Discuss the good and bad about the episode. If you totally loved the episode or totally didn't love the episode and do not wish to discuss the pros and cons, please visit the Loved it or Didn't Love it threads.

Hmmmm...

I didn't like the fact this was 55 minutes of filler and blah blah to get to the payoff at the end. What was the point of that flashback?

The ending was very powerful with Charlie writing his #1...Charlie giving the list to Des, Charlie talking about doing something good and then taking Des out and redeaming himself by going down to certain death..then to shout and scream and attact the attention of the very women Des told him were going to be surrounding him in his vision.

Not sure what to think about this one...to much blather..but we found out Rose and Bernard are well and where that cable led..finally.

Great acting from Dominic, great gimmick with the Top 5 list, although we really didn't need Charlie to explain what it was (it was pretty obvious). Great to get back to a character I care about, and great to see him back on the track of redemption he was on in Season 1. But I hate that it feels like, to stretch the story, Season 2 'reset' all the characters while introducing a bunch of pointless new ones, and now by the end of Season 3 all the S2 characters are dead and our main characters are right back where the were at the end of Season 1.

I also can't stand that all these places -- the underwater habitat RIGHT OFF THE BEACH, the radio tower they've known about forever -- we're only JUST NOW going to them. And for completely silly reasons. We've given up all plausibility in our scientific plot explanations (they're blocking all outgoing signals except their own even though any crappy receiver can pick up Danielle's signal? from underwater??? HOW??!?) as well as our reasons to go to new locations (how in the hell is a RADIO TOWER an ideal place to hide people, and why still go there if the underwater jamming station was the radio signal problem?) When all this time, if one of the 5 million people who've stumbled across that cable had swam with it the slightest bit, they would've been ABLE TO SEE the habitat station.

But my biggest gripe? The absolute biggest one? Why in the hell does everyone keep calling these research stations 'HATCHES'??? Do they think the audience is too stupid to realize that 'the hatch' from Season 1 was the same location as 'the Swan station' from Season 2, and that all these other stations are the same sort of thing, unless all of them are also called 'hatches'? It sort of makes sense when Locke and a few others who were involved with the hatch storyline in S1 call them 'hatches' still, but now we have DHARMA engineering plans labeled 'LOOKING GLASS HATCH'. Come ON. How did these guys in the 60s build this place? Hatch-first?

'Hey Larry, check it out: a door in the ground. Whacha think?'
'I dunno, maybe we should have rooms and stuff too.'
'Yeah, but you know what, let's stick with the door idea as a motif. You know, to give it some personality.'
'I don't like 'door' though. It's bland.'
'Portal?'
'HATCH!'
'Oooh, hatch! I like it!'
'And we can put in an underwater station, like a...oh, what's the word. Sea lab? Habitat?'
'Let's just call it a hatch, too!'
'Freaking GENIUS.'

Doesn't they have, like, a script supervisor who might point this stuff out to someone before they pay people hundreds of thousands of dollars to film this show?

I liked the show overall. The flashbacks gave credibility to Charlie's greatest hits. It shows that he was a good man at one point in his life. This was his final act of redemption so to speak.

Also, Jack has gotten VERY angry at the Others. He's gotten more angry period. I really liked him last night, but his annoyance with Sayid was beginning to get on my nerves. He should remember to trust Sayid...

Anywho, my biggest complaint is "Where in the hell did Sayid get the plans for hte Looking Glass?" I don't remember those....got to go and search the forums to see if there was any mention of it previously...

I loved the ep, but am completely baffled as to why there was no discussion or explanation of why Sayid & co. couldn't simply cut the cable?!

I liked the show overall. The flashbacks gave credibility to Charlie's greatest hits. It shows that he was a good man at one point in his life. This was his final act of redemption so to speak.

Also, Jack has gotten VERY angry at the Others. He's gotten more angry period. I really liked him last night, but his annoyance with Sayid was beginning to get on my nerves. He should remember to trust Sayid...

Anywho, my biggest complaint is "Where in the hell did Sayid get the plans for hte Looking Glass?" I don't remember those....got to go and search the forums to see if there was any mention of it previously...
****
Sayid got the plans from the same place he got all the other from patchy's place, when he took all the binders and blueprints and all that stuff in epi(enter 77):biggrin:

I liked it, but it was not full of juicy bits like I want...but I know it is setting up the finale...

Best line of the eppy goes to Rose's comment about the "new" Jack. :o Glad to see Rose & Bernard back. I missed Y'all! :biggrin:

Yes, Charlie's note was a bit trite, but I think it helped flow the story along and make sense of the flashbacks. Wonder if it will ever be found? Do you think he lied about being the swimming champ? If so, good fake...

Can't wait to see what the finale has in store...I'm sure we'll all have a blast :p watching it!

(love those smiley guys!)

Hmmmm...

I didn't like the fact this was 55 minutes of filler and blah blah to get to the payoff at the end. What was the point of that flashback?

The ending was very powerful with Charlie writing his #1...Charlie giving the list to Des, Charlie talking about doing something good and then taking Des out and redeaming himself by going down to certain death..then to shout and scream and attact the attention of the very women Des told him were going to be surrounding him in his vision.

Not sure what to think about this one...to much blather..but we found out Rose and Bernard are well and where that cable led..finally.

It did seem to be about 20 minutes of story stretched out to at least twice it's length. It felt odd, IMO, to build and build up Charlie's character arc only to his fate be delayed another week. I was thrilled to see the underwater station finally, but I wasn't that "surprised" to find Others waiting there. Juliet already told them Ben was using the place to jam any outgoing signals, so it makes sense that someone is actually down there doing it. I was expecting it to be someone we know, like Kelvin, and really leave on a "WTF?" moment. To me this just felt like, "Oh, there's more of Ben's stooges guns," leading me to think that Ben has basically anticipated all of the Losties/Juliet's possible moves.

It was a really good study of "Charlie" and performance by Dominic, but overall kind of choppy in terms of the story.

Pros: I think Charlie's descent to the Looking Glass station was one of the most beautiful Lost moments thus far. Brilliant effects, lighting, score. Just a great scene and a fantastic moment.

Cons: What exactly is the deal with the British accents on the show? First, in Catch 22 there was Des' spurned bride with one of the daftest TV accents ever (Is she supposed to be Scottish/Irish? she sounded like neither really) The Monk had a Glasgow accent as does Des (hence the Celtic song)... then there's Charlie's dad in this ep (I take it he was supposed to be a mancunian... sounded very Scottish, as does liam at times). A bit of consistency with the British accents would be great.

Still, good episode. setting up for what I hope will be a massive finale!

I felt like the writers could have claimed an golden globe if they would have killed Charley. I really don't want Charley to die. However the story was a heart pounding drive to his inevitable demise that in the end did not deliver. As a fan of Dom I was relieved. Yet as a stand alone story it just did not deliver the goods or produce enough of a twist to be satisfying.

Overall, I really think this is a great episode for emotional context. I have only three reservations.

The first one speaks to the rather obvious error in the "show don't tell" maxim of scriptwriting. Charlie has no need to explain what the list is, it's clearly spelled out in context and if that is not enough it's spelled out in big black Sharpie.

The second complaint falls under the rubric of the first insofar as I do not believe that Nadia needed to specifically call him a "hero." That seemed, again, a bit too on the nose.

Finally, the ending, while certainly a good cliffhangers as such, would have been more true to the theme of the piece had Charlie flipped the switch and drown. Charlie, meeting his fate (as having been, again spelled in black Sharpie form Ep. 1) should have been the closure to this episode. He finds his place, at last, in a good death.

Making the audience wait until the following week (if indeed he will die) will most probably dilute his sacrifice and certainly will not have the same elliptical resonance as it would have had he died at the end of this episode.

This leads me to believe he will not in fact die.

Otherwise, this was a great episode, am ingenious twist on the old plot device of "the dying character remembering." Here, Charlie's own futurity has seemingly been assured and he goes out to meet his fate, reflecting prior on the moments of his life. It twists the story of say, Citizen Kane, into a post modern lexicon and Dominic carried it off commendably

I completely agree with previous posters on two points:

Charlie's underwater scene was one of the most memorable and beautiful Lost moments ever
If we're setting Charlie up to die, it should have occurred at the end of this episode.We have been made emotionally prepared for that moment - not only for this entire episode - but since the beginning of the season. The end scene was not the big punch I think it was supposed to be, rather an anti-climax so great the let-down overshadowed any interest that may have been piqued by the entrance of new characters.

On the Other side of things, Ben's hissy fit brought up a few questions.


Has he always misused his unique relationship with Jacob to control the Others, or was this new behavior spurred by the unsettling experience with Locke?
Was that Ben's beloved white rabbit Alex was carving up for Carl?
Is there no line the Others - especially Richard - will draw when it comes to following Ben's orders? Take all the women? Kill anyone unfortunate enough to resist?
When do we find out who the heck Carl is, anyway?I chose this thread because I really was neutral about this episode. It just wasn't a love it or hate it hour, was it? Good to see Rose and Bernard, but why is she so concerned about him now after spending the entire first season in a state of serene certainty that he was alive and well. Easier to believe when you can't see him? Odd.

I agree with many of the posters sentiments about the episode and apologize if some of these thoughts have been posted elsewhere on the board.

It appears that many of the watchers have the same concerns with the "Looking Glass Diagram" that I did. From what I can recall from the documents Sayid took from the Flame was a pretty crude outline of the hatches and their inter-connectivity. He did not pull out anything as detailed as the diagram produced in the last episode.

So, where am I going with this? Every one at the beach is very quick to stop trusting Jack when he spent a week with the Others.

It appears that Sayid is the person leading this charge. I know there are a lot of people that absolutely love Sayid. I am one of them. The depth of his constitution and his uncompromised character stand out amongst the other Losties and it has always been surprising that he hasn't taken more of a central leadership role with the castaways.

However...Sayid was a captive of the Others for two days. Who is to say that he has not been compromised. Would the promise of Nadia and a life in LA cause him to turn on the Losties? Ben could very well manipulate him into believing that in the very same manner that he was able to get Michael to turn on his fellow castaways.

Is Sayid in on Ben's plan? Why did Sayid pick this episode to question Jack and change the plan? Why doesn't he want to take the rest of the Losties to the Radio Tower?

I guess we'll see.