The Final Stage

Lost – This Place Is Death (5.05) Review

February 12, 2009 at 7:59 pm (Review, T.V.)

(Spoilers if you have not seen this episode)

Ben Screwed Up. But more on that later.

This Place Is Death once again set a very dark and serious tone for season 5, and I still like it. We pick up where we left off last week, with Jin having recently been fished out of the water by Danielle’s research team. Finally, in the greatest fan service ever,  we get to see almost all of her story. Almost as interesting as her history being reveled, is seeing how much of it actually matches up with what she told the losties in season 1. A lot of things didn’t match up with what she told Sayid and the others, but I am willing to accept that 16 years in solitary on a crazy island will make you forget exactly how things happened. Question; what the hell happened to Montand’s arm? Answer; Smokey. Yes, finally, our wonderful, vicious, brutal Lost smoke monster makes his return. When the group notices that one of Danielle’s research pals Nadine is suddenly missing, they go back to find her. Suddenly a tree explodes out of the ground, Nadine’s dead body falls from the sky, and the smoke monster is back. It quickly sets it’s sights on Montand, who is draged by the leg (in very similar fashion to how Locke was draged into that hole) towards an opening in the ground near a wall covered in hieroglyphs. As the others try to hold Montand up, while Smokey is pulling him down, his arm is ripped off him, and he is taken into the dark. It was an intense scene that was all about those damn fan’s and their annoying commitment to all of Lost’s little mysteries. Hahaha. I can only hope that the four toes statue is answered in similar fashion. Ok. So onward. Montand’s arm gets ripped off and he is pulled into a dark hole, then suddenly, and in a very strangly calm way, he calls for help. Robert (Danielle’s husband/baby daddy) and the others decide to go in after him, despite Danielle’s objections. Robert convinces Danielle that they need to go in after Montand and save him, Danielle agrees. Then Jin steps in, and stops Danielle from going down with the rest of the team, for the sake of the baby. It was here that I realized how much I love the idea that one of the Ocianic Survivors was on the island when Danielle was. For some reason to me it makes everything involving her so much more interesting. And Jin just proves once again to be a complete bad ass and shows how much the island has changed him. When Danielle’s team went back to search for Nadine he could have bailed and gone to look for his camp and Sun like he wanted. But instead he stayed and helped, knowing that out of all of them he had the best knowledge of the island. Go Jin. You rock.

So, Robert and the rest (except Danielle) go down the rabbit hole, and Jin experiences his first time flash (going to assume he was unconscious for all the others). This was the first flash of the episode and I noticed that it seemed a lot more violent than all the others. Jin was clearly in pain, and (though this may have just been a decision made by a different director) there were some different effects added to make the whole experience look a lot more intense. The sky clears and Jin looks around, having no idea what happened. Taking a step he kicks something,and looks down to see Montand’s decayed arm. Ok, Jin you just traveld to the future, what are you going to do next? Run into the jungle of course. Heading towards a pillar of black smoke he sees near the beach (for a brief second I thought he was going to wander into the events of Exodus) he stumbles upon a beach camp. Quickly he finds the bodies of the last two men from the research team, apparently dead from up close encounters with Danielle’s bullets. Jin then stumbles across Danielle and Robert yelling with guns pointing at each other. Danielle is telling Robert that she knows he is infected, that just like the others he was replaced by the monster when they went into the hole (or what I am pretty sure is one of the Cerberus Vents). Robert argues that it is not a monster, just a security system guarding the temple.

Pause for a moment. Yes, the Temple. I can only assume that this is THE Temple that Ben sent the rest of his people to. That he called the last safe place on the island. That he sent Danielle, Alex, and Karl to. Finally it seems we have seen the temple. From what Robert said, and the way he was defending it, I also think maybe he and the others made multiple trips to the temple. Maybe they discovered something there…Maybe I’m reading too much into it. Anyway. Back to the action.

So thanks to season 1 we all know how this argument ends, Robert tries to shoot Danielle, but she had removed the fiering pin from his gun. She looks horrified that the man who had just said he loved her and didnt want anything to happen to her or the baby just tried to shoot her. So, BLAM, Danielle shoots Robert. Jin lets out a bit of a startled yell at this, alerting Danielle to his sudden reappearance. “You, you disappeared” she yells at him as she opens fire. Jin runs away as the sky lights up again. Immediately he hears a gun cock behind him and a voice tell him to turn around. Oh happy day, it’s not a crazy french person, it’s Sawyer and company! Finally reunited with his friends Jin of course asks where Sun is. Sawyer makes a humorous attempt to explain to Jin that every time the sky lights up they travel through time, but Jin is more concerned with why Locke wants to bring Sun back to the island. Standing in front of Miles and Charlotte Jin asks for translation. In a hilarious moment, Sawyer looks at Miles and says “You heard him, get to translatin”. “He’s Korean, I’m from Encino” Miles responds. Haha. Oh it was glorious. So Charlotte, with her yet to be explained fluent Korean, explains to Jin everything that is going on. As they continue their trek to the Orchid, Jin makes it known that he does not want Sun brought back, but Locke continues to tell him that they all have to come back.

Then it happens. Well, ok not quite like that. But it starts. Two (or was it 3?) rapid back to back time jumps and everyone is in bad shape. Nosebleeds all around (except for Daniel, Jin, and Locke…curious) and Charlotte is in really bad shape. She is down, nose bleeds, and suffering form mental time jumps like Minkowski. Things are looking bad for Charlotte. The group decides that they much keep moving because things are really starting to get bad. Daniel decides to stay with Charlotte, and the others take off for the Orchid. But not before Charlotte can tell Jin not to let Sun come back, because “this place is death: (her words). And when the question is raised of what if they get to the Orchid at a time before it existed, Charlotte says to look for it by the well.

So Daniel is left alone to watch the woman he loves die. Things are getting pretty serious on Lost. In her final moments Charlotte reveals the only interesting thing about her character, she has been here before. Where? The island. Charlotte finally reveals what so many of us have thought, that she was born on the island. Her parents were members of the Dharma Initiative until one day when they had to leave. Her and her mother left to live in England, but her Father had to stay behind. She says that whenever she would mention the island, her Mother would tell her it wasn’t real, and that she made it up. So Charlotte became and anthropologist to dedicate her life to finding the island. Once again on Lost, things come full circle. Charlotte then says she just remembered something. When her and her mother left, a strange man who scared her as a child, told her she had to never come back to the island, or she would die. She then looks at Daniel and says “Dan, I think that man was you.” BAM! That was Lost punching you in the face with WTF power. Haha, sorry. Ok. So Dan told child Charlotte to never come back tot he island or she would die…I’ll come back to this later.

Locke, Sawyer, Jin, Miles, and Juliet arrive at the Orchid. Juliet makes a comment about how lucky they are to be in a time when the Orchid is still there (looks to me like they were far into the future by the looks of the green house), and immediately a time flash to the distant past when the Orchid is not there. “You just had to say something”. Good to know we are getting some of Sawyer’s old sarcastic attitude back.

Locke quickly discovers the location of the well and prepares to descend the rope down into the dark unkown. A brief interlude with Jin results in Locke promising not to search Sun out and bring her back to the island, but making no promises that she won’t search him out. Jin gives Locke his wedding ring and tells him to tell Sun that Jin’s dead body washed up on shore and they buried him.As Locke climbs down the well, the sky begins to light up, and the island time jumps again. Locke falls, hits the ground, and suffers a pretty sever broken leg. He looks around the darkness, trying to figure out where he is or how he gets off the island. I’m sure at this point Locke is really wondering what exactly his plan was, and then, footsteps.

A shadowy figure entres, lights a lantern (the exact same one from Jacob’s Cabin) and Christina Shepard makes his way over to Locke. I would just like to say that i think Christian is one of the most interesting characters on the show, even is his alive off island form. John Terry is an amzing actor and has been responsible for some fo the best scenes in Lost. Ok, end rant. Christian tells Locke that HE was supposed to move the island, not Ben. Two things come to mind at this revelation. Firstly, that if Locke had moved the island, maybe the bad things wouldn’t have happened, and maybe the Ocianic 6 need to come back for a reason other than to stop the time jumps. 2nd, Ben kinda screwed up. I think he honestly thought he had to move the island, and didn’t do it to screw Locke over. I think it was widely believed that it was Locke’s destiny to lead the others and guard the island and replace Ben. Now it seems that Locke’s destiny was simply to save the island, and was never meant to replace Ben. Interesting. Christian also tells Locke that his need to die is a sacrifice. I was called back to the way Locke so calmly explained that Boone was a sacrifice the island had demanded and never seemed really shaken up by his death. Christian seemed to feel the same way about Locke’s impending death.

Locke turns the wheel.

Meanwhile off island things are slowly getting interesting. It seems that Ben is close to getting everyone together, as Sayid, Jack, Aaron, Kate, and Sun are all at the pier together. With Sun holding a gun to his head, Ben tells her that he can prove that Jin is still alive, but she needs to go with him to the woman who will help them all get back to the island. When Kate hears that the plan is to go back to the island, she takes Aaron and leaves. I hate Kate. God I hate Kate. Sayid also leaves. Ben convinces Jack and Sun to go with him to see ‘the woman’ who I think we all knew was Eloise Hawking. Along the ride Sun and Jack discuss shooting Ben, leading to one of the most interesting scenes of Ben, fomr a character standpoint. Ben pulls the van over, and yells at the two of them that if they had any idea what he had done to keep them and their friends safe, they would never stop thanking him. Interesting. What exactly has been done to protect them? And who or what is he protecting them from? It was interesting to see Ben show some emotion and general frustration. It is clear that he knows exactly what is at stake if they don’t all get back to the island, even if he hasn’t told the O6 yet. When the 3 of them arrive at Hawking’s church, Desmond walks up, having just arrived in LA. Asking what they are doing there, Ben replies with “the same thing you are.”

“You’re looking for Faraday’s Mother too?”

I KNEW IT! Eloise Hawking is finally shown to be Daniel’s mother (interesting that he named his rats after his mother) as Sun, Jack, Ben and Desmond enter the church. Hawking tells Ben that he needed to bring all of them, and she seems totally unsurprised that Desmond has found his way back to her. “Lets get started” she says, to close the episode.

This Place Is Death was a totally amazing episode, and that makes 5 in a row for season 5. The writers are definitely showing that they are giving all the answers, and laying it all out on the table. We got Danielle’s back story. We saw (part of ) the Temple. We got a little more info on Smokey. We saw Locke leave the island. We found out that Charlotte was born on the island. We found that that Hawking is Faraday’s Mother. The information is just pouring out of this season, it’s almost hard to keep track of it all. I was in love with this show before Season 5 began, but now I am just totally and utterly blown away by it. I cannot wait until next week.

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Lost – The Little Prince (5.04) Review

February 5, 2009 at 7:26 am (Review, T.V.)

Well for some reason I haven’t written a single word on Season 5 of Lost yet…but I will. Wait, I am right now! What I mean is I’ll get to the first 3 episodes later. So, lets talk about episode 4, The Little Prince.

As a rule, I tend to dread Kate centric episodes. I think she is the least interesting character on the show, and have since season 1. I really never gave a damn about what she did, and as her whole story slowly unfolded over the next 3 years, well lets put it this way, I would have taken a couple more episodes about Niki and Palo over Kate bitching about ‘taco night’. But none of that really matters now because honestly, can we really even call any of these season 5 episodes ‘centric’? They all pretty much cover everything that is going on with everyone at the same time. And I love it. Anyway.

The Little Prince picks up where Jughead left off, with Charlotte bloody and unconscious and our losties trying to figure out where/when they are and what they need to do. Locke decides that he needs to go back to the Orchid and do whatever it was Ben did to get off the island. I’m curious to see how this plays out. Locke know she needs to get off island to bring the Oceanic 6 back, and knows Ben got off the island via the Orchid. But Ben moving the island is what screwed everything up and caused the time jumps, at least as far as we know. So if Locke moves the island, maybe it will fix the time jumps and the O6 won’t need to come back after all. Who knows. Anyway. I got way off topic.

So Charlotte comes to, rather anti-climatically and the group moves on, the plan being to get back to the beach and use the Zodiac to get closer to the Orchid faster. Along the way Miles starts to get a nosebleed. He confides in Dan, who says he doesn’t know exactly why the temporal displacement is happening to some people, and not to others. His theory, which agrees with many fan theories online right now, is that it has something to do with how long a person has been on the island. Miles’ response is along the lines of him having only gotten to the island, to which Dan replies “Are you sure about that?” Hmm…very interesting. Gives some support to the theories of Miles being the son of Dr. Pierre Chang.

So the big issue with this episode, for me, going into it was the teaser from last week. We say the light from the Swan, and we had heard Swayer say he saw Kate. So when Locke walks outof the jungle and looks up to see the light from Dues Ex Machina, I expected something big to happen. Maybe the group would march forward and see Locke. Maybe we would see a previously unknown conversation of past Locke and future Locke. Something. Some kind of revelation. But no. Locke lies, says he doesn’t know what the light is (though he later confides in Sawyer) and insists that they keep moving. A moment later we hear screaming, and having watched season 1, it is obvious that it is Claire giving birth to Aaron. Swayer runs forward and see Kate delivering the baby. Again, expecting something, anything…but no. he just watches until another flash of light occurs. Really the only disappointment so far this season, is what seems to me like a huge wasted opportunity here. I thought the writers could really have done something to shock us all, instead they just showed us things we had already seen. But the great thing about time travel, is that there is no such thing as a wasted opportunity. Lucky us.

When the losties arrive at the beach camp, not only do they find that it actually exists, but it seems to have been ransacked. None of the other survivors are around, leading me once again to wonder what exactly happened to Rose and Bernard, and how are they dealing with all this time travel. Makes me think either these characters have been removed from the story in a very uncharacteristic way of Lost, or they are going to become much more important than I ever though.

So with the camp in partial ruins and the zodiac mysteriously missing, Locke and company need a new way to get to the Orchid. This is when, for me, the coolest part of the episode takes place. The group discovers two wooden canoes on the beach and assume they belong to whoever ransacked the camp and took the zodiac. Miles discovers a water bottle in one, proving that the canoes are not that old. Sawyer investigates the bottle, noting the name Ajira. Juliet, the source of wisdom that she is, tells the others that Ajira is an airline that flies in the Asian Pacific. To me this screams Oceanic 6. Just my thought. But I think the group of survivors and the Oceanic 6 just missed each other here. But hey, that’s just me.

Anyway, they take the canoe and begin to paddle their way around the island. Along their journey they find themselves under fire. The other canoe from the camp seems to have followed them and it’s passengers are now opening fire on our survivors. Juliet returns fire, and shoots…someone. The scene was done is very typical Lost fashion, carefully not showing us who the people in the second canoe were. This does nothing but make me believe that someone important got shot…Good job Juliet. Another timely time flash occurs, propelling Juliet and the rest safely out of harms way and directly into a storm. Once on land Sawyer and Juliet share a moment, and it seems that Juliet has a bad habit of falling for every man on this island…well except for Ben of course.Juliet also gets a minor nosebleed, and it seems that everyone is going to find themselves subject to temporal displacement soon. I hope Dan can figure out what is up before someone dies…The group heads off towards the orchid, stopping only a moment to ponder over some fresh wreckage…that appears to be in french…

Meanwhile off island things are more interesting in than in the past, but still not as interesting as the on island events. Kate is on a quest to find out who is after Aaron. Her great plan is to follow the lawyer to his private meeting with the client who is supposedly after the blood samples.

Also meanwhile, Jack receives a phone call of Hurley, just to let Jack know that he is safe in jail. Good job Hugo, way to make everything more difficult. Ben arrives at the hospital, just in time for Sayid to be attacked by a mysterious assassin, who conveniently has Kate’s address in his pocket. With Sayid, Jack and Ben all reunited, and Kate in apparent danger, the three of them split up agreeing to meet at the pier once they finsih what they need to do. Jack of course goes after Kate, while Sayid and Ben go for Hurley. Kate’s adventure, with Jack in tow, lead them to a motel where the lawyer in question has a secret meeting with the person after Aaron…Claire’s mom. The plot thickens. Jack goes in to speak with Ms. Littleton and find out why she wants the child. And then it turns out that she has no idea what Jack is talking about and that she is in town to collect money from a lawsuit against Oceanic airlines. What a let down. I had really hoped that Claire’s mom was involved, because the only other option was the obvious ‘Ben went after Aaron to scare Kate into running so she would be easier to get to come back to the island’ scenario. Which, as it turns out, is exactly what was going on. So as the episode draws to a close we find ourselves at the pier with Kate facing off against Sayid, Ben and Jack, all on the verge of telling her that they need to go back. Nearby is Sun, with Aaron in the back seat. She has her gun, and clearly intends to shoot Ben. I have a feeling she’ll wind up shooting someone else. Also, I think Sun’s little mission to kill Ben is horribly bland and really pointless. She has no way of knowing that Ben was partially responsible for the freighter blowing up, therefore has no way of linking him to Jin’s death. Oh well.

And then the show gets back to being Lost. The final 5 minutes are really what this episode is all about. Set in the ocean, a small group of people floating in a raft. All of them men, one of them a young woman. All speaking french. Finally, it seems, we are going to get the long awaited back story of Danielle Russeau. But it wouldn’t be that simple and easy would it, no of course not, this is Lost after all. While adrift at sea these shipwrecked folk see a man afloat at sea. They manage to pull him aboard their life raft. Jin lives. Of course I am sure that few people believed him to really be dead, it was nice of the writers to not bring him back right away and make us question whether or not he was still alive. So dawn breaks as Jin awakens to find himself on the beach with some random Europeans. The young woman, who is soon revealed to be pregnant, asks him who he is and gives him some water. “Jin. Nice to meet you, I’m Danielle. Danielle Rousseau.” BOOM. End episode.

All in all I think it was a good episode, though not the best of the season. Obviously the big reveal is that Jin is alive and all the time travelers on the island are in 1988. I hope that we have enough time before they jump again to find out how Montond losses that damn arm, and how Robert and the rest die. It will be nice to finally get Danielle’s story after 5 years of waiting. Most of the Oceanic 6 have been reunited, sort of, and it seems we are getting closer and closer to their return. It seems now, that this will happen well before the season finale, as I had originally though. The hi light for me was the Ajira Airways water bottle. I can’t see how that is anything but the return of the Oceanic 6.

The Little Prince was not a earth shattering episode, but it was far from a bad piece of tv albeit a little slow starting. At this point in the show I really don’t think we are going to have too many wasted moments or bad episodes.

I apologize for the rambling mess that this review is. It is late, and I havn’t quite gotten back into the rythem of writting these things yet. Hopefully I’ll be able to do better next week.

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The Office – Stress Relief Review

February 2, 2009 at 5:57 pm (Review, T.V.)

Well a bold move by NBC seemed to have paid off really well. There was no new episode of The Office this last Thursday. Instead they followed the Super Bowl with a one hour episode advertised as being full of guest stars. Not being one for big guest stars, I was a little worried. Fortunately these guests (Jack Black, Cloris Leachmen, and Jessica Alba) were confined to an in show movie. But more on that later.

The basis of the episode was Michael finally realizing that he is the main cause of stress for all of his employees. Of course it’s not as simple as someone walking up and telling him. Dwight, as safety officer, decides that real life experience is the best way to teach his fellow Dunder Mifflin-ites (like that? I just made it up) how to survive a fire in the office. During the chaos Angela and a cat create one of the funniest moments ever on the show, that literally had me laughing out loud (the first of many times this happened this episode). The ensuing panic causes Stanley to suffer a heart attack. Of course once Dwight exposes himself as the mastermind behind the whole thing, he is quickly reprimanded for his actions and is called to New York for a serious hearing with CFO David Wallace. It was interesting to finally see someone penalized for their ridiculous antics in the office. The scene at Dunder Mifflin Headquarters is absolutely hilarious. The end result is Dwight having to issue a public apology and have it signed off by all of his co workers. Of course his apology is as devoid of emotion and sincerity as humanly possibly, meaning that no one wants to sign off on it. This keeps Dwight busy for the rest of the episode, trying to come up with ways to trick people into signing off on his apology.

Michael on the other hand, tries to relax all of his employees, thinking that Dwight is the reason for all of their stress. Of course Michael is the reason for everyone’s stress at work, and the truth finally comes out during a guided meditation (that I am pretty sure reveals Michael’s hidden drug use). Michael decides that the reason everyone is stressed around him is not because of his complete incompetence, but because his employees don’t have the courage to say what they really think of him, leading to one of his best/worst ideas ever; The Roast of Michael Scott.

Meanwhile Jim and Pam are dealing with the issue of Pam’s parents going through the begging stages of a separation. Pam’s Dad is staying with her and Jim, resulting in Mr. Beasley talking with Jim about the issue more than Pam. When he makes it known that he plans on separating from his wife (my writing would be a lot more clear if these characters had names) causing Pam to think that Jim said something to encourage her Father to split with her Mom. Jim of course freaks out from this, as does Pam. I was worried that they were going to add more Pam and Jim relationship issues. Something I am pretty sick of. While all of this is going on, Pam and Jim spend their free time at the office watching a pirated movie with Andy. The movie stars Jack Black, Jessica Alba, and Cloris Leechman. This is where the guest stars come in, these brief glimpses of the movie. While watching the movie, Pam and Jim make comments to each other regarding Pam’s parents issues, causing Andy to think that the pair are incredibly deep, and see and understand things in movies that he could never understand. Once again Ed Helms proves to me that he is one of the best actors on the show, and that his character is one of the funniest. His small parts in the background of the bigger story are hilarious as Andy becomes more frustrated that he doesn’t see what Jim and Pam do, and more impressed with them for seeing it.

The Main event of the episode though is, of course, the actual roast of Michael. Everyone is hilarious in this scene. Angelia comes out in full force, Oscar rants in Spanish (“I consider myself a good person, but I am going to try to make him cry” he tells the camera), Pam makes fun of Michael’s….manhood, and Andy performs an absolutely amazing song. Even Dwight lashes out at Michael when he calls Dwight an idiot. Jim, sadly, actually was the least amusing. I think somewhere inside him he still feels for Michael, and knows he (generally) has the best intentions at heart.

Overall the episode was one of the funniest in a long while. It had me laughing out loud again and again. If anyone thought The Office was losing it in the last few seasons, episodes like this remind us of what the show is all about. I hope the writers keep it up.

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