“Lost” — Catch-22
The stoic psychic.
There have been Lost episodes with more mysteries revealed, or more action and suspense, or better cliffhangers, but for my money last night’s episode is about all you should ask for at this stage of the game. I’m giving the props to Mr. Brian K. Vaughan, who amongst other credits created the mostly-great comic book series Ex Machina (which imagines New York City being run by a guy who a superpower that lets him control machines). A few weeks ago I wrote about how television isn’t a director’s medium. It is, however, a writers medium, and I felt last night’s Lost proved this.
What made this such a good episode wasn’t so much the main storyline (involving the awesome Desmond getting a vision about the future in which someone comes to the island — and Charlie takes an arrow to the neck), but of all the small character moments that happened around the action. Nothing particularly remarkable happened, but the dialogue seemed fresh and the episode’s momentum wasn’t rushed, as it sometimes feels.
I read Ex Machina for about a year. The comic, like Lost, jumps back and forth in time. That Vaughan would start writing for Lost is really of no surprise. What strikes me about the pairing is that Vaughan never had particularly good conclusions to his comic, but the lead-up was always amazing. Such is also the case for Lost, a show that is very much all about prolonging the middle. It’s a good fit.
It also doesn’t hurt to have a Desmond episode. Outside of Locke (who has barely been in this season), Desmond is easily the coolest character on the island, and as events play out more and more we’re starting to realize that his relationship with Penny very well could be the fulcrum for everything that’s going to happen.
April 20th, 2007 at 5:33 am
Rick, you really should check out Vaughan’s other comic “Y The Last Man.” It’s pure awesome. I have it all if you wish to borrow.