Unlike seasons one and two of LOST, the sideways storylines make it more difficult to engage the audience than the flashbacks did. Why would we care what is going on in this sideways world when we have no vested interest in these quasi-characters? The fact of the matter is that Dr. Benjamin Linus made me care. Unlike how I felt about Sayid last week, Linus had me wondering how this version of him differed from the one I've grown to know over the past few seasons. One way in which he differed was how he dealt with Alex, who we should assume is still his daughter. Instead of letting her get shot and killed, this time Linus sacrificed his own personal advancement so that she would have a better chance at getting into Yale. What a guy.
Similarly, on The Island, Linus has strangely become a nicer person. Sure he killed Jacob, but since then it seems that he has realized how awful his life has been since the giant mutiny of the Dharmas. Recently he has just been along for the ride with Llana, Lapidus and company but once Miles used his talking-dead powers to let Llana know that Linus killed Jacob, the Dr. was in hot water. In came Smokey/UnLocke to rescue Linus from digging his own grave, and once Benjamin got a chance to explain his Jacob situation to Llana she let him live. Saved from death he took it upon himself to help out Lady Kwon with a tarp. This was not for selfish reasons as he might have done in the past. No, Benjamin Linus has changed for the nicer.
Although it was a Linus episode, we almost got just as much Richard Alpert. We learned that the suspicion that Richard came to The Island on the Black Rock was factually correct. Just like Benjamin, Richard has been following Jacob's orders word for word, only for a much longer time. We also learned that Jacob gave Richard his gift of eternal life. So now that Jacob is dead, Richard realized what he thought was his purpose in life (doing things for Jacob) is all gone, and he might as well die. Only he cannot kill himself so he took Jack along for the ride so that the Doctor would blow him up. Little did the un-ager know, it seems Jack is also not allowed to kill himself, so hum dee dum the dynamite failed to detonate.*
*How studly was Jack during this moment? He stepped up to the plate, believed that Jacob had a higher purpose for him, and was absolutely correct. He was ready to die if he was wrong. Jack was uber-confident and he almost made up for a lifetime of terrible episodes with that five minutes.
As Benjamin began to help Sun with the tarp, a soft piano came on in the background while the characters worked silently. It was an absolute throwback to early LOST episodes. I may be wrong, but I don't think they did a lot of this in seasons 3, 4 and 5. It felt really good as the piano played while we saw Jack, Hurley and Richard come out from behind the bushes and meet Sun, Lapidus and yes Ben Linus on the beach. Classic moment.
Other Points
- "It was on this island that everything changed," Benjamin Linus. Anyone else stupidly think he was talking about The Island for a second?
- Enjoyed seeing Linus and Arzt as teacher buddies, but what was even better was the cameo by Sideways Locke who was all about getting Linus to be Principal.
- We got reassurance that they were indeed on The Island, as Linus and his father discuss over dinner that they wish they never left Dharmaville.
- I was really upset when I saw the Alan Dale credit at the opening of the show, because Charles Widmore's appearance in the submarine at the end would have been that much better if I hadn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment