I just knew Charlie wasn't going to die. Would've been too obvious, with the build-up to that all season, and especially tonight. But it was a great Charlie show, anyway. Any time I can hear a few bars of "You All Everybody," I figure I'm coming out ahead. And the list that Charlie wrote of the greatest moments of his life, and tying that into the flashbacks, worked great tonight, too. More about flashbacks in a bit...
But I also figured that Desmond would try to dive down to the Looking Glass, and swap his life for Charlie's. Actually, if Desmond can really time travel, an earlier version of his self might have even been able to get to the Looking Glass, and save Desmond's future, heroic self from drowning....
But tonight's resolution worked just fine for me - and it will be fun to see just who those blonde underwater babes are - what their relationship is to Ben, Richard, and who knows what else on the island....
Which brings us to next week. I have no knowledge of anything that will be on next week's show, so consider the following just a theory:
I think we've seen the last of the flashbacks, or close to it. I predict some of our castaways will get off the island - certainly Claire and her baby - and others (like Charlie) will remain. And next year, rather than the flashbacks (which were getting a little boring, anyway), we'll see the adventures of the remaining castaways and The Others and who knows who else on the island, and the attempt of those off the island to save them. The off-island story, in the present, will replace the flashbacks*. Maybe next week we'll even see Michael, and find out what happened to him, off the island....
Should be a superb two-hour finale next week, even if my predictions don't pan out....
*I've already said that I think the inexplicable coincidences in the flashbacks hold the key to what's really happening in Lost - see my Keys to What's Really Going On. If I'm right about the flashbacks mostly ending, this means that we'll likely have a flashback or two in the remaining future seasons to explain the inexplicable flashbacks of the first three seasons...
Useful links:
Listen to 5-minute podcast of this review - with me singing a little of "You All Everybody"- at Levinson news clips
The Plot to Save Socrates
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
21 comments:
interesting!
thanks! will be fun to see what happens!
Hi Paul,
Thanks for once again sharing your thoughts, I thought it was an excellent episode myself, and realised just how well the producers have managed to save Lost from the pit it was falling into. I got a real sense of anticipation in this penultimate episode much as I have with the first two seasons, and am very much looking forward to next week! Also, the idea of synonomously showing the on and off island stories sounds like it could be a brilliant one!
Ever since I read your articlae "What's really going on?" (Which by the way, set me up perfectly for the episode with Desmond's "time travel" perfectly at the time), I have been convinced that you are right, that the inexplicable coincidences are the key. So that being said, were you aware of Nadia's role in said inexplicable coincidences? Cause I know I would have been oblivious if it weren't for Lostpedia: http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Nadia
Last week you mentioned how Anthony Cooper being both Locke's Dad and 'Sawyer' was probably the most prominent of those coincidences, what about her, and her appearance in THREE different back stories? Interesting indeed!
Til next week,
Ben
Coincednces are all over the place. How about the fact that Jack and CLaire are siblings. It was a great episode. Some people think the little girl Annie is really Kate, now that would make it interesting huh
Excellent review, as always, Paul! Interesting theory about flashes to present life off-island.
Underwater babes (lol)! I read an idea somewhere that one of the 'babes' could be Ben's Annie. Interesting, no?
What do you make of Charlie's flashback appearing to Desmond in "Flashes Before Your Eyes?"
I "moved" my site to http://tvshowsilike.com/ and added your link. Would you update my link when you get a chance? Thanks so much!
Ben - Thanks - and thanks, too, for the Nadia Wiki link - which I'll check out after dinner. Always good to have more grist for my inexplicable coincidence mill!
Dawn - yeah, Jack and Claire being siblings is pretty good, but I don't think it's a super extraordinary coincidence - Jack's father did have a reason to be in Australia ... but you're right about both Claire and Jack both being on the plane being unlikely (but still not as extraordinary as Jack and Desmond on the stadium steps).
The Annie possibilities are interesting. I thought I saw a young woman who could have been Annie's age sprawled on the ground after the gas attacks, and Ben comes back ... but definitely no proof of that, and Ben was certainly motivated to slip Annie a gas mask beforehand (I really liked Annie, so I hope she did survive)... (her being young Kate would be wild!)
Jenn B - good point about Desmond seeing Charlie's flashback ... it supports Desmond as "meta"- character - someone who has a position above the other characters, which a time-traveller would have. (I'll take care of the link change right now, Jenn.)
Everyone: I'm going to expand my footnotes to Lost: Keys for What Is Really Going On after the finale next week. I'll be happy to mention your names as readers who brought me ideas - let me know if this is ok with you (and I'd be happy to mention your full names, too, if you like) - just e-mail me at Levinson.paul@gmail.com with your name...
PS to Jenn - I voted for your Friends of Hereoes site! Best of luck with that!
Back to say to Ben and everyone: Duh me! I indeed missed Nadia completely last night (though, come to think of it, she did seem familiar in that mugging scene....)
Kudos to whoever caught that!
I would like to point out several interesting parallels between the book by author/illustrator Herge in the Tintin series "Flight 714"
1)714 to sydney
-815 from Sydney
2) A near fatal plane landing on a Pacific Island in Oceana.-
A crash landing on a Pacific island in Oceana.
3)Strange concrete bunkers spread around the island-
Strange Hatches situated around the island.
Interesting? check it out!
Out of curiousity, do you think that Charlie is not going to die? The way I see it, he has to die for Claire to get off the island, and he has to flip that switch, so now that he's in the looking glass, he'll have to find someway to negotiate, flipping that switch before the blond babes do him in, if they're trying to do that. If they hold him captive, he has to find someway to die, essentially. That sets up a wonderful paradox. He has to fight to survive, so that he can die in a specific way. At least, that's how I see things unfolding in the next episode as far as charlie is concerned.
Greg - No, I don't think Charlie has to die for Claire & baby to get off the island.
My recollection is that Desmond never says exactly how he sees Charlie dying - he just says Charlie will die. So, if Desmond wakes up, and Charlie's not in the boat, and Charlie doesn't return, Desmond might well conclude that Charlie is dead ... even though Charlie may in fact be alive in the Looking Glass, as we saw at the end of this episode...
anon: I looked up that book on the Web -- interesting, but, there are very few ideas that are completely new -
for example, people have pointed out that my latest novel, The Plot to Save Socrates, might have been influenced by Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - even though I never saw the movie! :)
whatever sources Lost may have drawn upon, it is one of the most daringly original series ever to be on television...
if charlie was smart he would just cut the cable since it obviously supplies the looking glass with electricity!
additionally the others will suspect that something is up, since juliet was NOT supposed to mark the tents until tommorrow night!
Greg - I think its too much to immeadiately assume that the girls in the looking glass would kill Charlie, since we know absolutely nothing about them! Its fair enough that they approach him with the extreme caution that they did, but that doesn't mean they are always hostile, we'll just have to see what happens.
Further, I think that as we have seen, Charlie's circumstances seem somewhat different to what Desmond described...or as far as we know. He said "you flip the switch and then you drown" so in our mind we had it that being flooded, Charlie would run out of breath just after flicking the switch, but then maybe flicking the switch will self destruct the station and flood it. Who knows...(Hopefully the producers at least haha...)
Paul - Did you recognised Nadia when she got Locke to inspect her house when that happened? Or am I the only REALLY unobservant one haha...
Also, if you did intend to use my name at all, feel free, though nothing I have said is really MY findings :)
And oh...where exactly did Sayid produce that map/schematic from?
anon - good points about the cable, and about The Others.
ben - no, I missed Nadia with Locke, too. But the Lostpedia has a good photo of her in the Locke episode.
This is one of things that makes the inexplicable coincidences so interesting - often, they can happen so quickly or unassumingly, that we miss them. (Though I think on some level I did recognize Nadia being saved by Charlie.)
About the map: maybe Sayid got it from Rousseau - or Rousseau's hideaway - the first year?
I was also thinking, about the Looking Glass, that maybe Ben or Richard or someone who planned the gassing took some of the children to the Looking Glass, to save them.
Paul - That's a really good point about Desmond's flashbacks not showing all of what's going on. It just seems to me that the way he talks Charlie has to die for Claire to be rescued, but this could be some elaborate set up. It will be interesting to see it all unfold.
Ben - Seeing as the women were approaching with guns, I'd assumed that they would hold him captive and that he would have to try to break free, so he could flip that switch. Also things in the preview for this week's episode seemed dangerous, but I won't go into detail if you choose not to watch the previews. Also people have said that Sayid got the Looking Glass information from the Flame, the same place that he got the map with the pipelines and such on it. It was a little weird to me the way they showed that, though, and I was confused myself as well.
Just a note to add that... it's only Desmond's belief that if one part of a vision changes, the whole outcome of the vision changes... that kind of either/or simplifying of his visions that he does is understandable, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's true!
It's interesting that in earlier episodes, I seem to recall him playing his future knowledge like a gamble, but as time has gone on, and they've shown him more then just "Charlie Dies", extending to positive outcomes beyond the death, he's started to treat what they show him as more literal/inevitable... or rather, that's how he expresses it, but what's actually happening is he's less willing to take the gamble.
Desmond has been given no reason to believe that Charlie flipping the switch and then surviving will result in Claire NOT being saved... he's just not taking the chance on such vagaries of relativity and chaos theory any more!
(Further, of course, is that we don't know how Desmond is experiencing these visions... for all we know, Charlie drowns, but is then resuscitated, or Charlie flips the switch, escapes, goes back to the island, has a cup of tea, escapes shortly after (OR BEFORE!) Claire, has a new album out, lives to ninety, gets in the bathtub, slips, cracks head, DROWNS! It's like that other line, "Save the Cheerleader... Save the World"... we assume the prophecy is sequential, because we're trained to... but we can't really be sure.)
God I love good tv. And Paul, I love your blog...
Thank you, Nicolas! It's great to have comments like yours! (for more than one reason...)
Lost and Heroes do overlap in their metaphysics - as would any narrative even slightly infused with the meade of time travel...
(And they both have a Claire, if not a clairety ... yet ...)
But one of the strictures of time travel, which I think can't be avoided, is that changing a piece of anything that leads to a future foreseen can unhinge that future ... unless there is an explicit other plank that can make that future happen...
So I think this more a fundamental principle of the metaphysics of time travel than just Desmond's opinion.
But I think you're completely right about Desmond's attitudes about his own predictions changing, and that could indeed have some significance.
There's really nothing like good television, is there, for the immediate and intense intellectual rush...
That "clairety" gag really was awful... but also funny and true!
And Lost and Heroes are dealing with time-travel and divergent/alternative realities in a much more consistent/intelligent way then we've seen in most tv or movies of recent years, especially where they've become a bit of a gimmick trope.
Although the smartest handling of the idea that I've seen in ages is probably in Daybreak, which my partner and I are watching through at the moment, with the depressing knowledge in the backs of our heads that the story goes unfinished at episode 13... But that show's view, that the changes he makes aren't always going to provide the most obviously predicted results, and while the tiniest changes he makes can have an incredible impact on how the day plays out, the opposite is also true...
But I guess the point I was making is that I agree that the rules of cause and effect dictate that any changes may unhinge the previously seen or established future, but there is no rule that states that that divergence will neccessarily be major... so potentially, the only certain difference that Charlie surviving might impose on Desmond's predicted future is that in that future, Charlie survives. Desmond has just become so driven by his visions (like Locke and the secret messages that the island seemed to be giving him in the first couple of seasons) that he only sees the worst case scenarios of screwing with them. Desmond's mistake, I think, is getting an insight into the future mixed up with a look at destiny, but of course, the two things just aren't the same.
I like that we seem to be mostly agreeing and yet there's still lots to say. I think we've been really lucky with TV these last few years, actually.
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