Tuesday, February 9, 2010

I AM NOT A GREAT FOOL, SO I CAN CLEARLY NOT CHOOSE THE GREEN PILL IN FRONT OF YOU: After all these years, I think that Lost has progressed to the point that I am no longer capable of offering anything vaguely resembling insightful commentary. So instead, here are a few thoughts to get the "huh?" train rolling.

  • So I guess those weren't Rousseau's traps after all.
  • I didn't remember bitter vindictive jailer guy at all. But does that declaration officially render these guys Others? And who constitutes an Other at this point anyway?
  • Trying to remember when various things happened is making my head hurt. (E.g., the moment when I turned to Mr. Cosmo and said "wait, that meaningful look that Kate just shot Jack . . . this part is after they were off the island, right?")
  • This isn't specific to tonight's episode, but I think it's interesting that Jughead blew everyone back to the exact time they would have been in if they hadn't been teleported off the plane back into the '70s. Which strikes me as too conceptually perfect to not have a catch.
  • And then there's the illness. How many people have had this illness, exactly? And has there only been one illness on the island since the beginning of the show? And how does it come to pass that the illness gives one some serious backwoods survival skills?
  • Are the Goodspeeds of Lost and The Rock related?
  • I have felt for a couple of seasons now that Emilie de Ravin looks 100% different than she did on the first season or two. Why is that?
  • Poor Sawyer.

Feel to add your own sources of befuddlement or points of unusual clarity in the comments.

30 comments:

  1. Dr. Ethan Goodspeed!  Holy shit.  [Claire showing up at the end was the opposite of a holy shit moment for me.]

    I'm just stunned Lennon hasn't claimed to be among the "good guys" yet.

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  2. Mac was definitely in an episode of LOST - the episode where Kate, Sawyer, and Alex Rousseau save Alex's boyfriend Karl from a brainwashing.  The guard that they pistolwhip to get into the brainwashing building was Mac.

    Believe it was in this episode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_in_Portland

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  3. AbbyG6:51 AM

    Kim- I think Claire looks totally different too.  I think it might have something to do with her hair?  But I'm not sure?

    What Kate Does - is suck, honestly.  She followed Sawyer despite his instructions against it and him in deep mourning over losing his girlfriend of 3 years.  And let's highjack this cab with a pregnant lady!  She should have run over Arzt while she was at it.

    I'm sorry but Kate episodes always leave me a bit grumpy.

    I'm hoping that Claire on the island has been infected by Rousseau.... maybe Sayid is being infected by Charlie?

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  4. calliekl7:19 AM

    I think her makeup has changed, and I think her hair was straighter at the beginning.

    But Claire was different in the Cabin, which was before Rousseau died. I think they're all being infected by the man in black. It's possible that if you're no longer infected by MiB, you become crazy, like what happened to Rousseau.

    Also, I appreciated the irony of Ethan telling Claire that he didn't want to stick her with a bunch of needles if he didn't have to.

    Kate started bugging me again this episode. Is she capable of doing anything other than running between Jack and Sawyer? She seems so much stronger in the alternate reality.

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  5. kevbo nobo7:33 AM

    I thought "Sideways" Kate was an amoral badass; so she just melts at the first knocked-up Aussie she points a gun at?  And Claire? Whats a gun-toting, kidnapping-car-jacking outlaw-fugitive gotta do for you NOT to get all codependent/enabling?

    Sideways-Ethan not wanting to poke Claire with a needle was a hoot.

    Thought the same thing re: island-sickness/Rambo skills.

    Love the Princess Bride line from the header.

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  6. Cecilia8:28 AM

    I also love the Princess Bride title.  Especially since a friend and I were texting during the Sayid torture scene about whether Lennon and Yoko's torture device had been stolen from the Albino and Man with Six Fingers.

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  7. christy in nyc8:31 AM

    The lesson of tonight's LOST is: if you travel while pregnant, make sure to pack a polariod of yourself pregant right on top in your duffel bag. That way, if a soft-hearted hijacker doesn't notice you're pregant when you're right in front of her face, she'll find out later and come back for you and help you not get your baby adopted.

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  8. christy in nyc8:41 AM

    Rousseau didn't die after we saw Claire in the cabin, did she?

    Ben sent Alex, Karl, and Rousseau away from New Otherton because Keamy and his men were coming, right? Then Rousseau and Karl get shot in the woods, and Keamy takes Alex hostage. Then shooty shooty, Claire's house blows up, Alex is executed. Then...Ben, Hurley and Locke go one way and Sawyer, Miles and Claire go another. Then Christian shows up in the middle of the night. The next and only other time we see Claire is in the cabin with Christian and Locke. Not sure if Rousseau's death and Claire's change are connected, but they could be, I think.

    So, the question is...if what happened to Sayid somehow happened to Claire...how? Did she both die and resurrect under her house? Seems unlikely, but we do know Ben had a muddy water source under HIS house (though we don't know if the two water sources are connected and if so, how). Was the explosion a red herring, and the entire transformation happen under Christian's care? If so, how? And, how did he convince her to leave Aaron behind if she hadn't "changed" before then?

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  9. Jordan10:00 AM

    I've stopped trying to figure things out, I'm just along for the ride.

    A few stray observations:<span> </span>

    Sawyer acted the hell out of this episode.

    That mechanic looked oddly familiar, but I don't know from where.

    There's something off about sideways-2004.  Almost like everyone is walking around with a sense of deja vu they can't explain. <span> </span>

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  10. That deja vu was what I was latching onto about the Jack/Des interaction on the plane.  It could have just been the stadium meet-up Jack had in mind, but it seemed like maybe more.  And that deja vu could explain Kate's abrupt about-face on Claire and so forth. 

    That said, I feel like the show's trying to tell us that there's no one "real" reality here.  And that argument would be undercut by the deja vu approach (which would suggest some sort of priority for the reality that's unfolded over seasons 1-5).

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  11. Lostpedia, on Aaron: "Aaron became sick and developed a rash, at which point Rousseau told Claire that he was "infected" and Claire began to have flashbacks of when she was taken by the Others. She remembered Aaron being injected in utero with the CR 4-81516-23 42 vaccine. Despite Jack telling her that it was a common, non-threatening virus called Roseola, Claire began a determined search for what had happened to her during that time with Ethan and The Others."

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  12. spacewoman11:17 AM

    This whole episode was a snooooooozer.

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  13. Kate's mechanic was the guy in Buffy who supplied (soon to be dark) Willow with the addicting Magic. Don't know if that helps.

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  14. isaac_spaceman11:42 AM

    Waiting for the side-by-side comparison of Claire's scenes with Ethan.

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  15. christy in nyc11:45 AM

    Why did I spell pregnant wrong twice? That is weird.

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  16. I did, literally, LOL at the "I don't like to use needles" line.

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  17. Marsha11:49 AM

    According to various reports on line, the date of Claire's sonogram is 10-22-04. Given that this should all be happening the same day as the plane landing at LAX, what do we make of the fact that it's exactly a month later than the crash date of the "original" flight?

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  18. Marsha11:50 AM

    Here's the sonogram screen shot: http://getlostpodcast.iimmgg.com/image/75afa122b3a07f870f669b75aa4ef2df

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  19. Devin McCullen11:55 AM

    My goofy theory is that it wasn't the rest of the French team that was infected, it was actually Rousseau.  (Although I don't actually believe it.)

    On the other hand, if Claire's been infected by Rousseau (who was killed right before Claire vanished), then maybe Sayid will be infected by Juliet. 

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  20. Carmichael Harold11:59 AM

    . . . and all of the Sayid/Sawyer slashfiction writers will have their heads simultaneously combust.

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  21. I thought the episode was a bit blah, as well.  I was trying to think of something to post last night, but I didn't have much to say, I think the snoooooozer aspect was why. I like that the LALALosties are connecting somewhat like they did circa five seasons ago. I think Sawyer was great in the episode, though I'm sorta tired of seeing the head down scowl through his eyebrows look already. I wish Kate would stop, well, being Kate.

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  22. Of course she's at "Angel of Mercy Hospital"

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  23. GracieGirl12:36 PM

    Kate's mechanic is definitely a "Hey, It's That Guy."  I recognized him from China Beach (he played Dodger) and The X Files (he played bush pilot Bear in the episode titled "Ice" - Mulder and Scully fly to the arctic with a bunch of scientists to investigate a worm-like organism which produces murderous rage in the people it infects).

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  24. christy in nyc12:40 PM

    Oh man, they should do a "Ghost" thing with Sawyer as Demi Moore and Sayid as Whoopi Goldberg and Juliet as Patrick Swayze! I would die a happy woman.

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  25. I'm bored, so I'm unleashing my Sayid theory here just to cause trouble. What if they are wrong about which entity is 'infecting' Sayid. Could be that posession by either Smoke Monster guy or Jacob manifests itself in the same way in the early stages, but evolves differently, as presumably Jacob desires a more symbiotic relationship with his hosts than Smokey.

    So, if this theory were true, the detection methods they use wouldn't differentiate, but Sayid is in the process of becoming a Sayid/Jacob combination, rather than being possessed and controlled by Smokey. Could explain why Sayid is still basically himself, and Jacob isn't forcing himself to the surface, it's because Jacob can't (or won't) just take over a body and burn out a person's mind the way Smokey does (or seems to, and then he deposits those Rambo skills on his way out, just for kicks). The folks in the temple might be hampering the return of Jacob, rather than preventing Smokey snatching another body.

    Don't know if it makes sense (or at least, more or less sense than the show usually makes), or if the breadcrumbs already dropped by the writers lead down that path, either way undead Sayid won't be the same old Sayid, it's just a matter of time before it's revealed how that manifests.

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  26. And one other thing, Hawaii makes for a lousy Los Angeles. And, Brentwood is not right by LAX, it may be just ten miles or so, but it's a slow traffic filled slog most times of the day. Could have made the rich couple she was dumping off Aaron with in Manhattan Beach, Marina Del Rey or Culver City (since I don't think they ever mentioned where they lived before), and it would have made a lot more sense, geography-wise, for that to be a short drive in that scene.

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  27. bella wilfer8:32 PM

    XWL - I get your gribe re: LA geography, but after seeing how ridiculously 24 treated LA and LA traffic, timing-wise, I think I'm inured to being annoyed by anyone else's treatment of it.

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  28. Adam C.10:48 PM

    Of course, that kind of assumes that Jacob is good and Smokey/MiB is bad....

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  29. Andrew10:57 AM

    Does Smokey inhabit the bodies or just assume their forms? After all, while Smokey as Locke was inside the Foot with Jacob and Ben, Locke's corpse was outside on the beach with Richard, Sun and the Shadow of the Statue Ajira-ites. 

    I'm of the belief that Rousseau was the one infected (rather than her team), or the Claire as Rousseau ahve something to do with giving birth on The Island and then having the baby taken away. It could be something other than posssession by Smokey-- some kind of re-animation? 

    I did rewatch a whole bunch of Lost, including some Rousseau and Claire episodes during Snowmaggedon yesterday (Solitary, Raised by Another, Exodus 1 and 2, This Place is Death, 316), and I picked up from that Rousseau was pretty crazy and Smokey the monster scared and/or killed a lot of people. 

    There's also the issue of the Quarantine procedure from the Swan (which was introduced to seem to relate to the sickness that Rousseau talked about.) Was that some kind of theater, or a real precaution? 

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  30. isaac_spaceman6:44 PM

    XWL -- Spacewoman and I had the exact conversation you have in your post.  The "Brentwood" house they visited was so Hawaii that it was distracting.  Something that particular brand of ugly could have existed in MDR or Culver City, though.  Brentwood uses an entirely different kind of ugly. 

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