Episode 9 - The Shape of Things to Come
30 March 2012
Present: Jack has a “stomach bug” which is getting worse. The doctor from the freighter is washed up on the beach with his throat slit. Daniel manages to send morse code to ask what happened. The reply comes that he is fine and Daniel lies about it. Bernard knows the truth though and Daniel is forced to admit that they never intended to rescue the survivors. The soldiers from the freighter kill Alex when Ben refuses to cooperate. He alerts the smoke monster which comes in to the barracks to attack the soldiers. Sawyer takes Claire and Miles back to the beach while Ben and Locke insist that Hurley stay because he knows where Jacob’s cabin is.
Flashback: In a flash-forward Ben jumps to Tunisia somehow. He makes his way to Iraq for the funeral of Sayid’s wife Nadia. There he shows Sayid the man who killed her and successfully recruits him for his war against Charles Widmore. In London Ben goes to see Charles and says that because he killed Alex, he will now kill Penelope. Charles says that Ben stole the island from him and he will have it back. They agree that they both now have something they intend on finding.
The Good: Season four has so far prided itself on its shocking endings. The scene which finishes this episode is no exception but it is different to most of the other twists. Filmed in London it looks and sounds different to the usual Lost sets and refreshingly little dramatic music is used. The eerie confrontation between Ben and Charles Widmore is fascinating more for the tone of their discussion than its content. Widmore has no bodyguards waiting and though he asks if Ben is going to kill him he doesn’t seem overly concerned. While Ben says that they both know he can’t kill him.
The mafia-like implications are in Ben’s assertion that Charles changed the rules by killing Alex. The natural conclusion would be that some agreement existed protecting family members from the war being waged between them. The twist that Penny will now be Ben’s target is the shock for the casual viewer. However the hardcore fan will be more interested in what Charles says to Ben. He calls him ‘boy’, something we have not seen anyone call the adult Ben, and talks of Ben taking everything that was his. Again the implication is that Widmore was once on the island. The scene is well acted and grippingly filmed and leaves us with another hundred questions to ask.
Before this last scene we also see Ben do some interesting things in his flash-forward. His sudden appearance in Tunisia seems to be a result of the time travelling or transporting effect as some fans will have seen from The Orchid video. This was released prior to the season began but even fans who only watch the series should see the connection to the polar bear who ended up in Tunisia in “Confirmed Dead” (402). Ben shows off his Other training when he disarms the horsemen and then easily manipulates Sayid into joining his war with Widmore. The interesting question is whether Ben engineered Nadia’s death in order to get himself an assassin.
On the island the attack on the barracks is an extended dramatic scene which keeps you gripped throughout the majority of the episode. The murder of Alex is sudden and a shock. It’s almost too understated and Ben’s look of utter disbelief is spot on. Keamy is good in his role and the smoke monster is a necessary and intriguing device to allow the survivors to escape. Back on the beach the doctor washing up on the beach is ominous as is the message from the boat that he is fine. Jack getting the truth out of Daniel is also good to see as the delay in their rescue was looking very suspicious. Claire calling out for Charlie is a nice touch. It’s interesting to see Sawyer abandoning Locke and calling him a wacko. There’s only so much faith the other survivors are willing to put into the island despite the sight of a smoke monster tearing trees apart.
The Bad: The writer’s strike of 2008 meant that the Lost writers had to trim the stories they had intended to tell and fit them into a reduced number of episodes. We should therefore make allowances for some things being glossed over in the hurry to fit everything into this season. That being said there are a number of worrying things about this episode.
So much death passes seemingly unnoticed or unheralded. First the doctor washes up on the beach murdered, then three survivors are gunned down in front of Sawyer, Alex is executed in front of her father, the smoke monster attacks and potentially kills the soldiers, while in flashback Nadia is murdered, as is her supposed assassin and Ben throws in at least one guy on a horse for good measure. In a show about people surviving on an island death will be a reality but it needs to have consequences in order to retain its grip on the viewer’s emotions.
Nadia’s death seems a bit of a waste. Though we haven’t gotten to know her thoroughly, we have heard so much about her and seen her enough times (109, 217, 321) that to learn she is dead without seeing her married to Sayid is a shame. Doubtless we may see her reunited with Sayid at another time but the tragedy will probably not be the same. It also seems bizarre that Sayid would run from his own wife’s funeral procession to beat up a journalist. I suppose we can plausibly accept that he was letting his sadness turn to anger at this point.
There seems to be no sadness though for the death of Locke’s entire camp. This taps into one of the biggest weaknesses of Lost which is the faceless nature of the non-featured survivors. Those that went with Locke are all brutally gunned down and yet Locke, Sawyer, Hurley and Claire don’t seem upset. Granted they are dealing with a life threatening situation but some grief would be natural at this point.
The scene where the survivors are killed in front of Sawyer does not highlight Lost’s production department at its best either. Sawyer warns three people in a row to look out and they are all shot one after the other. It’s a bit comical. As is Sawyer’s run to Claire’s house where flimsy picket fences provide surprisingly good cover from the suddenly inaccurate weapons fire. Claire’s house is then blown up and yet she survives. While this is to be expected from any TV show, the house itself looks completely gutted. It looks more like a wooden shack than a house and the whole scene is just far too convenient for comfort.
Sawyer’s sudden Jack Bauer impression comes as almost too much of a character change for him. It was only last season (315) that Hurley had to convince Sawyer just to say a word to Claire. But now he calls her sweetheart and risks his life to bring her to safety. He then stands up to Locke in order to rescue “Hugo” and threatens to kill him if Hurley comes to harm. We can plausibly accept that some bonding has gone on at Locke’s camp but presumably Sawyer’s change of behaviour stems from him finally killing the real Sawyer (319). This selfless and kind behaviour is not an unwelcome or implausible change in him but it has developed very quickly and without comment from any other character.
The flashbacks showing the recruitment of Sayid are too predictable and straightforward. Sayid almost seems an idiot for believing the act which Ben puts on for him. “That’s three blocks from where Nadia was killed” he says like a moron when Ben shows him a photo of her supposed killer. It’s completely out of character for Sayid to be taken in so easily and especially by the man he first caught lying in the hatch (214). Yes he is in mourning but he is no fool. I believe this story was a mistake by the writers. The real focus of this episode was Ben’s anger at Alex’ murder. It would have been far more effective to have flashbacks showing us how much Alex meant to Ben so that her death would have had maximum dramatic and sympathetic impact. The scenes with Sayid are obvious and don’t feel as if they were really needed. They also don’t match the description which Ben gave in “The Economist” (403) of Sayid thinking with his heart instead of his gun. Could that refer to something else? Either way did we need to see Sayid recruited like this? We could have guessed that this is what happened once we had discovered that Nadia was dead. This foolishness is compounded when Sayid just asks who he should kill next rather than demanding answers as to who Widmore is and what the grand strategy is as we have seen him do on the island.
The Unknown: If the sonic fence was working how did Sayid, Kate and Miles get into the barracks in “The Economist” (403)? How exactly did Ben get to Tunisia and how? What caused the wound on his arm? Why doesn’t Ben know when it is? If Ben thought family members were off limits then why did he tell Keamy that Alex wasn’t his daughter? Was Widmore really responsible for Nadia’s death? Who killed the doctor? When was Charles Widmore on the island? What and how did Ben steal from? What were the rules? Is Jack’s sickness significant or related to his drug addled state in the future? How did Ben “call” the smoke monster? Why did he know it would attack the soldiers first? How did the Doctor die and end up on the island?
Best Moment: The Ben and Charles scene. Powerful and intriguing stuff. Again Lost’s ability to change your perception of what the show is about is amazing.
The Bottom Line: Despite the problems I see with this episode, most fans will be more than satisfied. Moving at a break neck pace with tremendous action and drama this is very entertaining stuff. However the writers strike takes its toll here and the writers treat death too flippantly for their own good. The final scene is excellent though so this episode is a real mixed bag.
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