Here's why I'm excited about the Last Recruit: I have no idea what it's going to be about.
I want to trace my season experience so far:
LA X: I read about the flash-sideways beforehand; I was very nervous about it, in fact, I expected it to be disastrous. But after this episode, I was totally cool with it. I was also blown away by MiB and the smoke monster and the temple reveal
WHAT KATE DOES: I don't remember this episode very well. I know that Kate and Sawyer had their whole barracks encounter and we ran into Claire. I thought it was a solid episode; I was a defender of it. But It doesn't come to mind when recounting the season.
THE SUBSTITUTE: I think this is when everybody knew the season was going to be good, including myself. We got the cave and a whole bunch of MiB stuff, and the FS was solid. I know what I was thinking: this is awesome, but What Kate Does was kinda okay. Are we gonna have an off-and-on thing, like season 3?
LIGHTHOUSE: Flipping fantastic. Restored all my faith in Jack; I thought it was even better than the substitute. The whole lighthouse mirror scene was extremely magical, but not to the extent that it got in the way. It was pleasantly mystic.
SUNDOWN: Okay, when I said The Substitute is when I knew the season was going to be good, Sundown was when I knew the season was going to be THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION EVER!!!! I'll tell you why: style. Perhaps I should attribute by love of this episode to Jack Bender (or whoever directed it), but this episode punched me right in the chest. Claire and Sayid walking through dead bodies while Claire is singing "Catch a Falling Star", the striking horror of the temple massacre. I'm telling you, once the show has been over and done with for a year or so, events in this episode will be remembered, man.
DR. LINUS: I think of this as the beginning of a new chapter in the season. For two reasons: we are finished with the temple now and MiB settled down immensely. On another note, I think this episode proves that Lost is about 60% character driven; the fact that they devoted this whole episode to Ben's redemption after seeing all that intense MiB conflic is brave and was incredibly moving. While episodes 1-5 started us off with a mystical-twinged bang, Dr. Linus began a subtler, yet equally as potent, stretch of the show.
RECON: I gotta admit, not my favorite episode. Don't get me wrong, I loved it! But so far, probably third-to last on my season 6 scale. But I'm certainly not letting it down in any way; it's a solid section of the show. It reminds me of when I watched seasons 1-4 for the first time; it was on DVD's from the library. No commercials, no week-long interruptions. If I had seen season 6 like this, I would have nothing negative to say about Recon, but watching it isolated and assessing it like that, it didn't satisfy me for a whole week's Lost.
AB AETERNO: Ah! Here we go. Not much to say. It was brilliant; up to par with LA X, Subsitute, Lighthouse, Sundown. One of my faves.
THE PACKAGE: This episode is like Recon. It furthered the story well, enhanced it, and set it up for some pretty cool stuff; having Jin separated from the rest and having Widmore's people stationed at Hydra station. Not one I'll think back to when I recall season 6 a year from now, though.
HAPPILY EVER AFTER: I was so worried that they were going to drop Desmond into the middle of the series like that, but, once again, they totally worked it!!! I love this episode, because you start getting emotionally attached to the FST. Remember the Constant (which is sort of a S4 equivilant of this one), when all the confusing sci-fi time-travel stuff happened and it was really cool, but they managed to make it even 100x better by giving it some emotional stakes? That's what this ep did for the WHOLE SEASON!!! I love it. The writers and directors managed to exceed in their craft once again.
EVERYBODY LOVES HUGO: That brings us to this week. This was a funny episode, if you ask me. Funny in a good way. It wasn't totally cataclismic like LA X, Substitute, ect., and it wasn't especially emotionally involving or character based like Dr. Linus or Ab Aeterno or Happily Ever After. At the same time, it wasn't merely one of those carry-along-the-story episodes like What Kate Does, Recon, and The Package. It's very unique, and I don't really know how to place it, but I really liked it. It somehow seemed like a middle-ground episode; it was a pleasure to watch and there's nothing to complain about (for me), but will my future self be looking back on it? I don't really know, honestly.
THE LAST RECRUIT: Okay, so the point of this blog was two things. I wanted to put everything in perspective, for myself and anyone else who it works on, by following the emotional journey I personally took this season. I wanted this to be nostalgic and reminiscant; to quell the doubts of people who are ever looking forward. Even if you don't like those one or two "questions" won't get "answered" or the questions that DID get answered or the way the story is going; you gotta just sit back and say "yeah, we've gone through a hell of a season." Because just LOOK at these episodes! They're brilliant! Overall, this is one of the best seasons in all of television history. The second thing is to try to set up the Recruit as a continuation of this brilliant string of episodes; to start getting excited about the show, now that it's coming down the last stretch, like we did the first episodes of season 6. I have no idea what The Recruit is about, but I have a feeling we're heading into the third an final "chapter" of the season (if it didn't already begin with Happily Ever After), and that we are going to start getting an epic ending. So I'm totally pumped, like I've never been before, about this episode. I am ready to give everybody who made this show happen my complete attention and my complete faith, after all they've shown me. I'm emotionally invested in this ending, baby, and I hope you are too, so Lost fans all over the world can experience it as one, big, Lost-hungry, jittery-excited mob of amazed men and women.