Welcome back! Yesterday, I began a review of the first season finale of Lost, a mammoth triple-length episode that spawned a mammoth, triple-length review. As such, I decided -- like the episode -- to break things into two parts. Yesterday, I wrote about the flashback component of the finale. Today, I'm covering the on-Island adventures.Things begin with Danielle Rousseau walking out of the jungle into the survivors' beach camp to warn them that "the Others are coming." She recounts the story of losing her daughter 16 years ago, preceded by the omen of a thick column of black smoke in the sky. Jack dismisses her as crazy, though Locke points out that fact doesn't make her wrong. And sure enough, a pillar of black smoke appears hours later.
They need a place they can hide 40 people, and Jack thinks of the Hatch. Rousseau says that in all her time on the Island, she has never seen anything like it. I suppose in her estimation, the station where she recorded her distress call doesn't count as anything like this one, but given that she doesn't know what's inside here, I'll give her a pass on that. (What's harder to understand is how she is so sure the Others took her baby and are such a serious threat when she also told Sayid that she's never actually seen an Other -- only heard them as whispers. So... crazy, I guess.)
Anyway, Sayid continues his protests about the Hatch, arguing that it might even belong to the Others themselves (not too far off the mark -- they occupy several old Dharma stations, just not this one). But recalling the dynamite Rousseau used to booby trap her own shelter, the group has an idea to get inside. And they get her to reveal where the explosives came from: the Black Rock.
Meanwhile, the raft has been damaged in the attempt to roll it down to the beach. (Opportunity #47 for Michael to throw a fit.) Jack wants everybody to help repair the raft and see it off, then run to hide in the caves. Meanwhile, he and a small band will go for the dynamite. Bad plan, says Arzt, unless he's there to supervise the handling of the dynamite.
But before the Black Rock brigade can set out, Jack has a little business to attend to. He won't be back before the raft launches, so he wants to give Sawyer a gun from the marshal's case, "just in case" the raft crew needs it. This leads to the first of several powerful scenes in the episode, an extended moment in which Sawyer reveals that he met Jack's father in Australia just before his death, and relays everything Christian had meant to say to Jack but never had the chance. Sawyer is shown to be a good guy at the core; faced with the real possibility he'll never see Jack again, he decides to bring Jack some peace -- for nothing in return. Jack is moved nearly to tears (as am I as a viewer, I have to say).
Then Jack, Kate, Locke, Hurley, Arzt, and Rousseau head out on their trek. It's a fun sequence that shows off some of the beautiful Hawaiian scenery, has several good lines of Hurley humor, and makes a point of showing us some mysterious scratches on Rousseau's arm. Arzt panics when they reach "Dark Territory" and turns back, but moments later returns in an even bigger panic, chased by the monster.
The group escapes the threat for now, but the close encounter prompts more misinformation from Rousseau. She claims the monster is a "security system" meant to protect the Island. She's just repeating something that we'd learn (in season five) her companion Robert determined, but the fact remains that this information is essentially the exact opposite of the truth. In fact, there is an altogether different "security system" in place (Jacob) to guard against the monster (leaving the Island). Whoops.
Meanwhile on the beach, Jin and Michael argue over repairs, repeating lines from The Empire Strikes Back, when Sawyer shows up with a new mast he's cut to repair the damage. The raft will soon be back in business, equipped by Sayid with a radar emitter to locate other ships, and a single flare to signal for help.
Another surprisingly effective scene comes when Walt goes to Shannon and gives his dog Vincent to her. Vincent took care of Walt when his Mom died, he says, because he's a good listener. Walt figures Vincent can do the same to help Shannon cope with the loss of Boone.
The emotions continue to build over the next few scenes. Sun brings Jin an English phrasebook she's created to help him learn a few important words. Jin says he must go on the raft, because it's his job to save Sun. He was brought to this place as punishment for making Sun suffer, and she doesn't deserve any of it. A true reconciliation occurs between them.
And then comes the actual launching of the raft. It begins with a wordless goodbye montage, underscored by brilliant Michael Giacchino music that swells into a phenomenal, sweeping sequence -- one of the most effective Lost has yet delivered.
Meanwhile, the traveling gang has reached the Black Rock, and learned that it's an old slave ship somehow beached miles inland. Hurley wonders how something like that could happen, to which Rousseau smartly replies: "Are you on the same island as I am?" Her job as guide discharged, she is out of there, leaving the rest of the group to retrieve the dynamite.
At the beach, Charlie is going back into "protector mode" in regards to Claire, and demands a gun from Sayid (to whom Jack entrusted the rest of the marshal's stash). Sayid sagely refuses.
Arzt is running his mouth to Hurley, who isn't even really listening -- but then really flips out when he sees Jack and Locke carrying a crate of dynamite from the wrecked ship. He lectures everyone about the way the old sticks will sweat nitroglycerin in the heat, and cautions that the inventor of dynamite blew himself up. (Factually incorrect, actually -- but one can assume blowhard Arzt is just doing what he does.) Then, just as Arzt is talking about how temperamental--
BOOM! Bits of Arzt everywhere, in a moment that was shocking the first time around, and still quite disgusting on a subsequent viewing. As Hurley puts it perfectly: "Dude."
Then comes a short scene where the raft crew, sailing from the Island, muse about how a place this big could have gone undiscovered. (We'll learn the answer to that eventually -- the Island moves!) Then Sawyer and Michael bond (oh don't worry, they'll be fighting again soon enough) over Bob Marley lyrics.
Shannon struggles with too much stuff crammed in a full suitcase as she tries to flee the beach, and when things spill out, it's revealed they're all Boone's. She breaks down to Sayid. "I need these things. I can't just leave them." Whether you like Shannon or not, it feels like a very real moment.
At the Black Rock, Hurley feels that Arzt's misfortune was Hurley's own bad luck. Meanwhile, Jack and Locke are back at the dynamite crate playing Press Your Luck. Or actually, Operation, as Locke refers to it, noting that he "absolutely" loves playing games -- in a bit of a callback to his recent episode, in which he explained the game of Mousetrap.
Rousseau arrives on the beach once again, and catches Claire when no one else is around. Claire suddenly has a brief flash of memory (hey, does that count as her actually getting a flashback in this episode after all?), of her inflicting those mysterious scratches on Rousseau's arm herself. But it's too late. Rousseau clocks Claire, and runs off with the baby.
Charlie's reaction is to haul off and punch Sayid for refusing earlier to share a gun. (Not that he'd have been there to use it, but hey, it's not really a rational moment for Charlie.) Sayid grabs him by the throat and calms him down. Soon, he does give Charlie that gun (but warning that it isn't for revenge), and Claire begs the two of them to go off and rescue "Aaron," naming her baby in that moment.
The Black Rock people are again raising a central theme of the series: fate. Kate, Locke, and Jack are all eager to risk their lives by carrying dynamite in their backpacks, but the group agrees only two are needed for the job. They agree to let "fate" decide and draw straws for the dubious honor. Jack is left out.
On the raft, Sawyer passes his time by reading through the messages that survivors wrote to their loved ones, and Walt calls him out on it, asking if Sawyer would want anyone reading something he'd written. Sawyer is oddly direct, telling Walt the last letter he wrote -- the only letter he'll ever write -- is to the man he's going to kill. It's a moment Michael might justifiably get mad about, a man telling his boy about plans to commit murder... but Michael's not paying attention for this one.
Shannon arrives at the cave, and is forced to see the spot where her brother died. Sun tries to comfort her, saying "he died bravely," but soon she sinks into her own despair, echoing Jin's earlier words to her. She too seems to believe the Island is a punishment, for things done before, secrets kept, lies told. Fate itself (there's that word again!) is punishing them. But Claire plays "Jack" to Sun's "Locke," and declares there's no such thing as fate.
Michael and Walt are having a bonding moment over steering the boat when they suddenly hit a log and the rudder falls off. Sawyer strips off his shirt and heroically swims out to save the rudder and the day. And one moment, Michael is saying exactly that to him. But the next moment, he's discovered the gun concealed in Sawyer shirt, and gets nasty again. Man, Michael is bipolar.
Sayid and Charlie pause for rest on their journey toward the black smoke, the place they believe Rousseau is taking Aaron. On the Island of strangeness, but no coincidences, they stop to rest at the wreckage of the Nigerian plane, and Sayid reveals the massive heroin stash. The scene closes on a long, lingering stare into Charlie's face.
The dynamite gang is on the journey back, speculating about what might be in the Hatch. Locke says it's "hope." Hurley hopes it's "Twinkies." Hurley turns out to be closer to correct, I would say.
And then comes a moment that kind of makes me hate Lost fans. Certain kinds of Lost fans, anyway. A large bird takes flight, squawking noisily. In my estimation, there is nothing out of the ordinary here; it's just a dramatic moment to underscore the whole "Dark Territory" thing. But apparently, after seeing this moment, some particularly nutty Lost fans were swearing up and down that this bird's caws were saying "Hurley! Hurley!" Thus, the so-called "Hurley bird" was born.
I imagine this as the first real "oh crap" moment for the writers, the moment they realized that they couldn't do anything on their show without some portion of the audience ascribing colossally important meaning to it. They'd try and laugh off this whole Hurley bird thing a year later in the season two finale, but ultimately this somehow became an issue so important to some people that the writers felt compelled to address it in The New Man in Charge. This actually ticks me off a little, as it somehow validates the notion that in the midst of this incredibly intricate tapestry of deeply rounded characters, it's okay if the thing you were most concerned about is where some damn mutant bird (that doesn't even look that strange) came from.
But I've dwelled more than long enough on that little rant. And fortunately, right after the bird flies off, something very relevant to the overall storyline of Lost makes a grand entrance: the monster. This time, we're actually shown a wisp of smoke as we hear the noise, and we even see a smoke tentacle grab Locke and start dragging him through the jungle. In other words, we really are seeing what the monster is for the first time in the series. But I remember the first time around that it actually didn't even occur to me that I'd really seen what I'd seen. It wouldn't be until the more grand presentation of Smokey in season two that I'd finally feel like I'd seen what it was. I guess I felt like "it can't just be smoke" or something like that. (And really, it wasn't.) But this is all a subject for a much later re-view, I think.
The group starts to flee Smokey, but Locke turns and runs toward it. Spotting this, Jack bounds off to the rescue. Which is a good thing, because Locke has a moment of doubt. We see him look into the "face" on the monster, just as he did early in the season. But instead of a look of wonder, he has a look of horror. The smoke drags him to a hole in the ground and is about to pull him in when Jack intervenes. He tells Kate to get the "backup dynamite" -- from his bag -- to toss down the hole. Locke begs them not to do this, to just let him go because he'll be okay, but Kate does as Jack says. The smoke slinks away, and Locke is rescued.
On the raft, Michael asks Jin about the English he has learned from Sun's phrase book as they fix the rudder. Michael also tries to return Mr. Paik's watch, though Jin refuses and tells him to keep it.
Sayid and Charlie are hot on the trail, but Charlie lets his guard down and receives a serious head wound from one of Rousseau's traps. Sayid tells him to go back, but he absolutely refuses, asking Sayid to put some of his combat training to use on a "wounded soldier." Next follows a truly uncomfortable sequence to watch, in which Sayid cauterizes Charlie's wound with gunpowder extracted from a bullet. Well realized all around in filming and acting.
Jack and Locke argue over Locke's peculiar request earlier to be let go. Locke believes he was being tested, and that he thinks he knows why he and Jack don't see eye to eye: "you're a man of science; me, I'm a man of faith." This puts words to a key distinction between these characters that will be repeated again and again throughout the show. (In fact, it will inspire the title of the season 2 premiere.)
The conversation then gets really interesting. Locke asks if Jack really thinks their being there on the Island is all an accident, coincidence. Locke believes they were all brought there for a reason and purpose. (As we'll learn much later, he's absolutely right!) Who brought them there? "The Island," says Locke. (Well, pretty close. Jacob, the custodian of the Island.) Locke continues, saying the Island chose Jack. "It's destiny." (Ooo, you're basically three for three, Locke!)
Ah, but then he says that Boone's death was part of a chain of events all meant to lead to right here, right now, their end purpose -- to open the Hatch. (Oooo, big swing-and-a-miss on that one, John.) Still, he finishes strong; when Jack says he doesn't believe in destiny, Locke insists: "Yes you do. You just don't know it yet." (Solid bullseye on that point, as the last two seasons would prove.)
Now we're cruising toward the climax of the episode. On the raft, there's an argument over wasting battery power on the radar device, mixed with poignant discussion about Sawyer's background and why it might have given him a death wish... and then, a blip on the radar!
Sayid and Charlie reach the source of the smoke, a giant signal fire on a beach with no footprints leading to or away from it. They hear Aaron crying, and Rousseau emerges from the jungle in tears herself. She'd wanted to trade this baby for her daughter. The whispers had told her the Others were coming for "the boy," but they did not show. (But as we'll learn in minutes, Rousseau may very well have heard the whispers she claims she heard. But "the boy" the Others are coming for isn't Aaron.) Sayid manages to talk the baby back out of her arms.
Jack, Kate, Locke, and Hurley have reached the Hatch, and are rigging the explosives. It's a tense scene, and though we probably never seriously believe the characters are in danger, the recent death of main character Boone, combined with the showy offing of redshirt Arzt maybe does manage to stick just a little doubt in there if you've never seen the show before. Maybe.
Kate challenges Jack about switching the dynamite into his pack. Continuing the theme of fate, Jack says he would never leave such a decision up to chance, and further gripes that everyone wants him to be a leader until he makes a decision they don't like. But the two make up over Jack's suggestion that they'll soon need to watch out for an inevitable "Locke problem."
The dynamite is ready, but Hurley happens to drop his flashlight and see his dreaded numbers engraved on the Hatch. He begs them not to light the dynamite, screaming maniacally. Locke hears him, but simply doesn't care. Hurley tries to step on the burning fuse, but Jack pulls him to safety.... BOOM!
Back on the raft. The signal is getting farther away. Sawyer convinces Michael to use their one flare. And then the signal comes straight at them. A small motorboat shines a powerful spotlight. "Rescue music" from Michael Giacchino swells. And then the bearded man on the rescue boat hits them with: "Only the thing is, we're gonna have to take the boy." Sawyer goes for his gun. Shots are exchanged. Jin and Sawyer are in the water. The Others grab Walt, beat up Michael, and blow up the raft!
"Walt!!!" screams Michael about five or six times, the last spoken lines of dialogue in the first season. (Also the first spoken line of dialogue in the season. Coincidence?)
A wordless montage takes us to the end. Charlie and Sayid return to the caves and give baby Aaron back to Claire. Shannon and Sayid embrace. A happy moment all around, save for the pan down to Charlie's bag, where we see he's grabbed some of the Nigerian heroin stash.
And then we're at the Hatch, indeed blown open in the blast. The characters look down into a long hole descending into the ground, and the camera slowly pulls back from them down its length...
At which point, you had to wait four months if you were watching Lost live as it ran for the first time. Aaaaack!
And with this episode, which I'd rate an A-, season one comes to a close. For those interested in trivia, I read that in every other season, each main character was left out of at least one episode; this was the only season in which at least some of the characters (Jack, Kate, and a few others) showed up every time. I believe it to be one of Lost's best seasons; perhaps once I've finally reviewed everything I can sort of average up my ratings and determine where it really falls.
My picks for the five best of season one:
And if you're still here after all this, you must love Lost as much as I do! Now, go outside or something.
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