Season
5, Episodes 1 and 2- “Because You Left” and “The Lie”
Summary:
In
the 1970s, Pierre Chang wakes in the DHARMA barracks to film an orientation
film for the Arrow station. He is brought to the Orchid to examine the pocket
of energy that was discovered, claiming it could allow for time travel – just
as Daniel Faraday appears, posing as a worker. On the mainland in the present,
Jack and Ben make plans to recruit the others to return to the island. Kate is
visited by a man named Dan Norton asking for blood samples from her and Aaron,
and she flees her house. Sun tells Widmore she wants to kill Ben. Sayid takes
Hurley to a safe house, which is infiltrated by thugs. He kills them but is
tranquilized, and Hurley grabs him and escapes. After the island moved, the
survivors find themselves periodically skipping through time. Locke witnesses
Yemi’s Beechcraft crash, and is shot in the leg by Ethan. After another jump,
Richard appears and heals his leg, and tells him he has to bring his friends
back to the island and he will have to die to do it. Before another jump, he
gives Locke a compass, instructing him to give it back to Richard the next time
they meet. Faraday knocks on the Swan station and finds Desmond, telling him to
find Daniel’s mother at Oxford – but he disappears before he can finish. In the
present, Desmond wakes up and tells Penny they are leaving for Oxford.
On
the island, Charlotte is getting headaches and memory loss. Suddenly the
survivors are attacked by flaming arrows, killing many of the people left.
Locke rescues Sawyer and Juliet from what appear to be army soldiers. While
escaping with the unconscious Sayid, Hurley sees a vision of Ana-Lucia who
gives him advice on how to remain inconspicuous. He returns to his parents’
house, and tells his mother the truth of what happened. Mr. Reyes has Jack
treat Sayid, while Kate meets with Sun. Ben hides Locke’s body with an
associate, and comes to recruit Hurley but Hurley turns himself in to the
police to get away from him. Ben links up with Ms. Hawking to gauge how much
time they have left to complete their mission.
Review:
The opening is familiar yet different:
like in season two, we are greeted to an unidentified man going through his
morning routine, playing some old music, and keeping us in the dark about where
or when we are. Only this time he has a family, and the record eventually
screws up and starts skipping – foreshadowing Faraday’s explanation of the
time-jumps as being like a record skipping. But this is Dr. Chang, of course,
and it’s the first time we see him outside of orientation videos, an exciting
surprise for hardcore fans. It was imperative that we begin the season with a
direct reference to time travel to help ease us into it. I do think the
dialogue during this explanation scene is a bit hokey, especially “God help us all.”
They use Faraday to signal to the viewer that our characters are engaging in
time travel, and yet I’m not sure he’s the best choice for that moment. Because
we know so little about his past at this point, you might be forgiven for
possibly thinking Daniel Faraday is either ageless like Richard Alpert, or that
he actually belongs in the 70s and has time-traveled to the 2000s. If it had
been Sawyer, for example, we would know instantly what happened. This is
ultimately quibbling, because this scene ushers in one of the greatest
stretches of episodes in “Lost” history.
The time jumps are a fun twist to the
usual time travel idea. It allows us to hit a number of points on our checklist
and keep the momentum going. In this short span of time we get to see the basic
rules: not everyone jumps; an item you’re holding (or inside of you, like a
bullet) will still be with you in the next timeframe; non-jumpers don’t hear or
see it coming (minus Desmond); any belongings not personally touching you stay
where they are, like the camp. The Desmond twist telegraphs to us that the
fan-favorite character will still be relevant to the plot despite his arc seemingly
having ended. The Oceanic Six story is more tolerable now that we have stopped
trying to fill in the jigsaw puzzle of the past and instead are moving forward
without knowing what our next destination is going to be. That Sayid fight with
the knives in the dishwasher is badass.
It is not until season five, episode two
that the writers finally drop the charade and admit that anyone from the
survivor camp that isn’t a named character is expendable. Thus, we get the
flaming arrow attack that culls the redshirts until we have the meat and
potatoes (and Vincent) left alive to play with. Frogurt’s entire existence is
basically a joke, and yet I can’t help feeling they went just an inch or two
overboard with him, especially considering we didn’t see him at all until this
two-hour premiere (that one mobisode notwithstanding). That’s actually a
beautiful shot of the arrows zooming out from beyond the trees, but there’s one
shot in particular of a redshirt just taking it in the chest which is so
distractingly a “stunt” that it blunts the effect.
Hurley receives one of the only true
spotlight episodes in the first half of the season, and it’s a great showcase
for Jorge Garcia. Hurley debriefing his mother on four seasons worth of
nonsense is a moment that was bound to come sooner or later, and the hot pocket
throw is the stuff memes are made of. The big lift is whether Hurley’s reasons
for wanting to go back make sense. When we think about how terrible he felt at
his friend Johnny learning he won the lottery, and how keeping his
hallucinations bottled up is a drain on his psyche, you can see how he might
want to return to the island to save his friends so he can stop lying about it.
Confessing to the murders seems a bridge to far, however. And the final scene
with Ms. Hawking scribbling on the blackboard in a dark hoodie (why is she
wearing that?) seems unnecessarily mysterious, although a good way to bring her
back into the story.
Connecting the Dots:
The Others seem to be the only
island-dwellers who do not skip in time. Perhaps only candidates skip through
(could all of the redshirts be candidates?). Nothing other than an educated
guess brings me to that conclusion.
The time jumps are due to the wheel
being knocked off its axis, though it’s never really explained how or why it
was off its axis. Ben doesn’t seem to do anything different from what Locke
does in episode five, unless it needed to be turned another 45 degrees or so.
Norton’s client in the paternity case is
Ben, who presumably is trying to box Kate into agreeing to join the Ajira
flight; either by removing the one thing keeping her tethered to society
(Aaron) or by forcing her to admit that it’s Claire who should be raising him.
Carole Littleton also hired Norton, but that is for a separate lawsuit
involving Oceanic.
Ethan not remembering Locke from that
moment where they met in the jungle does not appear to have a proper
explanation other than it was too brief for the memory to take hold – which is
odd, considering how distinctive Locke looks. What’s more odd is if he never
told anyone that a man just disappeared right in front of him.
Richard’s sudden appearance is explained
later as Man in Black (in Locke form) telling him where to be and what to do,
yet another example of MIB retaining memories of people he impersonates.
Ranking:
1.
Because You Left
(9/10) (The time jumps are a ridiculously fun element to add to the show, and
the mainland story is now driving towards something, as opposed to hinting at
something that already happened.)
2.
The Lie (8/10) (A
little more focused on the O6, but has some great Hurley humor.)
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