Episode 6x6 Rating

[Geronimo Jackson]

I gave it a 7. I thought it was not as good as the last two but I agree that it got us to a boiling point and it got the characters to were they need to be for the big confrontations.

I agree with GJ that it was a bit over the top with Sayid and Locke. Some of this is getting a little to much.

I enjoy the alt stories but i wish I knew if they meant anything at all. I read someone's theory today that at the end the losties are going to have to chose between the island time line and the alt time line. That may be a way to make both this seasons alt time line and the earlier seasons time lines work.

Thanks Juggy glad to know we still think alike on a lot of this

[E.S.B.]

9 from me.  It was loaded with action and moved the story forward big-time.

- We were told by Dogen that Smokey as being "evil incarnate."  This makes it quite clear how the Others feel about him.
- We got a very clear explanation from Dogen as to what the test was that he put Sayid through - a test of good and evil.
- Sayid stabs Smokey-Locke and he pulls the knife out with no blood?  I held my breath the whole time, that was crazy!
- Seeing wild-eyed Claire look at Kate while she explained about taking Aaron and raising him was creepy.  Yeah, she didn't kill Kate, but I felt like she wants to wait and make her suffer.  Kate better watch her back.
- Acting by Naveen Andrews was terrific.
- I felt like we started to see the possibility of the two timelines being connected -- Smokey telling Sayid that it is possible to have Nadia again, and Jacob telling Dogen that he could save his son's life just felt to me like it was pointing us in a direction where the actions in our Island timeline will drive the characters to choose the X timeline, like Juggy pointed out.  These were interesting tidbits, in my mind.

Obviously we are not going to all agree on what we define as "answers," but I just really enjoyed the episode and felt it was loaded with plot.  That's all I got!

[TheBrightandTheDark]

7

I explain it in the podcast, but I'll say it here too... I broke the episode into two parts, rated them both, then took the average. The first half hour or so was a 5. The flash-sideways was average; I don't really care about Nadia unless Sayid is pursuing her, what can I say? Nothing stood out. Of course, there were a couple good lines, and the samurai vs Sayid fight was pretty good, but it didn't offset the relatively slow pace of the flash-sideways.

The last ten minutes was a 10. Sayid killing Dogen and being all Claire-esque creepy, Smokey busting through the temple, and the slow-mo "Catch a Falling Star" post-destruction montage were unforgettable. It felt like watching a great movie, and it felt like the ending of Act 1 (I'm stealing that analogy from hyper, I'm sure he won't mind).

I don't need answers if the story is compelling enough, and I don't need constant action or witty one-liners. The story's still good, I just wasn't all that impressed with Sayid's alternate plot.

[motorcycle]

I gave it a 3 and I'm very disappointed in the series so far.

For me, the off-island is mostly boring and predictable. You know every character is going to run into every other character, it's like playing where's waldo with Lost characters from the past. I don't care what happens off the island, I watched five series to see what will happen on the island, not off of it.

Sayid tries to be a good man, but can't escape his past? That's been done before numerous times, why do we need to see it again?
The smoke monster can survive a bullet and a knife through the chest but it can't go down a hole with a ladder attached?
After decades of serving Jacob, nearly all of the other others change sides within one sentence?
The temple can remain uncharted for decades, then Kate can just casually knock on the front door and she gets let in?

[jamesl]

1) Sayid tries to be a good man, but can't escape his past? That's been done before numerous times, why do we need to see it again?

yes, but I thought the interaction with Nadia was interesting. It was a nice little story

2) The smoke monster can survive a bullet and a knife through the chest but it can't go down a hole with a ladder attached?

Claire didn't mean "you'll be safe down in the hole" she meant, "you'll be safe with me, because he's my friend"
so, yes, he could have gone down the hole, but there was no one down there for him to hurt

3) After decades of serving Jacob, nearly all of the other others change sides within one sentence?

they knew Sayid was dead for 2 hours and then somehow came back to life even thorough the healing well wasn't working
they knew Jacob was dead
they knew the were in great danger, as evidenced by the way they panicked and barricaded themselves in when the found out Jacob was dead
they knew "evil incarnate" was outside
and here comes this "infected walking dead" Sayid telling them "evil incarnate" will be attacking at sundown

4) The temple can remain uncharted for decades, then Kate can just casually knock on the front door and she gets let in?

she left to go get Sawyer. They expected her to come back and knock on the front door.

[Cardacct]

This season is ten times better than season 2 and 5. Every single episode so far has been brilliant, with the exception of LA X, which was only mostly brilliant. Evil Sayid, although I might want him to be good, is totally awesome. Best Naveen acting in three years. They actually made Claire's character interesting, gave O'Quinn something to do instead of leaving him dead, and Nadia being with Sayid's brother is simply saying that not everything is perfect.

EVERYTHING they have done this season is working. Working very well, in my opinion. They are making up for the confusing and less-than-spectacular penultimate season they had. I understand being a little more critical, but hey, if you think they are going to do what you want them to, you've been watching a different show than I for the last 6 years.

[/minirant]

I would just like to point out that you basically gave every episode in season 5 a 10.  i.e. your rating system does not take into account the possibility that some episodes are better than others.

/notarant,justanote

I gave it a 7 because even though I was SOOOO happy that the storyline is really going somewhere, it was just so sad to see Sayid fall back into his murderous ways once again.  At some point in Sayid's storyline, I was hoping for him to stick to some decision that turns out for his betterment.

I feel like I don't know Flocke very well, except that you can count on his deceitfulness.  It's like Ben was channeling him during all of season 3.

I wonder where Jin is?

[JBRam]

This season is ten times better than season 2 and 5. Every single episode so far has been brilliant, with the exception of LA X, which was only mostly brilliant. Evil Sayid, although I might want him to be good, is totally awesome. Best Naveen acting in three years. They actually made Claire's character interesting, gave O'Quinn something to do instead of leaving him dead, and Nadia being with Sayid's brother is simply saying that not everything is perfect.

EVERYTHING they have done this season is working. Working very well, in my opinion. They are making up for the confusing and less-than-spectacular penultimate season they had. I understand being a little more critical, but hey, if you think they are going to do what you want them to, you've been watching a different show than I for the last 6 years.

[/minirant]

I would just like to point out that you basically gave every episode in season 5 a 10.  i.e. your rating system does not take into account the possibility that some episodes are better than others.

/notarant,justanote

Very true, although I have made LA X in s6 a 9, as well as a few in s5, I'm sure. I will have to add that this episode seemed to me to be possibly top 10 for me, definitely top 15.

Very surprised that I'm the only 10.

Update: Just checked through my ratings for s5. I only gave 5 out of the 16 episodes a 10. Sure, some people reserve 10s for only the one best episode, but my point is that there were a lot out there that I wasn't as happy with, and I think my ratings reflected my mild disappointment with the season. For me, a 7 means I really didn't like it for Lost, and there was at least one 7. In addition, my 5 that were rated 10 were the top-rated episodes on average, with a high skew towards 9s and 10s. I only rated 2 in the first 11 episodes a 10, again showing my disappointment with the first half of the season as a whole. But perhaps I should change my voting strategy to fit what everyone is expecting of me.

[Holland34]

This season is ten times better than season 2 and 5. Every single episode so far has been brilliant, with the exception of LA X, which was only mostly brilliant. Evil Sayid, although I might want him to be good, is totally awesome. Best Naveen acting in three years. They actually made Claire's character interesting, gave O'Quinn something to do instead of leaving him dead, and Nadia being with Sayid's brother is simply saying that not everything is perfect.

EVERYTHING they have done this season is working. Working very well, in my opinion. They are making up for the confusing and less-than-spectacular penultimate season they had. I understand being a little more critical, but hey, if you think they are going to do what you want them to, you've been watching a different show than I for the last 6 years.

[/minirant]

I would just like to point out that you basically gave every episode in season 5 a 10.  i.e. your rating system does not take into account the possibility that some episodes are better than others.

/notarant,justanote

Very true, although I have made LA X in s6 a 9, as well as a few in s5, I'm sure. I will have to add that this episode seemed to me to be possibly top 10 for me, definitely top 15.

Very surprised that I'm the only 10.

Update: Just checked through my ratings for s5. I only gave 5 out of the 16 episodes a 10. Sure, some people reserve 10s for only the one best episode, but my point is that there were a lot out there that I wasn't as happy with, and I think my ratings reflected my mild disappointment with the season. For me, a 7 means I really didn't like it for Lost, and there was at least one 7. In addition, my 5 that were rated 10 were the top-rated episodes on average, with a high skew towards 9s and 10s. I only rated 2 in the first 11 episodes a 10, again showing my disappointment with the first half of the season as a whole. But perhaps I should change my voting strategy to fit what everyone is expecting of me.

I say leave it be, JB.  (hey... that rhymed!)  We all see these things through different eyes with different expectations.  That goes to my unanswered question above... why are some people knocking down the episode scores because of the things that aren't in the episodes?  That just means they had a preconceived notion of what to expect and those expectations were not met.  There's nothing wrong with that... but the score doesn't reflect what was actually shown (or, at least, not fully).  So you balance out other folks!

That said, I haven't given a real 10 yet this season (not withstanding the week my daughter was born... I admitted prejudice.)  It's just interesting to see the different things people are seeing from their perspectives in each episode.  Keep up the good work, sir!

[LostinLock]

I gave this a 6

It was where it was nothing good/bad  it was just a reasonable show.

If this was already said sorry for a repeated, but it was interesting that I see so much of previous years floating back to this season. 

[JBRam]

Thanks, Holland, but I think I will start rating a little harsher. Not because it's the final season, but because I want to see where others are coming from. If I think an episode is really good, and it made me almost literally say "That was really good," then I normally give it a ten. That's been my standard up til this point. So now, I'm going to start rating it against other episodes. That being said, I'll give LA X a 6, What Kate Does an 8, The Substitute a 10, The Lighthouse a 9, and Sundown a 10. Does this work for everyone?

[E.S.B.]

JB, dude, rate however you want!  We all have our individual internal scale.  There is no clear definition of what each score means.  I think for me, I've never given anything below a 6.  I guess if I rated something like a 3 or 4 it would mean it were so bad I would not want to be watching it.  And frankly even the weakest Lost episode is still really enjoyable to me, at least when I'm watching it the first time around.

[LostinLock]

JB, dude, rate however you want!  We all have our individual internal scale.  There is no clear definition of what each score means.  I think for me, I've never given anything below a 6.  I guess if I rated something like a 3 or 4 it would mean it were so bad I would not want to be watching it.  And frankly even the weakest Lost episode is still really enjoyable to me, at least when I'm watching it the first time around.

applauding this

[JBRam]

JB, dude, rate however you want!  We all have our individual internal scale.  There is no clear definition of what each score means.  I think for me, I've never given anything below a 6.  I guess if I rated something like a 3 or 4 it would mean it were so bad I would not want to be watching it.  And frankly even the weakest Lost episode is still really enjoyable to me, at least when I'm watching it the first time around.

I think I would have given Fire + Water a 4. lol

[Cardacct]

To be clear, I guess I was surprised JB was dissing season 5, so I went back and clicked on a few of the episodes in S5, and he had rated them all at a 10.  I only checked two or three, so I didn't do a thorough-enough sample.

I was not suggesting that he change his voting.  I was merely pointing out what I, in error, perceived his voting to have been, which was in contrast, I thought, to some of his comments.

And it does make sense to me that we all have different scales.  Sometimes, for me, they really are 3s or 4s because there are episodes where I have felt that weren't really adding to the show.  But I am fine with people not feeling the same way.  That's what I like about this rating thing.  We all have different opinions, but then the summary and scale somewhat represent how we cummulatively feel about the episodes.

[Cardacct]

Also, I'll have to go back and see how I rated it, but I'm sure I didn't give it a 10.  Anyway, I still love the episode "Through the Looking Glass," and if I didn't give it a 10, I probably should have.  It may be one of my favorites.  Sometime we should all do a "Top Ten List" of our top 10 favorite episodes.  It would be cool to see what everyone says.

***

I looked, and I gave it an 8 because I didn't like the Jack stuff.  I guess I kind of try to ignore that these days.  You were right, JB, it did get better after multiple viewings.  And THAT, is a good episode.