Tag: Sawyer

On the Beat With Officers Ford and Straume

Perhaps the biggest surprise during the last season of Lost was the transformation of Island conman Sawyer into an authority figure.

It’s been quite a character journey for Sawyer, starting out as the guy who gave away snappy nicknames and pretended to hoard asthma medication to the guy who enforced the law for the DHARMA Initiative.  While still giving out snappy nicknames.

As the Oceanic Six returned to the 1977 version of the Island, Sawyer’s LaFleur’s carefully constructed lie of a life came crumbling down.  Sawyer had to cover for simple things like assimilating Jack, Hurley and Kate into the DI and much more complex ones, like figuring out how to save Sayid.  As events unfurled, Sawyer lost everything, including the love of his life, Juliet, who sacrificed herself to cap off Jack and Faraday’s plan to change the timeline.

Now, in Lost’s final season, Sawyer is back to being the resident Island conman.  With nothing but bad memories of his three years in the seventies, Sawyer wants off the island. Sawyer has no allegiance to anybody but himself and has made deals with both sides to get what he wants.

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John Locke: Don’t Accept The Substitute

A few weeks ago, in Lost’s sixth season premiere, LA X, there was a scene between Ben and Fake Locke (henceforth referred to as FLocke) where FLocke said that the real John Locke was, quite basically, a loser.  At the time, I felt sorry for John Locke, and thought he was misrepresented, that sure, his off-Island life may not have been the best, but through his determination and will, he was able to overcome all of his obstacles.

Over the weekend, I watched some of Locke’s original flashback episodes (Walkabout and Deus Ex Machina) and I realized that FLocke was right about off-island Locke: he was pathetic.  Sure, he had a lot of bad luck and was repeatedly taken advantage of by his father.  But he allowed himself to be victimized and focused too much on the past rather than wheel on towards the future.  His only chance for redemption was the Island, which gave him what he wanted.  Too bad that he allowed himself, once again, to be taken advantage of.  And in tonight’s episode, The Substitute, we’ve seen Sideways Locke, and I’m not sure he has it any better in this other timeline…

 

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What Kate Does is Annoy and Bore Me

I’ve been blogging about Lost since Season Two, and I’ve waited for five long seasons to use that as a title.

It’s fitting though, that here in Lost’s last season, in what’s hopefully the very last Kate-centric episode, that I would be frustrated with an episode centering around my least favorite Island castaway.  Kate seemingly has nothing to do with the larger Island mythology.  I can see no discernible reason why two otherwise likable characters would dispel all rational behavior in favor of acting like a bunch of idiots while fawning over her.  And most importantly, she’s not that interesting.

So in the third episode of Lost’s final season, we wasted an episode on Kate.  But we did get one big question answered:

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The Incident and The Accident

Dude 1: You’re still trying to prove me wrong, aren’t you?

Dude 2: You are wrong.

Dude 1: They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt.  It always ends the same.

Dude 2: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that, it’s just progress.

And so began tonight’s episode of Lost, the final episode of Season 5, The Incident. If anyone has any idea what happened, I’d like to know.

I had to watch that opening scene of tonights episode more than once.  I felt like there were a lot of hints involved in the conversation between Jacob and the adversary.  Between that and all the flashbacks involving Jacob and characters we’ve known for a while, it almost felt like we were watching a different show.  And with the ambigious ending of tonight’s two-hour Lost extravaganza, we Lost fans are left wondering whether it will even be the same show that returns in February of 2010.  Not to mention we’re all stuck counting down the days for some answers.  I’m sure the creators of Lost wouldn’t have it any other way.

So Jacob’s been around a while. He lives under the statue (or as some might say, in the shadow of the statue).  He can leave the island at will and has healing powers.  Through various methods, he brings people to the island.  And he shares the island with the adversary who wants to kill him, but because of some nebulous agreement, can’t.  It’s hinted that the adversary doesn’t always appreciate Jacob’s bringing people to the island and has a low opinion of mere mortals.  But he’s more than happy to use them for his nefarious means.

Well, Jacob has brought these people to the island for a reason (the aforementioned progress).  How that fits in with the incident at the Swan site and all the other assorted happenings on the island is anyone’s guess.  One of the many things we’ll have to wait until next February for.

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Namaste, Aloha and the Muppet Show

In the realm of Lost, as well as the rest of TV, I enjoy episodes that are either action or mythology-oriented. For the most part, I lose patience with episodes centered around emotions and relationships.

Even though I’d call tonight’s episode of Lost, Namaste, emotional, my reaction was different.  I enjoyed it.  It was a lot like a ‘set-up’ episode of 24, where characters and devices are introduced so the plot can shift into the next gear for the next episode.  Even though that’s usually a recipe for a so-so episode, that didn’t happen tonight.

First of all, things started off pretty quickly.

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[This Place is] Death on a Redheaded Perm

So Charlotte, Lost’s most annoying on-island (for Season 5) character is dead, and I’m supposed to care.

I don’t mean to sound callow, but ever since she showed up on the island (“Don’t you people want to be rescued?”), she annoyed me, and I’m just not sad to see she’s gone.  Or, as The Civee put it, “I’m glad Charlotte’s dead, because this plot is boring.”

I wouldn’t entirely put it that way–her last few minutes established that Faraday tried to break his “don’t do it, because you can’t change it anyway” rule, which should mean he gets into some interesting situations during his next jump.  Speaking of which, if he meets Charlotte back in the day, then shouldn’t he be, like, her Constant?

Perhaps the most interesting revelation in tonight’s episode comes from a different story thread: John Locke can’t follow orders.  When he meets Christian at the bottom of the well, Christian emphasizes the fact that Locke was supposed to move the island.  But Ben moved it instead, causing the whole mess the island has gotten itself into.  Well, a few seconds later, Christian tells Locke he has to push the frozen donkey wheel.  And what does Locke do? Well, permit me to illustrate:

In the above screen capture, we see Locke with the wheel.  The blue arrow represents the direction Locke would have had to go to push the wheel.  However, Locke moves in the direction of the yellow arrow, pulling the wheel.  

And this is the guy they expect to save the island?

A few other thoughts:

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