The second half of the pilot opens up on Jack, Kate and Charlie making their way back to the beach with the newfound transceiver. It appears that day has broken, and we can assume they spent the night out in the jungle. A brief flashback reveals Charlie’s heroin addiction, and at this point, seasoned viewers of Lost recall that the show is still introducing the different characters. It may seem slightly tedious as we review these, seeing as how we’ve been acquainted with the myriad personalities for several years now, but it also serves to remind us why Lost is such a great show. The character development that begins here does so much to drag us in so that we personally invest feelings with those whom we love and hate. Me? I love Charlie! And who doesn’t? Sure, as a strung-out rock star, he doesn’t make the greatest first impression on us. But our opinion of him rises precipitously from here.
In fact, as the second half of the pilot episode unfolds, we get a first impression of lots of the characters in addition to Charlie. We see a spoiled Shannon, the vigorous Boone, Jin’s domineering attitude toward his wife Sun, the rough-around-the-edges Sawyer, and the good-natured Hurley.
Out from all of these character introductions emerges the plot of the episode: Sayid and Kate—joined by Charlie, Shannon, Boone and Sawyer—ascend one of the island’s highest points in order to get the clearest signal possible for the transceiver they retrieved from the cockpit. But on the way up, the group runs afoul of a polar bear, which Sawyer dispatches with the handgun he recovered from the U.S. Marshall. Early on in the series, this scene delivered one of the first big head-scratchers: How the hell did a polar bear end up in such a tropical climate? Of course, we later learn about the Dharma Initiative’s research with a variety of wildlife on the island, and can safely assume that that explains the presence of a polar bear. My wife still takes issue with this scene, however, because she contends that the animal research was done on the adjacent island, which we find out about in the third season. It was there that Sawyer and Kate were imprisoned in the large bear cages. All I can say at this juncture is that I didn’t pay too much attention to this detail in the past, so I’m hoping to come up with something as the re-watch continues. If you feel you can confirm or deny the presence of polar bear research on the main island, then go ahead and shout me down in the comments section!
Meanwhile, Jack is busy at work trying to save the U.S. Marshall’s life. The Marshall—who was escorting Kate back to the United States—survived the crash, but was critically injured. Jack’s not doing so well at reviving the Marshall, but we see his devotion to fixing problems (even if they’re seemingly impossible). Oh, and Hurley passes out while trying to help Jack pull out the piece of shrapnel embedded in the Marshall’s torso. A classic example of Hurley functioning as comic relief.
Cutting back to the transceiver group, they make it to the top of the peak and finally get a signal. Just not the sort of signal they were hoping for. As we all know by now, it’s the voice of Danielle Rousseau, whose ship arrived at the island 16 years prior. Shannon translates the French and says that something “killed them all.” I’ll admit that this was an intriguing mystery, and I was quite excited when we finally saw what happened to her crew during a fifth season flashback. Smokey got the best of ‘em. I also love this scene because at the very end, Charlie delivers one of my favorite lines from the series: “Guys…where are we?”
Aside from the crises of the dying Marshall, the encounter with the polar bear, and the ominous French distress call, this episode features the immensely interesting scene involving John Locke and Walt. Walt comes upon Locke playing backgammon, and Locke explains the history and concept of the game to Walt, who has never played it. In his explanation, Locke emphasizes that backgammon is played between two people who are represented by either white or black pieces. Now, far be it from me to insult anyone’s intelligence, but the whole “bla
ck versus white” or “light versus dark” thing goes way back in recorded history/literature and is essentially a representation of opposing forces, or “good versus evil,” if you will. The exchange between Locke and Walt is short, but this scene turns out to be quite noteworthy, as it establishes the whole idea of opposing forces which are omnipresent throughout the Lost saga. Just off the top of my head, there’s: reason versus faith; Jack versus Locke; Jack versus Sawyer; the Dharma Initiative versus the Others. Suffice it to say that there are lots of examples. This whole concept of black and white actually comes together quite nicely when one thinks about the opening scene of the fifth season finale, the most recently aired episode. Although it’s unclear as to which one could possibly represent good or evil, Jacob—garbed in a white tunic—is approached by his presumed adversary, who wears (you guessed it) a black tunic. The two proceed to have what seems like a friendly conversation until the adversary in black asks Jacob, “do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you?” Opposing forces? You bet your bottom. Anyway, as we continue with these episode reviews, we’d do well to note the appearance of opposing forces, whether real or symbolic. The writers went out of their way to make it a theme from the beginning, so we should naturally pay attention to it.Thus concludes the recap of the pilot episode. Next time we’ll be moving on to the first of the flashback episodes with the Kate-centric “Tabula Rasa.” As always, thanks for reading! And feel free to comment. All types of feedback are welcomed. Just try to keep it PG, everyone. :-P
No comments:
Post a Comment