Lost: French in Action

Don’t we all like to think that when we die, our last words will be something slightly more profound than “I’m not supposed to have chocolate before dinner”?

Of course, when most of us die, it won’t be because an increasingly unstable and time-travelling Island pureed our brains until we didn’t know where (or when) we were. Still, the death of Charlotte Lewis was both a surprise and a surprise to no one.

We kinda knew she was a goner since her first nosebleed, so that part of it wasn’t exactly a shocker. The death itself was surprisingly sweet when you think about it — it appears Charlotte believed she was a young girl again in what were presumably happier times. At least happier than being shot at with arrows and threatened with rifle fire. What was also surprising was the amount of information Charlotte imparted to her boyfriend(?) Faraday before her death regarding her history on the Island (she grew up there) and her encounter with a creepy-looking guy who looks just like Faraday.

Then I realize there are only about 30 episodes of “Lost” left before the end of the show, so we’re probably going to get more episodes like “This Place is Death” (the best episode so far of the show’s most ambitious season) which addresses past “mysteries” while continuing to move the show toward its end.

Last night, we got a good look at what happened to Rousseau (pictured, left) and her crew (including husband Robert and sexist jerk Montand) about sixteen years before the castaways arrival on the Island. The group was heading to the antenna to send a distress signal (the one Rousseau eventually records) with a still majorly disoriented Jin. (Not only is the dude travelling through time without realizing it, but he JUST recently became proficient in English — and instantly runs into a French-speaking crew.)

Unfortunately, their trip was interrupted by the Smoke Monster, who ate up and spat out a female member of their group and set its sights on Montand. As Jin and Co. tried to save him from being taken underground, the Smoke Monster pulled extra hard with its tentacles and yanked Montand underground, minus the arm his friends were still holding. Eww. Robert and the rest of his friends went underground to help Montand (or the monster doing a great Montand impression) and Jin skipped off to the hellacious period in the Island’s history right after the “sickness” had afflicted Robert and led to Rousseau killing him with her rifle after he tried to take a shot at her.

There were lots of interesting details and possibilities from this sequence. We got to see the Temple (featuring conspicuous hieroglyphics) which Ben has referenced before and under which the Smoke Monster apparently lives (draw your own hell parallels). This is also a previously uncharted area of the Island which apparently houses some ancient artifacts (four-toed statue anyone?) I was also intrigued by Robert’s behavior before he got killed. He called the Smoke Monster a security system (the monster DOES tend to sound like a machine at times) and it just seems like we’re getting closer to finding out what the monster is. Still, I’m more curious about what exactly happened to him (and his friends) that would make him want to shoot his wife. Was it an actual disease? Brainwashing?

After that Jin found himself with the rest of the time travelers (still not quite sure how that worked out), leading to a nice reunion with an openly thrilled Sawyer (it almost seems quaint how anti-social he used to be). The plan was still to go to the Orchid and get Locke off the Island so they could save everyone.

On the way, the Island started going crazy, leading Charlotte to collapse and apparently start cycling through her life. In between rambling, she helpfully told Locke that he could take the well down to the Orchid and she warned Jin NOT to bring Sun back to the Island (shades of Claire yelling at Kate “don’t you dare bring him back!”) Charlotte revealed that her parents were part of the Dharma Initiative, but her father became increasingly unstable and her mother moved her to London. She was told the Island was a fairy tale, but she dedicated her life to finding it again. It also seems pretty clear that the Dharma-era Faraday we saw in the season’s opening sequence is probably the one to warn Charlotte not to come back. (By the way, kudos to Rebecca Mader for a pretty terrific performance in this episode.)

Jin took Charlotte’s (Korean) words to heart and convinced Locke to tell Sun that he was dead so she wouldn’t come back for him (interesting that Locke apparently goes on to break this promise). Locke giddily descended down the rope, though the giddiness subsided when the sky light up again and he fell, breaking his leg. The visual of Sawyer holding the rope that went into the ground was kinda awesome, but Locke CANNOT catch a break with leg injuries. It’s going to be a pain when he wakes up with that leg injury in the desert, right? (Remember, when Ben moved the Island he still had the scratch in his arm.)

He DID catch a break courtesy of the helpful ghost(? spirit?) of Christian Shephard who reminded Locke about the terms of Jacob’s instructions (HE had to be the one to move the Island) and helped embolden him to make his sacrifice.

Meanwhile, Ben’s plan to return the Oceanic 6 back to the Island seemed to go to hell after Kate walked out with Aaron and Sayid gently threatened Ben and Jack if they ever tried to find him again. The only reason Sun stuck around and didn’t shoot Ben was because he told her he could prove Jin was alive.

So off they went for a wonderfully tense drive in which Jack apologized to Sun for leaving Jin behind and she coolly brushed him off (I was right that she’s still pissed at him, but wrong that she was pissed enough to take a shot at him.) The argument was brought to a half by a frustrated Ben who railed at the two and swore that if they had any idea what he’d done to keep them and their friends alive, they’d never stop thanking him.

I LOVED this for many reasons. Ben is such a smooth, manipulative operator, that it was startling to see him lose his cool. Also, if you recall, Juliet made a point of thanking Locke for his sacrifice before he went down in the well, which goes to show that Others are just more polite than the regular folks. Finally, after Locke’s adventure in the time travel wheel room, we saw that the wheel was out of whack after Ben turned it. Do we think he did this intentionally to facilitate his return to the Island or did he really screw things up royally leading to the frustration he’s currently feeling?

We know that Ben knows a lot, but we also know he’s not infallible and all-knowing. For example, he seemed genuinely surprised when Desmond turned up looking for Faraday’s mom, whom he simply knew as Eloise Hawking. In fact, he looked almost as surprised as Desmond looked when he saw Faraday’s mom was the creepy woman from the jewelry store. Ben’s travel buddies were not ideal for Ms. Hawking, but they’ll have to do. (Mostly, I’m glad that Desmond told Penny to stay on the boat, keeping her away from Ben, who probably has a shoot-on-sight attitude toward her.)

So what’d you think of this episode? What was grosser? Severed arm or bone sticking out of Locke’s leg? I’m going with the bone (that’s what she said.) How adorable is Ji Yeon? What do you think eventually makes the room with the time travel wheel frozen? Finally, is this in the top 10 best episodes of “Lost” or top 5? (I’m going with top 10 — I don’t believe an episode could be top 5 with absolutely no Hurley.)