreed that the LAX timeline was more intriguing and better executed last week. The Jack/Locke meeting was really good, and the scenes generally flowed better. By contrast, the island scenes had slow plot development with a slow opener with the prolonged death of Juliet. I wish we would have seen her last in the finale; that was such a heroic death. Instead, we have to spend time digging her out and letting Sayid die a little more, all so that we can hear her say "it worked". Oh wait, we didn't hear her say it. We heard Miles hear it from her. AHHHHHH.

-Was less surprised than others about the Smoke Monster. I think I was just set on that revelation after the finale, and after thinking about that episode where Ben confronted Smoke Monster/Alex and Locke coincidentally disappeared. Still, pretty crazy stuff.

-I'm really glad they went with the two sideways timelines. Definitely a cool setup, as opposed to only going with the reboot or only going with the island. And there's gotta be some crazy awesome way the two will come together, who knows how. But it'll hopefully be really brilliant or something, dude.

-I think I would have had more to say about last week if I had written it more immediately. So uh, yeah.

-This will be a work-in-progress. Sure, I would like to be as organized and well-written as sepinwall.blogspot.com, but this is just a start, and I'm not putting as much time into this. But I thought this would be a fun way to have people make comments and theories and stuff. I know I tend to not want to comment on those random blogs, just 'cause I feel like it would just be a minor comment in a storm of comments. So fire away after reading this!

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Claire in LAX timeline is a tease without seeing her on the island. Unless they show her at the end of today's episode. Will I call it? I'm leaving this in either way (22 minutes in). - Yes. I called this. What up.

Kate forces a pregnant Claire out of the taxi without her suitcase, after terrifying her to death? Harming the mental state of a pregnant lady? Really? You guys really like Kate that much, compared to Juliet? Really? Otherwise though, Kate does come off pretty well though throughout the episode. Her penance to Claire in coming back to her and giving her a ride. Being a baller against annoying Other guy (that guy was pretty damn annoying) and the nice Other guy. Giving a better reason to Sawyer for coming back to the Island, especially compared to Jack's stupid reason in the finale.* Sawyer and Kate's talk was pretty good, and it was certainly moving to see Sawyer talking about marrying Juliet and forcing her to stay on the island. A nice character scene. Both actors pulled through here.

*Backtracking to the finale, one thing that frustrated me was Jack talking about detonating the bomb for Kate, when he had said earlier that it was to erase the bad stuff that happened. I wasn't sure if I was more annoyed with Jack or the writers. In the end, because of my partial allegiance to Jack, I blamed poor writing. Still, Kate's reason here (previously stated to an effect) is better than Jack's reason to Sawyer in the season 5 finale.

Screw the Japanese guy who only speaks Japanese. Annoying gimmick. Screw Japan! Screw you, Adriene! Screw you, Ichiro Suzuki! I'm cool with you, Godzilla! And you too, sushi! After the torture scene with Zombie Sayid, I was starting to get ticked off by his whole mysteriousness and lack of English. Whenever he actually spoke English, it was a relief, like, oh thank you, you actually contribute as a character.

His scene with Jack near the end definitely made me come more around to him. Still, his reason for speaking it is a little silly. What if someone just learned your language, broseph? Then your tactic of separation would be a little dumb, wouldn't it? I mean, what else are they gonna do with their free time when they're on an island?

Throughout last week and most of this week, Jack was in a weird state to me. He had this weird vibe of guilt and inaction and uncertainty of what to do that I just couldn't get a feel for his character. Luckily, his scene at the end helped remind us of Jack of yore. Mark this one up to the side that says Jack's a baller. Gotta love that he was gonna kill himself to make sure Sayid wouldn't get poisoned.

Ethan is a doctor in the real world...and seemingly not conniving in any way. First, Ethan was on the island when the bomb went off, right? So that means that he was able to get off the island still, before it eventually made it's way underwater. Gah, I wonder what happened to the island. What happened to Ellie, and Widmore, Ben, Richard Alpert, and the eventual birth of Daniel Faraday? Will be interesting to eventually see if they pop up in the LAX timeline.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode, and I thought it flowed better than the first hour of the season. It reminded me of Season 1 with the flash-sideways having Kate and Claire meet and Kate on the run. This is what the showrunners hinted at, and that's certainly the case so far. I like this mood for now. Sure, there weren't many mysteries answered or major steps in the show's mythology...but I'm OK with that for now. We still have a lot of weeks ahead. As long as they answer stuff eventually.

Finally, good to see the return of a crazy-jungle-lady-new-Rousseau-ish Claire. Darkness seeping into Sayid, and already into her? Did it come from Fake Locke/Man in Black/Smoke Monster? What's Christian got to do with all this? Hmm...

Random Notes:

-I wish they didn't show so many previews of Modern Family during these commercials. Ruining it, man!

-Will Miles be a side character from now on? Seems like he's just here now for one-liners and rapport with Hurley. I'm OK with this, but I'm just curious.

-Does anyone actually remember angry Other who Kate rocked for a second time? I don't really feel like looking back on this.

-Do they get food in the temple? They must be hungry.

-Has the Jack crew explained to the temple people about how they were in 1977 and detonated a bomb that may have killed lots of people and yet they flashed back to this time? Did I miss that? Isn't that, uh, kind of a big deal?