My Take on Lost's "Exposé"

I'm usually easy for this show like a drunk college girl with low self-esteem, but I'm a little baffled about why we were shown this hour of story about life on the Island. Unfamiliar in many ways, "Exposé" felt more an episode of Cold Case than Lost.

I've always liked Nikki and Paolo, but why the heck were we told their story in this episode? What's the "moral" of the story, and why did we break from the running narrative to tell it?

Unlike "The Other 48 Days," when we saw the story of the tailies, which was another story of the Island that we didn't see the first time around, this could not be experienced as a gripping tale of horror. (If anything, "Exposé" was a story of suspense, like a Hitchcock movie—the one-word title even evokes Hitchcock's movie titles a bit.)

And unlike "S.O.S.," the Rose and Bernard flashback episode, it didn't show that the redemptive powers of the Island reach down event to the supporting characters. In fact, it seemed to illustrate the opposite—that the Island can be squandered. It can be the tabula rasa, a blank slate, a second chance, but that's apparently optional. Redemption and batteries are not included.

Usually on Lost, we see character experiencing similar emotional experiences on and off the Island, and they either make a better choice the second time around or screw it up again, depending on who they are and where they are in their lives. This time we saw things that seemed to explain why and how Nikki and Paolo literally came to suffocate on their own greed, lies and hostility. (Shudder.)

What's the lesson? Why are we seeing this? The wages of sin are death? Nikki and Paolo were surely sinners, but that's all these people: Sinners 'R' Us. That's the case in the real world, too, so big whoop.

If it's an "Exposé" of the life of your typical redshirt, are we to believe that the reason we focus on our main characters is because the main characters are the only ones with a chance of winning against the Island, while all the superhot extras are so uniquely selfish and conniving that they're doomed? Does the Island demand their sacrifice? (Am I completely taking this too seriously?)

We now know what our past glimpses of "Pikki" add up to, but what do our new glimpses of the past 80-some days on the Island add up to?

In short: Why God why? Why did you bury them alive? Why do we have to believe the Island is special if it's so damn idiosyncratic?! Is this like when God asked Isaac to sacrifice Abraham? If so, it's still true 5,000 years later: Faith is a bitch. (And not just the character Faith from Buffy, but her too.)

This is a visual summary of how I feel when working on StyleNetwork.com:

I made a Bones-nanza. [Tee-hee!]

Mourning Doves Are Always Happy: In my capacity as a nature geek (what? you thought geeks only liked PSP and the Internets?), I feel obliged to tell you that today I was witness to a falcon attack on an unsuspecting but agile mourning dove. I was riding my bike to work along Ballona Creek when a falcon divebombed the unsuspecting little mourning dove that had just alighted on the ground beneath the falcon's favorite palm tree. There was a great clamouring of feathers, but the dove totally unhanded itself from the grasp of the falcon. It flew off and the falcon had the gall to chase it, but not before a flock of sparrows joined the interspecies fun and started chasing the falcon that was chasing the dove. I have no idea what became of any of them after they disappeared over the bank of the creek, but I think the dove made it out okay.

Of Trolls and Bridges:
Also, in other Creek-related news, "they" seem to have the homeless colony that lived under the last bridge. Naturally, as with all clear-cutting, the area was quickly repopulated by aggressive, invasive species. In this case, gangmember-ish types. The homeless people always made me feel safe when I rode by, because they were happy at home and it was in everyone's best interest to play nice. I feel less certain about the hoodlums who have replaced the once-homed homeless.

'ello mah dahlinks!

Just wanted to point you to my interview with House's Katie Jacobs. It warmed my Huddy-shippin' heart. Also, I did a little reportage from the Paley Fest on American Idol (stick) and The Office (carrot).

Also, I'm contributing to E! Online's new Cool Stuff blog, so stop by and look for my byline on all sorts of flittery randomness. Enjoy!