Long Live Locke.: S3Ep14 - Exposé (Nikki and Paulo's one and only flashback):
I listened to the official ABC podcast this week and have paraphrased what was covered...
-The idea for Nikki and Paulo came up at the end of Season 1. But they felt that it wasn't right to introduce them until this year.
- 'The fans kept asking about the background people, and then we gave them the background people, and then everyone's like 'Who the hell are these people?' However, they feel like the pay-off was worth it. yeah I think it was totally well done to give us a focus on background people, integrated into the scenes & events we have already seen. made the presence of background people more plausible - by showing how a shift in focus could give us their story. different people, whole different story...
- They liked getting to see all the 'iconic moments from Season 1' seen from the perspective of 'somebody you didn't realize was there.' yeah I think that was very cool. since we know there are other people we have not been following. to see their point of view. esp the contrast that these people did not feel any call from destiny, anything magical or mysterious about the island. they find the hatch and do not explore. Paulo hears the Others talking and does not make anything of it. their show is not a mystery, just a straight up drama of stealing diamonds, crashing, looking for the diamonds... Without the point-of-view (esp of Locke) and the framing and music, the same ~mysterious~ things do not become the story.
-It was Damon Lindelof's idea to bury them alive. I thought this was well written. bracketed by Nikki's final utterance, misunderstood: what did she say?
Sawyer: She stumbled out of the jungle...face planted...said something like "plywood"...and...and sayonara.
Hurley: Actually, I think she said "power lines."
'powerlines'? 'Paulo lies!' wh makes sense... but at the end we learn she said 'Para-lyzed.' haunting.

FROM THE BOARDS
- SO GRUESOME! Loved it!
- I'd take this episode over another "omg, Sawyer isn't very nice" flashback any day. It was campy and fun and really good television.
-A celebration of the craft, and a nod and a wink to the conventions that go along with getting something out on the air week after week. A very personal gift from the writers. As has been said before, very meta and self-referential; if you can provide the requisite suspension of disbelief, a unique sit-around-the-campfire for those who are committed to going along for the ride.
- Nikki and Paulo served their purposes: 1) to fill out the cast of island survivors yes and remind us that their lives are just as complex as those of the main characters and 2) to take us through the history of the show by another course yes nice, tying some loose ends along the way. This show has always resisted the idea of "heroes," the kinds of people who are in some way better than the rest of us; this show is about everyday people trying to get by, and the stories of the survivors we know are not inherently more meaningful than those of the survivors we don't. yes good.


The Bastard Machine : All my "Lost" "Riches" in one convenient post!
-I thoroughly enjoyed the Paulo & Nikki espisode because, even though it didn't advance the story, it was well-written and just downright fun.
...
-Doesn't "smokey the monster" remind anyone of the monster on the TV show "The Prisoner"? i.e. the giant white weather balloon that roared? "Sorry, we don't have a budget for a good giant monster, we spent all that money on sweat-proof makeup for the actors- um, here! We'll computer generate some smoke! You're welcome!"