Sunday, January 17, 2010

5:1 Because You Left, 5:2 The Lie, 5:3 Jughead

5:1 Because You Left

Go here to see my original post on this episode.

-Dr. Chang putting a record on first thing in the morning reminds me of Desmond in the hatch at the beginning of season 2, and Juliet in her home at the beginning of season 3. I guess when you don't get TV or radio, music is all you've got.

-The skipping record is a nice foreshadowing of Daniel Faraday's explanation that the Island is skipping through time like a broken record.

-We learn the purpose of the Arrow Station (where the tail section survivors found shelter in season 2) was for defense and intelligence gathering in their ongoing battle against the Others.

-When a construction worker suggests that time travel could allow them to go back and kill Hitler, Dr. Chang insists "Don't be absurd. There are rules, rules that can't be broken." Does this have something to do with the rules Ben has referred to in the past?

-The reference to going back in time to kill Hitler is a common one in time travel theories. One line of thought is that it would be impossible: as we keep hearing during season 5, "what happened happened" and no matter what you do you can't change it. A second line of that is that it IS possible to change the past, but it would be unethical to do so; if it's possible to change what happened in the past (and prevent the Holocaust and World War II), then you must also assume that it's possible for Hitler to change his own course. Preemptively killing him for something he hasn't done yet is therefore unethical. We see this type of scenario play out when Sayid tries to kill young Ben, but the result points to the first conclusion - Sayid is not able to kill Ben, and in fact, it's likely that the whole experience turns Ben into the person we know today.

-Sawyer says he's the "ghost of Christmas Future," a reference to "A Christmas Carol." Some consider this Dickens novel the first book about time travel.

-Ben tells Jack that the last time he saw Locke was on the Island in the Orchid station: BIG FAT LIE. Ben also says "I guess we'll never know" what happened to those left behind. He TOTALLY knows.

-It's pretty convenient that they have a physicist on the Island for the time travel/nuclear bomb season. Kind of like how they conveniently had a doctor on the Island for Season 1, the injury season.

-Commenting on Aaron's cartoon about a train going into a tunnel, Kate says "He goes into that tunnel, he's never coming back out." Like going back to the Island?

-Sawyer says that not everyone is accounted for, they don't know where Locke is. Um, hello, what about Claire?! It was a big disappointment to me that we never found out what was up with Claire. I'm trusting that they're saving something really good for season 6!

-Widmore tells Sun, "You had the audacity to approach me in broad daylight." He also uses the word "audacity" to describe Ben coming to see him in his home in season 4. Apparently he doesn't like audacity. I'm guessing he would not be an Obama fan.

-Hurley and Sayid pick up some food at the Rainbow Drivein - a reference to the fact that they're about to go "over the rainbow" again.

-Tranquilizers can't take Sayid down!

-Somehow I didn't catch before that Miles says it took Widmore 20 years to find the Island the first time.

-Daniel provides our theme for this season: "Whatever happened happened." The big question is, was he right?

-I completely forgot about Ethan shooting Locke, and Richard commenting that "What comes around goes around." So Charlie shooting Ethan was karma. Richard reverses the usual phrase ("What goes around comes around"), probably because in Locke's experience of time, Ethan has already been shot and killed.

-Locke is at the Beechcraft AGAIN. So many big events have happened around that plane!

-So we know that the reason time is skipping is that the Island itself is dislodged from time. Why do the Others move along with it? Is there something tying them to the Island that prevents them from sticking in time?

-Richard gives Locke the compass that Locke will take back in time and give to Richard. This kind of circular theme makes my head hurt. It's almost as though the compass itself exists outside of time, and there might be more than one of it going around (like there is more than one Locke in the finale?) The compass exchange also explains part of what was going on in "Cabin Fever" when Richard presents young Locke with several items and tells him to choose the one that was his - maybe he wanted him to pick the compass.

-Another unanswered question: Why did Locke have to die to bring everyone back to the Island? Is it all so that the Man in Black could use his body?

-Another big question: Why don't the rules apply to Desmond? It wouldn't surprise me if Desmond turned out to be the key to saving everyone. Something else that is weird about Desmond: we've never seen anything about his childhood or his parents. It's a glaring omission for such a prominent character, and I'm sure there's a reason we haven't seen it yet.

Best lines:
HURLEY: You want a fry?

SAYID: No, thank you.

HURLEY: You know, maybe if you ate more comfort food you wouldn't have to go around shooting people.
------
FARADAY: Time--it's like a street, all right? We can move forward on that street, we can move in reverse, but we cannot ever create a new street. If we try to do anything different, we will fail every time. Whatever happened, happened.

5:2 The Lie



I really feel for Hurley. He is first and foremost a genuine, honest person. His realization that he will have to lie for the rest of his life is heartbreaking. I wouldn't want to have to do it either. But even with the sadness there are also lots of delightfully funny moments. That's why I love a Hurley episode!

-Frogurt has not one, but two red shirts. He gives one to Sawyer, which I hope doesn't mean anything about the future.

-I love Miles' correction of Sawyer's nickname - "I think it's Mr. Wizard." Ha!

-Hurley in the "I ♥ My Shih-Tzu" t-shirt is a stroke of genius, and I remember hearing on a podcast that it was scripted.

-Ben asks Jill the butcher if Gabriel and Jerry have checked in yet. I wonder if we'll hear those names again.

-Flaming Frogurt
makes my heart sing. Every single time.

-I love how Carmen believes Hurley, even though what he's telling her makes no sense to her. What a great mom.

-Watch out or I will hit you with my Hot Pocket!

-Is Hurley right that all this "bad stuff" wouldn't be happening if they had told the truth? Or did they actually prevent worse events from happening?

-We get a glimpse of Ms. Hawking in her underground layer - under a church, of all things - writing mathematical equations on a chalkboard and using a Foucault Pendulum and a seriously outdated computer. I wonder why the Others haven't updated to an iMac?

-Ms. Hawking tells Ben if he can't get everyone back to the Island in time, "God help us all" - the same phrase used by Chang when he was talking about the energy under the Orchid Station.

Best lines:

CARMEN: Why is there a dead Pakistani on my couch?


5:3 Jughead


Here's my original post on "Jughead."

-The scene where the doctor uses forceps on Penny with no anesthesia makes me cringe, and thank my lucky stars that I was numbed up nice and good during Sawyer's delivery. OUCH!

-It stood out to me that when Penny asks Desmond to promise he won't ever go back to the Island he just says "Why would I ever want to go back there?" He doesn't promise.

-A little pet peeve I have is when Juliet calls the Others "the Others." That's the nickname the Losties came up with for them (because of how Rousseau referred to them). But Juliet is an Other. Don't they have a name for themselves?

-Daniel says he would never hurt Charlotte because he loves her, when in the past he hurt Theresa for the sake of his work - and his mother (who says she loves him no matter what) kills him.

-The name Theresa is one we've heard twice before: Boone's maid who fell down the stairs and died, and Ana Lucia's mother.

-Theresa's sister says "Everything here is due to Mr. Widmore, God bless him." The double meaning is that Mr. Widmore was also the cause of Theresa's illness in the first place because he pushed Daniel to do this research.

-I LOVE the scene when Desmond storms into Widmore's office. It's such a contrast to the grovelling he's done before him in the past.

-I am so proud of myself that I guessed that the young soldier on the Island was in fact Charles Widmore - but I notice now that his uniform says his name was Jones. Kind of an obvious misdirection since the only good explanation is that they were trying to fool us.

-Again, when Locke gives Richard the compass it explains why Richard was there when Locke was born, and why he has the compass when he interviews Locke as a little boy. Since Locke is the one who told Richard that he was to be their leader, it might follow that Locke was never supposed to be their leader in the first place. He wasn't special, he just wanted to be. I'm not sure if I believe that, but it kind of makes sense.

Best lines:
ELLIE: I don't believe you, by the way. You may have Richard fooled, you can't really expect me to believe that you, a British woman and a Chinese man are all members of the United States military.
-----
SAWYER: So who taught you Latin?

JULIET: Others 101. Gotta learn Latin--language of the enlightened.

SAWYER: Enlightened, my ass.

0 comments:

Post a Comment