When [It] Strikes Me

The series truly came down to Jack and his destiny. Not how I saw it ended, but I liked it a lot. (Collage image c/o Arrows and Accolades)

I’m not going to even make an effort at a Quick Hits post on tonight’s LOST. I had a couple of friends over for a homemade pizza and LOST party. Now, 6 hours in (halfway through Jimmy Kimmel’s “Aloha LOST”), the friends have headed off an I’m breathing in what I thought was a darn near perfect way to close the series. 

There was no pretense of trying to tie through all of the mythological loose ends; however, it’s perfectly alright.  There was never any over exertion.  There weren’t any truly short shrift answers that left me feeling hollow (well, except what was at the bottom of the waterfall, though they didn’t go deep enough to draw any real criticism for it.  

Above all else, the show was a reunion of sorts that made you appreciate truly just how far things have come.  Looking back as the characters finally clicked was really moving at times… far more so than the sepia overtones would make you think.  I’m sure I wasn’t alone in thinking this really was a nice goodbye. 

That said, I’m sure what everyone really wants to see is the pizza.  Pics after the jump. Read more…

Oh, where to start. I like to jump into a semi-developed theory when kicking off one of these Quick Hits, so let’s take a look at Jack Sheppard as Rick Grimes. Who, you ask. Well, anyone with a purported awareness of Zombie fiction or AMC’s upcoming fall lineup can tell you.  Rick Grimes is the Cillian Murphy-like character from Robert Kirkman’s epic comic series The Walking Dead. Grimes wakes up in post-apocalyptic America… a changed world where Zombies have emerged and killed virtually all that Rick knows and finds. Somehow, he travels through the Southeast to discover his wife, son and a small band of survivors who have come together in efforts to merely live on.

As Jack's cut has expanded, the tear in space-time between the Island world and the sideways world has expanded.

A policeman by trade and an alpha male by nature, Rick is to Kirkman’s America as Jack is to the Producer’s Island. He is the natural leader to whom everyone turns and is driven by a passion to survive and try to save those around him. He also is one whose every success comes with a price and who is surrounded by inevitable failures. Much like Jack, his decisions are well intentioned and guided by decidedly benevolent intents, but often stray from moral standards. With Jack, one might point to his torture of Benjamin in Season 2. With Rick, one might point to the outright murder he commits in Book 3. In each case, it’s hard to argue with the reasoning behind each act, but the justification is decidedly dirty.

But what makes Jack very much so like Rick is his self awareness. Jack is torn asunder internally by both his past transgressions and his own self doubt. Both he and Rick feel directly responsible for the repercussions of their actions and eschew leadership roles… but do so only temporarily specifically because they are simply hiding from their true destinies and fated roles as leaders. The thing with both men is that they cannot be convinced of the need to forgive themselves their failures and the importance of their reassuming decision making roles. Instead, Rick tries to push leadership upon Terrence and Dale while Jack does the same for Sawyer and Hugo. Eventually, circumstances dictate their re-assumption of duties.

More on this and my quick hits, after the jump. Read more…

Let me start off by noting that I have not forgotten The Candidate.  I loved the episode and just haven’t yet had the time to write up my Quick Hits on it.  I’m skipping it to get to this week’s because… well… I love me some LOST mythology.

The episode was one dealing with Genesis and touched on the ideas of fraternal twins in creation mythology.

I know many fans tire of the mythology and are bored with Smokey and Jacob’s back story.  But LOST is ultimately not a show about action.  It’s an examination of people.  One wonders how the open questions on the main characters will be answered in the 3.5 hours remaining, but I enjoyed an opportunity to look at Jacob and the MIB this week.  And as an avowed CJ Cregg fan, I loved having Allison Janney this week.  In fact, given that her character is never named beyond that of “Mother”, I will refer to her as Janney, throughout.

Even more so than any of the prior episodes, this was about Genesis and creation mythology. We are granted, as we were with Ab Aeterno, a view into the Island’s creation, or more accurately, that of Jacob and the MIB. We’re reminded almost immediately of that by the appearance of a sea turtle, a deliberate reference to the Iroquois Turtle Island myth. That myth involves the support of a world upon the shell of a turtle and begins as such:

Long before the world was created there was an island, floating in the sky, upon which the Sky People lived. They lived quietly and happily. No one ever died or was born or experienced sadness. However one day one of the Sky Women realized she was going to give birth to twins. She told her husband, who flew into a rage. In the center of the island there was a tree which gave light to the entire island since the sun hadn’t been created yet. He tore up this tree, creating a huge hole in the middle of the island. Curiously, the woman peered into the hole. Far below she could see the waters that covered the earth. At that moment her husband pushed her. She fell through the hole, tumbling towards the waters below.

More on that myth can be read here, but the crux of it is that the twins include Sapling (the good, Jacob-son who creates nature) and Flint (the dark son who creates evil and thorns).  Many Genesis myths, including those I have discussed before, involve a duality of the good son (in the Dogon mythology, Nommo) and the prodigal son (Yurugu, the name I will adopt for the MIB).  Janney spoke of Jacob as not being able to lie and Yurugu as special and complex.  As Janney and Yurugu discussed Yurugu’s capacity for sin, it was somewhat clear that Janney regarded Yurugu with favor, a theme that is often repeated in literature – favoritism for the son who does not appreciate parents dutifully.

More on LOST Genesis and my Quick Hits, after the jump. Read more…

Sawyer's band of plotters defect from FLocke, but do they find an ally in Widmore? Photo c/o TVOverMind.com.

This is going to be a relatively quick Quick Hits, as I’m swamped with work and it’s late, but I wanted to get some of my thoughts down on paper… err… keyboard and pixels.  Anyways, this was the type of episode that I gather a bunch of the action starved folk were hoping for.  A lot happened and there wasn’t really a whole lot of tangential bits; provided, however, there was a distinct focus on bringing Claire back into the fold.

As I’ve noted in the past, I’m not a big fan of the rejuvenated, Rousseauian Claire.  Emilie de Raven may be one heck of a looker, but she’s no Charlize Theron and she can’t pull off acting while not being attractive.  It didn’t help that her character has been in limbo more than Michael, et al.  They at least gave her something to work with in this episode, putting a concerted focus on her relationship with Jack.  Both in the sideways universe and on Island, we see Jack and Claire meeting for the first time as knowing-brother and sister.

This character rehabilitation did some good, making her slightly more useful than Zombie Sayid; however, they’re still stretching and trying to make the Kate-Claire tension work.  Unless they end up wrestling in baby-oil, it’s just not going to be all that great a television.  In fact, the best part of the Kate-Claire interaction was Sawyer emphatically insisting that Claire be left behind and explaining that she isn’t the same woman they left on the Island.  Again, this was a bit of the producers speaking the minds of the audience, but it also served an important part of the plot line… at least I hope.  I do hold out some belief that the producers have good reason to keep Claire and Sayid in tow.

More Quick Hits, after the jump. Read more…

Before I get started, I’ll note that I’m under the weather so I’m going to keep this Quick Hits particularly short.  I just finished watching and against Darleton delivered.  We had a solid episode that returned two blasts from the past, as was hinted by Carlton Cuse on his Twitter account.  We received a concise, acceptable answer to one of the Island mysteries.  The candidates merged to move the final storyline towards its terminus.  The Constant moved to fulfill his destiny and, in a final act, we were left utterly slack jawed.

"Everybody Loves Hugo" featured a sideways universe Hurley who had success in life and did well in everything but love.

This episode, as indicated by its title, had a tangential relationship with Season 2′s “Everybody Hates Hugo.”  In that episode, we saw Hugo’s unfortunate and, well, star crossed life.  Even with his winning the lottery, wealth brought great misfortune.  In the alternate, sideways universe, Hurley is the opposite in all but one respect.  He is ambitious, dynamic, successful in his ventures and loved by all.  His one exception is in love.  He remains seemingly self-conscious in that regard.

When set up on a blind date that stands him up, Hugo runs into his only prior love on the Island, the DUI-terminated Libby.  Following her introduction along with the other Tailies, Libby had become a quite popular character; however, her and Ana Lucia met a bitter end at the hand of Michael at the end of Season 2 in “Two for the Road.”  Libby and Hugo were to have their first date on that day and Hugo has yearned for her, and we, as viewers, have pitied him his loss.

Much as Desmond’s experience in meeting Penny Milton drove Desmond toward his eventual destiny in reconnecting from the sideways universe to the Island consciousness, Hugo’s interaction with Libby (prodded on by a later chance — or was it — meeting with Desmond) led him to fulfill their initial beach date, despite several apprehensions.  When Libby kissed Hugo — as when Penny shook Desmond’s hand and when Charlie and Desmond had their near death experiences — everything came rushing back and Hugo began to remember.

For the person that every audience member wishes the best for, seeing Hugo possibly find happiness was a fantastic moment; however, there is some foreboding, knowing that there may be some sacrifice made by the candidates in both the sideways and the Island universe.  One has to wonder how long Hugo’s tide will stay strong.

Some Quick Hits, after the jump. Read more…

Do not adjust your screens, you didn't accidentally switch to The Watchmen. This is LOST and that is your Constant.

At what point do you think the producers made the decision that LOST was not a pure drama, a sci fi thriller or mystery show?  When Bad Robot first optioned the script, did JJ Abrams know that LOST was a pure love story?  It’s hard to say just when such a turning point was reached; however, what is clear is that the little snippets of true love have all been building toward that very tale so central to the core of the series and the characters on the Island itself.

Desmond and Penny hardly operate in a vacuum with respect to romance and love.  Nonetheless, they are at the core of it all, even though they’ve only appeared together in a handful of scenes.  In honor of the Large Hadron Collider ramping up to 3.5 tEV this past week, let’s talk in the terms of black holes.  The collision of various of the 80 or so survivors of Flight 815 has spawned little miniature black holes… some more strong than others, but none truly capable of reshaping the galaxy of characters and interactions.

We’ve seen brief romances and true examples of love in the relationship between Bernard and Rose.  We’ve lived through Sayid’s mission to reunite with his dear Nadia.  Heck, even the somewhat forgotten triangle between Jack, Sawyer and Kate presents a lesson in exploration of feelings, as did Boone’s forbidden love for step-sister Shannon and Sun and Jin’s re-dedication toward their marriage.  Even Charlie’s unconsummated love for Claire could be considered a triggered micro black hole; however, the super-massive black hole around which the show’s galaxy rotates is the love between Desmond and Penny and it is no secret that the finest episode in the series run (“The Constant”) focused on that love.

This episode may not have quite reached the heights of “The Constant” or the handful of other episodes that have completely changed the game and flipped the Island world on its head; nevertheless, boy did Darleton deliver this week.  The Damon half of the production team promised via Twitter that “the conversation is going to change [with "Happily Ever After"]“.  It did.

Find out my quick hits on how, after the jump. Read more…

Jin and Sun were two names connected to one spot on the wall as potential candidates. Although it wasn't completely clear, I believe it's safe to assume Jin is the candidate.

And so we return to the stories that advance the plot.  Even @DamonLindelof seemed to admit via Twitter that the LOSTies weren’t likely to love this episode, hinting that “in one week, the conversation is going to change.”  Well, this episode certainly didn’t shift the conversation, but rather it pulled things back in to a plot-centric course… taking a right turn from the mythological slant of the last episode.  Given that I heard half the audience groan over the lack of plot advancement last week, I think we can expect an exact switcharoo with the complainer last week lauding this episode and the lovers of the Jacob-MIB tales lambasting Darleton.

There was some thought amongst me and my fellow LOSTie friends that Jin and Sun could have been candidates for cancellation in prior season finales.  They always survived the cut despite the fact that, in many ways, their characters had ended their usefulness as primary storyline members and other characters who cross that Rubicon (like Boone, Shannon, and, at least temporarily, Claire) all met their end.  Darleton did a good job of reviving them, to a degree, but this episode showed that even the gimmick of the separated lovers couldn’t really carry an episode.

The one area that the episode did work for me was the sideways universe.  Sun and Jin in a separate existence worked quite well and more interestingly than many of the other storylines.  We’d been teased with Jin’s being found by Sayid at Keamy’s restaurant, so we already wanted to know how he got there.

Click through to keep on keeping on. Read more…

The episode focused on the Island and the relationship between Jacob and the MIB... and their pawn, Ricardus.

Although formally a Richard Alpert episode, last night was an Island-centric hour, perhaps more so than any prior episode in the series run. For that, and for the excellent manner in which it was executed, Darleton and co. deserve major, major props.

A return to mythology is where the LOST audience sometimes gets split. The fanatics, of which I count myself a member, love and revel in mythology, symbolism and literary or religious reference and allegory. The more casual fan who yearns for the serial sometimes gets confused and bored — thereby giving the ratings a major hit. I would imagine that last night represents a major coup for all true LOSTies and a major “over-the-head” moment for all people who tuned in and were unawares of the back stories of the characters and the inner backgrounds of the Island’s bicameral structure.

I reference bicameral largely because we’re 48 hours removed from a polarized health care reform vote which somewhat reminds me of this past episode. Our Congress, torn on two sides by competing interests represented by the DNC and GOP — or good and evil, or vice versa when viewed by a partisan on either side. Nevertheless, each good and evil are tied together. One party cannot exist without the other and good cannot be judged or identified in the absence of evil. Moreover, beyond the two parties, we are drawn within the bicameral structure of a world of two houses, each unable to function in the absence of the other.

I’m reminded of a story told by Leo McGary in the second season of the West Wing. It was a recounting of a seasoned Democrat Representative welcoming a new Congressman to DC:

“There was a freshman democrat who came to Congress 50 years ago. He turned to a senior Democrat and said, ‘Where are the Republicans? I want to meet the enemy.’ The senior Democrat said, ‘The Republicans aren’t the enemy. They’re the opposition. The Senate is the enemy.’”

Senator Dick Durbin recycled this story with respect to the health care reform vote not two weeks ago, and it still holds resonance, because in a bicameral structure both chambers are separate, sentient actors who must reconcile their inner balance and being (their fight between good and evil) as well as act in concert, or at least coexist, in order to accomplish anything. With health care reform, there is the distinct need for reconciliation in order to get the adopted forms of the bills passed. With respect to the Island… well, let’s just say things are different but no less complex.

And that brings me back to Jacob and the MIB. In this episode than any before, we were presented with that which has been readily before us all along: the question that Ricardus (and I do prefer that version of the name) himself has asked. What if Jacob is not what he proclaims to be? We were presented with the #TeamJacob perspective first and with concomitant sympathy; however, “Ab Aeterno” granted us, for the first time, the perspective of a neophyte in Richard who is first presented with the story of the MIB and then turned by Jacob.

You have more faith than I if you did not, for at least one moment, come to think that we might, just maybe, be operating on faulty or even a reverse polarity spectrum of what is good and what is evil. Perhaps it is the MIB and blackness itself that is good. Or, more complex is the concept that the Island is a bicameral world in which each house (that of Jacob and that of the MIB) are internally divided between good and evil and, while they must reconcile themselves, must act with and face as an enemy the other chamber.

A bit more on this and other thoughts in my Quick Hits, after the jump: Read more…

Perhaps the most welcome return in the episode was that of the awesome tree from Season 1. You'll recall that Kate hid from the smoke monster in the tree in the Pilot episode. Her confrontation with zombie Sayid, FLocke/Not-John and crazy Claire all took place at it's base.

I’m entirely uncertain on what I thought about this episode. I’m totally wiped out from a long day and not enough sleep and watched it after 90 minutes of good hooping it up. So I’m a little weary typing away in bed with the beginning of the episode playing through again for a second time. As I type, FLocke/Not-John is addressing #TeamSmokeMonster, saying (paraphrased) “you’ve been through a long night and I know you have a lot of questions. I’ll get to those, but first we’ve got to get moving.” This was one of those episodes where “Darleton”, like FLocke/Not-John, said that very thing and, like the character, failed to answer pretty much anything.

I fully understand that sometimes you need an episode that serves a purpose of simply advancing the story. That’s all well and nice, but the end is nigh and we still have a long ways to go to get to where this show ought to end and this episode did little to tie up loose ends or move the plot along besides getting us to where Team Widmore is back on Hydra Island. The title of the episode, “Recon,” should have given us enough pause to realize that this wasn’t going to be the most action packed of adventures, but rather would establish the necessary basis for episodes to come. As a result, it’s not surprising that I fell asleep before getting this written and am now typing away in the morning.

After the jump, I’ve got my quick hits: Read more…

OK, there are elements of this episode that were just amazing on a high level.  It was, in some respects, a brilliant final season episode, tying up certain elements of hanging story arcs; however, it also proved to have several glaring weaknesses.

We’ll start with the weaknesses.  Even to the most diehard of LOST fans, the coincidences have got to be growing tiresome.  In this case, we’ve got the previously disclosed connection of Locke ending up in Ben’s school; however, we’ve also been presented with Doc Artz as Ben’s sidekick coworker and Alex Rousseau as his star pupil.  My problem with this is that we don’t, at least on its face, have some form of driving force causing course corrections or causing the players to gravitate together.  With the Island sinking that impetus has been vanquished.  So the players coming together again is truly just coincidence… unless we see some driving force at the terminus of the off-Island timeline.

Ben-centric episodes have been, to date, quite excellent. Despite a few faults, this followed that pattern.

It’s actually well stated by Richard Alpert when he expresses to Jack that his dedication of his life to Jacob was for naught and all without meaning.  We’ll ignore, for a moment, that Jack convinces Richard that his life still has meaning and that Jacob’s missions have a purpose by lighting a stick of dynamite that doesn’t go off.  Richard has become an Island atheist and yet he still acknowledges the powers of the Island — Richard believes and perhaps knows that he cannot kill himself.  We previously saw this from Michael, who the MIB (presumably) similarly kept alive until releasing him on the Telmarine freighter with a visit from Christian Shephard.  That Michael was permitted to die via explosion in the hold of the freighter and that Richard was not permitted to do so in the hold of the slaver “Black Rock” was a very nice bit.

The questioning of meaning also is important for the purposes of the show in general.  LOST fans have been conditioned (often times without evidence) that every little element of the show has a purpose, in Joycean fashion.  If that weren’t the case, Doc Jensen couldn’t pen long essays and fans wouldn’t tune in and replay episodes with such fervor.

With that in mind I turn to our introduction to Dr. Linus the European history PhD.  His lecture to his class is on Napoleon’s exile and that the isle of Elba was truly the Emperor’s end.  Although granted free reign on the island, he had been stripped of his power, his meaning and his focus.  On the Island in the original timeline, Ben is Napoleon… but an emperor still in name only.  He’s completely impotent, hiding from his act of betrayal and anger at Jacob.  He is also a leader without a people.

More discussion and some quick hits from the episode, after the jump. Read more…