'Lost': 'Orientation: Ryan Station' talks 'What They Died For'
Usually, our "Lost" podcast features a bevy of people watching the show a day or so after it airs, connected via Internet chat to create a virtual watching experience. That experience is always virtual for you, the listener, but it's virtual for us as well: we're usually in different time zones, often watching in different ways, and only connected through the power of Al Gore's interwebs.
This week? Totally different! The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan and I were both in Los Angeles, filming this week's episode of "Instant Dharma." We watched the East Coast feed before taping, and by the time we were done, we realized the episode would be airing AGAIN in an hour. So I grabbed my laptop, hooked up my microphone, and the two of us recorded the podcast right there and then.
Even if you've read my take on the episode already, it's worth a listen: in some ways, the podcast allowed us to go even deeper into the smaller moments that sometimes get lost when constructing an overarching recap (Sawyer seeing the liferafts float to shore, for example). If you're wondering about next week, we're going to do at least two podcasts: one being a summary of the finale with a special guest, and another that will answer reader questions coming out of the final episode.
As always, there are a few ways to enjoy the podcast. Below the Hulu
embed of "What They Died For" lies an MP3 player that you can use in-browser.
Just below that, there's a link to download it directly to your hard
drive. Adjacent to that is a link to the podcast's feed. The best way,
in my humble opinion? Subscribe to the podcast.
It's easy, it's free,
it's easier than organizing a prison break.
While you're over there, please give us a rating and/or review. We'd
love to get as many people listening as possible. In any case, you can
watch the episode along with the audio, or simply take it on the go and
listen at your leisure. Though I wouldn't recommend it playing it while training for your next MMA match. There lies the way to pain.
But for now, sit back, and enjoy!
The player will show in this paragraph
Unlike you and Mo, I don't really buy Jacob's fireside chat. How does Jacob justify the dozens of people he killed on the plane, the ones who were not candidates? In fact in general the lack of talk about or caring about those many other survivors by the show and by our heroes has been a bummer for the past few seasons.
thanks, ryan and mo; who said time travel is not possible? you've just proven it is!
i really liked the episode and it seems you guys did as well. i feel ready for the end. let the countdown begin!
@Eddie9: I don't think you can say all these deaths have been ignored. Maybe they're not talked about a lot, but you can see that all these characters *feel* the deaths. Look at Sawyer in this season, carrying around his grief for Juliet, and then in this episode, his guilt for what happened on the sub.
As for Jacob justifying all these deaths... I don't think he does. He very deliberately doesn't try to justify them: instead, he takes responsibility. "I made a mistake", he says. And fixing that death requires people to die, but not fixing it would likely result in EVERYONE dying.
Gah! That should've read "fixing that MISTAKE requires..."
I totally agree with Eddie9. I did not buy Jacob's explanation at all. I would trust Jacob about as far as I could throw him. It was touching what he said to Kate, but doesn't explain why her new role as mother is somehow more important than Sun or Jin's.
Jacob is either being deceptive or he is utterly clueless, so that even if he did have a compassionate nature, he would be whittling away at the wrong end of the stick. Pseudo Mom told the twins she was protecting the light from people, all of whom are bad. That was the role she gave Jacob-- to protect the light from people. But to his victims, Jacob claims it's all about protecting the light from "his mistake". Either he changed his role or he's lying. He says that he created the smoke monster, but a powerful force (Pseudo Mom) destroyed a village before Jacob even threw his brother into the cave. Jacob did not create that force.
His fireside chat was so unconvincing...I brought you here because you are all like me...never mind that I interfered at critical points in your life to make sure that you made certain decisions or that I put you through horrible disasters, stood idly by while you slowly died from those disasters, and made promises I knew I could never keep, never mind all that! You are flawed and you need this Island! (I half expected him to proclaim at the end of that speech that he too is "special")
I hope Flock destroys the Island! I am rooting for him to do so. Onward march to annihilation and a new beginning... freedom.
What if you can't kill the Smockey?
But rather, you can only replace him by sending another person down the cave to become the new monster, and thus, at the same time - make Smockey mortal (and hence, make it so he can be killed).
But that would open up the show to one of the absolute worst endings they could possibly do: Jack becomes the new Jacob, Kate becomes the new immortal Richard, Sawyer becomes the new Smoke Monster, and the love triangle continues on FOREVER...
@Bronzethumb,
ay-ya! you are right. ew...
keeping my fingers crossed that ending NEVER happens