Right. First off. After such an awesome episode last week that dealt with time travel and all the excitement that comes with that, they were going always going to have trouble following it up. Fact is, last week was pretty much an All-Desmond Supersode, but the programme is actually an ensemble piece about the lives of around 12 characters. They have to keep ‘touching base’ with all the different storylines going on, or people start yelling ‘What about the Black Smoke’ and speculating that the show has jumped the shark, or that they are ‘making it up as they go along’. I dipped into that mindset at some point a couple of weeks ago and then suddenly... POW! TIME TRAVEL. I think it’s part of the show’s appeal that each week can have a totally different ‘feel’ due to the nature of the on and off-island stories being told. Sayid is always violent off-island, Hurley is funny, Locke is emotional and Jack is always a plum. Anyway, that was last week. Let’s look at what did happen this week.
The beginning was great! Juliet being revealed as a ‘celebrity’ was a great example of how the show plays with it’s audience, realises themes and plays on them. I for one was already planning my very angry email about how she wasn’t on the Oceanic flight when it became apparent at the appearance of moustached Mr Friendly that this is, in fact, on-island but in the past. This is the stuff which I really love about the show, which perhaps puts less avid viewers off... The fact that it is the most scrutinised piece of television ever created is reflected in how they write the show. Every detail, from location, to dress, props, haircuts is key in actually hinting or revealing major parts of the story. It’s not just in-jokes and esoteric shout-outs to nerds on the internet, it’s their method of storytelling. For instance, the whole Flashforward at the end of Season 3. Jack has a beard, so we cannot place this event in the timeline of Lost, where he’s never had facial hair. He is listening to Nirvana’s ‘Scentless Apprentice’ in his car, which, if contemporary gives us roughly the year 1993. He’s depressed and popping pills, which based on our knowledge of the character from previous episodes puts these events after his break-up with Sarah. But that was post-1993, surely? And didn’t he go to Thailand and get some shitty tattoo’s? When does he fly to LA to pick up his dad? In fact, he later mentions his dad being upstairs in the hospital. When the fuck did this episode take place? Then POW at the end they reveal that it it in fact post-island, and it’s the actual surprise of the whole season. They. Get. Off. The. Island. Woah. The details of the production so obsessed over by people such as myself were methods they used to throw us all off the scent, and the payoff was actual drama, not just a big old nerd-circle-jerk.
I reckon their next ploy will be to show what looks like ‘now’ and to have it reveal to be a flashforward. I’m holding out for a Locke on-island flashforward of 2 years to do this.
Anyway, I’ve gone off the point.
Jack loves too many women. How many possible love interests has he actually had? Sarah, Kate, Anna Lucia (briefly at the airport) and now Juliet. And how many times has he got to do the no-pants dance? No wonder he’s so fucking highly strung.
If Juliet looks like ‘her’, who is ‘she’? I reckon it’s Annie, his childhood sweetheart. She was blonde, and it’s never been confirmed or denied that she died in the Purge when he gasses everyone. A theory is that she was the first to die during childbirth, giving birth to Ben’s child, and is the reason he’s so dedicated to solving the ‘women dying during childbirth’ thing that seems to happen on-island. I felt sorry for Ben at points in this episode. He cooked a ham and everything...
The whole Daniel and Charlotte running across the island nonsense... Couldn’t really give a fuck. It’s all new new new just when people are excited to be getting some of the old old old sorted out in their heads.
Jim Robinson IS the big baddy. I was right! He can’t be in the remainder of the series though, as he’s here at Cambridge Circus every night doing Spamalot. So Widmore is trying to find the island, buying up parts of the Black Rock etc, as it holds some magical power? He gave the picture of Penny and Desmond to Naomi to trick him into thinking it was her boat?
Hang on... The boat was Libby’s, who gave it to Desmond. She was seen in a Hurley flashback in the mental institute, and there was much speculation at the time that she is part of Widmore, or working for him. The theory was that the husband she mentioned who died was killed by Hurley during that incident where a platform collapsed due to his weight, and so she was pursuing him on the island in order to steal his millions. But giving the boat to Desmond always seemed a bit odd... Maybe Jim Robinson employed her, making her give this boat of his to Desmond, allowing him to have his boatrace around the world. Jim Robinson knew this would lead this chap who he wanted far from his daughter anway, to the island of magic?
Further Libby speculation. After the description last week of time travel, constants and shifting consciousness making you seem a bit mental. What if the Lenny at the institution that Hurley used to hear the numbers is someone on-island trying to send the numbers to him? The way Desmond was chanting things he was trying to remember was he dipped in and out of present day consciousness did seem quite similar. Also, if Lenny is time travelling, maybe Libby was too? Perhaps she needed to go out with Hurley as he was her constant...
It’s Michael on the boat, isn’t it? Next week is the last before a short hiatus, as it flows better than ending on episode 8 apparently. Which means it’s a cliff-hanger, or some great reveal. Last shot is Michael, I would stake my Lost reputation on it!
Phew. That was long.
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