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.
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.
posted by rb at 1:43 AM
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