First, Michael - his story was told superbly in this episode, in a flashback that goes back not to before the crash of 815, but to the time after Ben sets Michael and Walt free from the island. When we first see this flashback, it's not entirely clear that it isn't a flashforward, to the time after the Oceanic Six have left the island. Michael - like Jack - is despondent, and tries to take his own life. Like Jack, he doesn't succeed.
Tom appears and explains to Michael just why he couldn't commit suicide. But, first, Tom's very appearance tells us this is a flashback to after Michael first left the island, not an Oceanic Six flashforward. Because, as we saw at the end of Season 3, Tom will return to the island and be killed by Sawyer when Hurley prevents the execution of Sawyer, Sayid, and Bernard by The Others who are exceeding Ben's command ... (one of my all-time favorite scenes in Lost).
But, back in Michael's flashback, Tom, not yet killed by Sawyer, tells Michael that the island won't let Michael die. Michael already tried to kill himself by crashing his car into a barrier. He survived that, and after his meeting with Tom, Michael finds he can't kill himself with a bullet to the head, either. By why not? What's the island's "game" in this?
Not clear. Except, ironically, it didn't work for Tom back on the island at the end of Season 3. And, in that same finale, it apparently did prevent Jack from jumping off the bridge in his flashforward.
Fascinating, and important - because it may also tie into the recuperative powers of the island on Locke, maybe Rose, etc. It was one of the two most important parts of Michael's story, tonight (which had some great acoustic markers, with sounds on the ship reminiscent of sounds in the hatch, and Mama Cass singing another great song).The other part of Michael's story ties into the second branch of Episode 8 - Michael's relationship with Ben, who has a crucial conversation with Michael in which Ben reminds Michael that Michael killed Ana Lucia and Libby on his own, not under Ben's orders...
This is important, because it gets, again, to Ben's true nature - how truly evil is Ben?
Seemingly good, back on the island in the present, when Ben pleads with Alex to flee to the Temple, so she is nowhere near him when Widmore's people come after him. Alex reluctantly goes, along with her boyfriend, Karl, and her mother, Rousseau.
As the three get close to the Temple, an unseen sniper kills Alex's boyfriend. Rousseau soon dies...
Only Alex survives. (Presumably, because we of course can never be sure with this island.)
Were the bullets fired by Ben's enemies? That's the obvious conclusion.
But I'm wondering if Ben wasn't behind this, wanting to get Karl and Rousseau totally out of the way, so he can be Alex's father again with no interference, which is the way things were before the end of Season 3.
That would make Ben a pretty evil person. Yeah, I'm thinking that's just what Ben is.
And I'll be back here, with egg on my face for any wrong predictions, and smirks for what if anything I get right, at the end of April, for Part II of the spectacular season of Lost.
See also...
Further Questions about Lost 4.4: Jack and Aaron, Kate and Sawyer and More about Season Four: Baby Aaron and the Oceanic Six and More About Lost 4: (ii) Michael and Ben, Good and Evil, Alias Echo
1. Lost's Back Full Paradoxical Blast 4.1 ... 4.2: Five Flashbacks and Three Rational Explanations ... 4.3: Thirty Minutes and Big Ben ... 4.4: Kate and ... ... 4.5 Desmond 1 and Desmond 2 ... 4.6 The True Nature of Ben ... 4.7 Flash Both Ways ... 4.9 Daughters, Rules, and Some Truth about Ben ... 4.10: Almost a Dream Come True ... 4.11 Unlocking Locke
and
2. More Thoughts On Lost 4.1: Those Who Went with Hurley and Those Who Stayed with Jack and Two More Points about Lost 4.1
special 10-minute podcast of this Lost review and analysis
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
more about The Plot to Save Socrates and its time travel ...
Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!
13 comments:
Just a couple things I wanted to comment on in your review/recap of last night's episode of Lost.
Mr. Friendly/Tom might not have been too important to be saved by the island. I mean, he was hit by a decrepit VW bus and shot in the head. One really can't survive something like that. And he was one of the Others. Whose to say that the island saves good people who can redeem themselves?
Secondly, we don't exactly know who fired at Karl, Alex, and Rousseau. It could've been enemies of Ben, but who do we know on the island that could be enemies of Ben? But what if it was the group of Others we haven't seen for ages, like Richard Alpert, Cindy (the stewardess who survived), and Zack and Emma (the two kids from the Tail section)? What if they just shot because they're out of the loop and told to shoot anyone who comes near that they don't recognize? It would make sense because they probably haven't seen Alex, Karl, and Rousseau.
I agree, great episode. The one, great part that you left out, was the appearances of Libby (in the hospital and on the boat).
The whole Michael portion of the episode was pretty fantastic. When Tom asked, "So, did the bullet bounce off your skull or did the gun just jam?" was a great moment of 'mystery'. The revelation of Tom to be a homo-sexual, I initially thought was a hackneyed idea, but the more I think about it - and the fact that we're probably not going to get too much more character development for him, seems like a cool detail to learn. (creepy...in the way that Tom always has, but cool.)
BTW, Stacker/House - It wasn't Tom that was run over by Hurley in the van. That was the character, Ryan Pryce.
As for Alex, I am of the mind that it was The Others that killed Karl and (very, very sadly) Rousseau. It was made pretty obvious that in the coming episodes, there's going to be a war between the Widmore freighter and the island... except, as Ben mentioned, no one knows where the temple is. So, the mercenaries from the ship ought not be that far into the island yet, and not attacked the beach or The Other's camp. And Ben, only told Alex that she needed to go to the temple. Rousseau, just assumed that she was allowed to go.
And of course, I find it very interesting in the development of Ben's character. As he said, a long time ago (Season two finale??) "We're the good guys". I keep thinking that his character is sort of in that vein of, if you ask a question he'll give you the true answer, it's just in how you ask and what details you want revealed that factors into his answer. Had Alex or Rousseau - or even Karl - asked if they would all be safe to go to the temple, I think that he would have said that only Alex was safe. But, since Rousseau and Karl just volunteered to go, then Ben wasn't going to warn them. And as Miles said, "He finds a way to survive."
Great episode. Not as great as the Desmond episode from a few weeks ago, but still top notch.
Good thoughts - but on the shootings at the end - I'm thinking Alex's survival may be meaningful (your hypothesis says her survival was just a coincidence)...
Welcome to Infinite Regress...
my above response was to Stacker/House...
John - yeah, I think it was The Others too (unless there are other people from the ship already on the island, people we don't know about - unlikely).
The question then is: were these Others under Ben's command, or working against him...
Good analysis of Tom.
Well, it seems like most of The Others are aware of the lists that Ben keeps or has made. So, I'd guess that there would be a list of certain people allowed access to the Temple. (All guessing, on my part of course.) So, I would say that there would be orders that if anyone approached to kill them, unless they were on a list. At the end of Season 3, only Alex was with Ben heading to the temple, before Ben left to intercept Jack heading towards the radio tower.
So, I find that the most plausible - and with how Lost seems to work, most easily to completely go in the opposite direction from.
did you see the end of the episode? In the promo for the rest of the season they announced that the "Oceanic 6" had been revealed.
I was disappointed, b/c I was in the group that thought baby Aaron wouldn't count as the 6... but he did, b/c they showed him in the flashes of the 6.
I no doubt think that Alex's survival has meaning, and was planned by Ben.
And like stacker/house said... I am so interested to know where some of those "Others" are. Are they in the temple? Where are Zach and Emma? Who is caring for them?
I hope Rousseau isn't dead. I never felt that her character was fully developed and was hoping for a lot more.
I wonder if the Temple is in any way related to the giant four-toed statue.
Elisabeth - I'm stubbornly refusing to believe that Aaron is one of the Oceanic Six ... his name wasn't on the plane's manifest ... it just doesn't make sense ... :)
But we'll see. Coming attractions are sometimes not that reliable ... I also don't like when coming attractions settle a debate among viewers which is still going on...
In the latest official Lost podcast, Lindelof and Cuse do say that all of the Oceanic Six were revealed at the end of episode 7 - which makes Michael a possibility. The coming attractions are produced by ABC's publicity department - not by Lost's producers - but, unless the coming attractions were deliberately deceptive, Aaron does seem to be among the Oceanic Six.
===
I'm looking forward, as you are, to finding out more about the other surviving children on the island...
I have a question: that woman Michael kept having flashes of—he saw her in the hospital and then again at least one other time. And he screamed every time he saw her. Were we supposed to recognize her, or was that a new character?
That was Libby - one of the two women Michael killed at the end of Season 2.
Good to see you here, Jessica!
Elisabeth - I've been mulling over what I said about coming attractions, and just wrote a blog piece about it - thanks for the inspiration! :)
I definitely think Ben was behind Danielle and Carl's shootings. He's just as possessive of Alex as Juliet.
dube: absolutely!
I'm also more of a mind that ever (what an expression!) that Ben's in the coffin at in Season 3 finale...
Hi everyone,
Wow this keeps getting better!
A couple things...
1. I think we did know that Tom was gay. When he gave Kate the dress to wear in the cage, she gave him a weird look, and he said, "don't worry about it I don't roll that way" or something like that.
2. Rousseau dying...Seems fishy to me. (Maybe just wishful thinking on my part) but she was so intune to the island, the other's and survival, it seems out of character that she would all of a sudden agree with Ben, and let her guard down.
3. Does seeing Aaron on the promo = him being an O-6er?
4. Also, Sayid turning Michael in to the captain was very interesting knowing what we do about him working for Ben in the future.
5. And was it last week that Juliette's lover's wife (forgot their names) said, Ben was still orchestrating things, and right where he wanted to be...so he could very well have had Danielle and Karl killed
Lost indeed!
Post a Comment