Lost: Season Six

[Drake Tungsten]

I was underwhelmed. I'm sure most people are going to disagree with me, but I just don't find the mythology episodes as interesting at this stage of the game as finding out what happens to the characters we've been following for six years. This was basically Ab Aeterno without Hurley or the touching final scene.

I thought the revelation of who Adam and Eve were was going to save it at the end, but they decided to treat us all like retards and have Jack, Kate and Locke spell it out for us via jolting flashback.

[Drake Tungsten]

No doubt AVC will give it an A- or something.

QFT

[Guynemer]

The child actors didn't help matters.

Now, one thing I did like was that the light/source/Well of Souls/whatever was corrupted by the actions of its guardians, becoming the monster.

That the monster is not, in fact, Jacob's brother; he was only the first mask that it wore.


Now, one thing that doesn't quite add up at this point--why couldn't the monster kill Jacob directly?

[Drake Tungsten]

Now, one thing I did like was that the light/source/Well of Souls/whatever was corrupted by the actions of its guardians, becoming the monster. That the monster is not, in fact, Jacob's brother; he was only the first mask that it wore.


Now, one thing that doesn't quite add up at this point--why couldn't the monster kill Jacob directly?

The way I read that scene is that the monster is the soul/mind/whatever of Jacob's brother. It got ripped from his brother's body by the light and took smoke form.

One lame thing: Is there really a good reason that Jacob's brother either doesn't have a name or we can't know it?

One cool thing: I think we know why Desmond is so important, now. He's the only person to live through the same electromagnetic event that created Smokey.

[Guynemer]

Ahhh, yes, I think you're right on both counts, re: monster and Desmond. I just read the same thing in Doc's reaction re: the monster, and your suggestion re: Desmond makes absolutely perfect sense. I'm not sure what that ultimately means for Desmondo's fate, but it can't be good.

I also read that he didn't like the kid actors either, glad it wasn't just me.


But didn't the Wicked Witch of the Island say that the boys couldn't harm one another? Jacob harmed the **** out of his brother.


I think Nameless is supposed to be nameless. Mom didn't know about him, didn't think him possible, a nonentity from the start. Nameless, formless. He didn't have a name because he didn't need one; we never learned the Witch's name, either.

[Drake Tungsten]

I also read that he didn't like the kid actors either, glad it wasn't just me.

No one likes kid actors. Jacob's brother wasn't that bad, I thought, judged against other child actors.

But didn't the Wicked Witch of the Island say that the boys couldn't harm one another? Jacob harmed the **** out of his brother.

Yeah, most of Mother's justification's for acting like she did remained totally unresolved and we have no idea whether she was telling the truth or not. I don't really care, as I'd much rather find out if Lapidus is still alive (was I the only one hoping he was going to come out of the water at the start of the episode?) and what Jack does next, but if you're going to spend one of the last 4.5 hours of the show on mythology, it would seem like a good idea to actually tell us why the Island needs protecting (or whether it even needs protecting at all) rather than just passing Jacob's role as the keeper of mysteries onto some new character.

[Guynemer]

One of the things I find very puzzling about this episode, especially coming on the heels of last week's bloodbath:

Nameless was a considerably more sympathetic character than Jacob in this story. Jacob just did whatever the Witch told him, maybe reluctantly in the case of the wine (I thought that scene a nice contrast to Juliet drinking the drugged orange juice), but he never truly questioned her, even after learning she had murdered his birth mother. Nameless, however, was his own man, made his own decisions, tried to live his own life, until the Witch up and killed all his people.

Fate vs. choice, all over again. I'm a choice kinda guy, personally.

[Drake Tungsten]

Well, as a doctor, it's appropriate that you're a man of science. As a pedophile, however, I have little choice but to be a man of faith.

[Guynemer]

Sick bastard.


On the plus side, one of the bigger fansites has its reaction poll up, and the first few thousand votes put it in the bottom quartile of episodes since early Season 3.

On the minus side, those fans can't be exactly trusted, as the easy Top 5-10 All-Timer "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead" is sixth-from-last.

[Drake Tungsten]

Just finished Doc Jensen's instant reaction. Put me down for “This is a bunch of murky bulls–t!”

Still can't wait for next Tuesday, though.

[Drake Tungsten]

until the Witch up and killed all his people.

How in the **** did she manage that, btw? That really threw me for a loop.

[Drake Tungsten]

Guy called it. A-...

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Not impressed with the idea that there's little actual mythology coming through, just another layer of unexplained magic. I really had hoped that this wasn't going to be another X-Files/BSG non-ending.

[rah]

The "you can't hurt each other" did really ring hollow when they beating each other up.

And I do agree. If they're going to waste a whole hour on the mythology, the least they could have done was explain it better.

The never hearing his name part was just dumb.

While it was slightly interesting, it wasn't ground breaking and would have much better if they had covered it in 20 minutes.

If they had done this last season, I probably would have felt more enthusiastic about it.

[Guynemer]

We didn't hear his name because he doesn't have a name, rah. He never did.

Of all the reasons to hate on the episode, and there are plenty, don't mention something that actually makes sense.




I think this episode would have worked much, much better, just as it is, had it aired much earlier in the season. Really, this could have aired at anytime without changing anything happening in the present timeline; putting it here, so close to end, right after killing off nearly half of the remaining 815ers, was just begging people to dislike it. Had it aired midseason, right after or right before the Richard episode, or even if it had aired as the season premiere, I imagine we'd be focusing more on the interesting bits than the ****ty bits.

But, on the plus side, we're now done with all that hoo-ha. 3.5 hours left, all with the characters we know.