Lost – Episode 5-5 Review

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Last night, we received one of the more ominously titled Lost episodes in recent memory: “This Place is Death.” Death, indeed, as we saw the island claim another sacrifice and saw the beginnings of the completely batcrap crazy Danielle Rousseau we’ve come to know and love.

For as much as I loved this episode (I keep waiting for Season 5 to have a truly bad one, but it hasn’t yet.), it started out on a really lame note in my opinion. I wasn’t a big fan of the “Sun is going to go shoot Ben right now” cliffhanger last week, and I was pretty upset that they opened with it again this week. Lost tends to do this sometimes, just throw a loaded gun into a scenario to make it seem like the tension is high, but honestly was anyone out there actually concerned that Ben was going to get capped right then and there? That said, I rather enjoyed the brief conversation Sun had with her daughter. There was a popular internet rumour floating around that Ji Yeon was dead, further feeding into Sun’s cold state, it appears she’s just fine and will be marrying Aaron when they grow up. How much you wanna bet that happens?

Anyhow, onto the meat of this episode.

Vive le France

Part of me had hoped that we would spend the entire episode with Jin and the Frenchies. Turns out I was pretty far off, but the stuff we got was pretty solid. Not only did we get to see the Smoke Monster rip off Montand’s arm, we got to see his house. Danielle’s lover, Robert, referred to it as a security system for that temple. Now, we’ve heard the monster referred to as a security system before, but we’ve also heard “the temple” before. It was where  Ben sent all of his people in the season 3 finale “Through the Looking Glass.” If this is, in fact the same place, then it begs a question regarding what sort of communion the Others have with the Monster.

That wasn’t the only early episode recall we received from the French storyline. In the season 1 episode “Solitary”, we saw Sayid fix Rousseau’s music box (which we saw last night on the beach) and heard Rousseau explain to Sayid why she killed all of her team. Somehow, seeing it has a lot more payoff then hearing about it. Rousseau believed their encounter with the Monster made her team sick, and took it upon herself to “cure” them with her rifle. It turns out, she may have been right, as Robert was about to beat her to the punch. Luckily, she pulled the old “remove the firing pin” from the rifle trick like she explained to Sayid in “Solitary” Have I mentioned how much I love this show? She likely would have killed Jin if not for a convenient flash.

Tensions are rising

It’s pretty safe to say the Oceanic Six better get back to the island pretty damn quick. The always-even tempered Ben pretty much flipped out in defense of his own actions. Michael Emerson pretty much killed this like he kills everything else on the show. He actually made me believe he cares about the O6’s safety and well-being. I guess it remains to be seen whether or not he’s being sincere. Truth be told, not a lot happened with the 06 here, with the exception (some) of their rendezvous with Ms. Hawking, leading to the devilish little cliffhanger, “let’s get started.”

The Six’s sparsity was warranted as their is a LOT of stuff going on on the island. For one thing, it keeps flashing through time, and a much greater rate. I loved the way this amped up the tension in the storyline. You can feel the island becoming restless and more people are coming down with a case of the sickness (Wipe yourself off, Sawyer.) And you can really sense that the return of the Six is both imminent and necessary.

Down with the Sickness

Poor Charlotte. She never really had a chance. As soon as Daniel promised he would never let anything happen to her, her little red-haired goose was cooked. She, like the island, seemed to be flashing through different points in time. Going from childish “I can’t have chocolate before dinner” to party girl-ish “Turn it up, I LOVE Geronimo Jackson” Who DOESN’T love Geronimo Jackson? Anyway, we got a pretty sweet deathbed confession before shuffled off the mortal coil. As many fans have speculated, she was indeed on this island as a child, and we may be seeing her sooner rather than later. We know from this season’s premiere that Daniel is wandering around in the DHARMA Initiative heyday, posing as an Orchid construction worker. I think the island will flash to that time, allowing Daniel to infiltrate DHARMA at which point, he will encounter a young Charlotte, and indeed tell her never to come back to the island, or else she will die. You gotta love this stuff.

Evidently, Charlotte was taken off the island at a young age and brainwashed into thinking the island did not exist and that she had imagined the whole thing. Why in the world would that be the case? I’d venture a guess that

Locke, Christian and the Island’s plan

I’ll tell you straight off, I do not know what the Island’s plan is. As Locke, broken bone protruding from his leg and all, talked with Christian Shephard about bringing back his friends, so many things we thought we true were thrown into upheaval. It would seem that Locke was never supposed to lead the Others, as Ben said. In the words of the undead Christian Shepard, “Since when did listening to him get you anywhere worth a damn?”. When you put it that way, it makes a whole lot of sense. When Ben turned the frozen wheel, he started a chain of events that were never supposed to take place. And I think he knows this. I don’t think this was Ben misinterpreting the message, but rather Ben putting the wheels of a master plan in motion. A plan that involves him controlling the island once again.

And man, did Terry O’Quinn sell it in this episode or what? Locke came full circle again last night. He was once again a broken man, now commissioned with a seemingly impossible task. All of that leads up to what are said to be two pretty shocking upcoming episodes.

For one thing, showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are penning the show’s next two installments, “316” and “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”. As any die hard fan of the show knows, these two only team up when really important stuff is going down.

Some other favorite moments

Sayid storming off. His departure represented the splintering of the Six. He, apparently has no intention of going back and we have no clue how they’re going to get around this. I hope he was going to spring Hurley from the clink. I miss that guy.

Miles being asked to translate for Jin: “He’s Korean, I’m from Encino.” Hilarious. They haven’t given Ken Leung much to do this season, but he pretty much knocks every line he says straight out of the park.

Desmond’s entrance at the church coinciding exactly with the arrival of the Oceanic Six.(Okay Oceanic Four plus Ben) A classic “Hey, what are YOU guys doing here?” moment.

Christian: “Say hi to my son” Locke: “Who’s your son?!”

So that’s it. This was the second “setup” episode in a row, even though it was a superb one. Anyone else getting antsy? Fear not, I think some big answers are on the way. Sound off below!