Season
1, Episodes 19 and 20- “Deus Ex Machina” and “Do No Harm”
Summary:
Locke
receives a visit from his mother, which leads him to meeting his father,
Anthony Cooper. After some bonding time, Locke learns Cooper needs a kidney and
offers to give his own. After the operation, he learns that it was all a trick
just to get him to give up the kidney and his father wants nothing to do with
him. On the island, Locke receives a vision of a Beechcraft plane crashing and
goes with Boone to investigate. Jack treats Sawyer’s headaches by giving him
glasses. Locke’s legs weaken underneath him when they find the Beechcraft,
which contains corpses of Nigerian priests and statues full of heroin. Inside
the plane, Boone receives a radio signal but it fall off the cliff. Locke
carries Boone back to camp, but disappears when Jack begins asking questions.
At night, a light appears in the hatch as Locke pounds on it.
Jack
struggles to come up with his vows to Sarah on his wedding day. He treats
Boone’s injuries but they are too severe to treat with the supplies they have.
Sayid takes Shannon on a date away from camp. Claire goes into labor and Kate
is forced to deliver the baby. Jack has to concede he can’t save Boone and must
let him die.
Review:
“Deus Ex Machina” opens with Locke
showing a kid how the game “Mouse Trap” works, just as his mother appears to
set him on the course to a very real trap. It all makes much more sense in
hindsight knowing that Cooper is the real Mr. Sawyer and is an expert as these
long cons. It’s a devastating turn, and solidifies Locke as having the best
backstory, at least in the early going. His breakdown in the car at the end
(morphing into his breakdown at the hatch) is one of O’Quinn’s best moments.
The one thing I’m not really keen on is Emily Locke’s assertion that he was
immaculately conceived. I guess it was part of the con to get him interested in
his father but it just felt like the show trying to end a scene on a crazy
revelation. But it’s debunked not long after, so it’s just a nitpick.
We really steer into the weirdness curve
in this episode, with the creepy dream, the dead priests, the Virgin Mary’s
with heroin, and the transmission. Through all of it, we still don’t lose the
emotional hook of the characters. We see the heroin reveal and even though
Charlie is not present for it, we still instinctively know that it will factor
into his storyline at some point. We end with Boone’s life hanging by a thread
but still save room for the magical moment of the hatch light coming on as
Locke cries above it. It was already a strong moment when it first aired, but
thinking about Desmond’s side of the event, it holds up even better knowing that
Desmond was similarly breaking down at the same moment. Both of them gave the
other one a sign to keep going, and that plays into the show’s ultimate
umbrella theme.
Not to be swept under the rug, let us
never forget that Sayid made an original pair of glasses on the island using
custom welding tools. Badass.
“Do No Harm”, on the other hand, has
none of the mysterious or creepy elements of “Deus ex Machina”, acting more as
a straight-up hospital drama. That’s not often my favorite version of Lost. The
twin emergencies of Claire’s labor and Boone’s death forces a distribution of
attention not only for the characters but for the audience. Boone has his fans,
but I can’t say he was high on my list of characters with whom I had an
emotional attachment. The true bearer of dramatic weight is actually Jack; will
he be able to save someone or will he finally accept that not everyone can be
saved?
Although death’s shadow looms large over
the climax of the episode, there are counter-weights that even it out. Boone dies,
but Aaron is born and is greeted by the smiling faces of the survivors on the
beach. Jack loses a patient, but is simultaneously shown marrying the woman he
loves; the woman who was his big success story. Death occurs with birth,
failure is tied with success. It’s not the most Lost-y installment of the show,
but in this case it doesn’t matter.
Connecting the Dots:
In addition to Cooper’s ploy, the Mouse
Trap game could also foreshadow Man in Black’s traps and manipulations.
I’m still not quite sure what was up
with Locke’s legs giving out from under him. Was it just as simple as, “Boone
had to be the one to climb up and fall”? Or because Locke time-traveled to the
past, the universe had to course-correct in order to keep him alive because
whatever happened, happened?
The purpose of “Theresa falls up the
stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs” was meant to convince Boone that there
is something legitimate about Locke’s visions. When Faraday’s girlfriend
Theresa was brought up, I’m sure there was some cross-referencing to see if
there was a connection. There doesn’t seem to be.
Bernard is on the other end of Boone’s
radio. Little does Bernard know that Boone nearly killed his wife by performing
CPR wrong. And now Bernard is “present” when Boone takes his life-ending
tumble.
How creepy is it that Claire’s birth is
also being watched by a several-weeks-older Sawyer while time-skipping?
Ranking:
1.
Deus Ex Machina
(9.5/10) (Terrific episode, front to end.)
2.
Pilot, part 1
(9/10)
3.
Numbers (8.5/10)
4.
Solitary (8.5/10)
5.
Outlaws (8/10)
6.
Walkabout (8/10)
7.
Pilot, part 2
(8/10)
8.
White Rabbit
(8/10)
9.
…In Translation
(7.5/10)
10. Do No Harm (7.5/10) (The Boone/Claire double emergency
raises the stakes and forces tough choices.)
11. Homecoming (7.5/10)
12. Raised by Another (7.5/10)
13. Tabula Rasa (7/10)
14. The Moth (7/10)
15. Special (7/10)
16. Hearts and Minds (7/10)
17. All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues (6.5/10)
18. Confidence Man (6.5/10)
19. House of the Rising Sun (6/10)
20. Whatever the Case May Be (4.5/10)
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