Lost - A Tale of Two Cities
*** / ****
I have to admit that I’m glad the show finally addressed
(and hopefully concluded) Jack’s back story involving his angst-ridden divorce
with Sarah and his obsessive quest to learn of her lover. This suffering Jack
goes through is tough to watch. Especially tough is how Jack’s obsession ruins
the sobriety of his father. His father tries to stir him away from contesting
the divorce and pushing too hard against Sarah for the name of the man she
loves. No matter how Jack makes it all continually worse, he can’t seem to let
it go. When Jack follows his father to an AA meeting and tackles him (!),
eventually getting put in jail, the complete descent is finalized, with Sarah
having to bail him out. It’s over, and Jack had to move on somehow. When Sarah
tells him at least he has someone to fix (the father), all I could do was go, “Ouch.”
In this opening episode of the third season, A Tale of
Two Cities, Jack has reached the bottom, it seems, on the island. Held
prisoner in this chamber (later to be learned UNDERWATER in the Dharma Initiative
station, The Hydra), Jack’s only visitor is a lovely blond with a kind face
named Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell; I thought she was superb in “Gia”) who offers
him food. Jack is too stubborn to just give in and accept her “gift”, believing
that the Others are testing him. And because Jack has a major problem with the
Others, just taking Juliet’s offering would be, in his mind, a sign of
weakness. Jack doesn’t want to appear easy prey. Of course, I think anyone
would break after a while, including the embittered Jack. Much like when he
eventually lets go of Sarah, after an escape attempt where he tricks Juliet
into thinking he’s compliant, Jack turns a wheel and lets in rushing water
nearly drowning him. While Juliet tries to secure Jack’s trust, Henry looks on
like a Principle surveying one of his teachers. At the very end, finally, Henry’s
real name is revealed thanks to Juliet…Ben. FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
While Jack and Juliet get acquainted, or go through their
back and forth, Kate is told by Tom (“You’re not my type.”) to shower, later
learning her clothes were burned by Ben. Kate is stuck in a dress, handcuffed
to a table and offered a breakfast from Ben. Then she’s told that for two weeks
life will be hard. While Kate gets at least some decent treatment, poor Sawyer
is stuck in a filthy cage and tasked with figuring out the trick of getting
food through the efforts of pulling down a handle and pressing a button somehow
despite the distance between them. So Sawyer has to get clever, and to his
credit does, by finding a big rock for the foot pedal, using a handle to reach
the lever, and pressing the button. What does he get for all of this? A fish
cookie and some dog food! When Tom locks up Kate in a cell, he mocks Sawyer,
telling him bears were able to figure out the food trick faster! Sawyer throws
the fish cookie to Kate as she looks on exasperated.
This is what Jack, Kate, and Sawyer go through during the
first episode of the third season. I cop to weeping a bit at the end of the
episode for Jack. He’s in an aquarium behind a glass window starving himself
while Juliet looks at him on the other side. He’s thinking back to his divorce
and failed marriage. Jack endures the mistakes made with his deceased father.
He’s separated from his camp, the Oceanic survivors. He’s a spinal surgeon who
was on his way back from Sydney to LA. His father was an alcoholic. His father
is dead. His marriage is dead. He’s on an island, has seen death and violence.
And now he’s caged and dehydrated. I couldn’t help but just look at him on the
screen, Jack in such woe. Life can have a hard fall. Finally Jack relents and
accepts Juliet’s food. At this point, he doesn’t have much else.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Being such a fan of Creature from the Black Lagoon
(1954), seeing Julie Adams as a member of the Others literally floored me! She
didn’t have a lot to do in the first episode, mind you, but I can’t wait to see
her some more.
_______________________________________________________________________
The opening sequence where we see a neighborhood book club
assembled in Juliet’s home, the sound of the Oceanic in the sky above them as
it tears apart in lieu of crashing, and the camera distancing to reveal the
Others’ community within a small part of the incredibly vast island is a
knockout. A hell of a way to kickstart the start of the third season!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And Ben preparing Kate for what lies ahead after explaining
to her why she was allowed a shower, breakfast, and dress (to feel “civilized
again”), I found chilling. It was as if a jailbird receives a fine supper
before her trip into the Big House for an extended time. It was Emerson’s
delivery, the way he uses a soft vocal tenor and lets off this false sense of
security then with one sentence sticks the sharp blade in under the table. Kate,
much like Jack and Sawyer, still holds great disgust for Ben and the Others.
Will they be able to escape and get back to their own camp? Or is this their
new reality?
______________________________________________________________________
I made it to #50!!!!!!! Has it really been 50 episodes for me?! Wow. Elizabeth Mitchell has the kind of comforting face and voice, I can see why her Juliet would be entrusted by Ben to secure the faith of prisoners. When Juliet punches Jack unconscious when he floods a hall in The Hydra, pulling him to safety, not losing her composure, is perhaps my favorite scene in the episode. It proves she can think fast during crisis and respond without breaking. It is damned impressive. When Ben compliments her on a job well done when Jack complies and accepts her food (Juliet has Jack's supposed history in a file, offering to tell him what he'd like to know), Juliet holds a fixed expression that doesn't smile or acknowledge his bravo. It is all professional. Just a great piece of episodic acting all the way through.
Comments
Post a Comment