Lost 5x15: "Follow the Leader"

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

A lot of the show's tension would be dismissed so easily if everyone asked a series of direct questions and got direct answers. But where's the fun in that?

The point is, you don't have the character say "I watched them all die" in the first place, unless you have a logical reason why Sun doesn't act the obvious question when she is clearly around him for a few hours later. Sun has to become stupid to serve the plot. That's a flaw in the writing.

Oh, I agree. I was merely making a phunny.

Honestly, I find some of the mystery scenes in LOST to be written with too much of a "slight of hand," where we are constantly teased out and never directly told anything. Much like in a Soap Opera scene, where the conversation is broken up and interrupted several times to play out the dilemma even longer.

While I love the show, I often wish that whenever a question is brought up
there would be a direct answer that leads into another larger question or problem -- like a truly well-crafted mystery.

 

[blockaderunner]

^^^^Still a great show. I was debating to myself, however, who had the better funbags. Young Eloise or Juliet?

What? The fact that I'm bringing this up shows I have nothing bad to say about this episode.

Wait. I loved Locke as the leader. Still humble, but with a tiny touch of smugness. He's loving it. And poor Ben looked so emasculated. You think Locke already knows that he and Richard might be plotting against him?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Another excellent episode, but this is all I have to really say:

SUBTERRANEAN CONDUITS FINALLY!

This time for real.

 

[Mr Light]

Amen. But Dharma had their own underground subway tunnels as well. Obviously they're unaware of the Native tunnels (in 1974, anyway) so they haven't co-opted them but built their own.

 

[Capn Flukie]

Next up: Giant hamsters running the power generators.

 

[zengoth]

average - only because of the set up for the finale.

besides Locke's "out of body experience", nothing else seemed extraordinary. Besides there's always someone getting the crap beaten out of them. I kept on thinking Jack and Sawyer had no clue they were both punching bags at pretty much the same instant....

are we supposed to be getting the idea that the Others and the Dharma hippies are pretty much the same? Tents and horses vs. Suburbia and Vw buses (and subs), but still - guns, brute force, blood. There's still a missing piece: the fact that no one in '77 has mentioned Jacob and the fact that the 2003 version of the "others" just seemed, well, strange and children of the corn-like (Mr. Friendly, Mrs. Klugh, Mikhail show up...how? when?). The only real nice guy in the 70s in Goodspeed - and we know how he ends up.

I thought Kate grew a pair in this ep. Wipe out her past 3 years - she's in prison. She never gets to play Mom. I don't blame her. Jack's an insensitive douche if he doesn't get that. Plus, someone needs to snitch on Jack to Sawyer and Juliet.

Here's a question - what was that little chat about the compass? Does Richard have 2 now? He showed Locke the rusty one he was keeping and then, after the first aid scene, didn't Locke ask if his other self gave him the compass? (so he'd have true dupes, right?)

best scene. Jin's face after Hugo thinks the Korean War is a fabrication. Dude! (too bad we never got a scene of Jin teaching young Charlotte Korean. I guess she'd be too young anyway...)

Like runaway trains, all plots should converge next week (including the seldom seen Ajira folk)...all under the shadow of the statue. Will it really be a 3 hour extravaganza?!

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

does anybody think the actress playing young eloise bares a striking resemblance to anna paquin?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Amen. But Dharma had their own underground subway tunnels as well. Obviously they're unaware of the Native tunnels (in 1974, anyway) so they haven't co-opted them but built their own.

Actually, I have a feeling that these are the subterranean conduits but only one or two people from DHARMA actually knows about them and it's that person(s) who wrote the Blast Door Map.

 

[John Picard]

does anybody think the actress playing young eloise bares a striking resemblance to anna paquin?

A-HA! I thought she looked familiar.

 

[McCoy]

on a side note, this might be spoilerish but

Spoiler: question

are we expecting another death?

Spoiler: speculation

I thought I heard it would be a main cast member from S1. If so my vote is Sawyer. Holloway's star has really been rising the past few years. He probably has dozens of offers waiting for the show to free him up.

And I love how we got a mundane answer to why the others aren't affected by the fence.

We did? What? I must have missed it.

 

[Capn Flukie]

^ tunnels.

 

[Mr Light]

Oh yeah, Jin teaching Lil'Charlotte Korean is yet another bit they just rushed right past. Like the three years that Faraday spent working with the DeGroots. I would love to see that, dammit! Why aren't they showing these events? I'd much rather see that then another Kate off-Island episode...

 

[Skywalker]

I thought Kate grew a pair in this ep. Wipe out her past 3 years - she's in prison. She never gets to play Mom. I don't blame her. Jack's an insensitive douche if he doesn't get that.

I don't know, I think ignoring the fact that everyone who'd survived the crash but died later, and everyone on the plane who didn't survive the crash, would get to land in Los Angeles safely and continue on with their lives if Jack was right, makes Kate just a teensy bit more insensitive than Jack.

If only Sayid had waited just one more second before coming to the rescue...

 

[Aragorn]

Seems like Jack knows exactly what he's willing to sacrifice in order to save everyone that they've lost. But then when he becomes Jacob, he can play house with his sister and father.

 

[Jono]

I thought Kate grew a pair in this ep. Wipe out her past 3 years - she's in prison. She never gets to play Mom. I don't blame her. Jack's an insensitive douche if he doesn't get that.

I don't know, I think ignoring the fact that everyone who'd survived the crash but died later, and everyone on the plane who didn't survive the crash, would get to land in Los Angeles safely and continue on with their lives if Jack was right, makes Kate just a teensy bit more insensitive than Jack.

If only Sayid had waited just one more second before coming to the rescue...

I agree, Kate's action are more to avoid having to go to prison for a crime she committed. She did murder another person, even if the guy was beating on her mother that doesn't give her the right to take his life. She is just trying to avoid having to take responsibility for her actions.

Looking forward the end season finale. That leaves the show with what, one season to go?

 

[John Picard]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Locke say he was going to kill "his people", meaning the group trapped in the 70's? Some of you here said he was going to kill Jacob. Is that what he said he was going to do?

 

[Michael]

^ He said he was going to kill Jacob, yes.

 

[TheArsenal]

I thought Kate grew a pair in this ep. Wipe out her past 3 years - she's in prison. She never gets to play Mom. I don't blame her. Jack's an insensitive douche if he doesn't get that. Plus, someone needs to snitch on Jack to Sawyer and Juliet.

I blame her. How many people died on that plane straight off? 250, 260, even before the survivors started dying? She'd chuck their lives away to stay out of prison? Spock wouldn't approve.

Above Average. Solid episode with some tense cliff hangers leading into the finale.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

of all the setup to the finale episodes, i think this and Three Minutes are my 2 favorites. Born to Run, Greatest Hits, and Cabin Fever were good too, but for some reason those 2 really stood out for me, for Three Minutes, I think the murdering of Libby and Ana Lucia by Michael to spring out Ben probably took everybody by surprise.

The fallout however, for some interaction with Michael and Hurley could have at least been acknowledged. But it never happened. Since Michael never officially came back to the island. Which I think they kind of dropped the ball on. Hopefully Walt's story will come back and be concluded next season.

Although in Cabin Fever when Keamy kills Alex, that was pretty shocking too. Wait, was that in Cabin Fever?

 

[Caligula]

I thought Kate grew a pair in this ep. Wipe out her past 3 years - she's in prison. She never gets to play Mom. I don't blame her. Jack's an insensitive douche if he doesn't get that.

THANK YOU!

I don't know, I think ignoring the fact that everyone who'd survived the crash but died later, and everyone on the plane who didn't survive the crash, would get to land in Los Angeles safely and continue on with their lives if Jack was right, makes Kate just a teensy bit more insensitive than Jack.

I don't think Kate is being insensitive towards those from Oceanic Flight 815 who have already died. I think she's being mindful of those who are still alive! What assurance does Jack have that detonating the bomb will reset everything? A dead man's best guess? That's quite a risk. Remember, this is the same guy (Jack) who thought that freighter approaching the island was a rescue vessel....

I agree, Kate's action are more to avoid having to go to prison for a crime she committed. She did murder another person, even if the guy was beating on her mother that doesn't give her the right to take his life. She is just trying to avoid having to take responsibility for her actions.

Put yourself in her shoes. You're scot freaking free right now but, if everything gets reset, you're back in chains and headed off to prison. Yeah, I wouldn't choose that life, either. The whole point of being on the island (not just for her, but for everyone) was that you got to wipe clean your former life. Start fresh. You really want to ask everyone, not just Kate, to go back to that? Charlie was alive, but would you call what he was doing living? Claire was very strongly considering an abortion. Wouldn't you, if you were Kate, want Aaron to have a chance to live? And what of John Locke? The man was to have been confined to a wheelchair... likely for the rest of his life! I know HE wouldn't wanna go back to that life. Hugo's as big a problem; the poor guy was so convinced that he was bad luck to everyone around him that he wound up committed to a mental institution. On the island, at least, he feels like he's doing some good. And then there's Sawyer... He may despise the island, but the man has truly found himself during his stay there. The person he was was a complete and total douchebag.

So, sure, everyone that died MIGHT have a chance to live, but you'd also be asking everyone who lived to give up three years of personal growth. And that's only if blowing up the bomb does what Jack thinks it will do. Otherwise, the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 will join the others in oblivion.