Lost and Alias

[rhienelleth]

Ok. So Claire is magically still pregnant. I know I'm not the only one who didn't see the pregnant belly on her last ep. I mean, she was all skinny and soaked in rain, and I'm willing to swear there was no baby. And now here she is, still pregnant. I wish I still had that ep on tape to re-watch the scene, just to be sure I'm not imagining things.

And she has amnesia. Why, exactly, was she running through the trees, screaming for someone to help her right before she collapsed at Boone and Locke's feet? If she has amnesia to the point of not even remembering Ethan what was she terrified of? Or did the amnesia develop after she fainted? Or did she have some other trauma that caused it right before she went running through the rain at night on the island, and realizing she remembered nothing was why she was terrified???

(These are not complaints persay, just questions *ahem*plotholes* that I would like answers to.)

All right, but on with the ep:

-- Did you notice that Jack shooed everyone away except for Charlie? And then Claire didn't remember him, and poor Charlie looked so wounded. :(

-- Jin and Sun, right? Or some derivitive thereof. (Come on, I've only been watching the show for four eps, now. I can't be expected to know the names of every character in this humungoid cast.) Anyway, what was up with their whole conversation? I'm getting the feeling that there's some history there that maybe has to do with a baby. Cause there was tension. When he asked about Claire, it was a completely different moment/conversation, than when he asked about the baby. Interesting, is all I'm saying.

-- Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. Don't lie to Claire. About anything, ever, if you want to be her friend, much less more than her friend. She's got to have trust issues after asshole went and abandoned her in her eighth month of pregnancy.

-- So, if you were going to steal something to sell, would you take the rarest item in the guy's collection, which also happens to sit out in plain view? Where he's bound to notice it's missing the second he steps into the room? Yeah, me either.

-- Trying to go clean the same weekend before you start your new job is a recipe for disaster. No wonder he puked into the copy machine.

-- So Locke - who has no previous combat experience, ever (I'm just making sure, as that's what I've been told) - is mysteriously a master of not just tracking, hunting, knife throwing, and tactics, but he also has experience handling guns. Ok. So maybe he carried concealed in his former life. Lots of regular, average people do. But the list of skills he has mastered which he never had reason to use in his former life is becoming staggeringly unbelievable. I still like him. I just wish he had a better back story.

-- Poor Boone. He tries so hard, and then he trips and falls and justifies everyone's lack of faith in him, including Locke's, apparently. But yay! for Vincent being back. I told you that dog being missing was going to keep me awake nights. :)

-- Yeah. Let's give a bunch of people who don't trust nor necessarily like each other guns, and hope that none of them freaks out and accidentally shoots another, thinking that movement in the bushes is Ethan. *sigh* Ok. As someone who has a concealed carry permit, and regularly goes to the shooting range to practice firing said weapon, this gives me nightmares. I have a good friend who also carries concealed, who just shouldn't. Yes, she's been to the range, too. She's taken the appropriate classes. And she's still afraid of her gun. You can see it every time she shoots the thing on the range. If you carry a gun for any reason, ever, you should a)be very familiar with it. Use it. Practice with it. Clean it, take care of it, respect it. b)Do not, under any circumstances, allow uncertainty or fear of the weapon to enter into the equation. Healthy respect, yes. Fear, no. Fear will get your weapon taken away and used against you, or lead you into using it unsafely, and possibly resulting in the injury or deaths of other innocents or yourself. Hmm, on a side note, this applies to all weapons, including something as innocuous seeming as mace. I know someone who used mace in a confrontation, once, and because she wasn't used to using it or thinking about using it, she sprayed it at her assailant...and the wind carried it right back into her own face. Not a happy day for her.

And another thing. Jack, who knows Kate's past, wants another man to go in wielding the fourth gun? One who has proven his bad aim in the past? When Kate, probably the best shot among them all (except possibly Sayid), stays behind because she's not a man??? Dude. Whatever. I'll take you on any day. I've studied with the guy who trains all the new cops coming out of the academy every year. He's been doing it for ten years. Before that he was in special forces. He tells me that women are usually better shots than men, naturally, because men usually walk into it thinking they know it all. Sawyer, smart man that he is, gives Kate a gun. I like Sawyer. *jumps off soapbox*

Sorry, that got long. One of my buttons, obviously.

-- Notice that Jack took Ethan down without using a gun.

...

Just taking a moment to ponder that. Here they were, refusing to track him at first because he's such a badass he'll hang them all from trees, and Jack the doctor took him down without a gun. While being aimed at by four other people who may or may not have had itchy trigger fingers.

All right, all right. Not jumping back on the soapbox.

-- "Why did you do it?" Well, DUH! Ethan hung him from a tree, and then took off with the pregnant Claire and somehow gave her amnesia, and wants her back to do God knows what with her, and is never ever ever going to give up on that sick little dream as long as he lives. And Charlie, bless him, has no impulse control. Jack, one would think, would be smart enough and trained enough in the foibles of addicts, to answer his own question.

-- "Why do I remember peanut butter?" Awwwwww.

Next week: Sawyer, Kate, and Jack! After this week, Kate would be smart to pick Sawyer.




Wow, I'm tired. And my Lost thing went on for longer than I anticipated. Hmm. I kept thinking about werewolves all ep, what with the animalistic biting and all. Anyway.

-- Interesting division of the teams, there in the beginning. Why is Sloane suddenly pairing Syd with Jack and Vaughn with Nadia instead of vice versa?

-- Clean bill of health. So, no one knows what infection/drug they're dealing with, but they don't think to keep her under observation for a few days? At least Marshall eventually asked Syd "This isn't about you, is it?" But dude. Whether she thinks it is or not, alarm beels should be ringing in your head about now! Quarantine her! Tie her up! Yeesh.

-- Yeah, Syd is about the last person I would want on hallucinogenic drugs. With all the crap that she's gone through, you don't want her demons coming to the surface.

-- It occured to me tonight, watching Alias after Lost, what this show lacks that the other has in spades. Every episode, always, centers around Sydney. We have no episodes which give us deeper insights into what makes the other characters tick. We have moments, here and there, but never entire episodes. Jack, the best character on the show, gets the most development other than Sydney. Dixon, Vaughn, Nadia -- we have no real, strong attachment to them, because they are only really there to prop up the main character. Lost does not have one character upon which the entire canvas is focused. Even Buffy and Angel had episodes which centered on the supporting characters. Willow episodes. Wes episodes. Fred episodes. You get what I mean. Alias would be a much stronger if they took this philosophy to heart.

All in all, I did enjoy the ep. This season is still markedly better than last.

Comments

[whiskeypants.livejournal.com]

when you are not so tired, your story is up. :)

[maisfeeka.livejournal.com]

I agreed with all of your points re: gun use, women and guns, etc, etc. However, in my experience the majority of untrained people would do pretty much exactly what these guys did - stupid, yes, but as your instructor said (and mine), guys tend to walk into this stuff thinking they know it all. Sayid, I might have expected better from, but he's already shown - in the torture scene - that he doesn't always think things through, too much time just blindly following orders maybe and with Jack as leader... Sigh...

I know from my own experience that even though my male friends know I can take care of myself (and pretty much could kick any of their asses should the need arise and protect them far better than they could me), when an iffy situation arises their first instinct is to try and shove me behind them and become all manly and protective. And afterwards they're all, "I dunno, I mean, yeah, you could have handled that far better, but I just felt like I had to take care of you." Sigh... Men, sometimes...

On a side note, men with some training tend to be more willing to stand back - or shoulder-to-shoulder - with me if something comes up.

As for Locke... there was this moment when Jack offered him the gun and he looked at it as if it would bite him and then, I almost felt I could hear the 'island" whispering to him and he reached out, took it and checked it like a pro. Oh, and Terry O'Quinn just finished shooting the next Locke episode and says it has lots more information but he's not sure it clears anything up, might make things even more mysterious, so...

Anyway, for what it's worth...

[crankylex.livejournal.com]

Why is Sloane suddenly pairing Syd with Jack and Vaughn with Nadia instead of vice versa?

Because he's noticed Jack macking on his daughter and wants to put a stop to it?

C'mon. Jack/Nadia. It's the new black. :->

[morwen_peredhil]

Anyway, what was up with their whole conversation? I'm getting the feeling that there's some history there that maybe has to do with a baby.

In their flashbacks, we have seen that Sun wanted a baby, but Jin bought her a puppy instead. They've got a lot of angst in their backstory, caused by the shady work he did for her powerful father — the price he paid for being allowed to marry her. They had been very much in love, but their marriage had deteriorated to the point that Sun learned English on the sly and planned to fake her own kidnapping and death so that her father and husband would not be able to find her. She was supposed to disappear at the airport before the fateful flight, but at the last minute she couldn't make herself leave because she still loves Jin.

I was all WTF about Kate not getting a gun, too. Wouldn't want to give a gun to a girl, even though she's one of the only people who actually knows what to do with it, now would we? Feh.

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

It is? Yay! Something to look forward to at work today, since my day thus far has been less than stellar. :)

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, everything you say is true. It just annoys me to actually see people act less than intelligently in dangerous circumstances. Even in a TV show. :)

I keep forgetting that Locke supposedly knows this stuff because of some "connection" he has with the island! One wonders how an island came to know how to work a modern weapon, but I'm sure they'll explain everything eventually.

Right JJ?

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

LOL. :)

[whiskeypants.livejournal.com]

it's here.
and hopefully this won't make the day any worse.

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Damn, I'm sorry I missed their backstory. Sounds like a good ep. He got her a puppy?? Yeah, I bet that went over big.

So, was her father like asian mob or something? (What nationality are they?)

You're very good with the names :)

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

I think Claire was so terrified because her last memory was of being on the plane. Waking up in the jungle would terrify me, so I'm not so surprised at her reaction. You're also right about the magically reappearing tummy. I could've sworn she was no longer pregnant in the last episode.

I think Jack is still trying to figure out whether or not he trusts Kate. Sawyer is self-interested, but I think Jack trusts him enough to shoot Ethan when necessary. Of course, his whole alpha male thing is irritating, so I was also glad when Sawyer gave a gun to Kate. She had a little smirk on her face, so I'm sure she's (not so) secretly enjoying the conflict between Sawyer and Jack.

Poor Boone is completely in over his head. *pets*

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

They're Korean, and I'm pretty sure it was the mob.

[goddesspharo.livejournal.com]

I, too, did not understand how Locke, the dude that worked for a box company, could do all that stuff with a gun. I mean the hunting stuff I assumed he prepared for when he was planning to go on that safari trip thing, but the gun thing? Shaaaady. Not to mention that I would think Jack would jump to show Sayid the secret handgun arsenal rather than Locke. I mean Sayid was the soldier, dude.

And I felt for my dear Boone when he tripped trying to chase after a dog. Aww, Boone, go back to the beach and look pretty, 'kay?

The Sawyer thing was a bit funny as well. The man misses the marshall at close range yet is naturally the fourth gunman. I know it's because he looks pretty and the such when he is angry and in the rain, but come on Jack. And shooting the polar bear is totally not an example of Sawyer being good with a gun. He must've let off at least five shots before one actually hit the bear at the last possible moment. Kate could take on the boys any day.

The moment Jack lost his gun I knew we were in for some sort of trouble. However, I thought the trouble would be Ethan skipping away with the said gun...

For the first time this season, I did enjoy the Alias ep. It was a decent ep, if for no other reason than the Syd and Jack interaction.

[dolphin--girl.livejournal.com]

I assumed the whole not-giving-Kate-a-gun thing was a residual reaction to the scene in the beginning of the series with Kate standing there holding the marshall's gun and screaming "I DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE A GUN!". Yeah, she's revealed more in the meantime, but that scene was pretty intense.

And I assumed the "you missed" to Sawyer wasn't so much about his aim as his lack of knowledge of human anatomy. He shot the guy just fine. He just didn't know where to shoot him, and shot him in a place that would have resulted in hours of agony before the marshall finally bled out. So Jack went back in there and shot him again.

And I just assumed Locke's gun knowledge was more of his preparation for his outback trip -- he was pretty intense on the Something to Prove deal. And maybe the whole role-play thing he had going with his co-worker was more than just a game to Locke (I'd have to go back and watch Locke's episode again for specifics). But it could also be the island. I wouldn't rule it out with this show.

[raffaella.livejournal.com]

I don't think that Jack not wanting to give Kate a gun has anything to do with the fact that she's a woman. Did you see the ep where they found the case and she spent her time lying to get him to open it? At the end of the ep, she told him she had murdered someone ("the man she loved"). So he knows she can probably handle a gun. But he also knows she was going to jail, the marshall told him she couldn't be trusted, and he's seen for himself that she's a very good liar. But he doesn't know in which circumstances she killed someone. For all he knows, she's a homicidal maniac, or at least a bit too trigger-happy. Seriously, I thought his reaction meant: "I know you can use a gun. You're a murderer and a liar and the last person I would trust with such a weapon".