LOST DISCOVERIES

 

LOST:

TABULA RASA

Created by: J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof

Story by: Damon Lindelof

 

Air date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2004

 

A Bright New Day

By Vlad

 

A Soulful Spike Society Review

www.soulfulspike.com

 

Synopsis

Kate’s Operation: Higher Ground team returns to the beach, but only after they have agreed to keep the looped French message to themselves until they know more. That night, on their return, Boone attempts to take control of the gun and the ammo, but ends up releasing both to Kate on the recommendation of the rest of the group, including his own sister.

 

Meanwhile, Jack, while working on the marshal, finds Kate’s mug shot. Hurley spies the document, and Jack tells him that it’s none of their business. Hurley is obviously not thrilled but apparently doesn’t tell anyone else. On awakening, the marshal tells Jack not to trust anything Kate says.

 

We find out, via flashbacks, that Kate claims to be a Canadian and she is on the lam, trying to lose herself in remote Australia. A sheep rancher, Ray, befriends her and gives her a job and a place to stay. After several weeks she decides to move on. Unfortunately, the old man, who is deep in debt, has learned of her fugitive status and has decided to turn her in for the reward. On the way, the marshal catches up to them and a car chase ensues, resulting in a wrecking the vehicle Kate is in. Kate pauses to help the injured rancher and this results in the Marshal apprehending her, which, I believe, brings her up to being current with her boarding the jet as the marshall’s prisoner.

 

When the returning signal party reaches the beach, Sayid takes control of the rest of the survivors, lies to them about not sending or receiving any signals and groups them into three groups: water collection, electronics retrieval (for boosting the transceiver signal) and food collection. Kate takes Jack aside and tells him the truth about the 16 year old French transmission. Jack lightly probes if she has anything else to tell him but she instead questions Jack about whether the wounded marshal woke up or said anything. Jack seems disappointed that Kate hasn’t told him the truth and lies to her, saying the marshal has been quiet.

 

Needing more medical supplies for the wounded man, Jack enters the wreckage to search. There he encounters Sawyer, who is searching about for supplies of his own: cigarettes, liquor and some Playboys. They enter an argument of ideologies, about how the medicine Jack is using on the marshal is being wasted. Sawyer accuses Jack of clinging to civilization while Sawyer claims they are now living in the wild.

 

We are shown the survivors going about their appointed tasks, searching through luggage and collecting rain water. Sun hunts for Jin’s luggage, but after not finding it, he tells her that she is filthy and orders her to go clean herself up. Then he pauses to tell her that he loves her. The pregnant Claire tells Charley that she isn’t married. We find out the “secret” that Locke told Walt is that, cryptically, “A miracle happened.” Michael informs his son, Walt, that he will find the boy’s dog, Vincent. Locke is shown whittling something and is approached tentatively by Charley, who asks what he is making. Locke replies tersely and seemingly uncomfortably “A whistle.”

 

While alone in the makeshift tent with the marshal, suddenly the marshal awakes and attempts to strangle Kate. Jacks walks in and breaks it up. Kate soon implies in a discussion with Jack, that if the marshal is dying, then isn’t there something he could do to speed it up. Jack vehemently says he is not a murderer and tells her that he has seen her mug shot. She seems very taken back.

 

Sayid asks Jack if there is anything he can do to help the wounded man that has been crying in pain all day. He then privately admonishes Jack that the people are talking, and they believe the marshal’s case to be a hopeless one. Jack doesn’t respond.

 

With the rain ended, Michael goes into the jungle looking for Walt’s dog. Not too far in, he hears noises that sound like maybe boars or big cats or both. Panicked, he runs wildly and right into a private area where Sun is undressed and bathing. After an awkward moment, he excuses himself and moves on.

 

That night, with the marshal still in terrible pain, Sawyer tries to convince Kate, possessor of the gun, to end the marshal’s life. Kate goes to speak to the marshal alone, and he questions her He wants to know what the request she was going to make in the last moments on the plane was. Kate tells him that she was going to ask him to make sure that Ray, the rancher who was turning her in, gets the $23,000 reward because he needs it. The marshal and Kate seem to spend a personal moment, then the marshal asks her if he is going to die. Kate hesitantly and honestly says yes.

 

Meanwhile, Hurley asks where Kate is and Jack says she is talking to the marshal. Hurley has a fit and tells Jack that Kate has a gun. Jack goes rushing off, only to see Kate come walking out of the tent. He relaxes and then BOOM, there is a gunshot. And we see Sawyer come walking out of the tent, gun in hand.

 

Sawyer tells Jack that he understands Jack, being a doctor and all, but that something had to be done. He says that the marshal had, himself, asked to be killed. Then we learn, to everyone’s horror, that Sawyer managed to bungle the assisted suicide and that the marshal is now going to die a painful, several hour death. Angry, Jack orders a troubled Sawyer out and proceeds to kill the marshal off-camera, walking out silently past a shaken Sawyer.

 

The next day:

It turns out the whistle Locke was carving was to call Vincent. He tethers the dog to a tree and then privately tells Michael that it would be best if the father returned the boy’s pet.

 

Kate finds Jack sitting on the beach and sits down beside him. She says that she wants to tell him why she is wanted by the authorities. Jack stops her, saying:”It doesn’t matter, Kate. Who we were, what we did before this, before the crash. Three days ago we all died. We should all be able to start over.”

 

Finally, over a musical montage (where the chorus is:” I’ve got troubles although not today ‘cause they’re gonna wash away, they’re gonna wash away”) we see Jin affectionately touch his wife while she sleeps and Boone offer a pair of recovered sunglasses to Shannon with a smile. Sayid shares a recovered apple with a pensive Sawyer and Michael presents Vincent to his happy son. The day seems bright and upbeat…until the music fades and we see a very menacing Locke staring, unnoticed, at the reunited father and son with eerie music playing in the background.

 

 

 

 

Starting Over

Tabula Rasa means “clean slate.” This episode is about starting over and it examines it on on a variety of levels and with the examination of many of the characters

 
Kate

First we have the obvious: Kate. Kate is a fugitive. From what we don’t know, but we do know it’s enough that it made her flee to a whole new continent. The kind rancher/farmer who finally tries to turn her in, tells her that everyone deserves a fresh start. This is an attitude that seems right, coming from a country that was created by a group of convicts and criminals and folks that fled their original countries looking for a new beginning. Australia is nothing, if not the land that was founded on “starting over.”

 

Jack and Sawyer

Jack is a doctor and has sworn to help and never harm. But all that is going to have to change. Sawyer does an incredible job of being half right again in this episode: his whole speech about Jack living in “civilization” and himself “living in the wild. Point is, they are a band of 40+ people living together in the wild. They need some civilization; they need some rules. However, rules need to apply to the game that you are playing. A civilization occurs because a group of people are trying to survive and hopefully improve the lot for the majority. Sawyer, in the end, forces Jack’s hand, making him pick “doing what needs to be done” over ”doing what you what you want to do.” Wake up and smell the gull crap, indeed, Jack.

 

At the very end, as Jack and Kate sit side by side on the beach (after he has told her not to tell him about her past), the camera shows his hands obviously in frame. His knuckles on both are abraded as if he had been hitting something. Checking back, his hands were uninjured prior to this. It is my hypothesis that Jack committed a bit of frustrated wall-punching the night before; a very interesting thing since Jack is a doctor. More so, he is a surgeon. His hands are his profession, his life. He obviously hated having to break an oath he believed in. I think this is shown to represent that Jack now knows that he is no longer what he once was too; that his statement to Kate is as much about him as anyone.

 

Sayid and Sawyer

The two of them have been at each others throats since day one. Yet, by the end, we see Sayid acknowledging Sawyer’s efforts for the group in something as simple as offering him an apple. So much is said here with out a word. We have the man that just the day before was sorting through the wreckage taking what he needed for his own personal survival, being shown that if he works for the group, the group will reward him. Not only is this a new start for the two of them, but also a new beginning maybe how Sawyer views his circumstance and his fellow survivors.

 

Boone and Shannon

The two siblings have bickered ever since they crashed, and from the sound of it, it’s nothing new. She didn’t back him up (smartly) when he took the gun, showing some growth of her own. His offering her the sunglasses shows no ill will. This could be the beginning of a new relationship between the two of them.

 

The 41 Other Survivors

All these people have a new chance. Fate or whatever didn’t let them die, and instead placed them on this island where it looks like they might at least have a chance at survival. The only way that the majority of them will make it is if they cooperate. They have good sensible leadership in Sayid and Jack and Kate. They have strong people among them like the aforementioned and also Sawyer and Hurley and who knows how many others. If they keep their senses about them and realize that the world they lived in is gone and realize that this new world will be what they make of it, they might not only survive, but in some ways prosper.

 

Conclusion

In the end there are two different concepts: “Who you are” and “What you have done.” People’s lives are a conglomeration of the two. Jack’s speech to Kate about them all starting over, that the past doesn’t really matter is not completely true. They would all be worse off if Jack hadn’t gone to medical school in his past, or if Sayid hadn’t learned leadership, electronics and survival skills in the army. The past does matter… but it’s a case of they now have a chance to play the game again. Your former mistakes won’t be held against you and your lessons can be your savior. They have to be “who they are.”

 

What Worked?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Didn’t?

 

·       Hurley, I hope Sayid bitch-slaps you so hard that you can’t eat for a week. Listening to a Walkman when you are supposed to be gathering electronics and batteries to boost the transmitter’s signal so they can be rescued? What are you thinking? Seriously, this moment at the end just almost ruined what was a very good episode otherwise. These batteries cannot be recharged (barring Sayid getting really creative with what’s left of the planes wiring and creating a hand-crank generator.) The nice music over the ending scenes could have just as easily “just been there.” We didn’t need to see Hurley listening to it via a cd player. I forgive Hurley for this, since he has been a pretty rational guy so far and lay it at the writer’s feet for dropping the ball.

 

Questions

·       Why was the marshal trying to strangle Kate? Was he trying to silence her? Perhaps the marshal committed the crime and Kate is the one taking the fall. This is the only thing that makes sense of the silly car chase.

 

·       What was Sawyer’s motive for trying to get Kate to use the last bullet? Was it to level the playing field again? I think it’s important to note that he ends up having the gun back. Does he have another clip?

 

 

 

 

 

The Missing: Update

 

Jack – Matthew Fox

Jack had to make some hard decisions. Part of being a doctor is being responsible for your patients. Part of being a leader is being responsible for everyone around you. When those two areas are in conflict, you have to weigh what is the most important. And, finally, we see him in a situation where there is no clear-cut winning strategy. And with help, he does what has to be done.

 

Kate – Evangeline Lilly

Yep, Kate’s definitely on the lam. Yet, we have not seen her do anything that tells us what her crime was. We do know that she is wanted internationally: Ray says that he saw her mug shot in the post office and that “I guess they know that you are down under.” Whatever it is, it’s something serious enough for which to be extradited. She yet again proves her heart of gold by making her request of the marshal to be that Ray receives the $23,000 reward for her capture.

 

Charlie – Dominic Monaghan

Charley’s drugs must still be holding out. And he once played some tribal flutes.

 

Hurley – Jorge Garcia

Hurley, I like you, man, but you are starting to make me nervous. You can’t be on the inner circle if you can’t lie better than you did to Kate. And, the Walkman…wasting the batteries…you are being foolish!

 

Claire – Emilie de Ravin

So, there isn’t a Mr. Claire running about. Judging by what I saw this time, I swear she might be 13 months pregnant. Maybe it’s twins?

 

Boone – Ian Somerhalder

and

Shannon – Maggie Grace

Snagging that gun, preparing to stand watch… Boone, you surprise me! Maybe you aren’t the ditsy rich boy I have been taking you for. Interesting to note that Shannon wanted it out of his hands and didn’t support her brother’s play. But, evidently it’s forgiven because he gives her the sunglasses at the end with a smile.

 

Sayid – Naveen Andrews

Dude! You totally rock! First you make the wise decision to keep the information about the message to yourselves until you know more. Then you organize the people and get them being productive and do your own press conference. You report to Jack on the status of moral among the rest of the survivors, letting him know that something needs to be done without telling him what to do. Finally, you offer the peace “apple” to Sawyer for making a tough decision, recognizing his effort. You are a terrific leader.

 

Michael – Harold Perineau

and

Walt – Malcom David Kelley

Yay! Vincent is among us. The father is a little more likable this time out, but the kid didn’t win any awards. A word of caution to Michael, though: you’d better just keep your mind off Sun. Jin strikes me as the kind of guy who would probably poison your sushi if he thought you were a threat.

 

Sawyer – Josh Holloway

Oh where do I begin? Sawyer, I like you more every time I see you. You are the guy that is going to grow here. You see the truth, yet you are totally self-absorbed… much like a certain blonde vampire in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I am not sure of the game you were playing with Kate bu,t in the end, you stepped up to the plate and did what had to be done. Or tried. These people need your insight and your will. I am glad to see that you seem to want to share it. Still wish I knew what was in that letter, though.

 

Locke – Terry O’Quinn

Oh beautiful! You rescue Walt’s dog (well, capture anyway…the dog seemed in no need of rescue, really,) let Michael get the credit for it and make us all think, “How nice!” Then, of course, you have to sit there staring menacingly at them bonding. You definitely win the award for creepiest man on the island. Who the heck are you?

 

Jin – Daniel Dae Kim

and

Sun – Yunjin Kim

Grr. Jin you are an abuser. Period. The whole “Wash up, you are filthy.” Followed by “I love you.” Headgames! Keeping her dependant and only worthwhile if she is doing what you tell her to do.

 

The Dog (Vincent)

Well, you are “rescued.” Sorry about it, boy. ‘Casue, when the rest of these folks get hungry and start eyeing you like a quarter-pounder with cheese, you are gonna be attached to that lethal orange leash.


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