I've been re-watching the entire show to get ready for the final season, and I'll be giving a mini-review of each:
Notable new characters (on-screen appearances only): Pierre Chang (5x1); Frogurt (5x1); Jill (5x2); Montand, Nadine, Robert, and the rest of Rousseau's team (5x4); Caesar (5x6); Ilana (5x6); Ray Shephard (5x6); Amy (5x8); Phil (5x8); Bram (5x9); Radzinsky (5x9); Oldham (5x10); Clementine Phillips (5x11); Black Robe (5x16); Jacob (5x16)
Notable births: Charlie Hume (5x3), Ethan Rom (5x8)
Notable deaths: Frogurt (5x2); Montand, Nadine, Robert, and the rest of Rousseau's team (5x5); Charlotte (5x5); Abaddon (5x7); Locke (5x7); Caesar (5x12); Daniel (5x14); Jacob (5x16); Juliet (5x16); Phil (5x16)
First centric episode: Richard (5x15), Jacob (5x16)
Multiple centric episodes: Kate (2)
DHARMA station interiors first seen: Lamp Post (5x2)
Monster Appearances: 5x5, 5x9, 5x12
Name-dropped titles (not necessarily comprehensive, but obviously memorable): Because You Left; The Lie; This Place is Death; 316; LaFleur; Namaste; He's Our You, Dead is Dead, The Variable, The Incident
Best episode: 5x16, "The Incident". From the jaw-dropping opening scene, to the murder of Jacob, to the fade to white, "The Incident" is the finest episode that LOST has ever produced. A Jacob-centric episode? C'mon, don't even try to deny it.
Second-best episode: 5x5, "This Place is Death". An extraordinary episode, the greatest non-finale episode the show has ever produced (excluding "Pilot"). The episode is loaded with mythology, namely what happened to Rousseau's team (also see "Best Scene", and as you can see from the title of this blog, this is something I'd longed to see and I was not disappointed), confirmation that Eloise Hawking is Daniel Faraday's mother, and a scene between Cabin Christian and Locke in the donkey wheel chamber (discussed below).
Charlotte dies, telling Faraday that she was born on the Island and has spent her life trying to get back, but also that before she left, Faraday approached her and told her never to come back. Charlotte's death is not for naught--instead, it activates the entire end game of the season by getting Faraday to desperately search for a way to change the past and to prove his own theories wrong.
Back in Los Angeles, the allegiances within the Oceanic Six change on a dime, as my two favorite characters (Jack and Sun) are on the same team, even exasperating Ben to the point of pulling over and lecturing them as if they are children asking "When will we get there?"
Third-best episode: 5x12, "Dead is Dead". A mythological feast, as Ben episodes tend to be. In flashbacks, we see Richard Alpert tell Widmore that Jacob wanted Ben to be saved; Ben and Ethan kidnapping Alex, with the former telling Rousseau to run the other way if she ever hears whispers; Widmore telling Ben that he should have killed Alex, despite being unwilling to do it himself and not saying that Jacob ordered it; Ben seeing off Widmore as he is banished, reiterating that he'd broken the rules by leaving the Island frequently and having a daughter with an outsider; and Ben's unsuccessful effort to murder Penny as retaliation for Alex's death.
Ben claims that the Others don't have a word for the Monster and that it's role is as a sort of judge, jury, and executioner. He attempts to summon it by draining muddy water from a basin in an underground tunnel, but Locke leads him to the crevice under the Temple wall where Montand ended up, and there the Monster emerges from a vent in its most revealing appearance on the show. It appears to be on Black Robe's side as, taking the form of Alex, it orders Ben to follow everything that Locke says.
On top of all this, Ben says that the Temple is a half-mile beyond the wall (meaning it has yet to be seen on the show), and the Ilana/Bram group takes control, with the crate appearing for the first time and Ilana asking Frank "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" As I said, a mythological touchstone episode.
Overlooked episode: 5x11, "Whatever Happened, Happened". I'll admit it: when I saw the previously on LOST teaser focusing on Kate, Sawyer, and Cassidy, I groaned. But this episode was probably the best character episode of the season, showing why Kate was willing to give up Aaron and why she came back to the Island, introducing the new laid-back Jack, and humanizing Roger Linus a tad. The episode's ending, in which Sawyer and Kate turn Ben over to Richard Alpert, provides some mythological teases--Richard taking Ben to the Temple will cause him to forget what happened to him, and "his innocent will be gone" and he will always be an Other. We also learn that Eloise and Charles are the leaders at this point.
Best episode ending: I know a lot of people will disagree, but I think it's in 5x15 "Follow the Leader", when Locke informs Ben that they are making a pilgrimage to Jacob so that Locke can kill him. The ramifications of that sent my mind spinning over the next week. Other good ones are:
1. the reveal of Eloise as the hooded figure in the church, working with Ben on a way back to the Island (5x2 "The Lie")
2. Jin finding Jack, Kate, and Hurley after they were flashed off of Ajira 316, driving a DHARMA van and wearing a jumpsuit (5x6 "316")
3. Sayid shooting young Ben Linus (5x10 "He's Our You")
Creepiest episode: 5x10 "He's Our You" takes the cake. Oldham, DHARMA's pharmaceutical torturer who lives in a teepee and listens to old music plus young Ben setting a bus on fire and crashing it into a building to spring Sayid? No contest.
Best flashback: Does it really have to be answered? Jacob visiting (and touching) various Lostaways can't be matched. The visits:
1. Kate, as she and Tom steal the lunch box they'll use for their time capsule
2. Sawyer as he writes his letter to the real Sawyer at his parents' funeral
3. Sayid, distracting him as Nadia is struck and killed by a car
4. Ilana, bandaged in a Russian hospital (radiation burn?)
5. Locke, after Cooper threw him out the window (and is it possible that Jacob's touch resurrected him at the time? It certainly woke him up if nothing else)
6. Jin and Sun, offering his blessing at their wedding
7. Jack, after his count to five surgery
8. Hurley after his release from jail, telling him that he is blessed, not cursed, and inviting him on Ajira 316
The most interesting this he says are to Jack ("I guess it just needed a little push") and to Hurley (essentially, "it's your choice").
Most important mythological development: DHARMA, hieroglyphs/Egypt/Tarweet, intro of Black Robe
Time travel dominates the mythological portion of the first two episodes, but we don't really learn anything new so much as experience what we were already aware of in a new way. It's in 5x3 when the new information really starts to come: Jughead is introduced, Widmore was an Other, and John told Richard to come visit him at his birth, and that it was John flashing into 1954 that started the interest of Richard and the Others in him. A self-fulfilling prophecy. In 5x4, Ajira Airlines is first introduced and it's strongly hinted that Miles is from the Island. In 5x14, we learn that not only is Eloise Faraday's mother, Widmore is his father (which means Penny is Daniel's sister, Ellie and Charles were lovers, etc.) and he staged the wreckage of Oceanic 815. In 5x15, Ben describes Richard as an "advisor", we learn that he's never seen Jacob, and that Richard wasn't kidding when he told Locke in 5x1 that Locke gave him his instructions. In 5x16, Richard attributes his agelessness to Jacob, and says that only the leader can request a meeting with Jacob. We also see the circle of ash has been broken around the cabin, leading Ilana to conclude that Jacob is not there and someone else has been using it. She and Bram introduce the concept of a "candidate".
Most important scene of the season: The opening scene of 5x16 "The Incident", in which the show draws back the curtain again (for the final time?), expanding the scope of what we are watching. Jacob and Black Robe chat over fish and an approaching ship (it has to be the Black Rock, right?)
Of course, everyone focuses on their conversation, in which Black Robe expresses his dismay that Jacob has brought another group of people to the Island--he believes they all fight, destroy, and corrupt. Jacob, however, believes that "it only ends once...everything that happens before that is just progress". Black Robe then expresses his desire to kill Jacob and vows to find a loophole.
But what goes unmentioned about this scene is that for the first time, we get a good view of Taweret in all her glory.
Best scene of the season: I'm drawing a distinction between most important (the one that tells us the most about the larger story) and best, which is one that is great to watch.
Finally getting to see what happened to Rousseau and her team takes the cake. We learn that a time-flashing Jin was with them as they ventured into the Black Territory. The monster attacked, killing Nadine and grabbing Montand and dragging him into a hole just as it attempted to do with Locke. Montand has his arm ripped off as the group attempts to pull him to safety, then lures the rest of the team down below. Jin prevents Rousseau from going, then flashes to a few weeks later as Rousseau has killed her team, save Robert, who she is holding at gunpoint. Robert tells her that he is not sick, and that it is not a monster--just a security system to guard the temple. He convinces Rousseau to lower her rifle, then points his at her and pulls the trigger--but she's removed the firing pin and in turn shoots him, then shoots at Jin, who she believes to be a "carrier"--i.e. an Other.
I don't usually do play-by-play, but you can tell from the title of this blog that I waited a long time for this one.
For comedy, Hurley explaining the first four seasons of the show to his mom in 5x2 is tough to top. For dark drama, Ben murdering Locke in his motel room, moments after talking him out of committing suicide, is as good as the show has ever been.
Feel-good moment of the season: I really like Jacob's chat with Hurley in 5x16, telling him that he is blessed, not cursed. There aren't that many scenes that overflow with positive emotion in Season Five.
TIVO moment: Unlike some previous seasons, there is no single scene that demands scrutiny. I'd say that shots of the statue, the art around the Monster vent, and Jacob's tapestry are the most interesting things to examine in detail.
Line of the season: "My mother taught me"--Ben to Jack, as Jack asks him how he can read while waiting for something to happen on Ajira 316 in 5x6 "316". It's great because it's quintessential Ben--he can't even quip without lying.
Secret scene: The fork in the outlet is that it is Locke's dead body in the crate the Ajira group has been hauling around. It's a pretty solid reveal, and it's also really cool that the same object (Locke's corpse) has been the secret reveal in two consecutive seasons.
Character of the season (each character can only be picked once): Sawyer evolves into a leader, a role that is thrust open him with the departure of Jack, Kate, and Sayid and Locke's return to the real world. He pulls it off, and as LaFleur is a respected community leader. Even after that crumbles, he leads the rest of the Lostaways to help Jack, despite not really wanting to, and his genuine love for Juliet is a new side for his character (while he clearly loved Kate, he never had a chance to display the same sort of care. It will be interesting to see how he reacts now that Juliet is gone.
Bunny sightings: 5x6
Other observations on the season:
* I absolutely love the flaming arrow scene in 5x2. There's nothing to analyze about it, it's just awesome.
* Untangling the Jacob/Black Robe allegiances in 5x7 "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" is something that might not be possible until the series can be viewed as a whole. Widmore tells Locke a war is coming, and that if he's not on the Island the wrong side will win. Contrast this with Bram, who tells Miles in 5x13 that by working for Widmore he is going to be working for the wrong side, but that Bram's side is going to win. Does that make Widmore a servant of Black Robe, since Locke is the foundation of his loophole? Widmore claims not to know that Locke will die--a lie, or evidence that he, like Ben, just knows that Locke is important in some manner and doesn't know why?
And Walt tells Locke that he has had dreams of him on the Island, wearing a suit--a condition he's in when resurrected and possessed by Black Robe. Does that make Walt in touch with the dark side? For those who take that position, there's been ample supporting evidence through the years.
* Is it possible that Faraday and Charlotte could be Adam and Eve? Consider that Charlotte's body vanished during one of the flashes, so we don't know what happened to it. Faraday died in 1977, which would make him a little short of the range Jack suggested (40-50 years), but as he said, that was just a guess. Perhaps someone laid them to rest together in the caves. Wouldn't it my ironic if Adam and Eve were a couple with no sexual relationship headlined by the show's leading expert on time travel?
* It's no secret that there are a lot father issues on LOST, so it's worthwhile to categorize them for the main characters:
Horrifyingly bad relationships--Kate, Sawyer, Ben
Really bad relationships--Jack, Sun, Penny
Issues or non-existent relationships--Juliet, Miles, Faraday, Walt, Jin, Sayid, Claire, Charlotte
Seems OK--Charlie, Shannon
Unknown--Michael, Desmond, Boone, Eko, Ana-Lucia, Libby, Lapidus, Ilana
I do find it amusing that while father issues dominate, the single most screwed up relationship is between Daniel...and his mother.
* In an ongoing attempt to classify Island phenomenon between those created by Jacob and those created by Black Robe:
1. Hurley's vision of Ana-Lucia "You have work to do". See below--I really don't have a grand theory on what was behind the Island magic of Season Five. I think we need the perspective of another season to really get a better sense of what's going on. "X have/has work to do" is a phrase that's been uttered in both the mobisodes (by Christian Shephard, with respect to his son) and by "taller ghost Walt" to Locke in 3x22.
2. Who controlled the flashes? It's obvious that the Lostaways were inserted in specific moments in the Island's history, and taken out at others. But who do they benefit? Jin saves Rousseau, for instance, which seems like something Jacob might ordain. But Locke is prevented from being shot by Ethan--could serve Jacob's agenda, but it also would behoove Black Robe to keep his loophole alive and well.
3. Christian appears to Locke as he is about to turn the wheel, reinforcing the idea that he has to die and telling him in just as many words that he is now a sacrifice the Island demands. And if that's not the work of Black Robe, than all of my attempts to assign agency to these events are worthless.
* Mysteries/questions that might never will be answered and don't have to be (some are obviously more important than others):
1. What did Ben take out of his slick in the motel room? Jin's ring seems to be a possibility, but it was a big package.
2. Who sent the assassins after Sayid? Widmore seems like an obvious choice, but it also could have been Ben, just as he was manipulating Kate through legal machinations with respect to Aaron.
3. Who was shooting at Locke/Juliet/Miles/Charlotte/Faraday/Sawyer when they were in the outrigger? I thought that scene would be revisited at some point in Season Five, but I guess we'll have to wait for it. The obvious guess is that it's the Ilana faction shooting at what they believe to be faux-Locke.
4. What was the reaction of the outside world when Ajira 316, carrying five members of the Oceanic Six, disappeared just as Oceanic 815 had?
5. Who was the "clever fellow" that devised the Lamp Post's mechanism for locating the Island?
6. Why did Jack, Kate, Sayid, and Hurley end up in 1977 while Ben, Sun, and Lapidus remained in the present day?
7. How did the Hostiles move Jughead into the tunnel?
8. What's in the guitar case that Jacob gave to Hurley?
