Season
1, Episodes 7 and 8- “The Moth” and “Confidence Man”
Summary:
In
flashback, Charlie’s rise to stardom with Driveshaft drives a wedge between him
and his brother Liam, but also drives him to heroin. A cave-in leaves Jack
trapped, and, wanting to prove himself useful, Charlie volunteers to crawl in
and free him. They manage to escape, and Charlie asks Locke for his drug back,
which he promptly tosses in the fire. Sayid’s plan to triangulate the French
signal hits a snag when he is knocked unconscious and his equipment destroyed.
Shannon
is having asthma trouble but her inhaler refill is gone, prompting the gang to
question Sawyer about his stash. Sayid begins to also suspect him of breaking
the transceiver equipment and decides to tie him up and torture him to get answers.
Sawyer cons Kate into kissing him but confesses he has no medicine. Sun
concocts an herbal remedy to help Shannon. Charlie tries to find peanut butter
for Claire. Kate reads Sawyer’s letter and learns that a man named Sawyer
ruined his family, and he vowed to find him one day. In flashback, Sawyer
starts to con a couple out of thousands of dollars but stops when he sees their
son.
Review:
Locke’s monologue about the moth is
maybe the most important monologue in the show. It’s very on-the-nose, but it
doesn’t matter because it’s so good, and the soundtrack is perfect. The island
is the cocoon within which the survivors (the titular moths) must struggle to
strengthen themselves. The only problem is most of them end up dead before they
can fly away, Charlie included. But their lives were sucky before the crash,
so…I guess it’s not THAT bad? Anyway, Locke’s test is just another reason why
he is the best character of season 1. And as the flashback proves, Charlie has
had a struggle with appearing useless or forgettable, which is a driving force
behind the drugs, and the cave-in provides a very obvious way of proving
himself. Personally I think that whole situation is a little bit melodramatic, and
it’s not very fun watching people heft rocks around. Also the moth “leading the
way” to an exit is a bit iffy. But I’ll still take it all, as the gratitude of
others becomes Charlie’s new drug, so to speak, and allows him to kick the
habit.
The saga of the transceiver comes to an
end as Sayid’s plan falls apart. Clever writing on production’s part, for
making it ambiguous as to who actually set off the 3rd rocket and who
could have conceivably bonked Sayid on the head. We know now that it was Locke,
but Sawyer seems like the obvious answer the first time around. Being so used
to having the upper hand in the real world, Sawyer quickly adapted to his
situation and hoarded a stash of crap which he knew people would bargain for.
He loves it. So why COULDN’T he be the phantom attacker?
Sawyer is an odd character. He’s funny
and interesting, and one of the best characters on the island. Yet I could
never get excited about his backstory, despite being a con man which should
theoretically make his one of the best. But it’s not. Especially this one. We
see a typical con, and after Kate reads the letter we are to assume that this
is the couple whose life he ruins. But the family is pretty forgettable and
although Sawyer has the change of heart after seeing their kid, there’s not
a real emotional hook to it. The hook comes when Kate learns the truth of
the letter. Which, admittedly, does give him one of the better island arcs in
the long run.
Shannon’s asthma is a bizarre thing to
happen, since it’s never brought up or referenced again. Props to Maggie Grace
for at least making a believable attempt at the struggle. I can understand how
Sawyer would want to mess with them in order to get a kiss from Kate, but even
after Sayid shoved the bamboo up his nails? I’m not entirely sure I can buy it,
and it gets a little uncomfortable to watch. Sawyer’s next episode is much
better.
Also, something I just noticed for the
first time: when Charlie is pretending to eat the peanut butter, he is rubbing
it over his gums, just as he did with his heroin which he gave up in the last
episode. Bravo.
Connecting the Dots:
Given the fandom’s penchant for
inquiring about every single little unsolved thing, I’m surprised that no one
seems to have taken an interest in who the firework smuggler could have been.
On the flip side, the fandom’s penchant
for inquiring about every single little unsolved thing led to years of
theorizing where the inhaler refills are, which gave us Jack and Hurley finding
them all the way near the end in Lighthouse. Sigh.
Here we learn that there was a “Real”
Mr. Sawyer, and wouldn’t you know it – turns out he is Locke’s daddy! Sayid’s
culprit also turns out to be Locke. Not a good track record, father and son.
Here’s some cosmic irony for you: Anthony
Cooper was responsible for ruining Sawyer’s life and driving him to the
criminal world. Now his son is
responsible for getting Sawyer tortured by Sayid for something he didn’t do.
Maybe conning really does run in the family.
Not much to connect the dots with today.
Just wait until the next post though…
Ranking:
1.
Pilot, part 1
(9/10)
2.
Walkabout (8/10)
3.
Pilot, part 2
(8/10)
4.
White Rabbit
(8/10)
5.
Tabula Rasa
(7/10)
6.
The Moth (7/10)
(Terrific personal struggle is weighed down by the cheesy cave-in emergency.)
7.
Confidence Man
(6.5/10) (Thin flashback and tedious mystery. Sawyer’s still cool though.)
8.
House of the
Rising Sun (6/10)
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