Quick hitter tonight, because I'll be on vacation when y'all read this. Side note, does anyone actually read these? Comments welcome!
Anyhoo….. Last week was a very good episode, for a lot of reasons I've already written about. This one is better. There's a confidence and muscularity to the storytelling that's just enormously appealing, and it's anchored by the most charismatic actor in the cast. Oh, and the island cured a paraplegic. So there's that. On the whole, it's a reminder that pilots (as in the first two episodes), are really, really difficult to get right. The third episode faces many of the same problems. This one is the first real instance of the show hitting its stride and starting to establish pace and stakes and a rythmn. And what a rythmn it is.
I'm not going to say that John Locke knew what the phone-sex operator would say when he asked her to go to Australia. But I can't say that he didn't. There's an undercurrent of self-loathing through that scene, and more than an undercurrent as he sits in his pathetic white cube in the vast room full of corporate drones. It's no accident that the asshole boss asks him for TPS reports. Normally I can't stand meta in-jokes, but the reference is so affectionate and the dramatic usage so intriguing (vicious satire re-purposed in service of redemptive drama), that it genuinely works. The boss is such a parody that he pushes the scenes a bit too far out; I'd prefer a subtler, more real form of villainy to match Terry O'Quinn's precise work, but the emotional through-line has such clarity that it's really a minor annoyance.
Speaking of O'Quinn, he's f-ing phenomenal through the entire episode. Locke is a fascinating character. He's clearly a strong, confident personality, and extremely capable in rough situations. I'm not sure if he was a Colonel, but ex-military is entirely easy to believe. The good part, and what the actor is so amazingly skilled at portraying, is his fear. It would've been easy, with the restoration of his legs, to make Locke into a superhuman ultraman type of deal. He's old enough to project wisdom and leadership, clearly intelligent, and that's before we get into the very particular set of skills and so forth. But…. Locke is scared, a little tentative, awed by the miracle of his legs. He's also slightly but noticeably full of shit. There's a certain element of bluster as he strides into the underbrush chasing boar. The case full of knives is hilarious, but it's also, dare I say, compensating for something. That's an awful lot of notes to hit in one episode, and O'Quinn nails every last one flawlessly.
The one problem, of course, is that Locke makes everyone else boring by comparison. Look, I get what Matthew Fox is doing, but there's just no surprise in the character. He's easy in a way that feels out of step with the rest of the show. Something happened to him in the fairly recent past, which made him lose faith, but I can already see the late-season beat when he prays again and so on. Execution is fine, but it's all fairly meh. Far better is that whole bit where, oh yeah, the island fixes Locke's spine. Ummm. How? I'm thinking something more akin to magic than science. I'm glad to see the show so directly adress the insanity of tons of people somehow surviving a plane crash. These are good developments, and getting better with every passing episode. What a fun show.
See you kids on Sunday/Monday for Twilight. That one…. well let's just say I ain't looking forward. Have a great holiday!
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