Lost 5.08: La Fleur
Mar. 5th, 2009 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weewarriorA Sawyer episode and I actually kind of love it? What is the world coming to.
Wherein the Leftbehinds find a nice life in the suburbs, until half of the O6 arrive to crash the party.
- I really want to marry Juliet. She works as a mechanic and delivers babies in her spare time! Awesome.
- Yay for Reiko Aylesworth, Patrick Fischler and Kevin Rankin! It's like a random meetup of people from shows I watch/watched and never talk about!
- Very fond of Sawyer putting his con man skills to good use. There is a fair bit of hilarity in him ending up as Head of Security and basically a straight arrow. I guess all it needs is a loving environment.
- LaFleur and literary connections: I can buy John as the Little Prince, Richard and Christian as the Fox and Ben as the Snake, but Sawyer as the Rose is a bit of a stretch. Anyway, apparently Henry Flower is also a name Leopold Bloom uses in Ulysses, so there you go.
- While I really don't like the path this storyline took, I appreciate the parallels laid out between Amy-Paul-Horace and Sawyer-Kate-Juliet (until they got too anvillicious, anyway). If you take The Man Behind The Curtain into account, we even might have a Jack parallel in Olivia, who really struck me as Mrs. Goodspeed back then. Then again, maybe they just couldn't get Samantha Mathis back, and thus decided to go for Free Love with Horace and Amy.
- The relationship between the Hostiles and the Dharmites is again shown as having strong parallels to early European settlers in the West and the Native American tribes who already lived there, although the Hostiles seem to be no single ethnic group as such.
- Richard's cameos continue to delight, and I still love how the legend of John Locke is built up. Here, it is James of all people who unwittingly nourishes the Others' oncoming obsession with their Chosen One. No wonder they were all so beside themselves when he finally showed up in Season 3! Being my usual paranoid self, this makes me think he either isn't their saviour after all, or he is and it is a very bad thing.
- Going back to The Immortal One for a second - is he dead? I'm just asking because it would explain how he neither ages nor is troubled by that sonic fence. Then again, maybe he can teleport. Or he just knows the friggin' code.
- Interesting: Richard speaks of "my people" when he talks to Horace. He gives every appearance of being their leader. I wonder if that means that the Leader, as in Person Who Talks To Jacob, doesn't speak to puny mortals, or that Richard hasn't found the real one yet - which makes again a pretty good case that it is not Widmore, who likely is still on the island at this point.
Misc:
- The situation of the Leftbehinds is a nice contrast to the O6 + Affiliates - for the Lefties, things start out horrible and get better, except for Dan, and for the Off-islanders, things start out splendid, and then get progressively worse, except for Desmond. One question that really bugs me, though: Why on earth do the O6 have to go back? So that everyone can be unhappy together again?
- I assume DDK was glad that Jin is finally able to communicate better. I will miss the Korean, but it doesn't make much sense to have him keep it up, given that Charlotte presumably doesn't speak it yet.
- So, did Bernard, Rose and Vincent join Dharma as well? Did they become bear food? What?
- Uh oh, Dan. At least he has people halfway looking after him. I love this casual friendship vibe between him and Miles.
- Little Charlotte was adorable, which almost makes up for the fact that she's kind of seven years older than she should be. Hmm. I don't think we're completely done with time jumps yet, are we.
- "You're not Dharma material" - and here I thought hippies of all people wouldn't be elitist. Hypocrites.
- So, the statue: Ancient Egyptian? Sumerian? I'm going for Egyptian because of Paul's ankh, and for the same reason I'm assuming that's our Dogboy Anubis here.
- This episode made me again feel that this show would do great without Jack and Kate. Speaking of whom...
- I know Kate is meant to be all special and stuff, and it's really, really hard to convincingly have a character everyone is mooning over because these things tend to be so subjective, but honestly, if Sawyer leaves Juliet for Miss Teen Forever, he deserves no pity. Not to mention that the writers deserve to be slapped if they make Juliet second best again.
- Next week: Uhh, nothing. But the week after it's apparently Sun vs. Ben: the re-match! Go, Sun!
Wherein the Leftbehinds find a nice life in the suburbs, until half of the O6 arrive to crash the party.
- I really want to marry Juliet. She works as a mechanic and delivers babies in her spare time! Awesome.
- Yay for Reiko Aylesworth, Patrick Fischler and Kevin Rankin! It's like a random meetup of people from shows I watch/watched and never talk about!
- Very fond of Sawyer putting his con man skills to good use. There is a fair bit of hilarity in him ending up as Head of Security and basically a straight arrow. I guess all it needs is a loving environment.
- LaFleur and literary connections: I can buy John as the Little Prince, Richard and Christian as the Fox and Ben as the Snake, but Sawyer as the Rose is a bit of a stretch. Anyway, apparently Henry Flower is also a name Leopold Bloom uses in Ulysses, so there you go.
- While I really don't like the path this storyline took, I appreciate the parallels laid out between Amy-Paul-Horace and Sawyer-Kate-Juliet (until they got too anvillicious, anyway). If you take The Man Behind The Curtain into account, we even might have a Jack parallel in Olivia, who really struck me as Mrs. Goodspeed back then. Then again, maybe they just couldn't get Samantha Mathis back, and thus decided to go for Free Love with Horace and Amy.
- The relationship between the Hostiles and the Dharmites is again shown as having strong parallels to early European settlers in the West and the Native American tribes who already lived there, although the Hostiles seem to be no single ethnic group as such.
- Richard's cameos continue to delight, and I still love how the legend of John Locke is built up. Here, it is James of all people who unwittingly nourishes the Others' oncoming obsession with their Chosen One. No wonder they were all so beside themselves when he finally showed up in Season 3! Being my usual paranoid self, this makes me think he either isn't their saviour after all, or he is and it is a very bad thing.
- Going back to The Immortal One for a second - is he dead? I'm just asking because it would explain how he neither ages nor is troubled by that sonic fence. Then again, maybe he can teleport. Or he just knows the friggin' code.
- Interesting: Richard speaks of "my people" when he talks to Horace. He gives every appearance of being their leader. I wonder if that means that the Leader, as in Person Who Talks To Jacob, doesn't speak to puny mortals, or that Richard hasn't found the real one yet - which makes again a pretty good case that it is not Widmore, who likely is still on the island at this point.
Misc:
- The situation of the Leftbehinds is a nice contrast to the O6 + Affiliates - for the Lefties, things start out horrible and get better, except for Dan, and for the Off-islanders, things start out splendid, and then get progressively worse, except for Desmond. One question that really bugs me, though: Why on earth do the O6 have to go back? So that everyone can be unhappy together again?
- I assume DDK was glad that Jin is finally able to communicate better. I will miss the Korean, but it doesn't make much sense to have him keep it up, given that Charlotte presumably doesn't speak it yet.
- So, did Bernard, Rose and Vincent join Dharma as well? Did they become bear food? What?
- Uh oh, Dan. At least he has people halfway looking after him. I love this casual friendship vibe between him and Miles.
- Little Charlotte was adorable, which almost makes up for the fact that she's kind of seven years older than she should be. Hmm. I don't think we're completely done with time jumps yet, are we.
- "You're not Dharma material" - and here I thought hippies of all people wouldn't be elitist. Hypocrites.
- So, the statue: Ancient Egyptian? Sumerian? I'm going for Egyptian because of Paul's ankh, and for the same reason I'm assuming that's our Dogboy Anubis here.
- This episode made me again feel that this show would do great without Jack and Kate. Speaking of whom...
- I know Kate is meant to be all special and stuff, and it's really, really hard to convincingly have a character everyone is mooning over because these things tend to be so subjective, but honestly, if Sawyer leaves Juliet for Miss Teen Forever, he deserves no pity. Not to mention that the writers deserve to be slapped if they make Juliet second best again.
- Next week: Uhh, nothing. But the week after it's apparently Sun vs. Ben: the re-match! Go, Sun!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-05 02:02 pm (UTC)Clearly. He even scares horny guards into straight behaviour! In conclusion, the Dharma Initiative brings out the best in you. Unless you're Ben.
I still love how the legend of John Locke is built up. Here, it is James of all people who unwittingly nourishes the Others' oncoming obsession with their Chosen One. No wonder they were all so beside themselves when he finally showed up in Season 3!
Seriously. It's such a perfectly devilish circle: they think he's the Chosen One because hey, he seems to travel in time, telling in the 50s when he's going to be born, and even con men sing his praises in the 70s, and the reason why he does that is because they think he's their Chosen One. (As of Cabin Fever, Richard was officially the first person to put young John through the "you're special! No, you're not!" conditioning - which of course he sort of does with young Ben as well - and that arguably gives John the idea he desperately wants to be.)
Bernard, Rose and Vincent: I WANT TO KNOW AS WELL. Surely the actors were game for more months in Hawaii than just the opening episode?
The situation of the Leftbehinds is a nice contrast to the O6 + Affiliates - for the Lefties, things start out horrible and get better, except for Dan, and for the Off-islanders, things start out splendid, and then get progressively worse, except for Desmond.
Great point. As to why on earth the 06 have to be back, the only idea I have is that they're still in the 70s, so maybe the O6 are needed to get everyone in their proper time? Otherwise the Lefties are clearly better off without them.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-05 02:28 pm (UTC)Then again I suppose living with Roger Linus doesn't exactly instill pacifist ideals...
Seriously. It's such a perfectly devilish circle: they think he's the Chosen One because hey, he seems to travel in time, telling in the 50s when he's going to be born, and even con men sing his praises in the 70s, and the reason why he does that is because they think he's their Chosen One. (As of Cabin Fever, Richard was officially the first person to put young John through the "you're special! No, you're not!" conditioning - which of course he sort of does with young Ben as well - and that arguably gives John the idea he desperately wants to be.)
I love that you really don't see a beginning and that you even have different needs and approaches intertwined - John just wants to be wanted and loved. Richard must find The Leader and he believes John is it, because John said Jacob send him, whereas it was actually Christian, who claims he speaks for Jacob, but we really have no proof for that other than him being in the cabin. And Widmore may or may not believe that John is special, but most of all he wants to find the island, so he will tell John that he is special because he knows John will go there and might be of use to him.
Bernard, Rose and Vincent: I WANT TO KNOW AS WELL. Surely the actors were game for more months in Hawaii than just the opening episode?
You would think so.
As to why on earth the 06 have to be back, the only idea I have is that they're still in the 70s, so maybe the O6 are needed to get everyone in their proper time? Otherwise the Lefties are clearly better off without them.
The only idea I have so far is that they need to go back because they always went back.I think that would explain why Richard told John that all the O6 were fine and that he would have to die to get them back - one of the people who did end up in the 70s probably must have told him. Of course, this doesn't really give a necessity in itself, or rather it's one that is a bit disappointing as a purpose. Maybe without them the island gets too bored.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-05 05:56 pm (UTC)The island is clearly a fan of angst.*g* (That sentence I stole from a review of last season's finale, I forgot by whom, which said "the island ships Ben/Locke, it's just a fan of angst and darkfic is all".)
Then again I suppose living with Roger Linus doesn't exactly instill pacifist ideals...
I still want Hurley to smack Roger. Pretty please?
I think that would explain why Richard told John that all the O6 were fine and that he would have to die to get them back - one of the people who did end up in the 70s probably must have told him.
I'm still toying with the idea that the O6 plus friends will somehow trigger the development that will end up in the Purge, so if Richard doesn't tell John he needs to bring them back via his death, then the Hostiles don't wipe out the Dharma Initiative. Richard has a nice smile, but he's clearly not that interested in preserving Dharma lives, and just seems to be want rid of them one way or the other.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-06 08:51 am (UTC)It's also really into Sayid, that's why it kills off all his canon girlfriends. And it loves Kate without really knowing how to write her.
I still want Hurley to smack Roger. Pretty please?
I think I would pay to see that.
I'm still toying with the idea that the O6 plus friends will somehow trigger the development that will end up in the Purge, so if Richard doesn't tell John he needs to bring them back via his death, then the Hostiles don't wipe out the Dharma Initiative. Richard has a nice smile, but he's clearly not that interested in preserving Dharma lives, and just seems to be want rid of them one way or the other.
I'm not entirely sure where I stand on behalf of Richard - I think it would really, really help to know his age to figure out what his agenda exactly is - but I am by now wondering if the Purge was exactly what we were let to believe. I could imagine the Lostaways somehow help bringing it along, but I definitely think they are responsible for getting people like Charlotte and her mother and presumably Miles and his Mom off the island.