Lost: Enter 77

Tonight’s episode of Lost, Enter 77, had two concurrent island storylines and a prominent flashback from Sayid.

On to the recap!

  • Mikhail
  • So the backstory was kinda false (if we’re to believe the half-truths of an eye-patch-wearing, non-pirate liar) but how much?

    Did “The Others” AKA “The Hostiles” continue the work of The Dharma Initiative because they feared retaliation?

    How much to they know about the Dharma Initiative and do they ascribe to it’s tenets?

    Was Desmond’s initial captor (who was Sayid’s torture teacher) a real Dharma Initiative member or an “Other” like Mikhail?

    Have The Others/The Hostiles really been there on the island ALL of Ben Linus’ life?

    I LOVE that we’re simultaneously getting more story but burrowing deeper down the rabbit hole!

  • New Numbers
  • Anybody care to start cataloging the “new numbers” that include 77 and 305? No? Anybody?

    Me neither. Stick to the originals.

  • Rational versus Spiritual
  • I guess I could have said logic versus faith or any number of similar opposing dichotomies, but this episode was yet another Locke compared/contrasted against one of the other male heavies.

    Sayid is so good at accepting who he is and not questioning how or why he does what he does. He isn’t seeking to define himself by his actions or vice versa. He’s almost taosist in that he just “is”.

    Locke, conversely, is always trying to redefine and discover himself. His line about computers not cheating was brilliant. I almost thought he wanted to purge the humanity from him and become a non-lying computer, despite the fact that being malleable and hopeful and faithful define Locke. Freaky shit.

    Sayid, on the other hand, embraces his imperfections and human tendencies with the cold efficiency of a robot. Sure, just like those sadistic cat-torturers, we all have it in us to do evil, but Sayid dissociates long enough to move on the next victim (just ask Sawyer in season one). His all-too-human tendency is his forgetfulness (of painful emotions) and his memory (of happy emotions).

    I could go on Joyce-style for pages on this one, because they’re simultaneously opposites and twins. The look Sayid shot Locke after The Flame burst into flame was priceless. I can’t fully put into words what it said, but it was the greatest mix of anger/resentment and wonder/appreciation Sayid could muster.

    I don’t know. These two aren’t Jack/Locke, but they’re close. Where Sayid employs “Ready, Aim, Fire”, Locke is “Ready (or not), Fire, Aim” (and Jack would be “Aim, Fire, Ready” I’m thinking, but it’s late and this metaphor is thin crust pizza).

    So. Where was I?

    Cats?

    I think if Locke is all spirit and no intellect and Jack is all intellect (irrational, but still intellect) then Sayid is trying to sort out the order of himself and his humanity in an orderly, but still diving world.

    Make sense?

    Me neither.

  • No Nicknames?
  • The writers needed a break, apparently.

    But how great were the shots at the new castaways and Sawyer’s “Get bent, Hugo!”?

Honestly, I’m sick of the bullet point thing. I could write all night on the meaning of forgiveness and the capacity for evil as one leg and all the questions that “the purge” presents on the other.

Here’s another gem: do The Other/The Hostiles have four toes? Think about it.

I’m sure there are feline symbolists out there and the Nadia thing was creepy, but for me, the big issues are listed above.

I, for one, can’t wait to see what, if any, cavalry arrives in the form of The Dharma Initiative.

Get some rest!

2 thoughts on “Lost: Enter 77

  1. Lostpedia has two equations using the original numbers to get 77 and one for 38. What was 38 though? The only thing I got from 305 is that it’s 20 degrees off the heading that Michael took to get off the island. Something that might prove to be of interest later on. Maybe.

    I still think the Others/hostiles might turn out to be a splinter group of Dharma. Or at least have absorbed some of Dharma. Jury’s still out though.

    I hadn’t thought about the possibility of Dharma cavalry. I guess, to me, the fact that they seemed so cavalier [heh, cavalier, cavalry, the horse in the yard] about the hostiles indicated that they’d just as soon give up.

    Your observations about the natures of Sayid, Jack, and Locke are amazing. I love it. It’s so strange that Locke does indeed want so much to transcend his humanity, to become something special and other yet is all too human and gullible when it comes to his means of achieving that.

    Anyhow, I’ve got to wrap up my own post. Just wanted to comment on yours first though.

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