Lost — Season 4 Premiere, Recap
This won’t be as in depth as BTD Greg’s impressive recaps, and I’ll refrain from much commentary. With luck, Greg will resume his rightful place as KB’s proper Lost-recapper. What follows is a brief scene-to-scene synopsis of tonight’s hour-long premiere (that’s the first bit of news — the advertised “2-hour event” that led us to expect a 2-hour premiere was really a 1-hour recap of seasons 1-3 + a 1-hour premiere). On to business…
A pile of mangoes is smashed by a speeding Camaro. Someone watches the high speed chase on TV while drinking a screwdriver. It’s Jack.  He seems to know the driver and looks frustrated. Police surround the vehicle and we get a slow reveal of the driver: it’s Hurley. Cops order him to the ground, but he bolts. He’s apprehended: “Don’t you know who I am? I’m one of the Oceanic Six. I’m one of the Oceanic SIX!!!”
Title Flythrough.
Hurley is undergoing interrogation. We see him on a surveillance film at a convenience store going inexplicably crazy. The cop interrogating Hurley is Anna Lucia’s old partner. Hurley denies knowing her. Something in that store spooked Hurley and the cop wants answers. Hurley now sees someone swimming under oceanwater through the one way mirror (perhaps Charlie). The figure swims up to the window and hits it, shattering the glass. Ocean water pours through into the interrogation room. Hurley freaks out, and the cop walks in threatening to have him committed. Hurley expresses relief and gratitude at the offer.
Flashback to island — Hurley radioing Jack from the beach and learning that the transmission to the offshore freighter was successful. Kate can’t find Locke’s tracks. He’s crazy — Jack threatens to kill him if he returns. Time to head back to the beach — “we’re really going home.” Sun is happy that she will be able to have her baby in a real hospital. Rose admonishes Claire to treat her heroman Charlie “real good” when they get back. Ben asks Rousseau to take Alex and get “as far from here as possible… Everyone who stays here is going to die.”
Back at the beach, Hurley confesses to Bernard that he won the lottery. Unburdened by the money that he’s sure his relatives have already spent (presuming him dead), he longs for the freedom he will have when he returns home. “I want to do a cannonball.” He runs and jumps blissfully into the ocean.  When he emerges, he sees Desmond pushing the canoe onto the beach. We have to warn Jack — “the people on the boat aren’t who they say they are.” “Where’s Charlie?!!!” shouts Hurley. Sayid, Desmond, Hurley, Sawyer, and Juliette share a moment of silence.
Jack receives a call from Minkowski. They’re having a hard time getting a lock on the signal, and he’ll need to rejigger some of the settings on the phone. Minkowski wants to talk to Naomi. Jack says she’s gathering firewood, before realizing that her body is gone. He hangs up. Certain that Ben knows what’s afoot, he demands answers. Ben claims ignorance.
Sawyer is arguing that they need to call Jack. Sayid doesn’t want to in case the people on Not-Penny’s-Boat are monitoring communication. While the two argue, Hurley grabs the walkie and chucks it into the water.
Rousseau found a blood trail. Jack wants to keep Ben with them. He directs them back to the beach. Claire thinks Jack is acting worried. Kate found another blood trail and wants to follow both. Jack thinks it a fool’s errand. He, Rousseau, and Ben will follow the first trail.
Back at the beach, the men and Juliette saddle up for battle.
Hurley plays connect-4 in a mental hospital. He has a visitor. It’s Cedric Daniels from The Wire 
. He introduces himself as Matthew something, an attorney from Oceanic Airlines. They heard about Hurley’s recent “episode” and are offering an invitation for an “upgrade” to an ocean view facility. Hurley declines. “I’m fine.” “Are you fine?” “Who’d you say you were again? I’d like to see a business card.” He claims to have left them alone. “Are they still alive?” asks the attorney. “What?” “You heard me.” Hurley freaks out and shouts for the nurse. “Help me. He’s after me!”
The small militia from the beach tromps through a dark forest. “You want to talk about Charlie?” Sawyer asks “Hugo.” Hurley can’t keep up and gets lost. Disoriented, he shouts aimlessly and meanders toward what looks — and sounds (whisperings) — like Jacob’s cabin.
Rousseau, Jack, and Ben continue to follow a blood trail. “The trail ends here.” Naomi doubled back. Jack can’t find the phone. Ben informs him that Kate took it earlier. “She found the right trail too, but you wouldn’t listen to her.” Ben is confident that Kate knows what she’s doing. They begin to walk back. Cut to Kate following the other trail. The phone rings. She answers and hears an aggressive, menacing male voice. “Who’s this? It’s Kate. You with Jack? No. Where’s Naomi? We’re looking for her. What do you mean?” Kate hangs up and notices blood dripping on her arm. Naomi drops on her from above, holds a knife to her throat, and demands the phone. The phone is ringing again, and Kate tries to pacify her. “I had an accident and I’m hurt,” Naomi informs the man on the phone.  She blames it on a tree branch. “We’ve lost our signal and we can’t come get you. Can you change your tracking frequency?” She switches and the signal gets through. “I’m sorry George. Just tell my sister that I love her.”
Hurley approaches the cabin with hesitation. He looks in and sees a lit lantern and a silhouette of a man rocking in a chair. A sudden close up of a man’s eye looking right at him obstructs his view and he stumbles frantically off the porch. He runs and screams for help. He looks back and can’t see the cabin. He turns back around and sees it in front of him. He closes his eyes and chants: “there’s nothing here, there’s nothing here…” He opens his eyes and the cabin is gone. He falls on his back and after a moment is awakened by Locke standing over him. “Hello Hugo.” They sit and discuss Hurley’s separation from the group. Locke wants to know why he was so scared. “Not Penny’s boat — are you sure that’s what Charlie wrote on his hand?” “Jack should have never called that boat,” replies Hurley. Locke agrees. It appears that some conversation has intervened between Locke’s discovery of Hurley and this particular conversation. “It’s going to be hard convincing people that they’re not coming here to rescue us.” Locke notes that if they don’t succeed, Charlie will have died for nothing.
Saywer, Sayid, and Juliette wait and Hurley catches up. Locke is with him. They hear noises. It’s the returning party. Sayid is suspicious of Locke, but they both want the same thing: to warn Jack about the boat. Heartfelt reunions, blah, blah… Hurley offers to tell Claire about Charlie. Hurley weeps — “Charlie’s dead.”
Back (forward) at the hospital, Hurley is warned about a man staring at him. It’s Charlie. “Don’t run, Hurley. Just sit down. I want to talk to you. Don’t do what you did in the store.” “You’re dead — what do you expect me to do?” “I am dead, but I’m also here.” Charlie slaps him to prove it. Charlie confesses to knowing he would die when he swam into the Looking Glass. “Now you have to do something, but you’re hiding from it.” “They need you Hugo. You know they need you!” Charlie has disappeared.
Claire asks Hurley what happened. “He was trying to help us.” Jack breaks into the scene by knocking Locke to the ground. He grabs Locke’s revolver and points it at his face. “You’re not going to shoot me Jack, any more than I was going to shoot…” Jack cuts him off by pulling the trigger. The gun doesn’t fire. They both look stunned. “It’s not loaded,” replies Locke.
[Scudworth impatiently fast-forwards through Tivoed commercials!!!]
Jack beats Locke mercilessly. Sayid and Sawyer break things up. Locke defends his actions. “I know I have a lot of explaining to do… I haven’t done anything that wasn’t for the best of all of us, I even risked my own life to out the traitor in your midst…” or something to that effect. Kate shows up and informs the group that Naomi has died, but succeeded in fixing the phone. “She didn’t give you up, John,” meaning that she didn’t out Locke’s attempted murder of her. “She wants her people to come here. And trust me, when they do we’d better be far from here. I’m going to the barracks,” the only defensible refuge on the island. “If you want to live, you need to come with me.” “They’re not crazy, John,” harps Jack. “He’s not crazy,” insists Hurley. He reminds them that Charlie sacrificed his life but in the end, something caused him to change his mind and try to warn them about the boat. We revisit the scenes of Charlie’s last moments. “The last thing he did was to warn us that these people are not who they say they are. I’m not listening to you [to Jack]; I’m listening to my friend, to Charlie.” “Anyone else,” asks Locke. “There isn’t much time.” Among others, Claire follows Locke. Ben asks permission to go as well. “He’s all yours.” Alex follows too. Rose isn’t going anywhere “with that man.” Sawyer, on the other hand, is. He’s “survivin’.” Kate looks dejected as Sawyer walks away. It starts to pour rain. “You know where to find us when you change your minds,” — Locke’s parting words.
Hurley shoots baskets at the hospital. Jack walks up to him. Hurley is happy to see him. They begin a game of horse. Jack is back to “surgical stuff.” Life has settled down. He’s thinking about growing a beard. “What are you really doing here, Jack?” “Checking to see if I went nuts, if I was going to tell?” “Are you?” Jack leaves. Hurley apologizes for going with Locke. “Water under the bridge, man.” “I don’t think we did the right thing, Jack. I think it wants us to come back.” “We’re never going back!” “Never say never, dude.”
Jack’s group of castaways seeks shelter under plane wreckage. We’ve been here a while. How did this happen? A helicopter descends.  Another parachuter. “Are you Jack?” Jack doesn’t answer.
LOST
Notes: we learned almost nothing about the island narrative that we didn’t already know from the 5 minutes of internet teasers ABC put up last week. The Hurley/Jack forward flash suggests that those few who made it off the island did so under circumstances for which they feel some shame and which they have committed to keep secret. The secret is tearing Hurley apart. The beard comment seems aimed at suggesting that this flash forward predates the Jack/Kate/funeral episode of the season 3 finale. Evidently we know 3 of the 6 that will ultimately make it off the island. Whatever’s bothering Hurley hasn’t gotten to Jack, yet…
Beyond that (and a kind of creepy looking new character in the parachuter), here’s hoping that upcoming episodes reveal more than this one.
Yours truly,
Cinnamon J. Scudworth
The man in the rocking chair was Christian Shepherd.
The Lost hydra continues; one question is answered, three more pop up!
Comment by Hayes — January 31, 2008 @ 9:49 pm
aaaaand, I just saw the Oceanic Airlines commercial. There are some guys who must have “hacked” the commercial, because they say that they have “found [oceanic flight 815]” and you then see an image of an Oceanic Airliner underwater…
interesting.
Comment by Hayes — January 31, 2008 @ 9:51 pm
Just saw that commercial too, Hayes. I didn’t notice Jack’s dad in the rocking chair, but I confess i didn’t pay much attention to his identity. Weird stuff.
All in all, a pretty decent episode. I have high hopes.
I should also note, so far Eli Stone seem like a pretty decent show…
Comment by Scudworth — January 31, 2008 @ 9:55 pm
I love the tension between Jack and Locke. Keep that up guys. I liked the episode, but I was, too, irked that they advertised a two-hour premiere to have it be only one hour and a recap. Bad advertising ABC.
Comment by Dan — January 31, 2008 @ 9:59 pm
Well…I betcha that originally it would’ve been a two-hour premiere, like in times past, but with the writer’s strike, they don’t have enough in the can to justify it.
I don’t know why Christian Shepherd would be in the rocking chair, though. And, whose eye was that peeking through the window? My wife initially thought that it was Locke.
What i am intrigued by is the guy who came to visit Hurley. Is he with Dharma? Oceanic Airlines?
I have a hunch that the people on the freighter are the Dharma folks looking to come back, and perhaps seek revenge against the Others.
And, what is this secret? Jack told Kate last season that “He was sick of lying…” about what?
So, I think that the Flash Forwards might be a cool change.
Also, I read that next week’s episode is titled, “The rescuers….:
Comment by Hayes — January 31, 2008 @ 10:06 pm
Hayes,
You’re right. There’s no way that they would waste two of the eight hours they have completed on a season premier. Also, it’s not like The Mouse hasn’t messed around with viewers before in the way it promotes the show. We should all be used to it by now.
I really do love this show. I’m traveling, and considered waiting until I got home to watch, but broke down and watched it anyway, on a subpar, DVR-less television. So I missed a lot of details, I’m sure, but it was a good episode. Maybe not as gripping as the other season premiers, but solid. The narrative has a noticeable momentum to it now.
Questions that sprang to mind:
* If Hurley went with Locke, how did both him and Jack make it off the island?
* Why does Hurley regret not going with Jack? From where I’m sitting, Locke’s choice seems like the more prudent one at this point. Then again, I’ve always been partial to Locke (even crazy Locke) over Jack.
* What causes Jack’s change of heart? When he visits Hurely, Jack has a long way to go to become the obsessed monomaniac that we saw in the flashforward that ended season 3.
* What role will Ben play in the Locke faction?
* What is the source of Hurley’s hallucinations? They don’t seem 100% subjective, as his fellow mental patient also saw Charlie.
* Who did Jack, Kate, Hurley and the other three members of the Oceanic Six make their pact with?
* Does Jacob’s ghost shack exist in physical space and time?
Comment by BTD Greg — February 1, 2008 @ 12:29 am
Curse you all! I am reading this with rapt attention, but because we live overseas, I am stuck waiting for the DVDs to come out.
Whenever that will be.
I just finished rewatching the end of season 3. Oooh I’m jealous!
Comment by meems — February 1, 2008 @ 1:43 am
Are we sure this episode was written before the writers strike? Yikes. Some serious greenhorn dialogue. I suppose it could have been the acting, but everything seemed really unnatural.
I hope season 4 is great though. The flash forwards are an interesting way to keep it fresh.
Comment by John K. — February 1, 2008 @ 1:56 am
Meems, check here.
As for the dirty secret, we know that part of it includes the fact that more than 6 people from the flight are alive.
Like Greg, I want to know why Hurley wishes he had sided with Jack. Personally, I can’t stand that pompous terd. He thinks that everybody must explain themselves to him, while he doesn’t have to explain himself to anybody.
I’m also waiting for John to get around to all that explaining he has to do.
Comment by Jeff G — February 1, 2008 @ 2:18 am
Also, on the hand of the imaginary swimmer which Hurley saw was written the message “They need you”.
Comment by Jeff G — February 1, 2008 @ 2:31 am
Meems,
You know, Lost is available for purchase off iTunes, most often the day after it shows.
Comment by Dan — February 1, 2008 @ 4:52 am
You can also watch them for free here
Comment by John K. — February 1, 2008 @ 5:07 am
I don’t know why i am so hung up on Christian Shepherd being in the rocking chair. IS that significant? Is it possible that in jack’s flash forward, Christian really is alive?
BTD, good questions. It seems that Hurley is REALLY upset and sorry for having sided with Locke. Is it possible that Locke goes purgey Ben on everyone’s arses? But, clearly they are setting up the division and infighting. And,I can’t believe that Jack would let Ben go like that…especially considering what he said at the end of season 3.
As far as to the pact…that seems to be the big mystery. And, is this what we can expect from here on out? Flashforwards with the oceanic 6, and maybe some treatment on those left behind.
I still want to have the backstory on the Black Rock. That HAS to be a huge part of the Lost mythos, right?
Comment by Hayes — February 1, 2008 @ 7:55 am
Remember that in episode 3 of season 1 Christian Shepherd showed up. Jack saw him shook his head and was gone.
Clearly these guys are manifestations of Jacob. I don’t think Christian Shepherd is Jacob.
To me this was a great episode. I didn’t see “green writing” myself.
Comment by Clark — February 1, 2008 @ 10:57 am
Thank you for the links and tips, but because I live outside of the USA they’re all blocked and unavailable to me. Even iTunes won’t let me on right now.
Comment by meems — February 1, 2008 @ 12:48 pm
Just to me a lot of the dialogue was phony.
There was a lot of:
CLAIRE: “Where is–” OR “Don’t tell me he’s–”
People don’t stop their sentences dramatically like that in an important time. The episode was fine, but the interaction was a little stiff is all.
Can’t wait for next week.
Comment by John K. — February 1, 2008 @ 12:50 pm
John, my hidden shame is that I do talk that way. I’m also known to spontaneously spout into song making up the words as I go as if my life was a giant musical. My little 1.5 year old is amazed by this and thinks I’m a musical genius. My 3 year old is less impressed and puts his hand over my mouth saying, “ssssshhh.”
Comment by Clark — February 1, 2008 @ 1:10 pm
According to the most recent mobisode, An alive Christian Shepherd was the one who sent Vincent to go wake up Jack in the very first scene of the very first episode. According to Christian, Jack “had work to do”.
Comment by Jeff G — February 1, 2008 @ 1:36 pm
I love this show.
The dead person in the casket that Jack visits in the last episode of last season is likely one of the Oceanic 6. Someone that is neither friend or family to Jack. Or it’s Michael (who wouldn’t be one of the six).
I love Ben, but Jack’s reason for not killing him (“I want him to see us get off the island) is weak and way too James Bondish. It’s exactly what Austin Powers’ son Scott makes fun of.
It seems to me that Jacob is some kind of “soul” of the island and manifests itself through different images and people (black smoke, Christian Sheapherd, etc.) Jacob has used Ben and soon Locke will become the new Ben to manage it. A few are able to escape somehow but feel guilt because they left others behind. And somehow Jacob can have power over stuff that goes on away from the island.
Comment by Rusty — February 1, 2008 @ 1:54 pm
What’s a modisode?
I still think the guy in the caste is Locke (although I hope it’s not – Locke is still my favorite character even in his wimpy phase) I thought Michael (like almost everyone else) for a while but converted to Locke and haven’t looked back.
I think Jack doesn’t kill Ben because Jack has pretty severe doubts himself about the rescue. At least that’s how the actor was directed. I think he’s pretty insecure and is somewhat hedging his bets. Jack in last night’s episode has been pushed way beyond the breaking point and isn’t quite rational. Not that uncommon for Jack, all things considered.
Personally I think Jacob and smokezilla are two different entities. No good reason to think that and I understand why folks think them the same. My main reason is that I think the weird powdered circle around the house is to protect Jacob from the smoke monster.
Comment by clark — February 1, 2008 @ 3:21 pm
Oh, never mind. A mobisode is one of those cell phone only clips. I guess there were a bunch so it’s at least quasi-canonical.
Interesting.
Comment by clark — February 1, 2008 @ 3:25 pm
I was thinking while watching the Looking Glass for the nth-millionth time that, from a writer’s point of view, wouldn’t it be interesting if Jack came back from his remote island adventures and his dad wasn’t dead. That lots of people who he had convinced himself were dead- like Charlie for Hurley- weren’t actually dead, because of some wrinkle in time business, or the restorative powers of the island (CHristian was a corpse in a coffin in the tonnage, right?) Interesting kind of psychological character business to have these people have to deal with ghosts everywhere, which is kind of obvious in the 1st episode with Hurley and Charlie. Though Charlie says, “Yes, I’m dead.” He could be saying that just to get beyond the whole space-time-continuum conversation, like it’s just all easier to deal with if you consider him a ghost. Anyways, not sure how much I still believe this, but I did think Jacob’s form took on Christian’s in the rocking chair, though briefly that it was Locke peering out from the window, though scaring Hurley seems out of character, unless he thought it was Ben.
I did think the quality was off and wondered if it was a victim of the writer’s strike. A little more silly & melodramatic, like Jin/(bernard’s wife) & Claire all talking about “our men”- ugh.
Can I just say how glad I am Lost is back on? I wonder if it’s bound to be somewhat disappointing because of having that huge break inbetween.
Comment by anna — February 1, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
This is kind of amusing: “Writers of Lost”
http://www.superdeluxe.com/sd/contentDetail.do?id=D81F2344BF5AC7BB29A4AEDE0D956F45CC7B35FAFE1B8CD6
Comment by anna — February 1, 2008 @ 4:41 pm
Yeah, go to abc.com to see all 12 of the released mobisodes (the 13th will be on there on Mon.). They provide interesting background to many scenes which we have seen so far.
Comment by Jeff G — February 1, 2008 @ 5:53 pm
I just can’t see that – at least done in a realistic fashion. Mainly because his dad had been dead for a while and Jack was going to Australia to pick up the body which presumably had been embalmed.
Of course if Jacob has the ability to ‘resurrect’ people (and thus our Hobbit friend is really alive) then all bets are off.
Once again I’m surprised folks are complaining about the quality. This, to me, is one of the top 10 of all episodes.
Comment by Clark — February 1, 2008 @ 6:42 pm
I can’t really put my finger on it exactly, I already brought up my issue with dialogue but it was a bit more than that. I’m always bothered by the sappy/goofy slow-mo scenes, so the Bernard/Hurley cannon ball scene did nothing for me. I think the show has fallen into a trap where a lot is going on, but nothing is really happening.
Like I said, a lot of the interaction between the characters seemed unnatural to me. There are a lot of possible reasons for this (including it being on me.) I think after the long layoff it is a little difficult for me to remember who knows what about who and who is mad at who and for what reason.
I think we are at a character overload for one thing. There are just too many characters in the show right now that trying to service them does a disservice to the narrative. I think there are a lot of character that could be killed off next week and I wouldn’t miss them and it would give valuable screen time to strengthen the quality characters who are getting the shaft right now (Sawyer and Sayid for example.)
By the way, I don’t want to sound like a malcontent here, I love the show and find it to be one of the only two or three tv shows worth watching.
Comment by John K. — February 1, 2008 @ 9:33 pm
John K, I agree with a lot of what you’ve said, though I’d don’t think it’s necessarily a case of there being “too many” characters. It’s possible for a show to juggle a large cast of characters effectively (The Wire springs immediately to mind as an example of a show that does this really well) – I just don’t think Lost’s writers always do a great job, mostly for reasons you’ve listed – bad dialogue and unrealistic character behavior that seems to exist solely to artificially extend the narrative. Hopefully this will change now that there’s a definite end point in sight.
Having said all of that, I do enjoy the show, even though I groan in annoyance at least a couple of times per episode because, you know, if these people behaved and asked questions like any reasonable person, a lot of the hi-jinks would never ensue. Of course, they’d probably only be able to get about 7-8 episodes per season that way.
Comment by Brian V — February 1, 2008 @ 9:42 pm
Brian, I hold out hope that some of the weird character behavior (especially Charlie’s and Claire’s) will be explained. It’s just too obvious in my opinion to be merely bad writing. And far too many people have complained to the writers about it. I think there’s a method to their madness.
I also think the writers have pointed out that everyone is keeping secrets from each other but also pointed out that a lot is being discussed by the castaways.
Comment by clark — February 1, 2008 @ 9:48 pm
You are right Brian, for a good story to exist you almost have to have characters acting in a totally irrational manner. This is something I understand, but it can get on my nerves just the same. I agree that too many character does not necessarily water down a show. I have not seen the wire yet (I’ll get on DVD one of these days) but Homicide Life on the Street is my favorite all time show and they balanced a lot of characters. Not nearly as many as Lost though, I think we are blazing new ground here.
That said, if I were on the island, I can almost guarantee you I would have shanked Hurley by now. After trying to blow up the food supply while being stranded on an island because he couldn’t control his eating and then inexplicably throwing the walkie into the ocean last night.
Comment by John K. — February 1, 2008 @ 9:51 pm
Of course I left out OZ. That show juggled an amazing number of character to perfection. Of course that was accomplished by writing deity Tom Fontana who also did Homicide.
Comment by John K. — February 1, 2008 @ 9:56 pm
Clark -
the mobisodes aren’t “quasi-canonical” – they’re 100% canonical (according to JJ Abrahms & co. anyway).
Comment by Ivan Wolfe — February 1, 2008 @ 10:07 pm
That was a STINKER!
Emblematic of its rancidness was the scene when Claire found out about Charlie and the group split. At no point did anyone to explain to the others, “Charlie wrote ‘Not Penny’s Boat’ on his hand. It’s a trap.” Instead we got Hurley’s obtuse little speech and characters acting without full possession of the facts.
Roll on BG.
Comment by The Brit — February 2, 2008 @ 4:57 am
I don’t think we need assume that the 30 seconds was all that was said. You have to assume that more is being said.
As for Hurley throwing the phone, that actually made a lot of sense to me since Sawyer was about to call Jack.
Comment by clark — February 2, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
Well, it made a lot of sense to you because you know what you know and to Hurley because he knows what he knows. But he has a Jack-ish streak in him where he is going to make a decision for everyone in which nobody can correct if he is wrong. Blowing up the food, ruining the walkie (when you could have used it for dummy conversations), trying to stop the blowing up of the hatch door because he saw some numbers. I’m just saying I would grow tired of the guy just deciding things. Not a criticism of the show.
Here is a question though. In the minutes between when Naomi was last seen on the ground in a heap and the time they decide to follow the blood trail does she go far enough into the jungle to create a false trail – that runs long enough to divert Jack and crew into nightfall – then backtrack all the way back and start a new trail from the starting point that Kate could find. All with a knife in her back and (obviously) near death.
Comment by John K. — February 2, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
I was intially really interested in you guys’ idea that this was only the first half of what was supposed to be the premier (cut into two weeks to extend the available eps due to the strike). But I think we’ll find out next week that it probably wasn’t when the flashforward isn’t hurley anymore.
Comment by Jeremy — February 2, 2008 @ 2:31 pm
I’m sure this wasn’t a premiere cut in half. Eight one hour episodes were written prior to the strike.
Comment by Brian G — February 2, 2008 @ 2:59 pm
Clunky dialogue, a few things that didn’t ring true…. but still — this show rules.
Comment by Supergenius — February 2, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
The blood trail bit did seem weird. I’ll grant you that one. There’s a time issue there that didn’t seem right.
Comment by clark — February 2, 2008 @ 11:26 pm
As far as clunky dialogue goes, I think the writers have their backs against the wall in a sense. They have to write very functional dialogue, and are rarely allowed, or allow themselves moments to let a scene breathe. They have to quickly provide a lot of exposition, and I think that leads to a lot of clunkiness.
I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Naomi, even if she is dead.
I want to know if anyone can answer my nagging question about this episode.
How did Locke learn what was written on Charlie’s hand?
Comment by Brian G — February 2, 2008 @ 11:30 pm
The presumption was (since it was told from Hurley’s POV) that Sawyer and the others told Locke and Locke came to find Hurley. Unless that was Locke whose face we fleetingly saw in the Window. Then Jacob told him? I don’t know.
Comment by Clark — February 3, 2008 @ 12:43 am
Am I wrong? Didn’t Sawyer and Sayid act less than happy to see Locke when he showed up with Hurley. It didn’t seem like they had seen him a few minutes earler and sent him to find Hurley. I seem to remember a “what are YOU doing here?” scene.
Comment by John K. — February 3, 2008 @ 11:01 am
Yeah, I think it was implied that Hurley, Sawyer, Desmond and Locke had an off-screen discussion where Locke found out about what Charlie had written on his hand. But Locke is also receiving intel from some other source (the island/Jacob/the black box?). Charlie’s message merely confirmed something for Locke. It wasn’t his motivation.
Comment by BTD Greg — February 3, 2008 @ 2:20 pm
I suspect we’ll learn more about Locke in the forthcoming days. I was hoping for more of a Ben/Locke confrontation.
Looking forward to Thursday…
Comment by Clark — February 3, 2008 @ 6:42 pm