The third episode of Lost's third season aired last night. My feelings on it are mixed. While I'm glad they've made a return to focusing on the Button-men, very few questions were answered, and as usual many more were raised.
First of all, the explanation of what happened in the damn Swan station was… minimal. The station collapsed. It imploded. Somehow Locke, Eko and Desmond all ended up outside of it, in various states of well-being and undress. But of course, no actual address of what the hell actually happened. What did the key do? What was the purple glow deal? What’s the story with the freaking button? I hope this is not going to turn into something that they just ignore. One of my big fears on the show is that they’ll simply end a mystery and not discuss it any more without actually explaining what the hell it was.
I was a little confused about the lack of introduction for Nikki and Paolo. According to promotional info for the show, they were meant to be found, by Claire, inhabiting Jack’s tent. That scene must have been edited, because instead the two characters mysteriously appear when Locke returns to camp with Eko. I guess we’re meant to understand that they have been among the 49 survivors all along, but I felt that their sudden appearance was jarring, particularly considering their gofer roles in Eko’s treatment could easily have been filled by Rose and Bernard.
Locke’s flashback scenes were interesting but confusing. This is one of the few occasions I can think of where a self-contained flashback story has no real resolution. What happened with Eddie at the commune? Were they all busted? Was John run out or arrested? And what is the time period on this? I would guess it is after his breakup with Helen, but it theoretically could have occurred before he first met his parents. At any rate, I am glad that we are continuing to learn unexpected things about our characters through the flashback sequences. So far I’ve been very impressed by the shadier aspects of their pasts that continue to be explored.
And finally, while I was glad to see John returning to his tracking and hunting role somewhat, the whole sweat lodge thing was just pointless. In the first five minutes of the episode, he awakens in the jungle and sees Desmond. Immediately my thought, of course, was “where’s Eko?” Then I continued to wonder about Eko as Locke returned to camp, communicated with Charlie, built his sweat lodge, and had his vision. Dude. You need a hallucination of Boone to tell you to go find Eko? There were four people down in the station: Locke, Desmond, Eko and Charlie. We’ve seen three of them so far. GO FIND EKO, JOHN. It’s pretty simple.
Now that I’ve bitched, I should explain that some things were delightful. Hurley’s return and explanation of the capture worked great, particularly when he told John that “Henry” turned out to be the leader. I also love the slight feeling of panic that Claire expresses on behalf of the camp. Without any of the “A-Team” around, things are suddenly a tad bit scarier on the beach. No Jack to treat injuries. No Sawyer to keep people from shooting themselves. No Sayid to set traps or work on communication. Not even Sun for gardening or Kate for public bathing. The top players right now are Hurley and Charlie, who honestly aren’t much for survivalism. On the other hand, they still have Locke, and as long he’s not having an existential crisis or trying to whisper to mango trees, he’s the one guy who could actually survive on the island by himself.
The big new mystery last night, though, revolves around Desmond. The dude wakes up naked and ranting, with some weird knowledge of a speech Locke is going to make at the end of the episode. Did he have a clairvoyant dream, like others have had? Or has he developed some kind of new ability to see the future? Exactly how weird are they going to get with this show?
All in all, I’ll take it. Looking back, I think we’ve been spoiled a bit in the last two seasons by the tendency to flood us with information. “Further Instructions” reminded me a lot more of the episodes from Season One, in that there was a small mission, and along the way new questions were asked, but very few were answered. The show hasn’t veered wildly from its format yet, thankfully, as that’s really a major blow that the series as a whole could suffer.
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