Sea. 1, Ep. 15: Homecoming

"Homecoming" is the episode that features the return of Claire (remember the end of the previous installment?). Only there's a problem: she don't remember nothin' 'bout what done happened to her! But even though "Homecoming" seems like it'd be billed as Claire-centric, most of the emphasis (including the flashbacks) is placed on Charlie, who's still torn up about his sweetheart's abduction and his inability to set things straight (tuck that last nugget of info away for later).

So, here's the gist of what goes down: Ethan confronts Charlie and Jin in the middle of the jungle and demands of Charlie that Claire be returned to him. Sheesh. It appears that Ethan's more obsessive than one of Driveshaft's groupies. He claims that if he doesn't get Claire back by the end of the day, he'll kill one of the 815 survivors. And if the holdout continues, he'll keep offing them one by one on a daily basis 'til they're all dead. The icing on the cake is that he'll kill Charlie at the very end.

Of course, this means that the survivors have to spring into action to save their own. Now it's not the first time we've seen it, but this development in "Homecoming" leads to another instance of the emerging conflict between Jack and Locke. After learning about Ethan's demands from Charlie, the two debate about the best way to ward off Ethan's threat. In the end, Jack bends to Locke's will and follows his approach. They will set up a few sentries around the beach during the night and keep the rest of the people in the dark about what might happen. It appears that all is going to plan until Boone dozes off in the dark. He wakes sometime during daybreak when the alarm (a bag with bottles and cans set off by a trip wire) rattles and clanks, and he jumps into action. He's too late, though, because Ethan has made good on his threat and eliminated one of the survivors (a dude named Scott Jackson). Fortunately for us, it's no one we recognize. [Editor's Note: Although it looks like Boone is to blame, Kate remarks that Locke said Ethan came in from the water, meaning the perimeter setup was pretty much useless. I'll continue to blame Boone, though. He's a young guy. He shouldn't have fallen asleep so easily!]

In light of Ethan's success, the survivors change up their game plan. Jack tells Locke about the Marshal's guns, which will obviously provide them with a tremendous advantage. They scheme to cast Claire out as bait so that they can jump Ethan and apprehend him. Despite Charlie's protestations, they go ahead with the plot. It works perfectly. A number of them surround Ethan, and after a fist fight concludes it looks like they'll be able to bind him up and extract information from him. But then Charlie impetuously shoots their captive. Way to go, sport. Save for Sawyer's shooting of the Marshal, this proves to be the first of many deaths-by-gunfire on Lost. And I doubt that any of us would've pegged Charlie to be the first shooter.

Oh, one last note: that scene with Ethan's capture and death plays out in the pouring rain. It's the leitmotif that remains inexplicable.

Charlie's flashbacks show us that the washed-up rock star was a low-life junkie with a heart of gold. In need of cash to maintain his flow of smack, Charlie preyed on a young woman whose father had a load of dough. The plan was to steal valuables and pawn them for quick cash before disappearing for good, but Mr. Crooked Jaw fell for the lass. He even took a job selling photocopiers for her father so he could impress her. Too bad he'd already stolen from her. Otherwise he could've set things straight! Huh?! See the parallel between the on-island happenings and the flashbacks? Pretty clever writers, eh?

So that's a straightforward assessment of the episode. Doesn't look like Ethan has superhuman strength after all, otherwise those bullets might've bounced off of him. Other than that, I think the largest thing to take away from this episode is the opposing forces of Jack and Locke. They don't clash too badly here, but it's definitely an prelude of things to come as they both vie for positions of leadership.

Thanks for reading!

Sea. 1, Ep. 11: All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

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!

Sea. 1, Ep. 3: Tabula Rasa

“Tabula Rasa” gives us the show’s very first character-centric episode. That is, it’s the first episode in which the flashbacks focus solely on one particular character. As I’m sure you’re well aware, this Kate-centric episode creates the basic framework for storytelling: a balance of on-island events and flashbacks that help to illuminate why the characters act the way they do. So, without further ado, let’s jump into the episode that shows us how Kate Austen wound up on Oceanic Flight 815.

It was revealed in the second half of the pilot episode that Kate is a fugitive. At this point, we don’t know what she did or how she was apprehended, but she was seated next to the U.S. Marshall (Edward Mars) on Flight 815 and sporting a flashy pair of handcuffs. Of course we later learn that she was on the lam because she killed her father, who regularly beat the hell out of her mother. But that information remains a mystery in the early stages of the saga.

While in Australia, Kate took up work on a farm run by the widowed Ray Mullen. Ray tells Kate that his wife died eight months prior and that she left him with a “hell of a mortgage.” He hires Kate under-the-table because he needs help completing chores on the farm. His efficiency is hindered by a prosthetic right arm. Ray doesn’t mention how he lost his arm, but this detail about the Aussie should raise red flags in the minds of Lost fans. Although it’s purely coincidental, Pierre Chang (of the orientation video fame) also wears a prosthesis. It’s his left arm that’s missing, however. As we saw in the fifth season finale, Chang’s left arm became pinned during the incident when the electromagnetic force drew metal objects toward the drilling shaft. In some of the station orientation videos shot after the Incident, you’ll notice that he’s without his left arm; the prosthesis usually hangs at his side. Anyhow, this detail about Ray shouldn’t be scrutinized too closely, as it appears to be a coincidence, but it’s worth noting as we review these earlier episodes with the knowledge of following seasons.

As it goes, Ray eventually learns that Kate is wanted in the United States for murder. Stopping her late one night as she plans to flee, he doesn’t tell her that he knows she’s on the run and convinces her to wait until the morning so that he can drive her to a train station. But as the pair cruise down some desolate route in the Outback at daybreak, it’s revealed that he has turned her in so that he can collect the $23,000 reward to help pay his hefty mortgage. In a desperate attempt to escape, she grabs Ray’s steering wheel from the passenger seat and drives the truck off the road. But seeing that Ray is incapacitated and that the truck has caught fire, she pulls him to safety. Her oddly heroic efforts force her to stick around a little too long and lead to her capture by the Marshall. So her escape was all for naught and she’s under arrest and scheduled for extradition back to the States. And which airline do you suppose U.S. Marshalls prefer? Oceanic Airlines, apparently.

As Kate’s background unravels through the series of flashbacks, the on-island scenes in this episode continue to introduce us to the survivors of Flight 815 and explore some of their relationships. We see that Kate confides in Jack and tells him about the French distress call that the others in the “Polar bear party” agreed to keep a secret. This, of course, is something that will repeat itself often throughout the series. The cutesy—and at times, volatile—relationship between Charlie and Claire begins to take shape here as Charlie helps the mom-to-be assemble her luggage on the beach. And we see the strife between Michael and Walt as the two argue about finding Walt’s dog Vincent. Definitely not the most crucial argument between characters on the show, but it sets the trend for another one of Lost’s ever-present themes: the strained relationships between fathers and sons. Much like the “light versus dark” motif touched upon in the second half of the pilot episode, this sort of conflict appears again and again. Take for instance the interactions between Jack and his father Christian. Or how about Jin’s embarrassment over his father’s lowly livelihood as a fisherman (and to a lesser extent, his turbulent interactions with Sun’s father)? And even the genuinely good Hurley has a not-so-great rapport with his father. As another episode title suggests, all the best cowboys have daddy issues. And there sure are a whole lotta cowboys on this island.

“Tabula Rasa” marks another occasion in which the rain appears. This episode’s downpour sends the survivors on the beach scrambling for some sort of shelter, and its arrival coincides with Kate’s visit to the tent housing the ailing Marshall. His eyes flash open, connecting with Kate’s for an instant, and he summons a whole boatload of strength as he tries to strangle her. He collapses thereafter, with Jack informing Kate that the patient’s stomach has become rigid. The good Doc had said was a bad sign, and it signals the certain doom of Edward Mars. Mars later asks to be killed, a task which Kate gives to Sawyer. Sawyer shoots the Marshall in the chest, intending to hit his heart. The bullet instead punctures the Marshall’s lung, and he’s left to die an agonizingly slow death. Yikes.

The final portion of the episode shows us that Locke finds Vincent using the whistle he crafted on the beach. But rather than take credit for the job he did, he allows Michael to bring Vincent to Walt so that he can earn some parenting points. I remember when I first saw these episodes, I couldn’t figure out whether Locke was a good soul or pure malevolence. I mean, the writers sort of gave us a first impression of all the other characters, but they kept Locke mysterious for quite a while. I remember I was still having a hard time figuring him out when he was working on unearthing the hatch with Boone. So it’s interesting to review these early episodes. The final shot (following the musical montage of others on the beach) is a prelude to the Locke-centric episode that follows this one, but up until this point we only know John Locke as the reclusive backgammon man who finds Vincent. Knowing what we know now, perhaps this was the writers’ way of showing us how Locke was different from the rest; how he had the special commune with the island. I suppose the next episode does indeed show us how different Locke is! But that’s a capsule for another day (tomorrow, actually).

As always, thanks for reading! And comment away!