Thursday, January 30, 2014

LOST Rewatch: . . . And Found

Credit: tle1lost.wordpress.com
I took a few days off this week, due to snow and kids out of school, due to work pressures, due to tiredness, due to whatever. But the girls and I have watched two episodes since "Everybody Hates Hugo" and I need to catch up a bit.

This episode continues the arc of Season 2 that focuses on what is happening on the opposite side of the Island with Ana Lucia, Mr. Eko, and the rest of the Tailies (plus Jin, Michael, and Sawyer). If you haven't seen the show before--or like me you haven't seen the shows in several years and have forgotten--you might have thought that the bulk of Season 2 would be about what is happening in the Hatch and pushing the button every 108 minutes. And, yes, I thought that was what so much of this season WAS about. But I forgot and am being reminded now that there were several episodes here where they are introducing the Tailies into the mix.

And rightly, this is so, because we spent all of last season thinking that 1.) they were all dead and 2.) bringing in a new batch of characters can be a dangerous thing (see Nikki & Paolo . . . who are still to come). But LOST did make a habit of bringing in a new batch of people on a fairly regular basis, enfolding them into the existing bunch. I think we tend to forget that because each season was wrapped around a different piece of Island mythology or the narrative storytelling device was always something different. But in this season, we still rely on Flashbacks and we now bring the surviving Tailies to the familiar part of the Island.

Sun and Jin are the focal points of ". . .  And Found,"filling in the gaps of how they met and who they were before their engagement and marriage. We already know that Jin was the embarrassed son of a fisherman, striving to leave his village past behind. We see that he is always reminded of his humble origins by the people he is asking employment of--such as the Seoul hotel for which he becomes a doorman.

The bulk of the flashback, however, tells Sun's story. How she was set up by a matchmaker (via her rich mother) to find a husband. How she met with the son of a hotel magnate--yes, the same one that Jin is working at--and how the magnate and Sun hit it off. How Sun was becoming okay with the matchmaker's choice, only to learn that the dude was planning to leave Korea in a few months to marry someone else in America. How he was just enjoying this matchmaking time with Sun to lessen the pressure put on him by his own mother and didn't Sun already understand that? (Oops . . . not really.)


Back on the Island, Jin, Sawyer, and Michael are still at odds with the acerbic Ana Lucia and the ominous Mr. Eko. They are all huddled in the remains of the Dharma station and our Lostaway friends are wondering what happened to the Tailies to make them so skittish and afraid. Though they don't say it, their eyes indicate that "Back on our side of the Island we had beach luaus with roasted boar, copious flows of fresh water, all the mango you could eat, and plenty of fun, fun, fun! What is so bad over here?"

The Tailies eyes are full of regret, fear, and haunting events that should NEVER be spoken of! So, the idea is presented. Let's all relocate to where YOU guys have been partying it up for the last 40 days. We're tired of being picked off one by one. So, they gather up their meager supplies and get Michael, Jin, and a weakening Sawyer to lead the way.

Michael takes this opportunity to run for it. He doesn't want to go back to the Beach/Caves. He's got to find Waaaaaalt! (Remember, they TOOK HIS SON!) Jin is determined to go after him, reluctant to let his raft buddy trek through the jungle alone. Ana Lucia wants nothing to do with any of this and just want to find a safer place to live. But Mr. Eko shows his conscience and decides to help Jin locate Michael. The rest begin their journey along the (safe?) coast to find our Lostaway pals.

Eventually, Jin and Eko find Michael, who is wandering around shouting at waterfalls and begging the Others to appear and capture him. They eventually meet back up with the rest of the Tailies and continue their journey, avoiding the dangerous Jungle. On this journey? Michael, Jin, a stumbling Sawyer, Cindy (the 815 stewardess), Libby, Ana Lucia, Bernard, and Eko.

Back on the Beach? Well, Claire is complaining that Charlie is getting a bit too familiar. And what is with the Virgin Mary statue he's always carrying around in his backpack? Is Charlie some sort of religious nutter, she asks Locke? Locke, who knows that the statue contains heroin says nothing and doesn't confront Charlie about it. Also, Sun is freaking out that she has lost her wedding ring and she is carrying the burden of knowing that the message bottle signals dangerous times for the raft. (The ladies who discovered the bottle has still not told any of the other Lostaways about their fears.)

Sun talks to Hurley and Jack and Kate about her lost ring and eventually, she finds it when she digs up the bottle again. The ring was in the sand alongside the bottle itself. Buoyed by a hope that Jin (and the other raft goers) might be alive, Sun ventures a slight smile.

1 comment:

Episode Guide TV said...

My wife and I were hooked on Lost when we watched it years ago. Perhaps we will have to have a Lost marathon again since they have it on Netflix?