Review: Lost 504

504: 'The Little Prince'

Wr: Melinda Hsu & Brian K. Vaughan
Dr: Stephen Williams

Synopsis: Kate discovers that someone knows the secret of Aaron's true parental lineage. Meanwhile, the dramatic shifts through time are placing the lives of the remaining island survivors in extreme peril.

Review: What did I tell you? What did I write on this very internet page less than a week ago? What did I prophesy? A Jack and Kate-centric episode, you say? Well, I never. What a surprise! Of course, I can't try to apportion some sort of criticism to the show's production staff because, after all, I gleaned my 'prediction' from the episode four trailer... but still, I warned you all. Were you braced for the gushing? Prepared for the tortured looks of longing between those two tired old love birds? And did the inclusion of a love-lorn Sawyer, pitifully watching Kate deliver Claire's baby and having some sort of reflective, melancholic mope catch you unawares? If it did, you are a naive young pup: Lost will always weave the dreaded triangle into its narrative if it's focusing on Ms Austen... you should know that by now. No amount of geographical or chronological distance between the two players could hope to stop that! More fool you, devoted viewer. Mind, quite why Juliet insisted on probing so intrusively into James' feelings after he confessed what he saw to her remains another matter. What is it with the Others and their obsession with psychology? Jesus Christ, buy them all some couches and get them to set up a business together, would ya?

To be fair to 'The Little Prince', the triangle elements actually aren't half bad. We are spared many particularly mawkish moments as the 'tortured romance' is dressed up in the intricacies of the plot. Things go at a pleasingly fast rate: we start the episode with the Six spread around LA, Kate running from an unknown 'threat' and end it with virtually everyone together, the identity of the lawyer's 'client' revealed and Sun brandishing a bloody gun. In a car with a toddler present, for Christ's sake! Of course, she's never going to kill Ben but this development has me sufficiently intrigued to want to see how it plays out. It looks rather like Ms Quon will be 'put in her place' somewhat, however, when she ultimately discovers that Jin is still very much alive. This is not unexpected but it is slightly frustrating: actually killing him would have been a decidedly bold move and given significant weighty depth to developments in Sun's character. As it is, it rubbishes the changes that have occurred to her personality and just has us all waiting for the reconciliation, which could also be the moment that the emotive 'reset' button is pressed and everything returns, depressingly, to normality. Let's hope that doesn't happen. Actually, I'm rather pleased that Jin is still alive as he's a great character, Daniel Dae Kim is a fantastic actor and he and Yunjin Kim have great chemistry together. Of all the couples on the show, it's these two that I want the happy ending for.

Anyway, so Jin. He's in the hands of Rousseau and her gang of merry French men. See, told ya this time travel malarky would give us the perfect opportunity to see the history of the Island. Hopefully, we'll witness her party's contraction of 'the sickness' (radiation poisioning from the hydrogen bomb, anyone? Is it at the Black Rock?), the attacks by the Others and maybe even the recording of the radio tower distress signal. Who knows, perhaps the show will even afford us a few Danielle-based flashbacks? We can but hope. The reveal at episode's end that this is young Mira Furlan (she looks nothing like her, by the way) was rather telegraphed - any avid Lost viewer will have put two and two together when they first saw wreckage of a boat and heard French voices - but we'll let the show off this once for the simple reason that we've been waiting for the details of this story for years. Actually, I have to let the episode off a second time for the predictable nature of the reveal of Ben as the man wanting to acquire Aaron: it was, after all, nicely disguised slightly with the inclusion of Claire's mother. So yeah, you're forgiven. Just don't go making the remainder of your season this easy to foretell, will ya?

Of the remaining tidbits, the onset of bloody nose syndrome is quite an interesting touch as it appears to be proportional to the length of time spent on the Island, with Charlotte, Miles and finally Juliet being the first in line (Miles an Island veteran? Marvin Candle's baby?) So it isn't simply affecting the archaelogist... all right, makes far more sense now. And how about the apparent foray into the future? If the camp was back and the Islanders have no memory of the surrounding events (those boats, the new bunch of hostiles), this must surely mean that their position in the timeline has shifted ahead of where they last left it in the present. BVut who are these new intruders, what do they want and where is everyone else? I need my Rose and Bernard fix, for crying out loud. In the main, this is another intriguing episode that keeps the plot going at a steady pace, introduces a few nice mysteries to ponder and begins to open a number of previously sealed narrative doors for our collective enjoyment. A little predictable at times and not quite as much of a rollercoaster ride as previous weeks, perhaps, but very strong all the same. 8.8