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. 7: The Moth

Hello and welcome once again to today's installment of the Rewatch. I have a feeling that this'll be a brief write-up, as "The Moth" doesn't offer much in the way of island lore, but it's a good episode nonetheless. As the writers were wont to do in the very beginning, this episode fleshes out some of the characters a bit more.

"The Moth" features the first deeper look at the island's resident rock star Charlie Pace. Remember how Charlie exchanged his heroin for his guitar at the end of the previous episode? Well, here we see the repercussions of that decision, as he begins to experience withdrawal. And Locke continues to exert his control over Charlie, saying that he won't return the drugs until Charlie has asked for them back three times. Locke stresses the fact that everyone has a choice, and Charlie can choose to give in easily to temptation or hold out and become drug free. Ironically, we see Mr. Destiny giving a lecture about choice and free will. As we've already covered in previous episodes, that's not what Locke seems to be about. He's a fatalist through and through. I don't know why he doesn't just use his commune with the island to help Charlie get through it without all the nasty business of withdrawal.

This episode also highlights the battering that Charlie's psyche is taking while trying to fit in among the others. No one seems to care that he was the member of a popular rock band, and his lackluster efforts to help Jack and company move their belongings to the caves get him pushed aside. Feeling lonely and small, he blows up at Jack, and his angry shouts lead to a massive cave-in of rocks. Charlie escapes the danger, but Jack gets trapped behind a wall of the rubble. Oops, Charlie.

Running parallel to this are, of course, the flashbacks. These Charlie-centric ones revolve around the relationship with his older brother Liam. It looks as though they got along famously until they literally became famous. They made it big with their band Driveshaft, but then the myriad women and limitless supply of drugs went to Liam's head. And history repeats itself, as Charlie--who was originally in control of the band--is pushed aside by his brother.

Another item of note in "The Moth" is the beginnings of the famous love triangle between Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. The two men obviously have a thing for Kate, and Kate seems to be into Jack, but we should know by now that it's just the early stages of a long and unrequited love. Regardless, in this episode we see that Kate's sad that Jack's departing for the caves. Then Jack gets trapped behind the rubble and Sawyer learns about it. Sawyer's jealous of Kate's flirtations with Jack, so he withholds the information until he knows he can upset her with it. It's really all quite juvenile and I'm sure you can tell that it's not one of my favorite aspects of the show. But it is what it is, and I appreciate the fact that some people enjoy it.

Ultimately, Charlie resists temptation (after asking Locke a second time for his drugs) and redeems himself by going into the rubble to free Jack. What's more is that he pops Jack's dislocated shoulder back into place, something which would surely make me yak. Charlie is showered with praise, and at the end of the episode we see that his transformation is complete, because he asks Locke for his heroin so that he can throw it in the fire and be rid of it.

Oh, and I nearly forgot! Sayid tries to triangulate the location of the French distress call and is nearly about to do succeed when he's sabotaged! Some unknown figure knocks him out, and he's unable to complete his task. At this point we don't know who did it, but we later learn it was Locke. Why? Locke doesn't want to be rescued. And we know that he's serious about that. He'll even blow up a damned submarine to stay. My goodness.

Like I said, "The Moth" is heavy on plot and character development, but devoid of any larger mysteries. Since we know who knocked Sayid out, there are really no secrets in this episode. Consequently, I think my recap is a bit thin compared to others. But that's bound to happen, particularly when we get to episodes like "Exposé," in which those two terrible characters that the writers tried to introduce are killed off.

But once again, thanks for reading!

Pilot, Pt. 2

This capsule covers the second part of Lost’s pilot episode. To read the capsule about the first part, click here.

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 “black 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