Hostages, Hostages, Everywhere….

Last night was the long-awaited and much anticipated season premiere of “Lost” and the series premiere of “The Nin9.”  In typical “AI” fashion (which I learned from Jon of Random Commands, eventually being promoted to “live guest blogger” status – WOO HOO), I will recap/commentary on both shows – hitting the things I  think are important, which perhaps nobody else cares about.  So, here’s your chance to get out before I get going (or if you haven’t watched either show yet)….

Lost:  Interesting that the opening moment is the same this season as the pilot – all we see is an eye.  I can’t remember if that was last year’s opening scene or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised.  Strong motive – “the others” appear to be “all-seeing”, Locke has “looked into the heart of the Island”, often in season one, there was a sense of being “watched,” etc.  I also liked the tie-in to Desmond, with the episode where we learn he is living in the hatch, and in the opening scenes of that episode we see him put a record in the ol’ phonograph player. 

On to the book club.  I recognized Ethan early on, and that triggered a “hmmm…” moment for me, but as I didn’t recognize anyone else from the book club that moment quickly passed.  I initially thought the woman (“Juliet” as we later learned) was Jack’s wife and this was a flashback, but once the earthquake happened, and everyone moved outside and I saw “Henry Gale” I realized this was an “others camp” – and that was BEFORE the airplane went across the sky.  Man, am I good or what??  (either that or the writers made it just too obvious)  Amidst all the post-quake confusion, I noticed an oddity: no children.  Another “hmmmm…” moment.  Then we see “Ethan” and that other guy that Ana Lucia killed (I forget his name) being given their assignments and off they run following apparent mastermind “Henry Gale’s” instructions.

Cut to Jack, Sawyer, and Kate.  Again, I initially assumed that they were being held in the same camp, just different areas.  Now, I’m not so sure.  Of course, all three were drugged so none of them truly knows where they are or where their comrades are.  (Well, of course Sawyer and Kate now know where each other is since they’re in cages across from each other, but I was going to get to that.)  I noticed the “Scorpion” insignia on one of the cages in Sawyer’s area.  One more piece to the whole Dharma puzzle.  I also noted (before “Zeke’s” comment about the bears) that the cages resembled animal cages.  My first thought was “Dharma had a ZOO here??”  But then I realized how silly that sounded.  I mean, honestly, when you have an island with talking black smoke and polar bears in the tropics, and a red button buried in a hatch deep beneath the ground that has to be pushed every 108 minutes, a zoo just is totally “out there.”  But then “Zeke” made that comment and I thought, okay, maybe there WAS a zoo here!  Now, I’m thinking it was a place to build those fantastical polar bears, or at least try out Dharma’s mind games on furry subjects before human fodder was strewn all around.

[The one “Survivor” moment was when Kate was escorted to breakfast with “Henry” and we see him sitting on the beach, with a breakfast feast laid out for him and Kate.  It looked so much like a reward challenge reward scenario that I half expected to see Jeff Probst get up from the table to welcome Kate.]

We see “Henry” is setting up Kate, telling her how difficult the next two weeks will be.  And as evidenced before, we are unsure whether they will really be that unpleasant or if he is trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy with her.  Interesting that she asked where Sawyer and Jack were, “Henry” commented on that, and then they put her with Sawyer.  Also interesting that she accepted the fish biscuit from Sawyer – whether she was just being nice or really was hungry, I don’t know.  Thought it was very appropriate that Sawyer is being treated like an animal – being the “hunter” he is, and the “snake” or “shark”… I find great satisfaction in that irony.  Sawyer showed a glimpse of his humanity when he asked, “Freckles, are you okay?”  Wow.  Sawyer is part human after all.

Jack’s predicament has me fascinated.  For the life of me, I can’t tell if Juliet is a ploy in a master plan for Ben (as we later learn is “Henry’s” *real* name), or if she has her own agenda.  The whole “I’m sympathetic, only here to help you” persona is obviously a cover for something much more devious, although at this point we’re left to speculate grandly about what that might be.  My NO WAY moment for the night was when Jack submitted to her request and sat with his back against the wall and she left the room.  At that moment, Jack appeared the broken animal, with the “master” finally gaining the upper hand.  Not so fast, however, as we see Juliet enter the room with the food.

So now what we know is that Jack, Sawyer, and Kate are being held hostage, in cages like animals.  Jack’s cage is underwater, in “the nautilus”, while Sawyer and Kate are held in “the scorpion”.  Jack is in a former aquarium, and Sawyer and Kate are in a former zoo.  And with the beached pirate ship in the middle of the island, all they need is a decent roller coaster and a concession stand (and perhaps a few dinosaurs) and they’ve got the makings of a really cool theme park.

The Nin9:  Part of the “Lost” genre, but not nearly as engaging or well-done.  Too many holes were left unfilled about what happened during the 52-hour standoff (particularly to Felicia, and what Jeremy did that made Lizzie so angry with him, or what happened between Nick and Katherine), and not enough info on each person’s backstory was provided.  Perhaps if it had been a 2-hour pilot as “Lost” was, there would have been time to develop the characters more fully.  Nevertheless, it’s good to see Tim Daly back (I enjoyed him on “Wings”, which suffered from poor writing but a FABULOUS cast), and I will give this show a few weeks before bringing final judgement.

Questions I am looking forward to seeing answered:

1)  What is the status of Egan’s marriage?  Is he just a hen-pecked husband, or is there more to the story?  And why was he planning on committing suicide?  And why was Malcolm REALLY called over to handle Egan’s “boat loan”?

2)  How will Malcolm handle returning to the branch manager position?  Is there some connection between him and the security guard beyond a work relationship?

3)  Whatever happened to Kathryn’s hair?  And what was the significance of it being cut?  Will we ever discover what happened to her mother’s cameo broach?????

4)  Are any of these characters going to enter therapy for PTSD????  Seems they could go join Ted Danson on “Help Me Help You” if this series doesn’t pan out.

Overall, it wasn’t as great as I felt it should, or even could, have been.  Hopefully once the series gets going, the drama of their current lives won’t overshadow the drama of the *real* catalyst, the robbery attempt, and we’ll begin to see what drew these characters together.