Sunday, February 02, 2014

LOST Rewatch: The Other 48 Days

Credit: tle1lost.wordpress.com
I'm tempted to call this a very special episode of LOST. Because it upends (in a sense) the narrative flow of the series and projects things from a very different point of view--namely the survivors of the Flight 815 tail section, including Ana Lucia, Mr. Eko, Bernard, Libby, Cindy, Nathan, Goodwin, and many other unnamed passengers. (This also includes two children--a small brother and sister pair on their way from Syndey to Los Angeles to meet up with their mother.)

What I found most interesting about this episode was that it DID throw a complete wrench in the LOST dramatic narrative that we had been viewing for over 30 episodes. It left behind all of the characters that we had originally grown to like and understand and tossed up a completely different set of people.

Isn't that interesting? Isn't that a huge risk for a TV show? To absolutely upend everything and interject a new narrative without a bit of warning? (True, we had already gotten a bit used to the Tailies through the first several episodes of Season 2. But to devote an entire story to their experience was a bold move, I thought. It could have backfired on the show badly . . . as would later be the case with Nikki and Paolo. But more to come on those dudes later.)


Anyway, I don't have lots to devote to this episode. There is no Flashback for any of the Tailies . . . because the entirety of the episode is one long Flashback. But there are some things that I can say.

  • The Others were much more aggressive in messing with Ana Lucia and her crew than was the case with the Lostaways on the other side of the Island. They were attacked on the first night after the crash and on subsequent nights. Nothing like that happened with Jack and Company. Was the presence of the "security system" the thing that kept the Others away for so long?
  • The actions of "Goodwin" show that the Others have a definite method for learning about the plane crash survivors. He--like Ethan--posed as a member of the survivors, gathered information, and tried to single out certain "good" people for abduction . . . or whatever.
  • The brother and sister kids were taken very quickly. What is the fixation that the Others have with children? (Remember Claire's pre-birth abduction by Ethan.)
  • When did Ana Lucia finally realize that Goodwin was not who he seemed? It wasn't until Day 45 or so that she confronted him and they fought and Goodwin died. Was it simply that day that everything made sense to her? Because when she did confront him, she talked about how his appearance was wrong from the first day. But surely she didn't harbor real suspicion all of that time? Given her treatment of Nathan--who was not, it turned out, an Other--she would have acted forcefully and decisively much sooner. Right?
Anyway.

I really liked this episode. I think it should be celebrated for the risks that it took at a time when the show was strong in popularity and the chance of a backfire was real.

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