Lost Re-view: Collision

The next episode of Lost was written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Leonard Dick. This was the last credited episode for the former; he left after the end of the second season (though was apparently responsible for creating the Swan "blast door map" that made a big splash later in the season). It was directed by franchise regular Stephen Williams.

The episode is centered around Ana Lucia, and covers the aftermath of her fatal shooting of Shannon. I found it a particularly strong episode, going back to watch it again. I think the first time around, I was too preoccupied with how much I disliked the Ana Lucia character to fully appreciate the episode. And while I still don't think this episode makes her "likeable" (nor is it intended to), it truly does a masterful job of explaining everything about why she is the way she is.

It all has to do with her flashbacks, a series of carefully written scenes that chronicle her going back on duty as a beat cop after several months leave. We learn that she was shot four times at close range by a suspect, through her vest, and very nearly died. But it's the details surrounding this that really explain Ana Lucia.

In the opening scene, for example, she's talking with a department psychiatrist to get reapproved for duty, and reveals that her boyfriend has left her after the shooting. Pressed to explain her feelings about this, she says that she's probably just one of those people who is better off alone. In essence, the "lesson" she seems to have learned from this relationship is that even those closest to you can abandon you, and can do so even in your time of greatest need. Better not to let anyone in close at all.

On her first day back on the job, Ana Lucia pulls a gun on a civilian, spurred on by the crying of his baby. That same day, the suspect who shot her months earlier is apprehended, but she refused to ID him even after he has confessed to the crime. It turns out she wants him back out on the street to carry out her own justice. She stalks the man, confronts him in a dark alley, reveals that she was pregnant when she was shot (and lost the baby), and then kills him in cold blood. Puts six bullets in him, in fact.

During the Island part of the story, she recounts her shooting to Sayid. She was responding to a call, going in alone through the front door as her partner went around the back. When a man came out the front door professing he was just a bystander, she let him reach for his ID. Instead, he drew a gun and shot her at close range.

Together, all this information paints a vivid picture of why Ana Lucia is so damaged. She lowered her guard for one second, was completely duped by someone she misread, and wound up losing her unborn baby and nearly dying herself. (In fact, she says she feels like she did die that day.)

All of this past played out again on the Island, as we saw in earlier episodes. She pledged to protect a young child from harm, and was unable to do it. She misjudged someone who was pretending to be a friend -- Goodwin. Once again, her experiences were all underscoring some dispiriting points. Don't try to help anyone, because you can't. Don't trust anyone, because they'll betray you. No one is what they appear to be.

No wonder she is the way she is.

The on-Island story blends the aftermath of Shannon's death with the merging of the Oceanic survivors. Sayid tries to attack Ana Lucia, but Eko intercedes, so she uses the opportunity to knock Sayid out from behind, then tie him up. She goes into a barely controlled panic, threatening even her own friends of 48 days with her gun as she tries to figure out what to do.

Almost everyone takes a shot at trying to talk Ana Lucia down, but she's just grasping for control. Finally, Eko is fed up enough with the situation -- and concerned that Sawyer will die -- that he decides simply to leave. He hoists Sawyer over his shoulder and walks away.

But it's not only Ana Lucia in turmoil. The greatest moment of anguish in the episode is Sayid's, when Michael goes to give him water, and reveals that their raft was destroyed. The Others took Walt, who is now somewhere back here on the Island. Sayid's pain at this revelation tells us that he still was likely was just humoring Shannon at the end when he said he believed her. He now realizes with horror that she was right all along. His last moment with her may have been a reconciliation, but he still doubted her in his heart, and he'll never be able to make that right.

Meanwhile, an oddly light subplot has begun that involves Kate and Jack challenging each other to a round of golf, but it's really just a device to separate them from the group and position them where Eko then emerges from the jungle. They all rush to get Sawyer to the Hatch, where they can give him medical attention.

Locke is manning the button, doing a crossword to pass the time. He's prominently filling in clue 42 (numbers!), with the clue "Enkidu's friend." He fills in "Gilgamesh," and Lost fans everywhere scramble to dissect the reference to an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. In a nutshell (for those who didn't see the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Darmok"), two rival heroes battle each other, but then become friends. Both slay a monster together, before one is executed by the gods in retribution.

There are plenty of possible allegories to draw here. This could refer to Jack and Ana Lucia, the de facto leaders of the rival "tribes" of Oceanic survivors. It could refer to Locke and Eko, the "spiritual leaders" of the tribes, and the first from each group to encounter the Smoke Monster. (Eko would be killed by it.) Or, if you believe the Lost writers planned things out way in advance, it could be a reference to the Smoke Monster himself, and his brother Jacob, the former "killed" by upsetting the power at the heart of the Island. However you choose to read it, it's a split second moment on screen that sparks some fun theorizing.

Jack goes to work on Sawyer, while Locke introduces himself to Eko. For his part, Eko seems enthralled by the inside of the Swan station, no doubt comparing it to the emptied out Arrow bunker where his group has been living. It's a stark contrast in the living conditions of the two groups.

Meanwhile, Bernard is pushing Ana Lucia to know her plan. Sayid taunts that she has none, just guilt and a gun. So on the spur of the moment, she decides the thing for her is to finally embrace the lesson that life is repeatedly showing her -- she's better off alone. She sends Michael back to camp to gather supplies for her; if he brings them, she'll release Sayid. And soon, when Libby brings up the incident of Ana Lucia throwing the innocent Nathan into a pit and nearly torturing him, she decides to let them all go but Sayid.

In the Hatch, the love triangle of Sawyer-Kate-Jack is put back into play, as Kate soothes the delirious Sawyer long enough to give him medicine to stave off infection and sepsis. As this unfolds, Locke is trying to convince Eko to take him to where Shannon has been killed, but Eko has spotted the armory of rifles there in the Hatch, and refuses to enable any more potential violence.

Michael finds Sun tending her garden, and she brings him to the Hatch. Jack is furious to learn what has happened, and this only strengthens Eko's resolve to reveal nothing. What are they hoping for? Revenge? Justice? And then he happens to mention Ana Lucia's name -- which Jack recognizes from his chance encounter with her before the flight in the Sydney airport. His icy resolve becomes conflicted, and that's when Eko agrees to take him -- and only him, unarmed -- to see Ana Lucia.

This is the moment in the episode when Ana Lucia tells the story of how she was shot to Sayid, but she stops short of the complete truth -- she lies and says she never found the man who shot her. But it seems that Sayid senses the truth, or at least recognizes they are kindred spirits. When she decides at that moment to let Sayid go, and allows him to kill her because she deserves it, he simply counters: "what good would it be to kill you if we're both already dead?" She died when she lost her baby; he died when he lost Shannon. (Interesting, much later in the series, Sayid would die more literally, and then come back "wrong" through the temple waters and become an agent of the Man in Black. But Sayid's loss here certainly primes the pump for his aimless doubt, his lack of a moral compass in a world where such bad things can happen.)

The episode concludes with another one of Lost's patented montages -- no dialogue, only sweeping, emotional music from Michael Giacchino. But this particular montage is especially powerful, as it covers a series of reunions on the beach. It's aimed first at animal lovers, when Vincent the dog runs to greet Michael. But you're truly challenged not to tear up when Rose and Bernard are finally reunited after so much time apart and so many hardships. Then you're pushed harder still when Sun and Jin reunite (we in the audience recalling that for a short time, she'd given up hope that he was alive). This is without question the most emotionally potent sequence so far in the second season.

It ends with Jack arriving in the jungle to see Sayid carrying the lifeless Shannon. Then Jack and Ana Lucia come face to face. The final shot is a wide angle view of the two of them standing on opposite ends of the screen, a strong visual to end a strong episode.

Ana Lucia may not be my favorite character, but this is a very well-written back story for her, elevated even more by the powerful moments included for the characters we've known longer and loved. I rate the episode an A-.