Lost Episode Review 5.02, "The Lie"

"You're playing one of your mind games aren't you?"

Speaking with my brother (also a huge Lost fan) over the phone last night, he was kinda disappointed with the first two episodes, especially because the way the writers have set up the Island time travel thing is really confusing and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And I totally agree. I hope Darlton has worked out the time travel rules to make them consistent - i.e. why the survivors are jumping through time, but not the Others.

The fact that the two previous time travel stories Lost has done have been my two favorite episodes - "Flashes Before Your Eyes" and "The Constant" - makes me think they have ironed it all out, but I do hope they explain it better soon. Judging from the previews of next week's episode (the fact that Charlotte seems to be getting worse), gives me hope we'll get a bit of clarification.

Any disappointment I had with the episodes stems more from the format than anything. Without flashbacks, I felt the first two hours of this season ran together - if there wasn't the
L O S T sign at the end of the first episode, I probably wouldn't have realized it was over at all. And while "The Lie" was certainly a Hurley-centric episode (certainly having its moments of typical Hurley humor), it still felt kinda weird.

Five Questions:

1) What's going to happen in 70 hours?

Oh jeez. That last scene was so bizarre I really have no idea what to make of it. Out of it we gleaned that:

1) Ben knows Ms. Hawking
2) Ms. Hawking knows physics (and may be Daniel's mom)
3) She's got a Foucault Pendulum and is tracking "Event Windows" on a DHARMA era computer. 4) Ben has only 70 hours to get all the Losties back to the Island

When I first saw the Pendulum, I thought it was simply a nod to the book (one of my favorites), but my guess is that in 70 hours the Island is going to appear at one specific spot she's tracking and then disappear again. So Ben's going to have to get the band back together by then or, in the word of Hurley, "bloop."

But the bigger question here is what role has Ben played in Desmond's fate? I was always under the impression that Ben didn't really know about Desmond - has Ben ever even officially met Desmond face-to-face? But now it's possible Ben was manipulating Desmond behind the scenes through Ms. Hawking (of course, the reverse is possible too - Ben seemed kinda stressed when she gave him his deadline).

If Ms. Hawking is really Daniel's mom, we should find an answer to this soon, since Desmond's heading out to find her.

2) So who's Butcher Lady (Jill) and all her secret little friends? And what's in the box Ben pulled out of the vent?

So Ben seems to have a vast network of secret followers and helpers around (which seems to include Ms. Hawking). Who are these people (Gabe and Jeff were the names of the other two guys)? Are they Others he sent on missions (back in Through The Looking Glass he claimed to have sent people off on missions "to Canada" and elsewhere and we know Tom regularly went to New York.) or just an organization of people protecting the Island.

And what's in the box Ben took out of the vent in the hotel room? We'll probably be seeing that again very soon.

3) So are they going to have to break Hurley out of jail?

Seems where this is going. I always thought Kate was going to be their biggest problem since she can't leave the state by order of the court. But unless a Deus ex machina comes along with a keyring (definitely possible), seems like Lost is going to have a prison break.

This could be fun, and it certainly adds a layer of suspense to the "70 hours" deadline, but I hope it doesn't become an overreaching story arc. I don't want them to be spending the next several episodes trying to figure out how to break Hurley out of jail. On the other hand, I kinda hope Hurley has a visitor while he's in his cell - maybe another cool cameo (Charlie, Claire, Libby - remember her)?

4) Is Sun going to go all "Kill Bill" on Ben?

OK, raise your hand if you thought Sun was going to kill Kate? Now raise your hand if you openly wished for Sun to kill Kate. Yeah, that would have been kinda cool, wouldn't it?

Sun has now openly stated that Ben is the other person she blames for Jin's death (along with her father), but there was some real malevolence in her voice in her scene with Kate. When she announced last season that there were two people she holds responsible, I really thought Jack was going to be the second. Ben makes more sense from a story perspective because this plot device (unlike Hurley being arrested) could make for some wonderful tension, especially since she threw in with Widmore.

And don't forget that Ben is still gunning for Penny too, in revenge for Widmore's private army killing Alex. Of all the plots and subplots going on right now, I think I'm enjoying these revenge storylines the most. And Sun has become one of my favorite characters on the show.

5) So who was Jones (and who were his crew) and who whipped up the Flaming Arrow Rainstorm?

We now know the Island is in the future (or at least the Losties on the Island are in the future). Question is, how much in the future? Did Widmore find the Island again or is this a totally new group. When I first saw Jones' uniform, I thought he was a Ghostbuster.

I think one of the guys is still alive and will hopefully be around to give some vague, nebulous answers next week. :)

Tidbits:

* Ana-Lucia's cameo was awesome. For a minute, I thought Hurley had time traveled, but having him hallucinate was a terrific way to get her into the show. Kudos there.

* Matt sent me an e-mail shortly after the episode was over saying "they just should have called it 'Weekend at Sayid's'" On my note sheet for the episode I wrote "Sayid = Bernie" - too funny.

* Vincent! Nice to know he's still around. They better not kill him off.

* Ben's deli counter number was 342

* So the Arrow Station's purpose is "to gather intelligence and devise defensive strategies against the Island's Hostiles." Good to know.

* I thought Hurley's story to his mom was both hilarious (Jorge's delivery) and touching (Hurley's mom's response).

* Hurley's look at the end (at Ben) when he was arrested was great too. Matt passes along this as well:

Is Hugo the new Rorschach? "The Oceanic Six will look up to me and say 'Join us'....and I'll whisper, 'No.'"

Summary:

I thought this was an okay episode - not quite as good as the first half, but that's mostly just based on the format - having a character centric episode with no flashbacks just felt like we got an overdose of Hurley plot movement without a self-contained story. But my appetite is certainly well whetted for next week. 3.0 out of 5