>: 90 LAFLEUR
Two reasons why I enjoyed this particular installment more than anyone else:
1) Hadn’t had a chance to watch last week’s FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS in HD until literally while this episode was airing and when Street, the man who switched me (and, really Stew as well)(giving proper respect to Jimmy McNulty on both our parts, of course, but Street was the impetus in both cases) off Jack to Jameson, started banging his wheelchair up against Herc, his sidekick, over the asking price for the house they were flipping, no it wasn’t then, it was when Herc replied by banging HIS chair up against Street’s, that I had to lean over and make the unfortunate involuntary proclamation to Catherine “Cripple Fight!” even though I hate it when people quote Cartman, but I didn’t do the voice just said the words and really, they had just self-deprecatingly referred to themselves as same minutes prior and it was so true and I couldn’t help myself.
2) My feet were cold and right before she went to sleep I asked Catherine if she knew where a random pair of socks was, so that I wouldn’t open my sock drawer within a couple feet of sleeping Bundled Perfection. She did in fact know, and no arguing over her dead ex-husband followed.
And then initially couldn’t believe how extensive the PREVIOUSLY was (especially since the actual voice-over happened right before the DVR recording kicked in this week, hateful)(but far preferable, of course, to the alternative, shaving the last four seconds off the end, instead) and even after it appeared to be over, we still got Sawyer’s rope-in-the-ground scene with Juliet before it kicked in new with Miles saying “What’s that?” and apparently if Locke hadn’t finally gotten it together with Christian at that exact moment, we would have gotten answers of a much more Biblical nature, or slant that into Egyptian, because that four-toed statue looked like a crowned Anubis from behind, King Dog, but this being a Sawyer episode, that kind of fits, especially with the four toes bit (Huzzah, Stew, and how weird IS that?, because him stepping on whatever that was in the pilot, he was totally on deathwatch for me this season, I just felt like hell not drinking to his health that night of all nights, but then just No, Three Years Later, no problem)(but, too, I just want to get in here because I don't think I will later, that necklace of Paul's, the ankh, Egyptian symbol of death and I think eternal life? Gaiman's Death has one too and I had an ankh pipe that my own Paul and I broke in outside Liberty Lunch probably thirteen years ago now right before a Tripl3FastAction show maybe the night that Catherine moved to town, but too much memoir, but an ankh, people! Eternal life.) and what drove me crazy and almost dialed me out was after that statue and reaction shot, we go BACK to Locke downstairs from 5.5, we know at this point, everyone intelligent enough to still be watching the show at this point does not need shots of Locke from three weeks ago pushing the wheel to understand that the on-Island status quo for the season is about to solidify, really, everyone should realize that we’re heading to Halcyon DHARMA 70s just from Jin’s appearance at the end of that episode.
But what happens after Sawyer’s “as long as it takes” ultimatum is one for the books.
Three years later, we get yet another Desmond Mama Cass moment, only the hands spooling this pre-vinyl situation are none other than a fully ambulatory Herc’s! And the chick brought brownies. Ingested more than 45 minutes ago, from the initial vibe in Adrian’s observation room. And was she rocking a Geronimo Jackson tee?
Then Jimmy walks in.
Just unreal at this point. I hadn’t thought about it, but if I had made a wishlist of guest-star grabs to crank up this season, then Jimmy (I think he’s Jerry, here? They’re not even dressing it up, would scoop up Don Draper if there was enough room in this crowded crowded sphere for his thunder) looks like would top the list, or you know Lynch himself or Cooper, but there has to be an upper limit to what we can handle and we’re kissing it as is,
So but the combination of Herc and Jimmy dealing with this Horace Godspeed situation is just about too much but as soon as they said the name I rewound it, which I just hate to do, break up the flow the first time, but I knew it was important, and the name was LaFleur and I didn’t realize until they were on his porch but before he actually said a word that it had to be Sawyer.
Quite a bit before the opening title.
And you’ve got to love Jim LaFleur calling Miles Enos as soon as he’s in riding shotgun. On the surface, the latter is basically unchanged over the course of ’71-’74, seems. Horace has had a drunken dynamite tantrum.
Everyone should have it right in the front of their brain right now that Horace is the guy who brought lil’ Benjamin Linus into the world on the side of the road, not to mention the dude who recruited he and Roger “Workman” into the situation before sitting on the bench with the ungrateful tyke, who had just initiated a Purge on the entire outfit.
But he, Horace, has somehow managed to get Michelle Dessler from 24 knocked up in the meantime. The scattershot pointillism presentation of narrative has almost never worked better for me than this episode. Being pretty certain before the first minute aired that Sawyer & Juliet were going to wind up In Luff and that the Oceanic 3 of 6 were almost certainly going to be delivered into their bedroom to wreck it right before the lightning crack of Four Letters, as well as the insanity of Horace playing a large supporting role, and coming across as such a douche during his we-don’t-have-to-give-up-Paul’s-body speech to Amy/Michelle if only because we know how badly he fails at the birth of his (if-it-really-is-his) child three years later.
And that mirrored conversation between him and Sawyer, “How’s the head?” “Hurts”, wonderful.
Sawyer, though, is of course the star. Obviously. Could not handle his right-before-the-commercial elation when Juliet told him that she’d delivered the baby and that son and mum were fine.
That conversation with Richard, the way that entire encounter was framed, brilliant. The thing that freaked me out the most as Sawyer and Juliet were looking out the window at him was Which Richard was it? Was it the Time Traveler who advises Locke in the premiere and was hip to present and future events? Or was it present-tense Richard?
Which is why this is the finest show of all, that I was actually wondering which Richard that was as he stood there, stark still in the flood lights, waiting.
When Jin and Sawyer were talking during the birth, I so wanted Jin to almost break the character that we know and just launch into this rapid-fire English line of questioning, freak everybody out.
And then the flower. LaFleur is French for that, Faithful.
That doomed domestic shot, Sawyer coming home to home-cooking. I want to taste a bottle of Swan Merlot so much. He and Juliet played their interaction to pitch-perfection. Weird that we got two FF-relationships (fast-forward, not the imaginauts) this one and the final realization of Desmond/Penny, all of a sudden these people are in a very different emotional place and you’re almost tempted to believe Sawyer when he tells Horace that three years is absolutely enough time. But it’s only because he’s such a good con man.
Then. Finally. That last scene. I assumed that Jin was just going to drive them straight to Sawyer’s bedroom but he had the decency to call first. The “I gotta go” was sold to perfection. And then great shot of the blue vehicle amidst all that Island glory.
But then the direction, the shots of that last The Moment fell just a little flat for me (as well as when he had the audacity to put the shot of Girl Charlotte in slow-motion, it was just like Really???!??, was totally on board with that spinning shot climaxed by Faraday returning to the season-opening record simile, that was profound, brilliant almost, but then almost dispelled by the slo-mo Charlotte wave) not of course the acting, Jack’s face laying eyes on Sawyer for the first time in three years was amazing and that was the shot of Sawyer we needed, but the way that zoom shot of Kate walking out was staged, just felt TOO staged, should have been framed differently, made me miss Bender or Williams (it must be said, though, how insane it is that they dropped those writers and directors on 6 and 7 and then flattened it with these people in 8), but of course the acting carried it through and 1974 on the Island has never seemed more interesting.
To say nothing of 1975. And take the first scene of the season. At the time, the viewer still clinging to rationality assumes that Faraday has got his hands on a time machine or harnessed the Orchid but, you know, journeyed to this zone, the most important timeframe of the DI, but no, EVERYBODY’S HERE. At least Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, Hurley, Miles, Horace, Dr. Chang, Herc, Jimmy.
And Jin searched Grid 133 for “our people.” Is that Rose/Bernard and the other 815 chorus? One would think.
Going forward, with trust in our hearts, the mind wants to backflip into electromagnetic overload. There are so many ways that we can fill up this season, that we know about right now, not even allowing for whatever insanity is coming.
A Kate episode, pre- and post-316, seems pretty important to the narrative going forward, all of a sudden.
We still haven’t seen Sun or Sayid since the second crash, and there’s his whole arrest with Lydia to explain.
Ben and the Humes. The presence of Rousseau’s map on the HYDRA station makes it appear that Locke, Ben, Cesar, Lydia and the rest of 316 are crashed in 1/08. Ha!!!!! I honestly didn’t know what I was typing. But yeah, that ends THAT debate, when they are. Can you imagine if we got a killer Cesar-centric at this point? That would take cajones on everyone’s part.
And it’s really interesting how Faraday just faded away as this one went on, guess we never saw him after the record-spinning line, come to think of it. The Faraday-centric episode of this season will reach back and try to crush the fine Desmond-centrics that we’ve come to know and love.
And then you know, the wish list, Richard Alpert. Charles Widmore. Christian Shephard.
Anything is possible.
(the title: I wanted it to be Sawyer & Juliet early on, when I saw where we were at last heading, just because ever since they gave her that name, I thought that that would be fun. Changed it to LaFleur & Juliet, then Jim LaFleur & Juliet, then remembered my friend from MAD MEN and thought we had to have Jimmy LaFleur & Juliet.)
So, for the third week in a row, almost but not quite. Always a percentage, though.
1) Hadn’t had a chance to watch last week’s FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS in HD until literally while this episode was airing and when Street, the man who switched me (and, really Stew as well)(giving proper respect to Jimmy McNulty on both our parts, of course, but Street was the impetus in both cases) off Jack to Jameson, started banging his wheelchair up against Herc, his sidekick, over the asking price for the house they were flipping, no it wasn’t then, it was when Herc replied by banging HIS chair up against Street’s, that I had to lean over and make the unfortunate involuntary proclamation to Catherine “Cripple Fight!” even though I hate it when people quote Cartman, but I didn’t do the voice just said the words and really, they had just self-deprecatingly referred to themselves as same minutes prior and it was so true and I couldn’t help myself.
2) My feet were cold and right before she went to sleep I asked Catherine if she knew where a random pair of socks was, so that I wouldn’t open my sock drawer within a couple feet of sleeping Bundled Perfection. She did in fact know, and no arguing over her dead ex-husband followed.
And then initially couldn’t believe how extensive the PREVIOUSLY was (especially since the actual voice-over happened right before the DVR recording kicked in this week, hateful)(but far preferable, of course, to the alternative, shaving the last four seconds off the end, instead) and even after it appeared to be over, we still got Sawyer’s rope-in-the-ground scene with Juliet before it kicked in new with Miles saying “What’s that?” and apparently if Locke hadn’t finally gotten it together with Christian at that exact moment, we would have gotten answers of a much more Biblical nature, or slant that into Egyptian, because that four-toed statue looked like a crowned Anubis from behind, King Dog, but this being a Sawyer episode, that kind of fits, especially with the four toes bit (Huzzah, Stew, and how weird IS that?, because him stepping on whatever that was in the pilot, he was totally on deathwatch for me this season, I just felt like hell not drinking to his health that night of all nights, but then just No, Three Years Later, no problem)(but, too, I just want to get in here because I don't think I will later, that necklace of Paul's, the ankh, Egyptian symbol of death and I think eternal life? Gaiman's Death has one too and I had an ankh pipe that my own Paul and I broke in outside Liberty Lunch probably thirteen years ago now right before a Tripl3FastAction show maybe the night that Catherine moved to town, but too much memoir, but an ankh, people! Eternal life.) and what drove me crazy and almost dialed me out was after that statue and reaction shot, we go BACK to Locke downstairs from 5.5, we know at this point, everyone intelligent enough to still be watching the show at this point does not need shots of Locke from three weeks ago pushing the wheel to understand that the on-Island status quo for the season is about to solidify, really, everyone should realize that we’re heading to Halcyon DHARMA 70s just from Jin’s appearance at the end of that episode.
But what happens after Sawyer’s “as long as it takes” ultimatum is one for the books.
Three years later, we get yet another Desmond Mama Cass moment, only the hands spooling this pre-vinyl situation are none other than a fully ambulatory Herc’s! And the chick brought brownies. Ingested more than 45 minutes ago, from the initial vibe in Adrian’s observation room. And was she rocking a Geronimo Jackson tee?
Then Jimmy walks in.
Just unreal at this point. I hadn’t thought about it, but if I had made a wishlist of guest-star grabs to crank up this season, then Jimmy (I think he’s Jerry, here? They’re not even dressing it up, would scoop up Don Draper if there was enough room in this crowded crowded sphere for his thunder) looks like would top the list, or you know Lynch himself or Cooper, but there has to be an upper limit to what we can handle and we’re kissing it as is,
So but the combination of Herc and Jimmy dealing with this Horace Godspeed situation is just about too much but as soon as they said the name I rewound it, which I just hate to do, break up the flow the first time, but I knew it was important, and the name was LaFleur and I didn’t realize until they were on his porch but before he actually said a word that it had to be Sawyer.
Quite a bit before the opening title.
And you’ve got to love Jim LaFleur calling Miles Enos as soon as he’s in riding shotgun. On the surface, the latter is basically unchanged over the course of ’71-’74, seems. Horace has had a drunken dynamite tantrum.
Everyone should have it right in the front of their brain right now that Horace is the guy who brought lil’ Benjamin Linus into the world on the side of the road, not to mention the dude who recruited he and Roger “Workman” into the situation before sitting on the bench with the ungrateful tyke, who had just initiated a Purge on the entire outfit.
But he, Horace, has somehow managed to get Michelle Dessler from 24 knocked up in the meantime. The scattershot pointillism presentation of narrative has almost never worked better for me than this episode. Being pretty certain before the first minute aired that Sawyer & Juliet were going to wind up In Luff and that the Oceanic 3 of 6 were almost certainly going to be delivered into their bedroom to wreck it right before the lightning crack of Four Letters, as well as the insanity of Horace playing a large supporting role, and coming across as such a douche during his we-don’t-have-to-give-up-Paul’s-body speech to Amy/Michelle if only because we know how badly he fails at the birth of his (if-it-really-is-his) child three years later.
And that mirrored conversation between him and Sawyer, “How’s the head?” “Hurts”, wonderful.
Sawyer, though, is of course the star. Obviously. Could not handle his right-before-the-commercial elation when Juliet told him that she’d delivered the baby and that son and mum were fine.
That conversation with Richard, the way that entire encounter was framed, brilliant. The thing that freaked me out the most as Sawyer and Juliet were looking out the window at him was Which Richard was it? Was it the Time Traveler who advises Locke in the premiere and was hip to present and future events? Or was it present-tense Richard?
Which is why this is the finest show of all, that I was actually wondering which Richard that was as he stood there, stark still in the flood lights, waiting.
When Jin and Sawyer were talking during the birth, I so wanted Jin to almost break the character that we know and just launch into this rapid-fire English line of questioning, freak everybody out.
And then the flower. LaFleur is French for that, Faithful.
That doomed domestic shot, Sawyer coming home to home-cooking. I want to taste a bottle of Swan Merlot so much. He and Juliet played their interaction to pitch-perfection. Weird that we got two FF-relationships (fast-forward, not the imaginauts) this one and the final realization of Desmond/Penny, all of a sudden these people are in a very different emotional place and you’re almost tempted to believe Sawyer when he tells Horace that three years is absolutely enough time. But it’s only because he’s such a good con man.
Then. Finally. That last scene. I assumed that Jin was just going to drive them straight to Sawyer’s bedroom but he had the decency to call first. The “I gotta go” was sold to perfection. And then great shot of the blue vehicle amidst all that Island glory.
But then the direction, the shots of that last The Moment fell just a little flat for me (as well as when he had the audacity to put the shot of Girl Charlotte in slow-motion, it was just like Really???!??, was totally on board with that spinning shot climaxed by Faraday returning to the season-opening record simile, that was profound, brilliant almost, but then almost dispelled by the slo-mo Charlotte wave) not of course the acting, Jack’s face laying eyes on Sawyer for the first time in three years was amazing and that was the shot of Sawyer we needed, but the way that zoom shot of Kate walking out was staged, just felt TOO staged, should have been framed differently, made me miss Bender or Williams (it must be said, though, how insane it is that they dropped those writers and directors on 6 and 7 and then flattened it with these people in 8), but of course the acting carried it through and 1974 on the Island has never seemed more interesting.
To say nothing of 1975. And take the first scene of the season. At the time, the viewer still clinging to rationality assumes that Faraday has got his hands on a time machine or harnessed the Orchid but, you know, journeyed to this zone, the most important timeframe of the DI, but no, EVERYBODY’S HERE. At least Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, Hurley, Miles, Horace, Dr. Chang, Herc, Jimmy.
And Jin searched Grid 133 for “our people.” Is that Rose/Bernard and the other 815 chorus? One would think.
Going forward, with trust in our hearts, the mind wants to backflip into electromagnetic overload. There are so many ways that we can fill up this season, that we know about right now, not even allowing for whatever insanity is coming.
A Kate episode, pre- and post-316, seems pretty important to the narrative going forward, all of a sudden.
We still haven’t seen Sun or Sayid since the second crash, and there’s his whole arrest with Lydia to explain.
Ben and the Humes. The presence of Rousseau’s map on the HYDRA station makes it appear that Locke, Ben, Cesar, Lydia and the rest of 316 are crashed in 1/08. Ha!!!!! I honestly didn’t know what I was typing. But yeah, that ends THAT debate, when they are. Can you imagine if we got a killer Cesar-centric at this point? That would take cajones on everyone’s part.
And it’s really interesting how Faraday just faded away as this one went on, guess we never saw him after the record-spinning line, come to think of it. The Faraday-centric episode of this season will reach back and try to crush the fine Desmond-centrics that we’ve come to know and love.
And then you know, the wish list, Richard Alpert. Charles Widmore. Christian Shephard.
Anything is possible.
(the title: I wanted it to be Sawyer & Juliet early on, when I saw where we were at last heading, just because ever since they gave her that name, I thought that that would be fun. Changed it to LaFleur & Juliet, then Jim LaFleur & Juliet, then remembered my friend from MAD MEN and thought we had to have Jimmy LaFleur & Juliet.)
So, for the third week in a row, almost but not quite. Always a percentage, though.
posted by rb at 3:12 AM
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