Lost – Episodes 1×09 – 1×12

Episodes nine through twelve of season 1 of ABC’s hit television show Lost first aired from November 17, 2004 until January 5, 2005.

Plot Synopsis

After Oceanic Air Flight 815 tears apart in mid-air and crashes on a Pacific island on September 22, 2004, its survivors are forced to find inner strength they never knew they had in order to survive, but they discover that the island holds many secrets.

Initial Reaction

In Week 3 of my Lost Rewatch, I’ll be reviewing “Solitary,” “Raised by Another,” “All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues,” and “Whatever the Case May Be.” Fun Fact – starting with the first episode this week, Solitary, J.J. Abrams left Lost to go direct the film Mission Impossible 3, and never returned to his Executive Producer position on the show. To pick up the slack, he hired Carlton Cuse to take his place. Since then, Damon and Carlton have had full control of the show.

Here’s where things really pick up, in my opinion. Excellent episodes, all around. Solitary introduces Russeau as an active character on the Island, and the idea that there are unnamed “Others” living on the Island. We see the importance of Claire’s unborn child, and we get our first encounter with a true-to-life Other. I miss Ethan Rom.

In-Depth Discussion

In Solitary, Sayid finds a cable on the beach and follows it inland, leading him to a trap that was set by Russeau, the French woman who originally left the distress signal the Losties intercepted in the Pilot episode. She drills him for information, and lets him know he should look out for strange behavior in his fellow survivors, and that she believes other people inhabit the Island. Meanwhile, Hurley decides to give everyone a distraction by building a golf course and holding a tournament. In the flashbacks, we see Sayid’s old life as a torturer in the Republican Guard and his relationship with Nadia.

In Raised by Another, Claire is having bad dreams about someone taking her child. In her flashbacks, we learn of a psychic who has told her that it would be unquestionably disastrous if her baby was given to anyone but her to raise. Meanwhile, Hurley decides to go around and interview all the survivors and collect their stories, and compare them to the flight manifest on the plane. He discovers Ethan, a new guy who has been helping Locke hunt, is not who he says he is. It is too late, however, as the episode ends with him alone in the jungle with Charlie and Claire.

In All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues, we see what happened between Jack and his father, when Christian attempted a surgery under the influence of alcohol, but failed to save his patient, and Jack reported him for it. On the Island, Ethan kidnaps Claire and Charlie. Jack, Kate, Locke, and Boone wander out into the jungle to track him down and eventually find him. Charlie was hung in a tree. Ethan completely destroys Jack in hand-to-hand combat and gets away with Claire.

In Whatever the Case May Be, we see Kate involved in a bank robbery in which she double-crossed her partners to get away with a lock box’s contents, a small toy plane.  Kate and Sawyer find some dead bodies and wreckage underwater near a waterfall, and recover a locked case that Kate seems to be very interested in. Jack helps Kate dig up the marshal’s dead body to get the key, and they open it.  It contains guns, ammo, and her toy plane. Meanwhile, the tide is quickly rising and watching the plane wreckage out to sea, so the survivors relocate down the beach to the second and final beach camp. Rose comforts Charlie after his recent ordeal, praying with him. Also, Sayid begins working with Shannon to translate the maps and documents he got from Russeau’s camp when he was there. It turns out a lot of the writing is just lyrics to a French song.

Casual Observations

• Sayid finds the cable on the beach in Solitary. It’s amazing to think that we didn’t get a payoff for that until all the way at the end of Season 3 when we find out about the underwater Dharma station. I see things like this along the way and have to believe they truly mapped out the major plot points from very early on.
• I payed close attention to Russeau’s story this time around, when she told Sayid what happened to her team. Everything matched up to what we finally saw in Season 5, but she made no mention of Jin. She did say “they were the carriers” of “the sickness,” but she also accused Jin of this same thing when we saw those events. I truly feel that any inconsistencies in the story can be explained away by her being alone in the jungle for 16 years after a huge smoke monster killed some of her team, and a Korean man disappeared in front of her eyes, and then she was forced to kill her husband, and her child was kidnapped. She just went nuts.
• We first get introduced to the idea of The Others in Solitary, when Russeau mentions them to Sayid. Coincidentally, we also first meet Ethan, who is helping Locke hunt boar. Oh Ethan, how awesome you were. Good thing we get a bit of you in every single season since you died, whether it be in flashbacks, time travel, or just a mention.
• In the beginning of Raised by Another, we see Claire’s prophetic nightmare, combined with her flashback, that impresses the notion upon us that if Claire doesn’t raise her child, bad things will happen. Locke, in her dream, says, “You gave him away, now we all have to suffer the consequences.” In Season 4, we see her leave Aaron alone in the jungle to fend for himself, having been lured away by Christian Shephard. Hopefully this whole thing will be explained once and for all in Season 6, as it has constantly been reinforced as being of great importance, but never explained.
• Ethan’s seemingly supernatural strength has never been explained. I think they just made him seem that way for dramatic effect, but he clearly lifts Jack up off the ground with one hand.
• Funny, Boone specifically lays out the idea of “red shirts” while helping Locke track Ethan down.
• We get the first mentions of Hurley’s wealth and Walt’s “special” status in a scene between the two. They are playing a game on the beach and Walt is unnaturally lucky. Hurley owes Walt $20,000, and Hurley says he’ll get it.
• This tracking excursion is the beginning of Boone and Locke’s friendship, which ultimately will lead to Boone’s death. In All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues, they accidentally find the underground hatch “The Swan,” which is of monumental importance to the show.
• It’s interesting to think that Ethan actually was born and raised in the Dharma camp, and one day switched sides because of his friendship with Ben.
• Once again, Charlie comes extremely close to death.
• Kate’s toy plane is one of those things that sort of bugged me at the time. I wondered why she cared so much about it. We now know it was Tom Brennan’s, her childhood friend and sweetheart. They buried it in a time capsule, and dug it up years later. She accidentally got him killed running from the cops, and treasures it because it reminds her of him.
• And so begins the era when Jack wore the key to the gun case on a necklace. Good times, good times.