Tuesday, December 8

Through The Looking Glass (s3, eps. 22/23)



The Rewatch column for "Through The Looking Glass" has grown an enormous beard for your reading pleasure on Chud.com.

Posted by MMorse at 9:57 AM
Labels: , , ,

10 comments:

  1. ninja raidenDecember 7, 2009 at 10:08 PM

    Daniel Faraday was a musician and was with the Dharma Initiative offshore. He could have programmed "Good Vibrations"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Resident01December 7, 2009 at 11:17 PM

    Thoughts:
    Starting with this episode I began to think of Locke as Lost's version of The Trashcan Man. He's blindly devoted. I wonder, had he known his role in the endgame, would he have still gone along with it? He's so desperate to be "special" that I think he would consent to be used as he was.
    I don't remember if it was commentary or an interview, but Ben's diary entry was written by Emmerson himself during/in-between takes. No direction, just his own in character thoughts.
    In either the podcast or commentary, Darlton confirmed that the car crash interrupting Jack's suicide attempt was a case of "the Island won't let you die."
    Season 4 did a certain amount of retconning with the end run of Season 3. Ben was aware of the freighter, had Michael on the boat, yet was completely surprised by the appearance of one of them. Locke can't move after being shot, implying a spinal injury, but he explains (in S4 E2, I think) that he was shot where his swindled kidney was.
    This episode led me to believe that Sawyer was going to go Dark Charlie on us in Season 4. Glad to be wrong.
    When Jack told Locke he'd have to kill him to stop the phone call, I kept thinking "Just shoot the damn phone!"
    Darlton kept a good smokescreen up for the cliffhanger. They referred to it as "The Snake In The Mailbox", and mentioned that there was a particularly dark and important part of Jack's past that they'd been holding back from us. Given that, when Kate popped up, I initially jumped to thoughts of brainwashing, or some kind of long con going on if they knew each other before crashing.
    My guess to the dead man's identity was Michael, a theory that was temporarily bolstered by the following Comic Con.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 8, 2009 at 5:09 AM

    Resident, what happened at the following ComiCon that made you think it was Michael?

    We've seen an increasing amount of violent mania at the end of each season, starting with Rousseau's kidnapping of Aaron, then Locke's single-minded determination to let the countdown hit zero, and now Jack's merciless beating of Ben. Next season, it starts getting more extreme: We have Keamy's determination to just kill everyone on the boat, and then in season five we get Radzinsky's coup.

    This has recurred with such regularity and with such escalating severity that I can't help but think that it's what the MiB was talking about at the start of the season 5 finale when he said that every time Jacob brings a group of people to the Island, they kill and destroy and "it always ends the same way."

    ReplyDelete
  4. KelseyDecember 8, 2009 at 12:21 PM

    Nice write up. This was indeed the best episode(s) of Lost. preceeded by Greatest Hits, it was probably the best 3 hours on the show ever.

    You got me thinking about the runway. If Ben knew anything, he knew atleast that there was a cabin, and he believed in Jacob. Maybe the MiB was faking Ben out too? Ben admits never hearing Jacob...but he does get Jacob's commands somehow. In anycase my real point is the Mib, pretending to be Jacob could tell whoever to build a runway. MiB needs it for his plan, and devoted Jacob-lovers would follow the command without question.

    as for comicon - The actor who played Michael showed up, thats' all. They announced he was going to be in Season 4. It was pretty cool news.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousDecember 8, 2009 at 5:47 PM

    While I love the episode, I hate how murky things become about Jack in later episodes regarding his depression. Maybe you could help me with a few questions:

    1) In the season 4 finale Ben tells Jack that he's heard Jack has been flying in hopes of crashing onto the island. How does Ben know this?

    2) How much time passed between Jack and Lockes hospital conversation and Jack and Kate's conversation at the airport? He tells Kate he's been flying a lot. But I thought he only started flying as a result of talking to Locke? In season 5 Locke is killed by Ben shortly after his accident. We know this because Locke's cuts and scrapes are still fresh. Ben tells him Jack has bought plane tickets (again, how does he know?). So, Jack and Locke's conversation would have been maybe a week before Locke is killed. And unless Locke was rotting in that apartment until someone found his body, Jack would have found out about the "suicide" less than two weeks later, and gone to the funeral. Which makes Jacks "I've been flying every Friday night" a bit of an exageration. He would have only gone on two or three flights at the most..

    I know I'm being nit picky but I loved Jack's flashforward and in later flashforwards it's hard to see the series of events that led to his depression.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Resident01December 8, 2009 at 10:11 PM

    To Anon:
    1. Ben repeatedly states in Season 5 that he/the Others have been protecting and keeping close tabs on the O6. I'm assuming they would have noticed Jack's pointless frequent flights, and Ben's smart enough to figure out what Jack wants out of that.
    2. Lost ordinarily does an excellent job with their continuity, but they really dropped the ball with some of the "present day" bits. (Which were my only problems with the otherwise-fantastic Season 5.) Given the introduction of time travel, maybe they were too busy concentrating on keeping those facts straight. Kate, Jack, Walt, and Hurley all refer to Locke as Jeremy Bentham despite the name not being used in Locke's visits to them. The way he's referenced in the S4 finale really built it up as if he'd been going by that monicker for quite a while, long enough to discard the name they'd used for over 100 days. There's also Jack's comment about making constant flights, as you've pointed out. Locke's body must not have been found for quite a while (if it's not a major continuity error), because Jack's beard differs considerably in growth between this episode and the conversation with Locke.

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownDecember 9, 2009 at 12:06 PM

    I agree Resident01 that the timeline of Jeremy Bentham does seem very strange and out of place. I look forward to MMorse's thorough recap, and spending the time thinking about it further. I feel the ? as to the amount time involved in the movie Groundhog Day will be of some assistance.

    ReplyDelete
  8. litgDecember 11, 2009 at 11:41 PM

    Morse,

    I have another thought on the "Who was responsible for the walt apparition?" question. You argue that if Locke dies there then the MIB can impersonate him and talk his way to Jacob. But remember, the MIB can't kill Jacob. He needs a loophole. I maintain that the loophole is to convince someone else to do it. That someone turns out to be Ben. So the reason "Walt" doesn't just let Locke die is because BEN isn't ready to kill Jacob yet.

    ReplyDelete
  9. litgDecember 12, 2009 at 11:13 PM

    On Jack's comment to "bring his father down and see if I'm drunker than he is" also rang to me as a joke on Jack's part: That Christian was such a drunk he'd still be drunk in the afterlife.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Resident01February 13, 2010 at 10:16 PM

    It's interesting that even after Ghost Walt says he can move his legs again, Locke needs a reason to keep living. I'm wondering if this scene happens in real time with the rest of the episode's Island events (Meaning that Locke laid in that ditch for two days), or if that picks up right after he was shot.

    Jack gives up on his "Make Ben Watch While We All Get Rescued Then Kill Him" vendetta. Although there's still a chance for that in Season 6 . . .

    About Penny's transmission: What if Penny has a set-up similar to the Portuguese dudes in "Live Together, DIe Alone"? (Naomi also speaks/reads Portuguese. Coincidence?) Some sort of device monitoring specific channels, ready to dial in if they/it became open?

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)