>: 101 THE SUBSTITUTE

Really, that opening sequence?

Just as fast as I can:

-open with what can pretty concretely be held up as the mirror double of Locke’s first moments after the crash, instead of jumping up in triumph to pitch in for the save, he can’t maintain the rear double wheelie and crashes to the lawn and just before that can even begin to sink in as humiliating, the sprinklers drop the rain motif right back in on us, but of course the opposite of that attuned to the Island thing we traditionally associate with it then

-the timeline’s shifted because Locke’s about to be married to Helen, which immediately gives us the had no idea we needed it pleasure that we all might take from seeing still crippled Locke lounging in the bathtub coming back from Peg Bundy telling him, “You’re a sweet man,” with, “I know I am,” and at that point you have to pause the frame and really appreciate the smile on O’Quinn’s face, because seriously, there is no way he could have seen this one coming over the bend, just like the rest of us, but, on point:

-Another bizarro flip. He and his father appear to be tight, based on a single remark from Helen. Mad, so that was it, was so looking for him just to have been faking the paralysis and REALLY have been out on the walkabout after all this time, but he was simply rocking the fakeout in the premiere. But still in with A. Cooper/Sawyer? Probably?

-and then just when I’m thinking, so, what, the flipflash-sideways is just going to be the Monster tearing shit up? with Locke in the tub than it is fucking go time black smoke monster P to the O to the V – time, roaring around, stalking Sawyer rocking Iggy, then moving on to drop the same routine on Richard that original Locke did on Ben back in 3.20, only, of course, this time it’s the fucking Smoke Monster, so quite a bit happening this week pre-Title.

Randy shows up with a character-capping performance, fine work from whomever that was. The You’re Fired, DERP Salute! is too much.

Richard is not down with Candidates? Really? But old Bram was privy? Seems a bit odd.

Got to love Richard’s refusal to get down with the Locke monster, though.

And who’s the kid? Someone new? Or someone we know, Aaron or Jacob from the past or future, nonsense the way all those mutually possible options hold each other in check. At this point even the choices seem to be scheming, conspiring.

Also great how before Ben can even finish telling Ilana the story, she’s like, You said THESE were Jacob’s ashes? they go in mah pouch right here.

“He’s recruiting,” was my initial guess for episode title.

Followed immediately by Raw Power, then certainly Search & Destroy.

Ha, and then so strange, the tune coming to an end and just old Sawyer and Locke but not really Locke staring at each other in he and Juliet’s old bedroom. Never would have guessed or charted this from what I was loving four or five years ago but I suppose it feels about right, though of course a bizarre and ridiculous progression.

“Here’s to being dead.” To think what I’ve been drinking to, lo these many Wednesdays + whenever they moved it from where it should be. Always to your health, hoss!

Love LockeMonster’s This Ain’t Yar House, James bit, so true.

Followed by Sawyer’s three reasons he’s on the Island, great example of character conveyed through dialogue..

And you just know Locke’s robotic gantry is going to destroy the finish on Hugo’s Hummer before even that aspect of this Locke parallel comes up just as ineffectual as you’d imagine.

And from that random Hugo temp thing, you want to start putting it together, Oh, this is how he wound up selling houses to folks like Nadia, but of course, we’re just swimming in all the simultaneous possibilities and have forgotten that that happened years ago, certainly before Oceanic 815 crashed or didn’t, then all of a sudden Sawyer is reprising his role with Kate back at the climax o’3.9, validating the hallucination except this time instead of a horse, it’s some boy, but who? No telling, after he comes back with some of the rule talk first popularized by Ben round midnight in Widmore’s suite at the end of 4.09, the monster drops Locke’s catchphrase and at first it struck me so wrong, particularly when he repeats it before the drum/commercial hit, but what if and I know it’s just an astronomical impossibility but what if the original character’s storyline could be saved and it was that he was infected or invaded by whatever the Monster Has Always Been but then in the end he overcame it and became what he had always hoped to be, the special person who made the ultimate sacrifice to save everyone.

Favorite bit of the episode: Alpert’s “We need to go now!” Sawyer, we need to get the fuck out of here. Man, how backward does James have to be to not just get right behind that, I mean, wouldn’t all a y’all?

Surreal temp interview for Locke

but when Rose walked in? had to wonder and suddenly realized where she and B wound up.

and Steinbeck returns. Fine episode to recommend BLAZE before.

Why is the Monster stuck in the form of Locke? These kind of questions sometimes fall by the wayside, amidst the rest.

Killer eulogy from Ben with Lapidus batting cleanup.

And you’re just so sure that Locke is going to connect with Jack and there we’ll be, which, see below, but then poor Helen thinks she’s just opened the briefcase of a serial killer, and again, it’s grating to hear Locke deliver that catchphrase, just for the disabled children in the eighth row who weren’t thrown into seizures by the repetition before that commercial break

NOW WE GO DOWN was my next guess.

Love Giacchino’s theme as they do in fact go down, another mirror with the melodic inverse to his original striding cliff ascension themes.

And then the rock. I’m going to need a little bit more time with that.

Ben Linus, European History Teacher. Sweater vest. Reeling.

And a last scene you can really sink your teeth into. The numbers suddenly show up to correspond with most of our favorite original castaway candidates, coupled with, in a horrifying bout of Verbal Kent/Bryan Singer USUAL SUSPECTS nostalgia, surely not, AFTER ALL OF THIS TIME, top of the B-Team Tucker Gates suddenly resorts to the classic now-that-you-know/putting-the-pieces-together flashbacks with the old Season Five finale flashback key moments, except noticeably excluding the opening and reigning bit with young Katie Austin shoplifting the New Kids lunchbox scored by Patsy, and the middle bit with more-than-slightly-wounded Ilana (also excluding the Juliet flashback, but I think we can group that one under a different column at this time) but O’Quinn and Holloway and everyone who’s getting any camera time are all firing with all barrels, and it’s never been more fun to consider the chorus, the extras, I’m talking about all of the actors who play the characters who get benched for weeks at a time, which, really consider it, that’s like at least half of every listed regular all in a bar, together, like the rest of us just barely able to figure out what might be going on but wondering all the while, always getting their scene pages all by themselves, gutted from the main fluid cohesive screenplay, but imagine every name still listed as a regular who you don’t see just blasted at the party alongside each other, the ones whose performances they get to see shoulder to shoulder with the ones who haven’t acted or even been called in weeks equally blindsided and delighted by these last twists of the snaking narrative.



EPILOGUE: I meant to say last week when they opened with Kate after the DoublePilot, but that definitely forecast a Locke Walkabout this time out and Holy Shit that it happened but, if it holds true, ought to give us a Jack White Rabbit next time out. Followed by, what was it, Koreans, Chahlie, Sawyer? That was in fact the original first season rotation. SUCH a cool idea to settle in to that bookend structure. If it holds, Cap’n, if it holds.

Breathless, as ever, Island Faithful. I will always picture you as you are.

>: 100 WHAT KATE DOES

Did anybody else get a McGoohan vibe from the way they filmed that first scene? That stalking translator strongly recalled the opening credits of THE PRISONER. Maybe it’s just the drums.

Not a fan of post-Juliet Sawyer as of yet, with the exception of the delivery of the line, “Thinking about running, Kate,” which is all kinds of just what I needed.

Oh, Artz, how many times will we see you? Jack on the phone outside the terminal will surely mean more when we get around to his episode. And then Kate just straight up mugs Claire and kicks her to the curb. Welcome to America, darling!

Sayid’s lines come across in a very different way if you go ahead and believe (which, at this point, why not?) that that’s not really him in there.

Ha, and Sawyer throws the “Don’t come after me,” at Kate! First time he’s ever quoted the doc, I’ve no doubt. So, the new boss deigning to speak English to keep Sawyer to stay with them, it’s that important that he stays? Why? We’ve been led around so long, trusting that there are going to be in-story reasons for all of this madness, not just “the writers thought up a bunch of cool shit but had to string us along in this particular sequence to maximize the cool.” I’m not saying that I’ve lost faith, but it’s pretty hard at this point for me to work up much concern over the consequences of letting Sawyer traipse wherever he pleases on the Island. And this needs to track better going back through it once we know the whole story. It gets a pass for now, but it’s hard to fathom how the Big Answer is going to include the reason that Sawyer had to stay with the others, or why Sayid staying alive was so crucial. Of course, maybe that last will become apparent from all the horrible things that result from it not happening. We will see.

Totally did not recognize the Hawking reader guarding Karl’s brainwashing in 3.07 who rolled in with the gun. But a redshirt, nonetheless.

The mechanic who helps Kate out might be the best incidental character in the entire series. I never thought about it before, but he sure kills every nuance of that scene. A question for much later.

When Kate told Jack, “I’ll take care of James, you take care of Sayid,” I needed him to grab her and drop the Lois Lane classic, “You’ve got me? Who’s got YOU?!?!?” Oh, why can’t you two see that you’re the only ones for each other? Quit trying to save everybody who falls down bleeding across your path and tracking bad boys across the Island and just give in already! Go to the caves!

First time through, that torture scene with Sayid made me empathize with him so much, it wasn’t until he was screaming with the red-hot poker in his chest that I realized he was completely out of character, and that that was the point. I can’t decide if I buy it with these new Others. Both of the main actors are solid, but something about their scenes are blocking my engagement with the show. Like, I can see the strings, can’t even imagine that these guys have been running around behind the scenes the entire time, in a way that I gladly welcomed Mikhail into the fold three years ago. Of COURSE there’s a Russian with his one eye trained on everything that’s been going down in the DHARMA stations. Not feeling that with these guys. Again, they haven’t soured me, but I’m not just bowled over and immediately on board in the way that I was with Desmond or Season Three Tom.

Oh! New guy Justin’s cut off “I think he means the one that landed . . .” in reference to Jin’s Ajira enquiries suddenly seems to me like it COULD have ended with a “________ years ago.” No reason to assume that the crew from ’77 just showed up in the present next to the Ben/Locke Monster/Alpert crew (let’s just truncate that posse to the Lapidus Gang, yah?).

If you save Kate from a boobytrap, there is a very good chance that she will spring it on you inside of five minutes later.

Haha, so obvious! When Jack asks Sayid why they tortured him, the correct answer, Fake SaYID, is that you DESERVE IT. Because you are A BAD MAN. The interplay between the two main guys leading the Others gets better in the scene with Jack. I love how Miyagi tries to rope Jack in with the big redemption speech. Really expected him to go for it.

Sayid telling Hurley he’s not a zombie seems like the truest thing out of that mouth this time around.

Miles’s food court line freaks me out.

Naveen Andrews is really playing it well, much more the Sayid imposter then the actual character. All that weird eyebrow rising while talking to Jack.

Kate’s “Are you kidding me?” to Claire is perfect, so true.

Really strange seeing the girls standing on that lady’s front porch in the oh so clean clothes that they should have to keep wearing for like a season.

Ethan! Sporting a bedside manner that could put either Shephard to shame. “Your boy just likes to move around,” kind of seems to have a subtext there. But the winner has to be, “You did great, Mommy,” that last forever unsettling coming out of that mouth.

Maybe it’s just because I’ve always been a Sawyer/Kate proponent, but was not a fan of the dock scene. After three episodes in a row, never need to see Sawyer cry again. Numbers be damned. Never needed to see it once.

Was just positive that pill was going down Jack’s hatch the moment it came out. Perfectly in character.

So, what’s the deal? Take-home from this episode is that Sayid’s a bad guy in the same way that Ben and Claire are. (And it’s pretty likely at this point that after the Christian/LockeMonster led Claire away at the end of 4.09, he maybe just got her to drown herself in some other sacred or anti-sacred pool to finish crossing over, something like what we saw with Sayid and didn’t see with Lil’ Ben.) Also, that in the other timeline, they’re not intrinsically damned. After that premiere set-up, I was pretty sure that all of their lives were going to just be wrecked after landing at LAnospaceX, but so far so good, at least as far as it goes with Aaron’s two mommies. Big news, though, is that after 21 episodes on the bench, Claire is back on-camera in the original timeline. I think we have to believe the leader, though (and I need to stop calling him Miyagi now, Togun, he said his name was?), we know she was hanging out in Jacob’s old cabin with his nemesis. As ever, it all boils down to: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH THIS ISLAND?

POISON, INFECTED, or CLAIMED might have done for episode title, but seemed pretty generic, so I was thinking it didn’t come from a line of dialogue but was a bit more out there, decided to go with WHAT KATE DID, PART 2.

No cigar, but even the wife was impressed, which is really saying something, at this point. That present tense, though, still not sure what to make of it. Only that it feels like a trump, as far as picking timelines goes.

>: 99 LA X

It’s such a disquieting opening scene, the tension keeps building. After so many flashbacks and –forwards and then those two terms jumbled and garbled into the time-flashing madness of last season, not even counting the way the technique was employed to confound the old regular linear timeline (thinking specifically here of how Desmond holding a gun to Locke’s head for two weeks blasted this gusher of words out loose in the first place), after rewatching the entire series to get ready like you should and then catching it again at the tail end of the clip show and then again during our faithful [Previously, on L O S T], then it was really amazing to watch that whole Chains-pull-Juliet down thing a, yes, fourth time WITHIN THE ACTUAL RUNNING TIME OF THE NEW EPISODE, but you know, I am getting ahead of myself, let’s just

Aheh.

The emotional landscape, not counting that fourth and final revisit of one of the last scenes of the fifth season, was mainly one of surreal disbelief at FINALLY making it to the latest installment of the answer to the $108,000 Question: What Happens Next? Shocking, then, even expecting a successful 815 LAX landing as most probably were (probably to climax the opening pre-title scene), to open with not a third iteration of Jack’s eye opening in the jungle, but instead that original post-title scene, and so complete was the deception, so perfect the timing, that I really believed that it WAS those initial shots from 2004, wasn’t until Cindy only handed him the one bottle of vodka that I realized it was just a perfect reshoot, but then again, no, Jack was a little bit off from that first shot, looking away from the window, even the more obtuse fan gets it after that first shot of turbulence when Rose is the one who reassures Jack, even though he still offers to keep her company until Bernard gets back (but does he promise? DID he, here, back in the pilot? Or did he make the promise later to her after the crash, on the beach?)SO many trapdoors, at any rate, Bernard shows up, their chemistry decimates the memory of their previous appearance, then Jack’s got some mysterious cut on the left side of his neck, then Desmond’s just appeared out of nowhere, claiming that Hurley’s snoring (you’d suspect) is distracting him. Was certainly looking for him to be reading that last Dickens novel, but couldn’t quite tell. The rewatch pause shows that it’s Rushdie’s follow-up to that little-known gem, THE SATANIC VERSES. The Wikipedia lede for Des’s choice of leisure is: "Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a 1990 children's book by Salman Rushdie. It was Rushdie's first novel after The Satanic Verses. It is a phantasmagorical story set in a city so old and ruinous that it has forgotten its name." Which resonates somewhat. They hit it off well enough, until our Mister Hume drops his trademark catchphrase, increasing Jack’s sense of déjà vu, or really devrait avoir vu, if you want to get right down and really technical about it, and just when we finally settle in for the flight, Bender and Giacchino drop the hammer on you with that first bellyflopping dive out the window down toward the Pacific, Giacchino's latest kicking in as soon as the sound of 815’s engines blast by, and they are going for it all the way, we get all the main attractions just as fast as we can make them out, after rushing down through the surface and a school of fish, we blow by the pylons, then Dharmaville, Ben’s swing set, a little slice of Dagobah, then that beach leading up to the base of the four-toed statue. Jacob’s house, where there's still just a little bit left to go down.

So, everything’s been reset and somehow the Island is at the bottom of the ocean. Madness.

Except not. Because here’s Kate waking up in the tree. After the flash, still on the Island. And how much did that hearing damage mess with you, to say nothing of all the names returned or added to the cast of regulars? Kate’s first Hello? sounds like she’s deaf. The marshal’s decided to de-Americanize his name (Lane → Lehne, the actor I’m talking about). Ha, Chahlie. You try to look away. Ooooh! Jacob.
Miles with her, all right. But then Jack. Quite a realignment, with his appearance. !!!! So we’re dealing with a parallel universe. Or the creation of one, a tangent. I don’t know why I didn’t expect Donald Darko to get folded into this massive tapestry before now, seems obvious, but a shocking maneuver and set-up for this season. The flash-sideways. Because it’s the only direction left. Of course. Ha, now “We’re back” = “We’re forward.”

Sawyer’s whole ballistic assault on Jack is mishandled in writing or execution, I can’t decide which. Maybe both. Just too much, veering too far into melodrama. Because just a bit’s fine.

Sayid’s postmortem speculation to Hurley is quite a bit more horrifying, knowing his fate by episode’s end.

Hurley’s threat of using a gun has got to be one of the most unconvincing presentations of all time. Though Jorge sells it.

And wow, in some feature for Season Five, Yunjin Kim was going on about how she would really think it a shame if she had to go back to that buttoned-up sweater. So of course they wrote it into her very first scene.

And Boone, man, comes right back and kills it. Not toting Shannon, the fourth crazy shift after the Jack/Rose nervous flip, Desmond’s appearance (which might not be of the same ilk as these other three), and Hurley this time being the luckiest guy in the world.

Man, the horror on Ben’s face when he sees Locke’s body on the beach. Trumps all but a select few all-time moments of the genre, horror, I mean.

Does Chahlie OD’ing in the rear lavatory count as a switch? Wasn’t he being pursued by Cindy and the crew into the front lavatory in the middle of Rose and Jack’s first conversation? Can you believe there’s really a reason to rewatch the first half hour of this series? For actual purposes of research?

Ha! A pin! Jack should have paged young passenger Carlyle.

Charlie’s “Terrific.”

Desmond’s exercycle.

Pulling out all the stops.

Now the thing with Juliet, she opens with “It didn’t work,” then her final broken-off thought to Sawyer communicated postmortem via Miles is that it DID. Meaning that they are in fact off the Island? This hints at an explanation for the space in the title, LA and X, not being a typo in the abbreviation of an airport but the gap between two different timelines, Los Angeles and Unknown.

Great kind of Raiders of the Lost Statue scene with the C-team bum-rushing Locke/Esau/the Monster. We already were all but sure that Locke did in fact = the Monster, but to get that so conclusively right here is good. The thing is, that later scene, in which we get Locke’s final thought, incredibly expressed by the actor or character inhabiting the same shell we had so initially come to love, such a shame for (unless there’s some crazy reversal, of course, but even though I’d appreciate it, I hope not) the guy who so fascinated us in the first season to have wound up like that. Such a shame.

And Juliet dies. Again. It is too bad, and she’s real sweet, and Miz Mitchell did a fine job, lo these 3+ seasons, but seems like with all those chain repetitions, hard to care anymore, until she asks Sawyer to kiss her and he comes back with “You got it, Buddy.” Crushing. Could have really done without his “You did this,” to Jack, though.

Anyone else read a Bone Me in Cindy’s “Some people don’t know how to say ‘Thanks’,” to same?

And now Desmond’s gone. A much stranger occurrence on this flight then any other.

And Grunberg’s back in the cockpit. How about that tail-section?!?!?!? Git on back there!!!! My man Eko's in a suit.

SO. Strange. Even expecting the landing, over Giacchino’s somewhat generic iteration of some of his previous themes, flattening to suddenly be confronted with all these folks who we know so well right before the incident that threw them all into crisis and, the important part here, now be privy to what would have happened to them if they hadn’t been jarred out of the rutted trajectories into which they had all found themselves (leaving aside, for now, the changes, because how can we really even begin to know what to make of them?).

So ends the first part. I don’t really see the reason to distinguish between two parts of a single double-episode, but there you are.

Why is Miles so needy for Sawyer’s affection? He’s been up until now this pumped to get someone else’s attention for maybe fifteen seconds in his entire on-screen time, and that’s at the end of his brilliantly titled –centric when his dad says, “I need you.” Him asking Sawyer if he wants a beer is just painful, the naked yearning.

Was anyone else expecting Jack’s encounter with the poor Oceanic guy who’s telling him Christian’s body’s disappeared to go exactly like the climactic speech in WHITE RABBIT, with the same result? “I . . . NEED you to find that body, because I . . . I just need it to be DONE. Can you understand that? Can you do that for me?” And ever so softly press his palm down on the table and then the guy just goes to his computer and aHA! magics it right up. And it is okay and it is over and it is done.

But of course not.

Am I the only person who thought that the Temple that Richard took all the Others to at the end of Season Three was the same temple where Moutan (sic?) lost his arm and Ben got bitch-slapped by his dead daughter/Dead Locke/Jacob’s Brother/the Smoky Beast What Killed My Eko? Nope. Just two temples. Simple enough.

The scene in the bathroom with Kate and the marshal is another surprising classic from a well that should have been long since dry. I could almost watch an entire show based on nothing but parallel universes in which she gets away from him by just fucking him up every single time. I’ve never realized how much of a Tom & Jerry thing those two have going.

Sawyer again beats Shephard, this time in the event of Worthwhile Alternate/Tangent Universe Encounters with Freckles. 2 – 0.

That scoreboard could be the B-plot of the show. KATE VS. THE MARSHAL. Every week she’d bump into Jack and Sawyer, then beat hell out of what’s-his-name, whether it’s –a- or –eh-

Love the way that guy from THE LAST SAMURAI just struts out of the Temple, so over the top, immediately establishing the character.

And Seth Bullock’s sidekick! Fifth DEADWOOD poach, though Trixie's long gone, sad to say. Seems like I once joked that Jacob should turn out to be Swearingen.

And we finally get to see what’s inside the guitar case. Via the Locke Coffin reveal shot.

Was expecting neither an ankh, nor a note.

More of a list, probably.

If Sayid dies, we’re all in a lot of trouble? Well, didn’t he? Or is whatever’s happened to him a loophole? And of course, that’s the same deal with Ben. It’s all Will O’ the Island, yes? Oh, at this point, you wonder if the Big Answer won’t just a be a character, a symbol that gets faded in at the end of the series, one that stands for the letters L O S and T and so much more besides, not the least of which closes up whichever trapdoor just lately got us back down here again. It's late. Moving on.

Then Jin gets detained with all his Getaway $. Sun can speak English here, too, right? We assume. But anything’s possible. Except running into the Dawsons, you’d expect.

The water isn’t clear. Meaning it’s lost its healing properties?

This Asian fellow is selling it. In kind of a hilarious way.

There are risks? They just fucking DROWNED Sayid. That was pretty unambiguous. It’s who’s in there now that’s the question.

How messed up is it, though, to rock that blatant Crucifixion imagery when they bring his body-that-will-soon-be-reborn out of the pool with his arms straight out, saying this because he’s the only Muslim in the cast, it’s kind of a quite funny thing, really, when you parse it.

We’re certainly set up back in the 2004 X timeline. Jin’s detained, Sawyer’s got Hugo in his sights, and Kate freaking highjacks Claih’s taxi. No telling if we’re going to like get an entire episode about where they go from LAX or if the aftermath just gets mentioned in passing in a month or two.

And Cindy’s still serving drinks. Zach and Emma look like they’ve done fine, are healthy little Others.

Ha, Miyagi clipping the bonsai is even more than too much. Found it silly/off-putting at first and am now way on board with it, laughing all the way.

Is Miles reflecting on Juliet’s final thoughts? Or is it his present setting that’s messing him up?

Kate’s laying it on pretty thick with old Sawyer.

And Jack gives Locke his card. Is it possible that they will now rock a mainland savior arc? Too much. Certainly significant that Locke’s knives vanished, as well. And of course we’re back to Zen-parable Locke. Nice to see that grin, fella. Sorry that you were like the one person who didn’t get a flip and actually’ve got to go on that walkabout.

NOTHING IS IRREVERSIBLE was my pick for episode title.

The Alpert chains comment all but confirms him rolling in as a slave on a boat in the year 1845.

Fine way to go out, the transition from Locke with Jack in 2004 to the Monster in the form of Locke knocking out Alpert and walking past the corpse of Locke in 2008 to the corpse of Sayid waking up into Whatever He Is Now, summing up all of our feelings about what we have just experienced in as few words as possible:

“What happened?”

ULTIMATE DHARMA MIXTAPE

OPENING TITLES – JJ ABRAMS (1.01, etc)
16 seconds of dissonant goodness to usher us in every single time, written by a pretty talented fellow. The piano arpeggios over the FRINGE titles are the counterpoint to this.

LEAVING ON YOUR MIND – PATSY CLINE (1.03)
Our first of many doses of Patsy, heard in Ray Mullen's truck. Kate digging Patsy is one of the better examples of using a fictional character's critical taste to define character that I can think of. Such a good fit.

WASH AWAY (REPRISE) – JOE PURDY (1.03)
And we shut down the first non-pilot episode with this over our first no-dialogue montage. Classic stuff.

ARE YOU SURE? – WILLIE (1.06)
Another perfect selection made by Mr. Reyes for episode's end. Still possibly feeling ambient energy from one Dr. Chang, it turns out.

YOU ALL EVERYBODY – DRIVESHAFT (1.07)
No description necessary. This track should be available for purchase, they would move quite a few units. As did the Pace brothers back in the day and I'm sorry!

I SHALL NOT WALK ALONE – BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA (1.08)
To score Sayid walking off in the direction of instant karma after torturing Sawyer. Think I remember thinking that Hurley must be listening to it, but they never showed him.

INTERMEZZO (FROM CARMEN) - BIZET (1.09, then again and beforehand in 5.05)
What Rousseau's music box played after Sayid fixed it. And right after and perhaps during Rousseau gunning down her countrymen. Don't talk back to pregnant women. Especially if you’re infected!

LA MER – SHANNON RUTHERFORD (1.16)
This is actually Bobby Darin's "Beyond the Sea" that Shannon must have caught at the end of a French translation of FINDING NEMO. Love her acapella take on it, perfectly accompanied by Giacchino, of course.

DELICATE – DAMIAN RICE (1.17)
One of the top five tunes that ever shows up, I'd say. Between this and “The Blower’s Daughter” in CLOSER, ol Damian’s cornered the market on making people walking in slow motion seem just so important and resonant. Great bit with Hurley’s Discman finally running out of batteries about five seconds after we're all wondering when that IS going to get around to happening.

PARTING WORDS (RAFT THEME) - MICHAEL GIACCHINO (1.23)
I've gone on and on about this one. One of my favorite compositions of all time. Stirring and majestic. This show has you long before this scene at the end of the first season, but it's here that it sinks its teeth into you forever, between this music and everyone helping launch the raft and then Vincent not being able to let go and the kid having to, just too much.

HURLEY ON THE MOVE - MICHAEL GIACCHINO (1.24)
Always thought this was a cool little piece that never got revisited. Nice "La Grange" quote at the end.

MAKE YOUR OWN KIND OF MUSIC – CASS ELLIOTT (2.01, then again at the same time in 2.02, in muzak form at the listening station in the final scene of the season in 2.23, and twice! in 3.08, making it a very happy Valentine's Day indeed, even though for Desmond, it was just another night losing his mind at the pub)
Damon Lindelof said that he chose this song because his mom used to turn it up loud as hell on the record player and vacuum their house and just break down, sobbing and sobbing. Though that initially came as a disturbing bit of a surprise, it's a perfect fit. The best song I'd never heard that this show gave me.

WALKIN AFTER MIDNIGHT – PATSY CLINE (2.10, 2.20, 3.15)
Then there's an entire spate of tunes that Hurley rocks on the Swan record player, and a couple of questionable bands (Dave Matthews in Shannon's apt, Staind in the bar where Ana-Lucia tracks down that fellow), but we're going to jump back on the Patsy train with Kate's first selection when she gets some downtime with the Swan record player. This particular track turns back up when Christian and Ana are driving in Australia and when the tow truck comes for Kate when she's hooking up with Cassidy.

MOONLIGHT SERENADE – GLENN MILLER (2.13, 3.01)
This tune first turns up when Sayid manages to fix a radio from the Arrow and he and Hurley sit on the beach and listen while looking at the stars. Hurley's little bit about picking up signals from any time is one of the first hints of how far into science fiction country we're going to wind up, but also probably references the old TWILIGHT ZONE episode "Static," in which an old man hears radio broadcasts from the past, including this particular song. Particularly messed up if Hurley conclusively turns out to've been the one who recorded the Numbers broadcast. Also playing on Jack’s car radio while stalking his recently estranged wife.

Flash fact: Glenn Miller vanished on 12/15/1944 while flying from England to Paris to perform for troops after they'd liberated the city. Plane and body never found. Ask Faraday's mom.

CATCH A FALLING STAR – PERRY COMO (2.15, 5.11)
This is the tune that was in the mobile that Claire had in the Staff nursery, and I THINK this is what she asked Ethan to sing Aaron at bedtime when she was wavering on giving the kid up. Then, Kate slams it home by revisiting it while walking up Cassidy’s driveway with Aaron, post-rescue.

THESE ARMS OF MINE – OTIS REDDING (2.19)
Rose and Bernard’s tune. Played in both her car and at the Swan.

CHAINS AND THINGS – BB KING (2.23)
Yet another tune from the Swan record player, included for thematic relation to Locke, as well as just because it’s the last tune we get from that record player. The, ahem, swan song? You might could say? Your rotten produce will never find me!

DOWNTOWN – PETULA CLARK (3.01, 3.16)
Cass is a tough act to follow, but Miz Clark does a fine job introducing us to Juliet Burke, even though we have to wait a season and a half to find out what she’s so upset about. Also playing in the car when Juliet and her sister drive up to have Richard Alpert whisk her away.

SLOWLY – ANN MARGRET (3.06)
Just figured this was Patsy as well. The tune playing while Kate’s walking down the hall getting ready for sexy times with Mal. More resonant if you’ve seen MAD MEN 3.02.

SHAMBALA – THREE DOG NIGHT
SHAMBALA (INSTRUMENTAL) – MICHAEL GIACCHINO (3.10, 3.20)
The sound that we hear instead of Hurley and Charlie smiting their own ruin upon the mountainside in our first DHARMA VW bus. Followed by Giacchino’s exceptional arrangement of the song’s chords, E-A-D (three letters that make up a four-letter word with significance to both characters, if you want to read just way too much into every single facet). Then, of course, we get the first half of the tune when mean old Roger Linus drives his kid up a hill to knock back a few DHARMA beers on the ungrateful tyke's birthday.

PIANO SONATA NO. 11 – MOZART (3.10)
Playing at Hurley’s lovely dinner. Wolfie, man.

CARRIE ANNE – THE HOLLIES (3.21)
Sweet tune playing in the background when Chahlie learns to swim. “You’re swimming, Chahlie! You’re SWIMming!”

SCENTLESS APPRENTICE (3.22)
The preferred audio consumption of all pill-popping bearded maniacs just bubbling over with regret. Cobain’s preferred demographic, as well, maybe.

GOOD VIBRATIONS - THE BEACH BOYS (3.22)
Somewhat sketchy reason that Chahlie and only Chahlie can save the day in the Looking Glass. As possibly previously noted, was initially so pumped to see Faraday playing that piano in 5.14, figured with his journal finding its way over to Alcatraz, he could certainly have been the funny guy musician who programmed this into the keypad that controlled the signal jammer. Now thinking it’ll just be left dangling, like so much else.

XANADU – OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN (4.04)
What Hurley’s watching on the VCR when Kate drops in on Sawyer and him at their little place in Dharmaville. Catchy tune, but just one of the most horrific things to ever be committed to film. Singlehandedly squashed musicals out of existence in Hollywood for twenty years until Rob Marshall convinced everybody that it was a viable commercial proposition one year after Baz Luhrmann did it ten times better.

SHE’S GOT YOU – PATSY (4.04, 5.11)
What Kate and Claire are listening to when Locke drops in on them; what’s playing in Kate’s car while she drives up to Cassidy’s, right before she drops the Como.

IT’S GETTING BETTER – CASS (4.08)
A fine tune to crash your car to. That Michael Dawson has himself one keen sense of irony.

PRELUDE IN C# MINOR – RACHMANINOFF (4.09)
What Ben’s playing on the piano when Locke comes to ask him about the phone ringing when Kimi and crew break the perimeter.

EVERYDAY – BUDDY (4.11)
What crazy Emily is getting dressed to before she runs out in the middle of the street while carrying a baby who I guess wasn’t really that special after all? (except for serving host to a loophole?)

GOUGE AWAY – PIXIES (4.13)
A tune that I like to think is sequenced right before Nirvana and just after some of your wilder Jane’s Addiction on a mix that Jack made called FUCKSHITUP for those nights you’ve got to GOT to knock back a handful of painkillers and half a bottle of Absolut and just drive, baby.

SHOTGUN WILLIE (5.01)
And after that dip for Season Four, we come back with another strong musical number to kick things off while we wonder who the hell we’re looking at. Chang’s preferred tune for morning feedings. I guess Kind of Blue would have been too on the nose.

DHARMA LADY – GERONIMO JACKSON (5.06, 5.09)
We finally get a track from this classic fictitious band. First heard while Jin rolls up on Jack, Kate, and Hurley after they’ve come back, but I didn’t catch it until a month later real-time when it was playing right before they got their picture taken after processing.

I CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE, BABY – BILLIE HOLIDAY (5.10)
Oh, what a creepy song for E. B. Farnum to be listening to out the big ol horn of a record player in the woods before giving Sayid some acid, which is like three times nicer than what I thought was going to happen, given that kind of Deliverance vibe that was happening while they marched him up and this tune kicked in.

FANTAISIE-IMPROMPTU IN C# MINOR – CHOPIN (5.14)
Killer Chopin piece that Faraday could play a lot better when he was a kid, before starting to mess about with time travel. Turns out we only ever see him working on the slow parts, it gets pretty blistering in there.

THREE CIGARETTES (IN AN ASHTRAY) – PATSY (5.16)
And the only tune you need, if you’re looking to shoplift a New Kids on the Block lunchbox. Thinking the taking was much more important to young Katie than what was being taken. Hoping so, anyway, but smart money tags her as a Donnie girl, if she’s got a favorite.

And we’ve got six slots left on the All-Time list. It will be interesting to see what Season Six gives us!

WE HAVE TO GO BACK IV____>: 23-25

Not enough time/passion to write about the finale and second season premiere, but the post belongs here, whenever I can get around to it, almost certainly not before tonight.

I will say that jamming those three episodes might thus far be the quintessential rewatch experience of the entire series. When you can appreciate Fox and Bowen's acting without being put out that you're not getting Answers About The Hatch! then it's quite a bit more impressive.

So in ten, fifteen years, if you just want to go back for a night, not lose a month to jamming the entire series, you'd be hard pressed to do better than EXODUS with the MAN OF SCIENCE, MAN OF FAITH follow-up.

(Giacchino and Cass playing huge parts, as ever)

WE HAVE TO GO BACK III____>: 16-22

All right, so obviously my little plan to document working my way through the first season fell apart just a bit. But oh there is hope! For all of you who have been on the edge of your seats since October. What happened is that I DID in fact keep going, but just never got around to writing up reviews. Jammed episodes 9-15 in a couple days and just figured I’d write something up by memory, except that was of course several adventures and months ago. The one thing I remember from that run is how subtly they introduce Ethan right at the top of 1.09, Jack’s treating the guy with the rash, who never gets named, and then when Locke walks up with Ethan, it’s not like it’s a big deal, we’re meeting new people all the time now that we’re done with the first 8 episodes, all during the opening titles, then they bench Ethan for the rest of the episode, but he’s established. Deft. And Sawyer’s first ‘Who the hell is . . ?’ turns out to reference Ethan. Oh, and in there somewhere, Hurley dropped a catchphrase-to-be, We Have To Go Back, or maybe another Who the hell is . . ?

Not exactly sterling criticism, I know. But take heart! What we’re going to do now is take a look at the unedited and increasingly drunken notes that I jotted down in November, knowing that I would probably need a bit of help after failing on the second third of the season. I will interpret where necessary, in caps. Bear with me.

>: 16 OUTLAWS

First Drew Goddard.
NEVER NOTICED HIM UNTIL SEASON THREE. I HAVE SUCH A MAN-CRUSH ON ULTIMATE DREW! THE CABIN IN THE WOODS WILL BE A THING OF BEAUTY.

I Never
Sawyer destroys it.
EVEN AFTER ALL THIS TIME, SUCH A RIVETING SCENE, PERFECTLY WRITTEN AND ACTED. FORGOT TO BE LOOKING FOR A MARRIED KATE FB UNTIL MAL SHOWED UP. AND JUST NOW GETTING: IS THE TITLE OF 3.06, I DO, A CALLBACK TO THIS GAME? PERHAPS???!?

Lottery girl Mary-Jo
EVERYBODY PROBABLY KNOWS THIS, BUT JUST REMINDING MYSELF THAT THE CHICK THAT SAWYER ROLLS INTO THE HOTEL ROOM WITH WHEN THEY GET SURPRISED BY THAT SCARY LIQUID TERMINATOR IS NONE OTHER THAN HURLEY’S LOTTERY GIRL TO BE (IN 2 MORE EPISODES).

Locke’s dead sister/dog parable
REMEMBER WHEN LOCKE WOULD JUST SHOW UP FOR FIVE MINUTES AN EPISODE AND ABSOLUTELY SHRED THE SCENE? SHRED, AS IN THE VIRTUOSO 80S METAL GUITAR SENSE, AS IN, THIS GUY CAN JUST KEEP GOING FOR AS LONG AS HE WANTS CAN’T HE? HE’LL NEVER RUN OUT OF NOTES! THOSE WERE GOOD DAYS. HOW SHATNER BEAT HIM OUT FOR THE EMMY I’LL NEVER UNDERSTAND (AND I’M NOT WATCHING A MINUTE OF BOSTON LEGAL TO EVEN BEGIN TO TRY)

John Terry as Joker
THIS WOULD BE THE BAR SCENE WITH SAWYER IN AUSTRALIA. I THINK HERE I’M NOMINATING HIM FOR THE ROLE IF NOLAN & CO (OR, GOD FORBID, SOMEONE else) ARE EVER BALLS-OUT/FOOLISH ENOUGH TO WRITE THE JOKER INTO ANOTHER BATMAN MOVIE
(and, digression here, when they announced that maybe MAYBE Nolan & Bale & everydamnbody else were going to make a third Batman film, did YOU kind of lose your mind for a couple of seconds in total shock that they weren’t going to keep making these things until the Reaper had taken them ALL?!?!? I mean, it’s not like Batman’s hanging up the cowl anytime ever for the rest of our and our children’s and our grandchildren’s lives. If you tap into something this good, and you’re in the business of drilling, maybe pulling out after filling three barrels might not be the call?)
(aaaaand yes, I just compared making Batman movies to drilling for oil, West Texas, muthafuckahs!!!!)

First ‘Sonuvabitch’
I’M GUESSING SAWYER UTTERS THIS. THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY A SEASON FIVE THING, BUT THAT EPITHET IS JUST ALL OVER THE PLACE FROM ALMOST THE GET-GO, SEEMS.

Bender
NOT SURE EXACTLY WHAT THIS MEANS. THINKING, MAYBE, THAT CHRISTIAN IS META-REFERENCING THE POINT-GUARD DIRECTOR WHILE TELLING SAWYER WHAT HE’S BEEN UP TO? OR THAT JB IS CALLING THE SHOTS ON THIS ONE AND I LIKED WHAT HE WAS DOING? YOU CAN APPLY A LOT OF MEANING TO THOSE TWO SYLLABLES, YAS.

Frank to Sawyer: “It’ll all come around in the end.”
WHAT THE FAITHFUL AMONGST US HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN. ALL YOU CHUMPS WILL BOW.


>: 17 . . . IN TRANSLATION

Never gotten before that 815 crash is Kwons’ delayed honeymoon

Forgot how tight Michael and Sun seemed about to be. She slaps both M and Jin with equal passion. Or maybe just how Miz Kim rolls

Everyone gets a new life on this Island, Shannon.

Sun to Jin: “Can’t we just start all over?” cuing his fb expressing same, brilliant nuance there

Sun busts out English for everyone but of course Jin can’t hear her. Weirdly, they use that same trick when he’s leaving her at the caves.

Fathers so important in this show ha always I guess you could say

When Walt gets a good backgammon roll, Locke quotes himself, “Good for you.”
QUOTING HIMSELF FROM TOMBSTONE, THE MAYOR TRYING TO ROUSE THE EARPS’ SENSE OF CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY. OF COURSE, AS WE KNOW NOW, HE SHOULD HAVE JUST SKINNED HIS REVOLVER AND SHOT MORGAN IN THE BACK RIGHT THERE, THAT WAS ALL IT TOOK. REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME I WAS WATCHING THIS ON DVD, IN THE HEADY IMMEDIATELY PRE-DESMOND/SWAN DAYS, THINKING HOW GREAT IT WOULD BE IF SAWYER FOLLOWED THAT BY WALKING UP WITH A DOC HOLLIDAY QUOTE (WHICH, I MEAN, COME on, HOW HAS THAT NOT YET HAPPENED?) AND THEN JACK WAS ALL SCREAMING ‘NO. NOOOOOO!’ IN SLOW-MOTION BY THE END OF THE EPISODE WHILE BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF SOME OTHER OR LOCKE OR WHOEVER.

Walt is so good in the first season
MEANING: HOW DID PUBERTY ROB HIM OF HIS ACTING ABILITY?

Delicate remains crushing
AND THAT’S ONE THING ABOUT THIS FIRST SEASON, ONE FACET THAT I MIGHT ADMIT THAT THEY NEVER TOPPED, BUT REALLY IT JUST MIGHT BE UNTOPPABLE, CERTAINLY NO ONE ELSE HAS GOTTEN EVEN CLOSE, THEY SET THE BAR SOOOOO HIGH, WITH ALL THAT FIRST-RATE CHARACTER WORK AND THEN THE NO DIALOGUE MONTAGES TO CLOSE OUT THE EPISODE, WITH THIS ONE AND WILLIE’S ‘ARE YOU SURE?’ BEING STANDOUTS UNTIL GIACCHINO JUST ROLLS UP AND STRAFES THE AUDIENCE INTO GASPING WRECKS WITH THE RAFT THEME AT THE END OF 1.23

We go out w/ Hurley’s sonuvabitch
WHEN HIS DISCMAN DIES RIGHT BEFORE DAMIAN’S FINAL CATHARTIC ROUSING CHORUS. ALSO A PERFECT SEGUE INTO . . .

>: 18 NUMBERS

Numbers are written in seven rows on Rousseau’s paper, meaning 7 x 6 = 42
Numbers as coordinates
NO IDEA WHAT THIS LAST MEANS, AS I THINK THE WHOLE LONGITUDE/LATITUDE THING IS PRETTY MUCH A GIVEN AT THIS POINT, OH WE’VE LOST SOME QUITE BRILLIANT INSIGHT, HERE, I THINK

Black smoke coming out of Hurley’s new house for the last shot

If you listen to the numbers, it won’t stop.
SHIT! I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS A QUOTE OR WHAT, BUT IT SURE AS HELL IS THE TRUTH AND EVERY LAST BIT OF IT WANTED TO SEE DAD I SAW I SAW!
CAN’T DECIDE IF I’M GOING TO BE MORE HORRIFIED IF THEY DO OR DON’T FOLLOW UP ON THE ALMOST CERTAIN FACT THAT HURLEY MADE THAT RECORDING ALL THOSE YEARS AGO

Toomey’s widow’s “You make your own luck, Mr. Reyes,” prefigures Cass
MAMA ELLIOT, I MEAN (as if there were any other)

It’s almost impossible to believe that Rousseau didn’t bang Sayid ASAP but even more of a stretch that she didn’t jump Hurley immediately, given a couple of weeks to regret it and a second chance.

“That must have been a difficult decision” has just got to be the most tactful way you can respond to someone saying they were going to give their unborn kid up for adoption

Is it a little dense that Claire spends hours not being able to recognize an upside-down cradle? I mean, we only get like five minutes of it on-camera maybe

Out of nowhere numbers on the hatch is incredible.


>: 19 DEUS EX MACHINA

Forgot that Locke threw that whole This Was Supposed To Work! Fit that is such a staple first here pre-titles, when the trebuchet breaks on the Swan door

Never got if Locke recovered his feeling in his right leg or if it was just numb for this episode.

Second appearance of the Mystery Car of Death, now suddenly a thing since showing up in 1.14.
AND THEN WHAT, DRIVES BY WHEN LOCKE CONFRONTS HIS POP IN THE FLOWER SHOP WHEN IS THAT DON’ TELL ME, THE BRIG? 3.19? NEVER SPOTTED THE CAR AGAIN, BUT YOU KNOW IT’S IDLING AROUND SOMEWHERES

After Locke’s ma drops the immaculately conceived bit, the con, cut to Sawyer.

Sawyer needing glasses is one of the great B-plots of all time, even heavier with all the real shit that’s going on on top of it.

First Cuse/Lindelof
THE CO-CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD BY SEASON’S END. IF AN EPISODE EVER APPEARS TO BE IDLING, OR JUST, YOU KNOW, THE SEVENTH EPISODE OF THE SEASON, AND THEN THEIR NAMES POP UP, YOU KNOW YOU’RE FUCKED.

Boone starts talking shit on the Island and gets smacked down.
HE SHOULDN’T HAVE TOLD LOCKE ABOUT THOSE RED SHIRTS BACK HALF THE SEASON AGO. IT’S YOU, FRIEND!

Theresa falls up the stairs is one of the freakist things ever
STILL. AND I THINK WE NEED TO SEE ABOUT MAKING ‘FREAKIST’ A WORD.

It was a dream, but it was the most real thing I’ve ever experienced.

How naked is Sawyer’s “My insurance ran out.”? All of us via Jack and Kate are waiting for the ultimate witty rejoinder and Ford steps up to the plate.

Followed by the phantom smell.

This epitomizes the early double-barrel shotgun, with both blazing on this one
HONESTLY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THESE LAST COUPLE MEAN, BUT HAVE ALMOST SOLD MYSELF ON THE REWATCH TO TRY TO FIGURE IT OUT

Sawyer, it’s not a fashion show. Followed by the Sayid assembly montage. Priceless

Heroin! Big timebomb moment.

This is the original Time Travel or Aliens? episode between Bernard’s “WE’RE the survivors of Flight 815.” And the light shining up through the hatch at the end.
BECAUSE, AND PEOPLE WHO JUST BARRELED THROUGH THE FIRST TWO OR FIVE SEASONS TO CATCH UP CAN’T QUITE GRASP WHAT AN INSANE GRIP ON THE ZEITGEIST THIS SHOW HAD THAT FIRST SEASON, AND HOW MUCH THE MOMENTUM REEEEEEALLY BUILT IN THE BACK HALF ONCE WE ALL TRIPPED OVER THAT HATCH, WHAT MADE THE SHOW SUCH A HIT, IT WAS HOW MUCH IT DREW YOU IN, FIRED YOUR IMAGINATION AND INVITED YOU TO TAKE PART (I remember one of the higher-ups at Tech sent me an e-mail [when I was working for Tech] theorizing that they were all in purgatory and without thinking, I immediately fired back a few lines that, while not explicitly saying “Fuck no, that would be the stupidest thing ever and a ripoff, they’ve already even come out and SAID that’s not it,” well that was pretty much the sentiment. But it’s okay, we’re still friends) POINT BEING, EEEEEVERYBODY HAD THEIR OWN PET THEORY OF WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING DOWN ON THAT ISLAND, AND HARDCORE SCI-FI FACTION SPLIT INTO TWO BRANCHES, THAT THIS WAS ALL AN EXPERIMENT BEING RUN BY ALIENS (WHICH IS WHERE, IF PRESSED, I WOULD HAVE PLEDGED ALLEGIANCE, CONFIRMATION SEEMING TO COME IN THE FORM OF THE HATCH, WHICH OF COURSE LEADS TO A BURIED SPACESHIP A LA TOMMYKNOCKERS [AND SEE HERE THE ORIGINAL L O S T FAKE WEBSITE, I THINK IT WAS bigspaceship1.com WHERE THEY WERE JUST MAKING FUN OF ALL THE RADICAL THEORIES AND WOULD ALWAYS JUST HAVE A SINGLE WORD POSTED UP IN THE TOP LEFT CORNER THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SOME MASSIVE CLUE AND THAT WAS THE WHOLE WEBSITE BUT YOU COULD TELL THEY WERE JUST FUCKING WITH US AND oh I JUST LOOKED HAD TO AND IT JUST SAYS beep AND THOSE FOUR LITTLE LETTERS HAVE JUST FLATTENED ME, THE ECONOMY OF IT, OBVIOUS CALLBACK TO THAT 108 TICKER AND WE ARE ALL STILL SALIVATING, RACING TO PUSH THAT BUTTON AS SOON AS THE WINDOW OF TIME OPENS AND MY THROAT IS CLOSING UP WE HAD BETTER MOVE ON

O’Quinn’s arc this first season is a tour de force and the fact that Shatner stole the Emmy from him and they gave it to him for 3 is just unforgivable.
ALL RIGHT, YEAH, JUST PRESERVING THE NOW-AFOREMENTIONED SENTIMENT FOR THE SAKE OF JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY, WHICH, YOU KNOW, IS WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE WHEN I SWEAT

And for the longest time after this episode, we never knew what happened, like I always thought that that light had done something to him until the Desmond story at the end of 2.
‘DONE SOMETHING’ HERE SHORTHAND FOR ‘THE ALIENS SHOWED HIM THE WAY AND FINISHED WHAT THEY BEGAN WHEN HE SAW THE MONSTER THREE OR FOUR EPISODES INTO THE ENTIRE SERIES AND HE WAS NOW ENTIRELY THEIR CREATURE.’ WHICH, WE KNOW NOW, NOT EVEN CLOSE.

THOUGH, HUH.


>: 20 DO NO HARM

Emergency trach + “I am going to save you “ before the titles!
THAT MEANS IT’S A JACK EPISODE, FOLKS, IN CASE YOU’VE ALL BEEN FALLING DOWN DRUNK OFF THE COUCH FOR THE PAST NINETEEN WEEKS

Carol’s little offscreen accident story is the first great one of those (followed up by Hurley’s meteorite in 2.1)
THOUGH, HEY, THIS MAKES ME THINK: WE SAW THAT METEORITE TAKE OUT POOR TRICIA TANAKA IN 3.10 BUT I GUESS THERE’S BASICALLY NO CHANCE THAT WE’RE GETTING THIS SCENE AT THIS POINT

Is Jack’s verb fix or save?
I’M GOING TO GO WITH FIX (and that’s what I intended to type, but no shit, my fingers went with S-A-V-E over F-I-X initially, so make of that what you will)(I’m going to go with a Kal-El fixation)

Kate raiding Sawyer’s stash and basically breaking half of it by falling down is one of the most unforgivable things that happen on this show.

A-neg. Boone’s blood type = Miller’s. O neg Jack = Catherine.
WHICH WAS OF COURSE A LOT MORE CRUSHING WATCHING THIS EPISODE IN THE HOSPITAL THE NIGHT AFTER MILLER WAS BORN IN, I GUESS IT WAS, MY FIRST MINUTES OF SOLO DADDY/DAUGHTER TIME ON THIS EARTH WHILE CATHERINE GOT WHEELED AWAY FOR A CT SCAN, HA THAT IS INSANE, ‘OH IT’S JUST YOU AND ME? HEY, I BROUGHT THIS EPISODE FOR CONTEXT, WATCH!’ IT REALLY HAPPENED, PEOPLE.

The “Are you lost?” question in the first season got tedious.

The way that Jack/Sun come together opposite Kate/Charlie/Jin to help Claire is such a sick one-two, especially after last week.

The definition of worst sidekick might include making your penultimate words, “Locke said…not to tell…about the hatch.”
UTTERED TO THE PERSON YOUR LEADER WANTED TO KEEP THE SECRET FROM. OH, BOONE, YOU PLOT-ADVANCING MONKEY

Does CS quote Bones at Jack in the pool? …not a writer.”
CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD. AND BONES MCCOY. IT TOOK ME A MINUTE, TOO

Jack quoting Locke to Sun when she says he can’t save Boone is pretty on the nose, but still wonderful.

The climax of Carol’s is exponentially worse than the notes CS read in the pool
HERE, CALLING JULIE BOWEN’S SARAH ‘CAROL’ FROM HER CHARACTER IN ED, I THINK?

Jack kind of puts ol Carol through the ringer, his vows start off with the implicit threat of walk-off

It’s pretty wild that the way that Locke/Boone’s walk/visionquest opened the Hatch is it killed Boone and finally brought Jack/Locke together, which is of course the opposite way we’ve all been looking for things to line up this season.


>: 21 THE GREATER GOOD

They fucked around with us twice before with Charlie and Shannon, but yeah, looks like Boone’s really dead.

Charlie might have gotten Claire to hand Aaron over sooner if he’d made at least a rudimentary attempt to butle and gone with My Young Master over Turniphead.

Shannon is SUCH A BITCH to react to Locke’s apology by asking Sayid to off him.

SAyid’s “I know when I’m being lied to” out in the woods is much better in light of the LSD trip with E.B.
IN 5.10, HE’S OUR YOU, MAYBE THE GREATEST SINGLE SCENE FROM A CHARACTER AND ACTOR WHO DROPS THEM EVERY CHANCE HE GETS

Sawyer’s voice being the only thing that stops Aaron crying is brilliant

Wow, Shannon with the gun during the rain shower is some foreshadowing ominous shit there

Sawyer reading about the flash of red breaking through the crisp Fall air as it streaks down the maple-dappled Vermont highway is way on the far side of too much for this particular outlaw


>: 22 BORN TO RUN

Artz doesn’t show up until now!
COULD HAVE SWORN HE WAS IN LIKE FOUR OR FIVE EPISODES

Kate sassing Sawyer with I want you spot, I get your spot, prefigures Jack re: the guns ante-poker game

“Of course, but the thing is…this Island….finding it might be hard.”
JUST READ THOSE WORDS AND TRY NOT TO HEAR THEM IN DANIEL FARADAY’S VOICE. MICHAEL DAWSON KNOWS!

“We might not get another chance,” into the moonlight and fog blasting through the giant fucking tree with the longhorn silhouettes at the base is an extreme damn cut.
AND CERTAINLY WORTHWHILE OF A SPOT ON THE DVD MENU

If we weren’t gonna quote the Boss, DISCRETION’d be a great episode title.

Oh man, Freckles does the hurt eyes so well.

Turned to 1:08 the instant they stopped kissing
THE NIGHT I WAS WATCHING THIS EPISODE.
SO, YEAH, THAT HAPPENED AND SEEMED IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO NOTE

What’s with Walt’s flash on Locke not to open it?
DIDN’T THE ISLAND WANT HIM TO OPEN IT? OR JACOB? OR, OR ESAU OR WHATEVER TITUS WELLIVER’S NAME IS? FUCK, WHEN IS THIS SHOW GOING TO BE OVER.

Everyone walking away from Kate without a word is a pretty ugly moment.

Jack calling Sun out echoes Locke doing same with Walt after the raft burned

Sawyer wanting to leave the Island because there’s nothing here for him is insane inversion, now.
NOW MEANING POST-FIFTH SEASON. TOO, SOMETHING ELSE I LATER CAUGHT ON THE ENTIRESERIESREWATCH IS THAT IN MAYBE 4.03 OR .04, YEAH I THINK EGGTOWN, SAWYER’S TRYING TO TALK KATE TO STAY IN DHARMAVILLE WITH HIM, GIVE IT A GO, SHE REBUFFS HIM, BUT IT OBVIOUSLY TOTALLY PREFIGURES HIS THING WITH JULIET IN SEASON 5, WHICH ALWAYS SEEMED OUT OF NOWHERE AND LIKE GREAT IMPROV TO ME, BUT HE LITERALLY ASKED KATE TO DO THE SAME THING AN ENTIRE SEASON BACK. THINK THE PHRASE ‘PLAYING HOUSE’ EVEN GOT USED.

That one-two at the end, Sun and Kate re: being happy once they found the men they loved, crushing.


ALL RIGHT, THAT’S IT.

Back to lowercase.

Wow. Let’s all feel bad for the poor bastards who have to confine Alan Moore’s imagination to two dimensions.
And it just turned 1:08 on the early morning of 2/02/10, the day of the Season 6 premiere. Groundhog Day.

And that scheduling alone, a weird thing you want to read too much into, show’s always been on Wednesday except for a brief stopover on Thursday during Season Four (?) and now putting it on a Tuesday, almost like it’s not a function of the network’s programming, which it surely is, but rather the writers trying to tell us that yes, we are going back, referencing Bill Murray and everything, we are about to wake up in a loop and old 815 is going to keep landing and everyone’s going to deplane, Jack and Kate and Sawyer and Libby and Eko and someone’s going to wheel Locke out of there and Michael’s going to have Walt, who’s still the same kid, but something’s going to be off, they’re going to sense that something’s wrong, something that needs to be corrected, like when Roland and Jake were losing their minds for that first chunk of THE WASTE LANDS, but everything keeps resetting, because it’s Groundhog Day

or

we can open on the Black Rock. Pre-landing out at sea or right as they hit the Island. And see Richard and Charles and Ellie and and Magnus Hanso is really Alvar, after ALL THIS TIME or or or

I don’t even want to guess anymore. I just want it to be here. And I want it to never come, the way I will be truly and sincerely bummed for days if they ever make a SOPRANOS movie and shatter the perfect ambiguity of that ending, because right now (back over with the Island, I’m talking about), all things are still possible, the greatest mindfuck opening scene ever televised of all time! is still ahead of us, just over the horizon, and it’s exactly what we hope it is and want it to be and can never in a million years guess until the instant that it’s happening, somebody’s face that we can’t quite make out, some old record playing that we’ve never heard and never will be able to hear again without remembering exactly what it felt like to be here, in this instant, all the possibilities of infinity collapsing in a flash into this one perfect moment, the way that it always was, has always been, and we’ve only just now at long last arrived.