LOST - Tropical appendectomy

Jeez, what good is a Smoke Monster if it can't utterly destroy a cadre of heavily armed mercenaries?

Last week Ben sicced (is that how you spell that?) the Smoke Monster on the evil Keamy and his gun-toting crew.  The last we saw them, Smokey was making a meal out of the mercs.  It turns out that quite a few of them survived because Keamy and his posse show up again this week, being led to the freighter's chopper by Lapidus.  During their trek to the beach camp, Sawyer, Miles, and Claire hide from them for a few tense moments, and then they're gone.  Granted, one of the mercs looked seriously messed up and we can assume that there are a few less of Keamy's crew, but still I was hoping for more from the Smoke Monster.  It probably got so enthralled with bashing one of the thugs against a palm tree that the others got away.

As with the other episodes this season, we ping pong between Island Time and the Oceanic Six Timeline.  This time the spotlight once again lingers on Jack, who is happily shacked up with Kate.  We know his happiness is going to be fleeting and he's going to hit the bottle and grow that hideous beard soon, so the scenes between Kate and Jack are tinged with sadness.  I think this episode showed us the happiest the two of them will ever be together, which is kind of sad.

Back on the island, Jack needs an apendectomy or he will die.  Fortunately Juliet is at hand and there's no shortage of medical supplies in the Staff station, so they operate.  There was a certain lack of suspense in the whole situation since we know Jack's not going to die, but Rose did bring up an interesting point:  people don't get sick on the island, they get better.  So why Jack?  Why now?  Beats me, but it's a good question.

I really enjoyed watching Jin get the upper hand on Charlotte, who I hate.  He noticed that she could understand Korean when he and Sun were talking about how Daniel has a crush on her, and he calls her on it.  Jin calmly threatens to inflict grievous harm on Daniel unless Charlotte arranges to have his pregnant wife off the island.  In your face, Charlotte!  Not so smug and haughty now, are you?

Next week it looks like we're visiting the freighter again, where things are getting progressively more dangerous.  I'm going to be stunned if the doctor is still alive with his throat intact.

Now if we can just get a rematch between the Smoke Monster and those gunmen, I'd be a happy LOST viewer.

--Dave Campbell

Comments

[Rachael]

Heey Dave.
Very good Comments this week.
It was a great episode. But i'm a huge Skater fan and i'm really upset that we know for sure that Sawyer stays on the island. I hope he eventually gets off the island to be with Kate.

Ps: Common Smoke Monster. We're supposed to kill them ALL! not leave them with some gashes on their heads. Get your head in the game and kick some Ass!

[Mike Tattoo]

I’ll say it again. I think the smoke monster made it off the island.

C’mon, the smoke detector even went off right before Jack saw his dead dad. Talk about being literal. Let’s assume it’s the smoke monster that’s been able to assume the form of dead people on or around the island (Jack’s dead dad, Hurley’s imaginary friend, Mr. Eko’s dead brother, Ben’s dead mom, Dead Libby for Michael, Maybe even that Other shrink chick for Juliette a few episodes ago, Walt, ect…) and maybe it’s also the incarnation of everyone’s spiritual animal on the island (Kate’s black horse, Sayid’s f@ucked up cat) and maybe it made it off the island and will be haunting some people or working with others. How weird would that be, if Ben and the smoke monster were working together. Like people said before, it almost looks as if Christian Shepard is helping Ben sew up Sayid in that previous flash forward episode.

Maybe one of the major themes, along with destiny vs. free will, is The Island vs. the smoke monster. Maybe The Island is giving Jack medical problems right now because it doesn’t want to risk a group of people leaving and allowing the smoke monster to escape off island with them. Or maybe I got that all wrong and the smoke monster is an extension of The Island. Don’t know. Will have to brainstorm on that idea some more.

Also, in the previous Kate flash-forward where she gets off trial and is walking to the taxi outside of the courthouse I made a crack at the time about how it felt like Sawyer might be driving that cab and they were about to make a quick get away for some back seat taxi sex. If you look at Kate’s body language and facial expression it just felt like she pulled a Bonnie and Clyde and was about to go celebrate. Now that we know that Sawyer exists in some way, shape or form and that Kate has been communicating with him it wouldn’t surprise me if we later have a flashback to that moment from Sawyer’s perspective and it is him in the cab. I don’t have any facts or anything to back up that statement, just a hunch.

I remember during S1 the writers went on record as saying that the characters were NOT dead and that the island was NOT purgatory. OK, but maybe everything off island is purgatory for those people who leave the island. That could be in the real sense or the figurative sense. Maybe that’s also why Ben can’t kill Whitmore off island, because he’s already in purgatory. Maybe all of S5 will be about how the Oceanic 6 are in their own personal purgatories / phantom zones off island and why they need to get back to the island to get out of purgatory.

How awesome was Jin last night? After spending 2(?) some months being the odd man out on the island he’s able to instinctively pick up if any other human next to him is able to understand his language and use that to his advantage. Well played, Jin. Well played indeed.

[Mike Tattoo]

At first I was bummed that the smoke monster allowed so many of that mercenary team to survive as well but then a few things occurred to me.

The smoke monster is like a cat that likes to play with its food before killing it.

More importantly, I think the smoke monster feeds off people… their soul, their memories, their life experiences… not sure what exactly at this point, but it definitely feeds off of human beings so it would make sense to keep people alive long enough to harvest that crop.

Recall that the first time the smoke monster stared down Mr Eko and there were reflections of Eko’s old family and village friends in the smoke monster. I didn’t just hallucinate that, someone posted scene shots online and they were definitely there. Also recall how ruthlessly the smoke monster killed Eko, I don’t think there’s any doubt it could do the same to all those mercenaries if it really wanted to.

[matt]

You made a mistake in your flash-forward time assumptions. This episode occurs AFTER the flash-forward of Jack with a bread. We know this because Jack mentions the court appearance from the earlier episode to Hurley in the hospital. Great blog otherwise. Keep it up Dave's Long Box.

[megavic]

i loved the jack and kate in this episode. i really dont think her and sawyer will end up together, her and jack have a way bigger connection like most "it" tv couples have.