Going into this week, I had this hope that this week would bring a little relief in the information to be processed solely based on the fact that we were given one less episode to cover. Obviously, I was overlooking the fact that all three of the episodes were thick with island mythology and character development! Our episodes this week, #17-19 of Season 1 (…..In Translation, Numbers, and Deus Ex Machina), reminded us of the distance between Sun and Jin while we sit remembering the “time” distance between them now in Season 5, explained the start of the “Numbers” and how it has made some wonder if they are, in fact, Hurley’s “compass” making a connecting loop with him between the 1970’s and the early 2000’s, and laid the foundation for understanding John Locke’s hardships before his disability of paralyzation had anything to do with him. I think it’s time for me to just accept the fact that long articles and lots of information are my destiny and that some things are just meant to be. See you on the other side!
Our first episode this week, “…In Translation”, was considered to be Jin-centric, although I just see it as a Sun AND Jin-centric episode seen through Jin’s eyes. It basically shows their marriage, as seen in “House of the Rising Sun”, from Jin’s perspective and his role in the Paik family business. To me, though, this episode was more about the on-island, present day stuff, instead of finding connections in the flashback. That being said, the flashback reminded me of desk boxes and watches–two of my favorite subjects, and completely defined who Jin is, especially when we witness the conversation between him and his father. We also see in this flashback, that it wasn’t Jin’s father that became the “daddy issue”, but rather it was Jin being embarrassed of him because of his fisherman status. Jin later apologizes to his father about this, leaving his protection of, and ways in which he protected Sun from the truth of her father the only things weighing on his conscious when he came to the island. With that, I’m sure he felt the ends justified the means and that he acted for the “greater good”.
On the island, we see the first raft bonfire, which seemed to foreshadow what was to come with the completed raft on the night Walt is taken. The ironic bit would be that this time, John lies to cover for Walt in saying that “they’re not alone on the island” and it was the “others” that did it, which is exactly how it will play out in days to come. Jin becomes suspicious of Sun’s involvement with Michael, which knowing about Sun’s affair with Jae Lee made that whole scene mean so much more than just having a jealous, controlling husband, and later learns that she has been able to speak English the whole time they’ve been on the island. Overall, though, I felt the on-island stuff with Sun seemed to mirror the flashbacks of Jin in that they were both lying to protect the other from being hurt and, ultimately, trying to walk away from the marriage that was blessed by Jacob.
In other happenings on the island, John informs Shannon that “everyone gets a new life on this island” and we see Walt and John having a heart-to-heart over a game of backgammon. This conversation foreshadows the next two in this block by stating that Hurley was “good for it” in owing Walt $83,000 for backgammon losses and that John’s dad was “not cool”. It’s also revealed at this time that it was Walt who destroyed the raft and he did it because he doesn’t want to move again. Both Walt and John agreed that they like the island and life on it.
“Numbers”, the 18th episode of Season 1, is the first episode to start defining the “Numbers” that have played such a monumental role in the mythology of Lost. If you’re a true Lost fan, you’ve had at least one occassion of playing these numbers in the lottery or hoping to find them all as your lucky numbers in a fortune cookie. As we learn the story of how Hurley comes in contact with the numbers and how that “walkabout” led him to Australia, we also learn that the numbers have made Hurley worth $156 million, and an share holder in such things as oranges in Florida, a box company in Tustin (presumably John’s employer), and a sneaker factory in Canada–which has burned down and killed 8 people. Above all, though, it was when I got past the “numbers” aspect that I started to realize what this episode brought to the picnic table.
Hurley is on a quest to prove that the numbers are cursed. It isn’t until he finds Danielle and hears her agree with him that he feels the release from this burden he’s carried around since winning the lottery. There has been some speculation about further involvement in this series of events, based on the numbers broadcast heard on the Ajira flight in “316″, that Hurley may have been the one to record those numbers when he flashes back in time on the island to the late 70’s. The numbers then become to Hurley what the compass is to John Locke in that a loop is created to keep the endless cycle going. Another aspect that I picked up on was the ‘bad luck’ that Hurley continues to experience after receiving his winnings. As the media is conducting their interview, Hurley places his arm around Grandpa Tito and says he’s going to give his grandfather, “the rest he deserves” after providing for the family all of his life. It’s at this moment that Tito has a heart attack and dies. Was it Hurley’s doing? It was also Hurley’s idea for the blindfold that caused his mother to break her ankle.
On the island, John is building a cradle for Claire and finds out it’s her birthday. He mentions that it’s supposed to be good luck for a mother and baby to have birthdays close to each other. She tells him that she hadn’t planned on keeping the baby and that she still didn’t remember life after the crash of Oceanic 815. At the end of the episode, John is mystified to see a light come on in the hatch. Both of these scenes together within minutes of each other seemed to foreshadow the episodes to come with Claire having her baby and John opening the hatch on the same night.
The most important aspect of this episode, in my opinion, wasn’t the content, but the title and the implication of it on Lost as a whole. The Book of Numbers is the 4th book of the Old Testament and documents the journey of God’s people out of Egypt, led by Moses. It’s hard not to notice the parallels in the stories, and associations that could be noted within the story of this episode, as well as the show. As this group finds themselves a community of its own, Moses and Aaron organize the masses into tribes to better oversee the jobs of all involved, during which a census is taken of all the people. As their 40 year journey comes to an end, this group has to prepare to cross the River Jordan and leave Egypt for their “Promise Land”. Although there are many interpretations of this book in the Bible, I would recommend any Lost fan brush up on their biblical knowledge before Season 6. This book in particular might hold significance to how this show could end.
The last episode this week was “Deus Ex Machina”, which I’m sure to butcher the title of in this week’s podcast. The title of the episode is a term used for a plot twist in which someone or something shows up “out of the blue” to help with a particular difficulty or hurdle they’re trying to overcome. One deus ex machina of note is plot reversals ascribed to dreams – so called “dream seasons”, or, in at least one case, an entire “dream series”, where the author of a series discards already-written matter from the timeline by saying that it was all a character’s dream. Of all the types of this occurence, this one might be the most feared possibility for the ending of this show. Let’s hope the writers weren’t trying to foreshadow this type of ending by giving us this as a title.
In this episode, we learn about John’s biological mother and father. Emily Locke is a schizophrenic who tells John he was immaculately conceived, and Anthony Cooper is a manipulative con man that ends up luring John to give him one of his kidneys. On the island, John and Boone are struggling to find a way into the hatch, having their trebuchet smash right in front of their eyes upon impact with the window. John’s ability to use his legs is quickly diminishing and Boone is forced to be the one that climbs up into the Beechcraft, leading to his fatal injuries later. But the best part of this episode for me was seeing Jack harassing Sawyer during his “doctor’s appointment” just to get a little payback for the one-liners and nicknames they’ve all had to endure.
There are little things about this episode that could be really dug into, but I like the idea of taking this one episode at face value. There were a lot of mentions of things that were or were not “meant to be”, but I’m not convinced that we are not to see anything more than a “destiny” theme being reinforced throughout. The dream that Locke had depicting a bloody Boone and a fur-coat-wearing mom didn’t offer much more than what was seen during the scene. Anything else, like Theresa, was explained away within a few minutes. What’s most interesting about seeing this episode is that I feel like we’re almost rewatching Season 5–which used references to Season 1–which reminds me of Season 5–which……….Are we destined to be in a Lost paradox until the start of Season 6? Is this foreshadowing at its best and eluding to objects like the numbers and the compass? One thing is for sure, the one connection with mythology that I managed to make, that also became a slap-in-the-face awakening about my addiction to the show, was that John tore out his IV–”IV” meaning 4. Sad, huh? Good thing we have a place like Lostaholics that helps us all deal with our addiction while feeding that monster that we love.
Make sure to catch our Lostaholics ReWatching Lost podcast on Sunday nights at 9pm Eastern time on www.talkshoe.com. If you’re unable to make it, it will be available Monday afternoon as a free download from Talkshoe and iTunes, and also found on the LPN (Lost Podcasting Network), which is a great place to go to find all sorts of interesting conversations about Lost.
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