I could've slept, but, what with catching SCOTLAND tonight, I ended up missing LOST. Seeing as how I'm planning on hitting the Brattle for the next five nights, I decided I should watch the episode before going to sleep, as I might not get another chance for a while. Or even if I did, I'd rather not have LOSTness mixing itself up in my head with Terry Gilliam's dark cinemagic or a man-eating blood-sucking mutated beastie from the Han River, y'know?
Check out the Boston Fantastic Film Festival for more on such subjects. =)
I will say that watching this season's SURVIVOR, along with LOST, and reading BATTLE ROYALE, makes for a very fun mental mash-up of plots, characters, and ideas.
In the opening scene where Locke opens his eyes in the jungle, post hatch detonation, he hears someone moving near him. He manages to raise his head, but alas, not his voice, enough to see Desmond making his way thru the greenery. When I saw that I got the idea that John might've been shunted in time by the EM phenomenon. Sent back in time to a point before the plane crashed on the island, and Desmond was alone, or perhaps tracking his old partner to his boat, and he just happened to see him then.
I dismissed the notion pretty quickly, as Locke makes his way back to camp in the "present," just a day after the hatch is blown, according to Charlie's comments. Also, when Hurley encounters Desmond, his underwear blown off by the hatch, heh, he's looking the part of wild jungle man, which seems in line with his rushing thru the fauna in the earlier scene with Locke waking up.
But... What about that comment Desmond makes to Hurley, about Locke's speech? Maybe it's Desmond who got knocked about the fourth dimension a bit by the detonation, eh? Perhaps he didn't "physically" travel, but was disembodied witness, or got some kooky black hole eye's view of the island area/dimension, able to perceive events in the past, present, and future all at once. Of course, once he regains consciousness in his human body, he can only retain and recall a small part of what he might have seen. That's how it always works, y'know?
The hatch imploded. The anomaly is no more, sealed, dispersed, whatev. When the anomaly's spiked in the past, it's sucked in people and air and seacraft from the outside world. It doesn't seem like very much of a stretch to have it warp space in the vicinity of the hatch, pick up the people nearby, and then deposit them in random locations on the island.
The sweat lodge was an excellent idea. I wonder if "talking to the island" is like getting into Narnia... You can only use each method once, and then it's "closed."
Boone appears to Locke. Another case of the island using the forms/spirits/ghosts of the deceased whose bodies are ON the island (for those of you playing at home, the other instances of this practice involve Jack's dad and Anna Lucia). Also, of visions appearing to the survivors when they're extremely exhausted, perhaps not even fully conscious. Those closeups of the survivors' eyes opening and/or dilating that lead into certain segments... They still make me think of dreamtime and R.E.M., and being influenced or somehow receptive in those states.
I saw Jim this past weekend, and we talked LOST of course (and BSG =), and he came up with the most excellent reason for backing up Ben's assertion that none of the Others would *want* to leave the island, even tho they can, anytime they wish—they're all terminally ill.
Pretty brilliant, eh?
The Locke backstory was a bit frustrating, as was the Jin and Sun one from last episode. It *was* interesting to see that jerkass guy from TWIN PEAKS—y'know, the poor man's Swayze?—getting some work as Mike of "Mike and Jan." The frustrating part is how the writers can flip and tweak each character's life, history, and personality, any which way from week to week, so long as there are any minutes of his or her existence between birth and arriving on the island unaccounted for. It's all plausible enough, but there's pretty much infinite opportunity to jerk us around. The Jin and Sun story... That just slides into moments from two or three other Jin or Sun flashbacks, right?
*sigh*
Even the slower backstory bits (like tonight's) are still pretty compelling television. But, y'know, I'd happily trade it in for another 30 minutes of what's happening on the island in the "present."
Hel-LO!~ McFly?! Floating mist of evil (or Walt's id?) that hovers like a cloud, cruises like a missile, explodes stuff like Wile E. Coyote, and eats airline pilots like a t-rex? Anyone remember that?
Which sorta bring me to Charlie. Charlie still seems kind of tweaked to me. Not on drugs, but... I dunno... He just seems colder, even alien at times. Soulless? Newborn? Possessed? Naive and willful? Post-detonation shock? Although he was already a bit sideways before that...
Polar bears, the Einsteins of the bear family...
From a post on AN INCONVENENT TRUTH a few months back...
Check out some observations on polar bears demonstrating a "brutal downside of global warming." I'm still waiting for a festive upside that doesn't resemble Lex Luthor's play for new beachfront property in the first SUPERMAN movie. Random synapse trigger - I seem to recall someone -maybe Kevin Smith?- talking about a SUPERMAN script bouncing around Hollywood for years, and some producer's input being to have Supes go up against killer polar bears... Wack.
Keep on keepin on~
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