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« Roush Dispatch
Lost: Who Were Those Pretty People?
As a happy distraction from our long national nightmare — make that bad joke — that is Sanjaya Malakar, can I just say that Lost blew me away Wednesday night? What an absolute treat of an episode, a clear sign that the show, after a stalled fall, is back in full throttle, back on its creative game and still more than capable of spinning a great, entertaining yarn.
Weaving flashbacks that appeared to be posthumous but really weren't (more on that later) while providing clever new angles on classic Lost moments from previous seasons — including the immediate aftermath of the crash itself — this episode was also a welcome reminder that sometimes these producers really do seem to know what they're doing after all. We were silly, and unworthy, to have doubted them, don't you think? For all those times this season that we clucked and shook our heads whenever we spied the marginal beauties Nikki (Kiele Sanchez) and Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro), wondering (as Sawyer often said, to great comic effect) "Who the hell are they?" it turns out that they were living in their own little movie all along.
While we were occupied elsewhere, Nikki and Paulo were trapped in a vicious little noir melodrama of their own making, the murderous femme fatale (nice spider metaphor) and her equally devious but doomed mate locked in a dance of deceit and greed over an improbably fabulous $8 million cache of diamonds. Their quest for the missing bag of loot took them to places we'd discovered through others' (and sometimes even the Others') eyes, and it was thrilling and fascinating to realize that Our Heroes weren’t always the first on the scene. The foreshadowing of their fate may have been obvious ("I'm just a guest star. We all know what happens to guest stars."), yet it was almost as much fun as the Charlie's Angels parody Nikki appeared in to kick off this playful hour. Struggling actress? Sure. Budding villainess? Why not.
When Nikki and Paulo's paths crossed, precrash, with a bickering Shannon and Boone in the airport, and Nikki cooed to Paulo, "Promise me we'll never end up like them," the drumroll response of "What? Dead?" was quite the kick. Piecing together the circumstances of their unhappy but well-deserved destiny was part of the joy of the episode, which played out at times like a classic murder mystery.
The real echoes here were the fatalistic noir of James M. Cain (think Double Indemnity) and the deliciously manipulative suspense of Alfred Hitchcock. And with its creepy buried-alive finish, once we realized the couple's spider bites were only paralyzing and not fatal, we got the morality-play thrill of ghoulish just desserts, like a classic Twilight Zone parable by way of Tales from the Crypt (or in this case, the hatch). Turned out the flashbacks weren't coming from the afterlife, because while we thought Nikki and Paulo were dead, their minds were racing about what got them into this fine mess. It won't be easy to shake this one.
Lost has been on a roll for a while now, but this episode helped restore the sense of pure adventurous storytelling excitement that drew so many of us to this island of buried secrets in the first place.
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Mar 29, 2007 9:29 AM
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You're joking, right? Or we weren't watching the same episode because it was BORING--at least until the buried alive ending, which was nasty but not unexpected after the whole spider set-up. So we get back Shannon, Boone, and Artz just so they can (primarily) re-create scenes? And the plane in the tree? Foreshadowing after the fact? What did Paolo say, 'If I climb up there I'll fall'? And that they were searching for diamonds was a given considering--again--the set-up. Juliet and Ben with the TVs watching Jack--that was good. But the producers wasted an hour getting rid of characters no one cared about--whoo-hoo.
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Mar 29, 2007 10:30 AM
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I thought it was vintage LOST, especially the ending. Nice way for the writers to sneak in a clip show, and do away with two characters the fans never liked. Thumbs up!
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Mar 29, 2007 10:42 AM
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I thought it was a Great Episode.
Brilliant in the season long inclusion of Nikki and Paolo to lead into this episode.
"Who Are YOU anyway?"
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Mar 29, 2007 10:44 AM
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BORING? Really, I thought it was very interesting and I was glad to see Boone and Shannon again. I was thinking the same thought, Matt, about being Dead! How funny was that? I LOVED Sawyer who kept asking, "Who the Hell are you?" or "Who the Hell is Nikki?" He totally said the words we all have been asking since this season started, Who the hell were they? We now know and do we care any more or less? I doubt it. I know I don't. Sad, but true-who cares they killed an old guy for his dimonds? It's like Sun said, They are useless there on the island so why not bury them with the not-so-dead-people?! Moving on:
I can't wait until next week's episode, looks like the ladies get into a nice big cat fight! Can't wait to see how this all will play out.
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Mar 29, 2007 10:54 AM
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I'm with you Matt! This episode just rocked in every way, shape and form!
People have been griping about what some of the "extras" have been doing and why we know nothing about them. The producers give us something and some people still gripe. Ah, you gotta love TV junkies!
I'm going to have to pull out my season 1 DVd set once this season ends in May after the thrill of seeing all the clips from their first days on the island.
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Mar 29, 2007 10:55 AM
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I agree with bluesheep. It was an awful and pointless show. I thought last week's show was perfect! I was so excited to see this week and we get a whole hour of characters we don't care about. The producers wasted a whole hour getting rid of characters they made a mistake on introducing. I did not think it was "thrilling or fascinating" that Nikki or Paulo were first on the scene. I actually rolled my eyes about that. I can't wait to get back to the real story next week. This episode felt like useless filler.
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Mar 29, 2007 11:03 AM
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Lost has some of the most bitter, hardened fans around. I think the writers should stop listening to them quite frankly. I think it's how they get into trouble and lose their way.
They should just focus on making the show good on their own terms, if people tune out so be it, at least they can go out with their head held high.
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Mar 29, 2007 11:13 AM
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Seriously, that was a fantastically written and produced piece of art. On so many levels.
When you get something that wonderful, who cares about how it advances the island/others mystery. The backstories are the star. Plus, it was incredible fun to see their drama playing out in the midst of the other events that we had previously seen.
To me, these were the first truly bad people (other than possibly Ben), especially beautiful Nikki. When you think she was concerned about Paolo after the crash, she just wanted to find the diamonds. Worthless diamonds on the island prevented her from seeing love and happiness in front of her and caused her demise.
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Mar 29, 2007 11:18 AM
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Matt, I agree with you! I loved the new "flashbacks" to give us Paolo and Nikki's story...the ending was chilling! I can't understand all the haters or so-called "fans" of this show. The producers should just write what they think is best rather than worry about fan comments.
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Mar 29, 2007 11:26 AM
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Though in general I've never had a problem with the characters and think "Lost" has been back since a dismal fall, I do have to disagree with Matt on the "silly, and unworthy, to have doubted [the producers/writers]". Why?
Well, the biggest thing that bothered me is why Nikki wouldn't want to go down that hatch; later, when Paolo did, he didn't try the TVs or any other forms of contacting the rest of the world for help. I can believe that Paolo didn't warn the islanders about the Other's plan as he perhaps was selfish, but (as Sun said) what good do diamonds do on that island? Surely these characters, at least Paolo, would have tried getting rescued after having found the diamonds having been found. He wasn't a Locke, wanting to stay.
Also, I think scenes like the one where Locke saw Paolo burying something could have been shown earlier, and our curiousity and the mystery surrounding these characters could have made us care about them more.
The ending was a big shock, and I did love the show as a whole and I do disagree with those who say it was boring. I enjoyed seeing clips from earlier seasons re-imagined. I just don't think we should overpraise the episode as Matt has when, despite the paralysis twist, it was more of a way to "correct the past" instead of a "this has always been the plan for these two" situation.
Perhaps I'm jumping the gun though. Didn't the producers say something about the season finale being called the Cobra this year? Perhaps we haven't seen Nikki and Paolo after all.
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Mar 29, 2007 11:28 AM
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All through last night's episode, I couldn't make up my mind whether the writers had this in mind from the beginning, or if they were just trying to justify the "mistake" of introducing those characters. 12+ hours later, I still can't decide. I liked the "buried alive" part at the end, though. Guess we'll have to wait until next week to see if they stayed buried.
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Mar 29, 2007 11:36 AM
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I didn't hate the episode... in fact, I kind of liked it. But the reason why I liked it was because of all of the reused scenes from Season 1. It wasn't a completely terrible episode... but are we really ignoring the fact that these two characters were completely WASTED? What was the point? Is this how it's going to be? Are they just going to "introduce" a couple random characters every now and then so they can throw in an episode that resembles the great first season?
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Mar 29, 2007 11:42 AM
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Vintage Lost. I agree with EVERY word you said Matt! Every episode does not have to advance the overall plot. Also, I felt like we needed a small break from all the questions that were being answered (I know, I'm probably in the minority). Additionally, the episodes that have had flashbacks ON the island are always done extremely well. This is no exception.
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Mar 29, 2007 12:05 PM
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LOST is and has always been about the journey not the destination. The true fans, who simply enjoy the storytelling and the terrific performances know to sit back and enjoy the ride. History tells us the final destination will never satisfy everyone, so why get caught up in thinking about something that may disappoint, when there is so much to enjoy in the moment.
All that said stop whining about the way NIKKI and PAULO's introduction/ story was handled. Here is a partial list of characters introduced after the original group: DESMOND, BEN, JULIET, MR. EKO, ANA-LUCIA, LIBBY and MR. FRIENDLY. I think this list shows that the producers know what they're doing. Sure some characters don't work, but the show is much better from the ones that do and no worse off from the ones that don't.
Simply put LOST is a great show and I for one can appreciate it for its great storytelling and the fact that it is just a joy to watch.
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Mar 29, 2007 12:11 PM
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