Lost - Two for the Road

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I must admit that Ana has never quite secured my affection but I thought she was sexy and tough (and not altogether a pariah despite how she had been treated a lot of the time) just the same. Two for the Road does try to give her a nice sendoff, though. It also ties her neatly to Jack’s father in Sydney (she’s his “security” but that ends badly), and the car she is in even *brushes* Sawyer (although their eyes never meet). Leaving behind her cop career after killing that punk that shot her, not all that fond of being airport security, Ana saw fit to follow Jack’s father (not knowing he was Jack’s father) as a “runaway option”. When Jack was begging for his father’s casket to be carried on the plane, Ana was there in line, and through his ache she was encouraged to get a plane ride back home to LA as her mom waits. Her mom will never see her daughter again. That cosmic twist decided against Ana. But before her death, Ana decided against shooting Henry. Who would think doing the right thing would end up being the catalyst in her demise? The island takes as it gives, for sure.

*Ana and Sawyer scuffling into a sexual encounter (so Ana could snatch his gun ultimately) near a creek just left me taken aback. It was one of those primal sort of encounters that could only happen in the heat of an aggressive roll-around on the ground.

I guess it isn’t coincidence that Hurley would talk with Sayid about a picnic with Libby. Such a romantic gesture. Sayid mentions a beach spot he picked for Shannon that might be ideal. Hurley can’t locate it although Libby isn’t disappointed in him. She plans to go get some blankets since Hurley forgot to get them for the picnic. Libby goes back to the bunker and is shot by Michael. Just like Sayid, Hurley has lost a potential love to violence. How the island works, I guess. Michael was there when Ana accidentally kills Shannon, and Michael is the shooter that kills both Ana and Libby. It all circles around, I reckon.
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There comes that point in a series when a principle character commits an act so terrible and unexpected it sets in such a total shock that nonetheless has a purpose and reasoning behind it. Despite the heinous results—two people dead, shot by a gun—there is an obvious point behind it.

The island has been this vast landscape occupied by different groups. The Others, seemingly led by Gainey, supposedly took the “good ones” from the tail section of the plane involving Ana, Bernard, Eko, and Libby. The remainder of the Oceanic survivors, led seemingly by Jack and Locke, has occupied their own piece of property on the island as well. Rousseau talked about lost scientists, herself left alone to function on her own in the woods. As time has continued, casualties have accrued, paranoia has set in, accidents have taken lives, along with mistrust, betrayal, torture, posturing, bickering, and thievery resulting from all the madness. Folks have been taken, folks have been killed, and those on both sides seem to be in this endless struggle where the Others appear to always hold all the cards while the Oceanic continues to suffer dwindling numbers.

Michael has been absent from the show throughout the mid second season. He went looking for Walt. Where was he? He tells Locke, Jack, and Kate that he found the Others but they were simple-minded, dressed in rags, living off the land, staying in huts and teepees. Now Kate considered the Others sophisticated when telling Jack about the costume disguise gear she found in the locker in the medical bunker, so her reaction to Michael’s news was rightfully confused. This could have been the tell-tale sign that something was wrong. But it was Michael, right? Michael, the father out there in those woods looking for his boy, would have no reason to lie to those who he had lived and survived with before that raft went into the water, would he? Well, as Two for the Road would prove to us, Michael had his secrets. And two people would be dead by a gun in his hands. Henry, the kept prisoner in the cell for a week, waited and revealed very little. Henry always seemed to have a way to keep himself alive and yet hold onto his secrets. Henry does tell Locke that the Others have an interest in him specifically before leaving with Jack to get guns from Sawyer. Ana is in the bunker, alone with opportunity to kill Henry, as Michael recovers from supposedly trekking back to Jack and Kate for recruitment purposes. She can’t kill Henry, though. Michael offers to kill Henry. Henry represents the Others, so why wouldn’t Michael want to take his pound of flesh, right? Well, Ana doesn’t anticipate the wolf in sheep’s clothing. All the same, Michael kills Ana and then Libby, who startles him (wrong place, wrong time). Yes, Libby. Shoots her down and then, after shaking off the shock, goes into the cell to free Henry. There is Ana, agreeing to let Michael take her spot to kill Henry, but instead she is the foil. As the episode ends, Michael has blood on his hands and has freed a member of the Others. I personally can’t see how there is any turning back now, and Michael appears to have become an enemy. He is now an Other.