Lost Season Six: Happily Ever After

What I Liked:

  • For those keeping score, there has only been one bad Desmond episode (“Catch 22″).  When there’s an episode that focuses on Desmond, you’re guaranteed two things: 1) One of the sci-fi aspects of the season come into focus and 2) Henry Ian Cusick will give a great performance.  Check and check.  Did you see the way his upper lip quivered when Widmore told him he was back on the island.
  • After Desmond, my second favorite non-815er is Daniel Faraday (now Daniel Widmore) so I was glad to see him being his twitchy self
  • I’m not even going to try to figure out what the flash sideways are (and I don’t think we’re supposed to really know) but we know what they aren’t: an epilogue and, more importantly, reality
  • When Desmond got the flash of Charlie’s “Not Penny’s Boat,” I practically cheered out “Finally!”
  • I loved all the little callbacks: the MacCutcheon scotch, Penny running the tour de stade this time, the pier where Desmond got shot, Eloise saying “What happened, happened”, the return of George Minkowski

What I Didn’t Like:

  • I wish we could have gotten to the reveal that the flash sideways weren’t reality a little sooner but it’s a nitpick

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Lost Season Six: The Package

What I Liked:

  • A great showcase for Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim (who have pretty much been dragged from one place to the other for the last season and a half), particularly, in showing Sun’s frustration with all these plans regarding destiny when all she wants is to leave the island and the emotions washing over Jin as he sees pictures of his daughter, Ji Yeon, for the first time.
  • Kevin Durand’s extra-hammy Keamy.  It was both bad and entertaining.
  • The return of Andrew Divoff as Mikhail.  I had to laugh when Jin shot him in the eye at the end
  • The scene between notLocke and Claire about Kate’s usefulness
  • Sayid swimming up to the dock looking like an extra in Apocalypse Now
  • The return of Desmond!

What I Didn’t Like:

  • It’s kinda ridiculous that Sun and Jin are STILL not together
  • Aphasia?  Really?  Where are Seth and Amy when you need them?
  • The flashsideway was okay.   Nothing special.

What I Absolutely F*cking Hated:

  • That stupid V countdown clock in the corner for the ENTIRE episode.  What the f*ck is wrong with you, ABC?

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Lost Season Six: Ab Aeterno

What I Liked:

  • I don’t know if I’d call this the best episode ever but when the list is eventually made of greatest episodes of Lost ever, “Ab Aeterno” will be near the top.
  • For all intents and purposes, we now know what the island is: a prison for whatever the Man in Black is.  The only reason people keep ending up there is Jacob’s attempts to prove to the Man in Black that when given a choice, man will choose good over evil (and, of course, the Man in Black cheats)
  • I loved that the episode played with the most popular theory about the island: that’s its inhabitants were already dead and they were in some sort of purgatory or hell.
  • Nestor Carbonell gave an amazing Emmy-worthy performance as Ricardus.  You have to take into account that, up to this point, Richard had only a few lines here and there.  He would show up, say something cryptic and then go away for three or four episodes.  He basically created his character with nothing to build from and he knocked out park. I’m not saying that I didn’t think Carbonell had it in him but before Lost, I only knew him as Batmanuel in the live version of The Tick.
  • I will give the writers/producers this: they know how to get you emotionally invested in characters in a short period of time.
  • Titus Welliver return as the Man in Black.  While I love Terry O’ Quinn playing notLocke, I hope we get to see him again.
  • The parallel between MIB telling Richard how to kill Jacob and Dogen telling Sayid how to kill notLocke
  • I love the emergence of Hurley as a major player in the going ons of the island.  In a way, he’s the new Richard

What I Didn’t Like:

  • To quote Erwin, Jacob’s “a bit of a dick”
  • I would have liked to see some of Richard’s time with the Others

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Lost Season Six: Recon

What I Liked:

  • After a slow start (I still liked those episodes), the last three episodes have been pretty solid. It helps that they featured three of my favorite Losties.
  • Sawyer the con man is back! I’m glad that the only side Sawyer is on is his own.
  • LA X Sawyer…I mean…James Ford was different enough (Cop instead of con man) but complex enough (Still trying to kill the original Sawyer) to make his flashsideway compelling
  • The return of Rebecca Mader and her lovely accent.  She cleans up nicely.
  • Another strong episode for Evangeline Lilly who has seen Kate’s sole reason for coming back to the island – saving Claire – going horribly awry
  • I loved Miles as James’ partner in LA X
  • Despite the fact that he just killed a bunch of people, Smokey is still being painted as not THAT much of a villain.  It would be silly if he was an outright villain like Keamy in Season Four.  So far, he’s left us questioning if Jacob is really the good guy here.
  • Liam showing up to try and bail out Charlie after he got arrested in the pilot
  • The empty look on Sayid’s face as Claire tried to kill Kate
  • If there is a Lost spinoff, it should be Sawyer and Miles as cops in LA.

What I Didn’t Like:

  • I was really hoping James’ date was with Juliet

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Lost Season Six: Dr. Linus

What I Liked:

  • Another amazing award-worthy performance from Michael Emerson.  I really hope someone picks up the show Terry O’ Quinn is shopping with the two of them.
  • This may have been my favorite flash-sideway so far.  I’m starting to agree with the notion (floated about by Alan Sepinwall and others) that the flashsideways are epilogues for the characters after everything is said and done.
  • I loved Leslie Arzt in the flashsideways
  • William Atherton was perfectly cast as Principal Reynolds.  It was reminiscent of his many dickish roles in the 80′s
  • In Ben’s speech to Ilana about his killing Jacob, it finally made sense why Ben would kill Jacob and it raises the question of what would you do if you were able to confront your God with your grievances and he appeared not to give a shit, what would you do?
  • I loved the call back to Nikki and Paulo’s deaths and diamonds.  I hope Miles gets off the island with them.
  • I also am starting to like Jack who has turned into season one Locke (although look where that got him in the end)
  • Team Jacob has finally come together
  • Widmore is back!

What I Didn’t Like:

  • With only nine episodes left, it would be nice to know what the payoff is going to be with the flashsideways.  I’m a pretty patient Lost fan but my concern is that we’ll find out and I’ll have to go back and rewatch all of them to see how well it worked in the end.

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Lost Season Six: Sundown

What I Liked:

  • I’ll never dislike an episode that centers on Sayid – one of my favorite characters from the beginning – and give Naveen Andrews great material to work with
  • That opening fight between Dogen and Sayid.  Sayid finally met his match
  • The entire Smokey-lays-waste-to-the-temple scene
  • Emily de Ravin’s creepy conversation with Kate while she was in the hole.
  • Sayid’s flashsideways.  While Locke’s and Jack’s saw them overcome their issues in some way, Sayid’s flashsideways coincided with his present day: he’s a killer and he can’t escape it.
  • The final scene with Sayid and Claire walking through the ruins of the temple to notLocke coupled with the “what the fuck” look on Kate’s face all while “Catch A Falling Star” plays.  Just a great sequence.

What I Didn’t Like:

  • While I’m not 100% sure we won’t see Dogen again, what a waste of John Hawkes (Lennon)

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Links for the Week of 2/21

Sorry this is late.  Crazy work week…

Lost Season Six: Lighthouse

What I Liked:

  • How creepy was crazy Claire?
  • I know a lot of people hate Jack but I’m not one of them.  Mostly because I’ve always enjoyed Matthew Fox performance especially in the moments where Jack is most tortured and conflicted
  • Jin’s growing terror at seeing how crazy Claire had become
  • The reveal of Claire’s “friend” at the end of the episode
  • Jack’s flashsideway was pretty good and it was nice to see Jack being a good dad considering his past.
  • Even though this was a Jack-episode, Hurley had a great episode (as noted by his several Lines of the Night)

What I Didn’t Like:

  • I’ve come to accept this season that instead of trying to make great episodes that tie into the narrative as a whole, this season is basically one long episode (excluding the flashsideways which I assume will tie in at some point).  Because of that, it’s impossible to judge this season until it’s over and we can look back at everything.  Even though it feels like nothing of significance happened aside from the lighthouse dial, when all is said and done, this episode could be pivotal. That said, on an episode-to-episode basis, it has been kinda frustrating.
  • Of course Jack broke the mirrors in the lighthouse.
  • I kinda wish Jin had stuck with his story that Kate had Aaron so Claire could put Kate out of her (and our) misery.

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Lost Season Six: The Substitute

What I Liked:

  • It’s great seeing Terry O’Quinn – easily the best actor on Lost – toggle between NotLocke on the island and a seemingly more accepting of his situation Looke in LA X.
  • Unlike Kate’s flash sideway where, despite the details she was essentially the same person she had become on the island, Locke’s was a completely different story and infinitely more interesting.  Considering he’s dead on the island, I guess it would have been piling it on if he didn’t find contentment in LA X
  • I love the pairing between NotLocke and Sawyer because Holloway and O’Quinn haven’t shared many scenes together on the show (nothing really significant since ‘The Brig”).
  • The numbers! (Just for a recap: 4 – Locke (John); 8 – Reyes (Hurley); 15 – Ford (Sawyer); 16 – Jarrah (Sayid); 23 – Shephard (Jack); 42 – Kwon (Sun and/or Jin)
  • Ben’s eulogy and Lapidus’ reaction
  • Speaking of Ben, another “oh shit!” LA X moment when Ben showed up as the European history teacher in Locke’s high school
  • Other great connections, Hugo in the parking lot and Rose at the temp agency making the most of her one scene with Locke. It was only appropriate that she was the one who set Locke straight on accepting his limitation considering they were the ones healed on the island.
  • It’s always great to have Katey Sagal on my TV screen now that Sons of Anarchy isn’t on
  • Richard Alpert scurrying through the woods like a scared deer

What I Didn’t Like:

  • If Sun and Jin miss each other on her way to the temple, I’m going to be really annoyed.
  • I know Sawyer is distraught over Juliet but for a con man, he’s way too trusting of NotLocke

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