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Lost: Exodus, Part 1

Danielle: "Dynamite. At the Black Rock, in the Dark Territory."
Hurley: "Well, that's three reasons to go, right there."

This episode was like a big box of candy, full of delicious tidbits. There were touching scenes, resolutions, reveals, and multiple character flashbacks. It was so good, I watched it three times. Yes, I have no life.

I think this was the first time we've seen all of the survivors working together like a family, with all of them contributing to ensure the survival of only four. This week's Most Obvious Symbolism was the message bottle, which was symbolic of those left behind going with Michael, Walt, Jin, and Sawyer in spirit. (Second Most Obvious Symbolism may have been the cop's broken mug in the Sawyer flashback, since the mug had pictures of his kids on it.)

Without a doubt, the most surprising and touching scene was Sawyer telling Jack the truth about his encounter with Christian. What a freaking decent thing for Sawyer to do, proving that he really does have a soft marshmallow center. I also think part of it was that Sawyer can't handle feeling obligated to anyone, so he told Jack the truth in exchange for Jack's kindness in giving him the gun.

Other really touching scenes were: Jin and Sun forgiving each other, and crying in each other's arms; Walt giving his dog to Shannon; and that moving final scene with Vincent swimming after the boat. Interesting what Walt said about no one talking to him after his mother died, which may be another clue that Walt caused his mother's death – inadvertently or vertently.



There was a lot of Danielle. We learned that she arrived on the Island pregnant and lost her one week old daughter Alex to the Others, confirming that it was little Turnip-head that was the cause of the current attack. But why would the Others send out black smoke ahead of time? Smoke signals? Were they working on weapons? Burning a sacrifice? Anthony on my LostReviews discussion list said it meant they still hadn't chosen a pope.

We had six fascinating mini-flashbacks relating to everyone preparing for flight 815:

1. Walt, Michael, and Vincent in a Sydney hotel room, with Walt being outright rebellious about getting on the plane. (Walt, you were right.) We've seen a lot of softening in Walt recently, as he has developed a good relationship with Michael.

2. Jack drinking at an airport bar, where we finally discovered that Christian died of a heart attack and that Jack wasn't married any more. Of course, we still don't know if he's divorced or widowed. (I'm betting on widowed.) Jack was in seat 23B. Ana Lucia, the woman who was trying to pick him up, was on flight 815's "big number" seat, 42F, which in itself meant that she must be an important character. Is Ana Lucia still alive and on the other side of the Island with Rose's husband?



3. Sawyer and the cop, where we learned that Sawyer's real name is James Ford, he has a record as long as his arm, and that he was being deported for head-butting Warren Truss, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Meaning that he was not arrested for anything to do with Christian Shephard. Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry? Sounded like the Island to me. And why did Sawyer call the cop "doctor"?

4. Kate and the marshal, where we learned that she had tried to explain her "mitigating circumstances" to him, and he explained how he finally caught her by using the toy airplane as bait. I think I missed something, though, because I still didn't get the five guns thing. How could he hold more than two on her at a time?

5. Shannon, Boone, and oddly enough, Sayid, as the siblings argued about getting a spot in first class, and Sayid did something no one should do in an airport these days: leave a bag with a stranger. Shannon has softened a lot, as well; note the contrast between her cold selfishness with Boone and Sayid at the airport and her sweet scenes with Walt and Vincent.

6. Sun and Jin spilling coffee, and Sun overhearing a lot of bigotry. She was most likely remembering how that felt when she gave Jin that lovely phonetic "English" phrase book.

More visible extras this time, too. And a lot of screen time for Leslie Arzt, who felt "off" somehow. I noticed that he didn't put a note in the bottle. Locke didn't, either, but I think that made more sense than Arzt, who was supposedly a high school teacher, not doing it. I started to think Arzt was a plant, like Ethan. Yes, his name was on the manifest, but what if he assumed a passenger's name? Leslie could be a woman's name, couldn't it?

Character bits:

Lots of screen time for Danielle Rousseau. I hope hope hope her character lives through the finale. Please make Mira Furlan a regular, you guys. I adore her.

Locke and Rousseau make a cute couple. They were both named after philosophers and they're both nuts. See? Lots in common.

Kate's Tom died two years ago.

I like Michelle Rodriguez. She's big in movies right now, so I assume Ana Lucia is going to be in more than one scene.

Dan observed that Walt may have power over animals: birds, polar bears, dogs.

Locke said earlier that when his sister died, a dog appeared to help his mother with her grief and then just disappeared. Interesting, what just happened with Vincent.

Walt peed into a tree.

Hurley's hair looked much longer wet.

Shannon still looked terrible. What was she wearing around her neck at the airport?

What caused the scratches on Danielle's arm? Not a bush, for sure, and too small for a polar bear.

Bits and pieces:

— We learned that the Monster is a security system that protects the Island. Except we still don't know what it looks like or exactly who it "works for." It appears to have motion detectors, because standing still and using small trees for cover keeps it from "seeing" you. Whatever.



— The launch of the Raft felt very Ten Commandments. One can extrapolate that season one of the series was Genesis, and we're moving into Exodus. There were forty days and nights, according to fan sites. And Dan thought the "Black Rock," the very cool looking shipwrecked ship, looked like an ark, adding to our hefty score of biblical references. (I thought it looked more like an old pirate ship.) Why is it so far inland?

— I'm sure Sayid is right and the Hatch is Very Bad. Can't they hide in the Black Rock, instead?

— More with numbers. There were a lot of repetitions of the numbers three and five. Along with the seat numbers, six went into the jungle after the dynamite, and there were six people on Danielle's original team. She was seven months pregnant. Flight 815 was supposed to be fifteen hours long. The clock in Michael and Walt's hotel room said 5:23.

— Montand, one of Danielle's "team," lost his arm when the team "got infected." Any connection to Boone's near amputation before his premature demise?

— What was Walt watching on television? I'm sure it meant something, because everything appears to mean something.

— I'd be interested in reading the slips of paper in the bottle that Charlie collected for the Raft.

— The score this week was simply terrific, even better than usual. Except for the sliding horn sound effect before the cut to commercial. I hate it. Please, make it stop.

— Many of the cast deserve big gold acting stars for this one: Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, and Malcolm David Kelley in particular.

Quotes:

Danielle: "You have only three choices. Run. Hide. Or die."

Sawyer: "See, kids are like dogs. If you knock them around enough, they'll think they did something to deserve it." This certainly applies to more characters than just Sawyer and Jack.

Charlie: "Dear Mom: Everything's fine. I'm on the Island, unless, of course, the black smoke people show up. Love, your name here."

Four out of four polar bears, of course. This show just keeps hitting the awesome button,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

8 comments:

  1. Your first paragraph made me smile. I, too, watched it three times. Each time, I cried earlier and more. You mentioned all of the scenes that got to me: Sawyer and Jack (one of the best scenes this show has done yet), Jin and Sun, Walt and Shannon.

    Small continuity error. In this episode, Jack is in 23B, but in “Walkabout,” he was in 23A. As he was sitting next to the window, my vote goes for 23A. Yet, this show seems to do absolutely nothing by accident, so probably thirty shows from now I’ll be commenting that this was done for a very good reason.

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  2. Such a weepy episode. I lost it when Vincent tried to swim with the raft. I'm such a sucker for schmaltz. :-)

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  3. I think I missed something, though, because I still didn't get the five guns thing. How could he hold more than two on her at a time?

    More importantly, how could Kate resist the urge to make a joke about him overcompensating for something?

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  4. Of the probably 1000 or more fantastic scenes over the series, the Jack/Sawyer scene is near or at the top of my list.

    In one of the CD sets they have Lindelof and Cuse mention that they dare you to compare the raft launch scene to any major motion picture for scope and effect, and I think they're right. Marvelously done.

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  5. Incredible episode,so many moving scenes. The raft's launch,the goodbye,the airport's flashback,I cried too.

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  6. love your reviews even though im always late too them but i will answer some stuff

    the show walt was watching was power rangers time force a show that was originally in japan but aired in america it currently has 18 different series for it.......so yeah its insane

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  7. Hi Billie, love your reviews… but who is Dan?

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  8. Anonymous, Dan is my son. He watched the series with me and had things to say about it. When I used something he said, I gave him credit. :)

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