Lost: Season 5, Episode 3 "Jughead" Review

 "Are they from the future too?"

-Ellie

"Jughead" kicks off with a flashback to the day when Penny (Sonya Walger) gave birth to her and Desmond's (Henry Ian Cusick) son, Charlie (Marvin DeFreitas).  It then cuts forward to the Hume family arriving in England.  Desmond heads to Oxford, but discovers there is no record of Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davis) or his mother ever having worked there.  Desmond discovers Oxford covered everything involving Faraday up because one of his experiments went wrong and mentally incapacitated a woman named Theresa Spencer (Sarah Farooqui). It turns out Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) was funding all of Faraday's research.  Desmond gets Faraday's mother address in Los Angeles from Widmore, but decides to quit his quest to focus on his family.  Penny refuses to allow this and they set sail for Los Angeles.

On the Island, the remaining background survivors of Oceanic 815 are killed by land mines and Daniel, Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) and Miles (Ken Leung) are all captured by a group of Others, led by Ellie (Alexandra Krosney).  They are brought to the Others' camp, where they are questioned by Richard (Nestor Carbonell) who mentions a hydrogen bomb being on the Island.  Daniel pretends he and the others are scientists here to retrieve and defuse the bomb.  Ellie escorts him to have a look at the bomb and discovers it is cracked.  Daniel tells Ellie they need to bury the bomb and reveals he is from the future.

Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Sawyer (Josh Holloway), and Juliet (Elizabeth Mithchell) have two Others captured, one of which is revealed to be a young Charles Widmore (Tom Connolly).  When the other Other agrees to take them to Richard, Widmore kills him and escapes.  Locke tracks Widmore to the camp.  Sawyer and Juliet go off to rescue Daniel, while Locke strolls into camp demanding to talk to Richard.

Richard has never met Locke at this point in his life and refuses to answer most of Locke's questions about how to leave the Island and doesn't believe that Locke ends up being the leader of the Others.  Locke tells Richard to visit him when he is born in 2 years, but before Locke can get any further, there is another flash.  Locke, Charlotte, Miles, Faraday, Sawyer, and Juliet all reunite, but Charlotte collapses due to effects from the flashing.

What Works:

The on-Island storylines are really exciting in this episode.  Right off the bat, we get a hilarious scene of the final Oceanic 815 background characters getting blown up.  I don't know why, but I've always found this scene funny.  They are just walking along with the freighter folk and it's obvious they aren't long for this world, but to see them get killed off so quickly and explosively is hilarious.

It's awesome to see Faraday in the leadership role for his group.  The guy isn't a natural leader, but he does his best.  He's a quirky, awkward guy and I love to see him step up to the plate.  His conversations with Richard and Ellie where he tries to puff himself up a little bit are some of the highlights of the episode.

We also get to know more about Daniel off the Island.  It really shades in the character to see the damage he left in his wake at Oxford.  It's an intriguing development for the character as it becomes more obvious that we don't know as much about the guy as we thought.

Locke's conversation with Richard is another highlight of the episode.  The dialogue between them is great and I love the paradox this creates.  Locke was never special.  He was the one who sent Richard to see him.  And Locke is special in a way, because he believes it to be so and puts events in motion because of that.  The compass is also now impossible.  Locke gave it to Richard, who gives it to Locke, who gives it back to Richard in an endless loop.  This compass shouldn't exist.  It's this small stuff that makes Lost so fun.

What Sucks:

My only real problem with the episode is from the confrontation between Desmond and Widmore.  It just feels anticlimactic.  This is the first time Desmond has seen Widmore since crashing on the Island.  It's not as explosive as it should have been and Widmore gives up the information far too quickly.  After all this time, it's a bit of a letdown.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For "Jughead," this award goes to Daniel Faraday for taking on the leadership role for his group and handling himself well with his interactions with Richard and Ellie.  He gets himself, Miles, and Charlotte through this particular flash in one piece.  This is Daniel's 2nd time winning this award, which ties him for 14th place with Rose, Ana Lucia, Ben, and Lapidus.

Verdict:

This far into season 5, "Jughead" is my favorite episode of the season.  I love having Faraday in the limelight.  He, Locke, Richard, and Eloise have some awesome conversations and this episode does a great job of creating paradoxes and shading in Daniel's character.  I don't love the scene between Desmond and Widmore, but the rest of this episode has certainly got it going on.

 9/10: Great