Lost - Man of Science, Man of Faith

Sarah (Julie Bowen) tries to comfort Jack in the flashbacks to his wedding day (in the first season episode, “Do No Harm”), more than thankful for what he did for her as seen in Man of Science, Man of Faith, the first episode of the second season. Trying to “fix her” after a serious car crash (killing the man in the other vehicle), Jack isn’t so sure he can repair her back as it was crushed in the accident. He’s not optimistic. 

His bedside manner is criticized by Hurley during a conversation about the “cursed numbers”. Hurley does feel that Jack would consider him crazy for his theory on the numbers (located on the hatch), revealing that he had spent some time in a psych ward (where a patient repeated the sequence to him, harkening back to “Numbers”), and Jack hangs on just that, not his emphasis on all the events that resulted after winning the lottery. It does remind Jack of what his father told him after a rather icy “too honest” response to Sarah’s question to him about her condition and if she’d be able to “dance at her wedding” (Anson Mount was her fiancé before the accident and Jack’s telling him that paralysis would be in their future he isn’t so keen to hang around…)…perhaps hope, even if false, offered to patients in need of something positive is better than the cold, hard truth before surgery. Jack uses that advice for the island.

A chance encounter with a guy planning to “race across the world” while running up steps at a stadium results in a conversation. Jack admits he’s intense, trying to exercise his time with the surgery weighing on his mind. He did what he could, considering the damage, not particularly convinced he was able to truly help Sarah. This guy he meets, Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), has good vibes. He tries to give Jack similar sage advice as Christian (John Terry), Jack’s father. You can see that believing in miracles isn’t exactly something Jack would consider. He is just a bit too practical. But Man of Science, Man of Faith certainly offers a convenient introduction and repeat encounter that calls into question fate. Desmond isn’t just some character that shows up for a big distinctive dialogue spot with Jack and that’s it. This is Lost, you know.

 

Desmond, along with Christian, dislodges Jack from such pragmatic thinking. Being realistic is understandable, especially if you are a brilliant doctor repairing the body and seeing how healing and surgical practice works every day. Jack needed to be shaken from such pragmatism…he needed to see a body respond to surgery when it shouldn’t. Sarah moving the lower half of her body, wiggling her toes, feeling a pin stick her legs. When we see that Desmond is the unrevealed character in the underground structure under the island where the hatch leads to later, it puts the button on his appearance earlier in the episode as Jack competes with him, running up the stairs of the stadium, twisting his ankle. Desmond just grins confidently at Jack’s ankle twist, realizing the doctor never had a prayer keeping up with him in the race up the stairs. He does take the time to talk to him and comfortably ease Jack somewhat considering his troubled mind and soul.

The hatch is obviously Locke’s obsessive quest. Hurley takes him to task for blowing the hatch, but Locke doesn’t see why they wouldn’t. Jack pretty much orders Locke to return with him and Kate back to the camp although it is clear that a trip down the tunnel from where the hatch once hinged is imminent. Locke is going to see where this tunnel leads….regardless of what Jack wants. Kate is also interested in the tunnel and where it leads. Cable from the plane can be used (and will be used) to climb down the tunnel, and Kate is chosen to be the first to descend into it as Locke serves as her help above ground. Light beams out from a connecting hole which will lead to a living quarters…the living quarters of Desmond who has somehow found himself on the island! Jack and Desmond locking eyes certainly provides a dramatic cliffhanger that could only have provided many questions emerging during the show’s initial run. Desmond holding a gun on Locke, Kate nowhere to be found, and Jack realizing he is the very man that conversed with him about believing in miracles…who’d have thunk it?!

• Some very intriguing subplots offered within Man of Science, Man of Faith has Shannon still quite shaken up. Losing Walt’s dog, Vincent, really sets Shannon on edge. Going into the jungle to find it, Sayid follows her, trying as he might to keep her calm, this drive to keep Vincent close to her is what she holds onto due to this echo from Boone about not being able to do anything right. Always failing at everything, if Shannon can just make sure she keeps the dog safe perhaps she can be successful at one thing in life. Sayid is tasked with trying to keep her from falling apart. Shannon and Charlie lock horns on the “others” and her seeing a wet Walt in the jungle while searching for Vincent. Shannon insists to Sayid that she saw Walt and won’t back down no matter what anybody says. Walt tells Shannon not to say anything, just holding finger to lips, followed by, “Shhh.” What is this about? Charlie just poo-poos the whole idea of “others” and considers Rousseau just a nutcase with screws loose. We know better, though. And Jack uses the advice from his past to bring the camp to ease by giving them hope that everything would be okay. Jack lets them all know that together the camp will be alright. Jack takes the “bad bedside manner” to heart and tries to instead apply some hope when speaking to his party of survivors needing to believe in the bill of goods being sold to them. Kate gives Jack the encouragement he needs. Eventually all three will know where the hatch (which had QUARANTINE on the other side!) leads and perhaps Desmond will give them details on just how he ended up on the island. And the song by the Mamas and Papas hauntingly serving as a montage for Desmond at the beginning and the camera leading all the way to the front of where the hatch once hinged really kicks off the second season with one hell of a hook!