If you've never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the TV series, not the movie). I feel bad for you, son. While ostensibly a show about a group of high school (and, several seasons in, college-aged) kids who go around fighting vampires and demons and monsters, really it's a metaphor for modern teen life set against a backdrop of chop-sockey and wooden stakes. And the fictitious Calif. town of Sunnydale was always beset with these horrible monsters and plagues of vampires was because it sat on the Hellmouth - literally, the earthly entrance to Hell.
Turns out that the kids of Sunnydale High and the Oceanic survivors have similar real estate.
Wow. So now we have some meat to sink our teeth into in terms of the overarching island mystery. It's literally the lid on Pandora's box, with Jacob and Man in Black being the Goofus and Gallant eternally sparring over keep the lid closed.
Given that it was such a big reveal, and Richard (a fine Nestor Carbonell, who will to me always be 'Batmanuel' from the short-lived live-action Tick series) has been such a mystery, I can see why the episode was so Richard-centric and 90 percent about his flashback.
But honestly, this one seemed a little slow and clogged. Which is a shame considering how important this episode was to the canon. We now understand the struggle. We know why the Oceanic folks were brought to the island (Jacob basically trolling for damaged goods who can demonstrate that people can change for the better). Which raises a question - the Oceanic survivors are supposed to be a demonstration of the fact people can rise above their evil ways, right? But Hurley? Jack? Sun? Claire? What are their sins? What misdeeds are they supposed to have grown from? Sawyer, Sayid, Kate, like Ricardo they all are killers. But what was Locke's sin when the jet crashed (perhaps one could argue pride, in a sort of Seven Deadly Sins kind of way, but that seems weak.)
My other slight disappointment was with machinations of the Smoke Monster guy. He kills all the ship survivors because that's what he does. He spares Richardo presumably because he sees how he could manipulate him into killing Jacob. He impersonates Isabella to solidify that manipulation. All very smart and dastardly. And then he frees Ricardo and ... proceeds to sound like the worst salesman one could imagine. "Wait, YOU killed all the people on the boat?" "Look, forget about that, just go stab someone. Just do it. Do it." And because Richard's not so bright, he goes right along with that plan.
So now we're heading to a climactic confrontation about keeping Locke/MiB/Smokey from leaving the island. I presume Richard is not a candidate for the Jacob job for the very reason that Jacob didn't seem to have brought him specifically there (remember the whole fight on the beach and Jacob saying 'who are you?') I dunno, my money for now is going to stay on the team with the guy who can turn into a homicidal cloud of smoke. Hurley's amusing stoner vibe is not much of a counter weapon to that.
One interesting tidbit:
- The captain of the Black Rock ship, Magnus Hanso, is the great grandfather of Alvar Hanso, who went on to help found the Dharma Foundation, which as we know set up shop on the island eventually (brought there I assume by Jacob at some point).
One gripe:
How many Haley Joel Osments are we going to have on the island? Miles and now Hurley are talking to the dead?
Interesting mysteries we'll likely never get fully solved:
- So what happened to the statue? It was full sized when the Black Rock was in the storm, and now it's just rubble except for the feet.
- So how is it that the Black Rock ended up in the interior of the island? Am assuming that has to do with the constant moving of the island (same with how a boat heading from the west coast of Africa - the Canary Islands - to North America - ended up hitting the island that was, at least for a time, in the South Pacific too)
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Somebody likes Die Fladermous! A LOST and a TICK fan? Holy Empire Comics, Daneman!
So I was watching LOST last night, knowing it was a Richard episode and that it may as well have been a Palm Tree episode for all the character development Richard has had, but I enjoyed it anyway in spite of my wife constantly asking me, “what does THAT mean?”
It seems Richard can’t die simply because he asked for it out of the blue after a string of impossible requests like, “Can you bring my dead wife back?” and, “Can I get a nice cedar planked salmon with some baby asparagus and Yukon mashed potatoes instead of this stringy whatever it is that I’m eating off of a stick? What is this? The Renaissance Faire?”
I’m also going to send back my expensive Rosetta Stone CD’s because Ricardo made learning near- perfect English from reading the Bible look so easy. I’m going to order a Bible from AbeBooks in Portuguese. I’ve always thought that was a pretty language. I should have it nailed by Leviticus. If not, I’m going to ask to live forever. No, an Aston-Martin. No, wait … a house on stilts in the Seychelles! With satellite so I can watch LOST!
i thought MIB said that the boat was carried inland by a giant wave and smashed into the statue on it's course.... then again, i might be wrong since that makes for a super strong boat or a super weak statue.
Lots of people are raving about this episode, but I was let down by it. The idea that the ship smashed the statue is way weak; however, in the land of the LOST we have to be prepared to believe anything.
After this ep, I've heard people declaring that now we have proof that Jacob = good and MIB = evil, but I'm not at all sure I like what Jacob has been doing ab aeternum. I mean, bringing people to the island, confusing them, scaring them, torturing them with all kinds of horrors just to try and prove a point? If he's meant to be an analog to any diety, he's not a diety I'd find very appealing. That said, if I had to choose someone to get behind other than myself, then I'd still choose Jacob over MIB.
Agree 100 percent about the Jacob/MiB good/evil question. While Jacob may be more on the side of the angels, remember it was the angels who often were God's enforcers in the Old Testament, killing humans by the tens of thousands. Jacob seems very willing to kill lots of people - how many folks died in the Oceanic crash, for example - for a greater purpose.
Thinking back to what you wrote about Kate-in-chains and Richard-in-chains, I'm wondering if Kate really will take Richard's place on the island IF the island still exists at series' end. Like Richard, Kate is guilty of murder when she arrives on the island, and she, too, may have to suffer through an extended penance. That is, if you believe what the priest in last night's ep was going on about.
Sayid is also a killer, but he seems too far gone now to be helped, even by Jacob.
I really liked the episode, because it was so much like "The Mission" and "Apocalypto". I have a thing for tortured indigenous males. Torture is the operative word here. Even if you're not shackled in a slave ship, if you've made it to the island, you have been, are being, or are about to be...tortured.
Aside from that, I was glad to finally find out why Richard never aged. I am counting on being able to get that special wish when I finally find that so far elusive genie.
As for Rick G. splitting hairs about Ricardo learning English so easily, I would refer him to Antonio Banderas's equally quick learning of Norse or Viking or whatever they were speaking in The 13th Warrior. That movie was based on a Michael Chrichton novel, so it had to be true.
I am less interested in who will stay on the island to prevent the escape of the MIB/Smoke Monster/Locke than what happens to all the other people. I am hoping for several good endings, with sunsets and hugs.
Just wanted to say I love the weekly blogs, Matt. You usually mention some deep idea or other that I had yet to come up with. As for the episode, I liked it. I think I wish things were a little grayer -- I mean they've really set it up as Good Guy in White (Jacob) vs Evil Man in Black. I wish we were a little more uncertain who we should be rooting for. As for all of the religious overtones, I'm still sort of hoping they are a pair of aliens (having a contest? playing a game to amuse themselves?) who crashed landed long ago, as opposed to being an angel and a/the devil.
And I think the skeletons in the cave are Bernard and Rose. They were too far from the bomb/Incident, and therefore got left behind in the 70s to happily die of old age together.
OK, so.
Happened to be listening to "how stuff works" podcast on niagara falls. water has lots of force. they explained the rate at which the falls expel water down to the pools below. that was an insane storm they are in a giant, giant, old/solid boad. who knows what that statue was made of, no matter how big it was. my perseption: easily broken by the waves, storm and boat.
next:i don't think it's so much about how "bad" the people he brings to the island are, but how they overcome whatever 'obsticale' they face. jack: father issues/self-esteem issues/leads to addiction issues. sun: father issues, trust issues, adultery. hurley: again...father issues, self-esteem issues, and dude he's hurley. claire: father issues, boyfriend issues, not knowing herself and her place in the world issues.
i didn't mean to get on the father issues track, but it happened. maybe that's some sort of theme? like how disney princesses never have mothers. wtf is that about?
foing forward: yeah, i thought the whole MiB 'hey, go kill this dude' thing was a bit lame, BUT all richard wanted was a better life. for him and his wife. he just wanted to live and start over, that's why he ended up on that boat - in part. so i think it's logical to belive that that sort of utter desparation can lead one to do anything - no matter how illogical to the rest of us that are hopefully more stable. ya know?
hurley was talking to the dead in season 3. was it 3? when he saw libby and that dude from the institution. i forget who it was, but he was talking to/seeing the dead a couple of seasons ago, they just brought it back again.
and that's what i think...
also:
i too would love a cedar plank salmon with potatoes and asparagus (good thing we've got great salmon in seattle).
i'm pretty sure i'd like to marry richard and have babies that look like they wear eyeliner but don't.
and lastly,i nearly lost my sh*t when the whole 'we're in hell' thing came up and then came up a few more times. almost lost a REALLY expensive flat screen out the window...after all the years of saying 'they're not in hell'. WHAT? don't make a buncha characters say they're in hell. that's not FUNNY!
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