LOST DISCOVERIES

 

LOST:

Raised By Another

Created by: J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof

Story by: Lynn E. Litt

 

Air date: Wednesday, December 1st , 2004

 

Daydreams of the Damned

By Vlad

 

A Soulful Spike Society Review

www.soulfulspike.com

 

A Rambling Rant

I tried really hard to like this episode. Sure, it furthered the storyline along, had some big story revelations and featured that cute twosome: Charley and Claire. But I just could work up no real enthusiasm for it. Was it the dream sequences? I have never much liked dream sequences in most shows; they never feel like dreams to me. Was it Claire’s incessant screaming? God, screaming really gets on my nerves! We aren’t talking about a yelp in surprise, but instead the type that just goes on and on endlessly and hysterically. It makes me want to punch the screamer in the mouth. Screaming like that is not natural in any but the insane or melodramatic and is mostly a contrivance of the cinema. But back to my disliking; perhaps it was the child abandonment concepts? Those strike me in a personal and negative manner most times over issues I would rather not get into in a public forum. Perhaps it’s the fact that for all my looking, I could find no real continuous theme or moral lesson from which to hang the episode. Unlike most of what we have seen of LOST, where the story takes the clichéd and provides a neat twist and a moral tale, it seemed a collection of stereotypes aimed at nothing more than arc furthering:

 

Claire- The naïve, sweet girl that gets pregnant and once committed to having the baby is abandoned by the father.

 

Thomas- The young father-to-be that gets overwhelmed by the impending birth and shows his ugly “male” side and abandons the mother.

 

Charley- The ne’er-do-well new guy that’s there to help Claire through her hard time and to show that perfection is not required but a good heart and commitment are.

 

We’ve seen this story before and can fairly well guess how it turns out. So, for me, the featured lead story of Claire’s background was pretty much a snooze-fest. That leaves the second part of the story: the apparent desire by someone on the island to do something with Claire’s unborn child and Hurley’s quest to catalogue all the survivors in an effort to discover if there is a bad guy among them. This provided much more entertainment for me, but sadly had less than 50 percent of the screen time.

 

Sure, you are thinking, “But Vlad, what about the psychic? And the fact he seemed to know that something bad was going to happen and the whole issue about Claire’s baby being… ‘special’ in some sort of gargantuan way?” Well, yeah, there was that too. And I have to admit that while watching it the first time, that whole situation kept me sitting on the edge of my seat. But, like with most such contrivances in movies, we are left with nothing but a lot of talking, some ominous music and a few coincidences like the two non-functioning pens in the lawyer office: a lot of steam and sizzle but no steak on which to feast.

 

So, finally by the end of Raised by Another we have what could amount to a big “coincidence” instead of a journey into the supernatural realm. Oh, and we have a loony that’s already been on the island that wants the pregnant Claire (or her baby). We have no idea if her dreams were anything more than the anxiety nightmares Jack claims they were. Maybe Claire is convinced that the psychic wanted her to crash on the island, but this is coming from the same gal that believes in astrology. I know if I was Jack, Charlie or any of the others, I would be in the skeptical crowd.

 

I feel that perhaps I am coming down too hard on this episode and I admit that it is somewhat contempt born of over-familiarity. I have seen the episode maybe four times all the way through. This was done in the hopes of finding something, anything, worthy of a real review. But, I could find no artistic presentation of a theme, unless it is a homage to 70’s era horror movies such as Rosemary’s Baby and The Changeling. What we received is an episode that felt like it was done from necessity and by convention. You almost can hear the show’s creators in the script-room:

 

“Okay Ms. Litt, we need you to write us Claire’s backstory. Here are the facts you need to work in: she’s abandoned by the father…come up with something. Oh, and we need her and Charley to have some issues, but nothing too much... just a little tension please, so we can get them together by the end. Oh, and also we need to introduce the “weird ‘already-here’ guy” and we think this episode would probably be the best one. Why don’t you tie him to Claire’s baby? Hmmm…. How about we do something eerie and spooky. Let’s see, Claire believes in the supernatural already…oh that’s it… we’ll do the “baby is special!” bit… toss in a fortune-teller maybe, some “prophesies” or something.

 

Oh and… you know, we need some Hurley time. The fans seem to really be liking him. Hey, why don’t you have him be the guy that discovers the weirdo? Now, you write that up however you think it should go and we’ll go over it and insert anything you might leave out. Oh, and since this episode might be a little slow, ratchet it up with a big cliff hanger at the end by revealing just who the weird ominous guy is and have him hijack Claire and Charley at the same time a wounded Sayid wanders in with his hard earned information about others on the island and Hurley makes his revelation. What do you mean that’s rather over the top, Ms. Litt? Just write it, okay? We started this series late and we need to keep our momentum!”

 

 

Much of the script seems stilted and very much like dry exposition. Now, I have noted before that LOST doesn’t get kudos for its extremely witty dialogue; however with some characters, notably between Kate and Sawyer and with Charley and Hurley they manage to pull of some really memorable and funny lines. This episode is more of the same. With the exception of Hurley’s investigation and the dialogue that ensued, the rest of the show felt completely uninspired.

 

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

There is one interesting thing I noted in the humdrum fortune telling of this episode. In Claire’s first dream, she dreams of Locke. Now, this isn’t particularly amazing, as the man has carved a bit of a presence into their community, but I don’t recall any interaction shown specifically between the two of them. What is interesting is the fact that she dreams of him having two rather odd eyes, colored white and black, much like the game pieces he had or the stones that Jack found. To the best of my knowledge, Claire never saw the two stones that Jack found, nor do I see why she would utilize them in her dream of Locke. We have only been shown one time of him playing the board game, and then one other time of Hurley and Walt playing.

 

Locke’s playing of cards in the dream is also interesting, since using cards to read the future is an ancient passtime and something that our New Age Claire is surely into. Why is it Locke, who (at least himself) believes he is in contact with the island, that she dreams of here? Why is it Locke that is warning her? He essentially reiterates what her psychic told her, but this time he has couched it in a past tense and tells her that “Everyone must pay the price now.” And, indeed, if Claire had heeded the fortune teller’s original admonition and not taken that flight to give up her child, she would not be on this island.

 

A Final Thought

As I am writing this review (very) late, it does me good to know that, indeed, the story telling does pick up in the next couple shows. In the end, I simply lay this episode off as necessary filler and exposition. The end result of Claire being kidnapped, the inclusion of ominous Ethan and the closer relationship between Charley and Claire are all things I wanted to see, or needed to be done. Now, if they had just done a better job of actually executing it!

 

 

 

 

 

What Worked?

·       Charley and Claire. For all my kvetching about the episode, these two kids do have chemistry.

 

·       HURLEY: “I’m out here looking for some psycho with Scott and Steve, right? And I’m realizing…who are Scott and Steve?”

 

 

CLAIRE: “Get Jack!”

 

CHARLEY: “Right…”

 

What Didn’t?

 

 

Questions

·       Is Ethan Rom the “Alex” to which Rousseau referred?

 

 

 

The Missing: Update

 

Jack – Matthew Fox

Okay Jack, you really need to work on that bedside manner or maybe at least some common sense. Do you take an emotional pregnant woman who is convinced that people are attacking her in her sleep and say “You are having delusions. Here, let me drug you up!”

 

Kate – Evangeline Lilly

Sinking into the island? Are you finally trying to put down some roots, darlin’?

 

Sawyer – Josh Holloway

Nice shades! Ya know, it takes a man really comfortable with himself to wear those. *wink* Way to go on the whole manifest deal with Hurley. You certainly earned a few points with me.

Sayid – Naveen Andrews

Glad you made it back Sayid! So what did you hear out there in the woods?

 

Locke – Terry O’Quinn

“No, it found me.” What?! What found you, Mr. Locke of Tustin, CA? Also, (and maybe related)Mr. Rom seemed to be your best buddy recently. What all do you know that you aren’t sharing?

 

Charley – Dominic Monaghan

Charley, Charley! Whatever possessed you to mention your drug habit in the middle of her contractions? Oh well, she likes you and I am sure it will take more than that to put her off.

 

Claire – Emilie de Ravin

Claire Littleton. What a perfect unassuming name. Sort of like…Mary?

 

Hurley – Jorge Garcia

Hugo Reyes! Nice moniker, Dude! You are about the only thing that saved this episode for me in the end.

 

Boone – Ian Somerhalder

and

Shannon – Maggie Grace

The Rutherfords! Boone and Shannon Rutherford. How very…blue blood! I have to say Shan, my dear girl, you made me laugh with your “I’m so not moving to the Rape Caves!”

 

Michael – Harold Perineau

and

Walt – Malcom David Kelley

Hmm… not present, nor accounted for. In my opinion, not a horrible thing.

 

Sun – Yunjin Kim

and

Jin – Daniel Dae Kim

No sign of the two of you. Are you perhaps slowly explaining to Jin just how it is that you understand and can speak English? Did he perhaps kill you in a fitful jealous rage? Or maybe you are just off making sweet sushi to each other.

 

Vincent – The Dog

Get close boy…I have a sneaking suspicion that you may be needed to search for Claire and Charley. I’m sure that creepy Mr. Locke will have a boar’s ear or something for a reward!


______________________________________________


Please join in the discussion of this review at the Soulful Spike Society Message Board. Go there NOW!

If you enjoyed this review and are reading it from outside the Soulful Spike Society website (www.soulfulspike.com), then click the logo below to access the S3 in a new window. There you will find more great reviews, analyses, fanfiction and a link to our marvelous message board.