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Thursday, February 5, 2009

L-O-S-T, Season 5, Episode 4 (The Little Prince)

First of, let's start with Doc Jensen's review
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Niel got us started this week's discussion:

JIN IS ALIVE! and once again finds himself stuck with a group that he cannot understand nor they him....Plus he is with a group of French scientist, so you know first sign of trouble and they will give up. You can also hear the numbers being repeated when one of Le Frogs is playing with the radio. So now we have Charlotte, Miles and Juliet all suffering from the island nose bleeds and Daniel asking Miles "are you sure you have never been to this island before" ??? And we have a new group possibly from Aijira airlines who made some outriggers and drank all the Dharma beer. Other than finding Jin adrift, there wasn't too much to this episode I thought. The numbers popped up all over the place in this episode. And for Alison, the attorney that you could not place is from My So Called Life.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

JJ:

i am happy Jin is alive, too.... but how many se-going vessel explosions can one man live through? i think Jin is awesome, and it's clear the island is "not done" with him, but we need to see Jin survive a different perilous situation...


i agree with Niel that this episode seemed to wander and not really give us a lot, but i know it did. seeing Danielle and her crew was cool. but she has aged A LOT in just sixteen years. the island was certainly not good to her at all like it has been for Richard!


i did like Sawyer seeing Kate in the jungle and pining for her, but i hope they don't turn Sawyer into a gloomy woe-is-me sap. he is too funny and cool for that. i know his character needs to bemoan her, but now with Locke telling him she's still alive (if he'll believe it), maybe we can get back to the real Sawyer. by the way, when Richard met with Locke and gave him the compass back in the season premier, Richard knew the O'6 had made it back to America and were all safe.... i am confident that island flash was in the future for Richard to know it... perhaps in the same time as when we saw the outrigger boats with the Ajira stuff at the beach. something to think about.


as for the numbers... i am starting to see some new numbers repeating. 31 seems to be appearing a lot and the number 6 as well. i know an episode is coming with a title that might explain this...


i thought Sayid's fight scene with that dude in the hospital was really good. a real, messy style hand to hand struggle. that's how a real fight would be. no clean two guys standing there man to man punching and kicking each other. those guys were all over the room, scratching and clawing for survival. not pretty and very realistic.


i thought Daniel's question to Miles about him being to the island before having significance to him getting sick was huge.... so now Charlotte, Miles and Juliet are all getting time travel sickness and all have been to island prior to something specific so they are effected. is the crash of 815 that event, or is it something else?


i am left wondering what Jack told Mrs. Littleton after trying to explain to her what's up with Aaron. certainly she thinks something is jacked up (heh! Jack!) now with the survivors and Claire's baby if she didn't before... she has got to start asking questions now if Jack didn't reveal all to her at the motel.


finally, as much as i like the creativity the show is giving us so far this season, i'm not totally loving the loose connection between the island's time jumping and the Oceanic Six's efforts off the island. when we where dong flashbacks, and even flash-forwards, there was a clear connecting theme as to the characters past and the choices they had made or were going to make in the future and what situation they were dealing with on the island in that moment in the present. that connection ave the show a deep emotional richness and drove the characters clearly in what they did or didn't do. now, without them, it feels like the show has L O S T a bit of that magic. still love it and am enthralled with every episode, but i'm starting to miss the rich layering of that storytelling they did so well with the characters motivations and choices by utilizing the flashes. now it just feels very jumbled and like we have two completely different stories that aren't really connected to each other. i know they are and the writer's just aren't making it so overt right now in those connections, or perhaps with the island skipping through time, those connections themselves are all out of whack and will return once the island rights itself. but at least for now, i miss the old structure a little.

Anonymous said...

Niel:

Something that really cemented the fact that the writers have had a clear plan all along is the episode The Other 48, remember when Ana and Goodwin were hiking to the tower and Ana talks about the knife and how it is an army issued knife, how do you think that got on the island she asked? From the army team the others killed in 1954, boom !!! OK, I am going to throw this out there, in the first episode we see Daniel in secret agent mode down at the Orchid station, what if (for all the Marvel comic fans) he could not save Charlotte from the time jumps and decides that the only way to safe her and possibly them all is to go ahead go that extra centimeter and unleash the energy and destroy the island... No flight 815 crash, no summer junket courtesy of Charles Widemore aboard a doomed freighter and no moving the island in 2004. I know they have said you can't do that, but they also said there would be no time travel stuff either way back when.

Anonymous said...

Frank:

With last week's discovery of a young Charles Widmore and a (presumably) Eloise Hawkins on the island -- and this weeks discovery of Danielle, I'm starting to get a "Forrest Gump" feeling of discovery of all these important people/events on the island. Is this some master plan by someone who might be controlling the time shifts or is it (more likely) just the writers having fun with placing us in specific time frames. I'm digging it so far.

A few easy questions that I need answered:
1) Have Charlotte and Farraday ever kissed?
2) Where are the rest of the Losties during the time travel shuffles?

1) The reason I'm asking this is because I think there's a chance she might be Farraday's daughter? No real evidence to it, but I know he said he loved her ("...in love..." was the exact phrase, but I'm looking past that for now) and is obviously very protective of her - also last night she said 'you can stop babying me'. There's some odd things with Farraday (gee, ya think??) and his previous life with wives/girlfriends/etc, that I wonder if this might have happened. Altho the common theory now is that she was born on the island - as well as the ghost whipserer - who I'm convinced now is Marvin Candle's son.

2) So we get some time travel whooshing, then flaming arrows, then Losties split up, and then the Losties All-Stars all meet back up at the river/creek/whatever. But where are the rest of the Losties (Rose, Bernard, etc)? Are they whooshing thru time as well? They're not very clear on this.

I enjoyed last night's episode. Caught myself actually straightening up in my chair in anticipation of key scenes - like the first time we see a Losty interacting with a past Losty - well, not 'interacting' but observing. (It's at this point that I wonder if the writers were thinking this far in advance - I wonder if they truly knew where the story was going, they could have had Sawyer back in the original episode walk in on them giving birth, then later in that episode Kate saying 'thanks for helping' and Sawyer (not knowing what she meant) blow it off as her being crazy or something - then in this episode we can see him stepping in to help. Also, when that nurse came in to give Sayid the 'meds' I turned to my wife and said 'Sayid's gonna F him up'. And when they showed him with his feet crossed and laying back in bed a second before he made his move, you could tell Sayid was ready to strike. Awesome scene. I did enjoy the simultaneous "who do you work for?!" while he was choking him so he couldn't talk.

I agree with JJ, the island time has not been good on Danielle - and maybe we just overestimated her age from when we first met her - or maybe she's done the time shuffle as well. Opposite of Richard - she ages faster.

And I also made a comment to my wife that Sawyer had more emotion in the scene watching Kate then he's had in the last 2 seasons combined. I like how any cast member can pull off emotional scenes when called for - I credit the writing and directing (and casting) for this.

Oh, and Ben stepped up his manipulation tactics last night - even capping it off with a smile and a 'yes' when Kate was accusing him.

Good stuff.

(Ed. Note: When we were waiting for our DVR to get 15/20 minutes into the show so we could start watching it around 8:20 and be able to FF thru all the commercials, I watched about 45mins of Lie to Me. I like the show - does a nice 'play along' game when you watch to see if you can see glitches/smirks/etc when a person is talking to see if they're lieing or not.)

Anonymous said...

Niel:

The Charlotte/ Daniel thing is all over the place with her being his sister/daughter/ girlfriend, he has not kissed her yet,but I am still not sure about that one yet, she looks a little like the girlfriend in a coma of his too. The island has beaten Danille with that ugly tree a few too many times it seems, from the fresh faced girl 16 years ago.

Anonymous said...

Julia:

FYI...can't wait to read all of these...but I've been in LA for work all
week and haven't seen last night's LOST yet. I'll have watched by
mid-morning on Friday and will weigh in then.

On the plane out to LA (and on the way back, I hope) I've been
re-watching Season 4...just watched the Constant on the plane out here and I have to say I just love this show...such rich and layered storytelling.

Anonymous said...

H:

Ditto... I'm in New York this week, but should be able to watch tonight and weigh in tomorrow. And as Julie knows, in any book I read, I always read the last chapter after I read the first so I can pay attention to how they're getting where they're going, so I don't mind the spoilers

Anonymous said...

Frank:

...and you read alot. I don't think I've heard of a worse idea when reading, no offense. :)

Anyhow - another thought:

Did Jin and Danielle ever meet up in previous seasons? I would imagine Danielle should have had a 'waiit a minuutteee!' moment when she saw him.

Anonymous said...

Alison:

She has been alone for 16 years and Ben stole her daughter! Cut her some slack. You blame your hair loss on us and you haven't been through the half of it! She also gave birth without drugs. Have some respect.

I don't think Charlotte is actually Faraday's daughter, but there's some kind of connection. The effects of the time travel (with the exception of the guy on the boat) seem to get worse the more you're on the island. None of the losties are having symptoms yet.

Anonymous said...

Alison:

Jin knew Danielle...but in Danielle's time it's 16 years before Jin crashed...so he'd know her, not her him. I'm SO glad he's alive. They kill the characters I like the best (still sad about Charlie and Eko and not happy about the Penny might die theory) so really glad to have Jin back.

Anonymous said...

Frank:

I don't think you're following my thoughts here...

Danielle meets Jin when she's 16, they're going to interact for at least a short while.

Now Danielle, many years later, sees the plane crash, and begins to interact with the Losties (Season 1-2). When she makes her way to their camp, wouldn't she see Jin and say 'hey, when I first arrived here, when I was 16, I met someone who looked just like you and spoke broken English'. I guess Jin's only response would be "Udders?".

Bonus Quote of the Day:

"Lost: Tricia Tanaka Is Dead (#3.10)"
Jin Kwon: Good... to see... you.
Sawyer: Well look at that! Somebody's hooked on phonics.

Anonymous said...

Niel:

HAHAHAHAHA

Anonymous said...

Jamie:

was really glad to see Jin alive too. I was totally bummed out when I thought he left us last season.

Can someone send me an idea about something that bothers me? When the LOSTies warp back and forth in time, why do most objects stay where they are in time, but somethings go with them?

It sort of bothers me that they warp and all the camps and structures are gone, but now they have a rifle (from the 1950s) that is with them, and a canoe (which I think is from the future) that made the jump with them. When they were paddling across the water in the canoe and the time warp started I really thought they would be screwed and left without a paddle (or boat), but instead it came with them through time.

Anonymous said...

Frank:

Doc Jensen wrote something about this - and it's a good question (kind of goes along with the "When in the World is Rose and Bernard?" question I posed a few emails ago).

(If anyone is still not familiar with Doc Jensen, his Lost wrapups on Thursday mornings on EW.com are very well written and very informative. He doesn't have access to spoilers so his guesses are as good as ours - but he does quite a bit of research into names, etc.)

Anyhow, in this morning's article, he writes:
BURNING TIME TRAVEL QUESTION NUMBER 1: How come the castaways got to keep the outrigger when they did the time warp shuffle? Shouldn't that have been left behind in the previous time zone?

Answer: The question was actually asked and answered two episodes ago in ''The Lie.'' If you recall, Juliet theorized that time travelers get to keep the stuff they're holding or sitting in when they jump. (Also see: the compass that Time Indeterminate Richard Alpert gave John Locke to give to his 1954 self.) In other words: How about we just roll with this?

Anonymous said...

Niel:

Been talking about that one too, not sure either. You know Sawyer would have liked some of that Dharma beer to go with them.

Anonymous said...

JJ:

i cannot recall a time when Jin ever interacted with Danielle post crash.

Anonymous said...

Alison:

Yes, I can be taught. I get it. But if you can't change the past, how is Jin allowed to meet a younger Danielle?

Anonymous said...

JJ:

the writer's hinted at some things in the video interviews they did with Doc Jensen... they said that the "rules" for all the time travel stuff have been laid out for us by Ms. Hawking with her course correction info to Desmond in Flashes Before Your Eyes and she also says that you can make choices that can delay events from happening, but they will still happen. we witnessed this with Des trying to save Charlie... then we get Faraday telling us the past cannot be changed and he also says the future cannot be changed, reiterating Hawkings lesson.. but the writer's said we should be asking ourselves if these rules are firm, or flexible? and the characters themselves may choose to challenge these rules and TRY to change things. that doesn't mean they'll be successful, but it does pose some interesting possibilities. say we work from Sawyer conversation with Locke to stop himself from opening the hatch and change things... Locke says he needed to go through that and Sawyer blows him off. well, let's say Sawyer encounters a flash in the past that could enable him to stop Michael from killing Ana Lucia and Libby and set Benry free... should he? would he be able to? would he stop it for a brief period and then it would all happen anyway, but in a different fashion? the writer's stated we should be watching for this... that certain events we have seen in past season's will be revisited with different perspective from the characters in their new time skipping situation.


i like it, but it takes a lot to stay on top of everything that has already happened and who was involved and who wasn't. it's a puzzle, but not one that's too difficult to keep me from trying to solve it.... i do think that the possibilities are huge and it would be very cool to see some events from season's 1 - 3 revisited and what Sawyer, Locke, Jin, etc. may do or not do. plus, Jin has no idea what's going on at this point with the time jumping. he is isolated, and when the next flash happens, he could be placed when the raft was about to launch, or the day Shannon is killed, or when Sun was "kidnapped" by Charlie so Sawyer to get all the guns from the hatch... Jin doesn't know the rules. he has no idea what is going on... think about those possibilities...

Anonymous said...

Niel:

Episode 1 opens with the alarm clock a-la Ground-hog day, season four shows Daniel upset seeing the crash of flight 815 and could possibly be suffering from time travel complications? what if Daniel keeps running through all of this in his attempt to save Charlotte and he keeps making the wrong choice or is delaying the course correction each time. And so in the end he has to let her go to allow time to correct itself.

Anonymous said...

John G:

Does anyone remember who that lady was with Daniel when he started crying after seeing the crash on TV?

Anonymous said...

Niel:

All we have seen is legs so far and a voice.

Anonymous said...

H:

With respect to Charlotte being Daniel Farraday's daughter, maybe... I thought the opposite last week, that maybe Charlotte was the mother of the coma girl.... and if coma girl is his daughter, then young Ellie would really remind him of his daughter as a young woman, since she is Ellie's granddaughter.

But, I can see where someone would think Charlotte was his daughter. Interesting. I still can't say how much I like the idea that the whispers in the jungle are from time-jumpers in a parallel universe. I just love that idea. More when I actually watch...

Anonymous said...

JJ:

a couple real quick things.... sorry, it's been a rough day and i haven't been able to be as engrossed with the discussion as usual.

Niel - great point on the U..S. Army knife Ana Lucia found, i agree and think the writer's do have a master plan they have been trying to execute from the beginning.

Buzz - i understood what you meant about Roussou recognizing Jin in the "present" on the island. i wonder about it, too. Roussou did act a little off thanks to her years on the island... perhaps she lost some brain cells that would have helped her recognize Jin, perhaps he'll flash away from them quickly and she'll have forgotten him all together. plus, he ain't looking so good right now, so it might just be him looking totally different when she sees him later on... or she might not have seen him at all. the only time i can think they would have crossed paths was during the season 3 finale and the season 4 premier with all the groups separating and reuniting and splitting up. worth a look to see if they interact at all.

one thing about Richard - in the season premier, when he comes to Locke at night and patches up his bullet wound, he puts on a pair of glasses to administer the first aid. i thought this was an interesting clue, that perhaps Richard does age, but very very slowly. that he is not impervious to aging or immortal, or why would he need glasses. and why does the island not heal bad eyesight? see Sawyer's need for reading glasses...

and there may be an issue with Jin being on the island. surviving the Freighter blast, sure. but we know the freighter was outside of the island's radius or whatever when it moved at the time of the explosion because they make a note of showing that Juliet and Sawyer can no longer see the smoke of the burning wreckage once the island moves. so, Jin would have had to get thrown into the island's radius AND on the right bearing to boot to be on the island now. i don't think there was enough time between when the freighter went boom to the moment the island moved for Jin to have swam the distance necessary, especially if he were hurt at all by the blast or knocked unconscious. the island keeping him alive, i buy that, but how he got the island from the freighter and is now in the time loop? i got questions.

and one more thing: if it's just the people skipping through time and not the island, then how come Richard and others don't skip, but the Losties do and the freighter people do? we kind of talked about this before, but upon thinking about it some more, i wonder why the freighter people are moving also. i can go with it just being the 815 survivors, and maybe i can stretch and believe Juliet is caught with them and she moves , too. but why the freighter people? does it have anything to do with people who are "stranded there" vs those who live there? that doesn't work either because Miles and Charlotte WANTED to be there. i am wondering if it has to do with a specific moment in time. that anyone who comes to the island after said moment is moving, but if they came before that moment, they aren't moving. if so, what is that moment? it couldn't be either moment involving the Swan station when the plane crashed because of Desmond not pushing the button quick enough, or the Swan implosion, because both of those happened after Juliet arrived. so what could it be, if that's the reason. or did the writer's blow it on having an explanation for this?

later....