Josh Holloway (Sawyer) by Tom Richmond (click to see the original)
Tom Richmond, the MAD Magazine artist who has been doing fantastic caricatures of the LOST stars, has added four new ones since the last time I posted about them: Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Mitchell (Juliet), and Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert). I love these sketches. When I see the MAD style, I’m hit by a wave of nostalgia for my misspent MAD-Magazine-reading childhood. Combine that with my current obsession, LOST, and the effect is mesmerizing. See the whole collection at: Tom Richmond’s Sketch O’ The Week.
This week’s official video podcast goes behind the scenes to ask some of the show’s writers, producers, and editors “If Damon and Carlton were the Man in Black and Jacob, which side would you choose?” Damon himself says he’s most like Jacob, because Jacob is passive-aggressive and moody. It’s a cute video, and it’s nice to see some of the faces of the people who work on the show who are usually invisible to us. Official video podcast, May 14, 2010
This has got to be the best thing that the “Lost Untangled” crew has ever done, with the possible exception of the Season 5 Untangled Finale Event — which is where the dancing statue seen in the video above originated. The music for both videos was done by the same group, the recap band Previously on Lost.
(Warning: This post contains a brief quote of the dialogue from the sneak peek, and a discussion of the scene.)
In this scene from 6×14, Jack and Flocke are disagreeing with each other. Watching it, I got a feeling of deja vu, because we’ve become so used to seeing similar scenes of Jack and (real) Locke disagreeing about similar issues. But this time there’s a twist:
The twist is that Jack and (F)locke have reversed positions. In “There’s No Place Like Home,” the Season 4 finale, it was Jack who wanted to leave, and (real) Locke who urged him to stay::
(REAL) LOCKE: But you’re not supposed to go home.
JACK (shouting:) And what am I supposed to do? (A little calmer:) Oh, I think I remember. What was it that you said on the way out to the hatch — that crashing here was our destiny.
LOCKE: You know, Jack. You know that you’re here for a reason. You know it. And if you leave this place, that knowledge is gonna eat you alive from the inside out until you decide to come back.
(Real) Locke of course, had been right. Jack had to come back. But now Flocke is trying to get Jack to leave:
Jack: (Referring to Sawyer’s group:) They’re not my people. And I’m not leaving the Island.
Flocke: Well, Jack, I’m hoping you’ll still change your mind about that.
Is it possible that both (real) Locke and Flocke were/are right? That Jack had to come back when he did, but now it is time for him to leave?
I also wonder why Jack is turning his back on Sawyer, Kate, and the rest of the group. Is he that miffed about his argument with Sawyer on the boat? I wouldn’t expect someone who has anointed himself the Bearer of Destiny, as Jack seems to have done, to be so petty. So maybe it’s something else.
Then again, this is Jack, so maybe he really is being that petty.
One other thing — Terry O’Quinn’s performance continues to amaze. Compare him in the 6×14 sneak peek to the way he was in the Season 4 finale. Flocke and (real) Locke are distinctly different in their expressions, and their manner, and in the type of energy they project. Yet, in some ways, they are similar, as if they were not really two totally separate people. Somehow, O’Quinn manages to convey the differences and the similarities at the same time — something which can’t be easy.
He’s doing one a week up to the finale. So far, he’s done Jack, Kate, Sayid, Miles, Desmond — and my favorite of the batch, Flocke with a scary smile and smoke rising out of his shirt:
Did you notice how in the last episode, 6×10 The Package, Flock said that he wanted Sun to make a free choice to join him?
Sun, to Locke: You killed those people at the Temple.
Locke: Those people were confused. They were lied to. I didn’t want to hurt them. Any one of them could have chosen to come with me. And I’m giving you that choice Sun, right now. I would never make you do anything against your will. I’m asking you. Please. Come with me.
That reminded me of the way that Jacob had talked about choice:
Jacob to Hurley, in The Incident: All you have to do is get on that plane. It’s your choice, Hugo. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.
—————-
Jacob to Ben, in The Incident: Benjamin, whatever he’s told you, I want you to understand one thing. You have a choice.
Ben: What choice?
Jacob: You can do what he asked, or you can go.
We saw something similar with Dogen, Lennon, and Jack in What Kate Does:
Dogen wraps a capsule in a piece of paper, and says something in Japanese.
Lennon, to Jack: He says you have to give your friend this pill.
Jack: Are you serious? Why don’t you give it to him?
Lennon: Because it won’t work unless he takes it willingly, and he won’t take it willingly from us.
What are we to make of this? Could it be that the MiB/Flocke, Jacob, and Dogen were all equally bound by some rule which says they should not force people to do anything against their will? Does forcing people to take action somehow undermine the validity or power of those actions, as Lennon suggested? What is so special, in the Island world, about choices that are made freely?
Or was Flocke just b.s.-ing Sun? After all, when Sun did make her choice — to turn Locke down — instead of accepting her choice, Flocke ran after her, which suggests he might have intended to try force instead.
Flocke running after Sun
Also, to what extent can Zombie Sayid be said to have made a free choice to join Locke?
Screencap of Locke gesturing at Sun is from Lost-Media.com. Screencap of Locke running after Sun is from Lostpedia.
In honor of the Ben-centric episode Dr. Linus coming up tonight, I wanted to take another look at this clip from The Substitute.
Starting at 0:52, we see Sideways Ben, wearing a sweater vest, in the teacher’s lounge, fussing over the coffeepot, saying:
How many times do we have to go over this. If you have the last cup of coffee, you remove the filter, and throw it away. Fear not, I will make a fresh pot
"If you have the last cup of coffee ... "
Every office, every workplace has someone like this. Here, in this sideways school, Ben is that guy. Michael Emerson’s inflection is perfect. I think everyone who has ever worked anywhere that had a communal coffeepot must feel at least a twinge of recognition.
What I love about this scene:
– It’s so real, such a part of everyday life, yet something that doesn’t often get portrayed in a drama, especially not a drama tackling such big issues as good versus evil, free will versus destiny, and faith versus reason.
– Michael Emerson is an acting god. To go from the terrifying Henry Gale of Season 2, to the prissy sweater-vest guy in this clip — and to make each one absolutely 100% convincing — is sheer genius.
– Sideways Ben and Sideways Locke seem to have an instant rapport, a mutual respect. Very interesting.
"Tea? Now there's a gentleman's drink."
I also wonder what this scene tells us about the sideways world.
We’ve seen some of the sideways characters get what they want or need: Locke gets Helen, a good future, a sense of humor about his plight, and a healthy sense of boundaries. Hurley gets good luck. Kate gets away. But the sideways world isn’t a Disnified land where all dreams come true. Sayid gets to be with Nadia, but only on the fringes of her life. And everyone still seems to be controlled by their character. Hurley is still warm-hearted, but Sayid is still violent.
What does it mean, then, that Ben, the larger-than-life arch-villain in the Island world, here seems so ordinary? What did Jacob do (if it was, in fact, Jacob who did it) to transform this Milquetoast into a cool killer?
Or is Ben not quite as ordinary as he seems here? That’s a possibility. Maybe we’ll find out more about that tonight, in Dr. Linus.
This has clips of fans and panelists at PaleyFest. There’s some wonderful interplay between Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson, who are very funny together.
This next short podcast has got to be the most spoiler-free podcast ever made, revealing absolutely nothing about the show — except that the show is about good and evil. I think we figured that one out already. Damon and Carlton are having fun here, talking about banjos and apple-eating contests:
Damon and Carlton are having fun here, talking about banjos and apple-eating contests:
