TV Shows I'm Watching - Lost (Episode 3.11)

It’s time to catch up on all those Lost reviews I’ve been putting off for the last month. Here's the first one with a few plot points you might not want to know about.

Episode 3.11 – Enter 77

Main Story – **1/2 out of 4 - As Kate, Sayid, Locke, and Rousseau begin their search for Jack, they stumble across a house in the middle of the jungle. After a brief struggle with the owner, it is revealed that the eye patch man from The Cost of Living is holed up here on his own. Following the utterly useless “Hurley finds a van” episode from the previous week, Enter 77 dives headfirst into the mythology of the island.

This is both the episode’s best point, but also its weakness. It’s nice to get a chunk of exposition and learn a thing or two about the Others, but as the episode continues it’s revealed that most of Eye Patch Man’s statements are lies. Normally I’m fine when the writers keep the mysteries going, but for once I felt like this episode had a bit too much winking and nodding at the audience. Whereas most episodes seem to have organic twists and turns, stemming naturally come characters’ actions, this one felt like I was being manipulated by the writers. In fact, by the end I felt like Enter 77 was primarily a big inside joke responding to the bitter fan reaction Lost has met this season.

Not only do the writer’s provide a lengthy false monologue, but they fill the basement of the hut with hundreds of books explaining the reason behind the Dharma Initiative. All Kate, Sayid, and Locke have to do is sit down for a few minutes and read. The Lost secrets will be revealed….but of course that can’t happen. Miss Klugh (remember her from last season) is hiding amidst the files which causes a whole bunch of problems. And then Locke enters 77 into a secret Dharma chess game and well….the files vanish just as quickly as they appeared.

Even the story back at the island seems a little too tongue in cheek. Sawyer mouths most Lost fans’ reactions to Nikki by asking “Who the Hell are you”, Paulo once again gets involved in washroom related antics, and everyone finally has enough of Sawyer’s nicknames. Sure it’s funny, but I prefer it when I am completely immersed in the story, and can only vaguely sense the writer’s diabolically laughing about their scripts.

At least this episode does move the story forward, and by the end, even though much more could have been explained, I was excited to see what would happen next.

Flashback - *** out of 4 – Sayid gets a simple, and emotional flashback about forgiveness. While working in France, Sayid is confronted by a restaurant owner who has a surprise for him. His wife was one of the people Sayid tortured when he was in Iraq, and it’s time for revenge.

Since Sayid has been on the sidelines for far too long in the world of Lost (I think the last time I was really invested in his character was when Henry Gale first came to camp), so it’s nice to see him back at the forefront of the story. The flashback doesn’t have a lot of fancy twists and turns, but it is emotional and Sayid’s final breakdown is pretty devastating.