I've poked around the Internet a bit for reviews of last night's episode of LOST, and much to my surprise, people were quite "meh" on it. While I agree with the common assessment that not much was really answered about the show, I did like that the creators at least tried to provide some framework for why there is a rivalry between Jacob and FLocke. There was just a neat, mystical feel to the episode that you couldn't really indulge in if you put it too far under the microscope.
Like the Richard episode a few weeks ago, this LOST focused solely on the relationship between Mother, Jacob and FLocke, with only a brief cutaway at the end. Given how much I liked both episodes, I kind of wish they had used this conventional method of storytelling a bit more often.
Since we knew so little about both the origins of Jacob and FLocke coming in, I'm in favor of the decision to reveal a little - but not all - of the details of their background. Having them essentially wash ashore adds to the mystery of the whole thing, as does the decision to not even try to explain where the heck Mother came from. Likewise, not naming FLocke (or Not-Jacob, as I call him in the title of this entry) adds to the mystical / comic book feel of the episode.
Most LOST fans probably won't be completely happy with this thought of mine, but I imagine the origins of the ancient Island inhabitants - Mother, Jacob and FLocke - will never be truly revealed. Because of this, I think we'll just have to be happy with an expanded knowledge of the more "human" characters like Jack, Kate (boo!), Sawyer and (hopefully!) Miles.
Grade: A-
As usual, the great pictures from LOST are from the Lostpedia entry for the episode, which can be found here.
Uch, hated it. Allison Janney sounded like she was reading Latin off a teleprompter, and what the hell was that magical water light vag-island? These were questions that didn't need answering, especially in the last 4 hours of the series. Boooo.
ReplyDeleteI did forget to bring up that the magical water sure did look like the glowing crap from Pulp Fiction... I wonder how Marcellus Wallace got his hands on it. No doubt via Vincent Vega.
ReplyDeleteI was also a little iffy on this episode. Maybe it's because they built up the Alpert-centric episode as well as "Across the Sea". I was expecting more answers, but like Lost usually does ... it ends up leaving me with more questions than ever.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your assessment, Ian, in that five more questions about how things function on LOST pop up for every answer they do seem to give. However, at this point, I think this is clearly the direction the show and its creators want it to proceed in.
ReplyDeleteI would rather they not answer every question. I feel like if they answered some questions, we can only be disappointed. As it is, I was getting extremely bothered by Jacob and FLocke always being in white and black, respectively. Gee, I wonder who is the bad one? Some of the answers in our heads are probably far better than anything J.J. Abrams and the writers can dream up. I want to be left interpreting some of what was left over.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is Bob, people get SO up in their heads about lost that even obvious symbolism like black and white for evil and good, respectively, is seen as something just meant to throw us all off. If anything, LOST is the ultimate show for the paranoid, since you can derive any sort of belief you want from it.
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