It’s hard to form an opinion on this week’s episode of Lost. On one hand, the episode was brilliant. It had great writing and the story was told in a great way, from start to finish. But one the other hand, will this episode even matter in the long run? Will it have any significance in the big picture? I doubt it.
This week we got the story of Paulo and Nikki. Who, you might ask? Paulo and Nikki the couple that popped up suddenly at the start of the third season was meant to represent all the other Lostaways who aren’t the major characters but are still stranded on the island. At first it seemed like they were only featured as an inside joke, geared at the die hard fans of the show, but suddenly, this episode was all about them.
The episode started with Nikki’s death, as she mumbles something that couldn’t be deciphered by Hurley and Sawyer who found her. Soon they find Paulo’s body nearby and the Lostaways spend the rest of the episode trying to figure out what happened to the duo, until they’re buried in the end.
But in the flashbacks, we learn their real history, starting 84 days ago, back in Australia. They’re a couple of con artists and their latest victim is an old TV director who gave Nikki a guest spot on his show (Which apparently, Hurley follows closely). They kill him and steal 8 million dollars worth and diamonds from his safe. Their next step is to board Oceanic flight 815 and from there it’s a short trip to the island.
Starting with their flight, we see some familiar faces and scenes from the past. Shannon and Boone make a couple of guest appearances, both at the airport and on the island, and so does Dr. Artz (whom we last saw getting blown by some unstable dynamite). Next we see them interact with other characters on the island in some memorable scenes from earlier episodes from all three episodes. They actually did an excellent job inserting the duo into these scenes in a very seamless way, as if they were always there.
On the island, they look for their luggage, containing the stolen diamonds. After asking Artz for assistance and still not finding, Paulo swims for them in the lake where Kate finds the guns. He finds them there, but keeps this from Nikki, out of fear that once she has the diamonds, she’ll no longer want him (Of course, she couldn’t really get far from him on the island, but I guess we shouldn’t let that bother us). This fear turned out to be legitimate, as we later found out that she’ll do anything to get the diamonds, including setting a poisonous spider free on Paulo’s neck. But will get to the spiders later.
Between the flashbacks, back in “present” days, Charlie had a little confession to make. He came clean about being the one who kidnapped Sun (remember that?) and he added the info that Sawyer put him up to this. While this happened, Sawyer was accused of killing the duo, after Desmond spotted him having an argument with Nikki. She wanted a gun, he wouldn’t give her one. Sawyer was exonerated from the killing and delivered the stolen diamonds, but Sun won’t forgive him, and rightfully so. Now back to the spiders.
After Sawyer wouldn’t give her a gun, Nikki decided to get a different kind of weapon in order to take the diamonds from Paulo. This weapon was Artz’s medusa spider. That’s a spider that can cause severe paralysis when it bytes, to the point that the victim appears to be dead. She sets the spiders free on Paulo who soon loses consciousness and she grabs the diamonds. However the plan backfires as she’s soon bitten by the spiders and then we go back to the opening of the episode she runs to the beach and collapses in front of Sawyer and Hurley, who thinks she’s dead.
As the episode ends, we see the Lostaways bury Nikki and Paulo, thinking they’re dead but not realizing they’re actually alive! As Nikki comes back and opens her eyes dirt is poured over her and we end with a huge pile of dirt over the grave, sealing Nikki and Paulo in.
The ending was one of the creepiest this show has ever had. In fact, this episode was one of the most intense and captivating on the show. Sure, there were other great episode, but this one was captivating and had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish, almost non stop, and I can’t say that about many episodes. In fact, it felt more like an episode of The Twilight Zone rather than Lost. This episode was also unique in that it was pretty much self contained. It started a story and ended it, all within the hour. And this is where I also have a problem with this episode. On its own excellent; as part of Lost – disconnected and meaningless. It didn’t contribute anything to the big stories on the show and can be forgotten and never mentioned again without any damage to the show. That’s why I still can’t make up my mind about it.
But you know what? It WAS an excellent episode. Perhaps we need one like this from time to time, to take a break from the big picture and the battle with The Others. But next week, please go back to the real Lost.
