the blast door map

apologies for the late posts. have been out of town the last two weeks. generally, look for new posts on mondays. i like to use the time to reference the podcasts, chew over details, and even do some research. having the weekend allows me to be more thorough. here we go:

written by: eddie kitsis and adam horowitz. these guys are on a roll. for season 5, the duo were promoted to executive producers, giving them very strong voices in the show's endgame. they wrote the second episode this season, hurley's 'the lie.'

directed by: paul edwards, who has directed a handful of episodes throughout the seasons, all of them pretty good, including 'what kate did,' 'two for the road,' 'par avion,' and 'cabin fever.'

in short: an astonishing episode that pays off on a plethora of setups stretching back to season 1.

1. rousseau and the unlikely jin coincidences
   
2. charlotte and the place of death
   
3. smokey and the temple of doom
   
4. off-island and the general yawn of disinterest
   
5. christian shepard and the mystery of the buttoned-up top button
6. eloise hawking and the continuing enhanced episode irritation
7. montand's arm and the many detailed references of years past
8. john locke and the many questions surrounding him
   
9. preboomer and the teeny tiny gripe
   

1. rousseau and the unlikely jin coincidences

so here's the thing everyone's been wondering: what exactly is the season 1-4 history between rousseau and jin? does it make sense that rousseau didn't 'remember' jin upon running into him again, 16 years after she first met him in 1988? after analyzing rousseau's interactions with the survivors, she is rarely seen with the group of survivors as a whole, and when she is, it's usually just before the group splits into two camps, and get this, she has always been in the opposite camp from jin. here is the breakdown of the rousseau/jin timeline:

• Thursday, 4 November 2004: (exodus, part 1) rousseau appears at the survivors camp to warn them that the others are coming. she speaks to the survivors as a group, jin is among them, but never differentiates himself. at this point he also doesn't speak any english.
  

• later that day, jin leaves on the raft. rousseau is not present for the launch. this is also the day that she leads a small group to the black rock, and tells them of montand's arm, the 'sickness,' and refers to smokey as 'a security system.'

• Friday, 5 November 2004: (the other 48 days) jin returns to the island after washing up with the tailies and doesn't rejoin the beach camp until Monday, November 8. (boy, it sure seemed like jin was gone a lot longer than a weekend, didn't it?)

• Monday, 20 December, 2004 (greatest hits) jin is part of the group jack takes inland to explain his plan to defeat the others: by using dynamite to thwart their attempt to abduct the pregnant women. jack's group (with jin) meets rousseau in the clearing, after she has retrieved dynamite from the black rock. after the demonstration, the group quickly splits up: jin stays behind to ignite the dynamite, while rousseau leads the rest to the radio tower to turn off her distress call. (through the looking glass)

• Tuesday, 21 December, 2004 (the beginning of the end) the survivors (including rousseau) convene at the ruins of the plane's front end and split into two camps: jin goes with jack, rousseau goes with locke. this is the last time rousseau and jin cross paths.
  

so, here's my conclusion, and while it's slightly cagey, i'm fairly certain that this is the way d&c will be spinning it: after their adventure together, yes, rousseau would surely remember jin; however, after 16 years in isolation, for her to see a similar looking person in the background of a group of people is not sufficient cause for her to have had a moment of recognition. that said, it would have been awesome if in season 1, there was even a tiny hint of recognition after rousseau saw jin amongst the survivors. but it's simply not there. this is a story point that was developed late, and retconned into the larger storyline. they got really lucky that jin hadn't really had any previous interaction with rousseau - or rather, we got lucky, otherwise we might never might have learned the story of montand's arm.

looks like my theory about jin being rousseau's constant is incorrect - the 'sickness' experienced by her crew seems to have come from the temple, not from time jumping.

2. charlotte and the place of death



wha!? they libbied her! they nikki/paolo'd her! she had, what, five lines her entire time on the show? was this really the grand character arc they had planned? here are some theories:

• the writers never really liked her. the role was written for kristin bell, who turned it down for to do 'heroes' instead. damon and carlton got their first choices on all the other new season 4 characters except charlotte, and may have been disappoined by mader's performance.
  

• she failed to connect to the audience. the only episode where charlotte got to do anything of note, 'the other woman,' was rebecca mader's real audition: with the audience. while it's true that she didn't ever get much to do, it's also true that she never did much with what she had. at the moment ken leung (miles) is getting little more than punchlines, but man can he nail every one of them.

• this was always the plan. there is only one season left. there are a lot of storylines to tie up in relatively few episodes. charlotte was always designed to die, and then figure back into the show as a child than an adult. kristin bell's career was taking off, and in a bit to get her on the show, they promised a short character arc the start. it's also quite possible that we will see more of rebecca mader as a ghost and/or in flashbacks.

but i don't think this was always the plan. as a character, charlotte was one of 'lost's' handful of failures. she expressed no opinion or perspective on any issue, and was entirely defined through faraday's inexplicable attraction to her. charlotte was an anthropologist so that she could guide us through the temple and read the heiroglyphs and keep our heroes from getting the 'sickness' that afflicted rousseau's science team. guess that plan's getting a bit course corrected.

also: she became an anthropologist in order to find the island? not cartographer? oceanographer? geologist? what was young charlotte exposed to that led her to believe that anthropology would be the field to lead her home? also, if daniel was present with her as both an adult and child, why wouldn't he be her constant?



charlotte's last words were 'i’m not allowed to have chocolate before dinner.' ryan mcgee made a great prediction that daniel will try to give young charlotte an apollo candy bar when warning her about coming back to the island.

3. smokey and the temple of doom



it's hard to believe just how much information was packed into every minute of this episode - the opening segments with rousseau were among the most riveting in the show's history. following the french crew as they discover the numbers transmission, and then trek into the jungle, brought back the feeling of both season 1 and 'the other 48 days' - reliving the horror/adventure through a new cast of characters.

right away, we encountered smokey, aka cerberus (according to the blast door map). damon and carlton have said that each time we see smokey, we must learn something new. let's quickly recap what we know about smokey:

• attempts to drag certain people underground
• stops directly in front of certain people, seems to 'download' their memories
• can be repelled by the sonar fence, built by dharma
• can be repelled by dynamite
• can at least be summoned, if not controlled by something underground.
• is connected to the hieroglyphs and ruins seen throughout the island.
• 'downloaded' memories are somehow connected to ghost manifestations (eko's brother)

new things learned:

• partial possible purpose: protect 'the temple.'
• capable of removing limbs
• can play with people's brains (the sickness?)
  

the temple, the heiroglyphs, smokey, and the ghosts all seem somehow related. i have a feeling that this season we will get a jaw-dropping revelation that neatly slots in the missing piece of the puzzle - like when juliet's flashback single-handedly explained the entirety of the other's actions regarding claire's pregnancy.

so, what is in the temple?? it was first mentioned last season, when ben sent rousseau and alex there, telling them it was the 'only safe place on the island.' rousseau didn't express any hesitation to trek back to the place that destroyed her crew, which seems like a continuity error. however, i do think it's possible that by the time the writers decided to kill rousseau, they had formulated the plan to bookend her time on the island with reference to 'the temple.'

in the most recent podcast, d&c said that what we've seen of the temple is merely the 'outer wall' of a much larger structure.. hmm..

this is the season of mythological payoff. damon and carlton have gone on record saying as much, and have gone further to say that next season is the season of character payoff, and will return to the feeling of season 1: with the plot/character balance tipping back toward the latter.

4. off-island and the general yawn of disinterest



officially, this episode is classified as jin/sun centric. greg nations, whose job is keeping 'lost's' continuity, has said that the centricity of an episode is found in the opening scene, which makes sense. this episode was about sun coming to learn that jin is still alive, and about jin deciding that sun should believe he is dead; at the center of it all is jin's wedding ring, ironically used as 'proof' of both points.

otherwise, meh. the gun-pointing and side-switching, the 'meet me at the dock so we can drive to a church' (why not just meet at the church?), and the obstacles that serve only to stall returning to the island (sayid and kate say 'seeya,' hurley runs to jail) have been testing patience for 5 episodes. it echoes the structure of season 3's 6 episode mini season that locked kate and sawyer in polar bear cages.

at least damon and carlton knew we would be frustrated by this off-island story before the season even began airing. here's a january quote from damon:

I think everyone, writers and fans alike, feels the show is at its best when our characters are together... but the fact of the matter is that the story is constantly twisting and turning to keep them apart. Let's face it -- Absence makes the heart grow fonder... but there's nothing sweeter than a reunion. All we're willing to say at this point is that if we were to spend the entire duration of Season Five with the Oceanic Six trying to get back to the island, we are fully aware that the audience would strangle us.

so they are coming back soon. maybe tonight. ms. hawking's 70 hour time limit helped up the urgency as well.

5. christian shepard and the mystery of the buttoned-up top button



the return of the ghost of christian shepard! this question has been puzzling me since season 3: ever since christian appeared in jacob's cabin, his wardrobe changed deliberately and dramatically. his ghost, when seen by jack (or vincent, in the webisode 'so it begins,') is always wearing a dark suit with white tennis shoes.



after appearing in the cabin, and when seen by others, he is wearing the same brown striped shirt, buttoned up to the top.



the implication seems clear: this person is different from the other ghosts, including whatever it is that appears to jack in similar form. this person tells locke 'say hello to my son,' while jack has been 'saying hello' to the ghost of his dad for quite a while before locke appears off-island.



6. eloise hawking and the continuing enhanced episode irritation

woah, ellie! let's look at our ellies:



did daniel meet his own mother in the past?



did daniel name his time-jumping rat after mommy?



yes he did! the screenshot above aired on abc the week after the season premiere, and stated ms. hawking's first name a full three episodes before we were narratively intended to discover it. thank you abc for sapping the joy out of this episode's final revelation. moments of revelation are great because they either confirm your theories or blow your mind. whether it 'seemed obvious' to you or not, leaked information isn't cool. this was an irresponsible in-show spoiler, and it's not the first time the popups have spilled info.

damon and carlton have said that info in the popups is by a marketing group and not sanctioned or canon - but the popup writers do have access to several episodes at a time, and tip answers that might be coming in the next week's episode. i urge you again, do not watch the enhanced episodes. or better yet, call the marketing firm that writes them and complain.

7. montand's arm and the many detailed references of years past



this episode was just packed with referential awesomeness:

• journeying to the radio tower, which was broadcasting the numbers transmission (referred to in season 1)
• rousseau's pristine music box, later fixed by sayid
• robert referring to smokey as a 'security system' (which is what rousseau called it in season 1)
• seeing the mysterious 'sickness' that both desmond and rousseau have referred to, and which i honestly thought had been forgotten by the writers.
  

8. john locke and the many questions surrounding him

why was the wheel off its axis? is it just old and wobbly after ben pushed it? is it stabilized now, and if so, how will that change the nature of the flashes? will locke appear in the desert in tunisia? when are the left-behinders now? was the well dismanteled and buried, or did they flash to a point before the well was built?

an interesting nugget from the most recent podcast about tonight's episode: damon and carlton wrote the next two episodes simultaneously, and it doesn't really matter what order they are viewed in. wow. cannot wait. tonight's is called '316.'



is this in reference to 'john 3:16'? you know, the bible verse about 'everlasting life?' omg, you guys. I KNOW WHO JACOB IS:


9. preboomer and the teeny tiny gripe

eloise: alright. let's get started.
(boom)

hrm. this episode played like 'jughead,' where the precommercial breaks were stronger than the preboomer itself. aside from general irritation with the off-island story, the slight preboomer is my minor gripe. i felt the scene was also missing a clear moment where desmond recognizes ms. hawking from the ring shop. i like rob k's suggestion that this would have been a stronger ending:

christian: say hello who my son.
locke: who's your son..? (flash)
(boom)