Spoilers.
Lost Official Site
The Time: Wednesdays, 9:00 PM, ABC
The Show:
When
Oceanic Flight 815 from Sydney to London went down somewhere over the
Pacific, the survivors of the crash found themselves marooned on a
tropical island. But this is no ordinary island; it has
unusual magnetic, temporal, healing and seemingly supernatural
properties, and is fraught with constant danger. There are
mysterious black smoke-like creatures, polar bears, and even
apparitions of the dead roaming the forest. The island is
also the former secret haven of a group called the Dharma Initiative,
who were running experiments utilizing the unique properties of the
island via research stations that dot the landscape. Now the
Oceanic survivors, led by Dr. Jack Sheppard, Kate Austen, James
“Sawyer” Ford, John Locke, Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, Sayid Jarrah and
others, seek a way to escape the island and its many dangers.
But there are people, both living on the island and seeking the island
from outside, who are at war for control of it, and the Oceanic
survivors find themselves caught in the middle. Told via
nonlinear fashion that incorporates flashbacks and flash forwards, Lost is one of the most unique and densely mythological shows on television.
The Stars:
• Matthew Fox – Dr. Jack Sheppard
• Evangeline Lilly – Kate Austen
• Josh Holloway – James “Sawyer” Ford
• Naveen Andrews – Sayid Jarrah
• Terry O’Quinn – John Locke
• Jorge Garcia – Hugo “Hurley” Reyes
• Daniel Dae Kim – Jin Kwon
• Yunjin Kim – Sun Kwon
• Michael Emerson – Benjamin Linus
• Henry Ian Cusick – Desmond Hume
• Elizabeth Mitchell – Juliet Burke
• Jeremy Davies – Daniel Faraday
• Nestor Carbonell – Richard Alpert
• Alan Dale – Charles Widmore
The Episode: “Jughead”
Locke, Sawyer, Faraday and the others continue to time skip on the island and discover exactly who it is that’s attacking them. Locke also meets an old friend for the first time and a younger old enemy. Meanwhile, back in the world, Desmond remembers his encounter with the time-jumping Faraday on the island and goes to find Faraday’s mother at Oxford.
The Lowdown:
A lot didn’t happen this episode, but several things were learned that are starting to fill in a couple of blanks. I liked that we got away from the whole L.A. shenanigans for a week and got a little more skinny on the island happenings. Also glad to see that Desmond is continuing to have a role as I like Henry Ian Cusick on the show. The time travel aspect holds a lot of possibilities this season, and a good time travel narrative is tricky to pull off, but so far they look like they’re handling it well. I just hope 2004 survivor doesn’t run into himself or herself and touch himself or herself and dissolve into a paradoxical pile of protoplasm.
There are two big revelations this week as we discover that Charles Widmore was an Other back in 1954 and that Richard Alpert isn’t time traveling but is actually some sort of immortal. I thought his situation might have been the former, but obviously there’s something else at work there. However, we do know now specifically why he went to go visit young John Locke in Claifornia and why he thought he was special. They threw us off the trail a bit with Richard mentioning that they came to their island to “do their experiments,” only not referring to the Dharma guys, but to the U.S. military, bringing a big boomer named Jughead. We knew it before but now it’s confirmed that hopping through time is going to make with the bloody nose and worse if they keep it up much longer.
Meanwhile, Desmond’s story has a nice touch when we discover what he named his son. And his meeting with Widmore didn’t go like I thought it might, but it’s obvious that Widmore is still worried about Ben’s threat. On a side note, El Gray on the message boards
made a very interesting catch that the blonde with the rifle on the
island may have been Faraday’s mother. Very interesting. I wonder if anyone else who might have been back on the island in 1954 is someone in the present. Some questions are answered, but then again the question about what they did with Jughead remains. Typical Lost.
This was a pretty self-contained episode, but definitely not a boring one. Still nice to see that the writing is progressing us forward, even when not all that much is going on. Two years ago, this would have been a Jack’s tattoo episode.