TV Review: Lost – The Incident

Posted by Adam Sweeney (adam@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 14, 2009

lost-theincident

Lost, ABC, Airs Wednesdays 9/8c

“The Incident, Part 1” (Season 5, Episode 16)

Synopsis: Locke (Terry O’Quinn) continues his quest to kill Jacob (Mark Pellegrino). Jack (Matthew Fox) aims to set off Jughead and Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) set out to stop him.

Review: Jacob DOES exist! He does exist! And people hate him! Okay the last exclamatory sentence was overkill, but isn’t it great to finally put a name to a face? The Lord works in mysterious ways and so does Jacob apparently. His manipulation of the islanders before Flight 815 was gripping, to say the least. Mark Pellegrino’s performance was subtle but noteworthy.

The relative ease in which the show handles multiple storylines blows me away. Most shows can only handle one timeline. Try inserting multiple ones, as well as flashbacks and jump cuts to the present and future. Is there any other show that is capable of doing it? If you say Quantum Leap, you lose an eye.

And thank God for Lost taking me back to the good old days when I used to steal New Kids on the Block lunchboxes. I mean… I swear there isn’t a Donnie Wahlberg poster on my wall. Damn you for judging me! I kid.

Part 1 raised a lot of questions for those religious zealots out there who blindly follow a leader/God without questioning the tragedies in their life. (This isn’t an editorial on religion, by the way. Just an opinion Locke’s comments to Ben (Michael Emerson) about his motivation for killing Jacob.) As ruthless as Ben has been, he has dealt with a pretty bad hand dealt to him. It makes you wonder how virtuous we’d be in his situation.

Is there a better way to build suspense than to write a box into a scene and not show the audience what’s inside said box? It worked perfectly in Se7en, it did wonders for Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction and Lost struck gold again with it.

I get that Sawyer doesn’t want any communication with the submarine, but was it necessary or wise to shoot the speaker? Wouldn’t a simple smash with a pistol do? Let’s not forsake being smart for trying to look like a bad ass, guys.

You have to feel for Juliet. No matter what she does, she can’t compete with Kate. Let’s just face it.

The underlying theme of Part 1 seemed to be that the islanders needed to be grateful for what they had in the moment. I remember a friend once telling me that the meaning of life was time, and that we spend so much energy focusing on the past and future, but never embracing the moment we are currently in. It seems to fit in with Part 1, not to mention it might be the foreword for Memoirs from Yoda.

Part 1 set up a showdown between Jack, Sayid, Hurley, Miles and Jin and Kate, Sawyer and Juliet. Who wins? We do! Okay, that was a tease. Deal with it. Not like you didn’t see the episode. Didn’t you?

lost-theincident2

“The Incident, Part 2”

Synopsis: Juliet gives new meaning to the song “You Dropped the Bomb on Me.” The Dharma Initiative prepare to kill Jack and Locke brings Ben to meet his island maker.

Review: The actions of a person aren’t so important so much as the motivation behind the action. This and many more lessons in life, this week on Lost.

Just when you think you have Lost figured out, they break out a fake Locke on you! What a spectacular surprise. But who is the fake Locke, aside from Jacob’s old enemy? Will we see the true Locke come to life, and why didn’t we know what was coming from the Dead is Dead episode 12 title.

Damn Jack has a twisted sense of romance, doesn’t he? He isn’t willing to simply apologize to Kate in the present, but he has no qualms about blowing up a hydrogen bomb in the name of love. Someone needs to see Dr. Phil.
On the flipside, Juliet is willing to go with Jack’s plan to save herself from heartbreak. Both of these plans worked out pretty much how they wanted, huh? Cough. Love has its say in everything and it is enough for me to forgive the change of heart Juliet has in deciding to help Jack. It also brought one of the most tragic moments the series has seen.

FINALLY we get to see Sawyer and Jack get in on! I haven’t seen fisticuffs that brutal since Roddy Piper in They Live. Okay, yeah I have but that’s not the point. Sometimes you have to let out some aggression.

Questions were raised about free will and how we interpret the events in our life in the second part of the season finale, or basically we saw a much more interesting church sermon. Could this be a metaphor for the battle between good and evil? If Ben isn’t the prodigal son, then I don’t know anything anymore.

It’s clear that the islanders are connected and destined to be together, no matter how hard they try to divide. They’re loyal. You have to give them that.

So did Juliet detonate the bomb or did the energy pocket explode? If it’s the former, then we would destroy the timeline the islanders are on. If not, they die, right? Maybe both events are connected and we get some alternate story to begin Season 6 with. Either way, it was an explosive ending to arguably the best season of Lost ever.

Up Next Week: Not a damn thing! Well, reruns probably. We take a break and puzzle over what the season finale means.

Read More: Lost Recaps

What did you think of this week’s episode of Lost?


Read more articles by Adam Sweeney

« Previous Article | Next Article »

Related Topics:

Lost Recap, TV Reviews, TV for Movie Lovers, , , , , , , ,

Related Reading:

Your Ad Here

Comment Policy: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Film School Rejects reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. We also reserve the right to modify any curse words in your comments and make you look like an idiot. Thank You!

  • bengibbard13
    the only thing i am wondering, is that if locke is up and running, like you said which one is the real locke.

    jacob said he found a loop hole, refering to locke as his old friend in the flash back with jacob and the black pearl and the man.

    its crazy, it makes perfect sense and at the same time im totally confused
  • brilliant episode. but you forget the best part...ROSE AND BERNARD!!!
  • Miller
    My prediction, What happened happened aka the bomb has always gone off, It might even be the cause of the incident. Also i think the electromagnetism will send the group back to the future.
  • paul
    Yeah when jacob was dying he said something along the lines of they are coming, thats not verbatim, so that to me sounds like he was talking about the losties in the past coming back to the present to take care of business.
  • I always pictured Jacob as a black man...
  • I always pictured Jacob as an old man.
  • TBITS
    I swear if Juliet is dead... well dammit I'll keep watching, but I won't be happy about it.
  • cinequeen
    IA phoenix is a mythical bird with a colourful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple and blue, according to some sources [1]). It has a 500 to 1,000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of myrrh twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (sun city in Greek). The bird was also said to regenerate when hurt or wounded by a foe, thus being immortal and invincible — it is also said that it can heal a person with a tear from its eyes and make them temporarily immune to death. The phoenix is a symbol of fire and divinity.[2]
  • I thought when Jacob says to Locke "they are coming" at first I heard it as "comic". This made me reignite my thesis that Michaels young son was narrating what was happening via his comic book. I still think he has a major role to play. There are so many curve balls and plot holes anything could happen, which is why Lost is so compelling. I did think the decision to not kill off any major characters was unwise as now viewers don't fear for the characters the way they did during earlier seasons.
  • defur
    I am happy to hear about so many past people characters coming back, especially Juliet and Dan Faraday. Season 6 will not disappoint, even if they don't answer all the questions.
blog comments powered by Disqus