"Lost" Fifteen Favorites: "The 23rd Psalm"

“Go. Go and tell your friends I let you live. That Mr. Eko let you live.”

-Eko

“The 23^rd Psalm,” number 13 on my list of favorite “Lost” episodes, is pretty much on this list exclusively because of its flashbacks. I think this episode was the series’ most successful attempt at downloading a lot of character backstory quickly in an extremely compelling way. It was certainly more effective than the “let me quick blurt out my life story to the people near me before I die” method used with Charlotte and Dogen. The flashbacks that depict Eko’s childhood and subsequent adult life as a Nigerian warlord are both fascinating and heartbreaking.

The episode opens with a group of children playing soccer outside a Nigerian school. A truck of what appear to be militia-type soldiers (probably goons for some local warlord) approaches. They’re looking for more child recruits for their army. The priest in charge of the school tries to protest, but the goons aren’t having it. They order a young boy to shoot the priest in the head. The little boy hesitates, and the goons are getting impatient. An older boy grabs the gun and shoots the priest. The goons are pleased and take him along in their truck. This boy is Eko, and the younger boy was his brother, Yemi. Yemi picks up the cross necklace that his brother left behind.

Years later, Eko is himself a warlord. Some men have approached him about buying some heroin. Heroin is useless in Nigeria since the local population is too poor to purchase it, and it’s virtually impossible to get it out of the country since the military closely controls all traffic in and out of the country. Eko knows the men are between a rock and a hard place, so he can get the heroin at a steep discount. When the men insult him, Eko slashes both their throats with a machete. He lets their young companion go unharmed, though, probably a nod to his own past.

Eko agreed to buy the heroin because he has a plan to get it out of the country undetected by the military. The only flights not closely controlled by the military are UN humanitarian and Catholic missionary flights. And Yemi just happens to have become a Catholic priest. Yemi’s church is selling Virgin Mary statutes to raise money for polio vaccine, and Eko wants to put the heroin inside the statues. Yemi is not in favor of this plan at all. Even when Eko comes back with some of his goons and simply demands Yemi make them priests so they can do the dirty work themselves, he’s extremely reluctant. Eko threatens to have his goons burn down the church, and Yemi relents.

Yemi isn’t going to give up on his principles that easily, though. Yemi approaches Eko as he and his goons are loading the infamous Beechcraft plane with the Virgin Mary statutes. Yemi tries to warn Eko of what’s coming, but it’s too late. A truck with soldiers from the Nigerian military has arrived, and their policy seems to be to shoot first and ask questions later. Yemi tries to stop the shooting, but he just gets shot himself for his trouble. Eko’s goons pull Yemi into the Beechcraft, and when Eko tries to follow, one of the goons shoves him out of the plane. Eko’s life is spared because the soldiers believe he is the priest who warned them about the drug smuggling attempt.

The Virgin Mary statues are very much the subject of the on-Island plot, as well. Eko is having a friendly conversation with Claire about his “Jesus stick” (the walking/clubbing stick on which Eko has carved Bible verses), when Claire mentions that Charlie’s very religious, too. He carries around a Virgin Mary statue, after all. Eko is immediately intrigued by this and demands to see the statute. When Claire shows it to him, he recognizes it immediately as one of the statues from the heroin smuggling incident. When Claire expresses confusion about why Eko cares about the statue, Eko smashes it to make his point. Claire is dismayed to see that it contains bags of heroin, and she suspects Charlie has fallen off the wagon.

Eko then angrily stalks towards the beach and demands that Charlie show him where he found the statute. Charlie tries to play it cool, like he didn’t realize there was heroin inside the statue, but nobody really believes him. Charlie doesn’t really truly want to show Eko where he found the statue either. In fact, he blatantly lies about it. Eko sees right through it, though, and he knows they’re on the right path when he sees the body of the man who shoved him off the plane. Eventually, they find the Beechcraft and Yemi’s body. Eko takes Yemi’s cross necklace, and when Charlie asks, Eko yes that he truly is a priest. The two say the 23^rd Psalm as the plane burns. Any fulfillment or spiritual awakening Charlie may have felt on the journey is short lived. He returns back to the beach to find that Claire has kicked him out and no longer wants him anywhere near Aaron.

The on-Island B story is what really keeps this episode from being higher on the list for me. Michael is in the throes of his “WAAAAALLLLT!!!!!!!!” phase, and that is something I’ve never enjoyed on “Lost.” What happens in this episode is just one of many instances of Michael doing stupid stuff because Walt is missing. I know, I know, Walt is his son, of course Michael’s going to freak a bit, but he really takes it too far. First he asks Locke for shooting lessons. This should have been a big warning sign for Locke, but I think he was so excited to fee special and useful that he was all gung ho about giving the lessons anyway. By the end of the episode, both Locke and Jack are locked in the armory, and Michael has fled the Hatch armed with a rifle. He’s following instructions from the mystery IMs he’s been receiving. I never quite understood why he was so willing to believe those messages were from Walt.

FlashForward 1.11-1.12: "Revelation Zero"

“Using a drug to enhance memories? Uh, I don’t know, I don’t think magical mystery tour is the best way to go for someone in recovery.”

-Mark

FlashForward was back last week with a jam packed two hour episode. Overall, the episode was more focused that past episodes of FlashForward have been, centering mostly around the mystery of Simon and Lloyd’s part in causing the blackout and their subsequent abduction. That said, I definitely enjoyed the second hour, which focused heavily on Simon, more than the first. The first seemed a bit like more of the same to me, focusing heavily on the annoyingly broody Mark, but the second half really developed Simon as a unique, compelling character.

The beginning of the episode deals with the fallout of what happened back in the fall, especially Mark’s almost causing an international incident in Hong Kong and Lloyd being abducted from the hospital’s ambulance bay. Mark has been suspended from the FBI, and CIA Agent Vogel is now in charge of MOSAIC, much to the team’s chagrin. Olivia is also at the FBI office, telling the agents what happened at the hospital when Lloyd was abducted. Simon is at the FBI now too, since he’s helping the MOSAIC team with their investigation. Mark and Olivia seem to be kinder to each other now. Mark sees the security footage of Olivia and Lloyd hugging goodbye in the ambulance bay, but he doesn’t rage over it. He lets Olivia recover from the trauma, and the next day he accepts her explanation without question.

Despite having Janis and some FBI back-up watching over him, Simon is kidnapped by guys in creepy masks, much like the guys from Mark’s flash forward. Speaking of Mark’s flash forward, Mark has to see a therapist if he ever wants to be reinstated at the FBI, and she gives him this drug to remember more of his flash forward. It’s really rather odd that a therapist would be so adamant about this sort of treatment, but I guess they had to come up with some way for Mark to suddenly remember more details from his hazy, drunken vision. The most important new bit of information is that he was having a phone conversation with Lloyd, and he tells Lloyd that there’s going to be another blackout.

Most of what goes on while Lloyd and Simon are held captive ranges from the lame to the overly disturbing. Their captor uses extremely forced dialogue and tells them to call him “Flosso.” My original reaction was that “Flosso” is an extremely lame name for a villain. And he even goes as far to state that he’s a villain. Multiple times. Things get overly disturbing when Flosso starts torturing Simon to encourage Lloyd to reveal details about their experiment. Lloyd refuses, and Flosso has his goons cut off one of Simon’s fingers with a cigar cutter. If there’s one thing I hate watching on television, it’s torture, so this didn’t sit well with me.

More compelling was the smaller side story going on with Nicole. Mostly because it filled in some more of her back story. Nicole’s mom is schizophrenic, and ever since the black out, it been increasingly more difficult to keep her under control. Near the beginning of the episode, she lights a Bible on fire. Things get even more difficult for Nicole when she’s volunteering at the hospital and thinks she sees the man who is drowning her in her flash forward. She’s shaken up, and one of her coworkers suggests she goes to “Sanctuary.” Sanctuary is a sort of a religious gathering led by a former window washer who barely escaped death during the blackout.

The story from part one bled into about the first 15 minutes of part two. I almost think that the two hours as a whole would have been better had the story been wrapped up at the end of part 1, just because, like I said, Simon’s story post-abduction is more compelling. After telling Wedeck the full story of his flash forward, Mark is back on the case, albeit in a not-entirely-official way. This sets up parallel investigations into Lloyd and Simon’s whereabouts. Demetri, Vogel, and their team follow the ambulance that was hijacked by the abductors, and Mark follows a restaurant menu that he saw on his conspiracy wall in his flash forward. Demetri and Vogel’s investigation just leads to a set-up with a bomb.

Mark’s investigation leads to a cheese steak shop whose specialty is the Tofurkey soy cheese steak. I don’t really like cheese steaks (heresy for a Philadelphian, I know), but as Philadephia-area native, I’m just a bit offended! Cheese steaks are supposed to be greasy and not at all healthy! Anyway, Mark finds out that the restaurant recently moved, so he goes to their old location. There’s graffiti of an 8 ball on the door, which recalls the beginning of the conversation Mark had with Lloyd in the flash forward. Mark crashes his car through the locked door just as Lloyd and Simon are about to be executed, and the two scientists are saved. And finally, the story of Nicole, Bryce and the Sanctuary preacher is wrapped up with a conversation between Brice and the preacher which I think is supposed to foreshadow a romantic relationship between Bryce and Nicole. There’s also a sweet scene where Bryce meets Nicole’s crazy mom.

Simon fakes penicillin allergy to facilitate what he thinks is a successful escape attempt from Janis, and he hightails it back to his family in Toronto (the Campos family immigrated to Canada when Simon was a child). Janis, however, is a better agent than Simon gives her credit for, and she’s right on his tail. She gives him 24 hours in Toronto in exchange for wearing a tracking anklet and staying under her supervision. Simon’s family is a lot of fun, especially his mother, who doesn’t seem to know what to do with him. At one point Simon again thinks he’s successfully escaped to go talk to one of his old professors, but again Janis is right on his tail. Simon wants to ask the professor if he knows of anything that can be done to prevent another blackout. The professor, unfortunately, doesn’t have any ideas.

Back at the Campos house, “Uncle Teddy” pays a visit. “Uncle Teddy” is actually Flosso, which somewhat explains how Simon got so mixed up in this mess. You see, he’s Suspect Zero. He was abducted from his own father’s funeral and taken to Detroit to see the havoc his experiment would wreak. Afterwards, he is instructed to meet up with Flosso and one of his goons. Flosso says that Simon can’t expect that all the help he has received wouldn’t come with a price. The goon as much as says that he killed Simon’s father. Simon returns the favor by strangling the goon- it’s this scene that he has adopted as his faux flash forward vision.

While the rest of the Campos family is distracted from a phone call from Simon’s missing younger sister, Flosso takes the opportunity to threaten Simon some more. His organization is actually holding Simon’s sister captive, and they’ll start shipping her to Simon in pieces if he doesn’t cooperate. To add insult to injury, they’ve also killed Simon’s favorite professor (the guy he was visiting earlier). This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, so to speak, and Simon is done being pushed around. Flosso has emphysema, so Simon finds it easy to kill him and make it look like natural causes.

Lost 6.08: "Recon"

“Well, I guess I got to a point in my life where I was either going to become a criminal or a cop, so I chose cop.”

-Detective James Ford

Opinion seems to be mixed on “Recon,” but I most definitely liked it. I thought this episode’s sideways-verse story was even more compelling than most, and I’m generally a fan of the sideways-verse. I liked the sideways verse story even more than usual this time around because it completely turned expectations on their head and had some of the more fun random character connections of the season. The on-Island story was interesting as well, although more for the future possibilities than what actually happened in this episode. I also like to see that Sawyer and Kate are mending their relationship, be it platonic or romantic in the future. Josh Holloway and Evangeline Lilly just have too much chemistry together for the show’s producers not to take at least a little advantage of it.

I thought Sawyer’s sideways-verse introduction in this episode was especially fantastic. He’s in a low-rent motel room with a woman, and it seems like he’s up to his usual con man tricks. He uses his favorite con, the Pigeon Drop. He’s got a meeting in a few minutes, and in his haste, drops his suitcase and it “falls” open, revealing money. Unlike the other times we’ve seen Saywer use this trick, though, his mark doesn’t fall for it. She points a gun at him, saying that she can recognize a classic con since her husband is a con man. Sawyer warns her that at his word, the room will be crawling with cops, but she doesn’t believe him.

When the situation starts to look a bit more dire, Sawyer says the magic word, “LaFleur,” and the cops do indeed come streaming in. First, I loved that “LaFleur” was the code word- it was a fun nod to one of the series’ better episodes and James Ford at his best in the timeline we already know well. The second thing that was really cool about this part of the scene was that one of those cops that broke into the room was Miles. He’s Sawyer’s partner at the LAPD. Yep, Sawyer’s a cop in the sideways-verse!

Not only is Sawyer a cop with Miles as his partner, but Miles has set Sawyer up on a blind date with none other than the late (in the original timeline) Charlotte Staples Lewis. Although I still think Sawyer has more chemistry with Kate, the two hit it off surprisingly well. Sawyer is impressed by Charlotte’s Indiana Jones-like persona, and they bond over some dirty talk about a whip. Next thing you know, they’re post-coital in Sawyer’s apartment. Sawyer offers to get Charlotte a glass of water, and Charlotte takes the opportunity (under the guise of asking for a t-shirt), so rummage through the top drawer of Sawyer’s dresser. In it, she finds an old family photo and a folder labeled “SAWYER.” Sawyer is enraged when he sees’ Charlotte snooping, and he throws her out at 3 AM. Kind of a douche move, even if Charlotte shouldn’t have been snooping.

The next day at work, Miles confronts Sawyer and throws him up against a locker. Sawyer thinks it’s because of Charlotte, but Miles is angry about something else. He ran Sawyer’s credit cards and figured out that Sawyer had been in Australia the previous week, not Palm Springs like he had been telling everyone. Miles is angry that Sawyer keeps lying to him, and he dumps Sawyer as a partner when Sawyer continues to refuse to tell the truth. Sawyer spends the evening brooding while watching “Little House on the Prairie.” It’s funny to see that some things absolutely stay the same in both universes! After his classic TV-induced wake-up call, Saywer first goes to Charlotte’s apartment to apologize, carrying a sunflower much like the one he gave original universe Juliette. Charlotte doesn’t accept the apology.

By the next day, Sawyer has figured out who he really needs to talk to- Miles. He pulls up in front of the police station when Miles gets off work, and Miles only slightly begrudgingly hops in the car. Then Sawyer tells him the whole truth, about how Original Sawyer (aka Anthony Cooper) is responsible for his parents’ deaths, and how Sawyer went to Australia because he had a lead on where Cooper might be. The reason he hesitated to tell Miles the whole story is because if he ever finds Anthony Cooper, he’s going to kill him.

The end of Sawyer and Miles’ heart-to-heart is interrupted with a thud as another car careens into Sawyer’s car, followed by police. Sawyer is pretty pissed, so he joins in the hunt for the fugitive who is now on foot. He pins the fugitive up against a wall, and as he pulls down the hood of her sweatshirt, he sees that it’s none other than Kate. Which was a pretty obvious twist. He lets out his trademark “Son of a bitch,” presumably because he realized he helped this woman escape from the airport a few days ago. I just may have cheered at this point.

On the Island, we find out that Sawyer was watching over passed out Jin at Claire’s den while Locke was raining destruction down upon the Temple. When Jin comes to, he wants to leave before Locke comes back. Sawyer says he’s with Locke now, but he gives his word that if Sun is on the Island, they won’t leave without her. Even in a very low place following the death of Juliet, Sawyer still looks out for his friends.

Soon enough, Locke returns with his newly formed ex-Other posse. Sawyer is pretty shocked to see Kate among them. Kate is equally shocked to learn that Sawyer is “with Locke” (although Sawyer claims he isn’t “with” anybody), especially after Locke admits to killing everyone at the Temple who didn’t join him. Before the two have much time to catch up, Locke’s got a mission for Sawyer. He wants Sawyer to go over to Hydra Island and do recon on any remaining survivors from the Ajira crash.

When Sawyer first gets to Hydra Island, it certainly doesn’t look like there are any survivors. More like a massive pile of dead bodies, which, now that I think about it, is kind of reminiscent of the aftermath of the Purge. What does that say about the Others, who claimed to be doing the work of Jacob? While Sawyer is surveying the damage, he sees movement out of the corner of his eye. It’s a woman named Zoe, who claims to be the last survivor of Ajira 316. Much like Sawyer’s mark in the sideways-verse, Sawyer himself can certainly recognize a con, and he figures out pretty quickly that Zoe isn’t who she says she is. I love his exasperated, jaded “Take me to your leader” when Zoe gives the signal and her crew pops out of the bushes and points their rifles at Sawyer.

Sawyer is led to a submarine docked on the other side of Hydra Island where he meets none other than Charles Widmore. I think what I’m most confused about at this point is where Widmore’s loyalties lie and the same for Ben when he was leader of the Others. They seem to be enemies, but I don’t get the sense that they’re necessarily on opposite sides of the Jacob/Men in Black battle going on above their pay grade. I’m curious to see how that’s all going to shake out. Sawyer gets out of the sub alive by telling Widmore that he’ll lead Locke and company straight to Widmore in exchange for Widmore letting Sawyer and anyone traveling in his boat go unharmed.

Kate is facing her own trials back on the main Island. Claire is still enraged that Kate has had Aaron all this time, and she attacks Kate with a knife. Kate is only saved by Locke’s quick intervention. He brutally throws Claire to the side and hits her. It’s a shocking, savage scene. Kate is crushed by this, since Aaron and Claire’s well-being is why she came back to this crazy Island in the first place. Claire later apologizes to Kate, but it’s hard to tell if it’s sincere, and if it is sincere, how long it will last. Locke tries to use the situation to his advantage, warning Kate that he had a crazy mother, and how Aaron has a crazy mother. I’m not quite sure how keeping Aaron and Claire apart fits into Locke’s nefarious plans, but it must somehow. It really felt like Locke was seriously encouraging Kate to take Aaron back.

When he makes it back to the Island, Sawyer reveals to Locke the truth of what he found, and he spins it in a way that makes it sound like they can turn the upcoming battle to Locke’s advantage. Sawyer later reveals to Kate, however, that he’s trying to play both sides against the middle. While Widmore and Locke are fighting it out, Sawyer wants he and Kate to escape. In what might possibly be one of the show’s weakest “fade to black” moments ever, Sawyer tells Kate that they won’t be using the Ajira plane to escape, they’ll be using the sub.

Greek 3.18: "Camp Buy Me Love"

“And that’s not enough? You want a different girl every night of the week or something? Way to be greedy!”

-Beaver

“Camp Buy Me Love” seemed to involve a lot of second guessing and indecision and wheel spinning. This would have seriously annoyed me if it weren’t for the fact that it seems like a few changes in status quo had finally taken place by the end of the episode. I also appreciated that the episode was limited to three major storylines. That said, I still didn’t love this episode- merely tolerated it, really. Rusty’s drama was kind of silly, although I was glad that he ultimately went to Ashleigh for advice instead of Beaver. Casey and Cappie’s plot was emotional, but I’d rather see happiness than drama with those two.

So, like I said, the episode begins with everybody dithering and second guessing choices they made recently. Rusty asks Dana out, but then accepts a date with Katherine to an 80’s party at Dobblers. So now he’s conflicted. Does he stick with Dana? Does he go back with Katherine? Does he try to date both? Rusty goes to the KT house looking for Cappie, but he ends up getting advice from Beaver instead, which is of course to try and date both of them. Rusty tries lying to Dana about breaking up with Katherine and how angry it made Katherine, but luckily Rusty comes to his senses. Although he doesn’t tell Dana the truth, which come to think of it, kind of irritates me. More on that theme later (telling Dana the truth, that is).

Casey and Cappie haven’t really spoken since their big blow-up at the Mardi Gras party. After a heart-to-heart with Ashleigh where Ashleigh says she hopes she was wrong when she said Casey and Cappie wouldn’t work out, Casey decides to try and talk things out with Cappie. All of their discussions are circular, though. Casey wants to talk about the future, and Cappie wants to put of the discussion until they know whether or not Casey is going to CRU Law. Or at least until graduation in May. Casey wants Cappie to start thinking about the future, and Cappie makes it perfectly clear that he intends to stay at CRU indefinitely.

After finding out that Rebecca cheated on him and chronically self-sabotages her relationship, Evan is really regretting giving her that necklace, especially considering he risked his standing in the Omega Chi house to do so. Calvin agrees to help him sneak into Rebecca’s room to get the necklace back. The two also enlist the help of Dale, who is still working as ZBZ house hasher. Dale can’t stand Evan, but between Evan and Rebecca, Evan is the lesser of two evils in Dale’s world.

Rusty makes a marginally better decision to go to Ashleigh for advice after he starts feeling guilty about stringing both Dana and Katherine along. It’s better because Ashleigh isn’t Beaver and has some concept of other people’s feelings. It’s only marginally better because Ashleigh has been watching a steady diet of 80’s brat pack rom coms for a class, and she’s basing all her advice off of her movie viewing. First she tells Rusty that Dana is the perfect girl for him, and he should stick with her. Rusty goes to Katherine’s dorm room to break it off, and Katherine says she’s sorry it didn’t work out because she had been so happy to find another “amalgam”- a Greek who was also a geek.

When Rusty starts thinking about what Katherine said, he starts regretting his decision. He manages to convince Ashleigh that Katherine is the right choice, and Ashleigh is determined to get Rusty his rom com happy ending. Ashleigh thinks Rusty should go to the 80’s party and try to win Katherine back. This ends up failing miserably. First because Evan had already bought Katherine a drink, and when Rusty confronts Evan, Evan punches Rusty in the face. Which Rusty sort of deserved. Second because Rusty has yet another epiphany that Dana is the right girl for him after all.

Meanwhile, to make the Casey and Cappie tension even worse, Cappie’s parents are in town. They are hippies who never quite made it out of the 60’s. They’re very impulsive and fun loving. When Cappie’s mom suggests that they all go on a camping trip, Casey balks at first. She changes her mind, however, when Cappie’s mom says that the purpose of the trip is to discuss the future. Little does Casey know that the discussion isn’t quite what she had in mind. Cappie has won enough scholarships that Cappie’s parents aren’t at all about to force him to leave CRU any time soon.

The camping trip is quite awkward at first. All four campers will be sleeping in the same tent, and Cappie’s mom tells Casey not to worry- they fully intend to give Casey and Cappie some private time. Awkward! Casey is barely tolerating it all, and then she and Cappie get into one of their circular future fights again. Casey takes a walk to cool off, and she ends up having a heart-to-heart with Cappie’s mom. This conversation gives a little more background to Cappie’s fixation with never leaving CRU. Cappie and his parents moved around a lot when Cappie was a kid, and the KT house is the first place where Cappie has lived for any prolonged amount of time. Cappie’s mom tells Casey that she and Cappie’s dad are separating, so Cappie is going to need Casey more than ever. Casey is shocked by this, and Cappie’s mom’s description f why they made the decision to split hits a little too close to home.

Casey ends up apologizing to Cappie for trying to change him, and she says that she won’t bug him about the future any more. They will deal with it as it comes. Back at the ZBZ house, Casey has a tearful conversation with Ashleigh. She and Cappie aren’t fighting any more, but that doesn’t mean things are okay. Even though she still loves Cappie very much, Casey doesn’t think that their relationship is meant to last forever. They just want such different things from life that it probably won’t work.

Rusty’s love life seems to be going better than his sister’s. He’s kicking himself for leaving Dana a voicemail breaking their date so he could go find Katherine at the 80’s party. Ashleigh has another rom com staple in mind. Rusty’s going to hold up a boom box outside Dana’s dorm, “Say Anything” style. It turns out not to be necessary. Dana meets up with Rusty outside the dorm, and she’s not at all angry. Rusty’s voicemail was kind of garbled, and she thought he was saying something about wanting captions for the presentation of their research project. And here’s where Rusty again lies to Dana and suffers no consequences. In fact, he’s rewarded for it. Rusty and Dana kiss while Ashleigh looks on happily.