Hearts and Minds
Magic and anomalies play a recurring theme in this block of episodes. Locke tells Boone a story about Michelangelo and how his father never understood “the divinity in his son”. This theme will also be revisited in the next episode “Special”. It’s also been a question series wide in terms of how special and fated are our group of castaways. Boone also defends to Locke that Shannon is “smart and special in a lot of ways!” The island’s magnetic anomalies are hinted at when Sayid shows Jack the discrepancies from the compass.
Secrets and truth are always a part of every episode of Lost. Kate catches Sun laughing at a joke she made and realizes that Sun can in fact understand English. Sun admits that only she and Michael know and please not to tell. Locke lies about Boone hunting, to hide that he has actually drugged and kidnapped him.
The mythology of the show was well represented in this episode. When Hurley confronts Boone about his and Locke’s failure to bring back any more boar for the camp to eat, he states “This isn’t a game.” Games have been a series long theme. However in light of season five it seems that it may hint to more of the root of what’s really going on. Jacob and his Nemesis seem to be playing a game over mankind on the island. After Boone confronts Sayid with hostility over his growing friendship with Shannon, the phrase “You know where to find me” is uttered. This mirrors what Jacob said to Nemesis when he told Jacob that he was going to find a loophole so that he could kill him. I couldn’t help but question the exchange that followed between Locke and Boone. Locke admonished Boone from angering Sayid, “We don’t want to make an enemy of him. We’re gonna want him on our side.” I’m not sure what Locke meant by this. Before season 5 I would have just said that it was smart to keep a formidable opponent like Sayid on your side. But in light of season 5’s fake Locke, his ability to manipulate, and the eerie questions of who was leading Locke all along, and whether or not these same occurrences might be revisited or reset, I have trouble making sense of this statement. It makes me suspicious. Even Kate is not able to trust Locke as she suggests to Jack that it’s a lie about the boar disappearing. She thinks that the boar is just thinning out and that Locke is saving the meat for himself. I immediately noticed that Locke was mixing a mystery paste “for later”, as he told Boone. Why was Locke mixing it so early in the episode? Did he know he would need it? Did he remember from a deja vu? When Boone insists that they tell the others about the hatch door that they found, Locke responds “They’re not ready. They won’t understand it.” Even now this makes no sense to me. The best that I can tell is that Locke was being selfish and wanted to keep this experience, this destiny all to himself. However if we are talking in the abstract, there are many things about the island that the survivors won’t understand yet. There are many mysteries of the island that they are not ready for. When Boone says he’s going to tell Shannon their secret, Locke knock’s him out. “…it’s time for you to let go of some things, because it’s what’s best for you. And I promise you’re gonna thank me for this later… You’ll be able to cut yourself free once you have the proper motivations.” That could be said of most all of the experiences that the survivors have over the course of the series. It speaks to their experiences that lead to their own redemptions as well. It even foreshadows the boar experiences that Sawyer will have in “Outlaws”. The paste that Locke was mysteriously mixing far earlier in the episode is what he spreads on Boone’s open head wound. He lies to Boone about it being something to guard against infection for his wound. In fact it was a drug that sent Boone on an hallucinatory trip. In Boone’s flashback he visits the Sydney police station to swear out a complaint against Shannon’s apparently abusive boyfriend Brian. This is one of the first of many names to be repeatedly used by many different characters in Lost. Brian is also the name of Walt’s stepfather that we will meet in “Special”. The officer that Boone meets with has a conspicuously different colored pair of eyes. One is brown and one green. Eye color was a theme that eluded me on my original watch through. It wasn’t until I started joining in with the Lost community at large, that I learned about it. I did notice this cop’s eyes the first time, but I just thought it was a physical anomaly that this actor had. Locke’s strange island knowledge is hinted at again when he states that “There’s nothing to make” of Rousseau’s maps. And again when he gives Sayid his compass because he doesn’t need it anymore. When Locke is discussing the lack of boar he says, ” They’re smart animals and smart animals adapt quickly when a new predator is introduced into their environment.” One has to wonder if our islanders will adapt as well in season 6 when they finally learn who or what they are really up against. The producers have been quoted as saying that there was one line in season one that was secretly more important than the rest to the final outcome of the series. Many fans have speculated that it was Charlies statement to Jack that, “No offense mate, but if there was one person on this island that I would put my absolute faith in to save us all, it would be John Locke.” And as to the question of who Locke is, Boone tells Shannon, “He’s the only one here that has a clue to what’s going on!” By the end of the episode Locke tells Boone that he gave him an experience that Locke believed was vital to his survival on this island. This is an ironic statement given that Boone will only survive for 6 more episodes past this one. Spoiler, sorry. When Boone asked Locke about the experience not being real, Locke answered “It was only as real as you made it. ” These are the kinds of moments in the show that fuel Karen Mauro of “Karen’s Lost Notebook” blog and “The ODI” podcast. She has many intriguing theories involving perspective, dream states, and the idea that island experiences as a whole may not be real, but what the survivors need to go through to evolve in character. As Boone admitted to Locke that he felt relieved to be free of his obligation to Shannon, Locke said “Yes. Time to let go. Follow me.” And off they marched into darkness. It’s interesting to note that from this point on Boone’s free will seems to be gone and he follows Locke blindly, to his death.
Interesting to note:
1) Why do the banyan trees repel Smokey?
Special
Magic and special abilities are what this episode is all about. Walt’s knife throwing tutorial has long been a source of speculation for the fans. Locke instructs him, “Picture it in your minds eye… See it … Visualize the path.” Then curiously, Vincent whimpers. Walt says, “It was weird. I actually saw it. In my min or something like it was real.” Locke replies, “Who’s to say it wasn’t?” This is our first indication that Walt may possess the power to will things into happening. When talking about Boone, I have to say that rather than ability, he is more the epitome of inability. Once again Boone shows his ineptness as he tackles a menacing Michael that is threatening Locke with a knife. Boone tackles Michael and holds the knife over Micheal. Boone is so bad at this that Michael manages to punch Boone from underneath and throw Boone off of him. That should have been impossible from Boone’s position of strength. Boone is so stupid. I apologize to all the Boone fans out there but come on. Locke tells Michael that “We’re not back in the real world. As long as we’re here on this island I think that Walt should be allowed to realize his full potential.” It’s frustrating that the writers have left us hanging so long on Walt’s ’specialness’. We still have one more season for it to happen. Even though I have long since heard the fan outcry for a fruition to all the allusions to Walt having some special destiny or power, I had forgotten how strong that theme was until rewatching “Special”. It’s not an exaggeration. They wanted us to believe that Walt was different. They wanted us to believe Aaron was different. And they wanted us to believe Locke was different too. Here’s hoping they don’t let us down on any of those counts. During a flashback, Walt is seen staring at Vincent too intently not to make something of it. This brings a lot of things to mind for me. It is reminiscent of the way he intently studies the Flash comic with the polar bear, only later to encounter one, as if he conjured it. It also reminds me of an ARG site about these incredible golden retrievers that could communicate telepathically. And on that note it has an obvious connection to the story that Locke will tell Kate and Sawyer about a mysterious golden retriever in “Outlaws”. Among other things, this dog stared intently with Locke’s ‘mother’ until she began to cry, as if something had occurred between them.
Many truths are revealed in this episode. As Michael’s flashbacks unfold, it is heartbreaking to realize how strong his love and devotion was for Walt, only to have him ripped away. It really is a huge theme about how much our characters have been trampled on by fate or other people. So many of the flashback characters have garnered my hate, even on the rewatch. Michael’s flashbacks also show us that he was unselfish in his love for Walt. He let Susan and Brian continue to have high standing in Walt’s memory. He could have told Walt the truth about how Susan kept them apart, even blocking him from Michael’s correspondence. He could have been truthful about how Brian was abandoning Walt after he helped Susan to steal him away from Michael. But Michael took the high road and let Walt’s love for them remain. The fact was that Brian was terrified of Walt. “When Walt’s around things just happen. He’s different somehow.” Michael manages to stick it to Brian anyway, by lying to Walt that Brian said he could have his dog Vincent. Also I can’t help but notice the parallel between Susan’s collecting and keeping Walt’s letters from him just as Widmore kept Penny’s letters from her.
There are many intersting aspects to the overall mythology in this episode. Michael tells Walt about his artwork and that he taught himself ‘perspective’. “You know what that is? Perspective?” This is interesting dialogue considering all the episodes that have begun with the image of an eye opening, as if to say that this episode would be told from that character’s point of view. Also the subject of perspective came heavily into play during season 5 when so many continuity errors came up. As fans cried foul, some wondered if it was a clue that we were seeing events from different viewpoints and therefore the facts were inconsistent. Although I remember that Claire had a diary, I had totally missed the segment about her dream, the first watch through. Charlie reports to the others that she was having a recurring dream about the Black Rock. “I try to get away but it won’t let me.” Episode “316″ was the episode that really got me jump-started into community interaction. That was the episode that introduced the notion that our Losties could serve as ‘proxies’ for other islanders. I also began to realize that these roles could have been played out on other ill-fated vessels that found there way to the island. Rousseau’s raft had 6 members on it, the same number as the Oceanic 6. On that raft was a musician, and a pregnant woman. On the Black Rock there was at least one dead person (the known final resting place of Magnus Hanso-according to the blast door map)and prisoners. The Nigerian plane had a dead man, Yemi. There could be many more matches that we are unaware of. The producers put forth the idea of reincarnation, both in their podcast as well as the show in the form of the anagram ‘Canton-Ranier’. Late in the season, “The ODI” podcast reported at least 4 times during season 5, that they had dubbed a different character’s voice over the wrong character’s lines: Charlotte’s voice was heard instead as Teresa spoke to Dan; Another deeper voice was heard as Locke spoke to Ben (Nemesis?); During Roger and Kate’s heated exchange at the swing set, Jack’s voice can be heard instead of Roger’s, as he asks, “You want to help Kate?”; and the one clip I can say that I agree with, because I heard it, is when Dan is walking toward the sonic fence and Jack is talking to Kate though she is not looking at him. Jack speaks and Sawyer’s voice can be heard. When Kate asks if Daniel knows what he’s doing Jack/Sawyer replies, “I sure hope so. There’s no turning back now.” That one is indisputable. To me all of this together, points to a reincarnation theory. Is it possible that all of our Losties have been on this island before. Is it possible that that they have lived this over and over. Maybe they play different roles in different iterations. Obviously Claire and Rousseau were not the same person, but it’s an interesting theory none-the-less. Nadia’s note said that she and Sayid would meet in the next life if not this one. Desmond says ’see ya in another life brother’. Nemesis said it always ends the same. Jacob replied it only ends once, anything before that is just progress. I’m surprised to just now hear about the dubbing switch-a-roo, now that I’m catching up on the ODI podcasts. This just goes to show us that we should pay attention to Locke when he said in this episode, “You can’t hear everything Boone. The sooner you learn that the better.”
Interesting to Note:
1) The continuation of “Walt! Walt!”
2) Susan says the crib Michael wanted would cost 3 months rent. Though not one of the famed numbers, 3 does recur a lot in the show and seems to have religious connotations.
3)Michael is the first of many to be struck down by the infamous gold Pontiac.
4)As Michael studies the desk box of letters that Walt’s nanny has just given him, we see that the ceiling over Michael is octagon shaped. This likely was not caught by viewers on the first watch, since the Dharma Initiative had not been introduced in the show yet.
Homecoming
The truth eludes Claire in this episode as she struggles with amnesia. As Jin and Sun discuss Claire’s health upon return to the caves, they share a dramatic look between each other, as if to foreshadow their upcoming storyline about their infertility as a couple. Claire remembers nothing about what happened to her. As Charlie talks to her he chooses his words carefully when he says that Ethan is the ‘bad guy’. During Charlie’s flashback we watch him case the home of Lucy, his intended mark. He spots an antique cigarette case that belonged to Winston Churchill. Lucy states that, “Dad collects all sorts of rubbish from the great leaders of the empire.” I couldn’t help wondering if this was a nod to the eventual theme of leaders on the island. Of course after season 5 we will recognize the additional reference to Winston Churchill that James made when he compared his leadership style to his. But my favorite part of this scene happened just before Charlie discovered the cigarette case. He asked Lucy where her Dad was, and she replied “Buying some paper company up in Slough.” I laughed so hard because this was a nod to one of my favorite shows. The original British version of “The Office” was about the Werner Hogg paper company in Slough, England. Too funny. I also wondered if the father’s band name was another nod to the ever present theme of religion in the form of “The Protestant Reformation”. And of course in the continuing theme of ‘choice’, Charlie is faced with temptation and fails, when he steals the cigarette case. When Sayid was discussing his volunteer band of sentries to guard the perimeter, he was less than enthusiastic when the ever inept Boone also wanted to be a sentry. Locke chimed in, “Absolutely. We’re counting on you Boone.” I have to wonder if Locke or someone else, was scheming in there because they needed Boone to fail so that Ethan could infiltrate and chaos would ensue. And of course he falls asleep on duty. Shocker! Then just to drive the point home he trips on nothing. Ugh. Six more episodes until “Do No Harm”. Did I type that out loud? Oh well… Anyway, as I was saying, Boone’s slam-bang job allowed ‘Scott’ to be beaten to death by Ethan. Lucy’s words still haunted Charlie. She told him that “You’ll never take care of anyone.” It wasn’t until Charlie’s eventual death, two seasons later that he would finally feel otherwise.
There were many examples of the ongoing mythology in this episode as well. Claire screams “Who are you people?!?” in her amnesiac state. Desmond had a similar panic when he did not recognize Sayid or Frank. This could have an interesting tie-in to the reincarnation theory. Is it possible that these characters could have momentary resets where their roles where about to switch and they wouldn’t know the people that their past selves had known? In Charlie’s flashback he says to his drug supplier/friend, “Carpe Diem”. They go out of their way to point out to us that this is Latin. Why? Did they want to remind us upon rewatching that this is Latin, ‘the language of the enlightened’, as well as the ‘Others’? Could Charlie have been an Other in one of the iterations? When Charlie is blathering on to Jin as they hike through the jungle, he talks about how nice Jin and Sun’s ignorant bliss must be. They are not engaging in the chaos around them due to their language barrier. This sounds much like Rose and Bernard’s decision to pull themselves out of the game that the Losties are perpetually finding themselves playing. As Jack, Locke and the rest try to agree on a strategy to combat Ethan’s future attacks, Jin and Sun discuss it as well. Jin blames the other survivors “because of what they have done.” In another example of the light and dark theme, Claire asks “Why would you keep me in the dark Charlie? I’m already in the dark?” In the climactic scene of Ethan’s capture, fate seemingly took the gun from Jack’s hands to place it in Charlie’s. I was so mad that he killed Ethan just as they were beginning to discuss questioning him. But I suppose Charlie had a point that he never would have told him anything. I guess, Ben and Ms. Clugh would teach us that later.
Interesting to Note:
1)”Annyong” seems to be Charlie’s attempt at Korean. This is the second time I have noticed this. Hurley also tried to speak Korean to Jin when he was trying to get Jin to share the fish.
2)Ethan’s bolo is the first of the antiquated weapons that we see.
3)Charlie’s copier model number is “C815″, an obvious nod to the numbers.
4)How did a man like Locke become such an expert on handling knives and guns?
5)The comedic scenes of Charlie trying to do the copier demo was filmed at various tilts to emulate Charlies mounting withdrawal.
Outlaws
Magical anomalies abound in this episode. When Sawyer chases the posessed boar into the jungle, we get our first listen to the whispers. We can very clearly hear “It’ll come back around.” After Sawyer is awakened from his Daddy-turned-boar nightmare, he starts to go after a rustling in the jungle that must be the boar. It’s Locke. Now this is at least the 4th time I can think of that Locke (true Locke or otherwise) has appeared when we were expecting some other mystical creature on the island. I don’t care what Ecko says, this can’t be coincidense. Locke tells Kate and Sawyer the story of the mystical golden retriever(Vincent?) that seemed to communicate with Locke’s mother wordlessley and disappeared just as mysteriously as it appeared, once the need for him was gone. It’s interesting to note that Locke’s sister died when she fell from the monkey bars. In season 3, Jack has a flashback where he is stalking Sarah, his soon to be ex-wife. In the deleted scenes from this episode, “A Tale of Two Cities”, as he watches from afar, one of her students falls from the monkey bars, after he performs the Heimlich maneuver, bringing her back to life, she criptically tells Jack “Don’t trust her.” This little girl was also reported to have appeared in on set photos that were circulating on the internet at the time, suggesting that Jack was having visions of her in his Hydra cell. All this is remeniscent of Charlotte Malkin who seemed to have messages to share with Ecko from the other side after she returned to life.
A lot of harsh truths are revealed in this episode. During Sawyer’s flashback we the see the first heartbreaking glimpse of his childhood as his mother makes him hide under the bed from his enraged father, hoping he will believe that little James is still at his grandparents house. Once the screams are silenced by the thundering gunshot, James watches in horror from under the bed as his father’s boots walk into his room. He sits down and then shoots himself. All this is played out with just the boots in view. This is one of many recurring ’shoe’ themes in the show.When Hibbs cons Sawyer into killing a man that he believes to be the original Sawyer, they make reference to the ‘Tampa Job’. As of season 5 we still don’t know what the job was about, but it was enough to make Sawyer want to kill Hibbs. After the ‘Sydney Job’, if I were Hibbs, I’d pray that Sawyer never leaves ‘crap-hole’ island. Charlie and Sawyer are both going through similar feelings of guilt as they deal with what they’ve done. Charlie murdered Ethan, a man that has kidnapped and murdered and would surely do so again. Sawyer is still reeling from the fact that he was conned into killing an innocent man. This goes a long way toward explaining why he was so into self-loathing during “Confidence Man”. Perhaps he was so eager to let himself be tortured because he felt he needed to be punished. The gun dealer told him, “You look a man in the eye and you point a gun at him, you find who you really are…” We learn a lot of truths about both Kate and Sawyer during their game of “I Never”. Kate has been married. And they have both killed someone. On a personal note I must admit that sadly I too… have never been to Disneyland. Sniff. What did you think I was going to say?!?! Geez people? Sawyer once again revisits the theme of choice when Duckett tells him “Only two choices…” and Sawyer replies “go with the hot.” The flashback where we learn that Sawyer and Christian have met is riveting from beginning to end. “It’s fate. Some people are just supposed to suffer.” He suggests that they are already in hell just as Anthony Cooper will, later on in the series. He muses that his son “is a good man, maybe a great one. ” He talks about how simple it would be to fix this all with a phone call. I can’t help but think that he’s not supposed to make that phone call though. Ultimately what this conversation does is convince Sawyer to go through with the murder he was waffling about. I couldn’t help wonder if that maybe by that point in the time line, Christian was actually already dead and that maybe this was Nemesis causing chaos, conning Sawyer into making the wrong choice. It’s absolutely possible. We know that Jacob did jobs off island. Why not Nemesis? Of course this all ends tragically as Sawyer learns that he has killed the wrong man. Duckett’s dying words to him are the haunting, “It’ll come back around.” Eventually Sawyer breaks free from his haunting when he makes the right choice, when faced with the boar, and he puts his gun down. In that moment he did what Christian Shepherd was apparently never able to do, according to Jack. He took responsibility. He chose. Jack said about his dad, “It’s just something my father used to say so he could go through life knowing people hated him. Instead of taking responsibility for it. He just put it on fate, said he was made that way. ” But just to make us go back to hating Sawyer again, the writers have Sawyer keep the revelation about Sawyer knowing Christian and what he revealed to himself. More secrets.
Interesting to Note:
1)Hurley is afraid that Ethan will rise from the dead while he and Charlie are trying to bury him. At the time this was funny. Now, post season 5, we are looking at resurection with a lot more seriousness. Note Colleen was burned Viking style. Nemesis burned Jacob, as if to ensure that he couldn’t return.
2)Brittany Perrineau played the female mark in Sawyer’s flashback. She will later play that same character in a Hurley flashback as the girl in the lotto show. As you might guess from her name, she is the wife of Harold Perrineau that plays ‘Michael’.
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