tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57561558094462896912024-03-12T21:39:07.829-04:00Rick's FlicksTV, Movies, and MoreRichard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-63821501674442758762010-03-10T10:20:00.004-05:002010-03-10T12:34:37.624-05:00Lost: "Dr. Linus"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI8PbPQNvoAKNy6Fxo7nCaKayB1XtEMCuHEfVEl9K4bkRsTx6kSva8-2I06y7jacBfzKrcf-8le5TPP7-1hUJRshXCgCnGbiojVYc5HT3iSWpx9Qsqyjf_U_47Fxh7KInqe6iS8ySyeAo/s1600-h/Linus.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI8PbPQNvoAKNy6Fxo7nCaKayB1XtEMCuHEfVEl9K4bkRsTx6kSva8-2I06y7jacBfzKrcf-8le5TPP7-1hUJRshXCgCnGbiojVYc5HT3iSWpx9Qsqyjf_U_47Fxh7KInqe6iS8ySyeAo/s320/Linus.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447052582650504482" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"You had me fooled with the sweater vest. You are a killer."</span><br /><br />I'm going to keep the general overview short for this one. <br /><br />I didn't like it. Not at all.<br /><br />The reasons I didn't like it have been exhaustively documented <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-what-kate-does.html">here</a>, <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-lighthouse.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/03/lost-sundown.html">here</a>, but suffice it to say, there was almost nothing redeeming about this episode. The alternate timeline plot was a too-cute-by-half attempt to mirror the scenario Ben was faced with back in Season 4, only this time at a Los Angeles area high school. The fact that the figurative "gun to Alex's head" was, this time, barely more than a water pistol (more on that below), didn't seem to negatively impact the <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> writers, however, who apparently thought they were being quite clever in their scenario design.<br /><br />Now, all that being said, the alternate timeline didn't seem so bad in this episode. Of course, that might have been because the action on the Island was so boring that trips to the alternate timeline seemed like a blessed reprieve from the tedium. <br /><br />I am, of course, being too harsh...but not by much.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />In this, the final season of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>, the writers apparently thought it would be interesting for us to observe an entire hour of Ben being called out for killing Jacob only to be inexplicably forgiven at the end, thus leading us to a post-episode state that almost exactly mirrored the state of the characters prior to the episode's events. Now that's a good use of time. In the "B" plot (or the "C" plot depending on how you want to treat the alternate timeline) we then got yet another episode of the "Jack and Hurley Power Hour". Now with dynamite! It was nice to see Richard again, but answers have yet to be forthcoming even from our favorite immortal slave.<br /><br />So it is with mild sadness but overall indifference that I bid adieu to "Dr. Linus." It's sad only because Ben episodes used to be something that I truly looked forward to. Now they are, like so many other aspects of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>, simply hollow echoes of happier days. Here's hoping for nothing but Locke episodes from here on out.<br /><br />11 hours remain...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Touched by an Angel</span>: So the scene with Richard Alpert and Jack was certainly interesting, but it was supposed to be tense right? Well, they kind of gave away the game by having Richard mention Jacob's touch, didn't they? I mean, if Richard can't commit suicide because Jacob touched him, then we know (from the events of last season's finale) that Jack can't commit suicide either. Now, I suppose Jack doesn't realize that (because he doesn't know that Jacob handed him a candy bar way back when), but still. There can't be any tension when we know what we know right?<br /><br />Also, the whole Jacob's touch thing raises a lot more questions than it answers.<br /><br />Does it mean that the candidates (whom Jacob touched) can't age? How then did young Kate and young Sawyer grow up to be the strapping and buxom young adults that they became? Or does Jacob's power "lock" someone in to their ideal age (late 20s/early 30s) for all eternity? And what of Michael? Since Michael was the only character on the show whom we saw share Richard's "no suicides" curse, it is safe to assume he was at one point touched by Jacob? Further, since the "no suicides" curse is implied to be a manifestation of Jacob's gift, what then are we to make of the fact that it was Christian Sheppard, not Jacob, who seemed to be shepherding (pun firmly intended) Michael about his appointed duties back in Season 4? That means that Christian was a stand-in for Jacob in Michael's plotline, but a stand-in for the Man in Black in Claire's plotline. Who or what is Christian?<br /><br />Well, at least <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> still gives us these fun mental exercises, even if I am somewhat less than convinced that the show will ever adequately address them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Diamonds in the Sand</span>: Okay, so despite all my negative comments, I laughed out loud not once, but twice at this one, both times at references to my favorite of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>'s many season 3 missteps: Nikki and Paolo. The fact that Miles communed with my favorite misplaced international diamond thieves while standing in the Oceanic graveyard (How much fun would an episode where Miles simply talks with all of the survivors who died over the course of the series be by the way? Oh the stories they would tell.) was funny enough, but the blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of Miles carefully considering one of the stolen diamonds in the final montage put me over the edge. Good show, <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>. I hope Miles gets to keep the money.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Slow motion Reunion</span>: Just an aside, but how many slow motion reunions featuring some portion of the cast coming around that small tuft of bushes on Oceanic beach have we been treated to over the course of the series? 8? 9? This episode even featured some of the same dynamics as years past: Now playing the role of estranged outsider, pioneered by the lovely Juliet, please welcome Richard Alpert! The lack of people on the beach does serve as a constant reminder of just how many people have died over the course of the series, though. What used to be a scene filled with extras (the other, unnamed survivors of Oceanic Flight 815), now is populated by but a handful.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Unused Triumverate</span>: When the female Jacobian cultist took Ben off to dig his own grave, was I the only one left looking at the remaining beach dwellers, Sun, Lapidus, and Miles, and thinking: "Look, it's the three most underserved characters in the history of the show." I mean, Libby had a better character arc then either Lapidus or Miles and that's saying something.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Broken Scenario</span>: As I mentioned above, I have no doubt that the <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> writers thought they were being quite clever in making Ben's alternate scenario into an exact mirror of his confrontation with Keamy in Season 4, but they failed in the execution. In this episode, Ben makes a play for power by threatening to blackmail his school's principal. The principal responds by threatening to withhold (or presumably write a negative version of) a letter of recommendation for Ben's favorite student, Alex Rosseau, thus destroying her young life. This whole situation was designed to present Ben with the same decision he faced in Season 4: Power or Alex. However, as we find out at the end of the episode, the principal eventually does write Alex a letter of recommendation and Ben is presumed to have backed down. Why? <br /><br />Once the principal has written his letter, he has no leverage over Ben. Writing the letter is the equivalent of Keamy letting Alex run free in the jungle before then asking Ben to come out of New Otherton. Why wouldn't Ben simply blackmail the principal after Alex is "free?" Some might suggest that the principal could still contact Yale even after he gave his letter of recommendation, but once Alex is accepted (or attending the school) I would think that ship would have sailed. Surely a man as smart as Ben would know this. Thus, the decision would be an easy one: back-down now, but take the principal out later. This failure in scenario design completely upends the meaning of the alternate timeline plot. It's easy enough to see what the writers were attempting to get at, but by failing to put together a competent scenario, we are left wondering if alternate timeline Ben is simply a stupider version of the Ben we've come to know.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">French Connection</span>: Maybe it was just me, but did it bother anyone else that Alex Rosseau was speaking English in this one? Presuming she was raised by her mother, why would she not be speaking French (or at least sounding a bit more like English was her second language). Seems like a missed opportunity to have some more fun with the whole "butterfly effect" question.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Widmore Effect</span>: If there was anything that was nice to see in this episode, it was the last second "L O S T" reveal of one Mr. Charles Widmore. Despite being a significant presence in the middle seasons of the show, Mr. Widmore, I was afraid, would be forgotten before all was said and done, even after I guessed that he was the individual coming to the Island in <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-lighthouse.html">my review of "The Lighthouse"</a>. Like I said in my comments on Jack and Hurley's visit to the survivors' old cave in that one, I'm just happy to see some of the older plotlines get featured at this point in the final season. Every question may not get answered, but at least they aren't forgotten.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Missing in Action</span>: Not much to add here except to note that this was another week where we were left wondering just what happened to Sawyer and Jin over the course of the last few episodes. Makes their absence in last week's episode seem all the stranger.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This Week's Cameo</span>: In this week's episode we got to spend a little extra time with our favorite exploded high-school scientist: Artz. Of course he was substantially less exploded in this one, which made him substantially less interesting. Go figure. Special mention also goes to William Atherton, aka "that guy", who many of you may know from his memorable stints as various forms of annoying government/media administrator in 80s classics <span style="font-style: italic;">Ghostbusters</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Real Genius</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Die Hard</span>. He may be type cast, but he plays that type well.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-71265516203765738052010-03-03T09:22:00.006-05:002010-03-03T16:15:31.357-05:00Lost: "Sundown"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicC_id6XFYKXUtzzwuG58qBGq_LG9erCro-I7uwEE_CArCgF3XXGsV3Ow6ZlF021E-7_pmNDMAMCos2HD5hY_0oQJDwpij9kHVu9oXjJHTo_iJzrGUTzQ0_10ykmjJMAqEqqeSo0mDot8/s1600-h/Sundown.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicC_id6XFYKXUtzzwuG58qBGq_LG9erCro-I7uwEE_CArCgF3XXGsV3Ow6ZlF021E-7_pmNDMAMCos2HD5hY_0oQJDwpij9kHVu9oXjJHTo_iJzrGUTzQ0_10ykmjJMAqEqqeSo0mDot8/s320/Sundown.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444507169122279282" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Welcome back to the circus."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> has a problem (I feel like this has been a theme this week).<br /><br />I don't want to harp on this, because I feel like I already covered this ground quite completely <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-what-kate-does.html">here</a> and to some extent <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-substitute.html">here</a>, but it must be said that as the action on the Island heats up (and it really was quite compelling this week), the alternate timeline dream sequences become all but impossible to bear. In this week's episode, the alternate timeline doesn't even contain a fully-cooked story, instead ending in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Sayid's</span> mysterious discovery of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Jin</span> trapped in an industrial refrigerator. Since it is unlikely that the "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Jin</span> in a fridge" plot is going to be picked up anytime in the near future (or ever, depending on how the show treats the inevitable <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Kwon</span> family flash episode), the whole thing can't help but feel like an incomplete waste of time. When combined with the fact that we still don't know what the alternate <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">timelines</span> are even supposed to be, let alone mean, yet another episode passes feeling like it only contained 20 minutes of real Lost-like substance.<br /><br />But what a 20 minutes they were. <br /><span class="fullpost"><br />After being all but promised a knock-down, drag-out temple showdown for the past few weeks, in this one we were finally granted our release. Sure, that release primarily consisted of bearing witnessing to a murderous rampage headed by our favorite smoke cloud and his newly "en-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">eviled</span>" (technical term) Iraqi torturer buddy rather than any kind of evenly contested battle, but it was release none the less. In an episode that spent many ponderous minutes on such monumental topics as proper etiquette when escorting your brother's children to the bus and the minutiae of pottery repair, it was nice to spend time on the Island watching an enigmatic Asian businessman be drowned by the resurrected ghost (zombie?) of a fallen friend.<br /><br />I mean, do these plot lines even compare?<br /><br />As I (and everyone else on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">internet</span>, I'm sure) had surmised after "The Substitute", the game in <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> land at this point is really all about setting the stage for some kind of epic, apocalyptic final conflict. After the events in this one, Not Locke now appears to have his team together, notably consisting of Candidates Sawyer, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Sayid</span>, and possibly Kate (there is apparently some debate about whether "Austen" appeared on the lighthouse last week, thus making her a Candidate), though I think with respect to the latter that she is far more likely to serve as a mole then fall to the dark side (see below). Presumably Team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Faux</span> Locke will eventually be facing off against Jacob's troops, likely to be lead by Jack and Hurley. Other major players like Ben, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Lapidus</span>, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Kwons</span>, and that cultist woman whose name I can never remember still have time to choose their sides. Now all we need is something for all these folks to fight over.<br /><br />And that's what makes this whole alternate timeline nonsense hurt so very much. In a show with less than half a day of material left to show us, it really doesn't make sense to cut that time period in half to show us things like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Sayid</span> fixing a vase in his brother's kitchen. Not when there are wars to be won and ancient evils to be put down. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Something's</span> got to give, and for the sake of the show, I very much hope it's soon.<br /><br />12 hours remain...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Last Stand</span>: Okay, so I've talked about this before, but there can be no doubt at this point that the <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">showrunners</span> have effectively taken on the task of reassembling Stephen King's "The Stand" for the grand finale of the show. The Man in Black (which is an icon and term used throughout "The Stand") has assembled his team of broken and defeated men and women (and Cindy), and is ready to fight Jacob's troops for whatever it is they will be fighting for. Will it be the fate of the Island? The World? Multiple Worlds? I have to say that as a major fan of "The Stand" I am happy to see things building up to such an apocalypse. I just hope the show can deliver on the epic conclusion my overactive imagination is starting to envision. We shall see...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Mole in the Making</span>: This is my last "Stand" reference, I promise (at least for this week), but it really is worth mentioning Kate's presence on team evil, and how closely it comports with the closing acts of King's magnum opus. In "The Stand", the citizens of the Boulder Free Zone (the "good guys") determine that they need eyes and ears in the camp of their evil counterparts (in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Las</span> Vegas). Much of the conflict in the middle and end of the book is shown through the stories of the three spies sent to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Las</span> Vegas by the citizens of the Free Zone. Like in "The Stand", we now have what very much appears to be a mole in the Man in Black's camp in Kate. She surely does not seem as broken or as crazy as Not Locke's other followers, and I suspect a good deal of the tension in the coming weeks will stem from Not Locke's sussing out of the traitor in his ranks. No doubt this will also be good fodder for Kate's sometimes lover, Mr. Ford. Which raises a good question...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Where's Sawyer?</span>: As a <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> fan, I'm all too familiar with the notion of keeping regular cast members out of given episodes in order to control a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">show's</span> budget, but in a story as serialized as <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> is, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">showrunners</span> often don't have the leeway they need when making budget cut decisions of that type. Case in point, even budgetary reasons can't really explain what happened to Sawyer in-between hanging out at "Jacob's" (big quotes around that one) cave and Not Locke's storming the temple. Where is he? Playing with Jacob's scales? Crossing names off the cave wall? More interestingly, what role will he play with respect to Kate's presence on team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Emo</span>? Will he save her? Will he out her? These questions could be the source of some of the best conflicts of the middle part of the season, and I would have very much liked to have gotten a jump on them at the end of this one. Oh well, I guess. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Where's <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Jin</span>?</span>: As I mentioned with respect to Sawyer, budget reasons can often keep fan favorites out of specific episodes. I originally thought that this was the case here with respect to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Jin</span>. He should, after all, be with Claire for the action of this episode so his lack of appearance didn't make much, if any, sense, unless he was being held out for budget reasons. Of course, as it turned out, he was the cypher at the end of alternate <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Sayid's</span> non-story in this one, so he actually did make an appearance in the episode. Why then was he not a part of the temple invasion squad? Your guess is as good as mine.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Cowardly Linus</span>: Nothing big, but I couldn't help but enjoy Ben's reaction to crazy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Sayid</span> in the Fountain Room. After everything Ben had done to make <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Sayid</span> evil over the past three years, it was interesting to see him take full account of the monster he had helped create. And a wide-eyed Ben backing out of any room is amusing enough in its own right. Well played, <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Dogen's</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Backstory</span></span>: So <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Dogen</span> wasn't a Samurai, he was just a businessman with a sick son who was lured to the Island with promises of medicinal Valhalla. Not altogether unlike the way a lovelorn Benjamin Linus would force the hand of his lady love, Juliet, three years prior. Still, we didn't really get told who or what was "the man" that brought <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Dogen</span> to the Island. That might just be a hint as to one of the very last tricks <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> has yet to play...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil</span>: Since Ben's claim in Season 2 that he was one of "the good guys" the show has continually flirted with the idea that who we think of as "bad" might just be "good", and vice <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">versa</span>. While the appearance of smokey and his willingness to kill would seem to have settled the issue, it's worth noting that the only evil so far espoused by the Man in Black is ultra violence, and, for the sake of argument, isn't violence against evil itself a good? Said another way, if we were later to learn that Jacob was a sadistic torturer hell bent on the destruction of mankind, wouldn't opposition to him justify ultra violence? I'm not saying that <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> is going to flip this particular script once again, but I am saying that we, the audience, are so used to narrative cliche that we are reflexively referring to the Man in Black's side as evil without much more to go on then his violent acts. It seems to me the identity of "the man" that convinced (coerced?) <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Dogen</span> to come to the Island is something that should probably inform our understanding of the powers in conflict on the show, and since we didn't get a clear indication in this one as to who that "man" is, it is possible, maybe even probable, that his identity will change the shape of our understanding. Something to think about, in any event.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This Week's Cameo</span>: If the alternate timeline is good for anything, it's for having unexpected faces show up in unexpected places. This week's donation to the <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> veteran character fund: Martin <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Keamy</span>, last seen terrorizing the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">Losties</span> with a "dead man's switch" that exploded the freighter and really, probably should have killed <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">Jin</span> in the process. This time he's some kind of loan shark (who still finds time to make <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">Jin's</span> life...problematic) who meets his end (presumably) at the hands of alternate <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">Sayid</span>. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">Sayid's</span> Resurrection</span>: It may just be me, but it sure seemed like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">Sayid's</span> accent (the primary <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">Sayid</span>, not alternate <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">Sayid</span>) was different in this one. Now I know that his <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">portrayor</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">Naveen</span> Andrews, himself sports a fairly strong British accent, but that hasn't been evident on the show until now. If the accent change is intentional, as I'm almost sure it is at this point, I believe it was designed to show us that the person (thing?) that came back in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">Sayid's</span> body is not really <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">Sayid</span> at all. Some have guessed that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">Sayid</span> came back as Jacob, but that hypothesis now seems incredibly unlikely. Instead, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">Sayid</span> seems to be something else entirely. Whatever he is, he certainly is not happy with the Others, and seems more than happy to be part of Not Locke's merry band.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-80444948884391737772010-03-02T10:44:00.006-05:002010-03-02T12:56:12.097-05:00Chuck: "Chuck vs. The Fake Name"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZ2ZPaQa3YmjmXe70vX7IVeLHrpL1mdPDCzBGPaR_rBWYrIDNGXt2xX8J_BjyLMJG3cEkf51IGTeSt58OUENjugKouzElkIM5Y6fQ6WtKn76vd0yAIQYaMRcN5pZElTteco8a7UmC1Pg/s1600-h/Fake+Name.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZ2ZPaQa3YmjmXe70vX7IVeLHrpL1mdPDCzBGPaR_rBWYrIDNGXt2xX8J_BjyLMJG3cEkf51IGTeSt58OUENjugKouzElkIM5Y6fQ6WtKn76vd0yAIQYaMRcN5pZElTteco8a7UmC1Pg/s320/Fake+Name.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444089171403173346" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"I hate those will they or won't they things. Just do it already."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> has a problem.<br /><br />In watching last night's episode, "The Fake Name", I realized that I was not at all invested in the show's characters. For a show that I had touted to my friends as one of the most entertaining on TV last year, for some reason, this year the show just hasn't connected in the same way. During last night's episode, I found my mind wandering, and after getting up several times with the show running (something I never do when I'm really interested), I began to think about how such a bright show began to lose its luster. The answer, in my opinion, is what some may still call the "Moonlighting" effect, the artificial drawing out of sexual tension between two leads past the point where anyone actually cares, emphasis on "artificial". The same tension that is rightly ridiculed by the mobster character's quote at the top of this post.<br /><br />The problem is that I don't think that <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>'s writers are following their own advice to "just do it already."<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />After "The Mask" (in which seemingly half the internet became enraged at the prospect of a Chuck/Hannah, Sarah/Shaw combo platter), it was apparent that the show had moved into territory where the obstacles between Sarah and Chuck no longer seem reasonable. After all, Sarah's ostensible reasons for avoiding a Chuck/Sarah relationship rest almost solely on the fact that by choosing the life of a spy he has chosen a life where Sarah and Chuck can't be fully fulfilled as a couple. What sense does it make then for Sarah to fall for yet another spy, a spy who, in this case, is so transparent in his come on attempts that he might as well be asking Sarah if it hurt when she fell from heaven. If Sarah is losing her feelings for Chuck because he is taking on the characteristics of a spy, it doesn't make sense from a narrative perspective for the obstacle to their love to be someone who is more a spy then Chuck is ever likely to be.<br /><br />This artificiality is only exacerbated to the tenth degree in this one, in which a lovelorn Sarah tells superspy Shaw (who she has known for, like, ten minutes) her real name, a secret she never shared with the man she was supposedly ready to flee the CIA for. The whole thing feels artificial, artificial, artificial. And while the show can bear that to some degree in that it is still slickly produced and has fun, if not meaningful, spy caper type plot lines, it can never rise to the level of what it was in Season 2 if the audience no longer cares about the characters.<br /><br />Essentially, <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> has become <span style="font-style: italic;">Human Target</span>.<br /><br />Now the plot of this episode wasn't actually so bad, though I thought it once again veered into lunacy where the show has before achieved a smarter balance of action and comedy. The mobster characters in particular were over the top, and we were never given an adequate reason why The Ring would be using them as a go between in any event. Throw in more than the usual number of plot holes (more on that below) and you have an episode that is well below average for the series.<br /><br />A disappointment on all counts.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Plot Holes have Plot Holes</span>: So, it almost goes without saying that one should not be watching <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> for the taut plots fueled with airtight reasoning and ironclad logic, but this episode might take the cake for having characters take ridiculous actions just to fuel the plot. Let's take, for instance, the climatic scene of the episode, in which Casey ultimately snipes Rafe while he wields Sarah as a hostage against Chuck and Shaw. Now this is a rousing conclusion to the scene, and one which Casey pays off well in his gruff and sarcastic manner, but how did the characters arrive at this point?<br /><br />The scene begins with Shaw and Sarah in the hotel room, with Chuck and the mobsters watching from afar through the lens of a sniper scope. So far so good. Chuck then convinces the mobsters that he is so hurt by Shaw's stealing his woman that he needs to kill him in person. Also, so far so good. Chuck arrives at the hotel room and starts fighting Shaw, at the same time Rafe has escaped from CIA custody and has arrived at the mobster's sniper perch. Rafe then assassinates the mobsters (without revealing his identity) for no better reason than to serve the needs of the plot. More egregiously, he then forgoes the use of the "fully operational" sniper rifle (remember, he's a sharp shooter) to run over to Shaw's hotel room to engage in fisticuffs with Chuck, Sarah, and Shaw.<br /><br />Why does he run over to the other room? At this point he doesn't even know Shaw is the target (or if he does, that point isn't made clear in the episode), and further, he wouldn't know Shaw is in the hotel room unless he examined it, THROUGH THE LENS OF THE SNIPER RIFLE. Why not just shoot him dead, then and there? Because it serves the climax of the episode. Rafe's oversight/unexplainable character inconsistency, of course, leads Casey to be able to make the fateful shot that ends Rafe's life, and it is indeed rousing. It's just unfortunate that the actions that led up to such a scene aren't remotely plausible even in <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>'s world.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sam I am</span>: I touched on this above, but it's just insane to think that a woman as guarded as Sarah (Sam?) would reveal one of her most intimate secrets to a man she barely knows when she wouldn't reveal that same secret to a man she desperately wanted to become a fugitive with not six months prior. From a story perspective, this turn of events (and of course the Shaw romance on the whole), must be completely infuriating for those who consider themselves Chuck and Sarah "shippers." I've never fallen into that boat myself, but it's easy to see how this kind of rudimentary character manipulation could severely turn off some of the most ardent <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> fans. That's probably not something that the showrunners should want to do for a show that desperately needs to prove itself to its network.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Fake Name</span>: Perhaps the most clever thing that the writers did in this one was revealed in the title of the episode itself. While Chuck does, in fact, assume a fake name in the episode, the true conflict, the one at the heart of the show, is Chuck's continued acceptance of Sarah's fake name, a name he knows is fake, and a name that Sarah allows to fall by the wayside when faced with Agent Shaw's shirtless machismo.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hannah's heading to Montana</span>: And the award for most meaningless multi-episode arc goes to <span style="font-style: italic;">Smallville</span>'s Lana Lang in a role where she accomplished little more than to accentuate the character plot lines already highlighted by members of the main cast. I mean, what did Hannah's presence accomplish other than to highlight the fact that Chuck was getting too good at this whole spy thing, a fact covered most adeptly by Sarah's continued statements regarding that very fact. If the cost of Kristin Kruek was anywhere near the cost of Anna Wu, I would have much rather maintained the Nerd Herd status quo rather than get such a meaningless aside.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What a Crock</span>: Without Morgan, the Buy More side of the plot really had no where to go but the land of meaningless comedic asides. That being said, I did like that the writers elected to use the islanded Buy More staff to comment on the crazy slate of women Chuck has so far been able to snag during the course of the series. I could have done without the now obligatory reference to the fact that Sarah is his one and only soulmate, but if that message had to be delivered, better that it be done through Jeff's inherent creepiness, rather than through yet another sequence of the pair looking longingly at each other from across a crowded room.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-71068911857591887252010-02-24T10:15:00.011-05:002010-03-02T10:44:19.023-05:00Lost: "The Lighthouse"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdwG1M-tc4t6uvXenuB1RfiuaOF2DoQEh8wQxifMGakP0nCysL2bBynJWYUfjIRtH8Y959tyRhdsYFqEZEYq8ayiFU3-N2RIo3IsOmsHTXhAsH6UdIzThvlMmRJjV820Lyau5aiyaaWms/s1600-h/Lighthouse.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdwG1M-tc4t6uvXenuB1RfiuaOF2DoQEh8wQxifMGakP0nCysL2bBynJWYUfjIRtH8Y959tyRhdsYFqEZEYq8ayiFU3-N2RIo3IsOmsHTXhAsH6UdIzThvlMmRJjV820Lyau5aiyaaWms/s320/Lighthouse.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443727064551904530" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Why didn't we see this before?"</span><br /><br />Why didn't we see this before, indeed. From a four story edifice on the edge of the Island to an appendix scar "appearing" seemingly in the middle of the night, "The Lighthouse" is filled with instances where the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">show's</span> main characters (and their alternate universe counterparts) have their eyes opened to the universe around them in new and varied ways. While it may not have been a classic episode, it was certainly an intriguing one.<br /><br />Let's get this out of the way first. The alternate universe plot (aside from the one moment of intrigue in which alternate Jack asks his mother about his appendix scar) had, like the ones before it, the air of pointless filler. That's not to say that all of these "alternate" scenes won't mean something in the long run, it's just hard to sit through fake Jack (and believe me, I know that alternate Jack isn't really "fake", it's just seems that way when slogging through these scenes) watching his fake son play fake piano before eating fake pizza.<br /><br />More mystical lighthouses please.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />On that note, this episode offers us the first mystical lighthouse of the series (Or is it the second? See "A Light in the Darkness" below), a hugely tall tower on an exposed part of the Island that one could not imagine <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Sayid</span> missing during his exploratory walks/sailing excursions earlier in the series. So it's an invisible lighthouse then, an invisible lighthouse that shows a beleaguered Jack his childhood home when turned to a setting where someone (presumably Jacob) has written his (or is that Christian's?) last name. Of course, who can say whether the mirror is seeing Jack's childhood home now, in the past, in the future, or...elsewhere (like in an alternate dimension?). The lighthouse portion of the episode is all questions and no answers, an ironic pose for a building that is ostensibly supposed to be shedding light on things.<br /><br />Finally, the rest of the episode features a Claire thoroughly naturalized to Island life (was Claire even losing her accent at points?) as she interrogates <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Jin</span> and an Other about the fate of her dear Aaron. While little happens in this portion of the episode, Locke's appearance at the end of it makes clear the sequence's purpose: <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Jin</span> is going to help Smokey and Claire sneak into the Temple, presumably so that Smokey can have his way with the Others that call it home.<br /><br />At the end of the day then, this episode was a good, not great, addition to the series, that despite ABC Marketing's claims to the contrary did more to ask questions than to answer them. That being said, things are very clearly moving towards an epic confrontation at the Temple, a confrontation I very much look forward to seeing. Let's hope it's next week.<br /><br />14 hours remain...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Altered Echoes</span>: By far the most intriguing piece of the episode (at least for me) was in the very first alternate universe scene, in which a contemplative Jack has to do a double take to confirm the existence of an appendectomy scar on his abdomen. Regular viewers of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> will surely remember Jack's emergency Island Appendectomy from Season 4. Alternate Jack, however, seems to be surprised by the presence of the scar. When his mother reminds him that he got his appendix removed when he was younger, Jack seems to acknowledge vaguely remembering something like that, but the whole scene takes on the air of one of Sawyer's con games. It's almost as if his mother is ad-libbing a reasonable explanation for why Jack would have such a scar. It's worth noting that the scene also bears a striking resemblance to the one last year in which a sleeping Desmond "remembers" being contacted by Daniel Faraday in his Island-bound past.<br /><br />Alternate Jack "receiving" a scar that Island Jack had received three years prior (but maybe at the "alternate" time of this episode, sometime in 2004/2005) raises vastly more questions then it answers. Could the actions of the Island <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Losties</span> somehow be influencing their alternate universe counterparts? Did alternate Jack not have an appendectomy scar until his Island dwelling opposite had his encounter with Juliet's surgical blade? Does the air of artificiality in the scene in which alternate Jack learns of his appendectomy imply that the alternate <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Losties</span> are really our <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Losties</span>, simply enduring a great lie about their past. Just what is going on?<br /><br />The appendectomy question is, in my opinion, by far the most important thing to come out of "The Lighthouse." Even more important than mirrors that see things they very well shouldn't. But that really is another thought entirely, isn't it...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mirror, Mirror</span>: So what was Jack seeing in that mirror anyway? Was it a window to the past? (He clearly states that it is focused on his <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">childhood</span> home; a home he hasn't lived in for years.) Or did Jacob simply fail to adjust the lighthouse to follow his candidates-in-training? That seems unlikely. Perhaps the mirror shows only the versions of the candidates that could otherwise take Jacob's place. In other words, perhaps the mirror was actually showing the alternate timeline, a timeline featuring a far less broken Jack, a Jack capable of rightly being called a candidate, and we will see the lighthouse as a means for convergence as the show continues on. Perhaps our Jack will even have to sacrifice himself in some way for alternate Jack. Now that would be a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">mindbender</span>...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Guess who's coming...</span>: So Jacob claimed that Hurley and Jack needed to go to the lighthouse in order to aid someone in reaching the Island. Later, he seemed more than content with allowing Jack to smash the lighthouse's mirrors, seemingly because Jack now recognized how important he was to Jacob. Was there ever anyone coming to the Island? My guess is that there was/is, but that Jacob is satisfied with allowing that specific individual to find another way. In other words, Jacob's very willing to let things play out however they do. Now who's on their way? My guess is Desmond, though a case could also be made for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Widmore</span>. I guess we'll see...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Suicide Baby</span>: When Jack was losing it up in the lighthouse, I couldn't help but think that he was going to threaten Jacob with his suicide. I mean we know Jack's thought about killing himself by jumping from a high place before (see the Season 3 finale, ironically enough named "Through the Looking Glass"), and now he knows that he is supremely important to Jacob. Why not threaten to kill yourself in order to get at the man behind the curtain? How does breaking the lighthouse mirrors help anything? For the first time in a long time, the mirror destruction scene felt like the writers deliberately obfuscating where clarity was called for. It felt like a step back.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Adam and Eve</span>: It was nice to see Hurley and Jack back at the caves addressing one of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">show's</span> bigger questions, the presence of ancient skeletons (which, if I remember correctly, were clutching light and dark stones similar to the ones we saw on the scales in Jacob's cave last week). While the pair didn't find any answers regarding their origin, it seems unlikely that the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">show's</span> writers would have included the scene if they didn't intend to address the issue before the series draws to a close, and for that I am very happy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Rousseau</span> By Any Other Name</span>: I couldn't quite make out many of the names that had been crossed off on Jacob's lighthouse <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">candidates</span> list, but one that did jump out was Rousseau's. It seems she was a candidate to replace Jacob. Guess that could have worked out better for her...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Through the Looking Glass</span>: "Lighthouse" is just the latest in a long line of references that <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> has made to Lewis Carrol's famous "Through the Looking Glass." The most significant being <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Dharma's</span> underwater radio base</span><span class="fullpost">, "The Looking Glass"</span><span class="fullpost"> (in which one Charlie Pace did meet his watery end in the similarly named Season 3 finale...at least in the primary timeline), but that is more metaphorical than literal. In this one, we get an actual looking glass, the lighthouse mirror, that shows another world. Whether that world is the past, the present, the future, or another reality altogether is unclear, but whatever the case may be, it is clear that the mirrors in the lighthouse are not showing what they otherwise should be. When combined with the fact that Jack picks up and comments on an anthology of Mr. Carrol's work when he is talking with his son, I think it is safe to assume that the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">showrunners</span> wanted us thinking about Alice's trips to Wonderland when we watched this one.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">How I Met Your Mother</span>: In the alternate timeline, a number of references are made to Jack's son's mother, but she never appears. Is her identity supposed to be a secret? Are we just meant to assume that Jack and his wife from the primary timeline had a son in the alternate timeline? It strikes me that there's a big "aha" reveal coming on this score in the future, but I'm not quite sure.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">You've Got A Friend in Me</span>: It was clear half-way through the episode that the identity of Claire's "friend" would likely play into the "L O S T" ending, but I had thought that Christian (rather than Not Locke) would be making another appearance. Perhaps with Smokey being forced to keep Locke's identity (as stated without reason in last week's episode), we won't see Christian for the remainder of the series (at least in the primary timeline). That would seem like a waste of one of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">show's</span> most mysterious characters, however, so I would hope that the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">show's</span> creators wouldn't go in that direction.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What it Takes</span>: As you might have guessed from the fact that I regularly make blog posts on the subject, I am a bit of a <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> fan. That being said, even I thought the connection to Jack "not having what it takes" was too tenuous to support the proposition that the mere invocation of the line by Hurley would cause Jack to once again go traipsing into the jungle. Now had Hurley told Jack to "sweep the leg" that might be a different story...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Light in the Darkness</span>: Interesting symbolism in the use of a giant, mystical, invisible "tower of light" in this one, especially when compared with the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Dharma</span> Initiative's "Lamppost" station from last year. That station was manned by Daniel Faraday's mother, Mrs. Hawking, and was used to track the location of the Island in time and space. Similarly, the lighthouse in this episode was apparently used by Jacob to track the candidates in time and space, and, more interestingly, was also apparently used to signal visitors to the Island in some way. In a way, both buildings are lighthouses, but in reverse. Since lighthouses were traditionally buildings of warding (warning ships of rocky outcroppings or just land in general) it is interesting to see that notion turned on its ear. With respect to the Island, a lighthouse (both the invisible kind and the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Dharma</span> Initiative kind) is a building that welcomes. It leads visitors to land (the Island) rather than warding them away. At least if we can take the ghost of a dead Egyptian god at face value...<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-2777879109699874312010-02-18T11:51:00.006-05:002010-02-18T16:51:09.371-05:00Lost: "The Substitute"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdjyw7uaWbdWfa1r8Uyn7adrHCvGKG_-NvXDeAdvhfDRP_kN6lR8k2vHROH3V4AhsHvF6U5cYW5oOVYA0ckAsJ_B88yNW99QwYAWAUiW7siuCnbUWPTrwBUrrsqE3e4WOcYFSGIbtZM4/s1600-h/dead-body.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdjyw7uaWbdWfa1r8Uyn7adrHCvGKG_-NvXDeAdvhfDRP_kN6lR8k2vHROH3V4AhsHvF6U5cYW5oOVYA0ckAsJ_B88yNW99QwYAWAUiW7siuCnbUWPTrwBUrrsqE3e4WOcYFSGIbtZM4/s320/dead-body.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439694714121729474" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />"What's the eight about?"</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Jacob had a thing for numbers."</span><br /><br />Now that's more like it.<br /><br />I still have major problems with the show spending so much time on an alternate reality that is essentially inscrutable even for the most ardent <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> fan, but I don't need to harp on that for my analysis of this one. Unlike "What Kate Does", "The Substitute" dealt almost entirely with the mission of one Man-in-Black, I mean "Not Locke", I mean Smokey, or perhaps I mean <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_Flagg">Randall <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Flagg</span></a>, as he "recruited" for a battle the nature of which we can only guess at for now. Suffice it to say, the single-minded malice of what may be a revived Egyptian god proved much more interesting than Kate and Claire's adventures in maternity triage. Surprise, Surprise.<br /><br />In the alternate timeline, we meet a Locke who is engaged to marry the love of his life, who still has a relationship with his Dad, and who winds up working as a substitute teacher at a high school employing one Benjamin Linus. Little happens (though the show continues to establish that the survivors are going to be meeting each other one way or another even in the alternate timeline), but that's not really the interesting part of the episode.<br /><br />The interesting part is on the Island.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />On Time Travel Island, circa 2007, Not Locke is a man on a mission. As the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Jacobian</span> cultist whose name I can never quite remember ominously states, he is "recruiting." And who is he recruiting? <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Everyone's</span> favorite back-talking broken man: James "Sawyer" Ford. As I guessed in <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-la-x.html">my post on "LA X"</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Clearly the Man in Black is coming for the Others, and I think he's going to be assembling a team of cynical and defeated people to help him. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Sawyer (or Jack for that matter) winds up on the wrong team, before being redeemed in the end.</blockquote><br />Basically, that guess now appears to be right. Not Locke is assembling a team, a team whose purpose is still unclear, but who the Others very clearly think is ultimately trying to kill them (a frightened Richard Alpert says as much to Sawyer). Why? All we are given in this episode is the notion that Not Locke/The Man in Black was once just a man, and he has been trapped on the Island for a long, long time. He simply wants to be free. Of course, he can also take the form of a pillar of black smoke, and is plagued by images of a golden-haired boy running through the jungle telling him that he "can't kill him." Who is that boy? Who can't the Man in Black kill? I have some guesses (they are really to specious to be called theories at this point) which I elaborate on below.<br /><br />More interestingly, in attempting to win Sawyer's trust (or in attempting to kill him; the line is very thin you see), the Man in Black takes Sawyer to a cave he claims is Jacob's. On the walls of the cave are a series of names with all but a few crossed off. As Sawyer examines the walls, Not Locke explains that the names are those of the "Candidates", a select group of people who Jacob deemed to be worthy of being his replacements. The only names which have not been crossed off are very recognizable: Ford, Shepard, Locke (crossed off by the Man in Black in this episode), <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Kwon</span>, Reyes, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Jarrah</span> (interestingly not Austen), and all are associated with a number - 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.<br /><br />Like the recruitment issue, I guessed that the show would make Jacob-replacement a priority in <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-la-x.html">my post on "LA X"</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>In this conception, I imagine that towards the end of the season (or in the finale), Jack (or the survivors as a whole) will be asked to make a choice, between saving the Island and taking on some terrible burden (<span style="font-style: italic;">perhaps becoming the new Jacob, forever bound to the Island and its cosmic significance</span>) or forgetting that any of their adventures ever happened. Not only would this choice illustrate one of the main themes of Lost, that of the importance of free will, it would also allow us to adjudge the ramifications of the "wrong" choice through the use of the alternate timeline.</blockquote><br />Not that these guesses are anything special (most notably, I now think that the scenario I posited above is far more likely to occur in connection with a converging timeline rather than a divergent one, and more likely then not will fall on someone other than Jack; see below). One of the best things about watching <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> is that the show is generally very fair with its viewers. People like to complain that it asks more questions than it answers, but quite often the show answers questions in a very subtle way before it swings back around and answers them more deliberately. The term "candidate", for instance, was mentioned prominently in Season 5, so the fact that the show might wind up turning on the notion of who is or isn't a candidate (and a candidate for what?) could have (should have) put the notion of Jacob's replacement in play far before the definitive answers presented in this episode.<br /><br />Of course, "definitive" might not be the right word for the answers presented in this one. To call the Man in Black an unreliable narrator would be to undersell the very concept. Interesting indeed.<br /><br />15 hours remain...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">You Must Go and Make Your Stand</span>: I've been down this road <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/02/lost-life-and-death-of-jeremy-bentham.html">before</a>, but this episode made it quite clear that <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> is hurtling towards an endgame that is going to share quite a bit in common with Stephen King's seminal work "<span style="font-style: italic;">The Stand</span>". As in that book, we are now seeing in <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> a storyline focused on an "evil" entity preying upon cynicism and weakness to recruit an army to fight against the light (here, Jacob). Unlike in that book, we don't really see an army of light preparing to similarly make their stand against the forces of darkness. Jack may have been willing to swallow a poison capsule, but he's got a fair bit of growing left to do if he's going to lead the armies of God (or Jacob as the case may be). In <span style="font-style: italic;">"The Stand"</span>, after all, it wasn't a mere willingness to lead, but a willingness to die that was necessary to carry the day. I don't really see that coming from any of the Temple-bound <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Losties</span> just yet.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Benjamin Linus</span>: I feel like I've said this a lot already before (in truth, I have, but it was with respect to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Gaius</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Baltar</span> on <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/02/battlestar-galactica-blood-on-scales.html"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Battlestar</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Galactica</span></span></a>), but what is the plan with Ben? In this one, we see him admit to the murder of John Locke and appear to exhibit genuine signs of remorse. It's as if he regrets killing Jacob and unleashing whatever it is he unleashed, but, in truth, what side was Ben ever on? Jacob effectively goaded Ben into killing him, and there was clearly no "Linus" on Jacob's wall. Furthermore, we've seen Ben "control" smokey who we all assumed was working for Jacob at the time, but has since been revealed to be Jacob's arch-nemesis. We know that Jacob never spoke to Ben, and that Ben only faked being able to see Jacob in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Goodspeed</span> Cabin. So what was/is Ben's purpose? Was Jacob just using him? Was Smokey? I suspect that even if they resolve most of the plot lines on this show in a satisfactory manner, that some of the earlier seasons are not going to line up quite right, and I think Ben's extremely fluid relationship to everything that's happened is going to be something that people are just going to have to ignore. I'll be happy to be proved wrong, though.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Hot List</span>: So, if the Others have been making lists all this time, and referring to them as Jacob's lists (a connection I still can't quite understand since we get confirmation that the Others were actually drafting the lists in Season 3), how is it that the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Losties</span> we know and love were only referenced on one such list at the start of this season, when we now know that Jacob has been keeping track of them all this time. Did the "Candidate Six" need to experience life out on the Island for a time? Did Jacob only recently identify them? More ominously, is the Man in Black just telling Sawyer a pack of lies while they are in the cave? Rather than candidates, do the markings on the wall instead show a kind of "Kill Bill" style hit list drafted by Smokey himself? We did see him cross off Locke's name in this one, and it's quite clear that we aren't supposed to take the Man in Black at face value (obviously the Island needs protecting from something, despite what he tells Sawyer). Questions, questions, questions, with barely an answer to glean.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Hole in the World</span>: Alright, so here's my weekly diatribe on the state of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> post the introduction of the alternate universe flashes. As I mentioned last week, one of the problems with the alternate universe is that the characters we are watching are clearly different from the ones we have been following for the five previous years. Let's look at the questions Locke's "flash" leaves us after this episode:<br /><br />(1) What is Locke's relationship with his Dad?<br />(2) If his relationship with his Dad is good (as is implied by Helen's suggestion that Locke invite his dad to their wedding), what events have transpired in Locke's dad's past which causes him to not push his son from an apartment window?<br />(3) Did Locke's dad steal his kidney?<br />(4) If Locke's Dad didn't push him from a window, how was Locke paralyzed (and for how long has he been that way)?<br />(5) How did Locke meet Helen (remember they met in a support group related to Locke's abuse at the hands of his father the first time around)?<br />(6) If Locke wasn't pushed out a window, then was he ever in the hospital at the right time to have <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Abaddon</span> tell him he needed to go on walkabout? If not, why did he decide to go on walkabout?<br />(7) What did Locke do for a week in Australia? (In the original timeline it was at least strongly implied that the ticket the walkabout company purchased for Locke was very soon to depart after he was rejected from participating in the tour.)<br />(8) If Locke's Dad is a nice guy now, what effect does that have on Sawyer's alternate story? Are Sawyer's parents alive?<br /><br />I am sure there are hundreds more that could be asked about Locke or any of the other alternate versions of the castaways, but therein lies the problem. We don't know who alternate Locke is any better than we know who, for instance, Cindy the stewardess is. There's a hole in the narrative that makes it impossible to be certain what things actually happened in the story we are being told. I don't see any way around this for the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">show's</span> producers and it's becoming more and more troublesome.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ashes to Ashes</span>: Is it possible that in <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>, like <span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Galactica</span></span>, "this has all happened before and it will happen again." We are talking a lot about rites of succession in this one, after all. And note the seeming importance placed on Jacob's ashes in this episode. Is it possible, for instance, that the ashes of Jacob can be used to keep Smokey at bay, just like the ashes of previous Island protectors? I wonder.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Useful Narrative Constructs</span>: It is clear now, four episodes in, that the alternate timeline <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Losties</span> are to be of the same general <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">archetype</span> as their original recipe counterparts, but that the details that got them there may or may not be different. Kate is a fugitive in both <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">timelines</span>, but she may or may not be innocent in the alternate. Locke almost certainly was not thrown through a window in the alternate timeline, but that didn't stop him from becoming a paraplegic. While the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">show's</span> creators seem to enjoy this bit of cleverness, I can't help but think that it's simply a useful narrative device. After all, if the alternate versions of the characters weren't of the same rough type as the version we've already met, then we would have absolutely no basis on which to relate to them.<br /><br />I think the usefulness of such a device is limited, however, and may even be damaging, because it's too easy for a viewer (including myself) to forget when watching alternate Locke in the bathtub, for instance, that he may or may not have the capability of reflecting on that time his kidney was stolen, because he may or may not have experienced that in his life. It creates ambiguity and uncertainty where none existed before, and it risks making the whole darn enterprise impenetrable. We simply don't know what we don't know.<br /><br />Combined with the fact that apparently the Man in Black can no longer change his form (he can change into a pillar of smoke, but not into another human shape, that makes a lot of sense), presumably because the brilliant Terry <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">O'Quinn</span> would otherwise have nothing to do on the series, and I can't help but think that the writers are taking easy outs when they should be pulling out all the stops.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wasting Away</span>: I know I promised not to harp on this, but it's clear now that the alternate timeline is actively conspiring to deny us forward movement in the main storyline. Last week we were denied any follow-up on an evil god taking an immortal slave into the jungle. This week, we see no mention of an aboriginal Claire or any of the other Temple-bound <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Losties</span>. This makes every episode feel like it contains so much filler, even when large portions of it are interesting. This too is troubling.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">To Err is Human, to Converge, Divine</span>: I think it's pretty obvious now that the name of the game in terms of the alternate timeline is convergence. That even though these people didn't otherwise meet in a terrible plane crash, the universe and its constant course correction will bring everyone together in the end. The only problem with that, of course, is that the notion of course correction was pretty firmly established throughout the events of Season 3. Why is it so important now? (And how do the two universes co-exist, anyway?)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who is that Boy I see?</span>: This episode's contribution to <span style="font-style: italic;">Twin Peaks</span> style weirdness took the form of a young blond boy who appeared in the jungle, but only to Not Locke and Sawyer (notably, Alpert can't see him). Who was he, and why did he tell Not Locke that according to the "rules" he couldn't kill "him"? I don't have any idea, but it's worth noting that this is not the first time we've heard of the "rules." In Season 4, we saw a grieving Ben Linus confront a sleeping Charles <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Widmore</span> with the claim that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Widmore</span> had broken the "rules" when he had ordered the murder of Ben's "daughter" Alex. At the time, it was difficult to say whether the "rules" applied simply to a compact between the men, or to something more cosmic in significance. In this episode, though, we have a clearly supernatural entity (whether or not he is divine is up for some debate), telling an Island dweller, what they "can't do." Interestingly, the person being told this has otherwise appeared to be a god in the context of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">show's</span> narrative, a personification of darkness (the Man in Black), against Jacob's light.<br /><br />That "godhood" is thrown into sharp relief, however, by the reaffirmation in this episode that he has to play by some form of rules (the first time rules were referred to for the Man in Black was in the Season 5 finale, in which it was implied that the Man in Black wanted to kill Jacob but couldn't, and that through Ben he found a loophole in the cosmic laws). So who is the boy? He's someone (or a representative of someone) who has greater power than the Man in Black (and, I would posit, Jacob). In my estimation, that leaves only one possibility: he's God (or a representative), or more precisely in the conception of god that the show contemplates, he's the essence of the divine (whatever that may be).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Prison for Your Mind</span>: Now, I know that I said that convergence is the name of the game up above, and I believe that in the macro sense, but allow me to take a small step back. In this episode, the Man in Black intimates that the Island is his prison. Now Jacob may or may not be his prison guard, or simply another prisoner, but ask yourself this: If the nuclear detonation in 1977 destroyed the Island (or otherwise led to the destruction of the Island), was the Man in Black (or Jacob, or both) freed as a result? If he was freed, is there some great evil at work in the alternate timeline that we just aren't privy to at this moment? Might the purpose of the alternate timeline actually be to show the viewer just how unintended, unintended consequences can be? Ominous.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ladder, Ladder</span>: I thought the ladder bit in this episode was utterly pointless. It was patently evident that Sawyer wasn't in any real danger, and the sequence just seemed to go on and on. Was the episode running a little short, guys?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Let the Right <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Kwon</span> In</span>: One of the more interesting things that the Man in Black says in this episode is that he doesn't know which <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Kwon</span> (Sun or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Jin</span>) is a candidate for Jacob's replacement (we even see a flashback to Jacob touching them both to add to the ambiguity). It's possible that this is the Man in Black's weakness. If the candidates hold some sort of power over the Island and its inhabitants, then the Man in Black's inability to identify one of them may be of supreme importance. I can see this playing out to some significant effect in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">show's</span> endgame.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Jacobian</span> Candidate</span>: This may simply be the "gun in the first act" rule on an epic scale, but I can't believe for one minute that, with the concept of replacing Jacob introduced, we won't see one of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Losties</span> taking up that mantle. Now the most obvious candidate (no pun intended) is Jack, if only because he is the centerpiece of the show and the entry point for the audience, but I think things might take a different direction. If I'm right, taking on Jacob's responsibilities will be accompanied by some form of significant burden. Maybe it's simply being trapped on the Island for so long, maybe it's something worse, either way, like in <span style="font-style: italic;">"The Stand"</span>, the person willing to take on Jacob's role will also have to be willing to make a major sacrifice. A sacrifice that could redeem a person's soul. To my eye, it's Sawyer's story, not Jack's that is setting up best for that kind of redemptive arc. Sawyer will play on the side of darkness for a time, but mark my words, when it comes time to save his friends (or simply Kate, blech) he will step up to the plate. That's my guess anyway.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Of Mice and Men</span>: A pretty obvious callback to Season 3 in having Sawyer reference <span style="font-style: italic;">Of Mice and Men</span> while traipsing through the jungle with Not Locke. Thematically, I'm not sure it worked other than to set up the moment when Sawyer pulls his gun on Not Locke (in so far as I haven't been able to identify any commonality between Ben's interrogations of Sawyer in Season 3 and Sawyer's "broken man" persona in Season 6), but that doesn't change the fact that I always enjoy when the show references itself rewarding long-time viewers.<br /><br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-29542208316306050602010-02-10T07:45:00.004-05:002010-02-10T09:33:53.777-05:00Lost: "What Kate Does"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatPZH7NXB7I1_Hmo3UgjuHf1syOIVOC0MPYgE_DDPsaBEDw-tsiUM2AtZCBBzO0Mj0s41HL4uxYSILVnFRAX8tYmTBoevFzh9NMeR9awI4Lg6RwsKyyQmmZGsNS9rcjmQzt0B-pdbAUY/s1600-h/6a00d8341c630a53ef012877865b0f970c-800wi.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatPZH7NXB7I1_Hmo3UgjuHf1syOIVOC0MPYgE_DDPsaBEDw-tsiUM2AtZCBBzO0Mj0s41HL4uxYSILVnFRAX8tYmTBoevFzh9NMeR9awI4Lg6RwsKyyQmmZGsNS9rcjmQzt0B-pdbAUY/s320/6a00d8341c630a53ef012877865b0f970c-800wi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436615819850417666" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Are you kidding me?"</span><br /><br />Well that didn't take long. While I was impressed with the novelty of the alternate universe last week, a small part of me was concerned that flashes to it would feel very much like wasted time when placed in an ordinary week-to-week setting. I think "What Kate Does" unfortunately proves that concern correct.<br /><br />In the episode, the action pivots between a "primary" plot line in which the survivors deal with the aftermath of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Sayid's</span> unlikely resurrection and Sawyer's self-loathing, and an alternate plot line in which Kate frees herself from handcuffs and befriends a very pregnant Claire. Neither plot line really advances the ball down the field, and at the end of the episode, all we really know is that the Others think <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Sayid</span> has been "claimed" by darkness (by Smokey? by the Man in Black?). More interestingly, in order to prove their point to Jack, the Others claim that Claire was claimed by that same darkness at some point in the past (presumably when she left with Christian in the middle of Season 4).<br /><br />Other than that, the episode served no apparent purpose.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Sure it's nice that Kate, despite being in the middle of running from the law, stops to pick up the pregnant Australian girl whose cab she had just hijacked (very realistic by the way), but what do the events of that timeline even mean? The creators of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> have a real problem the longer they fail to explain just what we are supposed to take from the alternate timeline scenes.<br /><br />Back in Season 3, there was much talk about the fact that the show was losing momentum because the flashback mechanic had been played out for so long. All anyone really wanted to see was more Island adventure, and taking time out of an episode for flashbacks which failed to illuminate any interesting characteristics of the survivors felt like a waste of time. Unfortunately, the alternate timeline appears to have the same problem as the Season 3 flashbacks, only this time writ large.<br /><br />Unlike Season 3, in which the flashbacks at least colored our understanding of the characters to some degree, we have no idea what to do with the alternate timeline, because the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">showrunners</span> have failed to tell us what they mean. Said another way, an episode of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> in this, its final season, tends to feel like a 20 minute window on the Island we care about accompanied by a 20 minute dream sequence/tone poem which really doesn't mean anything.<br /><br />To put it mildly, this is a problem.<br /><br />The good news is that this problem can be, at least in part, retroactively corrected. If, at the end of the season, we find out, for instance, that the show is adopting some type of "wheel of life" explanation, that the alternate timeline is actually a representation of where the characters go when they die (or any of an infinite array of explanations that give meaning to the alternate timeline), at least we could give some internal weight to the proceedings occurring in "fake" 2004, even in the episodes we are seeing now. In my humble opinion, however, it is a mistake for the show to try to maintain a mystery around the alternate timeline, as it seems intent on doing, as that mystery is essentially unanswerable at present, and creates a show that feels disjointed and oddly short for a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">prime time</span> hour long.<br /><br />Now, I trust the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">showrunners</span>, and I believe that this retroactive course correction will occur. I, however, do not enjoy the show as much as I should in the manner in which it is currently being presented, and the blame for that falls squarely on those same <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">showrunners</span>. In other words, I think everything will be fine, but that the alternate timeline, for so long as it continues to play out as the world's longest dream sequence, is a mistake.<br /><br />16 hours remain...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Moments of Recognition</span>: Similar to last week's Jack/Desmond encounter, this week's episode lingers on a shot of Kate seemingly recognizing Jack as she drives by him at LAX. Seeing as this is the second time we've seen such a shot, I think we are meant to assume that there is some recognition there; that the alternate timeline <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Losties</span> have either already lived the primary events (making the primary timeline a flashback of sorts) or they are in some small part aware that they are living a different sort of life in an alternate universe. Throw in the fact that Kate's acts of kindness towards Claire make little to no sense unless she views Claire as something more than a stranger, and I think a sense of recognition has been fairly strongly implied at this point.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What Kate Did</span>: Obviously the title of this episode is a reference to the episode in Season 2 where we found out that Kate murdered her father to protect her mother ("What Kate Did"), but it illustrates another problem with the alternate timeline. At one point in the episode, Claire asks Kate what the cops want her for. In response, Kate asks Claire if she would believe that she's innocent. Claire said that she would, and I guess we have to too, considering we have no idea who this Kate is. Did she murder her father as she did in the primary timeline? Did she murder someone else? Is she innocent? Since the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">show's</span> producers have decided that the alternate timeline could have changed all manner of things (Shannon getting on the plane, Locke being allowed to go on walkabout, Charlie's suicidal tendencies), what are we to believe? How are we supposed to root for or against people that we barely know? As I said above, I think this is just one more reason the alternate timeline needs to get resolved sooner rather than later.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Real Adoption?</span>: One of the fringe debates from the early seasons of the show was whether or not Claire was actually going to visit an adopting family when she was in LA. A little background: In Season 1, Claire visits a psychic that tells her that she must raise her child on her own or great calamities will befall the earth (this last part is more implied than said). He hounds her with this "prophecy" before seemingly giving up by telling her that he's found a couple to adopt her baby in Los Angeles. Of course, the flight she'll have to take to get to Los Angeles is Oceanic Flight 815 and it's strongly implied that the psychic knew that flight's fate. In other words, there would be no need for an adopting couple in LA, because the psychic knew that Claire would be raising her baby on her own on the Island. That interpretation of the episode's events was thrown into a small amount of dispute, however, when a later episode in Season 2 featured Mr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Eko</span> investigating a miracle claimed by the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">psychic's</span> wife. In one scene of that episode, the psychic admits to Mr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Eko</span> that he is a fraud, a fake psychic that preys on people and takes their money. Presumably, in that episode we are meant to reflect on Claire's situation, and whether or not the psychic was defrauding her or whether, just once, he was touched by the supernatural (you know, like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Whoopi</span> in <span style="font-style: italic;">Ghost</span>).<br /><br />Now, I have always been of the opinion that the psychic was telling Claire the truth, and that he really saw terrible things happening if she gave the baby away. Of course, that interpretation implies that there was no family in LA for Claire to give her baby to. In this episode, however, we find that in the alternate timeline there was a family ready to adopt Claire's baby. What does that mean for everything I wrote about in the above paragraph? Nothing, and that's the problem with the alternate timeline. Like I said in my comments about how it's impossible for us to know who alternate Kate is, it's similarly impossible for us to know who alternate Claire is. Who is the baby's father? Did she visit a psychic? Did the psychic warn her of the baby's fate? Did the psychic buy her the ticket on Oceanic 815? Did the psychic arrange for her to meet with the adopting family in Los Angeles? Since we don't know what, if anything, changed in Claire's past, we can't ascribe any meaning to the events of the alternate timeline. This is a problem.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Take the Green Pill</span>: Perhaps the best turn of events in this episode was the fact that Jack "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">cowboyed</span> up" and stopped feeling sorry for himself, at least a bit. When <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Dogen</span> (the name of the Asian leader of the Temple Others), told Jack that he could redeem himself for the deaths or injuries that occurred on his watch by giving <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Sayid</span> an ominous green pill, I simultaneously thought that redemption was a stupid reason to give a friend an unknown pill and that Jack would fall for it. Imagine my surprise when he called <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Dogen's</span> bluff (a few scenes later, but still). It was a good moment for Jack, and hopefully a sign of things to come.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fear and Loathing in New <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Otherton</span></span>: Sawyer has a number of good lines in this one, most of which relate to his new understanding of the Island as some type of hell. (This was first seen last week when he said that Jack should be allowed to suffer on the Island "just like the rest of us.") In this episode, Sawyer's state of mind was reinforced early on when he seemed nonplussed by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Sayid's</span> resurrection: "Of course he's safe. He's an Iraqi torturer who shoots kids, he definitely deserves another go-around." It's no surprise then that Sawyer separates himself from the group to take a wander down to New <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Otherton</span>. What is a surprise is just how effective Josh Holloway is at portraying the character's sense of loss and heartbreak while sitting on the docks telling Kate of his planned life with Juliet. I've never been much of a Sawyer fan, but that scene alone deserves specific mention.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dr. Ethan</span>: I suspect that the powers that be are just playing with us in putting cameos in unexpected places, but what are we supposed to do with the fact that a seemingly benevolent Ethan (perhaps the most infamous of the Others) was just some random doctor in a Los Angeles area hospital?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Real Christian Shepard</span>: Ever since it became apparent that Smokey could take on the forms of the dead, the one apparition that didn't quite fit was that of Jack and Claire's dad, Christian Shepard. See, we know that the smoke monster can take the form of persons who left a corpse on the island, but Christian's corpse has never been discovered. Thus, there was some thought (at least by me) that the appearances of Christian were different in kind than those of the other "ghosts" on the Island. If, however, the Others are to be believed in this one, and Claire really was consumed by a certain darkness, it seems likely that Christian's appearances are the work of Smokey (or at least the Man in Black). That is because, when last we saw Claire she was at the side of a ghostly Christian sitting in the rocking chair in "Jacob's" cabin. If Claire was turning towards the dark side, then it seems reasonable to assume that Christian was her guide. To the extent this helps us place Christian's loyalties, I think this revelation is the most important of the episode. One of the things I had really hoped that this Season would answer, is just who or what was on whose side during the events of the previous seasons. This goes a long way towards sorting those things out. Of course, it all depends on whether or not you can trust the Others...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder</span>: If you had asked me last week what the most interesting or important continuing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">plot line</span> of the episode was, I would have told you it was Not Locke's taking Richard Alpert out into the jungle, with an impotent Ben following close behind. How wonderful it was, then, to see on my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">DVR</span> a Kate-centric episode that was completely devoid of Locke, Ben, and Alpert. The show most certainly suffered for their absence.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-79343406423239235182010-02-09T09:48:00.004-05:002010-02-09T12:33:11.491-05:00Chuck: "Chuck vs. The Mask"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMzyS-NNvpXxJJJtN9zXXss-2_vwEaE3FztBIU6ATE4sUJ-llyvnVvbsyblEKQdAYF6UJtJuCP4CEL369MIsxNLNFEV0vAvJiqJlLxj8XUGy7cTrqhyphenhyphengA4MBV0D7JTbxrYtIkMCJW2Y-A/s1600-h/normal_Chuck_CC09_Poster.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 206px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMzyS-NNvpXxJJJtN9zXXss-2_vwEaE3FztBIU6ATE4sUJ-llyvnVvbsyblEKQdAYF6UJtJuCP4CEL369MIsxNLNFEV0vAvJiqJlLxj8XUGy7cTrqhyphenhyphengA4MBV0D7JTbxrYtIkMCJW2Y-A/s320/normal_Chuck_CC09_Poster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436288979872703858" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"So if I have to see you with someone else, it might as well be a hero."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"What can I say? I have a type."</span><br /><br />"Chuck vs. The Mask" presents an interesting conundrum for me. On the one hand, it is a perfectly competent, enjoyable ride. On the other hand, it doesn't strive for too much, and thus, never rises to the level we know the show is capable of. "Mask" is an average episode of <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>, which means it's a fun hour of TV, but it's never quite more than that.<br /><br />The main thrust of the spy world plot line in "Mask" revolves around a sequence of museum robberies orchestrated by Team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Bartowski</span> to steal an artifact (the mask of the title) that is being used by the Ring to smuggle in elicit material. Now, I love a heist movie, whether it's objectively good or not. I love the <span style="font-style: italic;">Ocean's</span> movies, I love <span style="font-style: italic;">The Italian Job</span> (both iterations), I even love misfires like <span style="font-style: italic;">Heist</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Score</span>. So the cold open of "Mask" (which was more like a first Act given its length) was very exciting for me.<span class="fullpost"> Unfortunately, "Mask" turns out to be far more about the relationships that Sarah and Chuck have with the Superman substitutes (Agent Shaw and Hannah) than about stealing much of anything.<br /><br />By the time of the episode, Shaw has decided that he is going to stalk Sarah into liking him (more on that below), and Hannah has gotten sick of being as ignored as she was in "Nacho Sampler". Thus, they both begin to put the moves on their respective targets (with Hannah facing significantly less resistance than her "super" counterpart) and both face death as a result of the events of the episode. When both wind up finding comfort in the arms of their newly impassioned targets (or at least in massaging their target's arms), who could be surprised? Yet another roadblock in the Chuck and Sarah relationship. Ho hum.<br /><br />Like I said, it's a good episode, it's just not a great one. The Ring plot is almost entirely unnecessary, and even the potential Shaw reveal at the end is so cryptic as to be almost <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">unanalyzable</span> (which doesn't prevent me from analyzing it; see below). I had hoped the show would have a stronger lead in to the Olympics-imposed three week hiatus, but it will be interesting to see if it loses any viewers as a result of this average effort.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Superman Returns</span>: If there was any singular image that defined the failure that was Brandon <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Routh's</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Superman Returns</span>, it was the sight of superman hovering in the bushes outside Lois Lane's house, effectively using his super senses to stalk her and her family. Now, that scene wasn't Brandon <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Routh's</span> fault. He didn't write the screenplay. Still, it's troubling to see him in exactly the same scenario here.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sarah Falling</span>: Okay, so Sarah's falling for Chuck has always been a bit of a stretch, but are we really expected to believe that she is attracted to a man that obsessively observed her coffee habits and all but molested her while on a mission. I know her admission to Shaw was at least partially influenced by the fact that she was reasonably certain she would die, but still. Also, how does the CIA ever place Sarah? She falls in love with whomever her partner is. Now that's a liability.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Extra, Extra</span>: The best part of adding "special guest stars" or whatever other title is given to non-regular cast members on a show, is that there is always a palpable sense of danger in scenes that might otherwise lack tension (the show isn't going to kill Sarah or Chuck, but they might just kill Hannah). This episode actually has a very good act break in which both of Chuck's lady loves (the "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">blonde</span>" and the "computer girl") are put at risk at the same time. While we know that Sarah is at relatively little risk (and to be honest both Yvonne and Brandon treat the scene as being somewhat less than tense), Hannah is a real mystery. That tension serves the show well, and makes an otherwise mediocre scenario significantly better.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pairing Off</span>: As I said above, the focus of "Mask" was really on pairing Chuck and Hannah and Sarah and Shaw, the plot line about the mask was almost extraneous to that goal. That being said, I thought that Chuck had a lot of nice moments with Hannah. Though I didn't enjoy Shaw's obsessive stalker act, or buy for one minute Sarah's acquiescence to it, Yvonne and Brandon also had a certain amount of chemistry together, so I suppose not all is lost.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Problem Solvers</span>: At the end of "Nacho Sampler" the team of Morgan and Ellie was formed to sniff out just why Chuck had been behaving so strangely over the past few weeks (I guess they though things have been "normal" over the past few years). While this turn of events promised to be interesting (and potentially to bring one or more of Ellie and Morgan into the spy world fold) this episode turned the team into real life cartoon characters. I mean, I enjoyed Sarah Lancaster's performances in the first two seasons of <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>, but this season has been all over the place. From "<a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/01/chuck-chuck-vs-operation-awesome.html">You were attacked by a bear?</a>" to raising her head over the DVD racks at the Buy More like she were still on <span style="font-style: italic;">Saved by the Bell</span>, she just seems to have leaped completely over the fence that separates the comically implausible from the straight up ridiculous. This is not a good development.<br /><br />Further complicating matters, Ellie's and Morgan's discovery that Chuck was sneaking off to be with Hannah could derail their efforts to find out more about Chuck, in so far as they decide that they have discovered Chuck's secret. If that is the case, the promise of one or more of them becoming more fully featured on the show all but falls by the wayside. Given Ellie's recent turn for the (comically) worse, this may or may not be a bad thing, but it certainly feels like the show is spinning it's wheels if it takes both characters back to square one.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">And the End Times Shall be Marked by Pong</span>: As a regular video game player, it always bugs me when video games are vilified as the end of western civilization. Unfortunately, TV and movies give me the opportunity to be bugged on this point quite a lot. In "Mask" we get a number of discussions between Ellie and Morgan regarding the risk that Chuck might revert to the antisocial pastime of playing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">video games</span> (the horror!). While I understand that some might succumb to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">video games</span> as a private retreat from the troubles of the world, it would be nice if a show like <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>, which so revels in the more nerdy qualities of much of its cast, could acknowledge that games aren't the destructive force that the media so often claims them to be. (And no, Chuck's using Morgan's Call of Duty strategy to save the world in Season 2 doesn't count.)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ring, Ring</span>: By far the most intriguing scene of "Mask" was the final one, in which the shadowed heads of the Ring execute the lead terrorist of the episode seemingly merely for having the temerity to recognize Shaw as the leader of the joint CIA/NSA operation against him. Following closely on the conclusion of a scene in which Shaw tells Sarah that she will always be safe with him (which scene lingers on Shaw's face long enough to add an air of ominousness to the proceedings), the meaning of the scene with the Ring is unclear. Certainly, we are meant to assume there is more to Shaw than meets the eye. As I indicated <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/01/chuck-chuck-vs-operation-awesome.html">before</a>, it may not be coincidence that one of Shaw's lingering obsessions is a lost operative with whom he shared a set of rings. Could Shaw have turned on the government and actually formed the Ring? If so, was the terrorist in this episode executed because his discovery of Shaw would otherwise disrupt some master plan? The Ring leader (no pun intended) does indicate to the terrorist that he intends to do the same thing to Shaw (i.e., execute him), but why, then would the terrorist need to be killed? And why would the show include the ominous hold on Shaw's face immediately prior to the scene with the Ring? As you can see, I don't have answers, only questions.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-59707325911085466092010-02-03T08:39:00.009-05:002010-02-05T15:40:30.837-05:00Lost: "LA X"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGkKkJUcS85lMo8WiqRZaKsgZz_bHKgVd-SKhB5mGfbeO7-JQaIqYvwi-iVLq7fTWFI-SDbWVOWzarWjpFPGYzlt9Qb_8vo7gc9ktZewkUJkwxKCDJqI5DoNcJSoP8mw-moV8CSxa8GA/s1600-h/LAX.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 177px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGkKkJUcS85lMo8WiqRZaKsgZz_bHKgVd-SKhB5mGfbeO7-JQaIqYvwi-iVLq7fTWFI-SDbWVOWzarWjpFPGYzlt9Qb_8vo7gc9ktZewkUJkwxKCDJqI5DoNcJSoP8mw-moV8CSxa8GA/s320/LAX.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5434057621339372434" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"It worked."</span><br /><br />If the big mystery at the end of Season 5 was whether or not detonating a hydrogen bomb on the Island would change the timeline, "LA X", the first episode of Season 6, in true <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> fashion did little to answer the question. That's quite impressive given the fact that setting off a nuclear device, I would assume, usually settles most things one way or the other. Not in <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> world.<br /><br />Now, I had a vested intellectual interest in seeing that the timeline did not reset (see <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/05/lost-incident-bombs-away.html">here</a> and "Paradox Prime" below), so the opening sequence of this one, featuring Oceanic 815 circa 2004 NOT crashing on Paradise Island, was basically terrifying for me. You know you're into a show when your thoughts begin to border on the fevered: "Jack's dreaming. That's it. He hit his head on a rock back in 1977 and he's dreaming. It must be a dream, right? I mean Desmond definitely wasn't on that plane. Oh good, it's definitely a dream. Wait, well, wow, that's an odd thing to dream. Why would the island be underwater? Doesn't that mean...? Oh no... LOST."<br /><br />Never before have I experienced a show like I was watching a live sporting event, rooting for team "Consistent timeline" to beat back the favored "Reboot" squad. Fortunately, despite apparently losing the match-up in the episode's cold open, <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> was able to snatch victory (or at least a tie) out of the jaws of defeat in the very next scene. <br /><span class="fullpost"><br />That is because the very next scene takes place not on Oceanic Flight 815, but on the Island, probably around 2007. (This is just pure speculation on my part, but I'd be willing to guess that the time travelers are now on the same timeline as Ben, Not Locke, Sun, and the rest. Hence the 2007 date.) The time travelers' plans have failed, though they have time traveled to the present (as I guessed was a possibility last year - hey you have to get it right <span style="font-style: italic;">sometimes</span>). Antics ensue, from a dead Jacob asking Hurley to take a dying Sayid to the "Temple", to the rest of the crew moving parts of the exploded Swan station in an attempt to extricate a mortally wounded Juliet. Despite the randomness of the time jump (which was at least implied by the white flash at the end of Season 5) this is the timeline that I can accept. So what exactly is the deal with the Oceanic 815 footage?<br /><br />The meaning of the alternate timeline is the real question now. Throughout the rest of the 2 hour premiere we see various flashes to this timeline showing the survivors interacting with each other in new and interesting ways. Boone becomes friends with Locke. Hurley tells Sawyer he's the luckiest man in the world. Sun passes up a chance to save her Husband from the TSA. Kate escapes the U.S. Marshall and hijacks a taxi with a frightened Claire inside. Jack shares a moment with the once-again crippled John Locke. And so forth, and so on. What isn't explained is just what this alternate timeline is intended to represent.<br /><br />Narratively speaking, I can see how the new timeline is useful: seeing Boone and John interact, remembering Kate as the fugitive she was, seeing Jin and Sun revert to Jin's misogynistic conception of marriage. All these things remind us of the characters as they were back in Season 1, and echo the choices we know they would make on the Island in the future. These echoes resonate for us and give the "primary" proceedings weight. If that was all it was, then we could view these looks at an alternate timeline as being a useful narrative device and nothing more. The alternate timeline would lack importance in so far as it would be a complete fabrication, but it would be similar in its ability to illuminate specific characteristics to the flashbacks used in Seasons 1-3 of the show. All that being said, a useful narrative device is most definitely not all that these views are intended to be. That fact is made clear by Juliet (or rather by Miles).<br /><br />When a tearful Sawyer finally frees Juliet from her metal prison, she states what is no doubt obvious to Sawyer at the time: "It didn't work." The nuclear device did not reset the timeline, did not save the survivors from their Island-bound fate. As she inches closer to death, however, she tells Sawyer that she has something important to tell him, a message which she fails to deliver before her end. When Sawyer confronts Miles in the jungle and forces him to find out what Juliet intended to say, he says simply: "It worked." The only thing this could be in reference to is the nuclear detonation, the timeline reboot. A fact known by Sawyer, and which clearly puzzles him seeing as he is standing on Craphole Island at the time.<br /><br />We the audience are privy to something Sawyer is not, however: images of an alternate timeline. Since Juliet claimed that "it worked", in other words, that the nuclear detonation prevented Oceanic 815 from crashing, we know that, in the framework of the story, the alternate timeline is now something real, something tangible. The primary versions of the survivors may not realize what it is yet, but it is most definitely going to influence this final season of the show. How can something both "work" and "not work"? How can a nuclear detonation change the timeline without changing the timeline? Now that's a question worthy of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>.<br /><br />Once the show establishes that we will be visiting the alternate timeline on a regular basis, flashback-style, the rest of the episode becomes fairly routine, at least by <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> standards. Hurley leads his crew to the Others' Temple where, after proving themselves with Jacob's Ankh (don't ask), the Others lead them to where they've been stashing a Fountain of Youth. It figures. Unfortunately Jacob's death has apparently limited the ability of the Fountain to do its job, and so Sayid dies, at least until the very least shot of the episode.<br /><br />All in all, a fantastic night of television, if only because <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> provides what no other show really does: mental stimulation. I love <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Friday Night Lights</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">24</span> (mostly), but none of those shows make you think the way<span style="font-style: italic;"> Lost</span> does. It's good to have it back, and it will be sad to see it go.<br /><br />17 Hours remain...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Paradox Prime</span>: Okay, so I know I've been over this before, but I think it's worth doing again. My objections to the concept of a timeline reboot aren't based on the fact that I think it would hurt the characters or because the producers wouldn't be able to find a way to make it interesting. I object because it doesn't make any sense in the world of time travel the show has set up. Putting aside that the entirety of Season 5 was based on the notion of "Whatever Happened, Happened" and that a timeline reboot would betray that notion (despite what a crazed Daniel Faraday has to say), the simple fact of the matter is from a logic perspective, the one thing in a time travel story that can't change, is the thing that causes the time travelers to begin their time traveling in the first place.<br /><br />In other words, why were Jack and company able to time travel? From a broad perspective, it was because they crashed on Time Travel Island. If, in 1977 they detonated a bomb causing them to not crash on Time Travel Island, how then did they make their way to 1977? And if they don't make their way to 1977 how did they detonate a bomb to prevent themselves from crashing on the Island? It's a paradoxical loop. If they crash on the Island, they prevent themselves from ever crashing on the Island. If they never crash on the Island, they can't prevent themselves from crashing on the Island, and thus crash on the Island. Logic cannot exist in such a scenario. That is the primary reason I was rooting against a timeline reboot, and why I'm willing to accept (for the time being) the effective tie that the show's producers have so far put in place. Time (no pun intended) will tell...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Hint of Recognition</span>: Okay, so if we are to assume that the alternate timeline is (as Juliet intimated) somehow real, it's worth analyzing the little things that the show's producers have put into these scenes. Most notable to me was the fact that Jack appeared to recognize, in some small way, Desmond Hume when he sat down beside him. Now in September 2004, this would have been the second time he met Desmond (if we are to assume that his encounter with Desmond at the stadium before his wedding would remain unchanged in the rebooted timeline), but I sensed that there was some greater form of recognition there. And, of course, what was the meaning of the welt on Jack's neck? Was it a syringe mark? Had he been drugged? Do the other survivors also have welts on their necks? I really have no idea on this one.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Man of Faith</span>: I thought it was a nice bit of character acting by Matthew Fox when Hurley demanded that Jack help him take Sayid to the Temple. In almost all other contexts I would have expected Jack to rail against the idiocy of that plan and Hurley's talks with the dead, but here, after utterly failing in his attempt to reboot the timeline (as far as he is aware), and after justifiably feeling that he caused Juliet's death, he effectively steps down completely from his leadership position. You can almost see it in his face: "Who am I to argue with Hurley's plan? How has my leadership been any better?" Jack is a completely humbled and chastened man. Perhaps just the kind of man who is finally ready to be redeemed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wherefore art thou, Juliet?</span>: Interestingly, falling down a tunnel and detonating a hydrogen bomb with a rock had left me under the impression that Juliet essentially died last year. So when she was alive in this one, I was intrigued, but all too ready for her to be killed off mere minutes after she was re-introduced. Why bring her back at all? I think the show's producers were setting up some strong motivation for a very intense conflict between Sawyer and Jack this year. Clearly the Man in Black is coming for the Others, and I think he's going to be assembling a team of cynical and defeated people to help him. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Sawyer (or Jack for that matter) winds up on the wrong team, before being redeemed in the end.<br /><br />Also, I believe they needed someone near death to deliver the message to the audience that the alternate timeline was something tangible. I don't know what proximity to death has to do with perception of the alternate timeline, but it seems important. We shall see.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pet Cemetery</span>: It goes without saying that a Fountain of Youth that can effectively restore the dead would be an attractive thing for many of the Oceanic survivors. Add to that the fact that we got a very deliberate showing of Juliet's grave in this episode, and I think it sound to assume that Sawyer may just become a man on a mission very soon. Be careful they don't come back changed, Jim.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Two Roads Diverged in a Wood</span>: As I stated above, the alternate timeline provides at least one useful narrative device in so far as it provides the long-term <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> audience with a good way to reflect back on the beginning of the show as it nears its end. Since Juliet's words strongly imply that the alternate timeline is something real, however, the timeline needs to be something more than that as well. For that, I see the alternate timeline as doing one of two things. It will either converge with the timeline we are seeing as the "primary" timeline, leaving the various versions of the survivors in the same position with or without their Island adventures, or it will show that without their journey to the Island the survivors' lives would be left to utter desolation.<br /><br />If convergence is the game, then notions of fate and predestination come into play. For many years the show has given voice to certain characters' theories that they "are all there for a reason" and that they have a "destiny." If that is the case, then with or without the Island they should all arrive at the same place. The universe has a way of course correcting after all.<br /><br />If the alternate timeline is meant to show us how the survivors' lives would be destroyed without the Island, however, then my guess is that the device is being used primarily to illustrate the negative ramifications for the world if Jack and company refuse to do what is asked of them by the Island (whatever that may be). In this conception, I imagine that towards the end of the season (or in the finale), Jack (or the survivors as a whole) will be asked to make a choice, between saving the Island and taking on some terrible burden (perhaps becoming the new Jacob, forever bound to the Island and its cosmic significance) or forgetting that any of their adventures ever happened. Not only would this choice illustrate one of the main themes of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>, that of the importance of free will, it would also allow us to adjudge the ramifications of the "wrong" choice through the use of the alternate timeline.<br /><br />At this point, my guess (judging by the number of interactions between the survivors at the alternate LAX) is that the timelines will converge, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the opposite. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Little Things Mean a Lot</span>: Again, since we are to assume that the alternate timeline is basically real, the small changes in Oceanic 815 that are not obviously addressed by the lack of an Island may have significant meaning down the road. For instance, how does the lack of an Island change Boone's adventure in Sydney so much that Shannon does not accompany him back to LAX. How, if there is no Island and there are no numbers, does Hurley win the lottery? What was Desmond doing in Sydney and why was he traveling to LAX? Finally, why did Charlie swallow the bag of Heroin rather than just taking a hit? The Charlie we knew from Season 1 was an addict but he wasn't a drug mule and he wasn't suicidal. How does the lack of an Island affect him so? <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Time Contraction</span>: This is a very minor observation that is probably as much about keeping the audience from getting bored as anything else, but did anyone else notice how short Oceanic Flight 815 felt. We see Jack experience turbulence (which should put the plane somewhere near Fiji), then be called up to help Charlie Pace (which should have been at or around the time of the turbulence unless he was in the stall for hours). Shortly thereafter, we see Jack return to his seat and the plane is announced as coming up on Los Angeles. Seemed like a short flight...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Fountain of Youth</span>: I've never liked it when the show delves too far into the mystical, from Miles, Ghosthunter, to Jacob's cabin, but all in all I think the fact that the Others have a fountain of youth makes a modicum of sense. After all, we've been aware for some time that Richard Alpert doesn't appear to age, so the fact that there is something on the Island allowing him to retain his youthful splendor is not altogether surprising. Since we're already expected to accept that the Island (through it's magnetism or what have you) has the power to cure cancer and heal the paralyzed, it doesn't seem too far afield to assume that the fountain is just a concentrated version of that. Now, what does the fountain actually do to the people that are submerged in it? That's an entirely different question. Richard, remember, warned the survivors that if he took Ben to the Temple, Ben would never be the same again. I assume the same is true for Sayid (and did you see the Christ pose he struck as he was being exhumed from the water... I'm just sayin').<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Always a Day Late</span>: This has as much to do with keeping conflict on the show as anything else, but isn't it interesting that whenever the survivors have been shown a particularly cool part of the Island's abilities or technology it is inevitably broken down or out of order. Other's communications, submarine radar? Nonfunctional after Desmond turned the failsafe key. Freighter equipment? Saboteur. Frozen Donkey Wheel of Fate? Came off its grooves from Ben's unceremonious handling. And now the Fountain of Youth is running fallow (or at least unclear) after the death of Jacob. The Losties appear to always arrive just as all the cool bits cease functioning.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">I See Dead People</span>: Why can Hurley see dead people? I know it's been established for some time, but now that it's definitively not just his latent craziness, what makes him so special? Is this just a matter of some latent <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>-style mysticism (like Miles) or is there something else there?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ankh You Very Much</span>: So the guitar case that Jacob gave to Hurley at the end (or the beginning, depending on your "point of view") of last season contained a wooden ankh which itself contained some kind of note to the new leader of the Others. The ankh is a fairly common symbol, at least in pop culture, for the kingdom of ancient Egypt, and so should be looked at in the same way as Jacob's living in the foot of what appears to be an ancient Egyptian statue. Is <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> merely a stage for two ancient Egyptian gods to do battle?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jacob's Last List</span>: What was actually on the note Jacob enclosed in the Ankh? The Other that speaks to the survivors indicates that it says that they need to save Sayid, but I think he was just playing coy with the note's true contents. Just before the Others take Sayid, they make the survivors state their complete names. The Others then go find Sawyer and Miles in the Jungle. Throughout the series we have heard mentions of mysterious lists being created by the Others for Jacob. Presumably these lists indicate who is worthy to be a part of the Others (Cindy the stewardess' name was on one of the first lists, for example). For the longest time we were told that the survivors we were following were not on any of Jacob's lists (this fact was even used by an Other in Season 3 as a reason to not trust Jack before Ben's spinal surgery). The note in the Ankh, I would guess, was Jacob's last, posthumous list, and it contains the names of most if not all of the survivors. Finally, they are worthy to be Others, though I don't know what caused a change in their status, other than Jacob's need to counter the Man in Black.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Third Faction?</span>: For a while, I was thrown by the presence of the people at the Temple. Their dress did not match that of the Others we had seen in seasons past, nor had their leader been previously introduced. Even more confusing was the fact that Cindy, who was last seen as a relatively happy looking Other, was part of the Temple crew. I was moderately upset by this turn of events, because I thought the show was introducing a new faction at a very late stage of the game. After Kate told Sawyer that the Others (i.e., the Temple crew) were protecting them, however, it all became clear. I had forgotten that these scenes likely take place in 2007, and that both Ben and Locke had effectively abandoned the Others back in 2004 (with Ben telling them to head to the Temple). In the absence of Ben and Locke, the Others must have taken this new person as a leader. These were the Others, just dressed slightly differently, and now having a throughly asian flair.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The "Real" Smoking Man</span>: I think the show has been relatively honest about this since "Dead is Dead" last year, but this episode provides definitive confirmation that Not Locke, the Man in Black, and the Smoke Monster are one and the same. Why the Man in Black acts like a raving lunatic when in Smoke Monster form (throwing himself at sonic walls, and what have you) is anyone's guess. Perhaps more interestingly, what is the implication of having the Island's Prime Evil (as we are clearly meant to see the Man in Black) also be it's agent of judgement? Throughout the previous seasons of the show we had been lead to believe that the smoke monster was judging people's lives by looking into their pasts. Was this actually the case, or was smokey simply sparing those that it felt would be most helpful in its plans to murder Jacob?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Black Rock</span>: A small bit, but worth a mention, Not Locke's telling Alpert that it was nice not to see him in chains, all but confirms that Alpert was an original slave on board the Black Rock back when it crashed on the Island in the 19th century. This had long been hinted at, but it was nice to get some more definitive confirmation.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Locke's Redemption</span>: If anyone got absolutely screwed in the primary timeline, it was John Locke. The man of faith consistently looked to the Island gods to direct him and was time and time lead astray both by his own doubts and the manipulations of Benjamin Linus and the Man in Black. He died not understanding what any of this was about, at the hands of a person who was himself being manipulated by what is an apparently greater evil. If the alternate timeline offers hope for any of the survivors it is John Locke. It was striking to see just how nice and personable he was in his scenes with both Jack and Boone, especially when contrasted with the Island-obsessed survivor type we know he would have become.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">E.T. Phone Home</span>: And of course, what is Not Locke talking about when he says he wants to go "home"? The Temple? Tunisia? Egypt? The world at Large? This question will likely have a major impact on events to come.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-90340807283592593302010-02-02T12:05:00.006-05:002010-02-02T14:10:56.483-05:00Chuck: Chuck vs. Nacho Sampler<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDBRKHZ0A9ragShroIdXyflxcdH1R1juVP9DNlyqivwnMULKmPyOUIhbRusbb6KyX7BtBGLXjxlzgGB79M97ZUChl3IhMPK-1tiTy0ApHfYyjvP-FjbSHuIOpdALaysKx1BzTZHuMea0Y/s1600-h/Nacho.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDBRKHZ0A9ragShroIdXyflxcdH1R1juVP9DNlyqivwnMULKmPyOUIhbRusbb6KyX7BtBGLXjxlzgGB79M97ZUChl3IhMPK-1tiTy0ApHfYyjvP-FjbSHuIOpdALaysKx1BzTZHuMea0Y/s320/Nacho.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433708546343396082" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"He's turning into a spy. It's a good thing."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Is it?"</span><br /><br />I'm definitely going to have to be pretty careful in my review of <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>'s latest episode: "Nacho Sampler". Now, that may be because I was having some difficulty formulating my thoughts (owing to how loud <span style="font-style: italic;">someone</span> I was with was laughing at every scene), or it may be because I thought the episode had some pretty major flaws. Who can say? What there can be no question about is that "Nacho" had some pretty terrifically funny moments. If the last two episodes where comic spy capers of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Spies Like Us</span> variety, "Nacho" was <span style="font-style: italic;">Spies Like Us</span> had it been written by people addicted to <span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Looney</span> Tunes</span>, or perhaps <span style="font-style: italic;">The Three Stooges</span>.<br /><br />Not (as the cast of <span style="font-style: italic;">Seinfeld</span> would say) that there's anything wrong with that. Some of my favorite episodes of <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> feature some absolutely ludicrous plot lines: from a class of super spies at Stanford to a drive-in movie theater turned FULCRUM super base. For goodness sakes the whole show is premised on a supercomputer being incorporated into the brain of a Best Buy/Buy More employee. I have no problem with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ludicriousness</span>.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />The problem, however, comes from the fact that <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> has been, and hopefully forever will be, grounded by the emotions of its primary cast as they navigate the travails of their many zany or insane obstacles. There was a noticeable absence of this in the bulk of "Nacho Sampler".<br /><br />Instead, the episode was largely one broader-than-life comic scene after the next: from Jeff and Lester's (and Morgan's) stalking of Hannah, to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Awesome's</span> inability to lie to Ellie, to new asset <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Manoosh's</span> repeated <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">tranquizations</span>, to his coming out a changed man at (ugh...) <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Weap</span>-Con, to Chuck's being forced to use his mouth to extricate a Japanese laser sword/pen from the "inside pocket" of Casey's jacket.<br /><br />The whole episode was absolutely teeming with comic asides, which turned it into something of a farce. Now, there wouldn't be anything wrong with that if that was all there was. As my wife will attest, the episode was very funny, and there can be no doubt that the <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> writers can hit these comic beats when they want to. If it was a simple farce set in (or at least proximate to) the <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> world, then we could look at it as a very amusing aside and move on. The problem is that the producers wanted to have their cake and eat it too. (Fitting since "cake" is referenced prominently in the episode not once, but twice.) They wanted to have emotional relevance and major game-changing plot developments, but all based on the elements of comic farce. It just didn't work.<br /><br />Let's take a look at the three major plot lines created or advanced in this episode that will have (or could have had) a profound effect on the ongoing nature of the series.<br /><br />First and most obviously, we have Chuck's becoming hardened to the ways of spy life by turning on his first asset, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Manoosh</span>. This could have been the potent and sobering decision the producers evidently wanted it to be if placed in the context of another episode, but here, since the events of "Nacho Sampler" (most notably the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Weap</span>-Con and its insipid "announcer" character) were so out there, it is difficult to believe that Chuck (or any human being for that matter) could be so affected by them. As I said to my wife last night, it was like the last act of a Three Stooges episode got replaced by the cloyingly poignant bits of a Grey's Anatomy. It simply didn't work.<br /><br />Second, the main plot of the episode is that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Manoosh</span> freaking created another (apparently mass <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">produceable</span>) Intersect! In an episode that featured craziness around every corner, the writers apparently thought it a good idea to bring into the fold the single most mythological aspect of the entire show. In any other episode (say a season finale, etc.) this would have been a major revelation. Here because of the tone of the episode, we the audience, know that it can be nothing more than a blip on the radar screen. Not to mention the damage it did to the "specialness" of what was Orion from season 2.<br /><br />Finally, in what is the least offensive mistaken plot line, the universe of Chuck's friends and family started to be brought into the fold based on the events of this episode. This has been a long time coming so it's inclusion is not all that problematic, but still it seems absurd that the comic events of "Nacho" should be the thing to finally put Ellie and Morgan over the edge.<br /><br />So in short, "Nacho Sampler" is a very funny episode that is best treated as a comic aside in a universe even more <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">bizarre</span> than the one <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> usually inhabits. Unfortunately the plot revelations and character moments effectively prevent me from treating the episode as the "one off" that it should have been, and that, I feel, was a mistake by the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">show's</span> producers. Not a fatal one, but not an insignificant one, either.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Little Light on Shaving Cream?</span>: The comic nature of this episode makes it a little difficult (read: silly) to take a look at the plot in any hard, analytical way, but I couldn't help but wonder whether <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Manoosh</span> knew of Chuck's secret identity during the entire <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Weap</span>-Con sequence. I mean where did he think his shaving cream device ran off too? I suppose it doesn't matter since Chuck comes out to him in the very next scene they share together, but it seemed an odd oversight for Team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Bartowski</span> to make.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hannah's Sticking Around</span>: Now, for my money Hannah is still too nice to Chuck for all this flirtation to be accidental, but I still stand by my opinion from <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/01/chuck-chuck-vs-first-class.html">last week</a> that at some point the writers have to stop making everyone that crosses Chuck's path into a spy of some kind. Still, something is definitely up with her character and it does seem odd that an IT technician valuable enough to be regularly shipped across the world should have to make due at the Burbank Buy More. For the time being, however, she is sticking around and she is definitely worth it (if only for the Jeff and Lester dialogue).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Princess Suite</span>: Could anyone tell what room of Castle was converted into the very <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">girly</span> Walker apartment? Was it one of the interrogation chambers? I have to say, I never would have pictured Sarah in a room that...well, pink, so that was interesting.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Frak</span> Off</span>: Nothing really to add here. Sarah's "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Frak</span> Off" shirt in the bar was just a nice shout out to one of the better sci-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">fi</span> television shows ever produced. No doubt, the CIA was sure that a <span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Galactica</span></span> reference was just the thing to turn the head of our engineer turned Ring puppet. Not that they would be wrong...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Awesome's</span> Still Awesome</span>: Devon spent the better part of two years being the perfect, ever-so-slightly arrogant brother figure to Chuck, so it's been really interesting to see him out of his element and looking up to Chuck this season. Even more, the inability of Awesome to be awesome in the context of lying to his wife has provided the opportunity for him to be funnier than I ever knew he could be. Credit belongs to the writers for recognizing a comic asset when they had one.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Little Jealousy Perhaps?</span>: Like I said above, the tone of this episode should basically rule out most thoughtful analysis, but I couldn't help but notice that Casey was particularly prickly in this one, throwing out cutting insults in both the direction of Sarah and Chuck with almost reckless abandon. Now, for the most part his lines were very, very funny, so I know why they were included, but still, even in a full on farce like "Nacho" the writers have to be a touch more careful to ensure that the characters don't lose whatever minimal emotional center they have. The jokes were good though, so what do I know?<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-74016891268945108652010-01-26T12:07:00.009-05:002010-01-26T13:15:50.300-05:00Chuck: "Chuck vs. First Class"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpsM2jnUfbFmPchqIMxhga2akVWJwEbMk32ujuWbcASBiCNyIcP-bL7FEqmmQ9DsCII_uv2v7ukHEF9DLLIvrM2g8O2PDW9NdhShkQzFGAZTggFlaKQR_i19fejncKeYWOlehyphenhyphenZhOCpcc/s1600-h/FirstClass.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpsM2jnUfbFmPchqIMxhga2akVWJwEbMk32ujuWbcASBiCNyIcP-bL7FEqmmQ9DsCII_uv2v7ukHEF9DLLIvrM2g8O2PDW9NdhShkQzFGAZTggFlaKQR_i19fejncKeYWOlehyphenhyphenZhOCpcc/s320/FirstClass.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431109485781131170" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Is this your first mission?"</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Maybe!"</span><br /><br />"First Class" is another good, solid, if generally unremarkable entry in <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>'s Season 3. Unlike last week, we generally know all the players on the spy side of this one going in. The curve ball is that Agent Shaw has decided that Chuck's handlers are coddling him and that he is ready for a solo mission on a transatlantic flight to Paris. The mission itself involves the (by now) usual assortment of spies, guns, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">MacGuffins</span>, prat falls, and general comedy, as Chuck attempts to secure a "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Crypto</span> Key" from a Ring operative, while maintaining some semblance of cool with the beautiful girl seated next to him in first class (<span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Smallville</span></span>'s Kristen <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Kruek</span>). Like last week, this "A" plot maintains the feel of a good spy caper, without delving too long or too deep into the realm of the farcical.<br /><br />The same can't be said for the Buy More plot line.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />At the Buy More, Morgan, having fired (and rehired) Lester in "Operation Awesome" finds himself the target of innumerable pranks at the hands of his charges. Unable to cope, he turns to Casey to help him deal with the problem. Casey in turn, decides to treat Lester as a prisoner of war, brain washing him to believe that Morgan is a fantastic boss. While I can appreciate what the writers were trying to do in setting up an interesting (and rarely seen) Casey/Morgan combination, the plot simply doesn't go anywhere and (worse) isn't funny or interesting. Casey does get to grunt a lot, though, and Casey grunting, is always amusing, in any context.<br /><br />What you may have noticed above, is that I didn't mention anything having to do with Sarah. With Chuck stuck on a flight to Paris and Sarah stuck in Castle, there really wasn't much for her to do save be lectured by the increasingly aggravating Shaw (and engage in this episode's manifestly ridiculous spy activity. See below.). As was hinted at last week, Shaw was apparently married to a fellow spy, who then lost her life. Shaw never forgave himself, and apparently has made it his mission to prevent romantic entanglements at all levels of the CIA and NSA. Of course, some would say that it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, but Shaw evidently doesn't see things that way, and he's determined in his myopia to ensure that no one else experiences the love and affection that he once shared with his wife. As I said: increasingly aggravating.<br /><br />So like "Operation Awesome", "First Class" gives us a generally fun spy caper with an abysmal Buy More <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">plot line</span>. That being said, the good definitely outweighed the bad, and I can't say that I didn't have fun watching it last night.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">My Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Intersect Control</span>: One of the main plot lines running throughout Season 3 has been the ability (or inability) of Chuck to control the Intersect 2.0 inside of him. Up until now, we have mostly been shown that Chuck lacks the ability to flash when he's nervous or "freaked out". This condition is at least somewhat alleviated by Sarah, who allows him to calm down and fully harness the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Intersect's</span> skills. In "First Class", however, we see an increasingly nervous Chuck (one act break even has Chuck proclaiming out loud how "freaked out" he is) harness the Intersect without Sarah's support not once, but twice. Is this just lazy script writing, or are we to now assume that the Intersect is more or less random in it's ability to give Chuck powers?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">UFO Identified</span>: In "<a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/01/chuck-chuck-vs-three-words.html">Three Words</a>", Team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Bartowski</span> recovered what was <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">intimated</span> to be a Ring weapon in the form of a silver, UFO-looking thing in a golden suitcase. In this one, that UFO is revealed to be an elaborate safe deposit box holding information that Shaw's wife had gathered on the Ring. Why was <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Beckman</span> so concerned about the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">UFO's</span> impact on Team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Bartowski</span> in "Three Words"? How pertinent could the information be if Shaw's wife died a while back? Why was Chuck not allowed to examine it prior to this episode? Your guess is as good as mine loyal readers.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Superfriends</span></span>: So, last week I jokingly referred to Agent Shaw as Agent Superman owing to the fact that he is played by <span style="font-style: italic;">Superman Returns</span>' Brandon <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Routh</span>. With the reveal at the end of the episode that Kristen <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Kruek</span> (<span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Smallville</span></span>'s Lana Lang, Superman's original love interest) would be joining the show for at least one more episode, it's getting to be a cross-media Superman extravaganza at the Burbank Buy More. Bring on General <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Zod</span>!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hannah for Anna</span>: One of the casualties of getting NBC to pick up <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> after last season was the loss of Anna as a member of the Nerd Herd. Ever since, the Nerd Herd has lacked that certain feminine charm that only Anna brought to the proceedings. Hopefully that charm will be restored and Hannah will stick around for a little while, though I am already fearful of the next in a long line of discussions between Chuck and Sarah explaining how he needs a real girlfriend. Oh the angst!!!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Luck be a Lady</span>: Okay, so my wife enjoys a Zachary Levi smile as much as the next girl, but you have to admit that Chuck has an inordinate and somewhat unbelievable ability to charm beautiful women with little more than his charisma. I mean who needs John <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Laroquette</span> if Chuck can pick up girls like Yvonne <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Strahovski</span> and Kristen <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Kruek</span> on a regular basis. Chuck should be teaching him!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Secret Identity</span>: Maybe it's not that big of a deal, but I couldn't help but inwardly wince when Chuck was opening up so much to Hannah. Then, when, towards the end of the episode, he hands her Morgan's card at the Buy More, I thought he must be out of his mind. Even if he didn't use his "Carmichael" cover specifically on her, if she ever shows up in Burbank (as she did at the very end of the episode) there's too many things that won't add up, or otherwise put his operation in danger. I'm not saying that Hannah is a spy (because at some point not everyone in Chuck's life can "surprisingly" turn out to be a spy), but my God man, you have to be more careful with your identity, especially when <span style="font-style: italic;">you know</span> there were at least two Ring agents on that flight.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pilot Error</span>: So this week's ridiculous spy activity centered around Sarah digitally taking control of the flight Chuck was on, and then rocking the plane back and forth to throw his enemies off balance. How did she know this would improve the ordinarily klutzy Chuck's position? I can't be sure. Of course it does, but that seems more lucky than prescient. How did Sarah know she wasn't going to knock a luggage rack onto Chuck's head rather than on those of his captors? I would have rather seen Chuck get out of his situation with ingenuity and resolve rather than by this cheap, nonsensical fix. Of course the whole thing was only compounded by Shaw's arrogant claim that the pilots would never even know they were there after it was all over. Never know they were there?!? The whole plane pitched forward to provide "negative Gs"?!? What do the pilots think happened? The rapture?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">God Loves You as He Loves Jacob</span>: My wife pointed out that the hypnosis Casey inflicted on Morgan reminded her of the mind-control room the Others had on Hydra island. Of course, the result of that mind control was a bit more "realistic" in that Alex's boyfriend wasn't immediately rendered mentally incompetent. Instead, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> writers elected to go the <span style="font-style: italic;">Saved by the Bell</span> route, and have Lester be utterly controlled by Casey and his subliminal messages. Not the choice I would have made.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-47007415458301551362010-01-19T09:07:00.003-05:002010-01-19T13:22:14.677-05:00Chuck: "Chuck vs. Operation Awesome"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDFwfsvkBBtLOU2GUk6hsWBCWyEYGRyNrdX54h0joLfwgFxNsOqPGHFf6dNvQrGo-2Fs-rPsDvhIccIJ7_3o2AZYSUJ4ofMi31-4T9oHA-2M_5WaG__Gva_H-i2zG7lPA8sxVCJxoWuVM/s1600-h/OA.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDFwfsvkBBtLOU2GUk6hsWBCWyEYGRyNrdX54h0joLfwgFxNsOqPGHFf6dNvQrGo-2Fs-rPsDvhIccIJ7_3o2AZYSUJ4ofMi31-4T9oHA-2M_5WaG__Gva_H-i2zG7lPA8sxVCJxoWuVM/s320/OA.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428492568306817986" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"One of them looks like a spy, the other looks like Chuck."</span><br /><br />Now that was an enjoyable episode. Though it suffers a bit from a fairly lackluster ending, "Operation Awesome" is, for the most part, a twist and tension filled spy caper which fits in quite well with some of the best episodes of the series. Finally, we get to see Chuck take on the role of real spy (if only by comparison to the hilariously incapable Captain Awesome) and really succeed at it. Sure, he compromises the mission, but it's because of his love for his family, and that I can get behind. <br /><span class="fullpost"><br />More importantly, he didn't compromise the mission in any of the ways we've seen him do it in the past. He didn't get over-nervous, or dawdle, or leave "the car" simply because he wanted to be involved. He didn't get distracted, or anxious, or profess his love for his handler in the middle of a mission. Instead he took action to save Devon when it was apparent that the CIA/NSA was going to sacrifice his brother-in-law's life in the same way they sacrificed his. Sure his plan to lure the Ring's evil assistant district attorney (apologies to both Angie Harmon and Law & Order) out of hiding was ludicrous and ill-conceived, but he actually did something and he used his natural skill set to do it. That is a Chuck we can all get behind.<br /><br />And while Agent Shaw (played by <span style="font-style: italic;">Superman Returns</span>' Brandon <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Routh</span> in what may be a long-lived guest stint) was no doubt perturbed by Chuck's apparent willingness to risk his handlers for his own personal gain, just what he was thinking leaving Chuck to die is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">anyone's</span> guess. It makes you wonder if he really does "know everything" or if perhaps studying and obsessing over The Ring has lead to something a bit more dangerous for Team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Bartowski</span>.<br /><br />Overall, a great episode, and I can't wait to see what's in store for next week.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">My Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Don't Talk About Fight Club</span>: While I understand that it's relatively impossible for the writers to work in Buy More plot lines without making Burbank seem like the spy-equivalent of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Sunnydale's</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Hellmouth</span>, the Fight Club <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">plot line</span> in this one was ludicrous, and since the only impact it had on Chuck's story was to grant him an electric fence at the most opportune time, it simply wasn't worth it. It was nice to see Morgan take on a role of greater responsibility as Assistant Manager, but I would rather have seen him exert his authority in a better storyline.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Duck Hunt</span>: In a show like <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>, plot holes really aren't a problem, but I still can't help wondering, like I did in my review of "<a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/01/chuck-chuck-vs-three-words.html">The Three Words</a>", just how the Intersect 2.0 works. In this one, Chuck <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">tranq</span>-gun massacres a whole team of security guards using his Intersect 2.0 powers. When asked by Devon about whether his abilities came from his spy training, Chuck demurs by telling him instead that it was "Duck Hunt." Now, it seems likely that even though Devon knows Chuck is a spy, he doesn't know about the Intersect, and Chuck would want to keep it that way. Still, since Devon gave him the perfect opportunity to explain his prowess by asking about Chuck's training, why then does Chuck offer a video game as the explanation unless his Duck Hunt prowess has something to do with it. It's possible that as the season goes on we will see that the Intersect 2.0 can only get Chuck so far, that he still has to rely on certain portions of his own skill set to survive. In my opinion, that would be a pretty cool direction to take. (I recognize, by the way, that the exchange was largely in service to setting up Chuck's amusing response, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about these things.) <br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Set-Up?</span>: What exactly happened in that scene where a malevolent Angie Harmon passes directly in front of Sarah and Casey. It appears that the General locks the two in the van, before admitting that the whole thing is a set-up. Since this isn't further addressed on the show (and since Sarah and Casey are still listening to the General when she turns the reigns over to Agent Superman), I think we have to assume that the General was referring to Shaw's plan to get shot after taking a heart stopping pill (in order to get Devon into the Ring). Speaking of that plan, it doesn't really make a lot of sense for Shaw to ask Chuck to kill him, since the shot needs to actually miss the heart for the plan to work (the pill only prevents someone from realizing that Shaw's alive, it doesn't protect him from getting shot in the heart). This works fine once Shaw takes the gun himself, but what was he thinking asking Chuck to "kill him" without any further explanation? The whole sequence seemed pretty cool at the time, but it wasn't terribly well thought out (or explained by the writers) when you really think about it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Superman Returns?</span>: Since Agent "Superman" Shaw was introduced in this episode as essentially joining Team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Bartowski</span>, it seems safe to assume that he is going to be on the show for an extended stay (I don't look at casting rumors if I can help it, so if you know differently don't tell me). I don't mind the change in dynamic over the short run, but Agent Shaw is going to have to contribute a bit more if wants to make his guest stint permanent.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">You were Attacked by a Bear!</span>: I don't know whether this is a compliment or an insult to Sarah Lancaster's acting as Ellie, but when she gave the aforementioned exclamation as a response to a portion of Devon's long-winded and partially insane explanation for where he was the night before, I couldn't tell whether she was simply overacting or whether she was "acting" because she had ascertained that Devon was selling her a pile of BS. Her expression was great, and it was a relief when she came out and asked the boys if they thought she was an idiot, because otherwise I was a little concerned that the whole show had devolved into a true farce.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">He Kind of Ruined It A Little Bit Didn't He?</span>: Since the General fairly definitively prevents Team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Bartowski</span> from apprehending Angie Harmon by locking them in their van, it seems that the whole point of the events in this episode was to get Devon installed as a member of The Ring. Without a doubt Chuck destroyed that plan, first by stealing the phone, then by allowing it to be destroyed when he could have killed The Ring Agent. I wonder how the U.S. Government feels about that.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">To Catch an Enemy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">SuperSpy</span></span>: Nice symmetry to last year's Christmas episode when Chuck calms Devon by telling him that Team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Bartowski</span> caught the bad guys. In point of fact, poor Angie Harmon was shot in the stomach by Superman, and while you could call a point blank killing "catching" a bad guy, there's no question that Devon won't be envisioning it in his head the way it actually went down. Exactly the same as when Sarah killed the Fulcrum agent outside the Buy More to protect Chuck's identity, before telling him that the agent had been arrested. This time, though, it's Chuck who's protecting a loved one's innocence through deception. Like I said, nice symmetry.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Ring's The Thing</span>: Also a nice image in the last shot of Agent Superman. Though we know very little about Shaw at this point we know from that last shot that he once was married/to be married and that he still obsesses about it (he was carrying the ring with him on assignment). It seems that Agent Shaw just can't help obsessing over rings, whether comprised of enemies to the republic or otherwise. <br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-56816191948589706902010-01-13T09:24:00.006-05:002010-01-13T16:38:37.264-05:00Chuck: "Chuck vs. The Angel De La Muerte"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivxa5WfPWZIoBk-gPfg0sgK1LAMhoYSNdckXhzxlDiCOccmRO4_1hr2iJT63Qx6dvwA1pQ-ro5CPLLEbhv_Ij1dcFIHGwE6X1ZoyS94WS1150IJxEHKZLrPvzgM-6LhS40zypKyoeLUIg/s1600-h/Muerte.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivxa5WfPWZIoBk-gPfg0sgK1LAMhoYSNdckXhzxlDiCOccmRO4_1hr2iJT63Qx6dvwA1pQ-ro5CPLLEbhv_Ij1dcFIHGwE6X1ZoyS94WS1150IJxEHKZLrPvzgM-6LhS40zypKyoeLUIg/s320/Muerte.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426325790066759842" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"You're an adventure-sports cardiologist."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Whatever, man. I could do that in my sleep."</span><br /><br />And so we reach the final third of our two-day, three-hour <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> mini-bender, and like the previous episode, Chuck vs. The Three Words, this one mostly finds Chuck in situations similar to those we've seen him in before but with an outside figure altering the team's dynamics. In "Angel De La <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Muerte</span>", that outside figure happens to be Chuck's brother-in-law: Captain Awesome (a.k.a. Devon <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Woodcombe</span>).<br /><br />In truth, I don't have a lot to say in summary of the plot of this episode. It mostly revolves around scenarios we've seen plenty of variations on before: a black-tie dinner, an agent interrogated, doe-eyed admissions in front of the apartment complex fountain, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">etcetera</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">etcetera</span>. Like yesterday's second hour, however, this familiarity doesn't really take away from anything if only because the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">show's</span> writers are now so adept at playing to their actor's strengths. John Casey, afraid to enter an embassy due to his reputation as that country's "Angel of Death", is as humorous as it is fitting. While I could do with a few less scenes per week featuring either Sarah or Chuck (or both!) looking longingly at the other across a crowded room, this episode's emphasis on Awesome almost entirely made up for it.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Though I still can't quite kick the image of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Awesome's</span> lantern-jawed <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">portrayer</span> (spoiler alert) seducing a vengeful Betty Draper at the end of Season 2 of Mad Men, Devon himself spends the bulk of this episode trying ever so hard to be a dutiful husband to Ellie as she gets used to life-after-wedding. Unfortunately (but fortunately for us), he let's his need for adventure embroil him in much of the action, first surprising Chuck in his apartment with a Dr. Evil-style chair spin, then accidentally tackling John Casey thereby undermining the whole CIA/NSA Premier protection plan, all before finally winding up on the wrong end of a murder/kidnapping/maiming plot at the hands of the same assassin that tried to take out the aforementioned Premier.<br /><br />At the end of the day, then, this middle-of-the-road episode (which by <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> standards is still a fair bit better than the bulk of the rest of the shows on television) is mostly saved by the antics of one Captain Awesome and could work solely as a vehicle to bring Awesome into the fold on a regular basis. The truth is, however, that we won't know if that is the case until next week at least, owing to the fact that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Awesome's</span> fate isn't fully revealed in the slow-play of a cliffhanger that ends the episode.<br /><br />So <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>'s grade for this week: incomplete.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">My Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Devon Terminated?</span>: Like <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/01/chuck-chuck-vs-pink-slip.html">my question</a> regarding Chuck's termination in the premiere, I just can't help but wonder when it was that the American government in <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>'s universe lost its taste for killing people that could threaten it. I mean, at the point in time when this episode begins, Team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Bartowski</span> is fully aware that Devon knows of Chuck's secret identity. His disclosure of it, after all, occurred at the end of last season (at least six months ago in the chronology of the show). Why hasn't the government made some move towards neutralizing Devon (even if it meant simply having him sign an overly threatening non-disclosure agreement). It just seems odd that Chuck wouldn't have to change up his routine (Buy More, Burbank, etc.) in some way, even after a "civilian" learned of his secret.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Crashing the Party</span>: It may have just been me, but in watching the scene where Ellie and Awesome are invited to dine with the Premier, it wasn't obvious that Chuck was also invited. Sure he ran out in the courtyard in an attempt to gain access for Team <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Bartowski</span>, but the way the scene plays it seems that the Premier dismisses him and his "feminine features." The next we see of Chuck, however, he and Sarah are following the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Awesomes</span> into the party, so I guess we are to assume that an invitation was extended. Still, it seems like a few lines, or perhaps even another scene were cut from the proceedings.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Intersect Explained</span>: As we go through the season, I fully expect that the writers will continue to explain just how Chuck and Sarah manage to make the Intersect 2.0 functional. In this one we got perhaps our biggest clue yet. While at the Premier's party, Sarah tells Chuck (in a way that indicates that Chuck already knows this) that he needs to stay calm because it's his nervousness that prevents the Intersect from operating properly. If these really are the rules, that it is Chuck's nervousness above all else that truly gums up the works, than Sarah is really more of a therapist than anything else: the only person that Chuck trusts implicitly enough to believe it when she says that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">everything's</span> going to be okay.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Etymology</span> of Awesome</span>: One of my favorite moments of the night occurred while the team watched <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Awesome's</span> post operation press conference. After receiving a question given to him in Spanish, Awesome responds in kind, prompting Sarah to ask Chuck if there's anything his brother-in-law can't do. Chuck responds by saying "Well, thus, the nickname." This short exchange epitomizes everything we've come to know about Devon <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Woodcombe</span>, but its interesting how a joke in the pilot can metamorphose by the time a show hits its third season. In the pilot Devon is most obviously called "Captain Awesome" by Chuck as a derisive slight on the fact that every situation Devon observes is uniformly declared by him as "awesome." There are even a number of instances during the course of the show where it is intimated that Ellie views the nickname as at least somewhat of a put down. By the time the events of "Angel De La <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Muerte</span>" go down, however, the implication is that the nickname has far more sincere origins. Awesome is "Awesome" because he's awesome. Fine with me.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Embassy's Sweet</span>: Did anyone else have flashbacks to Seasons 4 and 5 of 24 when the team was discussing the implications of performing a mission at a foreign nation's embassy. I thought bringing in Jack's torture at the hands of the Chinese would have been a good pop culture touchstone to establish the dangers of the mission. Certainly Chuck could have been counted on to know that bit of trivia. Even without 24 in the background, it's easy to see why the notion of an embassy is so fertile ground for all kinds of spy shows and movies: an embassy is a location that is easily accessed and by all outward appearances a part of the United States (or whatever home country the spy is operating in), but is, against all logic, actually foreign soil, and as such operations on that soil have immeasurably higher stakes. As I said, it's easy to see why Chuck, 24, Casino <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Royale</span>, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Bourne</span> movies, Alias, and I'm sure plenty more, have all had some of their action take place at an embassy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">One Ring to Rule Them All</span>: So we learned last season that what we once thought was the ultimate evil in Chuck's universe, Fulcrum, was in fact only a portion of a much bigger consortium of evil, The Ring. What we still don't know, however, is just what the Ring's purpose is. Like the oblique references to Jacob, the Others, and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Dharma</span> in the middle seasons of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> writers seem intent on answering questions about this mysterious <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">villain</span> entity only with more questions. And when, as in this episode, a character like Casey deigns to actually ask a Ring operative about his nefarious intent, he is met only with a Ben-like "you wouldn't understand." Still, since <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> is less dependent on its mythology than a show like <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>, this lack of transparency doesn't really detract from anything.<br /><br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-9518583895325356292010-01-12T08:42:00.005-05:002010-01-12T10:20:02.295-05:00Chuck: "Chuck vs. The Three Words"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwRmrXo-yOqtsImuksAKFmZSQR1rrDOHWMDLIgbFCvbEimj_cW9z_UeasCJZdu7umHjCfV-HwQwsUmcW86Bzqjji7Ky1dKPdfQ-DFIeG9PKaIxUFNz5qnaL0ZCWesuYAmpAg8p-0yKWhQ/s1600-h/ThreeWords.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwRmrXo-yOqtsImuksAKFmZSQR1rrDOHWMDLIgbFCvbEimj_cW9z_UeasCJZdu7umHjCfV-HwQwsUmcW86Bzqjji7Ky1dKPdfQ-DFIeG9PKaIxUFNz5qnaL0ZCWesuYAmpAg8p-0yKWhQ/s320/ThreeWords.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425867457047544994" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Sarah, I love you."</span><br /><br />Now that the team is back together, the show has no problem resuming the rhythm of its previous seasons. So much so, that the writers decided to throw in one small twist: the return of Corina, the femme fatale DEA Agent that always seems to have one foot in the dirty end of Spy World, but who also generally proves herself to be on the up-and-up by the end of the episode in which she appears.<br /><br />The plot is well executed, but relatively unimportant: Team Bartowski is sent to support Corina as she acquires a weapon of unknown origin from an arms dealer whom she happens to be engaged to (as part of her cover). Antics ensue, the weapon is recovered, and Morgan gets lucky. The end.<br /><br />What's more interesting in the episode (as belied by the episode's title) are the character beats between Sarah and Chuck.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />In the critical scene of the episode (the beats of which are played out of order and at various points through the use of a security recording of the incident) Chuck stands alone in a vault with presumably poisonous gas pumping in, pouring his heart out to Sarah. At the very end of his speechifying, Sarah saves him, and Chuck, undone by the poison gas, collapses in her arms while saying those three words at the top of this post.<br /><br />It isn't until the very end of the episode that we (and Sarah) realize that Chuck's admission wasn't simply more puppy dog-eyed crushing from our favorite Buymorian, but instead the conclusion of an impassioned explanation for why Chuck chose not to run away with his lady love.<br /><br />It's a bittersweet moment in that we know that (for the time being at least) Chuck's decision will keep him and Sarah apart, but it's also the moment when Sarah realizes just how much Chuck was willing to give up for her. It's really well played by Yvonne Strahovski, and a great conclusion to a really good episode.<br /><br />Here's hoping for more next week (read: tomorrow).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">My Quick Thoughts</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Three Words</span>: While Chuck's admission that he loves Sarah is certainly important from her character's stand point, the fact remains that both Chuck and Sarah have been quite open about their "love" for one another, in as much as they could be throughout the previous two seasons. So more than offering a "major revelation", the vault scene served really to provide context for what I called Chuck's "<a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2010/01/chuck-chuck-vs-pink-slip.html">interesting decision</a>": to forgo more Sarah-time for more zip-lining. Essentially, the reasoning behind his decision was this: Chuck just wants to make a difference in the world, and he has for too long felt that he was wasting his life. Chuck left Sarah on that train platform not because he doesn't love her, but because he does. It maybe doesn't make the most sense in the world, by Zach Levi sells it, and you can definitely feel the earnestness of Chuck's admission.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Moonlighting Effect</span>: While some critics have complained that the Chuck/Sarah relationship is played out (or at least that the show has run out of legitimate obstacles to prevent the couple from consummating their love), this whole angle of what it means to be a "real spy" is working well for the show, I think. Clearly Sarah and Chuck still have feelings for each other, but as has been demonstrated on the show so often in the past, those feelings can get you killed in Spy World. In a very real way, Chuck had to choose between becoming a spy and truly being with the one he loved. The more he moves towards one pole or the other, the more he loses the other side. It's a nice dichotomy, and I think it works.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Intersect 1.9?</span>: It was played for terrific comedic effect, but why would Chuck's fully functional Intersect 2.0 finish his gymnastic move set only 90% out of the vault? Are we to understand that Chuck was given only gymnastic prowess, but not some greater understanding about the layout of the room? That Chuck was, in essence, calculating angles on his own, on the fly. I find it difficult to believe that he didn't get information regarding the ideal route through that particular security system, and since the Intersect essentially takes control of his body, shouldn't he have finished his moves completely outside of the room? If Chuck did "solve" the room on his own (albeit with the benefit of augmented physical acumen), it actually creates an opportunity for some interesting scenarios in the future, where Chuck has the knowledge and ability to perform physical feats, but actually needs to implement them using some skill he brings to the table. That's probably not what was intended by the scene, however, as it merely served as a good situation for allowing Chuck to express his feelings to Sarah.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">UFO of Deaaaath</span>: It's funny, but as much as I love <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> I can't ever help but feel that the show's "mythology" is just there to take up time. While the question of the nature of the weapon recovered by Team Bartowski (some kind of chrome UFO-looking thing) is somewhat interesting, I never really care about these kinds of plots vs. the personal and comedic interactions that really make the show hum. So when the show includes a mysterious scene about the danger the weapon (and "The Ring's" plans) could pose to the team, I'm simply not taken with it, the way I would be if a similar scene appeared in a show like <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Fringe</span>. I guess I just don't consider that kind of thing to be a strength of the show.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">No Intersect required</span>: Perhaps one of the best things about the climax of the episode is that Chuck receives absolutely no help from the Intersect whatsoever. Clearly when Sarah tosses Chuck the tiki torch she expects him to flash on some kind of bo training. But that doesn't happen. Instead, the writers remind us just how smart and intuitive Chuck is by having him set a fire in the fountain (recently filled by Jeff and Lester with highly-flammable "Jail Juice") which in turn distracts their captors. One of my favorite parts of <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span> has always been seeing how the writers can have Chuck's unusual skill set save the day in novel ways. It's good to see that we won't be losing that aspect of the show even post-Intersect 2.0.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">A United Buymoria</span>: The show is always at its best when it can successfully integrate the more comically oriented plot lines at the Buy More with those of Spy World, and this episode was a good example of that. From the moment we see Jeff and Lester teasing Morgan about Carina, we know that the major plot lines of the show are bound to intersect (pun intended), and it's a testament to the show that even after the flyer with Chuck's address is introduced (which will obviously lead the bad guys to Chuck in the final act), the twists and turns of the episode remain entertaining primarily because everyone on both sides is involved.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-41715667008255530372010-01-11T13:22:00.005-05:002010-01-12T08:42:13.699-05:00Chuck: "Chuck vs. The Pink Slip"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyz_m7OsY3TgdGQLS5GQpZ25jI2oQopuNhhQ3YAkzqP_qncAELGkJearV-QYCtBgYB0_BdA1cyGdQr4FAf5sIyXZz2-Ld4mzb6ltxS6ZdmVnsONvRZgSPqkMADi5ayv-tCQvqPqWDkGWo/s1600-h/PinkSlip.jpg"><img style="width: 320px; height: 214px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425633777552988930" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyz_m7OsY3TgdGQLS5GQpZ25jI2oQopuNhhQ3YAkzqP_qncAELGkJearV-QYCtBgYB0_BdA1cyGdQr4FAf5sIyXZz2-Ld4mzb6ltxS6ZdmVnsONvRZgSPqkMADi5ayv-tCQvqPqWDkGWo/s320/PinkSlip.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><div><em>"Whoa, Wait. This is really you?"<br />"Maybe we should be introduced. Hi, I'm Chuck Bartowski: Total Loser."</em><br /></div><div><br />We're baaack! Like <em>Chuck</em>, the namesake of what may be the best (and certainly the most fun) show currently on television, "Rick's Flicks" is making a triumphant 2010 return. In this new iteration, my hope is that I will be able to blog about what I truly love, while still affording myself time for work and family. Bible-sized <em>Lost</em> posts notwithstanding, I intend this blog to be a repository of "quick hit" style opinions, thoughts, and observations on what interests me most in the world of pop culture (predominantly TV, Movies, and Video Games). We'll see how well I can keep it up this time, but my hope is that I will be able to continue to provide keen insight, witty banter, and provocative questions, just in bite-sized doses more plentiful than before.<br /><br />With the (re)introductions out of the way, let's talk about the return of the most fun you can have in front of your TV screen (at least on network television): NBC's <em>Chuck</em>.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />When we last left our pocket-protector packing protagonist, he had just pulled a full Keanu and discovered that not only did he possess a full complement of government secrets in that head of his, but also that he now "knows kung-fu." That gift was bestowed upon him by the Intersect 2.0, a new iteration of the super-computer that started all of his mad dash escapades, this time imbued with the power to grant its user physical prowess in addition to mere information.<br /><br />Last year, I questioned whether or not this new plot twist would destroy the show's carefully constructed triangle of nerd (Chuck), love interest (Sarah), and heavy (John Casey). After all, if Chuck becomes entirely competent, aren't we just watching a slightly more comedic Alias? I needn't have worried.<br /><br />In only a few short scenes of the premiere, the <em>Chuck</em> writers clearly establish that Intersect 2.0 is not all that it's cracked up to be. Chuck, a normal guy, is, unlike his predecessor Bryce (or apparently any other spy in the country's service), a man ruled by his emotions. And those emotions get in the way of the new Intersect operating properly. And so, just like that he's "let go".<br /><br />While the premise doesn't make a lot of sense the longer one thinks about it (more on that below), the writers and Zachary Levi in particular play Chuck's post-spy descent into madness brilliantly and for plentiful laughs. Without Sarah, Chuck is almost literally nothing. From his raggedy "homeless man" bath robe to the beard that is so over-the-top ridiculous that it all but has to be real, destitute and unemployed Chuck is almost completely unrecognizable. Add cheese puffs to the mix, and that my friends, is a recipe for comedy.<br /><br />Later in the "plot" of the episode, we find out that the reason Sarah won't return Chuck's calls is because he jilted her on a train platform in Prague when he elected to become a "real spy" rather than run away with her. An interesting decision. On the one hand you get to be with the woman you love (who looks like Yvonne Strahovski). On the other, uh...your life is threatened on a daily basis, and that's only by Col. Casey. Maybe he needed the health care? Regardless, Chuck elected to live out his spy fantasy rather than fantasies of a different nature, and so was devastated when he was let go from his dream job.<br /><br />The rest of the episode basically revolves around Chuck getting his old job back and the zany adventures that ensue. Throughout its length, Chuck proves himself to be an accomplished guitarist, bare-handed brawler, zip-liner, and, most importantly, TV star. There is no question that <em>Chuck</em> is back, and with it, a sense of joy on television that only a nerdy mid-air fist pump and "Yesssssss!" can possibly convey.<br /><br />It's good to have you back Chuck, I can't believe they almost canceled you.<br /><br /><strong>My Quick Thoughts</strong><br /><br /><em>Sarah, Chuck Whisperer?</em>: The actual problem with the Intersect 2.0 inside Chuck's head is left ambiguous at the end of the episode. We know that Chuck struggles to control it, but we don't know why and how he gains control in specific instances. It certainly seems tied to Sarah (as indicated by the fact that he "flashes" zip line powers when he has to rescue Sarah), but it's unclear what effect her presence will have in the long run. After all, maybe Chuck's training in Prague went poorly because of the decision he had to make regarding Sarah. In other words, is Sarah the answer to Chuck's problems, or is the cause?<br /><br /><em>Chuck Terminated</em>: While the writers used it to create some artificial suspense in the middle of this episode, the notion of Chuck getting fired doesn't really make sense if the CIA or NSA doesn't have some kind of "contingency plan" for taking care of Chuck. I mean, these are the same people that ordered Casey to terminate Chuck when all he had was simple government information. Now they're simply going to let him run free with the ability to hijack tanks/assemble nuclear weapons/coach the USC Trojans? I don't think so. And while the universe of Chuck is broad enough that a contingency plan could be in place outside the framework of the episode, it's pretty clear from the context of his scenes that Col. Casey was not asked to carry one out. Perhaps they think Casey has become a full-fledged softie for our favorite Nerd Herder. Nah!<br /><br /><em>Music, Music, Music</em>: While I am entirely unequipped to in any way detail the indie rock that show creator Josh Schwartz selected for <em>Chuck</em>'s return, it is worth noting, in that it is both good and plentiful. The music really sets a great stage for emotions to play over each of the cast members. If there is a caveat (and it is a small one), it is that the musical montage-style scenes were coming so fast and furious at one point that the show felt almost like a pseudo-music video. I mean, <em>Thriller</em> had more dialogue in it.<br /><br /><em>Too many violent video games?</em>: While I trust the writers to avoid this trap, it certainly seems like the Intersect 2.0 is most useful for fighting/weapons training/etc. The guitar playing interlude was fine, but I do wonder if the show can avoid having Chuck "know kung fu" at the climax of almost every encounter. Like I said, we'll just have to trust the writers on that one.<br /><br /><em>Casey at Bat</em>: You had to know when they introduced the never-before seen minigun that it would have a role to play in the triumphant finale of the episode, but even that couldn't take away from the sheer joy of seeing Casey use it to save Sarah and Chuck from certain doom. Nicely played by Mr. Baldwin.<br /><br /></span></div>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-32252900469335618942009-05-14T07:27:00.006-04:002009-05-14T13:30:28.833-04:00Lost: "The Incident"; Bombs Away<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7I9nGDoKAaOc37smitg-vi9x9HynrY3T35Ld6WWsEpX2PRd3Yt-rVD4dz5bBHHi1hrkWrCJVI4cS3BR8XbCs-rQeXc96GUADhc-K723WJ35ClgBWkNYvm8BxVDMSflEULrRYg1hyphenhyphengXNw/s1600-h/TheIncident.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 177px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7I9nGDoKAaOc37smitg-vi9x9HynrY3T35Ld6WWsEpX2PRd3Yt-rVD4dz5bBHHi1hrkWrCJVI4cS3BR8XbCs-rQeXc96GUADhc-K723WJ35ClgBWkNYvm8BxVDMSflEULrRYg1hyphenhyphengXNw/s320/TheIncident.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335722800193524690" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Well, I have to say, after recommending to everyone I know a <span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Battlestar</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Galactica</span></span> that basically went up in flames at the end, I'm getting a little tired of spending my social capital on shows that seem to do their best to make me regret it in the morning.<br /><br />Said another way:<br /><br />Sorry for the TERRIBLE finale.<br /><br />Let's put it in perspective, shall we? Way back in Season 1, when <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> was still riding high off its almost 30 million viewers and spending its days wistfully looking forward to receiving a first (and likely only) Emmy Award for best dramatic series, the powers that be on the show decided to end their historic first season with one of the most unsatisfying finishes in recent television history: A shot of a ladder. Now, in the seasons that followed, Desmond, the button, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Dharma</span> Initiative, the Others, flash-forwards, Jacob, the smoke monster, and everything else would all be introduced and serve as wonderful plot devices on a wonderful show, but during that first hiatus all the writers deigned to leave us with was that "The Hatch" had a ladder in it.<br /><br />And the <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">fanbase</span> (at least in number) never really recovered.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />To be sure, ever since that fateful day it appeared that the <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">showrunners</span> had learned their lesson. The finales of Seasons 2 (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">failsafe</span>), 3 (flash-forward), and 4 (island exodus), all answered significant, long-asked questions in packages that were both <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">narratively</span> satisfying and mysterious enough to sustain the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">fanbase</span> during the long break between installments. The crippling anticlimax that was "The Incident", however, unfortunately proves that no such lesson was learned.<br /><br />Last night's episode essentially revolved around three plot lines: Locke's journey to murder Jacob; Jack's journey to murder everyone (okay, okay change the timeline); and Jacob's journey to influence the 815<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">ers</span> at critical moments in their past (presumably to bring them to the Island). Unfortunately, none of the three plot lines really resolved in any reasonable way, especially not when one considers that it will be almost nine months until we come back to any of them.<br /><br />Let's take them one at a time.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Jacob's Journey</span><br /><br />By far the most interesting portions of the episode revolve around the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">show's</span> reveal of Jacob in the flesh (if that is an accurate description for an apparently immortal ethereal being), and the revelation that there is another entity on the island, essentially Jacob's dark opposite, who has apparently wanted to kill Jacob for a very long time (the opening of the episode shows these two "men" looking out at an old Galleon, presumably the Black Rock, though the omnipresent hieroglyphs and statuary imply a far older connection).<br /><br />While this relationship is interesting (and proves to be critical in the closing moments of the episode), the bulk of Jacob's remaining appearances revolve around making appearances in the pasts of the 815<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">ers</span>. He pays for a lunchbox (New Kids on the Block!) that young Kate tries to steal, he gives Jack a candy bar after his infamous "angel hair pasta" surgery, he (apparently) sets up <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Sayid's</span> love Nadia to be killed by a passing car, he (again, apparently) heals Locke after his "fall" from the apartment building, and he outright tells Hurley to get on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Ajira</span> 316.<br /><br />Why, does he do these things? Who knows. For our purposes he's simply a ladder in a hatch for the time being. Do I think that the producers of Lost are building towards a battle of the righteous against the evil and that sides will be taken and lines will be drawn? Yes, I do, and Jacob's journey implies that the ingredients are all there. But I am reviewing this episode, today, and for a finale, Jacob's story left very little for even the most dedicated <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> viewer to hang his hat on.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Locke's Journey</span><br /><br />Okay, so I haven't been blogging in a while, I admit, but if I had, I would have pointed out that the "reasons" given prior to the finale for Locke's resurrection were never satisfactory. When combined with the fact that in "Dead is Dead" Locke never appears at the same time as the smoke monster, I have been pretty sure for a while that what we were dealing with with Locke was in fact an apparition of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Yemi</span> or Christian variety.<br /><br />What I hadn't been expecting is the revelation in this episode that Jacob, the Island, smokey, etc. are not necessarily playing on the same team. Indeed, the "shadow" peoples' expressed concern that others had been using Jacob's cabin implies that the dead body apparitions are very different from Jacob. This implication is only strengthened, I would imagine, by the fact that Ghost Locke talks Ben into "killing" the man, after revealing (in choice of dialogue) that Ghost Locke is, in fact, Jacob's long lost antagonist.<br /><br />While I enjoyed coming to the realization that Ghost Locke had apparently been manipulating Ben solely because he was incapable of murdering Jacob himself, and that Ghost Locke had essentially ordered Ben to follow him by taking on the guise of Alex in "Dead is Dead", there really was no general resolution to the plot line. Was Jacob good? Bad? Other (pun intended)? Why did he let himself die? What's Ghost Locke's end game?<br /><br />Sure we have the ingredients: A set up for a garden of Eden tale, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">ala</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Paradise Lost</span>, featuring Jacob in the role of God, unnamed antagonist guy in the role of Lucifer, and Ben and Locke (and presumably Richard) serving as unwitting pawns, but in the end those ingredients haven't been formed into any kind of cogent whole. And we know that they won't be for a very long time.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Stangelove's</span> Journey </span><br /><br />By far the worst aspect of the finale, Jack's plot line fell apart on about 1,000 different levels.<br /><br />First, the motivations of the characters throughout this episode felt patently false. Jack's gonna blow up the world because he has a messiah complex? Nope, it's because he lost Kate, and he'd rather never have met her if he doesn't get to tap that every night.<br /><br />Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet? They hijack a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">fricken</span> submarine in order to stop Jack's absurd plan, but all three wind up providing cover fire during project trinity. Why? Well for Juliet it's because Sawyer looked at Kate with those big puppy-dog eyes earlier in the episode, and well, she would rather never </span><span class="fullpost">have</span><span class="fullpost"> met him if she doesn't get to tap that every night. Sawyer? Well I guess it's because he couldn't beat Jack hard enough to make him stop, and because he's mopey because Juliet doesn't want to ever have met him. And Kate? You know, the one who will be going directly to jail without passing Go if Jack's plan is successful? Well, she agrees to help because Jack asks her to again, albeit a bit more softly this time. Don't even get me started about Hurley, Miles, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Jin</span>, etc. The show doesn't even bother to address why they might be okay standing on top of a nuclear detonation.<br /><br />In short, the characters move along throughout this episode like so many chess (or perhaps more appropriately, backgammon) pieces, and the writers barely bother to make their motivations any deeper than the average episode of One Tree Hill, despite the presence of a large-scale nuclear weapon in one of their backpacks. Since the Jacob/Locke plot line (never mind the motivations of the "shadow" people) is all but indecipherable without one's own time travel device as well as an expert-level grasp of both classical Latin and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, this finale could only be saved by at least resolving what happens when the bomb finally goes off.<br /><br />Of course, the show doesn't bother to do that.<br /><br />Instead, like the hatch of yore, we are left pondering a season in which, for large chunks of time, the producers built up to mythic revelations (Jacob, the bomb, etc.) that never really paid off. How is anyone to know where the show goes from here? Maybe the real secret is that it's a backdoor pilot for a new <span style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek</span> series from J.J. I mean, didn't the Enterprise fly through the <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> logo a few weeks back. Did anyone check for a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Dharma</span> logo?<br /><br />Sarcastic asides aside, nine months is a long time (time enough to have a baby!). After that finale, how can anyone be expected to care?<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Other random thoughts:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Promises, Promises</span> - My wife actually caught this one, but did anybody notice that a number of the Jacob-tinged flashbacks involved one or more (in the case of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Jin</span> and Sun) 815<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">ers</span> making promises of some kind. Kate promises to be good, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Sawyer</span> promises to "let it go", and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Jin</span> and Sun make promises to love one another. I don't know if there's anything to it or not (Locke and Jack notably don't have any similar dialogue in their flashbacks), but its worth noting all the same.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Locke's Death</span> - Well, I guess the presence of Ghost Locke (and of Corpse Locke for that matter) means that Ben really did kill Locke at the end of Season 4 (or 3, or in the middle of this Season depending on how you want to look at it). What a sad way for the character to die. It puts forth the question: If<span style="font-style: italic;"> Lost</span> is, as I've posited, truly a story about redemption what, if anything, redeemed Locke before the end? If the answer is (as I suspect) nothing, than either his is the great tragic story of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>, or we should be on the look out for a true resurrection before all is said and done.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reckless Driving</span> - Jacob's flashback with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Sayid</span> is perhaps the most ambiguous of the ones presented in this episode. Did Jacob save <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Sayid</span> from being run over by a reckless driver, while simultaneously allowing Nadia to die? Did Jacob cause Nadia to die by holding back <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Sayid</span>, thus causing Nadia to stop in the street? Was the car accident really an accident or was something more nefarious at play? I suspect it will be up for interpretation for quite some time (if not forever), so it basically comes down to what one chooses to believe. I believe Jacob caused Nadia's death, but that's because I'm like Frank on this one: you can usually count on the people that insist they are the good guys to truly be bad in the end.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Count to Five</span> - Interesting to see the infamous count to five scene as (we presume) it actually happened. Especially interesting since Jack notably did not mention that his father was so instrumental in his "count to five" philosophy when he was imparting the same to Kate way back in Season 1.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Man of Science</span> - Was anyone at all disturbed by the ease in which Dr. Shepard shot up the various <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Dharma</span> compounds visited in this episode. I mean, even disregarding the implausibly accurate shooting of our favorite spinal surgeon, is it really heroic to shoot up a bunch of hippie scientists? I guess when you really want to get over your ex-girlfriend you don't really care how you get there.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">White Flashes</span> - Despite the apparent nuclear detonation sending us off on the long hiatus, it's worth mentioning that all we really saw of the explosion was a white flash. Why is that significant? Well, since "Flashes Before your Eyes", and very prominently throughout this fractured Season 5, Lost has been using the device of a white flash to indicate time travel on the Island. In the absence of evidence of an actual explosion, why should we assume that the Island didn't simply time travel, perhaps as a result of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Dharma</span> tapping into its electromagnetic energy. If that is the case, perhaps the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">losties</span> jumped back to 2007 and left the bomb behind them. Maybe the explosion still occurred in 1977, or maybe the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Dharma</span> Initiative created the Swan hatch and hooked up the unexploded nuclear core to some kind of a device, we'll call it a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">failsafe</span>, that would only utilize the nuclear energy if certain Scottish yachtsman were to one day turn a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">failsafe</span> key. Maybe...<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-69997159839406755802009-03-21T08:34:00.011-04:002009-03-23T17:04:02.843-04:00Battlestar Galactica: "Daybreak Pt. 2"<em>(My apologies. Family and work responsibilities prevented me from updating this blog, but I have been keeping up with both Galactica and Lost, and I wanted to comment on the Galactica series finale before going back and filling in the holes that I am leaving by "skipping ahead." With that said...)</em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhNfHt3Eeq3-masL4JLLRDUdPIrlnfUtYwMhf7vJLDWNgoKvcYZ3OTuhbJu1Df4hPehyphenhyphensSyj_zyxbYCyMgIhUbuUvLbPCtHc4M99dMDsXWUXZiUPTdG3n4r9kzn4etm0PgECpdwIcxM44/s1600-h/Daybreak2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316433135471496146" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 181px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhNfHt3Eeq3-masL4JLLRDUdPIrlnfUtYwMhf7vJLDWNgoKvcYZ3OTuhbJu1Df4hPehyphenhyphensSyj_zyxbYCyMgIhUbuUvLbPCtHc4M99dMDsXWUXZiUPTdG3n4r9kzn4etm0PgECpdwIcxM44/s320/Daybreak2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><em>"Earth is a dream..."</em><br /><br />Well what exactly am I supposed to do with that? My instinct is to say that "Daybreak Part 2" (and Part 1, really) is an impeccably directed, terrifically acted, fantastically scored, balls-to-the-wall...piece of dreck. An episode that while technically sound and at times even great, drops so many balls that it hurts, maybe even cripples, the experience of watching the entire run of the show for the last five years.<br /><br />Too harsh? Perhaps.<br /><br />But when a show you have been following with so much passion and emotion gives you an ending akin to the very worst treacly, preachy mess you can think of, an ending that actually uses the open-ended, nonsensical nature of the plot points introduced during the show's last three years to point out the "presence of the divine" before failing to explain those same plot points in any kind of satisfying way, what would you call it? I imagine that some of you might just use a stronger word than "dreck". Making matters worse, there can be little doubt after this one that the creators of <em>Galactica</em> are very skilled at the more technical aspects of their craft.<br /><br />From the opening salvos of the Colony attack to the last moments we get to spend with Adama (note I didn't say the very last minutes of the episode), "Daybreak" is a testament to ambitious television making. But the writers simply didn't give these tremendous actors, directors, and all the other people clearly pouring their hearts and souls into the project something substantial to work with. And that is a real, real pity.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Because this episode takes its dear sweet time in doing anything substantive (long-form flashbacks will do that to a show's momentum (see, for all its greatness, <em>Lost</em>)), I don't think a great deal of plot synopsis is necessary. Suffice it to say, all of the main characters get elaborate <em>Lost</em>-style flashbacks to Caprica before it was nuked, those volunteering to stay with Galactica (including "surprise" volunteer Gaius Baltar) jump to the Colony and rescue Hera, Starbuck leaps Galactica to Earth, our Earth, by playing All Along the Watchtower on the FTL drive, and the characters give up all their technology to live with Neanderthals in our ancient past.<br /><br />The end.<br /><br />But even in that short synopsis, the major issues which cripple the finale are apparent.<br /><br />First, it's difficult for me to see the presence of an Earth-2 as anything short of a complete cop-out. Much of the impact of this season's high-water mark, "Sometimes a Great Notion", was predicated on the idea that the "Earth" the fleet found in that episode (actually the episode prior) was our Earth. That we, the audience, could take lessons from the fact that we were actually Cylons, not colonials. That, like the humans in "Planet of the Apes", we had destroyed ourselves.<br /><br />These revelations helped give a different perspective to events onboard Galactica. They gave the series added emotional resonance. And they were all lies.<br /><br />Having the fleet arrive on the "real" Earth (at least the one with an Australia) and having Adama simply name it Earth to reflect the fact that "Earth is a dream" is a cop-out plain and simple. It is, in my opinion, patently unacceptable slight of hand that treats the most dedicated members of the audience(those likely to have been the most vociferous in their support of the low-rated program) with little more than contempt at their dedication.<br /><br />Unfortunately, this is but one half of the finale's dual dose of ill-conceived plot points. Even more problematic is the methodology the writer's used to get the fleet to Earth 2 in the first place, and just what that methodology means to the meaning of the show.<br /><br />A couple years back, M. Night Shayamalan (when he could still do no wrong) made a movie with Mel Gibson (when he could still do no wrong) called <em>Signs</em>. In that movie, the presence of God and the divine was established in the way the members of a small rural family, unbeknownst to them, had been providently given the tools to ward off an alien invasion in the coincidental idiosyncrasies of their seemingly insignificant lives. In other words, the plot of <em>Signs</em> eschewed one of writing's golden rules by deliberately using the concept of "coincidence" as a major plot point.<br /><br />Unfortunately, while it is may make for interesting late night philosophical discussions, the concept of coincidence as the "footprint" of the divine is a fundamentally flawed premise on which to rest a scripted narrative. This is because coincidence on its own is essentially random. That's what makes it "coincidence" rather than "plan". By making random happenstance the thesis on which your story is premised, you can't help but make your audience a bit nihilistic as to the meaning of it all. After all, if the whole point of a story is that "God's plan is mysterious and unknowable" what point is there in trying to suss out any other meaning?<br /><br />Like <em>Signs</em>, "Daybreak" suffers from these same nihilistic tendencies.<br /><br />Why was the Colony destroyed? Because a piece of debris happened to kill a Raptor pilot while her missiles were armed, before another piece of debris happened to jostle the dead pilot in such a way as to launch the missiles when it was most beneficial to the colonials.<br /><br />Why did negotiations between the colonials and the Cylons break down? Because one of the "Five" had killed another of the Five's spouses and that secret was revealed at the perfect time to cause mass mayhem.<br /><br />How did the fleet find Earth 2? By "playing" All Along the Watchtower on the FTL drive.<br /><br />Who played that fateful song? The dead (yet strangely corporeal) spirit of Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace.<br /><br />And how is this all explained? In a wooden soliquily given by the terribly underserved character of Dr. Gaius Baltar, who points out all of these coincidences and strange events (including the presence of the "Head" people), as proof of the existence of the divine.<br /><br />Unlike <em>Signs</em>, however, Galactica had five full years of back stories and open plot points to make hollow with this feeble attempt at a wrap-up. And the answer to any and every question ever posed by Ron Moore and company was apparently "God."<br /><br /><em>What are Head Six and Head Baltar?</em> Uh...angels? Demons? Gods?<br /><br /><em>What is Kara Thrace?</em> Uh...an angel, maybe?<br /><br /><em>So Kara actually killed herself when she inexplicably flew into the Maelstrom in Season 3?</em> Yup...so it would appear.<br /><br /><em>And how did she come back?</em> God.<br /><br /><em>Who gave Starbuck the coordinates to Earth?</em> God.<br /><br /><em>How did Starbuck originally wind up on Earth (in Maelstrom)?</em> Uh...God's ability to transport matter.<br /><br /><em>Why didn't God lead Starbuck to Earth 2?</em> Unknown...God's plans are mysterious.<br /><br /><em>How is Starbuck the "Harbinger of Death" (as foretold by the Hybrid)?</em> Unknown...possibly because she ended Cylon resurrection, though it seems odd that the creators of the show would highlight this portion of the prophecy a few episodes ago if that is the case. Nah...must be God.<br /><br /><em>Who are "they" in the Hybrid's prophecy and why must they not "follow" Starbuck?</em> Not only do I have no idea on this one, it appears that the producers of the show simply dropped this from the prophecy entirely. Starbuck does little in Season 4 that anyone should not follow. She leads humanity to "its end", but not to its death. Why would humanity not follow her? In truth, I think the prophecy's "they must not follow her" was simply a smokescreen designed to encourage distrust of Starbuck, and the writers felt that they could explain it away as innocuous at some point in the future. That being said, never before have I seen a show so completely ignore a portion of a prophecy that it spent such large amounts of screen time establishing. Even the beleaguered <em>Alias</em> made token efforts to explain the "she will rend the greatest power unto utter desolation" prophecy. <em>Galactica</em>'s effort here was a joke.<br /><br /><em>What is the "truth of the opera house?"</em> No idea. That the Galactica's CIC is the opera house? That Hera is the key to everything? Must be God.<br /><br /><em>Who is the Dying Leader?</em> You could certainly read that Galactica was the dying leader, given its "death" in this one, but I think Roslin is the more correct answer. She does die before Adama builds his cabin so you could argue that at least this prophecy was fulfilled.<br /><br /><em>What triggered the Final Five in the nebula?</em> Uh..."All Along the Watchtower", weren't you watching?<br /><br /><em>Right, but what is "All Along the Watchtower" in the narrative of the show?</em> Uh...a message from God containing the coordinates of Earth 2.<br /><br /><em>Convenient. And how did Hera get the musical score to "Watchtower" (and was it Dylan's version)?</em> God (and, no, it was McCreary's version, couldn't you tell?).<br /><br />See what I mean? Like <em>Signs</em>, the entire purpose behind the inexplicable events on the show seems to have been to give form to the show's concept of divine will. And like <em>Signs</em>, that explanation for everything can't help but feel hollow in the end.<br /><br />So what do I do with this finale? There can be little doubt that <em>Galactica</em> on the whole has given me many more good memories than bad. From debating with a friend the rightness of Roslin's attempts to steal an election she knew she must win, to the raw awesomeness of Galactica falling through the atmosphere of New Caprica before jumping to safety, I can't change the fact that I loved this show. And the action portions of "Daybreak" do more than enough to evoke those fantastic memories. But the plodding flashbacks, the nonsensical narrative, and the (literal) deus ex machina ending, hurt everything that came before.<br /><br />I guess in many ways it is the age old question of whether it's the journey or the destination. Do the earlier events on <em>Galactica</em> lose some of their luster knowing that, in the end, it was all a function of God's unknowable will? Undoubtedly. But is the impact of those events ruined? Not quite.<br /><br />In many ways, I feel that the show I thought I had been watching, like the characters' "Earth", was but a dream. Taking Adama's lead, then, I'm simply going to rename things to suit that dream. From now on I will be referring to Lost as "Battlestar Galactica".<br /><br />There, that solves everything.<br /><br />Once again "Battlestar Galactica" is the best show on TV.<br /><br />Mission Accomplished.<br /><br />Quick Thoughts:<br /><br /><strong>Caprica</strong> - Perhaps I'm just a cynical person, but the flashbacks in this one served so little purpose that I can't help but think they were designed solely to establish Ron Moore's ability to pen his prime-time soap set on pre-nuke Caprica. Another mission accomplished, I suppose.<br /><br /><strong>The Head People</strong> - I think in the past I would have spent some time determining whether or not Head Six really wanted Baltar to join the rescue mission at the beginning of this episode. But since I think it's apparent at this point that Ron Moore and company really had no particular plan in mind (divine or otherwise), I don't think I'll waste your time. As far as I'm concerned, the scene towards the beginning of this one with Baltar and Head Six was included purely to add some drama as to whether or not Baltar would stay behind (as if there was ever any doubt).<br /><br /><strong>Quick Forgiveness</strong> - Was anyone else bothered by the fact that Chief Tyrol got off so easy for his murder of fellow "Final Five" member Tory? I mean, not only is murder as vengeance generally unacceptable even in the fleet, he also murdered one of the last five members of an entire race (the Earth Cylons certainly seemed significantly different from their colonial counterparts) and jeopardized what, at the time, seemed to be the only chance for a brokered peace for humanity. And his only penalty is being relegated to Scotland to invent prehistoric golf? Doesn't seem right.<br /><br /><strong>The Importance of Being Hera</strong> - Ok. So retroactive continuity aside, we are really to believe that the Head people (angels?) were simply maneuvering Baltar and Caprica Six so that they would "save" Hera during the Colony raid (did they actually save her from anything)? That simply does not match up with everything else they have done throughout the history of the series. I mean, why did Baltar need to lead a cult, for just one example. Also, aside from the fact that Hera's running about the ship in the middle of a firefight was as inexplicable as it was frustrating, what makes her so important? I get that she's the future of the races and all, but let's say, worst case scenario, that she were to die. Both Helo and Athena survived. What's to stop them from making another one?<br /><br /><strong>Helo's Resurrection</strong> - Okay, so Helo wasn't actually resurrected in this episode (which is apparently more than I can say for other characters on the show), but weren't we to assume in the scene where Athena is applying the tourniquet that Helo would die if she left him to chase after Hera. That's what's implied when she state's "you'll bleed out", right? And then, when we later see Athena and Hera reunited, they are both shaking from the shock of it all, Helo nowhere to be seen. Yet, in the final moments of the episode we see the full family reunited, giving us the only truly happy ending of the entire series. How was Helo saved? I sense a last minute editing change...<br /><br /><strong>Boomer's Redemption</strong> - So Boomer works with Cavil to return Ellen and steal Hera, but on the way back to the Colony, Boomer gets a heart (three sizes too big) and becomes attached to her doppelganger's little girl. She then kills a Simon who is working on Hera before returning her to the fleet and dying at the hands of Athena. Really? Boomer changed her mind about the Cylon endgame solely by virtue of her long road trip back to the Colony? I guess Cavil should have parked it a bit closer to the fleet, eh?<br /><br /><strong>The Coward's Way Out</strong> - Speaking of Cavil, how anti-climatic is it to have the main bad guy simply blow his own brains out during the climatic final act of a five year marathon? And why did he do it anyway? Surely the Cylons had been in worse positions than the one facing them at the Colony (at least before the nukes). Just anti-climatic.<br /><br /><strong>Coda</strong> - Though it doesn't have the sweeping impact of Moore's "God is the answer" initiative, I would be remiss if I didn't point out the huge error that was the "150,000 years later" Coda. I mean, the show had, for all practical purposes, just ended with the majestic shot of Adama at his love's grave with Bear McCreary's drum-fuelled score leading us out the door, when all of a sudden we are in Times Square witnessing a meta-commentary on the state of the world with Head Six and Head Baltar (and, most meta of all, Ron Moore himself) and video clips of toy robots? This is how one of the "best" shows in science fiction history ended? A mistake on all counts.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-58825661659721254062009-02-27T00:07:00.004-05:002009-02-27T00:13:07.380-05:00Vacation<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv3kfQybpG-HbKZfHIgFLjgNsRfs2IMQPsiz3ue-I0zSlFXUuzhpO24IWjj5hG8OcNfkrFF-RZkN9tWPUZYlSgyl0vxt4fB0JDr-qRxK9OdFa_0-nHXf6HKcJvLuPZ-VXyqUI6JI_RQ6Q/s1600-h/Vacation.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv3kfQybpG-HbKZfHIgFLjgNsRfs2IMQPsiz3ue-I0zSlFXUuzhpO24IWjj5hG8OcNfkrFF-RZkN9tWPUZYlSgyl0vxt4fB0JDr-qRxK9OdFa_0-nHXf6HKcJvLuPZ-VXyqUI6JI_RQ6Q/s320/Vacation.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307339894370548066" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Hey, all. Just a head's up, I will be spending the next ten days at Mickey's vacation home in central Florida. As a result, I will unfortunately not be blogging for that time, and will miss three scheduled entries (2 <span style="font-style: italic;">Galactica</span>'s and one <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>). I intend to catch up once I'm back on the 9th, but until then feel free to add to the comments. See you soon.Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-57252049588193702362009-02-25T21:16:00.019-05:002009-02-27T00:04:52.643-05:00Lost: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo59-ACMI-lb5zEI_jhrMqOCQNyufcuQj0GVz0EcVT6-omGsS4fvMfqWK8E9-a5MzFanJyeQF_4CYVK4d24H5TewzubTQqMPdEDxjS9qnEmqlAf3Ujy99i51vmNkzKJ1jMhAHvhTLIups/s1600-h/Jeremy.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 178px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo59-ACMI-lb5zEI_jhrMqOCQNyufcuQj0GVz0EcVT6-omGsS4fvMfqWK8E9-a5MzFanJyeQF_4CYVK4d24H5TewzubTQqMPdEDxjS9qnEmqlAf3Ujy99i51vmNkzKJ1jMhAHvhTLIups/s320/Jeremy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307322130304166818" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"There's a war coming, John."</span><br /><br />Wow. What an hour of television that was. I think that only the creators of <em>Lost</em> could take an episode featuring 80-90% information we already knew (or thought we knew), and make it as twisting and riveting as anything else on television. From the very start (Where are we? When are we? Is that Locke? Is he...resurrected?), this episode fires on all cylinders and never looks back. And as the icing on the cake, the performances are fantastic. I haven't been a fan of Locke as a character for some time, but the look of utter despair on his face at the very end, after the way the Oceanic Six treated him...heartbreaking.<br /><br />But before we got to that emotional endpoint, we got a whole lot of back story on what happened after Locke turned the wheel of fate but before the "crash" of fated Flight 316. Because this episode is, at the end of the day, very similar in style to the "answer dump" I described in my coverage of <span style="font-style: italic;">Galactica</span>'s "<a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/02/battlestar-galactica-no-exit.html">No Exit</a>", I think it's probably useful to do the same thing as I did there-summarize the new information we learned about the show's timeline before delving a bit deeper into the important bits in my "Quick Thoughts" section.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Without further ado, here is what we now know (or think we know) about Island life after witnessing the events in "Bentham":<br /><br />-1950s: Widmore takes over the island to lead his people, the Others.<br /><br />-1980s: Widmore is exiled from the Island through Ben's trickery. (As we have seen no real evidence of this move (the Dharma purge?) and because the information comes from Widmore's mouth, this should be taken with a grain of salt.)<br /><br />-2004: Ben spins the frozen donkey wheel of fate.<br /><br />-2004 (relatively speaking): Locke spins the frozen donkey wheel of fate.<br /><br />-2005: Ben awakens in the Tunisian desert (from Season 4).<br /><br />-2005-2007: Widmore sets up a camera to monitor the Island's "exit point" in Tunisia.<br /><br />-2007: Locke (2004 edition) awakens in the Tunisian desert.<br /><br />-Widmore tells Locke his story and promises to help him. He gives Locke the "Jeremy Bentham" passport.<br /><br />-Locke hooks up with Abaddon. He recognizes Abaddon as the man who gave him the idea to go on his Australian walk-about.<br /><br />-Locke approaches Sayid, Walt, Hurley, Kate, and Jack in various manners in an effort to get them to return to the Island (the bulk of this episode).<br /><br />-Jack buys a round trip ticket to Australia (in an effort to crash on the Island).<br /><br />-Having "failed" in his mission, Locke prepares for his suicide before being talked down by Ben.<br /><br />-Ben, upon hearing some important bit of information from Locke (either about Jin or Mrs. Hawking, see below), alters his approach and murders Locke.<br /><br />-Locke is resurrected after the crash of Flight 316.<br /><br />As you can see, there is a lot to take in here, and the pieces are disparate enough that I think my "Quick Thoughts" section is better suited to giving each piece a proper discussion. Suffice it to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the episode and have absolutely loved this season so far. If there is any regret I have about the way "316" and "Bentham" lined up, it is that we have been far too long without seeing Sawyer, Faraday, or the rest of the Team Time Traveler. Judging by the ending of "316", however, that seems likely to change in the very near term.<br /><br />My Quick Thoughts:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Supernatural</span> - Unless the writers have an out that I'm not thinking of (a distinct possibility given the apparent intelligence of the show's writing staff), I think Locke's miracle resurrection and the magical disappearing Six means it's about time to talk about whether or not <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> is, at the end of the day, science fiction or high fantasy. I mentioned this a little bit <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/02/lost-316.html">last week</a>, but the show's mysticism quotient has been going up fairly steadily ever since the ghost of Jacob was introduced way back in Season 3. I, for one, prefer my <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> with a more steady dose of science fiction rather than with apparitions, resurrections, and other supernatural occurrences, but Locke's revival certainly seems to have taken us down a mystical road from which we may never return.<br /><br />Truth be told, the introduction of amateur ghost buster Miles might also be correctly pointed at as the moment when <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> exchanged its regular robot shark jumping for something more of the ghost variety, but if not then, than certainly now. I mean, how can Locke's resurrection be explained through "natural" means? A really convincing coma? And what about the "why?" Why was Locke revived? What makes him so special? How did the Island accomplish so miraculous a task? Even time travel seems unlikely to yield a satisfactory answer. I recognize that the show's writers wanted us to ask these questions, but I just don't see a scientific way for the show to answer them. That being the case, my hopes for a satisfying resolution to the show, though still high, took a significant hit with this one. I suspect they will continue to take significant hits as the show becomes more and more obviously supernatural in its leanings. I hope I'm wrong.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Landing on Hydra Island</span> -One of the most disorienting aspects of this episode was its very beginning. Despite the fact that we could immediately recognize the man we would soon call "Caesar" from his brief cameo in last week's "316", the introduction of the woman who was escorting Sayid in that same scene threw things for a loop. At least for me. My mind immediately began jumping to conclusions. Is this a flashback? Did they know each before Flight 316? If this is the Island, are we seeing scenes from the past in order to show us that these people were also on 316 in an effort to return? If it is the Island, why can we see Locke looking off at a major landmass off the Island's coast?<br /><br />Speaking of Locke, the addition of the one man who we were pretty sure was dead in the last episode made it even more difficult to see the scene for what it was: The 2007 crash of Flight 316 on "Hydra" island (where the Others held a captive Jack, Kate, and Sawyer prisoner at the start of Season 3) combined with the miraculous reappearance of John Locke. It's a testament to the show's producers that they continue to make scenes like these interesting ones when the same would most assuredly be quite a bit less so in the hands of a more tentative crew.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Putting the Pieces Into Place</span> - Finally, we get a main character (Abaddon) admitting to having manipulated the lives of the Flight 815 survivors (or at least John) for his own "nefarious" ends. It's been evident for some time that the survivors have lived lives of shared destinies (this has been the case ever since various players in the castaway's back stories began making regular appearances in the back stories of other castaways). The only question has been whether, narratively speaking, we were meant to assume that this was all intended as a meditation on coincidence or whether or not shadow players were manipulating things behind the scenes.<br /><br />Now we know of at least two factions (Widmore and Mrs. Hawking (who herself may or may not be beholden to Ben)) who have been manipulating the lives of the castaways in an effort to get to a certain endgame scenario. The question is why? If the future is as immutable as Faraday suggests, there should be no "game" here. Either Locke is ruler of the island in 2012 (or whatever day the "war" is won) or he isn't. Nothing that Ben, or Widmore, or God himself does to try to change that fact should have any effect. And yet we see both sides in this power struggle investing unfathomable resources (a permanent camera fixated on a small piece of Tunisian desert anyone?) in an attempt to win it. Something more must be going on here.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Can Locke Walk?</span> - One question which the show deliberately avoids answering is whether Locke can walk when he's off the Island. Because of the leg injury he sustained in his fall in the well of destiny (not to be confused with the wheel of destiny, it's in the next room over), it's plausible that Locke simply has a broken leg throughout this episode's events. That being said, it's also plausible that he simply can't walk once off the Island and that he's using his broken leg as a "crutch" (pun intended) so as to not reveal that fact to the Six. Just something to ponder.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dead Men Tell No Tales</span> - Perhaps my favorite scene of the episode began with Hurley's nonchalance upon Locke's arrival. "Didn't make it, huh?" Of course Locke has no idea what he's talking about, but to Hurley, John must be just the latest in a long procession of recently deceased visitors. One wonders though, if the scene can't be viewed as having a greater meaning.<br /><br />Hurley's reaction to Locke's arrival implies that at least he thinks he has been getting something like "dead person" updates from the Island. In other words, he may have been visited by Charlotte or any other recently killed Islander who he wouldn't otherwise know to be dead. What makes this even more interesting is the possibility that Hurley may be privy to some "future" events on the Island. Remember, to the Six the year is 2007, but assuming that we aren't just going to skip over years of the Islander's lives, when the Six return to the Island the year will be 2004 (at least relatively speaking). If someone died in the three years between the two points, (Juliet as an example), could Hurley have already been visited by that person's ghost when he arrives on the Island? Wouldn't a plot line featuring Hurley and a person he is sure will die be an interesting one?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Christian Shepard Indeed</span> - It's interesting to note that the only reason Locke "succeeds" in Operation Island is because he receives information from the "ghost" of Christian Shepard telling him to say hello to his son. And also because Locke's smart enough to figure out the identity of Christian's progeny. (Though I don't understand why Christian couldn't be Hurley's father. What, he couldn't just have a Hispanic mother? Christian's too good looking? That's racist, man. Or why Locke assumes that Christian's son has to be one of the Six at all? I digress.) Without that little piece of information, Jack would never have realized that his father was still "alive" and the events we have seen this season would never have occurred.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Permanent Exit</span> - Another interesting tidbit is the fact that the wheel of destiny does not randomly spit out people (or polar bears) to parts unknown. It spits them out at a very specific (specific enough to be watched by camera) spot in the Tunisian desert. Why Tunisia? I have a theory on that. Tunisia is literally on <a href="http://www.antipodr.com/?addr=Tunisia&x=0&y=0">the other side of the world</a> from the likely South Pacific home of the Island. Nice symbolism isn't it? The Island literally can't send someone any further from its confines without also sending that person off the Earth entirely. Exile, indeed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Stand</span> - Though I know I've mentioned Stephen King's literary masterwork,The Stand, when discussing <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/01/battlestar-galactica-disquiet-follows.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Battlestar Galactica</span></a>, I think it bears examining again in connection with the morality play which <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> is quickly becoming. In the book, Good and Evil (capital letters both) famously fight for the fate of humanity in the remains of an Earth ravaged by the superflu. After the apocalypse, those few who are immune from the disease split into groups based on their decision to align with the forces of Good (in virtuous Boulder, Colorado) or Evil (in less virtuous Las Vegas). The decisions made by these innocents decide the fate of mankind, and it is implied throughout King's work that although virtuous characters have a destiny, that destiny could just as easily be shaped by Evil if allowed. The creators of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> have often said that they have been influenced by The Stand in creating their own masterpiece, but no where is that more evident than in Widmore's claim </span><span class="fullpost">in this one</span><span class="fullpost"> that a war is brewing and that it's result will ultimately be decided by one John Locke. Widmore's "call to arms" even echoes the warnings made by The Stand's own Mother Abigail that "there's a storm coming" though whether or not this was an intentional reference by the show's writers (or simply a case of similar ideas requiring similar language) is anybody's guess.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Good and Evil</span> - As I mentioned when talking about The Stand above, it is very clear that <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> is slowly but surely being turned into a type of morality play of epic proportions. Unlike Stephen King's work, however, there are still substantial questions in <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> about which side is actually playing on the side of the angels. Throughout the first few seasons of the show, we were led to believe that Ben was Evil incarnate. And truth be told, he is as manipulative a character as has ever appeared on prime time television. But is he Evil? At the end of Season 2 Ben did claim to be one of the "good guys." Ever since, we have been slowly but surely led around to his way of thinking. After all, Widmore sent a group of armed men to take back the Island and kill the survivors didn't he? Well, what if, as Widmore suggests in this episode, Ben is and always has been the root of Evil as it relates to the Island? Is it an act of evil to remove him from his perch? Of course not.<br /><br />But the truth is that we simply can't know which side of this fight to root for at this point. Both men seem to have virtually unlimited resources, and both seem to be capable of committing atrocious acts (Despite Widmore's protestations in this episode, I don't believe for a second that he didn't authorize the murder of Alex last season.) Indeed, if one man is the Devil and the other is an Angel, we have received no evidence about which is which at this time. As a matter of fact, I think, and have thought for a while, that neither Ben nor Widmore is playing the role of Good here. Instead, I strongly suspect that the Six (or at least Locke) will have to protect the Island themselves to prevent it from being exploited by either man. In other words, the choice between Ben and Widmore may well wind up being the show's biggest red herring.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Separating the Wheat from the Chaff</span> - An interesting question surrounding the magic of the time traveling Losties has been what exactly is causing them to "flash" when none of the people around them (like a young Charles Widmore) are traveling along with. What makes the Losties so special? Well this episode gives us a little greater insight into that, if only because Flight 316 contains some people that "flashed" and some people that didn't. (We'll disregard for the time being that according to the show's rules Jack and company should have "flashed" in mid-air with everything they were touching at the time (like their airplane seats)).<br /><br />Jack, Kate, and Hurley...all flashers. Lapidus, Ben, and Locke...no flashing. Sun and Sayid...still open questions, if only because they weren't seen in one timeline or the other during the events of "316" or "Bentham". What separates the two lists? I have no idea. Both contain people that had been on the Island before, and the later list contains people that were on the Island for fewer, more, and exactly the same number of days as the Six. (Of course, maybe the Island should have "flashed" Locke but it had to choose whether to send his dead body back into the 70s or simply resurrect his tired butt. Decisions, decisions.) Whatever the reason (and I hope there's a reason), the distinction certainly seems to be an important one.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">"Some Woman"</span> - Despite previously setting foot on the Island throughout the whole of season 4, one of the many people who didn't "disappear" during the crash of Flight 316 was apparently Mr. Frank Lapidus. We don't get a lot of information about his whereabouts in this one save for the notion that he escaped with "some woman" and one of Island's three longboats. Who is the woman? Could it simply be the plane's stewardess? That answer seems almost too inconsequential to merit mention. If it's one of the Six (Sun?) why didn't she "disappear" with her fellow Flight 815 survivors?<br /><br />As a side note, the presence of the longboats themselves essentially confirms the notion that the survivors of 316 at some point in the future (and probably at Locke's suggestion) take the two remaining boats over to Flight 815's beach. It is here where the time travelers stumble upon them and steal one of the boats for themselves. The only question now is whether Locke or Ben is one of the figures shooting at Sawyer and friends during the events of "The Little Prince".<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Helen of Santa Monica</span> - While it's simply another sad footnote in the practically continuously sad life of John Locke, the death of Locke's one true friend, Helen, is used by the show's writers here as a poignant touchstone to discuss what it means to have a destiny. When Abaddon tries to allay Locke's sadness by telling him that Helen would have died with or without him, one can't help but be struck by the simpleness of Locke's response: "Would she?" I couldn't help but be reminded of all the many stories we hear about long time spouses following their newly departed mates off the mortal coil in relatively short order. Sometimes relationships can be destiny too, and the reminder of that in an episode brimming with other more "important things" is the type of thing that truly elevates <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span> above the rest.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Locke's Motivation</span> - Ever since the end of Season 3, I had assumed that the suicide that so affected Jack (which, at the time, I also assumed was either Locke's or Ben's) was some kind of ruse. Primary characters don't usually commit suicide on prime time TV. When, earlier this season, Richard informed Locke that he would have to die in order to convince the Six to return, I assumed that was the key. Locke really was going to commit suicide, but it would be with the knowledge that his death would save the Island. It would be a noble sacrifice, like Michael's. Of course that's not how the scene played out. Instead, Locke's suicidal desires were played as being very, very real. Locke viewed himself as a failure, and he intended to kill himself for being incapable of saving the friends and Island that he loved. As I mentioned, this was a surprise to me, if only because Locke had at this point been told of his "need" to die. I would think a man like Locke, a man so tied up in his own fate, his own destiny, would have viewed his suicide as a tool. I guess Jack's angry speech really got to him.<br /><br />(The fact that Jack's speech actually did lead Locke over the edge, before being talked down by an inscrutable Ben Linus, also helps to explain why Jack takes the news of Locke's "suicide" so poorly in Season 3. He did, in a very real way, cause Locke to become suicidal through his words.)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why did Ben Kill?</span> - Though I don't believe we can yet know the answer to this one, it's worth discussing just what happens in the scene between Ben and Locke. At first, Ben seems very honestly concerned about saving Locke from his own suicidal desires. This makes sense, because there is simply no reason for Ben to save Locke if he was just planning on murdering him and making the murder look like the very sucide he had just spent so much time preventing. What then makes Ben change his mind? It's difficult to say, but it appears to me that it is the moment he learns of Jin's survival that he decides to kill Locke. (As an alternative theory, it could also be the moment he learns that Mrs. Hawking has the key to returning to the Island, but I think his gaze turns sinister before that revelation). What then is Jin's importance to this story?<br /><br />As I said above, I don't think that we can know what this scene is all about at this point. If I had to hazard a guess, I would bet that Jin wasn't "supposed" to survive the explosion on the freighter. Like Ben's previous warning to Widmore about "changing the rules," perhaps the fact that Jin's alive means that whatever knowledge of the future Ben had been working with has somehow been irrevocably altered. Maybe Ben had, at the beginning of the scene, accepted that he had to help Locke, but Jin's survival meant that everything was essentially up for grabs. All of this is, of course, rampant speculation on my part, but that's part of the fun, isn't it?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WAAAAAAAAALT!</span> - How about seeing good old Walt again? The fact that Locke goes to visit him at all implies that there's some benefit to having him come back to the Island (or rather Abaddon's acceptance of the trip implies the benefit). What could it be? And if Walt's vision is correct (as we are almost certainly supposed to assume), in what kind of trouble does Locke find himself on the Island (after wearing the suit that the show's producer's used as code for his death). Could the Others be rallied against him? Or does Ben awake and convince the Flight 316 survivors that Locke is not to be trusted (which would of course be true irony from Mr. Linus)? Hmmmmm...<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-10368444331551746142009-02-20T22:47:00.006-05:002009-02-26T09:46:34.549-05:00Battlestar Galactica: "Deadlock"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdrHMLKmCzMcSL6EGKDMEQjft65hI-R-8TsGE9nA3ensNn0NsAAEU9QNHKHFXU5uvkC3MSvIdFmi8jZcle3H1TB2PybgP1BSqLbJ6eUkRPPz62nSVH0giZ0n0Vz7nsMEzjACv9mYhWcGY/s1600-h/deadlock.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307100085741224962" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 180px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdrHMLKmCzMcSL6EGKDMEQjft65hI-R-8TsGE9nA3ensNn0NsAAEU9QNHKHFXU5uvkC3MSvIdFmi8jZcle3H1TB2PybgP1BSqLbJ6eUkRPPz62nSVH0giZ0n0Vz7nsMEzjACv9mYhWcGY/s320/deadlock.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><em>"Any mythic revelations? Nope, nothing to report sir."</em><br /><br />Well that's perhaps the understatement of the year.<br /><br />After the monumental answers provided in last week's "No Exit", the show's producers apparently thought that they deserved a week off. I hope that whatever the Canadian equivalent of Atlantic City is was kind to them, because it certainly wasn't as nice to the show. Really guys, I hope you struck it big.<br /><br />To begin with, practically nothing happens in this episode, "mythic" or otherwise. Sure, Ellen arrives and stirs up trouble (interesting to see that the "real" Ellen so nicely matches the brainwashed human version, though I could have done without the deliberate baby killing), Adama oversees the Cylonification of the Galactica, and Baltar, dear Baltar, finally gets a plot line. <span class="fullpost">Unfortunately, that's about it. </span><br /><span class="fullpost"></span><br /><span class="fullpost">With four episodes remaining, "Deadlock" puts us no closer to anything the show has been building towards. Whether it's the discovery of a "home" for Humanity (and the "good" Cylons), what Starbuck is or how she led the fleet to Earth, the nature of any one of about three prophecies ("Dying Leader", "Truth of the Opera House", "You must not follow her", etc.), the location of Cavil and the endgame between the "good" and "bad" Cylons, how and why the Final Five were "triggered", or anything else, nothing in this episode moves the major plot lines of the show forward at all.<br /><br />(As a side note to the above, isn't it interesting that the show should have so thoroughly established in this one that we are to see the Six model as "good"? Perhaps it's just me, but I didn't see Cavil holding a gun to any of the other models' heads when they were all doing bad acts on Caprica. Isn't this a bit like forgiving soldiers for war crimes because they were just "following orders." Nobody made Caprica or any of the other models commit the atrocities they did (at least not that we know of), and yet we, like the members of the fleet, are just supposed to forgive and forget. Despite the mutiny arc, not enough attention has been paid to how incredible a request this is and how it is being perceived by the less militaristic members of the fleet. I can't imagine that it's going over well.)<br /><br />Perhaps the worst thing is that this episode makes me feel that I might have been too strident in my criticism of the "mutiny" plot line. It was Shakespearean in comparison. Had I known at the time that the show's producers felt so good about the number of episodes remaining in the series that they could afford to take an episode off, I wouldn't have made such a big deal about the show "spinning its wheels." If the writers otherwise only had 5 episodes of plot than we could do worse than spending three of the other episodes on a cool little mutiny story line.<br /><br />But wait, wasn't I just writing about the way in which the information given to us last week seemed rushed (If it seems like I've been complaining about this show a lot lately, it's only because of how much I've enjoyed it over the years. I just want to see it end with a bang.) There were so many "answers" given last week and the method of delivering them was so mechanical and inorganic that I just assumed that the show's writers had so much plot to dispense that they simply had to give us a talking heads episode to "catch us up" to where we needed to be. Given the fact that outside of the death of Caprica Six's baby, nothing of any importance actually occurs in this one, I can't imagine that the real estate of a second hour couldn't have been used to better effect to realize the "answer dump" in a more organic way.<br /><br />Quite frankly, I have no real desire to delve any further into the minutiae of this one. The whole thing just disappointed me. As always, it was very well acted, with particular credit to the scene in which a tearful Colonel Tigh tries to convince Caprica Six that he loves her, but superior acting alone simply can't cut it when the stakes are so high. Bring on next week, it can't come soon enough.<br /><br />My Quick Thoughts:<br /><br /><strong>A Blended Population</strong> - As a little bit of insult to injury, even the "big points" in this episode had the tendency to fall flat. The ship is blending together, Cylons and Humans. We get it. The real question is why the Admiral hadn't gotten it before the end of the episode. Are we really expected to believe that he didn't understand what the mutiny was all about? The mutineers certainly did. Baltar's incredulity at Adama's obliviousness towards the end of the episode was a nice touch (and stand-in as an audience proxy), but it doesn't explain how Adama could have missed the obviousness of it all in the first place. His arc in this one is completely based on his being less than intelligent, something that we know he's not. As such, it seems completely artificial all the way through the episode's end credits.<br /><br /><strong>"Dying Leader" Report</strong> - As mentioned last week, the show's continuing emphasis on what is happening to the ship has only strengthened my belief that the Galactica herself is the "dying leader". Nothing in this one really changed my perception on this one way or the other, except to note that the numerous mentions of the Galactica becoming Cylon does leave the writers with another "out", narratively speaking. If, as was suggested to me by some other fans, there simply is no way to adequately convey that the Galactica is the dying leader (I don't believe this for a second, by the way, given the abilities of the <em>Galactica</em> writing staff) then the whole plot line has to mean something else, and the Cylon transformation may just be that "something".<br /><br />In this scenario, the Galactica was never the "dying leader". The cracks were simply a plot device to get Adama to authorize the Cylonification of the ship: a transformation that, in the most literary sense, could serve as a mirror for the transformation occurring in the composition of the ship's crew. While this is a fairly clean reading of the plot line, it still seems too trifling for the show's producers to have spent this much time establishing. Still, the existence of an inconsequential hour like "Deadlock" gives me pause. If the show's writers can waste so much time on this nothing, who's to say that they couldn't have created the whole "cracks in Galactica" plot line simply to point out the transformation that was obvious to everyone in the fleet (save for Bill Adama, see above) weeks ago.<br /><br /><strong>A Love to Last Forever</strong> - Perhaps it's just me, but the major problem I had with the Caprica Six baby story line is that I never bought into the fact that Colonel Tigh loved Caprica, and certainly not to the extent that he loved Ellen. Knowing that the audience was aware that Cylon women could only conceive in love (as was established in the Athena/Helo plot lines many years ago), I think that the mere fact of conception was used as a bit of a proxy by the show's writers for the love that Tigh was supposed to feel for his knocked-up Cylon girlfriend. In Hollywood parlance, the whole relationship seemed to me to be a case of the writers "telling" rather than "showing." "Tigh must love Caprica," they seem to be saying, "otherwise he never would have conceived a child with her". Never mind that outside of a few tearful scenes in this one (all practically post-baby), we never felt like we really got to see Tigh internalize that love.<br /><br /><strong>After Ellen</strong> - As mentioned above, it was really interesting to see Ellen return to her "human" ways as a conniving, manipulative, ahem...witch. The Ellen in "No Exit" seemed almost calm and aloof by comparison, sparring with Cavil as she did. One could be forgiven for thinking after watching "No Exit" that the mind wipe voodoo worked on the Final Five by Cavil changed their personalities in fundamental ways, but the return of Ellen as <em>Galactica</em>'s own Lady Macbeth pretty quickly dispels that notion. Apparently even the brain washed Final Five were still inherently themselves, they just thought that they were human. As I said, interesting.<br /><br /><strong>Wall of Shame</strong> - Maybe it's just me, but I thought that having the Cylons put pictures of dead "skinjobs" on the wall of memory was far too distasteful. And this coming from a guy who hasn't even had 99.5% of his species exterminated less than five years ago by the very "people" that now seek to remember their fallen comrades. Perhaps more to the point in terms of fleet dynamics, are we even on the same ship that almost rose up to take control from Adama for being too much a Cylon-sympathizer? You mean to tell me that no angry Galacticans tore those pictures off the wall? It's one thing to ask Humanity to silently and graciously move past the differences that define the species. It's quite another to ask them to allow their own memorial to be co-opted by pictures of the very people that required them to create it in the first place.<br /><br /></span><span class="fullpost"></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-82528205167156020422009-02-18T21:36:00.020-05:002009-02-26T09:52:01.586-05:00Lost: "316"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbdLTCOdgp8qCrqvHJSDapJjHTAKE9S_dcHL8LhTILIl4jDkfbn72XMUg_d96lMMRKEK1nMLBqLvZk-mq0N08ljz82DmxUNVwwFSutWD_QVENRsngLJDOXZNNk20D5MyrpKcQoBiscmCA/s1600-h/316.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306720230388706882" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 195px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbdLTCOdgp8qCrqvHJSDapJjHTAKE9S_dcHL8LhTILIl4jDkfbn72XMUg_d96lMMRKEK1nMLBqLvZk-mq0N08ljz82DmxUNVwwFSutWD_QVENRsngLJDOXZNNk20D5MyrpKcQoBiscmCA/s320/316.png" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><em>"We're not going to Guam, are we?"</em><br /><br />Well, that was unexpected.<br /><br />Despite the fact that I generally know better then to guess at where <em>Lost</em> is going in the long run, I really felt I had this whole Season 5/Season 6 thing worked out. Season 5 <em>had</em> to be about getting the Oceanic Six back to the Island. It <em>had</em> to involve different missions taken on by Jack and Ben to convince the Six to come back together. It <em>had</em> to find the Six back on the Island, probably mimicking the results of the original crash, and feature a major character saying something like "we're back" to mirror Jack's cries from the end of Season 3. So far, so good, right? Except for one small additional fact: the return <em>had</em> to happen in the Season 5 finale.<br /><br />What then do I make of the producer's move to put the Six back on the Island so soon into this young season?<br /><br />In a word: Genius.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />First, the negative. The rapid return of the Oceanic Six would seem to undercut the importance of the show's fourth season. If the Six were going to return to the Island so soon after they left, why were we made to spend an entire season (more if you count the end of Season 3) establishing the epic nature of their flight to freedom? It seems like wasted time in retrospect. The fact that the Six even left the Island seems like it may be little more than a footnote in the history of the show before too long. A footnote that took a full season and some episodes to resolve.<br /><br />With that small bit of negativity weighing on the proceedings, why then do I still think of the episode as "genius?" First, it truly was unexpected, at least by me. I mean who really thought the Six (minus one) would make it back to the Island so soon. With the mission of what I thought to be an entire season accomplished in little over a month, the possibilities for the remainder of the year seem endless, and that's a really good feeling to have about one's favorite show.<br /><br />More importantly, at least to the standing of this particular episode, the producers did something really smart. By embracing the ridiculousness of the episode's premise (and really, if this was always the way the Six were going to return it was going to be at least slightly ridiculous) the producers were able to grapple with the very same questions of faith vs. reason that so fueled the show during Season 2.<br /><br />Let's face it. The "plan" in this one is ludicrous. The Oceanic Six are told that in order to make their way back to the Island they must recreate (at least some of) the circumstances of Flight 815. This includes bringing a dead body (Locke as proxy for Christian) and, as if to add insult to injury, making that dead body seem as much like its Oceanic 815 counterpart as possible. As Faraday said in last week's episode, when it comes to the return of the Six, the show is really leaving the science behind.<br /><br />But unlike other episodes of the show, where otherwise smart characters (like Jack...most of the time) ignore the very reasonable questions that would flitter through the mind of any sane person in the same situation, here the very theme of the episode is the "leap of faith" being asked of the Six, particularly Jack. Neither Mrs. Hawking nor Ben give Jack or any of the other Flight 815 survivors any reason to believe in the power of Locke's corpse. Or further, why in the world that same corpse having Christian's shoes should in any way impact their fate.<br /><br />It is this very lack of information that so noticeably distresses Jack (who had, until this point, jumped into the "faith" pool with both feet) throughout the course of the episode, pushing him to the point of scrounging for booze in his darkened apartment (though thankfully Ms. Austen proved to be a more alluring alternative). When combined with the notions of providence that are introduced into the mix (Jack just so happens to stumble into a pair of his father's shoes shortly after being told that he will need such an item in order to make the trip), it's no wonder that he begins to lose it.<br /><br />But Jack's doubt is the very reason why so ridiculous a plot line actually works to the benefit of the show. Had Jack, and Sun, and Hurley, and the rest simply embraced "the crazy", the creakiness of the premise would have been exposed for the world to see. But instead, by having the show's main character (and audience proxy) balk at what's being asked of him, the show is able to turn a liability into an asset.<br /><br />As I said: Genius.<br /><br />Now, in no way am I trying to excuse the episode for being, well, rather mechanical in its attempt to get the point across. In one of the episode's more clunky scenes, the writers have Jack verbalize his doubts to Locke's corpse. Scenes where one person essentially talks to themself are always difficult, but at least here, the show somewhat earned the monologue by earlier showing Jack as tortured by the ridiculousness of the task at hand. Another scene, again with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, features Ben all but calling Jack a "doubting Thomas" as he relates the tale of the famous Christian apostle. These are not the episode's high points, but (and I'm sure Locke would approve) they all work together to serve a greater purpose.<br /><br />As a result, the fact that the scenes in this episode are somewhat clunky does very little to dissuade me from my belief that the episode is one of <em>Lost</em>'s best. Very rarely does episodic television (or mainline movies) deal with the nature of what it means to have faith, particularly in this most metaphysical of contexts. <em>Lost</em> has grappled with this territory quite often during its run, and each time I think the message it tries to deliver is a bit more focused and a bit more powerful. While you'll see below that I am of two minds about just how "mystical" I want my <em>Lost</em>, I think that, without a doubt, "316" is a step in the right direction.<br /><br />My Quick Thoughts:<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Echoes of the Past</span> - This episode features a very provocative opening, with Jack appearing in the jungle much as he did way back in 2004. While this was no doubt the reason that the show's producers elected to include the sequence, I do wonder about whether or not the loss of tension in the plot was worth it. I suppose since we knew that the Six were going to make it back to the Island one day that it wasn't a huge reveal, but it did pretty clearly establish that they'd be making it there in this week's installment.<br /><br /><em>Lost</em> hasn't used the "X hours/days/weeks earlier" conceit as much as some other shows I could name (cough...<em>Galactica</em>), but I have always thought that if it isn't used for a very specific reason (giving a glimpse of the characters in a chaotic situation, for instance, and showing how they got from some tranquil starting point to their own personal mayhem) the use of the device runs the risk of taking all dramatic tension out of the proceedings. In this one, the vision of Jack's arrival on the Island served no real purpose save to provide a nifty callback opening. I suppose one could argue that it also served to add a sense of importance to the rest of the episode, but that all seems pretty artificial at the end of the day doesn't it?<br /><br /><strong>Raised by Another</strong> - As far as intrigue goes, there is little that could match the words of warning Kate gives to Jack when he asks about Aaron's whereabouts. What happened to the little guy? Did Kate give him away? Was he taken from her? Were Ben's lawyers waiting for her when she got home (or to wherever she was going)? And what is Aaron's importance in the grand scheme of things, anyway? The psychic that Claire visited so many years (and seasons) ago was pretty specific on that point. Or is that simply another plot line that fell down the memory hole to sit alongside mentions of Walt's "special" abilities?<br /><br /><strong>Lamppost Station</strong> - So the Dharma Initiative wasn't limited to setting up Octagonally marked base stations solely on Skipping Record Island. And somehow the Initiative knew of the Island's existence before they had ever been to the Island itself. Hmmmmm...could a post-Island Charles Widmore somehow be responsible for the whole Initiative project?<br /><br /><strong>Neither the Time nor the Place</strong> - Is it just me, or does the scene in which a tearful Kate throws herself at a booze-ready Jack seem more than a little bit out of place? I mean, as far as we know, Kate has either just given up Aaron or had him forcibly taken from her. And Jack, he's having so many doubts that he's ready to turn back to drink. Yet despite this, both are apparently in the mood to do a little something extra. Struck me as odd. I'm sure we (or the show's writers) could justify it in the "two desperate people, desperately clinging to one another" school of character motivation, but it just didn't feel right to me. Anyone else?<br /><br /><strong>John 3:16</strong> - <em>"And God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son..."</em> It would be hard to have a discussion of this episode without making note of the most obvious element of its religious symbolism. While the show has occasionally delved into Christian theology in the past ("Christian Shepard" anyone?) rarely has it name checked anything as well known as this perhaps most famous of Bible passages. In the greater scheme of things it's difficult to put the verse in context within the whole of the show. Is Locke intended to be Jesus? Ben, Judas? Jacob, God? My guess is that no so literal interpretation was intended. Instead, the show's producers likely simply wanted to highlight the theme of sacrifice that was at the core of Locke's mission, and do so in a way that highlighted the concept of faith in a broader context.<br /><br /><strong>Guitar Hero</strong> - Though we are never explicitly told how Hurley winds up booking some 70 odd tickets on Flight 316 (a really nice touch by the way, showing Hurley as someone who is trying to save as many people as possible from death or Island doom), we are given a rather big hint in his carrying of a guitar case throughout the episode. Don't we know someone who was good friends with Hurley and prominently carried a guitar? Hmmmm...I can only guess as to why Charlie would have asked his friend to return his guitar to the Island (or maybe it was necessary to "recreate" the circumstances of Flight 815), but I think it's clear that that he paid another visit to our favorite cursed lottery winner. This of course raises the question of who or what Hurley's ghost visitors really are. If they have real outside knowledge of current events (such as the location of the Island and the flight that passes through the window necessary to get there), then they can't simply be figments of Hurley's imagination. Are they truly spirits from the beyond? Smokie somehow made manifest off the Island? The Head Cylons from <em>Battlestar Galactica</em>? Time will tell.<br /><br /><strong>Ben's Enemy</strong> - As an intriguing aside to the main events of the episode, Ben is forced to ask Jack to recover Locke's body due to the fact that Ben was otherwise incapacitated running an errand the night before. We are never told what the errand was, though we get to see the byproduct of its completion in Ben's bruised and battered face. What happened? Since I think that Hurley's guitar case basically answers the question of how he found his way onto Flight 316, I think the answer to Ben's injuries lies with the remaining mystery guest on the doomed flight: Sayid. When we last saw Mr. Jarrah prior to the flight, he was busy abandoning Operation Island for parts unknown. When we next see him, he is in the custody of what we can only assume is a U.S. Marshall (though why he would be being extradited to Guam is a mystery). My best guess is that Ben somehow framed and called the cops on Sayid before "detaining" him until he could be taken into custody. There is no question that Sayid could have inflicted the physical harm we saw on Ben's face, the only question is why he wouldn't have finished the job if given the chance. Maybe the Island is protecting more than one ex-Island inhabitant...<br /><br /><strong>Now I'm Bathed in Light</strong> - I think the most interesting decision the show's producers made in this episode is with respect to the actual mechanic that puts the Six (minus one) back on the Island. Flight 316 doesn't really crash per se, its simply that the Six experience a white flash and arrive on the Island (in Jack's case in a circumstance almost identical to the one he found himself in after Flight 815). The whole thing takes on the feel of the divine, dovetailing nicely with the theme of questioned faith pervading the entirety of the episode. Still, what makes a good theoretical discussion on the show (the concept of faith) does not necessarily make a good plot point. Are we just to assume that the hand of God returned the Six to the Island? Is Mrs. Hawking's previous statement that the universe has a way of "course correcting" to be taken as literally true?<br /><br />I like the mystical elements of the show as much as the next guy, but only in so far as they can be serviced by the very real rules that the show's producers have so far put down. That's what makes the show's slavish observance to the "closed loop" theory of time travel so interesting. If the whole of the show winds up being encapsulated in Faraday's previous warning to Charlotte that we were going to "leave science behind" I am going to be mighty disappointed.<br /><br /><strong>A Score to Remember</strong> - In truth, I have very little to add on this point, I simply wanted to make mention of the absolutely wonderful score put down by Michael Giacchino in this one. A beautifully themed score is a weakness of mine, and I will generally feel quite differently about a show or movie with excellent musical themes than I will about one with without. As a matter of fact, the <em>Lost</em> score is perhaps one of the first things that I really loved about the pilot back in 2004. As in the past, the producers of the show really let Giacchino soar in this one, particularly in the scene where we get to see the faces of the Six (minus one) taking off on fated Flight 316. It without doubt adds an air of gravitas to the proceedings, really heightening the notion that "epic things" are afoot.<br /><br /><strong>Future Imperfect</strong> - With the presence of the Ajira water bottle in the longboats earlier this season, we can now be all but certain that the Island's time travelers found themselves in a post-Flight 316 future during the events of "<a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/02/lost-little-prince.html">The Little Prince</a>". This leads to the inevitable question of why the survivors of Flight 316 were shooting at the fleeing Islanders. Were they simply mad about the stolen boat? Do the non-Oceanic Six members of Flight 316 harbor some grudge against the current Islanders, or perhaps a deeper connection to the Island? One thing's for sure, given the fact that the show's producers love to "loop" time to show us known events from different perspectives, we can be pretty confident that we will again see the boat chase, this time from the other side.<br /><br /></span><span class="fullpost"></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-82622428400440513992009-02-13T22:23:00.012-05:002009-02-20T19:48:48.626-05:00Battlestar Galactica: "No Exit"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizHXfB5VRYiNCEoK7QGh9vB0aajiqGmavdyOM9X4rh5v-CaQ9L8ZiYxrx1sa23YvOIzYvVIxw-yZCtcNyJ50dUWvnzIBBU3iONZlinxEUFYJ_c7wk8QW2jZrgHQr5dyU5J-0vwYS6mUag/s1600-h/NoExit.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizHXfB5VRYiNCEoK7QGh9vB0aajiqGmavdyOM9X4rh5v-CaQ9L8ZiYxrx1sa23YvOIzYvVIxw-yZCtcNyJ50dUWvnzIBBU3iONZlinxEUFYJ_c7wk8QW2jZrgHQr5dyU5J-0vwYS6mUag/s320/NoExit.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305031508719230802" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><em>"It's in her bones, Admiral. Her bones are rotten."</em><br /><br />And so the final season begins in earnest.<br /><br />As I said last week, while the "mutiny" arc was rousing good fun, I couldn't help but view those episodes with the eye of a terminally ill hospital patient: things that would have seemed so important just a few short months ago simply weren't when faced with the encroaching certainty of the end. I hyperbolize, but it's nonetheless difficult to imagine an episode that could be more different from the mutiny arc than "No Exit."<br /><br />To begin with, "No Exit" features virtually no action of any kind. Where the halls of the Galactica had just recently been filled with the sounds of small arms fire, here the only sounds are those of Chief Tyrol and his crew inspecting the creaking innards of the once proud ship. The rest of the episode's "plot" is essentially relayed in the form of two stories: one being told by the injured Anders, whose brain trauma has apparently allowed him to remember his life as a Cylon before the war, the other being told as the interplay between a near-psychotic Cavil and the newly-revived Ellen Tigh over the course of the 18 months after she was murdered by her husband, Saul.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />As a result of the lack of action, "No Exit" can best be thought of as what I call an "answer dump" episode. We've seen these before, whether as an attempt to appease mystified network executives (Season 3 of Alias), or as an attempt to appease a dwindling and confused fan base (Season 6 of X-Files). (While I'm sure that there are more examples of the form, these were simply the first two that sprang to mind. Interesting side note: both episodes share the same name, "Full Disclosure".) While <span style="font-style: italic;">Galactica</span> certainly doesn't have to worry about either of these factors this late in its run, it has to worry about something else - expediency. Otherwise there really is no reason to have an entire episode of television devoted to background exposition, but with the end looming, I imagine the producers of <span style="font-style: italic;">Galactica</span> felt as if they had no other choice.<br /><br />Fortunately, the questions themselves are interesting enough that the show can survive an hour-long stint of mere talking heads. Here's a quick summary of what I think we know after this episode (please feel free to correct me in the comments if you think I missed or mischaracterized anything):<br /><br />- In the beginning, the Humans lived on Kobol.<br /><br />- They invented the race of Cylons.<br /><br />- The Cylons rebelled ("All this has happened before...").<br /><br />- The Kobol Cylons invented resurrection (but not faster than light travel).<br /><br />- Humans and Cylons went their separate ways after the war, Cylons to Earth and Humans to the 12 colonies.<br /><br />- At some point, the Humans begin referring to their rebellious Cylon children as the "13th Tribe."<br /><br />- Earth Cylons then learned how to procreate without resurrection. The secrets of resurrection were lost to them.<br /><br />- Earth Cylons invented a new race of AI.<br /><br />- The new race of AI rebelled (The results of this rebellion are the remains of Earth that we see in "Sometimes A Great Notion").<br /><br />- Prior to the Earth AI rebellion, Tigh, Ellen, Tyrol, Tory, and Anders were tipped off that a revolution was coming. They began work to restore the resurrection program and prepared themselves to be resurrected in a ship orbiting Earth once the bombs fell.<br /><br />- After the destruction of Earth (2,000 years before the beginning of <span style="font-style: italic;">Galactica</span>), the Final Five traveled to the colonies at sublight speed to tell Humanity to be respectful of any AI progeny it created. They arrived after the first Cylon war, too late to prevent any rebellion.<br /><br />- The Final Five then elected to counsel the centurions, themselves having developed a religious belief in one true god. Thinking that this belief was critical to preventing the cycle of war, Ellen and the rest of the Five became leaders of the Cylon people, creating 8 model "skinjobs" to move the Cylons towards humanity and religious salvation. "John" Cavil was the first.<br /><br />- Cavil, resentful of being created with the limitations of a human and jealous of Ellen's love for the other models, "poisoned" the DNA of model number 7, Daniel, who, we are led to believe, never came online as a Cylon (I do suspect, however, that the show has at least one last secret in store for us on this score.)<br /><br />- After the "poisoning" Cavil takes command of the Cylon people and "boxes" the Final Five, removing their memories and forcing them to live among the 12 colonies as Humans.<br /><br />- The <span style="font-style: italic;">Galactica</span> mini-series begins.<br /><br />- The Colony at which the Five produced the skinjobs remains "still there."<br /><br />As you can see, there is a lot to take in from "No Exit", and that's skipping any description of the limited "action" that makes up the episode (namely Tyrol's convincing Adama to make the Galactica part Cylon, Anders becoming brain dead after having the bullet in his head removed, and Boomer freeing Ellen from the clutches of the vile gangster John Cavill). While this is exactly the kind of thing I've been looking forward to ever since the show raised so many mythology-based questions in "Sometimes a Great Notion", I still can't help but think that there was a better way to get all of this information across, one that didn't involve a full third of the season being used to tell a pretty traditional coup narrative.<br /><br />That being said, an "answer dump" episode really lives and dies on the answers which it provides. Though I will always believe that there was a more organic way for Ron Moore and company to present the information, I can't deny that the answers themselves are incredibly thought-provoking and have me ready and raring to go to see next week's episode.<br /><br />Some Quick Thoughts:<br /><br /><strong>A Dying Leader</strong> - I almost did this as a separate post last week, but given the fact that, in my view, the hypothesis was only strengthened in "No Exit", I thought I would mention that my thoughts on the Galactica as "dying leader" where certainly received very differently by certain members of the fan base, particularly on <a href="http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2009/02/battlestar-galactica-blood-on-scales.html">Alan Sepinwall's blog</a>.<br /><br />Here are a few excerpts:<br /><br /><em>Anonymous said...<br /></em><br />"How could Galactica be the dying leader if the "dying leader will know the truth of the opera house"? The hybrid is clearly talking about Laura Roslin."<br /><br /><em>I said...</em><br /><br />"Judging from the five figures waiting in the wings in those scenes, I think one could argue that the "truth" was in fact the identity of the final five Cylons. If that is the case, who knew better than Galactica the identity of those five? All five were on Galactica for significant periods of time, and perhaps more importantly, remember what the trigger for the final five was: a song coming from within the ship.<br /><br />Looking at it from that perspective, I think it's more than plausible that Galactica "knew" the truth of the opera house and conveyed that truth in the nebula at the end of season 3.<br /><br />It may not be the most obvious reading of the "opera house" prophecy, but in my experience the most obvious reading is usually not the right one. (For instance, I don't think that Starbuck will be leading humanity to its "end" in the most literal way (death). Instead I think she will lead them home.)"<br /><br /><em>This analysis went over well with some people...</em><br /><br />"Richard Hoeg - though I'm not entirely convinced they are going in that direction or would be able to play out that metaphor for mass consumption easily enough, you do present one of the best theories about how/why Galactica being the dying leader would be the case."<br /><br />"First, I agree with all of Richard Hoeg's post"<br /><br /><em>And not so well with others...</em><br /><br />"And to Richard Hoeg: keep your blog to yourself. You are wrong."<br /><br />"Richard Hoeg: are you being obtuse on purpose? Kara Thrace is the harbinger of death! Not some nice happy "end."Galactica is not a dying leader. It is not a cylon. It is antiquated old battleship. Get off it - if the writers meant what you are suggesting, the show would be completely stupid."<br /><br /><em>I had the last word (but only because I took it.)</em><br /><br />"First, with respect to Kara's "harbinger" prophecy. I know that the way it's presented implies that Starbuck is bad business, but let's look at each statement individually.<br /><br />"Kara Thrace will lead the human race to its end."<br /><br />As I've already stated, this doesn't mean anything independently. She might be leading them to death or to their final home. Could go either way.<br /><br />"She is the herald of the apocalypse."<br /><br />One reading: Following Starbuck will destroy the fleet. Second reading: Starbuck led the fleet to Earth, a planet that had most definitely experienced an apocalypse.<br /><br />"The harbinger of death."<br /><br />As I stated before, she enabled the fleet to end Cylon immortality forever. In a very real way she was the harbinger of death. The prophecy was even highlighted during this episode. (In the alternative, as mentioned above, she also was mainly responsible for bringing the fleet to Earth, where the Colonials, including Starbuck, found little else but death.)<br /><br />"They must not follow her."<br /><br />Admittedly, I don't know what to do with this one except to note how the statement specifically uses two general pronouns to hide its true meaning. Who are "they?" The Colonials? The Cylons? Who is her? Starbuck? Perhaps, but remember we have just been introduced to a new Cylon who is expected to "claw toward the light". Could the "her" be Ellen? I'm sure we'll find out.<br /><br />Finally with respect to Galactica as "dying leader" I note only two things. First, there is no reason to believe that the category of "leader" is limited to living beings. Think of "loss leaders", or "leading economic indicators" (so often in the news today) for examples of when leadership is not specific to a given individual. Second, note that the concept of dying is also not limited to the living. "My car just died." In a universe with a "disease" that affects only machines (Cylons), it seems odd to limit the definition of "dying leader" in the way you suggest."<br /><br /><em>Suffice it to say, I feel that my positions were only strengthened by the lengthy scenes in "No Exit" discussing the deteriorating integrity of the Galactica. Look at the quote at the start of this post. Tyrol twice refers to the Galactica as female and discusses with Adama the fact that "her" bones are rotten. Some might even say "wasting" away. I think the facts speak for themselves.</em><br /><br /><strong>New Intro</strong> - I loved the new intro with all of its focus on Ellen and the fact that "all of this has happened before." I just wanted to point out to all those that suggested that the "mutiny" arc didn't involve at least some amount of stalling for time, that the presence of a brand new introduction to a show with only six episodes remaining is a highly unusual step for the show's producers to take, and one which I think reflects the added importance of this episode and the episodes to come. As always, these comments are not intended to overly critique what I thought was a very good trilogy of episodes. My intent is simply to point out what I believe is becoming ever more obvious, that the true "final episodes" skipped straight from "Sometimes A Great Notion" to "No Exit" with nary a stop in between.<br /><br />Said another way, I have absolutely no problem imagining a scenario in which Tyrol hears something funny in Galactica and Anders has an unexplained stroke in a hypothetical episode immediately following the events of "Sometimes a Great Notion." Would anything in "No Exit" really have to change to accommodate this revised scenario? The scene in the dead quorum's chambers, sure, but anything else?<br /><br /><strong>Cavil Knows Best</strong> - If you're anything like me you had long assumed that the reason the "skinjobs" were not permitted to think of the Final Five (though we saw how effective that programming was) was because the Five themselves had programmed the skinjobs that way (or, in the alternative, the skinjobs had placed the block in their programming out of an extreme sense of piety). In this episode, we find out (though induction rather than by exposition), that Cavil must have been the one to program the other skinjobs to not think about the Five.<br /><br />The show's producers really took a number of steps in this episode to personify Cavil as the evil that had previously been attributable to all Cylons, but the realization that Cavil knew who the Five were all along has to be one of the most significant (particularly since we have no present connection to the murdered Number 7). As Ellen points out, Cavil knew their identities and still he tortured Tigh on New Caprica, still he took advantage of Ellen, and still he hunted Anders. Cavil is the very definition of evil and a useful antagonist for the end run of the series. I wonder, however, whether or not his evil sufficiently absolves the rest of the Cylons for their part in the genocide of Humanity, though it certainly seems to be the producers' intent.<br /><br /><strong>Boomer's Gambit</strong> - The fact that Cavil introduces a resurrected Ellen to Sharon "Boomer" Valeri well before the events of this episode casts an entirely new light on the Cylon rebellion which occurred during the first half of this season (or last season depending on your point of view). During that rebellion, the deciding vote to "lobotomize" the Cylon raiders was made by Boomer, marking the first time that an individual Cylon had ever voted against their model number.<br /><br />Of course, what we now know is that Boomer was given significant information that the rest of her line didn't have when she was introduced to and got to speak with a resurrected Ellen Tigh. The rest of the Eights wanted to prevent the lobotomization because they didn't want the raiders to fire on a member of the revered Final Five. Boomer, on the other hand, had a name to put with at least one of their faces, and when Ellen refused to apologize for the hurt that she had inflicted on Cavil, the die was cast. Boomer would eventually change her mind in this one, but not before starting a full scale civil war.</span></div><br /><div><span class="fullpost"><strong>Humans Only</strong> - It was a small moment but an interesting one when Adama ordered Tyrol to fix his ship with a crew that was "humans only." Despite his willingness to work with both Tyrol and Tigh, it's clear that Adama doesn't really think of the two as Cylons. In contrast, the look on Tyrol's face was perfect, telling us all we needed to know about just how aware Tyrol is of his new status, as well as his thoughts on the inherent "racism" of the Admiral's request.<br /><br /><strong>I'm a PC</strong> - Just as an interesting type-casting aside, I felt it necessary to note that the brain surgeon who was assigned to work on Anders was none other than the "PC" from Apple's famous "I'm a Mac" ads. I guess we can assume that the Cylons aren't running Leopard. Perhaps they prefer Linux?<br /><br /><strong>Glowing</strong> - Really good staging in the scene where Anders sees all of the people at his bedside as glowing angels. It was easy to see that everyone the producers put in the scene was a known Cylon except for Starbuck. Does the glowing aura around Starbuck indicate that she too has a Cylon secret to share? Or was the glowing simply a side effect of Anders having a bullet lodged in his skull? You can read the scene either way, though I think the fact that Anders didn't have any information to give Starbuck in this episode tacks away from the theory that she is a Cylon. It's all too obvious an answer at this point.<br /><br /><strong>The Leeward side</strong> - Perhaps one of the more cloying and artificial plot lines on the show has always been Lee Adama's. The show's producers never really seem to know what to do with him, and this episode is no exception. So when, in his one significant scene, he has a heart-to-heart with President Roslin in which she tells him that he will essentially be serving as president of the colonies because he was always "the one", pardon me if I gag a little. While I certainly have enjoyed many of Apollo's scenes throughout the years he has been fighter pilot, lawyer, presidential wannabe, quorum delegate, "john", husband, philanderer, mutineer (so often forgotten in the excitement of the past few weeks), and basically everything except for "the one." Just seems a bit too pat to me.<br /><br /><strong>No Baltar</strong> - Nothing much to say here, just noting that a character who had seemed so important as few as five episodes ago once again got short shrift in this one (He didn't even appear). Oh well.<br /><span style="font-size:0;"><br /><br /></span></span></div><span class="fullpost"><span style="font-size:0;"></span></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-50752584323721903792009-02-12T21:19:00.009-05:002009-02-18T11:46:55.786-05:00Lost: "This Place is Death"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyWEcdJ697_9dk_7VB5_JTLQ2DXvfzV4Wj8MUR_EHphcyB_PHEqA6LIRHEQrE6WBYKjiHxS2NkIN7GyPbCqe_fNGkxyY54VkgTyHshYdUvo9kdhjlqS35Otrobjyjfwn793sqEAHW9zGU/s1600-h/TPID.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304170593678479714" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 179px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyWEcdJ697_9dk_7VB5_JTLQ2DXvfzV4Wj8MUR_EHphcyB_PHEqA6LIRHEQrE6WBYKjiHxS2NkIN7GyPbCqe_fNGkxyY54VkgTyHshYdUvo9kdhjlqS35Otrobjyjfwn793sqEAHW9zGU/s320/TPID.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />You know, for an episode with seven time flashes, three pulled guns, one "major" character death, and yet another appearance by an apparition of the main character's dead father, it didn't really feel like a lot happened in "This Place is Death." The plot of the episode just didn't seem to move many of the show's story lines forward.<br /><br />Off the island, Ben succeeded in convincing Sun to come with him and Jack, but he lost Kate, Aaron, and Sayid in the process (He never had Hurley) . I guess two for six (or three for seven...I'm still unclear on the status of Desmond) isn't bad? It certainly seems that way given Mrs. Hawking's (Oracle Lady) apparent willingness at episode's end to proceed with Operation Island despite Ben's poor batting average.<br /><br />On the Island, the Losties met up with Jin in the jungle, and seemingly nonplussed by the sudden appearance of their dead Asian friend, continued their procession to the Orchid station. Once there, Locke received a pep talk from ghost dad/Jacob and spun the wheel of destiny, departing the Island for parts (and times) unknown.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Meanwhile, Charlotte died in the jungle from time flash fever, but only after delivering a great deal of exposition about living with the Dharma Initiative and being told that she would die on the Island by a time-traveling Faraday who visited in her youth. Interesting, to be sure, but since the show already established that Faraday was doing some time travel moonlight work in the very first moments of the season (when he was revealed to be working on the Orchid station as a member of the Dharma Initiative in the 70's), the fact that a future version of him (i.e. one who knows about Charlotte's death on the Island) visited in the past is not altogether surprising.<br /><br />What is surprising is the fact that this future version of Faraday apparently believed that he could prevent Charlotte's death despite knowing that the death had "already" occurred. The closed-loop theory of time travel espoused by Faraday so far on the show simply doesn't allow for events to be altered. This is because changing such events would cause an irreconcilable paradox. Said another way, pursuant to the rules the show has so far established, Faraday can't change events he knows to have occurred because the reasons he would take steps to stop the event from occurring would be based on his knowledge of the event in question. If the event doesn't occur, he has no reason to take the preventative steps, and thus the event is not prevented.<br /><br />In the world of <em>Lost</em> as presented so far this season, Faraday knows that he can't change past events. Does something change Faraday's view on this, or does he simply find himself with Charlotte at some point in the future and can't resist the "opportunity"? If it is the former, then the implication that past events can be changed could have profound effects on the final seasons of the show. If that is the paradigm, then all of Season 6 could very well consist of the newly empowered Losties "striving to put right what once went wrong." I don't think that this is the direction the show is going, but the fact that Faraday, knowing what he knows, even tried (and failed) to change the past, speaks to something more going on behind the scenes.<br /><br />And that, truth be told, is really all I have to say about this relatively uneventful episode. Like Rousseau before her, I believe that the character of Charlotte was, in many ways, the victim of the show's having too many story lines without adequate time (particularly in light of last season's writer's strike) to service them all. Fortunately, since we are now regularly bouncing back and forth through time, Charlotte may very well wind up as a character in future episodes, also like Rousseau before her. Heck, given the nature of the show this season, both women could wind up in every episode for the rest of the year without the audience so much as batting its collective eyelash.<br /><br />So seven time jumps, three brandished firearms, one major death, and a Jacob sighting later, things are basically where we left them at the start of the episode. Such is the nature of serial television, I guess.<br /><br />Quick Thoughts:<br /><br /><strong>Credit Where Credit is Due</strong> - This is a really small item, but one of the things I have always liked about <em>Lost</em> is the way in which they present their opening credits. Always tasteful and non-distracting, the show often "moves" the credit sequence out of the way if major events are set to occur at the top of an episode. In this one, the credits don't start rolling until the monster has stopped having its way with the French research team. It's a small point, but it's these little touches which really add up to create a professional product, and it doesn't go unnoticed.<br /><br /><strong>I Told "You" to Move It</strong> - It was nice to get some confirmation in this one that Ben was essentially blowing hot air with Locke in last season's finale. Ben's logic in that one never really made sense to me. In Season 4, if you recall, Locke was tasked with "moving" the island by Jacob/Jack's dad. When Ben and Locke arrived at the Orchid, however, Ben took the task upon himself, telling Locke that had Jacob wanted Locke to move the island he would have told him how. In this episode, though, it's clear that Jacob/Jack's Dad never intended for Ben to attempt to move the island. It was always meant to be Locke. What that revelation means in the grand scheme of things is unclear, but it certainly puts forth just one more reason to have little faith in the motivations of one Benjamin Linus, even as he seems to have taken his place off-island on the side of the Losties.<br /><br /><strong>The Sickness</strong> - As I mentioned last week, Rousseau told Sayid and the rest of the Oceanic survivors in Season 1 that she had killed her research team when they had come down with the "sickness." In this episode we get to see a small portion of that, as Rousseau ends the life of her fellow research scientist and baby daddy after he attempts to shoot her with an unloaded/jammed rifle. Since earlier in the episode it was established that at least one member of the research team had been captured by Old Smokie, is it safe to assume that the sickness has something to do with our favorite incorporeal Island antagonist?<br /><br />We know that the smoke monster can take human form (see Mr. Eko, death of), but if Rousseau was shooting at an anthropomorphic Smokie, would the bullets have had any effect? Perhaps the "sickness" is merely some kind of cultish belief in Smokie or the Island that otherwise causes right thinking people to hurt those that don't share such belief. It still doesn't explain why the Oceanic survivors are not affected, but perhaps they simply haven't been exposed to the Island for long enough. The "sickness" has always been an interesting background element on the show, and it looks, based on the Rousseau plot line, that the producers may be bringing it more to the fore in episodes to come.</span><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><strong>Numbers on the Radio?</strong> - Like the rest of the show's callbacks this season, seeing the French research team actually hear the numbers being transmitted from the Island was very, very cool. Even cooler was the potential that the numbers may have been being recited by someone we already know. Did anyone else think that the voice on the radio sounded like Hurley's? If it is Hurley's, it opens up the possibility that the universe of Island events is a much smaller one than we have previously been led to believe. A similar situation already occurred at the end of Season 3, when Charlie, having no prior knowledge of the inner workings of the Looking Glass station, was able to decipher a necessary passcode because it matched the melody line of "Good Vibrations." A musician must have programmed this, he posited. At the time it was interesting to hypothesize that the original programmer was Charlie himself, but at that time we had no reason to believe that time travel would make up so large a portion of the fabric of the show.<br /><br />Now, however, not only is it a possibility that Charlie was the original programmer (though, admittedly, the show would need to revise its understanding of close-loop time travel in order for that to be the case), but it is also a possibility that it was Hurley that was reading the numbers that were overheard by the sailor who then relayed those same numbers to Hurley in the mental hospital, ultimately leading Hurley to the Island and to where he is now. I can certainly see a point in the future where the Losties realize that in order to prevent whatever calamity the show is hinting at, they needed to be drawn to the Island on Oceanic 815 in 2004 and back to the Island by Locke three years later. What could be a more sacrificial act then the Losties deliberately creating the circumstances of their own fateful crash? Knowing all the pain and trauma it put on him, wouldn't it be a great scene to see past-Hurley reading the recording that would ultimately lead him to Oceanic 815 and the Island.<br /><br />Of course, it may not be Hurely's voice, in which case disregard the mad ramblings above...<br /><br /><strong>Proof?</strong> - This is probably a function of plot expediency as much as anything else, but why does a ring prove that Jin's alive? Couldn't his body have simply washed up on the beach? Isn't establishing that he died on the Island essentially why Jin gave Locke the ring in the first place? When Ben promised to deliver proof to Sun, I expected something a bit more dramatic, and quite frankly, more significant than merely his wedding ring.<br /><br /><strong>Faraday's Mother?</strong> - While not definitive, the fact that Desmond showed up to meet with Mrs. Hawking ("You're looking for Faraday's mother, too?") at the same time as Ben, Jack, and Sun lends strong credence to the hypothesis that Mrs. Hawking is Faraday's mother. I'm always hesitant to say something is certain where <em>Lost</em> is concerned, but it certainly seems far more likely than not at this point.<br /><br /><strong>Security System</strong> - When Ben "called" the smoke monster in Season 4, he mentioned the fact that the monster essentially served as the Island's security system. In this episode we see (and are told) that the security system is in fact expressly connected to a "temple" on the Island. Whether or not that temple is the same one Ben tried to have Rousseau and Alex escape to last season (and the one towards which the rest of the Others were fleeing during Season 3) remains to be seen, though it seems unlikely that the show's producers would use the term "temple" to refer to multiple locations. If the "temple" is the same, then the Others and the smoke monster have some kind of special relationship, and the temple has some objective significance as something more than a simple hiding spot.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-69446605743578288602009-02-06T23:15:00.010-05:002009-02-07T14:24:18.793-05:00Battlestar Galactica: "Blood on the Scales"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinH5ZEFV6QpFxg733EHALMt1Olz0SzttvJerE9f33MZtPFyBf-5hUNABRDuBlrrfGeM4jn1GqYuUVX0kHNvdFYXur0Q2aseOYoNThtKZXvBr0vwRvAUQ2KbruFCjLrfZ4WdcgN97jax-E/s1600-h/BloodontheScales.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinH5ZEFV6QpFxg733EHALMt1Olz0SzttvJerE9f33MZtPFyBf-5hUNABRDuBlrrfGeM4jn1GqYuUVX0kHNvdFYXur0Q2aseOYoNThtKZXvBr0vwRvAUQ2KbruFCjLrfZ4WdcgN97jax-E/s320/BloodontheScales.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300122534706053922" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"This was a hell of a ship, once."</span><br /><br />Ladies and Gentlemen, I was wrong.<br /><br />Not about the show's overall lack of forward momentum mind you, but about something a bit more significant, at least to the show's overall mythology. But more on that later. First let's discuss my overall sense of "Blood on the Scales", the final episode of the civil war/mutiny arc started in "A Disquiet Follows My Soul" and continued in "The Oath." As last week's episode showed quite clearly, Ron Moore and company certainly know how to stage a rousing action sequence. This week's episode is no different, and, if possible, the action continues at an even more furious pace.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />With the mutineers in control of both the military and civilian governments as the episode begins, much of the early conflict relies on the difference in philosophy between head mutineers Felix Gaeta and Tom Zarek. While Zarek sees the coup for what it is, a power grab, Gaeta sees the mutiny as a means to pursue the much more elusive concept of "justice". This difference is most apparent in the way the two men deal with their enemies. Whereas Gaeta seeks to justify his actions by trying Adama for "war crimes", Zarek delivers his message to the Quorum through the more definitive method of summary execution. Though Gaeta's "trial" is nothing but a sham, it does give the show's producers the opportunity to bring back fan-favorite (and lover of phantom cats) Romo Lampkin as Adama's defense counsel. Unfortunately the appearance is largely wasted save for one scene where the character (as is becoming habit in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Galactica</span> universe) gets to prove the old adage that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword (or assault rifle as the case may be).<br /><br />The larger conflict takes up much of the episode's second half, with virtually every major character taking at least some small part in taking back the ship. From Lee and Starbuck's military invasion, to Chief Tyrol's "Die Hard"-esque run to the Galactica's FTL drive, the show does a good job in giving everyone a role to play. (The sole exception to this is Baltar, who I discuss in greater detail below). Even Roslin gets to convey her rage while lamenting the thought of losing her dear Adama. Though this is the sole note that she's been allowed to play over the last two episodes, it's a note she plays well.<br /><br />And all this plays out like the conclusion to a great action movie. Unfortunately, in some ways it's an action movie that we've all seen before. The execution fake out, the freeing of captives, the deadly writing utensil, heck, even the lead "bad guy" having a crisis of conscience right before the end. But the episode does deliver. As an action piece separate from anything else in the series, I would have to say that the "Oath"/"Blood" combination ranks right up there with the best the show has to offer. That being said, I am most definitely of two minds on this one.<br /><br />On the one hand, everything I said above is true. The episode is a standout both in action and in tension, and the beats played by both Zarek and Gaeta seem true to the characters we have come to know over the years. On the other hand, however, my concern that the show was using this "civil war" arc to effectively stall for time seems to have been vindicated. As I stated <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/01/battlestar-galactica-oath.html">last week</a>, the show could have avoided this sense of stalling by making sure that there was a real impact to be felt from the mutiny. While one could argue that this episode features just such an impact with the loss of Gaeta, Zarek, and the Quorum, I feel quite differently.<br /><br />In the middle of this episode, there is a scene where Roslin manages to communicate with the fleet and tells them not to spin up their FTL drives but instead to stay with the Cylon baseship. We are told that 10 of the 35 remaining ships in the fleet follow Roslin's instructions and are prepared to stay behind. Gaeta's response to this is essentially to say "good riddance" and leave the problem ships for dead. Aha, I thought. This is the impact I have been seeking. This mutiny is going to split the fleet, and the world of <span style="font-style: italic;">Galactica</span> will never be the same. Humanity will be down to it's last, precious few, and the stakes will be higher than ever. Alas, Chief Tyrol made sure that that was not to be.<br /><br />So what effect did all this have? None really. Roslin and Adama maintain their positions of power. The fleet remains the same. Sure, we're down one political body, but I suspect that it will be easily replaced. At the end of the day, the mutiny arc served exactly the purpose I had feared. It certainly feels like the fleet is in exactly the same position it was in at the end of the stellar "Sometimes a Great Notion." Next week, play this little game as you watch. Outside of a few instances which I would expect will address the events of these past few episodes, see if you can't imagine the episode taking place immediately after the Ellen reveal at the end of "Sometimes." My bet is that it won't be that hard.<br /><br />So at the end of the day, <span style="font-style: italic;">Galactica</span> delivered a tremendously fun and exciting mutiny plot line that didn't advance the plot of the show much if at all. Was it worth it? I strongly suspect that Ron Moore and company wanted to pay off the civilian/military plot lines that had been simmering for the entire run of the show, and they felt that now was the only time they had to do it. Truth be told, they might just be right. I just wish that they could have made the arc seem less like treading water. In my humble and completely un-expert opinion an opportunity was missed by not having the events of these past few episodes bear a greater impact on the fleet or any of the main characters.<br /><br />Now, didn't I say something about being wrong...<br /><br />Quick Thoughts:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Dying Leader</span> - <span style="font-style: italic;">"And the lords anointed a leader to guide the Caravan of the Heavens to their new homeland...the new leader suffered a wasting disease and would not live to enter the new land."</span> Back in my review of "<a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/01/battlestar-galactica-disquiet-follows.html">Disquiet</a>", I made reference to the fact that I have never believed that Laura Roslin was the "dying leader" foretold in prophecy to lead her people to the promised land. She was just too easy an answer. For the last little while I had believed that leader to be Baltar, a religious man who would be persecuted and killed just before leading his people home. With the new emphasis on Baltar being a fraud </span><span class="fullpost">(more on that below)</span><span class="fullpost">, he would seem to be out of the running. So who is the leader? Or should I say, what is?<br /><br />First, a step back. Over the course of the summer and winter, many <span style="font-style: italic;">Galactica</span> fans were having fun with the question of just who was the final Cylon. Names like Gaeta, Cottle, Zarek, and, yes, even Ellen were bandied about in an effort to identify a secondary character who could serve the role. One of the more interesting hypotheses during this time, at least to me, was the notion that perhaps Galactica herself was the final Cylon. No one could really make the theory fit, of course. The Galactica, after all, is just a big aircraft carrier in space, but the symbolism of having the title "character" of the show serve such an important function stuck with me. As it turns out, the symbolism was right, it was just applied in the wrong place.<br /><br />The Galactica herself has always been "a leader" guiding the caravan of the heavens (the fleet) towards it new homeland, but it wasn't until this episode that we had any inkling that it might also be suffering from a "wasting disease." After Chief Tyrol succeeds in disabling the ship's FTL drives in this episode, he notices something. In one of the episode's stranger moments, the camera pans up the side of a wall torn to pieces. The shot lingers for more than a few meaningful seconds before cutting away with no further explanation given. What are we to take from this? I don't know for certain, but I think it's a good bet that whatever caused those cracks in the engine room evidence a "wasting disease" that will ultimately bring her down. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have our dying leader. Expect to see her lost before the end.<br /><br /></span><span class="fullpost"><span style="font-weight: bold;">A View from Afar</span> - It's interesting to think about the perspective that the average ship of the fleet must have had on the events of these past three episodes. As I pointed out last week, I didn't think that Roslin's appeal was all that persuasive to a miner floating between the Galactica and a Cylon baseship. In this episode, that same miner gets hit with multiple wireless calls from Galactica and the baseship with the leadership of the fleet coming apart at the seams. What's happening, and why? It can't be clear on the average ship. I would have liked to see the show deal with this angle a bit more, but admittedly the more important action was taking place on Galactica.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Loyalists</span> - The scene where Adama is freed from his executioners is an interesting one, as is the scene where he takes command back from Gaeta and Zarek. Both scenes feature "mutineers" who knowingly went along with the coup because they felt that Adama was leading the fleet into danger. What should Adama do with these people? He can't rightly depend on them to follow his orders, particularly when he instructs them to escort the Cylons around the fleet. But he can't summarily execute all of them either. It's a quandary, and one that I suspect is a very real one in our world where these kinds of transitions of power occur. I would love to see how this is handled by Adama and the senior crew, but I expect that this will fall somewhere in the cracks between this episode and the next.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">An Army of His Own</span> - Now, far be if for me to criticize a really cool set piece scene like the one where Adama and his army of loyal followers take back command of the Galactica, but where in the world did these people come from? All through "The Oath" the show's producers made special effort to show that Adama was essentially on his own. In fact, his solo escorting of Roslin and Baltar with only Tigh, Starbuck, and Lee makes no sense if he has this much support on the ship. Even if I accept that this support existed, which I am willing to grant for a little bit of TV magic, how did these people find out exactly when Adama was "taking back the night." We didn't see any scenes in which any of the main cast were tasked with drumming up support across the ship, so how did these people know? Ah well, I'm just nitpicking. It was a cool scene.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Baltar, Baltar, Baltar</span> - Well, this was not the direction that I had hoped the powers that be would take my beloved Baltar. He was faking his religious devotion the whole time? Really? Like when he offered to give his life to God if that random cultist's boy might live? Like then? Oh well, perhaps Baltar's desire to stop running in this episode evidences some real growth for the character. Growth that actually does result in him believing his religious teachings. I just don't know what to do with him anymore (and I don't think that the show runners do either).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Frantic Roslin</span> - I know that many out there will praise Mary McDonnell's performance in this one, so I may have to be the lone voice of dissent. Outside of the very end of the episode, I found her shrill, almost frantic portrayal of Laura Roslin to be verging on the edge of hysterical. This was not at all the strong female president that she had embodied over the past four years. Instead, it was a frantic woman on the verge of losing her man. The problem is that I just don't think that's the way the part was written. When Roslin tells the Cylons to move their ship into the fleet, and later when she talks about Adama, these are scenes in which she should be conveying all of the vast reservoir of strength that we know that her character possesses. Instead, her line reading of "Do It!" when trying to convince the Cylons to move their baseship exhibits nothing but hysteria.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Whither Anders?</span> - Now, this might have gotten left on the cutting room floor, but didn't anyone else find it odd that with as much time as was spent on the fact that Anders got shot, we didn't see him ultimately rescued or killed? It just seemed to be an odd editing artifact in an otherwise really well produced episode. I suppose we can assume that he was rescued when Romo went back to help Starbuck, but that seems like an odd assumption to make. Since the rest of the plot lines of the episode were pretty neatly resolved with the execution of Gaeta and Zarek, it seems unlikely that we'll ever see Anders' trip from that hallway to Doc Cottle's. Oh well.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">It's my Deus in a Box</span> - What was the box Leoben used to break the wireless blocking? Were we supposed to recognize it? The show certainly seemed to be highlighting it in a way to indicate recognition, but if I've seen it before I certainly don't remember it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Risk of death</span> - This is almost certainly a function of the fact that we know that the show only has a certain number of episodes remaining, but wasn't the sense of tension in this one palpable? I mean, I spent the middle section of this episode trying to determine whether the show could finish its run without Admiral Adama. The strange part is that I came to the conclusion that it could. With only six episodes remaining, I could totally envision an Adama funeral, the rise to power of Lee (or perhaps more symbolically, Tigh), and the impact that such a death would have on the fleet. In my opinion, this just further establishes the benefits of having a set time frame for a show.<br /><br />For a long time I have been espousing the adoption of the kind of short-form series that is so popular in Europe and Japan. These shows tell a complete story over one or two seasons, and if they continue it is usually with "sequel" seasons taken place with entirely new characters in the same universe. This has many advantages including allowing the producers of the show to tell a complete story, and the one we see here, allowing the producers to make the audience feel that even main characters are in mortal peril. With they manner in which<span style="font-style: italic;"> Galactica</span> was "canceled", and the deal ABC struck with <span style="font-style: italic;">Lost</span>, I think we are beginning to realize some of those advantages here in America. It's been a long time coming, I say.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-37366146434301568712009-02-04T21:19:00.011-05:002009-02-05T13:00:17.594-05:00Lost: "The Little Prince"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipDCevdFt75_814SJYPT_xAecGq8tsh7oAh6YfnQz0QYj51GlZdKi_8ULz5G_VncUPwy6STs_yzdg_Yk2UxeesP1eKIU-5bmi6DiSjRB5Oi9QuHUJ5NeDiFGWGFx4AEh6s3RxNAJ_C9E8/s1600-h/LittlePrince.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299355881318925666" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 180px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipDCevdFt75_814SJYPT_xAecGq8tsh7oAh6YfnQz0QYj51GlZdKi_8ULz5G_VncUPwy6STs_yzdg_Yk2UxeesP1eKIU-5bmi6DiSjRB5Oi9QuHUJ5NeDiFGWGFx4AEh6s3RxNAJ_C9E8/s320/LittlePrince.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><em>"No, I needed that pain...get to where I am now."</em><br /><br /><em>Lost</em> has always been an interesting show. From the very beginning, there were some who questioned exactly how the concept could make for anything longer than a mini-series without becoming some kind of dramatic <em>Gilligan's Island</em>, always repeating the same plot line or delving into uninteresting minutiae (or cameo appearances by the Harlem Globetrotters). Admittedly, part way through Season 3, when the show elected to spend an entire hour explaining the origin of Jack's tattoos, it did seem like things were moving slowly but inevitably in that direction. Amazingly, however, as Locke says to Sawyer in this episode, it was that pain that got the show to where it is now.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />From Alan Sepinwall's <a href="http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2009/01/sepinwall-on-tv-lost-goes-time.html">brilliantly informative interview </a>with <em>Lost</em> co-creator Damon Lindelof:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>"[I]f "Stranger in a Strange Land" -- which, universally, is (considered) the worst episode we ever produced -- had not been produced, we would not have been able to convince the network that, "This is the future of the show: how Jack got his tattoos. Everything we've been saying for two years about what's to come, is now all here on the screen. You argued that an hour of Matthew Fox in emotionally-based conflicts, it doesn't matter what the flashback story is, it'll be fine. But now that we're doing his ninth flashback story, you just don't care.<br /><br />We can't go back and apologize for the creative mistakes that we made, because we had to make them. If that episode hadn't been made, we weren't able to get a notes call that said, "We don't like this episode," and where we could then say, "We don't like it, either, but it's the best we can do if we're not moving the story forward. And we're now at a point, guys, where we can't move the story forward." And they asked, "Well, what would you do if we allowed you an end date?" And we said, "Give us an end date, and we'll tell you what we'll do." And the conversations then reached a new pitch.<br /><br />Everything has to happen the way it happened."</blockquote><br />Like Locke in this episode, the creators of <em>Lost</em> realize that they wouldn't go back and change the past even if they could, because it was the mistakes of the past that got them to where they are today. And thank God they made the mistakes that they did, as the show's strong run continued with "The Little Prince."<br /><br />Focused on two of the three plots currently cycling through the world of <em>Lost</em> (Desmond, the Oceanic Six, and the Island time travelers, with Desmond getting left out of the mix for this one), this episode was largely one of transition. The Oceanic Six moved closer to a full scale reunion at Marina slip 23, while the Island-bound survivors of 2005 bounced not once, not twice, but three times through time and space on their way back to the Orchid station. Neither the Six nor the Island survivors met their goals in this one, so the episode as a whole can only be seen as one portion of a grander storyline.<br /><br />Interestingly enough, I find myself not minding that this episode didn't have a true beginning or end, despite being bothered by the same fact in <em>Galactica</em>'s "A Disquiet Follows My Soul". I think the reason for this is the way that <em>Lost</em> wound up being constructed. In its early years, <em>Lost</em> was a show built almost entirely around the concepts of character development and revelation. Now, however, as the show steams towards its ending, it focuses almost exclusively on plot developments without needing additional character exposition. Jack, Kate, Locke, Sawyer, and the rest are who they are, and we know who they are thanks to the foundation laid in the earlier seasons. This gives <em>Lost</em> the luxury of powering ahead with almost 45 minutes of story momentum each and every week. Whereas <em>Galactica</em>'s "Disquiet" was transitional and seemed to stall the show by focusing on character developments at the expense of plot, "The Little Prince" does exactly the opposite. In many ways, <em>Lost</em> is becoming the "novel" that it had always claimed to be, with exposition taken care of on the front end (Seasons 1-3) and plot being handled at the back (Seasons 4-6). To me, this makes the entirety of <em>Lost</em> seem more cohesive, more whole, but to play the devil's advocate for a moment, I can see where the change might cause problems.<br /><br />As some of you may have noticed, the ratings for <em>Lost</em> are way, way down since even the premiere of Season 4. Since that season was generally heralded by fans and critics as a resurgence of the show's story telling, the question is "Why?". Much ink has been spilled over the past few weeks blaming the show's precipitous rating decline on the show's move towards science fiction (particular blame is placed on the show's more recent usage of time travel, though why this is more problematic for mass audiences than an omnipotent and omniscient "smoke monster" has never been made entirely clear to me). I, on the other hand, think something else is to blame.<br /><br />As I mentioned above, at its beginning <em>Lost</em> was a show solely about people surviving in a hostile environment. It was deep, it was meaningful, and, pardon me for saying so, it was <em>slooow</em>. Since the transition to flashforwards at the end of Season 3 (and even more noticeably now in Season 5) the show is lightning quick, focused not on explaining the minutiae of character beats (which, thanks to earlier seasons, have likely already been thoroughly explored by the show), but instead on plot mechanics, moving the various chess pieces towards May 2010 as quickly as possible.<br /><br />I personally love the new pace of the show, but I can certainly see how someone who signed on for Emmy-award winning <em>Lost</em> circa Season 1 could be dismayed to see the show turned into a weekly action-adventure. While the ever increasing role of science fiction no doubt plays a factor (though again I say, "smoke monster"), I believe the continuing decline in the show's ratings can more easily be attributed to this change in the show's style. Because the serial nature of the show prevents people who might prefer the faster pace from joining now even if they wanted to, the end result is the decline in ratings which we are currently seeing. C'est la vie, I suppose.<br /><br />On to my miscellaneous thoughts:<br /><br /><strong>The Client</strong> - I have to say, making Ben "the client" responsible for terrorizing Kate was a true masterstroke. I mean only <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/01/lost-because-you-left-and-lie.html">a genius</a> could have come up with so nefarious a plot. I will admit, when they introduced Claire's mother, my sense of the the producers' collective genius wavered but for a moment, but ultimately I was rewarded for my patience... What? You knew I had to take credit for this, right?<br /><br /><strong>The Trouble with "Previously on..."</strong> - One difficulty that a serialized show like <em>Lost</em> regularly faces is reminding even loyal fans of what happened during the show's previous run of episodes. In "The Little Prince" the producers made what I considered at the time to be a classic error. They included a scene in the show's "Previously on..." segment that showed Jack meeting Claire's mother. The scene had no obvious connection to any current show plot line.<br /><br />When the opening scenes of the episode made it apparent that the show was going to focus on Kate's story, I immediately assumed that the producers had given the game away regarding the mystery client hounding Kate. When the third act break then introduced Claire's mother as a client of Kate's lawyer antagonist, I was doubly upset. On most shows this is where the story would end, with the show's producers having given away to much in the opening, thus relegating their plot "twists" to mere expected plot points. Here, however, the producers of <em>Lost</em> used their audience's eye for detail against them, as Claire's mother was but a red herring. Since Ben was my original choice for "the client" (What, you didn't know?), I felt vindicated, but further I respected that the show's producers had essentially played a trick on the most attentive portion of its fan base. Touche, <em>Lost</em> producers. We'll meet again next week.<br /><br /><strong>"Who do you work for?"</strong> - As Sayid continues to kill any and all assailants the world throws at him, the question he asked in this episode becomes all the more prevalent. Who do these people work for? Surely we are to assume at this point that Widmore is sending armed assassins to stop Ben's re-gathering of the Flight 815 dream team, but we know what happens when you assume, especially with <em>Lost</em>. As a matter of fact, when thinking about <em>Lost</em> it may be more productive to assume the opposite of whatever seems most obvious at first. Like his manipulations as "the client", maybe Ben has been engineering the attacks all along. After all, in this episode the attacks both spur Jack into calling Kate and convince Sayid to join Team Back-To-The-Island despite his misgivings regarding Ben. Would it really be so surprising to find out that Ben is behind it all? (Quite frankly would it really be so surprising to find out that Ben is the real bad guy in this plot? What has Widmore done really?)<br /><br /><strong>Ariso</strong> - As a brief aside, the person who calls Jack away from Sayid identifies herself as Dr. Ariso. Ariso means a "rocky shore or beach" in Japanese. Nothing truly important here, I just like to take notice of the special care the producers of <em>Lost</em> use to make things interesting for the truly attentive. Jack in this scene is in essence getting called away to the beach.<br /><br /><strong>Objects in Motion</strong> - Ok, <em>Lost</em> has been so good at following the rules of its own time travel that I feel justified in making one small complaint here. In the future scenes, where the Island's time travelers discover the long boats present on Flight 815 beach, I remember thinking that it was a bad idea for the survivors to take that boat out onto open water because it would disappear at the next flash. Prior to that point, the only items that had been physically transported by the survivors were those that had transported with them at the time of the initial time travel event. Based on those rules, I assumed that they essentially got to transport what they brought with them and would fall into the water when and if the Island flashed while they were out at sea. This proved not to be the case, but for the life of me I can't figure out why.<br /><br />It seems now that the producers are saying that any man made object which the survivors are physically touching will transport with them upon the occurrence of a time travel event. If this is the case, would the Jughead bomb have transported had Faraday been touching it at the time of the flash last week? How about Charles Widmore? Whatever happened, happened, is a nice philosophy for the creators of the show to try to live by, but if the Island's time travelers can start transporting anachronistic items across the centuries, then it might be even more difficult to uphold than it originally appeared.<br /><br /><strong>Miles "Chang"?</strong>- We already knew (or posited based on the finale of Season 4) that Charlotte was born on the Island. When Faraday explains that the nose-bleed phenomena is likely based on how long one has been exposed to the Island, our knowledge about Charlotte's mysterious past agrees with this explanation. When Miles' nose starts bleeding, however, it's a different story. We had no reason to believe that he had been on the Island before. Since Faraday can largely be seen as a trusted source for time travel information, it seems likely that his island exposure hypothesis is correct. This is further backed up when the symptoms hit Juliet (who has been on the island longer than Faraday, Sawyer and Locke) next. Who then is Miles Fraum and when did he previously visit the island?<br /><br />We know that he was on the island for a shorter period than Charlotte (who we believe to be born there), but longer than Juliet (three years). Could he be the son of Dr. Marvin Chang (Candle/Wickman/Haliwax) and the sole remaining heir to the legacy of the Dharma Initiative? It seems likely to me. After all, Dr. Chang did not have to be introduced as having a child in the opening moments of this season. His fatherhood status played no part in the revelations of his scenes. Perhaps Miles developed his ESP powers from some form of exposure on the island. Interesting...<br /><br /><strong>Because They Left</strong> - I'm going to say this as simply as I know how, I really don't understand how "this" could all be happening because the Oceanic Six left. Though Locke seems positive that all the problems of the Island are a result of the escape of Jack, Kate, and the rest, I remain unconvinced. Ben, after all, was going to turn the frozen donkey wheel of destiny regardless of whether or not the island had any escapees. He was turning the wheel both to protect the island from Widmore and because Jacob told him to. If Jack and the rest of the team had remained on the Island, time warping antics would still have ensued, so in what respect can "this" be blamed on them. Furthermore, in what respect can their return be expected to stop "this" from happening. As this consitutes a main premise of the show at this point, I can only hope that the producers have good answers ready and waiting to go.<br /><br /><strong>Whatever happened, happened</strong> - While its cool to see scenes from old seasons play out from different perspectives (Was that footage from Season 1 they showed for the birth of Aaron?), since we know that future Sawyer didn't jump out and surprise anyone in Season 1 don't we also know that now-present Sawyer won't do any jumping? This is the inherent difficulty in telling closed-loop style time travel stories. If whatever happened, happened, then we already know the full extent of what the Island's time traveling castaways can accomplish in the past. The only exception to this may lie in the previously unexplained phenomena that the Flight 815 survivors have been dealing with since the very beginning. Which brings me to...<br /><br /><strong>Whispers in the Dark</strong> - As mentioned above, due to the show's insistence on a theory of "closed loop" time travel, the only way that the time travelers could have had any impact on the events of prior seasons (at least events of which we are aware) is if we somehow didn't know that the time travelers were responsible. This could take many forms (for instance, Sawyer could have distracted Ethan Rom back in Season 1 offscreen, thus allowing the survivors to rescue Charlie), but the most likely would seem to be the currently unexplained phenomena of the jungle whispers.<br /><br />Originally, whenever the Flight 815 survivors found themselves stranded in the jungle or about to meet the Others, the scene would be precipitated by their hearing strange inaudible whispers in the background. While these could still be explained as a form of Other intimidation tactic, I believe that the presence of the whispers now gives the producers a way for the time travelers to "influence" past events without changing anything. For instance, perhaps a Season 2 scene featuring the whispers was in actuality one featuring a time traveling Sawyer who needed to stop Kate from running headlong into an ambush. Whether or not the show elects to use the whispers in this way, if the producers want to allow the time travelers to "influence" events in the past they will need to be thinking of instances where the travelers could have done it without our knowing about it years ago (Whatever happened, happened, and all that). Since the idea that the time travelers actually influenced events in the past seems almost too good to pass up, expect something on the order of the above to come up before the season is through.<br /><br /><strong>Longboats of the Future</strong> - By far the most perplexing scene of the episode involved the island time travelers arriving at Flight 815 beach apparently at sometime in the future (Where <em>are</em> Rose and Bernard by the way?). Upon discovering that the beach is deserted, our intrepid castaways stumble upon a pair of longboats containing bottled water from an Indian airline that regularly services the area. Are we meant to assume that sometime after Flight 815 there is a second passenger jet crash on the island? That all this has happened before and it will happen again? That the castaways are Cylons? I digress. I think it's far more likely that the future scenes somehow involve the return of the Oceanic Six. If that is the case, the only question would be why the Oceanic Six, or their affiliates, would be shooting at our favorite time travelers. Still, like the <em>Lost</em> of old, this scene presents many more questions than answers.<br /><br /><strong>Rousseau versus the Sickness</strong> - When Rousseau tells Sayid her story back in Season 1 she includes mention of a "sickness" that took over the minds of her fellow castaways. It was this sickness that ultimately forced her to kill the rest of her crew. Now that we know that Jin's alive and with Rousseau's team (at least for time being), is it possible that he is somehow responsible for the "sickness"? He was very near a rather large C-4 detonation, though its unclear how that would cause anything like a sickness. Or perhaps the sickness has something to do with a large, leaking radioactive bomb buried somewhere beneath the surface of the Island. If Rousseau and her team accidentally stumbled upon it, then the radiation poisoning might look to her like a sickness. Hmmmm...in any event it's worth remembering Rousseau's story as we delve deeper into her past.<br /><br /><strong>How long was I out?</strong> - Admittedly, the many and varied time travel flashes on the Island have made it difficult to keep track of just how much time has passed from the perspective of the time travelers, but exactly how long was Jin on that piece of freighter? It sure seems like a long time. I guess I can forgive the producers for wanting to hide Jin's survival for a few episodes, but still, wouldn't it have been easier to have him be alive but injured on some remote corner of the Island. That way, the French team could discover him, but it wouldn't look like he survived unconscious for days in the open ocean. Also, why is Jack so sure that there were no survivors from the freighter explosion in last year's finale? It seems like Jin's body wouldn't have been that difficult to spot from the air. These are all nits, of course, as I'm thrilled to see Jin's return. The scenario in which it was presented, however, is just one of the few in which I think there could have been some improvements.<br /><br /><strong>Sayid's Season Five Kill Count (first in a continuing series)</strong> - Three (Four if you count the guy outside the mental hospital in this season...he's mentioned in this episode).<br /><br /><strong>Thank you for flying Oceanic?</strong> - It's worth noting that the scene with Claire's mother in this episode could serve as something more than just a useful red herring here. In the scene in which Jack explains to Kate what Claire's mother is doing in LA he states that she was apparently receiving a settlment from Oceanic. She receives this settlement from Mr. Norton, apparently serving as Oceanic's lawyer, and who we later find out to be Ben's lawyer. At the very least, this implies a connection between Ben and Oceanic. Just what that relationship might be remains a question, but if Ben is affiliated with Oceanic then a whole new can of worms might open up. After all, if Ben has some control over Oceanic, could he have not somehow played a role in the events which originally brought Flight 815 to the Island? Interesting...<br /><br /><strong>Here's a Little Story 'bout Ben and Sayid </strong>- As I mentioned in my previous recaps, it is clear that Sayid and Ben had a falling out sometime between the events of "The Economist" and "Because You Left". But what happened? And how could whatever it is be simultaneously bad enough that Sayid tells Hurley to do the opposite of whatever Ben says, but not so bad that it would prevent Sayid from being willing to join him and Jack on a (frankly) ridiculous request to return to Time Travel Island. Like Jack, does Sayid too have some need to go back to the Island? I strongly suspect that we will be getting some backstory on the relationship between this pair in the very near future.<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5756155809446289691.post-59154952344867532552009-01-30T23:11:00.008-05:002009-02-05T12:59:13.988-05:00Battlestar Galactica: "The Oath"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvRQHuejQGi52MIxyW3fZqJF_3ctIbSOpw4j2UjU9socQT1Cud0oI82QmB_zKiPPEmBa_z_NgumfMuYPDUj6_52M3momKjiNpvwV_DwWkk2l4rDa3IL2igzq97TbtxCMSBVySfeYLuhm8/s1600-h/BSGTheOath.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297488487875486866" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 181px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvRQHuejQGi52MIxyW3fZqJF_3ctIbSOpw4j2UjU9socQT1Cud0oI82QmB_zKiPPEmBa_z_NgumfMuYPDUj6_52M3momKjiNpvwV_DwWkk2l4rDa3IL2igzq97TbtxCMSBVySfeYLuhm8/s320/BSGTheOath.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"Madame President, we are in danger of losing this ship."</span><br /><br />As expected, "The Oath" picks up almost exactly where last week's episode left off, with the fleet on the brink of civil war. As Adama, Tigh, and Roslin struggle to stave off the growing civilian unrest spurred by the Quorum's anti-Cylon resolution, Gaeta and his growing military insurrection move to take over the Galactica, first by freeing Zarek from the brig, then by taking Adama and Tigh prisoner. There's shooting, there's danger, there's intrigue. And at the end of it all there's the apparent death of Adama and Tigh. What more could you ask?<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Not a lot really. The episode definitively returns <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Galactica</span> to its more action oriented roots, foregoing the big questions just as last week's did. Unlike last week's anti-climax, however, this episode has the benefit of being nothing but climax, a rousing action adventure featuring the return of the potent Lee/Starbuck and Adama/Tigh combinations that had been so energizing in the past. Even Roslin steps up in this one (albeit only after being spurned into action at the thought of losing her new boyfriend to an onslaught of mutineers), commandeering Baltar's pirate signal to deliver her message of Cylon hope and change to the whole of the fleet.<br /><br />While neither this episode nor the last actually bothers to conclude a given storyline, at least in this one the producers of the show were kind enough to realize that fact, gracing us with the old "To be continued..." in the process. As I mentioned <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/01/battlestar-galactica-disquiet-follows.html">last week</a>, I think that the producers of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Galactica</span>, now untethered to a need for ratings or easy marketing ploys, likely crafted the final ten episodes of the show as one big collective. As such, I strongly suspect that most if not all of the remaining episodes will either have an explicit or an implied "To be Continued" aspect to them. While this is to be expected in a serialized show of this type (just look at <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Lost</span> or <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">24</span>), it does make it difficult to watch outside the framework of DVD.<br /><br />All that being said, "The Oath" is an excellent action piece that delivers on many of the things that have made <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Galactica</span> great over the years. If the show can't give me the answers that I want, than this will definitely do.<br /><br />Other things to think about:<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Time Keeps on Tickin'</span> - I don't want to harp on this every week, but the plain fact of the matter is that we are now down to seven episodes left in <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Galactica</span>'s run. The question remains: When do we start moving towards a finale? The producers of the show made an interesting call in having the fleet discover Earth so early in the season, but the result of that call is that these post-Earth episodes lack focus, a reason for being. What I like about that is that it makes us, as the audience, feel a bit more like the crew of the Galactica themselves. They, after all, are also wandering in the desert, if you will. The difference, however, is that we know exactly how long their wandering will last (or at least how long we get to witness it). This makes it much more difficult to sit idly by while plot lines torn from the first season of the show take center stage.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Oaths</span> - The word "oath" is used in this episode at least twice and both in the service of the mutineers. First, when Zarek baits Lee by playing up the conflict between his father and the oath he swore to be the representative of Caprica. Second, during the opening minutes of Gaeta's mutiny, as he and Adama argue about which is truly upholding their oath to protect the people of the fleet. One of the best things about <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Galactica</span> throughout its run has been it's ability to craft difficult situations and place it's characters into moral quandaries. While definitely not as potent as earlier season scenarios regarding abortion or suicide bombings, this episode does create an interesting dilemma by allowing Zarek and Gaeta to put forth such strong arguments. Despite our unique perspective on events (knowing what we do about the Final Four/Five), to the members of the fleet these "people" killed billions of humans, and it is only because of them that humanity was relegated to fleeing across the stars. There is very good reason to follow Zarek and Gaeta in this episode, and it is not at all surprising that they are able to recruit so many to their cause. Given the same facts, I can't honestly say that I wouldn't have been a part of Gaeta's revolution, and that's one of the things that makes <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Galactica</span> so great.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Making Sense out of Mutiny</span> - Last week I complained that the insurrection plot line felt too much like the show was simply stalling for time before tackling the big questions. Since then, I've been trying to figure out just how <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Galactica</span>'s producers could tie this revolution into the greater themes of the show. My best guess goes back to something I said when I wrote about "<a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/01/battlestar-galactica-sometimes-great.html">Sometimes a Great Notion</a>", that the series endgame must be based around the unification of the human and Cylon nations. If that guess is correct, then this little rebellion could determine the fate of two civilizations, a fact that will only become more apparent in hindsight. Look at it from an outside perspective. If there really has been a third party bringing the two sides together (as I think is likely given the events of "Maelstrom", and the presence of the in-head people), then this plotline is where all those efforts are most at risk of falling apart. In other words, it's possible that the importance of this plot line </span><span class="fullpost">(which, incidentally, will take up at least three episodes of the show's final ten)</span><span class="fullpost"> and the danger it presents to the show's endgame may wind up being properly felt only once we have a better understanding of what that endgame actually is.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Death Wish</span> - It's fun to see the transition both the writers and Katie Sackhoff are making with the character of Starbuck. Seeing Starbuck save Lee simply by indescriminately shooting at the mutineers reminded me of just how bad ass and uncomprimising Starbuck used to be, before the great softening of the Lee/Anders era. Now that she thinks that she is essentially playing with house money (seeing yourself dead in a field will do that to you), she is reckless and bold and more than a little agressive. It's like seeing the old Starbuck again. While I think her "death" has forced her to teeter on the edge of sanity, it is nice to revist an old friend.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Seriously, What's the Plan with Baltar?</span> - After this week's episode and last's I'm beginning to rethink my feelings on the importance of Baltar within the framework of the show. This week, once again, Baltar is essentially relegated to one or two scenes mostly related to the fact that he has apparently all but given up his religious crusade. Throw in a pirate wireless signal, and "bam" you've got the entirety of the Baltar storyline. I can't honestly say that I have any idea what the creators of the show have in mind for our favorite destroyer of worlds at this point, of whether they have anything in mind at all.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Unspeakable Losses?</span> -During Roslin's speech to the fleet, she implores humanity to recognize the similarities between the Cylons and the human race. One of the things she references is that both sides have "suffered unspeakable losses." Okay, one side definitely had their race just about exerminated, but what did the other side lose. The resurrection hub? Seriously, I think Roslin has some good points to make here, but equating the loss of Cylon immortality to the killing of billions of people wouldn't convince me to join the alliance if I were floating on some random ship of the fleet. The moral equivalence is disturbing.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Specialization of Labor</span> - Just a minor point, but we see in this episode that the Galactica has the ability to cut off the pirate signal which Baltar had been using to broadcast his religious messages to the fleet. First, why was this never used before, particularly in those episodes in the first half of the season where Baltar's "cult" was seen as a real threat to the safety of those on board the Galactica. Second, if you're Gaeta, and you're really the only one who knows how to "isolate the signal" in order to turn off the pirate broadcast, why do you stand in the middle of the command center rather than manning your original post? The oversight allows Roslin to speak to her people, and it could prove a costly one for our young, legless mutineer.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Time Cards</span> - If it seems like I've been talking about the use of time cards a lot lately (like, <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/01/lost-because-you-left-and-lie.html">here</a> and <a href="http://ricksflicks.blogspot.com/2009/01/lost-jughead.html">here</a>), it's because the shows that I have watched have been using them in interesting ways. Whereas a show like <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Lost</span> needed timecards in its premiere (and arguably still needs them) to give the audience any hope of keeping the timeline of events on that show straight, the producers of <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Galactica</span> instead use explictly denoted </span><span class="fullpost">(06:20, 10:27)</span><span class="fullpost"> timecards in this episode to create an almost documentary catalog of the hours leading up to the insurrection. This serves a dual purpose, as it both allows the producers to show that the alarming chain of events portrayed in this episode is happening over the course of hours, not days, and it allows them to create a sense of tension during the proceedings (<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">24</span>, of course, being your go-to source for ticking clock tension). I'm trying to recall if the show has ever used this device before, but I'm not having any luck. Let me know if you can think of one.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">"It's been an honor to have served with you my friend."</span> - One of the last things Adama says in the episode, this short statement gives us just a brief insight into the emotions he still feels towards his old friend and comrade Saul Tigh. The growing acceptance of the Cylons (particularly the Final Four/Five) among the senior members of the fleet, as a matter of fact, seems to be leading the show towards the answer to one of its greatest questions. What's the difference between a Cylon and a human? It doesn't matter. As Tigh said in the Season 3 finale, he'll be the man he wants to be until the day he dies. Seems Adama has accepted that, and that in short course we will be asked to do the same...<br /></span>Richard Hoeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16886051200733205333noreply@blogger.com1