Exposé

Oh my god. There are so many things wrong with tonight’s episode. But I loved it. I absolutely loved it. “Exposé” will, I predict, ultimately become a conversational litmus test for “LOST” fans: either you loved it, or you hated it, and either way, you’d be right.

Was it filler? Sure. It certainly broke the “island mystery” momentum. Was it cheesy and campy and full of shout-outs and knowing winks? Absolutely, about as subtle as a Mack truck. Did it feel more like a punchline to a joke with a three-month wind up than the usual “you’ll like them when you get to know them” song and dance? Maybe.

But as with many great TV shows (from “The X-Files” to the shortlived “Firefly”), sometimes the rare episodes that break the mold and get a little weird are the ones you remember the most. The creators, the writers, the cast… they all clearly had fun with “Exposé.” And that mutual enjoyment really came through.

Off the top of my head, I can think of only one solid “development” in island time: Sun learned Charlie was her kidnapper. We knew Sun would find out eventually, but I wouldn’t have guessed it’d be Charlie that told her… in a reflective, quiet conversation no less. The more Charlie “gets his affairs in order,” the more I’m doubting my assertion that his predicted demise was actually a guarantee of longevity.

So, compared to the feast that was “The Man from Tallahassee”? Story wise, “Exposé” was barely a nibble.

Everything else was a creative exercise. And one in which I can, again, find many things to nitpick. But with the episode opening in a strip club, with stolen orphanage money, and a Billy Dee Williams cameo, I was stunned out of my skepticism and dropped my guard completely. They had me at “razzle dazzle.” The whole conversation about guest stars, character deaths, and improbable reappearances was so over-the-top, I practically fell off my chair.

The care put into recreating scenes from earlier episodes, presenting them from another perspective with an almost childlike “they were there the whole time!” feel, actually impressed me. (Jen, not so much.) From the crash, to Jack’s “live together” speech, to their trek into the jungle, it was at once disorienting and heartwarming… like a little retrospective to remind us of those heady, early days. Like “The Other 48 Days,” but with a sense of joy rather than dread.

I got a rush seeing Boone and Shannon again. (And I guess Boone was finally outed.) I loved that Nikki and Paulo judged them, the same way a random airport couple once judged Sun and Jin. And having Boone emerge from the flames to ask Nikki for a pen was brilliant. A moment that was like a little gift to those of us who’ve been with “LOST” since day one.

It was great to see Dr. Arzt once again. And Ethan. And the drug plane, too. It has been quite a ride so far, hasn’t it?

But the big “gotcha” was revisiting The Pearl, and specifically the scene from Episode 3×05, “The Cost of Living.” When we first see Paulo come out of that bathroom, we were apoplectic at how ridiculous it is. It was so random, so awkward… well, of course it was a clue. Suddenly, they couldn’t have been more obvious.

Indeed, how perfect were the links between “Exposé” the episode and “Exposé” the soap opera? Right down to the twist ending. So, the much maligned Nikki and Paulo are dead. Or are they?

This whole madcap caper apparently unfolds as Jack, Kate, Sayid, Ben, Ethan and friends get down to business at the barracks. And I do hope we’ll rejoin them next week.

Notes & Notions:

  • Nikki’s belated acknowledgement of Thanksgiving was a nice touch. Christmas can’t be far ahead.
  • I expected Paulo’s splattered spider would draw more spiders to take down Nikki, but the “monster” sound that preceded their arrival had to have been significant.
  • Bookspotting: Sawyer was reading “Evil Under the Sun,” by Agatha Christie. Thanks, but… we’re going to need a few more literary shoutouts this season, considering we’re going to have to read even more as we wait for Season Four to begin in 2008.
  • Locations: The strip club was Club 939 on Keeaumoku. Of course we saw the Convention Center cum airport again (didn’t we?). Can’t place the dead director’s house, though. Could be anywhere.
  • “Exposé” discussion at TheFuselage.com and Lost-Forum.com
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90 Responses to Exposé

  1. Steve says:

    WOWW .. I dont wanna tease anybody.. but… this episode is so good !!! I never tought Nikki and Paulo can be interesting at that point !!! nice episode !!

  2. Steve says:

    Why Boone need a pen ??

  3. Bryan says:

    OK WOW, so someone tell me that this episode was important enough to do one of two thing. One, they went to a LOT of trouble to integrate the Nikki and Paulo story into the Lost lore be reshooting a lot of scenes from prior episodes to make it look like they were a bigger part of the story OR two, they had been planning this episode from the very beginning and shot all that footage when they shot the original episodes.

    Either way, it places a huge amount of emphasis on this episode. But the ending plays more like a Twilight Zone episode than an important part of the big picture of Lost. I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of Paulo and Nikki, especially since earlier in the episode we hear Locke making the comment that “nothing stays buried on this island”.

    My head is still spinning over some of the reveals we had thonight. I also have to say I loved seeing Sun punch Sawyer in the face.

  4. Jim says:

    I can’t disagree with you there..considering, it sorta got away from the whole…”Lost”…basis. It was boarder line…disturbing. The show..while not great..kinda interesting.

  5. debbie says:

    Steve, in the pilot when Boone and Jack were doing cpr on rose and boone suggested doing a tracheotomy on her and jack said “go find me a pen” mostly to get boone out of his hair.

    Liked the episode better than I thought I would. Buried alive! what a nightmare!

  6. NemesisVex says:

    What the hell. First, “Battlestar Galactica” thinks it’s “Law & Order”, now “Lost” thinks it’s “Without a Trace”? I’d tune into TNT if I wanted to watch those shows. A terrible episode with the least interesting characters so far this season. Bring back Bernard and Rose.

  7. Jim says:

    Boone was looking for a pen, the 1 that the doc used to do a treach on someone to save them. I think that’s what I’m thinking of..but could be off.

  8. Erin says:

    This episode was just like the van episode…out of order. I want the episodes to continue on from the previous week. I feel as though this week and the van week were just filler episodes. I want ANSWERS, not more questions.

  9. cuedblu says:

    Some random comments in no particular order:

    It was nice seeing the old scenes, integrated in a new way, and seeing old familiar faces. The scene with Ben and Juliet was chilling with the hindsight that we now have.

    So much for the speculation (and, it appears, planted fake pictures on the ‘net) that Nikki and Paulo somehow switched places with Rose and Bernard (in a time loop). None of the ‘stills’ on the net showed up in this episode. Also, what was with the recent Cuse/Lindelof comment that maybe this episode will leave fans thinking the show had jumped the shark? It didn’t seem like it did that in anyway to me. Or were they talking about the whole diamond heist scam? However, I was reminded of one of their podcast comments that if people wanted to see Nikki and Paulo dead, they needed to be careful of what they wished for.

    Speaking of death, is Charlie’s story coming to an end? He has sobered up, owned up to his acts, and seems at peace. Usually, this type of resolution for a character spells death.

    Sad to see any character die…. even Nikki and Paulo, who we now got to know a bit better. Between Shannon and Boone and Nikki and Paulo, I guess if you are eye candy, you don’t have a good chance of living much past one season.

    Sun’s lack of accent this week after it came back last after losing it earlier is now getting annoying to the point of distraction any time she is in a scene.

    What was up with Shannon’s comment to Boone at the aiport about checking out Paulo? Is that the writers making fun of the fan buzz that a gay character is to be revealed?

  10. LEX says:

    the producers were having a blast with this episode and really wrote it for us die hard LOST nerds. i mean all those meta lines?

    director to nikki after her death scene: “maybe we can find a way to bring you back next season!”

    or nikki about paulo “he’s like the brazilian wolfgang puck”

    the episode was hilarious, particularly hurley. plus we had some nice reveals like that the Others knew about the pearl and the swan station before Ben got captured

  11. Dean says:

    cuedblu,

    I know many people with foreign accents and the funny thing is that when they spend a good part of their time speaking in their native language, when they go back to English their accent tends to become far more pronounced.

    The same applies to speaking English for extended periods, the longer one spends speaking a language, the greater the chance of losing/gaining their accent.

    Just an observation from the “real world”…

    Thanks Ryan & Jen! Miss the podcast, love the site as much as the show!

    p.s. No one mentioned the two girls running TOWARDS the gunshots?

  12. cuedblu says:

    Thanks Dean. The fluctuation just is distracting to me. My parents and most relatives aren’t native English speakers (while I am), but I have never noticed their accents fluctuating that wildly. My guess is that it isn’t Yunjin Kim’s subtle acting out of accents (she has none in real life), but rather a lack of continuity. Or perhaps they are trying to indicate that she is getting rid of the accent over time.

    I forgot to make note of the walkie talkie our Losties now have – that has working batteries! A little eavesdropping on the Others perhaps?

  13. Fernando says:

    AWESOME EPISODE!!!

    Power lines?? Paolo lies??? Paralyzed!!!! VERY CLEVER.

    It was funny at times, heartbreaking, and quite exciting. The really sad part was how, very slowly, Paolo realizes that Nikki cares more about the diamonds than him; you can actually see the pain on his face twice: right after the plane crashes and the first thing she asks about is the carry-on bag; next, right before he dives in looking for the bag at the pond where Kate and Saywer found the marshal’s gun case. I was very impressed by the acting ability of Rodrigo Santoro. Kuddos to him!
    Also, kuddos to the writers and producers! The way they planned the entire episode was very clever: connecting lose ends, bringing back characters long gone such as Artz (though I wish they had brought Michael back as well) and wrapping up and disclosing a few mysteries. I just couldn’t have enjoyed this episode more. The best part: I got my wish come true — They actually mentioned Thanksgiving Day!!! (Can’t wait to see how they will approach Christmas). In general, they did a very good job. Even the newspaper Paolo is reading at the airport has the right date on it. However, I think there was an error; Ben mentions something about covering the entrance to the Pearl station with the plane, but at this point in time that plane was still up on the trees. If it was not, then how come the walkie-talkie was not there when Locke first entered the station?

    And I really hope that Desmond’s ability comes back to save Paolo and Nikki. No matter how much some of us have disliked them in the past (or even still today) NOBODY deserves that kind of death. Besides, I would like to know WHY Paolo and Nikki never told anyone about the things they knew about the Others, such as finding the Pearl station before anyone else. If they return, they would play a bigger role given all this knowledge they have. Perhaps Paolo can show us the tunnel through which Ben and Juliet entered the Pearl!! BTW, wouldn’t it have been nicer if Ben had been accompanied by Ms. Klugh instead of Juliet?

    Another thought: I am dying to see the screen captures from the Lost-Media gallery, just because something creeped me out tonight: During the first minutes after the crash, while the camera is following Nikki around, I thought I saw Dr. Christian Shephard (I watched it several times in slow motion, but whoever it is does not appear too clearly); as I said, the camera is following Nikki, in the background you see a man similar to Christian, and in the foreground there is part of the wreckage. Once nikki is past the wreckage, the man is gone!!! the take only lasts a couple of seconds; but it is interesting. The other thing I noticed was a black man also walking in the background behind Nikki. This man is clearly NOT Michael; who is he? He looks more like Mr. Eko than Michael, but we all know Mr. Eko was a Tailie. Besides, this man is wearing a light yellow (or white) shirt and dark pants (just like Mr. Eko); Michael was wearing a very light blue shirt and light khaki pants. I am puzzled!

  14. sam says:

    People are going to say this episode sucked.

    It didn’t. It was really good

  15. Mike says:

    This episode reminded me of the movie ADAPTATION. The story on the island was a departure from our regular Lost, but somewhat mirrored the “plot” of Expose in its mystery component. I liked the episode. Made the Paulo/Nikki duo a bit more likable in their demise. Enjoyed the flashbacks and retro look at all that has gone on over the past seasons. The people that complain about Lost can take solace that the writing on the show is still good and very clever. It certainly hasn’t gone completely down the tubes ala 24. Can’t wait for next week.

  16. Hey Bulldog says:

    Like most episodes since the hiatus, this was another entertaining well-done episode. NO gripes here, unlike several others. Those of us that post online, listen to pod casts and/or like to dissect every millimeter of film have to keep in mind that not everyone is as critical on literally every scene or move a character makes. That the more you knit-pick, the more you take away from truly enjoying the episode.

    Speaking of being so critical, if you guys and gals haven’t noticed, the show has pretty much stuck to a similar formula. If they are not jumping back and forth from one group of people to another, they are throwing in these type of episodes that add a bit more mystery without getting really deep.

    Is there anything wrong with JUST WATCHING IT and ENJOYING IT? Did anyone notice there were 108 spiders and 4 of them had the Dharma logo on their backs? WHAT? Then you weren’t paying close enough attention? :c)

  17. Arad says:

    a little bit of a Shark-Jumper, but certainly not a bad episode. It was no doubt another transition. One thing I love and hate about Sawyer is his slow development on the island. Hasn’t being here taught him anything? He didn’t toss the diamonds out of empathy- he did because he has no hope.

    I found Paolo’s sequence at the Pearl most interesting. He must have really loved those diamonds (or is it Nicki?) to not have mentioned ANYTHING to the group. And Eko’s plane? Wow- ha, “why don’t you go climb up it?”

    Looking forward to seeing what you two have to say about the episode.

  18. Steve says:

    Juliet see Jack for the first time a the Pearl… how can she know all his life ?? Jacob tell her ???

  19. John Fischer says:

    Well, I’m glad I waited until this morning to watch that episode. I’d probably have nightmares if I saw it right before bed. What a terrible way to die!

    I’m still not sure why the producers hired these two actors if only to kill them in their first real episode. The only logical reason would be to use their story to fill us in on more information. So….did we get more information we need from this episode thanks to Nikki and Paolo.

    Yes and no not much. We learned that Boone was definitely gay from Shannon telling to stop oogling other men. We learned about some nasty spiders on the island. We got 6 million in diamonds which Sawyer buried with Nikki and Paolo. Somehow I think the diamonds are much more important and we’ll see them again.

    This episode gave Charlie a reason to confess to Sun’s kidnapping and let Sun know that it was Sawyer’s idea. It seems Charlie is making peace with everyone – perhaps before he dies later this season.

    The losties now have a walkie-talkie which is likely to come into play sooner rather than later.

    We learned that the Others planned to take Sawyer and Kate only to use them as pawns to get Jack to do the surgery. This tells me that (after the beach breakfast) they didn’t do anything too nasty to Kate.

    I read that someone elsewhere swears they saw Jack’s dad walking around in one of the crash scenes with Nikki and Paolo. I didn’t see that.

    Those scenes were really well done. It was hard to tell what was new footage (Boone asking for the pencil that Jack needed to use on the marshall) and what was old with some skillful editing. I can’t believe (nor have I heard) that they re-dragged the wreck back to the beach.

    It’s a shame in retrospect that Nikki and Paolo didn’t tell the losties about the hatch they found right after they found it. Had they done so, maybe Boone might never have climbed up to the plane and died. Maybe the losties would have been clued in earlier to the Others.

    Speaking of which, it seems Ben and Juliet got to the Swan station via some sort of tunnel. Why haven’t the losties explored that to see where it leads from the hatch end?

    Yes, it was a filler episode, but a well done filler with some valuable information – just not a lot.

    John

  20. The Tallman says:

    I dont see how anyone could have thought last nights episode was bad in anyway…… i mean what makes you people happy?

  21. frank says:

    Tallman, I’m usually happy when the show is well-written with an interesting, intelligent plot. If it adds to the lore of the island, even better. When it’s poorly and lazily written, when the plot is straight out af a cheesy B-movie, and when the island mystery elements only serve to screw up already established continuity (could someone explain how the time course of Paolo seeing Ben & Juliet in the hatch makes any sense, considering that it had to take place after Locke and Eko moved the plane off, but before Ben got ‘captured’ by the Losties) I tend to be not so happy.

    I thought that Expose was junk … not ‘bad for Lost’ bad, but bad for any episode of any TV show. I don’t mind filler episodes, but why on earth were these two characters introduced? If they wanted to do a cheesy B-movie type filler ep packed with dopey in-jokes and shout-outs, why not use established characters that we care about instead of wasting our time with these two losers? Wow, I could go on and on, but I guess we know now why Nikki and Paolo are going to be ‘icons’ among Lost fans … they’re the feature characters in the worst episode of the series!

  22. Briand says:

    How Edgar Allen Poe can you get? It was a nice nod to the first season of Lost, where all the magic started. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the whole purpose of the show was to get the walkie talkie into Sawyer’s hands?

    Nikki turned out to be the brains of the operation, Paolo was really dumb. I never really disliked them, she was certainly great eye candy and really proved it in the nightclub scene.

    Weren’t Ben and Juliette more chummy than you’d expect in the Pearl scene?
    Back to the others next week…

  23. John Fischer says:

    Tallman,

    I think we’re living in a DaVinci Code society where most folks want each episode to be like a Dan Brown book. Some feel that each episode advances the story, answers some questions and leads us closer to the answer.

    Unfortunately, that works for a book, movie, TV mini-series but not a continuing TV drama where the network is looking to drag out the story for years, even if the story should have a finite life.

    I have found the episodes that many call fillers to be a lot of fun, i.e. the Hurley VW episode and this one. Each have had a bit of information, but what’s wrong with just a fun episode like the Hurley episode or a real black comedy one like last night?

  24. Jim says:

    Not sure if it is Boone..in one of his flash backs when he was “rescuing” her from the boyfriend, he told her he was gay so she would not know he was..interested in her . So, she thinks he is..but not really…

  25. Linda says:

    It was a pretty good episode lots of little tibbits… I found myself warming up to Paolo and hating Niki even more. I liked how Artz compared Niki to the Medusa spider. I think she is more like a Black Widow myself but a bitch either way and is deserving of everything that happens to her.

    Does anyone besides myself believe that the beach scene with Paolo looking out over the ocean right after the crash is important? I will have to watch the episode again to be sure, but it appeared to me that Paolo was really looking at something and was not just dazed and confused. It sounded like he was starting to say something like “look at that” but was interrupted by Niki. I wonder what it was that he could have possibly have seen.

  26. frank says:

    I don’t think that every episode needs to be super-mysterycentric, like ‘Man from Tallahassee’ was, but if there’s going to be a filler, shouldn’t it be about characters that we’re actually interested in, and be a story that we actually care about? I thought that the VW episode was great; the story was kind of dopey, but fun and well-written; mainly, though, it really showcased the chemistry about some of our favorite characters. Does anybody (or did aybody) really care about Nikki and Paolo? Did last night’s episode suddenly make you understand and sympathize with them? Did anybody give a darn whether or not they found the diamonds?

  27. tvscifi.com says:

    This would have been fine as a first-season episode, but this late in the game it was just filler. It must have been expensive to recreate the crash, I wished they would have spent the money on other episodes that moved the story forward. The winks to fans and past episodes were fun, but this show didn’t live up to the hype or the long, drawn out setup.

    First, it was a plot directly taken from an “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episode that I saw coming from the first 2 minutes. Second, what a waste to bring back Boone and Shannon for this lame story (good use of Artz though).

    Also, what was the point of Ben dragging Juliet all the way across the island just to go into the pearl station to watch Jack on a monitor for 5 seconds? Seemed really forced and out of character. (I suspect that radio Paulo found will come in handy in future episodes.)

    Did anyone else get their HD picture in the normal TV aspect ratio, or was it just a mistake of my cable company? I suspect with the narrower aspect ratio it was easier to shoot the crash scene, but it still bugged me.

    I’m getting sick of them dragging out the plot. It is as if they are afraid once we discover what is going on we will stop watching the show. Is the secret of the island so lame that stories can’t be told in that universe once it is revealed? It is starting to feel like they have a 3 year plot they need to stretch out to 5 years and this won’t be our last filler episode.

  28. Bill says:

    Think Nikki and Paulo are dead? Think again. In their present state, they require very little air and the graves looked “shallow” to me. The flashback of John Locke instructing Paulo not to bury anything near the beach because of errosion was key. SCENARIO: they could be washed into the water, regain conscienceness, then stagger onto the beach and BLOW everyone’s mind. Not my favorite episode, but it’s always cool getting to see some retro stuff.

  29. Bill says:

    To reinforce my theory, I thought of something else. Sawyer very thoughtfully (but conveniently) closed Nikki’s eyelids before shoveling sand on top of her. (I’m assuming he did the same for Paulo). That would prevent damage to their eyes from the sand. If the story does have them survive and they realize they are supposed to be dead, Nikki’s criminial mind may use this to her advantage somehow. Where are Rose and Bernard? Nikki and Shannon have great legs.

  30. Ben says:

    Excellent episode, certainly not the best but they can’t all be the best. I think its pure genious how the producers develop and deepen the story with episodes that really only look back. You don’t have to move forward in time to move the story forward. This episode was certainly important, and even though there were many “shout-outs”, they were also purposely placed story elements. For me, the story-telling was excellent. I love the show’s formula, but I also love how the show can break formula with episodes like this and still make it interesting, even if all the “fair-weather” fans out there are too blinded by their own opinions and nit-picking to understand.

  31. Tori says:

    I thnk the ol’ writer boys are weaving together a huge, complex tale, and they have at least some sense of where it’s going (or how all the pieces are linked together)…. Last night’s episode felt, to me, anyway, like the dots of the Big Picture were starting to connect, even if we still don’t exactly know how. The interweavings from the past helped that feeling, I think.

    Also, it felt to me like the Tailies are coming together, that their relationship as a group is maturing and growing more peaceable. I too was glad Sun slapped Sawyer– but also that she wasn’t going to tell Jin. And that Sawyer tried in his own clumsy/unrealized way to apologize by giving Sun the diamonds.

    And while I was somewhat annoyed by the sudden dominance of two characters that seemed gratuitious in the past, I have a feeling it’s all gonna fit together (and they’ll make it fit together!). I agree with Bill that maybe the two dead ducks will resurrect but use it to their advantage… until the island finds them out.

    Great stuff!

  32. Carly says:

    First of all, Frank:
    Before N & P opened the Pearl hatch, the plane was still in the tree…. so there’s no continuity mystery….

    Second of all… I love LOST and the more everybody nitpicks and complains about it I become more and more amused. Just shut up and watch the show, or …don’t. The term “jump the shark” is lame and over-played. Take 1 hour of your wednesday, watch the show you love and hope it makes it to 5 seasons. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it seems like the “cool” thing these days is to bash LOST. I feel sorry for people that think they are entitled to all the answers NOW. They will suffer greatly. The writers and producers and people like me want the story to last as long as it takes to tell. They are not going to rush it just because a few nitpickers are not pleased. So sit back and enjoy!

    P.S. I need to know… What the hell is up with “Razzle Dazzle”??? Is Corvette somekind of Rainbow Brite Pole Dancing Superhero?
    Gotta Love it!

  33. Fernando says:

    OK. Here it is. If this man is NOT Michael, who is he?
    http://gallery.lost-media.com/displayimage-1269-879.html

    And is that Dr. Christian Shephard in the background?
    http://gallery.lost-media.com/displayimage-1269-826.html (I know it is not a good picture, but actually looks clearer on the TV screen).

    A question for “Hey Bulldog”, Where did you see or hear about 108 spiders? I still have not found them.

  34. Carly says:

    Fernando…

    I think the quip about 108 spiders and 4 w/ dharma logos may have been a joke to bait the nitpickers….

  35. punjabi says:

    Fernando …. ‘hey bulldog’ was joking …=p

  36. Josh says:

    I thought it was a really fun episode, very cool how they made things fit together. I especially liked when Paolo was first in the bathroom, and I said to myself, “Ah, that first episode with them is all of the sudden not so bad.” Now I really can’t wait to find out the ultimate fate of the diamond thieves.

    frank, your problem with the timeline is off. They weren’t in there after Locke and Eko moved the plane because the plane hadn’t fallen yet because Boone hadn’t climbed up it. If you have problems with the episode, that’s fine, but at least give the writers credit for not getting it so fundamentally wrong.

  37. Jim says:

    Well, there is another way they might come out of their grave. If you remember, they had to run the dog off once..I think the dog realizes they are not dead and will go back and dig them up…I mean at this point..anything is fair game 🙂

  38. Mike says:

    ok, i didn’t read *ever* post here, but i don’t think this was covered – didn’t anybody notice the bit with vincent? the speculation has always been that vincent shows up only to foreshadow somebody’s death, right? well, what is vincent doing in last night’s ep? he’s pulling the shroud OFF of nikki and paulo, symbolically showing that they’re still alive. another tip of the hat by the writers, i guess.

    ps – nikki in red bikini. yum.

  39. frank says:

    Carly–

    Look a little deeper and you’ll see the continuity problem. How did Paolo get back into the Pearl? By that point, the plane had fallen, since the camera showed Jack in the Swan, so Paolo couln’t have gotten into the hatch. Unless it was after Locke and Eko moved the plane in ‘?’ … which of course was after Ben had been captured, so he couldn’t have been there when Paolo was. Or maybe it was after Ben escaped … except by that point Ms. Klugh had already put Ben’s plan into action to use Michael to attract Kate, Jack, and Sawyer, so the plan certainly shouldn’t have been a surprise to Juliet. That’s the continuity problem I was talking about.

    And I’ve been watching the show since day 1, and have been really enjoying the current ‘2nd pod’ of episodes. What makes the show great is that it’s well-written, mysterious, has great characters, and is incredibly well thought-out. When I see an episode that, imo, is poorly written, and, as evidenced by the continuity mistake, was obviously poorly planned, I think that I have the right to say that I don’t like it. I hold Lost to high standards, and it usually lives up to them; it’s not a show that I want to just sit there watching with glazed eyes not thinking about what I’m seeing. The last thing that I want to see is for Lost to turn into The X-Files, a once-great show that faded into mediocrity.

    Finally, as I mentioned in earlier posts, I have no problem with filler episodes that are more character than mystery episodes (like the VW episode, one of my favorites) … I just have a problem when they’re poorly done, just like I would if a mystery episode was poorly done.

  40. frank says:

    Josh–

    Like I said, the screen showed Jack sitting in a chair in The Swan, so that scene had to take place after the plane fell…

  41. heather says:

    While I enjoyed this episode I will be glad when Lost get’s back to the story of the Island and the Others and their mysteries. Speaking of that, I wonder if Paolo summoned the spiders by thinking of them (a la the box that Ben was talking about in the last episode). He did have a look of concentration on his face as the spiders appeared and we did hear that wierd electronic noise.
    Also, why was Paolo staring so intently at the sky (as if in a trance) just after the plane crashed, when Nikki finally finds him. Remember, she has to pull him away from staring fixedly at the sky. In the normal world that could be explained away by shock, but of course nothing is normal here. What did he see?
    Paolo and Nikki will survive and we will definitely see more of Paolo. My guess is that he knows more than he has been sharing with anyone and it will be significant at some point in the future. Obviously he has been keeping secrets, which I found very annoying, plotwise.
    -He’s been to the pearl hatch before it is officially discovered.
    -He has a freaking walkie talkie!
    -He sees Ben and Juliette, two complete strangers, hatching an evil plan concerning Jack, in a wierd underground surveilance bunker.

    I kind of hope Jack beats him up at some point in the future…I mean, a few of those details could have really saved everyone some trouble.

  42. Bill says:

    To Heather: I think the other spiders were “summoned” when Paulo smashed the spider that bit him, the sexual attaction scent was released that Artz had told Nikki about in a flashback. I’m with you about the unbelievable and unrealistic lack of communication between the characters sometimes, but then again, it’s a business that hopes to stretch out to at least 100 episodes — or more.

  43. Merry says:

    For the continuity question, I’m confused. I need a timeline, I think. Did the plane fall onto the hatch, or did the plane fall and the next time we saw it, it was on the hatch? Couldn’t it be that: 1. N&P find hatch 2. L&B find and down plane 3. P returns to hatch, B&J enter and talk; when they all leave, someone with the Others returns and pushes plane onto the hatch 4. Ben captured/escapes 5. Locke et. al. return and move plane from hatch 6. All go down hatch.

    I have not seen every episode of Lost, I admit, so I could have that wrong.

  44. Jim says:

    Thanks Bill..I tried to post the same thing..but the blog…blocker got me for some unknown reason 🙂

  45. writerboy says:

    I have to admit this episode really pushed me over the edge. As a stand alone episode it was pretty good and ultimately entertaining, but when you place it into the bigger picture of the story it doesn’t make any sense.

    I also caught the continuity error when Paolo was in the Pearl Station and Juliet and Ben enter to reveal their plan to get Jack to do surgery. They show the TV monitor with Jack and the other Losties already in the Swan station. But we know that they didn’t get into the hatch until AFTER the plane had already falled on top of the Pearl Station’s entrance. So are we to believe that Paolo was able to move the plane, go into the Pearl Station and hide the diamonds, come back up and then move the plane back over the entrance?

    Another BIG thing that bothered me about this scene was the way the dialouge seemed to elude that the Others want/need to kidnap Walt had nothing to do with him being special. That is was simply their way of getting Michael to lead Jack/Kate/Sawyer to them. After all of Season 1 spent building Walt up to be special and the many references the Others made of Walt’s importance to just be explained way was disturbing.

    I love this show and to see the writers/producers slipping frustrates me. And now that in the latest podcast Lindoff and Cuse admit to killing Nikki and Paolo off due to viewers dissatisfaction with them upsets me even more. Why bother giving them an episode to “close the loop” so to speak? We hadn’t invested any time getting to know them, but then they decide to finally give us an episode to show their importance, get us all interested in the characters, and kill them. Much like Shannon and Libby. Just as their characters were getting “juicy,” BAM, dead.

    One the plus side it was nice to see Charlie finally admit to Sun what he did. She reaction was a little off. I’m sorry but if someone I trusted and was friends with revealed that they put a bag over my head, dragged me across the jungle and scared the be-jesus out of me, I’d be a tab bit more angry. Heck, even Sawyer got off easy. Like others have said though, I think Charlie may be coming to the end of his stay on the island. Although I think a bigger twist would be Claire dying because she is always with him. It would definitely open up the story to explore what will happen to Aaron now that she isn’t raising him. Could that play into the Ben=Aaron theory out there?

    I know that my criticism may be premature. I’m not gonna stop watching the show. Like I said, I love it, so to all of you who will stay, just stop watching, please don’t. It’s just upsetting to see a once riviting show’s quality suffer.

  46. Julie says:

    Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but a fun Easter egg of sorts. In last week’s episode, “The Man From Tallahassee”, Locke is watching the episode of the tv series “Expose” when Peter Talbot knocks on the door. I remember originally hearing the line about “Cobra” last week and thinking Locke was watching an episode of “GI Joe”! LOL Then in last’s night’s episode we hear that same line come out of Nikki’s mouth. Interesting that Locke was watching that show and didn’t mention anything to Nikki when he met her on the island, especially when he noted to Charlie that he was a Driveshaft fan – so why would he be shy to bring this up to Nikki? Maybe he was too focused on her “assets” to recognize her face? 🙂

  47. DR Belden says:

    Well, I’m definitely in the “not impressed” camp. I agree with Frank in that I don’t mind a “filler” if it is about characters I care about. Who cared about these characters? I love lost for throwing the preverbal monkey wrench into whatever speculation I have. When these two characters first appeared I immediately though, “Ahhh! Someone convenient to bump off.” It’s very much like the old Star Trek episodes where if someone is on deck that you don’t know, you can pretty well assume they are cannon fodder.
    Now, I take it all back if this isn’t the end of our diamond thieves. I could see this as a possibility since there were several noted clues that could indicate this such as Locke’s comments about buried things and Vincent realizing they weren’t dead. Oh, and don’t forget the “smoke monster” making an “appearance”.
    What I did like about the episode was explanation of some of the awkward things such as the toilet flush from the pearl hatch. I guess bottom line is that I hope there was more to this episode than just a chance to have a cast reunion party.
    I’m a bit concerned that Ryan knew where the strip club was though. Jen, did you ask him about that? 🙂

  48. frank says:

    writerboy–

    You’ve said everything that I’m feeling. I hadn’t heard that they killed off N&P because of fan reaction; you’re right, that’s troubling if it’s true, and it also means that there was no real plan for these characters. Maybe if they hadn’t been introduced so clumsily, the fans would have taken to them more. I’m also bothered a bit by the Sun/Charlie/Sawyer scenes. While I thought that the scenes were well-done, it felt like that was the end of that plotline. I mean, Sawyer set up this con, roped in Charlie to help, setting up what seemed at the time to be a new power structure on the island, and a new direction for Charlie. And that … didn’t happen. Things were back to normal within a few weeks. It always felt to me like that was a plot thread that they didn’t know what to do with, so it just kind of disappeared … and last night was the final wrapup — “Let’s close down this pointless plot thread while we’re closing the pointless N&P plot thread”. And while we’re at it, are they implying too that the Walt being special thread is now closed too … that he was really never wanted by The Others, that he really wasn’t special? I know that I’m really reading a lot into it, but, still … it just bothers me.

  49. Jen says:

    I’m with Bulldog and Carly. If you haven’t been around from the beginning, and you’re finding that you don’t like the show anymore, just stop whining and go watch something else. That’s not necessarily directed at any one person who’s posted here; I just get sick of seeing “OMG that was so lame I am done” posts from the same people every week. I’ve stopped reading The Fuselage and various blogs because of that.

    Having said that:

    I wish they’d have either attempted to make Nikki and Paolo work or not have introduced them at all. I was frustrated when they killed off Libby because we knew she had to have an interesting story and they chose not to explore it. I kind of wish they’d never done the Tailies story arc because all but one of them is dead now and it feels like a whole lot of time and energy wasted.

    The whole last scene was very “Kill Bill 2”. I don’t know what to think of that. I keep hoping Tarantino will direct an episode.

    Frank: I don’t think we’re done with Sun/Charlie/Sawyer. Jin will find out. It may not happen this season, but that’s not over by a long shot. I’ll bet money on it.

  50. frank says:

    I really hope that you’re right about the S/C/S plot thread. I know that the important thing with any TV show is the journey and not the destination, but for a show that is so good about planning everything out and setting up this in-depth, complicated mystery, they suddenly, to me, seem to be developing a lot of plotlines that don’t go anywhere.

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