James "Sawyer" Ford, Season 5

One of the things I really like about Lost is comfortable producers feel adapting its characters to the actor. One character that has really benefited from this is Sawyer. Sawyer was always a con man, but initially he was a Prada-wearing con man. The producers liked Josh Holloway’s audition so much that Sawyer went from a city-slicker to a Southern boy. It took the actor a while to catch on that the producers wanted him to use his natural Southern accent (Holloway was raised in Georgia). Even “Freckles”, Sawyer’s nickname for Kate, was also Holloway-born.

Sawyer’s Finest Year…or Three

This season, Sawyer had to do the seemingly impossible: accept the fact that he was skipping through time. In their first flash, the Left Behinders discover that their beach camp is gone. Sawyer, meeting Daniel for the first time, scoffs when the physicist says the camp hadn’t been built yet. When Daniel at first refuses to explain what he believes is going on (saying it would be difficult to explain to a quantum physicist), Sawyer slaps Daniel, threatening to slap Charlotte if she interferes. Daniel tries to explain, of course, but Sawyer wants nothing of it. Instead, he wants to break back into the Swan Station to get clothing and food, but Daniel stops him – “You can’t change the past, James.” And indeed, James did not. Desmond never responded to Sawyer’s pounding on the Swan Hatch. When he sees Kate assisting Claire give birth, he stands by, staring in agony. By Jughead, the third episode of the season, Sawyer doesn’t seem to question John when John refers to time travel. What was really funny was watching James trying to explain their time travel situation to Jin.

We also see James take on the role of a leader. In The Little Prince, Sawyer, taking John’s suggestion they go the Orchid, determined that was were the Left Behinders needed to go. After John turns the wheel, Sawyer announces that they’ll wait for John to come back, no matter how long it takes. When he pronounces his plan to wait at the beach and Miles questions the plan, Juliet supports Sawyer (though she later tells Sawyer she thinks it was a stupid idea). Miles then asks, to no one in particular, “Who put him in charge?”

When the Left Behinders find Amy in trouble, Sawyer acts heroically, rescuing her from the Hostiles. He then turns into con man-mode, creating a story on the fly (I guess he didn’t think that confessing they were from the future would be believed). James renamed himself “Jim LaFleur”, and said that the Left Behinders were shipwrecked while trying to find the slave ship, the Black Rock. They were wandering the jungle looking for missing crewmen. Horace believes James, but tells him they have to leave, because “Jim” is clearly not “DHARMA material.” An interaction with Richard Alpert later, James has bought them two weeks to search for their missing crew.

Jim is Accepted by Society

By the time three years have passed, the” “crew” remains missing, and James has become chief of DHARMA Initiative security. Further, everyone in security (and apparently janitorial) are terrified of him. He commands respect, something he’s never had before. And he’s comfortable in that skin. So much so, that he can confront Jack when pushed:

SAWYER: Evening, Doc. … Take a load off. You want a beer?
JACK: No. No, I'm fine.
SAWYER: What can I do for you, Jack?
JACK: I don't even know where to start. Uh... how about with Sayid?
SAWYER: I had no choice. He was running around in the jungle, got caught by my people. And seein' as how he can't tell the truth about how he got here, I had to improvise.
JACK: Improvise?
SAWYER: Uh-huh. And for now, Sayid is safe, which is all that matters.
JACK: So where do we go from here?
SAWYER: I'm working on it.
JACK: Really? Because it looked to me like you were reading a book.
SAWYER: I heard once Winston Churchill read a book every night, even during the Blitz. He said it made him think better. It's how I like to run things. I think. I'm sure that doesn't mean that much to you, 'cause back when you were calling the shots, you pretty much just reacted. See, you didn't think, Jack, and as I recall, a lot of people ended up dead.
JACK: I got us off the Island.
SAWYER: But here you are... right back where you started. So I'm gonna go back to reading my book, and I'm gonna think, 'cause that's how I saved your ass today. And that's how I'm gonna save Sayid's tomorrow. All you gotta do is go home, get a good night's rest. Let me do what I do ...now ain't that a relief?
JACK: Yeah.

Later, Sawyer tells Sayid: these people trust me! I've built a life here – and a pretty good one.

I have to wonder, is this the first time that Sawyer has fit into a community? Been an upstanding member of society? Respected and feared not because he is a thief and a con man but because he is good – really good – at his job – being a security guard. It’s the most conventional and traditional that Sawyer has ever been. Granted, he’s in the DHARMA Initiative, which is hardly conservative.

Part of the wonderful life that James builds involves a romantic relationship with Juliet. I will, of course, talk more about this in a later post. But I will state here that it appears to be a strong bond between the two, and Juliet’s beliefs clearly inform much of Sawyer’s behavior, as I noted later in this post.

Sawyer’s Alternative World Comes Crashing Down

Unfortunately, the return of the Oceanic Six (technically Four since Aaron was left with Carole Littleton and Sun was left in 2007) changed everything. Sawyer fought it for a long time, doing everything he could to integrate the Four into the DHARMA Initiative. He didn’t see how their return ended his comfortable life. He just didn’t get it. He couldn’t control events. He couldn’t prevent 12-year-old Ben trying to escape his horrible life by freeing Sayid. He couldn’t prevent Sayid from trying to kill Ben. He couldn’t control the DHARMA Initiative. Or any of the things that brought his life spiraling out of control.

After Sayid shot Ben, Sawyer was less concerned about the boy’s fate than in doing what Juliet wanted him to do. Thus, he sought Jack’s medical help. Thus, he helped Kate take Ben to the Others: “When I found out Ben was gone, and Juliet told me what you were up to, I asked that exact damn question. Why are you helping Ben? And she said...no matter what he's gonna grow up to be, it's wrong to let a kid die. So...that's why I'm doing this. I'm doing it for her.”

Phil’s discovery of the videotape implicating Sawyer in taking Ben was the final nail in Sawyer’s comfortable life in the DHARMA Initiative. Sawyer saw two options: take the sub to escape or hide in the jungle. He was against finding Daniel’s mother. He tried to talk Kate into joining him on the beach, but Juliet, angered at the use of the nickname “Freckles” gave Kate the information she needed to pass the sonic fence. This was the first fracture in James’ relationship with Juliet (explored more in another post).

Not that he had been hidden, but the old Sawyer seemed to return as Radzinsky beat him, once the remaining DHARMA learned that James and Juliet were not who they seemed to be. He refused to answer any questions, pointing out to Juliet that they wouldn’t believe him anyway. However, once Phil figures out that hitting Juliet will make James talk, he does, drawing a map to the Hostiles so that Sawyer and Juliet can get on the submarine. And when Kate joins them on the sub, breaking the sweetest moment ever, James clearly couldn’t care that Jack planned to detonate a hydrogen bomb. Instead, he wanted to finally leave the Island. Just like saving Ben, he only changed his mind because of Juliet.

So, Sawyer tries to talk Jack out of blowing up the Island. This is one of the best scenes involving these two in the episode. It starts with:

SAWYER: I ain't gettin' in the van. I need five minutes, that's all. I'll say what I gotta say, and then you can do whatever the hell you want to. But you're gonna listen. You owe me that much, Jack.
JACK: Five minutes.
SAWYER: Take a load off, Doc.
JACK: No, thanks.
SAWYER: Sit down, Jack.
SAWYER: My folks died when I was 8 years old. I ever tell you that?
JACK: No.
SAWYER: Con man took my dad for everything he had. He didn't deal with it very well. He shot my mom, then he blew his own head off. I was hiding under the bed when it happened. I heard the whole thing.
JACK: I'm sorry.
SAWYER: Yeah. That was a year ago.
JACK: What?
SAWYER: Right now it's July 1977, which means that happened last year. So I could've hopped on the sub, gone back to the States, walked right in my house and stopped my daddy from killing anybody.
JACK: Why didn't you?
SAWYER: Because, Jack... what's done is done.
JACK: It doesn't have to be that way.
SAWYER: What did you screw up so bad the first time around you're willing to blow up a damn nuke just for a second chance?
JACK: That's not what this is about.
SAWYER: Then what is it about?
JACK: Three years ago, Locke told me that all this was happening for a reason, that us being here was our destiny.
SAWYER: I don't speak "destiny". What I do understand is a man does what he does 'cause he wants something for himself. What do you want, Jack?
JACK: I had her. I had her, and I lost her.
SAWYER: Kate? Well, damn, Doc, she's standing right on the other side of those trees. You want her back, just go and ask her.
JACK: Nah, it's too late for that. Your five minutes is up.
SAWYER: Jack... if what you're doin' even works, you and Kate will be strangers, and she'll be in damn handcuffs.
JACK: If it's meant to be, it's meant to be.
SAWYER: Well, I guess there's nothing I can say that's gonna change your mind.
JACK: No, I guess there's not.

Then, of course, the fight that’s been brewing between these two since the Oceanic 816 crashed. I’m normally bored by fights, but this one was so essential to these two characters, that I just enjoyed it. Until Juliet broke it off. She’d changed her mind. More on that in a later post. But once again, Sawyer agrees to act in a way contrary to his nature because of Juliet. And we all know what happens next.

The Actor

Josh Holloway seems to stay under the radar. However, he had one bit of exciting news this year, the birth of his daughter, Java Kumala Holloway, born April 9, 2009. I’m sure the name has some kind of meaning. I just don’t know what.

In my research for this post, I learned something I didn’t know about Josh Holloway and one of my other favorite shows. You may have known that Daniel Dae Kim and Sam Anderson had both guest starred on Angel. It turns out that Holloway was the first vampire that Angel dusted in LA. Who knew?

Kate Austen, Season Five

I wish that I could say I like Kate more than I do. I haven’t quite figured out whether my disdain for her is because of the actress or the character. I rather think that it is the character. I think the actress if perfectly fine, and I really like the way she expresses some of Kate’s stronger emotions without saying a word. But at times I have found Kate to be tedious, judgmental, and selfish.




You would think that with her compelling story I would be more sympathetic. Kate’s mother divorced the man Kate thought was her father, Sam Austen, to marry Wayne Jannsen, an abusive alcoholic. After nearly being caught shoplifting as a girl, Kate apparently led an exemplary life, a straight A student with only a couple of speeding tickets. But her world came apart when she was 24. In creating a scrapbook for Sam, she found evidence that her mother became pregnant while Sam was posted overseas. It was not Sam, but Wayne who fathered her. That night, Wayne came home drunk. While he tried to grope Kate, she helped him get into bed. She sped away on her motorcycle as the house exploded, killing her father. She later told an unconscious Sawyer, as though he were Wayne, that she killed Wayne because: It's because I hated that you were a part of me -- that I would never be good. That I would never have anything good.

Kate was thus a fugitive when she was caught in Australia by U.S. Marshal Edward Mars. Although she took the opportunity to start fresh on the Island, she never wavered in her desire to leave, either. A woman of strong convictions, she was always horrified when someone put another’s life in danger. She stayed in the middle of things because she was never content to sit still when action was needed. And let’s not forget, of course, her attraction to both Jack and Sawyer. This, of course, is the subject of a later posting.

In Season 4, we saw what Kate’s life off the Island was like, and frankly, it looked idyllic. Kate was raising Aaron as her own son, in a nice home, and apparently out of trouble with the law. Thanks to a settlement with Oceanic, money was not a problem. Although her relationship with Jack ended unpleasantly, her life looked pretty sweet.





So the very first episode of the season saw Kate’s wonderful life in jeopardy. Dan Norton came a-knocking, armed with a court order for a blood test to determine maternity. Kate did what she spent a lifetime doing, she packed up and left. I don’t think she had a clear goal in mind, and she accepted Sun’s call with gratitude. It didn’t take Kate long to figure out it was Ben trying to take Aaron from her.

We learned how Kate came to be known as Aaron’s mother. She told Jack (and presumably the remaining survivors) she should pretend he’s her child because “After everyone we’ve lost..Michael, Jin, Sawyer…I can’t lose [Aaron] too.” As if to buttress her argument, she told Jack that Claire had planned to give the baby up for adoption. (That makes it okay, right?) In other words, Kate kept Aaron not because it was what was best for Aaron, but because it was best for her.

We also saw the results of the hinted-at and hardly surprising promise Kate made to Sawyer. Kate found Cassidy and Clementine, bearing lies and cash. She told Cassidy the truth about the Oceanic 6, but not about Aaron. That’s okay, because Cassidy is one of the most intuitive people on Lost, and she figured it out. Three years later, after Kate loses Aaron in the grocery store, it is Cassidy who tells Kate the truth. Kate took Aaron because “Sawyer broke your heart. How else were you supposed to fix it?”

And that’s when Kate does the most unselfish thing she’s ever done. She gives Aaron back. Well, she gives him to his grandmother, who hadn’t even known he existed. Then she decided to return to the Island, not to find Sawyer (yeah, right) but to find Claire.

Kate’s devastation was palpable. She made Jack promise to never ask about Aaron, later admitting her anger at Jack for insisting she return to the Island. On the plane, she sat alone, telling Jack that just because they were all on the plane didn’t mean that they were together.

Back on the Island, Kate remained the Kate we know and love. She is still clearly attracted to Sawyer (more on that in a later post), she is still uncomfortable around Juliet, and she is still a woman of action. When a house was set on fire by Ben’s runaway VW van, she jumped right in to rescue the inhabitants.

And she shone, frankly, when Ben was shot by Sayid. True to form, she was horrified when Jack refused to operate on the 12-year-old Ben. Not being a surgeon, she did the only she knew how to do – she donated blood as a universal donor and tried to comfort the worried father. When Juliet came up with an alternative solution to Ben’s medical care, Kate jumped, even though the plan sounded awfully wacky. When told that Ben would forever be altered if given over to the Others, Kate didn’t hesitate for him to receive care.

Whatever Happened, Happened was Kate’s finest hour.

Despite my growing affection for Kate, I still wouldn’t have been unhappy if Kate had been shot by the Other in Follow the Leader. And how I groaned as Juliet and Sawyer’s tender moment on the submarine was interrupted by the inclusion of a captured Kate (was I the only one who was reminded of the time Kate followed Jack, Sawyer and John as they tried to find Michael, only to be caught by the Others in The Hunting?).

Notwithstanding my fleeting affection and disaffection for Kate, it’s really not her fault that we learned in The Incident that it was her presence, indeed, her very existence, that sparked much of the action that ensued. Jack decided that it was a good idea to blow up the bomb because he lost Kate. Juliet decided that Jack was right to want to blow everyone up after Sawyer looked at Kate, not Juliet, while Rose and Bernard talked about the importance of being together. Kate just wanted to do what was right, and she found it hard to believe that blowing up everyone on the Island to erase the past was a sane option. True to form, she was horrified when Sawyer first refused to help her stop Jack. She was incredulous that Rose and Bernard didn’t care if the bomb was exploded.

But she folded too, eventually listening to Jack, and agreeing to support him. I’m not sure that I bought her conversion. But once she did, she was, as always, all in.

The Actress

The blogosphere was buzzing in February over rumors that Evangeline Lilly was auditioning for pilots that would air in 2009. Did this mean that Kate would be killed? Lilly’s reps denied the rumors as numerous fans rejoiced at the impending end of Kate. Of course, it didn’t happen that way. Kate lives, and Lilly really wasn’t auditioning for a pilot.

The actress made a number of interviews at the beginning of the season, including Good Morning, America, Jimmy Kimmel, Dave Letterman, and Conan O’Brian. In interviews with Entertainment Weekly, she revealed that the science fiction aspect of the show was her least favorite. She also denied a personal preference in Kate’s choices between Sawyer and Jack.

Evangeline Lilly and Dominic Monaghan have been in an on-again, off-again relationship for quite some time. Rarely seen together, they reportedly are currently still a pair.

My Pledge to…Well, Karen

As a regular fan of Lost, I could just join the numerous other fans in the anti-Kate club. But as a blogger, I feel that I should be able to explain my own dislike of Kate better. I can’t explain why I don’t like Kate. And I respect the fact that one of my readers finds Kate to be likable, strong and flawed. So, once I’ve finished with these Season Five profiles, I plan to spend time watching all the Kate-centric episodes, with the goal of giving Kate a chance. Or, giving myself a chance to verbalize just what it is about the character I don’t like. To be continued…

Emmy Nominations Announced!

So, I have a secret. I’ve always preferred the Emmy Awards shows to the Academy Awards. If you think about it, it makes sense. I rarely see all (or even any) of the nominated movies, but I’ve seen a lot of television. And even if I don’t watch a particular show, I’ve certainly read about it. I always have opinions about the major categories, frequently yelling at the TV through the show. With the advent of DVR, is there’s a speech I don’t care to hear, I can just fast-forward through it.

This doesn’t mean that I actually agree with the awards or the nominations. For example, despite the fact that Patrick Stewart did some fantastic work as Capt. Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, he was never once nominated for Outstanding Actor. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of the best dramas in the past 20 years, was never nominated for Outstanding Drama, and received all of one nomination for Outstanding Writing. These, and oh so many other oversights, have led to very mixed feelings about the Emmy Awards when they come on every year. But don’t let this fool you; I’ll be watching the show this year, just like always.



Unlike Star Trek and Buffy, Lost has been feted at the Emmys. The show won for Outstanding Drama its first season and J.J. Abrams won Outstanding Director for his work on the Pilot. Terry O’Quinn and Naveen Andrews were both nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor, losing to William Shatner.

Lost was pretty much shut out for its second season, with Henry Ian Cusick getting a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor, Jack Bender getting a nomination for Outstanding Direction, and Carlton Cruse and Damon Lindelof getting nominated for Outstanding Writing.

Bender, Cruse, and Lindelof received nominations again for Lost’s third season, but the exciting category was Outstanding Supporting Actor, since both Terry O’Quinn and Emerson were nominated. How I jumped for joy when Terry O’Quinn’s name was called! This was the one bright spot in an otherwise dismal show, in which James Spader won for Outstanding Lead Actor, instead of James Gandolfini.

In the meantime, enjoy this:



Lost’s season five is returning to the Emmys. The two highest profile nominations include Outstanding Drama and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama – Michael Emerson. The season finale, The Incident, also garnered nominations: Outstanding Writing, Outstanding Sound Editing, and Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing.

So, I’ll be watching on Sunday, September 20, cheering my favorite show. And rest assured, I’ll be blogging about it afterward. Go Emerson!

Jack Shephard Season Five

Can you imagine Lost without Jack? The Pilot that aired was as it was initially conceived, except that Jack was supposed to be killed by the Smoke Monster. The producers thought that killing the character we most identified with would be groundbreaking television. The network executives, however, thought this might be too groundbreaking, and asked for Jack to survive. Michael Keaton, who had been cast as Jack, was out, and Matthew Fox was in. The killing still occurred, but it was the pilot of the plane, played by Greg Grunberg, JJ Abrams’ childhood friend, who was plucked from the cockpit of the plane and tossed to his death by the Smoke Monster.

Since then, the producers, writers, and Fox have developed a very complex and flawed character. Jack was the child of an alcoholic with a strong drive to fix things. He became the de facto leader after the plane crash, caring for the sick, planning for the future, and trying to get rescued. Jack’s primary rivals for leadership and the attentions of the winsome Kate were John Locke and Sawyer, respectively. A lot can be said about Jack’s relationship with Sawyer, but I am going to save it for a fuller discussion on the Dreaded Quadrangle (in case you don’t know: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet).

Cross the Road, Jack

But Jack’s rivalry with John Locke is of most interest here. For most of four seasons, Jack had been the logical one, the rational doctor, who relied on his intelligence, senses, and skills as a leader. He didn’t believe that the island had mystical powers, didn’t know that so many surrounding him had been miraculously healed (John (paralysis), Rose (cancer), and Jin (low sperm count), among others), and didn’t think that everyone was supposed to remain on the island indefinitely. Jack had no faith in the island, and didn’t believe in destiny. John, of course, clearly felt otherwise, and the two frequently clashed on the island. There seemed to be no meeting of the minds between the Man of Science and the Man of Faith.

Once off the island, however, Jack fell apart, despite a relationship with Kate and a promising career, afflicted by self-doubt, drug abuse, and alcoholism. All of his vaunted strengths and leadership skills seemed to desert him, and he disappointed Kate, Hurley, and Sun. His path toward drug and alcohol abuse, interrupted by his time on the Island, returned. Jack had nothing to live for, nothing to fix. \

And so it was when John Locke, calling himself Jeremy Bentham, arrived at Jack’s hospital emergency room. A bloated, unshaven Jack confronted John. It went from hostile to worse:

JACK: What are you doing here?
LOCKE: Jack, how did you find me?
JACK: You were in a car accident and you were brought into my hospital. What are you doing here?
LOCKE: [Grunts] We have to go back.
JACK: [Laughing] Of course. Of course we do.
LOCKE: Jack, the people I left behind need our help. We're supposed to go back—
JACK: --because it's our destiny? How many times are you gonna say that to me, John?
LOCKE: How can you not see it? Of all the hospitals they could've brought me to, I end up here. You don't think that's fate?
JACK: Your car accident was on the west side of Los Angeles. You being brought into my hospital isn't fate, John. It's probability.
LOCKE: You don't understand. It wasn't an accident. Someone is trying to kill me.
JACK: Why? Why would someone try to kill you?
LOCKE: Because they don't want me to succeed. They wanna stop me. They don't want me to get back because I'm important.
JACK: Have you ever stopped to think that these delusions that you're special aren't real? That maybe there's nothing important about you at all? Maybe you are just a lonely old man that crashed on an Island. That's it. Good-bye, John.
LOCKE: Your father says hello.
JACK: What?
LOCKE: A man--the man who told me to move the Island--the man who told me how to bring you all back--he said to tell his son hello. It couldn't have been Sayid's father, and it wasn't Hurley's, so that leaves you. He said his name was Christian.
JACK: My... my father is dead.
LOCKE: Well, he didn't look dead to me.
JACK: [Voice breaking] He died in Australia three years ago. I put him in the coffin! He's dead.
LOCKE: Jack, please, you have to come back! You're the only one who can convince the rest of 'em. You have to help me! You're supposed to help me!
JACK: John, it's over! It's done. We left, and we were never important. So you... you leave me alone. And you leave the rest of 'em alone!

At this point, it is clear that Jack was still clinging to his belief as the Man of Science. Jack had already told Hurley that he would never return to the island. It would have seemed that Jack was immobile on the subject.

But we know that was not so. Indeed, Ben informs John that Jack had bought a ticket to Australia after John’s visit. We already knew after the first flash forward in Through the Looking Glass that Jack subsequently booked numerous flights to Australia in the hopes that one of the planes would crash, returning him to the Island. At the very least, the Man of Science believed he needed to return to the island.

Just Who Is This Guy, Anyway?

Apparently, turning from science to faith also turns a man from one of action to one of passivity. The first evidence we had occurred in Jack’s first confrontation with Sawyer. When Jack found Sawyer reading a novel instead of, I don’t know, breaking Sayid out of Dharma-jail, Jack threw a punch, “Because it looks to me like you were reading a book.” When Sawyer stood up to himself (beautifully, may I say?), Jack did something I didn’t think he could do. He backed off. He appeared content to let Sawyer lead.

Jack continued to allow himself to take a backseat to the action. Instead of saving Ben (a task he was uniquely qualified to do), he made sandwiches. Why? “We can’t change what’s already happened. This has nothing to do with me.” Oh, and “I’ve already saved Benjamin Linus, and I [operated on him] for you, Kate.” Oh, and “when we were here before, I spent all my time trying to fix things. But did you ever think that maybe the island just wants to fix itself? And maybe I was just getting in the way?”

Oh, okay. You can’t change it, you did it once before, and you would just be in the way?

And now you believe in the island?

But as the season ended, we learned the real reason for Jack’s decision to return to the island. It turns out, it was all about Kate. This played out with Jack’s decision to adopt Daniel Faraday’s crazy plan to blow up the island. If Jughead is detonated, then everything that happened, every “miserable” moment, is wiped away. He’ll have never lost Kate, since they’ll be back on the airplane, he slowly but surely getting toasted on airplane liquor, and Kate in handcuffs. And, if it’s meant to be, Jack and Kate will have another chance to get back together.

Right.

It’s not just that Jack acted uncharacteristically. I’m okay with people on Lost doing that. But Jack’s change wasn’t organic. It seemed forced and false, and not necessarily a logical occurrence based on everything that had happened to him before. What changed the active man of science into the passive man of faith? Was it the alcohol/drugs? The mention of his father? The general disintegration of his life? We don’t know. And I think we needed a few more clues or signs to help us feel this change that Jack undergoes in Season Five.

The Actor

Matthew Fox made headlines this year when he announced that he was done with television to focus on his movie career. The blogging public guffawed loudly at this. Some found it ludicrous that Fox would leave television for what has so far been a lackluster movie career. Others bemoaned the David Caruso-hubris Fox showed by turning his nose up at television. Just who does he think he is?

Honestly, I think we should give the man a break. Granted, he’s been in a handful of movies, of which only We Are Marshall gathered him any critical praise, as far as I can tell. But Matthew Fox’s first series, a failed drama called Freshman Dorm, aired in 1992. Party of Five came along in 1994, lasting until 2000. Another failed show, Haunted, aired in 2002. Lost, of course, started in 2004. That’s 13 seasons. That’s a lot of time. From what I understand, an actor playing a main character on a television show doesn’t have much of a life when the show is taping. Fox has a wife and children that he moved to Hawaii for this gig. I imagine the paychecks have been pretty nice. If he’s saved enough, he might not really need the work.

The comparison with Caruso is absurd. Until NYPD Blue, Caruso had been a minor character actor in various movies and series, including Hill Street Blues, where he played an Irish gang-member. Caruso famously left NYPD Blue under the impression that his movie career was going to take off. Clearly that didn’t happen. Now Caruso has spent nine seasons phoning it in on CSI: Miami. Caruso did not earn the respect he demanded; Fox has. More power to you, Fox.

What I Didn't Like About Season 5

I really enjoyed this season, I did. But there were a few things that I felt fell flat. Or perhaps just didn't work. Or simply weren't thought through. Here are a few in no particular order:



Ana Lucia’s Warning to Hurley

I personally thought it was really cool to see Ana Lucia again, and she seemed to genuinely care about Hurley, offering him helpful advice on how to deal with the crisis in which he found himself. Her last piece of advice, “And stay away from the cops.”

Now, I take seriously what ghosts on Lost tell us, and I sincerely believed that Hurley needed to avoid the police. I was therefore upset when Hurley turned himself in to the police just to avoid Ben. When we didn’t see Hurley for several episodes afterward, I figured that bad things were really going to happen. Then, nothing. Ben’s attorney managed to get Hurley literally tossed out of jail. Hurley took a cab, where he had a meaningful conversation with Jacob. Hurley decided to return to the island. Nothing sinister occurred. Nothing at all. There seemed to be no reason for Ana Lucia to say it.

Sidebar: I read somewhere that it was actually designed to poke fun at Michelle Rodriguez, the actress who played Ana Lucia and famously was arrested for DUI in Hawaii, violating her probation.

Jin’s Limited Storyline

One of the reasons I was worried that Jin might actually have been killed on the freighter was that the actor who portrays him, Daniel Dae Kim, was arrested in Hawaii for a DUI (his BAC was twice the legal limit). Well, we all know what happens when Lost actors get arrested for that particular crime (see above). But it appears that the Lost producers have a new way of punishing their criminal cast. Limit the lines they speak. I think that once This Place is Death was over, Jin had maybe one line per episode, if he was lucky. We’re told his English improved, but we never saw evidence of it.

Walt and John’s Conversation

I said it before, and I’ll say it again. This conversation was, to me, extremely disappointing. Walt and John Locke started developing a close bond early on, in the second hour of the Pilot. John taught Walt to play Backgammon, and may even have told the boy that the Island healed him: “Walt, do you want to know a secret?” (We never did learn exactly what “secret” John shared, but in Tabula Rasa, Walt told Michael that Locke had told him that he had experienced a miracle). Their relationship progresses, despite Michael’s attempts to keep them apart. John not only teaches Walt to throw a knife, he also figures out that Walt is different. John also knew that Walt, not Jin or the Others, burned the first raft Michael built. The relationship appears strained, however, after Walt begs John not to open it (apparently referring to the Hatch), even though Walt had never been told about the Hatch. But let’s not forget that Walt appeared to John in Through the Looking Glass, after Ben had shot John and left him for dead amongst the dead Dharma folk. John had given up hope, and was trying to kill himself, when Walt appeared, telling John to get up, because “you have work to do.” John later said that he received orders from Walt, only taller.

So, you would think that the reunion of these two special people, who shared so much in such a short time, would be meaningful. But instead, it was flat and dull. Lifeless, even. Here it is.

WALT: Hey, John.
LOCKE: Hi, Walt.
WALT: What happened?
LOCKE: I hurt my leg. You don't seem surprised to see me.
WALT: I've been having dreams about you. You were on the Island, wearing a suit, and there are people all around you. They wanted to hurt you, John.
LOCKE: Good thing they're just dreams.
WALT: Is my dad... is he back on the Island? I haven't talked to him in three years. I figured he must've gone back.
LOCKE: Um, last I heard, your dad was on a freighter near the Island.
WALT: So why'd you come to see me?
LOCKE: I just wanted to make sure you were okay.
WALT: Yeah. I'm doing pretty good. Well, I gotta go. It was good seeing you, John.
LOCKE: Yeah. Take care.

Didn’t these two deserve a better reunion?

Is Kate the Secret to the Island?

I know that I wasn’t the only one to be disturbed that the impetus for much of The Incident was the passive presence of Kate. Kate is a doer, never one to sit still if there is something that she thinks needs doing. So imagine her surprise if she realized that the reason Jack wanted to blow up the island was not just to revive all those who had been killed, but because they broke up:

SAWYER: What did you screw up so bad the first time around you're willing to blow up a damn nuke just for a second chance?
JACK: That's not what this is about.
SAWYER: Then what is it about?
JACK: Three years ago, Locke told me that all this was happening for a reason, that us being here was our destiny.
SAWYER: I don't speak "destiny". What I do understand is a man does what he does 'cause he wants something for himself. What do you want, Jack?
JACK: I had her. I had her, and I lost her.
SAWYER: Kate? Well, damn, Doc, she's standing right on the other side of those trees. You want her back, just go and ask her.
JACK: Nah, it's too late for that. Your five minutes is up.
SAWYER: Jack... if what you're doin' even works, you and Kate will be strangers, and she'll be in damn handcuffs.
JACK: If it's meant to be, it's meant to be.

Since reason didn’t work, Sawyer used his fists to convince Jack to not blow up the island, only to be stopped by Juliet. Juliet had just earlier been convinced by Kate to get off the submarine to prevent Jack from blowing up said nuke. Suddenly, she changed her mind. And why? Not because she thinks it’s a great idea, but because of the look that Sawyer gave Kate when Rose and Bernard were talking about their need to be together.

SAWYER: I need you to tell me where all this is coming from. I mean, one minute, you're leading the great sub escape, and now you're on board with blowing up the damn Island? I got a right to know why you changed your mind.
JULIET: I changed my mind when I saw you look at her.

Whatever. These were the weakest parts of an otherwise excellent season finale.

There's no real reason to include the picture above, other than to say I finally found a photo of Jack and Sawyer duking it out.

Good Sun/Sinister Sun

Since leaving the Island, Sun has been shown to be a ruthless business woman who ousted her father from his powerful position because she partially blamed him for Jin’s death. Meanwhile, she approaches Charles Widmore, clearly an evil dude, to suggest that they have a common purpose, to see Ben Linus killed. And even though she seemed friendly to Kate, and seemingly forgave her for Kate’s part in Jin’s death, the way she asked Kate about Jack sent shivers down my spine. I nearly screamed when Kate left Aaron with Sun, a fair instinct considering that Sun fed him candy and left him in the car when she threatened to kill Ben. And who can forget the package that Sun received that included a gun with chocolates?

But all Ben had to do was show Sun Jin’s wedding ring, and suddenly, Sun was all about whatever would bring her back to Jin, without any questions. She certainly showed some spunk when she knocked Ben out with the oar, but that was it. She spent the remainder of the season following and asking lots of questions. Perhaps she was also suffering from Daniel Dae Kim’s DUI.

The Island didn’t seem all that hard to find

Maybe we missed all the drama. But it seemed to me that it took a pendulum and a 1970s-era computer to determine what “the event window”. And how to get there? A flight to Guam. Too bad Jack never thought of that while flying to and from Australia in his attempts to find the Island.

A 12-Year-Old is nearly killed and kidnapped, and oh, who really cares, anyway?

The Dharma Initiative was all a buzz after the shooting of young Ben, and search parties were undertaken to find the nefarious Hostile who committed the crime. Next episode, nothing, even though Ben was kidnapped. Indeed, only two of the Dharma Initiative seemed to care. One was his drunken father, who made sure Sayid was punished by shooting him in the stomach. The other was Phil, who discovered the video showing Sawyer and Kate taking Ben out of the safety zone. Other than that, life seemed to go on as usual in the Barracks.

If that's withdrawal, maybe drug addiction isn't that bad afterall?

I know, I know, it is just a show, and has no responsibility to show that not only is addiction dangerous and bad, but also withdrawal sucks. Especially withdrawal from narcotics, which is presumably what Jack was abusing (along with alcohol). It is possible that once Ben sent Jack home, he found a stash of his pills (did you ever see House?) and decided to take them along with him on the trip. We know he didn’t really seem to give up alcohol, which most substance abuse counselors would say is necessary for true recovery to occur.

If Jack truly was addicted to opiates or opioids, then an abrupt discontinuance would likely lead to sweating, nausea, depression, fatigue, vomiting, and pain. Lots of pain. Instead, we saw a nice, clean shaven Jack, albeit one who refused to operate to save the life of a 12-year-old and wanted to detonate a nuclear bomb because he broke up with Kate. Perhaps the Island prevented Jack from suffering from withdrawal?

Ben’s Amnesia

One of the most fascinating storylines this season involved the shooting of a 12-year-old Ben by Sayid. Hurley put his finger squarely on the issue. If Sayid shot Ben, and Ben survived, then he must have known who Sayid was when Danielle first turned over the ersatz Henry Gale to Sayid, and further, must have known exactly what buttons to push when trying to convince Sayid to return to the Island. My belief in Ben’s powers of manipulation is apparently higher than warranted, though, as we learned from Richard Alpert that Ben would lose all memory of the shooting. Indeed, Ben was surprised in 2007 to learn that Jack, Kate, and Hurley were members of the Dharma Initiative in 1977. Honestly, it felt like a cop-out.

So, what did you think? Anything you wish had been different?

What I Liked About Season 5

So, I've been quiet on the Blog for a while, which is driving some of my friends and readers a little crazy. I apologize for the silence, and hope to more than make up for it in the next couple of months.

A lot happened in Season 5, the penultimate season of Lost. The writers and producers were in a bind, because they couldn't reveal too much, but they also couldn't just leave the story limping along, either. And in some respects, they did a fabulous job. This post will talk about what I liked about the Season. I hope that you will post what you liked as well.

All quotes are from Lostpedia.



I really liked the time traveling aspect. Until John turned the wheel in This Place is Death, the Left-Behinders found themselves skipping through time at an ever-increasing rate, putting their lives in danger, and eventually killing Charlotte. Each time we visited the Left-Behinders, I was on the edge of my seat, worried about what would happen next and exhausted by the time changes. These scenes shows Lost at its best, with the frantic pace with characters who acted, well, characteristically.

Juliet and Sawyer’s love story. I know that I declared myself a proponent of Kate and Sawyer earlier in the season, but watching the mature relationship between Juliet and James turned me into an apostate. I am voting the scene where James brings Juliet a flower as the most romantic involving any members of the Dreaded Quadrangle.

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The fight between Sawyer and Jack, because honestly, they’ve been headed toward this for five years now. Well, three for them. (Sadly, no picture. Can you believe it?)

Any scene that featured Miles and Hurley together. These two are comic gold. Hurley has always been the go-to guy whenever comic relief is needed, but his relationship with Miles ramped it up exponentially. Hurley served as us in his discussions with Miles about time travel, and Miles learned, just as we did five years earlier, that there’s more to Hugo than meets the eye. And only Hugo could successfully compare Miles’ daddy issues to Luke Skywalker’s in the Empire Strikes Back. I heard some people were thinking that Miles would die in the season finale, since his storyline with Pierre Chang resolved itself, but I’m hoping that we get to see him until the very end, coping with Hugo.
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Hugo’s confession to his mother about the crash, the island, and the lie. How many of us have tried to explain to non-Lost fans the appeal of the show, and then realized that what we were saying just didn’t make sense? As Hugo stumbled over his words and tried to explain to his mother just what was going on, a huge lump took center stage in my throat. The words are worth reciting:

HURLEY: Okay. See, we did crash, but it was on this crazy island. And we waited for rescue, and there wasn't any rescue. And there was a smoke monster, and then there were other people on the island. We called them the Others, and they started attacking us. And we found some hatches, and there was a button you had to push every 108 minutes or... well, I was never really clear on that. But... the Others didn't have anything to do with the hatches. That was the DHARMA Initiative. The Others killed them, and now they're trying to kill us. And then we teamed up with the Others because some worse people were coming on a freighter. Desmond's girlfriend's father sent them to kill us. So we stole their helicopter and we flew it to their freighter, but it blew up. And we couldn't go back to the island because it disappeared, so then we crashed into the ocean, and we floated there for a while until a boat came and picked us up. And by then, there were six of us. That part was true. But the re... But the rest of the people... who were on the plane? They're still on that island.
[Carmen puts her hand on her son's wrist.]
CARMEN: I believe you. I don't understand you, but I believe you.

Finally getting to meet Pierre Chang. We’ve seen Pierre Chang in various Dharma Initiative videos, both in the show and through the internet (several, apparently, were shown at various Comic Cons), using different aliases (what’s that about, anyway?), orienting new DI recruits to their new assignments/tasks. We always knew that he was a cranky scientist, but now we got to see him as a principled family man who was willing to believe some crazy talk about his son coming from the future.

The birth of Charlie Hume. I must say I was tickled pink, first that Desmond and Penny had a baby, and secondly, that they named the child after Charlie. Some bloggers used some strained Lost logic to determine that Charlie Hume was actually Charlie Pace, but I’m still on record as saying that I find it far-fetched, and honestly, I feel that such a twist would actually ruin the poignancy of both Charlie’s death and his namesake.

How much fun was it getting to meet the young Danielle Rousseau, and watching her transformation from a young, naïve scientist, to a woman capable of murdering friends and devastated by the loss of her child to Ben? Mira Furlan, the Rousseau we know and love, asked for her character to be killed off (I guess she was tired of Hawaii), so this allowed us to finally learn her story.

Ben’s humor. Not many can pull off a dry line as well as Mr. Linus. Case in point, when Kate accused Ben of starting legal proceedings to remove Aaron from her custody and Jack defended Ben, Ben responds, “No, Jack. She’s right. Sorry.” That "sorry" made me laugh out loud! No one can take semantics to such an extreme either. Ben told a furious Jack he never lied to Jack about John not seeking Ben out; instead, Ben sought out John Locke.

Ben’s apparently successful murder of John Locke in The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham. It was so unexpected, yet so in character for Ben. I was completely shocked.

Getting to know Richard Alpert. Last season, we had little of Alpert-action because the actor, Nestor Carbonell, who apparently has heavily-lined eyes without the help of make-up, was in a really bad nighttime soap with Jimmy Smits. Thankfully, on two levels at least, the show folded, and Alpert was back to guide, protect, and amaze. Even though we still don’t know who the hell he is, at least we know his role a little better.

Sayid’s response to Oldham’s truth serum was the lightest part of a very serious and dark episode. Sayid gave his interrogators nothing but the truth, but the truth was so bizarre, that all but one of his listeners thought that Oldham gave Sayid too much serum. This exchange is also worth another look:

OLDHAM: I'm going to ask you a few questions. I want you to relax and answer them truthfully...Not that you'll have any choice about it. What is your name?
SAYID: [Clearly drugged] Sayid. Sayid Jarrah.
OLDHAM: All right, Sayid. Why were you in handcuffs when we found you?
SAYID: Because...because I am a bad man.
OLDHAM: Were you running away from your people?
SAYID: What people?
OLDHAM: The hostiles.
SAYID: I am not a hostile.
HORACE: Then where did you come from, Sayid?
SAYID: I came on a plane.
OLDHAM: What plane?
SAYID: Ajira flight 3-1-6.And that's how I returned to the island.
OLDHAM: "Returned"? You've been here before?
SAYID: Oh, yes. The first time, I was on Oceanic flight 8-1-5. It crashed. I was here for a hundred days. Then I left. Ask Sawyer.
OLDHAM: Who's "Sawyer"?
RADZINSKY: Who cares?! None of this matters. Ask him about the Flame.
HORACE: [To Radzinsky] Quiet.
OLDHAM: What do you know about our stations here?
SAYID: I know the Flame was a communication station. The Pearl was to observe other stations. The Swan was to study electromagnetism. But, of course, that was before the incident--
RADZINSKY: [Interrupting] The swan?! How could he know what we were gonna name it? We haven't even built it yet! I told you! He saw the model! You see?! He is a spy!
HORACE: [To Radzinsky] Hey!
RADZINSKY: I knew it!
HORACE: Radzinsky! I'm not gonna tell you again. Cool it.
SAYID: You're all going to die, you know.
HORACE: [To Sayid] What?
SAYID: You're going to be killed.
HORACE: How exactly would you know this, Sayid?
SAYID: Because I am from the future.
OLDHAM: [To Horace] Maybe I should've used half a dropper. Oops.
[Sayid begins to laugh uncontrollably.]
SAYID: You...You used exactly enough.

Somehow Kate became extremely likable in the episode Whatever Happened, Happened. Kate-centric episodes usually end up annoying me, but by the end of that episode, I wanted to hug her, not throttle her. She did the right thing, giving Aaron back to this grandmother, and decided to return to the island so that she could find Claire (I’m sure finding Sawyer was the last thing in her mind). Lastly, unlike Jack, she realized that it was immoral to let a boy die just because he would grow up to become, well, Ben Linus, and took action, in her Kate way, to save him. This doesn’t mean that Kate didn’t manage to annoy me later in the season, just that I found myself sympathizing with her for the first time ever in a Kate-centric episode.

Penny lives! Last season, Ben promised Widmore that he would kill Penny in retaliation for Keamy’s murder of Alex, a violation of “the rules”. I’m sure I’m not the only one who worried that Penny was a goner when Ben showed up in 316 wounded. Finally, in Dead is Dead, we saw what happened. To this day, I think Ben changed his mind about killing Penny when Charlie poked his head out to see what was going on. Regardless, Ben deserved the thrashing that Desmond meted out.

I also thoroughly enjoyed how Rose and Bernard handled their three years in the 1970s. I thought it was remarkably romantic and sane. I heart Rose & Bernard.

Watching Ben’s comeuppance. I’ve loved watching Ben over the years as he’s manipulated just about everyone with whom he comes in contact. Ben loves being in control, and frankly, he’s quite good at it. To tell the truth, I didn’t think that any one of our Lostaways would figure out that Ben was a lying, manipulative jerk. Jack never got it, and the real John Locke never got it. But Sun did. Watching her whack Ben on the head once she learned all she need to learn from him was extremely satisfying. Later, we didn’t know just who was manipulating Ben when he returned to the island with not-Locke, but either way, it was also edifying. I will be curious to see how he handles learning that he was not serving as John Locke’s bitch after all, but some super being who’s been fighting Jacob for years.

The mythology. From the references to ancient Egypt (discussed earlier) to Latin, from “What lies in the shadow of the statue” to fighting on the right side, to finally meeting Jacob, this season was heavy on the mythological subtext. This is just one of many reasons why Lost will be discussed in college courses in the future.

Watching Neil Frogurt take a flaming arrow to the chest. He was really annoying. It was pretty satisfying to see Phil die too.

There was so much to love about the season, and I realize as I worked on this that there were other scenes I've left out. Oh, well. I hope that you'll let us know what you liked about Season 5. And expect another post on what I didn't like about Season 5.