LOST 5×01 & 5×02 — SPOILERS
January 23, 2009 · Print This Article
LOST is back, and just in time to continue my Thursday night tradition of watching it on my final night in my Shinjuku apartment. I could not have received a better send off. There is no other show like LOST for complete escape. For one hour, or in the case of this season premiere 2 hours, you are transported into the LOST universe. No other show looks as good on the small screen. The colors in LOST are just so much more saturated. How about the premiere itself? Not the best ever, but action packed and character’s long forgotten making welcome returns. Read on, but be warned, there will be SPOILERS.
SPOILERS
FOR REAL, SPOILERS, STOP READING IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED YET
There is lots to like about the 5th season premiere, but maybe too much for me to find anything in particular to sink my teeth into.
WHAT I LIKED:
- Hurley tossing his hot pocket at Ben
- The welcome return of Juliette’s lack up upper buttons
- Every nickname Sawyer churned out, but in particular “Frogurt”
- The scene of Hurly confessing to his mom about the lies
- Anna Lucia looking like a nice woman
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:
- Random fire arrows landing on the beach
- Kate not calling Jack when she was in trouble
- Ben not bringing Jack with him to pick-up Hurley
The rest I may have to digest and write about later. For now….
LOST 5×01 “Because You Left” and 5×02 “The Lie” rating (are these the usual categories, I can’t remember exactly perhaps):
RELATED POSTS:
- LOST 6×07 “Dr. Linus”
- LOST 6×05 “Lighthouse”
- LOST 6×04 “The Substitute”
- LOST 6×03 “What Kate Does”
- LOST 5×12 Dead is Dead — spoilers
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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As you’ll know, I was worried about this show a lot after the last season, and very wary about dipping my toe in this one. But, couldn’t get past the hype of it on the net and amongst friends, so had to watch.
And- they’ve sucked me back in. I can’t forgive season 4- and I’ll say what for in a minute, but maybe they know what they’re doing again.
Season 4- just sucked. The most over-riding thing for me was the total lack of any bigger-than-our-characters kind of threat. There was nothing looming, ominous, massive, change the world kind of thing. There was no button for saving the world, there was no mysterious and unknown threat. Pretty much everything was hum0drum, except for that one episode The constant. The threat was the people from the helicopter- very limited, just to our characters- who weren’t even targets really, just collateral damage.
It made everything seem unimportant. Widmore and Ben just seemed like a personal rivalry.
Then back to this season, and again the fate of the world seems to be on the line. Good! I need this to make the events of the island matter. Otherwise it’s just a bunch of people fighting over an island and they don’t even know why. If they think they’re doing it to save the world- well, that makes it massively more interesting.
Plus a return of intrigue, confusion, and crazy stuff going on. Love episodes where we see the back story we didn’t expect to see. Marvin Candle! The drug plane! Ethan being a dick (isn’t it good we shot him?)!
And Locke is a bad-ass again. He don’t kill wild boar now- now he kills people, 3 at a pop. (Killing wild boar- or finding them dead- ha!- is the domain of the surly Asian dude now).
Both episodes rocked I thought. Good stuff, people. Don’t drop the ball again, please! Keep the confusion, threat, mythology, and kick-ass-ness all coming on strong.
uk Mike.
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Still not sure how the two of you watched those episodes before I did as I am over here in TV land. Unfortunately I missed them live and had to wait until the morning when the local channel that carries the shows here in Canada put them up on their website to stream on demand.
Here is my two cents….
I liked the two episodes, but I wasn’t blown away by anything. I never really loved the flash-forwards from season 4 and now feel that I have missed out on some stuff because it seems like all of the story of the 6 that got off the island from the time that they got off, until where things started off tonight….it seems a bit muddled in my head as it was all told in various flash forward episodes….they weren’t told in chronological order, and with the long layoff between seasons, I found myself constantly having to think back to what had happened and asking Yuki for clarification. So that was a bit annoying.
The other thing is the way the episode started off. Interesting that we see Dr. Chang of Dharma going to take the video that will go in the Arrow station , and then see him rush off to find out the source of all the island’s powers has been found in the construction of the Orchid station…..this fills in some back story on the mysteries as to how the Dharma initative all came about in the 70s and what not. But the we see crack-head Feraday there poking his nose in. And I am thinking……this is supposed to be in the 1970’s right…way before Ben was a young boy who came to the island…when Richard was a long-haired hippy / gurella comando in the forest…… What the hell is Feraday doing there. He is only like 35..maybe 37, and there he is. As the episode goes on it become apparent that he knows a thing or two about time travel….or maybe he doesn’t as he is so scatterbrained. Maybe I just don’t like his character….he seems like such a crazy crack-head scientist who doesn’t know how to express his basic ideas. The man would have a hard time telling someone how to make a jelly sandwich, let alone figure out how to explain time travel to someone.
The rest of the “back in America” stuff is fine. Kate still pisses me off……her aloof character. Why wouldn’t she call Jack and get shit sorted out. I do like how Ben is the only one that seems to have it together. Saiid is still kick-ass and that is re-assuring. Jack is a waif of his former self until he has someone sick to tend to. But I guess he will come around and save the day later on in the series.
So far, so good. It is nice to have LOST back….damn it was a long wait!
B
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Jason Collin Reply:
January 25th, 2009 at 12:40 AM
You’ve got to be quick to beat us at viewing an ep of LOST!
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Will write this before reading any above reviews.
Both episodes rocked the fucking planet, but ep. 2 was slightly better I thought. Maybe just a bit more consistent, a bit more of the good old LOST mysteriousness, etc.
Unlike some people (you know who you are), I always had faith that Lost would come through once again. I always new that there was every reason to be excited, and to know that the number one show on TV wouldn’t let us down. And they didn’t.
Messing around with time is almost always a sure fired way to screw up a TV series, movie or book, but Lost (so far) is doing a good job with it. Having the island continuously move back and forth through time is a simple idea, but having multiple groups doing it, moving forward and backward, meeting and interacting with various people in the past and future, there are so many things they could screw up but so far they’ve done a pretty good job keeping it consistent. Of course it’s only the first two eps. so the chance for screwing up is still pretty big. Once again though, Faith!
All of a sudden I like that skinny physicist guy. Is his mom that older church lady I wonder? Having Desmond be some special focal point for the island is also genius. Glad they didn’t write him out of the story. That scene with the two of them in the hatch was sweet, Desmond waking up with the new memory in his head.
We were all pissed that Locke was going to die, but now we know he’s going to die for a purpose, and that he knows it. Also genius. I don’t feel so bad about his death anymore. He’s going to die to save everyone else. Locke is still the man.
Thank god Jack shaved that damn beard, glad they didn’t let that go on for too long.
Ben sure has his work cut out for him trying to get everyone back. So far only Jack is really on board. Sayid seems to hate him, Sun wants to kill him, Hurley went to jail to get away from him and Kate of course wouldn’t go near him either. Only 70 hours as well? I wonder how many eps. they’re going to use getting them to the island? The whole season? No doubt.
I still don’t really like Juliette, not sure why though. Maybe it’s her annoying ‘trying to calm everyone down all the time’ attitude. Sawyer is awesome though, ready to kick all asses as usual.
That other wavy haired chick, forget her name, anyway what was up with the bleeding nose and the amnesia? Maybe she’s going to kick the bucket soon, which wouldn’t really bother me as she’s another annoying character.
And of course Hurley and Sayid, both of whom are still awesome. Hurley in providing the comic relief and Sayid in badassness. That scene where he took out those guys was awesome.
The one thing I don’t really like out of the whole season so far is how Sun suddenly became this evil bitch intent on killing Ben. Doesn’t suit her at all. Should be quite interesting seeing how Ben manages to get her to the island again, because we all know he will do it.
Oh I haven’t mentioned Kate yet, well she hasn’t really done much as usual.
Noticed that both eps. didn’t have a central person in them like they always used to do. Don’t miss that though, good to see a bit of everyone, even Bernard and Rose!
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Jason Collin Reply:
January 25th, 2009 at 12:44 AM
The days of character focused flashbacks/flashforwards are over according to Herc.
Ben never said that Locke is absolutely dead and the fact they need to bring the body back makes me think he will be reanimated somehow.
I liked the scene with Hurley and the convenience store chick. I don’t think he could have bought a more conspicuous shirt though. I guess anything would be conspicuous on him though. Looks like he gained weight.
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I was glad that Frogbert died, but seriously, how many red-shirts are still left around?
You guys have covered most of what I thought while watching. I was with the Can on my expectactions, and still on my time travel worries.
I was a tiny, tiny bit underwhelmed by the episodes, but it’s great to be back on the ride.
Liked: Anna Lucia looking good
Frogbert getting shot
Locke manning up and Richard fixing him up
Desmond being outside the rules about no changing time
Hugo’s mom dropping an F-bomb when she sees Sayid???
Hugo’s parents pretty much rocked
Sawyer’s “Everyone I care about in the world just died” blow-up
Ben looking vulnerable “I lost Reyes tonight”
Sun reminding Kate that Jin’s death is her fault
The underground church lair
Disliked:
Ben not calling Jack — would have made Hurley calm down
Miles, Charlotte, and Faraday getting main character treatment–I guess they are now but I still don’t like Miles and Charlotte
Faraday always being so sketchy, when he otherwise seems like a cool guy
Kate just running away like usual
Very vanilla, big picture predictions: Season 5 follows the Oceanic 6 and Ben back to the island but it takes all season — so a 70 hour arc in the present. This includes the Hurley breakout. Desmond can be at any time when his action is taking place–not necessarily 3 years
Locke will come back to life on the island–and the real reason he is dead is because the writers thought it would be weird watching him act in parallel storylines.
On the island they will infiltrate Dharma and the old others
More “dead character” cameos
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Well late as usual even though I may have seen it first. You all have covered a lot of the things that occurred to me, but I will hit them anyway.
Loved that whiny guy getting hit with an arrow and only one other random person taking one. Loved every single scene with Hurley in it… I Heart Shit Tzus… priceless! Loved the introduction of this female witch overlord… we haven’t seen her before, have we? Love that Desmond is the magic man, he may be my favorite character and I feared he was dead.
I did not however love most interactions with Sawyer… all I can say is Kate ain’t worth it! I would not be said if she was gone. I am not sure I am all that excited about any of the stories of the six besides Hurley and Sayid and also think I will miss whole episodes actually revolving around one character, I think that was one of the coolest things about the show.
But that said, with this lost in time element and a greater view of the power of the island, I think it has amazing potential and I have faith in the writers to keep doing what they are doing and keep Lost as the above and beyond best show on television.
I too think that Locke will come back to life when he returns to the island, the use of the Other that always looks the same leads me to believe that. I am also really intrigued by what other dead people we will see more of… will Jin and Michael reappear? Wouldn’t be shocking…
Anyway looking forward to the next episode and more great discussion!
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Jason Collin Reply:
January 26th, 2009 at 11:26 PM
The “female witch overlord” has been seen before as the woman in the jewelry shop in the Desmond ep THE CONSTANT I believe. I don’t have the ep on hand still, so can’t confirm if that was her or the “Sheriff” on the island in Othersville.
Jin is in the credits still.
Hopefully it can work out that we can watch an ep together, maybe sometime in late March or early April!
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It was difficult for me to remember what was going on at the end of last season because of the long layoff, but the opening scenes helped me to better grasp the bigger picture. I watched the episodes a few days ago, but I was just thinking about the opening scenes today and thought I’d post my comments and questions.
Since the Darma guy has a baby, will Darma do something to release the power at the Orchid that prevents babies from being born? Or, was it explained somewhere that he brought the baby to the island from the outside? Also, there’s no way an Asian man of his stature is being woken up by his wife to feed the baby. How much time was supposed to have passed between the Darma group and Ben’s group occupying the village? The bungalows they live in show no signs of wear when either group is occupying them. For some reason I thought there was a long gap there.
What’s with the skipping record and the morning routine? Are Desmond and the Darma guy both some kind of anchors in time, or do you take those scenes to be simple ways to show the monotony and large scale of time that these two characters have to deal with? Why did the Darma guy have to discuss the details of time travel with the laborer? You’d think they could have found a better way to write that. Clearly the physicist will eventually control time travel, but what about the guy who helped Locke from Ben’s group of others? Can he travel through time, or is he just non-human and ageless?
It’s interesting to know that the Darma people were struggling with a hostile native population back then as well. Will this lead us to an explanation of the three-toed statue at the end of season three (or four), or was it the people in military uniforms we saw at the end of episode two? I hope the statue will be explained at some point this season. Maybe that ageless guy is really a three-toed native.
Locke will come back to life once they get to the island, right? I hope they don’t keep him on the show in flashbacks and flash-forwards unlit they finally get back on the island at the end of the series, or worse yet, write him off the show.
How did Ben know that Hurley was having internal struggles over lying about what happened on the island? I like that Ben has so much power to manipulate people, but I wish he were more vulnerable physically. I remember last season or the season before he manhandled someone. It’d be more interesting if he were more vulnerable in that respect.
interesting premier.
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Jason Collin Reply:
January 28th, 2009 at 10:14 PM
I believe the “incident” was the event that caused babies to not be able to be born on the island, that’s my guess. Ha, nice observation about an Asian man feeding the baby.
Damon and Carlton confirmed in the Official LOST podcast we’ll get more 4-toed statue stuff this season.
Ben’s one weakness has been eliminated, his daughter. Now he’s impervious. I like that he is a physical badass, very unexpected.
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