>: 94 DEAD IS DEAD
Clearly the Ben episode from the PREVIOUSLY. So, right away, I’m just charged, can’t look, flinching away from the fate of the Humes. And that opening shot, they really are going for the adventure aspect of things this season. Young Widmore, hard charging on his steed! No surprise we don’t get a peek at the inside of the Temple. Boo on Young Ben not remembering how he got injured. That kid’s not quite as effective when he isn’t channeling the Emerson creepy. Ben and Charles’s first meeting definitely didn’t go the way one might expect.
And then can’t believe they just rerun the last scene from last week, that had no place at the end of the episode! Was Ben telling the truth about going back to be judged? Great news, of course, to hear that we’re heading off in search of the Monster. Is Cerberus Radzinky’s moniker, then, if the Others/Natives/Jacob followers (what are we calling those folk anyway these days, Team Alpert?) don’t have a name for it?
So, clearly those are the guns in the AA-823 crate that Ilana and crew “have to get moved.” Ben trying to work his mojo on Cesar is pretty hilarious, “What if…he was already here?” Getting Ben’s back is never really good strategy.
Ethan was all ready to kill Rousseau. Alex’s abduction was interesting, never figured that it was pretty much the most humane gesture from Ben that we’ve ever seen. That line “If you want your child to live, any time you hear whispers, you run the other way,” is probably going to mean a lot more in fourteen months’ time. The answer to exactly what the whispers are is a big un.
Who took that picture of Ben and Alex? They sure look happier than we ever saw them.
Locke really, really seems like himself. A bit sharper, more predatory where Ben’s concerned, but that’s to be expected. More later.
Ben just fucking shotgunning Cesar at close range was certainly the surprise of the evening. Certainly makes Cesar finding it under Ben’s desk at the top of 5.7 and hiding it from Ilana a lot crazier. Stole it back, I guess. Hah, great line about the apology. BKV! When the hell will Old Man Harris finish EX MACHINA #41 (and how hard did #40 throw you from the eighth floor like an ungrateful conman biological father, Stew?!?)? Exactly when and how did Ben filch that gun? Did anyone catch the commercial for the ABC investigative special report “IF I ONLY HAD A GUN” airing the following Friday in the commercial break right after? That’s comedy.
And damn, what a shot of them rowing in. Even looked amazing not in HD. Someone else hurt the arm. Ominous ominous.
Was sure that it was Claire and Christian hanging out in Ben’s house. Certainly not Sun and Lapidus playing RISK. Wonder who took Australia.
Oh, is Ben lying about not knowing that they were in the DI?
Loved Locke’s little wave. “Yup, it’s me.”
(or IS IT?!?!??! Dun dun dunnnn!)
Lapidus makes no bones about an exit, just out. Figured that meant he was leaving the narrative as well, but I guess not, as there’s no one else back with the 316 nuts that we care about.
“Better get to it, then.”
Great little sequence with Ben burrowing down to the summoning pool. We skipped a few of those steps back in 4.9, didn’t we? Again, more kind of pulp adventure trappings with the lamp and cavern and all. This show soaking up Indiana Jones for the fifth season is in no way a bad thing. And the Monster understands English. Locke couldn’t be the Monster, otherwise what is Ben summoning? Right?
So, the Widmore exile timeline doesn’t quite line up (unless, I guess, the Island’s been outside of linear time, which of course it is), wait, getting garbled, all I want to point out is that Widmore told Locke that he was cast out by Ben twenty years ago, even restates that figure to Ben over the phone this time out (“almost twenty”), yet Alex is clearly four or five when Ben’s pushing her on the swing while Charles is getting marched out, and we know she only makes it to be 16 years old. So, unless they just screwed it up, only eleven or so years passed on the Island while Widmore was gone for 20. Which is of course entirely possible. Just saying.
(and never thought to wonder who Pen’s mother is, could even THAT be important, too?)
And then Ben does a complete reversal, tells Sun he had no idea about John coming back. Lying, now? To what benefit? Why would he really care about Sun’s opinion? Makes much more sense that he was lying at the top, to John. We haven’t seen him interact with Christian and he certainly didn’t flare up when Sun said that name, though that doesn’t really mean much. But he does raise the most interesting point of the evening, aren’t the people that the Island brings back Creatures of the Island? Christian sure seems to have a different agenda post-815 crash (though I like to think that it’s merely expanded and he’s still getting just shithoused off-screen). Yemi, Boone, Ana-Lucia, they all seem to simply be furthering the Island’s agenda. Wonder how that coincides with Claire appearing to Kate and seeming to oppose the Island’s plan (Right? The Island wants Aaron, yas?). And of course, Locke’s just out communing during all this, standing in for the Monster (and rustling right out of the bushes, a la Tony and the Bear at the end of, I think, Season Five, right after he sprinted away from the bust at Phil Leotardo’s)
But, DEAD IS DEAD, caught that in a heartbeat, even gave it the two-finger swish as soon as Ben said it, told the empty room that that’s what we’d be calling this one.
Then as soon as we come back from commercial, Locke makes his case that he hasn’t changed. A bit forced, I thought.
Man, then as soon as that flashback wave starts to swell, was just like “nomarinanomarinanomarina” and it had to be. If we knew the name of Desmond’s boat, I’d forgotten. Sick. Still got that book, ready to go whenever he goes down.
Hah, then Locke’s first line to Ben the next scene. “Shoot.” That’s terrible.
And we’re back to the hole all the French people went down before they got “infected.” This should end well.
Great great bit before the jump, Ben asking Sun to convey his apologies. I mean, I was pretty sure that Desmond wasn’t dead, but very cool to tell us right at the last second, even while heightening the dread for the other two ever so much.
Oh and the Scottish fury! Was glad to see Des just beating hell out of Ben. Didn’t look like he hurt the arm, though. Threw the gun out of it, but not enough to damage it the way they’ve made such a point of. Was so tense to get back to what happened after Ben fell in the water but just nothing. Never occurred to me that they’d cliffhang that, though surely Pen is dead and either young Charlie is as well or he’s going to pull a Doc Brown.
Just no idea what’s going on with Ilana and her little posse. But if there’s one man who’ll get to the bottom of things, it’s Frank Lapidus!
(I fully support a time-travel spinoff of Cap’n Lapidus doing just that, hairy-chested Indy style, when all this is said and done, answering the 107 questions that will surely be left dangling)
And then see, they thread the needle so well. Because Locke’s concern at Ben’s fall seems so genuine, and he’s off for the rope. But is he just coalesced Monster particles pulling a Kent dash to the phonebooth? It was the same bit with Yemi when Eko went down. The second he was gone, everything got creepy. –er, I guess I should say, as we had already been talking to the dead brother.
Need to find out what those glyphs all say.
All right, I hate to say it, but the climax fell a bit flat for me. Not the beginning, it was staged perfectly, that pictograph of Anubis or whomever kneeling, and the way the Monster engulfed Ben. But then it just . . . for the first time, it felt like this was a TV show trying to be a movie. Made me think of ol Chuck Heston rocking the stone tablets or something. Ben’s entire time inside the Monster just didn’t crush me the way that I expected, needed it to. Maybe it was because almost every single clip was either in the flashbacks tonight or in the PREVIOUSLY (literally, all but that one about Ben being more dangerous than the Freighter Folk, I think)(oh, and Alex hating his guts). The way this show traffics in tiered revelations, it really seems like we should’ve gotten something new here, some twist that lent new insight into Ben’s character, not just the same scenes that we’ve all rewatched over and over. Yeah, Kimi killed Alex. Ben’s acting was crushing. He should have taken the Emmy over Juliet’s husband. But that’s not what I want to be thinking about INSIDE THE DAMN MONSTER. An answer, or at the very least some new information, kind of seems like a prerequisite for taking a camera, again, INSIDE THE DAMN MONSTER. Not cutouts from Season 4 interpolated over smoke. Something about why the Island wanted Alex to die. Or if it’s reviewing his life, why not put the sickest flashback right here? I’m pretty sure that the writers are up to the task. Maybe time is going to tell, and I’ll see that they couldn’t drop a bomb here that they were saving for later (allo, Jughead) but this week, at this time, this feels like a misfire and a huge opportunity wasted.
Then as soon as Ben’s out of the smoke, we’re back to the brilliant framing that gets Stephen Williams other paying gigs on 24 and EXPOSE on top of this. Such a pleasure to get the goodbye sound from the Monster, even down here.
And, emphasizing the episode title, Alex shows up and lays it down. Love her choice of verb with “destroy,” there. Say it! Thought for a second that she was going to take Ben out right there, kind of an inversion on the Eko ep with specter sparing him and Monster killing him. Well, not kind of.
And, just like faithful Clark, Locke is right back on hand with the vine rope the instant that the spooky weirdness is over. Masters of ambiguity.
Kimbley calls favorite episode of the season, but I can’t agree, with that stumble in the smoke, found 316 and LAFLEUR much more crushing, for my money. Certainly enjoyed this, just not #1. Interesting the way they’re spreading things out this season, how we jump away from Jack and the main crew and check in on everybody else, over to Sawyer’s group for Episodes 3 and 8, with Locke and now Ben picking up the threads in 7 and 12.
How the hell are Ben, Sun, and Locke going to get back to 1977?
Is John Locke made of flesh and blood, or black smoke?
How massive is the portion of the ’77 (or, really, for all time) jungle that at this point needs to simply be redistricted DEATHTRAP, thanks to the careful preparation of our man in the Republican Guard?
What evil lurks in the heart of the Temple?
Is it finally time to learn how the Chahlie-ghost talked Hurley onto 316 with his guitar case?
What is Richard Alpert’s story?
And, for the love of God, what lies in the shadow of the statue?
Stay tuned, Island Faithful. All will be revealed.
I bow to you.
And then can’t believe they just rerun the last scene from last week, that had no place at the end of the episode! Was Ben telling the truth about going back to be judged? Great news, of course, to hear that we’re heading off in search of the Monster. Is Cerberus Radzinky’s moniker, then, if the Others/Natives/Jacob followers (what are we calling those folk anyway these days, Team Alpert?) don’t have a name for it?
So, clearly those are the guns in the AA-823 crate that Ilana and crew “have to get moved.” Ben trying to work his mojo on Cesar is pretty hilarious, “What if…he was already here?” Getting Ben’s back is never really good strategy.
Ethan was all ready to kill Rousseau. Alex’s abduction was interesting, never figured that it was pretty much the most humane gesture from Ben that we’ve ever seen. That line “If you want your child to live, any time you hear whispers, you run the other way,” is probably going to mean a lot more in fourteen months’ time. The answer to exactly what the whispers are is a big un.
Who took that picture of Ben and Alex? They sure look happier than we ever saw them.
Locke really, really seems like himself. A bit sharper, more predatory where Ben’s concerned, but that’s to be expected. More later.
Ben just fucking shotgunning Cesar at close range was certainly the surprise of the evening. Certainly makes Cesar finding it under Ben’s desk at the top of 5.7 and hiding it from Ilana a lot crazier. Stole it back, I guess. Hah, great line about the apology. BKV! When the hell will Old Man Harris finish EX MACHINA #41 (and how hard did #40 throw you from the eighth floor like an ungrateful conman biological father, Stew?!?)? Exactly when and how did Ben filch that gun? Did anyone catch the commercial for the ABC investigative special report “IF I ONLY HAD A GUN” airing the following Friday in the commercial break right after? That’s comedy.
And damn, what a shot of them rowing in. Even looked amazing not in HD. Someone else hurt the arm. Ominous ominous.
Was sure that it was Claire and Christian hanging out in Ben’s house. Certainly not Sun and Lapidus playing RISK. Wonder who took Australia.
Oh, is Ben lying about not knowing that they were in the DI?
Loved Locke’s little wave. “Yup, it’s me.”
(or IS IT?!?!??! Dun dun dunnnn!)
Lapidus makes no bones about an exit, just out. Figured that meant he was leaving the narrative as well, but I guess not, as there’s no one else back with the 316 nuts that we care about.
“Better get to it, then.”
Great little sequence with Ben burrowing down to the summoning pool. We skipped a few of those steps back in 4.9, didn’t we? Again, more kind of pulp adventure trappings with the lamp and cavern and all. This show soaking up Indiana Jones for the fifth season is in no way a bad thing. And the Monster understands English. Locke couldn’t be the Monster, otherwise what is Ben summoning? Right?
So, the Widmore exile timeline doesn’t quite line up (unless, I guess, the Island’s been outside of linear time, which of course it is), wait, getting garbled, all I want to point out is that Widmore told Locke that he was cast out by Ben twenty years ago, even restates that figure to Ben over the phone this time out (“almost twenty”), yet Alex is clearly four or five when Ben’s pushing her on the swing while Charles is getting marched out, and we know she only makes it to be 16 years old. So, unless they just screwed it up, only eleven or so years passed on the Island while Widmore was gone for 20. Which is of course entirely possible. Just saying.
(and never thought to wonder who Pen’s mother is, could even THAT be important, too?)
And then Ben does a complete reversal, tells Sun he had no idea about John coming back. Lying, now? To what benefit? Why would he really care about Sun’s opinion? Makes much more sense that he was lying at the top, to John. We haven’t seen him interact with Christian and he certainly didn’t flare up when Sun said that name, though that doesn’t really mean much. But he does raise the most interesting point of the evening, aren’t the people that the Island brings back Creatures of the Island? Christian sure seems to have a different agenda post-815 crash (though I like to think that it’s merely expanded and he’s still getting just shithoused off-screen). Yemi, Boone, Ana-Lucia, they all seem to simply be furthering the Island’s agenda. Wonder how that coincides with Claire appearing to Kate and seeming to oppose the Island’s plan (Right? The Island wants Aaron, yas?). And of course, Locke’s just out communing during all this, standing in for the Monster (and rustling right out of the bushes, a la Tony and the Bear at the end of, I think, Season Five, right after he sprinted away from the bust at Phil Leotardo’s)
But, DEAD IS DEAD, caught that in a heartbeat, even gave it the two-finger swish as soon as Ben said it, told the empty room that that’s what we’d be calling this one.
Then as soon as we come back from commercial, Locke makes his case that he hasn’t changed. A bit forced, I thought.
Man, then as soon as that flashback wave starts to swell, was just like “nomarinanomarinanomarina” and it had to be. If we knew the name of Desmond’s boat, I’d forgotten. Sick. Still got that book, ready to go whenever he goes down.
Hah, then Locke’s first line to Ben the next scene. “Shoot.” That’s terrible.
And we’re back to the hole all the French people went down before they got “infected.” This should end well.
Great great bit before the jump, Ben asking Sun to convey his apologies. I mean, I was pretty sure that Desmond wasn’t dead, but very cool to tell us right at the last second, even while heightening the dread for the other two ever so much.
Oh and the Scottish fury! Was glad to see Des just beating hell out of Ben. Didn’t look like he hurt the arm, though. Threw the gun out of it, but not enough to damage it the way they’ve made such a point of. Was so tense to get back to what happened after Ben fell in the water but just nothing. Never occurred to me that they’d cliffhang that, though surely Pen is dead and either young Charlie is as well or he’s going to pull a Doc Brown.
Just no idea what’s going on with Ilana and her little posse. But if there’s one man who’ll get to the bottom of things, it’s Frank Lapidus!
(I fully support a time-travel spinoff of Cap’n Lapidus doing just that, hairy-chested Indy style, when all this is said and done, answering the 107 questions that will surely be left dangling)
And then see, they thread the needle so well. Because Locke’s concern at Ben’s fall seems so genuine, and he’s off for the rope. But is he just coalesced Monster particles pulling a Kent dash to the phonebooth? It was the same bit with Yemi when Eko went down. The second he was gone, everything got creepy. –er, I guess I should say, as we had already been talking to the dead brother.
Need to find out what those glyphs all say.
All right, I hate to say it, but the climax fell a bit flat for me. Not the beginning, it was staged perfectly, that pictograph of Anubis or whomever kneeling, and the way the Monster engulfed Ben. But then it just . . . for the first time, it felt like this was a TV show trying to be a movie. Made me think of ol Chuck Heston rocking the stone tablets or something. Ben’s entire time inside the Monster just didn’t crush me the way that I expected, needed it to. Maybe it was because almost every single clip was either in the flashbacks tonight or in the PREVIOUSLY (literally, all but that one about Ben being more dangerous than the Freighter Folk, I think)(oh, and Alex hating his guts). The way this show traffics in tiered revelations, it really seems like we should’ve gotten something new here, some twist that lent new insight into Ben’s character, not just the same scenes that we’ve all rewatched over and over. Yeah, Kimi killed Alex. Ben’s acting was crushing. He should have taken the Emmy over Juliet’s husband. But that’s not what I want to be thinking about INSIDE THE DAMN MONSTER. An answer, or at the very least some new information, kind of seems like a prerequisite for taking a camera, again, INSIDE THE DAMN MONSTER. Not cutouts from Season 4 interpolated over smoke. Something about why the Island wanted Alex to die. Or if it’s reviewing his life, why not put the sickest flashback right here? I’m pretty sure that the writers are up to the task. Maybe time is going to tell, and I’ll see that they couldn’t drop a bomb here that they were saving for later (allo, Jughead) but this week, at this time, this feels like a misfire and a huge opportunity wasted.
Then as soon as Ben’s out of the smoke, we’re back to the brilliant framing that gets Stephen Williams other paying gigs on 24 and EXPOSE on top of this. Such a pleasure to get the goodbye sound from the Monster, even down here.
And, emphasizing the episode title, Alex shows up and lays it down. Love her choice of verb with “destroy,” there. Say it! Thought for a second that she was going to take Ben out right there, kind of an inversion on the Eko ep with specter sparing him and Monster killing him. Well, not kind of.
And, just like faithful Clark, Locke is right back on hand with the vine rope the instant that the spooky weirdness is over. Masters of ambiguity.
Kimbley calls favorite episode of the season, but I can’t agree, with that stumble in the smoke, found 316 and LAFLEUR much more crushing, for my money. Certainly enjoyed this, just not #1. Interesting the way they’re spreading things out this season, how we jump away from Jack and the main crew and check in on everybody else, over to Sawyer’s group for Episodes 3 and 8, with Locke and now Ben picking up the threads in 7 and 12.
How the hell are Ben, Sun, and Locke going to get back to 1977?
Is John Locke made of flesh and blood, or black smoke?
How massive is the portion of the ’77 (or, really, for all time) jungle that at this point needs to simply be redistricted DEATHTRAP, thanks to the careful preparation of our man in the Republican Guard?
What evil lurks in the heart of the Temple?
Is it finally time to learn how the Chahlie-ghost talked Hurley onto 316 with his guitar case?
What is Richard Alpert’s story?
And, for the love of God, what lies in the shadow of the statue?
Stay tuned, Island Faithful. All will be revealed.
I bow to you.
posted by rb at 12:02 AM
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