If you thought Season 4 was challenging in terms of piecing together a mosaic of events, Season 5 cranks up the dial of timeline complexity — at the expense of some of the thematic substance found in earlier seasons. It's still an entertaining journey and gives us a crash course on the DHARMA Initiative in its heyday. So let's get to it!
Because You Left starts us right off with a twist. We're in the Orchid but it looks nothing like the station we saw in the S4 finale, in fact it's under construction. Dr. Chang (yep, the guy from the DHARMA orientation videos) arrives to find that his team has hit a magnetic pocket in the underground. After barking some instructions he bumps into none other than Daniel Faraday. Time travel is officially well underway.
The Oceanic Six pick up where the S4 flash-forwards left off. Ben Linus tells Jack (still Jackbeard for the first few minutes) to collect his friends for a return trip to the island. Sayid and Hurley narrowly escape an attack at a safehouse. Kate gets a visit from lawyers insisting she take a maternity test. Sun meets with Charles Widmore to discuss their mutual hatred for Ben.
Meanwhile, the island has become exactly as Faraday described it — a record skipping through time and the needle's bouncing all over the place (hence the skipping record in the intro scene). The beach camp, the Swan, even the Nigerian beechcraft come and go depending on the flashes and "when" the Losties end up.
The most clever part involves Locke, who's navigating the jungle alone and flashing along the same timeline as Sawyer, Juliet, and the science team. He witnesses the crash of the Nigerian beechcraft but is shot in the leg by Ethan before he can investigate. A flash later, Locke is tending to his wounds when Richard appears out of nowhere to help him out. This scene would be key further down the season.
This was a decent opener in my book when you consider the challenge that lay ahead for Damon and Carlton. They wanted to whet our appetite for things like time travel and DHARMA Initiative lore, but they also wanted to make it very clear that character development wasn't going to be a casualty. We'll see if that holds up over the course of the Redux rewatch.
Acting duties were pretty evenly split and the main cast predictably did a great job, however I think Jeremy Davies is the glue that holds it all together. It was fun watching Faraday get frustrated with Sawyer's bullying attempts, even more fun when he realized that maybe his assumptions about "Whatever Happened Happened" weren't as safe as he once thought.
The other acting highlight would be the "compass" scene between Terry O'Quinn and Nestor Carbonell. Locke is completely perplexed by the time shifts and then Richard arrives at an impossibly convenient time. After patching up Locke's wound, Richard gives him a compass.
LOCKE: What is this?
RICHARD: It's a compass.
LOCKE: What does it do?
RICHARD: It points north, John.
Classic!
Sadly, there are deductions from the guest cast:
1. William Mapother (Ethan) is just as horrible as I remembered, this time pointing a rifle at Locke (or shotgun, I can't remember and I'm not going back to watch him again). Not only is Ethan nice enough to say goodbye to Locke prior to shooting him, he includes his full name: "Goodbye, John Locke."
2. Michael Dempsey, the foreman in the Orchid's first scene. His expressions just didn't ring true at all.
This episode may seem relatively tame in terms of challenging effects and visuals, but there are plenty of subtle treats throughout:
* I enjoyed the opening scene with Dr. Chang tending to his baby — but first thing's first, he's gotta put the record on! The way it's filmed is somewhat reminiscent of the opening to Man of Science, Man of Faith. Not quite as shocking but still very LOST-ian in atmosphere.
* The Nigerian beechcraft was some decent CGI work (setting aside the miraculous timing that was a stretch even by LOST standards)
* Sayid finds himself in yet another well-choreographed fight scene, starting with an unknown man being pushed off a balcony (I'm surprised ABC allowed LOST to show his impact on the pavement to be honest). The fight moves inside the safehouse, where tranquilizer darts, skillets, and lamps fly through the air with impunity. Death by dishwasher is a gruesome way to go.
The funny thing about Because You Left is that time flies (horrible pun, sorry) and it's over before you're even settled in. Part of that's due to the fact that TNPLH was a marathon episode so 42 minutes feels like the blink of an eye. The other part's due to the narrative being fractured into quick scenes covering the O6 and everyone on the island.
It's certainly an easy episode to rewatch even though it only begins to establish the flavor of S5. I'll pass on rating BYL's significance since its primary purpose is to establish the plot and not necessarily to advance it.
I really enjoy the time flashes in early Season 5 for their intrinsic nostalgic value. The first time through I really didn't expect to see so many moments paying homage to the earlier seasons; it thrilled me to know the writers hadn't forgotten who brought 'em to the dance.
Therefore, when Locke saw the beechcraft fly over this head I was overjoyed. Nostalgia counts as atmosphere in my book. Big time.
No significant emotional impact in BYL, except maybe a twinge of sadness after seeing the beach camp completely empty.
