Lost (spoilers)

[polkablues]

but cant pardon exchanges of dialogue such as:

Hurley: Dude, are you a zombie?
Sayid: No, I'm not a zombie.

Not that this will justify it as good dialogue, but it was a tongue-in-cheek reference to this.

[Gamblour.]

It's funny because everyone ALWAYS gets a bug up the A about a "slower" episode and then they LOVE the show again on or two episodes later.  Why not let go?

I'm not some baseball fan hating the team when it's down and loving it when it's winning. I love Lost. And at this point, I have let go. I don't constantly speculate like I used to. It's not worth the effort. They either have this shit wrapped up, or they don't. And when boring fillers like "What Kate Does" happen, it makes me think they are wasting my time and can't write a good episode to save their lives (Horowitz and Kitsis specifically)

Was this really sloppy?
All the things everyone's bitching about are probably going to pay off at least a little and the stuff that WASN'T good is just par for the course... you take the bad with the good and with Lost, the good is always more present than the bad.

Overall, the show is like 70/30 good to bad. But this episode was, I think, 20/80. What does Kate do? Drives Claire to a house to meet a new character that doesn't even begin to answer the question "why shouldn't Aaron be raised by another?" It just presents a trite situation (her contraction) to meet Ethan for a bit of yuk-yuks at what the might-have-been universe presents.

I don't get Gamblour's equation (why did it start with the equal sign?  It seemed like you have it out of order), but since it's loaded with complaints, I'll add (more confusing math) my two Cs.

Equations often start with the variable first. x=2y+1 is still an equation.

"Sawyer mopes around"and "throwing ring in lake" - This is clearly an important part of Sawyer this season, he's lost someone he loved and it's going to affect him.  We have to see something that big played out... it's important.  It will either lead to him doing something unexpected or he's going to forget about her and move on.  Either way, if we didn't have this episode to show this step in his arc, everyone would be bitching too. 
and you're right about the cliche, but in television, sometimes you have to use cliches to get a point across... it's T.V., not HBO.

But why just see Sawyer mope around? There is literally one scene where he walks from one house to another and doesn't say a word. How about presenting some motivation through action? By doing something. That would be getting the point across. But instead the resort to dull scenes and a cliche moment. That is bad writing.

"Claire has nonsensical motivation x (credit card + don't get in the cab!) " - I was bugged by this at first, but slow down the anger at not getting a season finale by the second episode and consider that it might make sense.  There may still be a connection between all these characters in this alternate universe.  Claire doesn't really know Kate, but she may still retain a subconscious trust and sense of warmth for her that carried over from the Island world.  This could be wrong and if so, you're right, the motivation was dumb, but we don't know yet.

I understand that they're trying to draw a connection between 'past life' knowledge and the alt reality, and the two of them bonding and having a sense of trust without understanding why is a great connection to suggest. BUT "here's my credit card" and "I'll accept a ride from a known felon on the lam" far outweighs, to me, the same sense of connection shared between Jack and Desmond on the plane. That was far more subtle, far more convincing than these radical gestures on the part of Claire.

"Jack swallowing pill/learned nothing from Dogen" (is that division?) - he did though, right?  He learned that they were trying to kill Sawyer with the pill.

Yes, it was division. Sorry I wrote it fast, was trying to suggest that the awesomeness of Jack swallowing the pill was undermined by the fact that we learned next to nothing from Dogen, except that Sayid is 'infected' or 'claimed.' We all knew that last week.

"polaroid of Claire" - I think the picture is realistic... Claire is young, she would totally pose like that.  It's a little strange that she would carry around that picture of herself, but it's far from the "Stupidest thing Lost has ever done"

It may be realistic, but it's just a polaroid and the fact that it was laughable was distracting to its overall point, to show Kate that Claire has a picture of her pregnant for her daughter to see in the future. Why not looking excited or sweet and motherly rather than "fuck yeah, check out dis baby bump"

Claire/Rousseau - why do you say "a bunch" and why are they squeezing it in at the last minute?  Claire has been missing for a long time... this is what has become of her.

A bunch includes Sayid too. Last minute because there are 15 hours of show left. They have only very scarcely suggested the idea of infection before, but many seasons ago when Rousseau refers to the other team members being 'infected.' I'm probably wrong on this one, as it probably will become pretty important in the next episode.

I just included it because it seemed like further proof that they are very bad at organizing and presenting the information and facts and arcs of their story in a way that's rewarding and pleasant for the audience. I think we can all agree on that.

[picolas]

i'm just going to say it wasn't a good episode, but a lot of the things that were teased are pretty exciting. it's all about crazy claire. i like that she's NEVER left the island. pretty sad.

[Kal]

sawyer, jin, hurley and a few others also never left the island...

its crazy when you try to be realistic about the timeline and what these people went through. how long has it been now since jack, kate and the oceanic 6 came back to the island? and then it was 3 years since they first left. a lot of shit has happened. the fact that we have been watching this for six years and that the timeline on the island and the show is fucked up makes things even more complicated when you try to make sense of what is happening...

[Fernando]

sawyer, jin, hurley and a few others also never left the island...

jumbotron was part of the O6.

"Jack swallowing pill/learned nothing from Dogen" (is that division?) - he did though, right?  He learned that they were trying to kill Sawyer Sayid with the pill.

I know you meant to write sayid, just doing this for future reference to your excelent post.

Jack and Desmond on the plane.

that actually was a great little scene, and since faraday said that rules don't apply to him I wonder if desmond is somehow aware of everything, but can he?? they never met, desmond never went sailing cuz charles widmore is dead and of course penny was never born....this shit's crazy.

speaking of faraday, so he was never born too in the alt reality, since his mother croaked with the bomb. and wonder about miles too, what role if any will he play in the alt-reality.

[Derek]

I don't really agree with the comments that this was an episode where 'nothing happened.' There is no way to know what's relevant and what's not until its all said and done, because no one knows where this is all going.

[picolas]

yeah but that's not a valid reason for an episode to suck the first time you watch it. it should still be enjoyable as a mystery.

[modage]

This week's episode was so much better.  Thank God.

[Derek]

I get a sense that the ending of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is/will be a big influence on this last season.

[Gamblour.]

This is the first time I'm going to immediately watch an episode a second time because that was SO ENJOYABLE. What a great, well-written episode! Locke's alternate reality, Richard Alpert's frightened appearance, Sawyer nearly falling off the cliff!, the secret cave, the creepy ass names written on the ceiling (with THE NUMBERS!). Every exchange here was fascinating -- "inside joke." Brilliant. And alternate Ben Linus comes off a lot like Dr. Venture, which is fucking hilarious. Loved this episode.

[RegularKarate]

Yeah, it was great.

Love the curve-ball of Locke tossing out Jack's card and ending up meeting Ben instead.

and he's a substitute teacher in a substitute reality.

[diggler]

terrific episode, this is why i love lost.

it was nice to see a somewhat happy conclusion to a locke episode (off island anyway), but Helen's probably going to end up dead like she did in the original timeline. ripping up jack's card is getting in the way of destiny, she's gotta go!

[RegularKarate]

One thing I didn't notice or think about right away:

- Locke appears to have a decent (or at least different) relationship with his father in Alt Reality. 
He had pictures of him and they considered inviting him to the wedding.
How did Locke lose use of his legs?  How did Locke become such a grumpy gus that led him to meeting Helen if he wasn't peeved at his daddy?

[Gamblour.]

Good point, if Sawyer and Locke in alt reality are both happy guys with no daddy issues, then that means there is a relationship between big daddy Sawyer and the island that was disrupted by the bomb. I wonder what?

[squints]

Alternative realities, flashbacks, flashforwards, smoke monsters, no sign on the internet of a naked kate....one hundred and seven pages of comments....

I'm on episode 2 of season 2 and it feels like i'm that guy who shows up to the party where everyone took acid 45 minutes ago and i'm just now taking acid to be apart of the group and they're seeing jungles full of polar bears and i'm just getting a tummy ache...

i think i'm gonna quit lost. sorry guys.