Lost Re-view: Orientation

The third episode of Lost's second season was co-written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach (a returning writer from the first season) and Craig Wright (a new staff writer who would work for only part of this season before departing for Brothers & Sisters). It was directed by "head director" Jack Bender. The story is mainly built around Locke, though there are other things going on.

For instance, there's the story of Sawyer, Michael, and Jin... captured by the tail section survivors they've mistaken as Others. This episode picks up right where the previous one ended, with Eko beating the crap out of them with his mighty stick, and tossing them all down into a holding pit in the ground.

Not long after, Ana Lucia is thrown in with them as part of a con. She gathers intelligence on the hostages, posing as a captive herself. It's a well-delivered ruse that played wonderfully the first time around, though of course any tension here is gone on a subsequent viewing. Which is a shame, because without the fake out to thrill the audience, this subplot is just a long series of scenes just to have Ana Lucia take Sawyer's gun from him. (What can you do? Some things get deeper the second time around; some don't.)

The primary action is going on in the Swan (the hatch), beginning with a third replay of Desmond holding Locke hostage. This time, the action finally moves forward, with Kate slipping out of the air duct, sneaking up behind Desmond, and clocking him with the butt of her rifle. But Desmond's own weapon goes off, and takes out the all-important computer. Desmond goes into full-on panic.

And here we get into the material that had everyone talking the first time around. Desmond explains the countdown clock, and the button that has to be pressed every 108 minutes in order to "save the world." Soon, we're watching the Dharma orientation video. (More on that in a moment.) It's a big dump of information about "what the hell is going on" that, in true Lost fashion, poses new questions to replace any old ones answered.

In a way, it's a shame that all this is what gets the viewer's attention in this episode. Because, as I've always maintained, Lost is about the characters, and there's a really core character conflict at work here. Locke and Jack go up not just against each other, but circumstances put each of them against himself.

Locke instantly accepts this button pushing story. He has been saying that everything has been leading to him getting in the hatch, and this new mission further proves that. He has to accept the "save the world" premise of the button, because to do otherwise would be to acknowledge that everything he has gone through, all the sacrifices, were for nothing.

Jack, meanwhile, utterly rejects the premise of the button. His anger is hot and irrational -- until you realize that it's really outward-manifesting anger that's really just directed at himself. The last time Jack let himself believe in fate, he met the woman he would marry... and then later divorce, so so much for fate. That here on the Island he would somehow meet Desmond (something even Locke acknowledges would be "impossible"), and be tasked with what surely looks like "destiny?" To accept that would be reopening a painful door he'd long since shut.

Huge, weighty moments for the characters. But sadly, no one paid attention to it the first time around. We were all too busy parsing Desmond's tale of "Kelvin," and then dissecting every last second of the Swan orientation video. Ooo, it says this is station 3 of 6! What does that mean? Look, the Dharma Initiative is into polar bears and electromagnetism! And who is this shadowy Alvar Hanso? What's with the obvious splice in the film? What does it mean that the film has a 1980 copyright date?

It's all kind of a red herring, if you ask me. (Particularly when you consider that the timeline given in the film doesn't quite match up with what we see later to close season five. Here, "Dr. Candle" says that the Incident happened soon after tests were begun at this station, but later we see that the Incident occurs as the station is still being built.) But there are Lost fans out there for whom this stuff is the "important stuff." And while I think they're wrong, I can't blame them for reaching that conclusion. Even Locke seems to be emphasizing the importance of this film, speaking directly to the audience when he says: "We're gonna need to watch that again."

Either way, you have to praise the writers for creating a show for the DVR/DVD age.

The episode concludes with Desmond running off (not to be seen again until the season finale), Sayid repairing the computer, and Jack giving in to the Cult of the Button, pushing it as Locke requests. (But not before a brilliant exchange of dialogue between them -- Locke: "Why do you find it so hard to believe?" Jack: "Why do you find it so easy?" Locke: "It's never been easy!")

And to illustrate exactly what Locke means by that, we have his flashbacks in this episode. They occur some time after he's been conned out of his kidney. He's started going to meetings (which look like, but probably aren't, for Alcoholics Anonymous), and there he meets Helen. She's a funny and warm woman (played appealingly by Katey Sagal), and the two enter into a wonderful relationship.

But the problem is that more than Locke needs her love, he needs the love of his father. Or at least, he needs to know "why." And so, almost every morning, he's outside his father's giant house, waiting in his car for either the courage to go in or for his father to come out and say something. And one day his father does just that, to tell Locke he should "get over it" and not come back. "You're not wanted."

Helen keeps getting better, but Locke can't give himself over to that relationship. The episode concludes with a confrontation between the two of them, outside Locke's father's house. She wants to help him, but he has to promise not to keep coming back here. Locke has to take "a leap of faith" with her. And he seems to agree to this with a passionate kiss.

And though that's as far as this is taken in this episode, it's a huge insight into Locke in the grand scheme of things. Even watching this the first time around, you're already equipped with enough information to know this didn't end well. For one, Locke ended up in a wheelchair. For another, we've seen a flashback in which he's paying a phone sex operator to pretend she's Helen.

All this explains exactly why Locke is so keen to accept everything on the Island on faith -- including its latest wrinkle, the button: because Helen asked him to take a leap of faith with her, and he didn't go through with it. He lost her. So now, Locke has resolved to himself to take every leap of faith presented to him, lest he miss out on something else just as wonderful.

Really high grade stuff, in my view. (And, as always, bolstered by a top notch performance by Terry O'Quinn.) And yet, it's diluted a fair amount by the not-so-important Dharma trappings and the doesn't-quite-go-anywhere tail section plot. So overall, I'd rate this episode a B+.