Another Wednesday night brings the third installment of Recapped for Lost. I didn’t receive very much mail regarding the first two-part episode, but I did get one piece of mail that I found interesting from Arnie:
Did you notice the comic book the little kid was reading in ep 2? It had a polar bear in it, then it showed Golden age Flash, I think, talking to an alien.
hmmmmmmm….
I went back to review the episode, and indeed, I did see a polar bear in the Spanish Comic that Walt was reading. So, if J.J. Abrams is looking for symbolism in the form of a comic found in the wreckage, then perhaps Dr. Jack represents Flash. Perhaps there is actually an alien life form on this island, and that is the source of the monster. Or perhaps the life form is simply the monster itself. Of course, the symbolism might have only gone as far as the polar bear, and that’s a very distinct possibility.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback, Arnie. Most of what I have to say will be in the recap itself, so let’s not waste any more time.
Previously, on Lost: There’s a plane crash, there’s a U.S. Marshal with a big hunk of shrapnel in his stomach and Kate wants to know if he will live, Sayid is wondering why no one has come, and Walt is introduced to the game of backgammon by Locke, the old man with the scar. The old man has a secret, however, and he wants to share it with Walt.
And now we’re moving on to the actual episode. The survivors are still sorting through the wreckage, and the U.S. Marshal is warning Dr. Jack not to trust “her.” The Marshal hasn’t told Dr. Jack who “her” is and Dr. Jack simply assumes that the guy is out of it. The Marshal then asks for his cuffs and tells Dr. Jack to check his jacket pocket for them. Dr. Jack doesn’t find the handcuffs, but he does find a sheet of paper, and on this sheet of paper is none other than Kate, looking pretty even in a mugshot. The Marshal warns again that she’s dangerous as Dr. Jack lets it all sink in. Fun Fact: Kate was arrested by the Harrison Valley Police, which is an area in Pennsylvania (although that may not be the case in J.J. Abrams’ world). Just for the fun of it.
Back to higher elevation with the Party of Six as darkness begins to fall. Sawyer suggests that they pick up the pace, but Boone calls him a hick under his breath. Sayid, on the other hand, wants to make camp. Sawyer seems poised to move right along, and Sayid warns him of what could be waiting for him in the jungle if Sawyer wanders through it in the dark. Sawyer asks for the clip to his gun back, but Kate tells him to put the gun back in his pants, because Sawyer isn’t going to make it back to the beach if he keeps walking, “trust me.” Yeah, I’ll trust a criminal about the same time I trust that a polar bear can be running through the jungle–aw, damnit.
Nightfall and there’s a fire burning. Sayid diagrams the flight from start to horrible finish using a flaming stick and a rock, basically explaining to the other people who don’t already know what happened. After the demonstration, Charlie mentions that they have satellites in space that can take pictures of your license plate, but Sayid shoots down that idea because the satellite doesn’t know where to look for them. “Bollocks,” says a disappointed Charlie. Sawyer wants to talk about the Sixteen Year Transmission that “Abdul” picked up on his radio. The actor who plays Sawyer has done a very good job of playing the typical hick who doesn’t appreciate the brown people, and in some cases, all people. Boone wants to tell the others about the transmission, but Sayid insists that none of this gets back to the other survivors, because that would make them lose hope, “and hope is a very dangerous thing to lose.” So, they lie.
Back at the beach, Hurley is asking Dr. Jack about the monster, suggesting that it could be a dinosaur until Dr. Jack reminds Hurley that dinosaurs are extinct. That might be a subtle note from the scriptwriters about what a few people might be speculating about who the monster could be after seeing the first episode. But then again, this isn’t a reality show, it can be a dinosaur if it is wished to be so. Dr. Jack has now made a tent to protect the U.S. Marshal, but Dr. Jack says that if the antibiotics don’t fight the shrapnel wound infection, it will be a very long and painful death for the Marshal. Hurley notices the paper with the mugshot nearby and picks it up, and then begins to freak out. Dr. Jack says that it’s none of his business what she did to get that mugshot, but Hurley thinks it might become a problem. Dr. Jack knows best, however, and thinks that everything’s gonna be alright.
LOST.
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…And now, we’re back at the campfire with the Party of Six. Someone removes the clip from Sayid’s pocket and Sayid snaps awake. Sawyer’s up to nefarious tricks–nevermind, it’s Boone. He wants to keep guard from the monster, but Shannon continues the game of embarrassment with his brother by revealing that Boone is very strictly anti-gun. How much longer are Shannon and Boone going to snipe each other like this, because it’s going to get old sooner or later unless it’s really juicy information that they’re revealing about each other. Sawyer cracks a joke about giving it to Al-Jazeera (Sayid), but Charlie points out that Sawyer’s a dumb hick by reminding him that Al-Jazeera’s a network. Seriously, this is the kind of hick that wears a belt buckle with his name on it upside-down so he can look down and scream “Holy crap, that’s my name!” ( (c) Greg Proops ) Finally, Shannon interjects with her opinion: Give the gun to Kate. Hey, what the other five don’t know about Kate won’t hurt them, right? No, it’ll just leave a very large gunshot wound in their skull. Charlie and Sayid agree to handing over the gun to Kate, so Boone does so.
Flashback time, and Kate awakens somewhere in a barn, looking down a barrel of a shotgun. A farmer greets her on the other side of the gun and explains that she’s sleeping in his sheep pen. Kate explains that she walked here about 15 kilometers from town. The farmer asks for Kate’s name, so Kate lies with a response of “Annie.” Or perhaps that’s her real real name. Anyway, the farmer invites “Annie” in for breakfast and an interrogation. “Annie” explains that she ran out of money, which is why she slept in the barn. She’s Canadian, and she decided that she wanted to see the world. She went to Australia first, which means that her priorities are all screwed up. She hopped on a flight to Melbourne and decided that she was just going to walk around. Her story is very strange though, because the farmer points out that Melbourne is a hundred kilometers from the barn. Fortunately for this farmer, “Annie” not only likes to walk, but she likes farms. Yeah, easy and out of the way place to hide from U.S. Marshals. I sense a bad ending for this poor farmer. The farmer explains that he’s living home alone with too many chores and a hell of a mortgage after the passing of his wife. He offers “Annie” a paying job and a roof over her head. “Annie” accepts the offer and goes to shake hands with the farmer, but he’s a leftie–his rightie is a falsie. That’ll make it much easier for “Annie” to slaughter the farmer, I reckon.
Back at the beach, Hurley gallops into the Marshal Tent to tell Dr. Jack that the Party of Six has returned. Sayid stands on the wreckage and announces to the survivors that the signal wasn’t strong enough to send out a distress call, understandably disappointing the survivors. Sayid encourages everyone to gather cell phones and laptops to boost the signal, which isn’t that much of a bad idea, even if it meant that Sayid was lying about everything else. Sayid also forms three groups for gathering water, electronics and rationing of food, and a third group with the intentions of constructing a–
–oh wait, nevermind, Dr. Jack and Kate are on-screen together, let’s just forget about the whole goddamn meeting. Kate needs to tell Dr. Jack something, but we’re not stupid enough to believe that Kate would spill the beans about her being a fugitive so soon. Nevertheless, Hurley looks nervous as Dr. Jack and Kate begin to walk away from the main group. Sure enough, Kate only tells Dr. Jack that the big secret is that they did get the Sixteen Year Transmission. Dr. Jack doesn’t seem too broken up about it, but he wants to know if there are any more secrets. Kate changes the subject, in the way, by questioning about the Marshal in the tent. Dr. Jack lies and says that the man hasn’t been awake that much, and that he didn’t say anything. Well, one lie deserves another.
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…back at the beach, and Hurley wants to know if Kate ‘fessed up to being a woman on the run. Dr. Jack lies again and says that she didn’t say anything and neither did he. Dr. Jack claims that it’s not his business, and Hurley agrees, saying that the Marshal will take care of her once he gets better. Dr. Jack breaks the bad news and says that the Marshal might not live if they don’t get stronger antibiotics. The antibiotics they got were only good for foot fungus and ear infections, and I can safely say that when I had either of those two symptoms, it didn’t feel the same as having shrapnel in my stomach. Hurley says that he looked through everything, except for the luggage in the overhead compartment. Of course, there’s bodies in there. And they’re all very dead. Dr. Jack allows Hurley the easy job of watching the Marshal as Dr. Jack steps into the wreckage.
Now at the wreckage, and Dr. Jack is rummaging through the overhead compartments. Dr. Jack hears a who, and when he hears it a second time he goes to investigate…only to find Sawyer. Sawyer is looting the overhead compartments for the basic necessities–“booze, smokes, a couple Playboys”–while Dr. Jack is trying to save the world with his medicine. Sawyer explains that he’s not a bad guy for stealing from the dead, because he’s not stuck in civilization with Dr. Jack…he’s in the wild.
Meanwhile, Charlie is using a wheelchair to help with the carrying of luggage, and he stops to help Claire (the pregnant lady, I’m just going to give her a name already). The Korean woman brings a piece of luggage over to the Korean man, but it’s not his luggage. Jin (the Korean man, once again just giving him a name) tells Sun (the Korean woman) that she’s filthy and advises her to wash up…but Jin reminds Sun that he loves her. Of course, Jin also loves hygiene, and making babies kick. Back to Charlie and Claire, and Charlie asks Claire where the husband is. But Claire’s not married. Charlie flirts with Claire a little more, but then freezes up when Claire asks if Charlie hiked up there for nothing.
Back to the Marshal Tent, as Hurley rushes out with water bottles in his hand…and runs right into Kate. Hurley stumbles through a conversation with her, and sees that she’s got the gun. Hurley finally spits out that Dr. Jack is looking for medicine in the plane wreckage and then waddles off to get the water.
Let the rain fall down, as Sayid arranges the tarps to collect water. Boone and Shannon are all wet, and in the Marshal Tent, Kate has arrived to pay him a visit. While Kate looks in the Marshal’s closed eyes, she triggers another flashback.
Back to the farm, and “Annie” is rummaging around in a pantry. She pulls out a false wall, getting her money from a tin can in the wall. The farmer arrives to tell her that she needs to put that money in the bank instead of putting it in the false wall in the pantry. “Annie” has trust issues, however. They must be big enough issues to do a very bad crime over. Just another piece of the mystery to unravel. “Annie” is leaving the farm, and the farmer tries to explain that “Annie” is not opening up to the farmer about herself at all, just giving him the ol’ stinkeye. The farmer knew that “Annie” would leave soon enough, but he convinces her to stay one more night so that she can go to the train station first thing in the morning. He knows that “Annie” wants a fresh start, and wants to help.
End flashback and we’re back at the beach with Kate still hanging creepily over the Marshal, as if she’s going to whip out that gun and bust a cap any second now. The Marshal snaps to life, however, and immediately wraps his hand around Kate’s throat. Dr. Jack rips the Marshal off Kate and then realizes that the Marshal has overexerted himself in his attempt to kill Kate. Dr. Jack wants to know what Kate did, and Kate was only checking on him…but perhaps with intentions of putting him out of his misery? Dr. Jack explains that the Marshal is getting much worse, including a rigid abdomen, a sign which Dr. Jack warned is the first step towards dying from this infection. Dr. Jack goes to get some water and Kate follows him out of the tent. Kate wants to know if Dr. Jack is going to let the Marshal suffer or just put him down. Dr. Jack takes offense to this and finally tells Kate that he knows what she did, and that he’s not a murderer.
“If you’ve got leavin’ on your mind,” Patsy Cline sings as we’re back on the road with the farmer and “Annie”. The farmer notices a black vehicle in his rear-view mirror and “Annie” begins to get suspicious. She asks the farmer what he’s looking at, and then notices the black vehicle herself. Ray (the farmer) tells “Annie” that he’s known about her for a couple of days, and only turned her in because the reward was $23,000…he’s got a hell of a mortgage. “Annie” reveals that her name isn’t really Annie, and the black vehicle pulls alongside Kate’s side…in the driver’s seat is none other than the Marshal.
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…back to the beach, and Michael is setting up shelter for him and his boy Walt. Michael asks Walt about the old man, and Walt tells Michael that his name is Mr. Locke. Mr. Locke didn’t say if he had any kids, but he did say his secret to Walt: A miracle happened here. Well, that’s not a very shocking secret, as I’m sure many got the creepy old man vibe from Locke and figured that he was going to turn out to be a very, very bad man. Still, the secret leaves room for intrigue, and it gives some support to an alien life form being around, as that’s certainly a miracle. Still, Michael doesn’t want Walt hanging around Locke, even though Locke is friends with Walt. Walt isn’t friends with Michael, however, because he won’t get his dog back. Michael promises to get his dog back when it stops raining. Unfortunately, no sooner has he said that than the rain immediately stops. How very, very weird. So Michael heads through the jungle, looking for the dog in the “haunted damn jungle.” He talks to himself for awhile until he hears some rustling. The rustling gets louder and when Michael calls out for Vincent, a growl in the distance confirms that it is most certainly not Vincent. Michael makes a run for it, heading straight through the jungle…and coming out right in front of Sun, who is in the middle of a topless-only shower. Sun is not very quick to cover up as Michael gets a good look at her while he stumbles through an explanation of why he suddenly barged in on her shower. Michael is a weird guy. But I like it.
Back to the Marshal tent, and the man is in a hell of a lot of pain. His grunting and groaning can be heard for a far distance on the island. A short distance from the tent, Charlie sits down with Locke, who’s making a whistle with some wood. Charlie tries to strike up a conversation, but gets nowhere. Shannon listens to the groans and wishes that the Marshal would die already, but Boone is more humane than that. Shannon is just annoyed that this entire island is actually made of chocolate. Sayid asks Dr. Jack if he can help with the Marshal, and then explains to Dr. Jack that the other survivors want to know what’s going on inside the tent. Rumor has it that Dr. Jack can’t save the man’s life, to which Dr. Jack simply walks off.
Kate is building a fire, but she has no matches. Sawyer has a lighter, however, and Kate lights the fire with it. Sawyer wants to thank Kate for taking the gun away from him, because with the Marshall groaning away in the tent, he doesn’t want to be the one with the only way to put the Marshal out of his misery. Isn’t he resting his head on a pillow? Wouldn’t it be much easier to smother him with that? Anyway, Sawyer explains that there’s only one bullet left in the gun, so it’d “be damn near poetic.” Back inside the tent, the Marshal warns Dr. Jack not to trust a word that she says because she’ll do anything to get away. The Marshal wants to talk with Kate alone, but Dr. Jack just gives him a blank look, which convinces the Marshal that Kate swooned the heart of Dr. Jack, too. Well, I heard she’s a wiz with that multi-colored sewing.
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…and now, we’re back outside the tent. The revving engine of the black vehicle sends us back to the flashback. The Marshal falls back as another car is coming down the road. Ray avoids the truck, and as it passes, the black vehicle goes to pull up to the driver’s side of the car. Kate gets nervous, however, and reaches over to yank the wheel over and send the Marshal careening off the road. That does no good, however, as the truck is sent into a horrible crash which leaves Ray unconscious and immediately sets the hood of the truck ablaze. Kate is able to get out with ease and then goes back to get Ray, which may or may not be a good call. She begins to drag Ray through the grass, and soon dislocates his false arm, throwing it aside and trying to get Ray away from the burning wreckage. She finally reaches the edge of the road again, and Ray lays unconscious on the road as a semi-truck blazes by. Kate thinks that the Marshal is nowhere to be found…but a gun shoots up to her neck and the Marshal greets Kate (which does appear to be her real name, as that is what the Marshal called her).
Back to the tent, and Kate is now inside the tent, as the Marshal is awake. He wants to know what the favor was, but Kate doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We have a flashback to the plane where Kate explains that she has one favor to ask before the plane crashes and we might as well forget about the favor. But Kate kept the Marshal alive for a reason with that oxygen mask, and it turns out that the one favor was to let Ray have the $23,000 in reward money for ratting Kate out. Marshal can’t believe that Kate didn’t just run away instead of saving Ray, because she would’ve been free. Kate insists that she isn’t in captivity right now, but the Marshal says that she doesn’t look free. Kind of a weird thing to say, as it’s obvious that whatever Kate did was pretty bad because it seems to keep holding her back. The Marshal then asks Kate to do the deed and finish him off. Outside of the tent, Hurley comes up and asks where Kate is. Dr. Jack knows that she’s in the tent, but what he doesn’t know is that she’s got the gun. Dr. Jack rushes over to the tent to keep Kate from killing the Marshal, but hakuna matata, because there’s no gunshot…until Kate leaves the tent. So, the Marshal did it to himself, eh? I guess he had the strength to do it. But no sir, it was Sawyer who did it, as he walks out of the tent last with the gun. Dr. Jack is angry at Sawyer for killing the Marshall, but Sawyer tells Dr. Jack that the Marshal wanted to die. However, we here the Marshal coughing in the tent, and Hurley pretty much sums it up for all of us: “Oh, no way.” Yep, Sawyer is such a dumb hick that he can’t even kill someone correctly. Dr. Jack explains that when Sawyer tried to hit the Marshal in the heart, he missed and instead hit a lung, which will take hours to bleed out. Sawyer then tells Dr. Jack that there’s only one bullet, but Dr. Jack wants Sawyer out of the tent. Sawyer goes to have a smoke, but he struggles to light it and gets frustrated, just tossing it aside. What’s Sawyer’s anti-drug? Failing to kill people with a gun. However, the groaning stops eventually, and Dr. Jack saunters out calmly. So, did Dr. Jack finally smother him or did the supposed “hours” happen in “minutes”? I hope it’s the former, because that makes Dr. Jack seem like he still understood the score, especially with the dumb hick missing a shot to the heart.
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…and now, Locke is sitting on the beach, blowing on a whistle that emits a very high-pitched tone. It’s not long before Vincent comes out of the jungle, as Locke is pretty much a god damn genius for being able to whittle a dog whistle. Locke goes over to Michael and explains that he’s got Vincent tied to a tree, but he wanted Michael to break the good news to Walt instead of having Locke do it. What a nice guy. The Circle of Lying continues.
Near the body of water, Dr. Jack is seated on the sand much like Locke was, just watching the water. Kate wants to explain what she did to get arrested, but Dr. Jack isn’t interested. He thinks it doesn’t matter, because three days ago, they all died, and they should all be able to start over. Well, let’s just hope that Kate wasn’t a baby-killer or something ridiculous for Claire’s sake.
This fades into a montage of the featured survivors set to some song. Hurley is emptying his sand-filled shoe while listening to the song. Jin watches Sun sleep under the shade of a make-shift WreckageShelter, Boone finds some sunglasses for Shannon to wear and gets a “Yeah, I’m the bomb” smile on his face as he walks away. Sayid throws a fruit to Sawyer, as the dumb hick and the smart Middle Eastern man find a common ground. Charlie changes the tape around his fingers from “FATE” to “LATE” as Claire, behind Charlie on the sand, rubs her belly. Walt’s face lights up as Michael comes marching in with Vincent, but Locke is watching Walt and Michael in their happiness and the tune fades into ominous music as we get a close up of Locke’s face…
…end show! Next week, we try and find some survivors from the other parts of the plane, and the food is running out, so Locke is taking charge and getting folks ready to hunt!
Talking about some of the issues:
* A quick side note, the name of tonight’s episode was “Tabula Rasa,” which is a need or opportunity to start from the beginning. Obviously, Kate has been given that opportunity by Dr. Jack. But Hurley seems much more freaked out about this, and I figure that it’s only a matter of time before he goes telling everyone else on the island and making them paranoid of Kate as well, especially if the relationship between Dr. Jack and Kate that’s just bound to happens starts spilling over into the public eye of the island.
* Except for some rustling in the jungle while Michael was looking for Vincent, this was a monster-free episode. The rain that comes on fast and leaves just as quickly is very freaky and suggests that there’s something very fishy going on on this island. I can’t even begin to speculate what, however…perhaps there are aliens on this island, and they don’t take too kindly to strangers (as the French Chick’s distress call would indicate).
* Locke mentioned that a miracle happened on this island, and that’s about as puzzling as Locke himself. There’s something dark about Locke, besides the fact that he’ll encourage the group to hunt next week. The connection between Locke and Walt is very creepy, and it’ll be interesting to watch it unfold and see what Locke’s deal really is.
* What did Kate do? I’m not going to listen to Dr. Jack, I want to know why she skipped all the way over to Australia to evade arrest. She has to be a bad mamma-jamma for what she did, because a $23,000 reward is quite a hefty price on her sexy head. I really hope that Hurley does start tattling, forcing Kate to confess what she did, even if Dr. Jack insists that they leave her alone.
* There’s some kind of unspoken thing about Sun that makes her a very interesting character. She’s very introverted, but I get the feeling from Jin’s treatment of her that she’s that way for a reason. Perhaps customs in her culture have made her that way, or something else a little bit darker. Sun is a really underrated character in terms of how deep her character can go, and it’ll be interesting to see if there are any more subplots lined up for her, because I’m curious of what exactly is up with her. Jin told Sun he loved her, but Sun kinda grinned for a flash of a second, as if “Hey, that’s nice, but you’re a bastard,” or something similar to that. And how about the tension between Michael and Sun? It’s possible that Sun is looking to escape from the arms of Jin and into the arms of Michael. Or perhaps Jin is Sun’s father. We don’t even know that they’re husband and wife, I’ve only been assuming it myself and I don’t think that it’s been acknowledged.
* Sawyer’s tough redneck image is breaking down day after day, and it’s only a matter of time before something dramatic happens with him. I get the feeling that he’s going to try and hook up with Shannon, which will send the Peacemaker Boone after him and that will erupt in some sort of violence, because Sawyer’s always up for a fight.
* Speaking of hook-ups, Charlie and Claire seem on the right track for romance, as Charlie is the befuddled man who will probably soon be taking care of the pregnant Claire, and perhaps the baby, which you know will be coming sooner or later and will likely be the focus of an episode.
* I hope it never comes to the point where the suggestion comes up that they run out of food and are forced to consider eating Vincent. I just can’t help but think that J.J. Abrams would do something like that. Of course, then you get Walt and Michael involved, not to mention Locke, who is starting to act like a very creepy grandpa for Walt.
* There could be speculation about the polar bear as well, but that might have something to do with the monster, so when that question gets answered I think the polar bear will be answered with it.
There’s so much to analyze and yet no time to let it all sink in, because the next episode is only one week away!
Remember to send in your feedback regarding not only Lost, but Desperate Housewives as well! Until next week…
