Thursday, May 17, 2007

>: 68 GREATEST HITS

Looked like a pretty huge opening, all those characters trekking, but it turned out to be a pretty shallow set piece, manufactured to make us drop the initial jaw. I dunno, but there are so many dynamics in that group of people, it all felt just a bit wasted. Speaking of wasted, that charge they blew was ridiculous. A bit much to blow up that tree just to demonstrate as dramatically as possible that there was still, in fact, dynamite in the Black Rock? Mightn’t that wire have come in handy a bit later in the episode? I want what happens on the island to decimate me, not to feel like the writers are contriving things to do same.

Did like, though, the Charlie flashback mechanism. I couldn’t see at first how we were supposed to care about a pre-fame arc for Charlie’s flashback at this point, but good trick, the jumping around. Could not handle Naomi quoting Ricky Gervais’s lame catchphrase from the show-within-the-show in Extras.

So great, Sayid knowing where the Looking Glass is, off that cable from freaking Episode 9, back when it was a mark of genius to juxtapose the tortured torturer with a sudden round of island golf. Talk about a clue with a long shelf-life. Any minute now, Adam & Eve.

Nice of Charlie to recap his greatest hits right in line with where the flashbacks go. If he’d thought of them all at once, that really would have counterbalanced the episode.

The Looking Glass insignia is rocking the white rabbit. And nice touch, the bug running across the blueprints. They must have spent weeks training that little guy.

Rose & Bernard! It’s been more than 23 episodes since we’ve seen you. More fodder for the cannon?

Karl showing up did pump me up, Sayid sprinting down the beach to tackle him. And that was a great way to start the episode, had no idea at the beginning who it was or if it was a flashback or what. Great overacting, too, the scene is done, everything’s conveyed, then he has to ram home, “They’re coming NOW!”

The blood on Alex’s hands when she takes the gun back. Get it? I guess he might stumble up to save the day, but it looks like we might just leave Locke lying on those skeletons for the rest of ’07.

“The Christmas Liam gave me the ring”, huh? Funny little hobbit, 'e is.

Seemed like that performance of Wonderwall with the rain was when Desmond came out of Widmore Corp, but it must have been some other time. And Charlie saved Nadia! Very cool. They even managed to squeeze the words “lost” and “hero” into 4 seconds.

Man, Bernard has no idea what he’s getting into. That whole conversation between Jack and Sayid made me nervous. So final. Sayid, Jin, and Bernard left behind.

I got a little choked up, Charlie hugging Hurley goodbye and not wanting to end badly with him.

Nice of the dickheads at ABC to show scenes from the finale in the commercial for Thursday night’s longform commercial. Kind of preaching to the choir, if someone’s already tuned in to ABC Wednesday night between 9 and 10, odds are pretty rock-solid that they’ll be back next week and that advertising is moot.

Kate’s “Here we go again” is a nice mirror of Jack’s “Here we are again” to Sayid on the way to Ana and Libby’s funeral at the end of last season’s penultimate episode.

What could be the significance of that DS ring left behind in Aaron’s crib? It certainly got quite a lingering shot for an insignificant heirloom. Or IS it? Whoa!

Didn’t Charlie already introduce himself to Claire? Pretty sure that had to happen back in Episode 2 or 3. Maybe he just walked up with the blanket and they cut away. I dunno, for that to be his best memory, I’m not feeling as crushed as I need to by the love story and all.

Really thought Desmond was about to up and jump in, though. That would’ve been a good trick. But it was one anyway. We’re more than conditioned by now to expect that Charlie’s going down. Not only Desmond’s flashes, but it’s Charlie’s flashback episode, tailored to his best freaking moments. Totally bought it, too, that shot of his shoe drifting up. Held my breath right along with him. But instead a surface! And girls in the Looking Glass! Is it significant that the two occupants we see are female? Is Brian K. Vaughan’s influence at last being felt? What, if anything, does this have to do with fertility? Does Ben know that those chicks are there?

I don’t think for a second that Charlie’s getting away. Desmond’s flash will come true, it just didn’t slice into the architecture of this episode the way we expected it to. I certainly enjoyed the ride, but it was just a bit of a comedown after the hypercompression of last week’s Ben flashback. More of a set-up, I guess. So we’ve got Price + 10 hitting the camp at nightfall, three shooters ready to blow the dynamite, Jack & Danielle leading the crew to the radio tower (which I don’t think I’ve ever seen except for an orientation video online last summer), Locke gutshot atop Dharma skeletons, Desmond floating unconscious (not unlike his situation at this time last year. “Boat!”) (that was a hell of a cliffhanger), and Charlie getting ready to charm his way out of being taken prisoner by a gang of subaquatic Alices.

Should be a rocking two hours next week.

1 Comments:

Blogger Rutherford B. Hayes said...

All the Charlie stuff seem heavy-handed and maudlin to you? It was out-of-character enough (for the writers) that I started to think they might not kill him. But better Charlie than Desmond, says I.

When they dynamited (fun word) the tree, I thought of the hole that Smokey tried to pull Locke into. Don't know why they'd try to get in there, but I'm a Jack fan and so I hope the tree was blown for a reason.

One wonders about the placement of Locke's bullet wound. One also wonders if the absence of a certain organ might make it more survivable.

Odds that one o' them Looking Glass dames is Annie seem high to me. Pivotal-to-Ben's-childhood character introduced for no reason other than a carving doesn't pack as much punch as gun-wielding defender of the rabbit hole.

Pardon my hyphens,
Ruthy

10:41 AM  

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