# LOST 03/28/07 "Exposé"



## The Grumpy Celt (Mar 29, 2007)

*LOST 03/28/07 "Exposé"*



> Hurley begins to suspect that Sawyer might be involved in a mystery surrounding two fellow survivors, and Sun learns the truth about her kidnapping attempt by the Others. Flashbacks follow Nikki and Paulo (Kiele Sanchez, Rodrigo Santoro). Boone: Ian Somerhalder. Shannon: Maggie Grace. Mr. LaShade: Billy Dee Williams.




As for personal observations, I'm just going to say I liked this episode the first time, when it was a _Tales from the Crypt_ story.


----------



## Jamdin (Mar 29, 2007)

The Grumpy Celt said:
			
		

> As for personal observations, I'm just going to say I liked this episode the first time, when it was a _Tales from the Crypt_ story.




My thoughts exactly


----------



## Banshee16 (Mar 29, 2007)

Any bets on whether or not Nikki and Paolo will get out before they suffocate?  It seems like Nikki was waking up.

If not....talk about a horrible way to die.  Kind of a waste....just start learning about the characters, and they both kick it..

Banshee


----------



## The Grumpy Celt (Mar 29, 2007)

I would be surprised if we see them again. The entire episode was a perfect _Tales from the Crypt_ type of story, and having either of them escape would cut the impact. That said, this type of episode fits in poorly with _LOST _and in particular it feels like a cheat, a cheep trick, to get to know these characters over a dozen or so episodes just to have it go down this way. I don't hate the episode, but this is the first time the show has disappointed me.


----------



## LightPhoenix (Mar 29, 2007)

I'd feel the same as you The Grumpy Celt, if we had really gotten to know these characters in the first place, which we didn't.  At least the tailies had a whole season, and Arzt had shock value.  Sure, being buried alive is creepy, but I found myself really not caring.

It was nicely self-contained, for the most part, and I thought, at least with Paolo, he had a good reason for not revealing the Pearl station.  Sun smacking Sawyer was great, but otherwise this was a pretty boring episode.

Arzt should have become a regular.


----------



## The Grumpy Celt (Mar 29, 2007)

LightPhoenix said:
			
		

> ...if we had really gotten to know these characters in the first place...




I was not disappointed 'cause these two died. I was disappointed 'cause it seems like the show itself was slumming to deliver an episode like this. And it spent time on these characters to pull this stunt, time that would have been better spent on other characters, like sun, Kim, Hurley and so on.


----------



## TwistedBishop (Mar 29, 2007)

LightPhoenix said:
			
		

> Sun smacking Sawyer was great, but otherwise this was a pretty boring episode.





I feel the exact opposite way.  I loved the episode from start to finish, including the murderers getting their just deserts instead of becoming regular characters.  Even with the Tales from the Crypt atmosphere, I'd say it was truer to the spirit of Lost than any episode in a long time.


----------



## Cthulhudrew (Mar 29, 2007)

Banshee16 said:
			
		

> Any bets on whether or not Nikki and Paolo will get out before they suffocate?  It seems like Nikki was waking up.
> 
> If not....talk about a horrible way to die.  Kind of a waste....just start learning about the characters, and they both kick it..




Yeah, I was kind of underwhelmed the entire episode. After all the little inclusions of the characters this season, I was expecting more. 

That said, someone else pointed out on another board the parallels to their gruesome end and the beginning of the story, where Nikki's character is killed. She says "the guest star always dies" (foreshadowing), and he points out that, "we can always bring you back next season."

So they did kind of leave themselves a possible out if they want (Locke's "nothing stays buried on this island" comment, Vincent sniffing around the still alive bodies).

There were some nice moments, and the play-within-a-play elements of the Expose tv show were clever (especially in retrospect), but I just didn't really care about these characters, and was hoping for something more than we got. Plus I find the whole idea of the Losties committing involuntary manslaughter to be really disturbing and more cruel minded than the show I enjoy watching tends to be.

I might have felt a little bit different if this episode had been placed somewhere else in the season, rather than at the end, though. I think it just sort of threw the pacing off. I don't mind a stand alone, not really related to anything else episode, but something just seems off here. (Had the same problem with _The Girl In Question_ during Angel Season 5- would have been a fun episode on its own, but coming right in the middle of a couple of dark episodes, it really didn't fit with the characters as they existed at that point in the chronology.)


----------



## Hand of Evil (Mar 29, 2007)

I was so so on this one, I enjoyed the characters, Nikki was HOT and the story line.  The group is at least talking and they tied a god bit together.


----------



## Taelorn76 (Mar 29, 2007)

Like others here I liked the episode as a stand alone, but I was not to thrilled with it as part of the season.

I mean they just introduced these two at the start of the season, they were not in more than half a dozen episodes and now they are gone. Everything they did on the island was neatly tied up. The only loose end I could think of is now the Lostaways have one of the others walkie talkies. Other than that no loose ends. No one knows they had previously found the Pearl hatch, or the plane that Boone died in, any of that. 

One other thing, you would think that if Artz have found that spider he would have warned all the other survivors about it. I find it slightly odd that no one else has come across this species in the past 90 days.


----------



## Taelorn76 (Mar 29, 2007)

Banshee16 said:
			
		

> Any bets on whether or not Nikki and Paolo will get out before they suffocate?  It seems like Nikki was waking up.
> 
> If not....talk about a horrible way to die.  Kind of a waste....just start learning about the characters, and they both kick it..
> 
> Banshee




I don't think they will be back. 

One all their threads were tied up pretty tightly

Two the mound of sand on top of them was about twice as high as any of the other graves near them.


----------



## Brown Jenkin (Mar 29, 2007)

LightPhoenix said:
			
		

> Arzt should have become a regular.




That was never an option. He was way to smart for his character to continue. If someone inteligent had started asking the right questions there wouldn't be a show.


----------



## GoodKingJayIII (Mar 29, 2007)

I liked the episode a lot.  But in all seriousness, if they don't get out... what's the point?

Edit: As others have noted, the characters were pretty much throwaways.  It tied up things with _them_ nicely, but since their story was almost entirely separate from the plot as a whole, that doesn't really matter much.


----------



## Flexor the Mighty! (Mar 29, 2007)

A waste of an episode. As my co-worker said this morning, "that one was throwaway, if you missed it you missed nothing at all".   Last weeks started to redeem this otherwise very dissapointing season, now they pull out maybe the worst episode of the series.


----------



## RangerWickett (Mar 29, 2007)

I will be disappointed if they don't come back, since apparently they were elite bad-ass explorers, who just happened to be a bit too paranoid to tell people what they saw. I would have liked a line, though, where one of them had said, "Why don't we tell the rest of the group?" and the other had at least said something, like, "Then they'll start asking why we were out here." It was an amusing episode for me.

Lots of ways for them to come back. Someone gets greedy and digs up the diamonds (sure, they're worthless here, but _somebody_ has still got to think there's a chance they'll be rescued). Vincent saves them (good boy!!!). I don't think they'll live long enough for the tide to save them.


----------



## JoeGKushner (Mar 29, 2007)

Flexor the Mighty! said:
			
		

> A waste of an episode. As my co-worker said this morning, "that one was throwaway, if you missed it you missed nothing at all".   Last weeks started to redeem this otherwise very dissapointing season, now they pull out maybe the worst episode of the series.




Exactly how I felt. I felt that if I hadn't seen this episode, that next week, I'd be able to sit down and watch with no problems.


----------



## Mark CMG (Mar 29, 2007)

I enjoyed it.  However, it might just have been a long way to go to put a radio in the hands of the Losties.


----------



## Hand of Evil (Mar 29, 2007)

I think the point was to show that the castaways have started to talk to each other and share information, well, I hope that was the point.  

I also don't think will be back becaues of the statement made by Nikki in her flashback clip about being a guest star.


----------



## Mark CMG (Mar 29, 2007)

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if Sawyer knew they were just paralyzed and if he dropped shards of broken glass into their tomb?  Also, if they do crawl out, I wonder what things they might have overheard while lying around and presumed dead?


----------



## DonTadow (Mar 29, 2007)

This episode upset me in the end.  I felt bamboozled.  Throughout the episode, they led us to believe we'd find out more about "the monster", more about "sawyer" more about "the others" more about something we've vested time in. Instead, we get some retread of a twilight zone episode that actually ends like a twilight zone episode.  It seems like a waste to recreate certain Lost Iconic scenes to justify this storyline.  

Then so much became implausible. They found the plane first but told no one about it? They found the other hatch and told no one about it.  It's hard for me to believe that after 3 weeks on an island eating fish and "whatever is caught" that your biggest worry would be diamonds you can't spend anywhere.  And it seemed like such an elaborate plan to steal diamonds, considering the guy murdered seemed to have been far richer.


----------



## Taelorn76 (Mar 29, 2007)

Mark CMG said:
			
		

> The more I think about it, the more I wonder if Sawyer knew they were just paralyzed and if he dropped shards of broken glass into their tomb?  Also, if they do crawl out, I wonder what things they might have overheard while lying around and presumed dead?




Well Nikki heard Charlie confess to Sun, and Sun confront Sawyer and tell him she is not telling Jin about the kidnapping.

I still say they are dead and gone. 

I did think it was funny that after they put the blankets over them to cover the bodies, Vincent comes by and removes it, like telling them HEY dumba$$ they're not dead.


----------



## Taelorn76 (Mar 29, 2007)

DonTadow said:
			
		

> Then so much became implausible. They found the plane first but told no one about it? They found the other hatch and told no one about it.  It's hard for me to believe that after 3 weeks on an island eating fish and "whatever is caught" that your biggest worry would be diamonds you can't spend anywhere.  And it seemed like such an elaborate plan to steal diamonds, considering the guy murdered seemed to have been far richer.



Well apparently these two were not good ones. They were flat out murderers. Also uncut diamonds are damn near impossible to trace IRRC, so take the easy 8 mil and leave the rest. If they stole other things from they, IE money, it would raise more suspicion. This way the old dude dies of natural causes.


----------



## CrusaderX (Mar 29, 2007)

Wow, I loved this episode.  I thought it was the best all season (which isn't really saying much, but...).  Sure, it was a "throwaway", but I thought it was a very entertaining hour of throwaway television.  I'll take that over an "important" episode that focuses on the mind-numbingly boring Others any day.


----------



## DonTadow (Mar 29, 2007)

CrusaderX said:
			
		

> Wow, I loved this episode.  I thought it was the best all season (which isn't really saying much, but...).  Sure, it was a "throwaway", but I thought it was a very entertaining hour of throwaway television.  I'll take that over an "important" episode that focuses on the mind-numbingly boring Others any day.



Yeah it was a nice show, just wasn't lost. It felt like i was watching a different show, a spinoff sort of.


----------



## Arnwyn (Mar 29, 2007)

WTF did I just watch? A Paolo and Nikki episode? _Paolo and Nikki?_ Who then get buried alive at the end? And they throw in Billy Dee Williams just for good measure? It smells of desperate and stupid writers...

The only good thing about that episode was seeing Arzt (who, indeed, was too smart for the rest of the morons on the island), and the fact (as RangerWickett points out above) that Paolo and Nikki were willing to, you know, explore (even though the nincompoops still didn't tell - or even react - to the fantastic things they saw. Yeah, right).

I'm still shaking my head.


----------



## RangerWickett (Mar 29, 2007)

Arnwyn said:
			
		

> WTF did I just watch? A Paolo and Nikki episode? _Paolo and Nikki?_ Who then get buried alive at the end? And they throw in Billy Dee Williams just for good measure? It smells of desperate and stupid writers...
> 
> The only good thing about that episode was seeing Artz (who, indeed, was too smart for the rest of the morons on the island), and the fact (as RangerWickett points out above) that Paolo and Nikki were willing to, you know, explore (even though the nincompoops still didn't tell - or even react - to the fantastic things they saw. Yeah, right).
> 
> I'm still shaking my head.




Arzt.


----------



## GoodKingJayIII (Mar 29, 2007)

Brown Jenkin said:
			
		

> That was never an option. [Arzt] was way to smart for his character to continue. If someone inteligent had started asking the right questions there wouldn't be a show.




He couldn't have been that smart; he's the one that got blown up!


----------



## el-remmen (Mar 29, 2007)

I like it.

I felt it was worth it if only for the view of Ben and Juliet pre-kidnapping of Jack and the others. . .


----------



## Sir Brennen (Mar 29, 2007)

The Grumpy Celt said:
			
		

> As for personal observations, I'm just going to say I liked this episode the first time, when it was a _Tales from the Crypt_ story.



Ah, c'mon. _Tales from the Crypt_ stole it from half-a-dozen Alfred Hitchcock stories before it. 

I thought the episode was interesting in that there was a lot of audience winking in this one, like Sawyer's repeated "Who ARE you?"

Also, am I right in remembering the visit to the Pearl station last season *did* include Nikki and Paulo going along, complete with Paulo using the bathroom? So maybe we can have hopes again that things aren't being entirely made up as they go along, and there will be other such (possibly unexpected) payoffs down the road...

Or maybe bumping off Nikki was the Lost writer's way of satisfying the desire of many people for the death of another character named Nikki on a different television series.


----------



## Arnwyn (Mar 29, 2007)

Sir Brennen said:
			
		

> Also, am I right in remembering the visit to the Pearl station last season *did* include Nikki and Paulo going along, complete with Paulo using the bathroom? So maybe we can have hopes again that things aren't being entirely made up as they go along, and there will be other such (possibly unexpected) payoffs down the road...



You are correct - it really did happen (and in that, there was definitely a cute little payoff).


----------



## Taelorn76 (Mar 29, 2007)

Arnwyn said:
			
		

> You are correct - it really did happen (and in that, there was definitely a cute little payoff).




The only thing is that it happened this season. It was in one of the first 6 episodes before they took a break.


----------



## Mark CMG (Mar 29, 2007)

DonTadow said:
			
		

> I felt bamboozled.





[Hurley]Dude.  You're watching _Lost_.[/Hurley]


----------



## RaZZer99 (Mar 30, 2007)

Awesome episode. I loved all the meta-jokes and references. _Razzle Dazzle!_


----------



## Felon (Mar 30, 2007)

OK, I've finally decided to avail myself of the episodes' alleged online availability at abc.com, but I'm not getting anywhere. Maybe you guys can advise?

I click the button for watching the episode, which takes me to a page where I'm told to download the amazing new video player. I download and install the player, and then for all my efforts I get a pop-up screen with an abc logo in it. That's it. No little bar, no little message stating that the episode is streaming. Wait, rinse and repeat, same thing. What am I doing wrong?


----------



## Mark CMG (Mar 30, 2007)

I watch them there and didn't have a problem but there can be a lag.  If it isn't a lag for you, perhaps you can email their support and see if they have a check list.  Do you use IE (like me)?


----------



## Felon (Mar 30, 2007)

I'm using IE 7. I have broadband, and evne taking lag into account, this is pretty horrible.


----------



## Felon (Mar 30, 2007)

Good lord, it finally opened up...to a horribly misformatted page with text links replacing the graphical buttons. Screw this, Bittorrents here I come....


----------



## Silver Moon (Mar 30, 2007)

Taelorn76 said:
			
		

> I don't think they will be back.
> 
> One all their threads were tied up pretty tightly
> 
> Two the mound of sand on top of them was about twice as high as any of the other graves near them.



IMDB has her in the next four episodes.    Of course, with this show that doesn't mean you won't show up in flashbacks after your demise.


----------



## Felon (Mar 30, 2007)

Final score: Bit Torrents 1, ABC.com 0.



			
				Sir Brennen said:
			
		

> Ah, c'mon. _Tales from the Crypt_ stole it from half-a-dozen Alfred Hitchcock stories before it.



Thanks, I'm glad somebody else jumped to can all those _Tales from the Cript_ references. Of course, _Hitchcock Presents_ stole it from some Edgar Allen Poe or Ambrose Bierce story... 

Fun episode, not merely for the main story but for all the other little scenes where we get to see Ethan, Arzt, Ben, Boone, Shannon, etc.


----------



## Steve Jung (Mar 30, 2007)

I didn't like how Nikki and Paolo were shoehorned into the ongoing plot. Meeting Boone and Shannon in the airport. Running around on the beach after the crash. Finding the hatch and the drug plane first. It felt forced and then they get buried alive. What was the point of bringing them in just to kill them a few episodes later? I don't remember the actors getting caught DWI.  :\


----------



## John Crichton (Mar 30, 2007)

I had fun watching it.  Reminded me of the B5 ep where they focused on the grunts and the people you never get to see.  Very good for a mid-season episode.


----------



## Silver Moon (Mar 30, 2007)

Steve Jung said:
			
		

> I didn't like how Nikki and Paolo were shoehorned into the ongoing plot. Meeting Boone and Shannon in the airport. Running around on the beach after the crash. Finding the hatch and the drug plane first. It felt forced and then they get buried alive. What was the point of bringing them in just to kill them a few episodes later? I don't remember the actors getting caught DWI.  :\



A lot of the scenes actually weren't reshot - those two actors have been around since early in the first season as extras.    This week's was actually Nikki's 16th episode and Paolo's 14th episode of Lost.


----------



## Taelorn76 (Mar 30, 2007)

Silver Moon said:
			
		

> A lot of the scenes actually weren't reshot - those two actors have been around since early in the first season as extras.    This week's was actually Nikki's 16th episode and Paolo's 14th episode of Lost.




So they used cutting room footage?


----------



## Felon (Mar 30, 2007)

Steve Jung said:
			
		

> I didn't like how Nikki and Paolo were shoehorned into the ongoing plot. Meeting Boone and Shannon in the airport. Running around on the beach after the crash. Finding the hatch and the drug plane first. It felt forced and then they get buried alive. What was the point of bringing them in just to kill them a few episodes later? I don't remember the actors getting caught DWI.  :\



Well, obviously the point was to get viewers to sit around overanalyzing what "the point" of the episode was rather than simply being entertained.   

As to "shoehorning" them into ongoing events, let's think about that for a second. We know there are more crash survivors than just the dozen or so named characters that we see. If other characters are brought forth from the background, they kind of have to be retconned into the events that have transpired.


----------



## Whizbang Dustyboots (Mar 30, 2007)

Steve Jung said:
			
		

> I didn't like how Nikki and Paolo were shoehorned into the ongoing plot. Meeting Boone and Shannon in the airport.



They were on the flight. Everyone was in the airport at some point.



> Running around on the beach after the crash.



I'm not sure what the alternative here would be.



> What was the point of bringing them in just to kill them a few episodes later? I don't remember the actors getting caught DWI.  :\



What was the point of Alfred Hitchcock Presents? This was just a one-off fun episode. We also get resolution on the fake Others attack on Sun and an Other walkie talkie gets in the hands of the castaways.


----------



## Fast Learner (Mar 31, 2007)

We also learn that just as the background Lostaways don't know a bunch of stuff that's going on with the main characters, so too do the mains not know what's going on with the background characters. In big, important ways. And similarly, the background characters have agendas all their own, and that such agendas might actually matter.


----------



## Steve Jung (Mar 31, 2007)

Silver Moon said:
			
		

> A lot of the scenes actually weren't reshot - those two actors have been around since early in the first season as extras.    This week's was actually Nikki's 16th episode and Paolo's 14th episode of Lost.



Hmm. I had no idea the characters have been around that long. Interesting. I have to give the producers more credit then.


			
				Felon said:
			
		

> ...If other characters are brought forth from the background, they kind of have to be retconned into the events that have transpired.



I know, but it seemed heavy-handed in this case.


----------



## The Grumpy Celt (Mar 31, 2007)

Steve Jung said:
			
		

> I didn't like how Nikki and Paolo were shoehorned into the ongoing plot.




I would have rather spent the time with Rose and Bernard. Have they appeared at all in this season?


----------



## LightPhoenix (Mar 31, 2007)

Silver Moon said:
			
		

> A lot of the scenes actually weren't reshot - those two actors have been around since early in the first season as extras.    This week's was actually Nikki's 16th episode and Paolo's 14th episode of Lost.




That's actually not at all true.  Both Rodrigo Santoro and Kiele Sanchez have only been in the third season.  Any scenes in Expose that weren't reshot, they were digitally added in.

Furthermore, while they are credited for fourteen episodes each (the number of episodes this season), that doesn't mean they've even appeared in all of those - since they were brought on as regular cast, they get billing even if they're not in the episode.


----------



## dravot (Apr 3, 2007)

I enjoyed it a lot.  It was fun to re-visit some of the other scenes from a different point of view, and the Night Gallery type ending was fun too.

Plus, we did get some traction in the storylines, as mentioned above.


----------



## Whizbang Dustyboots (Apr 3, 2007)

The Grumpy Celt said:
			
		

> I would have rather spent the time with Rose and Bernard. Have they appeared at all in this season?



No, but on the podcast, the producers said they've got a good story coming up.


----------



## Grymar (Apr 3, 2007)

Here's a wild theory I've heard.

This wasn't just a one-off story that is put in there for the fun of it, it is one of the key episodes which explains what is going on.  

The theory goes that Desmond actually went back in time and is changing history.  His doing that is altering the present.  Where were Nikki and Paulo during season one and two?  Not on the island!  

Something that Desmond did when he went back in time changed their future so they ended up on the flight.  This episode literally rewrote the past by showing them now in scenes where they weren't the first time.  Some say that they actually replaced Bernard and Rose on the island (haven't seen them yet, have we?), but if they are in an upcoming episode then that would ruin that idea.

A possible spoiler...unlikely but spoiler blocking just in case...
[sblock]Either way, the theory can be modified (Doc Jensen here) that Desmond is going to keep going back and forth in time changing things until he realizes how he can really save Charlie's life for once and for all.   Push the button.  Go back in time, let his partner in the hatch go, and keep pushing the button.  The final shot of the series will be Desmond pushing the button and the plane flying over the island untouched.  [/sblock]


----------



## Cthulhudrew (Apr 3, 2007)

Grymar said:
			
		

> [sblock]Either way, the theory can be modified (Doc Jensen here) that Desmond is going to keep going back and forth in time changing things until he realizes how he can really save Charlie's life for once and for all.   Push the button.  Go back in time, let his partner in the hatch go, and keep pushing the button.  The final shot of the series will be Desmond pushing the button and the plane flying over the island untouched.  [/sblock]




[sblock]And Desmond is then surrounded by a mysterious glow, there is a fade out, and we see him wearing a strange uniform, on the deck of a starship. A man standing next to him says, "Captain? Should we fire?" Desmond looks into a mirror, sees an image of Scott Bakula staring back at him, and says "Oboy."[/sblock]


----------



## Mistwell (Apr 3, 2007)

Cthulhudrew said:
			
		

> And Desmond is then surrounded by a mysterious glow, there is a fade out, and we see him wearing a strange uniform, on the deck of a starship. A man standing next to him says, "Captain? Should we fire?" Desmond looks into a mirror, sees an image of Scott Bakula staring back at him, and says "Oboy."


----------

