The Ashcan

The LOST Interrobang: Pour four out (S6E14)

Posted on 06. May, 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?

Two weeks ago, we felt like the pawns were being put into place for the finale and we got an awesome reunion between Jin and Sun. In this week’s “The Candidate” I’m not really sure what happened because I’m numb from the pain. Join me in numbsville, below the jump (where spoilers also lie):

Anupa: I feel we should start on a central point, instead of just linearly

Jef: Like, start on DEATH?
DEATH DEATH DEATH

Anupa: scream it like a metal singer
deaaaaaaaaaoooooooooooth
okay, whose death made you the saddest?

Jef: Jin and Sun no doubt, as a couple
The reunion last episode was so lightweight too

Anupa: everything is lightweight!!!
this show is losing its emotional immediacy
i’m not connecting in a way that makes me feel invested

Jef: Word? I was going to say their deaths were done real well

Anupa: you don’t mean that, really?

Jef: I do.

Anupa: okay well, what about the deaths did you like?

Jef: I feel you on the point of saying that Jin and Sun have been pushed to background characters — and Sun specifically has been downgraded (as all the women have like I was on about before)
But that aside, they died real good.

Anupa: I just feel like it lost so much because Sayid also died and vice versa wrt his death, and Lapidus too to a lesser extent

Jef: Aha Lapidus
He’ll be back.
Someone has to fly the plane!
We’re on opposite sides, I liked Sayid’s death too

Anupa: They’re not leaving the island

Jef: Haha no you’re right, he’s dead.

Anupa: GOD, how could you like them killing the only people of colour in one sweep of a wave?!

Jef: Well now hold up

Anupa: why can’t they kill kate?
No one likes her!

Jef: HAHA

Anupa: people like Sayid, even if he was a zombie

Jef: I’m of two minds on this:
OF COURSE I’m upset they offed all the minorities. You know how I am.
Especially that they did it all same episode, which was just kind of tacky
But at the same time, these characters have to die;
We started off with two central stories: Jack vs. Locke as leaders, and the love triangle between Jack/Sawyer/Kate
So I mean, this was gonna happen in one way or another
Sayid started as the lone wolf and he went out that way, it was heroic. I liked it.

Anupa: You would, comic book guy!

Jef: Are you calling me fat?
OMG I’m fat.

Anupa: Hey, nice ponytail and large balding spot with hair on the sides.

Jef: LOL
Feel me though: Sayid’s death flipped so much

Anupa: You know what I think it was? I think it was the flipfloppyness of the episode. I think if I were them I’d be a neurotic mess by now. “WE CAN NEVER DO ANYTHING RIGHT”
First we have to go the other island, but oh now they’ve captured us, and then we have to go to the plane anyway but BOOP there’s a bomb on it, and now let’s go to the sub, oh wait this is where the real bomb is at.
I’d volunteer to run with the bomb too
Sayid’s death wasn’t heroic, he just couldn’t take it anymore!

Jef: Lol
I mean I feel you on the comedic level
But really, here’s the guy who was constantly struggling with killing people. He started off on the flight with a white dude side-eying him on some brown stereotype shit. He went out by flipping both this things

Anupa: LOL is it really supposed to be that literal?

Jef: He had a bomb hugged to chest and he was saving people. Not only that — he overcame the zombiness.

Anupa: He’s a suicide bomber, but he’s on our side!

Jef: Naw I’m not saying that’s the literal intent dude
I’m saying it’s nice.
Come on now, half the stuff we say we like about this show has nothing to do with literal intent

Anupa: No, I get what you’re saying
I’m just being a pissant (BAHAHA!)
I mean that was definitely the creator’s intent
And I’m glad Jin and Sun got to go out together. It fits them.

Jef: Tell what you hated about Jin and Sun’s deaths though

Anupa: I mean, i just feel like the episode was shoddy all around, so killing them all like that felt heavy-handed and rushed.
It didn’t do our investment into these characters justice

Jef: Maybe we’re differing because I don’t really see them as dead — I still believe the end game is that the worlds get merged

Anupa: But I don’t feel invested in the other world characters as much
They’re not the same people we’ve come to know. They feel different.
Am I getting space age right now? Did I blow your mind yet?

Jef: haha I thought it was me who was being too space age
Because if their memories and shit bleed over, I don’t really see the difference
They’ll still have had the island experience
Did you dislike the episode overall?
Or just the end part?

Anupa: Totally overall
Like I said, it felt unnecessary

Jef: I thought you would dig the parallel Jack/Locke story

Anupa: It just felt rushed

Jef: Four episodes left!
Haha I did like at the beginning when Widmore said “We haven’t got an hour!!”
If Hurley speaks for the audience, I feel like Widmore often speaks for the writers
…or the writers’ bosses

Anupa: This show has been poorly planned and I would like to file a formal complaint
So wait, Hurley somehow swims his way up with Kate. How sad was it to see him cry?

Jef: Very sad! Was that the first time?
Did he even cry for Libby? Or just get touchy?

Anupa: No, he just gets morose for Libby
He flat out shed tears this time

Jef: Yeah he was ugly sobbing.
I even like Jack’s crying. I didn’t think I was going to.

Anupa: Jack has sexy crying. Those are sexy tears.
If tears could be sexy, they’d sprout from the tearducts of hot men

Jef: I felt his frustration, and I dug that he couldn’t do it in front of everyone else.

Anupa: What’d you make of the Desmond thing?

Jef: Word, so Sayid definitely didn’t kill him.

Anupa: Why do you think Sayid didn’t kill him, but left him in the well to die anyway?

Jef: Desmond was on that “you always have a choice” stuff.
Sayid made his choices, I like. And now that I think about it, it also recalls how Dez did the same for Charlie. They both had to die in the end, but they went out heroes, and of their own decisions, right?

Anupa: Yes, this is true. You are deep
Is that the wine talking?

Jef: Probably.

Anupa: LOL

Jef: Otherwise I’d just be all “Claire!”
OH speaking of Lost crushes
Sun was totally doing it for me this week I have no idea why, and then she fucking died.

Anupa: Maybe she was giving off bitchy vibes, and that made you attracted to her bitchy Koreanness [NOTE: Bitchy Korean women make Jef swoon]

Jef: Maybe. Her “GO!” would totally have made me stay too.
Like meow. NOW I’m staying put.
I said meow.
Yo your boy Bernard was in this episode.
Did you care?

Anupa: It was nice
It would’ve been nice to see Rose. They come as one swirly geriatric pair

Jef: Haha swirly
Dude Bernard felt creepy here
It was funny when he was like “you were flirting with my wife Rose” to Jack
What else did you dislike?

Anupa: Seeing Locke’s dad. That was sad.

Jef: Oh man yeah
That dude’s face was on pause.

Anupa: AHAHAHAH

Jef: Like with Ben’s dad though, it seems like the way these dudes aren’t bad fathers in this world is they’ve become physically disabled
Or you know, dead.

Anupa: You’re onto something, but Christian’s storyline is the same.

Jef: Yeah — the way Jack becomes diff seems to be that he became a father himself
Not that his father did anything differently.
I think I’m just bullshitting here though.
Did you like Terry O’Quinn’s guilt speech?

Anupa: That whole thing was sad, the one genuine emotional point in this show
That shit was crazy, how he basically wanted to torture himself because he was like ‘wtf did i do’?
On a side note, i have to add that every time Helen comes into a scene, I pretty much always have to say “PEG!”

Jef: She is 100 per cent Peggy Bundy to me. Never anything else. I want Locke to rub her tush with a catcher’s mitt.
And yeah man, on island-time Locke is all The World Fucked Me Over and in la-la land he’s all Fuck Me Over, World
If that makes any sense.

Anupa: Did you like how nosy real-time Jack was being? Going to the old age home, etc?

Jef: Yeah I think it shows the other side of Jack, the non-wishy washy side
On the island he’s been the reluctant hero all the time
Here he’s taking charge of the situation from jump
He isn’t worrying whether or not he can save people
he’s just all YO I CAN SAVE YOU

Anupa: I pictured him in a rippling cape
Like, I actually just did

Jef: Arms on hips, sucking in his gut
Ayo what the shit is taking Rich and his team SO LONG?
Everyone crossed the island like 25 times already and they’re still on their way

Anupa: HAAHHa he has no gut you hater
Hay-hay-hay-hayyyter

Jef: Yo guy, episode 1 of this season — he sucking!

Anupa: LOL wait, Richard is supposed to come there?
I think I’ve stopped paying attention to this show. I’m officially just watching to get it over with.

Jef: Yeah, Rich’s plan was to blow up the plane right? Oh wait, maybe it was him who put the bomb there, not Widmore?
LOL dude.

Anupa: NO but then Ilana blew up and then did that change plans? I’m confused

Jef: You had one week off and your whole face changed on this!

Anupa: I know
They lost me
GET IT?
LOST????????

Jef: You’ve been reading recaps haven’t you.
But nevermind, fuck other recaps!
It’s just strange to me — I wouldn’t tell someone to not be mad at this show. But to get mad at it over this particular episode? You gotta break it down further for me.

Anupa: What more can I sayyyyyy?

Jef: So it was mostly the deaths?

Anupa: I made two lame pseudo-Jay-Z references within a couple of minutes. I rule.
It wasn’t the deaths

Jef: Gotta learn to live with regrets.

Anupa: Touche.
It was the zigging and the zagging and the plans changing and the cages then the plane then the sub

Jef: But yo didn’t we want the pace to quicken?

Anupa: Not nonsensically
I just feel like they could have cut out some of that

Jef: One thing I’ll say about the cages is: KATE YOU CAN GET OUT THROUGH THE TOP

Anupa: Like too much is happening in such a small span of time. I liked when she was reaching for the keys. Why is it when anyone tries to do soemthing like that, their tongue automatically sticks out a bit?

Jef: Ya people always Mike Jordan it.
Haha I wonder if I do when I type fast.
That was the wrong joke.
Lol just cut that out.
So I think this was our biggest disagreement so far! Anything else you wanna touch on?

Anupa: Not really
We didn’t focus on details this episode
But I think it was a devisive one
It’s my first INTERRO, minus the BANG

Jef: I can feel that
Three details I’ll get out the way quick: 1) “There is no Sayid” is both a great line and a horrible line
2) Lapidus’ hair is mad inconsistent
and 3) Locke TOTALLY grabbed Claire’s boob on the pier
And ya, I give it similar but opposite, BANG with no INTERRO — which I don’t think is that much of a bad thing.

Anupa: I don’t wanna hear about pervy Locke, that’s gross

Jef: LOL
Shall we stop here like Anthony Cooper’s face?

Anupa: pyyywp
that’s the sound his face makes when it’s stopping
sorry

Jef: lol
it was a good choice of consonants
vivid

Tags: Charles Widmore, Death, Jack, Jin, Lapidus, Locke, Lost, Lost recap, Pause, Sayid from Lost, Sun