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Lost returned last night after a five-week break at a new later time with an action-packed (maybe a little too much so) episode. In the words of my Lost-loving friend Karen, Ben and Widmore are playing a giant game of Risk, as they fight their own personal war around the world and throughout time. But more about that and the rest of the "The Shape of Things to Come" after the jump.
Lost returned last night after a five-week break at a new later time with an action-packed (maybe a little too much so) episode. In the words of my Lost-loving friend Karen, Ben and Widmore are playing a giant game of Risk, as they fight their own personal war around the world and throughout time. But more about that and the rest of the "The Shape of Things to Come" after the jump.
Let's talk about pacing for a moment. "The Shape of Things to Come" raced at full speed through the hour last night. It made me remember the last season of the Sopranos, where everybody and everything was shoehorned into the scripts. Last night we got the return of Vincent and Smoky, Claire's fake-out death, a truly shocking murder, a peek at Ben's secret lair, an explanation of why Sayid is Ben's paid assassin, time-travel, and a bunch of other meaningful information. On the one hand, this makes for an exciting episode, vastly superior to snoozers like "The Other Woman," but on the other, couldn't they divide the action up a little more evenly throughout the season? Is this a mark of writers who finally know where they're going and are concerned they don't have enough time to get there — or are they simply trying to deal with a strike-truncated season?
Back to that shocking murder. Poor Alex. To hear your father call your mother "an insane woman," then repudiate his relationship with you seconds before your murder at age 16 is tremendously sad — as is the fact that they have killed off yet another of my favorite female characters. They'd better not harm a hair on Penny's head, but after Ben's hotel room confab with Widmore, that hope is probably in vain.
Of course, Alex's death is the first time we get to see Ben drop the Evil Manipulator mask. He can't believe his eyes when Kearny pulls the trigger, which of course makes it all the more shocking to us (as does its placement shortly after finding out Claire's not dead after all). "They changed the rules," Ben mumbles. Which leads me to think that his nonchalance and bravado in his negotiations with Kearny are due to the fact that he's been in this exact situation before—only it doesn't end in Alex's death. This is a pivotal moment. Now we know why the stakes are so high. Before it was about power and possession, now Ben wants revenge in addition to the island. We get a glimpse of Ben's secret lair (its entrance, anyway), learn that he can summon, if not control, the Smoke Monster, and see him time travel (to 2005 Tunisia, Iraq, and London). All of this hinges on Alex's death.
Finally, Sayid. I know you are grieving for Nadia, but I thought you realized that Ben can't be trusted. He points out Ishmael Bakir, names him Nadia's killer, shows a photo in support of that allegation, and you swallow it hook, line, and sinker? The smile on Ben's face as he walks away after Sayid offers his allegiance is wonderfully evil and creepy—back to his true form after his daughter's death.
A few random comments:
- The Shape of Things to Come is also the title of a novel by H.G. Wells, that takes the form of a history book from the future—but I'm sure you guys already knew that!
- Ben vomits orange liquid when he wakes in the desert. The anti-sickness serum is orange—so if you dose yourself before you time travel, perhaps you don't become unstuck in time.
- He's also wearing a parka with a Dharma insignia we haven't seen before, and the name Halliwax, though later he uses his Dean Moriarty passport.
- It's open season on doctors. Jack is already popping pills and showing signs of a disturbing illness, while the doctor from the freighter floats up dead, his throat slit. (By the way, Kendrick—the fictitious couple Ben tells the London hotel clerk he's on his way to see—is the doctor's name in Audrey Niffenegger's novel, The Time Traveler's Wife.)
- Finally, a question for you. When it comes to great, brain-hurty episodes like this one, I find I need several additional viewings and a supplementary podcast or two, plus visits to some of the websites, to come close to picking up all, or at least more, of the nuances and details. I'll enjoy that, but man, it's a time suck. How much time do you spend on Lost throughout the week?
Comments
I've always hated Ben - the actual character, not what the writers do with him. I think he is a wonderfully written character and is pure awesome when it comes to that, but as a person I hate him. All the manipulation is just horrible.
This episode made me be more sympathetic. Having your daughter murdered in front of you in such a manner is just unbelievable. I honestly can't wish that upon anyone; it just shows that we all have a human side to us. I really like the context that this gives for Ben's killings through Sayid - it's not just the island anymore.
I don't spend much time on Lost. I love the show and will sometimes go to a forum on the show and read up on stuff the night of the episode, but I don't go too in depth. I do talk to my English teacher and the librarian from my school about it on Friday's, though, and we do get into some nice, short discussions; I really like them. I think I'm just too lazy to delve into it on my own.
Ah, a quick question: how exactly is that we know Ben can time travel? I was reinstalling stuff on my PC as I had just reformatted it, so I may have missed that part of the show. I found it odd that he'd be in the middle of a desert like that, but I didn't see any time travel connections.
Coming amidst all of the scifi/time travel lit references that we've been seeing lately, where do you suppose the On the Road Dean Moriarty reference comes from?
@DeadlyRaptor: agreed, might be translocation, but that would classify as timetravel I suppose.
" ... see him [Ben] time travel (to 2005 Tunisia, Iraq, and London)"
Ben wasn't necessary time traveling. He's likely teleporting, which may have some weird time-warping effects, but it's not like he can bounce from 2004 to 2005 and back. And he's certainly not time-traveling between Tunisia, Iraq and London.
A Dharma polar bear was somehow transported to Tunisia (seen in Charlotte's flashback), which evokes what the Orchid video. Ben was wearing Halliwax's coat with a unknown station logo on it. I get the feeling that is not a coincidence.
I thought this was a fantastic episode, and considering I was one of the people who bitched that last season moved too slowly, there is no way in hell I'm gonna complain that this one moved too fast. I was literally on the edge of my couch watching.
So why the heck was Ben wearing a winter parka if he was time traveling to the desert? And what was the cut on his arm? Could he have made a pitstop at the arctic station?
Ben asks the woman what the date is. She says Oct 24th (I think) and he jokingly asks if it's 2005 to which she replies yes. That thar is time travel in my book. But... he might be unsure of the current date if he's traveled far in the desert and lost count of days? Eh, probably not.
i think the cut may somehow come from the polar bear -- they, like ben, aren't known to be very nice.
After being dragged around and hit by people all season, it was nice to see ActionBen! for a change in the flash-forwards.
@IndustrialJones: I thought that was strange. I agree it implies time travel, but there was nothing inherently time-travel-ly about the rest of it.
Or to put it another way, the chronology seemed equally consistent with not being time travel. Unless I missed something.
Judging from his symptoms, I'm betting that Jack doesn't have anything more serious than an appendicitis...
(Well, it's either an appendicitis, or he's passing a kidney stone; I'm guessing the writers would go with the more "exciting" malady -- the one that can kill...)
We know Jack makes it back to the mainland safe and (relatively) sound, so no need to worry too much about him...
I read a theory that has Ben 'unstuck in time' the way Desmond was, but somehow more able to control it.
It starts to make sense if Widmore is his 'constant' and that's why he couldn't kill him.
I love you io9, but if you're looking for a quality recap (not that this is bad, it's ok) check out Doc Jensen's Lost Recaps on ew.com
@girraffesack: Nice. I like that.
@TheKeyMaster: I read recaps at several sites. Agreed that Doc Jensen's columns are really insightful... but I suspect it's easier for him considering he gets advance screeners and is invited to the set. So don't be so harsh on io9.
@92BuickLeSabre:
Wish I could take credit, but I also spend more time than I'd like to admit reading up on what I see each week.
I am not so sure that when Ben stepped into his secret room, he time travelled to Tunisia. However, I am not saying that time travel wasn't involved in his trip to Tunisia. Just that it didn't happen when he and the others were under seige by the Freighties. Follow me a bit:
When Ben appears in the desert, he is wearing a Dharma Initiative parka with an unknown station logo on it. The parka seemingly belongs to a Halliwax. If you remember, the scientist who appears in the station orientation films has gone by the names of Marvin Candle and Mark Wickmund. Last year, they released another orientation film, this one for the Orchid Station. In it, Marvin Candle goes by the name of Edgar Halliwax. In the film we see a bunny that suddenly becomes multiple bunnies and everything seems to be going to hell in a handbasket. So... I'm thinking that the location of the time/teleporation machine is in the Orchid station. Ben (at some future date) goes to the Orchid station to teleport/time travel off the island. Something about how teleportation/time travel using this machine makes things super chilly, so Ben puts on the nearest available parka which happens to belong to Edgar Halliwax. Now, if you watch Ben when he first appears in the desert, it looks like he exhales a breath of cold air. I'll need to rewatch to be certain, but all of this makes me believe that him going into his secret cave was more about the smoke monster than it was about his flash forward. plus, when he shows up in tunisia he's got on totally different clothes and a wound on his right arm.
I'll miss those blue eyes and full lips, but otherwise not a big loss. In fact, I'm glad she's gone so I can feel a little less pervy.
The writers are on the record saying they had to cram much more in this last half of the season.
Yes, Jack has appendicitis, which was clear from the "Next week on Lost" bit (which I guess you don't get if you're watching on ABC.com)
Nadia was killed three blocks from La Brea & Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles. I used to live at such a location, but sadly, I'd already moved by Oct. 24 2005. My guess is she was standing in line for a hot dog at Pink's...
I kinda hope Ben does some damage to Penny, just because maybe she's not as innocent or nice as they've been saying so far. Just like Ben is a maniuplative conniving little dude, but he does seem to be The Good Guy.
Love next week's preview with Rose telling that Annoying English Chick "you need to check your tone, Red.."
I hope Ben fails, and Des and Penny get back together. Desmond is my favourite character, he's already been through so much don't let Ben kill his true love!
"How much time do you spend on Lost throughout the week?"
I just watch the episodes and read more about it here. Got way too much crap to handle to waste too much time on Lost when there are so many many things to waste time on instead.
@Malidictus: Yeah, I said, "Not Penny!" simply b/c poor Des deserves happiness.
I love Rose and Bernard separately or together.
@SpecialK: Or if you deliberately change the channel before the "Next Week On 'Lost'..." promo starts, because you hate "spoilers."
[wink!]
No worries... "Lost" is one of those shows where, if a promo makes it look like something happens, you can be pretty much guaranteed that that thing is NOT going to happen at all...
I loved the Risk allusion, because it suggests that an isolated island can be the key to winning the world...
[exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com]
@extracrispy:He had the name 'Halliwax' (Edgar Halliwax from the Orchid video) on the jacket.
Also, Mr. Halliwax has a prosthetic arm so 'maybe' the cut points to the accident in which he lost his arm. Also, 'maybe' Ben teleported from the Orchid station (since he had that jacket on).
Pretty interesting episode. Smokey going insane was badass. The scene in which Alex got shot was totally shocking. Dunno why it reminded me of the Bonnie getting killed scene from Jericho.
I dont buy the fact that Sayid trusted Ben and emptied his clip on Ishmael Bakir when he confronted Ben. Maybe Sayid has his own agenda which clicked when he heard the name Widmore.
And yes, Ben is fantastic.
We already knew Ben was a badass when he gassed his own dad and everyone else from Dharma but I thought his ninja skills to take down the two horseriders were awesome!! great episode!
[userserve-ak.last.fm]
I spend a lot of time post-airing of ep. Filmfodder, dark ufo, ew, lostpedia....
This was an OK post but needs to be way more in depth.
Why don't you list your sources? I'd be interested
@njudah: Interesting term for him, considering what he did to Juliet.
@njudah: Is she english? I thought she was australian.
Hey! La Brea & Santa Monica is where I catch my bus!
@ChuckEye: FYI: Pink's is down by Melrose.
Oh, and I thought it was cool how Sayid looked up into Ben's camera. Just suddenly knew he was being photographed.
Saw Lyta Alexander do that in Babylon 5 once, I think in the Thirdspace movie.
But, of course, Lyta was a telepath. What's Sayid's excuse?
I'm liking the theory that Ben and Whidmore are engaged in a slightly-more-than metaphorical game of chess.
It would explain why Ben can't kill Charles (the kings are unable to put each other in check), and it would make Ben's reference to Alex being a 'just a pawn' more than just a figure of speech.
@Beyond_the_Zero: Keroac (sp?) also wrote 'The Dharma Bums'. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar....
@Nelsormensch: "And he's certainly not time-traveling between Tunisia, Iraq and London." Oops. That was sloppy writing on my part - I didn't mean to suggest Ben was moving between those places via anything other than approved real-time methods.
That camera was a Nikon D100 with a 80-400mm lens which fits with the 2005 timeline.
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