Thursday, March 6, 2008

Episode 3: Walkabout

Episode three is titled "Walkabout" and it begins with Locke admiring his gold toe socks after the plane crash. Let me be the first to say that gold toes are great, high quality socks, and if I found myself stranded on an island, I would be very grateful to discover that I wore durable socks. Flash forward to night time and Locke is probably pissed he found that dog cause now it won't shut up. What is it girl? or Boy... Vincent? Oh there's something in whatever remains of the plane. Let's all go look. Nevermind the monsters and bears that live here. Turns out it's just some boars though. Locke is understandably excited. He used to have some bet boars. That is actually a typo, but now that I see it, I like to think that he kept some boars that he liked to place bets on for races and what have you.

King Jack decrees that the bodies must be burned before more animals or frankensteins come looking for a free meal. There's some argument but the pharaoh has spoken. The bodies will be burned next evening and perhaps the gigantic fire will attract some attention. They all start playing the collect firewood game the next morning. The Iraqi, whose name I swear I will try to figure out this episode, is trying to figure out where the french transmission is coming from.

Walt wants to hang out with Locke and see what he has in his mysterious silver suitcase but Michael for some reason still doesn't trust Locke. "At least he talks to me!" Walt's words burn into Michael's soul like acid. He appropriately responds by not talking to his son. Sad day, though, all the food has been eaten, most of it by that fat guy and his pregnant friend. They're both eating for two. Locke's suitcase turns out to be full of knives...? He may be creepy as hell, but at least he's useful. He makes a plan to go hunt some of those boars.

Flashback.

Locke gets a phone call from some guy that calls him "Colonel Locke" and they make some plans to rendezvous or something right before Locke's punk ass supervisor chews him out for taking personal calls at work.

Flash forward.

Kate, Locke and Michael are going off to hunt some boar, but Kate has some other plans. She's going to plant a triangulator... thing... for that Iraqi guy. Michael convinces the asian lady to watch Walt. The pregnant girl asks Jack to give a eulogy for the people in the plant but Jack is not a religious man. Also he is terrified of public speaking, and monsters. The annoying kid notices that the nice black lady has been sitting alone the whole time and talks to his sister about cheering her up. "What's a four letter word for I don't care?" She quips. Oh she's a quick one. Then she makes some plans to catch some fish so that she doesn't go hungry. Finally, someone realizes that there's a ocean of opportunity all around them. Literally. An ocean of opportunity. You just got Pulitzered.

Annoying girl recruits Charlie Pace to do some fishing for her. Oh Charlie Pace, you lovable sap.

The castaways are making some good use of a totally random wheelchair they found to collect firewood. The annoying kid makes Jack go cheer up the nice black lady, probably due to the fact that he comes from a WASPy family, and he himself is quite afraid of all black people. Jack tries to talk to her, but she's not having any of it.

The hunt is going... boring. They're just kind of walking around. Talking about Walt, what they were doing in Australia, what their favorite YES albums are... normal small talk. Oh but shhh. Lock finds a tree and points at it for a while. No one knows why. He tells Michael to... steal second, I presume, and then a Pumba comes out and rams Michael. They lay on the ground for a while and Locke once again is thankful for those goldtoes.

Flashback. Locke's not a real colonel! He's simply an Axis and Allies enthusiast. At least he's not a dick, like his boss, who makes fun of him for wanting to go on a "walkabout" journey through the australian outback. Oh. I get it. Walkabout. Anyways, his boss makes fun of him some more, and Locke talks about how this walkabout is his destiny.

Flash Forward. Locke wakes up from a pleasant nap to discover that Michael's leg is all boared up and shit. Whoops. Good luck with that, buddy. Locke's off to hunt some boar. He reassures them that he's fine and that he can do this, but I think he's missing the point that Michael can no longer walk and Kate weights about 115 pounds. Also, the monsters.

Fat guy and Charlie pace are trying to learn how to spear fish, but clearly neither of them is familiar with Snell's Law. I can't resist an opportunity to lay some Snell's Law on you. Don't give up guys. There's a learning curve for these things. A learning curve with a particularly steep upside that hopefully you can ascend before you all die of hunger.

Nice black lady finally opens up to Jack. Her husband's hands swell up in the air so he left the ring of power with her on a necklace. She tells him he's nice and he talks about being a doctor. Each of them is equally bored by the other as I am by this scene.

Flashback. This actually makes me sad because I kind of like Locke, but apparently he has some relationship with a girl on what I assume is a phone sex line. He bought her a ticket to go with him on his walkabout, but she's not allowed to meet customers. She shoots him down and he gets very sad. Poor guy. He just needs a friend.

Flash forward. Kate's carrying a limping Michael back to camp but they have to take a quick stop so she can climb a tree and put the transciever booster all up in there. She climbs like a damn monkey, that girl. Oh, but scary, that tree knocking over monster is out again. Either that or Locke is just stabbing some trees. Speaking of Locke, while he's hunting boar, he runs into the monster, though, you can't really see it, actually. It might just be a very tall camera man.

Kate and Michael make it back to camp okay. Walt seems concerned but worry not. It is but a scratch. A scratch! If you ask for him tomorrow, you probably will not find him a grave man. There's some general worry about getting food and if Locke is alive. Charlie Pace saves the day again! He caught a fish and then discovers that that bitch just played him like a fiddle. It stings, I'm sure.

The nice black lady's name is Rose. Nice. Check that one off the list. Anyways, she's not convinced that her husband is dead. Jack tries to talk some sense into her and tells her that everyone in the tail section of the plane is dead. "They're probably thinking the same thing about us."
"Dead people don't think, Rose." Replied Jack as he walked away.
Jack then sees a strange man in a suit walk into the forest. Spooky.

I guess that transciever that Kate was entrusted with broke when she dropped it out the tree. The Iraqi is a little pissed and says a few select phrases about why they do not entrust women with transcievers in his country. Jack walks over to reassure her, but then sees that suit guy again. He runs over to the forest only to discover Locke. Covered in blood.
"I couldn't find any boar, so I just killed this guy in a suit!"

But forget about dinner because, oh boy! It's plane burning time! The pregnant girl gives the worst eulogy ever, making it clear who the real boar is on the island. Charlie Pace runs off to either reapply his adhesive denture power or to do some heroin. They never really say. Jack gets some "me" time, and Flashback!

Locke isn't allowed to go on the walkabout because holy balls! He's wheelchair bound! Turns out his socks are not only comfortable, fashionable and affordable. They're also magic. Goldtoe: Enlighten your feet.

Flash forward. Locke gives a smirk to his old wheelchair.
"May you help a crippled man in hell, old friend," he mutters as the screen fades to a fiery black.

Lost.

P.S. That Iraqi's name is Sayid.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Lost Season 1, Episode 2: Tabula Rasa

Previously on Lost... Episode 1 happened.

Episode two is titled "Tabula Rasa" which is Latin for "Episode Two". Our dear friend the US Marshall doesn't waste any time showing Jack some hot mug shots of Kate. Jack writes it off to the ramblings of a crazy person.

Meanwhile, the hike is not going well.

While sitting around a campfire, the Iraqi recreates their flight and ensuing crash on the island with a rock (the island) and a stick which is on fire (as the plane) which, I'm sure, was a little too symbolic for the rest of the castaways. They realize that there is probably no hope because of that French transmission that had been playing for the past 16 years. It's unanimous though, they're going to lie to everyone and tell them that there is, indeed, hope.

Back at camp, Jack and the fat guy talk about how the US Marshall is probably going to die right in front of the poor guy. Fat guy finds the hot mug shot and has one of his trademark freak outs in which he mutters "uh, dude?" a lot. Thus sets up the plot of Episode 2. For those of you just joining us here's a bulleted list

-There's no hope.
-Jack and fat guy now know that Kate once had a mug shot taken of her.

There's some tension about the gun back at camp. They agree to let Kate hold onto it, being the least threatening of the bunch. Oh Sweet Irony! But it's flashback time. Kate is sleeping in a barn with some pigs, like an animal, when an old Australian man finds her. She's quite mysterious, Canadian, and a strong walker, apparently. As for the old man, he has "a hell of a mortgage", a farm he can't take care of and a missing arm. I didn't catch that he was missing an arm the first time I watched this, and thus missed a lot of great arm pun opportunities and also was a little freaked out when his arm comes off later in the episode. Kate decides to lend him a hand in exchange for a place to stay.

The hikers return to camp and flat out lie to everyone. "Oh it's totally cool. Give me your batteries and I'll make the transceiver so awesome." Kate can't keep a goddamn secret, though, and blabs to Jack first chance she gets. She obviously doesn't believe that Jack deserves hope. Jack could give a shit, though, he wants to know what's up with the mug shot. She probably committed credit fraud or something, who cares? Get over it, man. Well, turns out he does get over it. Fat guy, on the other hand, doesn't. He wants to let US Marshall handle it when he gets better but they need some stronger antibiotics. That means it's time for everyone's favorite past time: grave robbing. Jack heads into the plane and runs into that jerk. They commiserate and share tips on robbing the dead. It looks like the robbing went better for asshole than it did for Jack. Then again, porn and cigarettes are more common on an airplane than tetracycline.

As for the rest of our buddies...
The asian guy sends his wife off to get herself cleaned up, Charlie Pace flirts with the pregnant girl, and the cowardly fat guy and Kate have an awkward moment. He notices that she now has a gun and totally freaks out and calls her "dude" a few times.

It starts to rain and everyone runs around setting up tarps and bottles to collect it so that they can have water. Kate checks up on her old friend the Marshall just in time for a flashback!

Kate's making a withdrawal from her bean can bank. The old Australian man apparently pays her $10 a month. Judging by the bills she pulls out. They have a heartwarming exchange and he offers to drive her to the train in the morning instead of her having to walk all night.

Flash forward, the US Marshall starts choking Kate with the very last of his strength, but Jack saves her. Marshall's not doing so hot these days. He needs water and luckily it's pouring out so Jack just drags him out of the tent into the rain and tells him to open his mouth. For a group of people literally surrounded by an ocean, they sure worry about water a lot. It sounds like the end is near for Mr. Marshall, but not soon enough judging by the sounds coming out of him and Kate suggests putting him out of his misery. That's when Jack decided to drop the Mug shot bomb. Harsh.

Flashback!

In the car with ol' one arm who we find out is the only other person on Earth besides me who still listens to Patsy Cline. All of a sudden a younger, healthier, shrapnel free Marshall is driving behind them in a pickup. That fucking dirt farmer sold Kate out. In his defense, he does have one hell of a mortgage.

Flash forward.

Michael and his kid have a little talk about the kid hanging out with Mr. Locke. Michael is worried about his son and being trapped on a desert Island but all the kid cares about is where his dog is. First off, I thought that Vincent was a person up until this point (it's the dog's name). Second, what airline lets you bring big dogs on the damn plane? Third, did the dog have a seatbelt on? Michael goes to look for the mutt in the forest. You know. Where the monster is. He thinks he's being chased by the monster and totally freaks out only to run in on the asian lady bathing. So much better than a monster.

Charlie Pace tries to make friends with Locke. Stick to women, Charlie Pace.

The Iraqi and Jack have a heart to heart. Jack tells him that he's trying to save the guy's life and the Iraqi lets Jack in on a little rumor going around. Mean whilst, Kate and that jerkface build a bonfire and talk about mercy killings and have a few laughs. They talk about the poetic justice involved in using the last bullet to kill the guy. I'd be more worried about polar bears. In fact, I'm always worried about polar bears. Those things are mean! The Marshall uses his last remaining moments on this Earth to badmouth Kate a little more to Jack.

Flashback again!

Kate crashes the truck in a desperate attempt to get away from Marshall, or just to stick it to her farmer friend. She may be going to jail, but she'll die before she lets him have a working truck. After the crash she cools off a bit and decides to drag the guy out of his now burning vehicle. I guess she's not so bad after all. Poor choice, though, cause the Marshall catches up to her.

Flash Forward.

We find out that right before the crash Kate asked Marshall for a favor. Turns out she wanted to make sure the farmer got his money. He did, after all, have one hell of a mortgage. This now makes me wonder if that guy ever DID get his money. Does it still count if she's pronounced dead a week after her plane goes missing over the pacific ocean?

The end of the episode is just a big downer. The asshole tries to mercy kill the Marshall (surprise it's not Kate, also it's at the request of the Marshall) but turns out he's an idiot and shoots him in the chest. You always have to put one in the head, jerk. Shooting a man in the lung does not making dyeing less painful. Jack has to clean up everyone else's mess again and presumably chokes the guy to death. Everyone feels real bad, especially the Marshall, and that's the end for him.

In the morning, Mr. Locke starts blowing into a dog whistle he made only to see eight angry polar bears run out of the forest. No, I'm just kidding, he uses the whistle to find Vincent, who I will remind you is actually a dog. He lets Michael take the credit for finding the dog, being the good natured man that he is. The kid, Walt, is happy. The dog, Vincent, looks pissed. Probably because he was free to run around the island for a glorious day and now he's stuck on a leash again. Last time he'll run toward a mysterious high pitched noise.

Jack decides that Kate deserves a second chance for on this island he is judge, jury and executioner, and his word is law. Lets hope he's also a good monster killer.

This episode earns an orange frown for being generally depressing except for the upbeat musical montage at the end where you find out that the asian guy loves his wife, the annoying kid fixes his sisters sunglasses, Charlie Pace draws on his fingers some more, the iraqi gives the asshole a fruit, and Vincent who is a dog is reunited with Walt who is a kid, and Walt has renewed respect for Mercutio... I mean Michael.

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Lost.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Lost Season 1: Pilot Episode

The pilot episode begins with a well dressed man waking up in an unkempt field or yard full of bamboo and overgrown plants.  This man has either been a part of some catastrophe or just woke up from a month long bender in which he neglected to mow the lawn.  Our spiffed up swashbuckler slowly regains consciousness and checks himself for injuries, finding some apparent discomfort in his ribular region.  Being the brave Adonis that he is, he immediately forgets all injuries and goes for a top speed sprint through the bamboo forest, I assume because he likes to work out in the morning or because he was still a little drunk and thought he was trapped in House of Flying Daggers.  At this point, I think we can all agree that he is Lost.

Our hero emerges from the bamboo forest to discover there has been an accident of some sort.  A plane crash, judging from the giant jet engine that is somehow still running in the background.  As you might imagine there are a number of injured, pregnant, and obese people lying about.  Luckily, Suity McBriskjog is, amongst other things, a doctor and he sets to work saving lives.  He uses his med school training to pull a man out from under the still active jet engine, checks up on a pregnant woman, finds her a fat friend, and makes a conscious effort to not do anything to help a guy with a piece of shrapnel in his abdomen.  Meanwhilst, hold on to your hat... or your entire body because some gravitationally challenged man gets sucked into the jet engine.  An explosion ensues, and we, the viewers, are left to assume that he is one of the lucky ones.

Through a series of conversations, we discover that our favorite spiffy savior is, sadly, named Jack.  He finds a "lifeguard" giving some sloppy CPR to an unconscious black woman.  Jack chastises him for not being a doctor and also for blowing a bunch of air into the woman's stomach.  He performs some doctor grade CPR on her for a few seconds until she wakes up and exclaims, "Oh thank God!  I was fine until that young man started blowing a bunch of air into my stomach." Jack then sends the kid on the pointless mission of finding as many different colored pens as possible. That is not even a joke.

Throughout all of this, we start to meet some of the other friends we'll be stuck with for an indeterminable amount of time:  The fat guy, the asians, the bald guy, the Iraqi, the black guy, the black kid, the best character on the show, some asshole, a couple of annoying kids, the girl who will obviously fall for Jack later, Shrapnel belly, and old black lady...  Exactly the kind of cultural cross section you'd expect to meet in the coach section of a commercial airliner.  It should be noted that this is the point where most of them start to wish they had watched more Survivor.  Damn you CBS.

Seeing that the situation was as under control as possible, Jack decided to steal away to a private beach to examine his own wounds.  Turns out he had a pretty nasty gash taken out of his back.  Luckily he had some stitching supplies and a lot of booze, which was sadly wasted on disinfecting his wounds.  Kate, the aforementioned probable love interest, swings by to check up on Jack.  He asks her, "Hey, do you know how to use a needle and thread?  Ever... patch up a pair of jeans or something?"
"I made the drapes in my apartment," She responds.
"I didn't ask what you did with your old prom dress.  I want to know if you can stitch up my back."

Well, needless to say, she obliges and Jack reminisces about a time he exploded some poor girl's spinal sack and nerves poured out like a broken faucet and then teaches Kate how to count to five.  He's an old fashioned romantic.

We witness some sibling bickering, there's 5 or 6 "That's what she said" joke opportunities every time the best character on the show is onscreen (who shall henceforth be know as Charlie Pace), the asians seclude themselves from the rest of the group and start making sushi, and the pregnant girl makes friends with a man who looks like he could be pregnant.  She says that she hasn't felt the baby move since the crash, which is sad. More so for the baby, but also for her and the hungry fat man who may have been planning on eating it. Eventually.

Oh, but wait, FLAHSBACK!  Jack's on the plane, looking to get his drunk on, but that bitch stewardess totally ripped him off on a weak ass drink.  She comes around after he makes some thinly veiled insults toward her bar-tending skills.  She slips him about 90 tiny plane crash proof bottles of vodka which will be quite useful as disinfectants or booze after the ensuing plane crash.  Jack makes some small talk with a friendly black woman sitting next to him when the plane hits some turbulance.  At this point, Jack flat out lies to her and tells her that it's "normal" and everything is "fine".  Then there's that crash I mentioned earlier. Flash present!

Jack has sat idle for too long.  It's time to go find the other half of the plane and hopefully a transceiver.  Kate decides to go along because... what the hell, why not.  Jack decides she's going to need some better shoes if she's going on the hike so she just flat out steals them from a dead guy. Also joining them is Charlie Pace, declaring, "And so we shall be the fellowship of the transceiver."

Oh also, something starts knocking over a bunch of trees and an ominous rainstorm hits the island.  Spooky. Jack, Kate, and Charlie Pace set out to find the plane cabin.  We find out that Charlie Pace is/was the bassist for a mildly successful rock band and then Jack and Kate go about ignoring him for the rest of the trip to the plane.  They somehow find it in the middle of the jungle and climb up to the cockpit.  Charlie Pace seems to disappear, a zombie falls out of the cockpit door, and then they start looking for the transceiver.
Kate: What does it look like?
Jack: Well, it kind of looks like a transmitter and a
reciever all built into one unit.
Kate: I don't know what either of those things look like.
Jack: Well then we're in trouble because I'm still a little drunk.

But lo and behold, the pilot is still alive, and it's that delightful mind-reader guy from Heroes!  I'll bet he's pretty busy, being on two shows and all... oh.  No.  Nevermind.  He gets his skin ripped off by a monster or a dinosaur or a frankenstein or something.  You can't really see it.  Seems kind of silly to name the episode after a character who gets killed four minutes after they introduce him. Anyways, better luck on Heroes.  Charlie Pace?  Oh. He's just in the bathroom.  Getting sick?  Naturally.   Before the pilot died he did manage to let everyone know that he effed up bad and they're like 1000 miles off course. Long story short, no one's coming. Time to make a run for it from the frankenstein though.

When running from a mysterious predator, always remember that you don't have to run fast.  You just have to run faster than Charlie Pace.  It should be noted that Charlie Pace is not a strong runner or avoider of coil like plants.  That being said, Charlie Pace goes down in the mud.  Jack, being the bleeding heart liberal that he is, decides to go back to help out, leaving Kate all by her lonesome to hide behind a stick of bamboo, cry, and count to five.  Then suddenly, who should find her but Charlie Pace himself.  She knocks him over and falls on him in the confusion only to discover that now Jack is missing!
"I'm going to go find him," she says
Charlie Pace protests, "There's a crazy huge monster out there!"
"Then don't come."
"That's what she said.... wait! YOU ALL EVERYBODY!"

Turns out Jack's fine.  He is a doctor after all. The fellowship returns to discover they missed the start of fight club.  The Iraqi and the Asshole got in a fight because, surprise, the asshole thinks it's the Iraqi's fault that the plane crashed.  Every party needs a bad boy.  The fight gets broken up and turns out the Iraqi is an expert on transcievers.  He volunteers to repair it.  

Meanwhile, being the forward thinking industrious people that they are, the asians have prepared some sample sushi dishes and they begin to offer them to the various denizens of the isle.  Sadly, not even the fat guy is open minded enough to try it.  The only person who gives it a shot is the pregnant girl.  A risky move seeing as how she's eating potentially poisonous raw fish for two, but a good move on her part becuase the fish turns out to be magical and her baby comes back to life and starts thrashing wildly in her belly.  She forces the asian man to feel it in what is the second most awkward moment of the episode.

Jack has a quick heart to heart with the black guy, Michael, about his son who is becoming a conneseur of foreign language comic books.  The kid runs off after his dad offers to buy him a new dog, but no dog can replace his Labradoodle (half Lab, half poodle).  The kid quickly makes friends with the creepiest guy on the island who is all too keen on the situation, probably for a number of sinister reasons.

Through a series of inconsequential events, half the people on the island decide to go on a "hike" to find some higher ground to get a better signal for the transceiver.  The new fellowship consists of the siblings, the Iraqi, Kate, the Asshole, and everyone's favorite scrapper... Charlie Pace.  As I'm sure will happen many times over as the series goes on, these hikers got much more than they bargained for when the asshole SHOOTS A FUCKING POLAR BEAR!  Most of the campers seem pretty concerned about where he got a gun (took it from the presumably dead air marshall). Me?  I'm more concerned about... why is there a goddamn polar bear on a tropical island?
 
Spoiler Alert:  When the series ends you find out that they're actually at the north pole but global warming has melted everything and the area has become a lush paradise... with monsters.  A little preachy, but relevant to today's social issues.

There's some speculation that the asshole guy is actually a criminal that was being transported on the plane and he says he was all sarcastically.  They manage to pick up a signal using the reciever function on the transciever
(it's multipurpose) and find out that someone else was stranded on the island and had been broadcasting an S.O.S. for about 16 years.  Total.  Buzzkill.

Oh, but wait.  Flashback.  Kate's on the plane and turns out she's the criminal!  The marshall gets smacked in the head by a briefcase when the plane starts going down, Kate fumbles around with his many keys and manages to unlock herself from her cuffs and get her oxygen mask on, which... somehow saved her life in the crash.

While everyone else is off poaching polar bears and being depressing, Jack and the fat guy are perfoming an emergency surgery on shrapnel belly.  Fat dude passes out and conveniently shrapnel belly wakes up and, surprise!  It's our good friend the US Marshall.

This episode earns an orange smile for being pretty intriguing. I can definitely see why people got so into this show.

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Lost.