Lost Review: “Sundown”

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Well good lord, where to now? Last night’s Lost was perhaps one of the most eventful in the show’s history, with nearly all of the straggling groups smashing together in one epic demi-god rampage for the ages. Things started out slow, but picked up about two thirds through, and I can’t even imagine where we go from here, though I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made that exact statement about this show.

This week was a Sayid-centric episode, which worried me as Sayid has long been my least favorite character on the show (until recently when they made Sun the most useless person alive). But I have to say, I’m really coming around to the man, as his actions in both this world and “other” world were pretty damn impressive and terrifying.

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“Don’t f*ck with a Samurai!”

Sayid wants to know why it is that Samurai Other wants him dead, and when he confronts him to find out, the two erupt in probably the longest choreographed fight sequence in Lost history. Finally, with Samurai in the lead, he relents and tells Sayid to go talk to Not-Locke in the jungle (Claire has just delivered the message that he wants an audience with the temple-dwellers) and to stab him in the heart when he sees him.

Meanwhile, back in unreality (hey, that’s our name!) the universe’s forces have shifted and caused Sayid to have pushed his love Nadia into marrying his idiot brother, whom she now has two kids with. Instead of being in Australia to find her, Sayid was there on “international business” but now that he’s home, finds his brother has gotten himself into a hot mess with some loan sharks.

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“In this universe, I’m one hell of an egg chef!”

After the thugs put his brother in the hospital, Sayid decides to confront the sharks himself, and we find that they’re led by none other than Keamy himself, you know, blow up the freighter with his heartbeat armband guy? Turns out he’s less of a mercenary and more of a low level goon in this universe, and Sayid goes all Republican Guard on his ass and kills him and his two cronies. But the kicker comes when he discovers a tied up and non-English speaking Jin nearby. Say whaaaat?

Back on the island, Sayid tries to stab Not-Locke like he was instructed, but as expected, Smoke Monsters don’t bleed. Instead of retaliating, Not-Locke promises Sayid his beloved dead Nadia back if he joins him and delivers a message to the temple-folk. Upon his return, Sayid proclaims that Not-Locke has said that since Jacob is dead, everyone is free to leave the island. Everyone there can either leave the temple and join him, or stay and die at sundown.

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“Bitch, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Sayid talks to the Samurai once again, who reveals his past sin of killing his kid while drunk driving, an act which presumably brought him to the island as no one comes there without an ass ton of baggage. Sayid sympathizes, so much so that he immediately drowns him in the fountain, and slits his translator’s throat when he comes to investigate Somehow, Samurai was the keeper of the peace in the temple which keeping Not-Locke at bay, and now unshackled, Smokey comes in and starts killing Others left and right, the aftermath of which, with Claire voicing over her creepy baby song, is one of the most memorable Lost scenes I’ve seen in some time.

I suppose there are still two groups now, as Sayid, Claire and more reluctantly Kate (along with a boatful of Others) are now on team Not-Locke along with the conspicuously absent Jin and Sawyer. Somehow, Ilana, Sun, Lapedus and Ben also showed up at the temple during the smoke raid, and they took Miles out the back door, where they’ll presumably run into Jack and Hurley on their way back from smashing up Jacob’s lighthouse.

I’ve given up trying to understand the parallel universe segments that now populate a third of the show. I just can’t fathom how the island has anything to do with a slight nuance like Sayid feeling slightly MORE guilty about his past life, so he pushes Nadia away rather than hunting her down for himself. There’s Jack’s kid, Locke’s father, these things just don’t tie back to the island, and it’s frustrating to waste energy trying to explain them. I don’t believe there’s going to be a big “reveal” moment in this universe that ties all this stuff together, and I think it’s just more of a distraction than anything else. Call me a hater if you want, but I’m just telling it how I see it.

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Chin up, your parallel existence sucks just as much as this one.

Point of order here: I noticed some of you last week are taking issue with my constant referencing of the island “blowing up” as the catalyst for these new events, but I don’t understand what you’re missing here. The change in the timeline happened at that exact moment in 1974 when the bomb went off, and therefore cannot have affected anything that happened BEFORE that. So it’s not like the island never existed, it’s just that it didn’t exist after that POINT presumably as its now sunk at the bottom of the ocean. So Ben (and Miles and Ethan and Charlotte) were still there kids, but in this timeline they were evacuated off the island before it blew. As for Jacob and Richard and Smokey? I have no idea. And it still doesn’t really stand to reason why all of 815s lives are this drastically different in this world.

So even though I’m still wary of the alternate-verse, I’ve never been more interested in what’s going on in the island part of the show, and now that the Other kingdom has been effective smashed to bits, I’m really looking forward to what happens next. I really do hope that the real John Locke makes a comeback (somehow) before the end of the show, as I really think the man deserves some closure, but I’d also be satisfied with Hurley being king of the island as well.

I leave you with this from Ugo Strange:

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26 Comments

  1. Don’t be so quick to write off the “flash-sideways” scenes just yet.

    There is a very convincing theory that what we’re seeing is somehow taking place *after* what will be happening in the finale. Essentially, the theory postulates that as a result of the choices our characters make on the island (especially in this final season), the clock will be reset to before the crash, with our characters living new lives affected by their previous choices…

    In the flash-sideways universe, we’ve seen:

    – Locke & his father are on good terms, and he’s accepted his paralysis;

    – Jack is a father and got over his daddy and “gotta fix it” issues;

    – Sayid reuinted with Nadia, but he hasn’t been able to expunge the darkness from his soul that made him so unhappy;

    – Hurley is confident and successful, and seems not to think that a set of numbers control his life and bring him bad luck.

    Plus…the producers have promised that current events on the island and the flash-sideways events WILL be reconciled before the final episode.

    It makes sense to me. It’s shaping up more and more like these people were “nudged” or tricked onto the island to act as pawns in a big, existential game of chess between Jacob and the Man In Black (or good vs evil if you will…)

  2. > And it still doesn’t really stand to reason why all of 815s lives are this drastically different in this world.

    The timelines diverged back in in the 70’s, dozens (if not hundreds) of people who would have gone to the island did not. Everything those people do would change how the world was, like ripples in a pond, if you forgive the overused metaphor.

  3. @Arlan

    and yet they all end up on that exact same 815 flight. mmhmm. Yeah, yeah, “destiny” and all that. Guess destiny missed messing around with Kate and Claire’s lives, which appear to be exactly the same.

  4. Hate the unreality crap! I mean seriously, the writers can just write any little thing at all and its all meaningless. I’d rather they get to explaining some shit over on the Island, thank you very much!

    Sidenote: Anybody else notice Kate’s name wasn’t written on the rocks as one of the candidates?

  5. Paul, I agree with you whole heartily (heartidlys not right?).

    I just don’t care. I mean, yeah stuff is happening, but if every episode is a curve ball that is half populated by things that may or may not be happening then who cares?

    I know the show is going to end and I’m going to say “that’s it?”. And I’m going to be angry.

    Just end it already. Or, heaven forbid, answer a question that doesn’t raise half a dozen more.

  6. @EJ

    Kate is listed on the lighthouse as the number 51. Her name isn’t crossed. I think the camera just didn’t pick up her name there.

    Maybe the numbers can be changed? Locke’s 4 will be replaced by Kate’s 51, perhaps? Could be a clue about that equation thing.

  7. Tim began a sentence with: “Plus…the producers have promised . . .”

    I really admire your optimism. They’ve promised and clarified things before – the biggie is ‘everything that happens on the island has a rational scientific explanation’ – and haven’t exactly come through on that.

    I don’t see how they can tie it all up and explain multiple episode story arcs that have just kinda been floating out there. (ex: Ben v. Widmore – why all the tension? Desmond and Kelvin Inman – how would the Dharmothers have dealt with resetting the 108 button push if Desmond kicked off, having sealed and sequestered himself in the hatch? etc.)

    I feel like the show and I have to stick together because I’ve just got too much invested. Resolute, but not rejoicing.

  8. @Tim

    It isn’t that people are writing off the flashsideways. It is that people don’t want them wasting valuable time in the final season.

    We’ve spent how much time on existing storylines and mysteries and characters, no one cares about these “What IF!” side stories.

    Even if they tie it all together in the prettiest little bow you’ve ever seen, it is going to leave a bad taste in my mouth because all I can think about is how much screentime is being thrown out on this shocking new tweeeeeiiiiiiist when we already had so much shit going on.

  9. I think the flash sideways are the result of people making a “deal with the devil” if you will. Unlocke told Sayid that he could have anything in the world that he wanted and he got to be close to Nadia again. Hurley got to be lucky, Claire got Aaron back, and Jack…well I’m not so sure what Jack would have gotten (a kid that hates him and is afraid of him just like him with his father?)
    Anyway I think we all just need to settle down and let the writers tell their story before we claim how awful everything WILL turn out. The flash sideways may be time wasting pieces of shit or we may look back a year from now and realize just how brilliant they were. We just don’t know.

  10. @Tim & @Sam

    plus don’t forget, samurai made a deal that his son wouldn’t have died in the car crash and in the flash sideways his son was alive. i like this theory, if it’s done right, it would mean everything done on the island meant something and yet the characters would be able to live their lives in the real world.

  11. that the island is a doorway between two or more different dimensions. We didn’t see the bomb go off, rather we saw the doorway open, however the losties never see the results because they flashed back to the present. every body else that was still in 1974 probably saw the bomb go off and the doorway open at the same time or one or the other.

    The reason why we are seeing characters like Ben is because we are seeing an entirely different dimension meaning that a timeline would exist independently from the events that happen in the timeline where Losties are currently at. It is possible that there are an infinite number of universes and possibilities we are just seeing one…

    Tie that into the mythology, if the egyptians, or whatever civilization knew about this island and it’s doorway they would find a way to contain it (donkey wheel) and use it for their own will. maybe something happened to the civilization that was guarding the island, perhaps they slid into a dimension where the island sinks destroying them, leaving only jacob and MIB forcing them to time skip, play with time and manipulate the world in order to reach the final endgame…whatever that may be.

  12. It kind of angers me to say it, but even though there’s only 10 episodes left in the entire show, it’s still WAY too early to tell what could happen.

    I love all of these theories about the timelines but I wouldn’t be surprised if no one was correct.

  13. i am holding the biggest “I TOLD YOU SO” for when the season ends, so i’m not even going to argue the ridiculousness that you post anymore… except how could you NOT like sayid?

    and some of the posters on here are just retarded… go ahead and ask questions and worry about the ones that have already been answered while you weren’t paying attention or went over your head. i’m sure some of you are still thinking the polar bears were a big mystery.

    all i can say is some people grasp it and some don’t… and it seems like most of you don’t.

  14. I’m with Chelsea on this one. Granted we may not have the same theories BUT, I’m holding my tongue until the very end to see if what I think pans out. My advice to everyone else is to trust the writers, strap yourselves in and go along for the ride.

  15. Chelsea, you don’t seem to grasp that half the fun of Lost for most people is being skeptical and questioning it. And not all of us have spent days on Lostpedia looking up the solution to every single question, but it doesn’t mean we’re not fans if we’ve missed a few things. It’s one of my favorite shows ever, but it wouldn’t be worth reading if my posts every week were bowing in awe of the mighty all-knowing writers and their assumed divine plan for excellence.

    The show’s creators aren’t perfect. They’ve had to make shit up as they went, and it’s showed before. I think this alt-timeline thing is bullshit even when it DOES end up being relevant in the end (which I realize it HAS to be to some extent), just because it’s taking up so much damn time now when we shouldn’t be wasting a second in the final season and should be focusing more on the island, not splitting things 50/50 between the real world and bizarro universe X where the Smoke Monster sends people after they make deals with him. Or whatever the fuck it ends up being.

    I suppose I’ll wait for your I told you so when the divine plan is revealed at last.

  16. all i’m saying is that we don’t know for sure yet. and constantly insisting that this or that is a waste of time is, in itself, a waste of time because it’s not the type of show where you can say “oh, well this is bullshit and not important”…. because we don’t know yet. like @Shawn Daley said… there are still 10 episodes left! and you know how much can happen in that much time on this crazy show.

    i completely agree with the fun of the show comes partly from tearing it apart and questioning and i love that your blog does that. everyone’s opinions are drastically different which is amazing that a show like this can cause that. i’m just the type of personality where i get annoyed when people question things that aren’t important or that have already been answered. i don’t even read lostpedia because it’s too intense (unless i can’t remember something and it’s driving me nuts).

    i just prefer to debate valid topics with other fans that actually know what they’re talking about. if i didn’t think you were a real fan with valid opinions, i wouldn’t read your blog.

  17. Are we sure that Sayid stabbed not-Locke as instructed? He was told to kill him before not-Locke spoke but I clearly remember not-Locke’s mouth being open and sounds coming from it -before- Sayid stabbed him.

    I’m just so pissed that my mocha choca lata yaya went all evil.

  18. I think people are forgetting about the fact that our Losties time-traveled all the way back to 1954 (and even later when remember they left a rope hanging in the . Since the bomb went off, they never did that which changes a lot more than people think. i.e. Richard never goes looking for Locke off the island. Who knows what kind of changes that could cause? Just pointing out that them flashing through time never happened, and those changes that happened because of it, never happened. It’s not the 1977 and on, it goes way beyond that.

  19. I love how you’re all so annoyed claiming you know the end is going to be so disappointing. Why are you watching still???? They’re not going to answer every single question that has been thrown out there. That is half the beauty of the show is that its mysterious and you have to figure things out for yourself. If you’re expecting an episode thats going to answer everything you are going to end up very disappointed. Why can’t people just let the story be told? Its just a tv show after all. I think its incredibly entertaining, and isn’t that all you really need out of a tv show? I love how everyone is freaking about the alt. universe. You really don’t have the patients to see how it all ties in? Of course its not a waste of time, it will all mean something in the end. If the shows too much for you maybe you shouldn’t be watching.

  20. The one thing I don’t like right now is that Jacob affectted their lives so that they’ll come to the island. Then how the hell does he know that Desmond will cause the plane to crash? That’s a lot of faith to put into one very important event.

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