Blogging Lost: What They Died For.

Before I get into the actual episode from this week, I just have to ask, who puts their milk in a pitcher? I couldn’t even concentrate on the first scene when parallel-world Jack, his son and Claire all had breakfast because on the breakfast table was a lovely glass pitcher full of more milk than they needed for their cereal. Who does this? The answer is no one, accept families on commercials.

Secondly, I have to confess that I didn’t watch last week’s episode. I don’t care that much for the Big Questions lost tries to answer (I’m more interested in the little things, like introducing a whole new cast of characters in the second season just so they can all get killed off.) When Allison Janney told the woman in labor that answers would just bring more questions, I rolled my eyes and moved on. That’s a little too real. Jacob the person is relatively new, and Jacob the concept could have gone mysteriously unexplained if they had done it right. For example, I don’t need to have it explicitly stated that the Smoke Monster needs to occupy dead bodies, but we got that this episode. I’d rather like it if threads that seemed critical in the beginning weren’t dismissed as uninteresting tidbits (I know the polar bears were introduced by the Dharma Initiative for experiments. But a better explanation of the Dharma Initiatives relevance to the narrative would be nice.) Before, the fight was over the Dharma Iniative and the Others, and then the Losties and the others, and now it’s between good and evil. How does that connect with the hatch, the numbers and the button? The Swan? The Looking Glass? And this new thing, the flame? But I’m getting ahead.

Back to the episode. From his milk-pitcher-domesticity, Jack goes to work to encounter Locke again, because Locke’s had another visit from Desmond. But not really Locke, Desmond beat up Ben in an effort to jog his “true” memory, and told him Desmond had been trying to save Locke. Off-island Ben, meanwhile, is invited over to dinner with Danielle, who’s made an appearance as Alex’s mom, and tells him he’s the closest thing to a dad Alex has ever had.

Things are also getting reuinion-y at the jail, where Miles and Sawyer have Kate, Sayid and now Desmond in lock up. Kate tries to sweet-talk Sawyer, but Desmond, who’s bringing everyone together, has already schemed to have Ana Lucia break them all out with Hurley’s money. Things always start to happen when Desmond’s around. But someone needs to tell him that his quest for the life with Penny kills almost a lot of these people.

On-island, everyone’s crying over Jin and Sun and, for the millionth time, struggling with they’re responsible for an island death. Jacob ultimately coordinates a pow-wow in which he tells them that he’s been protecting the island and now one of them has to do it. There’s a light that never goes out, and the keeper has to guard it. It’s past the bamboo field Jack landed in in the first episode. Notice how this sacred spot is completely unrelated to every sacred spot the show has had thus far: the cave, the hatch, the donkey wheel. Seriously? You’re introducing a new thing right now?

Meanwhile, Not-Locke and Ben kill Widmore, who’s just told them that Desmond’s really important because he’s a fail-safe in case the Jacob crew fails. Now he wants to get Desmond to destroy the island. That’s where it ends.

So yeah, that’s why this show annoys me. There’s no internal coherence. In the beginning, it was such a good show, and it’s devolved into such cliches. We’ll see if the finale can rescue itself.

  • I forgot to mention that they were all chosen because they were losers (which we’ve gotten by now) and the completely anti-feminist comment Jacob made to Kate about why her name was crossed off. “Because you became a mother.” Please.

    • xtian

      I think you are overlistening for anti-feminism.

      He said they were all chosen because they were alone in the world, with nothing (and no one) to live for.

      His rationale of her becoming a mother was that she now had someone else to live for so he assumed she would not be interested, but he still offered her the job if she was inclined. Remember its just “chalk on a wall”.

      • quadmoniker

        maybe, but why didn’t jin’s status change when he became a father?

        • Scipio Africanus

          Because this show is full of holes, inconsistencies and loose ends. No more no less.

  • Yeah, somebody brought out somewhere that if that was the case why didn’t Jacob cross off the Kwon name, seeing as how both Jin and Sun became parents, of their own child at that, while Kate just took it on herself to raise Aaron who wasn’t really her child? Yep, kind of bizarre.

    I noticed the same thing about the milk pitcher. The first thing I thought was, who the hell lives like that? I think somebody just thought it looked more artistic than a plastic gallon jug of store-bought milk. The ridiculous amount of milk in the pitcher clinched that for me.

    I also have to wonder what kind of place alternate-reality LA is that it just so happens the only two people in lock-up at just the right time are Sayid and Kate, and absolutely no one else gets sent to the county with them. LA must be an awful peaceful and law-abiding place in sideways time since Keamy was killed. And why would Kate and Sayid even be in the same place to begin with? Shouldn’t they be in different sections?

  • Scipio Africanus

    This show reminds me alot of the Ring horror movie “franchise.” The first one was good and scary and fascinating because the questions it opened were tantalizing. Then the sequel was disappointing because clearly the writers didn’t know how to tie it all up. I think super-complex sci fi is up there with epic poetry and epic fiction as maybe the most difficult type of fiction to pull off well. They seem to have bitten off way more than they could chew with this show. It probably would have been much better if they’d only been given 3 seasons from the start.

  • I am feeling terrible because I can not read this post as I have not seen this weeks episode or last weeks. Hulu here I come!!!!

    Peace, Love and Chocolate
    Tiffany

  • Russ

    Why might you put your milk in a pitcher? Because you live in Canada and your milk comes in bags.
    http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn216/Avrohead/Misc/milk.jpg
    http://home.cogeco.ca/~husky66/Milk/
    http://bagsforbeds.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/milkbagcandada.jpg

    Or because you live in a commercial.

  • xtian

    Is the milk pitcher thing that strange? I have one. I only use it with guests crashing with me though.

    I learned this from visiting friends with spouses and children and guest rooms. it makes more sense than having milk out on the table going bad in the sun. Milk has a lot of uses – coffee, cereal, stand alone etc. You want some out, but not the whole carton.

    Jack had a guest. He used a pitcher. Seems OK to me.

    Here is a $2 one that does the job http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=370&f=36726

  • quadmoniker

    I also meant to put this in the post, just for the record: Totally bet that Juliet is Jack’s son’s mom.