Saturday, March 31, 2007

"Expose" Analysis

(Yes, I've officially given up on making that mark above the "e"...)

Well, “Expose” turned out to be quite the expectation roller coaster, didn’t it? Months ago, when we first heard about a Nikki and Paulo-centric episode, everyone feared the worst. Then suddenly, after a few intriguing stories in magazines (Entertainment Weekly) and quotes dropped by the Lost creators (Lindelof and Cruse), there was some honest excitement for this episode. There were rumblings about this being an episode with a “game changing event”, holding the potential to answer “mythological questions about the Island”, and turning Nikki and Paulo into “iconic characters” on the show. Personally, I found myself getting more excited for this episode than last week’s Locke-centric masterpiece.

But in the end, “Expose” turned out to be nothing of the sort. It was cheap fun without much substance, and certainly didn’t change any games or turn Nikki and Paulo into characters central to the show. In my “Instant Reactions”, I summarized the episode as “entertaining”, and that’s exactly what it was. But there isn’t too much to analyze from it, so this should be a fairly short and sweet post. Brian Leonard, you’re right – I should have been in Europe for this episode!


Nikki and Paulo. These two characters appeared in a handful of episodes, never with more than a line or two of dialogue, really only had two very brief pre-Island flashback scenes (but one of them featured Nikki stripping, so at least we got our money’s worth), and died in the first episode where the audience started to learn who they actually were. The big question that a lot of people are asking is "why"?

Looking back at the entire time that Nikki and Paulo spent on the Island, including their flashbacks in "Expose", what contributions did either make to any storylines? You could argue that Nikki helped Sayid and Locke figure out the television screens in the Pearl (although you have to figure they would have eventually figured this out anyways), but otherwise, I'm hard-pressed to come up with any physical or emotional impact that either character had on any storyline or other characters on the Island. Really, they were throwaway characters.

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In my mind, this was a huge missed opportunity. If you remember my episode preview, I thought I understood the purpose of the characters, and thought the writers were brilliant in their thinking. Nikki and Paulo could have served as the gateway for the audience to view prior events from different perspectives, gaining more understanding about them, revealing mysteries, and providing information you couldn’t otherwise logically provide to the viewer. Unfortunately, the writers only seemed to get halfway there. Sure, they showed us new perspectives on scenes from prior episodes – but we didn't actually get any new material or understanding from them.

There’s nothing wrong with the way the episode played out – personally I got a sort of nostalgic happy feeling seeing familiar scenes replayed from different angles. But by doing it this way, we’re still left with the fundamental question of "why?” as in “Why did Nikki and Paulo exist at all?”

In my mind, there are two possibilities here, or some combination of the two:

  1. Nikki and Paulo were originally going to be more “major” characters on the show, but the writers screwed up in their introduction leading the audience to absolutely hate them. Rather than slowly and painfully phasing the characters out, leading to more fan backlash, the writers quickly killed them to clean up their mess.
  2. Nikki and Paulo existed merely as a representation of the "background" characters on the show, and were meant to simply give a commentary of the isolation and lack of communication between the Survivors of Flight 815. Having served their purpose in delivering this message, they had no further purpose and were killed off.

Personally, I have a hard time believing that the writers could screw up as badly as they did with the introduction of the characters. They were never formally introduced, never had any meaningful dialogue, and just seemed out of place in every scene they were in. Compare these characters to Ben, Desmond, or Juliet. These characters were properly introduced, given a purpose, and are now arguably some of the most popular characters on the show. So I’m tempted to fall down on the second possibility and look at the symbolism of the characters.

How ironic that “major events” on the show such as the discovery of the Beechcraft Plane and the Pearl Station could have been revealed much earlier if the Survivors actually communicated with each other. Heck, Paulo could have single-handedly prevented the kidnapping of Kate, Sawyer, and Jack if he relayed the conversation he overheard in the Pearl.

But instead, each Survivor is truly an Island – fighting their own inner demons and overcoming their own issues rather than banding together with each other. The inclusion of Jack’s “live together, die alone” speech wasn’t by accident. It was meant to highlight the central theme of the episode, and perhaps even the series.

At least that’s the best justification I can come up with to answer the “why”.

Because of this, part of me is tempted to ignore some of the analysis of these two characters – to toss them out as “exceptions to the rule”, rather than hold their experiences on the Island up to the same logical analysis as other characters – because if you include them, some of the commonalities we’ve seen over the course of the series don’t match up… in particular their deaths.

Every other character on the show seems to have found some sort of peace before they died – either on the Island or in their flashbacks (Boone got over Shannon, Shannon learned to love, Ana-Lucia gave up her “tough girl” act, Libby got over her crazy, Eko accepted his past actions, and Arzt learned a valuable lesson about the dangers of dynamite). But if anything, Nikki and Paulo were worse off right before they died. They seemed to have forgotten about the diamonds and learned to love each other mid-episode, but at the end they were as hateful and greedy as ever. They didn’t get their peace that the writers have given every other character.

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Does this mean that they are truly “bad people”, and everyone else on the Island is really “good” at heart? Or is it more that everyone else was supposed to die, and these two were not – merely victims of bad luck? Or is it just a product of the “quick exit” of these characters, that the writers didn’t have time to exhibit character growth? I’m not sure – but it’s not something I’m going to dwell on. It’s almost like this episode taught us to not worry about the background characters on the show. It showed that even if we did get to know these people, we wouldn’t like them, wouldn’t want them eating up screen time from the core characters we already know, and wouldn’t miss them if they were dead.


Jokes. Which brings up another interesting point: more than any episode of Lost ever, this seemed to be an episode where the writers were talking directly to the audience. I remember one of the early explanations for Nikki and Paulo from the writers was that they “represent the audience, viewing the action on the Island, but not being a part of it.” Therefore it’s fitting that the writers used their episode to throw out a number of “inside jokes” and references to the hardcore viewer. Things like…

  • Sawyer and Hurley's argument about what Eko meant when he said "you're next". Did he mean Locke was next, Nikki and Paulo were next, or all the Survivors were next? This is a question we all asked after the episode, and the characters on the show are asking the same thing.
  • Paulo being afraid to climb up into the Beechcraft plane to look for a radio out of fear it will fall – which we all know Boone foolishly did, and eventually led to his death.
  • Nikki accepting her death on the television show “Expose” because she was just a guest star… just like on “Lost”.

They all made me laugh, and made this one of the most tongue-in-cheek episodes of Lost ever. But again, these are all just stylistic and subjective thoughts about the episode. Is there anything we actually need to analyze? Just a few things…


Ben and Juliet. It seems as though the Others used the Pearl Station to observe our Survivors once the entered the Swan Station, and this is how Ben formed his plan to get Jack to perform the surgery on him. It’s important to note that this further confirms that Ben was well aware of his tumor back before the Hatch Implosion, when he still (in theory) could have gone back to the mainland to have the surgery performed. He definitely is not willing to leave the Island for whatever reason. It also reminded us of the former ruse of the Others, trying to look derelict to keep our Survivors in the dark about their knowledge and power. It all ties back into the “we are protecting a huge secret and they can’t find out” theory I mentioned a few weeks back.

Ben also mentions the need to cover the Hatch entrance to the Pearl with the Beechcraft Plane. For one thing, I find it quite ironic that Locke (who was so consumed with figuring out a way to get into the Swan Hatch) was basically standing on top of the much easier to open Pearl Hatch when he and Boone first found the Beechcraft Plane. Later, this dragging of the airplane over the top of the Hatch may have led to the apparent image of a question mark that was seen from above.

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We can also assume that the Others used tunnels to get to and from the Pearl Station after the plane was moved – which makes it curious that none of our Survivors tried to follow them when investigating the station. Are they hidden? Will we finally see them when the Search Party tries to leave the Barracks?


Smokey. Yes, I know that Arzt said that the Medusa Spider emits a powerful pheromone that would attract other spiders, logically explaining why they would have attacked Nikki at the end of the episode. But go back and watch it. Before the spiders show up, when Paulo is still giving his heartfelt “I thought the diamonds would break us up” speech, the Smokey Chatter starts. Nikki looks up and around, frightened. She hears it too, and seems to know what it means. It’s this noise that distracts her from noticing the Medusa Spider climbing on her leg.

So while we can’t jump to the conclusion that Smokey caused the death of Nikki and Paulo, his (her? its?) near appearance could be indirectly attributed to them. Does this mean that Smokey wanted them dead? Is Smokey an Island Grim Reaper, nearby whenever someone dies to judge their souls? Or is this all a coincidence? There’s really not enough evidence to come down on any sides here, but it’s nice to know that the writers haven’t forgotten about one of the biggest mysteries on the show. We’re due for another Smokey attack any time now, aren’t we?


Dead! I know a lot of people have speculated that Nikki and Paulo could still rise from their grave in the next episode, but I would bet pretty heavily against it. While Locke’s line that nothing on the Island stays buried for long might hint at the possibility, doing so would cheapen the most shocking deaths that Lost has ever seen and would seemingly undo what this episode was at least partially trying to accomplish – getting rid of Nikki and Paulo.


Miscellaneous. Just a few other miscellaneous items, not warranting dedicated paragraphs:

Vincent. He knew that Nikki and Paulo were alive, and was trying to save them. He continues to be one of the most knowledgeable characters on the show, but unfortunately he can’t talk. If he could, I’m pretty sure our Survivors would all be off the Island by now.

Big Bad. The “reveal” in “Expose” about who the Big Bad (Buffy term for “main bad guy” of a season or series) truly was at the end of Season Four has some wondering if the same will be true for Lost. It would tie in with the original planned five or six season arc of the show – find out the bad guy, then have a season or two to overcome them – but who would it be? It’s pretty obvious that the Others aren’t the bad guys. I’m still a big fan of our Survivors being the bad guys, but there are also options like Hanso coming back, Island Savages, other Outsiders, etc. But again, I think that introducing this Big Bad would be the best way to get our Survivors merged with the Others, so I’d like to see it happen by the end of THIS season, not next season. We shall see…

Shannon and Boone. I love that Nikki asked Paulo to promise they wouldn’t end up like Boone and Shannon, fighting with each other. Ironically, they ended up exactly like them in more ways than one, since all four characters died on the Island. There was also some quote about a gay character being revealed in this episode which some have assumed meant Boone based on Shannon’s comment about flirting with other guys to him. But wasn’t that just in jest, meant to mock Boone rather than a commentary of his sexuality? I don’t buy it.

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…and that’s all I’ve got. Some episodes I look back at my Instant Reactions and think “man, I must have been tired when I wrote that” because after a day or two, my thoughts about an episode have totally changed. But with this episode, they still ring true. This was an easy episode - in a way, ironically designed for the hardcore fans even though it centered around their two most despised characters and didn’t reveal anything. But for me, that’s fine. Every episode doesn't have to be earth shattering or continue one big long plot. Standalone episodes like this provide a breath of fresh air from the sometimes over-powering season long plots. As long as it's entertaining, I'm happy – and this definitely was entertaining.


Quick Update on the Control the Blog contest. I’ll be sending out a request to everyone who expressed interest asking that they write a few paragraphs about something – an episode preview, an episode analysis, some sort of thematic point about Lost, whatever – just so that I can get a feel for who can actually put together coherent thoughts in English sentences, and who writes in text message shorthand and misuses homonyms. They’ll be judged, and I’ll pick out the winners, who will be assigned one of the following tasks:

Episode 3.16 Analysis
Episode 3.17 Preview
Episode 3.17 Analysis
Episode 3.18 Preview
Episode 3.18 Analysis

…and maybe Episode 3.19 Preview, since I’m likely to be totally swamped the week I get back. I think it should all work out pretty great, and am excited to see some different writers on the Blog rather than my own quote-and-parentheses-heavy, overloaded-sentence style of writing.

I leave you with some pictures of Nikki in bikinis. Think of it as a montage to a character who has just died (I’d recommend humming along “One Shining Moment” to get the full effect), or as an excuse to put up an inordinate amount of pictures of a scantily clad girl on the Blog. Enjoy.

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40 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good as always Brian. Thanks a lot.

I do believe that this episode was meant to reveal a couple of things:

1. Ben and Juliet at the Pearl Hatch wearing those crappy clothes. Were they really the ones that Michael, Ekko and Jin saw on season 1 with the Teddy bear? Does this confirm theres not a 3rd group involved yet?

2. The lives of the OTHER survivors of the crash. Not only Jack, Kate, Sawyer and the main cast had lives and problems pre-island. Maybe they want to let us know all the survivors share the similar problems.PLUS the other survivors had explored the island as our main stars but they all have their own agenda.

3. By showing Nikky and Paolo as "killers" do the writers want us to tell us that the survivors are the BAD guys and the others are the GOOD guys indeed?

4. Suns kidnapping had to be solved sometime, now it has.

5. Vincent is the smartest living creature on the island. PERIOD.

Hope that all makes sense, spanish speaker here

peace, AJ CR

Anonymous said...

I think you might be looking way to into the Nikki and Paulo story line. It's my estimation that the writers created these two characters for this very episode. We've had a few weeks of "heavy" episodes and it looks like next week will be too (Kate and Juliet in the rain?!? -- we all know what happens when it rains on this island). Anyway, it seems to me that these two guys were created to be killed off in a light-hearted episode right smack in the middle of all the current craziness. They were truly useless characters used to lighten the mood for a week. And it worked because we got rid of Nikki and Paulo (though it would have been nice to keep Nikki around), we got a few brief looks at the past two seasons without a stupid "clips" show, and we got a little breather from the hard core episodes we seem to be in the middle of. My two cents.

Anonymous said...

props for the bikini shots of Nikki!

Anonymous said...

I already posted this in the comments of the Instant Reaction to this episode, but it was almost the end of the thread, so not many comments. Just wondering if anyone besides Hobbes thinks it's possible??

I don't know if there is any merit to this theory, but I saw it on the ABC board & it sounded interesting. What if the whole point of this episode was to tell us of a way someone could APPEAR to be dead, even to a doctor. Christian Shephard, anyone??

Anonymous said...

Sorry Brian! I should have told you sooner. To make the mark above the e is simple!

Just hold ALT and use the number pad to enter 233.

ééé

Stef said...

Great post, Brian.

The podcast this week has 2 interesting discussions:

1. The writers basically share that they did have intentions of doing more with Nikki and Paulo, but the workload of writing this season was bigger than expected and they had more than enough story to fill the season... so like groceries that you never get to, N&P "sat on the shelf" for a while.

2. There's a great funny about Vincent, with the writers just imagining what it would be like if he had magical powers and could talk. Long live Vincent!

whatshername said...

It wasn't a good episode for me, it hardly held my attention, that was a first. I didn't even quiz my sister to make sure she didn't miss anything. I did like power lines, paolo lies, paralized. My friend asked me, do you think they're dead, I told her absolutely, no doubt. If your heart is good, you get another chance, if your greedy, you get buried alive.

Unknown said...

What was with the "mythology" comment, though? I remember that in the case of the "three big reveals", even though there was maybe one medium sized reveal, they had explanations for why they said that--they weren't just boldfaced lying. So what could they possibly have seen in this episode that they thought had to do with the mythology of the show? I'd like an explanation, is all.

Brian said...

amber - I know some people continue to believe that Christian Shepherd is alive and well on the Island, but I'm not one of them. For one, I have a hard time believing that someone could die in a foreign country, be admitted to a morgue, allow time for a family member to come and verify the body (a family member that is a DOCTOR, no less), and just be faking it. It's pretty out there.

Likewise, if you recall - there is still some debate on if Christian Shepherd's body was even in that coffin. The Australian authorities were pretty adament in telling Jack that he couldn't ship the body back on Flight 815. It's questionable if the coffin on the airplane even had a body in it in the first place.

While it may be fun to think that Christian might be Jacob, or be behind the entire "conspiracy" on the Island, there are more facts that would dispute this theory than there is evidence that could support it. In my eyes, this would be a point where Lost "jumped the shark", losing its believablity and slipping into crazy territory where the rules of science and nature are thrown out the window.

Anonymous said...

For me, there's no doubt that Nikki and Paulo are dead - I know some people are expecting them to dig their way out, but come on - the paralysis had wore off just enough for Nikki to open her eyes as the grave was being filled in. That means at the least there'd be a few minutes before they she could even start to move her limbs again (weakly), and by that point they're already buried under a whole lot of sand.

And as anyone who's ever lugged sandbags around knows, sand is HEAVY. Their arms and legs are pinned by the weight, and they're suffocating. It's grisly as hell, but hey - that's life. Or death. Whatever.

singhy said...

Great blog again Brian! Not a big fan of this ep so not much to say, but I am becoming convinced your "all the survivors are 'bad', so they can't join the Others" theory might be spot on - it would also explain what the lists were. And we've now learnt that N&P also have rather despicable pasts!

Have a good trip, let me know if you want any tips if you visit Cambridge ;-).

Anonymous said...

Sooooo,

who else is thinking that Locke is gonna go CFL-style and leave the other survivors to spend his time in unity with the island?

And will he fall in love with CFL after a while?

;)

Anonymous said...

Watched that scene with the spiders over. No lost watcher in the room(3 of us) thought it was smokey. We heard a harpsicord.. music that suggested problems.. and the classic spider crawly music that you always hear when you see spiders. We played it over 4 or 5 times. none of us.. all lost addicts, thought that there was any connection with Smokey.

Occims razor does apply.. lets not overcomplicate things as even with all the wierd stuff this show has, it's usually NOT the complex answers but the simple ones(no clones, etc...)

Alec said...

One of my eighth grade teachers wrote the Monarch Notes (for those who don't know: Monarch Notes are short summaries + analysis of texts that one might have to read for a class) to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and he made us read the book (and his notes -- the guy was always trying to make an extra dollar...) and analyze the hell out of it. So we're in the mindset of every-little-thing-is-a-huge-symbol, when we read a scene, about midway through the book, about Santa Claus coming to visit the insane asylum. Very surreal; very funny. As our poor little 13-year-old brains are trying to figure out the deeper meaning of the scene, our teacher sighs and says "you idiots -- it's comic relief! There's nothing particularly deep or symbolic; Kesey was just trying to break up the deep stuff with something light and funny."

I'm thinking Nikki and Paolo in this episode were mostly Lost's Santa Claus in the insane asylum.

Anonymous said...

é - try Ctrl-Alt-e. :)

Sarah said...

I'm in the middle of rewatching the episode, which I loved. I don't think my brain could have handled any big reveals this last week anyway. I like the idea that this episode was for the true blue fans of Lost. The little jokes and other points of view were exciting for me. I still can't get over how horrible Boone's hair was though- dreadful.
Nikki and Paulo are another example of 'not on the list' because they killed someone.

I admit to not rewatching the earlier episodes of this season- I lent them to a friend. But the theory of N&P replacing Rose and Bernard through some small change in history didn't ring true. It was obviously damaged with Boone hunched over an African American woman and running around asking for a pen. But seriously, have Rose and Bernard been in this last season at all? I keep trying to think back and recall- and I can't think of them at all. I'm going to have to rewatch them soon.

Nikki is probably one of my most liked characters next to Ana Lucia. But at least Ana Lucia helped people at the crash. Nikki cringed away from everyone and just when you thought she's just traumatized she sees Paulo and almost immediately asks about the bag. They were a very attractive couple though- especially Paulo(sigh).

Haha- I just saw the part with Arnzt 'The pigs are walking.' I wish there was a way that he could come back.

Okay here's a stupid and pointless question- but would Paulo's nicotin gum be chewable- was the bag waterproof? Plus- would you really need the gum that desperately after a couple weeks?

Plus- I thought it was Smokey that I heard right before the spiders attacked Nikki, but in rewatching it I'm not certain.

I'm ready for next week. It's going to be a 'guurl fighttt.'

Anonymous said...

anon said:

"Watched that scene with the spiders over. No lost watcher in the room(3 of us) thought it was smokey. We heard a harpsicord.. music that suggested problems.. and the classic spider crawly music that you always hear when you see spiders. We played it over 4 or 5 times. none of us.. all lost addicts, thought that there was any connection with Smokey."

I am 100% certain that Smokey was heard right before Nikki was bitten. The exact same noise has been heard on a couple of occasions right before Smokey made an appearance. Smokey's only appearance this season was during The Cost Of Living. Early in the episode, Eko is scooping up water from a stream. That same exact noise is heard, Eko starts looking around nervously.....then Smokey appears in front of him. Then Smokey scampers off, then Locke comes out of the brush and says, "hello, Eko". That noise is also heard during The 23rd Psalm and also during Exodus...the season 1 finale.

The other reason that I am certain that, that was the Smokey noise is because of Nikki's reaction...She heard the noise, too. As soon as she heard that noise, it was like she knew exactly what it meant because she started looking around with a look of panic on her face.

It was the noise of Smokey...

Anonymous said...

She realized that the spiders were coming. I'll watch it again with your comments. But I think you guys are reading too much into it. If smokey was there, they would have let you know he was there. It's not like last season when they said we saw smokey and didn't realize it. THAT was images Yemi.. etc. (Or I think that's what it was). I think the spiders were real.


New idea on the Whispers. Remember the original Star Trek episode where people moved so fast that they could not be seen, you just heard a BUZZ? Could it be that some can time shift? Maybe step outside and look at time from the outside, or perhaps they're just in a different phase of time? I just say this because some of the whispers are sped up, and some are slowed down.. etc.

Unknown said...

I don't know why you didn't hear it, but it was obvious. It's right at 39:40 on the website--soon after Paulo says "If you found the diamonds... you wouldn't need me anymore." Then Smokey's sound is heard kind of quietly, and she looks around afraid.

Sarah said...

I finally got it

Exposé

hold down Alt then in the numberpad 130

ééé- I tried the other methods, but it didn't work for me

Now I can go to sleep

Anonymous said...

I have to say, I've switched camps on the snokey debate - that sound doesn't sound like spiders to me anymore, and it does sound just like smokey's chirping noise.

Whether or not this is important is another matter entirely - just because smokey's hanging around doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Anonymous said...

Concerning Smokey and the Spiders...
OK, I head the noise.. I had to turn the volume WAY up. (My wife hates noise so much that I have to watch the TV just loud enough to hear voices... Music can't be loud enough to hear details... Arrghh)

So my apologies to Brian and others, I did hear that noise. That could also explain why she was running... which didn't make much sense. If she had burried the diamonds and then found a nice place to pass out, they likely wouldn't have found the bodies before they woke up.

One more comment on this episode, why I don't like it. This Spider is fictitious. That adds a cheesey element to an already pointless episode. I do not see anything that was 'revealed' that could not have been done without Nikki and Paulo. Were characters were originally going to play bigger roles, but it didn't work out. Were they pretty much planned for a one episode deal with a leadup??? I can see why Paulo wouldn't want to reveal the location of the diamonds in the 'pearl', but he could have hidden the diamonds anywhere inland.

I also question that he help onto the diamonds until season 2 without hiding them.

AND... now that the hatch is gone, why is no one at the caves? Is it because they collapsed?

Anonymous said...

(when I said I had to turn the sound up, I had to do it twice. The first time was just to hear the noise(that you guys said was there) but I couldn't tell what it was until I really turned it up. As I said, I've gotten used to watching at low volumes
Also.. the wife goes to bet at 8:30, if you wake her, there's hell to pay.

Anonymous said...

Ok.Kinda off topic here but.........What happened to Rose and her husband????

Ellen said...

I don't know what you guys are smoking... but come on! That noise was definitely Smokey.

1) It was the same exact sound that it always makes whenever Smokey comes around.

2) Nikki looks around, petrified.
a) She looks up around the air around her, not down on the ground.
b) You cannot hear 5 spiders coming, no matter how much Arachnophobia soundtrack the producers play in the background.

3) This is "Lost." If the writers are hinting that it might be something weird and sinister, then it is probably something weird and sinister.

Anonymous said...

I didn't agree after watching the first time, but after watching the second time, I heard Smokey in the jungle with Nikki, fo sho.

I also agree with Brian that Christian Sheperd is dead.

I really, really, really hope they bring Artz back in some scenes. He's absolutely hysterical.

Paolo never even thought to mention that he saw some other people on the island? Ones that talked about intimate details about survivors (Jack being a surgeon). It's not like he would have to say he saw them in that hatch, but sheesh! He really just said nothing?

N & P are dead. It would be really wild to see Vincent dig them up, but I just don't believe it's likely.

Anonymous said...

I'm just hoping that someone decides to do a little grave robbing and figures out that they were buried alive. That would put a serious hurt on some people's consciences.

Oh, and I am voting for smokey.

Anonymous said...

Whether it was Smokey or not is a moot point really. I mean heck we knew the pheremones would attract other spiders now granted she may have heard smokey but smokey isn't the sort to play games if he wants to kill you you end up dead. Eko is a perfect case. Smokey simply grabbed him and slammed him into things a few times. The pilot (I'm assuming) was also a good example.

People may hear him but it doesn't really matter unless he acts. I think way to often we say "oh that's Smokey" but honestly not everything has to be. The simplest answer is often the right one. Even if the spiders are fake haha.

Anonymous said...

True true if smokey wanted to kill N & P he wouldn't have become a spider that paralyzed them he would have become a black widow or something that could have killed them. Good point or Maybe smokey likes a good game now and then haha!

Anonymous said...

I'm not saying that I think that the spiders WERE Smokey. I don't think that at all. I think that the pheromones released from that female caused male apiders to come out and eventually bite Nikki. I think that smokey made its noise to distract Nikki from looking at the ground so that she would get bitten also.

heliopath said...

one thing i walked away with when i saw this episode is during the first pearl scene it seemed that ben had masterfully created his plan.

with his "im going to find what makes him weak" (paraphrazed)

i took this as Ben planing his fake capturing to get on the inside of the survivors camp and interact with jack. eventualy finding out that kate was his kryptonite and sawyer was his Lex Luthor.

i dunno what do u guys think?
am i reading too much into it?

Anonymous said...

Hallelujah! Nikki pics!

Unknown said...

What does "the pigs are walking" mean?
Yeah... maybe Ben got captured to find out what makes Jack weak. Now I want to rewatch those episodes to see what happened in front of him.

DCrowley said...

Odds are, Arzt was referring to George Orwell's Animal Farm with the pigs comment. There's a plot summary on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm#Synopsis

Second-to-last paragraph before the Animals section.

Arzt was complaining about how Jack, Kate, etc. were making important decisions (like what to do with the case full of guns they'd found) without consulting the rest of the survivors, and tied it to the abuses of power in the book by association.

Anonymous said...

I think that the Animal Farm reference is deeper than we think.
The writers are clearly inspired by some of the themes of this book.

Thoughts anyone?

Anonymous said...

whose episode is it tomorrow?

Anonymous said...

Kate's Episode tomorrow her and Juliet get to fight it out over Jack.

Anonymous said...

As for the ben finding the weakness... the big battle he encouraged was Locke and Jack... that's what he exploited.. he was working Locke...

Anonymous said...

I think that N&P look very similar to the adam and eve corpses with the black and white stones from season one... maybe it´s about history repeating..

Anonymous said...

they are both only shown in the episode where Jack's speech to the rest of the survivors flash back is from. the episode where they discover adam and eve