Lost Midseason Report

What has happened?

Oh, sweet Jesus. All right. Bare bones. After opening the hatch, Jack and Co. discover a lived in bunker where a mysterious Australian named Desmond is in charge of entering The Numbers into an archaic computer every 108 minutes. After Desmond bails, Locke and Jack set-up a rotating shift to take up the computer duties. Meanwhile, Jin, Michael, and Sawyer survive the attack on the raft only to land on the other side of the island where a handful of survivors from the tail section including Ana Lucia (a former cop with anger issues), Mr. Eko (a silent giant carrying a big stick), and Rose’s husband, Bernard have had a much different experience on the island with many of them being kidnapped or killed by The Others (including all the children). Because of Sawyer’s infected bullet wound (I think), the tailies decide to cross the island to where the rest of the survivors are holed up. Stalked by The Others the entire trip, the tailies are noticeably on edge when Shannon stumbles into their path and is swiftly shot and killed by Ana Lucia. All of the survivors reunite just in time for Michael to use the mysterious computer to speak to his kidnapped son, Walt. Or is it?

I know there are things I skipped, but I don’t want to write a novel. So, watch the show if you want all the minutae.

What’s good?

The mysteries continue to pile up. The reveal of the hatch did little to quell viewers appetites, because it only opened up a Pandora’s box of WTFs for those who thought they’d get answers. The mythology of the show, which has been pretty heavy for the first half of this season, has not disappointed, and that’s without so much as a whisper from “the monster.” Now that the survivors are all together again, the show has regained the dramatic weight that was its lifeblood last season. This has been a long prologue for a season that promises profound change. January 12 is a long way away.

What’s not so good?

One of the marvel’s of Lost’s first season was the remarkable distance traveled over the course of the year. Watching the show again on DVD, that became readily apparent as I realized the many things that were still to come. This season has very much been the opposite. Nine episodes into the season, it feels like we’ve moved very little. Though it feels like the show is set to put the pedal to the metal, it took a long time to get to that point. Also, while they are a staple of the show, some of the flashbacks have lost their magic. There are only so many secrets these people can have in their past, and already (Jin & Sun comes to mind) the flashback convention seems to be spread a little thin. Of course, there have still been some exceptional flashbacks including Hurley’s (with a tremendous performance from Jorge Garcia) and Shannon’s (that humanized the most shallow character in the ensemble right before they killed her).

Midseason MVP

Much has been made of the casting discoveries on this show -- Evangelline Lilly, Terry O’Quinn, and Josh Holloway -- but none has stood out more for me than Jorge Garcia. Hugo “Hurley” Reyes with his robust girth and understated eloquence (“Dude”) started off as a delightful comic presence in an intensely grave situation, but quickly moved to one of the more complex individuals in the cast. His throwaway one-liners and talent for physical comedy (the Jin sea urchin incedent was brilliant) are some of the most memorable moments of the series. His remark to Jack about Rose’s husband being white “Didn’t see that coming” was hilarious, but this season has also deepened our sympathy with Hurley’s position as fate’s whipping boy. Arguably the most resonant of the flashbacks was Hurley’s, as we see him trying to enjoy his life before the changes of his lottery win corrupt his future. Hurley's the heart and soul of the island.

Sixth-Man Award

This is hard to do on an ensemble show where over a dozen characters are treated equally within the story, but at this point in the season the honor has to go to Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s (yes I cut and paste that) Mr. Eko. As enigmatic as John Locke and the most physically impressive of the cast, Mr. Eko promises to be the most interesting discovery this season. With his carved stick and self-imposed forty days of silence, it’s unclear where this guy is coming from. In addition, his biblical exchange with Locke and accidental (?) discovery of the director’s cut of the orientation film this Rookie of the Year has jumped right into the middle of the island’s mysteries and I can’t wait to learn more about him.

Best Episode

While the last episode before the holiday break felt like Lost back in top form, it wasn’t my favorite. That honor goes to “Everybody Hates Hugo,” the Hurley-centric fourth episode of the season. Not only did it start off with one of the weirder teasers in the show’s history featuring a chicken suit, a Korean speaking Hurley and an English-speaking Jin ("Everything is going to change"), it had one of the more dramatically resonant flashbacks of the year. Made responsible for the stores of food in the hatch, Hurley flashes back to the day after winning the lottery. More confident in other’s resentment than his own good fortune, Hurley lives it up as best he can before coming forward. He quits his job. He asks out his crush. He does everything he can to assure himself that things won’t change with the money, but he knows better. On the island, he deals with the same sort of suspicion, knowing that his good fortune with the food will be resented by the other islanders. I’m sure there were some mystery components to the episode, but I honestly can’t remember them. But I’m one of those weird people who loves this show as much for its human drama as its mysteries. And everything in this episode, from the interactions of Rose and Hurley to the peanut butter to Hurley’s chosen resolution to the food issue, was Lost drama at its best.

Final Decision

Much more uneven than last season, Lost has still been a thrill and it promises to get better. The first seven episodes felt like a necessary primer for what’s to come. The episodes after the uniting of the survivors have felt more and more like the best of last season: The pairings of different characters within the ensemble (Eko and Locke, Sayiid and Kate, etc), the quiet, sentimental moments (the removal of Jin’s handcuff, the gift of peanut butter), the nasty twists (the film in the Bible, Walt on IM). The show has its orientation again, and thankfully that usually means we’re about to lose ours. B+