Get Lost

COMING UP: The Passion of the Locke

2009-02-20T16:26:14Z

Lost's next episode "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" airs next wednesday. Here's the synopsis from GoErie.com's television listings: Locke's mission off the island as Jeremy is revealed.
I think that the synopsis industry needs a shot in the arm these days. It's really gone down hill lately. Here are some recaps of last week's episode from some other blogs: Lost EP 5.6 "316" is there a pregnant lady on the plane? Things I Noticed - "316" by Vozzek69 LOST: Season 5 Episode 6 - 316 Key Points from "316"

Lost untangled

2009-02-19T21:51:26Z

Lost Untangled would be much better if it didn't try so, so hard. The only highlight in this episode: Jack is hit with the pendulum in the Lamp Post station. I was waiting during that entire sequence for the pendulum to wipe someone out.

GUT REACTION: When God closes a time warp he opens a window (or, John Locke Superstar)

2009-02-19T03:05:34Z

We've got some deep literary allusions going on in this episode, and some pretty heavy Christian allegory. But it all boils down to this: John Locke is the savior. WARNING: Spoilers to follow. Also, it may sound a bit like a Sunday sermon and uses everything I learned in Sunday school.]]> St. Thomas the Apostle, who offers to sacrifice himself with Christ, but then can't believe that He has risen from the tomb. (This is where the term "doubting Thomas" comes from.) Ben, in the way he often does, sets the tone for the rest of the episode with that little story. If you DVRed the episode, go back and watch the entire thing, from end-to-end, viewing Jack in the role of St. Thomas. Of course, the Christian allegory doesn't stop there. They really try to drive home the point that Locke is the savior. Consider:

John Locke is the proxy for Jack's father Christian, like Christ was the proxy for His Father.
The only way Locke can save everyone is to die, though he could choose at any moment to save himself.
The DHARMA station was nicknamed "The Lamp Post" and the initiative used it to find their way to the island. The lamp post was how the kids C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" found their way into Narnia (which also is a Christian allegory about sacrifice and salvation)
The DHARMA station was in a church. I mean, come on.
In the preview for next week's episode -- which I will call "The Passion of John Locke" until I find the real title -- features Locke preparing to die with arms outstretched, face to the sky, with Ben kneeling before him in a pseudo-crucifixion scene.
They got on flight 316 to get back to the island. Umm... John 3:16?
Locke is also wearing a robe in the preview for next week's issue, much like old Ben Kenobi from Star Wars -- another Christian savior allegory.
Also, he's risen from the dead, apparently. But that was a gimme.

So ultimately, we didn't learn much about Hawking's role as much as we did Locke's. After the show flirts with science and physics for the better part of a season now, they revert back to religion and faith, delivering a tidy moral message as the show ramps up to answer the big question (and the big question is religion): What's really going on here? While it's still impossible to answer the question, tonight's episode taught us one thing: In the world of Lost, you've just got to have faith. Did you notice any big literary allusions in tonight's episode? What did you think of it overall? What are you expecting for next week? Post a comment.

"316" predictions

2009-02-18T21:09:46Z

Because I believe that this will be a big episode, I will limit my predictions to three simple points. (One poster outlined some larger predictions.)

Eloise Hawking will tell us everything we need to know to move the story forward and give us some idea about how Dharma got there. She will also say something mind-numbingly mysterious about her connection with Chuck Widmore.
The people still on the island will be reattached to time. This might stop their nosebleeds, but who really knows.
Locke will open his eyes. He's alive and I'm so glad about it, I'm gonna clap my hands today.

Speaking of that, I'm wondering if we will have any pop culture "316" references. Some John, maybe? How about Stone Cold?

COMING UP: "316"

2009-02-17T19:33:23Z

We here at Get Lost are hoping for a big episode Wednesday. I mean, really big. Actual-explanation big. Realizing-what's-going-on big. Well, it's hard to tell so far. Here's a synopsis of Wednesday's episode from GoErie.com's new television listings.

The members of Oceanic 6 discover how to get back to the island, but not all of them want to return.

Not the most gripping teaser, sure, but they use the words "discover how" which is more than we usually get. I'll post my predictions tomorrow, until then, what do you expect from "316"?

SUPER DELAYED REACTION: "This Place is Death"

2009-02-17T17:15:41Z

Last week's gut reaction was waylaid for a number of reasons, so here is my very delayed, point-by-point reaction to last week's episode.

I'll miss Charlotte, but it will be interesting to see her return as a child later in the season. When she mentions that Faraday scared her as a child, we get a great foreshadowing moment.

Locke has moved the island, but I doubt that's really going to help anyone there, unless spinning the wheel twice somehow stabilizes the time warp. The biggest question is where and when will Locke appear off of the island. Also a question: Will he be bound to a wheelchair again?

The Rousseau origin story was a very nice touch, especially when we see her shot her own husband. Was he telling the truth, though? Is the smoke monster just a guardian of that temple? What did Rousseau's crew see under there?

Christian Shepard appears again, confirming my "christian shepherd" theory: On the island he works as the angel of death. We know that Locke is episodes away from biting the dust.

Ultimately, "This place is death" should have been named "This episode is a set up." We didn't get any major turns with the exception of the Charlotte-Faraday time warp connection. We already knew that Hawking was Faraday's mother, we already knew Charlotte grew up on the island. This episode ultimately sets up the epic explanations we can only pray come out of Hawkin's mouth on Wednesday. What did you think of the episode? Let me know by posting a comment below.]]>

Predictions for "This Place is Death"

2009-02-11T17:19:38Z

There won't be a live blog tonight because of a small scheduling conflict that will keep me occupied during commercial breaks and away from approving comments. Sorry about that, but sometimes I have to divide my loyalties. Here are my predictions for tonight's episode:

Locke leaves the island by turning the wheel behind the Orchid station's time traveling bay.
Sun, no matter how much she seems like it, will not shoot Ben. She'll try, though, and miss. She will hit another member of the Oceanic Six. My money's on Jack, but he will live (together), not die (alone).
Charlotte will die, and we will discover how she spent so much time on the island without remembering it.
Jin will be reunited with Sawyer and company, as Rousseau's people slowly lose their minds.

What are you predictions for tonight's episode? Post a comment and let me know. I'll have a Gut Reaction post tonight or early tomorrow.

Coming up: The cheeriest title ever, "This Place is Death"

2009-02-10T22:31:35Z

Nothing like a little bit of optimism from the writers of Lost. I can't think of a show I would like to watch more than one titled "This Place is Death." Here's ABC.com's synopsis of what's going to happen on Wednesday's episode. Locke takes on the burden to stop the island's increasingly violent shifts through time. Meanwhile, Ben hits a roadblock in his attempt to reunite the Oceanic 6.
By "Locke takes on the burden" we can assume that means "someone else is going to die." Also, there's a good chance that he's going to spin the great wheel of time. Also, I don't know if you saw that "Lost Untangled" action-figure show last week, but it's entertaining enough to post here. (Even though they've been doing this for a long time in other places.)

Just what is "The Little Prince"?

2009-02-05T03:46:36Z

Found this a few minutes ago. "The Little Prince" was a book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Here's the first part of the synopsis, from SparkNotes.

The narrator, an airplane pilot, crashes in the Sahara desert. The crash badly damages his airplane and leaves the narrator with very little food or water. As he is worrying over his predicament, he is approached by the little prince, a very serious little blond boy who asks the narrator to draw him a sheep. The narrator obliges, and the two become friends. The pilot learns that the little prince comes from a small planet that the little prince calls Asteroid 325 but that people on Earth call Asteroid B-612. The little prince took great care of this planet, preventing any bad seeds from growing and making sure it was never overrun by baobab trees. One day, a mysterious rose sprouted on the planet and the little prince fell in love with it. But when he caught the rose in a lie one day, he decided that he could not trust her anymore. He grew lonely and decided to leave. Despite a last-minute reconciliation with the rose, the prince set out to explore other planets and cure his loneliness.

Be sure to read the rest.

GUT REACTION: "The Little Prince" and the wisdom of time travel

2009-02-05T03:09:37Z

In an episode without a major revelation, it's the smallest lines that can be really telling. Walking through the jungle shortly after a time warp where Locke sees the light from the first hatch in season one and Sawyer watches Kate help Claire give birth to Aaron, Locke tells Sawyer what he saw. Sawyer turns and asks him why he wouldn't just stop himself from his quest, preventing everything that follows -- the death of Boone, the temporary loss of the use of his legs, the group's first interactions with Ben and the Others. "I needed that pain to get to where I am now," Locke says. That's a message that resounds through all the story lines, as most of the characters ignore the past. Let's look at Widmore's science class -- Faraday, Charlotte and Miles. Faraday -- now immune from what I'm calling time sickness -- believes that time sickness first affects those who have spent the most time on the island. So, we can believe that Charlotte and Miles, the first two sick, have spent the most time on the island. Increasingly, it looks like all three have past ties to the island. All three were possibly born there. Their past -- which none of them are talking about, which they might not even know -- have put them where they are now. Their continued denial of their past only makes Farday's diagnosis more difficult. Off the island, we are given a story line full of loops and holes. Sun embraces her belief that Jin is dead -- he isn't, we now know -- and takes it out on Ben Linus. Ben Linus makes Kate believe that Claire's mother is suing her for custody of Aaron. Jack is struggling with Kate. Sayid is struggling with Ben. Hurley is struggling with prison. Everyone is struggling with their lie. Their past -- which none of them can confront completely, which they are going to lengths to hide or are obsessing over -- put them in this dark parking lot at the marina. None of them want to face it. Then, there are characters like Locke and Sawyer, who are confronting their past by letting it be. In their particular situation, they really don't have a choice. Even Sawyer, who was so adamant three episodes ago to change his situation and save everyone he loved from leaving the island, has accepted that he can not go back and change things. Even as he is shot at, even as he discovers strange wreckage on the island, he tells Juliet that he couldn't call out to Kate. He knows now that he can only look forward, a strange thing for a man stuck in time to submit to. "What's done is done," he says.

LIVE BLOG AND CHAT

2009-02-04T23:09:56Z

Lost "The Little Prince" live blog and chat Live blog starts at 8:30 p.m., party lasts until 9:15 p.m. "Gut Reaction" to follow.

What I'm expecting from "The Little Prince"

2009-02-03T20:42:53Z

It's going to be a boring episode, I think. Why? Because I am tired of Kate's storyline. Yes, yes, she's attractive, and that just makes having to sit through another one of her episodes so annoying -- because I get the sinking feeling that she is there only because she continues to be attractive. If this episode focuses on Aaron, well, oh boy, will that be something. Aaron is in a weird spot, you know. He's genetically tied to Jack, Claire and Christian, making him a regular question wrapped in an enigma. Now that we know that the island is a regular family affair (I mean, Charles Widmore was there, and it certainly looks like Daniel Faraday's mother was, too, if you believe yesterday's reader comment from Arthur) any storyline involving the young man could reveal an endless amount of information. Then again, it really can't be a boring episode now, can it? This isn't the good old days (which some people miss dearly) when we were given a crumb of information and then led on 20 minutes of back story -- these are the days of time travel.

COMING UP: The Little Prince

2009-02-02T21:46:13Z

So, here's what happened last week. I didn't get to review it yet, but I will on Tuesday. Here's the recap (I think, I still haven't figured out ABC's video widget, you might just see an ad): Wednesday's episode is titled "The Little Prince," here's what ABC.com gives as the synopsis:

Kate discovers that someone knows the secret of Aaron's true parental lineage.

This certainly spells trouble for the kid at least one friend of mine has described as "the cutest kid ever." Awww. It certainly sounds like a good reason to run back to the island, though. After all, that's where his ghost mother and ghost grandfather are hanging out. It's important for kids to grow up with family, even if they are specters floating around with an ethereal shanty. More on that Tuesday. Also, we will be back Wednesday with the live chat and blog. We had a good turnout two weeks ago and I'm hoping our momentum hasn't been sapped. Sign up for a reminder below and join us. Bring a friend or seven.

Why we've been gone...

2009-02-02T17:11:08Z

We've been gone for more than a week now due to some server issues that were completely out of our control, so we've missed one week's chat and a review of last week's episode. But, we're back, and we are getting ready to have a normal week. I'll be back this afternoon with a post. I hope.