Wednesday, January 25, 2006

ARE YOU HITTING THAT? Last week, I offered up some thoughts on the type of episode that JJ and the Island Band needed to write in order to keep things moving while not running out of things to say. Tonight's episode, "Fire + Water," was exactly what I hoped they'd come up with. Much as I dislike the Charlie character -- and I don't mean that I dislike Charlie as a person, I mean that I often wish his character weren't a part of the show -- I thought that this episode was a nice variety of interactions on the island (Libby/Hurley; Hurley/Sawyer; Sawyer/Kate; Kate/Charlie; Charlie/Locke; Locke/Claire; Claire/Eko; Eko/Charlie; Charlie/Jack; Jack/Ana Lucia . . .) mixed with useful flashback developments. And by useful I mean relevant. Do I care that Charlie once puked on a photocopy machine he was demonstrating? Not in the slightest. Do I care why Charlie feels a need to be a father figure to Aaron? Why yes, yes I do.

The key point here is that we saw both plot and character advancement without having to spill any of the island mythology beans. There's a limited number of beans out there, and they should be spilled with care, while keeping us interested in between each bean. Was this a brilliant episode? No, but it was an episode worthy of a show that will run for five seasons.

Plot rumination, as always, is saved for the comments.

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