Lost 2.03: BROTHA!

Last night we got a better episode of Lost but was still bogged down by the Faith v. Science thread.
Lost couldn’t have gotten any worse from last weeks episode and happily, this weeks show actually progressed the story along quite nicely. We were introduced to a new character, who turned out to be a part of “The Other”, developed the story arc of Desmond in the hatch, fleshed out more of Locke’s story and developed to no end the struggle between Mr. Faith and Mr. Science. The episode moved along fairly well when they were on the island but when they involved the flashbacks, the pacing died considerably.

While I understand the purpose of expressing the reason why Locke turned into a man of such faith, I don’t understand the reason of beating us over the head with this information. We already know that he is the man of faith and when we are exposed to more of this redundant back story, it bores the audience to no end. It feels as if they are using this exposition of the background of Locke to ensure that no one in the building can ever mistake Locke for being anything other than a man of faith. But since we already know this, it feels as if the show is stalled out only feeding us this information to ensure that they have something to say later on. The storyline doesn’t introduce anything to the table of value, like Jack’s flashback in the premier, and since it doesn’t, it’s just wasting our time.

Back on the island though, the show picks up and gains some momentum. Michael, Sawyer and Jin are rounded up by the Others and are joined soon enough by a girl, who apparently is from Oceanic Flight 815. When she owns Sawyer and takes his gun, we find out she is in cahoots with the Others. What a twist, I definitely didn’t see that one coming. At first I thought she was suspicious of them having a gun, and was fearful for herself but now we know she is a baddie. A good twist for sure. I wonder if she really was on the flight at all or whether that was a lie as well to ensure trust from them. Although she did mention the flight name first. We’ll see soon enough. I just hope Michelle Rodriguez’s grimace doesn’t stay on her face as it’s a horrible look for her.

As for the hatch, again we’re inundated with the whole clash between Jack and Locke and the tension that we’re supposed to feel seems rehashed from earlier episodes. Which it is. From the premier, when they clash on whether or not to go in, on whether it was a good idea to go in now that they are held captive and whether, and again when they clash on the whole idea of believing and their ease and difficulty on doing so. Since we’ve seen this scene so many times, the tension between Locke and Jack on whether or not Jack sound push the button is lost on us and feels a bit dumb. Why does it matter so much, other than symbolically to Locke, on whether or not Jack pushes the button? I mean really, I wanted either Sayid (who is apparently a God on this island, from chasing down psycho French women, to torturing people, or creating elaborate electronic systems without real equipment) to push the button or someone else to do it. However, in hindsight, I wanted them to not push it. I wanted to see what would really happen… would the electromagnetic fields kill everyone? What effect does it have on the island and the people? Another good ending to a good episode, I just hope they realize that when they stay away from mundane conflicts the quality of the show takes off. Can’t wait for next week when we find out Jin knows English.