Last Night on LOST: This Place is Death

by E. Christopher Clark | Friday, February 13, 2009

Okay, so, yeah… Lost was booted from the Geek Force Five this week. But, c’mon! Did you really think I was going to let a week go by without doing a Last Night on Lost column? To quote the cute, innocent Jenny, from the beginning of Forrest Gump (as opposed to the coked-out, naked folk-singer Jenny from later in the film), “Are you stupid or something?”

Well, whether your stupid or not, please come below the fold with me for a look back at this week’s episode of Lost, “This Place is Death”.

Back on Track
What a difference a week makes. Last week’s episode was a dramatic downer after three episodes worth of awesome. This week, we’re right back to super-cool in my opinion. And what’s really interesting to me, to begin with, is who this episode focused on versus who the prior episode focused on.

As far as the early seasons of Lost go, the Kate episodes were among the most intriguing and the Sun and Jin episodes were, for me at least, among the least intriguing. As the series has gone on, however, it seems as if this has flipped entirely. Every time we get a Kate-centric episode now, we kind of wince, don’t we? It’s not that Evangeline is a bad actress, or that Kate is a poorly drawn character. It’s just that the writers don’t seem to know what to do with her anymore. By contrast, the characters of Sun and Jin have grown more and more complex as the show’s worn on, and it seems as if the writers are itching to tell more of their story each time we come round to them.

Aside from focusing on Sun and Jin, the thing that this episode did right that the prior episode did not do right is focus on two major storylines. This is partially just the result of everyone coming back together again, but it’s also the result of much stronger writing. I’m on record as saying that the era of the Uncanny X-Men that I call my favorite is the era when the team was split into numerous 3-4 person factions. So, you might think that episodes like last week’s would appeal to me. But see, here’s the thing: in those old issues of Uncanny, Claremont usually focused on one group of X-Men per issue. Two, at most. He kept things simple. And that’s what the Powers That Be at Lost did this week: they kept it simple, stupid.

All of this leads me to my thoughts on the episode itself. Let’s start with the French storyline, shall we?

The French Connection
Jin picks up on what’s going on pretty fast. At first, I’m kinda wondering about this. But I quickly decide it’s a good choice. A whole episode where Jin wonders what the hell is going on doesn’t sound like a good episode to me. So, he figures out that he’s in a different year, and we move on.

The blonde dude is a jaded, sexist jerk, and the moment I hear the monster I know this dude is toast.

Speaking of the monster, I love how the sound of it is subtle and blended-in at first. I love watching Jin’s face as it starts to dawn on him what’s coming. And then, once the S hits the F, I’m wicked psyched to see the monster trying to drag blondie into one of the Cerberus vents. And is that the temple that he’s being dragged into? It certainly looks kinda like a temple. And Robert talks about the monster being a security system to guard the temple later on, so there’s that.

I love that Jin gets to see the basics of Rousseau’s story play out, but that we don’t spend a whole episode on it. I feel confident that we’ll see young Rousseau again, but I love the decisions that the writers made to get part of this out of the way now, and then to move on and move on quickly.

What’s really great is that these scenes are not only there for those of us in the audience who are interested in the greater mythology of the show. They are also there to reemphasize to Jin what a hellhole this place is, thereby influencing his reaction to John’s mission later on.

Final note: when Rousseau tells Jin, “You disappeared,” this is the first time that we learn for sure exactly how the people not flashing perceive the disappearances of those who are flashing.

The Island Connection
Oh, man. There hasn’t been a great reunion moment in a while. Hearing Sawyer’s voice when he discovers Jin—that was awesome. Of course, hearing Jin’s voice and seeing everyone’s reactions when he asks about Sun—not so awesome.

Seeing Sawyer try to explain time travel to Jin is another great moment. These two have great chemistry—remember the Dharma van episode from a couple seasons back?—and I’m glad to see them get a little more time together.

Best line of the episode: “He’s Korean. I’m from Encino.”

The moment Charlotte says something about a well is the moment I turn to my wife and say, “The island’s going to flash when John’s halfway down that well. Just wait and see.” Yeah, I’m cool. I called it. :-P

Hearing Charlotte admit that she’d been on the island, that her mother had tried to convince her that it wasn’t real, and that a time-traveling Daniel told her never to come back—all of this was heartbreaking. Man, why do characters on Lost have to get their best moments when they’re dying or after they’re dead? I had never been a big fan of Charlotte until this episode. And now she’s frakkin’ dead.

“I’m not allowed to have chocolate before dinner.”—I almost cried. What a great final line, and what an amazing delivery of it.

A few final thoughts on this section:

• Awesome to hear Juliet thank John. I mean, they all think the man is insane, but they all think this whole situation there in is insane. It’s nice to see someone acknowledge that what John is doing might actually save them all.
• Why is John always breaking his frakkin’ legs?
• Is Christian dicking around with John? “I said that you had to move it.” What is the significance of this? Was Ben never supposed to leave? What would have happened to John if he had moved the wheel in the first place? Very, very interesting…

The Oceanic Connection
I love how Ben’s plan falls apart so quickly, and then how Ben falls apart in the car. That man is truly at his wit’s end. He is truly scared that he is going to fail. What has he been doing to protect the Oceanic Six? And what is his ulterior motive? You have to pay very careful attention to this scene, because there are very few places where Ben completely loses his cool, and this is one of them.

Ben is also getting surprised by some things, which is interesting. Watch the way his face changes when Desmond says that he’s looking for Faraday’s mother. I don’t think he knew that Eloise was Faraday’s mother until just now.

“If I see you or him again, it will be extremely unpleasant for all of us.” Sayid’s line doesn’t bode well for his participation in all of this. How are they going to convince the Iraqi to go back? He doesn’t seem to be in the trailer for next week. What happens to Sayid?

The Trailer for Next Week
The trailer for next week felt so much a part of this episode that I feel like I have to say a word or two about it.

Eloise says, “This is how they found the island. Windows provide a route back.”

Hurley says, “You might want to fasten your seatbelt.”

Could it be that they’re going to take a plane to get back to the island, that the Ajira Airlines namedrop from last episode might have something to do with it, and that Jack might have finally found his way back if he’d just kept doing what he was doing with his golden ticket?

What say you, Geek Forcers? How awesome do you think next week’s episode is going to be?

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