Summary: In flashbacks, Locke meets Helen and they begin a relationship. However, Locke can't get over what his father did to him and he consistently wakes up early to park his car in front of his father's house. Helen forces him to break this habit in order to be with her, encouraging Locke to take a leap of faith. On the island, Kate knocks out Desmond who accidentally shoots the computer. As Desmond scrambles to fix it, Locke and Jack watch an orientation video explaining what the computer is for. Desmond's attempts don't work so he leaves and starts running. Jack confronts him and Desmond remembers him. Jack lets him go. Kate brings Sayid who fixes the computer. Locke encourages Jack to push the button to take a leap of faith. They argue but Jack ultimately gives in. Meanwhile, Michael, Jin and Sawyer get imprisoned. They are joined by Ana Lucia who was also on flight 815. Sawyer hatches an escape plan but Ana Lucia takes his gun and escapes, revealing herself to be one of the others.
The Good: This was a massive episode for the show. I'll go as far as to say that this is a contender for the most important episode of the series so far. So much happened in just 40 minutes, and by the end of the episode I was breathless. This episode expertly sets the stage for the major storylines in season 2 and I'm incredibly excited to see what comes next. This episode was generous enough to give us loads of information about the hatch. Apparently it's a station called The Swan for a company called the Dharma Initiative. I'll have much more to say about this in "The Unknown". But this was a huge reveal and my curiosity in the backstory of this island must have increased by tenfold in this episode. The writers did an absolutely incredible job of revealing so much information while still leaving so much in the dark meaning that I somehow walked out of the episode with more questions than I had going into it, despite being given loads of answers. That's a perfect way to build up mystery. Even with a large emphasis on plot, character storylines weren't forgotten in this episode. Both Locke and Jack were given so much in this episode that furthered their feud in very meaningful ways. This episode neatly served as a part 2 to "Man of Science, Man of Faith" in terms of the Locke/Jack story. Where the season premier was more focused on Jack, this one was more focused on Locke. Through the flashbacks, we get more important backstory on Locke. Not only do we get to learn who Helen was (mentioned in "Walkabout"), but we get to see Locke take a big leap of faith. This of course ties into the climactic scene of the episode where Jack takes his first leap of faith. The message here is obvious: having faith isn't as easy as it may seem, and even Locke has struggled to let go of his beliefs and put his trust in something else. This was a very good exploration into the man of science vs man of faith theme. On top of that, there is a nice bit of development for Locke. Locke has total confidence that the computer will be fixed, but when he is left alone with hope dwindling, we see a little bit of fear creeping into Locke. In spite of everything that has changed, Locke still fears that the island will let him down just like his father did. It's lovely storytelling and you have to wonder if this will come into play in a more significant manner down the road. Jack gets a lot of good moments in this episode. He's so convinced in his man of science approach that he almost appears to be emotionally unstable at times. It's so good to see his approach in contrast to Locke's. Locke is more than happy to put his faith in what is going on, never once pausing in order to fully understand what is happening. Jack is the total opposite, refusing to let Desmond do anything until he fully understands what is going on. This erratic behaviour of Jack's works really well and it even feels realistic when you recall how perturbed he must be about encountering Desmond on the island. This, on top of the existence of a mythical smoke monster, provides Jack with evidence of miracles and destiny. Jack isn't ready to face of believe any of it however, so he spends the episode immensely frustrated and in conflict with himself. To deal with this, he flails his gun around and continually threatens Desmond. But once Desmond recalls who Jack is, there's no escaping it for Jack, who is forced to face his own emotions directly in what was one of the episode's best scenes. The Michael/Jin/Sawyer storyline was in the background of this episode, but what we got was really good. Ana Lucia made a welcome return, and her affiliation with these other people raises major questions (see: The Unknown). I liked how she was able to get information out of Michael, Sawyer and Jin. I'm very interested to see how the next episode follows up on this storyline. As ever, there were loads of little details that I loved. The orientation video was put together in a wonderfully authentic way, looking like it was straight out of the 70s. I was also a big fan of Jack offering a pleasingly logical explanation for the button being a psychological experiment especially after the orientation video did mention that the Dharma Initiative performed psychological tests. His ensuing scene with Desmond where he brought this up was wonderful, as was Desmond saying that he contemplated if it was actually real every single day. It's a lovely little look at how human beings would react in the situation. If you were in Desmond's position, would you really have the courage to let that timer run out? The Bad: This episode honestly feels a little bit too busy. Thankfully the content is so good that this isn't a major problem, but it is certainly jarring to go from a meandering episode like "Adrift" into a thrill ride of an episode like this one. I can't help but wonder if it would not have been better to put some of the material from this episode into "Adrift" so that the pacing could be a little more consistent. The ending scene of the episode was a little bit awkward. The image of several characters standing around this computer reminded me of the outstanding transceiver sequence in "Pilot Part 2". Unfortunately, this scene was too fixated on Locke and Jack to hit the same highs as the other scene. Sayid and Hurley felt like they should have been much more involved. Hurley should have been panicked and freaking out the entire time, while Sayid really should have just pushed the button himself. It feels lazy that the writers only partially used Hurley and Sayid in this scene and then ignored them in favour of Jack and Locke. It's a shame, because this could have been a classic scene with better contributions from Hurley and Sayid. I understand that the writers want to use Hurley for comedic purposes, so they don't want him to change much. But he really should have been more panicked in this episode, and it's odd that Hurley would not be thinking about the presence of the numbers. So there was a front door to The Swan. How did nobody find it? The facility isn't that big, so it's hard to buy into the idea that nobody would have noticed this large metal door sticking out of the ground. The Unknown: Who was Kelvin? Why was he in The Swan? Why was he alone? What had happened to his partner? How about his replacements? I have so many questions from the orientation film. Is the button actually doing something? What is it for? Who are the Dharma Initiative? Are they still active? Are they on the island? Could they be the others? What is their goal for the research they are conducting? Is all of their research done on the island? The Swan is apparently station 3 of 6. Are the other 5 stations on the island too? Where are they? What will be found inside of those? Also, The Swan is apparently a station studying electromagnetism. That seems to explain the magnetic wall we saw back in "Man of Science, Man of Faith". Why aren't there any electromagnetic studies happening though? Could that be evidence of this being a psychological test? Furthermore, if pushing the button is so important, why haven't more replacements come? Also, what was the incident that Dr. Marvin Candle mentioned? Why was the computer only implemented after the incident? Who was the girl in the picture with Desmond? Also where has he gone now? I imagine that won't be the last we see of him. Seeing that Locke had dubbed a sex line worker with the name "Helen" back in "Walkabout", I think we can presume that his relationship with Helen doesn't end well. What happened between them? Why is Ana Lucia working for the others? Did she get recruited by them? How does that work? Or was she lying about what happened to her after the crash? Best Moment: The orientation video was a piece of art. I was gripped the entire time watching to ensure that I didn't miss a single important detail. The whole thing was amazingly put together, and it did a fabulous job of giving us information without ever giving us too much. The cherry on top was Jack and Locke's wildly different reactions to the video. I was personally 100% on Locke's side. "We're gonna need to watch that again". Character of the Episode: Locke. Conclusion: This episode reminded me a lot of "Pilot Part 2" because of how much it got me invested into the season 2 storyline while simultaneously doing a ton of character work. Even though the highs of this episode were arguably better than the highs of the pilot, this episode was also more flawed. In the end, I view both episodes as about equally effective. Score: 80
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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