1.24 Exodus (1)
Danielle: "Dynamite. At the Black Rock, in the Dark Territory."
Hurley: "Well, that's three reasons to go, right there."
This episode was like a big box of candy, full of delicious tidbits.
There were touching scenes, resolutions, reveals, and multiple character
flashbacks. It was so good, I watched it three times. Yes, I have no
life.
I think this was the first time we've seen all of the survivors working
together like a family, with all of them contributing to ensure the
survival of only four. This week's Most Obvious Symbolism was the message
bottle, which was symbolic of those left behind going with Michael,
Walt, Jin, and Sawyer in spirit. (Second Most Obvious Symbolism may
have been the cop's broken mug in the Sawyer flashback, since the mug
had pictures of his kids on it.)
Without a doubt, the most surprising and touching scene was Sawyer telling
Jack the truth about his encounter with Christian. What a freaking decent
thing for Sawyer to do, proving that he really does have a soft marshmallow
center. I also think part of it was that Sawyer can't handle feeling
obligated to anyone, so he told Jack the truth in exchange for Jack's
kindness in giving him the gun.
Other really touching scenes were: Jin and Sun forgiving each other,
and crying in each other's arms; Walt giving his dog to Shannon; and
that moving final scene with Vincent swimming after the boat. Interesting
what Walt said about no one talking to him after his mother died, which
may be another clue that Walt caused his mother's death -- inadvertently
or vertently.
There was a lot of Danielle here. We learned that she arrived on the
Island pregnant and lost her one week old daughter Alex to the Others,
confirming that it's little Turnip-head that is the cause of the current
attack. But why would the Others send out black smoke ahead of time?
Smoke signals? Are they working on weapons? Burning a sacrifice? Anthony
on my Lostreviews list says it means they still haven't chosen a pope.
:)
We had six fascinating mini-flashbacks relating to everyone preparing
for flight 815:
1. Walt, Michael, and Vincent in a Sydney hotel room, with Walt being
outright rebellious about getting on the plane. (Walt, you were right.)
We've seen a lot of softening in Walt recently, as he has developed
a good relationship with Michael.
2. Jack drinking at an airport bar, where we finally discovered that
Christian died of a heart attack and that Jack isn't married any more.
Of course, we still don't know if he's divorced or widowed. (I'm betting
on widowed.) Jack was in seat 23B. Ana Lucia, the woman who was trying
to pick him up, was on flight 815's "big number" seat, 42F,
which in itself means that she must be important as a character. Is
Ana Lucia still alive and on the other side of the Island with Rose's
husband?
3. Sawyer and the cop, where we learned that Sawyer's real name is James
Ford, he has a record as long as his arm, and that he was being deported
for head-butting Warren Truss, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries
and Forestry. :) Meaning that he was not arrested for anything
to do with Christian Shepard. Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry? Sounds
like the Island to me. And why did Sawyer call the cop "doctor"?
4. Kate and the marshal, where we learned that she had tried to explain
her "mitigating circumstances" to him, and he explained how
he finally caught her by using the toy airplane as bait. I think I missed
something, though, because I still don't get the five guns thing. How
could he hold more than two on her at a time?
5. Shannon, Boone, and oddly enough, Sayid, as the siblings argued about
getting a spot in first class, and Sayid did something no one should
do in an airport these days: leave a bag with a stranger. Shannon has
softened a lot, as well; note the contrast between her cold selfishness
with Boone and Sayid at the airport and her sweet scenes with Walt and
Vincent.
6. Sun and Jin spilling coffee, and Sun overhearing a lot of bigotry.
She was most likely remembering how that felt when she gave Jin that
lovely phonetic "English" phrase book.
More visible extras this time, too. And a lot of screen time for Leslie
Arzt, who feels "off" somehow. I noticed that he didn't put
a note in the bottle. Locke didn't, either, but I think that makes more
sense than Arzt, who is supposedly a high school teacher, not doing
it. I'm starting to think Arzt is a plant, like Ethan. Yes, his name
was on the manifest, but what if he assumed a passenger's name? Leslie
is more of a woman's name these days, isn't it?
Character bits:
-- Lots of screen time for Danielle Rousseau. I hope hope hope her character
lives through the finale. Please make Mira Furlan a regular, you guys;
I adore her.
-- Locke and Rousseau make a cute couple. They're both named after philosophers
and they're both nuts. See? Lots in common.
-- Kate's Tom died two years ago.
-- I like Michelle Rodriguez. She's big in movies right now, so I assume
Ana Lucia is going to be in more than one scene.
-- Dan observed that Walt may have power over animals: birds, polar
bears, dogs.
-- Locke said earlier that when his sister died, a dog appeared to help
his mother with her grief and then just disappeared. Interesting, what
just happened with Vincent.
-- Walt peed into a tree.
-- Hurley's hair looks much longer wet.
-- Shannon still looks terrible. What was she wearing around her neck
at the airport?
-- What caused the scratches on Danielle's arm? Not a bush, for sure,
and too small for a polar bear.
Bits and pieces:
-- We learned that the Monster is a security system that protects the
Island. Except we still don't know what it looks like or exactly who
it "works for." It appears to have motion detectors, because
standing still and using small trees for cover keeps it from "seeing"
you. Whatever.
-- The launch of the Raft felt very Ten Commandments. One can
extrapolate that season one of the series was Genesis, and we're moving
into Exodus. There were forty days and nights, according to fan sites.
And Dan thought the "Black Rock," the very cool looking shipwrecked
ship, looked like an ark, adding to our hefty score of biblical references.
(I thought it looked more like an old pirate ship.) Why is it so far
inland?
-- I'm sure Sayid is right and the Hatch is Very Bad. Can't they hide
in the Black Rock, instead?
-- More with numbers. There were a lot of repetitions of the numbers
three and five. Along with the seat numbers, six went into the jungle
after the dynamite, and there were six people on Danielle's original
team. She was seven months pregnant. Flight 815 was supposed to be fifteen
hours long. The clock in Michael and Walt's hotel room said 5:23.
-- Montand, one of Danielle's "team," lost his arm when the
team "got infected." Any connection to Boone's near amputation
before his premature demise?
-- What was Walt watching on television? I'm sure it must mean something,
because everything appears to mean something.
-- I'd be interested in reading the slips of paper in the bottle that
Charlie collected for the Raft.
-- Have I mentioned yet that I despise that sliding horn sound effect
before the cut to commercial? Please, make it stop.
-- The score this week was simply terrific, even better than usual.
Except for the sliding horn sound effect.
-- Many of the cast deserve big gold acting stars for this one: Matthew
Fox, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, and Malcolm David Kelley in particular.
-- Danielle: "You have only three choices. Run. Hide. Or die."
-- Sawyer: "See, kids are like dogs. If you knock them around enough,
they'll think they did something to deserve it." This certainly
applies to more characters than just Sawyer and Jack.
-- Charlie: "Dear Mom: Everything's fine. I'm on the Island, unless,
of course, the black smoke people show up. Love, your name here."
Four out of four polar bears, of course. This show just keeps hitting
the awesome button,
Billie
©Billie
Doux