The Shape of Things to Come—Observations

[spicedogs]

 
 

“The Shape of Things to Come” was such an emotionally intensive story that I still cannot formulate my views in paper. I was mesmerized by Michael Emerson’s brilliant performance. If he doesn’t get an Emmy, there will be a lot of irate fans knocking at the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences' door. 

At the Beach

 

Let me begin by saying that the first scene of this episode was just absolutely ludicrous. Why does Kate take off her bras strap? What was the purpose? Was it to lure men to watch LOST? It’s too late in the game. The people who are watching faithfully will continue to watch it. For anybody else, this show is way above their heads at this stage of the came.

 

Will we ever learn anything from Daniel (Faraday)? He is a scientist, and yes, there are those scientists who are a bit absent minded. I am married to one. But this guy is beginning to give a bad connotation to the word “scientist.” The man is a bumbling fool. I am not sure whether it is the actor’s or the writer’s fault here. Is it that Jeremy Davies is not able to properly portray what the writers’ are trying to convey or whether the writers’ are not aware of how exactly a very eccentric scientist would behave. I am hoping that the story line will soon clear why Daniel is such a fool. I really would not want him ending up like Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro).

 

A dead body is seen floating to the shore. No one knows who he is but Charlotte and Daniel. Charlotte keeps quiet about the man, Daniel tries to hide what he knows, but we can see through his lies. Why does he have the need to lie? Frankly, it seems as if the people stuck at the beach are continuing with the old LOST saga: Give no answers, keep the audience guessing, give nothing away, and just shove mysteries continuously at them.

 

The Scientists Are Not the Crash Survivor's Friend

 

Daniel tells Jack that the body is that of the doctor in charge on the freight. When Jack tells him to inform the freight’s captain that the doctor’s dead body was washed ashore, Daniel comes up with all sorts of excuses as to why he can’t. One of the excuses is that the satellite phone is broken. When his bluff is called by Bernard who tells him that he can use Morse code, Daniel has no alternative but to use Morse code to communicate with the freight. The captain of the freight answers in Morse code that the doctor is fine and on-board, but Daniel translates it as 'they didn’t say what happened to the doctor, but that the castaways on board were fine and a helicopter will be coming in the morning.' However, Bernard, who knows Morse code, called his bluff. He told Jack that the message was, “What are you talking about? The doctor is fine.” Jack asks Daniel why he was lying. Were they there to take them off the island? Daniel says, “No.”

 

Jack realizes that he made a mistake for trusting the freighties and not listening to Locke.

Kung-Foo Ben

Here we learned some things. Ben travels outside of the island. In fact, he finds himself wearing a warm parka in the middle of the Sahara Desert. What happened to him? Where did he come from? The two Bedouins who find Ben in the desert do mention that “he seemed to fall in from the sky.” Kung-Foo Ben is awesome. He speaks Arabic, fights off the Bedouins, and rides off to the sky. More proof that Michael Emerson is an amazing actor. Frankly, giving credit where it is due, Mr. Emerson is not the Kung-Foo actor type. He is small and not muscular. But that scene does not seem unbelievable.

 

At Otherville and Code 14J

 
So the Others did have a code to protect them from predators: Code 14J, which is used by the US Army as the Early Warning System Operator. My question is as follows: Why are these “Others” using US military codes? How did they learn about them? Probably it has no meaning what so ever. More than likely the writers used the code to mess with our minds. They have been doing that for the past 4 years. Why not continue. Gosh, I love this show!

 

Alex

 

Alex was caught. She foolishly told the enemy who she was. She saw her biological mother and her boyfriend get killed in front of her, and she did what she thought was the right thing to do: She surrendered. I guess her dad never taught her how to defend herself from the enemy. I think that Ben’s demise was not thinking ahead and not teaching her survival skills in case of an attack. But then, he may have thought that there was no need to teach her those skills. After all, we find out later in the episode that Ben accuses Charles Widmore of changing the rules. I hope that we do get to find out what the rules were and why there was a need to have rules in the first place.

 

Martin Christopher Keamy, a mercenary and the leader of the military team that was hired by Charles Widmore to invade the island, captures Alex. He uses Alex as bait to make Ben leave the house where he is holed up. Ben, thinking that the rules prevailed, played the pawn named “Alex” by telling Keamy that she meant nothing to him. She was only a child that he stole from a crazy woman. Keamy shoots Alex in cold blood. Ben’s face is in shock. He never thought that he’d witnessed his daughter’s death. Keamy did not play by the rules. The rules changed. (And Michael Emerson deserves an Emmy. His acting was impeccable and extremely believable. He elevated the death of a minor character to a higher level that it would have been had another actor played her father. Alex’s death became a tragedy that otherwise would have been long forgotten had it not been for Michael Emerson’s acting. It was pathos with a capital “P.” )

 

By the way, upon checking on Keamy on Wikipedia, I found out the following about his name:

 

·  In Mayan Astrology, the sign CIMI, pronounced the same way as Martin's last name, means DEATH.

·  The tattoo on his right shoulder is similar to the company logo of Blackwater Worldwide, a PMC located in North Carolina.

·  The name Martin comes from the Latin Martinus, which means "Servant of Mars" or "Servant of War".

 

So is Keamy the Death Lord? Is he going to be destroyer of life as we now know on the island?

 

The Smoke Monster

 

A few episodes ago, Locke asked Ben what the smoke monster was. Ben said that he didn’t know. In this episode, Ben summons the monster forward. The monster attacks the militia that has come to capture Ben and kill everyone else in the island. I was hoping that Keamy would have gotten his demise. However, from the looks of the upcoming episodes, Keamy is alive and unharmed.

 

What does it mean that the smoke monster is summoned? Does it mean that Ben knows what Smokey is all about? Or does it mean that Ben knows how to summon it and he may not know what it is? We found out in the episode that Ben fears it as much as everyone else. He just seems to know how to stay out of its way.

 

I Had Everything under Control, but He Changed the Rules

 

Before Keamy killed Alex, Ben assured her that he had everything under control. He played his chess piece; Ben called Keamy’s bluff by telling the mercenary that Alex meant nothing to him. She was just a pawn piece—a child that he stole from a crazy woman. Keamy is cold blooded and kills Alex in the head. Pool Alex, the last words she heard was that her father never cared for her. Poor Ben, he got to see his daughter’s execution.

 

Ben realized upon the death of his daughter that the rules have been changed. “He changed the rules,” he muttered. At that point, we had no idea who the “he” was. Ben sat in shock for a long while and then he got up and disappeared into his private room, into yet another hidden room. Later we found out that he summoned Smokey. I guess that he now changed the rules accordingly as well.

 

Revenge

 

Alex’s death changed the direction that the show is now going to take. I am quite sure that in season 5 we will learn what DHARMA is all about, what the purge was for, and how Ben will avenge his daughter’s death. We already got to see how Sayid was recruited into “Ben’s army.” Ben took advantage of Sayid’s need to avenge his own wife’s murder (Nadia).

 

According to Locke, everything that happened to the crash survivor happened for a reason. Ben finding himself in the Sahara Desert when he was teleported from what seemed to be a cold-climate area, as he was wearing a winter parka was also for a reason. According to Mr. Friendly, the island dictates what can happen to you. Michael was not able to kill himself, because the island wouldn’t let him. Michael had a purpose and the island made sure that he accomplished it. I think the same thing is happening to Ben. He found himself in the Sahara Desert because he was supposed to go to Tunisia, and, at his hotel, he was to see the video of Sayid returning to Iraq to bury his murdered wife. Ben wisely knew that he could recruit Sayid to become an assassin and get rid of those people who are against the island.

 

Good-Bye, Alex

 

Alex’s body was cold. The mercenaries were punished by the smoke monster, and Ben had to say his final good-bye to Alex. This was a very poignant, emotionally fully charged scene. This is another scene that showed Mr. Emerson’s talent. And, by the way, Tania Raymonde did a great job in this episode as well. She should be named for an Emmy for Best Female Supporting Actress.

Wake Up, Charles

 

Ben knows where Charles lives and knows how to charm the doorman into letting him “visit” Charles. Of course, Ben is ready to knock the doorman out if he prevents Ben from going up to the penthouse. When Ben gets in to Charles' bedroom, the two talk. They have animosity against each other, but they cannot, for some reason. harm each other. Why? We don’t know. I, personally, believe that the island is commanding the truce between the men. However, the men are free to hire or recruit people who can destroy each other’s hired and recruited personnel. It’s a crazy game. It has rules. But according to Ben, the rules were changed by Widmore. Therefore, he, Ben, is now going to look for Penelope and murder her. That way, Widmore will have a taste of what Ben went through.

 

Widmore blames Ben for Alex’s murder. It was his island that Ben took. Ben never denied that he stole the island. And he never affirmed it. Season 5 should be a great season. Already, we are at the finish line of season 4, and I can say that up to now, the show did not disappoint me. And this episode made my love for the show even stronger. And, once again, if Michael Emerson does not win the Emmy, there will be a lot of angry fans out there.

 

Episode rating: A+++++

    
  

Comments

[greyrider.livejournal.com]

Did you find a Vodcast of The Shape of Things to Come? I was surprised not to see one on the video downloads of you website.

[spicedogs.livejournal.com]

Actually it's there. I have a new toy up on the website:

http://michaelemerson.net/vp.html

Scroll down to "Lost - podcast"

I have not figure out how to pimp it.

[greyrider.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see. But how do I download to my PC from that?

And thank you, as always, for sharing.

I added you to my f-list a while back, but for some reason, you aren't showing up as a return friend. I thought you'd said you added me, so the program may be wrong. Are my posts showing up on your f-list? Or if I was completely misremembering, and you didn't want to add me, that's ok too. I won't be offended.

[spicedogs.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that. I have been so busy with the birth of my granddaughter, that I missed refriending you. I just did that. Also, I will zip up the vodcast and post it on the download page for you to download. Look for it in about one hour. I have to convert the flv file to an avi.

[greyrider.livejournal.com]

I have an FLV player, if that helps you any.

I didn't mean to create more work for you. Er... but if you're going to do it anyway, *blushes* could you do all the files on the new video viewer? (If not, that's really okay...)

Thanks for the refriend. I completely understand how busy you must be. I love the pictures you share of the baby too. Spring as well.

[spicedogs.livejournal.com]

I'll zip up the flv files and tell you where I post them.

[spicedogs.livejournal.com]

You will find all the zipped flv files here:

http://michaelemerson.net/download.html

[greyrider.livejournal.com]

Thank you!