The Ashcan

The LOST Interrobang: DEZ vs. THE WORLDS! (S6E11)

Posted on 08. Apr, 2010 by theashcan in Television, The Lost Interrobang

Knowing that the ingredients for a good LOST episode is a healthy mix of “!!” and “??” Jef and Anupa will be interrobanging the show’s final season every week. As LOST winds down to its conclusion, can its creators dish out all the needed explanations without resorting to exposition? Can they keep up the mystery without succumbing to just more mindfuckery?

Apparently, yes, they can. Hi-five for “Happily Every After”! There be SPOILERS yonder:

Jef: Ok uhm wow

Anupa: Yeah dude

That was a FUCKED UPPP episode.

Jef: Lol so good

It hit all my tender loin spots.

Anupa: Do you feel slightly fatigued after watching it?

Jef: The opposite! I feel ever so amped and tweaking.

My lip is twitching like Desmond’s when he’s angry.

We are on the same page, yes?

The Awesome Page?

Anupa: Dude, there is so much going on that my brain can’t handle it. I might time travel.

But the Island is probably not done with me yet.

Let’s start with that opening scene.

Jef: Ok yeah my one quibble — was Dez really out cold this entire time since he got shot?

He had no idea he was on a submarine?

Anupa: I just assumed they drugged him?

I liked the fact that it served as a reminder of how little time has actually passed between when we saw him get shot and when these folks actually came to the island…

Jef: Hm yes, good point.

Yo there is an awesome line by Widmore at the start when he says to Jin: “It will be easier for me to show you than to tell you.”

That’s what this show is good at, no matter how much it annoys us when we want answers.

It shows us shit, it doesn’t just tell us.

Anupa: Right.

Jef: Right then and there I knew this episode was going off.

Anupa: It’s like “SO MUCH IS HAPPENING BUT NOT HAPPENING, BUT HAPPENING!”

You feel like the storyline is being pushed forward but you don’t exactly know in what ways.

Jef: But it’s in the exact way it should (for the most part — Lost still has its pee pee episodes).

I feel like most of my gripes about the pacing of this season would be wiped away if I watched it straight marathon on DVD, like I did with the rest of the show.

But either way, here we are, finally, with my one wish: realities crossing!

Anupa: YES!

So happy for this.

Also, when Zoe said “That’s not scheduled til tomorrow morning,”

Widmore said back, “I don’t care when it’s scheduled.”

IT’S SKEDULED, NOT SHEDULED SILLY!

Jef: Haha do you think that was a nod to the fact the writers knew they had to start speeding shit up?

Anupa: LOL it could be, I was just irritated that Zoe said scheduled and Widmore said sheduled. An interjection that has been made at an inappropriate time. Unsheduled.

Jef: Saying “sheduled” is awesome — I wish I could get away with it.

Anupa: Have we seen this station before?

Jef: Nope, I think the Wids built this one themselves.

Anupa: That’s really fast though?

Jef: They got those anti-Smoke pylons up with quickness too.

Widmore seems like a good manager, in that I-fucking-hate-that-guy-but-he-gets-shit-done kind of way.

I’m not surprised.

Anupa: What did you think of the nuke box?

Jef: I thought the whole thing was mad Marvel Comics which means I loved it so much.

As an aside, I didn’t realize how much I missed the sci-fi aspects of this show and didn’t realize how deep we went into fantasy territory lately.

So yeah, I was happy.

Anupa: For sure.

I don’t think it was set up as a sci-fi show per se, so the crappy CGI when Des was frying threw me off.

But ultimately, I dug it when we began to see how that unfolded.

Jef: No no, it wasn’t.

It had this hodgepodge of all these different genres, but the sci-fi took a back seat after the time travel business ended and after the death of Farady.

Lol I was laughing that Dez’s chair was not bolted down, like it would have been in any other similar scene in any other show.

He just smashed the shit out of it.

Anupa: It looked like the chair in the cabin!

Jef: Ha maybe it was! RIP cabin chair.

Anupa: Maybe the other portal is the cabin!

Jef: Hahaha

Ok so Widmore flips 3 switches on Dez and then we flash to the l’aeroport.

What did you think of Dez meeting Claire?

Was there a significance there I missed?

Or just a random we are all everbody moment?

Anupa: You mean, you all everybodyÉ

(MY FUCKING PUNCTUATION HAS STOPPED WORKING AGAIN)

Jef: Oh no the accents!

lololol

Anupa: I hate this laptop, can we put a Paypal thing on the blog to buy me a new one?

And as for Claire, I was thinking there might be some significance in it, but in all likelihood it was probably only to certify the connections…

Jef: Yeah, and to set up Charlie’s obsession I guess…

Anupa: Why else would Desmond want to show these people something in the end if he hadn’t forged a connection with some of them?

And yes, to set up Charlie’s story.

Jef: Guy, did they make Charlie’s ears BIGGER?

Anupa: His hair is shorter!

Proportions!

Jef: During the commercial for Flash Forward I was surprised by how normal-sized he looks in that show.

Haha I think he still wears his Peter Jackson makeup.

Anupa: I like the Geico commercial with the big biscuit.

It looks delicious.

Jef: I don’t know this biscuit, but I’d probably eat it.

How much do you care or not care about Charlie?

He was dead long before I ever started talking Lost with you — are you a fan?

Anupa: Charlie has his moments, but I have a soft spot for him because of the way he died.

And because he was always trying to prove himself: he was always positioned as this sad puppy kind of character and I totally fell for it.

They wrote him really well.

Jef: So did the car scene do anything for you?

Anupa: I mean, earlier when they were talking in the bar I was wondering why exactly ONE moment would affect Charlie in that way?

Not that I’ve had a near-death experience like that, but is the reason this thing really grips Charlie supposed to be blind faith or just to illustrate the power of the moment?

And how did he know it would happen to Dez?

Jef: This is true — I feel like Charlie was kind of “used” in this storyline. Used in a good way, don’t get me wrong, but him more than anyone else seems like a diff. character in this reality.

I felt he was there just to set up Dez’s story.

Anupa: I get you, but in a sense I also think he was there to prove a point about these connections.

I mean he is the character introducing this concept to us.

Jef: I think that’s my thing though (this is a minor gripe here) — he was introducing the love concept to make room for the Dez and Penny story. The actual moment between Charlie and Claire, we didn’t see it, it didn’t matter to us, you know?

But like I said, it’s minor, b/c at this point Charlie’s character is a side player cameo anyway.

Maybe I just wanted to hear Claire say “Chahlie.”

Anupa: LOL, that is weird.

Would you ask her to say it before you kissed her?

Jef: Haha I probably would.

Let me clarify I have the hots for Claire, not Emilie de Ravin.

So all the Claire-isms? Word. That’s all I’ll say. Word.

Anupa: Then you should not watch Remember Me, unless you have the hots for Robert Pattinson. Which I do, after seeing that film.

SMOKING.

Jef: LAUGHING

Anupa: Desmond was also looking quite dapper.

Jef: Dez is man-crushable.

I want to buy that man a fucking a beer.

Anupa: LOL

Jef: Or whatever the fuck he was drinking.

Anupa: 60 year old Scotch.

That’s expensive so I am taking your mancrush seriously.

Jef: Haha yes, he is worthy.

Anupa: HAHAHA Yes. I loved that line from Widmore.

How UNSURPRISING was that reveal?

Jef: Haha yeah for a second I was like GROAN. But it was a commercial break reveal, not a reveal-reveal, so I let it slide.

Anupa: A reveal is a reveal!

Jef: (is a reveal!)

Anupa: Also, another minor gripe:

Desmond got the fastest MRI in the world.

Or at least in the U.S.

Jef: 30 mins?

Anupa: He must have a sick healthcare plan.

Jef: He aborted it with the button yo.

Anupa: Dude, people wait months for that shit.

Jef: Oh ahhahah I got you.

Anupa: And they are super $$

Jef: I guess he’s on that Widmore waiting list.

Anupa: HE GOT THAT WIDMORE PAPER.

Jef: Rich characters always excuse everything.

Ok yo let’s get down to busyness:

ELOISE

Anupa: Right, I think that was one of the most head-scratchy scenes of this whole episode.

What is her fucking deal?

Jef: She knowwwwws.

AND she was like Desmond chasing Penny is “a violation.”

So there are “rules” in this world as well.

Can I geek for a sec?

Has Eloise, through her knowledge of the time-loop, somehow orchestrated the entire reality-splitting? And do these “rules” she mentions imply Jacob and/or Smokey’s presence here as well?

And speaking of the fucking time-loop – is it possible she knew not only that she would shoot her son, Faraday, but also that it would be after Faraday tells Jack to hit the bomb? And if she knew this, maybe that could also mean reality 2 has actually already “happened” before? Even bigger time-loop?

That made sense in my head.

I promise.

Haha we can move on. I’ll clear that one up in the comments, maybe.

Anupa: Yup, you lost me with that.

Maybe Smokey is inhabiting her body.

Jef: Ew Smokey is having sex wid Widmore.

Anupa: Gay?

Jef: Whatever it is, I like it?

Anupa: How cool and normal was Daniel?

We are so used to him being twitchy and nerdly.

I found him minorly babely in this episode.

And I loved that he was a piano player (his aborted childhood passion which we found out about in earlier seasons) and that they tied his physics shit into it, even though that’s not part of his reality 2 persona.

Jef: Dude yeah I love Daniel.

Daniel and Desmond are like Team Science in this bitch and I support them one thousand per cent.

How many awesome turns in Lost are these two side characters responsible for?

Awesome.

Anupa: It’s true.

They are completely intriguing too, and so three dimensional.

Jef: Yeah and maybe because they’re not in our faces every week (JACK AND KATE) we never got the chance to hate them.

Anupa: I could never hate Dez.

He’s my broooothaaa.

Jef: Lol

On the mythology tip — we were saying before that we didn’t get the presence of Team Widmore and what they added to the Jacob/Smokey battle.

I totally think that’s been fleshed out now and it’s more than welcome.

Anupa: Explain

Jef: Well I think before I had it set up in my head that Jacob’s crew = faith and Smokey’s crew = free will.

But now with the scientists all in the mix and Desmond dropping jewels like “there’s always a choice” — I feel like this is the true Team Free Will.

And Smokey’s set is more like Team Superstition and Mindfuckery.

Remember how we were always saying the characters had to make the final moves? And the end had to not be about Jacob and Smokes? And maybe new Locke and new Jack would be the most powerful characters in the end?

I feel like Widmore/Desmond/Daniel open us up to that actually happening.

I likes.

Anupa: Right

The juxtaposition of all these faith-y episodes versus this heavily sci-fi one was cool.

You are right, it kind of breaks you out of the reverie a bit.

Two episodes ago, we were in 19th century Andalusia.

Jef: Haha word.

Anupa: Now we are dealing with nukes and shit.

Jef: Know what’s most awesome though?

They fucking set up a scientific (or at least sci-fi-ific) explanation for LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.

So romance.

Anupa: YES

Jef: Like, how can I not gush all over this.

Anupa: At first I thought it was cheesy, but I love it.

Why are you more emo than I?

I am going to buy you a Danielle Steele boxset for Christmas.

Jef: Hahahah. I am Sawyer with Juliet, you are Sawyer with Kate.

Anupa: Nicholas Sparks too.

I am not Sawyer, I am whoever Sawyer finally ends up with happily ever after.

Jef: Haha well to maintain my tenuous grip on manhood let me clarify, I’m not gushing over love at first sight, I’m tripping over the idea of this sci-fi reasoning for it.

It’s awesome.

What got you open about this ep?

Anupa: The whole idea of Desmond being this enabler

Jef: Enabler! Perfect word.

Anupa: Who will bring everyone around to their lives as we know their lives.

Don’t want to necessarily call it their true lives.

I am very curious to see how this continues to play out once he gets a hold of the manifest.

I am also curious if this means that near-death experiences are what help you see the truth.

This some Matrix shit.

Jef: Widmore totally had a Morpheus line in his office,

“Ah, to be free of attachments.”

The question is though, who’s actually going to want to go back to island-reality?

Who won’t be on Desmond’s side?

Anupa: Locke?

Jef: Haha yeah, that dying thing sucks.

Really though, most of them are happier here in paralleland.

And/or, breathing.

And/or not crazy.

Is the “what happened, happened” line actually a correct stance to take on things?

Anupa: Who said that?

Jef: Eloise I think.

Anupa: Right.

I mean, it could be.

Anupa: How will the Island factor into this anyway if it is buried underwater?

Jef: I’m guessing old white lady knows.

And she’s not telling.

Old white ladies and their secrets, man.

Anupa: ROLES REVERSED

In this reality, old white ladies hold the power.

Jef: *raises fist*

*full of prunes*

Anupa: and doilies

I am betting you like how Sayid just ninja’d into that last scene.

He so stealth!!!

Jef: Haha forreal he even looks action figure-ish lately.

Him and his plastic expressions.

Anupa: Yeah dude. He is just gonna become known as the ninja dude.

He is stealing work from Asian Actors!

Jef: Who will his final kung-fu battle be with?

Anupa: Sun!

Jef: Yes!

Azn prYdE

Anupa: Round one! Fight!

Why did Desmond go with Sayid?

Jef: 1) You can’t fight Sayid.

2) You can’t fight Sayid?

Naw I dunno, I think he just wants to the talk to the rest of the crew? Shrugs.

Anupa: LOL, true.

If I was on TV, I would go with Sayid too.

I just wanted to add how beautiful this episode was in its mirroring of past episodes.

Jef: Ah yes

Anupa: Seeing old faces, old settings.

Loved the stadium scene.

Jef: The stadium was dope.

I loved that shot against the seats where it looks like a grid and Dez is moving horizontally and Penny is coming down vertically and it looks like they’re going to meet and click like cosmic Tetris pieces.

Anupa: You are the cybercupid.

Jef: Lol

They fucking with us you, you know?

The get it in our heads that deja vu is love at first sight.

Then they go out of their way to give us deja vu with all the mirroring.

Anupa: Bad shit can only come.

Jef: A lot can happen in 20 minutes.

Anupa: It’s not real time!

Jef: Lol

Ok you have a final word?

Anupa: jes

But I can’t do it cus my punctuation is fucked

<3

nevermind, there it is!

Jef: Hahaha

Appropriately enough, this feels like deja vu.

Anupa: I am no longer impatient.

This episode was very satisfying.

Jef: Five episodes left right?

I hope this is the clear No Filler Zone.

Yeah, I give this episode whatever it wants.

It wuz gud.

Anupa: A+++++++++++++++++

Tags: Chahlie, Charles Widmore, Claire, Crisis on Infinite Lost Earths, Daniel Faraday, Desmond, Driveshaft, Eloise Hawking, good ass scotch, Happily Ever After, Lost, Lost recap, love at first sight, loving Claire at first sight, Penny, Sci-fi, The Lost Interrobang, You All Everybody