Razzle Dazzle!‏

For characters that I didn't really care about, I enjoyed this episode a
zillion times more than the last Jack episode, so that's saying something.

The episode itself was almost like a Twilight Zone/Tales from the Crypt
episode - especially the ending. (You reap what you sow; What goes around
comes around; etc.) And it was super meta, too, with all the crazy nudge,
nudge, wink, wink at the audience. ("It's like the most awesome hour of
television ever!"; having Nikki talk about being a guest character that gets
killed off; Paolo being described as "the Wolfgang Puck of Brazil" when
Rodrigo Santoro, in everything I've read about him is described as "the Tom
Cruise of Brazil.")

At the very least, it was a fun nostalgia episode. I don't really miss Boone
or Shannon - but it was kinda fun seeing them, especially when she accused
him of flirting with Paolo. More flashbacks with Ethan I'm always happy with
as well. (Good to see Arzt again, too.) And the editing (especially the
plane crash scene) was really well done. (Although Maggie Grace's bad wig
was really distracting.)

The opening flashback was probably my favorite part of the episode. From
Lando playing himself to the "Razzle Dazzle!" karate chop...fantastic. And
Kiele Sanchez is the most believable when she's playing a struggling TV
actress.

And my favorite quote of the evening came from Sawyer: "There's a forensics
hatch I don't know about?"

But ultimately, they got what they deserved, and I don't feel bad that they
died. It sucks that they were buried alive, but if Nikki was smart enough to
listen to Arzt when he said that a bite from the spider would paralyze a
person, but stupid enough to forget that he also said that the spider's
pheromones are like a homing beacon, sucks for her. And if Paolo wasn't such
a douche and had maybe mentioned that he overheard Ben and Juliet, Ana Lucia
and Libby would probably still be alive and the castaways might have had the
upper hand on the Others for once. (Though it was revisionist history, so
that's not really the strongest argument.)

Speaking of Ben and Juliet, we at least got some answers to their (his)
motivations. And was I the only one who thought of Pinky and the Brain when
Juliet asked Ben how he was gonna get Jack to help him: "Same thing I always
do - find out what he's emotionally invested in and exploit that." And I
wouldn't be surprised if world domination was somewhere in the back of Ben's
mind.

I was also happy to see another appearance by Vincent, who, once again, is
the only one on the show with half a brain, as shown when he removed the
blanket off the "corpses." How long till we see what he's been up to for the
past 80 days? He's probably made more headway than anyone else in
discovering the Island's secrets.

I was afraid that Nikki and Paulo would become more important - the
producers had said that they would turn out to be "iconic" characters. I
hope they were lying and we'll never see them again. The episode was
enjoyable with a number of laughs and some small revelations. I'm ok with
the show doing filler episodes - they have to in a 22-24 episode season - so
long as they are like this one and the Hurley episode: light and fluffy and
of slight importance to the bigger picture.

And the show finally answered a question that has been plaguing viewers
since the first season: How come we never see any of the other castaways on
the beach? The answer, of course, is because they don't really matter.

So although there was not really much in the grand mythology scheme of Lost
in this episode, I came across this question the other day and found it to
be quite thought-provoking:

Last week, why was Locke wet when the Others and Jack approached him?