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Lost from the beginning (NO SPOILERS)

I have to say the whole Jin/Sun reunion was too much of a footnote in the episode. One of the downsides to shows like LOST for me is the fact that sometimes there is just a bit too many characters, a bit too much going on too fast, and there isn't always an effective build-up--they just drop stuff in your lap and move on. I think these issues undercut the reunion.

Sure they haven't interacted in 2 years but honestly it never felt that they had been apart that long and it wasn't like their separation was well developed and integrated in such a way as to generate some genuine investment on my part. It was only rarely mentioned and both characters basically didn't get a lot to do to where they dropped off the map except for the occasional lipservice. So the net result for me was instead of wanting them back so badly all this time that when the moment finally came it was a satisfying moment of emotional release. It just felt like an item checked off the writers' list of things to do. It lasted what a few seconds. The same in my opinion could be said about Jack finally reuniting with Claire after learning they were siblings. It fell tremendously flat. I felt nothing. It just wasn't executed well and that's a shame.

Also the cliffhanger was pretty weak--did anyone think Jack died in the mortar blast?

I will say this FSW was the first to actually interest me because it was tighter and didn't feel like padding. We had several characters involved and a significant sense of forward plot momentum because Desmond was finally bringing everyone together.
 
Then there's Jin and Sun finally, FINALLY reunited after almost two whole seasons apart. Wow. Has it really been that long since these two were together? That's awful.

It IS awful! It's not just two seasons. It's 3 full years out of their lives. Their daughter is 3-years old! That's a long damn time to be apart.
 
The Candidate:

darth_vader_nooo_7675.jpg


:eek::(:eek::(:eek::(:eek::(:eek::(:eek::(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(

How could they? My soul is utterly crushed. You heartless, bloodthirsty bastards! :mad::mad: How could they kill off four main characters in a single episode. Sayid wasn't so bad I guess. His character arc had been leading here. At least he got to make a heroic sacrifice, and overcome the darkness inside him. But then they kill Frank, too. That too might not have been so bad, but then Jin and Sun both! Dear god! I didn't think anything on this show could hurt me more than Charlie or Juliet's deaths. God was I wrong. Jin and Sun both at the same time. I....I can't even find the words. I guess I could comment that their death scene is a great one. I was in tears. It's only been a few hours since they reuinted after years, and now they're dying together. It also occurs to me that their poor daughter is now an orphan,too. Man, when they lay on the heartbreak, they lay it on thick.

The last ten minutes or so pretty much are this episode. The rest isn't bad, though we do revisit those evil cages again for a bit. We also finally get a good bit of action at the sub dock. Kate gets shot, but survives. Kate gets to survive, but Jin and Sun don't. There is something truly wrong in this world. Smocke also needs to die. There's no doubt any more in anybody's mind that he's a bonafide villain. I demand vengeance for the deaths of Sayid, Frank, Jin, and Sun.

Oh, I guess there was a flash-sideways, too. Mostly Jack and Locke. Jack goes to visit Anthony Cooper, only to find he's a vegetable. Locke made him that way in the accident that put him in a wheelchair. Sad, and lends some nice motivation to this Locke. Since Cooper is still Mr. Sawyer in this timeline, it's nice to see he still gets his just desserts.





They killed Jin and Sun. :(:(
 
It wouldn't be very nice to mention how the show goes all Wizard of Oz at this point, though Smocke sending flying monkeys after the Losties was pretty darn cool.
 
Along the same lines as the whole Jin/Sun reunion I thought the way the deaths of Sun, Jin and Sayid were handled didn't have the effect on me I think the writers were hoping for. I hate that they are treated as just another set of plot points that get lost amidst a myriad of a thousand other things going on within the hour.

Sun and Sayid were two of my favorite characters on entire the show that felt like they were more than just plot devices or pawns but I'll freely admit their deaths didn't make a chink in my emotional armor. It had to do with the whirlwind of events and the way they occupied such a small sliver of the hour that it just didn't emotionally resonate. Charlie's death in S3 is how you do a character death. Sun, Sayid and Jin--no. Their deaths had all the emotional impact as Arnzt blowing up or Ilana blowing up.

I don't mind character deaths. I don't mind when writers kill off my faves. I don't mind when they kill off characters in a less than heroic way--as evidence to this day Yar's death in TNG's "Skin of Evil" is one of my favorite character deaths and over 20 years later it still gets to me. But almost as a counter in another extreme a lot of shows these days just wipe out characters just to show they can and/or for spectacles almost to the point of blunting their impact.

And I didn't find Sayid's character arc this season all that well handled. It was aimless and ill-defined. He was suppose to be corrupted and evil but that seemed to be dropped without much satisfying explanation allowing him to shift effortlessly between evil zombie Sayid and then tonite he was back to old Sayid diffusing bombs. I later read an interview by L/C where they tried to explain the whole point of his arc and I was hoping when I found it that it would clarify things but I have to say they were struggling to try to make it sound coherent and they failed miserably.
Lindelof explains: “Sayid’s entire season-long arc has basically been, if you tell him that he is evil, you can convince him he is evil. But if you tell him he is good, maybe you can convince him he is good. We basically decided that in a moment of pure instinct, if he did something, if he sacrificed his own life in favor of saving the other people’s lives, that would convey to the audience, ‘This guy was actually a good guy.’”
I didn't buy it and I hope they realized how weak it really was.

I also hated the way Jack so casually went along with abandoning Claire. I didn't buy it.

Another excerpt from the same article explained the whole point of this season
“In many ways, the season was structured as a long con on behalf of the Man In Black. Once we revealed that Locke was the Monster, we knew the audience would immediately mistrust him, and we would have to spend at least a dozen episodes of Locke trying to convince the audience that he did not have malevolent intention, that all he wanted to do was get off The Island.
I can't speak for anyone else but I never once thought he was anything but malevolent so all the effort all season to trick me was to try to make me believe MIB might not have been malovolent--WTF!. This only underscores how much of a waste this season has been if the writers expended all this precious screentime to try to trick us because it failed and they really didn't do all that good of a job in playing games with the audience.

So overall this was another pedestrian hour despite the bodycount which under different circumstances could have been a powerful thing. At this stage I pretty much gave up on LOST.
 
Kate gets shot, but survives. Kate gets to survive, but Jin and Sun don't. There is something truly wrong in this world.
Truer words have never been spoken. I bawled my eyes out during Jin and Sun's death, more than Charlie and Juliet's combined. And yet, to see my most hated character survive close call after close call blows my mind.
 
Well, I was always interested in the character. She was just as flawed as the rest of them, and I always enjoyed her scenes.
 
I will never understand the Kate Hate.
Neither will I. I must have watched different episodes to everyone else or something, 'cause I truly don't get why she's so loathsome.

Eh, to each their own, I suppose. I haven't a clue why Sawyer (of all people :wtf:) is supposed to be so awesome, either. :p
 
I don't get the Kate hate, but maybe I'm just biased toward Evangeline Lilly.

It's not like the writers put her on a Lana Lang pedestal.
 
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