All right, I know this entry was a long time coming, so I’ll dispense with the pleasantries and get right to the recap. But I have to get this in here somewhere: Lost. There! Now you know which show you’re reading about.
The opening goes straight into a flashback, where Jack and his dad are whispering about a difficult case while the patient and his daughter wait anxiously. The patient and his smokin’ hot daughter, I should say. They’re Italian; apparently they flew out just to be treated by Jack’s dad. Unfortunately, he decides against the operation — but wait! Gli italiani didn’t come all this way to see Christian, they came for Jack! Ooooh, burn!
I guess the operation where Jack fixed his wife has become quite famous; the girl read about it in medical journals. Jack agrees to take the case, and his dad looks pissed, naturally, but I think also a little proud of his kid. The Italian girl looks like she’s ready to play hide the salsiccia with Jack.
Jack wakes with a start in the bunk bed. He hears Locke moaning and runs over to the gun cabinet, where Locke is knocked out on the floor. Michael comes running out with a gun pointed at Jack, all sweaty and crazy-eyed and shouting about a father’s right to save his kid. Jack is not at all trying to disagree with Michael, but Michael locks him in the cabinet anyway. Hmm, I don’t think Michael’s character arc is very well written here. Why the extreme freaking out?
Jack tries to escape through the air vents, but as Locke come to he casually explains that he’s already bolted them shut. “That’s really good thinking, John,� says Jack. Yay for snarky Jack! There should be more of this! Ask and ye shall receive, I guess, because as Locke starts to worry about the timer, Jack comments that they better “hope Sawyer comes to get his Band-Aid changed.� Ha! Nice one, Jack.
Out on the beach, Kate wakes Sawyer by throwing a banana at him. Hm. I don’t exactly know what the significance of that is, but I betcha it’s sexual! They head down to the hatch to attend to Sawyer’s wounds, but Kate calls his treatment “bandages.� Once there, they hear Locke and Jack shouting for help from behind the locked door. So, Kate goes and resets the timer and Sawyer opens the door to the gun room. Well. That wasn’t very exciting.
Jack is out in a flash, with big plans for catching up to Michael. Locke and Sawyer follow, though Sawyer seems really annoyed about it all. Over in flashback land, Jack and the Italian girl have a really boring scene. It’s essentially a “burgeoning sexual tension� vignette, but it’s not very interesting. When Jack gets home, his wife tells him that her period was late, but she’s not pregnant. I think she may be trying to punish him. She really takes her time getting to the punch line.
Locke is tracking Michael by looking at boot prints, which for me requires a huge suspension of disbelief. I can buy the sentient smoke column, but they can’t make me believe that Locke has studied the soles of everyone’s shoes.
Kate tries to tag along but Jack goes all machismo power-trippy and FORBIDS her. Ooh, what a manly man! On the trail, Jack and Sawyer are bickering over the lady. It seems as though Sawyer doesn’t remember that he said he loved Kate. Locke interrupts them to get to the relevant business, which is that Michael isn’t retracing his steps from the island hike he took with the tail group. He’s off in some other direction.
There is massive cuteness going on at the beach, where Sun is making Jin put on a floppy, wide-brimmed hat. I’m glad they like each other now. Also, Hurley digs the hat, which means it’s awesome. He tells the couple about the Michael situation, and Jin starts packing up to follow the manly men. Sun ain’t having it, though, and she screams at him that Michael may be his friend, but she’s his wife. Sing it, sister! Jin looks shocked, but agrees to stay.
Out on the day hike, Sawyer is lagging, presumably because of his injuries. They take a break and Locke gets all philosophical. He asks Jack what the plan is for when they get Michael. Why is he asking this now, after he’s spent all day climbing a mountain? This discussion would have made much more sense in the hatch. “Who are we to tell anyone what they can or can’t do?� asks Locke. That line was constructed solely to trigger a flashback.
Jack has the Italian lady signing off on the surgery. In a quiet, dimly lit room. Naturally. Jack’s dad comes in and gives him smug shit about not sleeping with relatives of patients. It was okay for Christian, but he seems to think his son couldn’t handle it. You know, the flashbacks are falling a little flat for me in this episode.
On the hike, Locke lets out that he knows Sawyer’s real name. Nice callback! But before Sawyer can get too defensive, we hear gunshots ring out. Jack starts screaming for Michael, which seems a little impulsive. The parade of burly men goes tearing through the jungle, and when they finally stop they find shells and bullet marks in trees. Also, Jack gets all uppity about Sawyer’s reasons for coming out to find Michael — he thinks Sawyer just wants revenge for getting shot. So? That’s probably as good a reason as any.
Sure enough, the next flashback shows that Jack’s instinct for rescuing people is driving his desire to find Michael. The Italian guy died while Jack was operating on him, sending Jack into deep guilt mode, which led to him making out with the bella donna. It’s a chain reaction, people. Jack is instantly guilty, and leaves her crying as he goes home to his empty, empty marriage.
Back on the island, it’s night and Locke has lost Michael’s trail. He proposes going back and trying again tomorrow, but Jack’s savior complex won’t allow that to happen. Jack even accuses Locke of noting caring about Michael, which Locke correctly dismisses as ridiculous. He didn’t run towards gunfire because he didn’t care.
All of a sudden there is a scary loud man voice! It’s gruff and deep and sounds like Santa gone wrong! I’m sure most fans, even those like me who like to stay as spoiler-free as possible, knew at this point that it was the man who stole Walt from the raft last season. Also, I always think this guy is Stacy Keach. Our heroes have their guns drawn, and when Sawyer advances toward not-Stacy Keach, he’s shot from somewhere in the jungle. Looks like they’re going to have a little sit-down.
And now it’s time for our Moment of Levity! We’re back down in the hatch with Charlie and Hurley, who are looking through the record collection. Aw, Hurley has a crush on Libby. He thinks she’s cute in an “I’ve been terrorized by the Others for 48 days kind of way.� He figures this situation is his best chance at getting someone like her. Oh, if only Hurley knew that the most attractive thing about a man is confidence! Maybe he should get some tips from Sawyer.
Sayid wanders in and deadpans that the music is depressing. The boys let him know that Michael has run off and “everyone� has gone after him. Which is dumb because clearly not everyone has gone after Michael. But, it sets the scene for some potential “Sayid feels alienated� drama and lets us know that Kate has gone after Michael, too. But where is she? Dun dun dunnnnn!
The bad man is getting philosophical up in the jungle, but his point boils down to his belief that the island belongs to his group and they’re just letting the castaways stay there. Jack tries to call his bluff, and tells the guy that there’s probably just one other guy with the bad man. At this, the guy yells out “light ‘em up!� And a ring of torches lights up around them. Now, I could only make out one actual human holding a torch in this sequence, but that’s not to say that I think Jack’s right. I bet you guys have found tons of screenshots from this scene already.
Jack refuses to hand over the guns, so the man plays his trump card: he’s got Kate tied up! OK, so that’s dramatic, but what caught my attention more was the fact that someone named Alex brought her out. You know, Rousseau’s kid? And of course we only see Alex’s arm. Kate schmate, I wanna see Alex!
Jack looks like he’s about kill Kate himself. Sawyer is much more interested in saving her. But it’s up to Jack, and while dramatic music is throbbing all over the place, was anyone really in suspense? Of course Jack hands over his weapons. They should have let Kate die and then this show would be groundbreaking like HBO.
A gorgeous sunrise down on the beach provides the backdrop for a heart-to-heart with Jin and Sun. He tells her he doesn’t like being told what to do, and she counters that she got told what to do all the time their entire marriage. He finally sees things from her perspective, and they get all cute and smiley. These two should get a spinoff.
Kate sends Jack into a flashback with all of her wheedling and justifying and apologizing. I guess this all reminds him of the end of his marriage, when he inexplicably told his wife about the kiss with the Italian girl. It was just a kiss and he didn’t initiate it, so I don’t know why he had to tell his wife. But I am a woman of low virtue, so maybe I’m not the best judge.
Anyhoodle, it turns out the Jack’s wife and been dating someone anyway and was ready to leave him. Sigh. We already knew that Jack and his wife had broken up, so nothing here is a big surprise. She makes the point that viewers of the show had known all along: Jack’s not happy unless he’s fixing something. So I guess it’s no surprise that he heads on over to Ana Lucia. (By the way, they drink water out of an orange Nalgene bottle, and colored bottles weren’t introduced until about five years ago. Production error, or evidence that supplies are still arriving to the island?)
Jack asks Ana Lucia about her background as a cop, then feels out an idea: “How long do you think it would take to train an army?� More dramatic music! He must be serious. And there you have it, folks. Solid episode, nothing special. What did you think? Was the scene with the Others everything you’d hoped for?
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40 Comments
I love this show, but sometimes it drives me crazy. Why is it that whenever any of the castaways meet someone else who’s been on the island for a while they immediately develop amnesia. After fifty days I think I’d have a list of about 100 questions in my back pocket. While the man speaking for the Others is going through his lengthy (and labored) analogy about coming into someone’s house, putting your feet on the table, making a snack, looking in closed rooms, etc. etc. etc. wouldn’t you want to interrupt him and say “What’s the smoke thing? Why’s there a polar bear on a tropical island? Why does the supply room in the hatch seem to be recently refilled? What’s with the numbers and the computer? Why are the hatch doors labeled Quarantine on the inside?” etc. etc.
Also, when he says that “This is not your island, IT’S OURS,” would’nt you want to chime in and say “Couldn’t agree more, don’t want to be here, loan us your boat or better yet don’t blow up one that we’ve built and we’ll be on our way. You guys can hang out and play Lord of the Flies to your heart’s content. Adios.”
AARRGGHH! LOST – I love ya but you’re killing me.
an army led by mr. eko, jack, ana-lu, sawyer, locke, jin, & kate might be just the freak show to figure out what the hell is going on on this island.
throw in hurley’s wacky comments & confusing “dude” nicknames for everyone, charlie’s stash of the sisterhood-of-the-traveling-heroin-virgin-marys and claire’s squawky australian accent… the others might just go the way of desmond & disappear all together.
by the way, i know this is a stretch, but did anyone see a resemblence between the italian guy jack operated on & desmond?
maybe it’s just me.
white europeans kinda all look the same to me.
oh, & freckles can throw a banana @ me anytime she wants.
as long as i can throw a banana back.
nice.
Pierce – I couldn’t agree with you more. Of course, I’m almost afraid of having the answers to our questions revealed. They’re never as good as I hope for.
In total, there has to be more plane crash survivors than others. Unless they’re cloning everyone or getting freaky with one another. Since the Orientation video that we saw always referred to “you and your partner”, I would guess that in each of the six stations there were only two people. So unless they’ve got a condo set up with the Others, I think Jack is right. He’s got the numbers.
Kat you forgot to mention that “Zeke” quoted Alvar Hanso when talking about Curiosity. Must mean that the “Others” are previous “hatchers”
I totally agree Pierce! I just wanted Jack to tell the guy, uh, yeah, its not like we WANT to be here or came here on purpose!! so annoying…
but I’ll keep coming back for more, because I love it.
Not Stacey Keatch but a great character actor named M.C. Gainey who played (amongst other roles) Swamp Thing in “Con Air”.
My question is: Who is the mole?
I wish Kate were killed. I can’t stand that woman.
Ten bucks says that the person Jack’s wife cheated with is on the island.
The mole has got to be Libby…Did anyone see “Zekes” face when Jack mentioned a Spy? Then he relaxed when he realized Jack was talking about Ethan? I think we find out a bit more about her TOmorrow. Maybe LIbby worked at the mental hospital that Hurley was in…in the preview you see him asking her “Do I know you?” Its interesting how they all forgot and dont mention Cindy who just “all of a sudden” disappeared…
Did anyone notice that the little scene where Zeke threatened to kill Kate in front of Jack was the same as the one she used in the bank robbery flash back? She acted convincingly scared then too. Mole!
Champale – I’m with you in thinking Kate is the mole. If she wasn’t the others could have just taken her with them like they have done with all the rest of their kidnappees.
As for no one mentioning Cindy, Sawyer mentioned her when he and Locke and Jack were walking in the woods, he made some remark about how she was so close to them when she went missing.
I don’t know about them training an army-but they sure as hell shouldn’t do any of it in the hatch. I can’t believe after the guy’s speech about going into the kitchen and eating the food and opening door’s you shouldn’t open it hasn’t occurred to any of these people that there are cameras in the hatch watching them.
My favorite part of the episode was when Locke asked Sawyer if the area they were in looked familiar and he said yeah there’s my favorite leaf. Outstanding!
Kate as the mole is an interesting premise and if it rolls like that, I predict that she will change alliances at the last minute and aid the lostees. This will set up plots for next season involving trust and such.
Question: What kind of legs does this show have? I mean, how long can they keep this story going?
BTW, did you hear Evangeline Lilly and Dominic Monaghan were engaged-random and bizarre.
No offense Kat but can we please have Ed Hill do all the recaps for LOST. It’s much better to have a singular voice behind each show, and for comedic purposes (tvgasms forte) it’s essential for running gags and like. Ed for Prez.
Aw, don’t be so tough on Kat. She was LOST for a while, so she opted to just get to the point and do a re-cap. Plus, good catch on Kat’s part that Zeke calls out “Alex,” who brings Kate forward. I didn’t take note of the name nor associated it with Rousseau.
Anyway, Pierce (#1) is absolutely right. It is confounding in a most annoying way that no one ever thinks of asking questions, at least the most pertinent ones, when they run across someone new on the island. I’d be all into peace-making and then would start asking, asking, asking all sorts of pointed questions!
For those of you who are wondering about M.C. Gainey (the actor playing Zeke) and want to see ALL of him, check him out in the film, SIDEWAYS. He’s the dude that runs out naked, chasing Paul Giamatti’s character into his car. Full frontal on the dude! He’s been in a whole bunch of movies….
I’m still watching, but this show is trying and I’m no longer obsessed with internet searches and spoilers. I just watch the show and blog here. The writing has become too uneven to sustain my previous level of passion. On the plus side, I have a life again!
I have to agree with Jeffrey, no offense Kat.
Why is Jack asking Ana-Lucia about building an army? Don’t you think he should talk to Sayid, since he was, you know, IN the army??
Dunno where this mess is going. Episode by episode it’s great drama, but the beads don’t seem to be strung at times. Things just get dropped and no one pays attention. Obviously Walt told Michael something about his location, but, why does he (Walt) keep appearing as a wraith in the jungle? Why not just walk up to one of his original group?
Kate can’t be the mole, not logically. There have been several recountings of her life which led to her arrest and subsequent air trip with a marshal. No way she was one of Alvar’s people. And, speaking of that, where the hell is Desmond? And, if the others left their bunkers, who the hell is putting in THEIR numbers? And if no one is, then why does the one bunker MUST have the numbers entered? Questions, questions and nary an answer in sight. This show will go nowhere but will be exciting to keep expecting another event to happen.
Kat’s not as snarky as Ed but she gave a good, concise account.
Don’t worry about them Kat, you’re doing quite well. I hope that tonight’s episode has more “shock” to it, b/c I wanna know where in the HELL Walt is!
Yes #17. I was thinking the exact same thing. I’m guessing that’s next ep.
Can anybody help me with the content of the document from Hanso’s picture? I could not open it. And how do you e-mail the TVGasm writers?
And Kat, I didn’t realise that it wasn’t EdHill until you mentioned being a woman! Great alternative recapper!
I thought this episode was by far the weakest of the season so far. Boring flashbacks, ludicrous plot rail roading, etc.
My main problem is this… if you are going to charge into the jungle with guns a-blazing who should you bring along? The guy that just recovered from being shot or the guy that was in the Republican Guard and tortures people for fun?
And do you surrender a cache of weapons to a bunch(?) of Gilligans with ONE WWII Luger?
Come on!
basketcase- go to ‘about’ at the top and you will find the links to the emails
about sayid- i think they are trying to let him mourn and get over shannon, but why didn’t he mention to michael that he saw Walt?
on the screencap of the torches shot peolpe are saying they see desmond in the lower left corner, i personally can’t mae it out, but good luck
i remember seeing libby wash up on shore, so i don’t think she came from the other side of the island, but she may still be a mole
who do you think jack’s wife was cheating on him with and don’t say desmond, because i’m tired of that theory
I agree with hardly@work, it isn’t Libby, she was in the water.
I am inclined to think that we have not yet seen the mole in any detail just yet and is one of the ones in the ‘crowd’ shots. If I remember correctly Ethan wasn’t that big of a character until they needed a mole and he was always doing stupid stuff like getting firewood.
I’m with M. Hunter. Does Jack not know the difference between cops and soldiers? Sayid is definitely the man for army training. However, there’s no way they can hope to do this without the Others observing everything. It’s not like Buffy and the senior class. No element of surprise possible.
Michael is clearly not talking to Walt on the computer. It seems they only baited Michael in order to draw out Locke and Jack for this powwow. The Others are only interested in good people so that leaves off Sawyer (who they shot) and Kate.
It was a strange conversation. They didn’t set any boundaries on the castaways. No off-limits locations. And they never suggested how they might – or that they should – leave the island.
Walt can’t send a vision directly to a choice person because you don’t control a crisis apparition. They occur without conscious intent. Often the recipient sees the vision several hours after the imperiled person has died. Perhaps the Others are holding Walt in a sensory deprivation tank and that is why he always appears drenched? I’ve read too much Dean Koontz.
yeah, forgot to mention the former iraqi torture specialist as part of the freakshow army.
ultimatley the confusion & chaos that led to shannon’s death was caused by “the others” & their bizarre whispering
(has any1 read the transcipts of what can be heard if you filter the audio of the whispering?)
once he gets over the depression he will be a 1 man army unto himself.
but with barbara hershey’s face waiting for him post-island, he may prolong the fun.
speaking of depression, wasn’t it a band called geronimo jackson that made sayid start talking to hurley & charlie?
i’m sure this is just a fan site (no terms of use) but
http://www.geronimo-jackson.com/
says they went to the same school as the degroots, the doctoral candidates that started the experiments (univ of michigan).
also
http://www.mrclucks.com/
has a play on charlie’s heroine angels & a certain ben stiller movie, too.
useless anagram fo the day…
geronimo jackson = mr eko can jig soon
maybe he likes depressing ’70′s rock.
complex guy.
Ok, nobody mentioned the funniest part of this episode. When Sawyer, Jack, and Locke were trying to find Michael, Sawyer called Locke Mr. Clean. Locke says something along the lines of whaaaa? And Sawyer responds by saying, “All you need is an earing and a mop.” Hilarious! Ok, I’m done.
So I found this on Eonline in Watch with Kristin. It looks like Walt is holding one of the torches in the upper right hand corner. CLick on the link and then click in the picture and it iwll get bigger…
http://www.lost-media.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=887&pos=600
I guess it could be Desmond in the lower left corner, but its impossible to tell.
The torchbearer in the lower left corner could definitely be Desmond. Hair and build are right and he’s wearing the same uniform with a Dharma patch on the shoulder.
All you can see in the upper right corner is a shirt. No way to tell who that is.
Thanks for the geronimo-jackson link, #26. The blurry picture on the site makes the blond woman look suspiciously (yet obviously) like the woman seen in several of the Hanso/Others shots.
I noticed a few visible people holding torches, but some of them looked like they had no human attendants. So it’s possible that it’s just a few peeps in the jungle, not the encircling gang that Badder Santa tried to insinuate. However, how’d he guess that they’d stop there to have their snit-fit, and how’d he have time to set up a circle of unmanned torches like that? So….
Just thinkin’ out loud. Dangerous, I know.
Why is the orange Nalgene bottle a production error? If they were introduced 5 years ago, there is no problem with someone who was on the plane having one.
Hey Bretley,
I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the Nalgenes came from the hatch, because I seem to remember that the survivors only had disposable water bottles from the plane in the first season. I could be wrong.
I’d also like to chime in on the love for Pierce’s excellent points!
Kat, mi piace quando parli italiano!
As far as the Nalgenes and time, there was an article back in October where a producer said people assume that the show takes place in current time but that they have never said exactly when it is or reference current events/politics/etc.
OKay, I’ve been on vacation all week so I’m playing comment catch up. I’ll be surpised if anyone even reads this, but I second the motion that Kate’s gotta go. her little “i’m coming along too’ is tired and annoying.
Not sure if anyone’s still keeping up with these comment, but there has been at least two references to current events that could give us some idea of when the show takes place.
Remember when Sawyer first realized he had met Jack’s father at that bar? It was because Jack said “that’s why the Sox will never win the World Series.” Jack’s father had said the same thing to Sawyer. The Sox won the Series in 2004, so it is safe to assume the crash takes place sometime BEFORE October of ’04.
Second: We know Sayid fought in the Gulf War, which ended in 1991. We also know that after the war, Sayid worked with Feds trying to nab his friend for terrorism. So I suppose we can place the show sometimes after 1991 and before Oct. 2004. Not much to go on before but I’m sure there have been other references that could help us narrow this down. Anyone have any???
AAAAAAAAAAh! Did anyone watch Veronica Mars? It’s on at the same time as LOST here…. final shot of the show was a pan-in on a fortune from a fortune cookie of Veronica’s (or maybe Duncan’s). Guess which 6 numbers appeared after the fortune? Anyone know of a link? Writer-friends? It’s not even the same network!
This is two or three weeks old by now but I haven’t been around. I see one or two people have questioned her; but, seriously, how can none of you SEE that Kate is in cahoots with these people? What more does she have to do?!? I have been saying this for months now.