After last week’s pathetic Jack episode (in which it took an hour for us to learn that Jack got a tattoo in Thailand and is conflicted…hmm), I had pretty much given up on Lost. I figured that if the show was that befuddled as to how to bring back viewers, then I didn’t care for it anymore.
But I watched last night because, well, because it’s still Lost, after all, and I wanted to give it another shot.
Glad I did.
I’m not going to say that “Tricia Tanaka is Dead” was a return to form or anything, but it was at least a step in the right direction. Every major character (except for Jack) got at least a moment of camera time and a line of dialogue. Multiple sub-plots advanced. Hurley’s quest to start the Dharma mini-bus was vaguely reminiscent of Season 1’s golf-course-building exercise as a device that is absurd on the face of it, but fun and moderately understandable. These are people who are trapped on a frightening island — they need to blow off some steam, otherwise they’d all be stark raving insane.
Jin, Sawyer, Charlie, and Hurley were all well in character.
My major quibble is the existence of the bus in the first place. Someone is now going to have to explain why this thing even exists on an island that is supposedly under quarantine, where the inhabitants are supposed to be in the hatches. And what was it doing out in the middle of the jungle? How did it get there and how was it turned over?
Unfortunately, one good episode does nothing to restore my faith that such questions will ever be answered. Hell, we still don’t know how Yemi’s plane got from Nigeria to the island, and given that Eko’s dead, I doubt we ever will.
Still, the focus on multiple plots, the return of character-based humor, and the fact that the flashback actually seemed to matter on a character and plot level all made the episode worthwhile.
So, you’ve earned another week from me, Lost. Don’t waste it…