posted
Yep, this thread is going to have spoilers for the above mentioned episodes. If you've gotten this far and you don't want to know, go back.
I don't know if anyone here even cares anymore, but it's been a while:
///"S.O.S."/// Rose (my favorite character) is dismissive of her husband Bernard's ideas of building rescue signals. So are the rest of the survivors. Of course while he is being Mr. Enthusiasm, his management style isn't exactly winning friends. Big reveals are that Rose had terminal big C before coming to the Island and now evidently she doesn't. She knows that Locke had been in a wheelchair and they share a look. Jack and Kate drizzle with romantic something-or-other when they go off on an ill-advised trip to propose a hostage swap with the Others. Suddenly, Michael.
///"Two For The Road"/// Michael is recovering in the hatch. It is revealed how and why Ana Lucia came to be in Australia. She met Jack's father at the airport bar and he rather inexplicably invites her to join him in Australia where he needs a bodyguard to defend him against either an estranged love interest or his illigitimate daughter. In the meantime, Ana Lucia's attempts to shake down Henry Gale nearly result in her strangulation which results inevitably in her monotonous thirst for revenge. To which end she shags Sawyer and lifts his piece. With all that love in the air, Hurley valliantly attempts to woo Libby with a romantic picnic, but A) gets lost on the way to the ill-fated Sayid-Shannon beach, and B) only brings food because fat crazy people are like that. Libby goes to get some blankets and SUPRISE! Michael isn't on your side anymore and when Ana Lucia can't bring herself to off Henry, Michael shoots her instead and then Libby (cockbite!). He proceeds to liberate Henry and wound himself to make it look like a jailbreak.
///"?"/// Yay! Interesting. Ana Lucia is dead but that doesn't prevent her from appearing to Eko in a dream in which his brother tells him he must unite with Locke who has lost his faith. Surprisingly the two go off together on a quest for the question mark mentioned in Eko's dream and presumably the same one as Locke saw in the UV diagram of the door that nearly took his leg(s). This is after Jack comes in to administer first aid to Libby and look concerned about Henry's escape. Blah, blah, it's a gut-shot and Libby is slowly fading, Kate now knows that Sawyer stashed all those guns (along with the heroin) under his hut on the beach. In flashback we learn that Mr. Eko was sent by his Monsigneur to investigate a miracle. The miracle in question is a drowned girl who woke up on the undertaker during the autopsy. Anyway Father Eko doesn't believe it, and it turns out he girl in question is the Psychic's daughter and he thinks the miracle is a bunch of hooey dreamt up by his zealot wife. Mr. Eko and Locke, ostensibly tracking Henry through the night, happen upon the burnt husk of the plane. In a dream Locke sees Mr. Eko's brother who sort of lets them know where to look for the question mark. They dig up another hatch and this ones purpose is apparently to monitor the other stations who are (according to the orientation videocassette) performing tasks as part of psychological studies (each believing that their task is critical). Which is to say wow. No, but along with a flashback at the airport where the drowned girl comes to give Mr. Eko a message from his brother, this renews Mr. Eko's faith in their work at the hatch (pressing the button).
posted
I totally care, but doubt my ability to start threads.
1.) In addition to Rose, a much-needed anchor of calm (most of the time), I really like Sam Anderson as Bernard.
Speaking of Rose, as well as Eko, I'm interested in how the magical hoodoo of the island affects pre-existing faiths. I liked how Eko was originally quite skeptical of claims regarding the purposefulness of various island mysteries, as opposed to Locke's more. . . open-ended, new agey approach. And we saw some more of that side of Eko in his flashback this week. But in real time, he seems to have totally bought into it. Rose too. But, like, how exactly does a magic island fit into orthodox Christian theology?
(Sidenote: This isn't the first time Locke's described Boone's death as a "sacrifice the island demanded," I don't think, but my question is, is this a conclusion he reached after Boone died, or did he know what was going to happen from the beginning? Because if so, Locke becomes awfully ominous. More so than I'd like, personally, I guess. I'd like to think that, religious beliefs aside, Locke really does think he's acting in such a way as to help everyone, as opposed to solely pursuing his own personal nirvana. ((Though I suppose that from the tension between those goals arises neato drama.)))
I like the minimalism of The Pearl's version of the Dharma logo. So what's with Dr. Marvin Candle/Mark Wickham? Fake hand or not? (Future aliases: Michael Tallow, Melvin Waxman.)
So is The Pearl the question mark on the map? It's written on the map, but near one of the subsidiary, Swan-style stations. Some of my confusion comes from the marked ground Eko sees. It looks like a question mark, especially with part of the burnt plane providing the ., but he describes the salted area as a circle, doesn't he? I don't know.
(I really liked how Eko is limping when he goes to climb the cliff the first time, and I'm wondering "Huh?" and then "Oh. . .")
On the one hand, I kind of like that they removed Libby without ever getting to her flashbacks. Last year some people were trying to determine what characters would or wouldn't die based on what mysteries were perceived to be left in their histories. So it is good to mix things up. (I'd like to see someone ask Locke or Eko, if everyone is on this island for a reason, what about that lady who drowned? Or Arzt?)
Here's something: now that we know the stations were being monitored, perhaps we know why whoever was studying the island in The Swan went to the trouble of keeping their notes in invisible ink, in a hard to access location. Though that doesn't help if there's a camera pointing in the general direction of the blast door when it is down. On the other hand, maybe the cameras get shut off during those events. The map, again, says something about "emergency shutdowns of intranet services" in "periods of heightened security," which might describe the resupply lockdown. But in that case, why bother with the only-in-ultraviolet ink?
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Well the UV lights seem to switch on only once the blast-doors come down so if the crazy UV diagram was a project only worked on in secret, perhaps the UV ink was the only thing the author could see? I'm pretty curious as to why the light switches to UV. Also I'm not sure if 1980s cameras were UV sensitive.
I was pulling for Libby, but for plainly selfish reasons. She had the blankets to slow the slug, I thought, desperately. So I was disappointed to see her go. Also to miss the explanation for how she happened to be out of the asylum and on the same plane back from Australia as our big, lovable galoof. True, the show was getting kind of population heavy and much as I'd love to see Jack or Kate buy it, I know that's not going to happen. Watch-out though, dark Hugo will be a force.
That was a nice touch with Eko's limp. I didn't get what was happening at all until Locke woke up. I want Locke to be all noble and frustrated by human failings too, but I do suspect he knew there was going to be a price to pay for getting into that hatch. He may not have known what, but he was willing. And while he certainly felt horrible about Boone's death, if I'm not mistaken, I believe he lied to Jack about the exact circumstances.
The thing I'm most puzzled by from the ep is Eko's rejuvenated belief in the importance of the work of pressing that button at The Swan. I suspect with his flashbacks this is tied to his renewed faith via the miraculous un-drowned girl (plus the dreams of his brother.) But where those inexplicable and vaguely super-natural things would tend to support his faith, I would think what he and Locke discovered in the The Pearl would tend to discourage any belief in the higher-order significance of their diligence with the number-typing.
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
According to the makers of the show, they still plan to explain Libby's backstory. I have to assume this will be through flashbacks of Hurley.
Also, I don't think the UV light and the lockdown had anything to do with each other. The blacklights didn't turn on until fake-Henry (supposedly) let the clock run down.
Registered: Mar 1999
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