All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

If you do not stop following me, I will kill one of them

I’ve always liked Jack centric episodes and this is one of the best by far. I have my reasons. We see Jack and his father’s relationship bend and twist while he continues to let who he is shine through. Opening the flashback with the scene during an operation in the hospital where the father and son work, we get to see Jack’s determination shine through, and not for the last time this episode. Just watching Jack refuse to give up strengthens beliefs that he is more than a leader and a surgeon. Losing his patient meant more than it should to Jack. But he didn’t blame himself for it, not like you would expect him to, because he knew it was because of his father. Their relationship has only got worse since White Rabbit now that Jack has grown up. We see his father with a drink in his hand during White Rabbit and now we see him under the influence while performing surgery on a patient. And as soon as Christian’s drink problem messes with Jack’s work and life, he doesn’t let it do so for long. At first Jack was sure about letting it be known that his father was under the influence while performing surgery, something that of course is unbelievable. Yet Christian, the snide man, makes Jack feel like he has the world’s best dad by telling him how he sacrificed so much of their relationship so Jack would turn into the brilliant doctor that he is. Jack gives in and decides to let it go. But as we know so well, Jack’s determination won’t let him down. Not at all. During a meeting over the death of the patient, Jack does what he knows is right and makes it his turn to do the sacrificing. He makes the truth heard about his father, knowing very well what the consequences will be. He had his reasons, one of them being he knows it’s the right thing to do.

So Sayid has returned with shocking news and Hurley turns up to back up the news that they are not alone on the Island. As the fact that Ethan wasn’t on the plane sinks in, Jack must have some serious assumptions about who Ethan is. He wastes no time in asking where Charlie and Claire are before running out of the caves and towards the path between the caves and the beach. Jack must have pieced it all together in a shocking amount of time, guessing that Claire did in fact get attacked the other night and it must have been Ethan because…well because he wasn’t on the plane. The leading question in the whole kidnap scenario is How did Ethan kidnap two people, one pregnant and one perfectly able to struggle and fight, on his own? Unless he knocked them both out and managed to drag both of them through the jungle then I don’t see how it would be possible. I understand Jack’s anger at what has happened although it was definitely not his fault. He blames himself for not believing Claire and shrugging it off as symptoms of stress and pregnancy. Why would he act on the theory that she was attacked over more obvious reasons like her pregnancy and stress influencing hallucinations. Jack even finds a reason amongst everything going on to have Kate by his side once again during the search. He jumps to conclusions that Kate can track footprints etc. Even though all that she suggested was that Ethan’s a clever son of a bitch and thought to make a decoy trail and double back on himself. So the group splits, Locke with Boone and Jack with Kate. As Jack’s determination kicks in, he begins to forget the fact that Kate is the so called tracker and finds his own directions through the jungle. And that gets him in some trouble.  Falling down a steep incline into the hands of Ethan kind of trouble. After being punched, kicked and warned by Ethan, Kate eventually makes it down the incline to come to his rescue, completely missing the fight between Jack and Ethan. She must have been concentrating so hard on not falling down the incline to have missed that. Jack gets up with no signs of blood anyway which for the amount of kicking he received from Ethan is unbelievable. Storming off and ignoring Kate’s protests, Jack actually got them somewhere this time. Stumbling across Charlie’s hanging almost-corpse body gives them both a kick up the arse with some determination. Jack being Jack goes into overload with the determination but so what, he manages to save Charlie’s life! After no response from Charlie after a minute or two where even Kate has almost collapsed in a puddle of tears, Jack looks as if all the fight has left him. But once again, he gets a kick up the arse from his never failing determination and continues to try and resuscitate Charlie who must have been seconds away from death from the amount of time he has spent unconscious without oxygen. Yet Jack even made my eyes moist by succeeding in bringing Charlie back to consciousness, although I’m sure I was only close to tears because Kate was crying and because crying makes her look so cute, I couldn’t help but adore her and cry for her. As for Kate, her emotional acting is just fantastic. If she can make someone like me have tears in their eyes just from crying over Jack trying to save someone then she must be brilliant. Elsewhere, unaware of Charlie’s discovery, Locke and Boone continue to delve deeper into the jungle, even though I’m not sure Locke is all that bothered about finding the missing couple. He seems to want to explore the Island and find out more about the place. However Boone seems to agree with me and tells Locke he’s going back. Considering it’s now night and Locke and Boone are still out there, it just emphasises just how deep in the jungle they are when they find the Hatch. We see many trips to and from the Hatch and the beach which only seem to take as long as popping down to your local shop. It might as well be around the corner for as long as it seems to take. Finding the Hatch really marks this episode as an important and key episode of Season 1. No one knows yet that it will open up many questions as well as more than they could ever bargain for.

The Moth

Struggling is nature’s way of strengthening

One of the things I would never have thought about Charlie was that he was a Christian. Even if we found out much later than we did, I would still not have believed it. However, it does work as a great contrast to his present drug induced self. During his flashbacks, we see he is not just an average religious person but a true Christian who confesses his soul etc. Definitely not a person you would expect to turn to drugs and not God in hard times. Plus Charlie sees himself as a ‘rock god’ which doesn’t sound very Christian to me. From what we learn of Charlie during his first two flashes, Christianity is not his only religion. Music is his other belief and there’s definitely friction between the two. He can only choose one – a religion which revolves around his band where he falls into bed with several irresistible girls while surrounded by stoned band members, or a religion where he leaves all the above behind – and choosing isn’t one of his strong points. Picking the band over Christianity wasn’t all Charlie’s fault though, blame Liam for starting his downfall away from right and into wrong. Some brother Liam is. Forgetting promises, lying and getting stoned while ruining their relationship as brothers. Liam ruined the band as well as Charlie. If Liam had kept his promise to walk away when things got rough, Charlie would never have turned to drugs. Too late for that though, Liam made his point. Finding out his reason for being on Oceanic 815, we see Charlie somewhere in the future after the previous scene. Liam’s warm welcome suggests that the last scene of the flashback plot is far behind them, maybe years ago. Liam is a transformed man, clearly not touching drugs anymore but this time, it’s Charlie that’s looking worse. He doesn’t deny Liam’s accusations that he is still using and we see just how much Liam has moved on from the past as he offers to help Charlie get off drugs. To enhance Liam’s changed self, we see him turn down the offer to make a comeback with the band, probably because he knows that with the band comes drugs. Charlie seems distraught with Liam’s actions and leaves, telling him he has a plane to catch. Oceanic 815 no doubt.

The writers must’ve had a few drinks while writing this episode! Risking Jack’s life just so Charlie can be a hero and make himself feel needed? How dare they! Nah I’ve got nothing against Charlie but there was no need to put Jack in the shit. Actually, the one reason I may take that comment back is because the incident really showed us how much of a team most of the survivors are and how much they rely on each other…well on Jack anyway. As the rescue party work on rescuing Jack, Charlie runs to Locke to ask for his drugs back. To be honest, I don’t think Charlie had any chance at getting his drugs back no matter how many times he asked. But Locke gave Charlie his drugs back the third time! Locke would have found a way to make out the Island wanted him to give up the drugs or he would have forced Charlie to stop getting his fix being ‘the Island told him to’. So Charlie does the heroic thing and crawls into the cave to save Jack. After fixing his arm I’m surprised at how pessimistic Jack was over the whole scenario. Mentioning that their oxygen supply is running out suggesting they’re going to suffocate is insane. Charlie should of said that most of the survivors are trying their hardest to save their leader. Especially Kate. After Sawyer sourly tells her of Jack’s situation it’s so heart-warming to see her run off, abandoning Sayid’s idea. I doubt she is expecting Sawyer to take over her responsibilities but that’s out the window. Jack needs saving. Back at the caves, I was shocked that no one was shocked that Jack and Charlie randomly appeared behind them all like they had just had a stroll from the beach. As if they could have got out of the cave via  a small hole in the ground above them. I do love the writers but they are damn crazy sometimes!

Sayid getting knocked out by an unknown figure certainly set the alarm bells ringing. Questions rapidly being generated in every fan’s head – Who? Why? What? Even though Locke doesn’t want them to leave the Island he didn’t have to destroy Sayid’s equipment, he deserved credit for that. He really is the brains of the survivors. One thing that confuses me is how did Locke know what was going on. As far as I was aware Locke was never around Sayid while he made the equipment neither was he around when Sayid recruited Boone and Kate to help him out. Yet he manages to find Sayid and he must of known what he was doing to make it worth knocking him out.

Locke may not be the one to do the best thing but he sure managed to with Charlie. After the whole scenario with him and Jack, watching him ask for his drugs for the third time was unbelievable. Not as mad as watching Locke simply hand the packet over. Locke isn’t one to stick to his word when he knows best, we all know that. Maybe he knew that Charlie would throw the drugs away. Charlie throwing the drugs into the fire was sure surprising but in a way it was expected. He saved Jack so he should be able to save himself. Alright maybe Locke saved him but maybe the whole day’s scenario was meant to happen to test Charlie. To make him realise what he was capable of. To strengthen him.

House of the Rising Sun

Our very own Adam and Eve

I’m going to continue my new layout of talking about the full flashback plot at once and then focus on what’s happening on the Island because it’s much easier to talk about that way, so I hope you prefer it like this too!

I never really appreciated Sun and Jin in any aspect during Season 1. It wasn’t that I thought their characters were not needed or anything big like that, I just found their flashbacks boring and their on-island relationship boring. However now, I see their story completely differently. I’ve taken the time to look back over the seasons and realise that they had one of the strongest relationships out of any couple, joint top with Charlie and Claire in my opinion. Anyway, on to the topic of the Kwon’s flashbacks. Seeing their relationship grow stronger then suffer prior to the crash certainly made their on-island relationship much more tolerable and understandable. In a way, the relationship is much like a  typical teenage love story. All the elements are there: they fall in love; live happy a while; they fight and piss each other off; one of them plans to end the relationship by going behind their partners back; they split up leaving each other with a broken heart. And that is pretty much how we see them during the episode, minus the heartbreak and split up. Alright, as all adults say, it’s much more complicated being an adult! After all, Jin was pretty much being Mr Paik’s slave by doing anything he asked or probably told Jin to do. He did it for Sun which was a nice touch, but relating back to the ‘typical teenage love story’, whatever one partner does to please the other it’s never enough. I hoped Sun did leave Jin while watching House of the Rising Sun for the first time, I was urging her on and on until I realised that she obviously doesn’t because she on the plane with him. Stupid me. What was going through Sun’s head when she chose to stay with Jin is beyond me after planning such a plan to run away. I’m glad she didn’t run away though, unless they ended up not being main characters and only surviving into Season 2 or 3.

On the Island, and still on the topic of Sun and Jin, we witness Jin attacking Michael. I loved this! They could have beaten each other up as much as they liked and it would have put me in a great mood. It came as a shock to many of us at the time I bet since we don’t yet know why Jin tried to kill Michael. What I find funny is that neither Sayid, Kate or any of the survivors truly believe that Jin and Sun know no English. They both made it pretty obvious by now – good acting Sun! Questioning Jin after handcuffing him to some wreckage while he “gets pretty crispy” as Hurley puts it is pointless. Jin certainly doesn’t have a clue what the hell anyone but Sun is saying and tries to let them know unlike Sun, who always falls quiet when talked to by most of the survivors.

Following Jack, Locke, Kate and Charlie’s visit to the caves uncovered what I have to say is one of the most significant moments in Season 1 in my opinion. After Charlie sets a bee militia on to the group, Kate stumbles upon the two skeletons laid to rest. “Our very own Adam and Eve”  as Locke puts it, although we now know they’re far from that. Let’s pretend we don’t know that they’re Mother and MIB yet. It was a big eye opener to what and who may have been on the Island before the crash. Another crash? A shipwreck? I thought neither. I had a sneaky feeling it was no way that simple. My first theory were they were the last survivors of an aboriginal-like race who lived on the Island…it sounded sensible at the time. As Jack finds the black and white stones, I bet none of us thought nothing of them at the time. Probably something personal to whoever the skeletons were.

We now first see Locke’s attempt at ridding Charlie of his drugs which I always thought was one of the best things Locke ever did for anyone. Why he felt he had to help Charlie so much is unknown to me but he sure helped him. It seems like Locke is trying to teach Charlie the power of faith by showing him by giving away something close to him, he gains something else close to him, being his guitar. Is Locke suggesting that the Island wants to fix Charlie when he tells him “What I know is that this Island might just give you what you’re looking for, but you have to give the Island something”? Charlie gives his drugs to Locke and he happily accepts the drug. Maybe he thinks he is a messenger for the Island or is doing this for the Island. Either way, he sure believes the Island has powers to please a person like Charlie.

I can’t wait to announce Sun revealing she speaks English so I’m going to do it now. Yes! Believe or not, Sun speaks English. And Jin doesn’t know! Shocking. At least Sun ‘comes out’ about it. She did the right thing eventually, but hang on. Now Michael has to keep it a secret. Anyone feel like we’re going round in circles? Blame Jin. Even after the on-island events Sun can’t bring herself to tell him. At least she feels bad about keeping it a secret and making communication with the other survivors impossible. She reveals her secret to Michael because she is worried that Jin will hurt him more. Fair point. Sorry to continue to pass on the blame again and again but I blame Sun’s father for Jin’s behaviour. He thinks he has to protect Sun by beating the hell out of everyone else. He wasn’t even protecting her by attacking Michael. It was over the watch Sun’s father gave him. Understand why I didn’t like him at this point?

Finally, the split of survivors to the beach and caves was very revealing to how much each character wants to leave the Island. Kate is a perfect example. I thought she had given up hope on survival by now. With the marshal dead Kate should feel quite relaxed being on the Island. But no, she believes that they could get rescued. Or maybe she, like a few others, wanted to get rescued but knew they wouldn’t but didn’t want to admit it to themselves. As for Sawyer, he hasn’t yet realised that there isn’t anything for him off the Island. He sure has determination – he went to Australia to find the real Sawyer and kill him! Maybe he thinks by getting off the Island then he can try and find the real Sawyer again. Sad but true. We all knew Locke’s decision before he joined Jack’s group at the caves. Not that we know it yet but Locke doesn’t want to be rescued but keeps that to himself for now. Of course, admitting that would make him seem crazier. He is cleverly scheming his way of making sure he can convince as many people as he can that the Island is special and making sure that no one leaves. He’s good! Good luck to them, because Locke isn’t someone to give up easily.

White Rabbit

A leader can’t lead until he knows where he’s going

Firstly, for those of you who are wondering why I didn’t title this episode review “If we don’t live together, we’re going to die alone”, then I have my reasons. If this episode hadn’t have been Jack centric and hinted more towards the survivors seeing Jack as a leader, then I would definitely of titled it after Jack’s very meaningful quote which he announces during his episode ending speech. Why I chose “A leader…” is because it stood out more to me during the episode. The whole Jack and Locke conversation in the jungle stood out so much to me more than anything else in the episode in fact. The quote ties in with Jack being seen as a leader to most of the survivors but as he doesn’t want to, as Locke says he has to “know where he’s going”, which is easier said than done. Yet Jack achieves this by the end of the episode. His speech at the end confirms this so well and guarantees Jack’s dedication to surviving. Fairly good excuse? Thanks!

Although I found this episode an episode with a lot of meaning, I felt Jack’s flashback’s lacked greatly in directing us to a deep meaning. Out of the many flashes in this episode, only at part 5 of the flashback plot does it actually go somewhere. Alright we learn that Jack and his father’s relationship back when he was a kid wasn’t great but it never really meant anything to what we know of Jack now. Only when we learn along with Jack that his father has died do we realise why Jack seeing his father on the Island is such a big deal to him. Since so many years are missed during the flashback plot, we don’t know how Jack and his father’s relationship has developed since his childhood as well as the reasons why Jack’s father is in Australia and what influenced Jack’s feelings towards his father. Moving on to the last part of the flashes, we see Jack begging for his father’s coffin to be put on to the plane. There is definite suggestion that this may not be possible by the women at the airport helpdesk. Imagine if Jack wasn’t able to fly his father’s coffin to LA! It would have changed the episode entirely. If the coffin never arrived on the Island then MIB would never have ‘taken’ Christian’s body and influenced Jack to follow him into the jungle, therefore never having the conversation with Locke and never finding the water source and therefore the coffin. This of course would have influenced Jack’s feelings towards being the survivor’s leader. So it was Jack’s fault that this episode worked out like it did. But then again if he couldn’t get his father on the plane then he may not have flown to LA anyway.

Sorry for ranting on about this episode’s flashes but at least they’re out the way now and we can focus entirely on the rest of the episode. Again we see an example of Jack trying to do the impossible and what he knows he can’t do. After saving Boone from drowning he tries to save the women known as Joanna. It is clear from before he reaches the shore with Boone that it’s too late. Yet that’s not a good enough excuse for Jack is it. He has to try. It’s the whole marshal scenario again pretty much – he knows he can’t save them but he feels he has to try because that’s just the way he is. Fair does Jack, at least someone tries. While Jack moans to Kate that he “didn’t try” to save Joanna, which is complete crap, he again sees the man he saw at the end of Walkabout. A man dressed in black. Kate makes the assumption that Jack hasn’t slept enough which Jack being Jack denies entirely. It’s a boring assumption compared to what Locke has to say later on. Once again, and believe it or not for the last time, we see Jack protesting against having to make decisions for the camp. Hurley and Charlie are to blame this time. Being simple minded guys they definitely see Jack as a leader and someone to run to when stuff gets bad. Good job they don’t ‘hallucinate’ too then and see a random man dressed in black on the beach. Jack does however and runs after the figure as he turns and walks into the jungle. Jack follows him into the jungle only for the figure to turn round and show his face properly to Jack. As Jack realises that the figure is “dad”, the figure just turns and walks off again. At this time, we don’t know anything of Jack’s father’s whereabouts except that we are guessing he wasn’t on the plane for obvious reasons. If this surprised you enough then damn you’ve got a shock soon! So we get the feeling that Jack is being led somewhere by his father…when I say father of course I mean MIB. Learning that this was actually the work of MIB far later on in the show was a great moment. This is why I love the writers! It shows that they didn’t make up everything as they went along or else how else could they explain Jack seeing his father on the Island. It opens up questions about the episode that influence some great theories. Why was MIB leading Jack into the jungle in the form of his father. To test him? Testing him in a unique way compared to how he tested everyone else it seems. An ever more difficult question to answer is why did MIB lead Jack to the water source at the end of the episode? I’ll get to that bit later. As Jack follows the body of his father into the jungle, I noticed another thing that shows that the writers weren’t making it up as they went along. So we know that Jack’s father is MIB on the Island and to back this fact up, did you notice that there is no hint of Jack being stalked/seeing/hearing the monster at all whilst he is in the jungle? Surely the monster would have jumped with joy at being able to chase a survivor in the jungle who were on their own! Notice that too?

Back on the beach, we see a great relationship continuing to develop in the form of Charlie and Claire. Charlie takes on the caring duties for Claire and finds her water and comforts her when she mentions she feels the odd one out on the Island. It’s clear that Charlie has feelings for her already, despite her being a “ticking time bomb of responsibility waiting to go off”. It’s so sweet! Also happening on the beach is the search for the missing water supply which sets off the trend of Sawyer being blamed for pretty much everything. It’s amusing to have so many questions answered with something along the lines of “I bet it’s Sawyer”. Watching Sun and Jin being questioned for stealing the water I once again feel like screaming at Sun at her ignorance. She could of solved the problem much easier if she acted like she partly understood if anything. She’s a total piss take. Have I mentioned that I used to despise Sun and Jin? Up to Season 2 anyway. It didn’t last long. Must have been Jin’s heroics at joining the raft party.

Back in the jungle after Locke saves Jack from falling off the cliff edge, we get to the best part of the episode by far in terms of importance, meaning and character development. Locke tries to explain to Jack why he is a leader. He makes a good point that everyone treats him like one. Jack tells Locke he “doesn’t have what it takes”, referring back to the earlier flashback plot. He still believes that his father was right about him. The conversation changes to Jack explaining to Locke about him “hallucinating” and following the figure resembling his father into the jungle. Locke gives Jack some words of wisdom. Maybe Jack wasn’t hallucinating. What if he did see his father. How though? Locke’s opinion and reasoning is explained throughout his speech he gives to Jack which goes like this:

I’m an ordinary man, Jack. Meat and potatoes. I live in the real world. I’m not a big believer in magic. But this place is different. It’s special. The others don’t want to talk about it because it scares them. But we all know it. We all feel it. Is your white rabbit a hallucination? Probably. But what if everything that happened here happened for a reason?

What if this person you’re chasing is really here? He is clearly wanting Jack to consider the possibilities that the reason he ‘saw’ this person is because of the Island. Remember, Locke doesn’t yet know that Jack’s father is dead, neither does he know who Jack is talking about. Jack states that it would be impossible for the person he is chasing to actually be here. Locke negotiates and agrees with him but leaves the possibility of the person Jack is chasing being on the Island open. Why? Well, Locke tells Jack that “I’ve looked into the eye of this island and what I saw was beautiful”. Locke leaves that statement open to Jack to make him think about what he’s saying. So what does Locke mean by all this? In a nutshell, Locke obviously believes that the Island is special and can make things happen and he wants Jack to consider this. He exaggerates his thoughts on the Island being special to Jack and suggests that maybe he saw his father because the Island made him see it – meaning that it happened for a reason. It’s crazy but surprisingly it makes sense. Well depending on how you interpret it. So Locke leaves Jack telling him to “finish what he started”. Hell, I may have been able to interpret the above but this is meaningless. Maybe Locke means that Jack has to find who he was chasing. And by finding this person, Jack will find out where he is going and can then lead…something like that anyway!

Nearing the end of the episode doesn’t mean things get any less complicated, no way! Jack once again sees his father and follows him through the jungle until he stumbles upon a scene with a large water source and caves which is scattered with wreckage and items from the plane. So MIB led Jack to a source of water that has become top priority to find to keep the survivors alive. But did he? Or did he lead Jack to his father’s coffin which just happens to have ended up here? Of course it didn’t just happen, it was fate! Generously, fate has given Jack a water source and caves to live at for all the survivors. As for the coffin, whether fate intended to lead Jack here we don’t know. But if you look at it at a different angle, Jack’s father led him here and this is the last time we see him. It’s almost like Christian’s body jumped out of the coffin, walked to the beach, found Jack and got him to follow him back to the coffin where he would find what he needed most. Yet that would be too simple of course. So Jack does the inevitable and opens the coffin lid only to find that his father’s body wasn’t there. That sure sparked belief in Locke’s theory that maybe Jack did see his father. As for why Jack turns angry and smashes the coffin to pieces is a bit odd, as surely he would be too shocked to react quite like that. Not that Jack hasn’t had enough shock to last him a fair while recently. Maybe he just felt so confused that something had to give. I can sympathise.

Back on the beach we have Jack’s speech which is the second highlight of the episode. After recovering from what he found in the jungle, he steps forward after realising where he is going as a leader. Here’s the speech:

Leave him alone! It’s been six days and we’re all still waiting. Waiting for someone to come. But what if they don’t? We have to stop waiting. We need to start figuring things out. A woman died this morning just going for a swim and he tried to save her, and now you’re about to crucify him? We can’t do this. Everyman for himself is not going to work. It’s time to start organizing. We need to figure out how we’re going to survive here. Now, I found water. Fresh water, up in the valley. I’ll take a group in at first light. If you don’t want to go come then find another way to contribute. Last week most of us were strangers, but we’re all here now. And god knows how long we’re going to be here. But if we can’t live together, we’re going to die alone.

Jack, thankfully has given up most of his hope of rescue. He knows it’s time to act and most importantly, to survive. The water gave him hope of surviving until whenever and if it hadn’t have been for Jack then the water crisis would still have been a big issue. He knows it’s better to tell the survivors straight rather than watering it down for them. He knows someone has to lead and he seems the one to do it. The importance of “Live together, die alone” is that it holds its purpose throughout the show right up until The End. The term “live” definitely spells out Jack’s thoughts on the topic of rescue and he knows that so easily people could die, just like earlier in the episode. Inspiration never seems to be Jack’s strongpoint, but he nails it perfectly this time!