SHAME ON YOU AS "THE LAST RECRUIT"

Well, we’re barreling toward the end now. You can practically feel the conclusion of the story approaching. I can’t believe we’re so close to the finish line; it admittedly feels sort of surreal. I don’t know if anyone is still keeping with this blog; if you are, feel free to drop me a comment. Not because I’m eager for lots of comments, really, but because the experience of brand new LOST is rapidly disappearing, and soon there won’t be much of a chance to hear from people on blogs like this. And the spambot stopped leaving me messages like “This is exciting article with word written good. You like free jacket? Try it do not be silly!” It’s getting lonely.

It seems that almost all entertainment news this week is focusing on the Blu-Ray/DVD release of “Avatar” (featuring LOST’s own Michelle Rodriguez, as well as one of my favorite actresses, CCH Pounder). I’m not sure what the big deal is, to be honest. I liked “Avatar” . . . I am a fan of James Cameron, I thought it was a visually stunning movie, and the story had some interesting social and spiritual bits to chew on. But “Avatar” as some kind of life-changing revelation that will forever alter how we think of movies? I’m not so sure about that. The plot was cool but loaded with your standard archetypes, the Na’Vi were a bit too perfect and the humans a bit too across-the-board corrupt, the environmental message was well-meaning and noble but so unsubtle and unambiguous as to be distracting (and I am an unabashed sucker for nature), and even with all of the tree-loving pondering the movie still becomes about blowing shit up real good and killing the bad guys. As for the 3D? It looked beautiful, marvelous, hypnotic and I would call it an artistic triumph. But I have to confess to being a bit of a Luddite, and for as cool as the 3D looked, it didn’t make the movie for me. At all. I have to imagine the movie would still be beautiful in 2D. I really don’t understand all of the people who insist the movie is only worthwhile in 3D; it’s probably not much of a movie if that’s where it derives all of its power. On the other hand, I don’t have a hi-def TV, Blu-Ray player or even an iPhone, so I’m pretty behind in the world of modern technology. But I really don’t find 3D to be all that transformative, cinematically. I saw “Alice in Wonderland” in 3D and found it to be only a so-so movie, and the 3D totally unnecessary. “Avatar” at least makes the most of what modern 3D has to offer, but even so, I really don’t know that it changes the playing field that much. It probably does for moviegoing as a whole, just not for me.

Okay, rant over. On to “The Last Recruit” . . .

I thought this was a terrific episode, one of the fastest-paced and most exciting hours of the show, especially for a transitional episode. Not so much in the sense of major character moments or mythological revelations, though there were a handful, but simply in terms of action and adrenaline this episode really delivered. It felt very scattered, and as many have noted the prime focus of “The Last Recruit” was to move the chess pieces around the board, but this fragmented sensation was more than intentional and worked in the spirit of the episode. Highlights:

- We now have confirmation that the Man in Black can only take the forms of the dead. It’s still unclear if this is some arbitrary rule or an actual law of nature—or supernature, as it were—but at least we know he is bound to the realm of the deceased. This ties into last week’s revelation that the island can act as a purgatory for souls who cannot move on, and that ghosts can use the properties of the island to communicate with the living. It was also a major relief for Jack to finally ask MIB if that was indeed him posing as Christian, as the events of “White Rabbit” have only meant more and more to Jack as time has gone on. I’ve always figured that Christian’s appearance was the island’s way of helping Jack and leading him to shelter and water, so it was nice for Locke to confirm that as well. I actually teared up when they talked about this, because it goes so far back to the beginning of the series and resurrected so many underlying emotions that I couldn’t help but be moved. Call me a sucker.

- And speaking of suckers, the Man in Black called out Locke for being one. I thought his dissection of Locke’s personality in the premiere was somewhat mean, but this was brutal. MIB pretty much admitted that he thinks Locke was a pathetic loser, and had no trouble using him. It made me pissed for Locke and I kind of hope he comes back to life and beats up the imposter. I know the Man in Black admitted that he was trying to help Jack, and I know he’s done other things to help other characters as well, but I still think he’s been manipulating Jack and that he does not have good intentions for anyone on this island. He does not like people, as he’s made very clear in the past, and I think he’ll try to kill pretty much everybody before all is said and done. I think a lot of folks are gravitating to the idea that MIB is maybe just misunderstood and possibly not the villain at all, and that Jacob might in fact be the real bad guy on LOST. And in fact I do think Jacob and MIB are probably misunderstood and a lot more ambiguous than we’re thinking. But I still believe the black smoke to be a misanthropic, homicidal nutcase that will do anything in order to free itself from the island. That doesn’t make Jacob the paragon of goodness (I’m sure we’ll see he’s done some questionable things, and that his ultimate goals will remain controversial), but I seriously doubt the Man in Black is to be trusted. I guess maybe some people are averse to the idea of good and evil being symbolized by Jacob and the Man in Black because it seems too easy, and though I doubt it’ll be quite that simple, in general I do think that is more or less the case.

- Jack sure rocked in this episode. Interesting how the title “The Last Recruit” seems to apply to him. The next episode is called “The Candidate” and I think that title likely applies to him as well; the two titles really symbolize how Jack can go in either direction at this point. I wonder if him being knocked senseless by the bomb at the end doesn’t put him at risk of being “claimed” by the Man in Black, as a similar thing sure seemed to happen to Claire back in season four. Speaking of Claire, I was really happy that Jack and Claire finally got to acknowledge their brother-sister relationship in both timelines. Their reunion couldn’t have been worse timed, though, as Jack essentially had to abandon her and she only wound up on the Elizabeth through Kate’s machinations, not Jack’s. He seems not quite able to really be her brother, which makes sense as he’s being confronted with an awful lot pretty quickly. Jack’s intuitive connection to the island has never been stronger, and it’s anybody’s guess as to what he’ll do next.

- On the subject of poorly timed reunions, we finally got to see Sun and Jin stumble across each other! That doesn’t sound like a dramatic way to word their reunion, but it’s more or less what happened, and my Jacob was it satisfying. The series could not have teased this much longer, but damn if they didn’t do a great job keeping the suspense on high. (And for the record, yes I liked that Sun regained her ability to speak when she saw Jin, and yes I liked Frank’s corny commentary. The show earned it). But no sooner did they find happiness in each other’s arms than party pooper Zoe was all like, “Okay, everybody on yours knees because we need to blow up your friends and also we might shoot you.” WTF, Widmore?

- But it makes sense. I don’t think Widmore is really to be trusted either, so his betrayal of Sawyer felt appropriate. I am inclined to believe that Widmore’s people killed the Ajira survivors. This is war, and whether you’re with Jacob or Locke or Widmore, everyone will have blood on their hands. Charles Wids did authorize the Purge and commit many other horrible acts, so it’s believable that he’d start offing everyone.

- The flash sideways stuff was awesome and intense. I got a chill when Sun looked over at injured Locke and started screaming, “No!” Really creepy. I still don’t really know where all of this is going or how it will come together. Desmond seems to have some sort of end point in mind and I honestly can’t wait to see what it is. He’s surpassed just playing matchmaker and has done things like run over John Locke with his car and intervene in Claire’s adoption process, so something is going on. Though there seems to be a fair amount of good things happening in the flash sideways (Jack’s relationship with his son, Sun and Jin’s baby being okay, Claire finding her half-brother, etc.), there nevertheless seems to be some darkness that must be dealt with as well.

- We finally got a full name for our intrepid exploding heroine: Ilana Verdansky. It was wonderful to see her again, and curious that she had an American accent in this timeline. Hopefully Ilana will make some more appearances in these last few episodes, and hopefully she does not explode in the alternate timeline because that would be bad.

- I loved Sawyer hitting on Kate in the sideways world. Their discussion at the police station slyly recalled Sawyer’s interrogation by the Sydney police way back in season one. Some time before that in the first season, we had seen Sawyer dragged away in the background when Boone was at that same police station. If you recall, that was the beginning of the characters’ lives criss-crossing (or at least our awareness of it). I love all of these little reflections of past events.

- Zoe is getting a lot tougher. Maybe she’s quickly learning that this island demands quite a bit from the people who visit. Normally their souls and stuff. I’m really interested to know just why she came to this island. I have a very strong feeling that Zoe will provide the more empirical, scientific answers to the show’s mysteries.

- Pretty much no one really thinks that Sayid killed Desmond, so this begs the question if Sayid is not fully corrupted by the Man in Black and can in fact still choose goodness. I think that he can, though it may be more difficult. Same with Claire, who seems to have chosen sanity, at least for the time being. Jacob’s whole deal is choice whereas MIB believes everything is predetermined, and it would be cool if both characters could prove the Man in Black wrong by choosing not to act like sociopaths just because they’ve been claimed. On the other hand, there’s no guarantee that every single character will be redeemed and go out on top by series end, and we must be prepared for the possibility that this is a reality which will befall some of these people. That being said, I hope that Sayid redeems himself before the series is over. In fact, I really think that he will. And it sure would be wonderful to see Claire reunited with Aaron, though if nothing else, it looks like they’ll probably have each other in the sideways world.

- I agree: Frank looks like an extra from a Burt Reynolds movie.

Overall, this was a fun, moving and fast-paced episode that delivered a lot of great moments while providing the set-up for the show’s end game. Only four episodes left. I’ll be making a handful of new posts soon. I’m planning on covering a variety of topics, including which forms the Man in Black has taken and when he has/hasn’t been behind the scenes, a discussion about my love of genre TV and what LOST has done for genre programming as a whole, a look back at LOST through the years and how it’s evolved from season to season, and finally one last uber-theory about where the series is going.

Thank you and, as always, Namaste.