1x5, White Rabbit

Sometimes looking back is beneficial. This episode opens with a young Jack watching helplessly as a friend is beaten by schoolyard bullies. When he attempts to make a stand, he is knocked right down again. When Jack later has the choice between taking the struggling Boone back to land or swimming out to save the drowning Joanna, he freezes up, and by the time the decision is made, there is not enough time to save the poor woman.

Given how huge his self-doubts were, is it any wonder that when Jack finally did decide to become a leader, he threw himself into with such crazy, obstinate devotion? He is continually living in his father’s shadow, a stern man who prides himself on being able to make difficult decisions. Christian Shephard tells his young son this: “I have what it takes. Don’t be a hero. Don’t try to save everyone. Because when you fail, you don’t have what it takes.”

However, because the castaways are so desperately in need of a leader, Jack rises to the role and in this episode gives his famous “Live Together, Die Alone” speech. He overcomes his fear of failing as a leader and assumes the role everyone thinks he is perfect for. But the thing is, Christian was right: when Jack fails, he doesn’t have what it takes. Jack refuses to admit defeat or failure, a stubborn path that leads him to nearly murder John Locke and to abandon the people on the Island to some unknown fate when he and the rest of the Oceanic 6 escape.

While Jack is afraid that he cannot cut it as a leader, it amusing that he is juxtaposed with Boone, a man who thinks he should be a leader but is unfit. This “Jack Light” nearly drowns himself trying to save Joanna and has to be hauled in by the real leader of the Island. He is so embarrassed about this that he attacks Jack for this decision when the doctor is already in a fragile emotional state about his choice. Jack Light then decides that taking control of the water supply (without telling anyone) would be the best course of action for a leader. Instead, it places him (as Sawyer phrases it) at the top of everyone’s most hated list.

Looking back allows us to see how much relationships change; the conversation between Locke and Jack about Jack’s vision and the special nature of the Island is almost tender, especially given the animosity that will develop between the two men even by the end of the season over Locke’s fanatical fascination with the Hatch. That conversation did display the first hints of the disagreement between the two men. Jack seemed to shrug off Locke’s suggestion that “everything that happened here, happened for a reason.” Jack would shrug it off again (more violently) one hundred days later when Locke begs him to stay on the Island.

However, looking back can also cause problems. In the first minutes of the episode, we hear Charlie proclaim over and over again that he can’t swim, a jarring continuity error with what would later transpire in Season 3 when Charlie volunteers to swim into the Looking Glass Station. Of course, this could be chalked up to Charlie’s drug addiction wreaking havoc on his confidence, or that with time on the Island, he just naturally regains his swimming ability, but the most likely explanation is that the writers simply chose to ignore (or overlooked) this previous character trait of Charlie.

Also, watching the early beach scenes with so many redshirts running around, it is painfully obvious that Nikki, Paulo, and Dr. Arzt are not on the Island. While it is unrealistic to have planned out every minor character and their whole story arc from the very beginning, I think when the producers decided to introduce a new character, it would have been worth auditioning some of the background actors for the roles (especially when some of the background actors have been around for all four seasons).

When looking back at this episode, I think the one thing that stands out the most is Christian Shephard’s empty coffin that Jack finds crashed near the caves. The parallels are obvious. I am convinced, without a doubt, that when John Locke’s body is returned to the Island, he will live again. On what plane of existence I am not sure, but John Locke will once again stroll through the jungles of the Island he loves so dearly.