>: 71 CONFIRMED DEAD

Honestly, Holy Shit.

Reeling, so much plot just chucked our way.

So many questions, so much ridiculous . . .

Open with the POV of random guys dredging oceanic depths. HOW was this not the premiere? I mean, the entire time last week, I was thinking, Yah best premiere yet, but that’s still not saying so much and then this comes in and flattens . . . in few words: as much as I’ve loved all that we’ve had, tonight makes me feel like we’ve just been spinning our wheels almost entirely and now it’s time to cash in the promise of that improbably imaginative first season.

Blame Goddard and Vaughan. I have impossibly too much affection for those blokes and knew that it was all over once the writing credit came up. (figuring that the combined minds behind Poor Yorick Brown and the Cloverfield youths might possibly be able to string together a coherent sentence or scene from the castaways at this point)

The episode in question: What an opening! Of course you’re already thinking Cloverfield from the cameras but then Hell! I was mining for some bloated Pace Driveshaft corpse. I mean, really, that’s all. But the plane! 815. The news. I’ve been concerned about this. Naomi, who is in on an as-yet undisclosed plan, told them that their bodies, that 815, had been found. And now confirmation. She was not lying. Murder of ambiguity, indeed. And it seemed to be a Faraday flashback. But not so, not standing still any longer, an entire Team Flashback.

Why was Dan so upset at news of the crash, though (besides being a very empathetic and intuitive physicist?)? (and Jeremy Davies, who basically acts just like that, all the time?)

And great to have Locke basking in the rain. How can no one else realize, even now, that it’s scheduled?

And also funny for Locke to talk about Tall Walt, acknowledging MD Kelly’s undisguisable puberty, but then I can’t help feeling (just for the Buffy devotees) that that was a little dig on Giant Dawn as well, since both writers are or did hit Season 8 of same. Moving on!

(but what would you give for Xander or Willow to show up now on the island, honestly?)
(I would say, quite a lot)

“I’d probably be dead, if I still had a kidney there.” should be the too-long title of this episode.

And Miles Strong is a ghostbuster? How could he not be. I like how he basically turns on a vacuum cleaner and starts talking, without explanation, and that’s the gig. And we buy it. Looks like that MIGHT be a picture of young Eko on the stairway there, African background and all.

Ben’s “Kaaaaarl,” is wonderful.

As is Sawyer calling him Yoda.

But then the Locke rebuttal to “Did his mouth put that hole in yer gut?”, man, that is the guy I elected, or at least voted for, back in ’04. Parables and good sense. Michelangelo and reincarnated sister as dog. Impossible now, seems, but all of that with the button and blowing things up was just a detour and now he’s finally FINALLY where he’s supposed to be, leading an army against that evil Christian Doctor Shepherd Hard

I love Faraday re: “this light out here, it doesn’t scatter quite right.”
(if it’s not blindingly obvious, I view this latest entry utterly without criticism but only delight, and am hard-pressed for synonyms for terms such as love, innovative, tableau-resetting genius, etc)

Sayid & Juliet dropping in avec guns was pretty wonderful and definitely convinced me that Miles was stupid.

Both chicks, Juliet and Kate, reacting to the Admission of Shephard Wink is pretty funny.

So Miles knew the Oceanic 815 were all alive and wasn’t disturbed/surprised? One. More. ?

Locke’s “We don’t want to be found.” hearkens back directly to that great w/Sun talk in 2.5. Nice touch. I credit Vaughan, though I might be wrong.

(but I have now referenced Radiohead. AND rhymed!)

Mocking up Grunberg with the mustache, Seth Morris apparently, is news to me cognomenwise and GoodTimes (though that wasn’t his very bloated body, we all know) O, wowfuck, and now THIS guy, Frank, was supposed to be the pilot? Whatwhy? Mikhail’s ClaraBell?

And there’s the chopper. For Claire and Aaron to get into. Now that Chahlie’s dead. (brothah)

Horrifying to have Naomi and Daniels in the fifth flashback! Why does Baltimore’s favored son think, no, is positively CERTAIN that there are no survivors of that hallowed flight? And, obviously, what’s so important about these, ya-hah, 4 people as Team?

Then what’s with the reaction to Miles’s call, call ya back later? The chick on the other end did not seem to think that it was a kind of big deal. Which, what the hell else could be going on on her end, to feel that way? (not a ?, rarely, that we need concern ourselves with here)(probably)

I love how Frank immediately tags and calls out Juliet, stone cold. Even if Daniels wasn't, these people were obviously expecting survivors if they're studying the Manifest. “We’re here for Benjamin Linus!” And Miles rocking the rat-face Polaroid of same. They want him because he’s the conduit to the Island/Jacob? Why else?

But Ben counters! “I have the answers.” No chance, bucko, especially not at 9:01! But then (love the writers) Locke responds with perfection, acrobatic Flying Grayson precision, even: “What is the Monster?” Not time for that answer. Yet. AyeGod. “I don’t know.”

But of course Ben, still, has flips and whirls. A mole. He claims. On the boat. 80 miles out. Not Penny’s Boat. They Need You.

The avalanche is bearing me away.