Lost in Translation

I waited in breathless anticipation of this week’s LOST. Finally I would understand the purpose of the introduction of Niki and Paulo. I was greatly disappointed.

First of all, and this won’t spoil much for folks… I’ll save that for the “read more” section… Niki and Paulo came out of nowhere. Every other new character was introduced with some kind of purpose or context. The “tailies” were survivors from the tail section; the “others” are mysterious folks on the other side of the island; Rousseau is a woman who has been stranded for 16 years; Desmond manned the hatch. For some reason, one day Niki and Paulo suddenly stepped from the background and spoke to main characters. And the main characters knew who they were. It was just wrong.

Secondly, they seemed to have no connection to anyone, no reason for being there and no charisma. I’m attached to Sun and Jin, Claire and Charlie, Desmond, Hurley, Kate, Jack, Sawyer… and while I’m not fond of Locke lately, he has reason to be there. Niki and Paulo are simply useless.

If you haven’t seen this week’s episode: Expose’ (Season 3 episode 14) don’t click “Read More”! If you have…. click away!

(Lucy)
All interviews and sound bites promised that after we saw “Expose’” we would understand Niki and Paulo’s purpose on the island, their connections, and we would like them! Hello? Wrong on all three counts!

After a series of flashbacks placing them in scenes from previous episodes, in which they had no real connections to any of our favorite survivors, I still didn’t see why Niki and Paulo were there. I certainly didn’t like them. I loved it when Sawyer, after being confronted by Niki demanding a gun said, “Who are you anyway?” I felt his pain.

Con artists are in abundance on the island and two more were not necessary. Their greed got them nowhere and they gained nothing. After being bitten by Medusa Spiders and paralyzed, appearing dead, they were buried alive.

I feel ripped off. My time has been wasted. Nothing they did or said added to my Lost “experience”. They enlightened no one to anything. They discovered nothing. They had no history with anyone on the island. It seems like the writers felt they had a few extra episodes to fill so they stuck this in. When fans declared their dislike of these intruders, they were summarily killed.

That was the best part, actually, them getting buried. I just hope to hell the island doesn’t barf them up. They are pretty distasteful.