LOST - Episode 11

[lenafan]

LOST ? Episode 11
?Come on, Come on Back!?


This week?s episode was a barnburner from start to finish. The title of the episode was ?All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues.? It was Jack?s story revisited and updated during the hour show. Therefore, we will deal with Jack?s remembering what happened between him and his father first.

Obviously, we have known Jack was a doctor, but it seems he was a brilliant young surgeon. We see him working feverishly on a woman patient who is not responding. She evidently was in a major accident and during the ensuing action, we learn that a mistake was made. It is obvious from the interaction and friction between Jack and the other surgeon, who we now see is his father, that Dad made a tragic mistake.

Of course, he had too many drinks during lunch and was impaired according to one emergency room nurse who had called Jack. Now the patient is dead and his father says for him to call the time of death, but Jack declines and makes his father do it. In the next father son scene, Jack?s father is making out the report on the patient and wants him to sign it. At first, Jack refuses, because Jack wants to tell the truth?that his father was drunk. His father is upset because if he does, his father will lose his license. He tells Jack that he has become the most gifted young surgeon in the city. He tells Jack: ?I promise you, it will never happen again.? (Oh yes, how many of us have heard that promise from alcoholics.)

Later, Jack sees his father talking to the husband of the woman who died. A passing nurse says the man wants to sue. (We do not know the outcome of that however at least not at this moment.) Jack watches as his father comforts the husband. He then is in a meeting with his father and the administrator in which they are calling the incident and death of the woman an unfortunate mistake. Jack tells the unseen man that he wishes to change his statement (the one his father had him sign) and that his father was alcohol impaired at the time of the surgery. (That?s all we get now.)

Meanwhile interspersing Jack?s story is the hunt for Claire and Charlie. Jack is definitely upset and barges ahead looking for Charlie and Claire. A hunting party led by Locke is going after the missing pair. They are now sure that Ethan is not one of the survivors from the plane crash. Michael wants to go also, but Locke says he has enough, but that if he wants to help, he should lead a party south.

Locke takes Kate, and Boone with him into the jungle and catches up with Jack who has been going in a circle. They follow tracks they pick up where they find Claire?s backpack. Locke finds one of the finger bandages that Charlie wore on his fingers. They are on the right track. However, further up the trail, both Kate and Locke make a decision that might prove to have long reaching circumstances: Kate says the trail goes one way and Locke says it?s that way. One of them could be a fake lead. They decide to split up. Locke and Boone go one way and Kate with Jack the other. Kate wants to know why Jack is so adamant about finding Claire. He tells her that he didn?t believe Claire when she said someone had attacked her or at least tried to that morning. He blames himself for precipitating her decision to go back to the beach.

Jack demands to know from Kate how she became to be a tracker. She tells him she used to go out with her father into the woods. He was in the army and stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington State and he loved the woods; it was his religion. She tells Jack she once tracked a deer for eight hours with her father.

Back at the beach, Walt tells Sawyer that Sayid returned to camp wounded. He says Sayid told everyone ?we are not alone.? He is also seen later playing backgammon with Hurley, who is being soundly beaten even though he tells Walt he was in a backgammon tournament once and was seventeenth. Walt says he?s lucky and then casually mentions Brian, his other Dad. Hurley is now curious, but the ten year old goes no further.

There is a scene between Sawyer and Sayid. In this one, Sayid tells Sawyer that the reason he left camp was that he was ashamed of what he did (torture) to Sawyer. I?m not sure Sawyer believes him, but Sayid tells him about meeting the Frenchwoman, Danielle Rousseau and that she killed all the members of her party because they were ill. There is something out there, believes Sayid. He felt it.

During their time together, Boone and Locke talk about their personal lives. It seems Locke was a regional collections supervisor for a box company. Boone admits to being what I would call a ?wedding planner.? He worked for his mother who started a ?Martha Stewart? wedding business. Locke tells him that it?s going to rain in a minute and it does. Boone wants to know if he was also the local weatherman.

It?s raining hard when Jack and Kate find another one of Charlie?s bandages. Jack and Kate keep going. Suddenly Jack hear?s a noise which he thinks is Claire?s voice echoing through the forest. Jack has a run in with Ethan who easily beats him up, leaving Jack prostrate on the ground. Ethan tells him ?no more warnings? and to stop following him or he will kill one of them (meaning either Claire or Charlie) and disappears. Kate finds Jack. She wants to go back, but Jack insists they keep going.

A good thing they did, because they come across Charlie hanging from a tree. In a very tense scene, Kate climbs the tree and using the knife Locke gave her, cuts Charlie down. Jack works on him doing CPR and then strikes him repeatedly on the chest. Kate is distraught. She tells Jack Charlie is gone and that he should stop. Jack shakes her off and resumes hitting Charlie over his heart. Suddenly, without warning, Charlie coughs. Kate is stunned then overjoyed.

(I remember thinking?oh no, not Charlie, he can?t be killed off yet. Thank goodness Jack kept thumping his chest.)

Kate and Jack get Charlie back to the caves. He hasn?t said a word, but finally he says something that is chilling: ?they only want Claire.? He tells them he does not remember anything, so he can?t lead the way.

Boone decides to go back because of the heavy rain. Locke tosses him the flashlight saying he will need it more. Boone misses it and it falls to the ground, giving off a hollow sound. It struck something metallic. Both men hurriedly dig and pull away the dirt, revealing metal. Is it a drum or something larger?


DISCUSSION AND COMMENTS

Obviously, we haven?t heard the rest of Jack?s story. Definitely, there is more to come.

Kate?s an army brat and learned her tracking skills from her father. What other activities is she good at that we will be informed piece by piece?

Poor Charlie didn?t help Claire as much as he would have liked. Is he going to be in a blue funk for the next few episodes?

Walt?s other DAD? Oh oh, another question raised to be answered.

I didn?t realize Danielle Rousseau ?murdered? all of the members of the scientific expedition?I thought she said she killed her husband?

What have Boone and Locke stumbled upon?underground hideout of the others?
On the other hand, maybe a part of the underground home of the Frenchwoman?


Your opinions and comments are welcomed.

[Julia37]

lenafan,

Thank you very much for your detailed reviews. I tried not to get hooked on Lost because I have a lot going on and don't really have time to watch it - but I failed. I had only watched 4 episodes, 2 of them were the repeats last Wed. Your reviews enabled me to understand and catch up with the stories.

The other 2 were the first episode, and the Asian couple's story. I was moved to tears by their history.

I'm so glad Sayid came back! I have a bit of a crush on him. I have a thing for dark handsome men! I find him interesting because his life has been so different from anything I can imagine. I hope someday I get to see the episode that shows those details.

In one of your reviews you ask "What did Jack do to make his mother blackmail him?" Emotionally abusive people don't need a reason to do such things. To them its ordinary routine.

So I'll either be watching or taping Lost from now on, I'm hooked by the excellent character development and interaction. I don't usually watch "dramas" on TV because I don't like violence and trauma (I've often thought they should be called "traumas"), but this is better than anything in years.

Thanks again :)