REVIEW: Lost 6x12, Everybody loves Hugo

NOTE: you might notice that we're missing a review for Lost 6x11 ("Happily Ever After"). You can feel free to blame me for being crazy!busy with all things RL. Or my dislike for Desmond. Your choice. MOVING ON.


Thanks to theloveumake.com for all caps not stamped

Can you guess who the episode was about this week?

I'd like to say that this week's episode was actually pretty good, at least when it comes to progress. As much as I am at least somewhat interested in the sideways!verse I am much more eager to make progress on the Island, and we got quite a bit of Island time. Let's see what this week brought us.



Fandom seems to be torn between those who liked Libby and those who don't, and I will firmly side with the former; her death was horrible and tragic and I really did feel for her relationship with Hurley. As soon as they showed the cross on her grave, my heart squished a little inside. It got even better when we saw her again in-episode, and I really love how Hugo didn't shoot her down and instantly dismiss her as simply crazy.



"Wow, I sound insane, don't I?" says Libby.

Um, Libby?



'nuff said.

Back on the Island, Hugo gets another visit from another dead person we'd rather forget.



I am keen to forget everything about this character, because whenever he's onscreen I am constantly on edge, waiting for him to shout some combination of "WALT! WALT!!", "HE'S MY SON" and "WHERE'S MY BOY?". Do. Not. Want. Michael goes on much later in the episode to explain what the mysterious Island whispers are - spirits of the dead who cannot leave the Island - and he tells Hurley to apologise to Libby for him if he ever sees her again. Apparantly he doesn't care that he shot Ana Lucia in the same room at the same time. Don't worry Ana, Eko and I loved you.

IN OTHER NEWS.

We find out just what Illana had spent her entire life training for:

Now you see her...





Now you don't!
Yeah, WHO saw Illana the Artz coming? Show of hands. Nope? Didn't think so. What the hell, Lost? And how much time do we spend mourning the several remaining pieces of Jacob's Favourite Trainee? (she could have worked part time at the Island employment agency!) Answer? None at all. Richard seems too keen to blow more stuff up - because apparantly, blowing up the only other person who approves of your plan is a GREAT IDEA. I'm losing faith Alpert, I'm losing faith.



OK, sorry man, I take it back. You're the man.
Hugo and Rich get into an argument. Hugo pulls the "I see dead Jacob" card. Rich pulls the "If that was Jacob we'd still be clueless" card. Richard wins, the team break up, Rich, Miles and Ben go to blow more stuff up and the remaining Candidates are left with Frank.



Yes.
Good luck Frank.
Hugo decides that the Candidates have to go and hang out with Locke. I don't support that idea at all.

OVER ON TEAM SMOKEY.



Locke has been talking to his wood.

No, honestly, that is the most interesting thing goin' on over there. Have the rest of Team Smokey lost ALL kind of interesting behaviour over there? Is that the price you have to pay to hang out with the smoke monster?



Bored now.



BORED now.



BORED NOW JESUS CHRIST TEAM SMOKEY DO SOMETHING INTERESTING. What do you have to DO 'round here, kidnap a strange elecromagnetically-immune Scotsman?



Oh.

Now I've always been a fan of Locke and Ben sharing scenes, but as much as I dislike Desmond I have to admit that he and Flocke really work well together. Locke takes Desmond to visit a well, and explains that Widmore is only after power. Locke has amazing eyes.



Desmond is distracted by these amazing eyes, and gets thrown into the well. Probably should have seen that one coming Des. But wait, what's that you're saying, comeuppance? What's that Des, you want us to go with you into sideways time? Ok ...



GOODNESS! First Illana, then Locke. Who, might I remind you, I'm pretty certain is actually Flocke.

THE LO-DOWN
MICHAEL: -400 (bad start)
...not shouting about his son: +20
Richard has a new shirt!: +30
"What if Richard's wrong?": -80. Richard is NEVER wrong.
ILLANA THE ARTZ: -200
Team Smokey's fail: -30
Team Blow Stuff Up: +100
"I have nowhere to run to, brother.": +70
Shouty Richard shouting at Jack: +100
Richard showing up Hurley: +100
HURLEY AND LIBBY: +200
"Why aren't you afraid?" // "What's the point in being afraid?": +220
"You have my word.": +100

TOTAL: 230

A smooth episode both in terms of sideways-time sweetness and on-Island awesomeness. Let's just hope that it stays this way 'til the end!

- Break

REVIEW: Lost 6x10, The Package

Thanks to theloveumake.com for all caps not stamped

After last week's distraction to flashback-land, it was good this week to get back to juggling life on the Island and life in Sideways Time, and boy what busy lives they are! Sideways Time saw us following Jin and Sun on their arrival to LA, and I will admit right off the mark to being rather pleasantly surprised - normally I have little patience for the Kwon storylines, but in Sidewaysville I'm really enjoying their development together. I'm also really enjoying topless!Jin. For any particularly perverted reasons? No. But because without a body like that I doubt they'd make him pose like this:



Did anyone else think of those cardboard-box moments in Metal Gear Solid, when the box is pulled off you but you're STILL curled up underneath just in case?

And hey, guess who else came to visit the Kwon party?



Mikhail! It's Mikhail everyone! Look at him and his eyes! I might have let out a small excited chirrup when everyone's favourite Patchy returned to the screen, and might've had to surpress a second one when he started reeling off the Korean. Who would have thought that Russian-accented Korean would sound so good?

I'm also glad that Kevin Durand got more screentime as Keamy in this episode, because I'm really endeared by his acting. I don't know whether to love him or hate him, really, and so I think that I shall compromise and settle for a love-to-hate relationship.



Look, it's Mikhail again!

It was great going back in time to see just how Jin ended up in the cupboard, but Keamy's talk of how some people "just aren't meant to be together" is definitely foreshadowing in the worst kind of way. And did you hear him mention the Island too?

Oh quick, look! It's Mikh-



... oh. But honestly, who here wasn't shouting "THE EYE, THE EYE, GET HIM IN THE EYE! IT'S THE SOURCE OF HIS POWER!". Was that REALLY just me? Nah.

BACK ON THE ISLAND



We have MORE Sun! But that's ok by me, because she was actually pretty hardcore in this episode. I got very angry when Flocke approached her - in fact I get very angry whenever he approaches anyone (Team Jacob of course) - but I was so darn proud when she turned tail and ran from him. Seriously, I don't want to be losing anyone else to Team Smokey.



I have to add here just how much I love Terry O'Quinn. The difference between Locke and Flocke always alarms me, and I think it really is impressive to see the same actor playing what is essentially two characters so well. His delivery of that line repeated back to Widmore in the episode was so very brilliant, as was his telling Sawyer that he doesn't like secrets. Very well done Mister O'Quinn.



Now it must be said that I am disappointed: after living for over a century and a half, Richard Alpert hasn't made any effort to learn any more languages. And if he HAS, I am disappointed that Jacob didn't tell him to try his hand at Korean. I'm going to give him a Korean Bible for his next birthday (he does remember birthdays, doesn't he?)

(as a side-note, I must confess that I lost quite a portion of the episode to daydreams after Miles made the suggestion of covering him in bacon grease)



Sayid tells Locke that he doesn't feel anything. Locke says that maybe that's for the best. I DON'T THINK THAT'S THE MOST REASSURING THING TO SAY THERE, FLOCKE. Especially to a man with an identity crisis:

VS

:(

That aside, on Island Pt2, who can honestly tell me they weren't excited by this:



Yes, Room 23! That room was honestly one of the highlights of series 3 for me, and I'm so glad it got a cameo in the final season. However I really wish that Jin could've stopped and watched the screen for a while before our new Zoe lady came to have a word with him. For the record, I don't like new Zoe lady.

Now, Wiidmore is a character I go out of my way to avoid. Seriously, there are in fact three characters I do not like dealing with at all in Lost (Whidmore, Desmond-brother and Claire), but Widmore as a character is growing on me. Don't get me wrong, I can't STAND him, and when it comes down to Widmore versus Ben it's no question whose eyes I'm siding with, but I am definitely becoming more and more interested in his investment in the Island. I don't trust him (says the girl who just claimed allegiance to Ben "Henry Gale" Linus!), but I really did let out a motherly cooing noise when he gave Jin the camera and pointed out that he had never seen his daughter before.



... or maybe I'm saying all of this pro-Widmore stuff so that I don't have to laugh out loud again about him telling Jin that it's time to check out his package! Oh Lost, where would I be without you?

Oh, and speaking of Widmore's package:



I wonder what connection you could make there if you had never seen the episode?

THE LO-DOWN
"Maybe that's the best,": -60. I AM NOT REASSURED.
Alpert deciding that blowing up the survivor's escape route is a great plan: -200 >.<
Sun not siding with Flocke: +70!
Jin being built like a Korean Action Man: +70
MIKHAIL! MIKHAIL! +100
The Eye Shot!: +300!
Room 23: +300!
Zoe-lady: -30
Distrusting Locke even more than normal: -50
"A wise man once said that war is coming to this Island. I think it just got here.": +400

TOTAL: 360

You DO know it's good not to take that scoring system seriously, right? Because I think that "The Package" was a great episode, with loads of progress. I want the Kwons to reunite now, I think it's time for that to happen.

Be sure to drop some feedback, and don't forget to swing by next week for Happily Ever After!

- Break

Coming up shortly, Smoke Monsters and Immortals - a discussion of team players and just who is on whose side.

I can't give a professor love!!

Today I finally finished listening to the entire Harry Potter audiobook collection at work, and I was pleasantly surprised. Ever since it came out two years, eight months, three weeks and one day ago, I've only ever read the Deathly Hallows once. As any hardcore Potter fan would, I didn't put it down from the second I got it 'til I finished it, but I never picked it up again after that simply because I really did hate it. But listening to it was a whole different experience.

I can't explain it at all, I can't explain why listening to a book would suddenly make it favourable, but after listening to the whole series I am wondering if the Deathly Hallows isn't now one of my favourites out of the whole lot of them.

Then of course the epilogue happened, the magical Stephen Fry uttered the less-than-magical words "Nineteen Years Later", and I realised that for as long as that epilogue exists, I can never take that book seriously.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: 4/10
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows audiobook: 9/10
Harry Potter and the Painfully Dire Epilogue: -/10.

- Break