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Due to still being sick, I missed class last night and watched Lost instead. I have missed much of this season, but my impression is that a lot of viewers have felt that a lot of episodes have been slow and not dramatically interesting. But this one, in my opinion was a doozy: dramatically fabulous, politically infuriating, although for once the target of my outrage was not its Paleolithic gender roles: in other words, classic Lost.
Random notes:
I continue to be aggravated that all the women on the show are almost all in traditional roles and are not considered competent to take part in tough stuff. If they are in any sense tough or untraditional, they are insane, incompetent, or otherwise unlikable. Claire: Mom. Kate: love interest. Shannon: love interest. Sun: wife. Rousseau: nuts. Ana-Lucia: incompetent and generally hated. Libby: haven't seen enough of her to say. Rose: wife.
However, this show aggravated me by perpetuating the extremely bad thesis that torture is a) the only way to extract vital information from bad guys, b) is only done to bad guys, c) is done by good guys who are forced into that hard necessity to save other good people's lives.
Coming right after the UN's announcement that the US is torturing prisoners in Guantanamo, this seems... wow, how shall I phrase it? Not good.
Let me put it this way: Give me carte blanche and a pair of pliers, and I could get every single one of you reading this to confess to being a member of al Quaeda. Or, to take an actual example, witchfinders used to get people to confess to having sex with the Devil and flying through the air, but I don't think most of us think that was the truth.
The episode did suggest that torture is corrosive to the heart and soul of the torturer, but since we all love Sayid and it's obvious that he's right about the balloon-Other, this just makes torturers in general out to be tragic heroes, when in fact they are fucking scum who divide into two groups: scum like Goering who give the orders, and scum like Charles Graner who get kicks out of forcing men to masturbate, then breaking their arms.
Sorry, I got distracted.
Back to the episode: Sayid was great. The moment when he said, "My name is Sayid. I am a torturer," was really amazing drama, and reminded me of Gene Wolfe's Severian. Also great: his exit out of the cell with his torture-box and bloody hands, and when he started explaining what it actually feels like to dig the grave of the woman you love.
They missed the obvious way to test the truth of the balloon-Other's story: make him show them the grave of his wife and/or the remains of the balloon. If he can't find them, he's lying. As Sayid pointed out, burying your wife isn't something you forget.
The backstory was interesting. The officer who spoke Iraqi after all, and told him that torture was a skill he'd use again, clearly seems part of the larger story. Perhaps from the military branch of the Dharma initiative? Anyway, the flashback was both good drama and told us things about Sayid that we would not have otherwise guessed, unlike certain recent flashbacks. (Jack's wife left him because he spent more time on the job than with her, and he really wants to save people-- was that supposed to be surprising?)
I also liked the little Hurley-Sawyer story. Once again Sawyer is harassed by wildlife, like the boars that destroyed his tent, but this time he gets the upper hand. I also liked that Hurley finally figures out that he does have some power, and it's that people like him. I think he was quite right that if Sawyer had ratted him out about the food hoarding, they would have been pissed for a while, then thought, "Poor Hurley, he got hungry... Sawyer's a real jerk to tell everyone."
Finally-- woo-hoo! Locke was late with the numbers! That was a pretty creepy touch, when they flipped over red and hieroglyphs appeared. The question is, was that the final warning, or did an "event" occur? I'm hoping that an event occurred. The friend who watched it thinks that Desmond let it go, and that's why the plane went down, and then the clock re-set. Is there evidence for this?
Next week: Yay! Woman-centered! Even if Claire is mostly important because of her baby. Still, I hope I can get someone to TiVo or burn it for me.
I need a Sayid icon.
Random notes:
I continue to be aggravated that all the women on the show are almost all in traditional roles and are not considered competent to take part in tough stuff. If they are in any sense tough or untraditional, they are insane, incompetent, or otherwise unlikable. Claire: Mom. Kate: love interest. Shannon: love interest. Sun: wife. Rousseau: nuts. Ana-Lucia: incompetent and generally hated. Libby: haven't seen enough of her to say. Rose: wife.
However, this show aggravated me by perpetuating the extremely bad thesis that torture is a) the only way to extract vital information from bad guys, b) is only done to bad guys, c) is done by good guys who are forced into that hard necessity to save other good people's lives.
Coming right after the UN's announcement that the US is torturing prisoners in Guantanamo, this seems... wow, how shall I phrase it? Not good.
Let me put it this way: Give me carte blanche and a pair of pliers, and I could get every single one of you reading this to confess to being a member of al Quaeda. Or, to take an actual example, witchfinders used to get people to confess to having sex with the Devil and flying through the air, but I don't think most of us think that was the truth.
The episode did suggest that torture is corrosive to the heart and soul of the torturer, but since we all love Sayid and it's obvious that he's right about the balloon-Other, this just makes torturers in general out to be tragic heroes, when in fact they are fucking scum who divide into two groups: scum like Goering who give the orders, and scum like Charles Graner who get kicks out of forcing men to masturbate, then breaking their arms.
Sorry, I got distracted.
Back to the episode: Sayid was great. The moment when he said, "My name is Sayid. I am a torturer," was really amazing drama, and reminded me of Gene Wolfe's Severian. Also great: his exit out of the cell with his torture-box and bloody hands, and when he started explaining what it actually feels like to dig the grave of the woman you love.
They missed the obvious way to test the truth of the balloon-Other's story: make him show them the grave of his wife and/or the remains of the balloon. If he can't find them, he's lying. As Sayid pointed out, burying your wife isn't something you forget.
The backstory was interesting. The officer who spoke Iraqi after all, and told him that torture was a skill he'd use again, clearly seems part of the larger story. Perhaps from the military branch of the Dharma initiative? Anyway, the flashback was both good drama and told us things about Sayid that we would not have otherwise guessed, unlike certain recent flashbacks. (Jack's wife left him because he spent more time on the job than with her, and he really wants to save people-- was that supposed to be surprising?)
I also liked the little Hurley-Sawyer story. Once again Sawyer is harassed by wildlife, like the boars that destroyed his tent, but this time he gets the upper hand. I also liked that Hurley finally figures out that he does have some power, and it's that people like him. I think he was quite right that if Sawyer had ratted him out about the food hoarding, they would have been pissed for a while, then thought, "Poor Hurley, he got hungry... Sawyer's a real jerk to tell everyone."
Finally-- woo-hoo! Locke was late with the numbers! That was a pretty creepy touch, when they flipped over red and hieroglyphs appeared. The question is, was that the final warning, or did an "event" occur? I'm hoping that an event occurred. The friend who watched it thinks that Desmond let it go, and that's why the plane went down, and then the clock re-set. Is there evidence for this?
Next week: Yay! Woman-centered! Even if Claire is mostly important because of her baby. Still, I hope I can get someone to TiVo or burn it for me.
I need a Sayid icon.
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I was also fascinated by the fact that Sayid became a torturer because a member of the US forces put him into that position....which sets up some really interesting mental perturbations for me around the whole current issue of US participation in torture, both direct and indirect.
My kids laugh at me because I think that Naveen Andrews is drop-dead sexy.
(
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I was also intrigued that he was a torturer because of the US, not Saddam Hussein, which is nicely resonant and also ironic, and circular in that the US got him to do it because of what Tariq had done under Saddam's orders. I wish there had been more moral ambiguity elsewhere, though.
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Sayid is beyond sexy; but I'd settle for Sawyer or Jin if I had to.
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Anyway, I've just keep forgetting to watch it since it's back from hiatus, which says a lot about how my interest level has dropped. But, Sayid backstory, damnit . . .
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The problem with that whole thing is there was no need for the torturing: he got nothing new out of the man. And I'm agreed with you on the messiness of it, politically. It's hard to have any sympathy for a character who does that: but we already know the guy must be an Other, from the way he looked at Sayid. So the abuse will in some way be justified, even if it produces no benefit.
And apparently Locke is completely unlettered. Someone named "Henry Gale" (or "Gayle"), from the midwest, who arrived in a Ballon. Oz, anyone?
I wouldn't have expected Sayid to figure that out, and I don't think Jack got the guy's name. But John should have.
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Sigh.
Not sure if I want to bother downloading this one, after all. I still want so badly to like the show, but...it just keeps _boring_ me.