We're at the halfway point of this season...I think. If I'm wrong, please correct me, but my understanding is that we've gone through 9 hours out of 18, and 8 weeks out of 16. So what do we do with a mid-season post? Give a mid-season review!
Plot A aka the Island Plot: I give it an A- right now. I've enjoyed a lot that has happened on the Island. Negatives? My main gripe is that I wasn't crazy about the Temple people, especially Lennon and Dogen before he started going full English. That led to a strong payoff, however, starting with Hurley and Jack's excursion to the Lighthouse, Sayid's rampage of darkness, and Ben's conscience turning. Still, I've enjoyed crazy Claire, fake Locke, Ben when we've seen him, Miles/Lapidus' comedy contributions, and lots of stuff as a whole.
Plot B aka the Flash-Sideways Plots: B. I enjoy most of them, but I still don't get what the heck is going on with them. I was most compelled by the Locke-Jack interactions in the lost baggage section, but that might not even get revisited considering Locke and Helen got rid of Jack's card. Otherwise, we're halfway through the final season, and we don't have a clearer picture yet of where this is all going. I still believe it must have some sort of collision with the other timeline, and I don't believe it's an epilogue thing (it's called flash-sideways, not flash-epilogues). I'm gonna try to think more on a written-out theory of what I think the flash-sideways are for. It'll be a little bit off of things I've read from other people, molded with my own thoughts.
MVP: Locke/Fake Locke. He had a pretty compelling flash-sideways, Terry O'Quinn is a great actor, and Locke on the Island has given us some great scenes, with his manipulations of Sayid, Kate, Claire, Sawyer, and so forth. I also still believe that real Locke will come back into form later in the season. Maybe I'm just holding on there, but I gotta believe it. Other contenders I foresee in the second half of the season? Jack surely must have more to do in the 2nd half. Richard Alpert seems destined for relevance after tonight's plot developments. Sawyer has done well when he's been in it. And Ben. Oh, Ben. You are fantastic.
Best Episode: My favorite was probably Sundown. That ending with the Temple raid was just awesome. The stakes, the chaos, the kicker of Sayid's turn, the death of Dogen all had me gripped.
It's strange to think of this as the halfway point still. The plots are being set up toward the finish, but it doesn't feel like it quite yet. There's still so much to be said. Regardless, the season has been entertaining and good for the most part thus far; here's hoping it'll be awesome in the second half.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THIS WEEK'S EPISODE
For starters, the set-up of this episode was strange. I'm not gonna act like I did any research on this, but it reminded me of one of those long flash episodes, like Desmond's flashback (that was most of an episode, right?) and Michael's flashback as he returned to the series. Michael's was like Richard's, in the sense that it broke away from the Season 4 flash-forwards for an episode, while Richard's breaks away from this year's flash-sideways.
Compared to Desmond's and Michael's, I was not nearly as compelled during the first half of the episode. Throughout the time until Man in Black showed up, I kept thinking about what a waste of an episode this was for the final season. Sure, after the episode, I'll concede that it made sense to spend time on Alpert's wife and the prison, but I wasn't crazy about it. Also, I didn't enjoy the priest telling Richard that he couldn't do anything to absolve his murder. Not feeling your theology, sir.
Mr. Whitfield. MR WIDMORE. Anyone else think that?
The main joy of this episode did come with the return of old-school "Esau" and Jacob. It was great to see them try to compete with each other in their grand game. It would have been a shame if that Season 5 finale opening scene had been their only history shown.
A couple things from that Season 5 finale. First, how close was the Black Rock to Jacob/MIB during their supposedly morning conversation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lACK3yxRDIE)? Seems weird how it would automatically turn into a crazy storm that brought it ashore. Also, what do you think caused the statue to turn into the foot as it did? The ship? The Man In Black saying EFF YOU to Jacob? Cloverfield?
The Jacob/Esau fight reminds me of God and Satan with Job. Esau is trying to prove that men are inherently bad, and he can push them towards it. Jacob is trying to prove otherwise, and he's trying to not directly influence them. It's pretty crazy to think how they (who knows whose call it was) killed everyone on the boat just to see how Richard would go when choosing between the two. It was also entirely fascinating to see their conversation post-Richard, especially with the white rock that Jacob hands Esau (I'm just calling him Esau now 'cause I like it), which called back to when Locke throws the rock off the scale out of the cave.
So, letting Esau off the Island will cause the destruction of Earth? I think that's what we're heading toward. Here's another question off of that then. A lot of theories I've heard think that Jacob and Esau will both be replaced by two of the characters on the Island. But could it more likely be that this final battle is to just end the argument altogether? As Jacob said in the Season 5 finale, it only ends once, anything that happens before that is just progress. So if this has all just been progress, perhaps it's finally time to end it all. Jacob will defeat Esau with his legion of folks like Richard, Jack, Hurley, etc. And maybe Widmore, who knows. Perhaps the "candidate" will be the one who actually takes Esau down. Man, this show is freakin' confusing. I'm gonna stop it at that with the longer paragraphs. Here's a shload of notes:
-The Ilana and Jacob scenes at the beginning were pretty unsatisfying since they cut away from that to focus completely on Alps.
-I loved Richard's laugh in response to what he should do next.
-It's the Hell/Purgatory theory! They're all dead! Except that can't be it. Richard, my man, you are wrong. You must be. I mean, you've traveled back to the real world to recruit people and stuff. Don't be a fool.
-Jack doesn't know about Locke. I hadn't even realized that yet. I can't wait for Jack and Locke to face off.
-SMOKE MONSTER IN THE 1800S. BLOOD FROM THE DECK. OH SNAP.
-I noted this after a long preview of V during one of the commercials, but has anyone else noticed an increase in the use of perkier narrators? I noticed this first with the zest and peppiness of Glee's "Previously-on-Glee" narrations before episodes, and V had a peppy lady trying to summarize V so far. A change from the typical deeper-voiced narrators, such as with LOST right here.
-It's good to see the Man in Black in his pre-Locke form. During his first scene with Richard, I was trying to imagine him vs. Locke vs. him as they are the same person. It was certainly amusing to hear his comment about seeing Alps out of his chains. The question? Did Terry O'Quinn see any of this actor's scenes to imitate or, more likely, vice versa? Did they work together to try to learn how to do this character? Does the world explode if they're both in the same room?
-Richard and Esau. Do you ever want to see your wife again? Once again, the issue of doing whatever it takes. Like with Sayid. And Darth Vader!
-Did anyone else jump when Jacob rocked Alpert? That was shocking. Angry Jacob. What a beast. This is a side of him we hadn't seen; it was cool.
-How was it that Dogen basically said to Sayid what Esau said to Richard? Thoughts?
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