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.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
1x4, Walkabout
We open to Locke’s eye: while this would become a common occurrence (the following characters have all done the eye-open at the beginning of an episode: Jack, Locke, Sun, Claire, Boone, Michael, Sawyer [as a child], Jin, Aaron, Desmond, and Juliet), I think it is crucial that Jack and Locke were the first two to be featured. Of the central conflicts that have developed in the show, perhaps none is more important than the fight between the man of faith and the man of science.
Lost can be an extremely emotional show, and I think Walkabout contains one of its most touching moments: John Locke’s slow realization that the Island has given him back the ability to walk. His paralysis crippled him physically, mentally, and spiritually, and since the Island was willing to restore him, it is not surprising how much Locke is willing to do to re-pay the Island for its generosity: viewing Boone’s death as a sacrifice, blowing up the submarine, and killing Naomi (I’ll explore this thought more fully when the episode comes around, but I sometimes wonder if killing Naomi was an unnecessary move that will turn out to be John Locke’s tragic flaw that results in his downfall).
Locke’s role-playing of himself as a colonel foreshadows the man he believes himself to be: a warrior. This goes back to the test that Richard Alpert gave to the young Locke; young John took the knife and was sure it was his, but this was apparently a mistake, as Alpert angrily stormed out. While Locke thinks of himself as a warrior, he has been curiously absent from most of the battles on the Island. He is present when they confront Ethan, but it is Jack who overpowers the Other. Locke has no role in the siege on the beach in the Season 3 finale and plays no role in the attacks on the mercenaries in the Season 4 finale (other than to momentarily distract Keamy while Ben got the drop on him). In fact, the only combat Locke has seen is when Ben shoots him and when Locke throws a knife into Naomi’s back. These are hardly events that we associate with a warrior. I wonder if many of the bad things that happen after the Island moves are tied to Locke’s mistaken belief about what kind of a leader he is (a warrior).
I had forgotten that Helen was the name of both woman Locke proposed to and the (presumably) telephone sex worker that he spent so much money chatting with. It is never explicated, but I assume that we are supposed to believe that Locke chose this operator because she shared the name with the woman he loved (or he requested that he be allowed to call her such).
Other random thoughts: Boone is kind of Jack “light.” They are both noble do-gooders who do not know when to leave well enough alone (Boone tirelessly searched for a pen in the Pilot because he thought it would be necessary for an emergency tracheotomy). Boone also has some medical experience being a lifeguard, so he thinks he can do more than he really can (just like Jack).
This episode also introduced the idea that the Tail Section survivors might still be alive, which wouldn’t pay off until Season 2 (which is a good answer to the criticism that the producers never plan anything ahead), as well as Jack’s father being on the Island. We now know that Christian Shephard on the Island is more than just a hallucination or vision of Jack. The mobisode “So It Begins” shows Christian appearing to and giving instructions to Vincent the dog, and Christian also appears to both Hurley and Locke in Jacob’s cabin (and even to the point of carrying on a conversation with Locke). I continue to predict and believe that whatever plane of existence that Christian is now operating on will be the same that Locke inhabits when his corpse is eventually returned to the Island.
The travel guide for the Walkabout accuses John of misrepresenting himself. This is a perfect accusation to end the episode (and this post). John continues to present himself as a violent warrior, and while he does succeed in bringing home boars, I think this insistence on his destiny of violence will do much to bring violence to the residents of the Island after it has moved.
Lost can be an extremely emotional show, and I think Walkabout contains one of its most touching moments: John Locke’s slow realization that the Island has given him back the ability to walk. His paralysis crippled him physically, mentally, and spiritually, and since the Island was willing to restore him, it is not surprising how much Locke is willing to do to re-pay the Island for its generosity: viewing Boone’s death as a sacrifice, blowing up the submarine, and killing Naomi (I’ll explore this thought more fully when the episode comes around, but I sometimes wonder if killing Naomi was an unnecessary move that will turn out to be John Locke’s tragic flaw that results in his downfall).
Locke’s role-playing of himself as a colonel foreshadows the man he believes himself to be: a warrior. This goes back to the test that Richard Alpert gave to the young Locke; young John took the knife and was sure it was his, but this was apparently a mistake, as Alpert angrily stormed out. While Locke thinks of himself as a warrior, he has been curiously absent from most of the battles on the Island. He is present when they confront Ethan, but it is Jack who overpowers the Other. Locke has no role in the siege on the beach in the Season 3 finale and plays no role in the attacks on the mercenaries in the Season 4 finale (other than to momentarily distract Keamy while Ben got the drop on him). In fact, the only combat Locke has seen is when Ben shoots him and when Locke throws a knife into Naomi’s back. These are hardly events that we associate with a warrior. I wonder if many of the bad things that happen after the Island moves are tied to Locke’s mistaken belief about what kind of a leader he is (a warrior).
I had forgotten that Helen was the name of both woman Locke proposed to and the (presumably) telephone sex worker that he spent so much money chatting with. It is never explicated, but I assume that we are supposed to believe that Locke chose this operator because she shared the name with the woman he loved (or he requested that he be allowed to call her such).
Other random thoughts: Boone is kind of Jack “light.” They are both noble do-gooders who do not know when to leave well enough alone (Boone tirelessly searched for a pen in the Pilot because he thought it would be necessary for an emergency tracheotomy). Boone also has some medical experience being a lifeguard, so he thinks he can do more than he really can (just like Jack).
This episode also introduced the idea that the Tail Section survivors might still be alive, which wouldn’t pay off until Season 2 (which is a good answer to the criticism that the producers never plan anything ahead), as well as Jack’s father being on the Island. We now know that Christian Shephard on the Island is more than just a hallucination or vision of Jack. The mobisode “So It Begins” shows Christian appearing to and giving instructions to Vincent the dog, and Christian also appears to both Hurley and Locke in Jacob’s cabin (and even to the point of carrying on a conversation with Locke). I continue to predict and believe that whatever plane of existence that Christian is now operating on will be the same that Locke inhabits when his corpse is eventually returned to the Island.
The travel guide for the Walkabout accuses John of misrepresenting himself. This is a perfect accusation to end the episode (and this post). John continues to present himself as a violent warrior, and while he does succeed in bringing home boars, I think this insistence on his destiny of violence will do much to bring violence to the residents of the Island after it has moved.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
