Lost Summer: Episode 3-5.
"Tabula Rasa," "Walkabout" & "White Rabbit."
Welcome back to Lost Summer. We have much to discuss. Are you sick of this already?
I mean, who in the hell do I think I am? Four essays in 10 days? What is this, 2004 again? Am I gonna start picking fights with people who don’t appreciate Architecture In Helsinki? Do I need to stock up on Fossil watches and jeans from The Buckle?
Real Talk: I still buy my jeans from The Buckle. I like them. I don’t know what to tell you. I have absolutely no idea how else or where else to buy pants. I’ve never even considered shopping elsewhere as an adult, pantaloon-wearing consumer. I need new pants, I go to The Buckle. Hey, you tell me where else to buy my pants and I’ll do it. If I know me, I would guess that one day back in 1998, a girl at The Buckle was nice to me for one second and made me a customer for the rest of my life.
A friend that I currently work with, who is much younger than me, has made fun of me on multiple occasions for buying my pants at The Buckle. And if I’m being honest, I’m still not sure in what specific way I’m being insulted. Is it because I’m too old to be doing it and it seems sad to her? Or is it because they charge a hundred dollars per pant and that’s sad in a completely different way? At this point, I’m too scared to ask.
Oh, and another thing about Buckle jeans. In 2004, I worked in a mailroom. And while you were generally allowed to wear jeans to the office, they couldn’t be ripped or distressed. Have you been to The Buckle? Everything is pre-shredded. I recall on many occasions asking the salesperson to find me the one pair of pants in the entire store that wasn’t frayed or didn’t have rhinestones on it, and I’d buy it. So it’s not even like The Buckle was a decision of convenience for me. In many ways, there was no decision to be made.
…and these jeans will tear if you sneeze too hard! And it’s the mall, so the kids are always trying to upsell you with stuff you didn’t ask for. And while I appreciate the hustle, I’m not buying anything but pants and pants alone in your dumb store. When did The Buckle become so redneck, anyway? It was probably when the Affliction stuff got big. God, that place sucks. Someone free me from this prison!
Now that was a classic 2004 rant. Felt good.
Today we have a triple shot of Lost programming for you, with reviews of episodes 3-5. So let’s get down to business with maybe our thiccest THICK & MEATY yet…and I’m not even talking about my ass in a tight pair of Buckle jeans. Let’s go!
EPISODE 3: “TABULA RASA”
June 2004
Kate is awakened by a farmer who has discovered her sleeping in his sheep pen. Not kidding. Instead of pitchforking her, he allows her to stay because Australians are decent people. He allows her to sleep in the sheep pen he keeps inside the house.
September 2004
Still on the farm, Kate’s about to slip back onto the lam, but the farmer (Ray) asks her to stay one more evening. It’s a setup however, as Ray has turned her in to the Marshal’s Office to snag the $23,000 reward (50 sheep’s worth). And look who’s there to scoop her up: Edward Mars! The guy who gets racked in the head by the suitcase when the plane crashes! A chase ensues, Ray’s prosthetic arm is flung high into the air, and Kate is eventually taken into custody counterclockwise from how she’d be normally taken into custody in the Western Hemisphere.
On The Island
Edward Mars’ best days are behind him, and he ain’t doing so hot. His parts are all coming out of his front and shit.
But Jack’s tending to him, and while attempting care, discovers Kate’s mugshot. This causes Jack to mugshart. This is a free blog, by the way.
The signal party are working their way back down the mountain after getting bad news from the transceiver (French, 16 years, everyone dead, etc.). They decide to not let the rest of the survivors know, cuz’ it would ruin the vibes and stuff. Boone tries to lift the gun from Sawyer (and the bullets from Sayid) as they sleep, an argument ensues and it’s agreed that Kate should hang onto the gun. Excellent.
A couple quick things here. One, this is the first of approximately ten thousand Lost arguments we will hear regarding who gets to hang onto the weapons (and there will be many more weapons). It was one of a few long-running gripes I had with the show. Remember on The Walking Dead when they’d spend several minutes an episode talking about the armory, who had access to weapons, who’s on the list, where’s the list and so forth? Was that fun? Was that good television? Instead of blasting zombies, we’re taking inventory and talking bureaucracy?
When two main characters point guns at each other, say threatening things and eventually put their guns down, it can often be riveting drama. When it’s done every week and nobody gets shot, the luster quickly fades. But at least for now on Lost, it’s solid and this scene in particular takes a nice spin on the formula. The audience knows more than the characters, and they just gave their only weapon to possibly the most dangerous person on the island.
Two, I forgot how stupid Boone was. Jack’s already sick of him and he’s incapable of thinking more than one second ahead. I have a feeling he’s not long for this world.
The next day, Kate returns and tells Jack what they heard on the transceiver. Then they both just start lying about stuff. Jack pretends he didn’t see Kate’s mugshot, and Kate pretends she’s not a fugitive. They’re made for each other. But hey, I don’t think Mars is going to be spilling any more secrets, unless they’re tucked away in his intestines.
Jack works his way through the fuselage to see if there’s any medicine in there. He runs into Sawyer who’s…how you say…new corpse lootin.’ Jack berates him for disrespecting the dead, and Sawyer…has a much stronger southern accent than he did in the first couple episodes (which I found out is true; he didn’t think that’s what the producers wanted for some reason).
But this is for nought. Mars ain’t gonna make it, and with his last few precious minutes of life, he attempts to do something selfless and noble: Throttle Kate for all he’s worth. And he almost chokes her unconscious before Jack pops into the tent and begrudgingly saves the day. This is where the truth comes out, though. Kate wants Jack to euthanize Mars, but Jack tells her that he saw her mugshot and he is “not a murderer.” Burn.
As it rains, Michael tells Walt he doesn’t want him hanging around creepy ole’ Locke anymore, but Walt insists he’s a friend. Michael tells Walt he’s his friend, and Walt says that a true friend would find Vincent for him. Michael tells him he’ll look for Vincent when it stops raining, and…it instantly stops raining. That was a beautiful bit of foreshadowing, right there.
Michael clomps into the woods all angry, but Walt did him a major favor by sending him on that errand, as he accidentally stumbles upon a bathing Sun in the jungle.
The Sungle.
(NOTE: WORKSHOP SUNGLE JOKE FOR FINAL DRAFT. NOT FUNNY. MAKES NO SENSE.)
Back in the tent, the Marshal is just begging for death at this point, so much so that the rest of the survivors can’t stand the screaming. Charlie tells Locke he used to be in a band. Locke whittles a whistle.
A whittsle.
(NOTE: NO NOTES. PERFECT JOKE.)
Alright, seriously. Someone needs to do something about the Marshal. Sawyer thanks Kate for taking the gun from him, because now she’s going to have to be the one to put Mars down. Mars tells Jack not to trust Kate and requests alone time with her. Hurley lets Jack know that Kate’s alone with Mars and has a gun. Jack shows up just in time to see Kate leaving and they both hear a gunshot come from the tent. The Marshal’s head has finally exploded. No wait, Sawyer shot him. Only he shot him in the chest and missed his heart. Jesus Christ has this dude suffered.
Okay, finally. After all this back-and-forth with the gun and whatnot, we get to the point of the entire exercise, which is that Jack is ultimately the one to put the Marshal out of his misery for good. He took the high ground with Kate hours earlier in proclaiming he wasn’t a murderer, but now has had to mercy kill Mars.
Sawyer, my dude. How did you miss his heart? Do you need glasses or something? Well…yes, actually. On set, Josh Holloway (Sawyer) didn’t buy that Sawyer’s character would miss a killshot to someone’s chest and the writers eventually agreed, coming up with a later story where Sawyer needs glasses.
The next day, Locke and his whittsle manage to rustle Vincent out of the Sungle.
(NOTE: TOO FUNNY. AUDIENCE WILL EXPECT THIS HEIGHTENED LEVEL OF QUALITY MOVING FORWARD. LOWER EXPECTATIONS AND COAST.)
Jack and Kate talk on the beach. She’s gonna tell him how she became a fugitive, but Jack doesn’t want to know anymore, because he’s a dumb, beefy baby and this love triangle is my least-favorite part of the entire series. Now that they’re all on the island, you see, everyone should be allowed to start over. Like how Jack’s starting over as Jack Kevorkian.
Smash cut, episode over…but we’re on Netflix, bay-bee! Next episode starts right now!
EPISODE 4: “WALKABOUT”
Flashback
Locke is…ugh. Poor Locke. This guy. “Walkabout” is a tremendous episode of television, a standout episode amongst a fantastic season.
On a show full of tragic backstories, John Locke might be the saddest sack in the burlap factory. He works in a cubicle in a fluorescent gray office. His 20-something manager chastises and belittles him at every turn. He plays Stratego during his lunch break. His girlfriend is actually a telephone escort. And just when he books the Australian walkabout trip of a lifetime, he’s shut down at the travel agency because he’s also very paralyzed. I mean, you can’t spell ‘walkabout’ without ‘walk,’ right?
After Flight 815 crashes, however, Locke wakes up on the island and has feeling in his legs. He can walk again. So are you gonna tell him that this place isn’t magic? Don’t tell him what he can’t do!
The reveal of Locke in the wheelchair is rather stunning considering how early we are in the series and how new some of these characters are to us. And it couldn’t have been anyone by Terry O’Quinn. This guy is Locke, forever and always.
On The Island
BOARS ARE EATING THE CORPSES. I REPEAT, BOARS ARE EATING THE CORPSES.
After a brief debate about the wishes of the dead, it’s decided that the bodies will be burned inside of the fuselage at sundown, providing closure, a decent signal fire, and hopefully quit attracting corpse-munchin’ boars. Have you ever seen one of those things? They’re so mean!
In the morning, Hurley and Sawyer are fighting over a can of peanuts, when it dawns on them that they are running out of food. Locke suggests hunting the boars, showing off a suitcase full of knives he had brought along for the walkabout. This is when everyone realizes that they (and we) have no idea who this guy is.
We also get into a ton of additional character exposition during this next act. To summarize: Claire seems upset that Jack doesn’t care to memorialize the dead, Michael and Kate are going out with an antenna that Sayid built to isolate the distress signal, Shannon tricks Charlie into catching a fish for her, Boone is worried about Rose, who hasn’t spoken to anyone since the crash, Walt lived with his mother until her death two weeks ago and he and Michael have had very little contact prior, and after being spooked by a boar, Locke accidentally calls Kate “Helen,” which is the name of his telephone escort.
This is…ironic? Coincidental? Serendipitous?
We’ll never know.
As Kate climbs a tree to attach Sayid’s antenna, the Smoke Monster starts buzzing and vaping about, causing her to drop the equipment. Smokie then makes a beeline for Locke, who stares right down the barrel of it.
After having a heart-to-heart chat with Rose, she and Jack make their way to the memorial. Jack comments that Rose could say something about her husband Bernard, but Rose is convinced he has somehow survived the crash. Okay, weirdo. Whatever.
Then…uh, Jack sees his dad. Maybe. Kind of. It’s a guy in a suit that looks like his dad off in the distance. When he gives him a second glance, he’s nowhere to be found. Classic Dad stuff, right? Just me?
Kate returns and informs Jack that Locke is likely dead, but he instead returns with a dead boar and a newfound connection to the island (and newly filled pants). Jack again sees the vision of his father, but again cannot catch up to him. Locke lies to Michael and insists that he didn’t have a confrontation with the Smoke Monster, as he watches his wheelchair burn during the memorial. Suck it, wheelchair!
Smash cut, episode over.
Come on, it’s only 1:45am! Just one more episode and then we’ll cuddle. Let’s go!
EPISODE 5: “WHITE RABBIT”
Flashback
Young Jack Shephard has gotten into a fight at school. While explaining this to his father later in the evening, Christian Shephard mixes a whiskey on the rocks and demonstrates some of the most piss-poor bedside manner ever exhibited by a medical professional or father.
Christian tells Jack that he is able to cope with the difficult job of being a surgeon because he "has what it takes." He claims that he can make life or death decisions daily because even when he fails, he can live with the consequences. He concludes that Jack should not "decide," because if he failed, he wouldn't "have what it takes."
Yeesh.
Years later as an adult, Jack is requested by his mother to retrieve Christian from one of his patented Australia benders. He doesn’t want to as their relationship is strained to say the least, but it seems like his relationship with his mother is no better. In Australia, Jack hears about Christian’s exploits from the hotel manager. Shortly thereafter, Jack’s identifying his father in a morgue. The mortician tells him that the body was found in an alley, with the cause of death being a fatal heart attack brought on by high blood alcohol levels. Jack identifies his pickled father and sobs.
With the objective now being to get his dead dad back to Los Angeles, Jack is pissed to discover that you cannot check a coffin on Oceanic Airlines. Jack argues with the woman at the airport, explaining that he needs the coffin to be allowed on board because he needs to bury his father so that it will “all be over.”
On The Island
Charlie wakes up Jack because a woman is drowning and Charlie cannot swim to rescue her (he can totally swim). Dumbass Boone has already tried (and failed) to save her, so Jack has to save him instead while the lady drowns. Great job, ya’ doofus.
Jack sees his dad in the jungle again. Kate is skeptical and asks Jack how long it has been since he slept. He says “none of your business, talking suitcase!” and walks into an open manhole.
The crew’s running low on fresh water, and it appears some of it has been stolen. Locke elects to go into the jungle to look for a source. Thanks, man.
Jack once again chases down the specter of his father, as the sound of the Smoke Monster looms closely. The chase culminates when Jack takes a run at Christian, falls down a hill and rolls off the side of a cliff. He tries to hoist himself up but is unable to do so. Locke appears and helps Jack get back on solid ground, where all Jack can do is to burst into laughter.
Jack and Locke discuss Jack's "hallucination," and Locke advises that he should pursue it, comparing it to the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Locke tells Jack to consider the possibility that everything happening on the island is happening for a reason. He then tells Jack, "I looked into the eye of the island, and what I saw... was beautiful," referring to his previous encounter with the Smoke Monster.
Later that night, Jack hears the sound of ice rattling in a whiskey glass, so naturally he springs into action (I would, too). He lights a torch and finds a cave with a spring of fresh water. He also finds what appears to be his father's coffin. Jack opens the coffin and finds it empty, then smashes it to bits in frustration.
Back at the beach, Boone gives water to Claire, and it’s revealed that he was the one who stole the water. A fight ensues, but Jack returns and interrupts with a speech, saying that he has found fresh water and that they must all band together if they are to survive, because "if we can't live together, we're going to die alone."
Smash cut, episode over. Still with me? Still hanging in there? Let’s BREAK IT DOWN!
“Tabula Rasa” - In rewatching, I’m again in awe as to how perfectly the producers laid their characters out and gave them all just the right time to breathe and speak in these first few episodes. You can’t introduce a full ensemble cast all at once, so laying breadcrumbs that lead into each character’s flashback episode is done, and done with absolute precision. For as much criticism as the show received in later seasons for pacing issues, Season 1 is a masterclass for setting the table for an Epic.
Locke, for example, is kept completely enigmatic through Episode 3, almost a silent background character. No backstory or lines other than his brief interaction with Walt (that we now know sets the theme for the entire rest of the series). Everyone gets their time to shine.
The immediate focus on Kate makes sense as they wanted to establish the Jack, Kate and eventually Sawyer love triangle as soon as possible, along with their respective pursuits to lead the survivors. However, I think that immediate focus on Kate is made more understandable knowing that Jack wasn’t initially supposed to survive the pilot episode.
I love the Michael/Walt scene in the rain. Walt wants Michael to look for Vincent. Michael says he will as soon as it starts raining. Walt gets pissed, looks outside, and the rain stops. An early, almost subliminal look into how special Walt was (and why he would be seen as valuable by those who inhabit the island). It’s almost played as a joke the first time through.
“Walkabout” - Such a good episode. Locke is just sadness personified, here. Like I said earlier, on a show full of people that have nothing good to go home to, Locke probably had the least of anyone. This episode also solidifies the importance of Lost’s flashback narrative.
One of the things you’ll hear most is the constant arguments between ABC and the Lost producers about how weird and mythological the show should be. ABC wanted to focus on Jack/Kate and make it an island mystery as well as a romantic drama. Damon Lindleof and Carlton Cuse had other plans, and it was happening from the jump. Jack is already hallucinating his dead father and Locke is looking this abstract creature in the eye and unparalyzing himself, and every viewer already knows that this island is not normal and has some sort of healing or redemptive quality.
I also read up on the “Walkabout Effect.” Lost fans usually point to this episode as the one that had them hooked for the remainder of the series. And for good reason. After a spectacular pilot, you need to develop spectacular characters, and Lost was already flexing one of the deepest benches ever. We don’t even find out what Claire’s name is until this episode.
“White Rabbit” - This is, for all intents and purposes, the first Jack-centric episode and first that focuses only on his flashbacks. I also believe that the shots of Christian Shepherd, standing full-suited in the water/jungle, are where the early Twin Peaks references started to permanently solidify. And this was still weeks before The Hatch.
Jack being haunted on the island by the sound of his father jingling the ice in his cocktail glass is…a special type of haunting for some of us. But hey, these are the sorts of daddy issues that produce great works of art (and “Say It Ain’t So”)!
“White Rabbit” also sets the table for the “Man of Science, Man of Faith” back-and-forth we’ll get from Jack and Locke for the remainder of the series. It also mirrors the conversations between ABC and Lindleof/Cuse, and perhaps the fanbase in general. What do you want Lost to be? Perfectly scientifically plausible, or a little oogie-boogie?
One last thing. The line “we’ll live together or we’ll die alone” spoken by Jack, is a lyric from the 1990 Billy Bragg track, 'The Internationale.’ Bragg rules.
Put your shoes on, honey; we’re almost at Grandma’s house. Let’s plow through THE NUMBERS and hit the bricks, shall we?
4 - “Tabula Rasa” was watched by 16.5 million viewers. “Walkabout” pulled an 18.0 and “White Rabbit” got a 16.8. For those keeping score at home.
8 - In the two scenes in “Walkabout,” Christian Shephard is not played by actor John Terry, who portrays him in all subsequent episodes. It’s just some dude!
15 - Speaking of “just some dude,” the man who plays the mortician in Australia is an actor named Geoff Heise. Geoff Heise also plays a Flight 815 survivor known to fans as “Gas Man,” as he yells “stay away from the gas!” after the crash. In a show chock-full of character connections, overlaps, Easter eggs and rabbit holes, this one seems to be…nothing. No connection has ever been made between the mortician and the Gas Man; the writers seemingly just used this one guy for both parts and assumed nobody would ever notice. They found out in short order just what sorts of fans they would be creating (and dealing with).
16 - While talking to Jack about going into the jungle, Kate says she isn't interested in hunting wild boar because she is a vegetarian. But in "Tabula Rasa," she’s eating bacon for breakfast at the farmer's house. I can’t with this woman’s lies. Bridge too far.
23 - "Tabula Rasa" is a Latin term that means "blank slate," a concept attributed to (the philosopher) John Locke regarding how he believed humans are born without built-in mental content, then filled through their life experiences. Said concept is echoed by the final line of the episode, where Jack suggests the crash made the survivors into blank slates that could start over.
42 - “White Rabbit” aired on October 20, 2004. Also on 10/20/04, the Boston Red Sox completed the reserve-sweep of the New York Yankees in the ALCS, becoming the first (and only) team in MLB history to come back from a 0–3 deficit in any playoff tournament. A week later, they won their first World Series since 1918. It was a wonderful day.
Thanks so much for reading; a reminder that Lost Summer will be back Monday with another back-to-back recap. Sound off in the comments and enjoy your weekend.