Lost, Ep 13: The Man from TallahasseeI didn’t think I was going to watch this episode tonight. I’m very sick today, and can barely sit up, but then at 9:04 I checked my email (lying on my side in bed) and there was one from my friend fb that simply said OH MY GOD in the subject line. I figured it had to be about Lost, and either she loved it or hated it, and while I didn’t open it, I decided I had to go and watch it. And I was not disappointed. What a great episode – definitely the highlight of the season so far! (I’m probably going to miss a lot here so please post lots and fill in all the gaps I’ve left.) The backstory was amazing, the island story was amazing, and I loved the long scenes of dialogue where we really saw people connecting or trying to connect or trying to dodge verbal bullets. And thank you, writers, for FINALLY giving Terry O’Quinn some great material again to show what a phenomenal actor he is. It’s interesting: when Ben first says to Locke, “What would you do if you found a box that could have anything you wanted inside it?” and my first thought was, “Hmm… Anthony Cooper’s head on a pike?”
If Locke and Jack didn’t see eye-to-eye before, this episode is certainly going to take that rivalry and turn it into an all-out war.
Best lines:
Locke, after seeing Jack with the Others: This is going to be more complicated than we thought.
Locke: “The man from Tallahassee”? Is that a code?
Ben: No, John, unfortunately we don’t have a code for “there’s a man in the closet with a gun to my daughter’s head.” But apparently we should.
Jack to Kate: I told you not to come back here for me. And I wish you hadn’t. (whispers) But I will come back here for you.
Locke: Where do you get your electricity?
Ben: We have two giant hamsters running on a massive wheel in our underground secret lair.
Ben: You’ve been on this island for 80 days, John, and I’ve been here my entire life. What makes you think you know this island better than I do?
Locke: Because you’re in a wheelchair, and I’m not.
Did You Notice?:
-Kate got out of her handcuffs the same way she did when she was trapped in the armory in season 2
-there were some interesting hieroglyphs on Locke’s TV dinner tray, including the number 40 (urgh, so close)
-the scene of Locke looking down into the submarine is the same as him looking down into the hatch
-Anthony Cooper pours himself a cup of McCutcheon 60 whisky. Unlike Des’s possible father-in-law, he also pours a glass for Locke (though probably never intends for him to drink it)
-Locke fell 8 storeys
-when Locke is handcuffed to the pipe above his head, he’s been bruised around his left eye, the same eye that has sustained the most bruising when Anthony pushes him out the window
Nitpicks:
-a guy shows up at Locke’s door asking if he has 2 kidneys, and then Locke looks shocked when the guy says a few minutes later that the man he’s talking about is actually Anthony Cooper. Duh.
Questions:
-do the Others just have extra little houses for people like Jack, or does this place belong to one of the guards?
-now that we know Anthony is from Tallahassee, does that increase the chance that he’s the Sawyer that James has been searching for?
-is Anthony really Locke’s father? Or was that just part of his con? How could a man do these things to his son?
-is Tom on board with everything? He warns Jack about how the place is bugged when he lets Jack in to see Kate.
-maybe the Others take the kids to bring them to Otherville and shape them in their image, before they’ve been formed by the outside world? It seemed to us like by kidnapping the kids they were hurting them, but the kids probably have better accommodations and food than the Losties have had for 80 days.
-How did Scully and Not-Mulder know that Peter had been in Locke’s apartment? They found a piece of paper in his pocket, but that doesn’t give any proof that he’d been in the apt. 2 days earlier. Were there security cameras?
-is Ben as big a con man as Anthony Cooper? Why isn’t he more interested in Sawyer? Did he ever intend to let Juliet and Jack go?
-is the sub really the last way they have off the island? What about Desmond’s boat?
-was Anthony Cooper kidnapped before or after the plane crashed?
Next week: The Paulo and Nikki flashback we all haven’t been waiting for. Good news is, the preview on ABC said someone would die. I’ll post a few possible scenarios later this week. :)
the second i hit 'send', i thought to myself, 'oh, wait ... what if, by some strange chance, she hasn't actually seen the episode yet?? ... nah!!!' but then i second-guessed myself again, and cursed hotmail for not having a 'recall' function like microsoft office does. i'm glad i didn't ruin it for you (sorry!).
ReplyDeletei, too, thought 'the man from tallahassee' was going to be sawyer, and i was shocked when it was anthony cooper -- wasn't expecting that at all. and i, too, think there must be some sort of tie-in to sawyer there. there has to be.
my father has this theory that the others are all sterile, which is why they capture the children -- they can't have any of their own. he thinks it has something to do with the island's electromagnetic (healing?) forces.
VERY interesting that ben was born on the island. it lends credence to my pet theory that the adam and eve skeletons in the cave from season one are either his parents or grandparents. ;-p
the one thing i was dying -- DYING -- to see more than anything else this episode was the reunion between rousseau and alex. even just having rousseau see her from a distance and have tears on her face reduced me to tears myself. mira furlan is a phenomenal actress, easily my fave female on the whole show.
is Anthony really Locke’s father? Or was that just part of his con? How could a man do these things to his son?
y'know, i was thinking that, too. no one could be that cruel to their own flesh and blood ... could they?
My favorite episode this season! The intensity and the caliber are at an all time high!
ReplyDeleteI fleetingly thought Locke's father was in that room, but then I said to myself, no way...then I saw the final shot, and I said NO WAY! Another OMG moment! Torture that SOB of a father LOL. It took Locke a minute to have that shocked look on his face, but the expression of his father was priceless. I think its pretty obvious now Locke's father is the original Sawyer, anyone think differently?
I still think Tom is gay and has a thing for Jack...LOL...and I read somewhere next week someone comes out of the closet! Did you read the same thing?
I love Ben's evil look. That is one talented actor!
Funny thing about the previews, although it is supposed to be a Nikki/Paulo flashback, they didn't really show them. I think Nikki bites the dust (sorry Nikki! LOL). But you should be glad you are going to be "exposed" next week! Hope you feel better, get some rest!!!
After the dialogue in the opening scene, I thought "I wonder if this is a Drew episode". And Lo and Behold... Can't hide that Mutant Enemy quality.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if Danielle's back story (or part of it) as told to Sayid is a lie and if Ben really is Alex' father. Danielle saying she didn't want to see her daughter was a pretty lame excuse. I'm sure she's hiding something.
Seeing the guy from Emergency (yeah, I'm old) tied up at the end made me audibly gasp. Which is embarrassing when you're sitting alone with a TV.
Hope you feel better soon.
fb: Don't worry, you just made me crawl out of bed and watch the episode, and I'm glad you did! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's weird; I thought it was SO obvious that the guy in the room was going to be Cooper at the end that I thought they drew it out a little long. But then when I watched it a second time with my husband, he was completely shocked to see him, so maybe it was just me wanting him to be in the room that made it seem obvious. :)
I have definitely assumed the Others are sterile, and it's why the only way they can expand their population is through people they kidnap. So I'm thinking they kidnap children because of the adage that they can mould them rather than deal with their preconceived notions. I think the reason Juliet was so sought-after was because she was studying how to impregnate infertile creatures, including a male rat.
This is the second time that Ben has insisted he was born on the island, which casts an interesting angle on his character. I cannot WAIT for his flashback!
The Alex/Rousseau scene had me all welled up, too. I wish they could just talk to each other. Sniff...
Roland: I hadn't heard about someone coming out next week! That would be a great twist. Since it's a Paulo/Nikki episode, maybe it's one of them? But I definitely think Tom is very fond of Jack. :) And I agree; Michael Emerson is a wonderful actor.
Colleen: I completely forgot to give props to Drew. I'm always so excited when he's there... considering David Fury wrote the first phenomenal Locke episode (where we found out he was in the wheelchair in the first place) and Drew Goddard wrote the most recent, isn't it interesting that they're leaving the most important eps to the Buffy writers? Oh YEAH!
That's a really interesting theory about Danielle, and one that I meant to mention, too. Last week she disappeared before they went into Mikhail's. Then Mikhail came out and she saw him and he looked at her like he knew her. This week she disappeared before moving in on the Others. It's like she was once one of them and has been banished somehow, and she can't be seen by them.
Alex: "Dad, is it true my mother isn't dead?"
ReplyDeleteBen: "I suppose you're old enough to know the truth. You were adopted."
Alex: "Adopted?"
Ben: "Well, not so much adopted as we kidnapped you from your mother when you were a week old."
Alex: (silence)
Ben: "Would you like some tea?"
Alex: Wait a minute, Dad, you've just told me something REALLY HUGE here, and I'll need to get my head around it.
ReplyDeleteBen: Ok, Alex, I understand. Take all the time you need.
Alex: Ok. Let me get this straight. We have TEA on this island??
Guys, I'm sorry to disagree, but I TOTALLY saw that end coming. I loved the episode. Loved the whole Ben-John conversation. It took me back to the best of Season 2, when they had captured Ben. And once AGAIN, someone makes a sucker out of Locke. He's got the serious Charlie Brown syndrome that guy. Daddy made him kick the football one too many times, methinks. BUT I did not draw the parallel between Sawyer and Tallahassee, and thank for that! I thoroughly enjoyed that tender scene between Kate and Jack, as well as Rousseau and Rousseau Junior. I was surprised, however that Alex did not ask Ben anything about what Saiyid said. I know I'd be curious. I mean, the man knows her NAME. What do you think Locke will do now? I think we're going to have to wait for an entire episode to find out.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I've just forgotten, but what's that OTHER tattoo on the underside of Jack's left arm? When Locke looks through the binoculars and Jack is leaning against a post talking to Ben/Henry in the wheelchair, you can see a red heart and some other curlicues I couldn't make out. Was that always there? I kept looking for another glimpse of it, but didn't see it...
ReplyDelete"was Anthony Cooper kidnapped before or after the plane crashed?"
ReplyDeleteSo they don't have a giant black box that produces whatever they wish for?
I'm finding that I "have" to read your site, Nikki, after each episode. When's the update to your awesome "Finding Lost" book coming out?? Can't wait to read your analysis of "Carrie"...!
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts:
* the title, "The Man from Talahasse" (sp) reminds me v. much of the "Tales of the Unexpected" or some such story titled "The Man from the South," in which a betting Southern man is crazy and his wife who has broken him has only a few fingers (don't ask!)
* The "peering into the closet" camera work was right out of "Tales from the Darkside" and similar shows. Right out of it!
* For next week -- sorry, can't help it -- the camera work seems to be capturing the "interpersonal violence" ad campaign of such '70s shockers as "Last House on the Left" and "The Candy Snatchers" with their imagery of the dead body and of burying the one person. Those films instigated high ticket sales by asking, "Can a movie go too far?" and "To avoid fainting, keep repeating, "it's only a movie, only a movie..."" If you're up for it, YouTube.com has the ad for "Last House," which would never play in theaters today. Can't wait to see if the episode delivers.
* Is it me, or does Sun seem too fluent in English? I liked it better when she didn't say much. Something endearing about that (and I'm not being anti-Asian either!).