First of all, it goes without saying how exhilarating it was to finally see not one, but two new episodes of LOST. I was extremely excited, but once the show began, it was like I was just absorbing everything. I think when I watch them again, I'll be able to just sit and enjoy.
And what episodes they were! There's no way I'm going to wrap my brain around these two
tonight, though I am starting to. But they gave us a lot of answers, I think - a lot. So let me get to my summaries, some brief thoughts, and everyone's favorite, screencaps. And rest assured - I will be posting more in the coming days as I find more online and give everything they threw at us more thought.
Some initial thoughts as I sip my hot chocolate: it was awesome to see Ana-Lucia again. And Hurley's grin at Ben - that was the best moment of this early season so far!
Now, on to the notes (would you believe 12 Pearl Station notebook pages worth? It looks just like Faraday's notebook!) I think what I'm going to do is post my summary and brief reactions to the first of the two episodes tonight, and follow up with the second one tomorrow or over the weekend. I'm finding that I'd like to comment as I summarize, but I need to see these episodes again to be able to say anything remotely intelligent about them. So, enjoy Episode 5x01: Because You Left, and please comment afterwards.
5x01: Because You Left
An alarm clock that read 8:14. Then, of course, flipped over to 8:15, and that's when the alarm went off. A couple in bed. I knew it had to be Pierre Chang (aka Marvin Candle, aka Edgar Halliwax, aka Mark Wickmund) because of the crying baby in the background, a la the video that was released this summer when he revealed his real name. (The fact that he was Asian may also have tipped me off...). The scene was very reminiscent of Desmond's introduction in the hatch in the Season 2 premiere, and I thought the record player clinched it as taking place in the Swan, which got me thinking that he and his wife lived there before Desmond, and Kelvin, and Radzinsky, but nope - he was in one of New Otherton's classic yellow houses, which is revealed when he walks outside to some sort of makeshift studio to make the Station 2 Arrow orientation film, which we have never seen or heard of before. Another strange aspect of this is that the other orientation films were made in their respective stations, yet this one for the Arrow is not being filmed in the Arrow. Why not? From what we saw of the Arrow in Season 2, it was just a dark, empty room, or even a cave for that matter.
Oh yes, the record player - that plays a symbolic role later in the episode, but in the moment, it was playing a Willie Nelson song called "Shotgun Willie" for the purposes of soothing a crying baby (Miles, anyone...?). I guess the giant giraffe stuffed animal in his room wasn't doing the trick. The record skipped and repeated the lyrics, "If you can't make a record..."
Back to the orientation film. Dr. Chang (he is referred to as "doctor" by a key grip or best boy or some film set gofer that walks by) introduces himself as Marvin Candle once the camera starts rolling, and goes on to describe the Arrow Station's primary purpose as a place to learn defensive strategies against and to gather intelligence on the hostiles. He is interrupted, though, by a frantic man who tells him that there are problems at the Orchid.
Chang goes to the Orchid, which turns out to be a huge metal and glass building - a greenhouse, presumably, but much larger - not at all what we expected to see based on what's left of it when our Losties find it. Inside and down the elevator, he finds a man on the ground bleeding profusely from the nose (his left nostril, maybe, but it's hard to tell) while he is told how they were cutting though the rock and their drill melted, and the guy on the ground grabbed his head and started freaking out.
They did some sort of sonar mapping and saw an open chamber 20 meters behind the rock. We see the sonar printout and can clearly see the partial shape of what looks like a ship's wheel - the frozen donkey wheel. Chang tells the man that in the chamber is almost limitless energy, which will allow them to manipulate time. The man says, "What, we're going to go back and kill Hitler?" and Chang admonishes him - of course not, he says, there are rules that can't be broken, and if they drill any further and release that energy, "God help us all." As Chang leaves, he bumps into another man in an Orchid hardhat, who apologizes to him.
It's Faraday!
I detailed that scene just to point out, first of all, how cool it was, but also to demonstrate just how much we were told in such a short amount of time. We were told, finally, about the Arrow; a little more about Pierre Chang's story (he's an awfully pissy guy, ain't he?); the origins of the Orchid; that the frozen donkey wheel was somehow already in the energy chamber, which seems to be sealed in solid rock; the fact that "there are rules that can't be broken," which seems like a theme that we will come back to again and again; that Daniel Faraday was a member of Dharma or at least infiltrating Dharma; and we were shown a symbol of what's happening with time travel on the island. That's an awful lot, and we haven't even seen the creepy LOST letters moving towards us yet!
Next, we are shown Hoffs/Drawler funeral home, where Jack is looking at Locke in the coffin, and looking pained. Ben comes in with a gurney so that he and Jack can put Locke in a van out back. Then they need to pick up Hugo. Naturally. C'mon, Ben doesn't waste any time. Jack asks how they got there, how did all of this happen, and Ben tells him (drum roll please), "because you left."
The scene moves to Ben and Jack in a motel room. Ben is telling Jack that they need to get everyone back: Hurley, Sun, Sayid, Kate, and Aaron. Jack notes that Hugo is in a mental institution, and Ben astutely points out "then he should be the easiest to convince to come." They talk about the last time Ben saw Locke, at the Orchid, and Ben asks what Locke said to "make him a believer;" Jack says that everyone they left behind would die if they didn't come back. Ben asks if Locke told Jack what happened when they left, and Jack says no.
Three Years Earlier...
It's a replay of when Ben turned the wheel and moved the island. (Didn't we just watch the recap show?) But then we see Locke in the rain, saying, "What the...," and calling out, "Richard? Anyone?" We also see Faraday in the boat with the random background folk, looking around and saying, "We must have been inside the radius." And we see Juliet and Sawyer on the beach. Sawyer asks where the freighter went - it was coughing black smoke on the horizon, and now nothing? Suddenly Bernard comes running out of the jungle, yelling for Rose, and then Rose runs from the church, she says, out of the jungle to Bernard. Sawyer is telling them to calm down and to go back to the camp. Bernard tells him, "there is no camp." The kitchen is gone, all the tents, food, water, "everything but us." Faraday joins the conversation to say that the camp isn't gone, and that they have no time (interesting comment...) and need to find a landmark. Juliet suggests the hatch, and Faraday says that's perfect, but they should get there before it happens again. Before what happens again? "Your camp isn't gone - it hasn't been built yet." Cut to title screen.
~~~
Commercial break comments: I. LOVE. IT. So the island traveled back. But can Dan do
something to change it? What do they need a landmark for? Is it like a constant?
~~~
Next we see an older, talking Aaron watching cartoons while Kate is in the kitchen. The doorbell rings, and it's two lawyers from the firm of Agostini and Norton. They are required to get a blood sample from her and Aaron "to determine your relationship to the child." They are not at liberty to divulge the identity of their client. If Kate doesn't cooperate with them, they will have to return with the sheriff (not a marshall, eh?), and Kate says 'try me' and shuts the door. She immediately begins packing, and when Aaron asks where they're going, she says they're going on vacation. Baby.
Now Sawyer, Juliet, Faraday, Miles, and Charlotte (I'll call them The Remainders from this point on) are walking in the jungle. Juliet asks Sawyer why he jumped out of the helicopter, and he says they had to save gas. Faraday matter-of-factly tells them that they really have to pick up the pace. Sawyer gets angry, and then tells Dan to give him his shirt. Dan is incredulous (and resistant, and I suspect it's not just because he's uncomfortable being topless...there's something he must be hiding under his shirt...) and says that there are more important things to do than to take his shirt. Sawyer tells Faraday to explain himself, and Faraday, not having any tact whatsoever, tells Sawyer that if he can't explain it to quantum physicists, how could he explain - and before he finishes that sentence, Sawyer slaps him in the face. I guess Sawyer felt he was too delicate for a punch. I believe it's at this point, as Charlotte comes to Dan's defense, that Sawyer calls her "Ginger." One of many nicknames we will hear from Sawyer this night.
Dan begins to explain in layman's terms what is happening to the island. He says the island is like a record on a turntable that is skipping. Whatever Ben did at the Orchid, it must have dislodged them. "From what?" Sawyer (I think) asks. "From time." Dan asks if everyone on the island is accounted for, and Sawyer and Juliet look at each other - Locke.
This leads us into Locke climbing up some steep terrain, apparently to see what he can see. In the distance, we hear a whirring sound that is getting louder. It's Yemi's yellow drug plane, which swoops down low to the ground over Locke, North By Northwest style. We see black smoke coming from one of its engines, and it crashes into the side of a nearby valley. As Locke begins to trek toward it, he notices something in the grass. It's a Virgin Mary statue, which of course we recognize as a heroin-filled part of the cargo from Yemi's plane. Time passes and he reaches the plane. It is still creaking and smoking, and a propeller is still turning. He calls up to it to see if anyone is inside, but gets no response. He begins to climb up the banyan tree roots that are cascading down the side of the cliff, just like Boone did in Season 1 before falling to his eventual doom. Suddenly, shots ring out from the jungle below. He gets shot in the leg and falls to the ground. He hears someone running toward him, and a man emerges from the jungle. It is Ethan Rom with a rifle, yelling, "Who are you?"
~~~
Commercial break comments: Do brains breathe? Because mine needs to take a breath. How far back have they gone? Knowing what he knows now in the present day (2005, I think), why does Locke need them to come back? What happens?
~~~
We return to find Locke in Ethan's sights. Ethan is asking Locke how many others were on board, referring to the drug plane, I assume. Locke says he didn't come from that plane. Ethan says, "Wrong answer," and is about to plug him when Locke tells him, "I know you - you're Ethan." Ethan pauses in surprise. But then Locke, maybe not firmly grasping exactly what has happened, continues to tell Ethan that "Ben Linus appointed me as your leader." This earns a derisive smile from Ethan, who tells him that that's the most ridiculous thing he's heard in his life and takes aim again, but then the white light returns, and suddenly it's night again, and Locke is alone. We see that the Remainders have also returned to the night time. Someone asks Faraday what happened this time, and he says, "We're either in the past...or the future."
In the next scene, we see Sun in an airport with a cell phone to her ear. She goes to the ticket window to buy a ticket for a flight to Los Angeles. When she hands her passport to the woman at the counter, she scans it in, sees Sun's information on the computer, and tells Sun that there is a problem and that she needs to wait there. Sun is then taken to a back room, which she is locked into. As Sun pounds on the door for them to let her out, there is a voice behind her - Charles Widmore. He's a little cranky about her having the audacity to approach him in broad daylight in front of his business associates, and that she disrespected him. "I will be respected, Sun." Then he asks her what common interests she was referring to when they first met, and she says "to kill Benjamin Linus."
Back in the motel, the news is on, and they are reporting on a shooting at Santa Rosa, and they are naming Hurley as the escaped suspect. Ben says it looks like they have a change of plans.
Meanwhile, Sayid has taken Hurley to the Rainbow Drive-In for a burger and fries. He tells Sayid that "if you had more comfort food, you wouldn't have to go around shooting people." They walk up to Sayid's safe house - an upstairs apartment. They are talking about what Sayid has been doing, and he basically says 'you don't want to know.' He tells Hurley that he's been working for Ben, and Hurley asks, "he's on our side now?" Sayid tells him, "if you ever have the misfortune of running into Benjamin Linus again, whatever he tells you, just do the opposite." Sayid then notices that a piece of Scotch tape he has placed at the top of his door has been broken; someone is inside. Fighting and shooting ensue. One henchman ends up flattened on the pavement below, another meets the business end of all of the forks and knives in Sayid's open diswasher, Sayid ends up with a tranquilizer dart stuck in his neck, and Hurley ends up picking up a gun and being cell-photographed with it by witnesses on the pavement below, who then run away. As he says, "Dude...dude...oh man," he picks up Sayid on his shoulders, says "this was supposed to be a safehouse - we never should've left that island!" and carries him to a van.
We go back to the Remainders walking through the jungle on their way to the remains of the Swan. Charlotte asks if Charles Widmore is looking for them, and Miles says that it took Widmore 20 years to find them the first time, "so I'll start holding my breath now." They come upon the destroyed Swan hatch. Dan seems to be the only one that knows why they're there, and Sawyer decides to walk back to the camp, but Dan stops him, telling him that he can't change anything. He gives his second Time Travel for Dummies explanation - that time is like a string. You can move forward and backward along the string, but you can't make a new string. Ever. Sawyer is getting more frustrated, and asks him, "How do you know about this, Danny Boy?" Faraday takes out his notebook and tells him how he has been studying this his whole adult life. Sawyer asks if they can't stop it, who can? Dan gives one of his now-classic, 'I, um, know, but I'm, uh, not going to, um, tell you...?' looks.
We then see Locke on the ground, and in pain. Despite the time jump, he still has a bullet in his leg. Now the drug plane is upside-down and on the ground, just as the Losties left it, on top of the Pearl hatch, and it looks noticeably more weathered. Locke drags himself inside the plane, possibly considers how helpful the contents of the Mary statues could be, but instead rips a hanging seatbelt from the plane and wraps it around his injured leg like a tourniquet. Suddenly he sees a torch in the jungle, and as it comes around to him, we see that it's Richard. "Hey John," he greets him, smiling. Locke asks him what is happening, and Richard says that he's bleeding to death from the bullet wound, and takes out a first aid kit. Locke asks Richard how he knew he had a bullet in his leg, and he says that Locke told him, but Locke correctly points out that he didn't. "Well...you will," he replies.
When Locke tells him he was shot by Ethan, Richard says, "what goes around comes around." Locke then asks the big question: "When am I?" Richard tells him that it's all relative. As Richard takes the bullet out, he tries explaining things to Locke because he doesn't have much time before Locke goes again. Locke is confused by this, but Richard warns him to listen carefully. He gives him directions about what needs to happen, and that the next time that Locke sees Richard, Richard won't recognize him. "The only way to save the island is to get your people back here," he tells him, and gives him a compass. "You have to convince them." Locke asks how he can do that. Richard replies, "You're going to have to die, John." Just then, the bright light comes back, and it's daylight again. The drug plane is back up on the cliff, still smoking.
~~~
Commercial break comments:
I'm really beginning to wonder - was Locke from the future during the entire show, from the start of Season 1? Did he have a leg injury when 815 crashed? He was on the plane, but... Something to think about.
~~~
The Remainders are still at the blown apart hatch. Miles asks what this place was, and Juliet explains the button-pushing thing. Miles says, "Really?" Then as the white light begins again, Sawyer says, "Son of a..." and when it's over and they are back in the daylight, he finishes, "...bitch." Classic. Everything is changed - the crater where the hatch was is now flat ground. Juliet quickly gets on the ground and digs until she finds the window of the hatch, just the way it used to be before the Losties discovered it. She says, "I guess you haven't found it yet." Sawyer begins to walk away - he wants to go to the back door of the Swan. He reasons that he survived the island once already eating boar meat and drinking coconuts, and the Swan has food, clothing, and beer. Again, Dan insists that he doesn't go, saying "it's no use." Sawyer finds the door and starts pounding on it, yelling, "It's the ghost of Christmas future!" Dan is still telling him to stop - "If it didn't happen, then it can't happen!" Sawyer, on the verge of cracking, turns around and tells Dan, "Everyone I care about just blew up on your damn boat - I know what I can't change." Juliet sees how upset Sawyer has gotten and tries to calm the situation down by suggesting they all go back to the beach. "It's been a long day." And how. They begin heading in that direction when Faraday notices Charlotte bleeding from her left nostril.
Uh oh.
Dan is worried - he seems to know what this means, just as we do - but he tries his best to play it cool. He tells her that he needs to go get his pack, but she should go on toward the beach. Once she leaves, he runs to his bag, takes out his notebook, flips through, and thinks for a moment. He then bolts to the Swan back door himself and starts pounding on it. The door suddenly opens, and a man in a yellow hazmat comes out pointing a rifle at Dan. It's Desmond. Desmond asks, "Are you him?" Dan doesn't know what to say - him? "My replacement?" Dan tells him no. Desmond asks if he knows Daniel, and Dan says, uh, yes.
Now I'll be honest, I didn't catch everything that was said in this scene, but Dan told Desmond that he is uniquely special and that "the rules don't apply to you." He then tells him something he has to do if a helicopter comes, says his name is Daniel Faraday, and that when he gets off the island, he needs to go find Dan's mother in Oxford - her name is...and then the bright light comes again.
Desmond is in bed next to Penny. It's present day (2005). He sits up in a panic. "I was on the island," he tells her. She tells him it was just a dream - he's been off the island for three years. "It's not just a dream," he says, "it was a memory." He gets out of bed and runs up a staircase, and we see that they are on a sailboat off the coast of a Mediterranean-looking city. As he starts unwinding the sail, Penny asks him where he's going. He tells her they're leaving for Oxford.
LOST
My first reaction as the episode ended: this was just one episode? All of this? There's still another entire hour? Am I ready for another hour?
But on to more thoughtful reactions. First, I'm a huge fan of the time travel aspects of the show. I know not everyone is, so I apologize in advance if I rattle on about what I think is going on with that part of the show. But I'm not brave enough to even pretend to fully understand it, so let me share a few non-time travel things.
- Is Pierre Chang's baby Miles? The timing seems to match up, if we saw the Changs in the late 1970's/early 1980's, as I think we do based on the dates of the orientation films we've seen, and if we assume Miles is in his 30's. His name, Miles Straum, always seemed blatantly fake; Miles Straum = maelstrom, a Scandanavian (?) word meaning "storm." Is that his alias, or his "stage name"? Is he really a Chang? Is his time on the island as a baby the reason he has the special abilities that he does? Was he born on the island?
- Is the Swan a constant for the Remainders? Is this why Daniel took them there? And if Miles had been on the island as a baby and had some experience with the Swan, Charlotte would be the only one who has no connection to the Swan that we know of, so that might be why she's the only one who is getting the nosebleed. Then again, it's been hinted that she was born on the island - maybe she was never exposed to the Swan?
- Speaking of Charlotte's nosebleed - Dan had been insisting to Sawyer that there is no way to change the past or the future, ever. He said it over and over. He told Sawyer that pounding on the Swan's doors would be pointless. It wouldn't change anything. But once Dan saw Charlotte's nose start bleeding, and it seems that he knows that's a bad sign for time travelers, his first act was to do exactly what Sawyer was trying to do and try to contact Desmond in the Swan. I got the impression that everything he told Desmond to do, he was doing to try to save Charlotte. Maybe I'm wrong, but there seemed to be some similar behaviors there; two men who are desperate to save people they love, even if they believe it's impossible. I really like this possibility on the show.
- Sun - we see more in the second episode, but even here - what is she up to? I'm squarely on the fence with her - is she Team Widmore, or Team Linus? She is totally up for grabs right now. I'm guessing she's going to turn out to be some sort of double agent. Or, is she thinking of Jin so much, is she thinking of the horrible things he did to be able to be with her, and feeling that she needs to either a.) exact revenge for his death, no matter who gets in her way, or b.) do anything to get back to the island because she believes that Jin is really alive there, no matter who gets in her way? Did Locke come to her and tell her Jin was still alive?
- Ben asks Jack what Locke said "to make him a believer" in the plan to return to the island. As we all know, Jack is not a believer. I just thought that was an interesting choice of words on Ben's part.
- Finally, we hear the phrase "God help us all" in this episode. We also hear it as the last words of the second episode. I'm thinking that the writers (and the characters, in turn) are hinting at just how massively important it is for the O6 to return - not just for themselves, not for the island, but for much, much more...
Namaste, and Good Luck!
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