We've made it to the fourth week of the Rewatch, yet I'm still finishing up the third week's episodes. I've spent a lot of time in the car during the past week shuttling myself between two family vacation spots, so I've fallen behind in the schedule. But I'm now back in front of my computer for the foreseeable future, and productive I shall be.
At the beginning of the previous post, I marveled at how many different characters there are on the show and how the writers kept centering on a different man or woman in each episode. Well, I spoke too soon, because today's episode is a character's first repeat episode: "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" is the second Jack-centric tale. But that's okay, because we always learn a bit more about the Losties through another 40-minute installment. And Jack's deep. And layered. He's a well. He's an onion. Actually, strike that. Jack and his father are both wells and onions. Drs. Well and Onion M.D.s.
Joking aside, this episode has some heavy stuff. Let's get to it.
On the island, everyone's in a mad scramble because Hurley's census revealed that Ethan--who had been living amongst the survivors of Flight 815--was not on the flight's manifest, which means that he had already been on the island. They're also scrambling because Charlie and Claire have gone missing. Oh, and they also remember that someone or something has been trying to harm Claire during the night. They're all in a tizzy over it, 'cept for Sawyer.
Conveniently, Jack and Kate are experienced trackers. Jack and Boone join them as they tenaciously tail the missing Brit and Aussie through the jungle. Jack and Kate are a pair, and Locke takes the young Boone under his wing. The former find Ethan and the moribund Charlie, but no Claire. The latter find something else entirely, and it'll keep 'em busy for many episodes.
Before I tackle what each pair finds, allow me to gloss over the flashbacks. They're quite good, but there's no need to recap them in great depth here. They simply involve Jack and his father Christian, who struggled with an alcohol problem. Christian botched an emergency surgery because he had a few cocktails with his lunch while he was on call and it resulted in the patient's death. He tried to coerce Jack into covering for him, and Jack nearly did 'til he had a crisis of conscience. He wound up telling a review board that his father was a boozer, and it presumably led to Christian's termination as Chief of Surgery. And that's probably why he went on the bender down under that killed him.
There. Now back to the island.
Jack and Kate follow the trail of tape that Charlie left for them. Remember how Charlie wears tape around his fingers? And he writes letters on them? L-A-T-E? Well, he hung them on different branches as a trail. It leads Jack and Kate to a rain-soaked showdown with the all-powerful Ethan, who proceeds to beat the living snot out of Jack, threatening that he'll kill either Charlie or Claire if they don't stop following him. Of course, Jack and Kate don't listen and proceed the chase. They come upon Charlie, blindfolded and hanging from a tree. They take him down and, in a bizarre scene, Jack tries to resuscitate the rock star to no avail. It looks as though Dominic Monaghan's run on Lost is a short one, because the sad music's playing and he's not showing any signs of coming back to life. Then, in a fit of frustration, a sobbing Jack beats on Charlie's chest as Kate has to turn away in disgust. Inexplicably, Charlie gasps back to life after Jack pummels his chest for what seems to be the thirtieth or fortieth time. After a moment of exultation, they get him back to the beach and beseech him to tell them what happened. Charlie can't remember, except that "they" only wanted Claire.
One of the greatest questions surrounding this scene is Ethan's apparently gargantuan strength. I know others have speculated on it, but I have to say that I don't really see any superhuman strength here. I mean, there's the comment about how he can whisk a grown man and a pregnant woman away into the jungle by himself. I suppose that's impressive. But he doesn't appear to have ungodly strength when he fights Jack. He just gets at him and gets at him good, I say. But if Ethan were to have super strength, the best explanation would involve his birth on the island, which we see in the fifth season. That would also explain why he was so enamored of Juliet when he met her in the third season (since she successfully delivered him in 1974), but, once again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's just say that Ethan's strong. Maybe not incredibly ultra-strong, but strong.
In the other search party, Mr. John Locke continues to mystify us. This is the episode in which he finds the fabled hatch with Boone, a plot development that will consume the majority of his actions for the remainder of the first season. Before that, though, we would be wise to examine the scene in which he predicts the onset of rain with uncanny accuracy. As he marches along with Boone, he turns and announces that it will rain in "one minute...give or take a few seconds." And, like clockwork, the skies above Locke and Boone open up about 60 seconds later. Seeing as how Locke remains an enigma, even in these early episodes where we think we should know him better, I'm hard pressed not to attribute this prediction to some special resonance with the island. When first viewing this episode, I think I counted this talent among his many survival skills (boar hunting, tracking). But dude's way too good, right? It's just a bit too convenient. We're going to have to remember that ambiguous interaction Locke had with Smokey and not be surprised when we learn in the sixth season that he's never been the John Locke we thought we knew. I'm just saying...
Further proof is shown in one of the final scenes of the episode. As night sets in, Boone thinks they should call it a day and head back home. But Locke ain't havin' it. Here's their brief little exchange:
Boone: Are we lost?
Locke: No, Boone. We're not lost.
Boone: Sorry. It's just...I don't see how you can still be following this trail. I think we should go back, man.
Locke: Don't you feel it?
Boone: Feel what?!
Locke: It!
At this point, Boone throws in the towel, telling Locke that he's headed back. Locke's okay with it, and even turns around to give Boone his flashlight. He tosses it to the younger one, but it falls through his grip and lands with an odd, metallic clunk. Lo and behold, it's the hatch.
So, again we're faced with a question about Locke. What was the "it" he was referring to? Is the finding of the hatch more evidence of his special commune with the island, or was it simply dumb luck? Maybe the electromagnetism contained in the hatch was pulling at the fillings in his teeth? Again, it's hard to say definitively, but I'm gonna lean toward the special commune. Looking back on these episodes, it becomes clearer and clearer that the writers had something special planned for Locke from the very start. All of these incidents can't all possibly be coincidence.
Look, that last line rhymed. That means I should wrap this up and hit the hay. I'll be back at it tomorrow with "Whatever the Case May Be."
Thanks for reading!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment