I was a diehard fan of Lost then and
now but I'm also a critic. I don't think the first six episodes of Lost are
the weakest stretch of the entire series (I actually think it’s the middle of
Season 2 but I'll save that for a different article) but I'll admit with the
benefit of multiple rewatches over the years I know there are legitimate
problems with those episodes and it's fair to discuss the biggest issues fans
had as well as some that critics might have issues with.
Let's start with the biggest canard: Nikki
and Paulo. If one of the reasons you left Lost in November of 2006 was
because you had issues with two characters who combined had five minutes
of screen time during those six episodes (I've clocked it over the years) then
you were never really a fan of Lost to begin with and you're actually
worse then all those people who hated Buffy because of Riley in Season
4. I don't have much use for those people either but at least those people have
the excuse that Marc Blucas was a cast member for a year and a half and was
vital to the plot.
So Nikki and Paulo weren't the problem with
first six episodes. Here are the real ones:
The flashbacks are now almost entirely
diminishing returns. They
will improve in many cases when the show resumed in February of 2007 with a few
glaring exceptions but there's no question there's almost no reward with them
in the first six episodes. We've gone to
the well of both Jack's father and his marriage to many times by this point ('A
Tale of Two Cities') Kate's flashback really doesn't give us any pertinent
about her character then or now (I Do) and the most pertinent part of Sawyer's prison
flashback won't even pay off related to Sawyer. (Every Man For
Himself.) Locke's flashback in 'Further
Instructions' is somewhat better but it ends on an anticlimactic note (the
final scene was cut for broadcast) and while Eko's flashback in 'The Cost of
Living' is a great one, it's immediately undercut by the fact he dies on the
island in the present minutes later.
Only Sun and Jin's flashback in 'The Glass
Ballerina' is completely rewarding from beginning to end because it tells us
much more about Sun's backstory and the real damage it was doing to both of
them in their marriage. What's more it's pertinent to the on-island storyline
in a way none of the others are because of Sun's pregnancy and will actually
have relevance later in the season.
There are problems with Jack, Kate and
Sawyer that have nothing to do with the love triangle.
Much as I'm a fan of Lost I know
that as with any show there are periods where the writers hit a wall with many
of their characters. This is especially true with Lost, where many
characters have arcs or even entire seasons where the writers clearly lose what
inspiration they had for them in the first place. It doesn't help when the
writers seem to come up with potential arcs for them during one point of the
show and then abandon it either during the season or in future ones.
Jack's weakest stretch starts after the
Others take Michael in Season 2. There's a potential story about training an
army with Ana Lucia that never goes anywhere and he spends most of the season
at war with Locke which becomes just as draining. Matthew Fox takes a lot of
hate from the fanbase because of how Jack is both self-righteous and stubborn
and we see him at his nadir during the second half of the season.
Sawyer's problem is that the writers,
having done much to redeem his character in the first half of Season 2, decide
to arbitrarily turn him into a villain when he returns to the camp. There's no
reason for him to steal the guns other then the plot demands and considering
that by the end of the season he basically just gives them back you can see the
gears of the story grinding.
Kate's only problem is that during the
second half of Season 2 she becomes less pertinent to the story to the new
arrivals, first the Tailies and then Henry Gale. That's true for many
characters in Season 2 and Kate honestly isn't the one who suffers the most.
But just as with Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly's performance
has diminishing returns.
In theory having a story where the three of
them are at the center of the action would seem like a great way to reset all
three characters. The real problem is it becomes clear as early as The Glass
Ballerina that when the Others forced Michael to bring the three of them to the
ferry, the only one they wanted was Jack. They took Kate for the sole purpose
of keeping Jack under control and they took Sawyer to do the same to Kate. In
other words (heh heh) the writers are forcing the Others to use the love triangle
for their own means and that's not a good sign for any of the characters.
Even this would work better if the show was
less subtle about it. But during these six episodes Jack is essentially
isolated from Kate and Sawyer and doesn't know where they are. Jack has more
contact with Juliet and Ben during this period then Kate and Sawyer, who are
essentially delegated down the food chain. One wonders if Danny Pickett is
angry all the time, not so much because its his nature but because he knows
he's been relegated to the B-Plot.
And its clear the writers, having figured
out this much, now have to come up something to do with one leg of the
triangle. And their answer is – to put them on a chain gang with some Others
breaking rocks and hauling them away for reasons that aren't explained to them
and it's very likely none of the Others themselves know. They've basically
given Kate and Sawyer busy work for the first six episodes and if that isn't a metaphor for Lost as a whole
at this point, I don't know what is.
So when you combine both their well below
average flashbacks and the fact that the writers have no idea how to handle the
characters after putting them in this situation then the reality is that none
of the three actors have anything to work with and Fox, Lilly and Holloway are
forced to play notes they basically didn't play for much of Season 2 and that
are essentially labored. The writers
will get a handle on them when the show resumes in February though it will take
a varying amount of time for all three to get there. But it's clearly a slog
for the actors as much as the viewers and I get why people would be frustrated
with it.
The Others machinations are starting to
just seem ridiculous at this point.
In Back to the Island Emily St. James says in a future Season 3
episode: "At their most opaque the Others felt not like human beings but
like enemies in a video game" and she has a point. Throughout the first
two seasons The Others seem to be able to come out of nowhere, have superhuman
strength and wear dirty clothes and disguises, all the while saying portentous
things in which its clear they view survivors of a plain crash who are foraging
for food and water as the real enemy. It's clear from the teaser of Season 3
that we're finally going to see what The Others are really like…
…except in those first six episodes they're
just as maddening as ever. To be clear many of the characters we meet as well
as getting a glimpse of their hierarchy is rewarding (and when I get to what
works about these episode I'll focus on it). The problem is after spending two
seasons only appearing in the jungle just to screw with the heads of the
survivors they seems to have kidnapped Jack, Kate and Sawyer…just to screw with
their heads. A viewer could ask almost
bemusedly if the only reason they took them was so they'd have less of a
commute. (And when you find out the answer is no, you really wonder
what's going on. I'll get to that.)
It's not just the polar bear cages and the
mystery with the fish biscuit. Honestly that's mild compared to some of the
crap they're pulling. Taking Kate to breakfast and giving her a dress,
apparently just so Ben can introduce himself to her. Keeping another Other in a
polar bear cage and after he helps Sawyer escape, forcing him to apologize
before taking him somewhere else. Watching Sawyer and Kate make an elaborate
escape plan and give us hope, only to show that there are cameras recording
every moment that somehow Kate and Sawyer have missed even though they'll be
apparent in later episodes because the writers need them to be there. And don't
get me started on that whole act where Ben tries to lie to Sawyer and tell him
they've put a pacemaker in his chest that he'll make his heart explode. Even
some of the Others can't understand why Ben puts Sawyer do this.
By the time they reveal – "we've been
on a smaller island all this time!" – you're really beginning to wonder if
the only reason the Others went along with harassing the Losties in the first
place was because every time Ben had Game Night he put them through these
things. (Hey, we've already seen them have Book Club and we'll find they have a
game room later, so I'm not talking out of school.) I almost wonder if by the
time we reach the winter finale Sawyer doesn't want to get out of his cage is a
metaphor for where the show is right now. "If I leave the Others are going
to tell me one of my sandwiches has poisoned meat in it and I have to choose
with a gun to my head.)
Matthew Fox honestly does get more
rewarding things, mainly because he doesn't have to deal with this nonsense. It
helps matters that the writers are partnering him with Elizabeth Mitchell's
Juliet or Michael Emerson in every scene he's in and considering how brilliant
the two are almost immediately he at least something to sink his teeth
into. The problem comes when we finally
realize why they've taken Jack in the first place:
Can't the Others just say 'please?" Eventually it becomes clear why Jack was
kidnapped. Ben has a cancerous tumor on his spine that is borderline inoperable
and he happens to be a spinal surgeon. He'll later reveal "Two days after
I learned I had a tumor on my spine; a spinal surgeon falls from the sky."
The problem is by the time Ben tells Jack
this, he's already gotten trapped in a net, spent a week in the Swan pretending
to be Henry Gale, had his lie uncovered, continued to manipulate everybody, got
busted out, manipulated Michael into kidnapping Jack, Sawyer and Kate, took
them to an entire different island and has spent the last few days manipulating
all three all without telling anybody why. And as we all know Jack only finds
out when he's called in by Juliet to operate on a dying Colleen and in the aftermath
finds the X-rays of a 40 year old male. He figures out what's going on and Ben
still deflects. (I'll get to this later because I'm dealing with the low points
now.)
In 'The Cost of Living' Ben tells Jack casually: "We had such a
good plan. To break you." After not explaining (he is Ben after all) Jack
asks incredulously: "You want me to save your life?" Ben answers:
"I want you to want to save my life." Considering everything
he's already put Jack and his friends through (and no spoiler he hasn't even
gotten started yet) you can't blame Jack for being so doubtful.
In the Any Questions section for
this episode Nikki Stafford, who so often spoken for the fan base, asks:
"Why are they going through with this? What's with this entire game when
his tumor was so severe?" It's a more then pertinent question and one that
Ben never answers. Like so many other parts of Lost the writers do
answer it indirectly and in such a way that many fans could miss the
implication. (Because it's not relevant to these six episodes I won't state it
here.)
It's just as possible the writers haven't
yet figured out Ben's place in the totem pole of the island hierarchy. Its
clear Ben is the leader of The Others but the writers haven't figured out what
that means in the context of Lost. We definitely know by the time the
final six episodes end that whatever position Ben holds he isn't exactly
popular with the rank and file.
That actually leads me to the other big
flaw. During this episode Juliet says she's there to show Jack a movie and
shows a tape telling Jack that "Some of us want a change" basically
telling him to kill Ben during his complicated surgery. The problem is even
before the winter break its very clear that isn't the truth: when he knicks
Ben's kidney in the OR, then punches out an Other everybody – including Juliet
– is shocked by what he's done and everybody acts as if killing Ben is the
worst thing possible. Juliet will later
be punished for her actions as a result of this, which makes this entire bit
irrelevant to the story.
The writers focus so much on Hydra Island they
ignore most of the regular characters.
This is actually a pattern that will hold
through the first half of Season Three for many characters and never pay off
for some. Sun and Jin are the focus of
The Glass Ballerina and then both essentially disappear from the action until
the season is basically halfway over. Hurley gets very little to do for the
first three episodes and he seems to have forgotten that Libby, his potential
girlfriend, was killed by Michael even though it just happened four days ago. Sayid
and Claire are similarly ignored and while Claire becomes more pertinent in the
second half Sayid, who has been vital to the plot for the first two seasons is
given really nothing to work with in Season 3. (Naveen Andrews would express
his frustrations with the show during this period.) And Bernard and Rose, the
two most important recurring characters who aren't regulars, are basically
forgotten until the final two episodes of this season. (And when they both show
up, most fans were sure it meant they were going to die.)
The writers will realize this problem and
learn from it in future seasons but it is understandable why, in addition to
spend so much time with a sagging storyline, is leaving behind characters we've
grown to care about. Throw in the fact that Eko is killed, effectively killing
all of the Tailies who were regulars last season and the writers did seem to be
failing with their two new characters and I could understand why so many people
lost patience. It's one thing not to take your time with the mysteries but to
put so many characters on the backburner for it, it was frustrating as hell
even for those of us who stuck with it.
So in conclusion I can see why so many
die-hards who stuck through the show through two seasons might not have wanting
to 'Go Baack!' (sorry) after I Do came to an end in November 2006.
Now having stated all that, in my next
article I'll explain the reasons even this six episodes had some genuine
rewards that made it worth it for some of us.
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