Firstly I'd like to welcome Victoria's Secret to the sponsorship wing of Lost. Ahhhhh, sure beats the Fruit of the Loom guys.

This was one of those 'fill in the blank' episodes where the "tastes great, less filling" debate is more lopsided than Hurley in a hammock. We've seen the Lostaways do some pretty inane stunts before, but this week they collectively went Joey on us. Let's count thy ways:

1. Not tracking down Ethan to begin with. Locke refuses to do so, claiming he's at a disadvantage to the bad guy and besides, it's not Ethan season. This is the same bad guy that wasn't even capable of keeping a nine months pregnant, 99lb fairy princess under wraps. Locke can kill a boar bare handed, fight off polar bears with a steak knife....what?...track the sales clerk from Babies R Us? No way!

2. Locke goes on to disuade Jack from 'caving in' by explaining that "THE OTHERS" may actually want them to assemble everyone into one large group so they're easy to pick off. Jack nods agreeingly. Good point! They then assemble everyone into one large group anyhow. At least they had the smarts to put Boone on point.

3. Locke argues that the caves are hard to defend. A half mile stretch of beach is much easier, right? Ever hear of a place called Normandy Locke?

4. Jin and Sun are now close captioned. Why pop that cork now? One of the unique aspects of this show was the lack of subtitles, so Jin and Sun had the same mysterious aura of ...say... a Circle K manager. We are either on the eve of the inevitable "You sweek a engwish too!?!" moment or the producers didn't digest the ramifications of careening a technical wrecking ball through the language barrier.

5. Does the sound of a rock being whizzed in a sling sound different in Ireland? Korea? I could be sipping a latte at a West Indies Starbucks ten chapters deep into La Vita Nuova, but if I hear that sound, my immediate instinct is to duck faster than a rapstar when a car backfires. Jin and Charlie may as well be face painted with bull's eyes. BTW, how did Charlie drag Jin back to camp again?

6. Ethan can accurately split an eyebrow with a rock from fifty paces in heavy brush. He can lift a grown hobbit off the ground with one hand, kick Jack like punting a rugby ball, apparently he has the ability to break human bones without making a sound, hell he could probably back stroke to Miami if he set his dastardly little mind to it. So when he strolls into camp, why stop at Steve/Scott's sand divot? Just get Claire while you're there, in camp, where she is, and be done with it? What a maroon!

7. Five guns is nice. But when at least two of the gunmen are felons, perhaps five guns, with only three of them actually loaded, would have been the better plan. How many boxtops did it take for Jack to get his degree?

8. I can almost swallow that they'd give Kate a gun. Almost. It was only a few episodes ago she demonstrated a lack of knowledge in the dangerous end vs. safe end of the Glok operating manual. Now they just hand her a gun, as if to say "You know Kate, you've lied and schemed habitually this past month. In fact we're convinced you lied about not ever having handled one of these, and so you're now worthy of being an armed participant.

9. On the same note: Locke, master hunter, logic says he's probably got gun knowledge. Sayeed, ex-army, obviously an NRA member. Kate...uh, they all watched her flashback episode? And Sawyer...theif, miscreant, good guess he knows how to flick the safety off. Uh....where exactly did Jack practice medicine? Beirut? Nobody even questioned his pistolero capabilities. This island has more stupid people than a Monster Truck rally.


But the topper, the one that had me biting the couch arm in pain, screaming a muffled cry of "quit beating the poor cliche to death!"....

10. Charlie outdoes every idiot in this idiotic episode. He's a thief. He's a junkie. He's staring at a countertop upon which sits a flask from Winston Churchill himself, in a home decked out ceiling to rafter in fine antiquities worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Right next to the flask are THE KEYS TO THE HOUSE....but he, of course, takes the flask instead.

AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!

Charlie was to steal something and what was he going to do with keys to the house?

mr. tibbs --- all i can say is ............ BRAVO!

I love you Mr.Tibbs.

Could not stop laughing through this whole thing......... :lol2:

great job

What was he to do with the keys to the house?

Hmmm...let's see, he could use them to open the door. Yeah, yeah, then once inside, he could steal the flask! Then what? Well, he could also steal the china, and the jewelry, the chandelier, the signed Driveshaft EP, the grand piano, the pink hearts, orange stars, yellow moons, green clovers, blue diamonds...

How magically delicious!

BRAVO, Mr. Tibbs! You are my hero :-*



4. Jin and Sun are now close captioned. Why pop that cork now? One of the unique aspects of this show was the lack of subtitles, so Jin and Sun had the same mysterious aura of ...say... a Circle K manager. We are either on the eve of the inevitable "You sweek a engwish too!?!" moment or the producers didn't digest the ramifications of careening a technical wrecking ball through the language barrier.

Actually, the only time Jin & Sun are not cc'd is when they are talking to the other survivors.

Thank you Mr. Tibbs. I needed a pick-me-up.

I was so disappointed with this episode and the lack of plot advancement that I actually checked the domain availability for lostsucks.com but found it was already taken. :(

Yo Tibbsie - great post, fine writing, couldna done it better meself.

Commended.
B

1. Not tracking down Ethan to begin with. Locke refuses to do so, claiming he's at a disadvantage to the bad guy and besides, it's not Ethan season. This is the same bad guy that wasn't even capable of keeping a nine months pregnant, 99lb fairy princess under wraps. Locke can kill a boar bare handed, fight off polar bears with a steak knife....what?...track the sales clerk from Babies R Us? No way!

2. Locke goes on to disuade Jack from 'caving in' by explaining that "THE OTHERS" may actually want them to assemble everyone into one large group so they're easy to pick off. Jack nods agreeingly. Good point! They then assemble everyone into one large group anyhow. At least they had the smarts to put Boone on point.

3. Locke argues that the caves are hard to defend. A half mile stretch of beach is much easier, right? Ever hear of a place called Normandy Locke?

4. Jin and Sun are now close captioned. Why pop that cork now? One of the unique aspects of this show was the lack of subtitles, so Jin and Sun had the same mysterious aura of ...say... a Circle K manager. We are either on the eve of the inevitable "You sweek a engwish too!?!" moment or the producers didn't digest the ramifications of careening a technical wrecking ball through the language barrier.

5. Does the sound of a rock being whizzed in a sling sound different in Ireland? Korea? I could be sipping a latte at a West Indies Starbucks ten chapters deep into La Vita Nuova, but if I hear that sound, my immediate instinct is to duck faster than a rapstar when a car backfires. Jin and Charlie may as well be face painted with bull's eyes. BTW, how did Charlie drag Jin back to camp again?

6. Ethan can accurately split an eyebrow with a rock from fifty paces in heavy brush. He can lift a grown hobbit off the ground with one hand, kick Jack like punting a rugby ball, apparently he has the ability to break human bones without making a sound, hell he could probably back stroke to Miami if he set his dastardly little mind to it. So when he strolls into camp, why stop at Steve/Scott's sand divot? Just get Claire while you're there, in camp, where she is, and be done with it? What a maroon!

7. Five guns is nice. But when at least two of the gunmen are felons, perhaps five guns, with only three of them actually loaded, would have been the better plan. How many boxtops did it take for Jack to get his degree?

8. I can almost swallow that they'd give Kate a gun. Almost. It was only a few episodes ago she demonstrated a lack of knowledge in the dangerous end vs. safe end of the Glok operating manual. Now they just hand her a gun, as if to say "You know Kate, you've lied and schemed habitually this past month. In fact we're convinced you lied about not ever having handled one of these, and so you're now worthy of being an armed participant.

9. On the same note: Locke, master hunter, logic says he's probably got gun knowledge. Sayeed, ex-army, obviously an NRA member. Kate...uh, they all watched her flashback episode? And Sawyer...theif, miscreant, good guess he knows how to flick the safety off. Uh....where exactly did Jack practice medicine? Beirut? Nobody even questioned his pistolero capabilities. This island has more stupid people than a Monster Truck rally.


But the topper, the one that had me biting the couch arm in pain, screaming a muffled cry of "quit beating the poor cliche to death!"....

10. Charlie outdoes every idiot in this idiotic episode. He's a thief. He's a junkie. He's staring at a countertop upon which sits a flask from Winston Churchill himself, in a home decked out ceiling to rafter in fine antiquities worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Right next to the flask are THE KEYS TO THE HOUSE....but he, of course, takes the flask instead.

I shall play devil's advocate here, if only because while it wasn't my FAVORITE episode, I still enjoyed it.

1.)Whether you want to believe it or not, Ethan was percieved as a real threat. As far as the survivors know, he hoisted Charlie up into a tree by himself and has been holding Claire captive. He whooped the hell out of Jack, too. He's proven himself to be a threat. I don't blame Locke for not going to hunt Ethan. Ethan has proven he can get around the island pretty easily without really being noticed, unless he WANTS to be. Just because he seems weak to you, doesn't mean that he IS. Locke seems to understand Ethan better than the rest of them do, and while I don't trust Locke, I think his assesment of Ethan is pretty accurate.

2.)When did they assemble them into a large group anyway?? I don't remember that. They showed Boone guarding the beach (which, yes seems dumb, but I think there was a point to that). They didn't show that everyone was at the beach.

3.)I would say that since the troops storming Normandy had GUNS... and at the time, Locke didn't know that they had guns... lol, that he made a fair assumption. On the beach, they had avenues of escape. In the cave, they only had one, and it's where the Others would have had to come in. It's better to have several ways out, than only one. This is something that could be debated for days though. It's all a matter of strategy, and your opinion will affect how you see it.

4.) Someone else said this, but Jin and Sun have always been cc'ed unless they are talking to other survivors. The fact is, I think they really wanted us to know what was being said in that conversation. it confirmed my suspicsions that Sun may be pregnant...

5.)I don't know about anyone else, but I've never had a rock slung at my head before. I couldn't identify the sound, either. Something makes me think that Jin is probably more familiar with more...modern weapons. And who says that Charlie dragged Jin back? You think he isn't capable of going and getting help?? I don't remember seeing him dragging Jin back, either.

6.) Again, strategy. Picking off who he saw as a weaker and inefficient opponent. He was following through with his threat. Unlike some people on this board, I don't think Ethan is an instant gratifcation person. He knew that by manipulating Charlie, and making sure he realized his threat was serious, that Charlie would be more likely to hand Claire over. Granted, he seemingly underestimated Charlie, but he also didn't know about all that hardware they were packing. Ethan may be a baddie, but he's a slow, calculating baddie. Well, he WAS, anyway.

7and 8.)I believe Sawyer gave Kate the other gun, not Jack. And do you think Sawyer OR Kate would have not noticed the not loadedness of the guns? They wouldn't have gone for that in a million years, and it would have been dangerous. Ethan could have easily overtaken and killed them, because they didn't have any bullets.

9.) Well, I'm thinking Jack has realized she's lied about a lot. And besides, SAWYER gave her the gun. I'm fairly certain that Sawyer's got her pegged. He may not know what she did, but he's well aware that she's more likely to have fired a gun than say, Hurley. They also wanted someone who knew how to fire a gun. Remember, they didn't want to KILL Ethan. Well, Sawyer seems to be bad at killing people, and really good at just shooting them, lol.

10.) You wouldn't be thinking clearly if you were in withdrawl either. Addicts tend to get whatever will get them their next fix, not what will get them ten fixes down the road. You are so focused on getting the next one, that the ones after that don't necessarily matter.

There....

~They were not all gathered in one place.
~Jin was hit in the chest not the head, hence the huge bruise on his chest that Sun was cleaning up.
~Did you want to waste the 3 mins it would have take to show Charlie run back to camp and get people to help him bring Jin back?
~The flask was a cigarette case according to the chick in the flashbacks.


Okay carry on with the bashing, just wanted to make a couple points ;)

1. As far as they knew, Ethan was unarmed. Locke has the Costco Christmas pack 'o knives, and pointy sticks like Braveheart! Hunting Ethan down for a confrontation seemed infinitely more ideal than sitting around waiting to be picked off. Eventually, they ALL agreed. Well, except Sceve.

2. They clearly stated that everyone was to move to the beach. That's why they set up sentrys at the beach, and at the beach only. Everyone was there, even Ethan.

3. The caves vs. the beach is debatable. Frankly, if they had any sense at all, they'd be on high ground. Tactically it's their only way to gain advantage by location. But, they aren't the brightest group.

4. I guess I never noticed the subtitles before. OOPS! (le oopsie)

5. Sorry, but the rock sound was obvious. I've never had a gun shot at me before, but I know the sound fairly well. I've never been hit on the head by an anvil being dropped from a building, but if I ever hear the distinct whistle of one increasing speed, I'm opening my umbrella immediately.

6. This makes less sense than Canadian money. Ethan wants Claire. Ethan goes to camp. Claire is there for the taking. Ethan takes Sceve instead...because...it makes him seem more brooding? Again, my point was that this was absolutely stupid of him. Heck, it got him killed.

2. They clearly stated that everyone was to move to the beach. That's why they set up sentrys at the beach, and at the beach only. Everyone was there, even Ethan.

Then why were Claire and others still at the caves? Claire had no idea what was going on.

~Did you want to waste the 3 mins it would have take to show Charlie run back to camp and get people to help him bring Jin back?"

Well, yeah. It would have been hilarious and only would have taken ten seconds to quick clip five different attempts of Charlie hopelessly trying to drag Jin by the arm, by the legs, rolling him, pulling on his shirt until it rips, then collapsing on Jin's chest in exhaustion...thus waking Jin up.

Cue: awkward moment.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on these. I could debate them all again, but I'm sure you would fire back with some more stuff, and it would be ongoing and repetetive, and all that jazz. As much as I love a good debate, I have the feeling we'll both be pounding our heads against a brick wall, lol.

But I will say this... you can't blame Ethan for doing what he said he was going to do. He had no knowledge of the guns, nor of Charlie's inherent losing of his mind, lol. Ethan isn't the writers. He can't be prepared for everything, and neither can the survivors.

Oh, and since you've added something... the mood of this episode would have been ruined by a 3 minute comedy scene. They meant for it to be serious, and I'm glad as all get out that they didn't do something like that right after Charlie had been choked out by Ethan...

Heh heh, y'all are funny and make very good points. *I just want to ask why, after jin fell like a rock, did Charlie continue to stand there like a deer in headlights? * I may not realize at first that the noise was a rock being slung, but if the guy next to me suddenly keels over I'd be ducking and covering, not standing there out in the open screaming "I'm a target too - hit me here!" * :lol2:

And what's up with Vincent? *I think it's too convenient that he suddenly appears right when he did, like he was a distraction. *Somethings up with the dog.

I believe he was a distraction. I'm pretty sure Ethan had him, and let him go. It seemed too damn coincidental.

Mr. Tibbs, you're funny!!! :lol2:

I love me some Mr Tibbs!

I want to know why did Ethan keep torturing Sceve even after he was dead? *I'm assuming Ethan snapped Sceve's neck first, because I am quite sure if someone had their arms/legs/fingers broken they might have yelped just a wee bit for the others to hear. *And once you snapped someone's neck, they are quite dead Jim.

But now you have your answer as to how the writers would make it ok with Claire that no one went looking for her, she doesn't even remember them! *L-a-m-e!

I also want to know where Charlie learned to handle a gun, emptying a clip into someone's chest is not easy. *It was a nice grouping though, maybe he's had some marksman experience during his roadie days. * ::)

I believe he was a distraction. I'm pretty sure Ethan had him, and let him go. It seemed too damn coincidental.


Good thought!

"They" may call you "Mr. Tibbs," but I call you just plain witty! Thanks for the great writing. Smiles are good.

My favorite line was the one about "more stupid people than at a monster truck rally..." UH HUH! YUP!!!!!!

And Sawyer...theif, miscreant, good guess he knows how to flick the safety off.

And, don't forget that Sawyer took out a charging polar bear with a 9mm.

I'd forgotten about the ol polar bear takedown. But then, in "Special" we learned these polar bears can't even break sticks and can be easily sent yelping away with the poke of a whittling knife.

In retrospect, Sawyer could have hit the polar bear with the butt of the gun and saved some bullets. If they're gonna be on this island awhile, those 100 bullets need to be considered precious commodities.

Tip of the day: When rescue choppers are circling the island, don't wave the gun hand.

I'd forgotten about the ol polar bear takedown. But then, in "Special" we learned these polar bears can't even break sticks and can be easily sent yelping away with the poke of a whittling knife.



Actually I'd like to know how these polar bears are surviving considering they suck at hunting during the summer.* Polar bears starve most of the summer.*

Heres my two cents! I couldn't get over how easily Jack subdued Ethan this time around when at their last encounter Ethan beat the snot out of him! I mean come on, this is Ethan who seems to have super-human strength by all accounts and I was rather let down by how easily he was captured.

One possible explanation for why Ethan didn't go after Claire is the fact that Steve was at the beach which was "guarded" by Boone who was asleep and Claire was in the caves which were guarded by people who weren't asleep.

I believe he was a distraction. I'm pretty sure Ethan had him, and let him go. It seemed too damn coincidental.


I'm wondering if Vincent ran off and attacked Ethan, allowing Claire to escape. The scratches could have been from animal claws. He disappears right before she is found wandering in the jungle. (Indeed, Locke and Boone are looking for Vincent when they find her.) Vincent returns right after Claire does, and could be seen as trying to sound the alert about Ethan.

Vincent is either super-Island beast masquerading as Walt's pet, or else is being subconsciously directed by Walt's desires.

Cardie

Bravo, Tibbsy. Someone oughta give you your own late night comedy show. And if you're not a professional writer, you should be.

Cheers,
Templeton