Lost: “Par Avion”
Overall, a solid episode that reminds us of why Lost is one of the best shows on television, even when nothing in particular happens. I‘m liking liked Bakunin.
“Par Avion,” by the way, is the French term for “air mail.”
General observations:
-Claire with black hair looks great. Viva GothClaire, Peircing Administrator!
-CGI birds flying over the beach look terrible.
-The purple sky fried the underwater beacon - it makes it impossible to come back, per Bakunin.
-The true leader of the Others isn’t Ben; the beachies are not on the List because they are flawed. “I must be confused, because the John Locke I know was pa—” (probably paralyzed).
-Giant electrified fence. Like Jurassic Park?? Not quite. This was possibly the most gruesome thing in Lost so far — mouth-foaming, ear-spurting– and Locke once again behaves like a bonehead. A sneaky, sneaky bastardy bonehead.
-Am I the only one who doesn’t care about the Claire/Charlie relationship (and haven’t since the heroin)?
-Jack’s dad as an intervening doctor was pretty foreseeable, once they mentioned the American Doctor. Once we were in the moment, it became equally foreseeable that he was Claire’s father — but how nifty!
-Lamest rescue note ever.
-Jack is clearly groomed as the next leader of the Others.
Easter Eggs:
-They appear to be feeding Aaron out of some sort of a large shell. Isn’t that dangerous?
-Australian policeman’s name: Barnes. Australian neurosurgeon: J. Woodruff.
-Australian t-shirt used as diaper for Aaron: “Bondi Beach.”
-Sawyer is reading Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.”
Next week: how Locke got put in the wheelchair.
Great show. What time is it normally for you west coasters? We get it at 10pm eastern time.
Comment by Dan — March 14, 2007 @ 9:11 pm
Dan, that’s the normal time, but it’s an awful slot. soooooo late.
Comment by Steve Evans — March 14, 2007 @ 9:13 pm
I thought tonight’s episode was somewhat slow. Claire’s new connection was quite interesting, however. And John keeps going rogue…
Comment by Connor Boyack — March 14, 2007 @ 10:20 pm
I used to think I hated Charlie, but now I realize it’s only Charlie when he’s around Claire. During the Hurley episode, Charlie was reasonably likable. But as soon as Claire and the baby are around, I start wanting to strangle him. Claire’s character really doesn’t do much for me and I kinda resented the time they spent on her story during last night’s episode since I was much more interested in the other story.
Looking forward to next week’s Locke episode.
Comment by Brian V — March 15, 2007 @ 6:55 am
That was one of the show’s better parting shots in recent memory.
Comment by Tim J — March 15, 2007 @ 6:58 am
well y’all aren’t gonna have to worry much about Charlie. He’s not signed on for the next season, so he meets his delayed death apparently before the end of this season. I personally liked his character the way they originally began him, but like Brian, the moment the baby came around, Charlie changed, and not for the better.
I love the shot at the end of Jack throwing football with Tom. So awesome!
Comment by Dan — March 15, 2007 @ 7:18 am
One Supergenius’ theory:
Locke is purging the island. He received the revelation to do so from the Black Cloud a long time ago, and is using Eko’s stick to do it. He deliberately destroyed the Swan station, deliberately destroyed the Flame station last week and now will take on the Others with the C-4. His allegiance has always been to the Island, which healed him (twice) on condition that he serve it.
Comment by Supergenius — March 15, 2007 @ 9:07 am
Oooh, SG, I like that theory. Nice work.
Comment by Rusty — March 15, 2007 @ 9:58 am
I think SG is on to something…even though I doubt he thought of that himself.
Comment by Tim J — March 15, 2007 @ 10:03 am
Timmy, have faith. That particular bit is home-grown.
Comment by Supergenius — March 15, 2007 @ 10:15 am
Let me ask you something, why Locke? Why was he chosen to “save the island.”
I like the theory, just trying to work it out.
Comment by Tim J — March 15, 2007 @ 10:17 am
Tim, my thought was that:
a) Locke has the training and skills
b) Locke is fairly amoral and willing to do what it takes
c) Locke was desperate in that wheelchair, and the Island saw in him the chance to make a good disciple.
His total submission is why he survived the Black Cloud while Eko did not.
Comment by Supergenius — March 15, 2007 @ 10:34 am
[...] The episode also focused on Sayid, John, Kate, and Rousseau traveling to the Others’ camp. Locke again does something one would think is stupid, though some think Locke has an ulterior motive: Locke is purging the island. He received the revelation to do so from the Black Cloud a long time ago, and is using Eko’s stick to do it. He deliberately destroyed the Swan station, deliberately destroyed the Flame station last week and now will take on the Others with the C-4. His allegiance has always been to the Island, which healed him (twice) on condition that he serve it. [...]
Pingback by Lost Season Three Episode Twelve « The Life and Times of Daniel, Jaime, and Ava Simone — March 15, 2007 @ 10:35 am
Dang, that was a long pingback. I quoted thee, Supergenius, on my blog.
Comment by Dan — March 15, 2007 @ 10:52 am
Dan, I hope the royalty check is in the mail!
Don’t worry, I am sure I’m wrong about it. Even if I’m right there’s something else I’m missing.
Comment by Supergenius — March 15, 2007 @ 11:00 am
I think the reason Locke “sacrificed” Bakunin was to keep his secret of paralysis from getting out. I’m not sure why he hasn’t told the other survivors yet, except for not wanting to appear weak. Great White Hunter not so great in a wheelchair.
I didn’t care so much about the Claire backstory, either, although now this makes Jack and Claire siblings. That’s a little weird. I’m wondering if Jack’s dad was in Australia for Claire’s mom’s wedding and that’s why he went off the deep end. And if Claire was traveling to LA in the hopes of finding Jack’s dad to ask for help.
The husband and I agree that Claire is acting a little wacko, lashing out at everyone with little provocation. Especially at Charlie. Too bad there aren’t any Valium plants on the island.
Comment by Jessie T. — March 15, 2007 @ 11:46 am
Sorry, Claire’s mom’s funeral, not Claire’s mom’s wedding.
Another thought. This is two shows now with cute, blond girls named Claire who have recently found out about their alternate paternal roots. Interesting…
Comment by Jessie T. — March 15, 2007 @ 11:51 am
I thought what Locke did was quite logical. If the evil guy with the fake accent says the perimeter fence isn’t working, then the evil guy with the fake accent can prove it.
Which he did, quite effectively. Though, I can’t say I’d be jonesing to climb a tree branch within a couple of feet of the sensor/sonic emitters.
The evil fake accent guy would probably have been sentenced to death by the Others anyway, for killing one of their kind a la Julia.
(doesn’t the perimeter fence notify someone in Otherland when it’s zapped an intruder?)
Comment by Eddie — March 15, 2007 @ 11:53 am
Supergenius,
Actually the ladies at Celebritology at Washington Post also share that view, that he’s got an ulterior motive, so you’re not the first, and it probably is a pretty credible theory.
Comment by Dan — March 15, 2007 @ 11:57 am
Apparently not.
And McPatchy probably lied about the fence because he knew that Locke would be so dastardly as to throw him to it to test it, and as such take his life, which he wanted ended since the Flame.
Comment by Dan — March 15, 2007 @ 11:59 am
Thoughts.
1. We got no insight into that total weirdness of Claire taking Charlie back after the heroin and the weird baptism bit (which looked like he was drowning the baby) That was a creepy episode and Claire’s actions since have been inexplicable.
2. The whole Claire/Jack’s dad bit was surprising, although as soon as they mentioned an American doctor I called it. Want to bet he returned to Australia prior to his death to meet her?
3. The truck that ran Claire off the road will turn out to be from the mysterious “Batmanuel” who killed Juliana’s husband back in 3.7 (Not in Portland) (BTW - for those of you not up on Tick references that’s Nestor Carbonell)
4. Locke definitely wants his secret kept. But I think he also intentionally destroyed the communications station. He’s playing a game we don’t understand yet. Locke’s definitely the most interesting character on the show. His first flashback showed him as rather pathetic - the whole sex phone line thing was pretty weird. He, like almost everyone on the show, is definitely damaged goods. I’m really looking forward to next week.
5. Does anyone honestly think a note written on paper would survive long on that bird’s leg? Come on!
6. They are killing Charlie!?!? Like others I like him when he’s not around Claire.
7. I agree with Steve. Locke serves the island. But what the Island is has yet to be revealed. It’s neither the mysterious Others nor the Dharma initiative.
8. I’ll make a prediction that Claire’s aunt will pop up again in some odd fashion. (My guess - a connection to Sawyer - I wish I had the DVDs to check the Sawyer centric flashbacks)
Comment by Clark Goble — March 15, 2007 @ 12:04 pm
clark,
You don’t have to go to the DVDs to see the flashbacks, just go review the Lost pages on wikipedia.
Comment by Dan — March 15, 2007 @ 12:14 pm
Yeah, but I want to see if anyone that was in that first Sawyer as hitman flashback looked like the sister from last night.
Comment by Clark — March 15, 2007 @ 12:17 pm
BTW1 - both my wife and I agree that Claire looks way better with dark hair. My wife thinks it brings out her eyes. To me, with blonde hair, she looks fairly unattractive.
BTW2 - an other tidbit from tonight. 80 days on the Island. That’s quite the recovery for Claire from her pregnancy. Ditto with the gunshot for Sawyer. How come, outside of the couple talking about her cancer, no one is mentioning this mysterious ability of the Island?
BTW3 - can I say how cool it would be if beneath the Island there were this mysterious hi-tech race that the Others quasi-worship with some odd bomb there? And Jack would be the homage to Charleston Heston?
Comment by Clark — March 15, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
I thought the Desmond/Charlie attempts to foil the bird-catching plan were totally nonsensical. Desmond wanted to prevent Charlie from going over to that one spot to catch the bird? Then why did he shoot his gun and scare the birds away from Claire’s and Jin’s trap? If they had caught their bird, Charlie never would have headed after the other bird to be killed in a strangely non-threatening tide pool.
Do you know what I fear most of all about this series? That they’ll explain the Others, and they’ll explain Dharma, but they’ll never actually explaint the island itself. They’ve led us to believe that the island is a force in itself, with a kind of will all its own. If they don’t end up explaining that, it will be pretty disappointing. (Also, the Claire episode reminded me that we still need to find out why it’s so important that Claire herself raise this baby. Aaron hasn’t been too important lately).
So not much talk about Bakunin’s revelations about the list. Kate, Sayid, and Rousseau are not on the List (although he still clearly knows something about them) because they are flawed, angry, frightened. Locke, on the other hand, is on the list (didn’t Ben confirm the same thing back when he was Henry Gale?). So are we to believe that Locke is none of those things? Also, do we have any clue yet what the Others’ interest in Locke could be, if he’s on a list of theirs? Did Fake Henry Gale say whether Jack was on such a list? Also, isn’t it likely that Locke’s real objective on this mission is to just confront Ben to find out what he’s been chosen for? Finally, Bakunin mentioned not just knowing who Locke is, but possibly having memories of him. Does that mean that Locke came into inadvertent contact with some Others pre-island? Very interesting.
Loved the closing shots with Jack running around. Very excited for next week.
Comment by Ryan Bell — March 15, 2007 @ 1:01 pm
Ryan, Bakunin said:
I think you’re reading too much into it, though. I don’t think that Bakunin or the Others necessarily have had direct prior contact with the 815ers.
Comment by Supergenius — March 15, 2007 @ 1:34 pm
Yes, but clearly Bakunin at a minimum had access to that odd psychological and historic profile that Ben was reading from relative to Jack in the first half of the season.
Comment by Clark — March 15, 2007 @ 2:22 pm
Clark — yes, precisely. And if you remember the Others knew everything about the Tail Section folks as well.
Comment by Supergenius — March 15, 2007 @ 2:25 pm
I thought Desmond crashed the plane. If that’s the case, how do the Others know so much about this random plane’s passengers? Or was Desmond wrong when he said that it was him who crashed it?
Comment by Rusty — March 15, 2007 @ 2:49 pm
Rusty, that is indeed the mystery. And Desmond’s time travel ought increase it more. i.e. who was that odd woman guarding time?
If nothing else the numbers Hurley encountered and the strange interrelationships ought imply that there was a purpose behind the crash. Whether it was the Other (doubt it) or the Island itself (which I believe) is a matter of debate. Personally I think Hurley is the key figure in the show. More clues are given in his flashbacks than anyone else’s. (Well, arguably that last one wasn’t quite as compelling - unless you consider the “curse” to be tied to the Island and its attempting to teach people ala Locke and Ecko)
Comment by clark — March 15, 2007 @ 4:30 pm
BTW - even before the easter egg last night I noted a more than passing resemblance between The Others and Ayn Rand’s ideal community in Atlas Shrugged. (Yeah, I know, the Fountainhead is a different plot) For the record, I’m not a fan of Ayn Rand)
Steve and I were talking about the resemblance between the Island and Forbidden Planet (or Shakespeare’s The Tempest which it was based on) Is Hurley Robby the Robot? More importantly is Desmond Prospero? (Recall that Prospero discovers that his brother Antonio was on a ship passing close by the island and raised causing his brother’s ship to run aground.)
Steve also thinks there’s strong influence from Lost in Space. I just don’t see it.
Comment by clark — March 15, 2007 @ 4:41 pm
clark,
[edited]
That said, I do think Hurley is very much of of the key players, probably more key than everybody else except Locke and Jack.
Comment by Dan — March 15, 2007 @ 5:49 pm
Dan, religion talk is verboten here. I’ve edited your comment accordingly. No offense, just not the purpose of the site.
Comment by Supergenius — March 15, 2007 @ 5:52 pm
no problem supergenius. totally understand.
Comment by Dan — March 15, 2007 @ 6:17 pm
Although one must note that religion is pretty central to Lost. Indeed the first Ecko episode was probably the most religious episode to appear on TV.
Despite the claims of the producers I have a feeling we’re going to end up with the Island and God being related. After all they said there would be no time travel and yet look what the first episode of the second half of the season brought us. So they aren’t above lying.
If nothing else it’s pretty clear that the Others are in a quasi-religious cult of some sort. Presumably tied to all those fake internet sites the producers set up. Only instead of Zetans behind every door we have the mysterious origins of the Island. Or is that the mysterious origins of the forbidden planet with its ability to take peoples fears and dreams and realize them.
Speaking of which, we haven’t had any materializations of peoples dreams yet this season. Remember in season 1 Jack saw his father, Kate saw a horse (ala Twin Peaks), and of course we had the one kid “appearing” as well. Actually I’ll take that back. Hurley saw his faux friend from the asylum. So there’s been at least one fake person. (Well maybe Ecko and his brother as well)
Comment by clark — March 15, 2007 @ 11:56 pm
To add, not to undercut our super’s genius. Just to ask if perhaps there are some religious issues that can be raised if care is taken to be general and deal only with what is presented in the show. Such as Ecko’s quasi-Catholicism or Hurley’s for that matter.
Comment by clark — March 16, 2007 @ 12:02 am
clark,
no, my religious comment was related to your thought about Rand. I should actually make that comment on your blog, on your post about Rand.
Comment by Dan — March 16, 2007 @ 5:41 am
A couple of things:
Remember the notes scribbled in the paper in red ink at the Flame Station, the first one says “My name is also Andrei” and the second one says “I was also in the land of Afghanistan” (I think, the second one is much harder to see). Also, the translation given of Klugh and Bakunin’s words was pretty accurate (in case you were wondering).
Second, I think that Locke wasn’t on the list because they thought he was paralyzed. When they realized he wasn’t, they decided to put him on the list. That said, maybe Ben was screwing with Locke (after all, Ben did lie to him about punching in the numbers; BTW is that the only lie from Ben that we have confirmed?)
I like SG’s theory, BTW.
Comment by HP — March 16, 2007 @ 8:02 am
I haven’t found Locke to be amoral, necessarily. Actually, he has a fundamentally good nature; we just don’t necessarily know his allegiance or agenda.
Claire looks much better with her natural hair color.
I think we cannot trust anything Ben says or has said. He is fundamentally a liar, a manipulator, and a bad dude all around.
Comment by john f. — March 23, 2007 @ 4:58 am
(Of course, if Locke is meant to personify Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, then he would be amoral as regards traditional good/bad distinctions but still not “bad” in any real sense; rather, he would be contributing to the common good in the most effective and powerful way possible [according to Rand] by having no allegiance other than his work / ego and by selfishly pursuing the same.)
Comment by john f. — March 23, 2007 @ 5:03 am