Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Exes, Week 4 Power Ranking

“I just want to be on the same page as her, and I don’t know what page she’s on… or what chapter. I don’t know what book she’s reading.” —C.T.

 

“What is a second? It’s like… a second!” —Jasmine

As reality television has grown and evolved, a lot of attention has been paid to producers’ Orwellian attempts to spy on every aspect of the participants’ lives: The Real World producers alone have infamously put microphones in headboards to capture the cast’s pillow-talk, filmed a cast member receiving the news that his mother died, and captured a girl getting slapped in the face. Lost in all of this, though, is the fact that the secret to reality TV’s success is what the cameras don’t show.

Last night’s episode of Battle of the Exes was a perfect example. With Johnny/Camila once again in the position of Power Couple, they have to choose which team to send into the Dome against Tyrie and Jasmine. Johnny is leaning toward sending in Rachel, who voted against him on The Island (Dude, can hold a grudge—that Challenge was almost four years ago), and her partner, Aneesa, but Mark, Rachel’s friend, tries to intervene on her behalf.

Getting Lost (Redux): The Incident

One of the raison d’etres of “Getting Lost (Redux)” has been to help see how Lost got from where it was to where it is now. “The Incident” is critical to that on a very basic level, having triggered Season Six’s controversial and polarizing Sideways stories. It is also critical on a more complex story level, having been the first episode to introduce us to Jacob, in all his splendor.

“The Incident” opens with a scene, which I feel like I’ve linked to a dozen times already but here’s one more, that fundamentally changed the tenor of the series. Not only did it confirm that Jacob was in fact real (it’s almost hard to believe that this was ever in doubt), but it also introduced us to the Man in Black. This was the first real indication that Jacob had a rival, and was not the sole entity of power on the Island. The final season has made clear that the characters were brought to the Island as part of a power struggle between Jacob and the Man in Black—a struggle that will ultimately end with Jacob’s death.

Getting Lost (Redux): There’s No Place Like Home

The Season Four finale opens with the Oceanic Six, as well it should. The Oceanic Six were the story of Lost’s fourth season: Who were they? How did they get off the Island? What happened to them after they left? Why do they want to go back?

The first scene of “There’s No Place Like Home” takes place as the Oceanic Six—Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, and Aaron—are flown in from the remote island they were found on. As Jack reminds them of the agreed upon lie, he tells them not to worry if they can’t answer any questions. “They’ll think we’re in shock,” he tells them. To which Sun replies: “We are in shock.”

Getting Lost: The Candidate

It’s time for another installment of “Getting Lost,” where John S takes you through all the salient questions from last night’s episode of Lost:

So, it looks like Jack figured it out. Did he? Well, it depends what you mean by “it,” but it certainly felt like those lines Jack was spitting out as he desperately tried to talk Sawyer out of defusing the bomb were important. For one, he flatly declared, “Locke can’t kill us.” This, of course, echoes the boy’s claim from back in “The Substitute,” but this was the first time the prohibition has been extended to all the candidates. This might raise some issues, since the Smoke Monster has previously been a killing machine, taking down the pilot, Mr. Eko, Bram (Jacob’s bodyguard), and pretty much Widmore’s entire camp earlier in this very episode. The loophole to this, of course, is to assume that those victims had either never been candidates (like the pilot) or ceased to be candidates (like Eko).

If the Smoke Monster can’t kill the candidates, then what is he doing with them? According to Jack, his goal is to get them all to kill each other. As many have speculated, the Man in Black cannot leave the Island until all the candidates are dead, but he himself cannot kill them.* As a result, he has to wait for the candidates to slowly kill each other—something they have been pretty good at now for 100+ episodes.

Getting Lost: Season Six Thus Far

In the absence of a new Lost episode last night (ABC ran a rerun of “Ab Aeterno” instead), this week’s “Getting Lost” will look at where the show’s final season stands now:

Given the hype and anticipation for this season of Lost, has it lived up to the expectations? That, of course, is the big question. I think the obvious answer, at this point, is “No.” We still don’t know how the alternate timeline plots will ultimately resolve themselves into the main narrative, and this season has seen its share of dull episodes, like “What Kate Does,” “Dr. Linus,” and “The Package.”

But it’s probably unfair to judge the whole season as of yet. Lost has always been a show that has made its reputation primarily with premieres and finales. That’s not to say that character development doesn’t play a key role on the show, just that the show has made a habit out of sandwiching some dull episodes with strong beginnings and thrilling endings. Fans tend to forget this, but with the exception of Season Five (which I called one of the best television seasons of the Aughts), every single season of Lost has had a pretty noticeable slump in the middle.*

*Some people would probably object to the inclusion of Season Four, which was only 14 episodes, but I would say that episodes six (“The Other Woman”), seven (“Ji Yeon”), eight (“Meet Kevin Johnson”), and ten (“Something Nice Back Home”) were pretty forgettable.

Getting Lost: Dr. Linus

It’s time for another installment of “Getting Lost,” where John S takes you through all the salient questions from last night’s episode of Lost:

So, were you expecting Ben to die? I was, mainly because of the declaration in last week’s previews that this episode would see him “meet his demise.” So even after he ostensibly made peace with Ilana, I was half-expecting him to die some other way, either because Ilana had been lying, someone at the beach still harbored resentment at him (and let’s face it: pretty much everyone has a reason to kill Ben), or through some freak accident. After all, this show does have a history of jerking the audience around and fake-out endings.

I bet you were happy that he didn’t die, though, am I right? Of course. Ben is one of the most compelling characters on the show—why wouldn’t you keep him around? At the same time, this episode felt like kind of a waste. The main theme—Ben’s guilt over Alex’s death—was already dealt with in last season’s “Dead Is Dead,” and there wasn’t a whole lot of new stuff on that front: He still can’t forgive himself, and he still wants the Island to give him a chance to redeem himself.

Lost Season Six and the Importance of The End

“It always ends the same.”

“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”

—Jacob and the unidentified Man In Black, from the Season Five finale of Lost

The sixth and final season of Lost kicks off tonight, in what is likely the most anticipated final season since at least the end of The Sopranos. It’s conceivable that Lost is actually more anticipated than The Sopranos final season. For one, more people watch Lost, since it’s on a network and not premium cable.

But it’s not simply the number of viewers the show has, it’s the type of viewership the show inspires: There are no passive Lost fans. You cannot just check in every few weeks to see where the characters are—you will be totally fucking confused. The show is so deeply enmeshed in mystery and ambiguity that missing any steps in the narrative will get you completely lost. This is also what makes the show so addicting.

Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins, Reunion

“You reach a point when you’re on these shows when you’re like, ‘I took a wrong turn in my life somewhere.’” —Evan

So last night’s reunion show offered the usual commentary on a season of the challenge: fights were brought up, feuds were explained, underlying tensions were hinted at and revealed. For the most part, though, it was a pretty tame reunion—pretty much everyone seemed apologetic and civil.

Also, the cast of Wes, KellyAnne, Brad, Sarah, Evan, Dunbar, Kenny, Johnny, Johanna, Veronica, Susie, and Katie left a little to be desired (namely: Cohutta). Our host, Maria Menounos, though, managed to get at some interesting revelations. Here are the most important/surprising/confusing elements from last night’s show: