Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Dr. Linus: Post Episode Discussion



If Ben made you cry like a bitch, you can talk about it here. Aimee's there for you.

93 comments:

Brad said...

So Awesome.
Seriously, that was the best.

Stephanie said...

So Ben is good.

John V. Holder III said...

Ben didn't make me cry, but the reuniony scene at the end of the episode almost did. Sigh...Lost, your use of slow motion is, and has always been, amazing.

Widmore knew the war was coming...now he is coming. How the fuck does he know all this?

Kelly Jo said...

Second best Ben episode after Man Behind the Curtain. I like lost.

andrew. said...

"yes, it's true. This man has no dick." /ghostbusters

& Lazlo & Dr. Jerry Hathaway reunited after 25+ years (although, once again, not sharing any screen time). Real Genius is the best movie ever.

good episode of LOST too. Jack Shephard, man of faith (& slightly wee'd pants)

Brad said...

Oh Sally Slingshot
I wish I was Jeff goldblum
You are the hottest

aimee is lost said...

Totally cried. Ben. Alex. Alpert. Jack. Ilana. All of them. Emotionally exhausted.

Unknown said...

so team Jacob (not the gay one) grows

PalmerEldritch said...

that was good. it was no Sundown but i luuuurved that Nikki and Paolo's diamonds got scarfed up by Miles. excellent.

Ben Linus looks and moves like PeeWee.

Old Man Linus was done pretty well.

Jack is all crazy now. interesting. better than mopey Jack. i guess he's Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon Jack now.

Ilana (sp?!!?!?) is pretty badass but her outfit is redonkulous. get those people outfit changes!

PECK! awesome. we've been programmed to hate that guy since the 80s. excellent.

aimee is lost said...

Two words: cheese curds.

PalmerEldritch said...

heheheheheheheheh.




maybe it was an ethnic slur that he picked up from Sayid?

"Cheese Kurds!"

aimee is lost said...

You leave those poor people out of this war.

He should've been saying "ham menu".

PalmerEldritch said...

"sNoRe...thelostinitiativewithkimandaimee!!"

PalmerEldritch said...

so, why didnt Smokatron just wallop everyone on the Island? or at least Ilana and her wacky vest?

Brad said...

obv. the vest is a candidate

PalmerEldritch said...

wonder how tempted Alpy was to just walk up and ball-kick Linus?

PalmerEldritch said...

hey,which side is WiddyCent on?

and how hokey was that periscope shot?

John V. Holder III said...

I thought it was badass. I was freakin out!

PalmerEldritch said...

heheheh. Widmore on a boat (cue the music) was cool. that one shot was goofy. unless real submarines have awesome zoom and the filter to read the secret stats on the old Transformers packaging from 1987.

Widmore = Wallace? nah. but it'd be interesting.

JoeSC said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JoeSC said...

Excellent episode! Nothing earth-shattering, but it was incredibly poetic and really well paced.

Loved the Alex cameo. I think that's my favorite on/off island tie in yet.

Do you think Ben's going to suffer Locke's wrath for not showing up on the Hydra Island?

Still no Jin and Sayid. They must be having a hell of a time with skele-baby.

The scene at the Black Rock has me totally feening for a Richard backstory. I'm starting to like Jack again.

Favorite line was Ben offering Miles the $3.2M and Miles mentioning how he found the diamonds on Nikki and Paulo. Great tie in!

Where's Vincent?

Only tossing out one theory this week... Widmore is coming to fight for Locke and Desmond is still the person Jacob is waiting for.

I like LOST.

JoeSC said...

Oh yeah, I thought Ben's lecture on Napoleon and Elba in the beginning was awesome.

Power and Exile are two words that seem to have defined Ben and Widmore's relationship.

t-dot kim said...

You ppl cried? What's wrong with you? You're all soft.

I agree, Ilana needs to get out of those hideous Mom-Jeans.

So...only 6 candidates left? Nice.

Ben and his father were briefly in the Dharma Initiative on the island. Nice.

Is his dad sick b/c of his time on The Island, or is his not sick on The Island b/c of its healing powers.

I LIKE LOST.

Did anyone watch the dumb-hanced episode from last week? I watched about 5 minutes--but it did say that what's happening in the alt-world IS what would happen if Oceanic 815 hadn't crashed. It didn't say if it was "the future or the reset" after they leave the island--or if the flash "sideways" is how the world is without Jacob existing.

JoeSC said...

Yeah Kim, I watched about 10 minutes of the enhanced episode. Dumb except for one thing I found interesting.

When Dogan was about to stab Sayid in the throat and didn't because the baseball fell to the floor, it said the ball was a reminder that if he killed Sayid that his scale would tip to the evil side.

PalmerEldritch said...

yeah. ben and dad were in DHARMA up until some time-fuckers dropped an H-bomb on the island. then it was time to vamoooooooooooose.

in other words, i'm still thinking that the Alt-Timeline is "what if Jack's plan worked?"

cuz they left us hanging on that for a hell of a long time (since the season 5 finale).

and it's just gotta tie in somehow or something.

Clarence or the Ghost of Jacob Past will show them their "What If?" world and they'll choose the timeline we know and love. for some reason or another.

kim, i didn't cry during the episode. i was, however, tempted to cry when i saw my oscar pool results the other day.

John V. Holder III said...

Yeah, so that's a good point. She says there are 6 candidates left. I think she's counting Kwon as 1 right? So...Reyes, Ford, Jarrah, Shepherd, Kwon, Austen?

t-dot kim said...

....or Wallace??!

Kyle from Kentucky said...

6 Candidates left?

hmmm

-Kwon
-Austen
-Shephard
-Reyes
-Ford
-Jarrah

Am I right? No Frank or Desmond I guess.

mb said...

Sayid wouldn't be a candidate anymore though, would he? I assumed going with the smokester would take u off the list.

I didn't cry, but this was an emotional episode for me essentially. What I mean is it the elements that made it good all hit an emotional chord in me. the final slo-mo stuff with the hugs and then Ben standing alone on the beach, coupled with seeing his bittersweet alt-verse outcome, definitely tugged at me.

Glad to see Jack manning up and not screaming at the world.

Not sure I like powerless scared Richard - waiting to see how he turns out

Jordan said...

I felt this was by by far the strongest episode of the season. Not the flashiest ep by any means. But a very strong character piece. Great further development of Benjamin Linus. We all like different things from the show. But this is exactly up the alley of what I feel makes the show so great.

While I found last week's episode good solid fun. Sayid isn't a character I feel who correctly connects on an emotional level. At least not for me. And the alt-flash came off about as pointless as any we've seen this season. I was left pretty hollow after watching. It was whatever. Sayid kills people. We've known that for some time now.

But this episode really hit home on a character level. Surprise surprise, it was an ep centering around Michael Emerson. I really liked how the alt-flash played into the overall theme for Ben. He isn't inherently evil. Just has had a rough go of things and made some poor choices. I viewed the flash as a better depiction of who Ben is. How he'd handle things if he were in more control of his life, and not at the will of out of control crazy island life. And his confession to Ilana was a very fitting show of remorse for what happened with Alex. I had to stop myself a couple times while rooting for Ben, and remind myself of just how despicable he's been at times on this show. And of all the dastardly things he's done. But in the end sided with him because one of the main themes of this show is redemption. As well as the fact that people deserve a second chance. Ben turning his back on Smokey at the end, and siding with the beach house gang really hammered this home. That is unless he's playing everyone. Bwahahaha.

Jordan said...

This is just me. So please, nobody take offense if you don't see things from my perspective. We all got our own awesome takes. And our viewpoints and sensibilities obviously shape how we interpret things.

As I've mentioned times before on this blog, I could give two flying dumps about old questions being answered. By this point for me it's clear that none of that stuff really matters. The show has just changed so much over the course of time and gone to such a different place. And I really get the feeling as if the writers feel the same way.

That the writers are mainly interested in telling the stories of these characters. That the overall main island story is important, but comes secondary. And that all the old details of things they never gave explanation to really don't matter other than being things that they need to cross off a checklist so as to not piss off the fan base too much.

Case in point. Richard Alpert. For years now we've wondered why it was that he never aged. What was the story behind this? Had he found the fountain of youth? Was he time traveling? Did he simply have a really good make up artist? Sure can't wait to get that great Alpert-centric episode that's going to explain it all! And we finally get our answer with the writers yet again putting Hurley in the role of the fans asking annoying questions. And Alpert's answer? "A magic man touched me." And notice how quick it was dealt with and immediately brushed under the rug.

Again, maybe it's my own opinion shaping how I interpret things. But there has been more than a few times this season where the writers have quickly checked one of the unanswered questions off the list simply to address it and get past it.

So much of the island nonsense and overall story has become just so absurd if you really sit down and think about it. Magic islands, supernatural beings, time traveling. At this point in the show, ANYTHING can be given and qualify as an answer. Be it the overall "it's magic" answer that we've been getting for the most part, or something a tad more involved. These answers aren't exactly coming across as monumental breakthroughs of any kind. I fear if I cared too much about them, that I'd be quite disappointed.

Yeah, some of the stuff needs to be addressed, if not simply to close the chapter. But watching how the show is unfolding along with some of the interviews from Cuselof I read before the season. It's really the characters that need all of our focus. That is what the writers are intending to serve up to us as the main course of this great feast they've prepared. That if people get too hung up on the WHY and the HOW, that it's just gonna lead down the road of disappointment. Instead the key to the equation being the WHO.

Jordan said...

Don't get me wrong. All that mythology and crazy plot stuff still matters. I'd be as bummed as any if they don't give us a compelling end to what's going down on the island. Just that it doesn't matter nearly as much as the character arcs that we've all been watching for 6 years now meeting their proper conclusions.

I know some Lost fans are asking why they should care about off-island stuff. Now I'm pretty certain it's all going to tie together semi-logically in the end. It's got to, right? But even if it didn't, I find this stuff to continue to speak about these characters. Regardless if we're ever able to get a time-line connection from teacher Ben to island Ben. That's still Ben. We're learning things about him that we never got the chance to given the island circumstance. He is the same person on the most basic level. As have been all the people we've seen off-island. Regardless any changes their lives may provide, they all so far have had the same character attributes. In some circumstances characters have been able to embrace things they hadn't been able to in the past (or other lifetime). In others, they are still struggling with the same issues. But the themes remain the same. As do the characters.

Just felt this worth saying after watching a very good episode of Lost. One in which the character development really stood out to me. A strong reminder of what this show has always done so well. And really IMO what it strives for first and foremost.

John V. Holder III said...

Yeah, I'm not gonna read that.

Jordan said...

After all that, haven't really touched on the rest of the non-Ben parts of the episode. So here goes.

Loved crazy Russian roulette Jack. That's what I'm talking about. Have absolutely hated mopey whiny Jack Shepperd. Now this guy I'm liking a lot more. This guy's got a sense of purpose and from the looks of it a set of balls. Really hope this is the Jack we get the rest of the way out. Could Captain Jack actually redeem himself in my eyes? Wow, I'd be impressed. Now let's see if the writers are able to do the same with moody Kate...

Interesting development regarding Miles' abilities. Apparently he isn't able to communicate with the dead. Just able to hear what their final thoughts were before they died. Whether or not that bit of info only came out so as to explain Miles knowing what Jacob's final thoughts were so he could tell them to Ben (which I tend to believe), interesting to know. I like the idea of it a lot more than Miles sitting there talking to spirits. It also differentiates his ability from Hurley's.

How both awesome and hilarious was the opening scene group exposition? Rapid fire game of catch everyone up on what just went down (last week).

It's been so long that everyone got split up timeline wise, that I totally forgot how long it had been that Sun had seen Jack or Hurley. At first I was thinking they were all in the temple together and that the slo-mo beach hug was a tad bit overly dramatic. Then I remembered exactly where and when everyone had been the past few seasons and it all made sense.

I'd said previously that I hoped we'd seen the last of Artz being annoying. But he fit in perfectly fine in the school. Now had Frogurt turned as the lunch lady, that would've been a different story.

I wonder if Miles had dug up the diamonds before or after his snarky comment to Ben? Did he make the joke then think to himself, "Wait a minute..."?

Like I said previously, I was really glad to see Ben align with the Beach party. Would've been too typical for him to run back to Smokey. Also nice to see him grow a pair for a change.

"He's coming" = Widmore. Kinda obvious. But totally makes sense.

scrdmnkydst said...

I loved this episode. It reminded me so much of season 1, in that it was barely mythologically based but more about the characters.

The only thing I got confused about was how Alex was off island, with Danielle, presumably. I thought that she could have got on a shitty CGI sub that the island seems to attract, but Danielle shipwrecked on the island 5 years later than Dharma left the island right? Meh.

The writers probably just thought it would be cool to slot Alex into Ben's sideflash... which it kinda was.

Hurley should have bedhead (junglehead?) more often. Looks well better than when he puts it behind his ears.

Jordan said...

Don't feel I've written enough to permanently scare away Holder. So here's some thoughts in addition to my own. Got this from Sepinwall's blog. Didn't make the connection myself. But pretty slick, I must admit.

"A nice touch in the scene with Alt-Ben and Alt-Roger: Ben gives his father gas, only here it's something to keep him alive (oxygen), rather than to kill him (the nerve gas from the purge)."

Nice one Lost writers. Good on ya.

Jordan said...

Sorry to those afraid of lots of words. :P I guess my inner Lostaholic needed to make up for not writing nearly anything about last week's ep that left me without much to say. Hahaha. That's what y'all get.

scrdmnkydst said...

Hahaha, I noticed the gas thing with Roger during the episode. I couldn't help but laugh thinking that the writers would get a kick out of that.

Jordan said...

Whose issue of Booty Babes do you think that was?

scrdmnkydst said...

Was it not hinted to be Sawyer's? what with the book next to the boobie magazine? Sorta looked like his tent too...

Jordan said...

He may have been reading it. But who brought it onto the plane? DUN DUN DUN!

I'm going with Bernard.

andrew. said...

perhaps the issue of Booty Babes was the smoke monster

aimee is lost said...

Sooo...does Booty Babes need to be added to my Lost Library? Cause it would be unethical of me to exclude it.

If Ilana considers Sayid gone, then it would only be Shephard/Austen/Reyes/Kwon/Ford/Wallace - that would be the 6.

But she may not know about Wallace/108.

andrew. said...

wasn't Wallace crossed out? i never actually saw the name on the wheel, just heard about it on podcasts.

and if Sayid is gone, why wouldn't Sawyer or Kate also be eliminated? unless the 6 just represent the candidates that Ilana still considers.

i still think Lapidus is in the running. Ilana decided he was a candidate, and then there was the little exchange between Ben & Frank last night about the island getting Frank eventually.

aimee is lost said...

I do believe Wallace was crossed out, but that doesn't really matter if Jacob still wanted him to find the island.

Zachary Laughrey said...

I like the idea that Lapidus is still in the candidate running. Like Ben said "The island still got you here".

Also, when the kid told Flocke "You can't kill him" he may have been talking about Richard? Does anyone think Smokey couldn't kill Ilana?

PalmerEldritch said...

it was Cindy's issue of Booty Babes.




Alex is in LA because Rousseau and Co. drifted by the submerged island or her folks' lives were slightly different by the inclusion of former Dharmites back into the '77+ timeline.

good catch with Roger and the Gas.


6 candidates? Jack, Hurley, Somebody Kwon, Sawyer, Sayid, and... FRANK LAPIDUS!

why? cuz Bram randomly said "eh, he could maybe be a candidate" once.

PalmerEldritch said...

LOST Art Project: http://io9.com/5489659/lost-fan-will-create-365-pieces-of-art-for-every-day-of-the-year

weird ass LOST/Avatar pics. with bonus underage wizards.

aimee is lost said...

Austen was not crossed out on the wheel. Even though she's been crossed out from my heart for the past 3 seasons.

PalmerEldritch said...

i really hope that Jacob had had enough time to cross her name out on the Batcave wall but had not had the chance to scratch her out on the lighthouse wheel.

please? please?

PalmerEldritch said...

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Numbers says Austen was number 51. and thoroughly scratched out. phew!

they list only 5 non-scratched out names. hrmmm... so, is Lapidus the sixth? is Ilana herself?

PalmerEldritch said...

although lostpedia could be wrong.

in which case, we might be stuck with a story where Kate would end up in charge of the Island in 1977 shortly after Jughead went off. then she'll move the Island back and forth to stalk Sawyer and Jack and, eventually, the Island won't be able to handle it and will sink to the bottom of the ocean where Kate will marry the Dharma Shark.

PalmerEldritch said...

do you have netflix? you can request a CD that lets you stream their "Watch Now" library to your PS3.

youtube will work fine on the built-in browser. hulu blocks PS3s now. most flash stuff seems to work.

i think the new version of Azureus (has a new name) will let you stream from the PC to the PS3.

Stephanie said...

According to TV Guide, the six candidates are
Hurley
Jack
Ben
Miles
Richard
Iliana
Frank

I'm confused.

Stephanie said...

That's 7 names. See? Confused.

PalmerEldritch said...

straume's already crossed out.

tv guide is full of balogna! maybe. :p

PalmerEldritch said...

even after looking over http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Candidates#Known_candidates i'm a bit confuseled.

PalmerEldritch said...

ok., MIB points out 5 current candidates on the wall to Sawyer. 6 including Locke. which he crosses out.

then if you add in Frank (assuming that Bram was being truthful), that could be six. or it could be some other oddball sixth person.

Widmore, Kate(boo!), or Richard?

PalmerEldritch said...

or Ilana miscounted.

PalmerEldritch said...

oh. btw, was last night's LOST directed by Mario Van Peebles or did i misread that in some sort of spaghetti fueled haze?

andrew. said...

don't forget Aaaaaron. that kid better amount to something for all of the trouble he's put everyone through.

Jordan said...

Yeah, Aaron being the Jacob's replacement would be just about the only way of salvaging all that build year eon's ago.

I say a 5 year old Aaron & 42 year old Walt take over as co-protectors of the island. It could be a buddy comedy spin off.

Morgan said...

Yep Van Peebles directed. I listen to Jorge Garcia's podcast too and there's a picture of him with Jorge & Matthew Fox. There's also a squirrel baby photo.

http://geronimojacksbeard.blogspot.com/

señorsifert said...

I'll give anyone 5 Ka-blamos! if they can tell me which previous episode ending paralleled this one. I SWEAR the final beach scene was almost identical to one we have already seen. I know it wasn't from season 1 tho, I have those epi's memorized. Anyone? I am going crazier than a Sayid and Jack sandwich here!!!!
(I bet Kim would like to have a Sayid and Jack sandwich!)

señorsifert said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
señorsifert said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
andrew. said...

look, they already made a Principle Jerkwad:
action figure

PalmerEldritch said...

yes, it's true. this action figure has no anatomical correctness.



KA-BLAMO!

mb said...

lmao - nice 69blammo!

Ralph- said...

kablam o==8

Jordan said...

New NBC Show!

Anonymous said...

Stephanie, the article you read said 3 of the 6 candidates Sun (possible), Hurley, and Jack were joined by Richard, Ben, Ilana, Miles, and Frank.

The other 3 Jin (possible), Sayid, and James (Sawyer) are with Locke.

That's actually 5, (we are led to believe that only Sun or Jin, and not both, is a candidate).

The 6th is actually Wallace which the article does not talk about.

Fleudiddy said...

I've gotta silly question, when did Hurley meet Richard in 1977???

PalmerEldritch said...

Wallace?

the "other" evolution guy. posited that, instead of survival of the fittest, the primary cause of evolution was environmental pressure. more interestingly, for LOST, is this:

"Shortly afterwards, Wallace became a spiritualist. At about the same time, he began to maintain that natural selection cannot account for mathematical, artistic, or musical genius, as well as metaphysical musings, and wit and humour. He eventually said that something in "the unseen universe of Spirit" had interceded at least three times in history. The first was the creation of life from inorganic matter. The second was the introduction of consciousness in the higher animals. And the third was the generation of the higher mental faculties in mankind. He also believed that the raison d'être of the universe was the development of the human spirit."


then his standing in the scientific community goes to crap cuz he's into mesmerism and stuff.

sounds kind of LOSTy.

John V. Holder III said...

I seriously don't think we'll ever hear the name Wallace mentioned in the show. The only reason Jack went up there was to figure out he (Jack) was important. Wallace just happened to be at 108.

That's all I'll say about it.

PalmerEldritch said...

LOST as Baywatch intro.

possibly NSFW cuz i'm not sure that Kiele Sanchez had any pants on in one shot. possible side-butt and side-boob!

John V. Holder III said...

Yesssssssssssssssss. Loved it.

mb said...

lmao - was JUST coming here to post that Baywatch/LOST mashup.

But - Bai Ling?!?! You make a Baywatch spoof from Lost and the first female image you show is....Bai Ling? There are enough shots in the last 5+ years of Evi/Emilie/Maggie/Elizabeth etc... that that was just mean man. Totally unnecessary.

PalmerEldritch said...

aimee wrote on her facebook that she's suffering from taco overload. i'm too polite to ask on facebook if that's related to the blogspot's previous taco related discussion.

so i'm asking here.

PalmerEldritch said...

extra six minutes of LOST during episode 9??

Kyle from Kentucky said...

hate to say it but a fairly boring episode. not close to the top 3 Ben episodes

mb said...

New thread @ The SPLOG

All remaining episode titles + centricity (if known)

alexis o'whatever said...

wouldn't it be weird if the remaining six candidates were the same people as the oceanic six?

John V. Holder III said...

I think it'd be neat, I just don't think Aaron is a candidate.

alexis o'whatever said...

why wouldn't aaron be a candidate. he's actually the perfect candidate, born on the island, father died on the island, mother is crazy on the island, stepmom and uncle are candidtates (and also doing eachother)

aaron's got my vote.

John V. Holder III said...

Your support info has too many errors for me to take you seriously.

PalmerEldritch said...

aaron as a candidate makes sense. as much sense as any of the others, anyhow. lowercase others.

and it would, hopefully, mean that kate's not a candidate.

mb said...

Lex -
I thought about the 06 being the candidates, but Locke's dead, Sayid's gone to the dark side, and the name Littleton is crossed out on the cave wall

mb said...

Time to change the profile photo


Also - you've probably already seen it but: Lost Writers Need Your Help

scrdmnkydst said...

...just because they're evil, it doesn't mean that they can't be candidates.

John V. Holder III said...

hahahaha

John V. Holder III said...

I have no clue how to post a link, but this picture makes me laugh.

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/8316/1268373432398.jpg

Stephanie said...

Bookmark this, Holder. Something that took a while for me to learn- leave in the quotation marks.