Brandon Otte's Blog

Lost: Expose

Hola, gangerang.

Tivo is awesome! And so, apparently, are Nikki and Paulo. But I guess we’ll never know just how awesome now, will we. But we can all bask in the great awesomeness of Tivo for weeks, months, and years to come. I could have written this last night after I finished watching the episode (shortly after most of you finished the episode, although I started at about 9:30 because I rock), but I had some homework to avoid and more season passes to add to my new best friend.

As it turns out, Nikki and Paulo were a walking clip show. They reminded us all of the friends we left behind (that science teacher guy! Ethan!) and those friends we’d hoped were really dead and gone for good (Shannon! Boone!). The episode was cleverly staged to showcase that Nikki and Paulo were there from the beginning, just on the fringe of the A Team but not cool enough to be on the B Team.

In an off-island life, Nikki was an actress in the way that Paris Hilton, Pamela Anderson, those girls on the Real World, et cetera, are actresses – they aren’t, but they’re pretty and good at sleeping with people. Paulo, on the other hand, was a cook who knew something about poison. Together, they were a conning team. Nikki slept with some producer enough to convince him to hire Paulo as his cook. Paulo promptly poisoned him, and the couple got into his secret safe full of those dolls that come apart and diamonds.

It was with the diamonds that they were planning to escape Australia on Oceanic 815. Once the plane crashed, they spent most of their time looking for the bag that had the diamonds and turning into a Shannon/Boone bickering couple. Paulo actually finds the diamonds quite early, but he doesn’t tell Nikki.

Through the course of the 815ers stay on the island, Nikki and Paulo saw a lot of things that they didn’t really tell anyone about – The airplane where Locke sacrificed Boone, for instance, or the Pearl Hatch with all the TVs in it. Paulo actually saw Ben and Juliet before the former became Henry, switched to Benry and then shortened it to Ben. They also got to know a lot of the minor characters on the island – Arzt, Shannon, Boone, Ethan, Etc.

But Nikki finds Paulo’s diamond hiding ways out, and she tricks him. She tosses one of Arzt’s spiders at him – one that will paralyze him for about eight hours. She’s apparently not the brightest person on the island, though, because she doesn’t remember that the spider will attract a boatload more spiders, and she gets bitten, too. Rather than running to get help and explain what happened, she runs and hides the diamonds, then falls onto the beach next to Sawyer and Hurley (who are playing ping pong). They think she’s dead. They find Paulo and think he’s dead, too. An investigation ensues, the find the diamonds and they dig a big whole for burying the couple. But not before Nikki opens her eyes as the dirt falls on her face (even though, logically, it should have been Paulo that woke up first).

Thus end Nikki and Paulo (probably). They were never fan favorites, but they had an interesting story. It was kind of a filler episode, though, but let’s hope that means we just needed a breather before the coming epic climax or something. It wasn’t this season’s best, but it certainly wasn’t this season’s worst. All in all, a pretty good episode.

What did you think of Nikki and Paulo? They’re episode served to solve a couple minor plot points on the island, but they didn’t really do anything great. Was it worth it? Do you think they’re dead? Anyway, I’m asking a few too many...

Questions (not so serious edition):
1. How come the Pearl Hatch was so easy for Nikki and Paulo to find, but Locke didn’t notice it for days?
2. How cool was it to see Billy Dee Williams (aka Lando Calrisian)?
3. Where does Hurley park his van?
4. Didn’t you just want to see a hand pop up out of the sand all Zombie movie-style? But I guess that would mean more Nikki and Paulo.
5. Did you hate Nikki and Paulo as much as a lot of “Lost” fans?

Posted by Brandon O at March 29, 2007 8:09 AM