Warning: Nothing but spoilers ahead.
Thud.
Wait, Jin's the other way! (ABC photo)
That was the sound of Tuesday night’s “Lost” clunker. It might have been a fine episode in Season 3, but seeing how we’re eight weeks from the end of the series, this is no time for meandering stories that don’t advance the plot much. It didn’t help that it was the weakest episode thus far in a particularly strong season. Throw in a ridiculous plot twist ripped from Season 1 of “24” and I was just left shaking my head.
By the end of the episode, what did we learn? OK, Widmore is definitely on Jacob’s side. (Which begs the question, why were he and Ben, another Jacob follower, at war for all these years?) And The Package is really Desmond. Not a huge surprise, but nice to see him. But other than that? Just a lot of filler.
The whole Sun situation bugged me. Her one burning goal on the island is to find Jin. Yet she ran away from UnLocke, who offered to reunite them. I don’t get that. Sure, she didn’t trust him. But this is Sun we’re talking about, the woman who made a bargain with Big Bad(?) Widmore in Season 4 and who was about to shoot Ben until he convinced her Jin was still alive on the island (and she trusted Ben then, but not UnLocke now?). The same woman who willingly got into another plane crash. She’s obviously willing to take a risk or two to find her husband. I don’t see her running away from that opportunity, no matter how creepy UnLocke is. As for her conking into a tree and compltely losing her ability to speak English . . . . geez, don’t get me started. Maybe I can see how symbolically it equalizes her with her flash sideways, a stranger in a strange land, set apart by a language barrier. But as a plot point, it sucked. It felt cheap and gimmickey, like Teri Bauer’s amnesia in “24.” (If Kate gets attacked by a mountain lion next episode and holes up with a creepy survivalist . . . oh wait, that sounds a lot like Locke! And both “Lost” and “24” have had nukes explode, torture, unbelievable plot twists, half their casts killed off . . . uh oh. I don’t like where this is headed.) There had better be a point, that’s all I’m saying.
Sun and Jin’s flash sideways wasn’t particularly enlightening either. Their run-in with the mobsters just filled out the details, since we already saw Jin locked in the freezer a few weeks ago. So basically we were just playing catch-up to that point. It was interesting that they weren’t married, and that Sun was pregnant. But what does that mean, big-picture? Hey, now that Sun’s been shot, what are the odds Jack will be the trauma surgeon to save her life?
Other random thoughts:
— So UnLocke needs all the candidates in one place to he can get off the island. He says they’ll all be able to leave together, but come on, it’s pretty obvious he intends to kill them all. Once the candidates are dead, there’ll be no more Jacob figure to keep him bottled up, and he’ll be unleashed on the world. I kinda like how he’s pitting Kate and Claire against each other too. Verrry sneaky.
— The tranquilizer-dart attack on UnLocke’s camp left me puzzled. Since when is Widmore averse to killing? It wasn’t so long ago that he sent mercenaries to the island to kill everyone. And he may have been responsible for massacring the Ajira survivors too (though that’s still a big question). There must be some reason we don’t know about to keep everyone alive, because from what we know of Widmore so far, he doesn’t shy away from bloodshed, however unnecessary it may be.
— Nice touch in the flash sideways, with Mikhail – the unkillable one-eyed Other on the island – getting shot in the eye by Jin.
— Another nice scene with Jin seeing his daughter for the first time on Sun’s camera. Kinda re-emphasized the importance of his getting off the island. And Jin’s been there for a loooooong time now.
— After all the buildup between UnLocke and Widmore, that brief beach meeting was all we got? I was hoping for something a little more apocalyptic.
— I’m sure Sun and Jin’s respective head injuries in the parallel timelines have some meaning, but honestly, at this point, I’d like a little less subtlety. With so few episodes left, and so many major, major questions hanging out there, they need to start resolving things pronto. One major question answered every week, that’s all I ask. This episode didn’t resolve anything.
— And last but certainly not least, I have to mention ABC’s asinine decision to run the “Countdown to ‘V'” clock in the corner of the screen for most of the episode. It was distracting, incredibly annoying and, stunningly enough, blocked subtitles and the writing on Sun’s note to Jack. Don’t blame the “Lost” producers – co-creator Damon Lindelof even tweeted his displeasure. Blame rests entirely on ABC for utterly tone-deaf promotion. Hey, if “V” is such a big deal, maybe it shouldn’t have been yanked off the schedule for four months after only four episodes had aired. Running onscreen clutter on a show with as detail-oriented, hardcore fans as “Lost” was just asking for trouble. Variety’s Michael Schneider said it best in a blog post: “It’s sacred ground. You don’t clutter the screen during one of the show’s final, pivotal episodes. Or you piss people off.” Mission accomplished, ABC. In fact, it probably annoyed a good number of “Lost” viewers to avoid “V” entirely. “Lost” fans may have the last laugh – “V” premiered last night to a meager 7.3 million viewers, about half of what it got for its real premiere in the fall. And about 3 million less than what “Lost” pulled in last night.
OK, so where did we end up? At pretty much the same place we were after last week’s episode. I trust the writers, and maybe this episode will be more satisfying in retrospect, but I’m getting a little antsy. And I don’t think I’m the only one. Next week’s episode revolves around Desmond, which bodes well. So does another tweet from Lindelof last night: “In one week, the conversation is going to change.” Let’s hope so.
So what did you think? Am I being too harsh? Did I miss some big symbolic revelation? Are you still on board with where this is all going? Chime in in the comments section.
