Lost Episode 6: Sundown

“We’re all mad here.” – Chesire Cat in Alice in Wonderland

Mad in the crazy sense.  It's kind of sad to watch.  All of the characters on this show are one by one crossing the border between sane and insane (at least on the island).  The Alice in Wonderland connections are becoming more and more relevant because the longer you stay in this world the crazier people get.   Claire, Locke, and now Sayid have all gone off the deep end (which all of the actors do a great job portraying).  Kate, Jin and Saywer are all cautiously but voluntarily following them. I wonder if this means that these characters won't end up survivng on the island.  Even though I have no clue where this is all going, this episode was entertaining to watch and I think the writers have recovered from that problematic third episode.  I'm really looking forward to the rest of this season.

I’m more and more convinced that the Man in Black is evil, but I’m still not sure of his exact purpose.  He wants to kill everyone on the island (or everyone that’s not following him) and he wants to go “home”.  Where is this home?  Is it off the Island?  Does he need other people to get him off?  Why is he building an army?  That's certainly what that crew he was leading at the end of the episode looked like.  It makes me think back to what Charles Widmore said to Locke last season:  “There’s a war coming.  And if you’re not on the island when it happens, the wrong side is going to win.”  Something like that.  So does that mean Widmore is on Smokey’s side?  What about Eloise?  

I really liked Sayid's side-story this episode.  I think it has become especially clear that not everything is perfect in this alternate world and that these characters will always have the same problems that plagued them in the regular timeline…but the way they choose to react to them is different.  Jack will always have father issues, but maybe he can be a better father to his son than his dad was to him;  Kate will always be a fugitive but she can do something redeeming in helping Clare;  Locke will always be in his wheelchair but he doesn’t have to focus on it as a handicap and Sayid will always be the one people go to do their dirty work, but in this episode he can understand and accept that he isn’t meant to be with Nadia.  This new timeline is about these characters learning to accept their lives and make the best out of them rather then fight against them…And then there’s characters like, Martin Keamy who will always be just pure evil.

My favorite moment:

Sayid’s exchange with Ben (Ben is always part of some of the greatest scenes) had to be one of the creepiest lines on the show.  Ben tells him that there’s still a way out and Sayid goes, “Not for me.”  He actually reached Ben levels of creepiness.  You know what was interesting about that exchange. It’s the first time (and maybe only time) we’ve seen Sayid and Ben interact after Sayid tried to kill him.  I wonder if Ben knows what Sayid had done to him in the past.  I haven’t yet, but I’d be interested to go back to when Sayid and Ben first meet in the second season and look at how they interacted there.

Other Thoughts:

•  They really ruined “Catch a Falling Star” for me.
• I’m really happy we’re done with the temple, but the writers never answered the question of why it was there in the first place.  Was it just a safe place to keep away from the Smoke Monster?  Why was Dogen brought to the Island in the first place?
• Did anyone catch the preview of the next episode?  Did they really say Ben would meet his demise?  I don’t think I could handle that so early in the season!