The team best known for comedic episodes, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, present their final episode of Season 2. This one's far more serious in nature yet still has its share of comical moments.
For the third time this season we turn back the clock to fill in the missing pieces of a forked storyline. This time we rewind thirteen days and follow Michael's journey from the Swan to an Others camp and back to the Swan. His captivity by the Others results in a crossover scene with The Hunting Party, this time showing certain moments from his perspective. It was a pretty clever writing device even if it wasn't critical to the story being told.
The payoff moment: Michael sits in the Others' camp and gets a chance to talk with Walt (for far less than three minutes if you're keeping score). The mysterious Ms. Klugh — who could easily pass for Abaddon's twin sister — gives Michael a list of Losties to fetch. Whoa nelly! Looks like we have our setup for the finale!
The moments which may/may not have been intentionally funny:
1. Vincent brings a Virgin Mary statue to the church-in-progress and drops it at Charlie's feet. I was already laughing before Charlie's response of "Are you kidding me?". After that I was practically rolling.
2. Sawyer and Jack prep their guns and Sawyer blurts out about Ana Lucia, "I screwed her." The expression on Jack's face is priceless.
3. The funeral is in progress when Sun suddenly blurts out, "Boat!" Okay, most people probably won't see the humor in that but I laughed. I just put myself in the shoes of other people standing nearby who weren't expecting such an outburst at that somber moment.
Harold Perrineau had a centric at both ends of Season 2, so I give him a lot of credit for anchoring each end so effectively. His best scene in Three Minutes is during his captivity in the Others' camp. His spirits are so broken he's teetering on the brink of madness, then a quick visit from Walt overwhelms him with emotion.
Screen time was evenly divided amongst the rest of the Losties so I'll exclude them from this category. The one exception is Jorge Garcia, who unfortunately gets more deductions for the funeral scene. He just doesn't do well when it comes to the sad end of the spectrum and I couldn't wait to get through his eulogy.
April Grace (Ms. Klugh) pretty much broke even. Her dialogue was pretty flat, maybe even robotic, but I think that might have been the point.
My favorite scene in terms of visuals/directing came early in the episode when Michael wiped blood off the Swan floor. Eko joins him and shares an anecdote about a young boy and his fear of Hell; while he's telling the tale he repeatedly wrings the blood out of a cloth. My description doesn't do the scene any justice, but if you watch it you'll probably notice and appreciate the added effect.
Other than that the directing and visuals are standard fare, very little to complain about. I thought it was a bit strange to cover the entire conversation between Michael and Walt on the Swan computer, but Stephen Williams kept that scene about as interesting as he possibly could.
It sounds like a cop-out but I'm truly lukewarm to this episode; that is to say I'm neither opposed nor enthusiastic about watching Three Minutes repeatedly. Sure, it's interesting enough to follow Michael's thirteen-day journey to Hell and back, but once you know the Others' camp is a sham it takes a bit of the edge off.
Since Three Minutes is unquestionably a finale-setup episode it gets high marks for significance. It's also worth nothing that Charlie tosses the last few Virgin Mary statues into the ocean, planting a possible seed for his redemption in Season 3.
Setup episodes are a different breed, tough to rank on atmosphere and emotional impact. Many characters and storylines are intentionally fragmented across the island in order to set up the huge payoff (or cliffhanger) in the finale. As a result, episodes like Three Minutes can seem a bit hollow even as you recognize the necessity of it.
I definitely felt emotion when Michael got his visit with Walt, just not the one the writers probably wanted. I was too angry and frustrated with Ms. Klugh to consider what anyone else was going through.
The Ana Lucia/Libby funeral was as flat and awkward as Shannon's — another missed opportunity for serious emotional impact. The good news is the producers recognized this and limited the funeral scenes throughout the rest of the series.
