Hurley: "It all could have been avoided if they just, you know, communicated. Let's face it. Ewoks suck, dude."
Nice backstory for Miles. I've grown to like Miles. But I don't think we really learned much about him that we didn't already know.
We knew he could communicate with the dead. We knew he was deeply into money but that he has a heart, even though he likes to pretend that he doesn't. And of course, we freak-out obsessed Lost fans figured out awhile back that Miles might be Dr. Chang's son. Although it may have been a real shocker for the more casual viewer who doesn't obsess about every stupid detail of this stupid show, like the fact that the episode began with a microwave timer at 3:16.
Daddy issues, redux. I have to say, I don't know how Miles could resist getting to know his parents for three whole years. He wouldn't even look Dr. Chang in the eye. Hasn't Miles seen Back to the Future? The Changs looked happy, too. What broke them up? I wonder if Miles himself will have something to do with it? (Yeah, I know, whatever happened happened.)
Miles and Hurley were a hoot together. (Although you could say that about Hurley and pretty much anybody.) I guess you're going to bond if you're delivering dead bodies and sandwiches together, and they do both talk to dead people. Loved the connection of the whole daddy issue thing with Hurley re-writing The Empire Strikes Back. Miles, I am your father. What changes would Hurley make? It's a nearly perfect movie (says Billie the geek). Maybe something that would preemptively wipe out the Ewoks?
Naomi showed up in 2004 to recruit Miles. Bram from Flight 316 turned up in 2004 to recruit Miles, too. Bram said he had all the answers: about Miles' gift, about Chang. Apparently, Ilana and Bram and their merry band aren't the Others we know and love – they don't know Ben, and they don't work for Widmore.
So we have a whole new faction, the "what lies in the shadow of the statue" faction. (WLITSOTS, for short.) Lots of people have theorized that "what lies" is Jughead, and it's about to blow. (Which would explain why the statue is nearly gone and there's only a foot left.) Something had to be encased in cement under the Swan Hatch. Something is going to cause people to push that stupid button every 108 minutes. I bet we're about to find out what it is.
Whatever that something is, it feels like it's going to correspond with the 1977 Losties getting into some deep crap with the Dharma Initiative. You can just feel their situation falling apart. What possessed Kate to try to make that asshole Roger Linus feel better? I know, best of intentions. Jack tried, but he basically just put a band-aid on it, and it's not going to hold. Especially now that Sawyer had to bonk Phil on the head. What is Sawyer going to do with Phil? There's nowhere to put him. Nowhere to hide.
Nice cliffhanger. Faraday managed to become one of the hotshot Dharma scientists from Ann Arbor. Nice trick. Can't wait to hear about that one.
Character bits:
Miles came from the Island in the first place. Miles' power must come from the Island, because it would be an unbelievable coincidence if it didn't.
Miles' gift doesn't work if the body has been cremated. He couldn't pick up on Gray's son. I seem to remember something about the Others needing Amy's husband's body. Just saying.
Loved the zillion piercings and the skunk streak in Miles' hair. Though I have to ask, where did all the holes go? You can usually see piercing holes.
Felix, the dead guy in the restaurant, was delivering info to Widmore on empty graves and an old airplane. (And we all know what that's about.) Have we encountered Felix before?
Bits and pieces:
— Lots of Hurley's numbers. The microwave. 1.6 million. Miles's copy of Sports Illustrated had "After 23 years... new boss in L.A." on the cover. The tape Miles didn't erase was for monitor 4. The dead body that little Miles found was in apartment 4. And Hurley actually got to see his numbers being stamped on the Hatch door.
— Little Miles moved a ceramic white rabbit to find the key to apartment 4. Lots of white rabbits in Lost.
— Some poor schmuck named Alvarez got killed by a filling. I always knew dentistry was inherently evil.
— The blackboard that Jack cleaned had stuff on it about Egyptian history and interpreting hieroglyphics.
— Dr. Chang called Alcatraz "Hydra Island" and said they were doing "ridiculous polar bear experiments" there. And he was reading Me and My Polar Bear to baby Miles.
— Let's all remember that we saw Faraday in the flashback where Chang discovered the Time Travel Wheel Thingy. I bet we're about to see that, too.
— Brad William Henke (Bram) had a key guest role in several episodes of Dexter. I recognized him several episodes back and had a feeling he was going to be more than background.
— Seventies music. "Seems it never rains in Southern California." "Love will keep us together." Wasn't it raining when they left L.A.? And our love rectangle is an eternal mess.
Quotes:
Hurley: "Why don't we carpool? It'll help with global warming. Which hasn't happened yet, so maybe we can prevent it."
Miles: "I'm happy for you."
Hurley: "You're just jealous my power is better than yours."
Naomi: "My employer is willing to pay you one point six million dollars."
Miles: "When do we leave?"
Chang: "You, Hurley. You say a word..."
Hurley: "Polar bear poop. Got it."
Bram: "You're playing for the wrong team."
Miles: "Yeah? What team are you on?"
Bram: "The one that's gonna win."
Win what?
Three out of four polar bears,
Billie
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
Hi, Billie
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of Kate's, although I have a crush on Evangeline LiLy, but I have to come in her defense. WE know that Mr Linus in an a**hole, we've had two or three episodes showing that; but SHE has never seen it. All she saw was a father worrying about her kid, reacting very badly. I don't think she was thoughtless in trying to comfort him.
Bram, Illana, etc. Who are they working for? Certainly not Widmore, as revealed in this episode. And for sure it's not Ben, as also [indirectly] revealed in this episode. Miles has divulged to Bram and his kidnappers that he received an offer of 1.6 mil, and he wants double to pass on going to the Island. Recall that Miles was held captive by Locke and his crew at one point. Ben had this chat with Miles:
ReplyDeleteMILES: (to Ben) Do you know who I am?
BEN: Yes.
MILES: Do you know who I work for?
BEN: Yes.
MILES: Then you know he's put a lot of time and energy into finding you. So now I've found you. And I can tell him exactly where you are. Or I can lie, and tell him you were already dead. I'd be willing to do that, for 3.2 million dollars.
BEN: You've arranged this meeting so you could blackmail me?
MILES: (his lips move silently for a moment) It's extortion if you want to get technical.
BEN: 3.2? But why not 3.3 or 3.4?
Surely Ben would know why Miles would ask for 3.2 mil had Bram and co. been working for him.
I think Bram and co. belong to a third faction in this cobweb of affiliations, and my money is on DHARMA Intiative, as Bram claims he has access to information that only the Initiative would reasonably have.
Personally I’d leave Empire alone, it’s perfect as it is, and just rewrite Jedi. Ewoks do suck, dudes (don’t you just want to hug Hurley sometimes).
ReplyDeleteI’m with the whole Revenge of Dharma theory. “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” is a bit too like that other Initiative code phrase “what did one snowman say to the other?” to be coincidence. We know that Ben and the others purged the island Dharma but it’s never been made clear what happened to everyone who worked off island. Were they purged as well?
I’ve got a feeling the Swan is going to play a key role in the season finale and possibly getting our time lost castaway home. There have been just too many ominous hints (and there's the title of the finale which I won't spoil for anyone who dosen't know it). Plus, Lost’s other Billy Pilgrim is back in play so hopefully this 70s plot with get a little more forward momentum as well as a few more cryptic answers. Shame we’ve got to wait two weeks.
Miles' face when Dr Chang said he liked country....what a hoot! I'd be pissed too.
ReplyDeleteChops, you don't need to go this far back for indication that the Shadow of the Statue people don't work for Ben. They didn't recognize him in the episode before, and he shot one of them point blank.
ReplyDeleteTheir being Dharma people is a great theory. I was thinking maybe they work for Eloise/Ellie. How else would they know to get on Flight 316? Eloise would then have used the Oceanic Six to open the gateway (presumably because the island wants them back) in order to get her own people on the island. Ooh, perhaps Ellie takes over leadership of Dharma at some point in the past!
Bram "my friend" man works for the Eloise/Ellie faction... I like that!!
ReplyDeleteI agree that this episode Some Like It Hoth was kinda tame, but it's understandable considering how awesome last week's was. I still enjoyed it though- Hurley and Miles make a great team haha.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to find out about what Faraday's been up to!
All in all, a good Episode. Lost has become somewhat predictable in its unpredictability, as more and more holes get plugged in its metaphorical dike. So we get more confirmation about what we already suspected regarding Miles. The big "reveal" was Bram and the 3rd faction, as hinted at by Widmore in S4. Miles' backstory was overdue by about one season--blame it on the writer's strike--but SLIH was the perfect setup for a Faraday-centric Ep. Faraday is the variable (the opposite of the constant). He works for both Widmore/the Others and DI. He's not only related to Hawking, but may have worked alongside her, building the pendulum in the Lamppost, during his time off-island. i dont think Hawking has her own faction. she's more of a wild card/free agent. Otherwise, she wouldn't have allowed Ben into the Lamppost. What's up with Juliet wearing red? If anyone needs to die, its Kate, who's not that hot compared to Juliet. Her character is Bo-ring. she should just sleep with Roger already.
ReplyDeleteGrate catch with the husbands body.
ReplyDeleteAlways a pleasure.
Clearly i'm the only person who liked the Ewoks.
ReplyDeleteAs for the rest of the episode, we didn't really learn anything new and apart from fun Miles/Hurley/Dr Chang conversations there was little in the way of character stuff to enjoy. I did notice that Sawyer is still calling Jack Doc though, which if he gets overheard, might require some explaining.
i think that the polar bear island is the other island
ReplyDelete