Lost, Ep. 14: ExposéOK, I thought I was going to HATE HATE HATE the Paulo and Nikki episode, but I loved it. Loved it because Damon and Carlton embraced our hatred for the characters and made a joke out of it. Loved it because it was full of inside jokes about Lost itself. Loved it because Nikki and Paulo died. Loved it because they didn’t die, but have suffered a fate worse than death. Nikki and Paulo were apparently no different than anyone else on the island: they were con artists who pretended to be someone they weren’t (see Sawyer, Kate, on the island, and EVERYONE on the island).
Highlights:
Hurley: Dude, Nikki’s dead.
Sawyer: Who the hell’s Nikki?
Sawyer: She stumbled out of the jungle, face-planted, said something like Plywood…
Hurley: Actually, I think she said power lines… Paulo lies! She said Paulo lies!
Sawyer: Who the hell’s Paulo?
-Nikki telling Paulo to promise her they’ll never end up like Shannon and Boone. Hahaha… well, unless you’re related…
-the return of Arzt!!
-Jin saying something in Korean and Hurley saying, “Yeah, I know.”
-Hurley telling Sawyer not to disturb the crime scene, and Sawyer replying, “Crime scene? Is there a forensics hatch I don’t know about?
-Hurley saying Exposé was one of the best hours of television ever, even better than Baywatch. Hahahaha…
-Hurley, reading the script: “No way. Mr. Lacha was the Cobra?”
Charlie: “Is that supposed to mean something?”
Hurley: “Dude, the Cobra’s this big bad guy. His identity’s been shrouded in mystery for four seasons.” LOL!!
-The VICIOUS ending to the episode!! My husband kept saying, “No, no, this show just wouldn’t go that dark,” and I was saying, “Dig faster! Come on, throw that dirt!” and my husband said, “nah, it just won’t happen” and then boom, we see the mound of dirt. AAAHHHH!! That was cruel on a level even *I* couldn’t come up with!!
Did You Notice?:
-Nikki and Paulo are even more heinous characters because they apparently discovered everything before everyone else, but kept mum on it. They knew Michael was going to turn, they knew the Others were watching them, and they knew Henry Gale was one of the Others. But they didn't say a word.
-Jack’s speech on the beach is definitely THE most repeated dialogue ever on this show. In Man of Science, Man of Faith, Kate says to him, “Live together, die alone, right?” Since then there has been an episode called “Live Together, Die Alone,” and earlier this season, “Every Man for Himself” (from his “every man for himself is not going to work” section). Kate used the “live together, die alone” line in that episode again. Apparently the entire show is depending on that scene, since they’ve repeated parts of it 6 times now.
-Nikki and Paulo revisited major spots from seasons 1 and 2, almost like a weird version of a recap episode
-now we know why Paulo was in the bathroom in the Pearl station.
-there was a 22 written on the inside of the toilet bowl (2+2=4)
-This pic was in with the promotional photos that the show sent out, but it doesn't appear in the episode. Presumably there was a scene filmed about Nikki having some sort of nervous breakdown after the hatch exploded, and they had to cut it.Nitpicks:
-Arzt says that the Medusa spider female is incredibly dangerous, but doesn’t say the males are. He said that the female pheromones are so strong that one whiff of the female and the males come from out of nowhere. So if we’re to assume that it was male spiders that came out of the woodwork when the female bit Paulo (and therefore it was a male that bit her), why did they have the same effect on Nikki?
-Hurley says, “What exactly is a perimeter sweep?” For someone who watches that much television, he’d know what a perimeter sweep was.
Questions:
-Did they have to recreate that beach scene completely, or did they digitally add the plane wreckage in the background? That would have been a really expensive scene to redo.
-why are Juliet and Ben so convinced that Jack won’t willingly do the surgery?
-this felt very much like a standalone episode that won’t affect other eps, but will Charlie’s confession to Sun cause a serious tension between Sun and Sawyer? Or will tension between Sun and Sawyer barely register since they barely have anything to do with one another?
-was Paulo telling the truth when he said to Nikki that he worried she’d leave him if she had the diamonds, or was he just conning her?
-are Nikki and Paulo dead, or will we see an arm come up from the earth, like that final scene in the movie version of Carrie?
Next week: Kate lays a smackdown on Juliet in the Kate flashback episode, "Left Behind."
-Arzt says that the Medusa spider female is incredibly dangerous, but doesn’t say the males are. He said that the female pheromones are so strong that one whiff of the female and the males come from out of nowhere. So if we’re to assume that it was male spiders that came out of the woodwork when the female bit Paulo (and therefore it was a male that bit her), why did they have the same effect on Nikki?
-Hurley says, “What exactly is a perimeter sweep?” For someone who watches that much television, he’d know what a perimeter sweep was.
Questions:
-Did they have to recreate that beach scene completely, or did they digitally add the plane wreckage in the background? That would have been a really expensive scene to redo.
-why are Juliet and Ben so convinced that Jack won’t willingly do the surgery?
-this felt very much like a standalone episode that won’t affect other eps, but will Charlie’s confession to Sun cause a serious tension between Sun and Sawyer? Or will tension between Sun and Sawyer barely register since they barely have anything to do with one another?
-was Paulo telling the truth when he said to Nikki that he worried she’d leave him if she had the diamonds, or was he just conning her?
-are Nikki and Paulo dead, or will we see an arm come up from the earth, like that final scene in the movie version of Carrie?
10 comments:
I'm glad you enjoyed it, Nikki, cause I pretty much hated it. And I NEVER say that about Lost. Even when it's a Jack episode.
The whole thing seemed too darn predictable. Every plot point was telegraphed ahead of time.
And those kids couldn't act.
Rather liked the end though. Even though I think I've seen it on Tales of the Crypt.
"Who the hell’s Nikki? Who the hell’s Paulo?
Ah, just what every casual viewer was thinking this epsidoe. My parents, for instance, thought they just created Nikki and Paulo and had no idea that they've been in every "beach" episode this season.
-The VICIOUS ending to the episode!! My husband kept saying, “No, no, this show just wouldn’t go that dark,” and I was saying, “Dig faster! Come on, throw that dirt!” and my husband said, “nah, it just won’t happen” and then boom, we see the mound of dirt. AAAHHHH!! That was cruel on a level even *I* couldn’t come up with!!
Is he watching the same show? Since when has Lost not gone that dark? Also, burying them with the diamonds was an excellent touch.
My mom wondered why they didn't just stand up, since it was only sand. I had to explain to her that it wouldn't be possible with that much sand.
-Nikki and Paulo are even more heinous characters because they apparently discovered everything before everyone else, but kept mum on it. They knew Michael was going to turn, they knew the Others were watching them, and they knew Henry Gale was one of the Others. But they didn't say a word.
We have no reason to suspect they actually saw "Henry Gale" while he was being held captive. Jack and his inner circle kept a tight lid on that. But yeah, they did keep a lot to themselves...to hide their secrets.
- "was Paulo telling the truth when he said to Nikki that he worried she’d leave him if she had the diamonds, or was he just conning her?"
A little of both. I think Paula was hurt that Nikki seemed to care more about the diamonds than she did him, and thus decided to keep them for himself.
LOVE how they keep us on our toes about the numbers each week!!! Did ya notice '84 days earlier'? Some others I can't think of at this moment.
I liked Paulo! Ooh, la, la!!! He could give Sawyer a run for his money. Only in the looks department, tho! There is room for only 1 Sawyer!
It took me a bit towards the end before my brain went 'ding,ding,ding' that they weren't really dead! Soooo cool!
Loved how they brought Shannon & Boone back for the back story!
Hmmmmm...could Boone be gay? Or is Shannon just being her old bee-yotchy self, as usual? She made a reference to that when Locke & Boone were going out those days to the hatch.
The previews for this episode where Sun tells Sawyer about having to dig another grave then co-cocking him made me curious since last Wednesday nite! Now, I have the answer! She should have pummeled Charlie, too!
All-in-all, another great episode! Kind of refreshing not to see Jack!
Don't get me wrong~I like Jack. But, I love it when you get Hurley, Charlie & Sawyer together. Dude! They are great!
Someone said the whole thing seemed too darn 'predictable'. ???
Not to me! I did NOT see the end coming! EEE-YEWWWW!What a way to go! I especially loved it when she opened her eyes JUST as a shovelful
of sand was being thrown on her! Well, she got her diamonds anyway!
Hey! This island has its many mysteries. Maybe from buried diamonds~rings & bracelets will grow! LOL! Ok, I'm gonna hear about that! I am just kidding! Well, strange things happen there. Can you say POLAR BEAR!
I just wish they would have offed Ana Lucia in some morbid way, too!
Thanx for letting me have my say!!!
Did they have to recreate that beach scene completely, or did they digitally add the plane wreckage in the background?
i was wondering that, too! the beach scene from the pilot looked SO authentic, as if nikki were just magically inserted somehow ... but how could she have been? i can't imagine they recreated the beach scene, and i can't imagine when they initially shot the beach scene what, 2? 3? years ago, that they knew ahead of time that they'd have a nikki character and just filmed her scenes and kept them on ice until now. they must've reinserted the crash scenes for this episode. but it looked really, really, REALLY authentic -- whomever edited and did the special effects did an oustanding job.
i got the impression something was up when the camera kept panning to their "dead" bodies on the beach. once ... okay, just an establishing shot. two times ... yeah, we get it, they're dead. but there were SO many shots of the two of them lying there -- even vincent got in on the act and tore the blanket off them -- that i had an inkling *something* was up, i just didn't know what. absolutely genius. to have nikki open her eyes just as a shovelful of dirt covered them ... talk about poetic justice! i, too, kept thinking, "no, they're not going to ... they can't ... they won't actually ... oh my god, they ARE! they did!" and then i cackled at the TV like a deranged witch. AWESOME ending.
i especially loved that nikki and paolo knew EVERYTHING before everyone else did, but they were too self-absorbed with their own mystery/secrecy to share the info. just think of how totally different everything would be if they told the others (the lostaway-others, not the Others-others) what they had heard and seen!
loved the boone and shannon (and artz!) cameos, too -- that was awesome. when they said do you think we'll end up like that, referring to boone and shannon, i started snickering because, of course, boone and shannon are dead. heh. nice foreshadowing, that.
loved that charlie came clean (take that, those who thought he was evil to hide that from sun), love the flashbacks, love artz, love sawyer ... just loved, loved, loved this entire episode!
They recreated the crash set on the beach and filmed Nikki, Paulo, Arzt, Boone, Shannon and extras. (The actor who plays Scott talked about everyone getting back into their first-day wardrobe and injury make-up.) Some genius edited it together with archive footage. They also used angles we haven't seen before to justify that Nikki and Paulo were there, just out of frame. Same goes for the "Live Together, Die Alone" speech, where they made it a point to include Arzt and Ethan as well.
Like you, Nikki, I was prepared to hate this episode, much like many others. But I loved the episode, not as good as last week, but that ending made it all worthwhile. I'm assuming that Nikki and Paulo are dead now, given they are buried without oxygen and cannot move to dig themselves out. I loved it when Nikki opened her eyes before getting buried! I still think they could have handled those characters better instead of just dropping them on us! And plus they really weren't very good actors.
I think they worked in the plane crash scene amazingly well. But whats up with Boone and Shannon's hair? They both look like they have bad hairpieces on LOL
Away for two weeks so I'll miss my Lost, I'll be taping it, the cat fight with Juliet and Kate looks good!
So Poe!
I realized they were going to be buried alive about halfway through, when Arzt and the spider came in, and when they kept doing the body pans. If they really were dead, that would just be creepy. But I did not think that the plot line would actually follow through. I mean, here are our heroes, always trying to save lives, and then unwittingly murdering two people. But I think it's also the whole being buried alive theme that's horrifying. It's my worst nightmare. I actually had to volubly exhale and say, Whoa... and then change the channel after that one. It rocked me. And I think he really cared about her. I mean, why would he try to speak and give an explanation if he didn't care? And he cried. But as badly as Paolo acted when he was moving, I thought he did a damn fine job of lying there and looking dead with his eyes open.
P.S. Hurley -- Perimeter -- I don't think he's ever heard Sawyer talk like this. Plus, their settlement doesn't really have an official perimeter, so I think he's reacting to the military tone, rather than the actual term.
my favourite part was Shannon's wig. claaassic.
looked like the same bag of diamonds that Matt from Heroes stole...
"Expose" -- or "They Were Expendable." The best line of the show comes right at the beginning, when Nikki's TV character gets killed off and when her lover/director suggests they cook up a gimmick (bulletproof breasts?) to bring her back, she says (I'm paraphrasing): "It was a marginal character, and you know what happens to marginal characters." Yes. Yes, we do. It's a TV tradition, and this one was not just for the Losties, but the original Trekkies.
Jim: You're right, that was an awesome line. I think she said "guest stars," but that's pretty much all Nikki and Paulo have been all season, despite being listed in the show's main cast credits. :)
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