"Look at 3D. That’s a major setback to good storytelling. I took my little boy to see ‘The Last Airbender.’ It was an awful film. The director M Night Shyamalan hasn’t directed a decent movie since ‘The Sixth Sense.’ I’m disillusioned with the drift towards gratuitous entertainment, which so much of Hollywood is now. Because of the state of the economy people seem to want pure escapism. But if the roles I fight to get all go to Matt Damon, then I won’t work. I turn a lot of stuff down – big, big movies, the kind I wouldn’t want to go to the cinema to see. I’m sorry, but I can’t make a movie with the blonde from ER who is starring in every single bad romantic comedy. Unless they reinvent the wheel in terms of romantic comedies – in other words, they start making them funny and romantic again – I’m not going to be starring in any of those movies. The fact is that I’m far more comfortable sitting on a horse and herding cattle than walking up a red carpet. People think I’m being disingenuous when I say I don’t like the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. But truthfully, I can’t stand it. There are very few situations I’d less like to be in than a Hollywood premiere or an awards ceremony. They’re not what my life is about. My passions lie elsewhere. There’s flying my plane, cruising in my car, and lots of other things that keep me occupied. If I’m going to party I prefer to do it outdoors."
It surprises me how quickly Leland has emerged to become the best character on the show. I mentioned a few episodes ago how Cooper was no longer driving the plot (from our eyes, at least) and that other characters were stepping up. Well, our frontrunner is Leland Palmer. I’m not sure if you can steal scenes where you’re the only character, but man, Ray Wise does some fine work. His laughing/crying scene in the Great Northern was excellent, as was his first scene with James and Donna.
As I mentioned in the recap for “Lonely Souls,” I was expecting Leland to be revealed as incredibly conflicted inside, trying to reconcile the love for his daughter and Bob’s murder through him. Nope, the other side is much more frightening, and an idea I hadn’t even considered: he’s one with Bob, and while they each have their moments, their pursuits aren’t separate. It makes me want to watch the first season again.
From the Black Rock Journal with the Complete DVD set:
December 18 - An away team of six men was launched at first light in an attempt to get to the island with hopes of determining our location.
Only one returned alive. He seems in a deep shock, muttering about exchanging musket fire with another vessel which promptly disappeared in a flash of heavenly light. He went on to claim that after hours of traversing the island, his five crewmates simply jumped overboard as if lemmings and no degree of coaxing could persuade them back into the boat. They drowned. Every one.
There will be no more away teams.
If you’re like me, this is a little bit of a headscratcher. It would’ve made a lot more sense if Darlton would’ve just had this happen during the myriad times someone was in an outrigger in S6. They claim they knew from the beginning who was in the outrigger. Okay, but sometimes, changes have to be made.
Anyway, if we’re taking this for what it is, then there are some clear issues. First: the Black Rock sailed in 1867. The crew was clearly in an outrigger, something I doubt the ship had in 1867. Also, in the other outrigger seen in that clip, there were Ajira water bottles, which infers the time period is after 2007.
Now: there is one caveat here. Remember that little episode “The Constant”? Well, when Desmond goes to see Widmore, he’s at an auction for the Black Rock’s ledger. The auctioneer states it was lost at sea in 1845. (This was the first thing I pointed out in my recap of “Ab Aeterno.” I said: “Time warp?”) Furthermore, they saw a “heavenly light,” which only time travelling people can see. (Note: some comments state they are not time travelling if they saw the light because Richard saw the light when Locke disappeared in “There’s No Place Like Home.” But that was the first flash. Everyone saw that flash. Ethan/Richard/et al. didn’t see subsequent time flashes.) Furthermore, outside of the show, there have been some mentions to time travel with regard to Magnus Hanso. Is it possible the Black Rock was time travelling?
That would require The Black Rock to have been to The Island before, since they got Richard in 1867. Their destination was never completely explained (from what I remember in “Ab Aeterno”), so Hanso could have been wanting to come back. But how did he leave in the first place? Anyway, they get back, and someone turns the wheel again. But this happens right around the first scene of “The Incident,” and there’s no wheel shenanigans. But let’s continue. The “away team” must have gone to The Island, parked, traded in their canoe for an outrigger for an unexplained reason, and then shot on the team. Yeah, that’s it, even though the shots sounded like gunfire and not musket fire. And then they stopped jumping through time, like, just because. And none of this was mentioned in the journal because they totally ran out of ink.
Pretty much, I think we’ll have to, again, take what we can get: six people from The Black Rock shot on the outrigger with Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Charlotte, and Locke. That’s just it.
Here are the very first lines every spoken by the main Lost characters. It’s not in chronological order (ie. Sawyer’s line isn’t him as a child), but rather, the line that introduced the audience to the character. It’s listed here in the order that the lines aired.
Michael: Walt! Walt! Jack: Hey you! Just give me a hand. Claire: Help! Please help me! Locke: Hey! Hey, hey, hey, get away from there! Hurley: Oh, you got to be kidding me. Boone: You sure? Kate: What? Sayid: Hey you, what’s your name? Charlie: Me? Charlie. Shannon: As if I’m going to start eating chocolate. Jin: You must not leave my sight. You must follow me wherever I go. Walt: Is that Vincent? Rose: Guess he really had to go. Sawyer: Sure it’s monkeys. It’s Monkey Island. Sun: I think I found your bag. Danielle: Where is Alex? Desmond: You alright, brother? Ana Lucia: Tequila and tonic with a wedge of lemon. Mr. Eko: What happened? Who are they? Pierre: Welcome. I’m Dr. Marvin Candle. Libby: I’m Libby. Bernard: Um, excuse me. Hi. Back where you guys, uh, where you came from — is there a woman named Rose there? “Henry Gale”: Please, just cut me down. My name is Henry Gale. I’m from Minnesota. Alex: Wake up. Ben: Hello again. Juliet: I burnt my hand…and my muffins. Richard: Thank you for taking the time to let us make our pitch, Dr. Burke. Faraday: Are you Jack? Miles: Back up, handsome. Charlotte: How many different languages are there? Lapidus: Yeah, let me speak to your supervisor. Keamy: What are you doing back? Ilana: Jarrah? Jacob: Mornin’. Man in Black (in his real human form): Mind if I join you?
You want to know how much I liked “The Orchid’s Curse?” I’ll give you three consecutive lines directly from my notes for this episode, all some of my favorite moments of the show.
Before I began watching Twin Peaks, I looked up some general information on the show concerning why the show was canceled. I think this is an important part of watching past shows - why, exactly, did they end when they did? Seinfeld had nine good seasons and was getting crazy; Arrested Development was too smart for audiences and went crazy; and Lost needed an end date to finish up the story (and went infected). I was surprised reading why Twin Peaks left the air: people got tired of it, and the murder was solved midway through the second season. Lynch wanted the story of the characters to overshadow the murder mystery, and ABC didn’t see it that way, so the show lost its steam, okay, got it. I agreed with Lynch: my previous experience was with Lost, and I don’t need to know what The Island scientifically is, just how Jack and Kate and Hurley interact with it. I got you, Lynch.
But now I don’t, so much. This episode had nice bookends, but the middle section was filled with storylines I don’t care about. James/Donna/Maddy triangle? One Eyed Jack’s torture? Leo’s pension money? The mill? Check!
This show moves along wonderfully when there is progress towards solving the murder, and a part of that is the deepening mythology. But Lucy’s friend from 1957 doesn’t factor into that at all. Most of these characters are way too one-dimensional, and the weight of the show cannot rest on these outlying, boring characters. It needs to fall on Cooper, the Giant, and most importantly, Laura’s dead body. I fear when Laura’s storyline is behind us. I don’t think we’re close right now, but I hope it’s in the tail end of S2.
