Thursday, January 22, 2009

Lost Season 5 Premieres! Break out the Hot Pockets!













Hurley hurls a Hot Pocket! Sayid sets his dishwasher to the DEATH cycle. The writers served up a dramatic dessert of Frogurt Flambée. The island is straight tripping. Mrs. Hawking fires up the TRS-80. When am I? It’s all relative. And… Oh, by the way…Libby says “hi.”

With two hours of material, there’s just too much to do an in-depth analysis today. (Perhaps this weekend.) So let’s review my top 16 moments from last night’s premiere double-header:

Lost 5x01: Because You Left and Lost 5x02: The Lie

16. Jack and Ben named their price to the Priceline Negotiator for a great deal on a room. As they prep to go gather the rest of the Oceanix Six and travel back to the island. Jack’s working with Ben, but Sayid, who in last season’s finale was working with Ben, doesn’t trust Ben any longer.

15. Yemi’s plane gives Locke a haircut and crashes on the island. Did the island showing up at that time cause the crash of the plane? That is, would the plane have gone down had the island not shown up at that time and place?
14. You may have seen Dr. Pierre Chang/Edgar Hallowax/Marvin Candle/Mark Wickmund in such films as... Candle opens the episode to tape a training film for The Arrow station – one for defensive strategy and intelligence. (Ironic considering the flaming arrows shot at the 815ers later.) He’s got a baby on the island. Hmmm. And he appears to have both arms at this point, too.

13. Charles Widmore’s never heard of a phone. On her way to LA, Mr. Widmore sequesters/imprisons Sun in an airport examination room to find out what common interests they might have. If there was any question that he controlled Oceanic Airlines, this quashed that concern.

12. Past Desmond gets a hatch telegram. We learn via Faraday that Desmond is uniquely special and can somehow travel through time and even perhaps alter it. He gets marching orders to seek out Daniel’s mother in Oxford. Her name is… d’oh! Good luck with that, Des.

11. A mother always knows when you’re telling the truth. Hurley’s mom believes him. After yelling about the “dead Pakistani” on her couch, Hurley opens up to her and tells him the truth about the island and the Oceanic Six lie. And even though it sounds insane, she knows he’s telling the truth.

10. Sawyer doesn’t wear a shirt for a full episode. That one’s for the ladies.

9. When in the World is John Locke? John disappears from The Others and Richard Alpert…or is it they disappear from him? And then Alpert re-appears. John asks, “When am I?” Apert’s answer: “It’s all relative.”

8. The return of Ethan Rom - or rather Locke skips to see Ethan in the past - and Locke declares himself their leader to him. Bold attempt on John’s part and I’m surprised Ethan didn’t pop another cap in his ass.

7. Daniel Faraday joins a construction union. Seems Faraday was at the building of the Orchid station. Was he there just to observe the event as a physics/time travel nerd, or was he trying to influence the past he said couldn’t be altered even if he tried?

6. Sayid runs his dishwasher on the death cycle! In typical Sayid badass form, he throws one guy down several stories and kills another by impaling him on cutlery in his dishwasher. I hope he uses Jet Dry to clean out the blood from that appliance.















5. Hurley hearts his Shih-tzu.
And Weekend at Bernie’s 2 is his favorite movie.

4. Ana Lucia gets spiritually 5-0 on Hurley.
The very dead Ana Lucia pulls Hurley over to give him advice on what he has to do and help him calm down so he can get Sayid where she needs to go. Then she passes along a message from Libby.















3. Mrs. Hawking does advanced physics experiments in mysterious cloaks.
Hawking, the old lady from “Flashes Before Your Eyes” who told Desmond about the universe course correcting, is more powerful than Ben. He asks her what will happen if he can’t get Hurley back to the island in less than 70 hours, so he isn’t as omnipotent as it sometimes seems. Oh, and the computers she’s using to track this phenomenon were taken from my 6th grade class.




And the trip to the science museum continues with a pendulum. She’s somehow tracking multiple locations as the island skips through time and space.















2. What are you gonna fling? Hot Pocket!
Hurley’s so startled by Ben appearing in his kitchen, that he hurls his tasty microwave snack at Ben. Ben doesn’t flinch. Hurley takes Sayid’s advice and doesn’t trust him for a second and rather surrenders to the cops.

1. Forgurt on Fire! The writers gave us an Arzt-worthy death scene. Giving a background character, Neil Frogurt, a series of annoying lines only to have him killed in a spectacular way when a flaming arrow shot him. Awesome. While they didn’t apparently go that far back, it does seem odd that they would have used flaming arrows, no? Like something the original crew and passengers of the Black Rock slave ship might have used, no?







Questions to ponder:
  • Is Mrs. Hawking Daniel Faraday’s mother?
  • Was Dr. Marvin Candle’s baby a young Miles?
  • Was the British guy who was going to chop off Juliet’s hand Charlotte’s father? And could this explain what happened to Marvin Candle’s arm later on?
  • What will happen in 70 hours if they’re not all on the island? And were they trying to one-up “24” by putting a finite number of hours on Ben’s task?
  • Has John Locke been traveling throughout his time on the island? At some points, he’s seemed so at ease with the properties of the island, had he traveled back from a point in the future to another time there?
  • Who ordered Kate’s blood test? EW's Jeff Jensen noted the significance of the law firm, Agostini Norton.
  • Will going back to the island with Locke's body bring him back to a time when he was alive, resurrecting him à la Christian Shephard?
  • Could Daniel Faraday bear some responsibility for the island needing to move? Is he trying to fix it now?
Geek alerts:
  • The alarm clock that opened the episode is set to 8:15
  • There’s an announcement at the airport for a Flight 23 to Paris at Gate 15
  • Hurley’s dad was watching Exposé, the series starring the infamous Nikki of Nikki and Paolo. Razzle Dazzle!

What do you think? Comment back with some of your thoughts... or to debunk me.

5 comments:

www.porschethomas.com said...

Again, I feel like I didnt really see the episode until I read this! Never knew exactly how much I missed the blog until RIGHT NOW! I can sleep now. :-D

Christian said...

The number Ben grabs at the Butcher is 342, with only the 42 in bold black.

Christian said...

9. “When am I?” Apert’s answer: “It’s all relative.”


Is this a hint, "relative", there are a number of family connections going on

Dan/Hawking

Jack/Claire

the baby to the Changs

Claire finding her parents

I also belive that Hurley's dad worked for the DI all those years.

Sean said...

Awesome ideas Christian. Thanks. Though Hurley's dad for DI??? Hmmm...

Wolf said...

16. I think Sayid never did but Ben knew the who killed Nadia and revenge is a big thing for Sayid. Sayid could be using this partnership as some means to an end?
15. I like that idea, its like the island pulled a Bermuda Tirangle.
14. My money is on that the baby is Miles.
9. When Alpert said "It's all relative" I was woundering what then is the constant? Is it the Island, Locke, Arron or even Christain Shepard, he's so constant it his voice that says "previously on lost", kind of like he's the conscience of the show.
Sidenote: Could all the whispering in the jungle realy be the 815ers running in to themsselves hiding at key moments as the island jumps around???