*That was really painful stuff. Not only did they introduce a format I'd been expecting (the Flashforward/Flashback mix) but used it to fool us into thinking Jin was still alive to see the birth of Ji Yeon. I knew something was up that Jin went so far out of his way to get the panda. Unless the sight of panda bears would be found to cure the Island's Curse on Pregant Women by the end of the eppy, it would have nothing to do with Sun. There's A LOT of conflict over whether Jin is actualy dead. The tombstone reads his death as 9/22/04, the date of the crash. As a result some have speculated he's still alive on the Island and Hurley and Sun were just mourning that he couldn't escape and is for all intents and purposes "dead" to the two of them.
But it's clear to me from the way Hurley and Sun reacted that he was dead. I'm guessing he'll die during the rescue and they went to this grave site as it's the last remaining remembrance of him.
I gotta say, Jin and Sun were the characters that first got me hooked on LOST. The very first full episode I watched was "...And Found" about how the two of them first met. It was astonishing to see two fully realized asian characters on network TV, characters who spent a significant amount of on screen time not speaking English. That was one of the first signs to me of just how special this show is. As I watched the entire show from the beginning though I fell in love with them as human beings whose struggles could be universally understood. They were the soap opera element and while a lot of people over the years have found their episodes to be tedious and tangential to the overall mythology, I've always treasured them as little oases amidst the twilight zone.
Oddly enough he chatter at the Fuselage sounds much like lot the mourning after Charlie died. But the fact is Jin isn't dead -- yet. Much like Desmond, the wheels are now in motion for Jin to die during the rescue, which still seems a little ways. So I figure we have until at least the end of the season to enjoy Daniel Dae-Kim.
*Oh and... MICHAEL!!! If ABC hadn't announced it at Comic-Con, if they weren't contractually obligated to put his name in the credits since the first episode of the season, this would've really been a shit your pants reveal. As it was almost everyone knew he was going to reappear this episode. Still... I couldn't believe it until I really saw him up close. It is absolutely great to have Harold back in the fold.
*Did Ben plant the plane and the bodies? Is he that rich and powerful? What. The. Fuck. if we're to believe Michael, assuming he left Sayid and Desmond the note not to trust the captain, then it's all a lie and a set-up by Widmore.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
4x06, "The Other Woman"
*What more can be said about Benjamin Linus? He's so damned good at being so evil you just want to applaud. I think almost everyone could call Ben sending Goodwin to his death as the payoff of Juliet's flashback. But just the way that Ben was so proud of it -- fucking chilling. To top it off to see him amble back to the snug confines of his house in full view of the incredulous Hurley and Sawyer.
Hurley knew it. Sawyer Knew. And Ben lives it -- there's nothing definite on this Island except for one thing: BEN WINS.
*Whose Side Are You On? If Widmore wants to wage war on Ben, then who exactly is the good guy here? In true LOST fashion I assume neither is and everyone else is caught in the middle. The Freighties probably have no idea what kind of a man Charles Widmore is. Meanwhile it's clear that Ben thinks that the Freighties may be more a threat to himself than the Island. Maybe he thinks that in the process of fighting the Freighties he'll end up killing everyone on the Island with the Gas of Doom again?
*I think it's safe to assume the "her" Juliet reminds Ben of is Annie, his childhood sweetheart who I suspect died in childbirth. And Ben's attempts at being romantic were just too cute.
*Umm, who are you again? So what was up with Harper? Was she real? Was she dead and just the monster? I just realized, she essentially came and went, whispers and all, as Walt did in Season 2. Maybe where the Others ran off to features the capability to project oneself, and that's what Walt was just doing the same thing back then. Otherwise, if it ends up Harper is dead and Juliet didn't act shocked at all, that's just awkwardly done.
*Interesting theory I just read at The Fuselage: The Gas of Doom may be distributed throughout the Island using the Cerberus Vents. Those vents were first referred to in the Blast Door Map from Lockdown in Season 2. Supposedly the vents are how The Monster gets around.
*Phillip K. Dick's Valis makes a second appearance this season.
The main character in VALIS is Horselover Fat, an author surrogate. "Horselover" is English for the Greek word philippos (Φίλιππος), meaning "lover of horses" (from philo "brotherly or comradely love" and hippos "horse"); "Fat" is English for the German word "dick".
Even though the book is written in the first-person-autobiographical, for most of the book Dick treats himself and Fat as two separate characters; he describes conversations and arguments with Fat, and harshly if sympathetically criticizes his opinions and writings. The major subject of these dialogues is spirituality, as Dick/Fat is/are ostensibly obsessed with several religions and philosophies, including Christianity, Taoism, Gnosticism and even Jungian psychoanalysis, in the search for a cure for what he believes is simultaneously a personal and a cosmic wound. Near the end of the book the messianic figure, incarnated by the child Sophia (a name associated with Wisdom in many Gnostic texts), cures him (temporarily), and the narrator describes his surprise that Horselover Fat has suddenly disappeared from his side.
*And I love Elizabeth Mitchell. All the Jaters can just cry themselves to sleep tonight.
NEXT WEEK: Episode 7 was to act as a season finale if the WGA strike killed the rest of Season 4. So it;s supposed to feature one of this season's biggest Oops, I Crappped My Pants! moments. I think we can all guess if the glorious return of Michael.
Hurley knew it. Sawyer Knew. And Ben lives it -- there's nothing definite on this Island except for one thing: BEN WINS.
*Whose Side Are You On? If Widmore wants to wage war on Ben, then who exactly is the good guy here? In true LOST fashion I assume neither is and everyone else is caught in the middle. The Freighties probably have no idea what kind of a man Charles Widmore is. Meanwhile it's clear that Ben thinks that the Freighties may be more a threat to himself than the Island. Maybe he thinks that in the process of fighting the Freighties he'll end up killing everyone on the Island with the Gas of Doom again?
*I think it's safe to assume the "her" Juliet reminds Ben of is Annie, his childhood sweetheart who I suspect died in childbirth. And Ben's attempts at being romantic were just too cute.
*Umm, who are you again? So what was up with Harper? Was she real? Was she dead and just the monster? I just realized, she essentially came and went, whispers and all, as Walt did in Season 2. Maybe where the Others ran off to features the capability to project oneself, and that's what Walt was just doing the same thing back then. Otherwise, if it ends up Harper is dead and Juliet didn't act shocked at all, that's just awkwardly done.
*Interesting theory I just read at The Fuselage: The Gas of Doom may be distributed throughout the Island using the Cerberus Vents. Those vents were first referred to in the Blast Door Map from Lockdown in Season 2. Supposedly the vents are how The Monster gets around.
*Phillip K. Dick's Valis makes a second appearance this season.
The main character in VALIS is Horselover Fat, an author surrogate. "Horselover" is English for the Greek word philippos (Φίλιππος), meaning "lover of horses" (from philo "brotherly or comradely love" and hippos "horse"); "Fat" is English for the German word "dick".
Even though the book is written in the first-person-autobiographical, for most of the book Dick treats himself and Fat as two separate characters; he describes conversations and arguments with Fat, and harshly if sympathetically criticizes his opinions and writings. The major subject of these dialogues is spirituality, as Dick/Fat is/are ostensibly obsessed with several religions and philosophies, including Christianity, Taoism, Gnosticism and even Jungian psychoanalysis, in the search for a cure for what he believes is simultaneously a personal and a cosmic wound. Near the end of the book the messianic figure, incarnated by the child Sophia (a name associated with Wisdom in many Gnostic texts), cures him (temporarily), and the narrator describes his surprise that Horselover Fat has suddenly disappeared from his side.
*And I love Elizabeth Mitchell. All the Jaters can just cry themselves to sleep tonight.
NEXT WEEK: Episode 7 was to act as a season finale if the WGA strike killed the rest of Season 4. So it;s supposed to feature one of this season's biggest Oops, I Crappped My Pants! moments. I think we can all guess if the glorious return of Michael.
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