Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Lost, Ep. 19: The Brig
I originally reported that this was going to be a Jack episode. A few days later, I was corrected when TV Guide posted the “correct” list of upcoming flashbacks, where they said it was going to be a “non-traditional” flashback, unlike any they’d ever done before. Then last week I checked the usually reliable TV.com, and I posted that they were saying it was a Locke episode. Someone posted a comment saying I was wrong, it was actually a Sawyer episode. Looks like my good old reliable TV.com got it right, and every other source was wrong. This was not a non-traditional flashback: we’ve had flashbacks of Claire on the island, the Tailies on the island, Michael on the island, Desmond on the island, and Nikki and Paulo on the island. In fact, the Michael flashback was almost exactly like Locke’s, just filling in the past few days for us and bringing us right up to the present. What’s non-traditional about it? It was a Locke episode, plain and simple.

Things I am thrilled to gloat that I called long ago:
-that Anthony Cooper was in fact Sawyer
-that Locke was going to find that out, and lead him to Cooper so he could kill him
-that Sawyer would actually go through with it and kill him
-Jack is a dick. (I’m not alone on calling THAT one.)

Things I am ashamed to say I was wrong on:
-someone posted last week that Naomi was not Australian, as I’d said, but English; they were right
-that Cooper wasn’t actually Sawyer’s father (boo… I was seriously hoping a father couldn’t really do that to his son)

Highlight: This is possibly Holloway’s best performance. He is brilliant in this episode. His anger when he throws Locke down and holds a knife to his throat. The look on his face when Cooper won’t read the note the way he’d always envisioned, and rips it up instead. The blood in his eyes when he pulls the chain around Cooper’s throat. And how, the moment the monster is dead, Sawyer reels back and looks like the 8-year-old boy all over again. The realization on his face that fulfilling his lifelong goal… does nothing.

Did You Notice?:
-at the beginning of the episode (yes, I went back and checked) Locke is burning Sawyer’s file while on The Black Rock. He has a FIRE BURNING on a WOODEN SHIP with EXPLOSIVES only a few meters away.
-now we know why Locke’s hand was bandaged when he came to talk to Kate
-As much as I hate Cooper, and love Ben, I must admit I laughed when Cooper called Ben “Bug-Eye.”
-Emma, the little girl from the tail section whom Ana Lucia said she’d get home to her parents, looks about 14 standing with Cindy, but she was a little girl on the beach, hugging her teddy bear. D’oh. Guess it’s those island growin’ properties.
-I LOVE that when Danielle walks in, the next two words are, “Rousseau.” “Locke.” I’m sure this moment is all a comment on 18th-century Enlightenment theory gone awry, but you’ll have to read my book to find out more. I don’t have time for the full analysis in a blog I need to write in an hour. :)
-Cooper says to Sawyer, “Guess I didn’t raise no dummies.” Uh, dude, you didn’t RAISE Locke. And, uh, nice grammar.
-the news of Flight 815 going down and killing everyone on it has clearly been made very public, which means everyone we’ve seen in the flashbacks of these characters believes their loved ones are dead.
-Cooper says he took $38,000 from Sawyer’s mom (15 + 23)
-This is one of my favourite finds: When Locke wakes up and the Others are packing up and moving camp, Locke sits up, and suddenly you can hear that ‘ch-ch-ch-ch’ sound of the smoke monster. I backed it up three times and it makes the sound 4 times in a row. Seems very mysterious that that sound would be heard in the Others camp, and Smokey clearly isn’t around. Are the Others manipulating it in some way?
-LOVE that Ben throws, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do” back in Locke’s face
-JACK IS A DICK.
-this show is definitely taking on Alias overtones. Locke is a double agent, playing both sides in a way, but suggesting he’s on his own journey.
-Sawyer asks Locke if it’s true that he was thrown out of a window and is a cripple, and John says, “Not anymore,” which suggests that the past is no longer true and he was never actually thrown out of a window or crippled. Is there some truth to the fan speculation that the actions of the characters on the island can actually change the past?

Questions:
-where are the Others eventually headed? Ben says they’re going to “a new place… actually, an old place.” What does he mean? Will this have something to do with the 4-toed statue?
-why is Cindy such a compliant Other? Has she become one of them? She certainly seems to be. How many of the rest of the people who were setting up camp were actually on Flight 815 and are now happy Others?
-when Ben says they’re going to find all the pregnant women and take them, what are they planning on doing? Just using them as guinea pigs to test Juliet’s work?
-how is Ben walking? Is it really some sort of miracle? Or is he just pulling Locke’s leg? I don’t trust this guy (love him, don’t trust him) and he has mindfrakked John SO many times I really think he’s doing it again. Cooper just “showing up”; Ben suddenly walking. I think, sadly, just as Cooper conned Locke by giving him what he always wanted – a father – now Ben is conning Locke by giving him what he really needs – a purpose.
-how did the plane have all of the bodies on it, off the coast of Bali? Did someone kill another 350 people and put them onto the plane? Yikes… this thing is more nefarious than we thought.
-anyone else weirded out by Sayid asking Desmond if he actually saw the helicopter? Has Sayid EVER gotten a gut feeling wrong?
-Cooper is tied to a pillar. How old is the pillar? Is it another remnant of an earlier civilization on the island, along with the 4-toed statue? Was it part of a temple of some kind? Was the island some holy place? Is it Atlantis?
-why does Ben want Cooper dead so badly? Why does Richard help facilitate it? What did Cooper do to the Others that makes them hate him so much? Is it just the symbol of him? They need Locke to kill him (or get someone else to kill him) to prove they have the proper leader in Locke? Or did Cooper con them out of some scientific research or something? ;)
-Did Locke NEED Sawyer to kill Cooper with his bare hands? Notice he puts him in there without the knife, and knowing the gun has no bullets. Why would he do that?
-why does Rousseau need the dynamite? Where the hell did she go once she’d seen Alex? Does one thing have anything to do with the other?
-Is Richard telling the truth? Of all of the Others, Richard is by far the most obedient to Ben. He recruited Juliet. He moves back and forth between the mainland and the island and never tries to escape. He’s the one who went to Acadia Park to broadcast Juliet’s sister playing with her son in the park, and then he beelined right back to the island. So he MUST be working in cahoots with Ben now.
-who slammed into the back of Cooper’s car? Was it the Bonneville of Death?? It would be the 4th or 5th instance of that insane vehicle.
-was Kate a complete bonehead for being the second person outside of the circle of 4 guys who knew about the pilot, and she goes and immediately tells Juliet.
-Uh… what did Juliet mean when she told Jack “We should tell her”? What is he keeping from her? Is it about their pact to get off the island, or is it something much worse? Is Jack an Other? I’ve thought Jack was a smug bastard for some time, and I LOVE that the show is just confirming it.
-How did Locke get the tape of Juliet talking to Ben?
-How the heck does Locke plan to carry his father all the way across the island? Why bother? If Ben needs proof he’s dead, why not just cut off his head and take it?
-How will Sawyer be affected by what he’s done?

Biblical references:
This week had a LOT of biblical overtones. Or maybe it’s just that Children’s Bible that I bought my daughter a couple of weeks ago that we’ve been reading every night that’s making me see them… no, they’re there.
-Locke as a Christ/Moses figure (depending on which Testament you prefer: Happy God or Angry God). Richard says that they’re looking to Locke as some sort of leader. Moses led the “chosen people” to the Promised Land, where Christ led his people and saved our souls.
-in the Moses sense, one can sort of picture Locke as Moses as he sat on the hill and looked down on his “people” in tents, just as Moses was on the Mount and looking down on his people. Moses read the Ten Commandments on the Mount; Locke read Sawyer’s file and found his way out of this situation.
-Ben asking Locke to kill Cooper was a sort of reversal of the story of God testing Abram by asking him to kill his son, and stopping him the moment he was going to do it, realizing that Abram would do anything God asked. Here Ben asks the son to kill the father, and the son is unable to do it. Locke doesn’t obey Ben the way Abram obeyed God.
-Sawyer’s mother’s name was Mary. Does that – gulp – make HIM the Christ figure??

Next week: “The Man Behind the Curtain.” TV.com says it’s a Ben episode. I hope it’s right!

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

i LOVED the random rousseau/locke exchange (and you're right -- very surreal). *sigh* more than anything, i want a rousseau flashback episode.

even though most of us had an inkling locke's father was the real sawyer, seeing it all come into fruition and unfold like that was just chilling. and josh holloway was OUTSTANDING. i agree -- hands down, his best performance in three seasons.

and wow, could ben be any more manipulative and conniving! i hate him! but i love to hate him! michael emerson is just so, so fantastic in this role. i am gutted i'm going to miss the ben flashback next week when i'm in the UK -- i'll have to find an internet cafe and sneak on here to get my fix after the episode airs!

Anonymous said...

I'm all Danielle/Locke shippy now. Probably because I'd love to see them work together more.

I'm totally into Sawyer now. Must be some Island effect.

I thought the guy talking to Locke looked like the guy that hosts Survivor.

Maybe it's all the Bollywood movies I've been watching (yes, I have a new fandom) but the column Locke's father was tied to looked Indian. And Hinduism is based on the idea that all the world is illusion.

I love this season. I have many friends who have given up on the show. Apparently they are on crack.

Anonymous said...

What a great episode. I loved it. The scene where Sawyer kills Locke's dad was intense. Very well filmed.
Did anyone else get the joke about the dynamite? When Locke points to it with his flashlight, and then says "Be careful, it's unstable." I chuckled a bit...was he talking about Rousseau or the dynamite? Haha

Nikki Stafford said...

fb: I have been dying for a Rousseau ep since we met her. They MUST do one for us in season 4. I agree about Emerson; he is so amazing.

Colleen: I read an article last week -- might have been in EW, but I can't remember -- complaining that Sawyer's become too boring and milquetoast this season. Not anymore...
Ha! I always wondered if Jeff Probst was an Other!
I have a few friends who have given up, and every week I watch it I think ACK, I can't believe you're not watching!!

Jeff: LOL! Great observation about Rousseau's instability. :)

Anonymous said...

"Sawyer asks Locke if it’s true that he was thrown out of a window and is a cripple, and John says, 'Not anymore,' which suggests that the past is no longer true and he was never actually thrown out of a window or crippled."

I think it was more a philosophical answer on Locke's part.

"how is Ben walking?"

Some mystical thing where he got in touch with the island and its magic healing is my guess. But this is Ben. You can't trust anything where he's involved.

"how did the plane have all of the bodies on it, off the coast of Bali? Did someone kill another 350 people and put them onto the plane? Yikes… this thing is more nefarious than we thought."

Well, the whole thing could be faked by manipulating the media. Or they rounded up 350 derelicts nobody missed and bought an old plane and shazam! Instant fake wreck.

"anyone else weirded out by Sayid asking Desmond if he actually saw the helicopter? Has Sayid EVER gotten a gut feeling wrong?"

Well, he's bound to get something wrong eventually. And something crashed in the water.

"why does Ben want Cooper dead so badly?"

Or maybe Cooper is working for Hanso?

"Is Richard telling the truth?"

Yes, because Bug-Eye would never manipulate someone like this.

"Who slammed into the back of Cooper’s car? Was it the Bonneville of Death?"

I don't think so. The Others didn't know about the Losties until after the crash, whereas the Bonneville was clearly involved. It's unlike the Bonneville was involed in Cooper's abduction by the Others.

"Was Kate a complete bonehead for being the second person outside of the circle of 4 guys who knew about the pilot, and she goes and immediately tells Juliet."

Um, is the Pope Catholic?

"How did Locke get the tape of Juliet talking to Ben?"

I would suppose he stole it from him :-)

"How the heck does Locke plan to carry his father all the way across the island? Why bother? If Ben needs proof he’s dead, why not just cut off his head and take it?"

Well, dead bodies are lighter than living ones. What? Actually, I'm not sure this is true, but I think I heard somewhere that they lose a lot of water weight.

And Ben specifically told him to bring his father's body back. Locke's taking it literally.

Next week is the non-traditional, Ben flashback, featuring secret history of the DHARMA expedition! Can't wait! Can't wait!

Anonymous said...

Ack, missed one point I wanted to comment on.

"Uh… what did Juliet mean when she told Jack 'We should tell her?'

Maybe that communication devices stopped working after Desmond blew the hatch?

It's interesting though that whatever the secret is, Juliet is the one that wants to be forthcoming, and Jack is the one playing it close to the vest. No wonder his "friends" are having trust issues with him.

Anonymous said...

Is it just me, or is this show totally recapturing the excitement and edge of your seat thrills of season 1? Another awesome episode, particularly Josh Holloway, I agree with you...the pain in his eyes that didn't go away when he fulfilled his life ambition to kill Sawyer, was heartbreaking.

I too, think Jack is a complete arrogant SOB. He lives in his own little autocratic world where he can keep secrets from everyone else but OH NO, if someone else keeps secrets from HIM, its a big NO NO. What's up with that??? I hope his protection of Juliet and their "secret" bites him in the ass! At this point, I think they should kill him at the end of this season at the hands of Juliet!

Locke is either a major coward or has a heart of gold. Discuss. He couldn't kill his dad, but I'm sure he is bringing his dad back to Ben to tell him, guess what? I killed him...Initially I didn't get the body in the bag thing...I thought it might have been someone else! But I think Locke is going to take credit for something he didn't do. He'll likely be conned once again by Ben and the others! He'll never learn!

I think Kate wins the most stupid idiot award of the night! She knows Jack has been different since he came back to camp yet has no problems blabbing about Naomi to him and Juliet! As much as I love her character, if she does more stupid things like that, I wouldn't mind her being knocked off at the end of the season!

The last few episodes have ended with shocking cliffhangers that make you go WOW! This is the Lost I know and love...

Here's to Bug Eye and his flashback next week!

Blondie said...

I don't think they killed people and put them in a plane. I think it's all a lie. Who is really going to go 4 miles down to investigate? I never did see JFK junior's plane but I believed it went down.

Anonymous said...

"Should we tell her?"

Kate's pregnant. When Locke was explaining Ben's plans to Sawyer, he said (paraphrasing) "In three days they're going to stage a raid on the beach and abduct them..."

Them? Unless they're talking about Sun and her unborn child, methinks that the old Sawyer/Kate Knock-knock-knockin' da boots has resulted in a little con being hatched...

After all, I didn't see any Trojans in the wreckage -- just pregnancy tests.

Solid episode all around. And I love Marsha Thomason (Naomi) -- she was stunning in every sense of the word on Las Vegas. I can't wait to see where this one's going.

Political Realm said...

Finally an episode that satisfied me. Even though it seems obviously thinking back, I had never really considered that the helicopter woman may be an other or something else until Sayid brought it up (duh).

I also think that Kate might be pregnant. Damn that super sperm.

Good ep.

Seraphine Gant said...

"-Sawyer asks Locke if it’s true that he was thrown out of a window and is a cripple, and John says, “Not anymore,” which suggests that the past is no longer true and he was never actually thrown out of a window or crippled. Is there some truth to the fan speculation that the actions of the characters on the island can actually change the past?"

I think it was more that he isn't an emotional cripple anymore now that his father is dead.

I had this overpowering urge to bitch-slap half of the characters on the show last night - I mean how many kinds of stupid were they?

I honestly think that Jack is being an uber-prick to Kate simply because he is hurt. I think that Juliet actually told the truth for once when she told Kate that Jack was crushed after witnessing Kate's romp with Sawyer. Now he's lashing out like a little boy who's lost his best toy.

I also think that Jack & Juliet have a side plan going on - that he knows about the tape recorder, about the plan to take the pregnant women and that they're working together to bring Ben down. I think that in the end we'll see that Juliet's not the manipulative bitca that they are trying to make her seem. The thing is...for Jack to be keeping that from the people in the camp that he has been so close to since they crashed...(slap).

Nikki Stafford said...

Jay: You are a frakkin' genius. I NEVER thought of that!!! If Kate is pregnant and Juliet has told Jack that, then no wonder he's acting like a 2-year-old (no, wait, my 2-year-old is WAY more mature than Jack). Great observation.

Lilybunny & Brian: Again, bad wording on my part. I meant "the past is no longer true TO HIM..." and therefore, of course, was leaning to the philosophical side. (But hmm... now that you point it out, maybe it WAS time travel? Shall we take your Time Travel 101 post and apply it here, Brian? haha)

By the way, a lot of my questions are meant to be rhetorical, things that make us think. So when I ask, "How is Ben walking?" there are usually 10 different possible responses to it, and I'm asking just to put the question out there. I love to see the various responses, though. I think Ben could walk the entire time, and he's messin' with poor Locke.

Locke is SUCH an easy mark! Isn't that what Eddie said in "Further Instructions," that Locke's psychological profile showed him to be easily swayed? Sigh.

Blondie: Good point on the scam. They could absolutely say they've found the bodies and release that to the media, but of course don't have to show any proof. Especially if it's in Bali. If the plane had landed on the California coastline, then they'd have issues. ;)

Roland: I was thinking the same thing re: Locke, good or evil? It's clear he got Sawyer to kill him because he needed Cooper dead above all else. But did he think he was helping Sawyer out in some way? Or just that Sawyer was the one most likely to follow through on it?

Until the past few episodes, I've always been a big fan of Kate. If you asked me who my fave female was, I'd probably say Sun, followed by Juliet, followed by Kate somewhere down the line, but I loved the tomboyness, the eagerness to help out, and the attraction the two guys had to her. But lately she's bugging me: her arrogance going back to get Jack, as if she can sleep with one guy while still having the other one dangling off her finger. After last night, she SERIOUSLY bugs me. Her flashbacks will continue to garner my sympathy, and I will always like her, and certainly don't want to see her dead, but she has to STOP trusting Jack and start listening to the rest of the camp.

Jack. Grr. That God complex is just getting bigger and bigger. And has anyone noticed how few lines Matthew Fox is getting lately? Very, VERY rare for this show. And SO nice. :)

Political: Same here... though I did watch the Desmond ep again on the weekend and noticed the helicopter made an itty bitty splash in the water. It sounded like a salmon jumping. Not an enormous helicopter. But it registered with me as a nitpick on the production end, not that maybe it wasn't really a helicopter. Maybe Ben was making the red light in the sky by pointing a laser pointer at the clouds. Hahahahaha

Anonymous said...

Great episode.

Naomi IS Australian NOT English..."You think I'm lying, mate?" Very Aussie sounding to me.

Jack will be revealed as Jacob.

Nikki Stafford said...

Solarr panel: I thought she was Australian in the Desmond episode when we only heard a few words out of her, but in last night's episode she spoke quite a bit, and that was absolutely a British accent. There was no Australian twang in there, even if she did use the word "mate." As someone with lots of British and Australian friends, I know there is a HUGE difference in the accent, and hers most definitely was not Australian. Sadly. I hate being wrong. ;)

Anonymous said...

nikki & colleen: i have been a rousseau/locke shipper since season one! they're both mad enough that they'd make a perfect, creepy couple. and if we had to suffer through a nikkaolo flashback (even though it was SO cool), then i don't see why we can't have a rousseau flashback. seriously, how much would that ROCK?

Anonymous said...

They aren't dead. Naomi is a plant/mole other like Juliet, that's how Juliet knew she was there before Kate told her (she didn't seemed surprised at all)

Cooper was a plant too. I don't care how much of an arrogant jerk you are, if someone has a knife to your throat you shut up, unless you are promised you'll be let go.

The reason he had to have the body and not the head is because you need the whole, unburied body to come back to life on the island.

Anonymous said...

ps: that is absolutely a british accent naomi has (brits say "mate" quite a bit as well!).

also, put me down as one who doesn't buy the 'kate is pregnant' storyline. god, i hope not ... that would just seem so contrived. and also, quick -- in the show's timeline, weren't she and sawyer having their captivity sex only a couple of weeks ago?

lily, i love your theory about jack working with juliet to take down ben ... i hope that's true.

Nikki Stafford said...

fb: I agree 100%. A Rousseau flashback would be KILLER. And I'm positive the writers have one in mind, but the thing is, by showing a Rousseau flashback it would give us SO many answers, that I'm sure they're holding onto it as one of the final final eps. She remains a constant mystery -- is she Dharma? an Other? A free agent? -- and by showing us her past, I think they'd have to reveal some big truths.

Come on, season 4 Rousseau flashback?

Anonymous said...

I hope Rousseau is using the dynamite to blow up her camp again. That was really neccesary in season 1. *sarcasm*

Another Biblical reference: Look again at how Cooper was tied up. Sort of reminded me of Christ, what with his legs together and his hands to the side.

I agree, Holloway was amazing this episode. I loved his anger, and the look on his face after he killed Cooper. The only question is...will Cooper stay dead? Or wake up a few episodes later and pull a Mikhail?

Matthew D said...

I can understand the others maybe finding legal info (arrests, marriages, work history etc.) but how can they know so much of the other, non-documented stuff about people?

Sawyer's file had stuff that nobody but Sawyer would know. They've only been on the island how long? Someone posted that the others have been able to collect all this detailed info on everyone since the crash? As if they didn't know anything about the crash before it happened? Do we really believe this?

The detail of the info to me either spells a conspiracy that started way before they boarded the plane or they've got a network that's big enough to put a team of investigators on each person's life history. Any thoughts?

Were all the losties 'collected' and manipulated onto the plane at the same time? Seems impossible but so does the detail of their knowledge.

Anonymous said...

MatthewD: The scenes we've seen with just Other's present indicate that they had no prior knowledge before the crash.

Anonymous said...

KoRoBaRo asks....I just finnished watching the preview for next weeks episode. I have 1 question about something that nobody seems to talk about but we have all caught a glimpse of from time to time. The Whispering...who's doing it?! In the preview we definately see a little girl in the jungle...or rather can see thru her. Does the "ghost whisperers" have anything to do with why "The Other's" kiddnapp kids?

The Chapati Kid said...

First: I heart Sawyer/Josh Holloway.

Second: A dead body is heavier than a live body. That's why there's the term "dead weight."

Third: It could very well be that Hanso/Dharma/BenCo. owns Oceanic, the flight company. In which case, they could easily fabricate information of a plane crash without survivors. Why would it be okay to not have proof if the plane crashed in Bali, but not California? Relatives are still relatives no matter where in the world they are, and the media is still the media. But it wouldn't be very expensive to videotape a fake underwater investigation and release the tape to the press. We've seen "Wag the Dog."

Fourth: I hope it's not the Kate is pregnant storyline. I hope it's the Jack-Juliet bringing down the Ben storyline. Perhaps Jack is being a prick in reaction to the fact that Kate just slammed him by telling him that no one in the camp trusts him. I'd be hurt too, especially after I've saved half of them from death and other wounds. So maybe Jack's withholding out of spite. But I agree on all counts that Jack is a prick and I would like to buy a nice pair of leather gloves so I can slap them in his face.

Fifth: I agree with fb and Nikki - Naomi's as British as they come. I'll even go so far as to say she's from Watford. :-)

And finally: Poor Locke. When will he learn? He was so smart in Season 1. He didn't get taken in by anyone. He and Saiyid were the "I-smell-something-rotten" guys, and now he's gone all damn fool on us.Richard is TOTALLY scamming him for Ben. Brian Douglas -- why do you believe Ben wouldn't Richard to manipulate Locke? I mean, he's telling the man to kill his own father. He's got him tied to a tree. He wants to kidnap pregnant women. He's got them bug eyes.

Anonymous said...

Re: The Whispers: I think the Whispers are the smoke monster(s) (in a recent episode we saw three smoke monsters join together into one; there was also several comments about Cereberus, the mythical three-headed guard dog of hell), not the Others.

the chapati kid: sarcasm doesn't always travel well over the internet. Ben would con his own mother out of her retirement fund.

Nikki Stafford said...

MatthewD: I do believe they were collected and put on the plane somehow, but not by the Others; by something much larger, and now the Others are playing into it. Hanso or Dharma or something. I believe in coincidence, but there are far too many here...

Re: Jack being a prick: I know a lot of people are saying he's being like this to Kate because he saw her with Sawyer, but I think it's because she ruined his chance of getting off the island. When he thought he was going, he'd already seen her with Sawyer, and he still leaned into her ear and said, "I'm coming back for you." Now I think he'd throw her to the wolves if he saw a pack of them coming.

SD said...

Maddy makes the point about the way Cooper is tied up is remniscent of the crucifiction. Did people also notice the way the Others were carring their tents? They were in long rolls cast over the shoulder and dragged: just as Jesus dragged his cross... Surely they could have just got a handly MEC version that folds up into a backpack...

SD said...

I mean crucifixion - I totally spelled it wrong in my post.