Lost... Flashbacks, Star Wars, & Daddy Issues...

I feel like there are two kinds of flashbacks on Lost... the ones thrown in to kill time and reiterate points we've already picked up on (Little Sayid with the chicken), and then the ones that are actually insightful (Kate blowing up her dad's house and then expecting her mom to be grateful). The Miles flashbacks were definitely the latter, especially because he's been a mysterious/minor character up until this point. Opening with the child Miles discovering his unique abilities and struggling to cope was an especially good way of instantly investing the audience more deeply into his character.

Hur
ley is really great in this episode, bumbling into the wrong place, asking all the obvious questions everyone else ignores, and coming up with keen psychological perceptions. Plus, his movie references the last couple of episodes (first Back to the Future, now Sixth Sense and Empire Strikes Back) are just priceless... Plus, his attempts to facilitate a father-son bond between Miles and Pierre was first hilarious, and then quite moving. But wow, particularly gruesome death for the poor Dharma ditch-digger! Killed by your own cavity filling... that's one cause-of-death even Bones hasn't thought to use yet. This episode made it look a lot more likely to me that the Swan construction site and the untapped energy there is indeed the source of the "incident" upcoming in the season finale...

But, oh my gosh, who would have thought Kate would be the one who couldn't keep a secret? Miss Strong Resourceful Expert-Liar letting drunk, pathetic Roger see through their plan? I really expect more from her.

I have to say, one thing I love about Lost is the sense of interweaving lives... of people who all have a past and wrestle with inner turmoil through the course of the series. Most shows only credit the most important characters with any real depth of emotion, and it's even more rare for those characters to actually evolve or grow. At least this season, the characters are still themselves even as they seem to shift over the course of time. Well, I'd have to make an exception for Jack; the writers have been guilty of character-manipulation so many times with him that I'm not sure which of the Jacks we've seen is actually the real one, and the current whiny, passive version doesn't seem like natural character progression at all lol.

Question answered this episode:
Miles is indeed Pierre's son. I think we had all seen that one coming, but it was nice to have confirmation that Miles is aware as well. Hilarious story about his mom getting in line behind him in the cafeteria!


Ilana is not (?) working for Widmore. Or at any rate, her urgent question, "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" is heard on the lips of her right hand man... who claims to be working *against* Widmore.

Daniel Faraday is not dead! And not crazy either it looks like (absent "in mind" because he lost it), which some people had theorized and I had started to worry was a possibility... Hurrah for Daniel's return to the show!

New Questions:
Are they seriously introducing a third variable to the Ben/Widmore "war is coming" scenario? How on earth do Ilana and the dudes in the black van fit in?

Where has Faraday been? What does he know about the island, and how does his mother fit in?

How is Sawyer going to keep the news from getting out? Or rather, since knocking the dude out and going for rope more or less answers that question in the immediate sense, where/how is he going to keep the guy out of the way without resorting to killing him?

My favorite quote of the episode (besides every other sentence Hurley spoke):
Miles, upon being given the "package": "Is that a bullet in his head? The ditch had a gun...?"


This episode was great, but after the smoke monster and Egyptian mythology of last week, the return to Dharma-ville did seem a little slow. As far as I can tell trying to catch up online today... it looks like next week is a rerun. Boo!

9 comments

  1. I'm totally with you on Jack - when we was at Sawyer/Juliette's house, his look of innocence and his simplicity were enough to drive me batty.

    My Faraday theory is that he's been off building The Lamppost ... but I'm been known to be wrong.

    And I'd completely forgotten about "The ditch had a gun?" Hilarious!

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  2. So, I loved this episode. I feel like both of the last two episodes weren't HUGELY revealing, but they hinted at HUGE things. As I wrote on my blog, I totally think that Ilana and Brama are like Richard Alpert, and that they are original inhabitants of the island. We shall see!

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  3. You can only hope that if any female workers are at that secret site, they weren't wearing underwire bras...

    I think this epi struck just the right note after all the drama/revelations/new questions raised from last week. Funny, sweet, touching, but still holding info to answer some outstanding questions, like where's Daniel been, who arranged the fake 815 wreck, how long has Miles had his "ablility".

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  4. To build on your comment at my place :^), I'm not convinced the "dead" people are Smokie manifestations, as I'm certain we saw both dead Claire and Christian in a scene together. I do think Smokie brings them back to a sort of "life", though, as Anubis is supposed to guard dead people from harm.

    The Shadow people (for lack of a better name) seem to fit with Alpert more than Ben - like the idea others have had that they are part of the orginal inhabitants of the island. I'm beginning to wonder if the island will turn out to be Atlantis - originally in the Mediteranean, inhabited by Egyptians or their descendants, with tech given them by the aliens (who built the pyramids, dontcha know!)...

    I'm so confused. And that's what keeps me watching.

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  5. O wise one, you are correct. It is a show of bad dads.
    I keep looking at that dang statue to try to see where the light hits it, thus figuring where that stupid shadow even IS.
    I agree that Kate let us all down. You could even see it on Jack's face when Roger started his tirade. And then again with Sawyer...come on Kate.
    BTW, love the background!

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  6. Here's something I just thought of. OK, we know from the present day scene at the Lamppost that the theory is that the island moves in time. It's never in the same place twice so that's why Windmore, Jack "we have to go baaaack", et al. can't go back there once they've left. HOWEVER, Dharma has a sub that goes back and forth form the mainland to the island and we've seen planes do air drops of Dharma food and supplies to present day Others and Oceanic Losties. How can they figure out where the island is to do that and Windmore can't?

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  7. I agree...one of the neat things about LOST is how deep it is! Talk about layers on top of layers. Although that could be a problem in and of itself to the writers & directors, because they seem to get lost themselves. All in all it's really a fun show...even when it gets quite creepy...last night was a great example of creepy/funny on the Miles & Hurley Show. This episode was such a spark of energy compared with the drab 70's of some of the past few episodes. Finally!

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  8. I'm confused about Daniel - wasn't he with them when they entered the 70s? Did he then pretend to be a Dharma scientist and get on the sub to meet with mommy? I don't think he is evil, he wants to find how to get them back.

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  9. I think Jack is just loving see Sawyer squirm with all the issues that keep coming up. Not sure what Jack's character is supposed to be either. Kate...can not believe she opened her mouth. Out of all the people who should know better. Doesn't jive with her character at all.
    Did you notice the dharma kids were learning about Egypt? It was on the blackboard.
    Liked learning about Miles backstory and feel sorry for the poor guy. Farrady recognizes him while getting off the sub. Glad he's back, and what a coincidence that all the people chosen for the freihter trip, were there before, the red head, Farraday, and Miles. Hmmm...
    I went out of town Wednesday to Friday so that's why I never did my LOST thoughts. It was so nice of you to check back. Thanks and hope you are having a lovely weekend!

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