Season
1, Episodes 9 and 10, “Solitary” and “Raised by Another”
Summary:
In
Iraq, Sayid helps his old friend Nadia out of captivity when he is given the
order to torture her for information. He is caught in a jungle trap and wakes
up in the French woman’s hut. Danielle interrogates him, thinking he is an
“Other”. He offers to fix her music box and asks questions about how she came
to be here. As things are getting tense at camp, Hurley builds a two-hole golf
course that raises the spirits of the survivors.
Claire
begins having nightmares and thinks someone is trying to hurt her baby. She
comes to the conclusion that the psychic she talked to back home may have known
the plane crash would occur. He was adamant about her being the one to raise
her baby but then suddenly convinced her to let a couple in Los Angeles adopt
it. Hurley decides to start a camp census, then runs to Jack when he learns that
one of the people wasn’t on the plane. That person, Ethan, confronts Claire and
Charlie in the jungle.
Review:
Solitary is a very important episode. In
addition to finally seeing Danielle in the flesh, it is also the first
appearance or mention of the Others, the whispers, the Black Rock, the cable, the
sickness, Alex, and not to mention a brief appearance from Ethan. That’s a lot
of stuff that becomes crucial to the story in the near or far future. Most of
it comes courtesy of the foggy ramblings of Danielle in her shadowy jungle hut,
and her interactions with Sayid are layered enough to make the info-dump not
seem so cryptic. Sayid also has one of the best soundtrack themes;
simultaneously sad and comforting.
The flashback with Nadia is alright.
It’s a better love story than some other characters have, mostly from how
unconventional it is. Combined with the “Heart of Darkness”-like pit-stop with
Danielle, it’s a kind of grim and gothic affair. Luckily it’s offset a little
by the golf course, the first truly light-hearted sub-plot on the show. After
weeks of lost inhalers and stolen water, it’s nice to see the fun side come
out. And the coda to the whole thing, the creepy whispers in the jungle, caps
off a strong episode that is unlike anything that came before it (and most that
come after).
“Raised by Another” opens with one of
Claire’s nightmares, an example of one of the episode’s themes of things being
not necessarily what they appear to be (see also: Richard Malkin, Ethan Rom). I
find it weird that Ethan would attempt to kidnap Claire at night, with other
people sleeping around them. Wouldn’t it be easier to lure her into the jungle
alone? While we’re on the subject, Emilie de Ravin’s screams are some of the
shriekiest and most uncomfortable to listen to. Anyway. Her flashbacks are
markedly different from most of the others in that it initially appears to be
supernaturally-influenced and relevant to the island happenings. The whole
Malkin thing is confusing in retrospect, which I describe in the
segment below. On a first watch though, it’s pretty crazy.
The census was an interesting way to
introduce Ethan to the audience while still preserving the plot twist. It would
be sort of obvious if people are trying to figure out who attacked a girl and
then there’s this random guy in the bunch that we’ve never met before. The
census gives Hurley an excuse to talk to people, but it would have helped more
if there were one or two other survivors he interviewed. Sullivan perhaps, since he was
just established the episode prior. Luckily the mystery doesn’t last very long,
and the creepy stare is aces.
Connecting the Dots:
Nadia’s note: “If we cannot make to see
each other in this life, we can see each other in another life.” That is
precisely what they do in the flash-sideways world, although they do reunite
during the Oceanic Six saga.
The cable leading into the ocean will
eventually be confirmed to connect to the Looking Glass station. The Black Rock
will eventually (but much sooner) be confirmed as an old slaving ship.
Alex is eventually revealed to be a
girl, and Danielle’s responses here do not specify a gender, though it’s odd
she wouldn’t correct Sayid when he kept saying “he”. She also says the Others
were “the carriers”, which is a bit of wobbly continuity, since it seemed
obvious in season 5 that her team went crazy after an encounter with the
monster. All the inconsistency could be chalked up to her being alone and crazy
for 16 years. It’s still a bit of a headache to set straight.
The man whom Jack treats for a rash,
Sullivan, is never seen or heard from again. We can conclude he either died
when the freighter blew up or during the flaming arrow attack. But for a show
that did its best to keep a strong continuity, it’s too bad we never even heard
his name brought up after this.
Jack’s insistence that Claire is just
hallucinating may be a result of fighting his own alleged hallucinations in “White
Rabbit”.
Claire: “My mom would disown me.”
Thomas: “She basically already has.” Claire’s mom is in a coma. Harsh, Thomas,
very harsh.
Claire says her father used to sing
“Catch a Falling Star” when she was little. This is Christian Shephard.
Let’s get into Richard Malkin, shall we:
He confesses in the episode “?” to be a fraud, and it has been confirmed as
much by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. So why does he initially insist she
must be the one to raise her baby? If it’s just part of his “game”, why does he
refuse the money? The only explanation I can think of is that he was coerced to
say it by someone who needed Claire to keep the baby. Not sure who that could
be. Thomas certainly didn’t want it. The easier thing to explain is why he
changed his tune and urged her to give the baby to a couple in Los Angeles. I
can easily see how the couple would have paid Malkin to convince her to give it
up. But why her, and why that specific flight? Perhaps it was Jacob. He’s been
shown to nudge the characters in these directions and this may have been his
way to get Claire onto the plane. I don’t think there’s anything to confirm
this, but it could easily have happened. The only thing that doesn’t fit is why
Malkin was adamant about her keeping the baby at first. Oh well. Maybe
something will shed light on it later.
Ranking:
1.
Pilot, part 1
(9/10)
2.
Solitary (8.5/10)
(Lots of new island mythology to pore over and strong Sayid/Danielle
chemistry.)
3.
Walkabout (8/10)
4.
Pilot, part 2
(8/10)
5.
White Rabbit
(8/10)
6.
Raised by Another
(7.5/10) (The flashback presents a host of scenarios and the twist is
unforgettable.)
7.
Tabula Rasa
(7/10)
8.
The Moth (7/10)
9.
Confidence Man
(6.5/10)
10. House of the Rising Sun (6/10)
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