If anyone ever complains about this episode, I will show them this video. Exposé is a lot of fun, and you listed all the reasons why (and more!). You mentioned the long take to me before, and I really love how you explained its inclusion here - since we're cutting to "real life", the scene remains unedited. When they leave the studio, that's when the scene cuts between Nikki and Zuckerman again.
Thanks for the kind words! Yeah, the long take is quite fun in that regards. Especially, like compared to other long takes, this has so many moving parts, with a camera flowing around the characters
I love your analysis! I'm of the opinion too like yourself that it's a very cleverly written episode. It's also a perfect thematic episode in which Nikki and Paulo serve as character foils to all our main characters. Whereas most of our LOSTies learn to let go and move on from their pasts... Nikki and Paulo do the exact opposite. Locke says "things don't stay buried on this island..." and thematically it refers to the fact that the island does not let you hide your past away, it forces you to confront it and overcome it. So it is so perfectly poetic and ironic that in the end, when Nikki cannot let go of their past... when she refuses to change their ways... to bring the diamonds out into the open and be rid of them... she instead discovers them on Paulo, she takes them and then as soon as she has them she tries to bury and hide them again.... and the most poetic of all... for their actions and being unable to bring past misgivings out into the light... for continuing to bury and hide their secrets... in the end THEY are the ones which get buried. So quite literally staying in their past, being buried in the past, THEY end up quite literally being buried, and as a result, it costs them their lives. Moreover, their deaths are a symptom of them not working with and communicating with the rest of the camp - it goes back to the 'live together, die alone' main theme of the show. It's played for dark comedy but the message and irony is simple in that their deaths could easily have been avoided had they let go and moved on from their pasts as well as integrated better into and communicated with their island community. Great analysis and hope you enjoy my take on it as well!
I always found it hilarious that Paulo had more common sense than John & Boone to avoid going into the plane. Also the episode's cut scenes were among the funniest.
Brilliant analysis! I loved how you peeled back all of these layers and connections, both to genre television, film noir, but also echoes and foreshadowing to later seasons of Lost. This was one of your best videos yet! On a side note, personally, I don’t think the smoke monster can appear as animals - there’s something too overpowered to that concept as well as almost a psychological/existential horror in my mind of picturing MIB morphing into animals. We never see any confirmation or evidence in show of this, only the ability to appear as dead people. So I don’t like to think he is the spiders or the black horse. But I know Damon and Carlton in a podcast connected the monster to the spiders (although potentially tongue-in-cheek, as was often the case on the podcast), so I understand that some hold to this theory, and I’m fine with that. Personally, Hurley claiming it was the monster kind of dispels it for me as well - the point of all the theorizing about what killed Nikki and Paulo by Hurley, Sawyer, Charlie and Sun is again representative of fan theories about Lost being off base and needing to just go along for the ride and not fixate on correctly predicting what will happen next or what the answers to the mysteries are until they are revealed in the proper time. Arzt said that one whiff of pheromones would bring more spiders, so the creators seemed to give us the answer pretty clearly. I interpret what happened as the monster was passing by and the noise of it distracted Nikki from seeing the spiders coming. That is actually thematically fitting too - these new side characters who were hated by the fans actually don’t merit the Smoke Monster’s attention - he passes by and doesn’t see them, just like Sawyer can’t remember their names. They are nonessential to the overarching story and plot and don’t even get a meaningful death - they manage to kill themselves through their own foolishness and greed.
Thank you very much! And this is a brilliant comment too! I think I could've prephaced how it is either that or the other. Like you say, the whiff of pheromones is also a clue of it being spiders and not necessarily the monster.
I watched Lost all in one go and loved this episode. I think most of the people who hate it are the ones who watched it while it was airing. There's a huge disconnect between these two demographics in Season 3. After a long (some would say overlong) stretch of episodes with the main characters as prisoners, and in a season with episodes about Jack's tattoos, Hurley finding a van, and Christian being Claire's dad, it's easy to look at this episode and think that the show is simply spinning its wheels and padding out the run time. And to be fair, that wasn't entirely wrong.
Interestingly enough, I watched it while it aired and really liked it back then. However, I had VERY LOW expectations. I hated Nikki and Paulo and knew this was their centric. So I knew we wouldn't follow on Locke and the Man from Tallahassee-storyline. So maybe if you were geared up after the barracks action, without knowing about the upcoming Nikki and Paulo-episode, then you'd be disappointed? Even on the podcast, Damon and Carlton warned that some people would not like "Exposé" the week before it premiered. > Carlton Cuse: We love "Exposé," although, I'm sure that there will be a lot of people that will jump on, uh, you know, various websites like, uh, you know, television without pity and say that we've jumped the shark with this episode, but, you know, if we're ever- AND LATER --- Carlton Cuse: Damarlton. Damarlton. That's good. "I've seen some screen grabs from the upcoming episode "Exposé" and I have to say I'm a bit confused. One shot shows Boone holding Nikki by the shoulders, and his hair is noticeably longer than it was back in season one. I mean, I know there's some discrepancies, particularly with Sawyer's hair in the pilot changing to a longer style in the second episode, but Boone's hair is the one constant for all of season one." (laughs) This is difficult to swallow for those of us who are dis, disturbingly obsessed with the show. (laughs) I think that's pretty much the operative phrase. Damon Lindelof: Yes, I'm not really sure there's an answer to that question, other than- Carlton Cuse: It's not really a question, it's just a statement. Damon Lindelof: You're gonna be one of the people who *really* hates "Exposé". ---- So I truly expected the lowest point of the show, but instead I was laughing through the whole thing, very engaged in the murder mystery and enjoyed it a lot.
Exposé pisses me off but not for the reason you might think. I don’t like how they killed off Nikki and Paulo. I think lost is a great show, but there are so many other survivors that just don’t do anything. It feels like the entire world revolves around the 20 main people on the island and it’s really annoying. I was so happy when Nikki and Paulo were introduced because it was new main characters that were other survivors. It was fresh and then to kill them off a few episodes after their introduction just really annoyed me. That being said I still do like exposé as an episode. I just hate how Nikki and Paulo were handled
If anyone ever complains about this episode, I will show them this video. Exposé is a lot of fun, and you listed all the reasons why (and more!). You mentioned the long take to me before, and I really love how you explained its inclusion here - since we're cutting to "real life", the scene remains unedited. When they leave the studio, that's when the scene cuts between Nikki and Zuckerman again.
Thanks for the kind words! Yeah, the long take is quite fun in that regards. Especially, like compared to other long takes, this has so many moving parts, with a camera flowing around the characters
Took me 5 watch-thrus to appreciate this episode. Still didn't catch the Russian doll reference until watching this. Thanks!
I love your analysis! I'm of the opinion too like yourself that it's a very cleverly written episode. It's also a perfect thematic episode in which Nikki and Paulo serve as character foils to all our main characters. Whereas most of our LOSTies learn to let go and move on from their pasts... Nikki and Paulo do the exact opposite. Locke says "things don't stay buried on this island..." and thematically it refers to the fact that the island does not let you hide your past away, it forces you to confront it and overcome it. So it is so perfectly poetic and ironic that in the end, when Nikki cannot let go of their past... when she refuses to change their ways... to bring the diamonds out into the open and be rid of them... she instead discovers them on Paulo, she takes them and then as soon as she has them she tries to bury and hide them again.... and the most poetic of all... for their actions and being unable to bring past misgivings out into the light... for continuing to bury and hide their secrets... in the end THEY are the ones which get buried.
So quite literally staying in their past, being buried in the past, THEY end up quite literally being buried, and as a result, it costs them their lives.
Moreover, their deaths are a symptom of them not working with and communicating with the rest of the camp - it goes back to the 'live together, die alone' main theme of the show. It's played for dark comedy but the message and irony is simple in that their deaths could easily have been avoided had they let go and moved on from their pasts as well as integrated better into and communicated with their island community.
Great analysis and hope you enjoy my take on it as well!
Those are some excellent insights!
@@jordannisly Thanks!
Thanks! And great breakdown here too. Fully agree with everything you say
I always found it hilarious that Paulo had more common sense than John & Boone to avoid going into the plane. Also the episode's cut scenes were among the funniest.
Criminally underrated channel, sub number has to go up
Thanks! :)
Brilliant analysis! I loved how you peeled back all of these layers and connections, both to genre television, film noir, but also echoes and foreshadowing to later seasons of Lost. This was one of your best videos yet!
On a side note, personally, I don’t think the smoke monster can appear as animals - there’s something too overpowered to that concept as well as almost a psychological/existential horror in my mind of picturing MIB morphing into animals. We never see any confirmation or evidence in show of this, only the ability to appear as dead people. So I don’t like to think he is the spiders or the black horse. But I know Damon and Carlton in a podcast connected the monster to the spiders (although potentially tongue-in-cheek, as was often the case on the podcast), so I understand that some hold to this theory, and I’m fine with that. Personally, Hurley claiming it was the monster kind of dispels it for me as well - the point of all the theorizing about what killed Nikki and Paulo by Hurley, Sawyer, Charlie and Sun is again representative of fan theories about Lost being off base and needing to just go along for the ride and not fixate on correctly predicting what will happen next or what the answers to the mysteries are until they are revealed in the proper time.
Arzt said that one whiff of pheromones would bring more spiders, so the creators seemed to give us the answer pretty clearly. I interpret what happened as the monster was passing by and the noise of it distracted Nikki from seeing the spiders coming. That is actually thematically fitting too - these new side characters who were hated by the fans actually don’t merit the Smoke Monster’s attention - he passes by and doesn’t see them, just like Sawyer can’t remember their names. They are nonessential to the overarching story and plot and don’t even get a meaningful death - they manage to kill themselves through their own foolishness and greed.
Thank you very much! And this is a brilliant comment too!
I think I could've prephaced how it is either that or the other. Like you say, the whiff of pheromones is also a clue of it being spiders and not necessarily the monster.
You sumeed up perfectly why it's one of my favorite episode too! And one of the best filler episode of TV shows aswell.
Razzle Dazzle!!
Miles should have said that when holding up the diamond.
Mindblown!
Magnum!
I watched Lost all in one go and loved this episode. I think most of the people who hate it are the ones who watched it while it was airing. There's a huge disconnect between these two demographics in Season 3. After a long (some would say overlong) stretch of episodes with the main characters as prisoners, and in a season with episodes about Jack's tattoos, Hurley finding a van, and Christian being Claire's dad, it's easy to look at this episode and think that the show is simply spinning its wheels and padding out the run time. And to be fair, that wasn't entirely wrong.
Interestingly enough, I watched it while it aired and really liked it back then. However, I had VERY LOW expectations. I hated Nikki and Paulo and knew this was their centric. So I knew we wouldn't follow on Locke and the Man from Tallahassee-storyline. So maybe if you were geared up after the barracks action, without knowing about the upcoming Nikki and Paulo-episode, then you'd be disappointed? Even on the podcast, Damon and Carlton warned that some people would not like "Exposé" the week before it premiered.
> Carlton Cuse: We love "Exposé," although, I'm sure that there will be a lot of people that will jump on, uh, you know, various websites like, uh, you know, television without pity and say that we've jumped the shark with this episode, but, you know, if we're ever-
AND LATER
---
Carlton Cuse: Damarlton. Damarlton. That's good. "I've seen some screen grabs from the upcoming episode "Exposé" and I have to say I'm a bit confused. One shot shows Boone holding Nikki by the shoulders, and his hair is noticeably longer than it was back in season one. I mean, I know there's some discrepancies, particularly with Sawyer's hair in the pilot changing to a longer style in the second episode, but Boone's hair is the one constant for all of season one." (laughs) This is difficult to swallow for those of us who are dis, disturbingly obsessed with the show. (laughs) I think that's pretty much the operative phrase.
Damon Lindelof: Yes, I'm not really sure there's an answer to that question, other than-
Carlton Cuse: It's not really a question, it's just a statement.
Damon Lindelof: You're gonna be one of the people who *really* hates "Exposé".
----
So I truly expected the lowest point of the show, but instead I was laughing through the whole thing, very engaged in the murder mystery and enjoyed it a lot.
Exposé pisses me off but not for the reason you might think. I don’t like how they killed off Nikki and Paulo. I think lost is a great show, but there are so many other survivors that just don’t do anything. It feels like the entire world revolves around the 20 main people on the island and it’s really annoying. I was so happy when Nikki and Paulo were introduced because it was new main characters that were other survivors. It was fresh and then to kill them off a few episodes after their introduction just really annoyed me. That being said I still do like exposé as an episode. I just hate how Nikki and Paulo were handled