Season
3, Episodes 9 and 10- “Stranger in a Strange Land” and “Tricia Tanaka is Dead”
Summary:
Flashbacks
show Jack in Thailand, forming a relationship with tattoo artist Achara, to the
chagrin of her brother. The Others investigate Jack’s and Juliet’s actions, and
Jack sees Cindy and Zack and Emma have integrated into their society. He
requests Juliet be spared for her murder of Pickett. The group then sails away
from Hydra Island. Kate, Sawyer, and Karl camp on the main island for the night
and debate going back for Jack.
Years
after leaving, Hurley’s dad returns home after he finds out about the lottery
win. He tries to shake Hurley’s superstitions about the numbers and reconnect,
but Hurley is ambivalent. Kate and
Sawyer return to camp. Hurley finds an old DHARMA van in the jungle and
recruits Charlie, Jin, and Sawyer to help fix it. Jin starts learning English
and Charlie tries to distract himself from his death-sentence. Kate, Locke, and
Sayid find Danielle and set out to rescue Jack and Alex.
Review:
We have arrived. The
episode-that-shall-not-be-named. Is it as bad as everyone says it is? Well,
maybe not. Certainly the original promotion for it (which said we would get the
answers to three of the show’s biggest mysteries) really shot it in the foot.
One of those questions was Jack’s tattoo (not a mystery, and not important),
and the other two were apparently about the fates of Cindy and the children,
whom we already knew were with the Others and about the only new thing we
learned was that they’re safe and actually not all that bummed about it. So
that right there kinda sucked. We have Bai Ling as Achara, who is cited as a
terrible casting choice but it’s less terrible and more like forgettable. She
utters the line that every “Lost” fan despises: “Then stop asking questions”.
To further add insult to injury, it is yet another Hydra-centric outing – which
I guess it not technically true since Kate, Sawyer, and Karl are on the main
island – which I have already established are not especially fun. So is it bad?
Yes. But I think I like “I Do” and a couple earlier ones even less.
There’s a little nugget that can be
mined here though. Juliet is branded by the Others, thus giving her a “tattoo”
of her own, and it sets up for her double-agent plotline down the road, making
it easier for us to accept her as an outcast. And although we make fun of the
Cindy, Zack, and Emma part for trying to be passed off as an “answer”, it’s
still interesting to see them integrated as opposed to being prisoners.
Elsewhere, Karl is a bit of a dodo, so his love story with Alex doesn’t really
land.
“Tricia Tanaka is Dead” is the funniest
episode of the show, and I don’t think it’s close. It starts off creepy enough
(Hurley finding a decayed corpse in a van), but the combination of Hurley,
Sawyer, Charlie, and Jin – with Vincent and “Skeletor” thrown in for good
measure – working on a menial task is a comedy goldmine. Sawyer’s nickname game
is on-point, Jin attempts to learn English, and there is a subtle current of
emotion running through it as Charlie silently struggles with Desmond’s warning
for him. The stakes are low, so we can relax and have fun. There was no chance
that Hurley and Charlie were going to die in a van crash, but surviving it still
meant something for both of them: Hurley for believing he can break his bad
curse, and Charlie for not having the fear of death looming over him at every
second. After the dour outings on Hydra Island, it’s nice enter a new phase of
the story with some laughs.
It’s also a rare season three flashback
that is actually interesting. Cheech Marin did not initially seem like he belonged
on “Lost” but he instead makes Mr. Reyes one of the most realized off-island
characters. Hurley’s theoretical curse evolves; no longer a series of
distressing things happening, he now has to reconcile the (alleged) fact that
his father only came home because of the money. Karnoff, the fake fortune
teller, might be a parallel to Richard Malkin, who played up his ruse as a
mystical individual for a bit longer than she did, and a commentary about how
many of the seemingly fantastical things that happen on the show are a little
more purposely constructed than originally thought. The coda at the very end of
Team Rescue Jack’s formation doesn’t really jive with the rest of the
easy-going hour, and using Eko’s stick carving as a plot device is pretty lazy.
But hey, it leads to good things.
Connecting the Dots:
Isabel, the sheriff, was confirmed by
Lindelof to be dead as of the end of season three, possibly by the tent raid.
Good riddance, I say.
“He walks amongst us, but he is not one
of us” could, amazingly, be construed as foreshadowing to the Man in Black
impersonating Locke.
The corpse of “Roger” found in the van
is none other than Ben’s father, having been murdered by his son during the
Purge.
Ranking:
1.
Tricia Tanaka is
Dead (9/10) (The funniest episode of the show. If it had a deep emotional
moment or a significant plot revelation it would probably be a 10.)
2.
The Cost of
Living (8.5/10)
3.
Flashes Before
Your Eyes (8.5/10)
4.
Not in Portland
(7/10)
5.
Further
Instructions (7/10)
6.
The Glass
Ballerina (7/10)
7.
Every Man for
Himself (6.5/10)
8.
A Tale of Two
Cities (6.5/10)
9.
Stranger in a
Strange Land (4.5/10) (Pointless all-around. The false advertising didn’t help
things either.)
10. I Do (4/10)
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