I'm Too Old For This Shit

Preface: I'm sorry this took all week. It was SXSW here in Austin and tech week for the play I'm in so I've been crazy busy. Add to that that my car broke down two nights ago and I've barely been keeping my head above the sand. Swan I leave it to you to come up with some sort of punishment for my late post. Eat an entire gallon of Dharma Ranch Dressing? Sorry.

They had almost won me over again. Three really solid episodes in a row. “Sundown” was probably my favorite of the season and “Dr. Linus” was also great. This season is phenomenal when the LAX timeline is good. And that is unfortunate because the LAX timeline has been good only three times. In the two previously mentioned episodes and in Jack’s episode the LAX stories were doing the only good thing they can do, mirror reality in an interesting way.

In Jack’s episode, he comes to character changing realizations in both story lines; my son rejects me for the same reason I rejected my father and I have a purpose for being here. In short he realizes in both “realities” that he still has a chance to become the person he wants to be.

In Sayid’s episode he gives in to his “true” nature in both story lines; I will kill these gangsters for Nadia and her kids and I will kill these people in order to protect myself and get Nadia back. Or, I have specific skills I can use to get what I want. The more I think about Sayid, the more I think he is very selfish. Thoughts?

And then in Dr. Linus, Ben has these moments of confession, catharsis, and honesty (the latter of which is so rare for his character). On the Island he confesses to Llana that he killed Jacob and comes clean on exactly why. He killed Jacob because he needed someone else to blame for Alex’s death and Jacob drew the short straw. Then in a great moment of humbleness he essentially asks to be given exile. Mirroring that in LAX Dr. Linus almost gets a redo with Alex Rousseau and this time he puts aside his personal power play and assists someone with a brighter future than his own. Or, in both stories Ben realizes his unimportance and surrenders himself for the greater good.

Now, this week we reverted back to the “tee hee” heavy LAX time lines from the first episodes of the season. I really can’t even start to explain how ridiculous the LAX timeline was to me this week. “Okay, here’s my idea… in the flash sideways Sawyer and Miles are in a buddy cop movie… and Sawyer can sleep with Charlotte… and we can throw Charlie’s brother in there somewhere so people will feel like they saw Charlie but we won’t have to pay Dominic!” It was just really bad. And the worst part of the whole thing? YOU SHOWED US SAWYER’S FLASH SIDEWAYS AND THE JULIET COFFEE SCENE WAS NOT IN IT! That is the only hint we have, aside from Jack’s mysterious injuries, that these two realities are going to converge somehow and you threw it away? So frustrating.

As far as the Island story goes, not much happened, at all. Widmore is on the island with people… which was covered already in a three second throw away shot at the end of Dr. Linus. The one cool thing that went down on the Island is seeing that Sawyer is still just playing for himself again. I don’t buy that he is working for Esau or Widmore, he is playing them against each other just like the con man we all came to know and love. Also, it was kind of funny when the Widmore chick (Zoey? Something like that) called Sawyer Dimples.

Hoping for a better week tomorrow.

-Hydra