The mystery that is Lost
Apr. 4th, 2007 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniLost is a mystery for me because the quality is so fluctuating you never know what to expect. When it's good it can be brilliant but when it's bad it's really bad and in between we get episodes showing poor writing and inspired stuff or great acting at the same time...
Yesterday I watched last week's episode finally. If you want to discuss it,comava or anyone else, now I can !
Yesterday I watched last week's episode finally. If you want to discuss it,
comava or anyone else, now I can !And I liked it.
It was a stand-alone and a clever one and I'm sure that many viewers that only watch Lost for either the 'ships and main characters or for the island's mystery and the dharma/Others stuff weren't satisfied but for me it was the typical good Lost episode.
The only reservation I had was Hurley using again "Dude" every time he opened his mouth...
For weeks we've been wondering, along with Sawyer, who the hell those Paolo and Nikki were...they didn't seem to be real characters since we hadn't seen them in the previous seasons and suddenly we got what seemed to be a Nikki/Paolo-centred episode...I love how this episode revisited season 1 and 2 from Nikki's and Paolo's perspective, showing that they have always been there...even though it turned out that they weren't real characters at the end of the day, they were only there to play a temporary role in an allegory. we weren't supposed to know them better or get closer to them, they didn't have any journey of their own, in a way they actually worked as vice characters to point out things about the others. So this episode didn't quite work the way character-centred episodes usually do and it was very well written.
The first Nikki's flashback was a pure exposition that set the rules and gave clues...so it made sense that Nikki was an actress starring in a tv show called Exposé ! There JJ Abrams obviously played with Alias-references. Besides they filmed in Sydney ! Speaking of evidence, Nikki told us the truth "I'm just a guest star"...her character on Lost were never meant to be a regular (of course there exceptions, Ben started as a guest and became a regular...).
Also when the director told Nikki that her tv character didn't need to remain dead that they could find away to bring her back next season, it was nothing but an ironical comment on tv in general but also about what we were going to see that is Ethan, the science teacher, Shannon and Boone, four dead Lost characters, who happened to be back on screen in this episode thanks to the flashbacks!
Besides the airport scene set the parallel/echo between Nikki/Paolo and Shannon/Boone...Nikki wondered if they were going to end up like them. The answer of course was yes. They were both meant to die just like Boone and Shannon (even though Paolo didn't want to climb up to the small plane in the tree and didn't fall!). And again with the clues when Nikki said "Ashes are evidence, we poisoned him let's not poison ourselves"...nicotine gums could become evidence too, they gave Paolo away, leading them to actually poison themselves! Also, in a way, they were cursed lovers too, just like Shannon and Boone. I couldn't help thinking of Dante because Nikki Fernandez and Paolo called to my mind Francesca and Paolo from the Hell part of La Divina Comedia.
I loved the Russian dolls, it was a neat metaphor of how the characters worked, not only Nikki and Paolo but all the characters on the island. At some point they all had some kind of alias and hid what they were, characters within characters. Also the dolls reminded me of the statues that Charlie hid.
Another detail I liked was when Jin was about to drink from the bottle of water and Sawyer stopped him. It echoed the episode in which Jin got poisoned by his own wife through the water (Sun actually following Kate's advice)!
It's significant that Hurley chose the supernatural explanation (monster) while Sun thought of something they ate before believing they were victims of the Others. After he found the walkie-talkie Sawyer, who got sold to the Others by Michael, was sure that Nikki and Paolo were traitors working with the Others.
Oh and Paolo spying on Ben and Juliet who were spying on Jack, in the pearl station, that was priceless too. I see it as a new evidence that Paolo wasn't supposed to be a real character carrying on a journey on the island, we weren't supposed to get emotionally invested with him and Ben wasn't to play on his Achilles' heel. But Paolo hidding the diamonds in the toilet echoed again Charlie who hid his drug in the plane's toilet...
Among many lines I loved Locke's one when he saw Paolo digging and told him that things didn't stay buried on the island (it made sense that it was Locke given his history with Charlie and the drug-statues). It foreshadowed the fact that Sun was going to find out about Sawyer/Charlie's stratagem and lies and perhaps more revelations about what our characters are still keeping for themselves. By the way am I the only one who smiled when Sawyer seemed to be mostly concerned about whether or not Sun would tell Jin? I don't think that Sawyer feared Jin, I think he just didn't want to lose his friend...
Of course when Sun said "Sawyer is not a murderer" we knew she was wrong, James Ford killed that man he thought was the real Sawyer...and he killed again in this episode, but without knowing it, when he and Hugo buried Nikki and Paolo !
I loved the pure humour noir of Nikki's "I'm paralyzed" being misunderstood...especially since"Paolo lies" worked too. Again Vincent was the only one who got that they weren't dead! At the end of the day nothing will be staying buried on the island except for Nikki's and Paolo's bodies. The ending was horrible and perfect.
It was a stand-alone and a clever one and I'm sure that many viewers that only watch Lost for either the 'ships and main characters or for the island's mystery and the dharma/Others stuff weren't satisfied but for me it was the typical good Lost episode.
The only reservation I had was Hurley using again "Dude" every time he opened his mouth...
For weeks we've been wondering, along with Sawyer, who the hell those Paolo and Nikki were...they didn't seem to be real characters since we hadn't seen them in the previous seasons and suddenly we got what seemed to be a Nikki/Paolo-centred episode...I love how this episode revisited season 1 and 2 from Nikki's and Paolo's perspective, showing that they have always been there...even though it turned out that they weren't real characters at the end of the day, they were only there to play a temporary role in an allegory. we weren't supposed to know them better or get closer to them, they didn't have any journey of their own, in a way they actually worked as vice characters to point out things about the others. So this episode didn't quite work the way character-centred episodes usually do and it was very well written.
The first Nikki's flashback was a pure exposition that set the rules and gave clues...so it made sense that Nikki was an actress starring in a tv show called Exposé ! There JJ Abrams obviously played with Alias-references. Besides they filmed in Sydney ! Speaking of evidence, Nikki told us the truth "I'm just a guest star"...her character on Lost were never meant to be a regular (of course there exceptions, Ben started as a guest and became a regular...).
Also when the director told Nikki that her tv character didn't need to remain dead that they could find away to bring her back next season, it was nothing but an ironical comment on tv in general but also about what we were going to see that is Ethan, the science teacher, Shannon and Boone, four dead Lost characters, who happened to be back on screen in this episode thanks to the flashbacks!
Besides the airport scene set the parallel/echo between Nikki/Paolo and Shannon/Boone...Nikki wondered if they were going to end up like them. The answer of course was yes. They were both meant to die just like Boone and Shannon (even though Paolo didn't want to climb up to the small plane in the tree and didn't fall!). And again with the clues when Nikki said "Ashes are evidence, we poisoned him let's not poison ourselves"...nicotine gums could become evidence too, they gave Paolo away, leading them to actually poison themselves! Also, in a way, they were cursed lovers too, just like Shannon and Boone. I couldn't help thinking of Dante because Nikki Fernandez and Paolo called to my mind Francesca and Paolo from the Hell part of La Divina Comedia.
I loved the Russian dolls, it was a neat metaphor of how the characters worked, not only Nikki and Paolo but all the characters on the island. At some point they all had some kind of alias and hid what they were, characters within characters. Also the dolls reminded me of the statues that Charlie hid.
Another detail I liked was when Jin was about to drink from the bottle of water and Sawyer stopped him. It echoed the episode in which Jin got poisoned by his own wife through the water (Sun actually following Kate's advice)!
It's significant that Hurley chose the supernatural explanation (monster) while Sun thought of something they ate before believing they were victims of the Others. After he found the walkie-talkie Sawyer, who got sold to the Others by Michael, was sure that Nikki and Paolo were traitors working with the Others.
Oh and Paolo spying on Ben and Juliet who were spying on Jack, in the pearl station, that was priceless too. I see it as a new evidence that Paolo wasn't supposed to be a real character carrying on a journey on the island, we weren't supposed to get emotionally invested with him and Ben wasn't to play on his Achilles' heel. But Paolo hidding the diamonds in the toilet echoed again Charlie who hid his drug in the plane's toilet...
Among many lines I loved Locke's one when he saw Paolo digging and told him that things didn't stay buried on the island (it made sense that it was Locke given his history with Charlie and the drug-statues). It foreshadowed the fact that Sun was going to find out about Sawyer/Charlie's stratagem and lies and perhaps more revelations about what our characters are still keeping for themselves. By the way am I the only one who smiled when Sawyer seemed to be mostly concerned about whether or not Sun would tell Jin? I don't think that Sawyer feared Jin, I think he just didn't want to lose his friend...
Of course when Sun said "Sawyer is not a murderer" we knew she was wrong, James Ford killed that man he thought was the real Sawyer...and he killed again in this episode, but without knowing it, when he and Hugo buried Nikki and Paolo !
I loved the pure humour noir of Nikki's "I'm paralyzed" being misunderstood...especially since"Paolo lies" worked too. Again Vincent was the only one who got that they weren't dead! At the end of the day nothing will be staying buried on the island except for Nikki's and Paolo's bodies. The ending was horrible and perfect.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-04-04 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-04 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-04 07:53 pm (UTC)There was a demon who ate my post, Miss. It was long and very very clever. Sorry!!
I'll try again tomorrow with a post that is shorter and less clever.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-04 07:57 pm (UTC)*pout*
no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 11:03 am (UTC)I'll try. And you do know that I only said it was long and clever because it's gone now and my claim can't be verified.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 11:17 am (UTC)First, I agree, I enjoyed the episode a lot.
In a way, this was an episode that worked well on a meta-level. It commented on the process of making a television series, the role of guest stars and of course the fact that people don't necessarily stay dead or can be brought back in other ways.
It was also a kind of exercise or "How to manual" for the use of foreshadowing, red herrings, misleads and dramatic irony. It wasn't too difficult to work out some of the twists, because there was this knowing wink with which some of the elements were introduced. You just knew that the nicotine gum, the spiders etc. would become important later on. You know, if you show a gun in the first act, it has to go off by the end of the play.
This could all very well have been tedious and self-referential, but there was enough besides that to keep me entertained. Also, I think the episode worked, because it used very real fears, like spiders, being paralysed and being buried alive.
I also liked the new perspective offered in the flashbacks and it became clear that Nikki and Paolo were islands themselves on this island. The didn't interact much with the others, because they were so preoccupied with finding the diamonds. At the beginning they shared their little island, but later on the moved to separate islands so to speak, which proved their downfall.
Oh and thanks for clearing up the "Paralyzed" line for me. I'm dense that way.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-05 05:36 pm (UTC)Yeah that famous rule...
and it became clear that Nikki and Paolo were islands themselves on this island.
Now that's poetical! And quite accurate.