the awesome/terrifying freedom

i haven't written much about 'lost,' which is a shame because it's my favorite show for many reasons. i'm an ultra, mega, super 'lost' geek of the first order, and it's about time that i join the ranks of the rest of the 'lost' geeks, and write my own responses to each episode rather than just commenting on other's blogs.

before i discuss this week's episode let me point the other losties out there to my favorite websites:

lostpedia - the definitive guide/resource for all details of the show. want to know every time 'the numbers' have been seen or mentioned in the history of the show? want to know how much time passed between locke's time on the marijuana ranch and falling out the window? want to know every single time we've seen 'hot blue striped shirt girl' in a background shot?

lost blog - this sparse blog is well updated with the latest 'lost' news, and maintains a very strict spoiler-free policy. there are also some good discussions in the comments.

ryan mcgee - writes passionate and intelligent responses to each episode. he also does a podcast.i don't always agree with him, but his theories come from informed places.

so, on to business: 3.14, the nikki/paolo episode.

i had a big theory about what this episode was going to be. i was certain that damon and carlton had brought forth minor characters from the background for a big reason. they had never done it before, not like this, not in a way that credits those actors as season regulars.

my big theory was that we would discover that after desmond turned the key, a chain of events was disrupted that caused nikki and paolo to take the place of either shannon/boone, or rose/bernard. when i heard that shannon/boone would be appearing in the episode i became even more hopeful that this would be the case.

but no - the route they chose was much more traditional, and unfortunately, did not reveal any new mythological details. this bothered me at first. i wanted so badly for nikki/paolo to be tied more deeply to what was going on, which would be especially cool if their involvement was peripheral.

early on, what was so irritating about nikki/paolo had nothing to do with the actors playing them - their introduction had been handled so clumsily. they were thrown in, acting like they've always been there, and on top of that, the regular cast is acting like they've always been there too. later, (after fan opinions had set in) they did a little damage control and let sawyer say to them a few times 'who the hell are you?'

but i was a fool. i had deep deep faith in the show writers that the clumsiness of nikki/paolo's introduction was deliberate, and the only explanation for the strangeness of their appearance was a timeshift. the only other way i would buy that they'd been there the whole time would be if they did an entire episode showing us what they've been up to since the beginning.

and that's what we got. the problem was that nikki/paolo's story served no greater purpose other than to bury 2 selfish characters, and for the writers to prove that yes, they did have a plan. i enjoyed the episode as i was watching it, was on the edge of my seat the entire time, but couldn't help feeling a little cold by the end, because what can you say to that but 'wow. so what?'

but as it settles, i'm appreciating it more. i rewatched the crash scene from the pilot to see how nikki was seamlessly worked in. they must have re-built most of that set. someone mentioned that it was like an episode of 'tales from the darkside.' i enjoyed seeing shannon/boone, but was disappointed that their appearances were pretty cartoonish and one-note.

also disapointing was paolo overhearing ben and juliet talking. juliet asks ben how he's going to get jack to do the surgery. ben says 'the same way i always do.' and he should have stopped there. but no, he kept going, explaning his tactics, cheapening his entire character.

i'm torn about the meta aspects of this episode. 'lost' has never been so aware of itself as a tv show before, which i'm not sure is such a good idea. by making nikki a tv actress, specifically a guest star who is killed on the 4th season of a tv show that has kept the bad guy a mystery.. i dunno. it was cute, and i think the goal was to acknowledge the hard core fan base out there, but like ben's line about how he's going to 'find jack's weakness and exploit it,' it cheapened the whole thing just a little bit.

my goodness that was a lot. any other 'lost' fans out there? opinions?