directed by: jack bender. i think jack is just calling dibs on his favorite characters' episodes.
cinematography by: john bartley. i liked the look of this episode, especially the slight golden-hour tint on the hydra island scenes. i wonder if there's a subtle color adjustment happening to differentiate nemesis' camp from jacob's. even in daylight, nemesis camp scenes have higher contrast and deeper shadows. nemesis followers are all wearing burgundy and earth tones, where jacob's are in brighter primary colors. this episode had some nicely done effects shots showing both hydra island from the main island, and the main island from hydra island - also the set built of the ajira plane is a pretty impressive construction job. the ajira plane would have remained a digital effect (as it was last year) if it wasn't going to figure heavily in upcoming episodes..
basically: this is about as good as a bridging episode can get. it's not a gamechanger, it's not a jawdropper, but it's a well executed step on the larger path, with exciting prospects for what's to come. i finally feel like i'm writing love letters again.
- parallel sawyer
- parallel miles
- parallel charlotte
- mid-season 6 review
- kate and nemesis and crazy moms
- with widmore comes tina fey and..
- ways off the island
- memory tour
- costume commentary
- preboomer
- next episode
1. parallel sawyer
i'm totally overjoyed at the revelation that parallel sawyer is a cop - and that the secret word to reveal this was 'lefleur.' brilliant! nothing makes me happier than when the show surprises me with a choice i never saw coming, yet makes absolute sense. the opening was perfect, right down to josh holloway's wink-wink 'surprise!' line. in some ways sawyer's story is embodying the 'light and dark' thesis of the show by giving him these two disparate yet totally logical paths for his character. now that he's chosen the dark(er) side on the island, it makes sense to give him a fundamentally opposing trajectory in the parallel. the opening of the parallel gave us sawyer's classic 'pigeon drop' scene that we've seen play out twice before.
in 'confidence man,' we see the pigeon drop plan executed perfectly on jessica - sawyer only backs out when he realizes his victims have a young son, and he refuses to do unto the kid as was done unto him by anthony cooper.
the second time we seen the pigeon drop, saywer is with future mother of his child, cassidy phillips, in 'the long con,' who laughs in his face at the con and asks him to train her in the ways of con artistry. cassidy later meets kate at a gas station where she's pulling sawyer's fake jewelry con.
and this third variation smartly shows us a sawyer who is fundamentally the same person but simply made a different choice in his life. he's still the same guy - clearly not the most ethical cop, if he's bangin his way towards suspects. still, this is how saywer's parallel life finds the same redemption, responsibility, and adulthood he found as head of security during the dharma years.. all he's missing is a princess leia-style strangle of anthony cooper, and juliet..
one of the show's original postulations was that if you took any plane full of people and explored their stories fully, you would find numerous connections between the people on that plane. now the show is proposing an idea about destiny that's different from the way it works in most time travel stories: the show is essentially saying to us that no matter what happens to us in our lives, our character is what matters most, and it is our core character that will compel the same people into our spheres, whatever the circumstances.
we still don't know if what we're seeing is the result of jacob's touches being undone, or jughead being detonated, or radzinsky deciding to finally pull that secret lever labeled in hieroglyphics 'do not pull: sinks the island.'
one of the charms and amazements of watching season 1 for the first time was discovering that each character, in the flashbacks, is in their very own show - and that each character is in fact in a different kind of show. saywer is in a crime drama, locke is in a relationship drama, kate's episodes are all inspired by the flight of marion crane in psycho, hurley is in a slapstick comedy, and jack is perpetually in 'er.'
what i loved about this episode is that it renewed that season 1 feeling by once again surprising us with a distinct genre choice: sawyer is now in a cop show. damon and carlton met each other working on 'nash bridges' and crafted this episode as an homage to the don johnson/cheech marin buddy cop formula they mastered together in those days.
loved that parallel sawyer's reading the same books he found on the island. disappointed though, that the fully published version of 'bad twin' was not on his dresser. though, as a cop, he would have found the book's detective horribly inept. would love love love to see any kind of gary troup reference in the parallel. mostly i just want to see my die-hard season 2 fandom rewarded for going out and purchasing that great idea of a book, awful execution of a promotional concept.
loved that sawyer's big emotional moment in the parallel was brought about by an episode of 'little house on the prairie,' which kate teased him for calling 'little house' in season 3's 'tricia tanaka is dead.'
2. parallel miles
ken leung is a great actor - able to fundamentally nail every line given to him no matter how tiny. i loved his relationship with sawyer in the sideways, and how it is entirely based on trust - to the point where any lie, no matter how insignificant or not, is a dealbreaker.
during the apple store event last week (where i got to meet damon and carlton!), they discussed how fun it was to craft these scenes not only because of darlton's cop show roots, but also because on the island, three years were skipped without any flashbacks depicting the period where sawyer became head of security. the off-island story filled in the skipped time via the flash-forwards, but the new dynamics between sawyer, jin, and miles were left unexplored. by making miles sawyer's partner, they were able to show the essential relationship the two characters had together during those years, only in a different setting.
no indication that parallel miles still has his special power - since it's likely he was still born on the island, does his power require the island to be above ground? or, like dogen's protection of the temple, and nemesis' ability to change forms, does miles' power require someone like nemesis or jacob be alive in order for it to work?
it sounds like dr. pierre chang is alive and well in the parallel, working (with both hands?) at the same museum with..
3. parallel charlotte
it looks like charlotte's parallel existence is just as ill-fated as her original - if she's still hopping the globe in search of the island. though, perhaps she's working with pierre chang to try and figure out how to get the island back?
i loved this scene - the writing was clean, it had one great joke, and a beautiful, honest moment.
one of the show's original postulations was that if you took any plane full of people and explored their stories fully, you would find numerous connections between the people on that plane. now the show is proposing an idea about destiny that's different from the way it works in most time travel stories: the show is essentially saying to us that no matter what happens to us in our lives, our character is what matters most, and it is our core character that will compel the same people into our spheres, whatever the circumstances.
we still don't know if what we're seeing is the result of jacob's touches being undone, or jughead being detonated, or radzinsky deciding to finally pull that secret lever labeled in hieroglyphics 'do not pull: sinks the island.'
one of the charms and amazements of watching season 1 for the first time was discovering that each character, in the flashbacks, is in their very own show - and that each character is in fact in a different kind of show. saywer is in a crime drama, locke is in a relationship drama, kate's episodes are all inspired by the flight of marion crane in psycho, hurley is in a slapstick comedy, and jack is perpetually in 'er.'
loved that sawyer's big emotional moment in the parallel was brought about by an episode of 'little house on the prairie,' which kate teased him for calling 'little house' in season 3's 'tricia tanaka is dead.'
2. parallel miles
during the apple store event last week (where i got to meet damon and carlton!), they discussed how fun it was to craft these scenes not only because of darlton's cop show roots, but also because on the island, three years were skipped without any flashbacks depicting the period where sawyer became head of security. the off-island story filled in the skipped time via the flash-forwards, but the new dynamics between sawyer, jin, and miles were left unexplored. by making miles sawyer's partner, they were able to show the essential relationship the two characters had together during those years, only in a different setting.
it sounds like dr. pierre chang is alive and well in the parallel, working (with both hands?) at the same museum with..
3. parallel charlotte
i loved this scene - the writing was clean, it had one great joke, and a beautiful, honest moment.
• great joke: 'i'm exactly like indiana jones.'
• great moment:
sawyer brought the same sad sunflower to charlotte that he brought to juliet in 'lefleur.' just a subtle hint that the writers know we're hoping for juliet, and an winky way of toying with our expectations of seeing her.
4. mid-season 6 review
while the parallel story is trying the patience of many viewers, i'm starting to see the pieces come together, and i have (for the first time this season!) complete faith that it's going to converge in an amazing way. all the survivors are connected in the same ways that they were originally, and now we're learning of a few new connections. some force is compelling them to help each other, as they're being drawn together. we don't have season after season of parallel stories to tell - only 8 more episodes. so the structure of writing the parallel stories must be coming to a head rather quickly. here's how i see it:
most seasons of 'lost' are launched with a defining scene between jack and locke, and this year is no exception. will the end of the show give us locke and jack in the parallel as ultimate redeemers of each other. in the original timeline, jack was determined that his future wife sarah be able to dance at her wedding - in the parallel, sarah may not even exist. will this gift of wedding mobility be transferred to locke? should jack accept the mantle as jacob's successor, will we see the two men as both ultimate allies and ultimate enemies?
i have nothing but the highest expectations for the big ending because damon and carlton know how to write endings. i've said it a lot on this blog, but if there's anything that they are masters of, it's deliberately frustrating the audience and then surprising us with the carefully paced revelation of the master plan - and this is a master plan they had to pitch to the network three years ago in order to secure the end date for the show. it's a televised novel, and we've got 8 chapters to go.
5. kate and nemesis and crazy moms
hey, hold my hand. hey hold my knife. in your neck!
loved the way kate and claire were dealt with in this episode - the show gave kate the time to grieve the extreme risks she took to get back to the island, only to have claire try and shiv her. kate chose an interesting spot to sit and cry - it's very similar to the spot she broke down after first seeing the smoke monster in the pilot episode..
smokey joins her for an interesting chat, where he wins some favor with kate by drawing comparisons between kate's crazy mother, locke's crazy mother, aaron's crazy mother, and nemesis' original crazy mother. for a show featuring tons of daddy issues, it's a surprise that the key villain's got mom-probs.
which raises the question: who is nemesis' crazy mother? well, after doing a little reading, i think it's someone with a pretty ugly, but familiar face:
different egyptian mythlogy sources have varying stories about the egyptian goddess taweret, symbolizing childbirth and fertility with the head of a hippo because she is a fierce protector of her children. the wikipedia page goes on to say 'when paired with another deity, she became the demon-wife of apep, the original god of evil.' hmm.. a demon-wife sounds like someone a kid might have some 'growing pains' with. taweret also had two children, osirus and set. here's where the connection between the mythology and the show gets muddled, but the legend of set involves an epic battle between good and evil fought between the two brothers - and a change in worship for set, once popularly worshiped, he suddenly became a god of evil. is the smoke monster a misunderstood god-child of taweret locked in a sibling rivalry battle with his brother jacob?
6. with widmore comes tina fey and..
who's locked up behind the door in the sub? was richard locked up on the black rock for similar purposes? with the looking glass station out of comission, can you only get to the island on a vessel if someone 'destined' for the island is on board? six days ago, desmond was here:
meanwhile, outside that same marina del rey hospital, this took place:
widmore would have to have gotten on the sub pretty quickly after being smacked by eloise - did he take desmond with him? did he take eloise?
my theory last week was proven completely wrong! widmore is clearly not on the same side as smokey, as evidenced by his portable sonic fence. does this mean widmore is on jacob's side? is widmore, (or whoever's locked in the room) the person jacob told hurley was 'coming' to the island? widmore's team seems totally different from the freighter mercenaries he sent originally - these guys look like scientists, zoe included. what is their exact mission? did widmore kill the ajira folk, or did smokey?
btw i totally loved tina fey. some were annoyed at the introduction of yet another new character, but i got a fun thrill from the meta trick of neatly turning the tables and treating the ajira survivors as clueless outsiders the way the 815ers were when they first crashed. nemesis sends locke on a recon mission identical to the one ben sent goodwin and ethan on after the 815 crash. then, when sawyer finds zoe, she says 'we... we crashed here. and we were all just waiting for someone to rescue us.' for a moment, her character was the audience proxy for all those poor, confused people who've joined the show this season and have no idea what's going on. loved that bit of writing.
7. ways off the island
these are currently the three ways (we know of) that characters can use to get off the island: donkey wheel, ajira plane, and widmore sub. the wheel will likely come into play when we see the island's sinking in either the original or parallel.. though widmore isn't on smokey's side, it seems most likely that smokey and his cohorts will try to escape using the sub, and the ajira plane appears to be in working condition, but can only be piloted by lapidus, who seems pretty firmly entrenched on jacob's side with ilana.
at the paleyfest event recently, damon gave a one-word hint about the grand finale of the show: water. to me that points to the sinking of the island, and it's likely the finale will be a race against the rising water to get off the island in time.
8. memory tour
i love the that show is taking us back through the journey of the last five years, like jack's revisit to the caves in 'lighthouse.' hopefully we'll revisit more places we've forgotten about: tempest station? looking glass station? pearl station? arrow station? if it's done well, the revisits will happen organically, like sawyer discovering kate's infamous breakfast-with-ben dress.
in jorge's podcast it was discussed that in the script, sawyer activates the fish biscuit machine. they never mention if it's for kicks, for a snack or for both. hopefully the sequence was shot, and it's something we'll see in the deleted scenes.
9. costume commentary
i watched the show with a friend this week and he made a comment that i, being a gay man, would never have noticed, and i'm curious about the general consensus on this. he said that this season, 'kate's bra sucks.' aparently it's too padded, or too supported for his tastes and provides none of the 'movement' or 'natural shape' enjoyed in the earlier seasons. has anyone else noticed this? i made the argument that kate's original bra was probably the same one worn for the entire 108 days, and would have worn out, whereas she's now wearing a new bra that's only 6 days old.
while on the subject of costumes, i wonder how the costuming decisions are made, since the characters are so often dressed in solid, primary colors. how is it decided what colors each character will wear? seeing as how the character may be stuck wearing that same outfit for (usually) the entire season, the decisions can't be made lightly.
10. preboomer
• great moment:
sawyer: i got to a point in my life where i was either going to become a criminal or a cop. so i chose cop.(charlotte falls in love instantly)sawyer: ..what?charlotte: you know what.
from now on sawyer is going to drop the 'bullitt' line and jump right to the 'criminal or cop' story because it clearly gets you laid, fast.
there's been a lot of debate over whether or not charlotte was searching sawyer's apartment, or if she innocently stumbled on the file. i think it's a good question for darlton to answer, because if they truly intended for her discovery of the sawyer file to be innocent, they could clear it up right away.
if she was searching, then i suppose that charlotte's island-centric research has possibly, somehow led her to the list of candidates, and she's systematically sleeping her way through all of them until she eventually gets to the island? bit of a stretch, but maybe that's the spinoff show abc has planned..
4. mid-season 6 review
while the parallel story is trying the patience of many viewers, i'm starting to see the pieces come together, and i have (for the first time this season!) complete faith that it's going to converge in an amazing way. all the survivors are connected in the same ways that they were originally, and now we're learning of a few new connections. some force is compelling them to help each other, as they're being drawn together. we don't have season after season of parallel stories to tell - only 8 more episodes. so the structure of writing the parallel stories must be coming to a head rather quickly. here's how i see it:
- 2 hour season premiere: establish the starting point for each character in the parallel world
- 13 or 14 character centric episodes: (excluding richard, nemesis, anyone who might get a centric episode but won't appear in the parallel) each episode focuses on how each character is launched from the starting point to their final target.
- 2 hour series finale: detail how all the characters will collide, find final redemption and/or damnation. meanwhile the island story will explain exactly how the parallel timeline was created, by way of revealing the exact nature of the island's power. boom. 'lost.'
- jack is going to be searching for claire, who happens to be in los angeles..
- jack's search for claire could lead him to kate, who's been using claire's credit card..
- sawyer has just banged kate up against a metal gate (again!)..
- sawyer is searching for anthony cooper - who will be attending locke's october wedding, only a couple weeks away..
- in the season 1 episode 'hearts and minds' we learned that boone's mother owns 'the largest wedding business in the united states,' and boone is the chief operating officer of the wedding clothing subsidiary..
- sayid's experience as a chef in france lands him the job of replacing keamy's sous chef position, making eggs for locke's wedding..
- ben will weasel or blackmail his way to becoming locke's best man..
- could the wedding be held at mrs. hawking's church? could mr. eko have been on his way to los angeles to accept a post there, and officiate the ceremony?
- hurley donates chicken entrees for the reception..
- frogurt turns out to be helen's cousin and is accidentally skewered by flaming bbq, like that guy in the opening of 'temple of doom..'
- ok, i'm running out of ideas..
i have nothing but the highest expectations for the big ending because damon and carlton know how to write endings. i've said it a lot on this blog, but if there's anything that they are masters of, it's deliberately frustrating the audience and then surprising us with the carefully paced revelation of the master plan - and this is a master plan they had to pitch to the network three years ago in order to secure the end date for the show. it's a televised novel, and we've got 8 chapters to go.
loved the way kate and claire were dealt with in this episode - the show gave kate the time to grieve the extreme risks she took to get back to the island, only to have claire try and shiv her. kate chose an interesting spot to sit and cry - it's very similar to the spot she broke down after first seeing the smoke monster in the pilot episode..
which raises the question: who is nemesis' crazy mother? well, after doing a little reading, i think it's someone with a pretty ugly, but familiar face:
6. with widmore comes tina fey and..
who's locked up behind the door in the sub? was richard locked up on the black rock for similar purposes? with the looking glass station out of comission, can you only get to the island on a vessel if someone 'destined' for the island is on board? six days ago, desmond was here:
meanwhile, outside that same marina del rey hospital, this took place:
my theory last week was proven completely wrong! widmore is clearly not on the same side as smokey, as evidenced by his portable sonic fence. does this mean widmore is on jacob's side? is widmore, (or whoever's locked in the room) the person jacob told hurley was 'coming' to the island? widmore's team seems totally different from the freighter mercenaries he sent originally - these guys look like scientists, zoe included. what is their exact mission? did widmore kill the ajira folk, or did smokey?
7. ways off the island
these are currently the three ways (we know of) that characters can use to get off the island: donkey wheel, ajira plane, and widmore sub. the wheel will likely come into play when we see the island's sinking in either the original or parallel.. though widmore isn't on smokey's side, it seems most likely that smokey and his cohorts will try to escape using the sub, and the ajira plane appears to be in working condition, but can only be piloted by lapidus, who seems pretty firmly entrenched on jacob's side with ilana.
at the paleyfest event recently, damon gave a one-word hint about the grand finale of the show: water. to me that points to the sinking of the island, and it's likely the finale will be a race against the rising water to get off the island in time.
8. memory tour
the dress ended up where it is during the period where saywer was conned by ben into believing he had a pacemaker installed (in 'every man for himself.') kate changed her clothes in the opposite cage, causing sawyer's heartrate monitor to start beeping. all this had better not be any kind of resparking of kate and sawyer, however. they are done with each other. please, show - acknowledge, yes, but don't force something that shouldn't be there. juliet died two days ago. yes, have a look at the dress you boned kate in, because who wouldn't, but the show can't earn a sawyer/kate love connection in the original timeline anymore.
9. costume commentary
while on the subject of costumes, i wonder how the costuming decisions are made, since the characters are so often dressed in solid, primary colors. how is it decided what colors each character will wear? seeing as how the character may be stuck wearing that same outfit for (usually) the entire season, the decisions can't be made lightly.
10. preboomer
kate: so what are you gonna do?
sawyer: i'm gonna let them fight it out. and while they got their hands full with each other...you and me are getting the hell off this island.
kate: even if we could get on that plane, who's gonna fly it?
sawyer: we ain't taking the plane, freckles. taking the sub.
(boom)
sawyer: i'm gonna let them fight it out. and while they got their hands full with each other...you and me are getting the hell off this island.
kate: even if we could get on that plane, who's gonna fly it?
sawyer: we ain't taking the plane, freckles. taking the sub.
(boom)
well, this was kind of a lackluster, servicable preboomer. the boom is best when it punctuates either a brand new piece of information, or cements a choice made by a character - and the new information in this beat reveals that sawyer is attempting to play both sides against each other for his own benefit. i feel like there could have been a better way to reveal that. i was so disappointed that he told the truth to nemesis about his 'deal' with widmore, that this beat really needed to identify him squarely as a lone agent. whatever mode of transport sawyer is planning to take is not that important. what's important is that he's working for himself, for his own goals, which include kate. i would have reordered the lines this way:
i think we can expect more answers than we've ever had before, seeing as we will get richard alpert's story! he arrived in chains on the black rock, the day jacob and nemesis sat on the beach and watched the ship approach. will the episode begin at that same moment? will it go back even further and show us when jacob touched richard? for this one, i have no idea what to expect. i want to see the original relationship between richard and both jacob and nemesis - i don't even know how to expect the episode to be structured! will it be like 'the other 48 days,' flashing back to the earliest event and then moving sequentially forward until the episode's narrative is caught up to 2007? or will it start in 2007, and then give us traditional flashbacks (complete with the original flashback sound effect) to richard's past? the only thing i'm expecting to have explained is why richard looks exactly the same for 100 years except for one period where he grew his hair long. i'm not even sure what to watch as prep. richard is such an enigma - the only episode really ascribed to him, 'follow the leader,' offers no real insight into his character, though he is the through-line in both the 2007 and 1977 stories. will this episode show us the incident from his perspective!?
kate: even if we could get on that plane, who's gonna fly it?
sawyer: we ain't taking the plane, freckles. taking the sub.
kate: how are 'we' gonna do that?
sawyer: i'm gonna let them fight it out. and while they got their hands full with each other...you and me are getting the hell off this island.
(boom)
11. next episodesawyer: we ain't taking the plane, freckles. taking the sub.
kate: how are 'we' gonna do that?
sawyer: i'm gonna let them fight it out. and while they got their hands full with each other...you and me are getting the hell off this island.
(boom)
i think we can expect more answers than we've ever had before, seeing as we will get richard alpert's story! he arrived in chains on the black rock, the day jacob and nemesis sat on the beach and watched the ship approach. will the episode begin at that same moment? will it go back even further and show us when jacob touched richard? for this one, i have no idea what to expect. i want to see the original relationship between richard and both jacob and nemesis - i don't even know how to expect the episode to be structured! will it be like 'the other 48 days,' flashing back to the earliest event and then moving sequentially forward until the episode's narrative is caught up to 2007? or will it start in 2007, and then give us traditional flashbacks (complete with the original flashback sound effect) to richard's past? the only thing i'm expecting to have explained is why richard looks exactly the same for 100 years except for one period where he grew his hair long. i'm not even sure what to watch as prep. richard is such an enigma - the only episode really ascribed to him, 'follow the leader,' offers no real insight into his character, though he is the through-line in both the 2007 and 1977 stories. will this episode show us the incident from his perspective!?
here's the richard timeline i posted last week, with a couple things i left out:
- 1845: arrives with the 'black rock'
- 1954: meets locke, faraday, miles and charlotte
- 1956: checks out locke's birth
- 1961: tests locke to see if he recognizes the compass
- 1972: tries to recruit locke to 'science camp' through the mail
- 1973: lets his hair grow out
- 1974: meets sawyer, who surprises him with knowledge of jughead.
- 1977: meets kate when she brings ben to him after being shot by sayid. he later meets jack for the first time, after faraday was shot by eloise. richard parts ways with jack after deciding to keep eloise safe. jack proceeds with the plan to detonate jughead.
- 2001 leaves the island to recruit juliet to fix the pregnancy-problem
- 2004: locke meets richard for the first time. richard suggests sawyer should kill locke's father. richard has had sawyer's entire lifetime to collect that information.
- 2005: (100 days after the crash) richard and the others ambush kate and sayid, assists them in overtaking keamy's helicopter, which gets them off the island. ben pushes the wheel, leaving locke as the leader, who vanishes in front of richard's eyes.
- 2005 - 2007: richard is bored, builds a ship in a bottle.
- 2007: locke returns as nemesis. jacob is killed. nemesis ties up richard, then sets him free. richard finds sawyer in the jungle, then he finds hurley and jack. richard hasn't seen sawyer or jack since the helicopter, 3 years ago. jack saw richard yesterday.
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Enjoyed you recap as always. The points about Tawaret being representative of Flocke's mom is definitely food for thought.
Why do you think Widmore wants the island so badly? He already has tons of money and power. Immortality maybe?
When are we going to get to the real mystery: What the fuck happened to Claire's face? Weight gain? Crappy wig? Adult onset down's syndrome? I need answers.