LOST – Episode 5-13 Review

Shows, Top Story

Before we dive in to the supreme glory that was “Some Like it Hoth”, there are a few things you ought to know about me:

  • I love Lost (obviously)
  • I love Star Wars, particularly The Empire Strikes Back
  • Consequently, “Some Like it Hoth” was my favorite episode of this season. If you’ve been reading me with any regularity, you know that’s a pretty lofty claim considering all the praise I’ve heaped upon this superb penultimate season.

Last night, we were afforded the opportunity to take a  long overdue trip into the psyche of one of my very favorite characters, Miles Straume. This story was meant to be told last season, but was shelved in the wake of the season-shorteningwriters’ strike. Talk about living up to the hype. Punch it, Chewie:

A blast from his past

So we opened on a young Miles and his mom moving into an apartment complex, which would be a fairly uneventful scene if this were any other TV show. But we saw the first example of Miles’ medium-esque powers when he uncovered a tenant who had keeled over from heart attack and had been callingout for his dead wife. I loved the way the camera sort of just followed young Miles around and the cuts were fast and confusingand it was as though we were experiencinghow it is to have this burden of communicating with the dearly departed.

If Miles’ mother looked familiar to you, you got your explanation by the end of the episode. She was the woman you saw Dr. Pierre Chang wake up next to in the season opener. You know, right before he went to tend to a baby, whom a certain Lostblogger may or may not have predicted was a certain Miles Straume. Ahem…Moving on.

Anyhow, we found out from Miles’ terminally ill mother (Brain cancer? Electromagnetism mishap?) that Miles’ father wanted nothing to with them and died a long time ago.You can reasonably assume that Miles and his mother were cast away from the island when he was still very young,  much the way Charlotte explained her own personal history with the island before she shuffled off the mortal coil a few episodes back. Why were they sent away and lied to about there origins?

Miles Straume: Ghost Hustler

I had always been curious about whether or not Miles could actually speak with dead people or whether he lied about to swindle grief-stricken folks out of some cash. The answer of course is a bit of both. We saw via flashback that Miles had begun pimping out his services to help the living make peace with dead, and he soon realized that people would be willing to pay exorbitant amounts to hear whatever he had to say. This is the part of the episode that I really sank my teeth into. As you may know, I’m just all about cutting right to the core of these characters and finding out why they are the way they are. Miles was a bitter, cold and confused kid with a hell of a circumstance to deal with. And he took his special gift and used it to further his own cause, without caring how it affected the people he allegedly “helped”.

His world was rocked when approached by Naomi (glad to see the radiant Marsha Thomason back on my TV) and given a sort of test to see if he was good enough to make the cut for Widmore’s island adventure. He correctly identified the business of the recently departed “Felix”, who was delivering documentation to Widmore pertaining to the faked wreckage of Oceanic 815. When informed about how he would be used, Miles balked at the notion of trying to capture a mass murderer (Ben). That is, until Naomi ponied up $1.6 million for his troubles.

But not everyone wanted him to go. Miles was abducted, mid-fish taco, by a dude named Bram and some people. Bram was absolutely one of those people among the Ajira 316 wreckage helping Ilana lead the small insurrection we saw at the end of last week’s ep. Bram waxed poetic about knowing the secrets of Miles’ gift and dropped that loaded “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” riddle on Miles. When Miles said it would take DOUBLE Widmore’s price for him to be on board, he was cast out of the van. (Note: this is the exact same amount of money Miles requested from Ben last season in exchange for Miles’ silence about Ben’s whereabouts. Mystery:solved) A smiling Bram assured him the “team” he was on would be “the one that’s gonna win.” Now, last week I speculated these folks were working for Widmore. Clearly, I wiffed on that one…at least I think. Let’s get back to our favorite ghost whisperer

Father knows best (And Hurley knows stuff, too)

In 1977, the whole island was abuzz with little Ben’s disappearance. Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Juliet are all starting to feel their lie coming unglued as Roger grows suspicious. But seriously, enough with that.

Hurley and Miles hanging out=complete hilarity. And there time was not without its poignant moments either. That’s the great thing about this show we call Lost. Miles didn’t even really DO much of anything in this hour. He drove back and forth (albeit to some pretty mythologically-loaded locales) and talked about stuff with Hurley. But in those exchanges, we were given a glimpse into his own brand of Lost-patented daddy issues.

So a guy named Alvarez had a filling in his tooth fly through his head while working on digging out the Swan station and Dr. Chang was to inspect the body once Miles delivered it to him. In the intervening time, Hurley and Miles compared and contrasted the means by which they communicate with the dead. And the scene with Hurley, Miles, and Chang all riding in the van as Hurley not so discreetly suggested that the dad and son get to know each other better? Gold. 24 karat solid gold. Chang is a guy who is keenly aware of the time-traveling properties of the island, and I sort of got the sense that he is well aware of the fact that the grown-up Miles is in fact his son, but he knows it is best if they just stay away from each other so as not to rick changing the timeline. That’s certainly an interesting way to strain a father and son relationship. Way to go, Lost writers, you’ve once again topped yourselves when it comes to dramatic irony.

If that three of them in the van was gold, the scene where Hurley saw those dreaded numbers pounded onto that fateful Hatch door? Platinum. No. Something better. Platinum buffed with God’s sweat. That’s it. I mean, that damn hatch was such a catalyst for everything that turned the show from just some people on a beach into the Sci-Fi, mindbending, WTF-ing show i has become. To see it in its infancy had me positively giddy.

For a Miles-centric episode, Hurley sure had some winning moments. We saw him frantically scribbling thoughts into a DHARMA notebook, only to find out he was writing The Empire Strikes Back, with some improvements, to send to George Lucas. This left Miles flabbergasted, but Senor Reyes dropped a fat load (too easy?) of knowledge on him. He succinctly paralleled the daddy issues of the Star Wars universe with those of the Lostuniverse and convinced Miles that he had a special opportunity to make things right with his dear old dad. Also, Ewoks suck. We all knew that already, but it’s nice to hear on a TV show.

Miles appeared to take Hurley’s advice to heart, as he looked in wistfully at the past version of his family, now existing before his very eyes. This poignancy was short-lived though, as his father said he needed to help him with the team of scientists coming in from Ann Arbor (as in, Michigan, the state-side HQ of the DHARMA folks). Everything was going hunky-dory until that kooky Daniel Faraday popped his bearded head out the submarine to say hello to Miles and to all of us. BAM. In the words of Ricky Bobby: “That. Just. HAPPENED.”

Some leftovers

I went long, as usual, so let me wrap up by saying how extraordinarily well-written this episode was. Any time you can have the line “That douche is my dad” be spoken on television and have it not seem ricidulous, you’ve done a pretty bang-up job. Also, Ken Leung is excellent. It was pretty great to actually get to see him ACT last night, wasn’t it? As opposed to his usual bit of playing different levels of snarkiness. Also, Francois Chau as Pierre Chang has to be one of the most unintentionally hilarious performances in recent memory. His deliver of lines like “I prefer Country” or his back and forth with Hurley regarding polar bear crap detail had me laughing my ass off.

Well that’s about it on my end. I’m sure I missed some great things about this hilarious, touching, yet mythologically interesting episode. What did you think? Will someone who knows more about Egyptian mythology than I please rewatch the scene with Jack and Roger and decipher some of the lesson on the chalkboard? Who the hell are Bram and Ilana working for? Am I switching my answer from Widmore to Ben? Probably. Anyhow, no new episode next week, but I’ll probably do some sort of recap or random thoughts blog anyhow. Later, y’all.