LOST
Season 4 Episode 4
“Eggtown”
Written by Elizabeth Sarnoff & Greggory Nations
Directed by Stephen Williams
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

Back at the Barracks, Locke is still out of sorts, uncertain what his next move should be. He’s so desperate he actually tries to get Ben to tell him what needs to be done, something Ben crows about of course, observing Locke’s more lost now than he’s ever been.
Locke acts all cool but once he’s out of the room (but still within Ben’s hearing distance), he smashes some plates against the wall.
Ben.
Smiles.
(Why does Locke always do that? Act all cool and unruffled, then break some stuff when Ben can still hear? He did that back in the hatch too.)

Kate meanwhile, is actually living with Claire, while Sawyer is roomies with Hugo. Sawyer tries to woo Kate to stay with him, but she’s more interested in Miles.
Ahem.
To talk to Miles.
Kate tries to get Miles’ whereabouts out of Locke, but he keeps his lips sealed, and reminds Kate Jack isn’t in charge here and that this isn’t a democracy. (What did I say before? Locke can be just like Ben…)
So Kate finagles Miles’ location from an unsuspecting Hugo, and when she gets there, she asks Miles what he knows about her. Miles says he just wants one minute with someone, then he’ll tell her what she wants to know.
Kate asks, Who?
Miles says, You know who.

Kate then asks Sawyer for help to break Ben out so she can hook him up with Miles. (Ewww. That’s even more disturbing than Kate being interested in Miles.)
Oh, and Xanadu’s playing in the background…
Sawyer then shows up at Locke’s for a game of backgammon, during which time Locke seems to be fishing for what the popular vote is regarding his leadership. Sawyer says all the others are sheep, except maybe for Kate. Sawyer then tells Locke about Kate’s earlier request regarding Ben. Locke says, Whatever Miles has to say to Ben, I want to hear too.
So they head on off to the boathouse where Miles is being held, only to find him gone. (Cue Sawyer’s act of having been bamboozled by Kate…)

Kate brings the mountain to Mohammed, and can the angry young ghost whisperer get any sleazier? It turns out he wants $3.2 million from Ben, in exchange for Miles telling his employer that, Oh, you know what? We found Ben, but he was dead.
Miles wants the $3.2 mil in cash, in two days. Ben points out how that might be difficult given his current circumstances. So Miles gives him an extension: a week.
Idiot.
Kate then asks the idiot (oh, sorry, angry ghost whisperer) what he knows about her, and Miles tells her he knows about her fugitive status, as does the public at large, and that unless she wants to end up behind the bars just as soon as she’s rescued, she should probably just stay on the Island.
Locke then arrives and breaks up the party.

Locke visits Claire’s later on to have a chat with Kate, and asks her what Miles’ chat with Ben was all about. Kate tells him, then Locke promptly banishes her.
Kate goes to Sawyer’s, and tells him Locke’s decree, but Sawyer unbanishes Kate, and says he’ll take care of her. They start rasslin’ on the bed…
The next morning, Sawyer initiates some more rasslin’, but Kate’s having none of it (as she apparently had none of it last night as well). Sawyer thinks he gets it, and says, Oh, you’re still worried you’re pregnant.
Kate says, I’m not.
Sawyer’s relieved, though Kate just seems upset. Then she says she has to go. Sawyer says, You were just waiting for an excuse to leave, and now you’ve got it. Then he says, Fine. In a week, Jack’ll do something that’ll get you pissed off at him and you’ll come running back to me, to which Kate’s reply is a stinging slap.
Then she leaves.

Meanwhile, Locke, ticked off about the whole Kate-Miles-Ben thing (again, ewww), decides to leave a live grenade in Miles’ mouth…
Man, Locke is really flying off the rails…

Back at the beach, there’s a nice scene between Sun and Jin, with Jin looking a map of the U.S. over, picking places for them to live once they get off the Island, all of which meet with disapproval from Sun (“too hot,” “too many people,” etc.).
Sun asks, What’s wrong with Korea? (Uh, duhh, your shady criminal father lives there?)
Jin says, I learned English for you, so we can live in America.
Sun says, I want to raise my baby in Korea.
Jin says, Don’t you mean “our” baby?
But that conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Jack with Daniel and Charlotte.

Later on, Jack, concerned he hasn’t heard anything from Sayid, gets the Boat People to ‘fess up about the other emergencies-only number, which they ring up on their NaomiPhone, and which is answered by the still unseen Regina.
Daniel asks about the helicopter. Regina says, I thought the helicopter was with you…

Oh, and before we leave the Island this week, there’s one little scene that takes place in the Barracks, as Claire and Kate are hanging the laundry out to dry. Aaron starts to make a fuss, and Claire asks Kate, Can you pick him up and just rock him a little?
Kate looks really hesitant and says, I’m not very good with babies.
Claire says, Okay, and picks Aaron up herself. Then she says, You should try it some time…

And… onward flash-forward, ho!
Kate’s on trial for the gazillion and one crimes she’s wanted for, and when the prosecutor asks that she be held in custody for the duration of the trial, the judge agrees, and Kate’s cuffed and hauled off to jail.
Man, that was a surprisingly strong scene… You can see the whole “I can’t stand being tied down” vibe that just oozes off Evangeline Lilly.

Later on, Kate’s lawyer says, We’re in trouble, and your sick mother’s the prosecution’s star witness. He says, Let’s make this about character. Let’s bring him in.
Kate says, No. I’m not dragging my son into this. (Wait for it…)

In court, Kate’s lawyer brings in (without conferring with Kate first) Jack!
On the witness stand, Jack flat out lies: 8 people survived the crash; I almost died; Kate saved me; Kate saved us all…
Kate stands and says, Stop. This is my trial. What happened back there doesn’t matter.
Kate’s lawyer says, Fine. I got my answer.
And the prosecution pounces: Do you love Kate Austen, Dr. Shepard?
Gulp.
Jack: No. Not anymore.
Ho.
Lee.
Smoke.

Later on, Kate’s lawyer wheels Kate’s mum into a room so mother and daughter can talk.
Kate doesn’t want to, but she’s not really given a choice.
Momma Austen asks, Was what that doctor said true? That you saved all of them?
And she goes on to say, Things changed since the last time we saw each other (you know? That time I screamed bloody murder and called the fuzz on your a$$, baby girl?); things changed when I thought you were dead.
I didn’t want to testify against you.
Kate says, Then don’t.
Momma Austen says, Let me see my grandson.
Kate says, That’s what this is about? You wanted to make a deal?
Kate says, I don’t want you anywhere near him. Then, We’re done here.

At the following court date, the prosecution claims their star witness can’t testify due to medical reasons. Judge calls for a recess. Prosecutor Lady talks with Kate and her lawyer.
It turns out Momma Austen doesn’t want to testify against Kate anymore, and thus, their case is badly compromised now.
Plea bargaining ensues.
Kate will not take any prison time, so the deal is, Ten years probation, and Kate can’t leave the state. Kate says, Fine. I just want this over. I’m not going anywhere. I have a son. (Wait for it…)

Just as Kate is leaving the court house, Jack meets her.
Kate says, I’ve heard you tell that story so many times now, I’m starting to wonder if you believe it yourself.
Jack says, What I said up there? That wasn’t true.
Kate asks, You want to follow me? You want to see him?
Jack says, evasively, I actually have to get to the hospital, but can we meet for a coffee sometime?
Kate says, I understand why you don’t want to see him, but until you decide that you can, then there won’t be any meetings for coffee.
And Kate gets in her cab and leaves.

And she gets to her house…
And she greets someone who I assume is her housekeeper…
And she goes up to her son’s room…
And I’m thinking, What? Will he have Sawyer’s stubble and a conniving mind, or Jack’s bad hair and obsessive nature?
And Kate’s son turns out to be… Aaron…

I told you to wait for it…

So this episode slows down the Lost mythology a tad, as what we get is basically a story that puts the whole “shouldn’t Kate be rotting in jail after getting off the Island?” clamour conveniently to rest.
A little too neatly? Perhaps.
But they do smack you upside on the head with that cliffhanger.
So what happened to Claire? Did she get left back on the Island? Did she (gasp!) die?
But what about Des’ future-flash, of Claire and Aaron getting on a helicopter? Did Claire stupidly fall out of the helicopter? Or, distraught at Charlie’s death, plunge to a watery grave to join the ex-junkie rocker? (I kid, I kid…)

Seriously though, I am concerned about Claire’s welfare. I’d also like to think that Charlie’s sacrifice wasn’t for naught; after all, it was Des’ vision that was Charlie’s driving motivation to go diving to the Looking Glass.
And since the child Jack so obviously didn’t want to see is Aaron, that means he doesn’t want to be reminded of Claire. The important question at this point is, of course, does Jack already know that Aaron is his half-nephew?
After all, knowing about the biological connection could go either way: if Jack doesn’t know, then it’s simply because he’ll be reminded of Claire; and if he already knows, then Aaron will just remind him of his half-sister, making things even worse.
Then again, if Jack knew about the blood connection, he could get all obsessive-y as he sometimes does, which he clearly isn’t, as far as seeing Aaron.
Jack isn’t the easiest person to figure out…

All that, and we get a couple of scenes that feel like set-ups for subsequent episodes: the “what happened to the helicopter” scene is obviously an Island cliffhanger, and the Sun-Jin scene also feels like foreshadowing for some future episode.
Will we see Sun off the Island? Please, please, please let her be one of the Oceanic Six. Don’t let the bad sexist Island have its way with her and the baby…
And speaking of the Oceanic Six, we’re still looking at Jack, Hugo, Kate, and Sayid. (Ben and Aaron being part of the Six seems iffy to me at this point.)
So two more…
Can Sun be one of those two?
Please?

COUNTDOWN: 44.

Parting shot: Incidentally, the edition of Philip K. Dick’s Valis, which Locke brings to Ben along with his breakfast (of the last two eggs in town), is the exact same edition that I got to read from a friend’s library once…
I loved that book, and now have cause to hunt it down in the bargain bins, if only to read it again, to see if I missed something… (I may not like Locke a lot these days, but it does pay to listen to him once in a while…)

(Image courtesy of ABC and aol.com.)

LOST
Season 3 Episodes 22 & 23
(WARNING: SPOILERS)
“Through the Looking Glass” 1 & 2

Gentlemen, I asked you to dazzle me after enduring “Stranger in a Strange Land.”
Well, I’m officially blinded.
That has to go down as not just the best Lost season finale thus far, but also one of the most kick-a$$ season finales in all of TV history. When they said that this finale would change everything, that wasn’t just hyperbole.
I could go on about the twisty-turns of the episode itself (and it had that in spades), but the ultimate twisty-turn is that brilliant climax, of Jack, by the airport, as Kate drives away, because “he” might be wondering where she’s gone to.
Once again, Lost deftly toys with the show’s story structure, as what we assume to be the flashbacks (of a depressed and suicidal Jack hooked on prescription meds), turn out to be the present, and all the Island stuff is actually the flashbacks.
I said there were spoilers, didn’t I?

So it seems as if the Flight 815 crash survivors were indeed saved and rescued from the Island (at the cost of Charlie, who drowned in the Looking Glass station, just as Des saw in his flashes*).
Just before the off-screen rescue though, three crucial points:
1) Ben says that Naomi is “one of the bad guys,” and that she’s part of a group that’s been looking for the Island for a really long time, and that they would kill Jack and the survivors, not rescue them.
2) When Charlie gets the transmission from Penny at the Looking Glass, she does not know who Naomi is, and has no idea about any boat.
3) Locke actually kills Naomi and threatens to shoot Jack, since contacting Naomi’s people is the wrong thing to do.

And then of course, in the “flashbacks,” Jack is clearly a lost soul, and in his clandestine meeting with Kate, he says they should never have left the Island, and that they need to go back.

This is such a crackerjack finale, “brilliant” seems like an understatement. That ultimate twisty-turn opens the door to a whole host of possibilities, and raises all sorts of questions. (My head is doing a Linda Blair even as I type this.)
Whose viewing did Jack attend? A viewing apparently no one else from 815 went to. Locke’s? Michael’s? (Yes, I still hate the a$$hole’s guts.) Ben’s?
What happened to all the rest of the 815ers? Is Jack the only one who feels something is wrong, or are some of the others “lost” as well? (Heh. “Others.” “Lost.”)
Rousseau said she would stay on the Island since that was where she belonged. Is she still there? Is Alex? Is Locke? (If he wasn’t the one in that casket.)
As Jack suffers, where is Juliet? They did do the kissy-face back on the Island, so where is she in Jack’s time of need?
And did Kate really end up with Sawyer?
So many questions…

And of course, the other reality here is, Lindelof, Cuse, and company have again (for the time being) managed to evade addressing long-standing Island questions, among them one from all the way back to the Pilot (What is the Monster Alternately Known As Smokey?), to ones of more recent mint (Who is Jacob?), to the Mother of all Lost questions (What is the Island?**).

Having said that though, I cannot deny the guts it took to make that leap. I also cannot deny the skill with which that leap was made.
That was explosive television, gentlemen. The storytelling on this show continues to be some of the best on the cathode ray horizon, and as Carrie Fisher said over On The Lot, “My hat, wherever it is, is off to you.”

And thanks for not having Sun die horribly in labor on the Island. (Of course, for all I know, she and her baby have been abducted by Dharma or some other mysterious organization to undergo insidious tests. Her baby, after all, is the first child to have been conceived on the Island in what I guess is a very long time, assuming of course that the baby is alive and well.)
Speaking of babies, when exactly will Jack find out that Claire is his half-sister and that Aaron is his half-nephew? I mean, wasn’t that bit of info in the files the Others had on the 815ers? Didn’t Juliet read that? Surely Ben did.

Let’s just toss that on the massive pile of Lost questions, shall we?
I’ll admit it: I love this show, but it’s the biggest tease on television.
Onward ho! Season 4!

* Incredibly moving, but couldn’t Charlie have squeezed through that porthole, once the room was filled with water? And did he really need to shut the door in the first place?

** I’ve got a theory which grew over the course of season 3, and burst into my consciousness as I watched the 2-hour finale. But somehow I’d still feel like a raving lunatic if I voiced it here.
Tell you what. When Lost finally does that reveal, I’ll admit whether I was right or wrong.

COUNTDOWN: 48.
COUNTDOWN TO RESUME IN 2008.
THE DHARMA INITIATIVE NEEDS YOU.

(Season 3 promotional image courtesy of atnzone.com.)

LOST
Season 3
Episode 21
(WARNING:
SPOILERS)
“Greatest Hits”

Now this is Lost at its best, when the emotion which accompanies the focused character’s story is potent and incredibly moving, while the Island story’s plot is cruising at a rapid clip. The success is all the more notable in that the Island story isn’t just “cruising at a rapid clip” in this particular episode, it’s careening into overdrive as we speed on towards this season’s finale.

Charlie’s the focus this time out, as he learns from Des that he needs to die in order for Claire and Aaron to get on board a helicopter, apparently to get rescued. It seems Charlie will flick a switch, and then drown, and this event has to take place, in order for the “rescue” to occur.
So, facing his impending death with as much courage as he can muster, Charlie sets out to write a list of the 5 best moments of his “sorry excuse for a life,” his Greatest Hits, spurred on by Naomi mentioning that his “death” in the Oceanic 815 crash caused a big stir, and even led to a new DriveShaft album, a Greatest Hits package.

And herein are some of the most moving bits in Charlie’s story thus far. Weighted by all the emotional baggage that his character carries (and which we’ve been privy to over the past 3 seasons), we’re in on the process of letting go, just as Charlie is. The journey is astoundingly moving, and I guess I should’ve been psyching myself out for that goodbye, given that Charlie’s death has been in the cards since early on in this season, but there you go.
Man, this was a toughie to get through, what, with all his goodbyes, to Claire, Aaron (you left the ring in the crib! Doofus!), and Hurley.
And then, the apparent last minute reprieve, as Des offers Charlie an out, but Charlie opts for the Ferro Lad Gambit. (Sorry, comic book reference. In case that went over your head, Bruce Willis pulled the Ferro Lad Gambit too, in Armageddon.)
And then!
Oooh, these sneaky little buggers!
You get all worked up and prepare yourself for Charlie buying it at episode’s end… and he doesn’t! Some gun-toting women are in the Looking-Glass Station and they’ve got Charlie in their sights.
Great. Now I’ll have to go and psych myself out from square one all over again…

Parting shot 1: I’m sure the Lost people know this, but Michael Giacchino is such a prize. Man, he does know how to rachet up the suspense with that score.

Parting shot 2: That was Nadia, right? In Covent Garden, with Charlie? If that was, then she’s crossed paths with 3 survivors thus far: Sayyid, of course, and Charlie, and Locke. I guess she really must’ve gotten around in her life as a fugitive.

Parting shot 3: Wow. I didn’t even get to talk about the Island story…
Okay, Lemme just say, I apologize for not trusting Rousseau and her motives for raiding the Black Rock’s store of dynamite. Apparently, it was for Jack’s scheme to get back at the Others (Jack, who I also mistrusted for a spell back there; sorry, the Island doesn’t really foster trust, if you know what I mean).
Oooh, we’re leading up to a doozy, aren’t we? With the shooters staying behind, and the rest hiking to the radio tower…
Next up, the two-part finale, with Jack as spotlight character.

COUNTDOWN: 50

(Image courtesy of sparklies.org.)