Lost“Because You Left/The Lie”
Original Air Date: Jan 21, 2009
Laura Kelley - TwoCents Reviewer
laurakelley@thetwocentscorp.com
Hello, TwoCents readers! I’ll be taking over the Lost reviews for our regular reviewer, and I hope I can measure up! Wow, the premiere was jam-packed with information. We’ve all had eight months to perfect our theories, but mine were left in the dust by everything that was crammed into these two episodes. But at least one person thinks he knows what’s happening, and that’s Daniel Faraday.
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[photo: ABC]
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Hello, TwoCents readers! I’ll be taking over the Lost reviews for our regular reviewer, and I hope I can measure up! Wow, the premiere was jam-packed with information. We’ve all had eight months to perfect our theories, but mine were left in the dust by everything that was crammed into these two episodes. But at least one person thinks he knows what’s happening, and that’s Daniel Faraday.
ReplyDeleteThe opening scene was amazing. We learned that when Ben moved the island last season, it apparently unleashed a lot of energy that has the Dharma initiative confused and unwilling to tamper with it. Yes, they’re back. Actually, our cast of characters found themselves briefly in the 1970s, before the Purge. Sawyer, Juliet and their group are confused as to where their belongings have disappeared to, since they’re no longer on the beach, and Faraday has to confess that he knows something has happened. Meanwhile, back in the present, we get our first glimpse of Ben this season. Ben told Jack that the bad things that happened came to pass because he and the rest of the six left the island, and he asks Jack if Locke told him what happened on the island. Jack says no, and Ben coyly says “I guess we’ll never know.” At this point in the episode, I thought Ben really knew, but after the end of “The Lie,” I think Ben might be as lost (accidental pun, but I’m keeping it) as we all are.
Things aren’t looking any better for Kate, who takes Aaron and flees her new life after lawyers come to her door demanding to test her blood to see if she’s actually Aaron’s mother. Kate’s back to her old ways, but will she agree to go back to the island? I don’t think she will without some serious convincing. Ben thinks Hurley will, though, but snaring him proves difficult, since Sayid is hit with a tranquilizer dart after freeing him from the Santa Rosa mental hospital and Hurley has to take care of him. They end up on the run because Hurley is being blamed for three men that Sayid killed (he killed one with a dishwasher, which is rather ingenious.) Most importantly, Sayid told Hurley before they were attacked to never do anything Ben says, and this is something Hurley doesn’t forget. Sun doesn’t forget either, and she is cornered by Widmore in the airport. She tells him they should work together because they have the same goal: to kill Benjamin Linus. I think she’s more interested in killing Widmore, but I wouldn’t put it past Sun to want to take Ben out too. She’s a woman with a lot of blame to place, and she’s not forgetting Jin’s death.
We find Locke on his own on the island, and he’s in the 1990s on the day of Eko’s brother’s heroin-smuggling plane crash. Locke gets shot by Ethan, and before Ethan is about to kill him there’s a flash and Locke is transported to another time. Rickard Alpert, still eerily reminiscent of the brilliant Rod Serling, gets the bullet out of Locke’s leg, gives him a compass (the compass from last season’s Locke-centric episode “Cabin Fever,” which a young Locke did not choose during Alpert’s “test.” Yes, I watch too much Lost.) Meanwhile, Sawyer, Juliet, Faraday, Charlotte and Miles wander through the jungle and Sawyer gets the idea to go to the Hatch, which is back after another flash, and talk to Desmond. Faraday tells him not to, and is slapped. Desmond doesn’t answer the door, at least not to Sawyer. Charlotte begins showing signs of “the sickness” (think back to last year’s freighter episodes) and she and everyone but Daniel head back to the beach. Daniel knocks on the door, and Desmond answers. After some arguing caused by the fact that the Desmond of the hatch era has never met Daniel, Daniel tells him that he has to go to Oxford and find his mother, and I think we’ve already met her.
Does anyone remember the old lady who refused to sell the ring to Desmond? As soon as Faraday mentioned his mother, I started spouting theories to my TV. But whether I’m right remains to be seen. Present-day Desmond wakes up and tells Penny (yes, they got married) what Faraday said, and we learn that the rules that apply to everyone else do not apply to Desmond. He is “special,” and I think Mrs. Hawking was correct when she told him that pushing the hatch button was the most important thing he’d ever do because it allowed him to receive this message from Faraday and perhaps save everyone on the island by finding his mother. Wow, I think that first hour just about killed me, but on to “The Lie.”
Kate, still on the run, gets a call from Sun, who is in LA and wants to meet. She takes Aaron and meets Sun in a hotel, and Sun very sweetly reminds her that she was responsible for Jin’s death. I loved Sun in this scene, because she makes words with such venomous intent seem so pleasant, and because she’s right: Kate didn’t really bother to keep her promise to look for Jin. Kate is out for herself, and that’s one of the reasons I don’t like her as a character. She hasn’t changed, she just finds different things to hide behind. Sun twists that knife even more by asking how Jack is. Not great, it turns out, because Ben plays interventionist and flushes his drugs down the toilet. In my favorite scene of this episode, Jack asks Ben if Locke is dead, and Ben gets oddly nervous and deflects the question. Maybe death is as relative as time on Lost, and this made me concoct a few more crazy theories which I sure hope are wrong.
Hurley and Sawyer are pulled over by Ana Lucia, and she tells Hurley not to get arrested and that Libby says hello. He buys a nauseatingly cute “I Heart Shih Tzus” shirt at a gas station, and then he takes Sayid to his parents’ house. He doesn’t explain what’s happened to his father, but has his dad take Sayid to Jack in a parking garage. Hurley tells his mother what really happened, and she says she believes him. Back on our beloved island, the difficulties of life without supplies become apparent as Bernard tries to start a fire and Neil (I have no idea who Neil is) complains constantly. Vincent the dog makes a cameo (YAY!) and Charlotte tells Daniel she’s forgotten her mother’s maiden name, and Daniel doesn’t tell her what’s really happening to her. Neil complains again, and is justifiably shot with arrows. Sawyer and Juliet run from the flaming arrows, and they run into soldiers in the jungle. If you look closely at their uniforms, you’ll see that they look oddly like Rousseau’s crew, as my friend Christina pointed out. Mad props to her for that. Locke throws a knife and kills one of the soldiers.
Ben tells Jack he has a few hours to pack, and then Ben goes to a butcher shop to store Locke’s body. He meets a woman whose name is Jill. He says she has to keep him safe or what they’re about to do won’t matter, and then he heads to casa de Hurley. Ben is greeted by a Hot Pocket attack, which is neither delicious or a pleasant way to say hello, and he tells Hurley they have to go back to the island. But Hurley is having none of it, and takes Sayid’s advice. He runs out to the police cars that have been staking out the house in hopes of finding him (after all, he is still wanted for murder) and does what Ana Lucia told him NOT to do: gets arrested. In the last scene, and in my view the best, we see someone writing on a chalkboard. It’s Mrs. Hawking, and she has a visitor: none other than our dear friend Ben. She tells him he has 70 hours to get back to the island or the event window will close, and I took that to mean that in 70 hours, the island’s time will coincide with the present so it will be visible to them. He asks her what will happen if he can’t get them all back by then, and she says “may God help us all.”
I loved this premiere. Lost has taken a major turn into sci-fi territory, and I have to say that the time-travel storyline is an excellent move. It’s a tough one to do, but it works for Lost. What did you all think about Ben taking his orders from someone else for a change? Leave your Two Cents in the comments below, so that I can discuss the episode with you!
Amazing recap, LK. I'm really excited about this season, even though it brings us one year closer to the end. I can't wait to read your thoughts every week!
ReplyDeleteYAAAAY Lost!
Yay for you for commenting! I tried to make my next review funnier. I may or may not have said that Richard Alpert has sexy eyeliner. Wait and see.
ReplyDeleteThanks Caroline!