S5: Because You Left

I really enjoyed this episode.  I forgot how much of a cluster fuck Season 5 was and the premiere does not disappoint.  The episode jumps through time, giving small clues of "when" the Losties are.  So not only is the episode connecting to events in the past, but it's also connecting to events in the future, events that I have retained from my first watch, making this episode very enjoyable and not as frustrating as it was the first time, albeit a fun kind of frustrating that spawned ideas and conversations among my friends until the next episode aired.

A lot was establish that is important to remember so one can enjoy the rest of Season 5 and not be bad frustrated.  You can't change the past.  Whatever happened, happened.  If you try you will fail, because you did fail, if you had succeeded, you would have remembered because it would have happened.

We are told that bad things are going to start to happen and supposedly it's because Jack and his friends left, but at this time, I'm not seeing the connection.  Even if Jack didn't leave and Ben still moved the island, bad things would have happened regardless.  I'll have to keep an eye out if any bad things could have been avoided if Jack was there, but nothing comes to mind as of yet.  Hopefully something will stand out, but maybe it's as simple as if Jack stayed then maybe Locke would not have had to die to get him to come back, but if he hadn't, how would Jack eventually reach his destiny.  A topic for another time maybe.

It was great seeing Desmond being tapped in the end because I forgot how he gets back involved especially when he should be done with it all.  I enjoyed all the off island scenes that are going to eventually bring all the Oceanic 6 back together.  I'm very looking forward to the rest of the season thanks to the premiere.

S4: There's No Place Like Home: Part 3

The last episode of Season 4 doesn't waste anytime.  We jump right back into the action where the chopper barely makes it back to the freighter and moments later the freighter blows up.  Michael sees Christian before blowing up, and Jin misses a ride on the chopper and appears to blow up as well.  (Sun IS pissed!)  Then back on the island, Ben turns the frozen donkey wheel and the island disappears and the chopper crashes in the water with no where to land and no fuel.  As the Oceanic 6, Desmond and Lapidus float in the ocean in a life raft from the chopper, Penny's boat shows up to save them and they put into motion the story that was revealed in Part 1 of the finale.

There was some set up scenes for next season with Sayid taking Hurley from the mental institution, Kate being visited in a dream by Claire, Sun having a business conversation with Widmore, and in the last minutes, Ben and Jack chatting at the funeral home where Jeremy Bentham is revealed as Locke who is dead in the casket, a casket that was first seen in the Season 3 finale.

The episode went by really fast and the lack of flashbacks were great as it did not deter from the action.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief as the season ended.  They spent four seasons try and finally attempting to get off the island, and Ben has "some ideas" on how to get them back.  I look forward to the surprises Season 5 holds and scenes I may have not retained from the first time.

Of note:  The Desmond/Penny reunion was great.  I also enjoyed Jack's lack of faith in his ability to get his friends to want to go back.  Totally made sense for his character.  The Locke reveal the first time was pretty awesome but also sad to see that he had passed.  Thankfully thanks to flashbacks and other events that have yet to materialize, this isn't the last we've seen of Locke and I take solace in that fact.

S4: There's No Place Like Home: Part 2

Part 2 picked up right where Season 3 left off - we get to see Kate and Jack finish their "We have to go back" disagreement.  Also the identity of the man in the casket is given a name - Jeremy Bentham.  Even Walt pops up later on to visit Hurley in the mental institution and drops that name as well, informing Hurley that Jeremy visited him.  I think that was all the off island scenes which is good because all of things are happening on island.

Sayid had a badass fight against Keamy, and later on Jack and Locke get into it at the Orchid which reminds us that they are still at war with each other - man of science, man of faith remains truer than ever.  Keamy doesn't die in his fight against Sayid surprisingly since Richard Alpert puts two bullets in him, but his body armor protects him long enough to go back to the Orchid to confront Ben where Ben kills him dooming the people on the freighter due to Keamy's "dead man's trigger".  Ben shows no remorse in Keamy's death or the eventual death of all the people on the freighter in the final scene of this episode.

Elsewhere (befrore the episode ends), Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, and Sawyer free Lapidas who attempts to fly them back to the freighter where Jin, Sun, Aaron, Desmond, and Michael are -- the three men dealing with the bomb.  Due to an earlier fire fight, a bullet penetrates the gas tank and the chopper is in danger of not making it.  Sawyer whispers a message to Kate, kisses her and bails.

Miles and Charollete tell Farrady that they are going to stay on the island while Juliet is optimistic as ever as Faraday leaves to ferry more people off the island.  Little does Juliet know, and the audience at this point that Faraday isn't going to make it to the freighter.  The exciting conclusion to season 4 tomorrow!

S4: There's No Place Like Home: Part 1

The Ocean Six are finally confirmed and are welcomed home in a beautifully scored scene right at the beginning of the episode.  Now back home, Jack says goodbye to his father, learns that Claire his is half sister making Aaron his half nephew.  Kate and Aaron appear to be spending a lot of time with Jack and this must be all pre trial.  Sayid and Nadia are reunited for the first time in years, and they appear to be very happy.  Sun uses her settlement money but controlling interest in her father's company and confronts him with this information.  Hurley seems to try and adjust, but the numbers appear on his odometer and he freaks.  So things start out happy and from what the audience has learned earlier in the season, things take a turn for the worse with the Oceanic 6 and that will lead us brilliantly into Season 5 after two more parts of the finale.

If I remember correctly, this episode aired by itself originally while the the other two parts aired as a two hour season finale the following week.  I only mention that as this episode, like others in the past, put the pieces aka the people into place for the events that will unfold all the while the audience knows the outcome of who is saved, but it doesn't appear evident at this moment HOW when everyone is spread out in different areas - Jack and Sawyer are at the chopper heading to the Orchid, at the Orchid are Hurley, Locke, and Ben, Sayid and Kate have been captured by Richard Alpert and a large group of Others, others are at the beach getting ferried to the freighter, Jin, Sun, Michael and Desmond are on the freighter, and the solders from the freighter are at the Orchid.

This was a great episode.  The beginning was very moving and the secrets that were revealed made a lot of things make sense.  And with the pieces in place, it's shaping up for a very excellent finale.

S4: Cabin Fever

Seeing the title of the episode I remembered that Locke finds the cabin and speaks with Christian and Claire, but I forgot all the other awesomeness that was this episode - the birth of Locke, his mother rejecting him, his foster family, Richard Alpert's involvement coming back every so often to check on him, teenage Locke saying "Don't tell me what I can't do.", and lastly Locke in is wheelchair being told to go on a walkabout by Widmore's associate Abaddon. 

We were treated with a few moments on the island and freighter which were pretty awesome.  I like that Horace was building the cabin and was able to speak to Locke through his dream.  The one mind fuck was that the doctor on the freighter was found dead on the beach on island a full 8 or so hours (I would guess) before his throat was even slit.  Keamy's gun jamming was pretty cool showing that the island is still not done with Michael.

So Christian who claims to speak on Jacob's behalf tells Locke that he has to move the island to save it.  I remember that ending blowing my mind the first time watching the show.  I thought, "How the heck are they going to move an entire island?"  Damn.  I really love this episode on second watch.  Unfortunately being so amped up I looked ahead and the finale is separated into three parts so I'd excited to delve into those.

Awesome scene:  Ben's mini speech to John about destiny being a fickle bitch was the most honest Ben has ever been to Locke.  It was perfectly delivered/acted by Michael Emerson.

S4: Something Good Back Home

It's funny to see Kate, Jack, and Aaron living together like a happy family when it is in Kate and Jack's nature to do the exact opposite.  And from what we are presented in this episode, things are nice for a while, but then quickly go to shit when Jack and Kate fight over her actions that she did per Sawyer's request and the simple truth that she's not even related to Aaron.  And Jack, while calling Hurley crazy, has pills in his pocket that he is taking (soon to be abusing per the S3 finale) because he saw his father which is consistent with Hurley seeing Charlie.

On island, I don't yet understand why the writers decided to give Jack an appendix problem, but thankfully and expectedly the surgery is a success thanks to Juliet and Bernard.  Rose posed a good question asking why Jack got sick because in her eyes, and the audience, he shouldn't be.  Maybe the island is telling him that he shouldn't be leaving who knows but he's not supposed to die on island either, right?

Another connection to off island / on island activity, is the infamous Christian Shepard who is not only seen by Jack, but he is also seen by Claire holding her baby and then he and Claire take off into the woods leaving the baby behind which is definitely a head-scratcher to say the least.  I think we'll be seeing them again before the season ends.

S4: The Shape of Things to Come

The gravity of this episode really hit home during the infamous Ben and Charles bedroom scene before the episode ended.  "You changed the rules."  What rules?  What game are they playing?  Did Ben really take everything he has from Charles.  The questions will be answered in season 5, but the answers aren't important right now.  What is important is that this episode shapes future events even though all are not evident at this point.  While Widmore is on the continued hunt for the island, Ben's personal mission is to avenge the death of his "daughter" and kill Penny, Widmore's daughter, yet Ben's mission will change or get altered due to the fact of what he did to wind up in Tunisia at the beginning of the episode...I'm getting ahead of myself.

Important points:

- Ben appears to summon the smoke monster which I don't think ever getting full explained but I believe we'll visit the door again in a future episode.  

- It's finally confirmed by Faraday to Jack and the others on the beach that they are NOT there to rescue the survivors of Oceanic 815

- The group at the Barracks are split up.  Sawyer, Miles, Claire and baby Aaron head to the beach while Locke, Ben and Hurley search for Jacob's cabin

Again, while this episode was fantastic the first time I watched it, it just lost a little pizzazz on the second viewing.  The surprises and realizations were not as powerful as they were on second watch.  So far, I think I've found that episodes that drive the plot, on second viewing, less intriguing than episodes that delve into the characters and their connections with each other.  Thankfully, this episode and others like it continue to make me crave more and it's so great not having to wait weeks, months or even years to watch the next episode.

S4: Meet Kevin Johnson

Hey, remember that guy who used to yell "Walt" every 5 seconds?  Well Michael's back and he's working for Ben undercover on the freighter.  After learning this information, Sayid turns Michael in into the captain.

On island, Alex's boyfriend and her biological mother Rousseau and shot and killed from unseen attackers.  I think, even though this is the second time watching it, that it was obviously Keamy and his team doing the killing.

Overall, this episode felt like a setup episode for more exciting things to come.  I also felt that there were a lot of missed opportunities.  We got to see Miles, Lapidus, Naomi, Keamy, and Minkowski on the freighter, but no Charlotte or Faraday.  And Michael was seeing Libby due to his guilt.  Why no Ana Lucia?  Were the writers not able to get her?  Oh well.  I will give props to the Lost writers for finally killing off Karl and Rousseau.