This is not a review, nor a summary. This is my reaction. Please comment with your own reactions.

‘Twas a mixture of laziness and writer’s block that resulted in the neglect of my Lost column. After waiting so long for a Richard-centric episode, I had nothing to say once my wish had been granted. The following weeks episode produced more of a reaction, but I just couldn’t bring myself to skip the “Ab Aeterno” column. And now yet another episode has come and gone and I’m still dreading that damn entry. Here goes nothing…I guess.

Ab Aeterno

Without a doubt, Richard has been the most mysterious character in the incredibly overwhelming cast of Lost. No matter where (or when) the show took us he never appeared to age. It was intriguing at first, but then I made the mistake of reading theory sites and my fascination waned. In fact, when they finally shed light on his story all I could think was, “Yep, saw that coming.”

To its credit, the episode was gratifying as hell. Even if I wasn’t surprised to find out that Richard was a slave on the Black Rock, it was nice to finally have that confirmation. The one part of the episode that struck me as odd was when Richard and Jacob met. Up until that point, Jacob had been depicted as “nice guy.” Now the writers have him beating the shit out of Richard, and I’m as confused as ever. I know Richard had the intention to kill him and all, but so did Ben, and he just let that happen! Whatever, Lost. Whatever.

The Package

Along with the advent of “The Package” came the startling realization that Zoe was here to stay. That’s right–in a series with no shortage of characters to hate, Zoe is second only to Kate. My reason for disliking Zoe is really stupid and superficial, but I don’t give a damn. You see, every time TVGuide.com wrote about her they used this ridiculously unflattering picture or her running from Sawyer. Now every time she’s onscreen all I can think about is that picture.

Thankfully, this episode wasn’t about Zoe; it was about Jin and Sun. Keeping with the new tradition of having the flash sideways show an alternate life of the characters, this episode asked the question, “What if Jin and Sun weren’t married?” The answer, of course, is that they’d still be banging each other. The only difference is that Sun’s dad is pissed off about it this time, and hires Douchey McDouchebag to kill Jin. It makes me wonder if that was the plan in the original time line as well. Guess we’ll never know.

Meanwhile, Evil Locke has a plan to fly the Ajira plane off the island, but he needs all the candidates for it to work. I’d be more concerned with the lack of a runway, but maybe evil smoke monsters can make planes fly just because. My favorite part was when Evil Locke implied that Claire could kill Kate once they got off the island.

We also found out that Desmond was, in fact, behind the locked door from the Sawyer episode, but we’ll find out more about that in…

Happily Ever After

I’m going to make a bold statement: This is the best episode of the season. My enjoyment came as a shock considering that I thought “The Constant” was only okay. Then it dawned on me that Desmond’s flashes aren’t what made the episode good, it’s what was contained in said flashes. In “The Constant” he was getting yelled at by a drill instructor, breaking up with his girlfriend, and pissing off Charles Widmore. In this episode Desmond was Charles Widmore’s fucking assistant! The inclusion of Charlie was great too, especially since he was acting like a crazy person the whole time.

The other wonderful thing was that they finally began tying things together with the flash sideways and the…I don’t know, flash now?…when Desmond talks to Daniel. For a while, I was just watching Lost to watch Lost, but this episode has reinvigorated my excitement for the series. It also helps that next week is a Hugo episode.

]]> http://www.fightbait.com/lost-3in1/feed/ 1 http://www.fightbait.com/lost-recon/ http://www.fightbait.com/lost-recon/#comments Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:30:05 +0000 John-Paul Natysin http://www.fightbait.com/?p=2756

This is not a review, nor a summary. This is my reaction. Please comment with your own reactions.

According to the Lost Podcast With Jay and Jack, this season is broken up into three acts, the second having started last week with the Ben-centric episode, Dr. Linus. With that in mind, act one was super lame.

The addition of Dogen and the temple rubbed me the wrong way from the start. For a show where things just appear on the island whenever the plot necessitates, even a secret temple community seemed a bit random; however, I was able to suspend my disbelief. But when they started talking about how the Smoke Monster was going to slaughter the people in the temple, I had to draw the line. Perhaps I missed something in the month that I powered through seasons 1-6, but I would swear that the Smoke Monster was a security system for the temple, not an enemy.

Another thing that bothered me about the first act was the crappy flash sideways. I heard that season six was going to be linear, meaning no flashes. Perhaps I misunderstood that statement, and it only refers to the last handful of episodes. Thankfully, these past two weeks have proven that the flash sideways doesn’t always have to flash suck. I’m all about taking an alternate glimpse into a characters life, but Sayid being emo and Kate being–well, Kate–isn’t exactly what I’d call alternate. Ben and Sawyer’s alternate lives, however, take the 180 approach and reveal sides of them that we’d otherwise never see. This definitely wouldn’t work for every character, but finding out that Jack would be a shitty father wasn’t very entertaining.

With the exception of the totally badass scene where Claire almost cuts Kate’s throat while Sayid watches (followed by Evil Locke bitch-slapping Claire), there wasn’t much worth talking about. I really enjoyed Sawyer’s flash sideways, but not enough to discuss it at length. I suppose I could theorize about what Charles Widmore is hiding behind the locked door in the submarine (Desmond?), or how the producers Charlie-cockblocked us by having Liam show up (seriously, what the fuck?), but I’m kind of sleepy. The only question I have on my mind is this: How the fuck did Sawyer get out of that cave after he broke all the ladders?

]]> http://www.fightbait.com/lost-recon/feed/ 1 http://www.fightbait.com/lost-dr-linus/ http://www.fightbait.com/lost-dr-linus/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:38:47 +0000 John-Paul Natysin http://www.fightbait.com/?p=2616

This is not a review, nor a summary. This is my reaction. Please comment with your own reactions.

Writer’s block is a pain in the ass. Especially when you’re the dominant member of a website that provides written content. I watched the episode, and I loved it, but I just couldn’t think of the proper words to convey this love. So I did what every great writer will do in that situation: get liquored up and take a nap…Okay, maybe that’s just my solution. The point is that it worked. While I’m hesitant to say that this was the best episode of the series, it’s definitely the best of the season so far. Most of my favorite characters were present, the flash sideways didn’t suck, and we actually got some answers for once.

The flash sideways was the highlight. It focused on Ben as an oppressed high school history teacher. I found it interesting because he had a doctorate in his field, but that’s probably more common than I think. For someone who has enough trouble remembering names, I can’t be expected to know all my teachers academic backgrounds as well.

What made it better than the other flash sideways was how different the character’s life turned out. Ben was no longer a manipulative, uncaring bastard in this reality. Instead he was almost pathetic. In fact, there was one part where he tried to concoct a plan to gain more power and it blew up in his face. It was also interesting to see that Alex was one of his students, and that the relationship with his father was healthy. Speaking of which, his father mentioned the island in the flash sideways. I originally thought this was an alternate world where the island didn’t exist, but that is apparently not the cast. I trust they’ll explain why Ben and his father left the island in a future episode.

They also gave a glimpse into Richard’s story. He has been at the top of my list of Lost mysteries for a few seasons now, and while all they did was confirm some fan theories, it was better than nothing. One thing is for certain, the scene with the dynamite was fucking intense. Lost has been a solid show so far, but I can’t remember the last time they had me on the edge of my seat like tonight.

My only complaint is how Ilana acted towards Ben. I know that he killed Jacob, and she’s super sad about that, but her emotions were too random for my taste. At first she seemed mildly upset, but ten minutes later she had the anger of the gods in her eyes. I know they couldn’t just have her shoot him on the spot, but the sudden jump in composure was a bit much. One thing that could have made that scene better would be if Ilana aimed to shoot Ben and somehow shot and killed Kate instead. Wait, did I say something similar last column? Imagine that.

This is not a review, nor a summary. This is my reaction. Please comment with your own reactions.

Why am I not surprised that the week I start writing my Lost column, the episode is sub-par? Interesting because the promo was super cryptic, stating that it was so extreme that they could only show us a few seconds. They promised that “questions would be answered in the next episode,” but I’m not entirely sure that happened.

Maybe it’s that I’m not a die-hard Lost fan. I’m too lazy to examine screencaps or decipher clips of the whispers. To be honest, I’m writing about the show because I thought it would help me see things the way the crazy fans do. I’ve read so many bullshit theories that it gave me a headache. Theories that were so far-fetched they made me question whether I’m watching the same show. You could say that I’m crazier than them, however, because I’m jealous of their determination.

The biggest problem that this episode suffered from was the lack of Hurley. After last weeks lighthouse adventure, I was really hoping to learn more about what Jacob was planning. Hell, when they promised answers I assumed they were talking about the lists in the lighthouse and the cave. Instead, the only thing that was “revealed” was Dogen’s past. Frankly, I could care less about Dogen, and the fact that he was killed moments after telling his story is confirmation enough that I’m right to not care.

One this that Lost keeps doing that pisses me off is that I can’t tell which side is good and which is bad. I’m beginning to wonder if the writers don’t know either. I’m pretty certain that Evil Locke (the rest of the Internet calls him Flocke, but I think that’s stupid) is evil, but the more I learn about Jacob, the more he sounds like a bad guy too. And what about Ben? And how about that chick that dragged Sayid on the plane? They showed up at the end of the episode while the smoke monster slaughtered Dogen’s followers, but they seemed to only serve as a plot device to help the other main characters escape the massacre. It looks like next weeks episode is going to centered around Ben, which is nice, but I wish they’d get around to the Richard episode they’ve been promising.

I really didn’t hate this episode as much as it sounds. The fight between Dogen and Sayid was pretty badass, and I was very happy to see that mercenary dude get killed a second time. There was also a nice “OMG SUN AND JIN ARE SO CLOSE TO REUNITING” moment. And holy crap when Sayid slit John Lennon’s throat I almost punched my dog in excitement! The only thing that could have made it better action-wise is if Claire choked Kate to death when she told her that she had been raising Aaron. I’ve hated Kate for a long time, and I feel like her comeuppance has come up.