In the episode entitled "Left Behind," the focus ostensibly turns to Kate...yet the 10-word tease given by Damon Lindelof to ew.com's Jeff Jensen (click the title of this post to read Doc's column) is ''Why would The Others leave Juliet behind?''
On-air promos have suggested the Others (and Locke) are leaving Othersville, yet Juliet (and Kate, to whom she has been handcuffed) will not be joining them.
We're also promised a return appearance of Smokey/Cerberus tonight, an event certain to get the message boards a-buzzin.
One final note from Doc's column. He asked The Powers That Be to clarify the current status of Nikki and Paulo. You heard it here, folks: the gruesome twosome are history; dead; pushing up daisies...you get the idea.
Response to Reader Comments
Strangely, "Exposé" inspired more comments from you all than most other episodes. I thought I would take a moment to respond.
Anonymous said...
Dan -- I agree with you -- a very forgetable EPI.
I know "Anonymous" from www.lostusers.com, where he posts under the handle "Lightenupjack." Like most frequent posters to LU, "Lite" is usually spot-on with his commentary. This time is no different. "Exposé" will go down as one of the most disposable episodes in Lost history.
By the way, as a sign of Lite's general cleverness, this photo is the "avatar" he uses for his posts on LU:
dkbasler said...
It will be interesting to see which of the Island residents is greedy enough (you know at least one of them is) to dig up the "graves" of Nikki and Paulo to get the diamonds... It will reveal both the extent of the character's greed and their faith that they may someday be saved.
Good point, dk (a fellow Lost Lover at Law from the good state of Iowa). While Nikki and Paulo may not have much future impact on the Lostaways' lives, the diamonds very well could. Who knows? Maybe diamonds are the only substance that can repel Smokey?
My guess is that it will be Desmond, not necessarily thought of as a greedy character, based on my view that he knows he may someday be back in the "real world" and his need for something to impress Penelope's father.
Another interesting theory. I hope this does not pan out - Desmond's journey seems to be a forward one. It would be a shame if he emerged from his Odyssey with no more self-improvement than $8 Million in diamonds.
It will also be interesting to see if the recovered walkie-talkie can be used to gain valuable information on the Others' activities. I think a couple interesting doors were opened last night, if none were closed.
Ok, so maybe there will be some redeeming qualities to the episode, but only in retrospect. And, true, the walkie might come in very handy, particularly as the remainder of the season promises some additional conflict between the Others and the 815ers.
Michael said...
One interesting thing I did see last night was that Vincent the dog seems to be one of the most powerful beings on the Island. Everytime someone follows Vincent into the woods, they find something (I can't think of examples off the top of my head, maybe you can, but I seem to remember that a few of these moments exist). In this episode, Vincent pulls the cover off of the "dead" bodies, as though he knows they are not dead. Since Vincent was Walt's dog, and Walt's powers have yet to be revealed (think of the dead bird from the old Walt/Michael flashback), I thought there may be something more to this dog.
How about the Dharma bus, full of Dharma beer? Also, didn't Vincent lead Shannon to her first Walt sighting? And, if you believe (as I do) that Vincent is related to Yemi, Jack's dad and the other manifestations on the island, then certainly the Island goes to extreme lengths to try to lead the horse to water (figuratively and literally).
Other than that, a fully self-contained episode that anyone could really watch without knowing much about the show. Not a bad story, seems sort of like one of those O Henry short stories....How these two could discover all of this stuff on the Island and not care and not tell anyone is beyond me.
Very true, Mike (my cousin, a future Lost Lover at Law who will begin practicing in New York in the fall). As I said in my recap, Nikki and Paulo deserved to die, from a plot perspective, for being the worst offenders yet of the Lostaways' pathological failure to share island mysteries with each other. Like they have something else to talk about?
Finally...
Joe Sculptor said...
Instead of analyzing the Pearl Station by Season, let's look at it chronologically through the eyes of last night -
1 - While searching for the lost bag of diamonds, Nikki discovers the hatch of the Pearl by walking past. Nikki and Paulo brush off the loose dirt and little Nikki easily helps Paulo open it to peer inside.
2 - Paulo returns by himself to hide the diamonds in the toilet tank. Apparently, he is able to open it this time with relative ease, solely by himself. While in the bathroom, Ben and Juliet show up to watch Jack on a monitor. *** Didn't they see an open hatch door when they arrived? And if you want to assume Paulo closed it behind himself, there is still no way he could put the dirt back on top of it while inside. Would Ben's keen eye miss NO dirt on an exposed hatch door that had been previously hidden? I don't think so.
I mentioned to Joe (who posts to LU as "Sawyer's Fish Biscuits") at the time that this was a pretty brilliant obervation...until I rewatched the episode with my wife (who fell asleep when it aired). There were two throw-away lines by Ben when he first appeared with Juliet. The first was a comment about "who left the hatch open?" The second was a suggestion that they should move the fallen drug plane over the hatch so nobody would find it. This explains a lot...but not how Paulo got back out with a plane over the door. Too bad the lines were hard to pick up, since Joe got quite a following for this tirade on LU, including yours truly...
3 - Paulo returns to the beach and doesn't even wonder who those two people were he just saw in the Pearl? He never mentions seeing Ben & Juliet even when trouble with the Others occur.
Preaching to choir, Joe. See my response to Mike, above.
4 - Chronologically, Boone and Locke would've arrived a few days later. Locke, the Great White Hunter, sits in the middle of this open field and never sees the tracks left by so many people recently coming and going, nor does he see a large area of freshly moved dirt, assuming Paulo covered it up again when he left. The Beechcraft with Boone in it, crashes to the base of the cliff and flips over, now hiding the Pearl.
On the latter point, see my response to 2. On the former, recall that, more than he's a Great White Hunter, Locke is a man determined to find and complete his mission. When he found the plane, he was guided to that spot by his dream of the plane crashing. Since we all know Locke can have the odd brain fart when island wonders come a'callin', I would chock this up to that personal failing.
5 - Mr. Eko and Locke return and discover the Pearl with Yemi's help. Big strong Mr. Eko, with muscles gleaming, along with Locke, now struggle to open the set of doors that little Nikki easily opened.
But wasn't it more dramatic this way?
6 - Locke and Sayid enter the Pearl along with Nikki and Paulo. NO one sees Paulo make a beeline for the bathroom and are shocked when he reappears.
Then again, who cares about Paulo or his potty fetish?
Now let's leave the Pearl behind. What about the Nicotine gum that finally gave Paulo away. How much gum did he bring with him to last for 80+ days? Even if he was able to hide a box load of gum from Nikki, she never saw him chewing on all that time or even smelled it on his breath?Lastly, when Paulo stands up leave, the gum falls out of his pocket and Nikki sees it. She doesn't just call after him, "Hey, what the @#%& is this?" Instead she waits and hatches the whole spider scheme, not to kill him, but to search him as he's paralyzed. Why not search him in his sleep? Or better yet, just confront him and watch him melt down, whipped as he was.
Alas, on an island apparently designed to redeem those who have fallen, Nikki (and her poor whipped puppy Paulo) just were not deserving. Because of the insanity of her schemes (and inability to realize, as Sawyer did, that the diamonds were no longer of any practical value), Nikki died a very fitting death.
(My one plus note, it was great seeing the beginning again from another perspective.)
Indeed it was. Even more than the crash site, I loved revisiting Jack's "Live Together/ Die Alone" speech. And ultimately, wasn't that the point of the episode? That Nikki and Paulo failed to be part of the community, and paid the ultimate price for that failure?
Anyway, folks, good stuff tonight. Catch you all tomorrow!
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