'Lost': Course Corrections for 'Sundown'
Recapping is a tricky business, especially when it comes to "Lost." The order from on high isn't "Do it as quickly as possible!" But it isn't, "Eh, take your time, whenever is fine," either. There's a fine balance between giving people something to read as soon as possible and the desire to craft as complete, honest, and fair a summary as possible.
In some ways, I like the deadline structure for recaps: without it, I'm not sure I'd EVER finish one. But clearly, having a deadline to post a recap the night that the show airs means that either thoughts are left unfinished, emotional reactions can overwhelm rational thought, and worst of all, what I mean to write doesn't always come across in the cold light of a computer screen.
Am I leaping for joy over "Sundown" 24 hours later? Definitely not. My problems with the episode still remain. Still, for Metacritic to interpret my recap as giving the episode a 40 out of a possible 100? That's more than a little much. When I declared it my least favorite episode of the season, I was barely damning it with faint praise. I certainly wasn't drowning it in a pool and then slashing its throat. Many elements worked within the episode, but as a start-to-finish piece of work, it didn't live up to the other five hours I've seen this season. But a 40? Come on. That's "Stranger in a Strange Land" territory. Not "Sundown" territory.
So that's why I created the "Course Corrections" series in the wake of "LA X." It's a great opportunity not only for me, but for you the readers as well, to look at the episode with a little time to think and breathe. Less reaction, more introspection. This series is about fine-tuning my initial review more than overhauling it. I quite like most of the recap, thankee kindly. But this series gives me the chance to augment it when it's not 1 a.m. and I see the ghost of my father in the man cave with me. That's straight-up weird, mostly because he's not dead.
So, eight more things about "Sundown"...
***
I'm not sure there's a character I enjoy more whose character-centric episodes I enjoy less than Sayid. I recognize that's part of the problem here. But it's a WEIRD problem. Who's cooler than Sayid? He's cooler than the other side of the pillow. He's cooler than being cool. (ICE COLD!) But aside from "Solitary," I'm not sure I've ever really liked the off-Island action in a Sayid-episode. To my mind, his last three -- "The Economist," "He's Our You," and "Sundown" -- all deal thematically with the exact same issue, and largely come to the same darn conclusions.
I find it odd that people rail against Jack's constant daddy issues but are fine with Sayid's constant killer instincts. I understand that Sayid's inherently much cooler than Jack, but that doesn't let his episodes off the hook for being equally repetitive. He's a killer: I GET IT. I also get that Jack's sideways flash last week broke new ground for his character; Sayid's did not. In fact, nearly ALL of my interest in anything L.A.-centric derives from Smocke's promise to reunite Sayid with Nadia. Seeing Keamy? Cool. But I'd rather watch the spinoff "Cooking With Keamy!" than this sideways story again.
***
Having said all that, I'd be remiss if I didn't explicitly state the irony in me actively rooting for a killer to be a good guy. In any other show, he'd probably be the villain, or at least the charismatic rogue that eventually got his comeuppance during sweeps. When I said in the recap that I pray this repetitive streak of "Sayid is a killer and that's all he'll ever be" stories ends with him making a breakthrough in which he realizes he's more than that, I don't want that breakthrough to wash his sins away. I want him to atone for that past through an act that doesn't necessarily redeem his life but provides potential redemption for someone else.
Another example: his sparring partner Dogen. Does that man who killed his son in a drunk driving accident deserve a second chance with his son? I'm not sure that he does. I'm not sure that he doesn't, either, and therein lies the complex and fascinating nature of the sideways universe in general at this point in the show. Nothing's easy, which means that the show's doing its job.
***
I desperately tried to make my Schrödinger's cat analogy work last night in trying to explain how the "parallel timeline" camp and the "epilogue" camp had individual elements right, but didn't account for their fusion creating a third option that no one had even considered until this most recent episode. But in reading the comments, it seems I came up short in that attempt. What we MIGHT be seeing is something akin to Smocke's promise to people, but it never actually has to happen chronologically AFTER Smocke's victory in order for it to either have happened or matter. That's the thought experiment at play here. On an Island in which mind turns into matter, the Lostaways can experience what that New Smokey World Order would look like: paradise on the surface, malice underneath it. Think David Lynch's "Blue Velvet," with its stunning opening shot of a seemingly idyllic suburbia panning down to see the worms and the insects infesting the ground beneath it. Think "Buffy the Vampire Slayer's" "Superstar," in which a wish changes the world but also infects it. The world is WRONG.
The notion that this is a place our characters are supposed to live in feels more wrong to me than ever. But I've shifted from feeling that way on a meta level about the show and turned into a dramatic engagement with a Smocke-authored happily never after. It LOOKS like sunshine and smiles, but it's actually insidious. The work that has to be done? Waking people up from the nightmare of this world and foiling Smocke before it can happen. People are already glimpsing into what's been lost: in mirrors, in remembered names, in chance encounters. They will need to wake up sooner rather than later. When they do, that information will pass back to their counterparts on the Island, Smocke will be foiled, and that future no longer exists. Thus endeth the thought experiment.
***
You have to love the irony of a man who espouses personal freedom yet enslaves people more than Jacob would ever dream. Just as it's silly to assign Jacob/The Man in Black one color (white/black), it's silly to assign either one the embodiment of "destiny" and "free will." Jacob clearly favors the former, but isn't above getting involved at critical points in order to allow people to achieve their potential. The Man in Black decries Jacob's supposed puppetry, but has done almost NOTHING except get people to do things for him. And if he's indeed responsible in some way for the creation of the sideways timeline, then he's the ULTIMATE manipulator: creating a world not unlike that in "The Matrix" for the sole purpose of achieving his own touch of freedom.
***
Above all else, we need to look at "Sundown" as the end of Act 1 of the show's final season. We saw the Temple, learned about the candidates, and saw the battle lines being drawn. The next few hours will see people shore up their sides, with the final third unleashing the mother of all battles for the heart and soul not only of the Island, but humanity itself. Awesome.
***
One thing I've thought since last week, but I am not sure I've actually expressed out loud: Infection is NOT mind control. Claire, Sayid and the dozens of Others now working for Smocke (readers are calling them Smothers and Flocke's Flock, both of which are great names) aren't zombies. Claire and Sayid still have most of themselves intact; they just lack important elements such as hope, compassion and selflessness. They don't blindly and willingly follow every action that Smocke lays out for them -- they just no longer possess the capacity to understand the implications of their selfish, singular outlooks. They, like Smoke, only understand things in terms of their primal needs, and "infection" just removes the moral compass that would prevent these people from following through on Smocke's will.
***
One thing I definitely did not mention in the recap: Kate's approximately 1,000 times more important after that episode than before it. Before, her goal of reuniting Claire with Aaron was noble but amorphous in nature; even she wasn't sure how to achieve it, or even how go about it. (I mocked her return to the Temple in the recap after her stated goal to avoid it in "Lighthouse"; methinks there's a scene on the cutting room floor of Kate wandering around, completely lost, unable to find a trail, and simply deciding to double back despite her words to Hurley and Jack.) But now? She's the only person in the thick of Smocke's Army. She's embedded, alongside two friends she doesn't understand are no longer the people she knew. Not only will this provide some great tension going forth, but it also offers her a chance to rescue Claire in the most dramatic way possible while nipping at Smocke's Achilles heel. More than ever, Kate's mission to reunite Claire and Aaron has direct and MONUMENTAL implications for the overall endgame of the show. Just brilliant.
***
All right, we'll wrap up with your weekly "Lost" mix tape, full of songs inspired by this week's episode. For Sayid: The Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm" seems appropriate, as does The Who's "Drowned" and Radiohead's "Knives Out." For Claire, Alice in Chains' "Down in a Hole" seems about right, along with U2's "Mothers of the Disappeared" and Ryan Adams' "The Rescue Blues." Smocke? Well, he was in the jungle, a mile south of the Temple, grooving to The Vines' "Get Free," Bad Religion's "Infected," Disturbed's "Down with the Sickness," Björk's "Army of Me," Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain," and given his wish-fulfillment angle, let's throw in Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" for fun.
Those are my thoughts 24 hours after "Sundown": what are some of yours?
Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group.
Photo credit: ABC
Sometimes you need an episode that just "goes through the motions" I think, just so the next one can have a better starting point. That's really what this episode felt like to me.
I do have one thought, though. If Dogen was the one keeping Smokey out of the Temple, what was keeping him out of New Otherton?
The sonic fence?
What was keeping Smokey out of anywhere? More review than I am willing to do would be required to figure out if his behavior (who lives, who dies, where he can go) follows a single set of rules over the course of the series.
I keep returning to what Jacob uttered just prior to his death: "It only ends once." What was that in reference to? I'm starting to wonder if Jacob's ultimate endgame was the death of both himself AND Smokey. Is the winning 'candidate' in fact the new island protector, or the person who successfully destroys The Man in Black?
Dogan said "Now he's free"... so if TMiB's true goal is in fact to get off the island, why doesn't he just leave, a billowy black snake across the ocean? ("Smocke on the waaater / and fire in the sky!") Maybe Dogan meant something else, or maybe he can't leave that easily. Ooooooh, am I sensing a donkey wheel in our future?? Those poor unsuspecting Tunisian f**kers won't know what hit 'em!
So is Kate infected now or is she just along for the ride? Another thing that i am wondering is now that the real Locke is burried and the man in black cannot imitate anyone else, will he be stuck in Locke's image? It seems like Locke's emotions are starting to come out in the MIB by him saying "Don't tell me what i can't do"! I think there is something to this. Also i wonder if we have seen the last of Dogen. If he only drowned, what's to say the doesn't come back. Didn't Jacob put something in the water last week? Any thoughts?
I think you're on to something with you revised sideways theory except for one big detail: I do NOT think Smocke has anything kind of authorship powers over that reality. It is simply what would have happened had the island and Jacob not interfered in people's lives.
Nor do I see anything insidious about it whatsoever. With respect, I think these insidious feelings are more your own personal projection on what you're seeing than anything else. Sure it's not all happy. But so what? Life isn't all happy. Some people are gonna have better lives, other aren't. Other people are still gonna have crappy lives but have made their peace with them (as Rose said that she had).
Now, does this mean that sideways universe is what was SUPPOSED to happen? Nope. Doesn't mean that either. Again, it's what WOULD HAVE happened has Jacob not pushed things around in the benefit of the island. Saying that something is what -would- have happened does not imply that it is what -should- have happened.
I just think it's a bit too nice and pat to say, "oh the sideways universe is just wrong so -obviously- they have to go back and redo whatever they did to create it". That robs the show and the characters of making a real and important choice between the two realities.
The whole situation is IMO a whole lot more compelling and engaging if BOTH realities are just as valid and just as possible, and not an easy "this is a wrong way so you better choose the right way" pre-judged type of thing.
I think Sayid's violence issues are inherently more interesting that Jack's daddy issues because so much of the burden is circumstantial, and you get the feeling that every time Sayid tries to take his life into his own hands (building houses for the homeless, refusing his brother's plea for help), circumstances tend to force their way in and put Sayid in a situation where he'd led to genuinely believe that violence is the most viable option (even when it's not). I don't think the show is yelling "Sayid is a killer!!" over and over again, so much as saying that he's fighting a constant battle to be something else, and because of circumstances often out of his control, he usually fails. There's something kind of tragic and compelling about that's absent from Jack's daddy issues.
Kaaaaaaaaaaaate! Dogen had a black glove on one hand and his left eye seemed darker than the right eye. Did he symbolize the Yin and the Yang? The balance between good and evil? His job was to keep the bad/dark out and the good/light in the Temple.
@Enry:
"It is simply what would have happened had the island and Jacob not interfered in people's lives."
But a lot of the differences in the sideways universe are different long before Jacob got involved. Jacob touched Locke right after his dad threw him out a window. Presumably even without Jacob's touch, dad would not be invited to the wedding, to say nothing of the implication that John might in fact have died that day.
@NYM,
True, but that's assuming the -only- times Jacob and the island itself ever touched the lives of the characters have been the times we've been explicitly shown on the screen. I think we're meant to take more of a "He's been watching them and prodding them their whole lives" kind of attitude towards it even when it wasn't actually shown on the screen.
For example, the show has shown us that Jacob met Jack outside an operation room beside a vending machine when Jack was already fully grown up and a doctor. But when Jack looks into his number at the light house he actually sees his childhood home, states that he hasn't been there since he was a kid, and flips out on the fact that he's been watched his entire life without knowing about it.
I think that's what's meant to be the case here, but I could be wrong of course.
I apologize if someone's already made this observation--I haven't had time to read every comment posted in the last week--but something occurred to me this evening: what if the "Cabin Christian" that appeared to Locke at the frozen donkey wheel wasn't the Man in Black, as we seem to have been assuming, but rather was Jacob? I know this seems counter to a lot of what we've seen, especially the fact that Jacob seems to appear to people as Jacob, while the Man in Black takes different forms. But I think we've learned something significant about how Jacob and TMIB work in the past few weeks (reinforcing things we've seen in past seasons). Jacob demands sacrifice: he asks people to deprive themselves so that others may benefit. We saw that with Juliet and Rachel, we were told last night about Dogen's encounter with Jacob and the sacrifice Jacob demanded in return for saving Dogen's son. TMIB, on the other hand, offers wish fulfillment. We saw it in his encounter with Sawyer, and we saw it most dramatically last night in Smocke's encounter with Sayid: what if you could have anything you wanted? All you have to do is help me, and your heart's desire is yours. Of course, be careful what you wish for--you might get it, and it might not turn out quite the way you expect. Now, which m.o. best fits the Christian who encountered Locke at the frozen donkey wheel? You'll remember that John was going to leave the Island not to benefit himself, but to save others. And when he told Christian that Richard had told him he had to die, Christian responded, "I guess that's why they call it sacrifice." The line struck me as awkward at the time. But given what we've seen over the past few episodes, it sure sounds more like Jacob than TMIB.
This all ties into my increasing belief that the sideways world is an afterlife of sorts, in which the characters in essence get what they deserve based on their actions on the Island. Hurley is now the luckiest man alive; Locke finds peace; Jack resolves at least some of his daddy issues, albeit with his son rather than with his father. And Sayid gets his geart's desire--and yet he gets it in a form that tortures his soul. The idea of the sideways world as afterlife (not original to me) ties in, again, with some things we've seen before: the Others' van with the anagram for reincarnation; the odd ending to Hurley's ad for Mr. Cluck's shown at ComiCon this past summer, when Hurley declared Mr. Cluck's to be "chicken heaven," and we got a brief moment of celestial light and heavenly choir (all of which seemed out of context with the rest of the ad). In this view, the sideways world can be both heaven and hell simultaneously--maybe not a perfect heaven, maybe not the worst possible hell, but a place where people get what they deserve.
There's a lot that doesn't seem to quite fit this, at least given what we currently know. Why, for example, would Claire seem headed toward a happy resolution with Aaron, if she's been corrupted and coopted by TMIB on the Island? But there's still time to learn things, both on the Island and in the sideways world. In any event, this is now my working theory, even if I'm still not sure where it's headed.