Lost: Season 5, Episode 15 "Follow the Leader" Review

 "This is our destiny."
-Jack Shephard



"Follow the Leader" picks up immediately after the death of Faraday (Jeremy Davies).  Jack (Matthew Fox) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) are captured by the Others.  Jack talks to Eloise (Alice Evans) about his plans to undo everything that has happened and convinces her to help him.  Eloise, Richard (Nestor Carbonell), Jack, Kate, and Erik (Sebastian Siegel) head off on a quest to the Jughead bomb.  Kate decides she doesn't want to be any part of the mission and tries to leave.  Erik is about to kill her, but is shot and killed by Sayid (Naveen Andrews).  Kate leaves to get the rest of their group to stop Jack from going through with the plan.  Eloise, Richard, Sayid, and Jack enter a series of tunnels beneath the Barracks and make it to the bomb.

Dr. Chang (Francois Chau) confronts Miles (Ken Leung), Hurley (Jorge Garcia), and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) about being from the future.  They eventually admit to it and that Miles is Dr. Chang's son.  They convince Dr. Chang to evacuate the Island.

Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) are beaten by the leaders of the Dharma Initiative for information.  Sawyer eventually agrees to talk if they let him and Juliet leave on the sub.  Just as the sub is about to leave the Island, Kate is also put on board.

In 2007, Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Ben (Michael Emerson), and Sun (Yunjin Kim) arrive at the Others' camp and meet up with Richard.  Locke takes both men with him into the jungle to the Beechcraft.  He has Richard visit the past version of Locke during the time skips and tell him to bring everyone else back to the Island and that he will have to die to do so.  He then rounds up all of the Others and tells them he is going to see Jacob to get some answers from him.  Later, he confides to Ben that he actually plans to kill Jacob.


What Works:

My favorite part of the episode is watching Locke in 2007 ordering Ben and Richard about.  The first time you watch this episode, it's extremely satisfying to watch these two enigmatic figures get pushed around by Locke.  On the rewatch, knowing who Locke really is, it works on a completely different level.  

I also love the character development for Jack.  He is so desperate to find some reason in all of this madness that he desperately grabs onto Daniel's plan.  While we know this plan will not end well, it is cool to see Jack taking about destiny and becoming more like Locke.  

We already didn't like Radzinsky (Eric Lange) and Phil (Patrick Fischler), but this episode really dials up how awful these two characters are.  We thought we had seen the worst of it with Radzinsky beating up Sawyer, but then Phil hits Juliet.  Absolute rage.  It's an effective way to ramp up these antagonists into people we desperately want to see get taken down.

Finally, I love the conversation between Dr. Chang and Hurley as Chang tries to get Hurley to admit he's from the future.  It's absolutely hysterical and one of my favorite Hurley moments.


What Sucks:

This episode definitely feels like the calm before the storm.  It's sandwiched between two action-heavy episodes.  It's really just moving pieces around to get them ready for the finale.  That's not a bad thing, but "The Variable" and "The Incident" end up being far more memorable episodes because of that.


Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For "Follow the Leader," this award goes to the Man in Black for effectively manipulating Richard, Ben, Sun, and the Others and putting the next part of his plan into motion.  This is the Man in Black's 5th time winning this award, which ties him for 6th place overall with Mr. Eko, Desmond, and Kate.


Verdict:

"Follow the Leader" is a solid penultimate episode.  It does a great job developing some characters, both good and bad, and setting them up for the finale.  Plus it has some awesome Hurley dialogue.  A setup episode can only be so good, however, as it mostly serves as a utility episode to set up the finale, but this episode has still got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good 







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