The Mishka Weekly LOST Weigh-In
After an excruciating eight months of waiting, season 5 of Lost kicked off last night with a twisty, sci-fi bangah. Fans turned off by the show’s sci-fi elements must have squirmed for the whole two hours, but for the rest of us it was gold. It was a traditional Lost premiere in the sense that it introduced an array of story and allowed us to be reminded what these characters are all about. By the second hour, it had us jumping back and forth through time with some straight-up anxiety-inducing moments. And in true Lost fashion, it introduced more questions and answered very little. But that’s one of the reasons I love this show; it engages the hell out of us and we spend the next week theorizing, arguing, and ruining friendships. I’ve got faith that the writers aren’t making it up as they go along (any more) and with a set amount of episodes left, it’s only going to get more satisfying.
I’m not going to give a recap of both episodes. I’m assuming that if you want to discuss Lost then you watched the premiere. Let’s just dork-out about the juicy shit!
“Because You Left” and “The Lie”: Lost always has “Oh Shit!” beginnings to their premieres (Season 2 is still my favorite) and this one was no different. In the first five minutes we find out that the wheel was already there?! I had always thought Dharma had installed it or found it when they pushed the Others off their land. Daniel Faraday is in disguise as a worker which means that he’s already been to the island and has been time traveling for quite some time. It looks like Daniel is going to be a much more central character this season which is great because he seems to know more than anyone currently on the island as to what the hell is going on, even though he clams up every time someone asks him what the hell is going on. “Trust me.”
Kate is visited by lawyers who claim they’ve been hired by an unknown client to determine if Aaron is actually Kate’s kid. The “unknown client” may be Ben. He knows Aaron is actually Claire’s child, so maybe he’s using the lawyers to sort of push Kate into going back to the island, which I doubt she will do without some heavy persuasion/manipulation. I wish Kate stayed on the damn island. Why did she want to go back anyway? As much as she struggles with it, she’s obviously in love with Sawyer. She has really no family, nothing to go back to, why leave? And where’s Walt? WAAAAAAAAALT!!!
A lot of the big questions from the premiere involve the time travel elements. The island is out of control and the fucking thing jumped through time about five times last night. I’m really glad they set rules for time travel. If it were possible for them to alter the past (in turn altering the future) the show would be 1000 times more bananas. Especially with the incorrigible Sawyer running around banging on hatch doors. Maybe the writers were just making shit easier for themselves, but I pat them on the back for that.
Locke went through some heavy shit during his most excellent adventures. Now, since he was shot and confronted by Ethan, this must mean that Ethan met Locke before the Oceanic crash and he must’ve told the Others about him. Remember when Locke is taken to the Others camp for the first time? They seemed to know who he was, like they had a prophecy about him. Interesting side note: One of my homies read that the spot where Locke fell after he was shot is the exact spot where his legs gave out when him and Boone were checking out the Beechcraft plane. If that’s true, that’s fresh beyond words. His encounter with mega-sketchball Richard Alpert was interesting. Richard gave Locke the compass from Locke’s childhood flashback (when Locke chose the knife instead of the compass) and tips on applying eyeliner.
Daniel explains that they’re unable to change the past, except Desmond. What makes Desmond so damn special? Was his chemical makeup altered when he stopped the electromagnetic anomoly from exploding? That’s the only theory I’m leaning towards so far. Daniel tells Desmond (in the past) that he has to go to Oxford and find Daniel’s mother (who I believe to be Ms. Hawkins, the old woman who meets up with Ben at the end). It looks like Ms. Hawkins is in the church where Desmond got his monk on, but I could be wrong, bruthah. She warns Ben that he only has 70 hours to get the 6 back to the island. What’s going to go down in 70 hours and how can she be so specific when she’s using a chalkboard, a pendulum, and an Apple II computer?
Hurley really is the heart and soul of this show and he threw a Hot Pocket at Ben.
I wasn’t expecting a new character to be introduced, but meet Jill. Ben dropped off Locke’s “dead” body at her butcher shop and she seemed to know exactly who Locke was and that Ben would be stashing him there. She must be Dharma or Dharma-related if Ben trusts her that deep. She’s also possibly a dyke. Just sayin’.
I had an argument today over whether the soldiers that attack Sawyer and Juliette are Dharma or not. I don’t think they are. There’s no distinguishing Dharma-elements on their uniforms and chopping off someone’s hand as a scare tactic doesn’t sound like Dharma regulation to me. Namasté and all that. And who did the flaming arrows belong to? The Others?
Chime in with your thoughts, rebuttals, bitches, and whatever I missed. Welcome back Lost.
- Oh Mars
January 22nd, 2009 at 5:56 pm
There’s one item that you didn’t mention brutha. At the beginning of the premier we saw a little baby. Dr. Pierre Chang (or Dr. Marvin Candle, Dr. Mark Wickmund and Dr. Edgar Halliwax as he called himself in the DHARMA orientation vids) could be Miles’ dad. That would explain why he’s so weird and spooky.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:18 pm
My girlfriend also pointed out that she thought that Dr. Marvin Candle’s baby in the beginning was Miles.
Also not sure if anyone picked up on it but the good doctor has a prosthetic hand in some of the orientation films. Was that whole thing with the soldiers threatening to chop off Juliet’s hand the writers way of alluding to Dr. Candle’s missing hand and how he lost it?
I’m also really glad that Daniel Faraday is going to have a larger role in the show. He’s been my favorite new character introduced since they fleshed out Juliet and Zeke.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:35 pm
I completely forgot about Doc’s baby, who most certainly could be Miles. That would make perfect sense.
I never noticed that about Doc’s hand. Good fucking call.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Are you going to be doing one of these every week for Lost AND BSG?
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:43 pm
I was thinking about it. Why? Do I get a raise?
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:30 pm
All I know is, we can all stop worrying about whether or not Sawyer will find a shirt.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:53 pm
No but you get the satisfaction of starting BSG and Lost debates!
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Is anyone else tired of Sawyer and Kate’s characters?
January 22nd, 2009 at 10:18 pm
YES to Kate! NO to Sawyer. I’m not a huge Sawyer fan by any means, but it’s inevitable that he sacrifices himself to save everyone left on the island. It’s the only way his character can complete his arc. I look forward to seeing how that goes down. And how great was it when he slapped Daniel and called Charlotte “Ginger?”
But screw Kate. What else can they do with her character? Like I said in the post, I don’t even know why the fuck she wanted to leave the island. One-dimensional and so boring. I bet they’re only keeping her around because Sawyer loves her.
January 22nd, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Well i think they’re keeping Kate around because she’s the shows “hottest” female to most male viewers! Personally I’d take Goth Claire and Juliet over her! But I agree she is one-dimensional and they seem to force stories on to her. But truthfully I feel the same way about Sawyer, his time on the show has come and gone. But you make a great point that he may be around at this point to simply sacrifice himself for redemption. If so I hope it comes sooner than later because right now he’s just parading around as the show’s male heart throb.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:22 am
what you say here- (Daniel Faraday is in disguise as a worker which means that he’s already been to the island and has been time traveling for quite some time.) may be true but…. the more likely explanation would be he goes there disgised as a worker in a time jump, trying to fix the islands wacky behaviour.
just my thoughts.
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:31 am
Yeah I agree. Faraday in the opening scene probably means he and the rest of the castaways probably jumped back there in one of those flashes. I don’t think he’s been traveling in time longer than anyone else
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:38 am
A lot of these things I agree with.
Miles = Candle’s son. it just has to be. No doubt about it.
Faraday def knows what’s up, although the first shot has to be something along the lines of a future past, if you can follow that one (as he was baffled with Desmond’s time travel earlier in the series).
Hawkins = Daniel’s Mother (although the church they are in couldnt be in England, as Linus was in CA that same day)
Something tells me Whidmore is one of the Brit soldiers who capture Sawyer and Juliette at the end of “The Lie”.
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
That would be crazy if Whidmore is one of the souljas. Awesome theory.
This morning one of my homies said that he cranked the audio when Sawyer whispers to Kate (right before jumping out of the copter – Season 4 finale) and he tells her to check in on his daughter.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Hawkins has to be Daniel’s mother. I’m calling that one as well.
Also, I think that the survivors can actually speak to other survivors that died on the island and its not them being crazy. Remember how Ben says Locke has to die to get off the island to notify Jack to come back?
Then couple that with the fact that all of them save Jun and Sayid thus far have had conversations with ghosts of past.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Correct, he tells Kate he has a daughter in Albuquerque. This is where Sawyer transferred the money when he was released from prison. I wonder if its the same bank Kate helped rob just to get into that safe deposit box? Hmmmmm.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I thought it was long revealed that whatever Sawyer whispered to Kate was about his daughter. Am I mistaken?
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
It was news to me, I must have slept on that info.
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I wouldn’t say that Daniel Farraday has been time traveling longer than anyone else. Rather, the opening scene it was a flash forward (but backwards time travel) rather than flashback. My guess is Daniel goes undercover as a Dharma contruction worker to find out how to conserve the engery and possibly put a stop to the island’s uncontrollable time travel.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:06 am
co-sign on Goth Claire being the hottest. Also, Jin lives and that’s how Ben is gonna convince Sun to get back to the Island and not cap him for Whidmore’s dolo.