Thursday 12 February 2009

Time-travelling blog: 2005 - Lost s01e024 - Discussion - Artz and Craftiness



My head is still ringing from this final jungle-trekking, hatch-opening, character-exploding episode. We have a whole two-hours to muse over, so let's get straight to it.

We finally got to see the much-mentioned Black Rock, as the French Woman instructs the lostaways to march across the jungle to find the dynamite hidden within. It turns out it's an old boat, and not a rock at all, and it sits in the middle of the jungle. Quite how it got there is anyone's business. Either it dropped in from the sky, or the island itself moved somehow. I guess it's the vehicular equivalent of a Polar Bear in the jungle.

It turns out dynamite is a temperamental substance, a lesson that costs recently-introduced Artz his life. After seeming to become set up as a major character for the second season, the poor chap explodes all over Hurley, Jack and Kate. Whether this means we'll see other cast members knocked off so suddenly in future is the subject of much speculation. Despite being many viewers favourite, I'm pretty sure Locke will die early next series. He served his purpose being 'at one' with the island in this first series, but could we really endure another 24 episodes watching him turn slowly into some martyr?

Introducing characters in this show is always going to be tough. Surely Lost only exists as long as the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 do. If they try to introduce more characters in future seasons I'm sure the fans will be vocal in their anger. There's only so long they can promote background characters to regulars though, and it's not as if they're just going to have new folk rock out of the jungle every week.

The raft containing Sawyer, Walt and Michael sails out to sea, and for a moment I allow myself to think they'll find rescue. I'm aware that a second season has been commissioned already, but if Lost ended now I think it would stand as an almost perfect piece of television. Every character has gone through an emotional epiphany in these past twenty three episodes, and for them to return home changed people would be a wonderful sight to behold. Jack and Kate will probably get married, Charlie would re-release his album now he's escaped death, and Hurley will probably give them all a huge chunk of his millions! It would just have been a shame Boone didn't survive until the end of the series. Let's hope none of the other thirteen characters meet the same fate next series.

Instead of rescue the raft is met by a mysterious group of rag-tag bums on a boat. They are going to have to "take the boy", and whisk Walt off after blowing up the make-shift boat Michael had spent so long building, twice. Their small trawler chugs off out of sight, and the last we see of the our sea-bound suvivors is Michael yelling "Waaaaaaaaaaalllllttt". Quite who this group of people are is a mystery fans are obviously very excited about, and theories range from them being the much-hyped 'Others' to 'the 815 survivors but from the future'. Both these seem implausible though. Ethan was the leader of the Others, and had supernatural strength, whereas this bunch looked like they'd set off for a days crab-fishing. As for the idea of time-travel, I'm not sure even a show as rooted in fantasy would ever go fully sci-fi. Plus, I doubt Jack would could ever pull off a beard.

I do hope Michael survives though, as he's my favourite character. The others have family and other loved ones to get back to, but his devotion to his son is the most compelling storyline. If, as I said above, Locke takes a lesser role in the next season, I hope Michael steps up to become a challenger to Jack's 'hero' role.

On-land, after a convoluted idea to hide in it to avoid attack from these 'Others', Jack and Locke finally blow the lid off the hatch and stare down into the void. Rather than on any kind of revelation the first series of Lost ends with two men carrying torches shrinking away as our view falls slowly downwards. Fans are understandably a bit miffed. They've invested twenty four hours in this series, and at the moment the payout is as varied as anything that could possibly exist down a long tunnel. Theories therefore haven't changed from earlier in the series, and we'll just have to wait until September to see if any of them is even close.

Is the hatch a tunnel to the centre of the island, where a crazy old scientist is controlling everyone's mind? Is it the system of travel for the mysterious smoke monster? Is it a fallen space station, or an alien craft? Is it a Truman Show style window into the real world, and our survivors have just been partaking in an elaborate reality TV show? For all we know they'll just climb down on a rope and be greeted by some chap who's living there who doesn't know WW2 ended. Whatever it is, fans will be equally excited and annoyed I'm sure.

Bring on September.

3 comments:

  1. Here's a time travelling comment, you cheat. But mine's from the future.
    [FlashBack noise]
    (Series 6 episode 24)
    Well that was shit. We get to see the plane crash AGAIN from another angle AGAIN. And Kate can't decide who to pick between a Jack who's getting increasingly blinky and twitchy because the actor can't convey emotions, and fat angry Sawyer. Where the hell was Walt, eh?
    Balls to it.
    [FlashBack noise]

    ReplyDelete
  2. Why? Why would you do this? IF you want to time travel go to the last ever episode tell if Kate is with Sawyer, Penny with Desmond and if 'it was all a dream'.

    ReplyDelete