Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Happily Ever After - Community Call

Black Rock LOST Podcast: Season 6 episode 10 of ABC's TV show, LOST. Curt, Dan, Nancy Drew, Lost Lindsey and our friends from the Smoke Hatch along with James. Collectively we try to process the latest episode in our popular Initial Reactions format.

MP3

Wow, great dialog, lots of connections and filling-in-the-gaps of the narrative. Need to watch this again and read the transcript!

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13 comments:

marlene said...

Good discussion on the podcast. Risking hyperbole, my initial reaction is that this episode is the best of the entire series so far. It flew by yet was completely packed - familiar but strange. All the mythology, surprises, questions, clues, answers etc. seem to be there but just under the surface, just out of reach. And Eloise's snow white hair was fantastic!

I love that an episode titled "Happily Ever After" came at this point. It is the cliche ending that we all crave. So, in the alternate time line, they are giving us a peek at what that would look like - nice on the surface but sort of empty? I think it is clever and I hope that is the direction they are going, a complex, messy ending that leaves me with something to chew on.

I agree with Matt's description of the look on Desmond's face at the end as him 'getting' it. It seems like that's why he says ok to Sayid, not because something is off with him but because something is on.

Mairuzu said...

Marlene, I don't think anybody summarized it better than you did and that improved upon my initial reaction to this episode. I feel the episode is much better for having put it that way. THAT would, in my opinion, validate the alternate timeline's existence to me and provide the relevance. It would also moralize the idea that what happens, happens. And finally, it would also moralize the entire experience of all six seasons and everyone's sacrifices and deaths.

Kudos, Marlene!

Mairuzu said...

(I meant to combine my last two sentences into one coherent point, they're redundant.)

Curt said...

Well said and kudo's on the whole *first post* thing! I too think Desmond *get's it* but... is that in sync with Whidmore? I can't wait to dig deeper into this one.

Unknown said...

What also struck me in this episode was how powerful "love" is. When Charlie recounts the story to Desmond, Claire (?) is such an important element. Desmond's constant of Penny is also strong and what tips it for Daniel is Charlotte. In last season, Kate asks Locke if he ever loved anyone.

arturo said...

Seriously, why is Eloise so important? Did Jacob made her that way? She seems to know to much in both timelines, but in the alternative she is preventing Desmond from finding out who is Penny, but then why did the big man asked Des to find Charlie and bring him to the piano event in the first place? I didn't really like this episode because of the fact that we are just left with a dozen more questions... and its only 6 left...I hope the will not just try to explain everything in the finally, that will be a bummer...

warningtrax said...

This season, the writers inexplicably found a way for the viewer to feel sympathetic towards Ben Linus. It took all of an hour. Also this season, the writers somehow made me forget about the epic, supernatural struggle between Jacob and MIB in favor of a love-infused, Matrix-esque, science based alternate reality. That also took all of an hour. Wow.

Since time travel was introduced, I thought that it would be revealed that Charlie was the person who programmed the Beach Boys code in the Looking Glass. I now think we will find out that it was ATL Desmond.

It took me a moment or two to realize that Desmond’s “awareness” simultaneously occurred in both the 2004 ATL and 2007 MTL. If Desmond is successful in “waking up” the others in the 2004 ALT, could they be possibly headed to the 2004 ATL in an effort to prevent the death of Jacob?

At this point, I don’t know which is the bigger paradox: Richard’s compass or Desmond’s existence.

Anyone notice the painting of the scales of justice in ATL Widmore’s office? The depiction is complete with while and black rocks hanging in the balance.

Even with time travel, time dilation and alternate realities, You All Everybody still holds up.

I find it curious that 2007 MTL Eloise has no idea what’s going to happen next (by her own admission) while the 2004 ALT seems to know exactly what’s coming.

Although I do not have an official count, I believe the show was a few Ankhs short.

warningtrax said...

Oops...correction:

Since time travel was introduced, I thought that it would be revealed that Charlie was the person who programmed the Beach Boys code in the Looking Glass. I now think we will find out that it was ATL DANIEL.

warningtrax said...

Grrrr,,,,,,

could they be possibly headed to the 2004 MTL in an effort to prevent the death of Jacob?

Nancy Drew said...

I mentioned the painting in Widmore's office on the podcast.

I think there's almost too much to digest with this episode for me. I have already watched this episode a second time and I have this near-overwhelmed feeling when I try to find a place to start analyzing. I don't know that I've ever experienced that with an episode. It's very weird!

I am going to watch for a third time tonight :)

Robert R said...

I'm so bursting with theories and anticipation for our "endgame" that I, like Amy, hardly know where to start. I'm going to try to pick just a few points and see if you guys think they're discussion-worthy. With Charlie back and preaching some kind of "transcendence" to Dez, at first I thought he was espousing spiritual meaning as a trump for X-line Desmond "not wanting" anything more. Upon rewatch, Charlie is more of a train wreck here than he was in the Islandverse, and I now think his new "religion" is a false one. I think the vision of love he had (presumably Claire) will in fact turn out to be the blonde madonnas with the heroin bags inside.

For haters of religion, this will tie in nicely with Freud's "Oceanic feeling", where he says the feelgood effect offered by meditation and/or prayer is a false transcendence of humdrum everyday life. Karl "Religion is the opiate of the masses" Marx agrees. Poppy power = Poppycock.

I dropped some pictures off at the BRP facebook page, so please stop by there to talk about Eloise's jewelry and whether Charlie thinks he's channelling all 4 Beatles.

Finally, I think the writers dropped us a big fat bone in the MRI scene. When the attendant handed Dez the "panic button", he warned that if he pushed it, they would have to start all over. To me, this screamed "RESET", and that Desmond was the reset. I think it was when he turned the fail safe key and the Swan imploded, sending Desmond skipping through time, and creating a reality where Juliette WAS able to detonate Jughead. ("It worked!") Poof. The LA X-verse branches into existence. Oh, one more thing. Time in the LA-Xverse is running a tad slow. We're out of sync.

marlene said...

Obrigada, Mairuzu! Yea, Nancy - that was my reaction too, that there is just way more here than I can grasp. Good luck finding a place to start. It should be fun.
And Curt's question, does Desmond's knowledge put him in sync with Whidmore, yea I wonder... also is Whidmore in sync with Eloise? The last time we saw them she slapped him for talking about their son, still I have the feeling she might have helped get him back to the island.

Mairuzu said...

De nada! :)