L O S T : season FIVE, “THIS PLACE Is DEATH” (episode 5)
Friday, February 13th, 2009
Now we’re cooking with gas, or at least with a smoke monster! The season’s fifth episode, “THIS PLACE IS DEATH,” started off with the resolution of last week’s soap opera cliffhanger… Sun’s going to shoot Ben! Wait! Jin’s not dead! What? It’s true! (cue dramatic music cues!) Sayid and Kate copped telenovela attitudes and stormed off, wanting nothing to due with Ben’s plan. Well, then! To hell with y’all’s destinies!
Back on the island, things got a LOT more entertaining as the writers seem to be starting to have the kind of fun I’d hoped they would with the time travel device: Jin helped lead Rousseau’s party to their own distress signal! No time to finish that thought as “Ol’ Smokey”showed up to ravage a Frenchman; those guys had some serious cajones to follow their certainly dead friend into the long-hinted but never seen “Cerbus Vent.” Descriptions of it as a “security system” protecting a temple and evidence of the “sickness” Rousseau described years later are encouraging signs that some of the many loose ends and unexplained phenomena on The Island will finally get addressed.
Locke’s decent into ‘the well’ (sweeeeeeet shot of the light beaming from its bottom as Locke descended!) and the mishap during the time shift tells us that perhaps things CHANGE during the time shifts. The unexpected reappearance of the ‘Frozen Donkey Wheel’ was a cool twist…does this mean no more schizophrenic time-tripping for the rest of the season?
Fortunately, my earlier concerns about the season seem to be misguided. We won’t watch Ben and Jack drag ass all season for ’70 hours.’ Desmond’s arrival at Ms. Hawking’s church seemed a little too coincidental, but did what about Ben’s reaction to his question about “Faraday’s mother”?
Was Ben unaware of this familial connection or just surprised that someone else knew?
Did Ben kill Locke in L.A. and take Jin’s wedding ring off him?
Will Locke stay dead?
Why is Eloise Hawking suddenly not concerned that Ben hasn’t rounded up the whole Oceanic 6 posse?
Is Charlotte finally dead?
Was her only purpose as a character to provide a nice time ripple for Faraday’s actions?
Is “The Temple” a physical location or something else? If it’s a physical location, does it/can it move like The Orchid/The Well?
Will every episode this season have as many cool plot elements?
I certainly hope so…
