Another week and another episode of Lost. Got quite a bit of mail about the premiere, so let me sort through the mail and provide you with the actual questions.
Yo John,
A friend got me hooked on LOST at the end of the season (I had to catch up on the episodes on DVD after the network butchered the reruns this summer) and she recommended your site of recaps.
The music from Episode 1 of Season 2 is “Make Your Own Kind of Music” first recorded by the Mommas and the Pappas in the 60’s http://www.casselliot.com/lyrics.htm and apparently later by the Carpenters in the 70’s. http://thecarpenters.tv/ The version in LOST sounded like the Mommas and Pappas rendition which I vaguely remember, even though I’m a kid of the seventies, but don’t remember the Carpenters version. The music choice would make sense if the Desmond/Hatch storyline is indeed a reference to this….
http://lost-forum.com/showthread.php?t=14177 (i.e the music would be a match for the era when the real pods were created)
So now you know what the music was…
Cheers!
Nancy in Seattle, WA
A friend of the Pulse tells a friend about me. How sweet. Anyway, there’s another letter that tells me some information about the music, and I was figuring ABBA, but The Carpenters & The Mommas and Pappas also makes perfect sense. I figured this guy was living in a time capsule anyway, considering how everything looked around him.
” typing a command into a computer and pressing execute” the fella typed the numbers. or literally “4 space 8 space 15 space 16 space 23 space 42”
also the thing that walt tried to say is words backwards. The jury is out with my friends if he said “Don’t touch the button, the button is bad” or “touch the button, no button is bad”
If not touching the button is bad, and the execute is the button in question, could the guy punch in “The Numbers” into the computer prevent the numbers from doing bad things, and the numbers did bad things to people ( i.e. hurley) because the guy didn’t hit the execute button, or it was his day off or something? I don’t know, possibly dumb speculation.
also, there was a 108 painted in the tunnely place after jack went down the Hatch of Doooooom, 108 is the numbers all added up together.
Also, as a side note, I didn’t become a lost addict til about 17 episodes in. I read the recaps you did and it helped a LOT. thanks so much.
Yeesh. So much information that I lose when I just bowl through these episodes to get them up in a (somewhat) timely fashion. Hatch of DOOOOOOM is a nice name for the Hatch, makes me wonder if there’s SOME KIND OF MONSTURRRRRRRR down there.
I would say that not touching the button is good. Seems to me that touching the button activates the security system and makes trees fall down and pilots get devoured. The 108 reference would’ve gone over my head no matter how many times I watched the episode, and I appreciate that my recaps help get people caught up. I actually missed a good chunk of one of Alias’ early seasons, and a writer on Television Without Pity helped me catch up there.
The song is by the Mamas and the Papas. It is from the 60s and probably references how long this guy has been in the hole. Of course, it does raise the question about how he left the hole to meet Jack…. but then what else is new.
This is a good show. But I wonder if anyone really has any idea where they are going with it or are they just vamping (and by vamping a basically mean what they did with the X-Files – Years of here they are, oops, now they’re gone and no resolution in the end). At least they resolved Twin Peaks (they did it horribly, but they did it!).
Stay good, and enjoy the music.
Jim
Vamping is bad. I have to believe that the writers do have an idea of where they’re going, they just want to lead people along and just totally fool them every step of the way. And it seems to be working very well…if that is what they’re doing. If they’re flying by the seat of their pants, that’s fine and dandy, but if reality shows start to peak again, Lost could find itself on the cutting block in favor of sitcoms that take up less time to make room for more ridiculous makeover shows.
To all others who wrote in with a comment: Thank you for your support. And thank you for not sending mail about Desperate Housewives so I don’t think I’m crazy about which show is the better one.
On with the recap!
Previously, on Lost: We’re still not to the point in Lost where we can look back at past episodes in THIS season, so let’s skip back to Season 1 again. This time, it’s covering the launching of the raft, as laborious as that was, and then the discovery of the others…but not the good others. The bad…Others. They want Walt, and Sawyer can’t save them. The Frenchwoman’s daughter throws a grenade on the raft and blows it to hell. Desmond’s injection is interrupted by the blowing of the hatch with The Forbidden Numbers inscribed on it, and Jack has to give people hope, even if it’s false. Locke, Kate and Jack go into the hatch, but not together. Jack’s the last one in after Kate is abducted and Locke follows her in. But it doesn’t cover the Desmond events.
The raft has blown…and Sawyer, Jin and Michael are all still definitely alive. Michael calls for his abducted son, and Sawyer swims towards a piece of the raft, dragging it behind him to get to Michael. Mike sinks into the water, and it hurts Sawyer to drag Michael up to the surface, where he doesn’t seem to be responding. Okay, maybe Michael isn’t alive.
Uh, wait a second…for some reason we go back to last week, where Locke goes down into the hatch after Kate.
LOST
Sawyer is still pounding the hell out of Michael, and THEN decides to perform CPR, and the music reaches a crescendo as Michael comes back to life. The Lost writers cry wolf again as Michael wakes up doing the same thing he was doing before his death: Calling out for Walt.
Flashback: Michael is talking with a divorce lawyer, who explains that Walt’s mother wants Michael to relinquish custody of Walt so that her boyfriend can adopt him with her help. Michael obviously isn’t going to let this happen, so he wants to stop her from leaving the city. The lawyer explains that even since he is a bargain basement lawyer, it’s still going to be very costly to fight this battle. Is Michael convinced he wants to do this? “They’re not taking my son away.”
To the Raft Piece again, as Sawyer wants Michael to save his energy, but Michael wants Walt to know that he’s coming for him, even if there’s nothing he can do about it since The Others were on a boat.
Locke lands at the bottom of the hatch, as I now get why we’re going back in time a little bit. We need to see the first interaction between Desmond and Locke. Locke calls for Kate and then leaves his shoes at the door, which explains why Jack found them later. Locke looks at a logo that appears to say Dharma(?) and then advances further into the main chambers, sporting a lava lamp and booth-style seating. Locke opens the shades of the windows…to find bright lights on the other side. Locke finds Kate in a separate room, which attracts Desmond to that location. “Are you him?” What? Sorry, got like Kate there for a moment.
Now Sawyer is the one yelling for Jin, as Michael points out Sawyer being a hypocrite. Jin is still out there in the water, as Michael begins to blame Sawyer for forcing him to fire the flare gun. Sawyer gets snippy in response so Michael tries to kick Sawyer off the raft. Something hits the raft with a thump, and then again…
…Michael mentions that Sawyer managed to hold onto his gun, and then explains that it shouldn’t work anyway since the gun was underwater. Sawyer points out that the bullets and powder are dry, but in the process the thing hits the raft again, sending the gun away for good. They notice that it’s a shark, and Michael knows why it’s there: Sawyer’s shoulder. “Well, I’ll just stop bleeding then!” Sawyer wants to be thanked for trying to save Michael, but it’s not working. Sawyer then agrees to jump off the raft, but he sees another piece of the raft in sight and swims towards it, going to the next one. Sneaky. Sawyer is panting hard though, and tries to explain that he was trying to save his son.
Flashback: A meeting between Mr. Dawson and his ex-wife with a team of lawyers surrounding and the boyfriend by her side. Oh man, this one is hard to recap as I just want to punch Ms. Dawson’s lawyer right between the eyes. She totally buries him, explaining that since he doesn’t know his son’s favorite food or his first words since Walt was in Amsterdam with his mother, it doesn’t make sense that he’s trying to hold onto his paternal rights. That makes me really, really angry. What a horrible, horrible woman she is. Michael makes it clear that he is Walt’s father.
It’s not very easy to get away from someone that you’re angry at when all you can do is float, so Michael and Sawyer are still within speaking distance as Sawyer starts picking at his wound, and Michael calls him crazy for trying to take a bullet out of his own wound with his bare hands. Especially after they’ve been in salt water, too. Ouchies. Michael continues to bother him about it, but Sawyer just wants to get it done. And he does so, fingering his wound and getting the bullet out through much pain, tossing the bullet into the water and then asking Michael for a band-aid before apparently passing out. Awesome.
Desmond still wants to know if Locke is “him,” but who him is appears to still be a mystery. Locke answers in the affirmative, however, which seems to please Desmond–or at least make him lower his gun. Desmond mentions something about him finally being here, which is weird. Locke claims Kate is with her, but Desmond has a riddle. “What did one snowman say to the other snowman?” Locke doesn’t know what Desmond is talking about, so Locke’s not “him”. Locke explains that they come in peace, but Desmond wants to know why they really came. They were in a plane crash 44 days ago, which seems to pique Desmond’s interest. He ushers the duo into another room, with tally scratches on the wall. Locke asks how long Desmond’s been down here, but no answer is given. Desmond forces Kate to tie up Locke, but Locke points out that Kate’s the fugitive and he’s just a box man. So Locke is the one who ties up Kate, but slips her something before putting her away.
Jack changed his mind about leaving for the hatch, and we pan to Charlie and Claire as Claire wonders about Jack but Charlie answers in joke form, as always to avoid a question. Claire pulls out…a Virgin Mary statue. Dear lord (pardon the pun). Charlie isn’t religious, but it might come in handy. How awful.
Sawyer tries to explain that the boat that took Walt, pointing out that the French woman warned them that they were coming to take Walt, so they did with a boat that was meant to only go out so far from the a certain point before returning to land. Sawyer blames Michael for taking a bullet in his shoulder over Walt, and that gets Michael really upset. Michael doesn’t want Sawyer to ever say Walt’s name again, but Sawyer isn’t threatened by what Michael could possibly do: Splash him. And that’s about it. Or Michael can break a piece off his raft and strike Sawyer’s raft, knocking it off. Sawyer scrambles back to Michael’s piece of raft, and Michael explains that he has no idea what it’s like to care for someone else.
Flashback: The former Mrs. Dawson invites Michael to talk one-on-one, without lawyers (thankfully). She actually thinks Michael is going to win court, at least as far as the injuction goes. She has to ask why Michael would do this, though. Since he’s still living on disability and she’s going to be a senior partner in Rome and be able to give Walt everything that he could want, she doesn’t see the logic in Michael keeping him from that life. She wants Michael to take care of himself, so that he can focus on his art. But he can’t do it without Walt. If Walt is his responsibility, she advises him to just let go of Walt, for the sake of Walt. She presents him the papers, practically begging.
Kate is tied down and struggling, working hard to contortion her way out of the restraints. She finally does, and is able to reach the knife in the front of her pants (which is dead sexy), working her restraints off. Now free, Kate feels around for a light switch, finding one and then looking for an exit. There doesn’t appear to be one, but she turns around to notice that she is in the pantry of the hatch, with quite the stockpile of food…and an air vent as the way out. She grabs a Rollo candy bar first, however, enjoying the chocolately goodness. She takes some more for the road, and how she’s not going to get caught is anyone’s guess. She breaks into the vent, however, and climbs into the vent.
Locke explains the story of the survivors, which shocks Desmond–he’s surprised that the world still exists out there. They introduce themselves, and Locke claims that the gun is unnecessary, but Desmond wants to know how many survivors there are. 43, but four sailed out on a raft. Desmond scoffs at that, and Locke moves on to the subject of the simulated sunlight. Desmond asks how many people are sick out of that group, and Locke makes it clear that no one’s sick, even though he tries to ask the question about the QUARANTINE symbol being on the hatch. Locke, Desmond and Kate all hear a beeping, as Desmond ushers Locke into the Security System room with the ominous computer. The time is ticking down from 2:36, so Locke has to type exactly what Desmond tells him to.
“4 8 15…
Desmond hears a noise, but continues…
16…23…42.”
Desmond tells Locke to press Execute, but Locke stalls and wonders what will happen. So he presses it, and the time resets to 108:00. Locke and Desmond hear Jack calling for Kate, so Desmond gets Locke on the move again, as Desmond mans the camera system to keep an eye on Jack. Locke is a little surprised to see Jack, but then Desmond notices Jack’s gun. Desmond puts on “Make Your Own Music” as Kate notices Jack in the security system room, calling for him but being unable to be heard over the loud music–although I’ve read that you can hear Kate calling for Jack as he wanders into the room in last week’s episode. Jack goes to press execute, but Locke advises against it and we’re back at square one with the standoff. Desmond’s warning shot almost nails Kate in the shaft. Jack notices Desmond, but doesn’t lower his gun.
Back on the raft, Sawyer looks over at one of the pontoons and starts paddling towards it, but he doesn’t heed Michael’s warning about putting stress on the vines, and the raft breaks apart and Sawyer is going for the pontoon. But the shark smells blood, and Sawyer tells Michael to shoot at the shark if he tries to make a jump at Sawyer. I thought there were no bullets in the gun? Maybe one in the chamber. There’s the shark, and sure enough, there aren’t any bullets in the gun, but suddenly there is again, and Michael fires off about…oh…4 rounds before finally hitting something to shoot off blood. Sawyer doesn’t answer Michael’s calls for a moment, but Sawyer does finally resurface on the pontoon, and Michael joins him.
Flashback: Michael meets ex-Mrs. Dawson and Walt at the park, as they are getting prepared to leave for the next morning. Michael doesn’t know what to say for an introduction, so he just gives Walt his present. A polar bear. Of course. But Michael wants Walt to know that his daddy loves him very, very much, and he always will. Walt is very shy, however, so Michael just hands over the free bear. She says her goodbyes, but Walt has nothing to say as they both walk away from him. Michael starts to sob…
…but Michael is straight up crying on the raft as Sawyer wakes up to another day of shoulder pain. Michael admits that it’s his fault for bringing Walt onto the raft, but is determined to get him back. Sawyer then notices something in the distance. The island, being brought back to it by the current. “We’re home.” Sawyer and Michael finally get back to dry land…only to hear some very unfamiliar calls in the distance. It’s Jin…with his hands tied behind his back, screeaming wildly as he falls into the sand. Michael cuts Jin loose, but the only English word he can say is “Others”. They all turn…as we get a split-second look at them.
LOST. God damnit yes. Yes yes yes. Emmy for Best Drama is more than deserved.
