Claire: "No one is punishing us. There's no such thing as fate."
The theme of this first hour was fate vs. reason.
This episode's Most Obvious Symbolism was (were?) the skeletons of the slaves in the Black Rock, still in their chains, slaves to fate like the Lostaways. Locke certainly believes in fate. He's the high priest of the Island, and deeply invested in the supernatural. Hurley believes he is bad luck. Sun believes they're all being punished.
The flashbacks were all about being trapped: Jin almost literally the slave of his poisonous father-in-law, Charlie a prisoner of his addiction, and Michael fighting his sudden new role as Walt's father. And now, all three of them are confined on the Island, but they're free of the past, of their fate. Michael has chosen to become Walt's father. Jin is finally free to make his own decisions. And Charlie can choose not to pick that heroin off the ground. The Raft itself is a big symbol of self-determination.
Jack refused to let fate dictate to him. Jack and Locke are polar opposites, and they may be headed for a showdown. The two of them were practically bickering like kids. (At one point, Locke said sarcastically to Jack, "Yes, sir.")
Why the hell isn't Sayid the leader on the Island? As Jack and Locke butted heads and struggled for dominance, Sayid was the voice of reason. He was calm and collected; he organized the retreat to the caves, comforted Shannon, and cooled down Charlie. He figured out why Danielle took the baby and where she was headed. Maybe the message here was that it was time for science and religion to take a back seat and let logic and reason prevail. I wish.
I was actually hoping Arzt would blow up right before he did. Extremely graphic wish fulfillment. ("He just... exploded... in front of us.") Hey, that's what happens when a guest star tells the featured actors what to do. :) Here I was, thinking Arzt was one of the Others, but I guess he was just an incompetent high school teacher, after all. Why did he choose a stick that had sweated so much nitro? And if the nitro was that unstable, why hadn't it blown the Black Rock to pieces already?
And was that symbolic, too? After all, "Arzt" is German for "doctor." Maybe Fate is going to win.
Funny how we've all been taking Danielle's word about the Others. The clues were all there. Of course she was lying, of course she was after Claire's baby, because she wanted Alex back! But how much of it was lies? Was her team really "infected," and with what? Did Montand really lose his arm? Was there a Montand? Are there really "Others" after all?
Character bits:
This episode began with a close-up of baby Aaron's left eye. Have we ever had an eye without a backstory before?
Michael row your boat off shore. Sawyer help to save the rudder.
Another piece of Very Obvious Symbolism was Shannon literally weighed down by grief in the form of Boone's possessions.
Locke said to Jack, "You ever play 'Operation'"? Great reference, since Locke worked in a toy store when he was younger, and Jack played Operation for real.
Of course, Sawyer had to read the notes in the bottle. (Well, if he left his "library" on the beach, he had to read something.) Sawyer now knows that Tracey, who sleeps with Steve, not Scott, has a husband and two kids in Fresno. And that someone named Hugo is worth a hundred and sixty million bucks. I bet we hear about some of the secrets he just read about next season.
Jin's flashback was the most disturbing, with Paik's henchman telling Jin that he was a slave, had always been a slave, and would always be a slave. I thought that having such an Anglo-looking guy saying such terrible things in Korean was extra creepy.
Walt told Michael that his mother was wrong to keep them apart. That was lovely. And Michael has turned out to be an outstanding father, which wouldn't have happened without the plane crash. In a sense, this was like what happened to Claire. That is, if she gets little Turnip-Head back.
The other women let the men do the dangerous stuff, but not Kate. Kate is like an honorary guy.
According to what I've read, the Bob Marley song Sawyer sang was about pirates, freedom and redemption. It fit.
Hurley's wish list: TV dinners, TVs, cable, cell phones, clean socks, soap, and Twinkies.
All that fighting over one small lump, and Sayid literally threw twenty times that amount of heroin at Charlie's feet. I think the Island put the heroin there, just for Charlie. The big question is, will he take it? Will he succumb to Fate?
Bits and pieces:
— The flashbacks started to bleed into each other, with Sayid in Sun and Jin's flashback, and Locke going by in his wheelchair while Michael was on the phone.
— Funny how big the Raft looked on the beach, and how small it looked on the ocean. The hole in the middle of the sail reminded me of the Oceanic logo. This can't be good.
— The crew of the Raft noted that the Island was bigger than they thought it was.
— I'm glad we didn't see much of Arzt's bits and pieces. ("You got some... Arzt... on you.") With Arzt dead, that leaves us with 43 survivors. Or 39, if you subtract the four on the Raft.
— I could be wrong, but I don't think "Bjorn" is Dutch for "baby carrier." :)
— The Black Rock was a slaver enroute to a mining colony from Africa? Another Africa reference.
— During the Charlie flashback, the woman he fought was wearing a teeshirt with a word "poison" on it. Obvious reference to heroin, I think.
— Michael mentioned "north by northeast." Of course, "North by Northwest" is a classic Hitchcock movie about a man in the wrong place at the wrong time, being chased across the country.
— Arzt going on and on about popularity and cliques in school sounded to me like extras complaining about not being one of the featured actors.
Quotes:
Clear Pandora's Box reference:
Hurley: "Come on, really. What do you think's inside?"
Locke: "Hope. I think hope's inside."
Not Bob Hope. Unless he went on one too many USO shows.
Michael (on the phone): "He's not supposed to be mine. It was never part of the plan." Huh? That was an odd way to put it.
Hurley, looking at the Black Rock: "How exactly does something like this happen?"
Danielle: "Are you on the same island that I am?"
Jack: "You like to play games, John?"
Locke: "Absolutely."
Locke: "I always get nailed on the funny bone."
Was that a way of saying Locke has no sense of humor? Or that he sees the humor in everything?
Jack: "If anyone hears anything or sees anything..."
Hurley: "Like a security system that eats people?"
More in my review of part three,
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
-- I could be wrong, but I don't think "Bjorn" is Dutch for "baby carrier." :)
ReplyDeleteHmm, nope :P
Awesome review Billie, thanks!
Sawyer is a complicated guy. On the one hand, he is reading all of the notes (not a huge surprise), then jumps in to save the rudder (hero moment) only to have Michael discover the gun (more lies). There is something about him that just pushes people away and causes them not to trust him, even when he’s doing something wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHurley had another great show. I love his description of the Hatch. I’m not sure how TV dinners from the ‘50s would have made it out to the Island in the first place, but it was a wonderful image. I really admire Hurley in that he doesn’t pretend to be what he is not; he is not naturally brave and does not volunteer to carry the dynamite. While the other three are bickering about who is going to be the bravest, he just stands by and watches. Good for him.
I’m worried about Charlie. He seems to be making wrong choices and I’m not convinced he left that heroin on the jungle floor. Why would he leave Claire with Danielle? After being so overprotective of her, that felt a bit off to me.
Also, why Aaron? It’s an unusual name and only moments before, Claire was telling Danielle that she hadn’t named the baby yet. Is this the Island again?
Rewatching this on Netflix, I think the chapter divisions are different. That is, "Exodus: Part II" ended before some of the events you describe in this episode.
ReplyDeleteJosie - the blu-ray is broken differently also. i just watched this episode last night and reading this review started to make me wonder if i hadn't dozed off and missed some scenes :)
ReplyDeleteJosie and todd, you're both right and I have now fixed it. Sorry it took so long. The reason was that I reviewed it in two parts but the two parts aired together. I just guessed where the break would be and clearly, I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteBad Billie, no biscuit?
ReplyDeleteAre you doing a Lost rewatch????
Josie, I am indeed rewatching Lost. I can't believe it took me this long.
ReplyDeleteIs this your first rewatch?!
ReplyDeleteI liked it so much more after my first rewatch. Especially because I think I skipped the boring parts of season three.
Yes, it's my first rewatch since the series ended. I had tried before a couple of times but couldn't make it to the end of season one. This time I did.
ReplyDeleteJosie, so it gets better again? I gave up on the show during season 3.
ReplyDeleteThe comment about Kate being an "honorary guy" reminds me that the show struck me as very sexist, though I don't recall that being commented on at the time. Leadership and big decisions for the group always seemed to fall to the male characters (Jack, Locke, Sayid, even Sawyer to a degree). Kate sometimes participates as a swing vote, but she didn't seem to originate many plans of her own.
Magritte, it gets so, so much better! Season Three was a real slog, especially once you see how they get things moving in Season Four. If you can try the first half of Season Four you should either be hooked, or it's just not the show for you. :-)
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice the sexism thing until one of my rewatches. It's like the show 1) portrayed men who don't let women do things, and 2) implied that women just can't really do things, or shouldn't be trusted to do things.
I think Damon Lindelof's later work is much better in terms of portraying all humans as full humans.
Doing a Lost rewatch, my first since I watched the original airing and I stumbled upon your reviews. Thanks so much for this! I’m enjoying the show just as much, if not more than the first time. I understand more and knowing how it ends takes a lot of the pressure off and I can just enjoy.
ReplyDelete