|
 |
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
GET
A weekly commentary of the television showby Carlos R Savournin
2-23 / 2-24: Live Together, Die Alone (Parts 1 & 2)
*This commentary contains spoilers. Do not read if you have not seen the above mentioned episode.*
We’ve got a lot to cover here, people, so let’s get right to it.
The episode started right where the last one left off; a sail boat drifting ashore with none other than the long-lost Desmond. Drunk and disoriented, he is brought ashore, and so begins Lost’s second season finale which promised many answers, and shockingly, provided them. We now know (or can at least theorize) why Oceanic flight 815 crashed on the mysterious island. We also know that the button did, indeed, need to be pushed every 108 minutes. With as many questions as the episode answered however, so many more were conjured.
This time around, Desmond’s back story told of his days before and after landing on the island. To spite his girlfriend’s father, philanthropist Mr. Widmore, who tried to pay him off as a bribe to stay away from his daughter, Desmond would try to win a race that Widmore created; a race around the world. After a chance encounter with Libby in a coffee shop, Libby donates a sail boat to Desmond’s cause – a boat she claims belonged to her dead husband (it’s amazing that she’s dead and we’re still finding out stuff. Her real name is Elizabeth? She was married? Her husband’s dead? Is that why she ended up in the institution?). Overlapping flashbacks show Desmond preparing for a training run in the stadium, and as Jack arrives in the background, Desmond’s love, Penelope, appears. A very heart breaking and touching moment reveals that Penelope is close to marrying another man, but she still truly loves Desmond. When questioned how she managed to find Desmond, her answer was “When you have money and determination, you can find anyone” – something that will play even larger in truth at the end of the episode. They part ways, and it’s the last time the two see each other outside of pictures and dreams.
When the Elizabeth (Libby’s boat) crashed ashore on the mysterious island, we’re finally introduced to Kelvin Inman, the man Desmond spoke of at the beginning of the season. Kelvin, however, bears a striking resemblance to the man who assisted Sayid during the interrogation of his commanding officer, Traiq, during the Gulf War in the episode One of Them. Only that man’s name was not Kelvin Inman – it was Joe Inman. A Bad Twin perhaps?
Kelvin takes an unconscious Desmond to the hatch then asks him the same questions Desmond would ask Locke years
later; “Are you Him?” A confused Desmond admits he has no idea what Kelvin is talking about, to which Kelvin responds, “What does one snowman say to the other?” (With questions like that, who would want to stay in the hatch with him?) After Kelvin befriends Desmond, the two live for three years in the hatch, pushing the button. Kelvin trains his new apprentice on drawing secret maps, pushing buttons and even shows him the System Termination switch. And when Desmond realizes his trusted friend is nothing more than a liar – a man looking for a way off the island with Desmond’s boat, the two scuffle on the beach shore and the key to the System Termination ends up in the hands of Desmond. Only, by the time he returns to the hatch, the counter is long past 0, and a mini-earthquake is taking place inside the hatch. Barely able to contain his composure, Desmond punches in the numbers and everything is back to normal.
Which brings the first of many questions one should ask about this episode. If Desmond saw what happens when the counter went to 0, why would he join Locke in his quest to let the timer go to see if anything does happen?
An obviously psychotic Locke uses Desmond’s help to lock Mr. Ecko in the living quarters of the hatch using the blast doors and for 90 minutes, Locke and Desmond do nothing but watch the timer slowly tick down toward the inevitable end. It’s only when Locke tells Desmond of the other hatch, The Pearl, that Desmond asks a brilliant question, “What if you've got it backwards?" suggesting that the Pearl observers could be the experiment and not the residents of the hatch they’re in. He received all the confirmation he needed when Locke handed him the printout listing the failure like the one that happened when Desmond was off killing Kelvin. It occurred on September 22 – the same day Flight 815 crashed on the island. Convinced he was the cause of the plane crash, Desmond tried to push the button himself, but an overly upset John destroyed the computer and it was all too late.
Another question that was raised; how the heck did Ecko manage his way out of the hatch after being locked in? He
escapes and begs Charlie for help insisting that in 90 minutes, everyone on the island will die if he didn’t (that would get anyone to help). The two retrieve the dynamite sticks to blow their way back into the hatch failing to realize the tunnel their in provides the perfect vortex for a the explosive fireball that followed once the dynamite was triggered. Both were knocked out (dumbasses). More on them later.
On the other side of the island, Michael leads Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley through the jungle in search of the Others. While Sayid is “scoping” out their camp and finds that it was all a set up – empty tents, a fake hatch, etc – Jack manages to get the truth out of Michael. When he confesses to killing Ana Lucia and Libby, his friends (especially Hurley) turn a bad eye toward him, but then when they realize Jack knew of the “trap”, tensions mounted. One by one, they are shot with seizure educing darts and they awake to find themselves bound and gagged at the hands of Zeke, Ms. Clue, (which we find out are named Tom and Dee respectively) and none other than Henry Gale himself – all dressed in “hillbilly” attire. Couple things happened here; 1) we know that Henry Gale is in charge, perhaps the “He” the Others refer to, and 2) they keep their word. Michael is commended for a job well done, is allowed use of their boat and inside, his son Walt awaits him. But at the risk of everyone else? He’s given coordinates to find “salvation” but something tells me they won’t make it. Henry Gale tells Michael that his group, the Others, are the good guys and one can only speculate what he means by that exactly. Are they rebels who once worked for Dharma and have been outcast from the proceedings of the island? It’s just one of the many questions posed in this season finale.
The Others release Hurley and Dee tells him his mission is to go back to the camp and tell everyone not to interfere anymore. Leaving his friends to be bagged, Hurley leaves them behind at the approval of Jack and like last season’s closer, the kidnapping will go into next season. One can only hope it doesn’t become the main focus of season 3.
Back in the hatch, Desmond remembers a moment of loss – a moment where his world would end because his partner was dead and he was left alone to punch numbers in the computer. But salvation came in the form of Locke; a moment Locke, himself was lost because of Boone’s death. Desmond heard Locke’s banging on the hatch door, his cries to the heavens for help, and only then did Desmond realize he would be saved after all. And in his regard, he felt he was saved by Locke so that one day, he could save Locke. As the counter hit 0 and as the hatch began to transform into an electromagnetic force itself, Desmond makes his way into the crawl space to hit the System Termination switch. While Ecko and Charlie try to make their way out, an explosive force fills the island. They sky turns violet. A deafening sound fills the air. The hatch counter has reached its end and finally, we see what happens – a cataclysmic explosion that the entire island, from the Others to Sayid, Jin and Sun on a boat can hear and see proving Locke said the understatement of the year: “I was wrong.”
But then it subsides and strangely, everyone returns to their business. Aside from a bit of debris that falls from the sky, no one seems to notice or makes mention of the explosion…
…as though it never happened.
Charlie appears from nowhere, alone. When asked where Locke and Ecko are, he simply shrugs. Later, he tells Claire that nothing happened in the hatch. Um, excuse me? Nothing? Are you friggin kidding me?
And finally, the closing scene leaves more questions that the entire episode produced. Two men, seemingly in the Antarctic and speaking Portuguese, are playing a board game when a light begins to flicker. A monitor reads Electromagnetic Activity and they begin to scramble for the phone.
In a darkened bedroom, a phone rings. A light is turned on and Penelope answers. “I think we found it,” the men tell her and the screen goes black until next season.
Penelope told Desmond that money and determination will find anyone. Was it just those two elements or does her father, the philanthropist Mr. Widmore, have some funds in Dharma that would lead her to look for the electromagnetic activity? We’ll have to wait until next season to find out.
The episode was, by far, the most intense this season and aside from giving us answers to why the plane crashed and what happens to the island if the button wasn’t hit, it provided an answer to the most mysterious question of all: What does one snowman say to another?
“It smells like carrots.”
Until next season, namaste and get LOST.
TO DISCUSS "LOST" IN OUR FORUM CLICK HERE
Return to the Hatch here
© Savournin, 2006
All pictures are property of ABC Television and the Walt Disney Company
