Lost season three - right around the corner

[Stan4dSteph]

I thought it was well done. Great twist at the end. Now we know why the "dead" characters kept having flashbacks!

I liked the way we saw the same scenes from other episodes, but from the perspective of people on the fringe. Funny that the two found the hatch earlier, and no wonder Paolo wanted to go to the Pearl!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I'll never believe that Sawyer would throw diamonds into a grave. He's still Sawyer, right? I'm almost annoyed that they had him do that.

I liked the episode even though it was basically self-contained and went nowhere. It was like the writers were saying "check us out, we're just f'n around this week" in a playful way, and I kind of enjoyed that. I liked all the references to things I'd forgotten from episodes past.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I suppose I was a bit set up for disappointment. In the same interview we heard earlier with the producers, they said that they knew people thought Nikki and Paolo were lame and out of left field, but to just hang in there because in a couple weeks their appearance was going to pay off and that the audience would understand them and they'd be just as integral as any of the other survivors.

Not so much, imo.

[JWBear]

Two things:

1) Now we know what Locke was watching when he got the visit from the son of the woman his "father" was going to con - it was Expose!

2) Did anyone else notice the smoke monster noise (mechanical clanking) just before the male spiders showed up?

Good episode, though I will miss the pretty that was Paulo.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by JWBear

Two things:

2) Did anyone else notice the smoke monster noise (mechanical clanking) just before the male spiders showed up?

Yup, that's what had both Nikki and Paolo on alert before they noticed the spiders. It would have been a good red herring for the audience had the male spider "twist" not been telegraphed 30 minutes before.

By the way, I don't see any reason to believe that it's not really Locke's father. His mom would have to be in on that, or somehow be mistaken about the paternity because when he came for the kidney, she was pretty insistent that he was indeed his father, even after he found out it was a con.

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Yup, that's what had both Nikki and Paolo on alert before they noticed the spiders. It would have been a good red herring for the audience had the male spider "twist" not been telegraphed 30 minutes before.

By the way, I don't see any reason to believe that it's not really Locke's father. His mom would have to be in on that, or somehow be mistaken about the paternity because when he came for the kidney, she was pretty insistent that he was indeed his father, even after he found out it was a con.

I put father in quotation marks because he was never a father to Locke in any way that counts, other than being a sperm donor.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

I hated it. HATE IT! It wasn't the pay off we were promised for having to put up with their appearances earlier in the season. And though I don't mind them being bad, unlikable people, I DO mind them being completely boring people. And integrating them into the plane crash scene only felt like a bad rehash. Not to mention the utter pointlessness of including Boon and Shannon (bad wigs and all) unless we learned something more about them (i.e. revealed an additional connection they had to one of the Lost-ers).

Introducing guest appearances (like Arty in the first season) is a good thing to do. Introducing a separate plot arc involving new characters that NO one cares about is bad, IMO. You can do something new and clever with the existing folk without wasting anyone's time. My patience with the show was already thinning and this just made it worse. At this point, I think I'd be happier just watching Ben all the time. He's at least as interesting as he was when he first arrived on the show.

And I have a friend who liked it and was creeped out by how these two died but all I could think was, "Good riddance. You got the end you deserved, you morons."

And Sawyer would NOT have tossed the diamonds in the grave if he were written in character. If they'd showed, over time, that he was becoming resigned to never getting off the island, I could by it. But it just felt like forced contrition. Bah. BAH!

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Eliza Hodgkins 1812

And I have a friend who liked it and was creeped out by how these two died but all I could think was, "Good riddance. You got the end you deserved, you morons."

"Things don't stay buried on this island." Me thinks that we, unfortunately, may not have seen the last of those two.

So, I've been pondering what the producers said about whether they have an end game planned or not. At this point, my most optimistic guess is that they've got an agreement with ABC in which they've said, "Okay, we'll go ahead and string this along as long as you want to milk it, on the condition that you give us enough advanced warning before pulling the plug to write and shoot some number of episodes and wrap the story up as intended."

Not the best scenario, and a recipe for more episodes like this last one, but it's unrealistic to think that ABC wouldn't want to keep it open ended and at least in my hopeful scenario they won't just cancel the show mid-season and force them to slap together some hurried unsatisfying ending a-la X-Files or Arrested Development.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

"Things don't stay buried on this island." Me thinks that we, unfortunately, may not have seen the last of those two.

Not the best scenario, and a recipe for more episodes like this last one, but it's unrealistic to think that ABC wouldn't want to keep it open ended and at least in my hopeful scenario they won't just cancel the show mid-season and force them to slap together some hurried unsatisfying ending a-la X-Files or Arrested Development.

Damn it. STAY BURIED, YOU TWO. That's an ORDER!

Oh, damn it.

And, I think the writers/producers know two things: What the island IS. And as far as I know, that's all they've promised. And if that's true, I'd like to believe it explains the Dharma Initiative and the Others.

What I don't think they've resolved (because they cannot predict actors wanting out of their contracts early - take the actor who plays Eko as an example, etc.) are the story arcs for most of the characters. I think they're uncertain of specific plot developments that are created for the individual characters. More troubling, I'm not entirely sure they know why they've created all these connections and coincidences between the characters....what the overall payoff would be.

I think that Walt was supposed to play a more important role on the show, but when they writers (far later than they should have) realized the glacial pacing of the show would make it very difficult to keep Walt a young boy, they realized he'd have to be written off. [My guess, anyway.]

I think the show should have planned for a 3 season arc. Season 1 - the survivors. Season 2 - Ben and the others. Season 3 - Resolution. For me, this show can't behave like the X-Files, where the majority of the episodes (and the more interesting, IMO) weren't related to the overall alien arc. Lost really needs to keep on target. There can be cool random stories revealed in the flashbacks, so long as they're well done, but at the end of each episode we should be closer to the goal line.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Eliza Hodgkins 1812

More troubling, I'm not entirely sure they know why they've created all these connections and coincidences between the characters....what the overall payoff would be.

I'm fairly certain they know this. Now that it's crystal clear that the others have full, detailed background info on everyone, and know who is "good" and who is not (even if we don't know what makes them such), I think it's obvious that the writers/producers know WHY they have all that info, why everyone is there, and why all of their paths crossed. I'm also pretty certain that it's tied directly to what the island is, so if they know one, they know the other.

5 seasons/100 episodes were the original numbers I heard. They're still well within that, but I'm sure no one could have guessed or hoped that it would be as successful as it was out of the gate. And ABC may have been willing to take risks when it was at the bottom of the heap, but now that they have a winner, sadly, the risk-taking is likely to subside. But they're hopefully smart enough to realize that an X-Files-esque fizzle will spark massive geek-filled riots. Honestly, I'd be surprised at this point if they go beyond 5 seasons.