The Rewatch Column for "Confirmed Dead" has been triangulated for your reading pleasure on Chud.com.
Friday, December 11
Confirmed Dead (S2, ep. 2)
The Rewatch Column for "Confirmed Dead" has been triangulated for your reading pleasure on Chud.com.
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Confirmed Dead is a fantastic episode and one of the most underrated. Every scene is relevant and fresh. By the end of the episode I almost clapped, and it felt like Lost was back. It's as good as any of the later season 3 episodes and I'd argue the first batch of episodes is one of the best string of episodes in the series. So many cool moments:
ReplyDelete1) Loved the ending. The moment Ben said "I have a man on their boat" I immediately thought "Michael!".
2) I'm not big on internet slang but when Jack and co ambushed Miles I thought "Pwned!". A fist pumping moment.
3) I love the moment when Jack, Sayid and Kate see the helicopter for the first time. The camera pans to each one as they break into a smile. Although we know how bad things later end up for them, this moment is pretty triumphant.
4) I also like how with this episode we start to see the Losties morph into the Others. When Charlotte first meets them Locke and crew give off a very weird vibe. They're quiet, reluctant to reveal too much information while remaining oddly friendly. In fact, by the end of the next episode they will have taken over the barracks and will spend much of the first half in comfort in Dharmaville. They almost mirror the Others story arc from season 3. And by season 5 they will have infiltrated (and sabotaged) the DHARMA Initiative.
TC
Cool! I like the electricity theory.
ReplyDeleteAnd I had never noticed the picture frame thing before, that's very interesting. It fits in well with some of the things that went on in season five, especially that marina scene. It was shown at least two or three different times towards the middle of the season, and there were all these weird, small differences in the scene. Like the picture frame, it could be continuity issues, but it seems like a big thing to miss. Some of the dialogue is even slightly off, which you'd think would be a very easy thinig to keep constant.
i really like the electricity theory, as well. i feel like it also makes some (somewhat) ties into existentialism, wherein we are all a part of one big mass of energy and we are all connected, no matter the timeline or reality. This idea brings a bit more to all of the pre-island/post-island path crossing we see go on with the Losties and the people around there lives. everyones life, even at the tiniest significance, still playing a part in the larger scheme.
ReplyDeletein regards to daniel crying, my initial (and quite excited) feeling was that it reminded me of a bit from "Slaughterhouse Five", which, with you being well versed i'm sure you've read, but for any others it is a phenomenal novel by Kurt Vonnegut that incorporates time-travel by way of consciousness, much like how we saw it happen for desmond in "flashes before your eyes" and in the remarkable "the constant". up until we finally see the island folk literally jumping through, i felt that this might be the only way we would see time travel in LOST, and i was stoked that it basically came straight from a book i love.
but, back to daniel. in the novel, the main character Billy Pilgrim is often seen sitting somewhere, crying for no reason, when in fact its because his mind is jumping all over his whole life, taking him to moments throughout. This would make sense, what with his experiments on himself, that seeing the crash footage, a faint memory (pre-memory?) is there that this will be the path to his death, maybe even seeing his death, but its established that his brain isn't what it once was, therefore he just might not be able to piece it all together. seeing that wreckage could bring a world of bad thoughts; charlotte will die, he will die,not only because his mom pushed him to go, but even by her own hand. with our lives like a line, and jumping back and forth, he could possibly be having all these things rush in.
sorry to ramble on. i just so greatly feel, reading thru yr rewatch, that we have similar ideas on what the show brings in from all facets of belief and knowledge, practical and beyond. keep up the good work!
I'm jumping the gun here by several seasons, but I think I may have figured out the loophole (and sorry in advance if it's obvious stuff...sometimes I'm slow on the uptake).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think that the MiB and Jacob can not directly harm each other, possibly because, as youve hinted, Morse, they are as necessary to one another's existence as destiny and free will. So, the MiB has a problem: how does he kill a guy that he can't get near? He would have to convince the leader of the Jacob's on-Island knights to do it for him. But, since Jacob chooses the leader himself, obviously this would be tricky.
This is echoed in Ben and Widmore's interaction in Widmore's bedroom which makes me wonder if the MiB might not also have "knights" of his own who act off Island on his behalf. If he does, and if Widmore is one, maybe even the leader, does this mean that Ben and the Others know about the MiB? If so, would it be possible then that Ben and Richard suspected who/what undead-Locke might actually be?
Thoughts?
croubieu, I agree with your theory, except I think it is more along the lines of "The MiB CAN'T kill Jacob, while Jacob WOULDN'T kill the MiB.
ReplyDeleteMy version of the theory relies on the assumption that the MiB and the smoke monster are the same entity. We've seen the smoke monster "read" people's pasts and then "judge" them (Eko is the prime example).
I believe Smokey can judge people and can kill those that do not live up to its standards of judgement (though I believe that it does not set those standards and that they are consistent across people being judged). I also believe that it CANNOT kill anyone who is judged to be "good" or without sin as the case may be.
I believe Jacob falls into that category, and that would be why the MiB/Smoke Monster cannot kill him directly.
This would also answer the question of why he wants to kill Jacob. If the MiB is the smoke monster and is somehow bound to obey, at least up to a certain point, both a set of rules and the leader of the Others, it would stand to reason that it wants to kill Jacob to be free of those restrictions.
Interesting, Greg, I'll have to chew on that one for a bit. I'm not sure I buy the MiB and Smokey as the same entity, though it's definitely been hinted at in numerous scenes. But I have to say that your idea of Smokey/MiB being bound to do Jacob's/the Others' bidding is a great explaination of why the MiB would want Jacob dead. Hmmmmm.
ReplyDeleteI was operating under the assumtion that the MiB wanted Jacob gone so that destiny (if that is truly what he represents) could proceed without free-will. It would certainly eliminate the need for alternate universes.
Then again, they could just pull a Fight Club on us and we find out that the MiB is just the "cool" side of Jacob's personality!
"People are always asking me if I know the Man in Black."
ReplyDelete"Hurley had bitch-tits"
ReplyDelete"The first rule of the Island is that you DO NOT talk about the Island!"
ReplyDeleteI could do this all day.
I've always played around with the multiverse theory for Lost and I'm glad that it sounds like they're going that direction. However, I'm wondering what ground rules they're going to lay down for it. Maybe the past they went into was a different past from the one they were in before. If that's the case, they wouldn't affect the previous universe. Relating to your other theory on the soul well, if the number of universes is infinite, then it's possible that every survivor has died at some point on the island and could conceivably be pulled through that electromagnetic soul well. Since this hasn't happened, they'll need to drop us some major rules for their electro-soul well and their multiverse mechanics. Anyways, I love Lost and the second half of the series so far is blowing my mind. The 4th season has easily my favorite episode of the series, The Shape of Things to Come. I'm so happy they brought on Brian K. Vaughan, he and fellow writer Drew Goddard apparently make an amazing team. Thanks for all these recaps, MMorse.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts, Jason. I think 'electro-soul well' would make one hell of a band name.
ReplyDeleteReally looking forward to seeing if the quantum universe theorizing has any bearing on the final season.
This is the only time we see Miles need a "ghostbusting" device.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me that Abaddon insists there were no 815 survivors despite personally knowing about at least one (Locke), and that they would be pretty impossible to avoid after getting to the Island.