I know last week’s Desmond-centric blast of Lost was a tough act to follow, but ‘Everybody Loves Hugo’ was just straight-up hard to follow.
Things are definitely moving towards the End Game, but, looking back, it feels like there’s a good chunk of the episode that intentionally didn’t make sense. You could say that about most Lost episodes on some level I guess, but it wasn’t the mysteries and mythology that boggled the mind here.
Hurley’s Sideways story was pretty straightforward, providing the fan-demanded Libby closure (or the opposite of closure, depending how things go), with the two finally getting their beach picnic on. There was also a sweetly-weird admission by Hurley beforehand, where he tells his not-so-nutty soulmate, “it takes guts to tell a total stranger you recognize them from a Bizzaro-alternate universe. I’m scared just saying ‘hi’ to a girl.” And, of course, the kiss at the end of the episode was another interesting sign of things to come, with Hurley gaining memories from another world in the process. Things on The Island, however, were not as easy to follow.
Smoke And Mirrors
Ilana’s death was the first thing that struck as more than a little weird in the episode. Sure, it was a total callback to Arzt’s death in Season One, but it also seemed like it was filmed very unlike the science teacher’s fatal encounter with the unstable dynamite. Artzt’s death was messy, with blood and chunks sticking to the castaways. As Ilana dropped the bag, the camera cut waaaaay back, making the giant explosion seem kind of small. Also, there was no mess. It felt a little surreal, like when the meteor crashed on Mr. Clucks’ way back in Season 2.
But beyond that, Ilana’s death actually felt like a trick, like when a magician makes a rabbit disappear with a cloud of white smoke. I’m not sure if that was done on purpose, but I think it’s possible we should be asking if Jacob is some sort of magician, hiding Ilana from the castaways, or maybe that his unseen hand may have played a role in permanently removing her from the board. If neither option is applicable, I think it might have been a purposeful allusion to stage magic by the writers and director.
An intentional reference to magic actually seems pretty plausible at this point – especially with this season’s use of Smoke(y) and Mirrors, as well as the series’ ongoing use of bunnies. Following the thread of stage magic references in the show made me think back on ‘The Prestige,’ the 2006 flick about dueling magicians.
In the film (and in the trailer) Michael Caine’s character talks about the three acts incorporated into every magic trick. The Pledge is the first act, where the audience is shown something ordinary and is asked to see if it is “indeed real, unaltered, normal.” Last season, this could have been John Locke’s body en route to The Island. The second act, The Turn, is where the magician makes the apparently ordinary thing do “something extraordinary” – like Locke’s Island revival, followed by reveal that it’s actually a people-killing Smoke Monster.
The last and final act – The Prestige – is where things get tricky. This is where the audience has to be wowed, and as we descend on Lost’s closing act of its final season, I don’t think it’s out of the question to compare these final episodes to the prestige of an epic magic trick. [Also, depending on how closely we want to link the format of a magic trick with UnLocke you may want to remember this part of Michael Caine’s explanation: “Making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back.” Are things being set up for a Locke Prime reappearance on The Island?]
The Ghost Whispers
We got an explanation for The Whispers. The ever-mysterious whispers were revealed to be souls that The Island isn’t allowing to “move on.” But the revelation opened up another Pandora’s box of questions. Are the ghosts working for Jacob, Smokey, The Island, or out of their own individual interest? Can the guilty whispers ever atone for their sins and move on? After all, Michael was told he was free before being blown to smithereens along with the freighter. I haven’t lost faith at all in the show, but I’m definitely hoping that wasn’t the last appearance from the Whispers — especially since it felt like it was supposed to be a big reveal and it only opened more doors.
In Which Desmond Goes Down A Hole
I was disappointed that the Desmond and Smokey scenes didn’t do much for me. I think it has to do with the fact that we have two actors who we’re very familiar with playing characters that currently seem wholly unfamiliar. We don’t know why Desmond isn’t afraid, or even if he’s really “our” Desmond anymore. And UnLocke is still a mystery shrouded in an enigma wrapped in Terry O’Quinn. In fact, a whole new debate has started that Smokey actually might somehow be John Locke with Desmond telling the monster knowingly that he recognizes him: “You’re John Locke.”
Sure, I gasped when Desmond went head first down the well, but the scene was an empty shock. It definitely didn’t have the same emotional impact as the scene in Season Three when Ben shot Locke in the stomach, leaving him to rot in the pit of Dharma-deceased.
There was so much subtext bubbling between the two, but we learned very little about either character during their confrontation – other than that Smokey wants to see Des trapped underground in another electromagnetic pocket. I’m sure we’ll find out why this week, but it also brings up a question only interesting to me:
Will Vincent be making a Lassie-like appearance, helping to get Desmond out of the well? Or will we see The Island’s Peter Pan standing over the well, much like Walt did, helping Locke get out of his pit?
Looking back, it seems for the first time this season that the LA X-verse stuff was a lot more engaging than The Island stuff in last week’s installment – especially the cliffhanger that saw Desmond running over wheelchair-bound Sideways Locke. The scene was so effective because it seems like the context of the Sideways world is coming into focus, while, unfortunately, we seem to be losing grip on what is really going on with people on The Island.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m all about obsessively mulling over questions and theorizing after an episode –that’s what makes the show awesome. But Lost is pushing increasingly closer into dangerous territory where we’re losing sight of the context and it’s becoming hard to tell if we’re even asking the right questions.
If I can use a terrible metaphor, this episode reminded me of a game of three-card Monte – where the hustler tells you to keep your eye on one of three cards – say Smokey, the King of Black Hearts — then proceeds to mix them up and shuffle them until you lose track. But as we get frustrated trying to focus on the single card, another dude comes in and throws the whole deck at us, with each card containing its own mystery. And then prestige happens: everyone gets hit by a speeding sedan driven by a crazed Scot.
(Photos courtesy of ABC)