"LOST" RETROSPECT: Musings on Season Four and the Finale
"LOST" RETROSPECT: MUSINGS ON SEASON FOUR AND THE FINALE
ABC’s megahit series, "LOST" has been considered among the best television series on the air during this past decade. The magazine, "Entertainment Weekly" considers it to be the fifth best series in television history. I have to admit that it is one of the most original series I have ever seen. But after watching its Season Four finale - (4.12-4.14) "There’s No Place Like Home", I cannot help but wonder if the series’ reputation might be a little exaggerated.
To put it bluntly, "There’s No Place Like Home" left me with mixed feelings. Mind you, it had its virtues. One of the best moments during the entire three-part episode was watching Yunjin Kim’s performance as the complex Korean wife who may or may not have witnessed the death of her husband, portrayed by the equally talented Daniel Dae Kim. Her performance was fantastic, whether she was expressing Sun Kwon’s horror and grief over witnessing her husband being blown up, while trying to escape the Kahana freighter that had been set up to explode. Although it was revealed in Season Five that he had survived, Sun believed that he was dead. Which explained the cold, avenging angel she had become following the birth of her fatherless infant daughter.
There were other virtues in "There's No Place Like Home":
*Evangeline Lilly’s performance in a scene in which James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) said good-bye to Kate Austen. Yes, I am actually complimenting Lilly’s performance. Nine years ago, she was no Yunjin Kim, but I think that Lilly managed to rise up to the occasion in that scene and in the episode’s opening scene that featured a continuation of Kate and Jack Shephard's (Matthew Fox) meeting at the Los Angeles International Airport in a flash forward that carried over from Season Three’s finale, (3.22) "Through the Looking Glass". However, I still disliked the Kate Austen character during the time this episode first aired.
*The Two Kisses - For me, I was impressed not only by Sawyer’s good-bye kiss to Kate, but Desmond Hume and Penny Widmore’s reunion kiss. Actually, I would say that the last one was more spectacular.
*The fight scene between Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) and mercenary Martin Keamy (Kevin Durand). It seemed fitting for two men-of-action characters, such as themselves.
*I also liked the moment when Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Sayid joined pilot Frank Lapidus for the first time, aboard his helicopter. There was nothing particularly special about it, but it seemed to have its own sense of magic.
*And there was Sawyer’s return to the island, where he meets Juliet Burke on the beach. The scene started out light-hearted, until Juliet pointed out to the former con man of the Kahana’s (and possibly the passengers on Lapidus’ helicopter) fate.
Unfortunately for "There’s No Place Like Home", the flaws seemed to outweigh the virtues. Flaws that had a lot to do with contrived writing. First example? The bomb on the Kahana freighter. What was the purpose of that bomb? Why did Keamy even bothered to plant C4 explosions on that freighter in the first place? Even worse, why bother to wear a remote trigger linked to a heart-rate monitor in order to blow up the boat? What was the point of this plot twist . . . other than to kill Michael Dawson and place anyone aboard the Kahana in danger? Did Keamy assume that the castaways would start making their way to the Kahana? What? It all seemed so contrived.
Speaking of contrivance, there is the object dubbed by "LOST" viewers as 'The Frozen Donkey Wheel'. Apparently, this is the wheel that Others leader Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson) had turned to move the island or make it invisible. According to a ”Popular Mechanics” article, the wheel changed the island’s space-time connection to the rest of the Earth. Yeah. Whatever. Let us just say that it did not impress me.
Another problem I had with this episode was the fate of Claire Littleton’s infant son, Aaron. Yes, I know that a previous episode - (4.04) "Eggtown" - made it clear that Kate ended up as Aaron’s guardian back in the States. When I first saw this episode, it did not make any sense to me . . . even after seeing how Aaron ended up in Kate's custody. And I kept thinking of that scene near the end of the episode, when Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun and another survivor, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes, part from Desmond and Penny so that they could complete their rescue with a nine-hour voyage to some nearby island. Nine years ago, I found myself wondering why Penny would hand Aaron over to Kate, who was a fugitive facing criminal charges. I also wondered why Kate would bother to take custody of Aaron, considering the possibility that her chances of keeping Aaron was not that hot at the time. In the end, "Eggtown" proved to be a mere introduction on how Aaron ended up in Kate's custody. Various episodes from Season Five explained the rest of that tale, which proved to be one of selfishness and sheer ugliness. But a part of me still wonders why Kate even bothered to face a trial back in the States. She could have easily asked Penny for cash and a place where she and Aaron could hide. I guess the show runners and the writers never considered this.
And could someone please explain how an infant barely two months old was able to survive so many hours without his mother’s milk or food; a helicopter crash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; and nine hours of exposure to the sun, while in lifeboat with other castaways? I suppose one could say that "the island" protected him. Yeah. Whatever. God, who wrote this shit?
Returning back to the Kahana, I have this question to ask - why did Desmond, Jin and Michael Dawson failed to warn the other Losties and crew members aboard the freighter to abandon ship, when they first discovered the C4 bomb? Why in the hell did they keep the matter a secret from the others? Why? What was the point? Drama? Another contrived reason to bump off Michael? This has to be one of the most stupid moments I have ever seen on television. To make matters even more idiotic, Jin hesitated to jump ship at the end, so that he could drag Michael along. "Jin . . . darling, you have a wife and unborn child waiting for you. Why didn’t you get your ass up to the deck when Michael first told you?" Dammit, I hate such stupidity! I especially hate it when writers drum up this mess.
Finally, we come to the biggest pile of horseshit of the episode . . . namely, Michael Dawson’s death. After watching this episode, I can only say that Harold Perrineau’s return to "LOST" during Season Four was the biggest waste of his time and the time of his fans. What in the fuck were Cuse and Lindehof thinking? In a TV Guide interview, Perrineau had accused the two producers of bringing him back so that they could appease the bloodlust of the fans who hated Michael for his Season Two actions. I am beginning to believe that he might be right. Cuse and Lindehof could have kept Michael on the show for a while and allow him to deal with the consequences of his actions by facing the Losties. The only castaways who saw him were Sayid, the Kwons and Desmond, who did not even know him. And nothing much really came from his return. Sayid did expose him to the captain of the Kahana as Ben’s spy. But Michael did not really suffer from the betrayal, aside from one or two beatings. Sun seemed more upset about him being Ben’s spy on the Kahana than over what he had done in Season Two. And with the immediate discovery of the bomb, Jin and Michael immediately resumed their old friendship. After Cuse and Lindehof’s big announcement of Perrineau’s return, the actor managed to appear in at least five or six episodes out of fourteen, before his character was blown sky high in the Kahana’s destruction. All I can say is - "What in the fuck?"
In the end, the mixed quality of "There’s No Place Like Home" seemed like a reflection of Season Four and the series as a whole. Some had claimed that Season four was the show’s best. I wish I could agree. Season Four had started out as very promising. But in the end, it has not usurped my belief that Season One remains the best. In the end, everything - "There's No Place Like Home", Season Four and the entire series - turned out to be a curious mixture of the good and the bad.
There were plenty of good episodes during this season. Episodes like (4.01) "The Beginning of the End" and (4.02) "Confirmed Dead" not only led to the Losties being split into two camps, but it also introduced four new characters to the show - Daniel Faraday, Miles Straume, Charlotte Lewis and Frank Lapidus. Then came (4.03) "The Economist", which turned out to be my favorite Sayid-centric episode. Its flash forward eventually revealed Sayid as Ben’s troubleshooter - or hitman - who was killing colleagues of Ben’s enemy, Charles Widmore. Another standout episode turned out to be (4.05) "The Constant", a Desmond-centric episode. In it, the Scotsman encounters time traveling side effects from his exposure to an EMP discharge. Mind you, I found it a little confusing at times, but the emotional payoff was worth the confusion. Two other outstanding episodes - at least for me - were (4.08) "Meet Kevin Johnson", which revealed what happened to Michael Dawson and his son Walt, following their departure at the end of Season Two; and (4.09) "The Shape of Things to Come", in which the group of Losties under Locke, encountered Charles Widmore’s murderous henchman, Martin Keamy, and his band of killers.
There were also episodes that I found . . . decent, but not exactly mind blowing. There were (4.07) "Ji Yeon", (4.11) "Cabin Fever" and "There’s No Place Like Home (Part I)". I take it back. The revelation that Jin did not make it off the island with Sun had taken me by surprise. And so did the appearance of Claire inside Jacob’s cabin with Christian also shocked me. Like the finale that aired on May 29, I have mixed feelings about (4.10) "Something Nice Back Home". I found the circumstances surrounding Jack’s appendectomy rather pointless. In fact, I am still a little confused over how it was supposed to add to the story. But I must admit that the events that led to Jack and Kate’s breakup in that episode’s flash forward in Los Angeles was fascinating. This episode also provided another glimpse at Matthew Fox’s superb acting skills.
There were three episodes - out of fourteen - that I found troubling. One was (4.06) "The Other Woman", a Juliet-centric episode. In this, we learned that Juliet had an affair with Goodwin Stanhope - the Other who had been killed by Ana-Lucia Cortez in Season Two. We also learned that Goodwin had been married and that Ben harbored an obsession of Juliet. And it also featured a knock-out, dragged out fight between Juliet and one of the Freighter passengers - Charlotte. But this is an episode that belonged to Season Three. Even worse, there was no real follow-up over Daniel and Charlotte’s presence at the Tempest Station and their actions with the gas. Frankly, I found the ending to be rather vague. Still . . . it provided another outstanding performance by Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet.
The second episode I had trouble with was the season’s last one - "There’s No Place Like Home (Part III)”. Since I have said all that I could about that episode and its predecessor, I might as well focus on what I consider to be THE WORST episode of Season Four - the Kate-centric "Eggtown". In this episode, Kate joins Locke’s group at the abandoned Otherville quarters, so she could find out if the quartet from the Kahana and the outside world knew about her status as a fugitive. The episode’s flash forwards revealed her trial, how she avoided jail time and ended up serving ten years’ probation. It also revealed that she became the guardian of Claire’s son, Aaron. Frankly, that last reveal proved to be the only interesting thing about this episode. Everything else struck me as a joke. One that left a bad taste in my mouth. And although I had praised Evangeline Lilly’s performance in the finale, "Eggtown" reminded me that at one point, she had been a mediocre actress during the show’s earlier seasons. The biggest travesty proved to be the trial, in which the defense called its witness - namely a lying Jack - first; the prosecution’s only witness was allowed to see the defendant in private; and because of this, the prosecution gave Kate a plea deal, because the witness (Kate’s mom) refused to testify against . . . conveniently forgetting the former castaway’s other crimes. One that includes attempted bank robbery. And what really annoyed me about "Eggtown" is that it served as the beginning of a series of contrived events that led to Kate’s possession of Aaron. For me, Kate’s story arc proved to be not only the season’s biggest weakness, but also a major one for the entire series.
Watching the Season Four finale made me realize something about "LOST" that had originally made me reluctant to dub it as one of the finest shows in television history. Even some of the best shows I have seen - "BABYLON FIVE" and "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" had its share of weak episodes or storylines that were dumped at the wayside. But those two shows and a few others have been consistently top-notch. There were times when I could not say the same about "LOST". But I now realize that it just might be one of the best television shows ever made. I Despite my original doubts, I certainly believed - and still do - that it is one of the most original television series I have ever watched. Mind you, that originality has been sabotaged every now and then by contrived writing and some pretty bad characterization. This has especially been obvious to me during the last half of Season Two - including the badly written (2.20) "Two For the Road". Like "Eggtown", it was partially saved by a surprise ending. At least one-third of Season Three had left a bad taste in my mouth, including the contrived departure of Mr. Eko in (3.05) "The Cost of Living" and the atrocious (3.06) "I Do" and (3.09) "Stranger in a Strange Land".
Aside from Seasons One and Five, the series’ quality for each season always seemed to flip-flop. Well, I take that back. Seasons Two, Four and Six proved to be surprisingly well done, despite a few misses. "LOST" has never been able to maintain a consistently top-notch season since the first one. It nearly did for Season Five. But I cannot deny that in the end, "LOST", its fourth season and the latter's season finale, "There's No Place Like Home", proved to be first-rate, though flawed affairs.