Lost (spoilers)

[Pozer]

they didn't bring Aaron back!

Yeah, that perturbed me a bit too that they didn't bring aaron back. Maybe they will discuss or explain that soon.

they didn't bring Aaron back because Claire appeared in Kate's dream and said don't bring Aaron back.

[diggler]

Cool ep !!! I can't wait to know why Ben killed John etc.

perhaps someone on flight 815 murdered christian shephard, thus ben had to murder locke to insure his place in the recreation of the original flight?

i love this show! can't wait to find out why lapidus took off in one of the rafts (with sun maybe?)

[bonanzataz]

last night's episode was a load of baloney. all the big emotional punches were served in unsatisfying 30 second bits. there really were no big mysteries raised or solved in this episode. the only good bits were the scenes with ben and widmore and the scene where abaddon gets killed. everything else was so rushed. this should have been the episode to reestablish why we love these characters, especially locke. but they totally dropped the ball. instead, the characters just seem like plot devices. what's so great about this show is the way we get from point a to point b and the characters that bring us there. the writing in this episode was hollow. perhaps the BIGGEST let-down was locke reuniting with walt.

"hey, how've you been?"
"ok, but you've been in some creepy dreams of mine. how's my dad?"
"he's in a freighter, i think."
"oh, cool, i gotta go."

WTF WAS THAT SHIT?! walt and locke always had a very special relationship, walt even had a very strong connection to the island, you'd think their reunion would be a little more dramatic/drawn out. i kind of wish they just excluded the scene altogether b/c i wouldn't have questioned it. also, why waste screen time on locke visiting peg bundy's grave if the rest of the episode was so damn rushed.

it didn't have to be like this. this should have been the penultimate episode of season 5. instead it was a whole lot of filler. worse than the juliet flashback episode from last season. nearly as bad as nikki and paolo. they didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know and wasted nearly an entire episode doing it.

i DO like knowing that dead locke is alive on the island. that might explain something about christian still being alive and not just some ghost thing. or does it? who knows? i'll still be tuning in next week, but color me unimpressed.

[elpablo]

I hate that most of the conflict on this show now comes from people trying to convince other people what to do. If Ben would just take everybody out to the Olive Garden and explain what's going on, most of that conflict would disappear.

[Pas]

If Ben would just take everybody out to the Olive Garden and explain what's going on, most of that conflict would disappear.

hahahaha

I like the ep on initial viewing but I agree with your points bon and elpablo

[SiliasRuby]

If Ben would just take everybody out to the Olive Garden and explain what's going on, most of that conflict would disappear.

hahahaha

I like the ep on initial viewing but I agree with your points bon and elpablo

I've never seen a olive garden on any of the hawaiian islands where I've been to...but that would be great. Just an Olive Garden on the island. "When you're here you're the oceanic 6" ..or "when you're here you're the others"

[MacGuffin]

John Locke lives again on 'Lost'
His character has been resurrected, and actor Terry O'Quinn is along for the ride.
By Maria Elena Fernandez; Los Angeles Times

At this stage of "Lost's," mystery no one actually believed that John Locke would remain dead, but still, it's satisfying to see him alive again. That is, alive in the way that you and I are -- not in flashbacks, and not in the way that the ghosts of Charlie and Ana Lucia appear to Hurley or the ghost or some supernatural semblance of Christian Shephard roams the island.

No, as "Lost" viewers saw last week, a content and assured Locke (Terry O'Quinn) once again walks and talks among the living people of the island, and even eats mangos. All of which solidifies the "Lost" lore that has been building for five seasons: Locke is one special, mystical dude."Well, it appears to be at least a version of living," said Terry O'Quinn with a laugh during a telephone interview, acknowledging that he's given up on trying to assume things about his character because he's usually wrong. "It's interesting that I find post-death Locke up to this point much more relaxed and confident. I guess dying does that to you. I don't think he's too worried anymore. I think he might believe that he has the answers he's been looking for."

When Locke boarded Oceanic Flight 815 in the series pilot, he was paralyzed and in a wheelchair after having been pushed out of a high-rise window by his father. But the instant the plane crashed, Locke was healed, and that bonded him to the island in a way that none of his fellow castaways, especially Jack (Matthew Fox), have been able to comprehend.

"I've looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw . . . was beautiful," Locke told Jack only six days after the crash, establishing the man of science / man of faith tension that has dogged the two characters, most movingly in the note Locke left Jack before he died: "I wish you had believed me."

Locke intuitively felt that the island called him for a specific purpose. That suspicion was later reinforced by other intriguing island dwellers -- Richard Alpert, Charles Widmore and -- who at different times persuaded (or is it manipulated?) Locke into believing he is someone of importance on the island. Accepting his island destiny has been especially poignant for a man who has struggled with feelings of unworthiness and alienation his whole life.

"What he perceives, his understanding of the island, is special," said O'Quinn, who has won an Emmy for the role. "But it might be the road to hell. We still don't know what the moral entity of the island is. Is the island a good guy or a bad guy? That is the question I have.

"Because what's tragic about Locke is that he will follow," he added. "He's faithful to a fault. Once he decides, he follows to the end. You see the same sort of thing in politics. Someone who commits to a theory or a course so deeply that even when it's proven wrong, they can't stop doing it because they don't want to look like a fool. I believe Locke is going to stay this course whether it proves to be the good or evil one, the dark or light one."

Whatever the path, the drama is heightened by Locke's memories of Ben strangling him -- factors that will drive much of what happens to Locke for the remainder of the season.

"Obviously, Locke is of critical importance as to where the show is going and -- having died and come back to life -- that is 10 times more significant than being in a wheelchair and being able to walk, just on a spiritual level, so how is he different?" co-creator Damon Lindelof said. "What's very interesting moving forward is how is he going to process that experience and is he going to forgive Ben."

O'Quinn thinks his character might have more forgiveness in him. After all, he already forgave Ben for shooting him and throwing him into a mass grave.

"He seems to do it consistently, doesn't he?" he said. "The one thing about Locke is that he's never closed any options that I can see. He's never burned any bridges that I can see. He forgave his dad. He will forgive anybody if it will help him move forward. It wouldn't surprise me if somehow Ben talked his way out of this. At the moment, what we've shot to this point, I think Locke has a pretty strong upper hand."

And that self-possessed Locke is the one that O'Quinn prefers, although his days of complaining about the character's trajectory are over, he said. During the second season, O'Quinn expressed his disappointment with Locke's diminished role as the button-pusher in the hatch that temporarily loses his faith. Then, when Locke's strength resurfaced in the third season, he stabbed Naomi in the back and killed her, which didn't sit well with the actor.

"I told them I thought it was gratuitous blah blah blah, and the producers basically gave me what I think is the final step in my education for actors for television, which was 'Shut up, you have a contract,' " O'Quinn noted and laughed. "I can't desire that he do one thing or another, and I finally got it through my head."

The new O'Quinn is more like Locke, an in-the-moment, reflective man whose wish for his character is rather simple.

"In the end, I would like him to be terribly interesting," O'Quinn said. "Locke now has this sort of confidence that he never had in his first life, although a little confidence in a guy like him is a dangerous thing. I expect him to take at least one or two more surprising turns, and whether people like him or dislike him, I don't care, as long as they are not bored by him."

Locke? Boring? That doesn't seem likely.

As the series nears its final chapter next season, Locke could be The One who reveals one of the island's burning questions, the reason these castaways were all seemingly chosen to go there. Or someone (Ben? Widmore? Richard? Walt?) or something (the smoke monster? Christian's ghost?) could make Locke doubt himself again and wind up closer to the paralyzed man he once was, the man who was also willing to attempt suicide.

This season, viewers will have to wait a few weeks before seeing Locke again.

"How far he goes next year, what his role is, what the final destination of that character is, we just don't want to say because we feel it will spoil the journey of the show next season," said executive producer Carlton Cuse. "But Locke is one of those iconic centerpieces of the show, and Terry will be associated with the show forever in an incredibly good way because of how memorable his character is and because of the incredible skill with which he has executed that character."

[Gamblour.]

Holy shit, that was seriously the weirdest episode yet for me. I can't believe the direction they've taken it, it's incredible.

I loved it when he called Alpert 'the eyeliner guy', so funny. Sawyer's look at the end was so well done, so beautiful. Michelle from 24 was a bit much, and diner guy from Mulholland Drive was equally overzealous, it seemed. Oh, btw, Juliet and Sawyer have ZERO chemistry. I do not buy it at all. Maybe that's the point??

Did they sneak a glimpse of the four-toed statue during the previously-on? Was it just coyly edited together so I didn't notice that it was now the actual beginning of the episode? Very tricky. That statue was humongous too. Looked kind of like an Anubis, god of death. I think.

[SiliasRuby]

Great episode...too bad we have to wait 2 weeks for the next episode....Sadness...it was wonderful to see Michelle Dressler from '24' and the crazy man from 'Mulholland Drive'

[abuck1220]

and the wheelchair guy from friday night lights, who i, for some reason, thought was in a wheelchair in real life.

[bonanzataz]

this week COMPLETELY redeemed last week for me. too fucking good. i have always hated juliet. i think she is such a boring character. this week, the writers managed to make me like her in just a quick few lines, which proves that:

a) i am easily duped
b) the writers are master manipulators
c) the writers are assholes for delivering subpar episodes because we all know they can do better. why didn't they try harder to make juliet likable in the first place?

i've been saying her and sawyer were going to get together since they watched the freighter burning at the end of last season. i don't think they have much chemistry either, but i do like their scenes together. i think they have good chemistry in terms of back and forth banter, but romantically? nah. shit though, that whole "you can get over a person in three years" thing caught me off guard.

i have always been confused by people who stopped watching the show b/c they weren't having their questions answered. last week, the episode was all answers and hardly any questions and it was terrible. this week raised a lot of new questions, posed all new conflicts, and was one of the best eps in recent memory. the show is best when they answer questions with a bigger question. can't wait for next episode which is two weeks from now which is bullshit because the season finally just started getting great instead of very good. one episode and they can just turn everything around.

[polkablues]

and the wheelchair guy from friday night lights, who i, for some reason, thought was in a wheelchair in real life.

Kevin Rankin!  I love that guy.  Hopefully that's not the one and only time we ever see him, like that one episode where Mac from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was a guard at one of the Dharma stations.

[Fernando]

I love everytime Richard Alpert appears, his scenes are always full of mysteriousness and it feels like pieces of a puzzle start falling in place and at the same time the mystery grows in complexity and more questions arise, agree with bon here, it's better when questions are answered with bigger ones.

Did they sneak a glimpse of the four-toed statue during the previously-on? Was it just coyly edited together so I didn't notice that it was now the actual beginning of the episode? Very tricky. That statue was humongous too. Looked kind of like an Anubis, god of death. I think.

I don't think it was previously shown, that thing looked great.

from lostpedia.
The ankh: The Egyptian hieroglyph is a symbol of eternal life and fertility. Egyptian gods are often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one in each hand, arms crossed over their chest. The giant statue appears to be holding one in each hand. Paul's necklace was also an ankh. Amy takes the ankh from Paul, and successfully gives birth on the Island.

[Chest Rockwell]

I thought this episode was amazing. The statue with the 4 toes finally made another, albeit brief, appearance. The connection between those who stayed and the Dharma Inititive was tidily established. But most of all, I quite loved the end. I had predicted that Sawyer and Juliet would get together, but I didn't expect it to be so well done. His conversation about 3 years being enough to get over someone was incredible. And then that last scene where he just looks at her - perfect! I'm still thinking about it.

[Kal]

I agree with everything said here. This was an unbelievable episode. How amazing is this show? You never know what the hell they are coming up with. As much as we want to believe we see things coming (like Sawyer & Juliet) the circumstances and the way they do things are completely incredible.

Why 2 weeks? Damnit. I can't wait to see what's next.