LOST
DISCOVERIES
LOST:
Whatever the Case May Be
Created by: J.J.
Abrams and Damon Lindelof
Story by: Damon
Lindelof and Jennifer Johnson
Air date:
Wednesday, January 5 , 2005
A Day of Attempted
Break-ins
By Winter
A Soulful Spike Society
Review
If I had written this when
the episode first showed I would have been much more interested in the
mysteries of the island. As you’ll see, I’m now much more interested in the
characters.
Thanks so much to Matthew
for his work as beta. Much of the quality and flow of the writing comes from
his careful reading and editing.
Thanks also to the S’cubies,
whose ideas I may have unknowingly incorporated.
**********************************************************
:
Throughout the episode
castaways known and unknown (to us) are carrying stuff from the water’s edge to
higher up on the beach, in response to a sudden erosion. Most of the time they
are carrying one or more suitcases—Whatever the case may be, we all have one to
carry: one we have to keep safe from the unexpected changes in the flood plain.
This is sometimes referred to as “baggage.” I think of it more as our physical
selves (including genetic predispositions and brain chemistry, etc.) and the
behaviors we’ve learned to protect our boundaries—our “suitcases”—filled with
the sum of our experiences, what we think and feel, all the rest of who we are.
We protect our cases from damage and destruction as best we can.
Kate and Sawyer and Jack
In a brief, unusual moment
Kate and Sawyer are playful; ducking each other in the water, laughing,
climbing the rocks and jumping in: Kate feet first, Sawyer with a dive. (Josh
Holloway said in an interview that any redneck—himself included—would swim in
his jeans). Once Kate spots the case, though, playtime is over. Kate enlists
Sawyer’s help by lying “It’s mine.” Then, rather than let him know how much she
wants it, she lets him take it, only to try twice to steal it back.
While trying to pick the
lock, Sawyer is informed by an amused Michael that “You pick the lock on a
Halliburton, I’ll put you on my back and fly us to LA.” Sawyer confidently
snarks back: “You better find yourself a runway, Daddy, ‘cause there ain’t a
lock I can’t pick.” A passing Hurley joins in the ridicule. Michael says, “The
only way you’re gonna open that case is with pure force, man. Impact velocity.
… You gotta hit it with something hard, like a sledge hammer. Or the axe.”
(Meanwhile, back in the
jungle, we find that Boone has taken the axe so that he and Locke can apply
some impact velocity to their own stubborn case.)
Jack uses “impact velocity,”
when he tells Sawyer that if he doesn’t give him the case Jack will withhold
antibiotics until Sawyer begs him to take it in exchange for cutting off
Sawyer’s rotting arm. Jack is a whole bunch more like his dear old dad than he
would be inclined to believe.
One might think that Jack is
a good guy, a man of his word, because he invites Kate to open the case with
him. I lean more toward the idea that he’s curious about her reaction when he
sees what she’s trying to hide. He wants in.
Kate is a mystery case—can’t
be broken into. Like the Halliburton, her lock can’t be picked by Sawyer’s
charm, seduction, and manipulation (“I don’t really care [what’s in it]. What’s
burning me up is why it means so much to you.”), nor can it be broken by Jack’s
“impact velocity.”
J: What is it? (the tiny
airplane)
K: It’s nothing.
J: What is it, Kate?
K: You wouldn’t understand.
J: I want the truth, just this once. What is it?
K: It belonged to the man I
loved.
J: The truth.
K: It belonged to the man I loved.
J: Stop lying to me. Tell me the truth.
K(breaks down): It belonged to the man I killed.
And having tried force to
reach her, Jack leaves her there sobbing. Kate’s case is dented, but still
closed.
We can see that only the key
can really open Kate, but we don’t yet know what that key is. (And Jack needs
to get hit over the head with a great big clue bat. He may not know the key to
Kate, but he should know that battering at her won’t do anything but hurt her)
Sawyer came closest when he teased her into swimming, “You some kind of
navel-gazing, no-fun, mopey type?” not wanting anything except for her to play
with him.
We don’t know the
significance that the little plane locked in the case has to Kate, only (in the
revealed back story) that she conned some bad guys into doing a bank robbery so
that she could get it out of a safe deposit box. Safe deposit boxes require two
keys, one held by the bank and one held by the signatory who rents it and must
sign in whenever the box is accessed. Kate has the key, but is not the
signatory. Someone else has put the little plane in the box, (Box 815) and she
is desperate to get it.
Charlie and Rose
Charlie is a sad case. He
sits by the fuselage looking oh-so-forlorn, while everyone scurries around him
trying to save stuff from the encroaching sea. Rose is dragging a big piece of
the fuselage near him and asks him to help.
C: Are you serious?
R: Do you think you’re the
only one on this island that’s got something to be sad about? Baby, I got sob
stories for you, so why don’t you grab the other end of this thing and help me?
He does.
Later, as they work, Charlie
comments that Rose looks happy, and asks what is there to be happy about;
complaining and whinging on about their circumstances. Rose interrupts him by
telling him that Claire’s kidnapping is not his fault; that he did everything
he could, even almost dying. When Charlie says that he should have died, Rose
touches his shoulder and says, “You know what I think, Charlie? I think you
need to ask for help.” “Who’s gonna help me?” The scene fades out, only to fade
in to the cross on top of the marshal’s grave, where Jack and Kate have gone to
dig up the key to the Halliburton.
At the end of the episode,
Rose is sitting by a campfire and Charlie joins her. Charlie asks if she thinks
her husband is still alive, and Rose replies, “I know he is … It’s a fine line
between denial and faith. It’s much better on my side.” Charlie starts to cry,
saying “Help me.” Rose says it’s not she who can help him, and begins to lead
him in prayer. Since Charlie was once religious, perhaps Rose has found the key
to release him from some of his misery.
Sayid and Shannon
Boone has just finished
telling Shannon that she’s useless. Shannon tries to help him prove it by
sun-bathing. Sayid approaches and asks her to help him “pick the lock” on the
codes by translating the French on Rousseau’s documents. She responds “I barely
speak French.” “Will you at least try?”
Later, we see them working
on the translation, and it’s not going well. All the math makes Shannon
nervous, and Sayid is frustrated that the translations Shannon is providing him
don’t make any sense: “The sea of silver sparkles the change…Blue
eternity.” “This was a mistake,” says
Sayid. Shannon responds angrily:
“Haven’t you heard? I’m completely useless.” She leaves in tears. Shannon is an
empty case: men only want her for her shell.
At the end of the episode
she sits by Sayid on the beach and reconciles with him by telling him that she
has puzzled out what the French woman wrote over and over—it’s the lyrics to
the song “La Mer,” which she sings (quite hauntingly) as the scene fades out.
She is not so much the empty case: she has contents to offer, after all.
………
I refer you to Becky’s
wonderful translation of “La Mer” on
page 6 of this episode’s thread in the LOST forum, and to her further
discussion with Leftylady on page 10.
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