Lost - S.O.S

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The powerful twist of Rose’s health is the big twist for this episode, although the “return” of Michael (looking mighty worse for wear) at the end would indeed be considered a “double whammy”. With the time past, there’s a lot of untold story Lost Creative could unveil to us as they seen fit regarding what happened with Michael while with the Others. While Jack is fed up with Henry’s fasting and silence in the hatch, deciding to go to the place where Gainey’s character had told him to not cross in order to coordinate a trade, requesting Kate to tag along with him, Bernard attempts to stir up a potential beachwide SOS communication to possible planes and/or satellites from overhead, with a black, lava rock assemblage used from inside the jungle. But Bernard’s methods are a bit tiresome to the camp as he has a way of getting on the nerves with his demands. Eventually he’s the only one left pulling rocks from the jungle and trying to fill in just the first letter, S. Bernard’s whole motivation is to get Rose off the island, although she has every reason to want to stay.

How Rose and Bernard wound up in Australia to see a “faith healer” feeds into the how the island benefits them both. When they meet, it is Rose’s car being stuck in the snow and Bernard guiding her out of it. They agree to a drink, with them soon dining and a proposal. Bernard, a bachelor for 56 years, wants Rose to be his wife. She has to tell him something important: she was in remission and the cancer returned. So she might have a year. Bernard, desperate to try anything, brings Rose to the Outback to visit the healer. The healer, though, goes to try to use the “energies that exist in certain places like where he is located” and realizes Rose can’t be helped by him. Another place, perhaps, had the healing Rose needed, right? 

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Lost can really dazzle you with how it can tie characters together in revelatory ways and give us a recall way back to the first season. Locke’s behavior when everyone finds themselves crashed on the island, not as disturbed or seemingly distraught (remember the orange in his mouth during a smile?) to be there as others, was a bit puzzling. While others were out of their gourd and freaking out, Locke was almost serene and in a place of damn near exhilaration. Later it was learned he could walk…before the island he no longer could. He was in a wheel chair. In just a previous episode, with a wounded leg, Kate offered him the wheelchair “found within the wreckage of the plane”, and Locke abjectly refused. No way was he going back in that wheelchair. He knew from personal experience that something about the island was special and it allowed him to walk. Because ABC was dedicated to Lost, storytelling for the characters could continue with new additional wrinkles added to characters by the Creative team during the show’s entire, allowed run. Rose is sitting on a beach seemingly lost in a delirium yet seemingly completely in control of her mental faculties, not the least bit worried that her husband, Bernard, was alive. There was this peace on her face, an almost spiritual quality about her own demeanor and stoic aloofness to all that was going on after the crash and emergence on the island. Why was she nearly similar to Locke in regards to her ambivalence towards “the horrors of landing on a deserted island”? During Rose’s stay on the island, she has been an on-again/off-again character, but when featured in stories she has significant dramatic purpose. She’s often a character others can feel comfortable around, a particular sounding board, and even a type of situational advisor. When others often function hot and cold, Rose remains even keel and held together. In the episode, S.O.S, Lost finally put forth the back story of Rose and Bernard which I was quite excited about because I particularly love the character of Rose. While Rose is not a “principle” part of the cast (as well as Bernard), the actors (Caldwell and Anderson) could appear and disappear from the show far more easily than Jack, Locke, or Kate.

In my favorite scene in the entire episode, Locke is sitting alone looking out into the ocean when Rose takes a seat next to him. Locke’s bum leg, along with not being able to remember the neon map on the wall he’s been trying to pin down on paper, has been sticking in his craw. And Henry’s being a dick not telling him anything. In fact, Henry is shown grinning devilishly about it, the bastard. Henry has information and much more, so he seems to possibly have leverage. But he’s still in the cell, this time choosing not to eat, and will only tell Jack that they will not get Walt. Come to think of it, Walt’s been gone a damn long time in this season. Perhaps Michael will be able to shed a bit of light on Walt, but Henry clearly knows a lot as well. Walt’s a “special boy”. Locke and Rose talk about his leg perhaps not healing for weeks but she looks over at him and tells him he knows very well it won’t take that long. The look Caldwell gives off is perfect because it is that expression of knowing a secret they both are aware of. Then the flashback reveals that Locke and Rose met at the airport before boarding the Oceanic. A pill bottle dropped by Rose, picked up by Locke…while in his wheelchair. Yes, the two both know what the island can do, as Locke has his legs and Rose found that the cancer she could feel inside her was gone. With Locke back in the bunker, the map kind of begins to clarify as he grins while pinning it to another piece of paper, a montage shows different couples affectionate with each other, Claire with her baby, Jin with Sun, and Bernard with Rose. Bernard learns from Rose that the faith healer didn’t take care of her cancer, that she had lied to him about that so he would quit trying to find a solution (as he always does). Rose must not leave the island, her cancer is gone and could return if she does. So Bernard realizes he can’t. Their love is what makes this episode quite special…like Walt, a very special boy, their love is very special, too. Anderson and Caldwell’s acting is so good, with such depth, the episode so benefits from their work. Particularly, Anderson’s eyes, how they can fill up and give you plenty of emotion. And Bernard goes through a lot. Fear, frustration, desperation, hurt, pure love, exhaustion, and determination. Many of the characters look weary and a bit worn, but few look at rough as Bernard. When Rose calls him “a dentist” during his motivational speech to the camp, he looks so defeated. When trying to recruit Sawyer (I laughed at the attempt), and then Eko and Charlie, Bernard takes his lumps over and over until he’s left pulling his own rocks.