Thursday, November 09, 2006

Losing Lost: The Two Month Wait Begins




So the preseason of Lost, as I am calling it, has come and gone. If you did not watch one of the episodes and are planning too, I would not read any further. I am going to try and highlight some of the issues that were surfaced and answered.



First, let’s have a look at what we learned:

-Before the Oceanic plane crashed on the island, it looked like the others lived as normal lives as they possibly could. When they felt the rumbling they got into, what looked like, earthquake positions. (This leads me to believe they are certainly off the coast of Australia, which is on the Pacific plate) Once they realized it was not a quake, they ran outside and saw the plane. Henry Gale, as we knew him then, started to bark orders. This led me to believe that he either A) has done this before, B) was planning for it, or C) is very good at thinking on his toes.
-Henry Gale is actually Ben. Ben is the leader of this particular group on the island. I say that because we now know there is a man named Jacob, who most likely is more important. This became clear last episode when Daniel said “Shepard was not even on Jacob’s list”. Then there is also the black lady from the last episode of season two. We have yet to see her.
-It seems that the deadly supernatural force on the island appears different depending on who sees it. Eko saw it on multiple occasions, as a black smog that eventually killed him. Locke saw it as a beautiful white light.
-We learned that the others definitely do have access to the outside world. They have conjured up impressive amounts of very personal information on everyone. Not only do they have access, but most likely are connected to some governmental or very deep pocketed enterprise.
- Juliet and Ben have some sort of past history. Jack did ask Juliet about Dharma and while I can’t quote her response, she mentioned that if they once were here, they no longer are.
- The island that Jack, Sawyer, and Kate are on is not the main island. It is a couple miles offshore and the others get back and forth through a submarine. This is the island that Dharma was doing the animal research on. They also now have Desmond’s boat. Desmond can see the future too, thought I would through that in.
-The Polar bear that Sawyer shot was part of a Dharma experiment. They kept two of them in the cages that Sawyer and Kate are now in. We met the second Polar a couple episodes ago while it was taking its time eating Eko. We saw a toy truck and a Dharma logo in the cave as well.
-There is another man in, presumably, one of the the main island hatches. It looks like he knew that the group led by Locke saw him because he shut off the camera. He wears a patch. Could this be Jacob? We have seen three of the hatches, maybe four if the fake one Sayid saw was actually a real one. So he may be residing in one of the remaining ones.
-Sun is not as innocent as we may have once believed. Even as a little girl she sold out her maid instead of taking the blame. She’s a cheat, a liar, and shot that woman. Jin is smarter than we thought and Sayid has been making a number of mistakes.
-They are keeping Jack alone and Kate and Sawyer together. It was mentioned by Sayid, albeit another topic, that Kate and Sawyer are probably together so they can make sure the other one complies. I am guessing that the others think that Jack is more vulnerable alone.

What has surfaced?

-Well first of all, who is telling the truth on Alcatraz? Ben and Juliet have some problems but there is a lot going on that we don’t know about. Was Daniel ever really going to kill Sawyer or was that all a play to get Sawyer and Kate to perform the act they ended up doing? Was the whole Juliet and the note card scene a ploy Jack saw through? Did Juliet leave out that X-Ray on purpose, so Jack would see it? We know about Jack, but is Ben a Sox fan as well? All very important, unanswered information.
-How did Alex make such a nice sling shot, and when did she find the time to get such accuracy? We see her twice (she is Rousseau’s daughter) and both times she is frantic and trying to help Kate. The boy in the cage who tried to free Sawyer was her husband, he is now dead. She asked about Ben and Ben asked about her before the operation. What is the connection? Is he her true father? Fake father?
-What happened in the hatch to make Desmond see the future? Something is going on with him and we will soon find out. And by soon I mean 2 months or so.
-Eko told Locke “you are next”. We don’t know if that “you” was plural or Eko meant Locke. There has been a lot of speculation about the possibility of the island being a sort of purgatory, but this has been denied on the J.J Abrams front time and time again.
-Was that really the last we will see of Walt and Michael? There was an awful lot of time invested in both characters. I thought they would show up again. It just felt like they were being hosed. Why would a compass even work on this island with the crazy magnetic forces it possesses? Desmond tried to sail away and just ended up back at the island. Why would they be able to get out? Is that direction the only way out? Did Jack and crew remember it when Ben said it out loud? While were on this topic, I am confused why they even incorporated the tail enders last season. They had many back stories on Anna Lucia, Libby, Bernard, and Eko. Those characters played a huge role and took up a ton of time, now all are dead except Bernard and the chick the others kidnapped and we haven’t seen either of them. Actually, so far it has been all about the others, Jack/Sawyer/Kate, Locke, and Eko. We had the one episode with the Jin/Sun backstory and Sayid has seen about 8 minutes this season, but besides that its been the big 6.
-Ben and Juliet have said that they are not “the bad ones” multiple times. We still do not know what this means or why they say it.

There was plenty more, but that is all I can remember. Feel free to add on below. I liked the start to the season a lot, I was a bit bummed out about Eko… but like Locke says there must have been a reason. For what it’s worth, I heard the reason may have had something to do with his attitude during shoots.

I expect great things after the holidays.

9 comments:

Shorty said...

I absolutely loved LOST in both season one & season two...but in season 3 they have failed to answer many questions in the initial 6 episodes...the writers need to quit bullshitting and answer some f' questions...

Machon said...

I agree, but they there is what.. 17 episodes left. I mean, it is very early.

The Captain said...

this long lay-off is gonna be brutal...

Feb 6th? Jeezus...

One thing of note is what Locke noticed on Eko' "prayer stick" in ep6 -- "Lift up your eyes and look North" (or something to that effect)

I think that will lead Locke, Sayid and the rest of them to the "other" island -- let's just call it Alcatraz...

Also - it's almost funny how they introduced the two other characters in the past two episodes... those two random people who previously were only seen carrying something or in passing during a wideshot, are now hanging out with Locke, Sayid, Hurley and Charlie... lucky for them I guess... but they are totally gonna die in teh rescue attempt of Jack, Kate and Sawyer (IMO)...

Counting down to Feb 6

Mike Noone said...

I think where the writers deserve some legit blame for dragging things along is when they write in stuff like Kate's back story last night. The back stories are supposed to reveal something about these people and add depth. Well, last night's was pointless. I mean, what did we learn? That Kate is a fugitive who lies? We already knew that. Or take Locke's back story from a few weeks ago. He gets himself into trouble because he's too trusting. Again, we already knew that. Jack and his Dad have a rocky relationship. We know.

So that's when I get frustrated. When it feels like they're beating something into the ground. It is what it is though. I'll certainly be back in February.

Oh, and one more thing...none of the 3 million promotions for Day Break (including the one that claims important stuff about Lost will be revealed) are getting me to watch. No thanks.

JMD said...

Walt and Michael are not coming back THIS SEASON. They will be back however.

I, for one, am surprised that I liked Kate's backstory last night. First of all, I think the point was to show she's not completely cold as ice and she definitely can fall for a guy. Second, her husband looks very much like Ethan. Some backstories this season have bothered me, but not that one.

Plenty of questions were answered this mini-season...and I like the format much better than 2 on, 1 off. The last five minutes last night were freakin intense.

Shorty said...

"Plenty of questions were answered?"
like which ones?

Machon said...

Like:

-Who are the others? Where do they live? What kind of technology do they have? I mean we know SO much more than we did last season. We know that they do have in depth, extremely personal information on everyone.

-We know that the Others were originally interested in children. They abducted two of the taily's children, walt, Alex, and tried to take Clair. Now they have a second list, of adults.

-If you are looking for answers to questions like "why are they on the island? Why can't anyone find them? Why does the island effect people so much? Well stop wasting your time. These are the major themes that drive this show, they will not give that up in the first quarter of season 3. But they do give us clues. Go back and watch season 1 and 2 and you will realize how many questions have been answered.

JMD said...

Stratego, if you are looking for a Newhart-type reveal in the beginning of season three with Jack waking up in a bed in San Francisco with Bailey, Julia and Claudia, well, you're not going to get it. That wouldn't be very a good strategic move to keep the series going, Stratego.

Anonymous said...

I am very dissapointed with this "mini-season" myself. I know we are not going to get answers to the major outstanding questions but they need to start tying in some of these story lines. I mean what next?? Ben and Juliet's back stories?? They have too much going on and the general feeling I get from talking to people is they need to start tying some of this stuff together. Baby steps perhaps but all we do is introduce more people with more story lines and no answers to some of the outstanding questions. Frankly, they are starting to remind me of the Sopranos lately. Long breaks where you expect a lot when they come back and then they under- deliver. Very dissapointing.