I found myself very torn about tonight's episode of Lost. Overall, I think I enjoyed it. But it also left me completely unsatisfied and wondering "what the hell was the point of all that?"At last, we got the tale of Nikki and Paulo. Not that any of us were dying to know. Now that it's all told, it appears the only reason the writers put these characters on the show in the first place was they thought it would be novel to show two new people standing in the background for half a season, then "cleverly" dispose of them and spring their backstory on us all in one swoop. But the problems with that idea are numerous:
We've seen this basic M.O. before. Shannon, Ana-Lucia, Eko -- it's become old hat for Lost to off characters in the same episodes that show us their flashbacks. (I'm making the assumption in this that they're not going to survive being buried alive.)
None of this in any way informed either the Island story or the stories of any of the characters we actually care about. Unless somewhere down the line, we learn that the machine that spits out the answers to every question you have about the show only runs on loose diamonds, none of this mattered in retrospect, nor will any of it matter in the future.
Seeing cameos from Shannon, Boone, Ethan, and Arzt only served to remind us how all of them (even Arzt!) were more interesting characters than Nikki and Paulo.
But, here's the paradox. Despite all those substantial flaws, I still had fun with the episode. Set aside the fact that it had anything to do with Lost for a moment, and it was an enjoyable little episode of some anthology series like a Twilight Zone or Amazing Stories, about two partners in a heist turning on each other and ending up punished for their crimes in a manner inspired by The Serpent and the Rainbow (or maybe one of Stephen King's stories in Nightmares and Dreamscapes).
It was also kind of neat to see the way so many characters on the show, past and present, were woven into the tale -- from Locke and Kate (currently off having a real adventure) to Shannon and Boone... even Juliet and Ben made an appearance.
The truth about Charlie dragging Sun off into the jungle back in season two was even revealed to the characters tonight, and should have interesting ramifications.
Good Hurley lines. Good Sawyer lines.
A cameo appearance by frakkin' Billy Dee Williams, as himself.
In short, plenty to actually enjoy about this episode. If you can just get around the whole pointlessness of ever adding Nikki and Paulo to the show in the first place. Which, at the moment, I'm not sure if I can or not.
3 comments:
Although I thought that we would soon be treated by a classic zombie moment (a hand rising from the grave), the more I think about it, they're dead because they saw and knew so much about the island and didn't tell anybody. The island killed them because they were selfish.
Well, I think there may be more to this episode than meets the eye(s).
First, it's one of the first episodes since the introduction of the tail section survivors that lets us know some of the survivors other than the mains are out and about on the island and finding out stuff. Paulo not only investigated the second hatch, but overheard Ben talking about "getting" Shepherd to co-operate. So the fact that at least one of the other survivors made a concious effort to keep that kind of info hidden is interesting to me... what else has been discovered and covered up (or ignored) by the "also appearing in this episode" characters?
I think the the significance of the episode (which I quite enjoyed) wasn't so much the story that was told, but that there was a story to tell at all :-)
I liked it. As "side stories" go, I've seen far worse or far sloppier on other arc-based series.
I suppose they couldn't fit Rose and/or Bernard into the story. That's a shame.
However the crash scene was put together, it was very seemless.
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