"For twenty-five years I have read criticisms of my stories, and I don't remember a single remark of any value or one word of valuable advice." A. Chekhov
After you admire the beauty of this poster and get out all of the excitement for the final season to begin, scroll down and read about 'Abandoned' and Mysteries of the Universe Part 5! Here's the poster:
Note: I think pretty much every major character is accounted for in this. I am having a tough time getting a close look due to image size but I definitely see Claire, Charlie, Michael, Charlotte, Faraday, Boone, Shannon, Ana-Lucia, Ilana, Juliet, Desmond, and I suppose Penny. This is very exciting. 2/02/2010! 2/02/2010!
Content: When Shannon sees Walt in her tent, she becomes convinced that he needs her help. Meanwhile, Sawyer's bullet wound starts to become infected, prompting the tail-section group to pick up the pace, and risk cutting across the jungle where the Others attacked them from.
Why It's Worth Re-Watching: If you're a Shannon fan, why wouldn't you? It's the character's finest hour. She's sort of redeemed for all the bad behavior she displayed during season one. And it's good to remind yourself that Boone and Shannon were once active characters in the show. Sure Boone is dead by the time this episode airs but he does appear.
This isn't the most mind-bending 42 minutes of LOST. I mean, really, when you think about it, this episode's purpose is to set-up the initial conflict between our favorite LOSTies and the tailies for the rest of season two but that doesn't really last too long (the conflict). In fact, the death of Shannon essentially falls by the wayside as the season continues. There's a great scene in 'The Hunting Party' in which Charlie and Hurley are hanging out in The Swan listening to music when a particularly depressed Sayid wanders in, is silent, and remarks 'this music is rather depressing.' I also enjoy, prior to Sayid's arrival, this exchange between Hurley and Charlie:
HURLEY: So what do you think's the story with that Libby chick?
CHARLIE: The story?
HURLEY: She's kind of cute, right? You know, in a I've-been-terrorized-by-the-Others-for-40-days kind of way.
CHARLIE: Yeah, there is that.
HURLEY: I think I have a chance with her. I mean, it's the classic desert island scenario. If I ever had a shot, this is it.
But I digress. This episode is Shannon-centric and is entirely about her abandonment issues hence the title 'Abandoned.' When her father dies, she is left alone pretty much though, once upon a time, she got along swimmingly with Boone before Boone let her down by choosing to work for his mother and failing to help her. She reaches a point when she absolutely believes she has no one who she can count on, no one who believes in her. It sort of explains why she's such a bitch during season one (but not really). Her abandonment issues come to head in this episode and poor Sayid takes the brunt of it. She becomes angry when Sayid doesn't believe that she saw Walt in the tent Sayid constructed for her (for a very intimate evening). This sets her off. She thinks about her stepmother who essentially tells her that she's a worthless waste of space who has no ambition nor direction in her life. She eventually tells Shannon that she is on her own. Her stepmother won't even give her the money her father left her in the will (though Sabrina says there was no will I call bollocks on that). In one of the more overt we'll-hit-you-over-the-head-with-the-theme-of-this-episode scenes, Shannon exclaims to Sayid that no one believes in her, that everyone thinks she is worthless, and that Sayid will just leave her once they get off of the Island (i can tell you he probably would have considering Nadia showed up when Sayid returned with the Oceanic 6). Sayid swears he won't. Walt arrives. And then she runs off like a madwoman into the jungle and is shot by Ana-Lucia.
Speaking of Ana-Lucia and arriving at this particular plot point, I really should've predicted where this episode was heading when I first saw it. I made the mistake before the episode of wandering into the TWoP LOST speculation with spoilers (i thought it was the speculation WITHOUT spoilers thead--the memory still haunts me) and finding out Shannon would die. Well, her and Ana-Lucia are on a collision course. Ana-Lucia's insanely paranoid throughout this episode because of The Others ("The Other 48 Days" seeks to defend Ana-Lucia's actions but eh she shouldn't have pulled the trigger(and then in "Collision" she shoots a dude in cold-blood--yes it was revenge but still!)). Shannon is looking EVERYWHERE for Walt. I chalk this incident up to fate. Ana and crew (with Michael, Jin, and a near-death Sawyer) are trekking to the beach. Eko suggests they move through the jungle because it would be faster and it would give Sawyer a better chance to live. Once again, if Ana-Lucia wasn't trigger-happy, the route would've been great.
Speaking of this journey back to the beach, Sawyer feels terrible about not assisting Jin after Michael went off into the jungle to search for Walt in "...And Found." Michael helps Sawyer anyway which I find heart-warming. Little did we know Michael would eventually become so desperate for Walt that he'd kill Ana-Lucia and Libby and set Ben free. Of course this eventually leads to the fantastic season four episode "Meet Kevin Johnson" (which will be written about in the very near-future) and the subsequent redemption-arc which culminates in a great moment in the season four finale on the freighter.
There's also some story with Claire, Locke, and Charlie in this episode. Claire gets lectured by Charlie for waking up Aaron late at night. She then feels like Charlie is right when Aaron won't sleep until Locke teaches her how to swaddle Aaron. Claire and Locke bonded when he built her the crib in 'Numbers.' But then Charlie gets jealous which leads to a good scene between Locke and Charlie as they play backgammon and trade digs at one another (a bit of set-up to "Fire + Water).
Overall, this is a decent episode of LOST. "Hearts And Minds" is the better of the flashbacks which involve Shannon. I should also mention how Jack saves the life of his eventual wife over Shannon's father. It's a split-second decision (the scene is in "Man of Science, Man of Faith").
P.S. I would include various scenes from 'Abandoned' but there are literally none on YouTube which makes it all the more obvious that this episode has been forgotten about it. This episode is remembered by the Foot, Lindelof and Cuse. Grant me an interview!
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE PART 5
I'll tell you. It's hard to review these webisodes because they pretty much re-hash everything there is to know about the Dharma Iniative. The one part that stuck out to me was the geography of where the D.I. is which would tell us where The Island actually is. All 5 parts are available to watch on hulu.com. I wish they opted to do more Missing Pieces but oh well. Mysteries of the Universe is still worth watching.
LOST RETURNS FEBRUARY 2, 2010 AT 8PM EASTERN STANDARD TIME: A THREE-HOUR PREMIERE EVENT!
I figure I'd just cut to the chase. No use in building up to what might be common knowledge now (though I found out thanks to Hulu's little 'LOST returns February 2' under part 5 of the Mysteries of the Universe webisodes. But the message boards will be alive with this news! Yes, the sixth season is still more than two months away but I can deal with it. Now, I will begin a new paragraph to paraphrase other sources since ABC denied my press request in August. Thanks, ABC.
Daily Variety's Michael Schnieder first reported the news. February 2 is a Tuesday. They started on Wednesdays and experimented with the Thursdays at 10PM deal. I am totally fine with Tuesday nights because there's no decent television on that night. In all honesty, I'd be fine with ANY night because I'll be a college graduate. Any night will literally work for me. It's fantastic. The projected series finale date is May 25, 2010. It is emotional for me even write that sentence. 9PM will be the regular timeslot for the show after the premiere event. A recap show will air at 8pm. Y Anywho, the February return HOPEFULLY means that ABC will air LOST through the Olympics and will air the season uninterupted as was the original agreement way back in 2007 when the end date was announced. Yes, indeed: the final three seasons were supposed to air uninterrupted. Obviously, the writers strike interrupted season four and then some random breaks during season five happened. But hopefully season six airs uninterrupted. Words cannot convey how excited this news has made me. LOST is coming back! BOOOOOOOOOYAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
And, of course, I will continue with weekly LOST episodes of the day. Once this semester ends, I will dive into the webisodes that aired prior to the launch of season four. I don't want to ignore them because they provide great content. The episode of the day thing is going to get even better as the premiere draws near.
FEBRUARY 2, 2010!
P.S. I will post a review/recap of Mysteries of the Universe Part 5 on Monday.
Content: Sawyer becomes convinced that a wild boar has a personal vendetta against him after it ransacks his tent and attacks him in the jungle. Meanwhile, Hurley and Sayid try to help Charlie come to terms with what he did to Ethan. Flashbacks in this episode center around Sawyer's time in Australia and his hunt for the real Sawyer.
Why It's Worth Re-Watching: This is the 'Sawyer vs. The Boar' episode. It's comical but it's a serious episode. It's one of the funniest episodes in LOST actually because of the hijinx with Sawyer and the boar. I think both Sawyer episodes of season one are terrific. I think this is the BETTER of the two actually. This episode develops Sawyer's character even more than the 'Confidence Man' I would argue. I love the set-up for the scene between Sawyer and Jack which takes place in the finale before Sawyer takes off on the raft. The scene between Sawyer and Kate, when they play 'I Never,' is brilliantly done.
The flashback is very strong. We see how badly Sawyer wants to kill the man who destroyed his family. We actually see Sawyer as a child experience the murder of his mother and the suicide of his father. Sawyer's not a character who has been turned to ice by the events of his childhood. Sawyer doesn't want to kill an innocent man. One could argue he's not even a killer (even though actually he is) and that is because of how he handles the moment right after he's killed a man. For example, after he kills the real Sawyer in 'The Brig,' he's distrubed by until the beginning of season four. He's distant from Kate in those last few episodes. Right after he strangles Locke's dad to death, he's visibly shaking and he vomits. It's visceral and powerful. The look on Sawyer's face after he's shot Duckett and Duckett whispers that he was going to pay Hibbs, Sawyer is entirely unprepared for that. He didn't expect to kill an innocent man. Sawyer didn't even pull the trigger the first time he visited Duckett at his shrimp place. Sawyer's a killer but he's not a born killer.
The murder of Duckett provides some retrospective insight on Sawyer's behavior earlier in the season when Kate theorized that Sawyer wants people to hate him. Sawyer had just killed Duckett in what turned out to be cold-blood. When Sawyer invited Sayid to torture him, he might've been thinking about Duckett. This flashback, since it occurs right before the plane crash, definitely adds a new perspective to earliest part of the season. This is another reason why I think LOST is the greatest show of all-time.
Anywho, on the Island, Sawyer's haunted by the words of Duckett. Duckett told Sawyer that 'it'll come around.' When Sawyer's tent is infiltrated by the boar, he chases after it and then he loses it. The whispers come and then he hears those words.
Sawyer spends most of the episode searching for the boar so he can kill the boar. He consults Sayid about the whispers before abandoning the conversation. The boar comes to represent Duckett as the episode progresses especially after Locke meets Sawyer and Kate in the jungle and tells them the story about the dog and his foster mother:
The words of Locke that echo when Sawyer comes face to face with the boar are: "but my mother thought it was, thought that Jeanie had come back to tell her that the accident wasn't her fault, let her off the hook." That seems to be the case during the final boar scene. Sawyer stares at it and the boar stares at Sawyer, and then Sawyer drops the gun and tells Kate that it's just a boar. It's a powerful scene.
With that sentiment in mind (letting someone off the hook), Sawyer decides not to tell Jack about his meeting with Jack's father in the bar. Here's that scene before I continue:
Sawyer has what Jack needs to feel like he's been let off the hook but he doesn't (not until Exodus Part 1 as mentioned earlier). This episode is about letting oneself off the hook. Oh yeah, another thing to think about: Sawyer gives Jack a look when Jack tells Sawyer that his dad is dead because Sawyer was literally in a bar with Christian not too long ago.
Anywho, back to letting oneself off the hook. Take Charlie for example. In the previous episode ("Homecoming"), he shot Ethan multiple times and killed him. He's not the same. He's distant and sort-of cold with Claire. He's spending time alone. Hurley asks Sayid to help Charlie so Sayid does. Sayid tells Charlie a story about how he volunteered to be on the firing squad of the man who killed a police offer he knew's wife and children as a result of a car bomb. Sayid explains how he did the duty without a single ounce of remorse but then, for no reason, woke up at night, replaying what he did in his head. Sayid wants to know that Charlie doesn't have to pretend to be alone because he isn't. It's a wonderful moment of fellowship on the Island. It's beautiful storytelling. After Sayid tells him this, Charlie takes that walk with Claire that she asked him to take earlier in the episode. This conversation for Charlie lifts his burden of guilt (wherever that guilt is placed).
'Outlaws' is one of LOST's best. You can watch the whole thing at hulu.com.
Drew Goddard wrote the episode. He's an alum of Buffy and ANGEL. In fact, one could argue he salvaged the seventh season of Buffy. He wrote one of the season's bests (Selfless). He co-wrote one of the series' best episodes (Conversations with Dead People). He wrote one of the season's strongest episodes (Never Leave Me). He wrote and co-wrote two others (Dirty Girls and Lies My Parents Told Me). For ANGEl, he wrote the tremendous Wesley-centered episode (Lineage), co-wrote the brilliant "Damage," the underrated "Why We Fight" (Steven S. DeKnight (another one of my favorite screenwriters) was the other writer for both of these episodes). He wrote "Origin," an episode that helps to bring closure to the Connor story. LOST landed an absolute talent when they got Goddard. "Outlaws" is his first episode. He left the series during the fourth year because of his success with Cloverfield. He co-wrote Cabin In The Woods with Joss Whedon AND directed it (that movie will be out next year). Drew Goddard is pretty damn cool. He also appears in 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.' He wrote some other LOST episodes. Some of them have been written about and are in the Jacob's Foot archives. Others have yet to come.
The always reliable Jack Bender directed this one. He is the ace of the directing team one could say. There's a season one featurette on 'Outlaws' which takes you behind the scenes of the making of the episode. You get to see Bender in all his glory.
I think I've written enough for now about this episode. Do watch.
News is trickling out about the premiere of the sixth season episode. Nothing confirmed yet but I will be writing about the news as soon as it concerned. According to John Lachonis of TVOvermind, January 27 has been the rumored premiere date but we shall see. Hopefully it's January 20. The sooner, the better. There's also rumblings about a two-week break in February due to the Olympics but Lachonis notes that LOST beat the Olympics back in 2006 (represent LOST). Anywho, that's the latest news in the 'when will the show return?' department. Part 5 of Mysteries of the Universe goes up next week. The final part will only be available on DVD. I surely will have that covered as well.
Now, here's why you should re-watch "Solitary"!
THE 'LOST' EPISODE OF THE DAY
The episode: Solitary
Original Airdate: November 17, 2004
Written By: David Fury
Directed By: Greg Yaitanes
Content: Trekking around the Island, Sayid finds himself the prisoner of a mysterious woman who apparently lives on the Island. Elsewhere, Hurley builds a golf course to try to help the survivors unwind after their traumatic ordeal. Flashbacks in this episode focus around Sayid's choice between his career and his childhood love, Nadia.
Why It's Worth Re-Watching: This episode is as poetic as a television episode will get. The writing's beautiful and the direction is beautiful. This is probably my favorite episode of the series thus far. This is the episode that hooked me to the show. I thought the show was very good but this episode just blew my mind and made me realize how unique a series LOST would be. I had been reeling from the cancelletion of ANGEL. This episode and Raised By Another raised the bar so much for LOST that I knew I had found my new favorite show (and now it's my favorite show of all-time).
Why do I love this episode so much? For many reasons. I'll start with the introduction of the idea of The Others. This is the episode where we meet Danielle Rousseau. I remember the previews for this episode, the mysterious woman, Sayid strapped to a table, the swinging light above him. A very effective preview. When Rousseau continuously asks about Alex in different languages and refers to Sayid as one of them, I was very intrigued. And then the idea of the Others got bigger. When she explains how she hears them whisper, I got chills. I was on my feet, yelling at the TV, extremely excited by this possibility of The Others. She constantly references "they" and how "they" control the radio tower and communication. Rousseau is by all means an insane woman in this episode. She's uttering nonsense throughout and enough information that a re-watch was essential to capturing everything. A few re-watches even. Sayid learns about her team, how her team were sick, and were the carriers. How she had to shoot Robert and that even Sayid made the same mistake as Robert did when pulling the trigger and getting nothing. We also hear the name the Black Rock in this episode.
Another reason why I love this episode is the interaction between Sayid and Rousseau. Sayid earns Rousseau's trust by simply connecting with her, relating to her, and being honest with her. He tells her that he found the cable after hearing the transmission earlier and went looking for her for answers. He tells her that he left camp because of something he did (torturing Sawyer). My favorite scene between them is when Sayid fixes the music box for her. The look of joy on Rousseau's face when she hears the music for the first time in years is touching because of what it means to her. Robert gave it to her and she says it was such a comfort to her in the first few years alone on The Island. Mira Furlan played it perfectly. I like how she doesn't want to let him go because she's been alone for sixteen years. He pleads with her to come with him and that she doesn't have to be alone. But she doesn't want to. And when a polar bear comes near Danielle's place, Sayid mistakes it for the Monster to which Rousseau responds "there's no such thing as monsters."
The flashback is terrific in this episode. Sayid is an experienced torturer in this flashback but he's blindsided when an old childhood friend and love of his is brought in because she's a person of interest in a bombing and an associate of Kurdish and Shiite insurgents. It is Nadia, of course. The dialogue between them is so poetic especially in their first scene together. Here it is IN FULL from the transcript on lostpedia.com:
SAYID: Noor Abed-Jazeem, I'm going to ask you some questions. If you refuse to cooperate I'm going to hurt you. You understand?
NADIA: Nobody calls me Noor, Sayid. You of all people should know that.
[Sayid is startled.]
NADIA: What? You don't remember me? Am I so different from the little girl in the school yard who used to push you in the mud?
SAYID: Nadia?
NADIA: And your mother would tell my mother, "why must you pick on little Sayid." And I'd answer, because he ignores me.
SAYID: You had enough attention with your family's wealth and your charm.
NADIA: Such things matter little to children. But then you always were older than your years, weren't you, Sayid?
SAYID: Not old enough to understand that being pushed in the mud was a sign of affection. Now you're a traitor to your country. Tell me what you know about the bombing in Najaf. Tell me, or I swear I will hurt you.
NADIA: Oh, I know Sayid. This is not my first interrogation by the Republican Guard. This is where they burned me with acid -- they pierced my hands with a drill. Would you like to see the soles of my feet? Where they flayed the skin off? These are the handiworks of your friends. The people you swear allegiance to.
SAYID: If you were innocent, I am sorry. But this bombing is a different matter, Nadia.
NADIA: Go on, Sayid, do your work. I'm not going to tell you anything.
SAYID: Then I'm going to hurt you.
And now I will embed a part of this episode because it's fantastic. Naveen Andrews and Andrea Gabriel just knock it out of the park. Gabriel's delivery is incredibly moving throughout the episode, her intonations and inflections. It's beautiful. I'll now let the scene represent itself:
The flashback gets better. Sayid frees her by shooting his commanding officer as Nadia walks to her death. This is where she writes "You'll find me in the next life, if not this one." Andrea Gabriel just about breaks my heart when she asks Sayid if he's going to hurt her when Sayid walks in to bring her to her death. And when she pleads for him to come with her.
It is this history with Nadia that softens Rousseau to Sayid. Earlier in this episode, Sayid tells Rousseau that Nadia's dead because of him but that is because Sayid feels he did not do all he could to help her. This is the moment when Rousseau begins to soften.
And then the final exchange between Sayid and Rousseau ends with Rousseau telling Sayid that Alex was her child which is an extremely poignant end to the Sayid/Rousseau story in this episode. Once again, Mira Furlan's delivery is terrifically moving and effective.
Last but not least (for Sayid's story), he hears the whispers in the jungle as he wanders back to camp. I still get goosebumps and chills when I watch this. Words cannot convey how much this scene means to me. I'm a dork.
The excellence of this episode is not just limited to Sayid in this episode. One of my favorite Island stories of the series is the golf story that occurs in this episode. Hurley is determined to make people forget that their lives suck and so he builds a golf course. Jack utters the line of the episode when he says he's spent weeks trying to make people feel safe and Hurley does it by building a golf course. I get a big kick out of Hurley and Charlie dancing on the course. I love when Charlie quietly says how much making the next hole means to him because he's never made par on a course before.
The golf course also allows Sawyer to try to make himself more likable. Kate suggests that he put more effort into that. And he does by betting against Jack.
This episode does not have a weak spot or flaw in it. It is strong throughout. This is the episode you show your friends when showing them why LOST is among the best series ever. "Solitary" is the ninth episode of the series and of season one. There's nothing like the first ten episodes of this series.
David Fury wrote an absolute gem of an episode. He wrote three of season one's best episodes. He wrote for Buffy and ANGEL once upon a time. He is one of the best television scribes out there and one of my favorite screenwriters. This episode is just so fantastic. I can't convey how much I love this episode. I'm trying but I just can't.
Greg Yaitanes directed the episode and did a superb job. Michael Bonvillain and Larry Fong teamed up to DP this shoot. They made some excellent choices in this episode. Great hand-held camera work. Excellent lighting. The whole nine yards.
Content: While Jack is in command as the fate of Ben's life rests in his hands, Kate and Sawyer help Alex in return for a boat, and Juliet makes a shocking decision that could endanger her standing with her people.
Why It's Worth Re-Watching: The Phillies lost the World Series tonight. They are my favorite baseball team. I am bummed. But nothing will cheer me up more than writing about LOST. Plus, LOST is now about two months away from returning even though a premiere date has not been set. Without further ado, here's why you should re-watch Not In Portland.
First of all, it's Juliet's first flashback of the series which means you get many scenes with the wonderful Elizabeth Mitchell and you meet Richard Alpert for the first time in this episode as well as get an inside look at how The Others manipulate in their recruiting process. About the flashback, the flashback revolves around Juliet, her cancer-stricken sister, and her quest to get her pregnant. After all, The Others were interested in her because she's a fertility doctor who is trying many new things in the field. She eventually succeeds in getting her sister pregnant.
The meat of this flashback involves the recruitment. She works for her ex-husband Danko (I know I should refer to him by his character name in LOST but I now see this actor as no one else but Danko from HEROES...Danko seemed and was ridiculous so every time I watch this episode he will always be Danko) who will not let her career advance and who looks down on literally everything she does. He is her biggest obstacle when Mittelos Labs comes to recruit her. This is when we meet Dr. Richard Alpert. It seems that Alpert, Ethan, and The Others are the reason why Danko is eventually run over by a bus because Juliet, in her upset way, says the only thing that'd free her would be Danko being run over by a bus. When he is, and she's weeping by his dead body in the morgue, Alpert and Ethan show up to offer their condolensces and tell her that they really want her working for them. Juliet feels like Mittelos were directly involved but Alpert denies it in his Alpert way.
This is flashback is very interesting though. On re-watch it is not the best flashback of Juliet's. But when it originally aired, Juliet was a huge enigma. When she injected the medicine into her sister, nobody knew, at first, what she was doing. The flashback opens on a beach in twilight with Juliet crying. Ethan passes her as she walks to her sister's room but it's just Miami. It's brilliantly mis-leading because this episode was the first episode to air after the six episode pod that was the first six episodes of season three. The sixth episode "I Do" ended with a cliffhanger. Jack was going to let Ben die if Kate and Sawyer weren't set free. Juliet also wanted Jack to kill Ben. Obviously, the writers wanted to mis-lead the viewers into thinking Ben is dead and that's why she is crying. I love that device.
Anywho, this flashback casts Juliet in a new light. We find out that she was basically manipulated into becoming an Other and that Ben hasn't let her go home in the three years she's been on the Island. She has tremendous love and loyalty to her sister. It's great.
As for the on Island action, Juliet kills Pickett to save Kate and Sawyer so they can take a boat back to their Island. She does this because Ben promised to let her go home if she makes sure Kate and Sawyer are set free so that his life is saved by Jack.
The episode has some wonderful comedic moments such as Tom's fear of blood. It's funny mostly because this is the man who was once the most menacing of the Others, and in this episode, he hypervenilates at the sight of blood. I get a kick out of Sawyer's soft spot for Karl. When Sawyer finds out the person that needs to be saved before Alex takes them to the boat is Karl, Sawyer sighs and gives in. Sawyer is the man.
There's a great moment of humor on the official LOST podcast as well when Damon says he is wearing the goggles Karl has on in Room 23. Oh yeah, Room 23 is seen in this episode. For more on Room 23, you might want to check out the webisode. And then watch the rest of the webisodes. They're great.
Overall, it's an action-packed episode with great character development. This is the beginning of the amazing season three episodes that followed the pod. Season Three is magnificent. Elizabeth Mitchell is wonderful in this episode. Matthew Fox does a stand-up job as always. Stephen Williams did a terrific job directing the episode.
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