With each passing week of the rewatch, I’m starting to wonder if some of the things we’re noticing were actually supposed to be caught when going back to watch again. There are common themes that are apparent through all of the episodes in this block, including secrets, lies, numbers, and dreams, and storylines that carry well into the our most recent season of Lost. This week, we watched episodes 13-16, Hearts and Minds, Special, Homecoming, and Outlaws. We are given a look at the lives of Boone and Shannon, Walt and Michael, Charlie, and Sawyer, while at the same time, getting present-day series of events that are further explained by seeing these flashbacks.
In Hearts and Minds, we learn how Shannon has worked to manipulate Boone into giving her money that should have come to her when her father died. She also manages to play with his emotions and feelings for her, having slept with him the night before boarding the Oceanic flight. On the island, Locke seems to pick up on Boone’s feelings for Shannon and decides to give him a test of faith in himself to prove that he could let go of Shannon. In this cruel test, John creates a hallucinagenic paste that makes Boone have a vision of the smoke monster attacking and killing his step-sister, but what was odd was that Boone had never come into contact with the monster prior to this and yet his mind was able to tell him all about the happenings this beast could cause. Does this mean that John was able to call the beast? Or did Boone just get “judged” like we saw with Ben?
There were other things I noticed during this episode that held significance, in my opinion, to key events that would play out in later seasons. One of these things is that Kate tells Sun she would have been headed for Bali after leaving Australia, but she was detoured (by the marshall). Bali is where Naomi said the wreckage of the Oceanic Flight 815 was found and that the world figured there were no survivors based on the number of bodies found there. There was also the mention of feet swelling when Sayid gave Shannon a pair of shoes. If you combine this “symptom” with others, especially Hurley’s digestive issues this episode, it could be inferred that we’re dealing with a form of “jet lag” or disruption of circadian rhythm (bodyclock). I believe this is just another nod in the direction that time is different on the island. But the biggest thing, for me, was seeing John perched on the beach just staring out at the ocean. This reminded me so much of Jacob that I now wonder if there is some sort of connection this early in the show to John and the two that have inhabited this island for centuries.
In “Special”, we get a glimpse into the live of Michael and Walt. We see how Walt was taken out of Michael’s life by Susan because of a job overseas, and then how unforeseen circumstances kept Michael away for years after that. As Susan suddenly becomes sick and dies, Michael is given custody out of the blue by Brian Porter, the man who adopted Walt and was married to Susan. The highlight of seeing this episode again, for me, was being reminded of the mysticism that surrounds Walt and the implications of the word, “special”.
On the island, Walt and John’s friendship is continuing to develop until Michael lets his jealousy take hold and ends the contact between the two. Just before this happens, John is teaching Walt how to throw knives and tells him to “picture it in his mind’s eye” and to “visualize the path” it would take to hitting the tree. When Walt did this, he hit the spot on the tree with no problems, and shocking Boone with his ability to complete the task. When Michael comes into the jungle and sees this, things get heated and Boone acts as “protector” to Locke, making me think of the scene when Daniel Faraday was shot by his mother when she was protecting Richard. I also can’t watch this episode and then write this article without mention the box that holds Michael’s letters to Walt. As he stands under the octagon/frozen donkey wheel ceiling, the governess gives him a box that contains the letters he has sent to Walt over the years, including the penguin with a sunburn joke. I’m more and more convinced that this is the type of box that was made at the box company John worked for and Hurley owned. I also think that it is this type of box that Ben has inside the satchel he carries along with him.
During Michael’s flashbacks, a few things occured to me. This is the first episode where we are given a visual of someone being hit by a car, which unfortunately for some characters, is a reoccuring theme. What is the significance of being hit by a car and being brought to the island? If Michael wouldn’t have been hit, Walt may not have stayed in Australia and neither would have been on that plane. The list of characters affected this way, either directly or indirectly, is phenomenal! Claire, John Locke (Emily Locke), Anthony Cooper, Edmund Burke and Juliet, Nadia, and Sarah are just a few……we also know that Christian’s patient that died on the operating table was in a car accident and Shannon’s dad was killed in the same accident that injured Sarah. If Jacob hates technology, are the car accidents the work of his enemy?
“Homecoming” is a Charlie-centric episode that shows us how Charlie copes after the break-up of Driveshaft. In this flashback, Charlie is trying to establish a relationship with a woman in a bar in order to steal from her to pay for his drug addiction. On the island, Claire has returned to camp, not knowing who anyone is or how she came to be on the island. With her memory completely lost, Charlie has to start all over again in winning her trust, which is accomplish by the end of this hour. Contradicting the events of present day, Lucy Heatherton does not wind up trusting Charlie at the end of the flashback when she learns that he not only has a drug addiction, but that he also stole from her father by taking the cigarette case that belonged to Winston Churchill.
The major points in this episode that I feel are relevant in having seen through Season 5 mostly came as one-line mentions in dialog. Claire’s memory problem after leaving Ethan reminded me of what Richard told Kate would happen after he took young Ben to the Temple, and also what happened to Charlie when he was revived by Jack when Ethan hung him in a tree. Another line was when Charlie said “Carpe Diem” and explained to his cohort that it was Latin. We learn in Season 5 that Latin is the language of the Others. We also learn that Lucy Heatherton lives in the same area as Penny Widmore and has graduated from Oxford University. Daniel Faraday also graduated from Oxford, which we saw in The Variable. It would be a neat character connection if we found out that they were there at the same time. But the biggest thing, to me, was when it was noted that Lucy’s dad was in a band called, The Protestant Reformation. Historically speaking, this was the movement to break away from the Catholic Church and the beginning of Protestant denominations. The Reformation is generally deemed to have begun on October 31, 1517, in Wittenberg, Saxony (in present-day Germany). There, Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the All Saints’ Church, which served as a notice board for university-related announcements. These were points for debate that criticized the Church and the Pope. The most controversial points centered on the practice of selling indulgences and the Church’s policy on purgatory. When looking at the definition of “purgatory” and the interpretations of it throughout history, it was stated, “[People in Purgatory]Thus cleansed of all sin and made perfect, they wait in Earthly paradise before ascending to Heaven. Thus, ironically, all Satan’s attempts to destroy and damn humanity did was ensure humanity’s salvation.” Sounds a little bit like what we believe to be happening between Jacob and his enemy, with our Losties caught in the middle.
Our final episode this week, “Outlaws”, is Sawyer-centric, and deals with Sawyer’s demons on and off the island. We are shown the night that his parents died, which had me almost choked up to watch even though I knew exactly how events were going to play out, and the night that he killed Frank Duckett thinking he was the root of evil that led to his parents’ deaths. On the island, Sawyer is “haunted” by a boar that seems to only want to pick on him. As Sawyer hunts the boar that keeps bullying him, he bonds with Kate through the drinking game, “I Never”. In this game, they both admit to having killed a man in their past. In this episode, Sawyer becomes the second of our characters to hear the whispers in the jungle, including Frank Duckett saying, “It’ll come back around”. These were the last words he said before he died the night that Sawyer shot him and realized he was not the man responsible for his parents’ deaths.
While in Australia, we are reminded of the fact that Sawyer met Christian Shepard, presumably hours before his death, in a bar in Sydney. Christian asked him to buy him a drink since he had misplaced his wallet–the same wallet that was found on his nightstand table next to his bed in the hotel. Later, at the end of the episode, while talking to Jack in the jungle, he is reminded of his meeting with Christian when Jack mentions “fate” and saying, “that’s why the Red Sox will never win the World Series.” Sawyer manages to piece the two together and realizes that Jack is the son of the man in the bar that day, but doesn’t reveal to him that they had met.
There are other things happening on the island that are significant to where the story is going. One is the death of Ethan and the fact that Charlie is burying him (nothing stays buried long on the island) and the second in the birth of the raft that Michael intends to build in hopes of getting off the island. Claire also tells Charlie about a dream she had, but says it was more like memories. This line reminded me of Desmond waking up and telling Penny that what he had just had wasn’t a dream, it was a memory.
Next week, our episodes to watch are: “…In Translation”, “Numbers”, and “Deus Ex Machina”. You can also follow the rewatch by listening to our hiatus podcast, Lostaholics Rewatching Lost, on Talkshoe, Sunday evenings at 9pm Eastern Time. The podcast is a lot of fun and collaborates the efforts of other podcasters in the community to get a full look at these episodes through “Season 5 Eyes”, as Curt Yanko from the Black Rock Podcast says. If you’re not available to listen live, you can always download the show from Talkshoe, or find it on iTunes as a free download.
Go to Source
