Summary: The episode details the 48 days the Tailies spent on the island. After the plane crashes, Ana Lucia takes control and tries to calm everyone down. At night, the others attack and take a couple of people, Mr. Eko kills 2 of them and stops talking. The group decides to wait for rescue while Ana Lucia becomes suspicious of Nathan. Another attack from the others result in 9 kidnappings. Ana Lucia kills one of them and finds a list of names. She concludes that there is a traitor in the group. Ana Lucia thinks it's Nathan and starts torturing him. The real culprit is Goodwin who sneakily kills Nathan. Ana Lucia eventually figures out that Goodwin is with the others and she kills him after a short fight. Afterwards, she finally breaks down and Eko comforts her. A montage takes the story to the moment where Ana Lucia shoots Shannon.
The Good: Television is often at its best when it completely blindsides you with something wonderful. This episode completely broke the established formula of the show and gave us something that was different from anything "Lost" has ever done before, and it worked spectacularly. From the first few moments, it was clear that we were watching a special episode. This episode skips over the "previously on" segment, recaptures the chaotic feel of "Pilot Part 1" and even adopts a unique formatting by separating the story into different days. The allure of something new and different immediately struck me, and within seconds I found myself hooked, excited to see what this episode could accomplish. And this delivered big-time. The Tailies are all mysterious people who we know precious little about. And that stays true after this episode. There are no flashbacks and no backstories explaining why a character behaves the way they do. Instead the episode is shrouded in mystery regarding the history of these characters, and we are allowed to form opinions on them solely based on their actions on the island. It's similar to how we were introduced to the characters back in season 1, and it sets up for each individual character's flashback episode to really surprise us and potentially offer that same shock if our understanding of a character turns out to be completely wrong ("Walkabout", "Confidence Man" and "...In Translation" are wonderful examples of this). But this episode doesn't only build up for future reveals. The change in character-based storytelling gives us a more linear storyline focused on Ana Lucia, who tries her best to lead her ragtag group of people through desperate times where everyone's lives are on the line. Ana Lucia is positioned similarly to Jack, and what makes her character stand out is the different approach she takes to leadership. Ana Lucia somehow manages to be even more emotionally driven than Jack while maintaining an even greater degree of rational decision-making as she makes decisions for the best of the group while actively working towards ensuring everyone's survival. It's a great story, and condensing 48 days of struggle into just 40 minutes works in the episode's favour as we are subject to the extreme mental strength Ana Lucia must have in order to deal with all of this. This becomes increasingly apparent towards the end of the episode with Ana Lucia's experiences with Goodwin and Nathan which cause her to finally snap and realize what everything has come to. Her line to Bernard where she tells him to get used to his new life hits really hard, and some quality acting makes it easy for us to understand how difficult it is for Ana Lucia to lead the group the way that she does. All of this background on Ana Lucia's leadership makes her murder of Shannon even more powerful. Now it's so easy to see why Ana Lucia would be so quick to pull the trigger when Shannon stumbles out of the woods, and it's much harder to fault her for her actions. I'm even more excited to see the fallout of this scene now. The Goodwin and Nathan plot was phenomenal. The episode does such a good job of tricking you into thinking that Nathan is an other. From the Goodwin scene in "...And Found", we naturally assume that he was killed by the others, not that he was an other himself. Furthermor, Nathan's shifty behaviour, the dramatic stare-downs between him and Ana Lucia, as well as the connection to Ethan with his home country being Canada all suggest that he is the culprit. So when Goodwin suddenly snaps Nathan's neck, it's a huge surprise that immediately elevates the tension of the episode. The ensuing scene with Ana Lucia and Goodwin is fantastic. It's a fantastic gun-under-the-table scene with the knife being passed back and forth, and Ana Lucia starting to ask Goodwin some suspicious questions. The tension escalates naturally in a brilliant way and the brief fight at the end is exciting, even with the outcome predetermined. I appreciate that the fight was short and explosive. It made me forget for just long enough that Goodwin is destined to die here, making the fight more dramatic than it would have been if it was stretched out. There were some very good minor moments. Mr. Eko's background story as he seemingly takes a vow of silence was pretty good, and it culminated brilliantly in that scene with Ana Lucia (see: Best Moment). Also, I really liked the reveal that Bernard was the person who Boone contacted back in "Deus Ex Machina". It makes Boone's death feel even more tragic, knowing that it was all for nothing. The Bad: It is annoying that a big cliffhanger isn't advanced in the following episode for the second time this season. Though I do like the way that this episode made Shannon's death have a little more weight to it, I still don't like having to wait even longer to find out what happens next. Surely Nathan's excuses should have been much better if he was actually innocent. Nobody was ever going to buy his bathroom excuses, so it seems really strange that he was innocent all along. His actions and words don't seem to correlate with what an innocent man would say. The ending montage was a decent way to speed through the footage that we had already seen. However, it does feel like a waste of time to spend something like 5 minutes on scenes that we were already familiar with without much alteration. I feel like there is a better way to advance to that final scene without it feeling so redundant. The Unknown: What were Ana Lucia and Mr. Eko's lives back in the real world? They somehow seem like even more of a mystery after this episode. Why is there a quarantine sign on the door of the other Dharma station? Do all stations have quarantine on them? What was with the glass eye inside the station? How about the bible? How did the others obtain a US army knife? Best Moment: As excellent as the Ana Lucia vs Goodwin scene was, I have to go with the scene by the stream between Ana Lucia and Eko. Ana Lucia finally cracks as the guilt of murdering Goodwin and torturing Nathan gets to her. Mr. Eko is there and he decides to speak for the first time in 40 days, comforting Ana Lucia. These two are hardly friends, but Eko still goes over to her and comforts her as she finally lets out all of the pent up emotion inside of her. It's a powerful scene that nicely shows us the trust that the Tailies have built after spending 40 days together. Character of the Episode: Ana Lucia. Conclusion: What a ride. This episode set out to do something different and it gave me an experience completely unlike anything "Lost" has ever done before. Somehow, this changed the formula yet still kept the heart of the show, providing us with some of the best 40 minutes of drama you will ever find. This is one of the best episodes of the series for sure. Score: 89
2 Comments
Ben
11/24/2019 03:24:13 am
This is my favourite TV episode of all time, and it's largely because of Ana's story, but also because of how dark and creepy it all is. The Others are portrayed as a terrifying, but intriguing threat, and their attacks are relentless. The moments when Ana declares "these people were here before us", and when she claims they had a list of all their names, are both spine-shivering moments. The episode really lets the imagination run wild over the nature of the Others, especially after Goodwin's claims that they only took "good people", Even if you're not a fan of Ana Lucia, I find it hard to imagine not thinking she goes through a great character journey this episode. She clearly makes it her responsibility to get the children home, and it hits her hard when they are taken (next episode we find out why). Still, she doesn't let herself acknowledge the emotional toll of everything (because she's too busy trying to find out the infiltrator - to the extent of becoming paranoid and rattled - and trying to protect everyone else), until that great scene with Eko when she finally falls to her knees and just lets everything out. The fact that Eko finally talks after 40 days of silence only makes the moment even more amazing, adding to the intrigue and mystery of his character.
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Aaronic
11/25/2019 05:42:16 pm
I loved hearing your thoughts on this episode, and I can easily understand why this would be your favourite episode of all time. With "Lost" being the first TV drama I ever watched, this episode was the first time that I ever experienced being ripped away from the status quo into something completely different, and I absolutely loved it. It was my favourite TV episode of all time as well, thought over time it has gone down the list. Still, I would certainly rank it in my top 10 episodes of all time list.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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