Season
2, Episodes 5 and 6- “…And Found” and “Abandoned”
Summary:
In
flashback, Sun is set up on a date with a man named Jae Lee. They seem to be
developing a relationship but he reveals he is going to marry an American
woman. Jin applies for a job as a hotel doorman. After breaking the rules and
letting a poor father and son inside to use the bathroom, he angrily quits
after being reprimanded. Later that day, they run into each other while
walking. The Tailies gather supplies and prepare to travel back to the fuselage
camp. Upon hearing that the others could be nearby, Michael runs off into the
jungle and Jin and Mr. Eko follow after him. At one point they hide in the
bushes and witness the feet of several Others creeping quietly in front of
them. Sun loses her wedding ring and scrambles to find it. She and Kate find
the ring accidently buried with the bottle of messages. Jin and Eko find
Michael and convince him to come back and give up the search.
We
see Shannon teaching ballet before learning that her father has died in a car
crash. She is accepted into a famous dancing internship but learns she has run
out of money, and her stepmother refuses to give her more. She refuses a loan
from Boone, believing she can take care of herself. Shannon spends a romantic
evening with Sayid but sees another vision of Walt talking to her. She searches
the jungle for signs of him. Locke learns from Claire that Charlie has been
carrying around one of the Virgin Mary statues and confronts him. The Tailies
continue their trek to the other camp but Sawyer’s bullet wound is slowly
deteriorating him. While climbing a hill, Cindy disappears and the Whispers
start up. Sayid follows Shannon into the jungle and they hear Whispers and see
Walt. Shannon chases after him but runs into the Tailies. Ana-Lucia shoots her,
believing her to be an Other.
Review:
Now that an understanding has been made
with the Tailies, we can start to learn more about them. Ana is snarky as hell
here, and it’s a big turn-off, especially considering we’d already seen the
playful side of her at the airport. Eko makes the best impression, drawing my
attention whenever he is on screen. His fierce appearance and gentle demeanor
are sewn together perfectly, and his little excursion with Jin is the highlight
of the episode. The bit with the Others’ bare feet walking by was super creepy
when it first aired; and knowing that they aren’t quite the savages that they
are presented as, it softens the scene a little, but it’s a really good tease
nonetheless.
Unfortunately, this episode is an
example of season two’s main problem – weak sub-plots that go nowhere, with a
flashback that lacks a hook because we’ve already learned most of the juicy
secrets of our main characters’ pasts. The whole Jae Lee story never really
takes off, and Sun’s search for her wedding ring is wheel-spinning. Michael’s
tear into the jungle to supposedly confront the Others by himself just makes me
sigh. The show has lost pretty much all its momentum from the hatch reveal.
Shannon is the last of the main
characters to receive her own flashback (if we exclude “Hearts and Minds”,
which was from Boone’s POV), so this should be an opportunity to capture some
of that season one magic. Sadly, they cannot convert. It’s not awful,
but it doesn’t send Shannon out with flourish. The thrust of her flashback is
that she can’t take care of herself and lives off of the goodwill of others,
which we already knew from season one and which she had started to grow out of
by “Exodus”. So what’s the story here? It’s not like her final living moments
are spent helping the camp with some dire emergency or helping further someone
else’s character growth. She runs into the jungle and gets caught in crossfire.
Sure it sets up a little tension for the new crew that arrives, but it doesn’t
last.
I think the writers just didn’t know
what else to do with Shannon and had to write her out to make room for these
more assertive characters. There was probably a decent arc to be had, but it never
quite got there. The trek to the camp, with an injured Sawyer and an Other raid
that takes Cindy from us, is pretty well-structured and at least leads to a
decent shock. I don’t fault them for removing Shannon from the board, I just
think there could be more meaningful ways of doing it.
Connecting the Dots:
Upon seeing Goodwin’s dead body, Jin
says, “Others?” Eko nods. It’s implied to be: “Yes, he was killed by the
Others.” What is actually being said is, “Yes, he was an Other.” Clever,
writers.
Jae Lee mentions getting married to an
American woman he met at Harvard. This would seem like one of those
coincidences of fate that Lost would have played with at some point, but it’s
never touched upon. No one we know went to Harvard. However, would not be
surprised at all if it were revealed to be someone like Libby.
Cindy is kidnapped just before the
Tailies find Shannon. Given her later appearances of being integrated into the
Others’ society, she was apparently one of the “good people” whom the Others wanted
to help protect the island. It is accompanied by Whispers, though only after
she was taken.
As I mentioned in the premiere, I don’t
think Ghost Walt can be considered the smoke monster since Walt is not dead.
However, it WOULD make sense if it was, since the vision appeared to lead
Shannon directly into the line of fire from Ana-Lucia. Another candidate
crossed off the list. But it just doesn’t fit with the rule we’ve been given,
which sucks.
Ranking:
1.
Orientation
(7.5/10)
2.
Man of Science,
Man of Faith (7.5/10)
3.
…And Found (6.5/10)
(Struggles to make much of an impact, but we start to get a real good look at
Eko.)
4.
Abandoned
(6.5/10) (Needs more work to really make Shannon’s transformation obvious.)
5.
Everybody Hates
Hugo (6.5/10)
6.
Adrift (5/10)
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