Lost 5.09: Namaste
Mar. 20th, 2009 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weewarriorBriefly, this time for real.
This wasn't necessarily bad, but honestly, mostly pretty dull. An exception were Sun being a paddle-wielding badass and Frank playing her snarky sidekick, both unafraid of smoke monsters and ghostly fathers, on a mission to find the elusive Jin. I liked the idea of the Dharma newcomers photo, even though it seems a logical error to have Sun believe Jin is in the past just because Kate, Jack and Hurley managed to end up there. The part of Dharmaville where they found Christian seemed also a little odd, with its decaying houses and broken down signs clearly from the Initiative's arrival area - wouldn't Ben's Others have tidied this up when they moved in after the Purge? Nonetheless, it was pleasantly eerie, and Ben got whacked by someone again, so I won't complain too much.
Who I can live without, though, are the new castaways, unless they are all Widmore plants. I'm usually happy to meet new characters, but I'm busily missing people like Desmond, Locke and Faraday, so if Caesar, Ilana and whatever Brad Henke's character's name is are just hapless passengers, I couldn't care less if they met the smoke monster next.
In Dharma times, the soap opera tension lies blissfully low so far, as the various combinations of Kate, Sawyer, Jack and Juliet were mostly circling each other and throwing emo looks around. At least Jack seemed honestly happy to see Juliet, which is more emotion than the man has shown in the whole season combined. Apart from that, Jack's reaction to being assigned as a janitor was pretty funny, but soundly overshadowed by Juliet's growing horror as she realized just who Amy's cute little boy would one day become. Nice tie-in to Ethan's appearance earlier this season. Aside from this funny bit, it was also a nice character moment for Juliet, as she contemplated the wider consequences of pregnancies being carried out successfully on the island for herself.
I liked meeting Radzinsky, Desmond's predecessor in the Swan, although his charming personality makes me wonder if Kelvin hadn't lied about the circumstances of his death after all.
I also like Phil, Patrick Fischler's character - he is probably the first non-Other character in the history of this show who is not easily duped and actually manages to clue in that something might be wrong with Jim La Fleur and this merry band of new recruits. Too bad that his spidey senses seem of no use where Little Ben is concerned.
And speaking of Harry Potter, Sterling Beaumon's imitation of Michael Emerson's Ben mannerisms is creepily spot on. There are few teenagers who can make the offering of a - mustardless! - sandwich look sinister, but he actually manages it. Although I'm not incredibly fond of what seemed clearly readable on Sayid's face once he realized who his little caterer was. Hold yourself together, Jarrah, this won't lead to anything good!
Next week: lots and lots of mayhem, apparently.
This wasn't necessarily bad, but honestly, mostly pretty dull. An exception were Sun being a paddle-wielding badass and Frank playing her snarky sidekick, both unafraid of smoke monsters and ghostly fathers, on a mission to find the elusive Jin. I liked the idea of the Dharma newcomers photo, even though it seems a logical error to have Sun believe Jin is in the past just because Kate, Jack and Hurley managed to end up there. The part of Dharmaville where they found Christian seemed also a little odd, with its decaying houses and broken down signs clearly from the Initiative's arrival area - wouldn't Ben's Others have tidied this up when they moved in after the Purge? Nonetheless, it was pleasantly eerie, and Ben got whacked by someone again, so I won't complain too much.
Who I can live without, though, are the new castaways, unless they are all Widmore plants. I'm usually happy to meet new characters, but I'm busily missing people like Desmond, Locke and Faraday, so if Caesar, Ilana and whatever Brad Henke's character's name is are just hapless passengers, I couldn't care less if they met the smoke monster next.
In Dharma times, the soap opera tension lies blissfully low so far, as the various combinations of Kate, Sawyer, Jack and Juliet were mostly circling each other and throwing emo looks around. At least Jack seemed honestly happy to see Juliet, which is more emotion than the man has shown in the whole season combined. Apart from that, Jack's reaction to being assigned as a janitor was pretty funny, but soundly overshadowed by Juliet's growing horror as she realized just who Amy's cute little boy would one day become. Nice tie-in to Ethan's appearance earlier this season. Aside from this funny bit, it was also a nice character moment for Juliet, as she contemplated the wider consequences of pregnancies being carried out successfully on the island for herself.
I liked meeting Radzinsky, Desmond's predecessor in the Swan, although his charming personality makes me wonder if Kelvin hadn't lied about the circumstances of his death after all.
I also like Phil, Patrick Fischler's character - he is probably the first non-Other character in the history of this show who is not easily duped and actually manages to clue in that something might be wrong with Jim La Fleur and this merry band of new recruits. Too bad that his spidey senses seem of no use where Little Ben is concerned.
And speaking of Harry Potter, Sterling Beaumon's imitation of Michael Emerson's Ben mannerisms is creepily spot on. There are few teenagers who can make the offering of a - mustardless! - sandwich look sinister, but he actually manages it. Although I'm not incredibly fond of what seemed clearly readable on Sayid's face once he realized who his little caterer was. Hold yourself together, Jarrah, this won't lead to anything good!
Next week: lots and lots of mayhem, apparently.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-20 05:57 pm (UTC)What! I thought it was awesome!
I love mayhem!! I did not watch the preview, but vague reactions have been promising.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-20 06:39 pm (UTC)Disagreement - a concept completely unheard of. ;)
I suspect it's partly the lack of Desmond, partly the return of the
trianglepolygon of love. The former makes me cranky, the latter oddly morose. Well, that, and nothing really happened. That seems to change next week, though.(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-20 06:43 pm (UTC)It is somewhat true that nothing really happened in a sense (except the integration of the 6 into the Island narrative), but I was all flaily for most of the episode. I love how time travel-y the show is now. It's really enriched the story.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-20 06:57 pm (UTC)Sure thing. I hate spoiling people.
I love how time travel-y the show is now. It's really enriched the story.
For me, they haven't gone far enough. The Dharma Initiative really creeps me out for being such a crossover between a hobbit village and a cult. And I think another time period may have been more interesting.
Generally, though, it's really fun, I like this season.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-20 07:15 pm (UTC)I think they didn't go far enough back when the record was skipping. It was kind of ridiculous and statistically impossible for them to have continually landed in the same three-year range half the time and most of the other time in the same century.
But I am loving the fact that the Lostaways have become part of the Dharma Initiative. It's so circular and awesome. So nuts.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-20 07:36 pm (UTC)I think they used it mostly to bring up things like "You can't just go and meet people when you have actually met them later than we are now (except probably Desmond)," "Yes, you could meet yourself, but you don't want to (because you needed the pain)" and "Wow, Ajira Airlines, what could that be?", and the British Power Twins in the 1950s, but other than that it was pretty unlikely, true. At least they saw Anubis'/Horus'/Hawete's/Mawet's/Anti's backside!
But I am loving the fact that the Lostaways have become part of the Dharma Initiative. It's so circular and awesome. So nuts.
I was a lot fonder of that when it didn't threaten to turn into Days Of Our Dharma Lives. I think it would have been cool if Kate had stayed in the present with Sun. She could have recaptured her tracker/tomboy/climb trees side, and I'm sure, she would have loved to whack Ben with a paddle.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-20 07:46 pm (UTC)I think it's been handled pretty subtlely so far. I like that the undercurrent is obviously there in the interactions, but they're not deliberately playing it up.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-20 07:53 pm (UTC)