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I thought it was a fantastic episode. Besides the fast one the producers have pulled on us -- instead of answering the lingering "island" questions (the madness mentioned by Rousseau, the black smoke, the...well, EVERYTHING), they've just jumped into the "future" and given us a whole new batch of conundrums to puzzle over (who's after the Oceanic 6? What happened to the others on the island? Who's Sayid/Ben after?) -- the show has picked up some steam that was seriously lacking in the last two seasons.
I love how Sayid's story was like your average Hong Kong actioner -- Sayid the slicked-back, globetrotting assassin. All he needed were two 9mms in his fists and a trenchcoat. I have to say, I figured early in the episode that Ben would be his employer, in the future -- you couldn't help but notice the awe with which Sayid checked out all of those passports in Ben's hidden room in the island portion of the story. It was like you could just see the respect forming in Sayid's eyes.
Now we have these extra questions...who is Ben having Sayid murder? My guess is it's the people who that black lawyer "Abbadon" works for -- ie, the guy who showed up in Hurley's flash forward and the dead helicopter girl's flashback. But who does Abbadon work for? Could it be Dharma...ie the real Dharma, the people young Ben gassed to death (as seen in Ben's flashback last season)? Could it be they're looking for vengeance -- hence their hunting down Ben specifically? If that's the case, then that means the helicopter/ship people are also involved with Abbadon...though of course he's in the "future," not necessarily in the "past" of the island portions of the story. The mind boggles.
Also a big question is who Sayid's German target/lover was working for. Notice the reliance on the ancient pager. I'm sure this is a clue of some sort. Incidentally, Sayid stories are always my favorites, as he's still my favorite character on the show, and this one was the best yet.
I really like the new character Faraday. It's great to FINALLY have someone on the island who can figure out what the hell is going on. In two episodes he's yielded more data about the weird aspects of the island than any other character has managed since the show's inception. I wonder what he'd make of the black smoke/monster? When he had the ship launch the marker and it never arrived, my first though (and likely the first thought of other viewers) was that the island is in another dimension. This would make sense, as the marker landed in the ship's reality, but didn't land in the island's reality. This would also explain the wreckage of the Oceanic airliner in the "normal" reality -- meaning in that reality the passengers actually died, but somehow our characters slipped into this alternate pocket of reality...sort of a quantum physics thing. But then the damn marker landed after all, pretty much ruining my theory. So instead we're dealing with some sort of time lag? Or could this be a minor instance of a larger time disturbance which affects the island?
I also like how Locke has gone power mad. Sawyer's "Kurtz" reference (a la Apocalypse Now) the other week was spot-on. I'm also glad we've seen the apparent send-off of the otherwise time-wasting Jack-Kate-Sawyer triangle. Jack sending Kate off, telling her Sawyer wouldn't let her get hurt, seemed to me a none-to-subtle "go be with him, he's better for you" message from Jack to Kate.
Speaking of the women in Jack's life, I'm really hoping they start to focus more on former Dharma-girl Juliet, who was my favorite new character last year -- I still say she's gotten the best line in the show's history (her "I had that day off," to Hurley, when Hurley told her he didn't see Juliet with the Others when the Others kidnapped Jack et al). This season she's gotten maybe a handful of lines.
Anyway, this season has been great so far. |
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