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LOST - Expose’ Thoeries, Spoilers, and Things to Hollar About

Lost News — March 26, 2007 at 1:06 pm by DavidHume

pikki.jpgExpose’ is a couple of days off now, so it is time once again for us to throw our theories against the wall and see what sticks!  Most of the content for this article is going to be highly spoilerific, so I will have no choice but to tuck it beneath the link.  For those of you who don’t want spoilers, but maybe just a little tweak to your psyche meter… Expose’ is and episode that will attempt the impossible;  to redeem Nikki and Paulo.   The question is, what is redemption?

In this sense, at least, I think the word ‘redemption’ is closer associated to a more generalized ‘payoff’.  Perhaps it is not the characters who will be redeemed at all, but the writers and producers who so rudely thrust these thorny interlopers into our otherwise bucolic island community.  More details that are not so spoilerish:  despite previous reports, there is a present-day-island component to the story, although some of the flashbacks will take place in the past.  And now for the segment I like to call "Anatomy of a scumbag".  And here, my friends, is where the spoiler averse should go find their quiet place… 



Let’s face it, Nikki and Paulo don’t have the sort of advantages that Shannon had last season.  Shannon was mildly loathed by a large portion of the audience, and at worst pigeon holed as the ’spoiled rich bitch’.    Beside all that though, she fit inside the LOST universe.  After all, she was the chick with the hot legs and the crazy scream, one of every LOST fan’s most fond memories of their introduction.  There was something about the pitch of that scream layered against that howling jet engine that just chilled you to the bone.

  So when ‘Abandoned’ came along and we learned that Shannon was a girl with dashed hopes, the recipient of the rawest of raw deals, we couldn’t blame her for her singularity approach to life, nor her contempt for people who told her ‘what she couldn’t do’.  I would have liked to have known Shannon more, the humble artist with high hopes and the skills and opportunities to make them a reality. 

Nikki and Paulo don’t have anything like that to feed off.  There is nothing redeemable about Paulo’s bad hook shot or frequent potty breaks, and Nikki’s ‘Well, duh, its a monitoring station, HELLO!’ routine didn’t really set her up the sort of character dissection that could make such a trait not only fathomable, but justified.  They just. plain. suck.  Okay, there… I said it.  So when the writing room got together to deal with the Paulo / Nikki situation, the discussion had to go something like this:

"What are we going to do about Paulo and Nikki?  What can we do to make them likable for the audience?  How can we overcome all the complaints about them not fitting in?"

Blank stares ensue, perhaps a few crickets sing from some dark corner of the hushed writers room.  Then a brave soul raises his hand cautiously, like some angry writer deity might strike from above and snap it off…

"…what if we made them total a**holes.  So the audience would feel justified in hating them…"

The creative energy in the room blossoms.  Fluorescent tubes burst.  Metal objects swirl in the vortex of raw story energy that is invoked.  The writer’s room has a new mission… to make Paulo and Nikki more despicable than any anal, change averted, OCD fan could ever feel from a mere botched introduction.  And now, we get Expose’.

Okay so this is LONG winded.  If I haven’t lost you here is what I am thinking… WITH photographic evidence. 

You’ve already seen my theory, backed now by rumors, that confirms at least one death.  Nikki.   And there are copious rumors that Paulo is also shot in this episode.  Next comes a single line of dialog from the American preview that requires a bit of explanation:  "They were working with ‘The Others’…"

So here we go.  Very simple. First of all, both of them are basic scum bags to begin with.  Nikki is a stripper/sex worker which we know from the March preview.  Paulo uses Nikki to seduce a mark which leads them to steal a small fortune in diamonds and precious metals.  After the crash, the goods turn up missing.  Paulo tries diving for them in the wreckage, and finds some of them, save for the diamonds.  (See the insets, note the matryoshka doll in the safe, from flashback, and on the beach being buried by Paulo sans Nikki!) 

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So here is where the thieving, conniving duo become involved with the others.  If you look at this picture you will notice Nikki and Paulo have exasperated looks on their faces, and Ethan is opening a side of his shirt.  Possibly to reveal something?  A gun?  Maybe a satchel?  Whatever it is, the rest of the conundrum goes like this.  In the greed to get their warez back, Nikki and Paulo wind up providing info to the others.  Perhaps Paulo’s frequent bathroom trips are opportunities for him to ‘report in’ to ‘the others’?  This picture shows the very moment a shocked Nikki and Paulo find out that their stolen goods are in Ethan’s possession, and in they want them back… they’ll cooperate.

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Remember how nobody could figure out how Ethan got back on the beach to kill Scott?  (Or was that Steve?)  Prediction:  Paulo did it, on Ethan’s behalf.  Another task leading to getting his stolen gems back.

Expose’ will no doubt have the scumbag double crossers finally fulfilling their duties to "the others " and getting the location of their prized stolen gems, only to have Nikki double-cross Paulo by shooting him dead, and subsequently being bitten by a spider which causes a paralyzed state indistinguishable from death,  buried on the beach with a fortune of ill begotten diamonds in her pocket.

So there it is!  Redemption in this case is making the characters we hate for, really, pretty invalid reasons worthy of that hate with an extra helping of loathing on top.  To try to make us like them, at this point, would probably be a phenomenal waste of screen time.

Remember, on Wednesday… feel free to come back and tell me just how off I really was.

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