Last Thursday’s episode, 4×08 Meet Kevin Johnson, marked the beginning of a mini-break until Lost returns on April 24th with 6 more episodes to round out the season. With this pause, we decided to evaluate season 4, how it stacks up thus far, and what we are looking forward to when the show returns!
*Note: We will be discussing everything that has aired so far, so if you haven’t watched the show and do not want to be spoiled, then look away!*
Overall Impressions:
So far, we have to say season 4 is doing a good job with answering questions and making some key reveals–however we are somewhat disappointed in the quality of writing, especially with these last few episodes. There have only really been two truly great episodes, while the rest range from mediocre to flat-out terrible *cough–Eggtown–cough*. While we appreciate that the writers are trying to move in the direction of answering questions, and the flash-forwards and decision to take some characters off-island is incredibly brave…it’s just the actual execution of some of these ideas falls short.
We love that we now know Charles Widmore is financing the frieghter folks and that he orchestrated the fake plane crash. We love the idea that the Island wants (needs) the Oceanic Six to return…but why are these reveals made with some of the worst dialogue imagineable, e.g. “You can’t kill yourself Michael, the Island won’t let you!” (COME ON). The contrived terribleness of The Tempest station and the deadly!gas! countdown, the ludicrous court scenes in Eggtown (“Do you LOVE the defendant?”), the complete lack of character continuity (Claire mourns Charlie for 10 seconds in 4×01 The Beginning of the End and then that’s it? She’s discussing baby caring techniques and serving coffee with Kate? Uhhh WTF?), and most importantly the unnecessary kiss of death to Karl and possibly Danielle…well, let’s just say we’re not particularly thrilled with these developments. Maybe we just want our cake and eat it too with this wish for solid character development, compelling plot reveals and outstanding writing…but this is what Lost has been about from the start. It’s a bit disappointing really, to have stumbling now.
That said, there was one particular episode this season that could possibly be one of the best episodes EVER. And that is a shining beacon of hope in the murk.
Best Moments:
The best moment so far HAS to be the phone conversation between Desmond and Penny in 4×05 The Constant.
Desmond and Penny in The Constant
This scene brought tears to our eyes. Beautifully written, beautifully acted, beautifully filmed and edited. The scene is so incredibly powerful and (dare I say it) epic…truly brilliant, classic Lost doing what they do best.
Other honorable mentions include: the reveal that Michael is the saboteur on the freighter, the experiment scenes with Daniel Faraday (the time lapse of the payload signal reaching the island in 4×02, the maze and hemmoraging of Eloise in 4×05), the discovery of a polar bear skull wearing a Dharma collar in Tunisia, the revelation that Sayid is a hitman working for Ben off-island, the casting of Jeff Fahey (the Lawnmower Man himself!) as Frank Lapidus.
Worst Moments:
Good Ol’ Benry and the Ham
Oh, where to begin! The rabbit out of the arse creation of a completely new hatch called the Tempest which can whoosh! incapacitate everyone on the island with poison smoke, the reveal that Benry is a prancing wiz in the kitchen, the reveal that Goodwin’s wife has a moleymoleyMOLE that deserves recognition in the credits as a cast member, the incredibly bad writing of the entire courtroom scene in Eggtown, the reasoning Kate’s mother has for not testifying against her daughter in the same episode (how is she still alive by the way? Terminal cancer my foot!), the writing of Locke as he morphs from badass cool island channeller to whiney pissy lost leader (apparently from the Jack school of communication and leadership), the stupid completely unneccessary bitch-fight between Charlotte and Juliet, Charlotte in general, Miles in general (the epic Milesface versus Jackface showdown), should we keep going?
Best Episode:
Gotta be The Constant. Hands down. Not only was this episode brilliant in terms of a mindblowing reveal that Desmond’s consciousness actually IS travelling in time, but the writing, acting, filming and editing was superb. The characters were real and vulnerable, the dialogue was not cheesy in the slightest, and it had that perfect blend of tasteful emotion with frakking cool SF elements–in other words, Lost’s bread and butter. BRAVO! More of this, please! 1×04 Walkabout will always be our ultimate favorite episode, but believe you me, The Constant has cracked the top 10.
Worst Episode:
Hmmm, toughie *snorts* Eggtown was a complete waste of time. Besides the last second revelation that Kate’s son is Aaron (which us spoiler whores knew about since the hiatus), this was a craptastic snoozefest of an episode. The courtroom scenes were ridiculous, the writing of Kate and Sawyer was awful, Claire and Locke were acting exceptionally strangely and inconsistent with other episodes…just all around terrible. Can the triangle end already? Please? Pretty pretty please, just DIE stupid triangle from hell!
Sorry. It really bugs us that this crap eats up whole episodes. It was cute for a season or two. We’re in season 4 now. Time to move on.
Best Revelation:
Charles Widmore is the man on the outside
Has to be the reveal that Charles Widmore is the man on the outside, running the freighter and trying to get access to the island. Finally, the curtain is pulled back and we have a definitive villain. Sort of. Even if the reveal was cheesy as hell and felt like a data dump, it’s a concrete answer! Huge reveal, and another piece of the puzzle falls into place.
Worst Revelation:
Ken Leung as Miles and Kid Omega
We’re sticking with The Tempest. Mmm or possibly the disappointing reveal that Miles didn’t choke on his grenade breakfast and is still alive. Can’t stand that guy. Probably runoff from hatred of his LAME character in X3: The Last Stand. Pufferfish face boy. At least let him be the REAL Quill (NOT Kid Omega he is incorrectly listed as) that can shoot barbs out of his entire body. What good is it to have a barbed face? Pathetic.
Best Conversation/Dialogue:
Can we use The Constant convo between Des and Penny again? No? Hmm, in that case let’s go with that badass Sayid at the beginning of his centric, 4×03 The Economist.
Sayid Jarrah: torturer, hitman, badass
SAYID: It appears you were right about the 5-iron.
MAN 1: well, uh, enjoy your round, don’t worry about the wager. All in good fun.
SAYID: No, you won. Allow me to pay you.
MAN: No, it’s fine. Thank you, it’s…
SAYID: I insist, Mr. Avellino.
And that’s the end of Mr. Avellino. Not as cool as “My name is Sayid Jarrah, and I am a torturer.” But…it’s still pretty damn badass.
Worst Conversation/Dialogue:
Although the scene between Tom and Michael (with cheeseball “Meet Kevin Johnson” title drop) or Benry’s channeling of Chucky with his “Then consider yourself one of the good guys!” line in the last episode are contenders, the winner has to be the miraculous convo between Jin and Bernard in 3×07 Ji Yeon. All of a sudden Jin can speak pretty solid english? This from “Udders!” Jin? And he even knows words like Karma? COME ON. Somehow Bernard’s little fishing trip expedition with Jin convinces him to take back Sun? Puh-lease.
Expectations for the rest of the season:
Well, we are certainly expecting the writers to pick up some serious slack! We felt that the writing for The Beginning of the End, The Economist, and The Constant was very well done, right on the money. Confirmed Dead also was a solid episode, although a bit heavy handed with the WTF!POLARBEAR! mindfraks every commercial break. Even with the crap melodrama soap opera writing of episodes like The Other Woman and Ji Yeon somehow was marginally redeemed by the superb quality acting (Yunjin Kim and Elizabeth Mitchell ROCK).
So, we implore you, dear writers–no more babydaddy drama, no more Kate waffling, no more terrible blunt reveals without finesse or character! Oh, and Danielle better not be dead.
We know it’s a tall order, but with such beautiful episodes like The Constant, we KNOW the writers and show runners are capable of delivering the goods. We’ll be glued to our screens for 4×09.
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4 Responses to LOST: The Season So Far…
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I would love to know who Juliet reminds Ben of. His wife? Lover? Sister?? ewwww… i know
Only a few more weeks till 5 continuous Lost episodes. MORE SAWYER PLEASE!
This season is way better than last. And I agree, The Constant was my favorite episode as well so far.
Katie–I think the “you look just like her” refers to Ben’s mama (see pictures below):
http://gallery.lost-media.com/albums/ep-caps/season3/3×20-curtain/1/normal_curtain-cap316.jpg
^Ben’s Mom
http://gallery.lost-media.com/albums/ep-caps/season4/4×06/normal_otherwomancap227.jpg
^Juliet
Which makes sense in a creepy, Oedipal way. Just like Good ol’ Ben.
Zeek–so far, so good. I like the answers we are getting thus far in this season, although I will continue to bitch about the writing :p
And while we are all waiting for Lost to return, at least we will have BSG back next week to keep us company!
WOO HOO! I knew it was coming back- even though I heard they are saying it’s their LAST season- BOO!- glad it’s coming back that soon!