Thursday, April 24, 2008

Season 4, Episode 9: "The Shape of Things to Come"

Ben vs. Widmore. The smoke monster. A dead body and gun fire. Yup, Lost is back ladies and germs. About one more month of bliss before 7 months of nothingness.

We'd better get discussing

4 Comments:

Blogger Germain said...

Very good episode and way to draw the viewers back in. Here are the main things I'm left with after that episodes.

1. What's the relationship between Widmore and Ben? What are these "rules" Ben speaks of? What does Widmore mean by "all that you have you took from me" and "The Island was mine, it will be again?" Widmore had a relationship with Dharma. That's a fact and Dharma was conducting experiments on the island before the others, who lived there before, killed them all. That must be when Ben took over the island. But other than that, I've got nothing. Is it really just a huge elaborate game, must like "Risk" that was played earlier in the episode? Is LOST just RISK for two rich white men? Who knows.

2. Ben's house rules. I mean, he has an even secreter secret cabin in there where he either controls, or can summon the smoke monster. I don't think he controls it because he tells Locke to ask Jacob about it, but I think he can communicate with it. Ultimately, I think that smoke monster is going to be a large part of what makes the island so special and while theres a power struggle about it.

3. In Sayid's episode earlier this season, it seemed as if he was mad at Ben for using him. Well, Ben did manipulate him to get him to kill for him. But still - to what end? Is Sayid just a pawn?

4. On the beach, Faraday lied to Jack about the freighters message. We saw the doctor character in the Desmond episode. That was the doctor on the beach. Dead and washed up. But apparently, that doctor is still alive on the boat and dead on the island at the same time. I think this is just another clue to a very weird time paradox created on the island. Oh shit. This just popped into my head. Remember Richard, the other that doesn't age? He's probably been on the island his whole life right? Well, he obviously wasn't born full grown but he got to a certain point and just stopped aging. Maybe time can speed up and slow down on the island making it like a fountain of youth. You can go there and live forever. And if time is manipulated there somehome, things on the outside can happen that don't affect the island. So maybe the doctor is GOING to die on the boat - Michael kills him, whatever, but it hasn't happened out there yet. Who knows, really?


I do know I love Lost though. It's back and I want to go to bed now. But before I do a few other lingering queries. How did Ben get injured and end up in the middle of the desert? Does the island transport people to a point in the desert (remember red head found a dharma polar bear in a similar place)? And is the four toed statue from 2 years ago the temple that we haven't seen yet?

Tune in next week to find out.

11:21 PM  
Blogger Sam's Myth said...

I know I've said it before (as we all have, naturally) but I'm saying it again:

Easily the best LOST episode I've ever seen.

2:25 AM  
Blogger jason.jackowski said...

I'll offer a slight dissenting opinion here... I thought this was merely a good episode.

Germain -- exactly. What is the nature of Ben/Widmore's relationship? that's a HUGE question now looming over the show.
But, here's my counter question -- what does that have to do with the LOSTies???
Honestly, I'll feel cheated if these people we've spent 4 seasons following are merely pawns in a game between two evil geniuses. If the real conflict is between Ben and Widmore, then, has everything else been a red herring?

Look, I know, that's a slippery slope of logic there, but I worry about that possibility. As of now, I'm fine with it. But, way back, I have a tinge of worry.

That said, this was a tight and action-packed episode. I didn't feel emotionally or intellectually satisfied. But, sometimes you need a little red meat!

12:50 PM  
Blogger Sam's Myth said...

I kinda feel that if you were to play this episode for someone who'd never seen LOST, that in a way they would completely get the show from it.

Never before has LOST seemed to me such a worthy descendant of THE TWILIGHT ZONE than in that opening scene of a mysterious body washing ashore and the music that underscores this uncanny event.

Sawyer kicked ass. The confrontation between he, Locke, and Hurley somehow said EVERYTHING about each character's motivations on the island. Sawyer's response to the Claire situation made me realize why I love that character. By the way, bringing Claire back in the room after we can only assume she suffered fatal injuries was a genius little LOST psych-out.

Ben's daughter getting shot -- one of the best, most emotionally devastating moments in the show's history. Ben, who has always been able to out-think anybody... ANYBODY... just fucked up for the first time, and in a major way. In the future, we're learning that Ben is trying to help Sayid avenge the death of his late wife Nadia. When Ben inadvertently lets his daughter die, I suddenly felt for the first time that I could completely trust and sympathize with this person. I've been needing that for a while.

But it wouldn't be LOST if it didn't put some confusing edge on this satisfaction, so we learn that Ben wants to kill Penny, thus complicating our feelings for him once again (since we love Desmond and thus love Penny). The big picture? Ben vs. Widmore. Jason, as of now I'm strangely okay with the Losties being pawns in a bigger game. Again, think of The Twilight Zone. Lost's characters will never be as expendable as b-movie victims, but there might be an inbetween here that could strike the perfect tone. Here's why I'm excited.

The monster. To me, it's settled. The monster is an Ultimate Power. You know, like the One Ring. That ultimate power that men must possess. When Ben somehow summoned Smokey, we saw its true destructive power. It's like a nuclear weapon... but with a psychic potential as well (lest we forget how much it fucked with other people's minds and consciousnesses). Did this ultimate power come from Dharma's experiments by accident or on purpose? However it was conceived, now its on the island, Ben is there too, and outside forces are trying to GET and CONTROL it. Widmore's a private organization, I'm assuming. But does he have connection to actual military power? Personally, I'm hoping this goes all the way up to the government, and we'll get a huge conspiracy plot in which all kinds of people are trying to get their hands on Smokey... and the Island. I dunno if I'll ever be giddier than when I heard Widmore's destined-to-be-iconic line, "That island is mine. It's always been mine, and it always will be."

1:44 PM  

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