In the audacious ‘Every Man For Himself’, Lost thumbs its nose at the league of armchair theorists who think they’ve got the show figured out. It does this with one of the biggest revelations of the third season thus far: that Ben and his cohorts have their captives stowed away on another island, about twice the size of Alcatraz, overlooking the island that the Losties are on. In one of Lost’s most memorable shots ever, Ben and Sawyer are shown standing on a vantage point on island number two, overlooking the lush and mysterious terrain of the main island.
Why didn’t anyone consider the possibility of a second island, I wondered after this revelatory episode? I think that armchair theorists have become over-confident and blasé in their approach towards the show, convinced that the writers have lost the plot in a sea of disconnected mythologies. That these very same writers have come up with such an elegant and obvious idea as a ‘second island’ show they are still firmly in control of the mythology of Lost – and that we are probably in for more earth-shattering surprises.
The episode begins with Juliet bringing Jack food and water, when a panicked Ben barges in and says to her the sub has returned – but that there is a problem. Submarine? The Others have a bloody submarine? This revelation is delivered in the context of a burgeoning crisis in an almost offhand and casual manner. We are immediately galvanised. But little additional information is forthcoming, as the viewers are quickly drawn into the emotional drama of Lost. This is the true brilliance of the show: its combination of jaw-dropping shocks with quotidian moments.
Kate and Sawyer see several Others bringing back a wounded Colleen, shot by Sun when they attempted to hijack the Losties’ boat in ‘The Glass Ballerina’. Sawyer’s reaction is one of grim approval. His side has drawn first blood. What he doesn’t know is that Colleen had told Sun she would make enemies of the Others if she pulled the trigger. It is clear there is a serious misunderstanding on the part of the Losties, who are convinced the Others are the mythical ‘enemy’. But what if they have inadvertently stumbled into an even bigger battle for survival, one in which the fate of the world is at stake?
Sawyer hatches a plan to electrocute any minder who wanders too close to his cage by short-circuiting the automated feeding mechanism. Either that or he is thoroughly sick of the taste of fish biscuits. The first Other to wander into his trap is Ben … who tells Sawyer the electricity supply to the cage had been cut. He then beats Sawyer unconscious with a telescopic baton, as well as kicking him for good measure.
This unprovoked savagery sits uneasy with viewers, who have long regarded Ben with suspicious distrust. He seems both uncontrolled and yet too tightly sprung, abrim with secret knowledge and dark intentions. Just who is Ben? What does he know? And whose side is he on?
A distraught Juliet asks Jack to help her save Colleen’s life, but she goes into cardiac arrest on the operating table … and the crash cart isn’t working. So the Others are not as set up with the amenities of civilisation as we think they are. After Juliet escorts Jack back to where he is being held captive, he asks her about the X-rays he had seen on the wall: they are from a 40-year-old man with a spinal tumour. Jack’s speciality. Has he been brought to the second island to save someone’s life? And the bigger question: could the entire plane crash have been engineered by the Others to obtain the services of a spinal surgeon like Jack?
After examining her cage minutely, Kate figures out she can squeeze through several wider-spaced bars at the top. She succeeds, and attempts to smash the lock on Sawyer’s cage. He tells her that, if she truly loves him, she’ll flee. She replies that she had only said that to stop the Others beating up on Sawyer … and returns to her cage. “Live together, die alone” she responds to Sawyer’s equally cryptic “every man for himself”. Did Kate refuse to escape at this point because she didn’t want to validate Sawyer’s view of her feelings for him?
Little do both know that Ben has both cages under camera surveillance. And what Kate herself does not know is that Sawyer has been implanted with a pacemaker that will cause his heart to explode if his heart rate exceeds a preset level … and that the same treatment will be meted out to Kate if he tells her about it. Obfuscation, lies and general murkiness … Lost veritably seethes with a cauldron of damaged characters being pushed to the edge. And what comes to the fore does not always show the human race in its best light.
Except, perhaps, for Ben. Obviously his appallingly unpremeditated attack on Sawyer was due to the death of Colleen. And Sawyer was a representative of the Losties, as much as Ben represented the Others, so he got the short end of Ben’s anger. Ben takes Sawyer for a walk, and tells him several things: that there was no pacemaker. All that had been implanted in him was doubt.
And that they were on a second island.
Comments
Only TVSA members can reply to this thread. Click here to login or register.