Lost 1x15- Homecoming

[fun_like_that]

Hmm. *ponders the ep* I'm a bit conflicted. I thought it was suspenseful, and fun and I wasn't sure what was coming, so that was good. But on the other hand Charlie's flashback did nothing for me but prove he's a whiny, needy recovering addict. So... huh. I'll go through my recap and see where it all ends up.



So Claire's back. There was some debate over that after the last ep because it was dark and all but I saw some pictures from a future ep and saw that yup, still knocked up and loving it. Or not. Whatever. I wouldn't love it. But then again, I hate kids. And sand in uncomfortable places. Which makes me wonder where Claire's going to give birth. Sand in the birthing canal CANNOT be fun. *winces*

So yeah, she's back and all unconscious but then Jack manages to bring her back from the dead and in a stunning display of hysterics and over-acting from Emilie DeRavin (which we have already seen in Raised by Another) we learn that she's totally memory-less from the plane crash onwards. Bully for her. Charlie, however, is heartbroken. His pseudo-girlfriend doesn't remember him, his hovering, his incessant talking, his over-protective helpfulness... Yeah, I'd want to have amnesia too.

Anyhoo, Claire calms down pretty fast, Charlie chats with her, probably hoping that his dopey, love-sick looks and continual ramblings would spur her memories. Of course it didn't work.

While Jack and Charlie were harping on Claire everyone else is just kind of milling about, waiting to hear the verdict. Sun and Jin are off to the side and there's something funky going on there. Jin might know that Sun can speak english or he's suspecting just from the questions he was asking. It's clear that this is set-up for his ep in a couple weeks. Or, it is for me cause I looked at the episode listing.

Speaking of Jin, the next day Charlie catches up to him and his trusty fishing net while walking through the jungle. Charlie prattles on and Jin keeps walking cause he either can't understand him due to knowing no english or he's totally pretending cause Charlie's annoying and boring. So they're walking and Charlie's babbling on but luckily Jin's not paying attention cause he noticed something afoot in the bushes. He shut Charlie up (FINALLY!) but it was all for nothing cause next thing you know there's a rock flying out of nowhere and Jin's on the ground. I had to giggle. Cause yes. It was just too funny.

So there's evil, right? Cause Jin's on the ground and Charlie's all sorts of confused cause he has no one to listen to him ramble now. But here comes Ethan! He'll listen! ... Or not. He looks pretty pissed. I suppose he wasn't looking any further to having a conversation with Charlie either. But he shuts him up pretty fast by applying appropriate pressure around his neck and lifting him off the ground while going on himself about wanting Claire back. Dude's got issues. Probably related to his mother. Which doesn't mean he's the mysterious Alex related to the craaaazy!french lady, but still. Mother issues. Perhaps a little Oedipus Complex? Or not, whatever.

And just to bring it all back to Charlie- Dude. Listen, when you're dangling off the ground and some psychotic wannabe killer has you trapped there and you're weak cause you're a hobbit recovering drug addict- KICK THE GUY IN THE BALLS! Screw the stupid, macho pride or retarded rules of the "brotherhood"! Gonads and strife, dude! GONADS AND STRIFE!

Also, Ethan? Holy hell you look bad. Either Claire did a number on you or you're into some kind of weird Satan/Island animal monster ritualistic sacrifice shit.

So Charlie runs back and tells Jack and Locke and ... other people about Ethan's attack and they all debate about what to do and who to tell. It only makes sense to tell everyone so that they can be on guard, eh? Besides, in that small of an environment how can everyone NOT know? Jin comes back, all bruised and huffy and Charlie's all twitchy and even MORE annoying- there's got to be something up, right? And it's not like anyone can keep a secret.

Oh, and FYI? Boone and Locke are SO doing it out there in the jungle. They're not JUST staring at that hatch thing, they're getting it on! Woo woo!

So they start a sentry watch dealie with a bunch of the guys (the MEN of the island) around the perimetre to watch out for Ethan cause he be cuh-raaaaazy. So Boone has volunteered to take a watch and he's out there by the big 'ole bag of popcans and he's nodding off... nodding off... he's gone. And now he's back! And it's morning! And the bad o' popcans has woken him up. CAUSE ETHAN IS AROUND! So Boone runs unto the jungle with his pointy stick (*cough*overcompensation*cough*) but he trips over something and is still sprawled on the ground when Locke and Michael, I think, come running up, having heard the alarm. Uh oh, Boone. You're in for it now. Locke's gonna spank you but good tonight. *wink wink* Hit him once for me, eh?

So someone screams and on the island is the dead person we were promised in the promos. It's Scott, who I half expected. I knew it would either be Scott or Steve or Ethan, so I was kind of- meh. I thought it was going to be Ethan so I was a little disappointed but, again, it was expected. So off the guys go, carrying the body bag (where did they get THAT? Is it just someone's luggage bag from the plane?) And Hurley leads the mini-service for him, which is sweet/funny.

But back to more pressing issues, like the cuh-raaaazy guy in the jungle. Jack takes Locke to the guns that he hid after Whatever the Case May Be and gives one to Locke which is kind of freaky cause he was all- *smilesmile* with it. (kantayra and I have decided that typing *smile* when you send emails or post or whatever is really creepy. Reminds us of Hannibal. Eeee).

So Claire's been feeling weird since coming back (as if waking up, not knowing where you are, who anyone is and finding out you're stranded on a supposedly deserted island without any hopes of rescue and some freaky, cuh-raaaazy guy jonesing for your fetus wasn't weird enough) because everyone has been avoiding her or staring at her. So she confronts Shannon who goes back to being kind of bitchy and laying it all out for her. But it kind of was up to Claire about what was going on anyway, so whatever.

But now Claire's pissed and Charlie's in the middle of her wrath cause he didn't tell her everything. Oh yeah, this ep is supposed to be all about Charlie. Fuck. So in the flashbacks it's after the glory days of Driveshaft and Liam has gone off and had a kid. Charlie's still hooked on smack or blow or heroin or whatever it is former has-been, lame ass rockers are addicted to these days. And he's hooked up with some sort of unsavoury character who convinces him to go after this chick at a bar with a rich dad. If Charlie can worm his way into her life/home/whatever he can steal something and they can pawn it for drugs. At least, this is the general idea I got from the whole thing. Seems lame to me, but whatever. So he does that. And he starts to like her and sort of blows his friend of who takes his blow away.

If only they had portrayed Charlie's withdrawal on the island like they did here in the flashback. He LOOKED like an addict suffering pains. He ACTED like one (and, in all honestly, slightly like Gollum with the ring- my preciooouuuusssssss) and he barfed and everything. ... In the copy machine. Go Charlie! He crashed and had to be carted off my ambulance, the paramedics found the Winston Churchill thing that he'd stolen from his gf and she was pissed. Rightly so. And here it comes- Charlie's THING.

He wants to take care of a woman. He wants to feel needed. He needs a woman to subjugate herself to weak, helpless leanings just so he can feel like his penis is bigger than a toothpick. Good for your Charlie. Go snort another line and call me when you're not a fucktard. GONADS AND STRIFE, DUDE!

So blah, blah. Sayid, Locke and Jack all get a gun. Locke says, "Yeah, sure. Four guns, four guys. Let's go give one to Sawyer even though a few episodes ago I tried to turn Sayid against Sawyer despite their undeniable sexual chemistry. Load him for bear, we've got a cuh-raaaazy to catch!" Kate, of course, wants to go too cause she's like that. Anything you can do, I can do better. With boobs. And a winning smile. But Jack grows some 'nads and says, no gun, no go. But then Sawyer brings out the gun the Marshal was carrying with him before Sawyer shot him. In the wrong place. So Kate gets a gun too. Woo hoo.

Charlie's watching from afar and gets all broody and dark and weird when he sees Claire trucking into the jungle to act as bait for all the people with guns. We all know this can't go well. We've already established that Charlie feels the need to make himself more manly any way possible.

So Claire's in the jungle and it's raining. She looks drowned rat-ish but Sawyer and Sayid look okay. Better than okay. Fine. Fiiiiiiine. And they have firearms. Throw Weeeeevil in there from Veronica Mars and you'd never hear from me again.

Tension builds, builds, building... and then A HA! Here comes Ethan and I have to say, if he climbed up the side of that hill all spider-y like he was and stalking toward me, I'd be pretty damn freaked out too. But then, I scream if a ladybug lands on me.

So Claire screams and runs off and Jack runs to the rescue. He and Ethan tussle for a bit, rolling around in the mud and the like. If they had been in bikinis there would have been dollar bills thrown in the ring. It's all good. It does take Sayid, Sawyer and Kate longer than expected to get to them though. If they're all within seeing distance of Claire and they HEARD her scream (and frankly, with those lungs- who wouldn't?) you'd think they would have been RIGHTTHERE. But then again, Jack has to have his moment to shine and beat the shit out Ethan, one-uping him for totally kicking his ass the last time they met up. Jack beats on him some more after everyone crowds around and they just kind of watch at first. Sawyer's a bit trigger happy but Locke stops him.

Then there's some yammering about whatever and I THINK Ethan reared up or maybe he was just kneeling there- who knows? Either way I really wasn't expecting him to be shot. And that was the coolest thing on the show. I mean, I'm not all death! Yat! Well, not usually. Er... always. Whatever- it was cool, okay. I didn't expect it, especially since Scott had already died and everyone thought that was it.

What was kind of cool but lame all at once was that Charlie was the one to shoot him with the stray gun that fell when Jack tackled Ethan. Claire just kind of stood there like a lump without moving to pick up the gun. Way to perpetuate stereotypes, chick.

So back at the caves Jack asks Charlie why he did it. I'm not justifying it but I can understand why Charlie would want to for his own reasons- the guy kidnapped him and his pseudo-gf, hung him from a tree and technically killed him. So for that reason I can totally understand why Charlie did what he did. But he didn't give that reason for it. He did it because of Claire. Because he couldn't let him near her again. Noble, quasi-romantic, attempt-to-be-manly- sure. Appropriate and non-lame? Hardly. It was just a way for him to further push up his own macho, manly, I'M THE PROTECTOR OVER THE WEAK, SMALL, HELPLESS WOMEN image. You're so retarded Charlie, it's not funny. And I'm not even a feminist! I'm as far from a feminist as someone can get! Well, no. But I'm pretty damn apathetic to it all.

The episode didn't resolve anything. It created more questions for everyone. Now that Ethan is dead there's no connection to "The Others" on the island, if he was one of them. The craaaazy!french lady is still around, yes, but again, she's craaaazy! This ep was an important link, lost of stuff happening in it, but Charlie's part in it was lame aside from being the one to shoot Ethan. His backstory was lame, his reasoning was lame and his macho stupidness is lame. But killing Ethan was cool!

Next weeks' ep doesn't look like it'll progress further island-wise but it'll focus on Kate and Sawyer and more of the connections between the characters and Charlie's going to whine for more attention cause now he's a tortured murderer. The previews never do the show justice and usually I'm kind of 'meh' from them until I see the ep. I am looking forward to the Kate/Sawyer interaction though. They have good chemistry together. Jack can go suck hairy donkey gonads.

Speaking of hairy donkey gonads - Not going to comment on the ep itself because I was too busy switching between American Idol auditions and the show to get a good bead on what was happening. But I will say this- I miss the show. Not THIS show- THE show. The fun, hip, cool, cultish show that boggled minds and wasn't stupid. And it had better credits. It didn't pander to the lowest form of society who are too stupid/drunk/brain dead to think for three seconds to try to make connections with the show. This is a lame attempt to bring up ratings and it sucks. It's just NOT... it's not. I will hold out hope, though. I will stick by the show for as long as it holds out or until it jumps the shark (provided it hasn't already). Also? Shake up Syd and Vaughn, eh? He's lame and she's lamer by this point. Together they're going to have the most lopsided-headed babies ever cause they're so boring. It'll happen. You watch.

I'm trying to dl the torrent for last night's Veronica Mars. I started it this morning cause it wasn't put up till after 2:30 this morning. I'm at 66.3% and plodding along. I can't wait till CTV starts airing it here. Anyone have a set date on that? All I have is "Winter 2005", which should be before March 22, right?

More s5 spoilers came out today. I resisted, again. It was a bit harder this time but from the few stray comments people made I feel safe in saying I know what they are without even looking. It kind of irks me, the reaction they're getting, just because a couple weeks ago it was all- woe is me, die Cowlip die, and now everything's peachy keen. *clings to qaf_optimists* We NEVER gave up hope!

And... yeah.

Comments

[nerdanel.livejournal.com]

My two spoiler-whore-without-any-spoilers-in-this-comment cents:

It's not that we gave up hope, so much as we just enjoy reacting with full intensity to the spoilers as we get them. Yes, we KNOW they will fall into context, and we KNOW not everything is as it first seems, but for some of us who love the spoilers, the experience of discussing them, debating them, freaking out over them, wanking over them, hating CL, loving CL - the emotional rollercoaster of the spoilers, as they begin to spell out the stories of the characters you love...that's so much fun, and it's a part of the journey for me. So yes, I might say DIE COWLIP one week, knowing that the next week there might not be enough :X:Xs in the world on YIM for the way I'm feeling. It's fun. It's fandom . And ten years from now, we will ALL be laughing at how we took fandom happenings. But for now, it's part of the deal, you know? I tend not to mind how other people take spoilers (or don't, if they're virgins). Some people are going to love each piece of news, some aren't. I say it's all fun.

[marishna.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know the ups and downs of spoilers but I guess I never got so discouraged by the reactions. Some people have decided right now that the season is going to suck. I just find it disheartening and now that everything's looking up, it's just a little frustrating at both the set attitudes and the rollercoaster reactions. This is my first time trying to be totally spoiler-free and it's weird from this end.

It's also more... discouaging, again, I guess because it IS the last season and I don't want anyone to go into the last 13 eps feeling like it's all for shit.

[kantayra.livejournal.com]

His pseudo-girlfriend doesn't remember him, his hovering, his incessant talking, his over-protective helpfulness... Yeah, I'd want to have amnesia too.

I want amnesia, too! *raises hand* Amnesia of all the Charlie scenes, please. :P *loves you so much*

Gonads and strife, dude! GONADS AND STRIFE!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

kantayra and I have decided that typing *smile* when you send emails or post or whatever is really creepy. Reminds us of Hannibal. Eeee).

LOL. That's Hannibal Lector. :P Hannibal's a dude who rode elephants and sacked Rome. Not that he didn't *smile* too. :P

But then, I scream if a ladybug lands on me.

*watches a ladybug land on you* *anteaters leap into action to save you* :P

GONADS AND STRIFE, BABY!

[mi-nion.livejournal.com]

I know it's mean, but when Charlie did that all I could think was "that's why everyone wanted you to die a few weeks ago." I mean, come on. They needed Ethan to find out about the others and Charlie has to be all macho and shoot the only hope they had of findong out about the island.
eejit!