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After taking four or so weeks off, I'm taking this blog of episode 15: "Left Behind." I thought it to be a bit well, lackluster. It wasn't the greatest episode, but could hold a candle to such episodes as "I Do" or "Every Man for Himself", for example. I'm running on massive amounts of Starbucks coffee to keep up, so forgive me if there are any random babblings in the text. Anyways, on with the review!
First off, the flashback sequences. Kate's in Iowa. But for what? Well, we find out later. She has a bad fan belt in her car. She says her name is "Lucy". Let's see... "Lucy", "Monica", "Joan Hart", what other names are there? But she sees Sawyer's old flame Cassidy running the old jewelry con. Apparently, she's not too good. But Kate helps her out. Why? Because of the graciousness of her heart? No. To avoid the cops. Why else? Everybody is greedy, but Kate shows it at nearly every turn. Trying to get on the raft in S1, now this, and many other examples. Can't she be a "good person"?
But then they get a drink at the local bar. They talk about stuff, mainly Sawyer, when Cassidy mentions that he was "the wrong guy" and as a "bad guy". (Chalk one up for the Good and bad people page! ;)) But ultimately, Cassidy agrees to help Kate out to talk to her mother. Apparently she feels bad for her. But why? Why would you feel bad for a person who you know is a "bad person"? Why would you? I know I wouldn't.
Now, Cassidy does help Kate. She goes up to Diane's house. The agents mistake her and attack her. Six people! Does it take six people to capture one woman? Apparently it does. Now as soon as I heard that Cassidy said that she was just "selling Bibles", it immediately brought up the memories of that old film "Paper Moon." I have watched all of the O'Neill clan's movies, and that was very reminiscent of the scene in the movie.
Then came the diner scene. I had continuous thoughts throughout the scene that "Wouldn't Diane recognize Cassidy???" Maybe she did, and associated it with the Bible saleswoman, but still you would recognize her as a person who might just be up to something. Yet she doesn't recognize the connection. On a side note, what kind of soup was it? We need it to thoroughly analyze before we add it to Lostpedia! I need to know the type of soup!
As Diane heads off for the bathroom, Kate finally comes in to confront her mums. As Monty Python once said, "NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Yet when they did that sketch, we all expected it. And we all expected the meeting between mother and daughter. It was a really heartfelt scene, and I believe that both Beth Broderick and Evangeline did an excellent acting job.
As Kate gets ready to leave, Cassidy reveals to Kate that she is pregnant with the con man's baby, Clementine. I guess that that hereby ends the speculation that Clementine is in fact Sawyer's daughter and not just a counter-con by Cassidy to gold-dig a bit more.
On to the realtime events. We'll start off with the Barracks, the main focus of the episode. Kate is still being held in Tom's game room, complete with pinball tables, pool, and foosball. Why would you spend all of your time sleeping. Me, I'm a pinball nerd, and would be playing on the Cyclone table. Kate grabs a cue stick and is ready to attack. Juliet comes in and Kate totally got pwned. I was wondering if Kate did indeed land on the broken shards of the plate, and was writhing in pain even more than if she just landed straight on concrete. I have hit concrete multiple times (long stories, trust me), and it really doesn't hurt as much as some people make it out to be.
I thought that the Locke-Kate scene was great. Just one thing passed through my mind: "What happended to Locke's arm?" He didn't appear to have a hurt hand in "The Man from Tallahassee", so what happened between then and now? But he "made a case" for her, but apparently it didn't work when they "told him" about ther past. But shouldn't he have known this by now? "Born to Run" was the episode when Kate's true identity was revealed (by Sawyer). Wouldn't it have made sense that he knew this? Apparently, he should.
Then, they just threw a smoke grenade in to Kate's room. To me at the time, it appeared as just random, but as I watched the rest of the episode, it all made sense.
Then Kate woke up in the Jungle. Then came my OMG moment: she was handcuffed to Juliet. But why? Why would they just leave her behind? It didn't make too much sense to me. Then Kate took the knife out of Juliet's pocket. At first, I though that maybe she would try to accost her with the knife. But apparently, she just wanted to get away. Just like usual.
I like how Juliet called how it was going to rain. It brought back old memories of S1 when Locke stated "It's going ot rain in one minute," and then it did. Good job, writers. Then came probably the best moment of the entire episode: CATFIGHT! What male does not love a catfight between two attractive females? Good times. It was too short, though, but Juliet seemed like she got messed up with the shoulder and all. It was really good SFX though, with the shoulder popping noise.
Then, the Monster appeared. I am a huge fan of the Monster. I love the Monster. And it was good that he (she?) was back. I have one question about Smokey though: Why do those bamboo thickets prevent him from attacking people? It stopped them from attacking Michael and co., and now Juliet and Kate. Why? I'm sure that it could easily squeeze through. The creepy white flashes were brilliant though. That is probably how it got Eko's memories and now I believe that it will be used for Juliet's memories. It then leaves.
And then came the monster the next day. They run through the jungle, and then came another great scene for all of the males out there: Kate and Juliet covered in mud. As my pal Borat would say: "Niiiiice. High-five!" They get to the sonic barrier, turned off. Then the monster came after them. The most interesting part was that it came together from three parts. Can someone say Cerberus, the mythical dog of yore? I sure can. Juliet punches in the code, stopping Smokey in its tracks.
Later, Kate and Juliet arrived back at the Barracks, which are now deserted by all of the Others. Everything and everybody is gone. The Others had a nice pad, but they had to move. I think that the merry group of adveturers will lead everyone back to the Barracks to live there, for a period of time.
Then, we are reunited back with Sayid, as they plan to head back to the beach. At least one positive came of all of this: Juliet is going to the beach! Yay!
Then, we go to the beach. Apparently, Sawyer faces a vote of banishment. I wouldn't mind if he got banished. Although, it might make for an unimportant storyline, such as the cougar in 24. Hurley comes and tells him that he will be banished if he doesn't change his selfish ways. He suggests that he makes amends, but Sawyer staunchly refuses. (You like my sophisticated words?)
Later, Hurley tells him to talk to Claire. I love Claire's reaction when Sawyer comes up to her. (Uh... dude? What do you want?) He gives her a blanket, prompting the best line of the episode: "I don't like...blankets." (Yeah. Okay, get outta here.)
Then Desmond and Sawyer went hunting. Sawyer replies that he's got "hearts and minds" to change, a sneaky nod to the old S1 episode. I like how Des has a huge rifle and Sawyer, only a pistol. (See the Bald, Limp Guy (theory) page...) They killed a boar. Whoopee.
And then came the festive pork feast. Everybody got a slice of that boar. But shouldn't there be something like this every time a boar is killed. Des goes out hunting pretty near every day, But it was full of fun times and warm beer, and most importantly, friendship. The basis of life on earth. But do you believe that? ;) I didn't like how Sun kept glaring at Sawyer all evilly and stuff. Even Jin looked mad, and she hasn't told him. As Sun moves farther in to the pregnancy, he attitude goes down the drain.
So who was the one "left behind"? Kate, Juliet, Jack, or some one else? Please contribute your theories and thoughts to Lostpedia. Until "One of Us" airs, Marik out!
Well, after watching this episode, it was a doozy. I greatly enjoyed the episode, as it was a break from the hard-charging, fast paced, LOST that we all know and love. It helped us with dealing from the heart-break that we felt over the past few weeks, such as Jack being left behind (although, for most of you, that was a relief ;)) and the saga that is Sawyer and Kate and Alex and Karl. The episode at several places made me laugh out loud, and at some places made me want to start a slow clap. There was a flurry of new Sawyer nicknames, which we all enjoy. And of course, it was a Hurley flashback, which always provides us with comic relief that is the great teddy bear Hurley. With that said, on with the review...
First off, lets go with the flashback. We finally met Hurley's father (which, since reading Lostpedia every day, I knew that it was Cheech). First off, I believed that he was a good father to his kid. He helped him with the car! But then, just like all of the other fathers (Christian and Wayne, case in point), he does something that screws his kid over. "I've gotta go to Vegas". (the Holy Grail to gambling, hookers, and booze) We can only imagine what he was doing there. Work. Riiiiiiiight... And he gave little Hurley a candy bar (A Glacier bar, not Apollo, for those who missed it), only paving the way to what we know now as Hurley. On a side not, young Hurley's 'fro was beautifully done. Just throwing that out there. In the next flashback, we finally learn what happened to Mr. Cluck's. After Hurley bought out, the whole place imploded. Tricia Tanaka (An undubious reference to Tricia Takanawa of Family Guy) was imploded by the meteor, hence the title. I thought that he CGI guys did a great job at the point of impact. We all knew that the meteor was fake, but hey, it looked decent. Of course Lostpedia has the great screencaps of the strike. Since I am such a sick person, I laughed when Ms. Tanaka met her untimely demise. I didn't like her. She was mean to Hurley. Well, after that, David came back in to Hurley's life. Like we all didn't know that from the start that he was there for the money. As my homie Kanye West would say, "He's a gold digga!" hen came maybe the best lines in Lost history: "It's been 17 years. I have needs. NO NO NO NO NO!" I laughed so hard at that part. Even more than when Tanaka died. Adam Horowitz is a brilliant writer (which is why he got his multi-million dollar contract). The next scene was even greater. Just the opening banter between Hurley and David Reyes was great. "Your mom's a very... passionate woman. That's disgusting." The psychic scene was better. The way she predicted all of Hurley's misfortunes, we all knew she wasn't for real (just like Richard Malkin). Then she asks Hurley to take off his clothes. (Come on ladies, I know that all of you were just dying to see Hurley naked!) Then came the lol moment: "I'll give you $1,000 right now if you admit that my dad told you say this. The mystic arts are not subject to bribes. How dare you-- '$10,000.' Your dad put me up to it." Pure genius. But then again, when is anything ever written by Adam Horowitz not? ;) The final flashback came right before Hurley was getting ready to go to Australia. Ol' Papa Bear tried to talk him in to giving the money away, but Hurley wanted to find Sam Toomey. He wanted to find him and ask him. As we know, this was not a good decision. He should have stayed and been in LA. But, this is Lost, and that wouldn't happen. So, he got stuck on the Island. Bad choice.
Now, moving on to the main island. The first scene on-island was beautifully crafted. Hugo, talking to his beloved Libby's grave. This was an amazing scene. We genuinely felt Hurley's sadness about all that had happened. He truly misses Libby. And I felt bad for him. It was a great scene overall. But then moping Charlie has to ruin all of the fun. He's really sad, because he is going to die. We all are, Charlie. Get over it. But we aren't all going to die on a deserted island where nobody knows where you are. Once again, as my arch-nemesis Justin Timberlake would say, "Cry me a river." Do it, Charlie! Do it! But then Hurley cheers things up for Charlie. "This is the [part where you say that he is a nutter..." but then Hurley says "I think he's right." Thank you! Confirmation that Charlie will die! Thank yooooou! On another side note, where did the cut on Charlie's chin go? Chalk one up for the bloopers page. And what happened next? Vincent! Vincent finally showed up again! And that's why, kids, we never trust special features on the Season 2 DVD. They are DEUTEROCANON. There is a arm and key in the dog's mouth. Hurley goes on a goose chase (or rather, a dog chase. I crack myself up) thru the jungle. No offense but I was surprised that Hurley could keep up with the dog. Eventually, Vincent leads him to the mystery of the night: the DHARMA van. What the hell is a van doing on an island?! It doesn't make sense! And then happy-go-lucky-good-time-Hurley asks for some help with the van, and what does he get? Nothing. People are pricks. And then Paulo has to be "super-prick" (doo doo doo doo! Super-prick to ruin the entire show!). "I have to get some bananas." OK dude. Go flirt with someone with your stubble. And then he pulls Nikki back by her shorts. Come on man, that's lame. Someone kill him! Por favor! And then Hurley is stuck with Jin. That's an interesting combo... OK, time to get on with the Skate drama. Blah, blah, blah, Little House, blah, blah, blah, we're back. Yay. You know what I call Skate? Stupid subplot that is only there to satisfy "The Notebook" watchers. Or an easier term: crap. I refuse to cover this. And then they come back. Hooray. Everyone is happy. And then Sawyer has to be great with his snappy comebacks. Yay snappy comebacks. I like how he specifically mentions "porno" as something in his stash. Perv. But then, Sawyer finally comes to fix the van. Or, drink beer. I think that that was the entire point. And then we meet gold ol' Roger. Skeletor was wasted. He was on a beer run. I believe that MADD will see this as a point on to why not to drink and drive. And then Kate STILL feels guilty about leaving Jack. The man's got it good now. He gets free food, a lodging, and a hot chick who is actuallly interested in him! He likes it. He just won't admit it. Then the resident genius Hurley gets an idea. And it involves Charlie almost dying! Any mission that involves the words "Charlie" and "die" is good enough for me. They are going to push the van down the hill, to "make their own luck" and "to look Death in the face and say 'Whatever, man'". And the plan almost works. Charlie actually almost dies! Close, but no cigar. I almost cried at the end of the episode. Not because it was a sad ending, but because Charlie didn't die. But when the clutch popped and the 8-track started playing, I started a slow clap. It was a good moment. And then everyone piles in the van, a la "That 70's Show." And everyone was giggling like a little schoolgirl in the van. And then: blah, blah, blah, save Jack, blah, blah, blah, need someone's help. Locke and Sayid apparently got their feelings hurt when Kate didn't ask them to help. So they stalked her. What's with it with people and stalking Kate? And BTW, why didn't the forest burn? Sayid dropped his torch. In my science class, fire + grass= big, big fire. But the end was really cool. Seeing Danielle again chilled my blood. It was great to see her again, and to see how the whole "Save Jack" drama unfolds.
Summary: Sawyer and Kate return to the main island. Whoo. But the real gem of the episode was Hurley. His flashbacks and his humor enlightened the entire episode. And in my opinion, so far, this was the best episode of Season 3 yet. But that is just my humble opinion. And "Shambala" is now my favorite song.
Can't wait to see you guys in the Lostpedia IRC channel, and to challenge you guys in trivia. Until next time, guys, "make your own luck." Later!
Welcome to the new Lostpedia blog. I'm just saying a quick hello here before nickb123 posts his more indepth welcome to the blog, and round up of the ideas the blog will involve. I hope we can use this site together as a good way to feedback information to each other, the sysops and the users of Lostpedia.
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