Lost (E4 Thread)

11:12 / 30.08.05

Why do I seem to be the only person for whom the Locke wheelchair thing was obvious right from the first shot of the episode, with him wiggling his toes? It had a dreary inevitability for me - all the way through the episode there was this sense of an impending flourish 'ta-da!!', which completely failed to create any sort of dramatic tension.

_Boboss

12:08 / 30.08.05

because you're so much cooler and better than everyone else?

12:13 / 30.08.05

Dunno. Because that would require an improbable, near-psychic degree of perspicacity?

12:13 / 30.08.05

Or what Gumbitch said (my post was originally much longer).

Triplets

14:59 / 30.08.05

I know we're supposed to dislike teh guy but I really hope Sawyer has qualities beyond "unrelenting prickhouse". Does he get any redeeming features at all as the series goes on?

Tryphena Absent

15:38 / 30.08.05

h1ppychick, why do you think you knew? Clearly there's something internal that differentiates you from everyone else here, you don't know someone who's in a wheelchair for instance?

Perhaps a more interesting question would be, why didn't you like it when he could stand up again?

17:11 / 30.08.05

I don't think I'm any more intelligent or perceptive than anyone else here and I'm 99.999% sure that I didn't subconsciously read a spoiler. I think it's just that the framing of the toe-wiggling seemed really obvious/significant, as if the viewer was supposed to subconsciously note "wiggling toes = important" but in my case it became a conscious note for some reason. The visual cues seemed then to be deliberately reinforced by some of the dialogue with the nasty office boss.

17:14 / 30.08.05

Also, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it when he stood up. I like the character and this was an important development in the storyline. It's just that, rather than getting the "Oh. My. God." reveal on seeing the wheelchair that other viewers may have experienced, it felt a bit flat because I'd guessed it would happen.

21:36 / 30.08.05

I know what you mean h1ppychick. Like, who didn't see that polar bear coming a freaking mile off?
''Ere we go', I sighed as the opening credits rolled, 'We geddit already. Bring on the bear.'

Tryphena Absent

21:42 / 30.08.05

I can imagine that might have been a bit annoying but I'm surprised you picked up on it, mostly because it was the first time the show really pulled something like that on the viewer. You haven't been watching a lot of Alias have you? Because after watching an episode of that the other day I'm beginning to suspect that Lost might get really weird.

Triplets

21:52 / 30.08.05

Just to pitch in: it was fairly obvious - to me - that there was something up with Locke's legs when he got knocked over by the boar. Whoever plays him really seemed to communicate "oh shit, I don't think I can walk you guys" to the camera.

22:26 / 30.08.05

That's true now I think back to it, Triplets. Swept right over me at the time though.
Hmmm. Who's the c*nt now eh, h1ppychick?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:46 / 31.08.05

heh heh. I am obviously a psychic goddess. I have watched a fair old chunk of Alias, by the way, up until Sky went a bit pissy and didn't buy it, leaving it on Bravo or Five or wherever the hell it is now. Perhaps I'm more attuned to weirdfreak Abrams than I'd previously suspected.

I'm bound, through the operation of the law of Sod, to be be the last person to spot every other plot twist that develops from now on.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

19:30 / 31.08.05

Glad someone else noticed the DC 1,000,000 reset. I think it might have only been the back cover, though, maybe an ad. Just read in Wizard (blarrrrgh. BLARRRGHHHH.) that Lindelhof is hell of into comics, or at least that's what he told Wizard (dunno why he'd lie about that to them, hm), but I can see that being a supersneaky uber clue. We'll see when the commentaries come out next Tuesday. YES. SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY, LOST. (Ha.) Not like I'll tell you guys, though. Don't want to spoil anything. Reading this thread especially is so awesome. It's like watching a newborn chick emerge from the egg. Walkabout was the episode that got me well and truly hooked too.

Anyway. Sawyer is my favorite castaway and considering the competition that's saying something. So no, he doesn't stay flat and boring and predicitble. Is that a spoiler? That there's character development? I hope not.

Shrug

21:20 / 31.08.05

"Jack and Kate get chased by bees with sexy results", I thought. Then they found a corpse.

iamus

22:14 / 31.08.05

A sexy corpse.

iamus

22:15 / 31.08.05

Oh.

"There are white pieces, and there are black pieces".

06:29 / 03.09.05

I'm just hoping Abrams hasn't shot his wad too early... we've had a bear, and we've had bees. I'm assuming there'll be no anteater cos Kingdom Hospital already did that... aside from badgers and midgets what else is left?

Automatic

11:46 / 03.09.05

I still hold out some hope there'll be dinosaurs involved somehow.

Jack The Bodiless

10:31 / 05.09.05

I guessed about Locke's legs too. Does it really matter, though? That episode's still my favourite part of the series so far, though - it's the "don't tell me what I can't do!", and O'Quinn's face, half-smile dissolving into flames at the end... fucking wicked TV. The fact that the reveal was telegraphed earlier on in the episode several times doesn't take anything away from it for me. Locke's still my favourite character, too.

Triplets

11:59 / 05.09.05

Has anyone said Locke isn't the dean? My whole point is that the quality of the foreshadowing - and O'Quinn's ability to run with that - in this series is, frankly, ace. What kind of bizarro universe says that's a bad thing?

Mysterious Transfer Student

12:04 / 05.09.05

Bodiless is right; Locke, and his Colonel Kurtz end-of-the-pier show, are the most compelling reasons to date for watching Lost.

As a longtime Alias fan, I feel the need to stand up for h1ppychick and assure all here who are new to the Way of JJ Abrams that yes, he pulls this anime-style "reveal well-hidden secret about X's past in lieu of character development" shtick all the time. Not that I'm meaning to knock either show, mind.

The Greg Feely Analogy* made earlier by Flyboy excites the hell out of me, because it holds out the promise that Lost really could become the high-gloss Silver Age James Bond Fortean mindfuck that Alias, with its flurries of multiple identities, ancient conspiracies, evil clones, resurrected family members and erased memories always threatened to be, but never was, quite. Even when David Cronenberg was in it.

*One of my favourite trad jazz groups.

Tryphena Absent

21:56 / 07.09.05

Who hit him?

Regrettable Juvenilia

22:27 / 07.09.05

Obvious favourites for the Said-bashing: Locke, Kate, Sawyer (the latter would require him setting the rocket to go off with a timer, but who's to say he doesn't know how...).

So it will probably be the pregnant woman or someone like that.

Or Jack's dad's ghost.

Or the French woman from the recorded message.

Automatic

22:28 / 07.09.05

I was a little disappointed that Driveshaft didn't seem to be a very good band. Oh well.

I'd also recommend the website on Channel 4 (Lost Website), it's really well designed and has got loads of little nuggets of info just waiting there.

Like Driveshaft's official website for example.

Regrettable Juvenilia

22:30 / 07.09.05

It probably should be clarified that "nuggets of info" = spoilers, or at least it did a few weeks ago (Jack's dad's death was on there before that episode aired). Of course I'm finding it pretty hard to resist looking at spoilers myself...

Automatic

22:36 / 07.09.05

I've been keeping well away from spoilers, and I didn't see any there. I think they update it each week after the E4 episode is on.

Goodness Gracious Meme

22:52 / 07.09.05

Driveshaft. A band. Two warring brothers. One called Liam.

For chrissake.

But yeah, hooked enough to wonder who hit him.

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:20 / 08.09.05

I thought Charlie's flashbacks did a nice job of leaving you wanting more, in a non-what-is-teh-big-secret way - ie, I want to know exactly what his religious background is - was he actually training for the priesthood, hence the nuns scurrying around the old stone buildings in that first scene of him and Liam?

Perhaps he was in OPUS DEI OH NO.

13:17 / 08.09.05

I know I seem a little eager to discern nods to pop culture icons, but wasn’t Kate dressed exactly like Lara Croft at the end of last night’s episode?

17:13 / 08.09.05

Please excuse the interruption, but I wanted to gloat for a moment...I just got the whole series on DVD in Canada.

Chuffed. Haha. Me hearties.

I'll get my coat, then.

sleazenation

20:08 / 08.09.05

Gloat all you want, I've had acess to it on suspect DVDs for months...

13:19 / 09.09.05

Gloaty gloaty.

17:09 / 11.09.05

This really isn't a spoiler, ok? OKAY? NOT A SPOILER.

*BUT*

If you're really fussy you might want to skip it.

I can't help myself, I just have to jump ahead a bit and mention that there is an absolutely ACE gag about
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The Office, later in the series
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Aaaaaaaaand, safe again. Sorry 'bout that. Won't happen again.