LOST Season 3 Episode 14 (WARNING: SPOILERS)
“Expose”

It’s interesting that I’ve got a lot to say about an episode that does nothing whatsoever to forward the island plot threads…
Lots’a pluses, though.

So we find out Nikki and Paulo’s stories and end up with an interesting CSI on the island/morality tale/re-working of an old TV show convention.
A) the “murder mystery” was passable, though the second Artz (hey, dude! Good to see ‘ya!) talks about the Medusa spider, bam! There’s your culprit, Grissom. Though I must admit, I didn’t catch the whole “Paulo lies”/”paralyzed” thing. Sneaky…
B) again, passable, in that we have seen this sort of morality tale before (ultimately, they both end up getting what they want, and they can’t even enjoy it).
Also, I’m not entirely convinced this sort of side story has a proper place in Lost, given that at the end of it, both characters are (apparently) dead.
Lost flashbacks have always helped me understand characters and motivations better; once I’d seen where these people were coming from, it would become clear why they did certain things. But in this particular case, Nikki and Paulo end up dead. So what if I understand them better now? Thing is, I didn’t really know them at all. And perhaps that’s one of the points of this episode, that we never really know people, the way the other 815ers had no idea what this couple was up to.
But because they were introduced in Season 3, and hardly did anything at all in the past 13 episodes, I had no feeling for them one way or another, other than to hope that they contributed something significant to the show’s narrative before they died (as has sometimes happened in the past).
Well, if their ultimate contribution was this little morality tale, I’m not so sure it was all worth it.
C) Remember how your favorite TV shows of yesteryear would have those episodes where characters would reminisce, and we would see recycled clips from episodes past (among other things, a strategy to control a show’s budget, since you essentially shaved off the production cost of one entire episode)?
Well, this episode does it in grand style, not just by bringing back the dead (yay, Maggie Grace! And Evil Blush-On Man* himself, Ian Somerhalder!! And Leslie!!! I mean, Artz…), but by astoundingly inserting Kiele Sanchez into the amazing footage of the crash wreckage from the pilot.
Additionally, now that we know their story, it also becomes apparent why we never really saw a lot of them in the first two seasons, as they apparently had their own agenda, searching the island for a little black bag… (And didn’t they pull the old “someone hid something in the bathroom/oh, that’s why he went to the bathroom in that episode” trick with Charlie already?)

So, all in all, it was an enjoyable episode, though ultimately, it feels like a diversionary tactic, not having moved the island story forward and not really making me understand Nikki and Paulo any better. (What it did was neatly explain to me why I hadn’t seen them before.)
I don’t really see any long-lasting ramifications of this episode, unless 1) either or both of them pull a Beatrix Kiddo and somehow manage to dig out of their graves, or 2) that despite Sawyer’s poetic gesture, the contents of the little black bag become a plot point for the future… (And not in some hokey sort of “Here, Ben and the Others, take this and let us go, please” “Oh, sure, why not? I’ve always wanted these…” way, either.)
We’ll just have to see, won’t we?

* What I named Somerhalder after his recurring role in Smallville, where he played Adam Knight, one of those guys who gets involved with Lana, only to get Clark jealous, only to reveal himself to be a baddie. (Also, see Jensen Ackles, currently on Supernatural.)

LOST Season 3 Episode 10 (WARNING: SPOILERS)
“Tricia Tanaka Is Dead”

What is it about Lost and bad fathers?
Fathers on this show are conmen, drunks, abusive, crooked, or coldly controlling. Now you can add “absentee” to the list.
As it turns out, Hurley’s dad (played by Cheech Marin; too bad Chong wasn’t along for the ride) abandoned the family 17 years ago, and suddenly pops back into their now nouveau riche life to straighten out the son he walked out on all those years ago (and have some really long overdue sex with the missus).
And even as we get another peek into Hurley’s past, the island story (which I said last review was moving at a snail’s pace) begins to chug slowly along as Kate and Sawyer make it back to camp, finally getting Locke and Sayid off their a$$es and on the road to rescuing Jack.
So, although I was kind of expecting there was more of a story to the meteor hitting the fast food joint (and what happened to Marguerite Moreau?! She ran off with DJ Qualls? Come on! I thought there was more of a story there too.*), this episode does play better than last week’s, and not just because the island story is gradually revving up.
We also have nice little scenes of Jin being taught English (first by Sun, then by Sawyer), as well as the payoff to the whole “let’s get the VW running,” as Sawyer gets back to camp with a whole lotta beer and no one to share it with.
And now that they’ve finally informed Danielle that her daughter may very well be alive, I should mention something that didn’t occur to me till a few days after I’d written my review of episode 7 (“Not In Portland”): if Alex really is Ben’s biological daughter (and not simply adopted), then why is it that Ben came into the survivors’ lives through his “misfortune” of getting caught in one of Rousseau’s traps? If Ben really is Alex’s biological father, then Danielle must know who he is, shouldn’t she? Or was she in on it? Did she knowingly allow Ben to insert himself into the survivors’ lives because she struck some kind of deal with Ben? (I have always thought that if Ben is such a smart guy, how stupid was he that he got caught in one of Rousseau’s traps? And what, he was traipsing around the jungle all by his lonesome? The all-powerful leader of the Others? I dunno…)
Or is that how far gone Danielle is that she can’t even recognize the father of her own child? Or maybe the Others’ Alex is just a young woman who happens to be named Alex and isn’t actually Rousseau’s daughter. Was there even a real Alex to begin with? Maybe Rousseau’s just completely loony and this stolen baby episode never really happened.
So many questions…
Then again, this is Lost.

* And I love Marguerite Moreau! Please tell me we’ll see her again. Since we see the point when Hurley leaves for Australia in this episode, the only chance we’ll see Starla again is if we do see the events leading to DJ Qualls running away with her…

Parting shot: Still waiting for Paulo and Nikki to make that significant contribution… What’s his excuse this week? Oh, yeah. He was gonna get some bananas. Right.

Parting shot 2: Hurley should really think twice before chasing Vincent out into the jungle. I mean, I love the dumb dog, but he was one of the key factors in Shannon’s death by Ana-Lucia…