Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | 900 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT John 3:16
By Cindy McLennan | Season 5 | Episode 6 | Aired on 2009.02.18
Jin lowers his weapon and lets the sight before him register. He lets out the smallest, silent, frightened laugh and we fade to black. DUN! Bad robot!
Just a little bit of score-keeping before I put this bad boy to bed. Let's see how well the Oceanic Six did, trying to recreate the circumstances of Oceanic flight 815.
1. Jack has Locke as his Christian Shepherd-show-wearing Christian Shepherd proxy.
2. Sun is trying to get back together with her husband, which sort of mirrors the state of their marriage when they first landed on Craphole. And she has a personal possession of his -- a ring.
3. Hurley has a Spanish language comic, as he did the first time (although I can't recall it). And he has a guitar, which must represent Charlie and since Hurley is loaded, it may well be Charlie's guitar.
4. Sayid's there, but he's in custody, of course the Marshall can stand in for Kate's Marshall.
5. Kate's there alone this time, but see above.
6. Aaron's not there, but...he was in Claire's belly the first time the Lost-aways landed on Craphole. Kate and Jack had sex the night before their flight on Ajira 316- with Jack. Was it unprotected? Maybe there was an Aaron proxy on this new plane.
Additionally, Frank was supposed to be flying Oceanic 815. Now maybe the monster ate Greg Grunberg because he wasn't supposed to be there in the first place. Maybe Frank was supposed to be there all along. Of course, if there was no crash, maybe Frank kept flying. If Frank did flash to the island, there soon will be a crash, I reckon. Meanwhile, Sayid's Marshall puts me in mind of Ana-Lucia, a little. The biggest wild cards are Saïd/Caesar and Benjamin Linus. I'm not so sure the island even wants Ben anymore, but even if it does, Linus wasn't on Oceanic flight 815. I suppose he could be an Aaron stand-in, too -- a child of the island. But I think it's interesting that we didn't see him during any of the turbulence, or right before the flash. I wonder if the plane did crash and/or if the flash just sucked out the people the island wanted to return. We'll see Wednesday. Some Wednesday. Eventually. I hope.
All in all, this was a good episode, and an important episode, but regardless of how well it set up all our little pawns, it lacked emotional resonance. And I found it frustrating that we don't know why or how anyone but Jack and Sun came to the decision to return. I assume Mrs. Hawking was behind it, but how did she convince them. I mean -- Kate? Was so not going back there. What did she do with Aaron? Did Sun send him off to Halmoni Paik? Did Kate give him to Carole Littleton, his biological grandmother? Did she secret him away to Sawyer's Baby-Mama? Why wouldn't she tell Jack where he was? Was she instructed to have sex with Jack? How and why was Hurley convinced? How did he know to bring the guitar? The comics? Did Charlie visit him again? Why did Sayid get arrested? And how did one Marshall manage to keep him subdued, unless he wanted to be subdued? Most importantly -- how did Benjamin Linus get all bloody? Was some of it Penny's blood -- or was it all just his own? I can't fault Lost for not tipping its entire hand, but an awful lot of the reunion at the airport and on the plane lacked emotion, in part, because the characters were kept separate -- at least in part -- to keep them from spilling their stories. It's fine with me that they're on the flight (or now the island) but not really together, and the emotions aren't joyous, but I felt like I could see too many strings being pulled this time. We had a lot of shrugs, odd looks and things unsaid, that all spelled out to me, "We can't tell you yet, because we're going back to flashback format." I like the time jumps, and I always did like the flashbacks, but I don't want to be taken out of the story again like I was tonight. Too much technique -- not enough art.