Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Questions & Answers: This Place is Death


Well, we finally have an answer to the question that has plagued us from season one: So how did Montand lose his arm? We also got to see Charlotte be creepy and die, the smoke monster rip trees out of the ground, Sun and Jin's cute Korean baby, and even more of the young, cute Rousseau.
Something that struck me was when Christian Shephard talks to John Locke near the frozen donkey wheel. When Locke doubts he will be able to round all the Oceanic 6 up to bring back to the island, Shephard says "I believe in you, John." Is that not what Locke wanted and needed to hear his entire life? It seems Locke's entire existence has been a series of shortcomings, bad luck, disappointments and discouragements, from everyone. Not even Ben has been so encouraging towards him. Not only that, but Christian is also being the loving father he never quite was to Jack. All that in one single line. Maybe I'm just reading too deeply into it, but I feel like that was one of the sweetest moments of LOST's entire run.
Here's some questions:
1. So who's crazy, Rousseau or the rest of her team? My bet is she's slightly saner than they are. What exactly happened when they were pulled into that Cerebus vent? Are they really "sick" or are they even the same people now?
2. Supposedly the smoke monster is a security system for the temple. Why does the temple need it? I'm assuming the temple is built over the well that contains the wheel, so is it just to keep people from messing with it that shouldn't, while allowing safe passage to those who can? Remember early on, Locke came face to face with Smoky and it didn't harm him...
3. Christian also scolds Locke for letting Ben turn the wheel. How would things have been different if John did it instead of Ben?
4. Now that Locke has turned the wheel, does that mean the intermittant time flashes will stop for those on the island? What time are they going to end up in? Could it be the early days of Dharma, when Charlotte is a little girl, living on the island?
5. Now we know that Eloise is Faraday's mother. Where does that leave Charlotte in relation to Daniel? Sister, half sister, daughter?
I'm seriously stoked to get up and see there's already a ton of comments on the episode from the night before. Sorry it takes me awhile to get my thoughts organzied to make an actual post.

22 comments:

Charles Albright said...

So, anyone interested in my new Life on Mars Blog?

Charles

beckler said...

Smoke monster! Awesome!

Also, does anyone remember when Rousseau first met Jin? Did she have any particular reaction? Like that she recognized him from the past? What do you guys think about her shooting her husband? Who was the crazy one? Her or him? Maybe he was going to shoot her cuz she had gone crazy and killed everyone?
Becky

Anonymous said...

Is anybody else really happy that Charlotte is dead? I never thought I would hate a "hot" anthropologist so much. Anyway I felt the episode was a bit of a mixed bag. The off-island stuff has slowed to a stop, and the Rousseau flashback,while neat, felt kind of wasted. We didn't learn anything new, just had things we had been told in season one reinforced. Still the rest of episode was pretty kick-ass.
-biz

Eryn said...

I feel like they're trying a little too hard to explain things in the show to people.. like "That smoke is just a security system!" or making people's full names be unnecessarily mentioned. They're trying a little to hard to explain things. It's like, come on, don't insult our intelligence!

I was pissed when the off-island group broke-up and went separate ways, I just thought "great.. now they're going to drag it out even more."

I don't care that Charlotte is dead. I grow weary of them casting young, supposedly-attractive people. I'm sure we'll see her again, though.

My prediction for the second half of this season? They'll drag it out by showing what happened to the other group of people (Bernard and Rose, etc) the whole time all of this is going on with Locke/Sawyer etc.

I have a feeling this season won't go far, and will probably end with them finally getting back to the island, then leaving us suckers hanging until season 6 for more action.

beckler said...

I thought the episode was great! Smoke monster, Charlotte being really effectively creepy and revealing two huge things (she had been on the island before, she saw Daniel there), and it was huge to me to finally see more about rousseau and "the sickness" because I've been wondering about that forever. Also, it was totally creepy when the dude got his arm ripped off and then was trying to get help down in the hole. That obviously wasn't really him. Creep attack!

DB said...

Another placeholder episode. More terribly written off-island bullshit. More pointless roadblocks to get back to the island. I feel totally vindicated. Apology line starts here.

Anonymous said...

While I'm of the opinion that any Lost is good Lost, I agree with DB to some extent. 90% of the current Lost dialogue has been reduced to someone exclaiming something either panicked, sarcastic or enigmatic. I've come to expect that from Lost but they're really laying it on this season. Also, with all the different storylines the pace is like a soap opera. Each storyline moves about one inch per episode.

On a positive note, I thing young Rousseau is cute.

-miller

beckler said...

um, you "placeholder" people, please see my comment above for all the monumental things that occurred in this episode. or do you require more than 4 monumental things per episode?

The Armeniac said...

Yeah the dialogue is the weakest part, followed by the score which is real flowery and foofy at points, Seems like they got the soap opera writers back from season 3. Should've gotten Mexican soap opera writers, those dudes are hella trippsy.

DB said...

Most of those monumental occurrences were things already known or assumed. And once again, the twist ending was: something already known or assumed. They aren't flipping the script, "Lost"-style; they've written themselves into a corner, and they seem determined to stay there.

Cody said...

The only thing I could really say afterwards was "Well, it was better than last week." The Charlotte stuff was awesome, (especially her dying). The return of the smoke monster was awesome, especially when Montand lost his arm (though it was more like his arm lost his body). Christian Shephard talking to John Locke was awesome. I too, was totally bummed when all the off-islanders got separated, but at the end it seems like something might still happen since Eloise said "This will have to do." Of course, the rest of the season may then be spent getting the rest of the back the island, but at least that's something.

Matt Jacobson said...

You know what annoys me, the more I think about it? Locke broke his leg; off-island, I'm betting he'll be in a wheelchair due to the severe break and not having the island's special healing properties... so they'll totally sidestep the "will he still be able to walk off the island" question.

Anonymous said...

I really think that they're gonna end up in Dharma Initiative time, when Charlotte is a little girl.

Anonymous said...

also, I was more entertained last night then I have been in awhile. The more on-island stuff the better.

The Armeniac said...

Charlotte is not related in anyway to Faraday. Faraday is the Prince Of The Others and can navigate through time, with 4 toes. Called it. Bitches.

beckler said...

I felt the same way about Locke. I was getting choked up thinking of his backstory and how fucked up life has been to him. He deserves something good to happen to him. And now he's "dead" (lost dead)

Ben Steinert said...

I think I will say this every week:
Placeholders, best ever, yadda yadda. It's just a tv show! Enjoy it. Or don't!

Let's talk Smoke Monster. Evidently Abrams and Cuse and that other joker have said a bunch of times that the smoke monster is NOT a nano-cloud.

But WTF else could it be? We just saw it extremely clearly.
1. It's got whirling, swirling tentacles of smoke.
2. It makes unmistakably clanky mechanical sounds.
3. It can form various shapes.
4. It seemingly "possessed" Rousseau's team. She called the dude sick and he seemed fine, but clearly wasn't.

Thus, I stand firm that the smoke monster is a nano cloud. And IF NOT a nano-cloud, it'll turn out to be some sort of electromagnetic machine dust or something and the Lost creators will be all, "No, we said it wasn't NANOMACHINES! It's ACTUALLY a futuristic smart-dust artificial intelligence entity."

Yeah. Nanomachines, you dicks.

Well, the Lost creators also said that Time Travel wasn't involved, and they found some logic loophole.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Cody said...

Anonymous fuckers will be be deleted. Don't be a dick.

Anonymous said...

more like nanonymous

DB said...

I regret to say that so far I'm a little disappointed in both the tone and content of the apologies. You guys are better than that.

nortagemdar said...

I think that the clankity-clank of the smoke monster just affirms that it has something to do with the 'wheel of time' (that makes a similar sound when turned). I mean, the monster isn't out that often so maybe EVERY time the wheel is turned (slips), the monster is set loose? But we've only seen the wheel turning part a couple of times so we never associated the two? Because if you think about it, now that there is a ton of time slippage/traveling with the wheel not being Locke'd in properly... so I think that while 'guardian' may not be the best description for the monster, I do think that the wheel and the monster are linked... It stands to reason that the monster is an omnicient polar-bear ghost cloud. I mean duh. The clankity-clank suggests that this polar bear dreams of being at Disneylands Matterhorn. Am I the only one picking this up?