||SPOILERS|| A moment of levity before the traditionally dramatic and tense final episodes of the season, although "Some Like It Hoth" wasn't just a disposable hour of silliness focusing on Miles (Ken Leung) and Hurley (Jorge Garcia), as many feared. Writers Melinda Hsu and Greggory Nations actually use the time to flesh-out a sorely underused character and glue together some of the mytharc...I've been waiting for a Miles-centric episode for a long, long time now. Indeed, Miles hasn't been anywhere near as important to Lost as I assume he would be when introduced early in season 4. Introduding a psychic to an island where ghostly whisperings are often heard felt like it was done to facilitate the answering of a few mysteries, but cynical Miles has been pushed into the background as the derisive comic relief whenever Hurley's not around.
"Some Like It Hoth" gives us a pretty straightforward story for Miles, who's tasked by Horace (Doug Hutchison) to collect a dead body from Radzinsky (Eric Lange) in the jungle and transport it to Dr. Chang (François Chau) at the in-construction Orchid station. What nobody realizes is that Miles can "corpse whisper", and uses his ability to learn that Alvarez died when a metal filling shot through his brain -– a likely result of the island's unique electromagnetic properties? Hurley joins Miles in his van for the ride, later realizing he's transporting a dead body in secret, and lets Miles know he's not alone in his ability to commune with the dead. Only, Hurley can actually see spirits, and lightly mocks that his power is greater than Miles'.Flashbacks show Miles as a little boy discovering his power when he finds a dead man in a motel room and complains to his mother (Leslie Ishii) that the man won't stop talking. Miles grows up to be a rebellious young man (piercings, spiky hair, tattoo's), who has never been told who his father was, although his mother reveals on her death bed that he died a long time ago, and his body won't ever be found.
As an adult, Miles has started using his abilities for profit, helping grieving people come to terms with the loss of family. It's then that he's recruited by Naomi (Marsha Thomason) to become a part of Widmore's team, headed to a mysterious island in a freighter and paid a cool $1.6 million. He agrees, but then finds himself warned off going on the freighter by a rival group to Widmore's led by Bram (Brad William Henke), who warn him against going to the island because he's "not yet ready", and again references the codephrase spoken by Ilana last week ("what lies in the shadow of the statue?") So, if Bram and Ilana are competition to Widmore, was Ilana lying to Sayid about being employed by a man he assassinated (who was a Widmore employee)? Are Ilana and Bram part of modern-day DHARMA, perhaps? They never answer who was dropping food to the DHARMA hatch back in season 2, incidentally.
But current events are where the emotional meat lie, as Hurley is let in on another secret Miles has been keeping these past three years: Dr. Pierre Chang (first seen back in season 2 as the presenter of those creepy DHARMA orientation videos) is actually Miles' long lost father. It's a link fans hypothesized a long time ago, but that doesn't dampen its impact too badly. What's interesting is that Miles doesn't want an emotional reunion with his dad (and Chang may actually be openminded about a time-travel story, given his interest in the Orchid station), but is instead quite dismissive of getting to know the father he never knew.
Hurley can't understand Miles' reluctance (as he similarly never knew his beloved father until later in life), and we do get a few moments when Miles seems to soften –- catching sight of himself as a baby, sat on his loving father's knee, through a window at the Barracks, etc. It's a typical scenario for a time-travel based series, but no less moving, and Ken Leung proves he deserves a lot more focus than Lost has given him thus far.What I appreciated about "Some Like It Hoth" was how it was definitely a lighthearted episode in many ways, but didn't come across as a waste of time and emotionally hollow. There were plenty of amusing moments (like Hurley deciding to rewrite The Empire Strikes Back and send it to George Lucas), and fanpleasing links (the return of Naomi, the fact we see the Swan Station being built and its serial number stamped onto the hatch), but there was also an appealing storyline for Miles (another character with daddy issues!), some neat development of the mytharc in a few corners, and a bit of progression with the Roger (Jon Gries) storyline now he's started to suspect Kate (Evangeline Lilly) knows more about his son's disappearance than she's letting on. And then, of course, a great cliffhanger showing the return of Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) to the island aboard an incoming sub, after some vague period of absence.
Questions
- Who are Bram and his gang working for?
- Why did Daniel Faraday leave the island, and why is he back?
- Why did Chang want Alvarez's corpse brought to the Orchid?
- Why did Lara and baby Miles leave the Island? Why does Chang stay behind? Does he die in "the purge"? And when is he going to lose his arm – which was missing in the Swan station video back in season 2?
- Who killed Felix and took the documents he carried, about the faked Oceanic 815 crash?
19 April 2009
Sky1, 9pm
Writers: Melinda Hsu & Greggory Nations
Director: Jack Bender
Cast: Ken Leung (Miles), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Jeremy Davies (Daniel), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Matthew Fox (Jack), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Marsha Thomason (Naomi), Leslie Ishii (Lara), Brad William Henke (Bram), Jon Gries (Roger), Eric Lange (Radzinsky), Doug Hutchison (Horace), Patrick Fischler (Phil), François Chau (Dr. Chang), Lance Ho (Young Miles), Linda Herman Rose (Evelyn), Dean Norris (Howard Gray) & Tim deZam (Trevor)
