Lost - The Other 48 Days
***/****
"Do you really think one of us is...one of them?" - Libby
"Why do you think I'm digging this hole?" - Ana
I couldn’t help but be overwhelmingly amused as the episode,
The Other 48 Days, continued because it took
42 minutes to cover the same amount of time with one group while a season and
six episodes to get to the point of the first group of survivors we have been
following. I think it is more than safe to say that The
Other 48 Days is the Michelle Rodriguez show. While I totally could see
myself following Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mr Eko) for however long Lost would let me, even he must yield
to the almighty Rodriguez while she takes command of her diminishing bunch,
falling victim to the “others” as they deplete her “tail section” passengers by
coming out of the woods to snatch them into the jungle to wherever they choose
to take them.
When Rodriguez’ Ana Lucia is able to kill one of the others during a night raid, she finds a list and a 20 year old US Army knife with certain names, chosen specifically for some reason. Ana determines that one among her camp is a spy for the others, believing perhaps it is a suspicious Nathan (Josh Randall) who disappeared into the woods for two hours, supposedly to take a leak. I think most folks won’t fall for that trick (red herring all the way screamed aloud in my head), or didn’t when it ran in 2005.
Brett Cullen, like Randall, is a recognizable television actor you will say to yourself, “Hey, I know him!” Cullen’s Goodwin draws an immediate question mark, much like Randall, for he isn’t with Ana, Mr. Eko, Bernard (Sam Anderson), Libby (Cynthia Watros), and Cindy (Kimberley Joseph, never quite developed beyond some dialogue scenes) in the previous “goodbye episode” (for Shannon), Abandoned. So either he would be a victim or a member of the others. Considering Goodwin is a character with significant focus (he tells Ana he was once with the Peace Corps as he attempts to start a fire) as he and Ana spend most of the episode associated with each other in terms of what to do to remain safe, until the “big reveal” pits them against each other. The stick impalement, although carefully avoiding a TV-MA stylized demise, is still quite shocking, as is the camp hearing men struggle one late evening as Mr. Eko is found bloodied in victory over two of the others from the jungle.
The others found are in rags, quite dirty, without shoes. They are never defined, though, besides what little Goodwin gives us. Nathan wasn’t taken because he wasn’t “a good man”, but the kids are “just fine”. Ana telling a little girl she rescues from a drowning death she promises to see her back with her mom in LA is the Walking Dead tell that it wouldn’t be a promise kept. It is a good mystery Lost continues to keep from us: who are these others and where are they taking Ana’s people?
While Mr. Eko goes through what I can only describe as a vow of silence for 40 days, Ana ruggedly powers through the loss of those from her camp, keeping those still in her camp from breaking down, find some type of safe shelter, be careful and skeptical of anybody new just in case they are spies also (nice way for this episode to correlate with her and Mr. Eko’s behavior in Abandoned), keep themselves fed and sane, and hold on to her own sense of courage and strength.
Again, this is the Rodriguez show. She damn well can hold her own, too. Too often Rodriguez, in film, has been relegated to sidekick status (Resident Evil, the Fast/Furious films, and Blue Crush such examples), so getting some shine as the lead in this show (for at least this episode, anyway) is at least something. Her tears when alone near a rocky stream as Mr. Eko encourages Ana to just let it out finally sees the character momentarily let slip that vulnerability she hides behind a layer of tough badass. Ana was going to have to eventually…there is only so much anyone can take before the cracks in the solid structure show.
When Rodriguez’ Ana Lucia is able to kill one of the others during a night raid, she finds a list and a 20 year old US Army knife with certain names, chosen specifically for some reason. Ana determines that one among her camp is a spy for the others, believing perhaps it is a suspicious Nathan (Josh Randall) who disappeared into the woods for two hours, supposedly to take a leak. I think most folks won’t fall for that trick (red herring all the way screamed aloud in my head), or didn’t when it ran in 2005.
Brett Cullen, like Randall, is a recognizable television actor you will say to yourself, “Hey, I know him!” Cullen’s Goodwin draws an immediate question mark, much like Randall, for he isn’t with Ana, Mr. Eko, Bernard (Sam Anderson), Libby (Cynthia Watros), and Cindy (Kimberley Joseph, never quite developed beyond some dialogue scenes) in the previous “goodbye episode” (for Shannon), Abandoned. So either he would be a victim or a member of the others. Considering Goodwin is a character with significant focus (he tells Ana he was once with the Peace Corps as he attempts to start a fire) as he and Ana spend most of the episode associated with each other in terms of what to do to remain safe, until the “big reveal” pits them against each other. The stick impalement, although carefully avoiding a TV-MA stylized demise, is still quite shocking, as is the camp hearing men struggle one late evening as Mr. Eko is found bloodied in victory over two of the others from the jungle.
The others found are in rags, quite dirty, without shoes. They are never defined, though, besides what little Goodwin gives us. Nathan wasn’t taken because he wasn’t “a good man”, but the kids are “just fine”. Ana telling a little girl she rescues from a drowning death she promises to see her back with her mom in LA is the Walking Dead tell that it wouldn’t be a promise kept. It is a good mystery Lost continues to keep from us: who are these others and where are they taking Ana’s people?
While Mr. Eko goes through what I can only describe as a vow of silence for 40 days, Ana ruggedly powers through the loss of those from her camp, keeping those still in her camp from breaking down, find some type of safe shelter, be careful and skeptical of anybody new just in case they are spies also (nice way for this episode to correlate with her and Mr. Eko’s behavior in Abandoned), keep themselves fed and sane, and hold on to her own sense of courage and strength.
Again, this is the Rodriguez show. She damn well can hold her own, too. Too often Rodriguez, in film, has been relegated to sidekick status (Resident Evil, the Fast/Furious films, and Blue Crush such examples), so getting some shine as the lead in this show (for at least this episode, anyway) is at least something. Her tears when alone near a rocky stream as Mr. Eko encourages Ana to just let it out finally sees the character momentarily let slip that vulnerability she hides behind a layer of tough badass. Ana was going to have to eventually…there is only so much anyone can take before the cracks in the solid structure show.
*The opening when we see a wind breeze calmly moving through the leaves of a tree on the beach, so picturesque and idyllic, as the tail of the plane and passengers from it fall out of the sky, is incredible.
*The chaos ensuing out of the wreckage, including Bernard in his seat up in a tree as Ana must talk him into grabbing a branch while Goodwin tries to convince her to climb up to get him, is pure disaster movie gold.
*The use of a knife as a key device of suspense between Ana and Goodwin and how Ana calls him out way back to Bernard in the tree is my favorite scene in the episode.
*The use of "Day 1", "Day 22", "Day 38" to speed through the 48 days is perhaps my lone complaint from the episode. How the episode ties the events featuring Jin-Soo, Michael, and Sawyer through fades to black and ominous music is rather neat.
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