Lost: Season 2

To the Ocean
Originally uploaded by Ed Hoover

Whew! I have now completed my re-watch of the second season of “Lost.” That one was a bit tough, because the show tended to drag a bit that year, at least for me. I didn’t care much for the tail section group, particularly Ana Lucia. That’s not quite true — I did like their story and I did like the device the producers used to introduce them and bring them together with the protagonists we began with. But it got a bit tedious there for a bit.

(I suppose that the third season got a bit tedious, too. That was the “Kate and Sawyer spend eight episodes in zoo cages” thing, but I do remember loving the season premiere and the mind-blowing “we’re on a different island!” thing.)

In the last episode, “Live Together, Die Alone,” we get to see Charles Widmore and Penny Widmore for the first time. Little do we know what’s going to happen with them — that Charles was on the island in the ’50s, that he has been spending money and time to try to return, that he will help John Locke after Locke turns the frozen donkey wheel and ends up in Tunisia.

Or that Penny and Desmond — who heretofore had been in only about three or four episodes — would have one of the most compelling moments in the entire series when they have their phone conversation in “The Constant.”

(Speaking of Desmond, this picture is from my trip to Oahu last year. It’s the place where Desmond followed Kelvin to, when Desmond discovered Kelvin had been fixing up Desmond’s boat to escape.)

We also didn’t know, although there were hints, that the Others weren’t exactly what they seemed. We didn’t know that they lived in a nice, civilised village with kitchens and book clubs and a rec room.

Some observations:

• Although Michael is missing for most of Season Two, fear not, for we do not lack an annoying character. Ana Lucia fits that bill perfectly. I want to slap her in virtually every scene she’s in. Her smug pouts, her obstinacy, her terrible leadership skills.
• The show is immediately improved by the presence of Michael Emerson as “Henry Gale,” a.k.a. Ben Linus. It was good before, but it bumps up to excellent when he enters the scene. Emerson takes this show to 11. It’s hard to think he was originally supposed to be in only three or four episodes.
• By the way, if you want a laugh, here’s a video of Michael Emerson in a Federal Bureau of Prisons training video from what must be the early ’90s. It’s hilarious — production values, seeing shades of Ben in his character. But best is his hair, which must have served as the model for his hairdo in the flashbacks on “Dead Is Dead.”
• Back to “Lost.” At one stage, Hurley and Sayid are on the beach trying to get a signal on the radio Bernard gave to Hurley. They come across a radio broadcast of some Glen Miller music, and Sayid explains that radio waves at that frequency can travel thousands of miles, so the source of the broadcast could be “anywhere.” Hurley says, “Or any time ... just kidding, dude.” That line raised eyebrows at the time, but we had no idea how right he was. (Apparently the producers have confirmed that this radio broadcast was indeed due to time travel.)
• The episode “Dave,” which is all about Hurley’s imaginary friend, is still a mindfuck. The story sets us up to think that perhaps this entire thing is just a figment of Hurley’s imagination, that he’s lying in a bed in Santa Rosa Mental Hospital dreaming the entire series up. Then Libby convinces Hurley (and us) otherwise (“I’m real. This is real”). But then she gets a dastardly look on her face as they walk away from the cliff, and then in flashbacks we see her as a patient in Santa Rosa. Hm.
• Speaking of Libby, we still don’t know her full background. We know she was in Santa Rosa, although we don’t know why she was there. We know she owned a boat, Elizabeth, which her husband had owned and named after her before he died. We know she met Desmond by chance (or fate) in a coffee shop when she bought him a drink because he didn’t have any American money. We know she was once married. But that’s it.
• Why did Sayid completely forget about Nadia while he was on the island? He was told by the CIA that Nadia was safe and alive and living in Los Angeles, and he was on his way there to see her when Flight 815 crashed. But on the island, he easily falls in love with Shannon. Seems strange.

Here are some questions I have, too.

• What was the Dharma Initiative really doing? Specifically, what was up with having two people sit in a station entering numbers, and then having other people observe them (in the Pearl) and record their observations, then putting their findings in pneumatic tubes that end up in a pile in the middle of a field?
• Why does Gerald DeGroot look just like Peter Jackson?

I’m working on a longer list of questions I want answered by the end of Season Six. That is, some I want answered but won’t necessarily be heartbroken if they’re not answered, as well as three or four deal-breaker questions that I must have answers to when everything is said and done.

I’m not sure when I’ll post that. Perhaps it’ll be after I’m finished with the re-watching and before next seasons starts.