Let's get involved here, peoples!!! So here... we... go!!!
'ANSWERS' we were promised a la last week's promo. I fell for that one hook, line and sinker. No answers this week. Absolutely none. 100 more questions with 10 or so episodes to go. Now I'M frustrated at this show for one of the first times ever. I'm ashamed to say I let all that get the better of me and it slightly tainted my whole viewing experience this week. It won't happen again friends. Oh NO! It WON'T happen again!
A solid episode though, high action, so let's get into it, shall we.
We start off in LA-X where Sayid-X is visiting the home of Nadia-X....who has children! The children refer to Sayid as their uncle, and we soon learn that Nadia-X is married to Sayid-X's brother Omar-X in this universe. Is this Sayid's little fat brother from Iraq who couldn't take care of their father's cock and so Sayid had to step in? Cock play!
The children find a photo of their mother in the luggage of Sayid-X to the surprise of Nadia-X and the dismay of Omar-X. Privately, while Omar-X receives a grave call, Nadia-X presses Sayid-X as to why he hadn't responded to any of her letters. Seems she has a thing for the brother's brother. Got it, brother? Ooooooh brother!
Omar-X awakens Sayid-X at 2:30a.m. Apparently he's opened a few dry cleaner locations with the monetary aide of some mafioso. They want the vig and they want extra, even once it's paid in full. Omar-X is
being shaken down and wants Sayid-X to use his expertise as an Iraqi torturer to put the hurtin' on them so they leave he and his family alone. Putting the emphasis on the 'helping Nadia-X' part, though, because he knows how to push Sayid-X's buttons. Sayid-X refuses. He's not THAT man anymore'. Sayid-X appears to have been staying with the family for a bit in the next scene. He's walking the kids to the bus and they acknowledge how much they like having him stay with them, more importantly...their mom does as well. (Anyone else have a slight thought that Sayid-X might be the real father of the rugrats? Probably not. But it occurred to me...that's all I'm saying.) Sayid-X likes being with them as well but is heading to Toronto soon for work he tells them. After the kids are on the bus, Nadia-X runs from the house with dire news for Sayid-X. Skip to the hospital where Omar-X has been taken for a punctured lung and internal bleeding. EMTs think it was a mugging...Wait a second. This is Jack's hospital! Wait a second...heeeeeere's Jack! Just passing by folks just passing by, but a neat walk-on nonetheless.
Nadia-X and Sayid-X know this was no mugging. It was the gangstaz! Yo you gangsta! No YOU gangsta! Nadia-X pleads with Sayid-X to stay out of it...to just go home and keep the kids busy. Apparently this Sayid thinks with his head first and fists second (or third or fourth..not just yet. That's what I'm gettin' at.), because in the next scene we see Sayid-X trying to fix a broken vase. A casualty of some horseplay, I said some tom-foolery, I said some shenanigans, if you will. Nadia-X confirms that Omar-X is recovering and insists this debt is HIS responsibility, not Sayid-X's. Nadia-X persists with her prior line of questioning. Why did Sayid-X push Nadia-X into the arms of Omar-X? In yet another LOST moment that makes my heart warm, my bottom lip quiver and my eyes get watery, Sayid-X admits while dealing with his 12 years of regret due to his former position in the Iraqi military he's come to the decision that he can't be with Nadia-X because he doesn't 'deserve' her. (snif snif)Next scene a couple of sand dogs (where have I seen these guys before?) accost Sayid-X outside the home in pure daylight. They take Sayid-X to a service kitchen where their leader is all about his eggs. He's frying up some and apparently is a self proclaimed culinary egg genius. WTF?? By the way, did I mention their boss was one 'Martin 'Creamy' Keemy' ?
Well, Martin Keemy-X that is.(That's where I knew the faces of those henchmen from, they were Creamy's henchmen in Universe 1.0 as well!) He is apparently the mobster in question who is shaking down Omar-X. He channels the great Christopher Walken with some kooky evil leader dialogue before denying putting the hit on Omar-X. He does, infact, admit that he's heard what happened to him and wants Sayid-X to cover the payments. Sayid-X responds with 2 shots to those henchman's domes.
Keemy-X tries to renege on the debt collection detail but it's too late. A Bullet in the gullet for him too. Only one shot though, we 'in the know' recall that Sayid always made sure to pop 2 caps in his Universe 1.0 victims!
To the temple! In contrast to the episode opener, THIS Sayid is bursting upon the scene and he's mad as hell and I infer that he's 'not gonna take it anymore'! He's in Dogen's temple office spread and he's demanding answers. Not huge answers that will help any of us out. Just them smaller ones that have affected or shall I say 'infected' him the past few weeks. Dogen says that within every man there is a scale. Makes sense. Good on 1 side...bad on the other. Ok ok sounds familiar enough. The machine Dogen tested Sayid with showed the scale tipping the 'wrong way' (not that Sayid was evil, mind you....just that he's leaning toward the wrong team. Still a slightly grey area which team is good and which is evil.) Sayid suggests he's a 'good man' (first time I've heard that from HIM....maybe he IS changing!) Fighting ensues. Great 1on1 fisticuffs which finds Dogen besting Sayid, but he fails to end his life because his favorite baseball falls from his desk and causes a distraction.....or is it really just because Dogen can't harm Sayid. I'm confused. What say you?
Dogen shows Sayid the door. 'Reave and never come back!' Pan to Smoke Locke and Creep Claire standing inches from the ashy ring surrounding the temple. Where's Jin? Where's Sawyer? Did these 2 leave
their respective new boyfriends in a special place where Team Jacob can't reach them while they work on some other candidates? Do you like that? I just made it up. Any ideas?? Smoke Locke tells Claire to enter the temple grounds. HE would if HE could, but HE can't so she will! But only if Smoke Locke get's her Aaron back. Another deal with the devil, or so they'd have us believe. Claire indicates that Smoke Locke will hurt the temple Others. 'Only if they don't listen' he corrects. Interesting... I think. (scratches head)
Back to the inner temple, Sayid suggests to Miles that he has been told to leave because he is evil. Wonders why they bothered saving him. Miles indicates that THEY didn't. That he was dead for over 2 hours after THEY tried saving his life. Something else did the job! It WAS the pee pool, dummy! What else could it have been? Wasn't it? Claire's inside the temple square. She informs Dogen that 'He' wants to see Dogen. Dogen is no fool. He know's the 'He' in question will kill him as soon as he has the chance. Claire suggests sending a proxy in his place. Dogen directs Lennon to put Claire in a hole and find Jack and Hurley, Pronto!
Dogen summons Sayid and privately tells Sayid that Claire is 'confused' and 'under the influence' of a man that is pure evil and who will kill everything on the island. Plus her nagging bout with 'Island AIDS' can't be a picnic for her. While he speaks in Engrish, a language that isn't so harsh on his tongue,today, while he's pissing in his pants, Dogen opens an ancient looking case containing a dagger. The Dogen Dagger! Dogen instructs Sayid to take the Dogen Dagger and seek out this 'evil' in the forest outside the temple. Evil will take the form of someone that Sayid knows whom is dead. Sayid is to stab first and ask questions later if he is to save the day and prove how 'good' he is. Don't let him speak, just commence with the stabby stabby. Sayid accepts and we see him out in the woods where he encounters Kate. He doesn't plunge anything into those ta-tas because he's pretty sure she's amongst the living still, but really, how could any of us be sure of anything anymore?!
'ANSWERS' they said. Ha!
Kate has questions, though. Join the club bitch. Sayid says to ask Miles. SEE? A dead person COULD ask Miles. Sorry sorry. Kate's alive, let me stop dwelling on that ish. Kate agrees and heads to the temple. Upon arrival she sees Miles in the midst of a heated game of solitaire (hmmmm not only is this MORE games being played...but a nod to the idea that the grand game we are watching unfold is being played by just ONE major player) Kate's got arms of steal and is ripped up. Perhaps the new look is for the numerous auditions she's been on trying to secure some work for 2011. There's gonna be a big gaping hole where her LOST paycheck once was. Soo...Miles awkwardly, and correctly, suggests she's been dissed by Sawyer. She reluctantly agrees rather than have a convo with another creepy Korean. Miles says the Australian chick is there and she's as weird as she is hot. Accept for that stank wig of hers. No brush for her? Anywhere? Either way, that's just the kind of news Kate's been waiting to hear.
Smoke Locke tells Sayid he feels sorry for him because of this further
manipulation at the hands of Dogen. He tells him 'shame on you' as in
'....fool you twice shame on you' or as in 'I'm ashamed of ALL of you'
the line he dropped a few weeks ago on the passengers of 316 waiting outside the foot. This guys big on the guilt trip it would appear.
Smoke Locke suggests to Sayid that he could make it up to him by
delivering a message. If he does he will see to it that he gets the one thing he always wanted. 'The only thing I ever wanted died in my arms and I'll never see it again', says Sayid. Oh contrare, Sayid! Smokey can make things happens. He's gonna give Claire back her bay-bee and the Scarecrow some brains, and the Tinman a heart. Surely he can give a you a live Nadia..or at least a zombie one. Kinky!
Sayid apparently agrees to the devil-deal because he's back on the temple grounds announcing that there is a 'man in the jungle' who says Jacob is dead and none of them have to stay. Kinda like the soldiers at the Witch of the West's castle after Dorothy throws a bucket of water on her. He says the man in the jungle is leaving the island forever and anyone interested can come. The rest can die at Sundown. Ah, 'Sundown'! I get it. I thought there was going to be a Kwon reunion and Sun was gonna go 'down' on her rong rost man. Oh well. Good enough. Meanwhile, Kate woman-handles Lennon with her new pumped up 'guns'. She's looking for Claire and Lennon gives her 2 minutes with her. Of course she wastes those 2 minutes talking about how she indeed 'Took' Aaron (TOOK? again with this? Really....really?) making Claire even more mad. Ofcourse, she'll mention that Aaron is now safe at home with grandma Littleton, right? Nope. This is LOST, kiddies. If they even decide to say ANYTHING to each other at all they NEVER say the correct
things! Well, Kate reveals her selfless bid to return to the island to rescue Claire, and Claire counters by letting Kate know that it is Kate who may need the saving. Or at least everybody else BUT Claire. "He's coming and They can't stop him!" Oh we know. Weeeee know! 2 minutes are up! Leave Buffalo Bill's new meat suit alone, Clarice!
Back outside, Cindy the stewardess-Other suggests to anyone in earshot that with Jacob dead that they can't risk staying. Sayid says he's gonna go 'return' Dogen's Dagger.....and we can imagine what THAT means. Sayid approaches Dogen at the pool who suggests that Sayid's mission failed because he let him speak. I give up on this one, I really do.
Dogen fills me and Sayid in on this story about how Dogen used to be a banker in the real world at home .......in Osaka, Japan....if you're nasty. On a particular Friday, his associates took him out for drinks
after work to celebrate his promotion. Trouble is, Friday is Dogen's day to pick up his 12 year old from Baseball practice. Some drinking/driving and emotional hospital moments later, Dogen is approached by 'His name waaaas Jacob' who offers to ensure the child's recovery if Dogen goes to the island and takes a new entry level position on team Jacob. Oh, but he can never see his son again. Kinda like when Juliet came to the island. Her sister was cured of cancer but she wasn't allowed to see her ever again. Wait a minute. Are the powers that be on the island just showing these rubes in Universe 1.0 some kind of footage of Universe-X to prove these people are alive???? Maybe, Juliet's sister really DID die of the big 'C' in Universe 1.0 but the Others just had a video linl to a parallel Universe where Juliet's sister is alive. Same with Dogen's kid. A-Ha! Whattya think 'bout that?
Dogen assumes Sayid has been given a similar bargain by the evil man in the forest. Dogen tells Sayid it is now Sundown. Shall Sayid stay or go? Sayid decides to stay long enough to drown the shit out of Dogen AND his baseball in the pee pool (is this the END of Dogen or will the pee pool revive him?) Than he stops to slice up Lennon who uses his final words to inform us that Dogen was the only thing keeping 'IT' out? Dogen was? Really....really? Than what about all that ash malarkey? Is it equal parts ash AND Dogen? Argh. See! No answers, more questions!! Either way Sayid says he knows!
Meanwhile Smoke Monster is ripping through the temple in full affect. After subduing a few anti smoke monster Others, Smokey runs freight train over Kate who jumps down into the mental pit with Claire. Miles
hides in a room where he is surprised to find Ilana, Frank, Sun and Ben. (Team Jacob?) They find the secret entrance/exit that Hurley used last week while Miles shares with Sun that he saw Jin fairly recently.....Alive!!
Ben goes to get Sayid who is creeping out by himself at the pool. Boy's definitely got the 'Island AIDS'. It's 'too late' to save Sayid....so says he. Sayid and Claire head out with Kate in tow. They slowly meet up with
Team Smoke Locke after Kate arms herself with a rifle. Smoke Locke gives Sayid and Claire a 'welcome to the team' look and than gives Kate a 'Who invited you, skank?' sneer. He's ok with her being around......for now. But what side is Kate truly on?
Things I am pondering:
- What 'work' has Sayid-X heading to Toronto for? Any relevancy?
- What's all this 'egg' business with Keemy-X. Was he known to say something about making omelets and breaking a few eggs in Universe 1.0? I don't get the joke.
- I suggested to keep an ear out for the noise between flash sideways and island universes. Last week's Jack episode was completely airplane whooshes. The prior week's Locke centric episode was rickety rollercoaster smoke monster sounds. This week's episode seemed to teeter between both sounds and sometimes was a combined mix of the 2. Possible the sounds indicate whose team the character in question will wind up on. If so that makes sense for Locke and Jack, but what of Sayid. Surely he should have a solid smoke monster soundtrack connected to his mayhem. Maybe there is 'still good in him?'
- What was keeping the smoke monster off the temple grounds. The ring of ash? Dogen's presence? Both. I don't get it. I'm completely Lost on this one. What's your thoughts?
- How come Sayid paired with Dogen's dagger were rendered ineffective by Smoke Locke?
- Where the hell is Desmond? Last we saw him he was hospitalized in Universe 1.0 (Am I right?) and mysteriously on a flight he was never supposed to be on on in Universe-X. I need me a Desmond fix, brutha!
-JB
Well done sir... well done. Another recap in the books. Let me just say that I am kinda glad that you are fustrated with the show, cause you always make fun of my fustration... now lets get to my comments.
ReplyDeleteWTF...WTF!!! No answers at all, except for the fact that there are MORE questions to answer. This is a mighty deep hole JJ and the crew are digging for themselves.
I think Dogen's Dagger was a straight bluff to get Sayid tagged by Smokey. Dogen knows that Sayid is slowly turning to Smokeys side (good or bad is open for debate) and if he gets Sayid to stab Smokey, Smokey might just kill off a potential ally in a sudden rage... makes sense, right. Since Sayid seems destined for Team Smokey, getting Smokey to take him out would be even sweeter!!!
This is my beef about the new characters. Who the fuck is Dogen... we just met him recently (season6) and now Lennon is saying "He was the only one keeping Smokey out of the Temple"... C'mon, I cant take it. If Dogen turns out to be some kind of key character, and they introduced him in season 6, I will be forced to believe that they wrote his part of the story after the first few seasons... Jacob, Smokey, all of them were mentioned in some capacity early in the first few seasons. We have learned more about them, but they were there. A new character who is central to the final storyline added this late would be a cheat. God I hope this is not the case....
Finally, some blood shed in Universe X. Its not all hunky dorry over there in X-Ville, is it? And where the fuck is Desmond, Whitmore, and Walt??? I'm running out of patience??? What say you people???
Oh, and Olivia Munn form Attack Of The Show posted an interesting theory on her Twitter:
ReplyDelete"Didn't Hurley win the lottery in the real world" Well, well... who better a "Canidate" to win the title of "Best Candidate" then a lottery winner. Makes ya think...
I thought that this episode was "The Empire Strikes Back" of Lost. I know... impossible shoes to fill, but you see where I'm going with this. It was dark, depressing and hopefully setting us up for greater things to come. "Empire" was also (and mostly typically) my favorite Star Wars movie. Now that I think about it, a lot of my favorite movies end on a darker note. Seven? The Usual Suspects (not exactly dark, but the bad guy definitely wins)?
ReplyDeleteWill it be possible to do this with a TV show? Can you imagine Sayid killing Jack so Fake Locke can get off the island? How dark is that!
Off my pseudo-geek rant... I hate the promise for answers. The reason is, I know when I'm going to get them from Lost, at least most of the time. Answers come during John Locke and Ben Linus centered episodes. They also come during episodes on people that have never been flashbacked before, like Richard Alpert and Jacob/ MIB- who will have their own shows this season! I will wait to pass any judgments on this season until I see those episodes!
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ReplyDeleteWhile there were no BIG answers present, this was my favorite episode thus far this season. It was more of this strategic "position the pieces into place" kinda episode. Setting us up for the big moves to come. And what more can come if Jacob's dead? Why does Smocke want followers? What does he give a hooter's toot who stays and who goes with him? All HE really wants to do is get HIMSELF off the island, right? Obviously, there's something else on homeboy's agenda.
ReplyDeleteDespite his grisly past, I always had the impression that Sayid was good. We've never seen him do anything manipulative to anyone on the island. He's basically stuck by the group since day one. The thing with Sayid is that up until now he could’ve actually represented someone who is very balanced, when speaking light and dark. He is capable of both good things, as we’ve seen him do on the island, and with Nadia, etc. And he is capable of some god-awful, terrible things, like his torturing days. Throughout his life, his scale may have dabbled from side to side occasionally, but usually, he was able to keep his dark side at bay. Control it, so to speak. Whatever's got a hold of Sayid now, it's channeling & feeding off that darkness. And his "scale” is now tipping.” Drastically. Whether it's a sickness, a magical spell, an influence, or perhaps just plain ole human will, (if he is even still human?) ...I think this episode basically explained to us the whole scale, light & dark theory while using Sayid as the prime example. And we’ll eventually see where the rest of the Losters place themselves in the grander scheme of things. It just seems as if some people take a different path to get there then others. Sayid was shot & drowned. Claire was seemingly abducted. Sawyer….not sure yet.
And with that said, please tell me why we should care about this light and dark, good and evil thing? Should I really care if Jack is good or evil? If that's his "destiny” then it is what it is, no? How does it play into the big picture? Does destiny have anything to do with it or is this really more about free will? At this stage of the Lost game I'm learning to stop askin' questions and sit back and enjoy the ride. I want to see this baby through the end and enjoy it every step of the way. I don’t want answers NOW NOW NOW! I’d just like my appetite to be fed a little along the way. Keepin’ me satisfied. Cause shoving everything down my throat at the last minute will only make me very sick and overwhelmed. And who the hell enjoys a feast that way? Not I!
Good recapping, as always JB. Keep it up.
I believe the reason why Smokey is ashamed is because the truth is "Man has no business listening to any of them" remember we all have a choice. We dont have to follow them.. We dont have to listen to any of them. Remember you can do nothing... you can join Jacob or Join Locke.. In the end if you choose neither you just wait it out. Which is why I believe Jacob and Smoke Lock are both bad. Sorta like a slap in the face of religion. Forget God and the Devil.. your just a pawn in this whole thing. If you choose neither side they you truly are free.
ReplyDeleteRemember it all ends the same everything else is progress. That is why Rose and Bernard are so special.. they dont care about either. They want to live there life.. hence progress.
That is my theory for now... then again 6 years ago I just thought it was all purgatory.
Great observation, Erol. What a fantastic thought that these 2 players are using them all as pawns...but yet theyactually would rather them think for themselves and stop being pawns. This seems to be an inherent flaw in all our main cast. Sayid constantly allows himself to be used as a hitman for somebody and only, really, changes allegiances not his position as a pawn. When I think about it Kate, Jack, Locke, Sawyer, Hurley...all have had a similar problems allowing themselves to be used as pawns. Maybe the healthy way to be, ultimately, is more like Rose and Bernhard.
ReplyDelete