Summary:
Jack and Hurley run into Richard, who leads them to the black rock. Jack and Richard play a game of chicken with a stick of dynamite, and the dynamite loses. Then they head to the beach, where....
Ben is outed as Jacob's killer by Miles, who reads Jacob's last thoughts from his bag of ashes. Ilana tells Ben to dig his own grave, and he does so, until Fauxcke shows up and lets him go. Ben runs into the jungle, confesses that he is lonely and has nowhere else to go, and Ilana forgives him. They then reunite with Jack and Hurley and Richard... Which is seen by a submarine bearing Widmore.
In Alt-Lost, Ben is teaching history to a young Alex Rousseau, who lets him know that the principle is a pervert. So he uses Dr Arzt to get into the principles email account, and blackmails him into resigning. The principle then reverse blackmails Ben by threatening to cripple Alex's school career. It looks for a minute that Ben will once again sacrifice Alex for his own self, but then it turns out he sacrificed himself for her.
Reaction:
This is first and foremost a character episode, and then solidly a transition episode. This is not a mythology episode, which has been a criticism of the episode online. I think some of the negative reaction online stems from people expecting that Season 6 would be a sprint to the finish - a constant season of finale's. This was probably stoked on by comments by the producers and by the promo's, but I think this season will still obey a season arc. Episodes 1-6 were introducing the season's arc, and now we're solidly in the transition/amp portion. The next few weeks will be upping the tension and transitioning the pieces for a great series finale.
Think about season 3, where Lost seemed to pick back up it's steam from a directionless second season. Episode 10, Tricia Tanaka is Dead, was a character based episode with very little mythological play. And looking back now, that episode set up the rest of the season, with Kate/Sayid/Locke going to get Jack, and Hurley discovering the van... All of which were elements that had direct repercussions in the finale (probably the best Lost season finale so far?).
That's this episode. A solid character study and the subtle beginnings of getting pieces in play. And I, for one, am willing to play along until the finale.
Themes:
Sacrifice seems to be the theme to Ben's life. At what point is he willing to sublimate his own desires for the better of someone else?
"Nothing stays buried on this Island..." Locke, to Paulo, as he is trying to bury the island. End of the episode? Miles, with the diamonds, now unburied.
Speculation:
No idea where we go from here. Three groups now on the island - the Jacob tribe, the Fauxke tribe, and Widmore's people. Who knows where we go from here?
2 comments:
My guess is that Widemore is in cahoots with Fauxke and is how Fauxke 's has been planning to get off the island all this time. What I'd like to know is is the Man in Black was exiled to the island, then was Jacon exiled with him, and if not, when did he arrive on the island?
i admire your optimism, and while i agree that they're giving season 6 a nice overarching arc, i wish they wouldnt have promised answers and action in the promos and then totally failed to follow through.
you're right though, good transition episode. but there are so many gaps left to fill in, i'm worried the producers are going to run out of time. any episode in which Dr. Arzt has more speaking lines than Sawyer, Jin, and Sayid combined, is bad.
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