[brydeemer]

Love it or hate it?

Listen here

Bry

[GreenSkeletonII]

Can't WAIT to listen to this episode. I don't know if I hated the episode, but I was severely let down by it.

I listened to the official LOST podcast yesterday and Damon and Carlton were surprised by the split reaction to the episode. They said that "this is what answers look like" and they were trying to avoid a Midichlorians explanation or a Matrix Reloaded Architect info-dump scene.

[AMaskedHero]

I love how angry this episode has made everyone. I'll admit that this was not my favorite episode, by any stretch, but after a re-watch some things meant more then they did the first time around.

Now, I think the weakest part of this episode has to be the placement of the episode, I don't this episode would have been as ill-received has it been more towards the middle of the season. Or there is one idea I've been tossing around to my friends, what if this had been the season opener? What if the creators tossed this at us instead of telling us what happened to the survivors after the bomb went off? I think it might have carried more weight, because I do agree that the cave of light *cough* Genesis Cave *cough* was thrown in at the wrong time, with only 3 1/2 hours left, we don't need another element to worry about. Is it the electromagnetic energy we've been seeing through out the whole series? Probably, but I didn't need to have to know.

I do think Mother was the first Smoke Monster & The Original Guardian and Jacob & MIB have taken the role she had and spread it over two people.

Let's hope tonight's episode is awesome.

[GreenSkeletonII]

Bryan, your summary of this episode is EXACTLY how I felt. The Cave of Light (and the energy therein) can already alter time/space, turn people into black smoke, and bring down planes. Surely it can do whatever the writers need it to do to end the series.

[rebis]

I thought that Richard was on the Canary Islands.

This post has been edited by rebis: 18 May 2010 - 01:53 PM

[abuddah]

THANK. YOU. JAMIE. D.
and thank you to Peter and Shane who did a good job explaining the ultimate purpose of this show.

No one. Not ABC, not the writers or producers, not even the actors said that "Across the Sea" was going to be the definitive statement on LOST. This was all anticipation from the audience. And shame on you because that's the third time this has happened.

Remember when we got the first Ben flashback and everyone got so excited because "the wizard of oz"'s story would give them the answers the seek?
and what happened? We got some answers, we got more questions but ultimately, Ben didn't have any idea what the island was.

How about the Albert episode? Again: answers, raised more questions and we learned that cool calm Alpert ultimately didn't know any more than the audience did about the ultimate purpose of the island.

And now finally we get the Jacob-MIB back story and it follows the same formula. This is how LOST operates. It's cyclical in nature and challenges the viewer to interpret the facts and draw their own conclusions. Science and faith.

Now let's talk about the glowy cave which has people grumbling. We've already seen the pockets of energy that seem to emanate from the core of the island over a dozen times. In the 70's, DAHRMA categorized it as electromagnetic energy. However in this early stage of human evolution, they don't have the scientific principles to begin to investigate something of this magnitude. So they call it life, the source, the force ect. How could you expect a definitive answer on it 2000 years ago if none of the modern characters have a clue? And why is even DAHRMA's research comforting? It's 40 years old! The writers are not saying to you that this energy is life. They're telling a fable, a bible story in which the characters are limited in their scientific capacity and come up with the only explanation they can wrap they're heads around.

I disagree with Peter, they will not be doing the cuts similar to the end of this episode during the finale. That would be unbearable. Like the end of as Scooby Doo mystery. They did it at the end of the show after you'd been living in this ancient world for 41 minutes to remind you how this story has lived on and affected the main characters of the show.

As Peter and Shane said: characters first.
As Jamie D said: This show has held an ongoing narrative together better than any modern TV show (I'm lookin at you, X-Files)
It is a fine piece of art, open to interpretation.

[rebis]

I never thought I would say this, but I missed the sideways stories. I also miss the "science".

[popcornsamurai]

I not happy with the fact that a lot of answers are not going to be brought to light but I don't think the cave is a total Deus Ex. We have known about the electro Magnatism since season 2, they did not just pull it out of there ass.

[popcornsamurai]

I like Bryan's point about who is and is not Evil but I think this is somthing that the show has explored since day one. There is a reason why they named everyone after philosophers and they show Sawyer reading an Ann Ryand book. The idea of good and evil is subjective.

[brydeemer]

I thought that Richard was on the Canary Islands.

Yes, he was.

I thought Jamie was referring to something else, that's why I didn't correct him.

Bry

[popcornsamurai]

By the way...

I saw Evangaline Lilly on a Live Links add on late night TV the other night. You know they are laughing their asses off everytime they play that. I wonder if the teased her on the set.

[abuddah]

Re: Jacob and MIB being able to hurt one another

Knotty Mommy Top is a liar. Just like Ben. I trust about 1/2 of her statements in this episode

[popcornsamurai]

Tell Peter not to eat his bag of chips while he is podcasting

[abuddah]

Well *crunch crunch crunch* the thing about this episode is *crunch crunch crunch*

[kgforce]

I didn't care much for this ep of LOST. But I still love the show overall!

Some random ideas...

JACK: I am starting to think that Jack won't be Jacob's replacement. Instead, he has to kill/destroy MIB/Flocke. When that happens, the island will sink to the bottom of the ocean (as seen in last season's finale). Everything is restored to the sideways universe.

THE GLOWING SPRING: Is the "temple" built on top of it? And that's where the water that "healed" Sayid is from?

[JonathanCrites]

Here is a pretty cool interview with Lindelof/Cuse about the end of the show. Some choice quotes:
How much attention have you paid to the reaction to last night's episode?

Carlton Cuse: Some degree. We get a little bit of general feedback. We try not to obsess about the boards and all that stuff. So we have some sense.

Damon Lindelof: It's never exactly the reaction you're expecting. We knew it would be an episode that would be divisive. We've been talking since the beginning of the season about the idea that the great thing of doing a show on your own terms is you have no excuses, but it's also slightly terrifying that if you're a mystery show, there will inevitably be episodes that answer mysteries. That has the potential to frighten, terrify, make people hate. This was going to be the season where we said, "Whatever your theory was, our presentation of the endgame of the show may disprove your theory, so we're sorry if you don't like the fact that you don't get the Man in Black's name, but you don't get it." So that's going to piss some people off, and it's their right to be pissed off. In terms of what the specific reactions are, it's too hard to say 12 hours after the fact, and without seeing where this episode plays in the grand scheme of the series. That's all we can say.

Even some people who were positive about the episode last night objected to or questioned its placement this late in the season, right after this big episode where so many characters died and right before the final hours. And at times I and other people have wondered about whether Desmond should have more prominently appeared in the sideways universe sooner, or if we needed to spend as much time in the Temple as we did, etc. Looking back over the season now, how do you feel about how you placed things and about certain landmarks. Did they have to be at the particular parts of the season where they occured?

CC: We told the story the way we wanted to. Like David Chase, we tried to make the show to entertain the audience. That was our primary goal. We kind of planned this episode to come at this period of time because we actually wanted to take a break after the deaths of these major characters. It felt like this was the perfect time to take a time out from the main narrative. And since this was the final big mythological episode that we were going to do, we felt like it was a good placement for it, and now we'll roll into the finale. We make no apologies. We planned this to be the way it is. Again, it is funny, because there are a lot of people who are very happy with the show, there's going to be a very vocal group of people who are not happy, and that just kind of comes with the territory. We're making the show the best way we know how to make it, and we stand by it, and we're excited about how it ends and how the journey's unfolded.

[Peter]

Tell Peter not to eat his bag of chips while he is podcasting

oops!

[mguy1977]

A bore the crap out of me episode of LOST. I'm hoping tonight's episode & Sunday's finale makes up for it.

Matthew

[Russ-L]

Man, I don't get all the hate for this episode.

What did you all think was going to explain how smokey became smokey? Would any explanation have not been some deus ex machina reason?

I agree with Jamie's take on this episode.

MIB's name not important. Who cares. It doesn't add anything to actually know his name.

Plus this show explains why Jacob had Ben kill all of Dharma, this has bugged me for a while. Do protect the island. Just like momma killed all the villagers building the wheel.

Plus we don't know what's coming. This could be a complete setup for what is to come in the last 3 1/2 hours.

[abuddah]

Tonight's episode "What They Died For"
Let's take a look at all those deaths in 6 min set to peppy punk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69OXRew7v0I