Lost - Enter 77 / Par Avion / The Man from Tallahassee

Lost can really knock you for a loop in their flashback revelations. Sayid received further back story elaboration in Enter 77, of the third season. His torture interrogation past for the Iraqi Republican Guard comes back to haunt him as a wife of a restaurateur was one of his former victims. That Sayid is responsible for such reprehensible methods (the wife’s arms were burned by hot oil for not giving up information!) identifies what people are capable of. I guess this is a way for us to be reminded of Sayid’s frailties as a human being and the level of violence he previously used towards others (…of his own people!). Sawyer sure understood what he was capable of as did Ben. But this woman, Amira (Anne Bedian), had enough character to forgive Sayid, later telling her husband that she was incorrect in naming him as her torturer. The use of a cat in an alley who had been adopted by Amira provides insight into why she could not only forgive but remove herself from the house which had served as her prison due to fear caused by trauma during her time of torture in Iraq.

The back story is in Paris, Sayid having adapted to civilian life as a cook. Amira’s husband, Sami (Shaun Toub), was able to lure him to their home through the offer of a much better paying job. The family tackles him, with Sami willing to give him what Amira took, imprisoning Sayid in the basement of their home. Denying the accusations, Amira appears to Sayid alone, wanting him to cop to his misdeeds. When Sayid does, we are left with the knowledge that he indeed horribly burned this woman and it was her willing to spare his life. If anyone deserved to be punished, it was Sayid! And yet Amira doesn’t allow her husband to dish out what she endured.

There was Sayid, his hair disheveled and face beaten. Amira looking down at the man that left her a tormented soul with a physical reminder of his torture towards her. His face anguished and accepting deserved punishment, Sayid admits to his crime and relieves his soul of how her face has continued to haunt him. Rescuing her cat from kids and their firecrackers in the alley, and despite its occasional bite and claw of her, Amira realizes that she must not allow herself to be lowered to the level of those who inflict misery and violence on others. Amira is an incredible back story character. And Sayid spares an Other, Mikhail (Andrew Divoff), his cat a reminder of Amira’s. The past can influence a person’s decisions in the future. While Sayid often has trouble relinquishing who he once was, perhaps the experience with Amira can influence or, at the very least, hold off what he might have done in the past towards others in the future.
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Claire is Jack’s sister! Now if that doesn’t knock a viewer for a loop, what will? Oh, yeah, Jack playing football with Tom on the Others’ “Barracks” community, that’s what. But about that will be coming up later! I have to process Jack and Tom playing football.

 Still, Claire finding Christian Shephard in her mother’s hospital room, hooked to a life-preserving machine after a serious car accident in Par Avion, later learning that he is her father, I was definitely exasperated! I didn’t see that bit coming. Sure Ana took a very drunken Christian to a certain house where the woman at the front door (as the rain pours) insisted he leave, while both are in Sydney…it very well could have been Claire’s mom. Lost’s writing team always slide these little moments in episodes and later clarify their greater meaning.

These bits and pieces featuring characters that seem peculiar and jarring later prove to be significant. So when they appear, I don’t just dismiss them. Obviously when Christian visits the mother’s room with Claire finding him at the Sydney hospital, with his being her father revealed, it is quite a startling development unforeseen! And the aunt, Lindsey (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick), assertively addressing him, as the knowledge of Christian’s paying the hospital bills for the mother is revealed, this is a lot for Claire to absorb for sure! Christian wanting to help Claire “take care of the mother’s pain”, trying to explain to her that the machine is doing nothing more than delaying the inevitable, such conversation certainly strikes a rather unfriendly chord. Claire doesn’t take kindly to this guy just arriving with advice to cut the machine off on her mother, with news that he’s her father.

Christian has this whole other family in LA back in the States and brief returns to see his daughter didn’t sit well with Lindsey. So Claire was raised by her mother and it takes a car wreck for her to realize just how much respect was deserved, but such opportunity to show this is seemingly lost. Before the wreck, mother and daughter had a falling out, and Claire said horrible things to her she’d soon live to regret. Many of us have reacted in such a way, out of anger, during a heated exchange with one or both parents. Claire apologizes for what she said, talking to a mother, hooked to a machine, unresponsive. Claire sure gives it to Christian, too. He’s barely even been there for her, and then, all of a sudden, here is Christian looking to help her kill off a mother…Claire conceives that Christian just wants to “remove a problem”. Christian tries to talk to her, but this is indeed a delicate, seemingly no-win situation.

 So much had consumed Christian towards the end of his life as his children often chided him with disapproval. He tried to do the right thing but nothing seemed to work in his favor. So cleverly, the Lost writing team includes a brief moment in the hospital where Claire passes by Jack (who is mopping, no less), neither with a clue they are brother and sister!

Not sure what was up with the raven hair on Claire, but we learn that she was working in a tattoo parlor in Sydney. Christian just wanting to talk and Claire reluctantly agreeing, I could just sense this would not end well despite the attempt of a father hoping to help his daughter relieve the mother of her prolonged existence hooked to a machine. Claire snapping on him is reminiscent of Jack's  consistent disappointment with him. Christian was just gradually emasculated over and over on this show!

Unexpected visit

Father/daughter talk

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I admit that at the end of Par Avion, as Jack and Tom are playing football in the back yard in the community neighborhood yard of the Others, I let out such a laugh. It is just too perfect a twist. It sure shrugs the shoulders and rattles the nerves. How could such as this happen?! And yet there Jack is just having fun, big smile, as Tom giggles heartily. This is the kind of knock-your-socks-off twist that takes some serious processing. And he will have some explaining to do. Kate, Sayid, Locke, and Rousseau marching through the jungle, worried for their captive “leader”, braving dangers like Mikhail and Bea, finding him…having such a good ole time with one of their chief enemies, Tom. The same Tom that shot Sawyer, took Walt, surrounded them with the Others (taking their guns), causing grief and paranoia, an integral part of some serious drama involving the Oceanic survivors. It certainly left me with plenty of questions!

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I admit that another episode with Claire and Charlie estranged was just not going to work for me. I felt that they had turned a corner and no longer should there be dissension between them. Charlie telling Claire that Desmond had seen his future death many times over wasn’t his style. Why would Charlie want to alarm Claire? Desmond is the one that eventually does talk to Claire, after locating a gull she had been in pursuit of. Claire realized a way to communicate with the outside world to get off the island. Use a gull as a type of “carrier pigeon”, with a note attached to a clip (the scientists put tags on them to study their habits) on one of its legs, in the hopes that someone will read it and respond with help. Charlie shoots this down as a waste of her time, but nonetheless Claire feels that it is at least something productive. Desmond shooting at the birds while “hunting” enrages Claire because it appears he’s purposely trying to keep her from catching a gull for the message idea…this after Jin and Sun helped her set up a net. The end of the episode had me fighting off wet eyes, for sure. Claire’s message was quite touching and truly speaks to the reader about their island situation, how rescue isn’t expected but so desired. Par Avion once again reminds us that these stranded passengers from the Oceanic still want to go home. Sure it has been too long since that plane crashed, but the thought of leaving still remains. Has doubt crept in? Of course, how could it not? But that doesn’t stop the attempt, as Claire takes the chance, even if this gull reaching help does appear remote.

A slight bit of amusement I decided to relocate here from the episode, Enter 77, has Sawyer competing with Hurley in ping pong:

The stakes…

• ·         Hurley wins: Sawyer cannot use insulting nicknames towards them for a week.    
• ·         Sawyer wins: Sawyer gets his items from the tent back.

Sufficed to say, Hurley kicks Sawyer’s ass and the nicknames cease. At least, Sawyer gets his nudie mags back.

I can already tell that Paulo and Nikki are being diminished as supporting characters by Lost Creative. I believe this was because the audiences of the time the show aired rejected them. Admittedly I haven’t really been given much reason to respond to Nikki besides my libido’s saying aloud while watching, “Hello!”

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Locke's complicated story has somewhat frustrated and even infuriated me. This creep that his father and John's all-consuming obsession with him never seems to end. Locke can't cut the cord or let go. This monster is a sociopath who preys on the weak. He'll take and not flinch if he needs to hurt or kill. He pushes Locke out of a condo where he fell eight stories to a broke back and a wheel chair. Would Locke ever see this man who tried to kill him again? Even as much as I can suspend my disbelief on a lot of what Lost unveils, this twist at the end of The Man from Tallahassee is a wee bit hard to swallow. The writer's room will really have to convince me of how that can be possible. It's quite extraordinary. I guess Locke needed to settle this once and for all, though.

But whether he is chucking Mikhail into the Barracks' "sonic forcefield", blowing The Flame or the submarine to smithereens, or shockingly responding to the sight of his father with a childlike, "Dad?"; the third season certainly has presented a far less predictable Locke for us to absorb. Head in hands is best to describe my reaction to many of his actions. This guy sure wants to keep away contact with the outside world!

That Ben knows all about Locke, personal details, and has a vested interest in how he can walk certainly interests me. Ben and Locke just back and forth verbally sparring is quite compelling. But Ben producing daddy tied to a chair, gagged, after Locke blows up the sub; this is a lot to decompress!

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So I had some notes together while at break, at work, regarding Locke that were on the mind. I touched on them in a previous post:

• And Locke chucks poor Mikhail right into the sonic forcefield, with shrugged shoulders replies when Sayid and Kate take him to task that the guy begged to die so he just helped him out. So Locke looks on studiously. Mikhail had mentioned that he knew more than a bit about Locke when at The Flame. Locke studies Mikhail as he shakes and emits foam from the mouth! Kate and Sayid are a bit mortified, but Locke isn’t. This character shift, along with his apathy towards The Flame going up, left me a bit dumbstruck.

• So the electromagnetic anomaly knocks out the ability of Mikhail to use the satellite and sonar to make contact away from the island. Locke presses 77 and The Flame explodes with Sayid realizing that this was a chance to get out communication towards others for help. Enter 77 reveals Locke ruining a possible rescue. Sayid and Kate still have Mikhail in this episode as leverage, although his merit as a proper exchange for Jack is seen by Locke as worthless. In Par Avion, Locke sees Mikhail as a good bait to test the effects of the forcefield protecting the Barracks…or “sonic fence” if you will. Just seeing Mikhail undergoing the shock of the invisible current and Locke all a-okay watching him endure it (he does tell Locke thanks!) is surreal. Kate and Sayid put together an idea to go over the fence, not through it, by using what the naturally the jungle provides.

• Certainly Locke’s time with Ben (in a wheelchair) gives us an understanding as to what each one has on his mind. Ben is glad Locke takes care of the “Jack and Juliet problem” where removing their method of escape passage and contact to the outside allows him not to “look weak” to the community living under his watch. He knew he needed to let Jack and Juliet go because he gave them his word, while the submarine served as a form of leaving the island although doing so was against his wishes…but Locke took care of two birds with sticks of dynamite. The Man from Tallahassee gives us Ben further illustrating his cunning and dark influence. Alex told Locke before he blew the sub that her father indeed was always trying to manipulate, playing an angle and working somebody over for his own benefit. Locke, however, was aware of this and yet still took away the sub because of the repercussions that existed in the ability to leave the island (and further affording others to come *to* the island).

• It does appear that the point of Locke’s inability to remove his father from his life is so that it is recognized that Anthony Cooper (Kevin Tighe) is his Achilles Heel. Like this demonic attachment that sucks away the marrow (anything that might produce a happy, healthy, functioning life), Cooper is the very essence of what torments Locke at his very core.

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Bea had questioned Michael about Walt when he was kidnapped by the Others. Her personality remote and distant, quite scientific in her pursuit of information from Michael, Bea left me personally cold. I guess perhaps enigmatic also, but Bea’s time on Lost is short. In Enter 77, Bea will not allow herself to be used to guide “the enemy” (Kate, Locke, Sayid, and Rousseau) to the community of the Others. We learn that The Barricks (a thriving community functioning thanks to Dharma Initiative’s efforts it appears) could very well be where the Others live, located on a map Sayid finds in The Flame, the station occupied by Mikhail, a Russian who (at first) claimed to have “done some work in Afghanistan”, for which he admitted to bad activities he wanted to escape to do more for mankind, joining the Dharma Initiative as a result. This is later dismissed by Sayid who mentions murdering an Other just to rile Mikhail up in order for him to reveal that he isn’t the “last remaining survivor of the Dharma Initiative”. Sure enough Mikhail responds by fighting Sayid and Kate off only to succumb to the numbers game.

He even gains advantage of Locke:

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•  so busy involved in a computer chess game that later reveals Dr. Candle and command key codes to verify communication outward from The Flame’s large satellite dish, including the ability to set off explosives spread in the basement throughout the underground of the station if the “hostiles” are able to get in the station.

• Holding a gun to his head, Mikhail wants Bea in exchange for Locke, but Bea speaks in Russian to him obviously commanding him to shoot her so that the coordinates of the Others would remain secret.

Kate seemingly unable to just accept Jack’s loss to the Others wants to pursue his whereabouts. Locke, Sayid, and Rousseau reluctantly agree to join this search. Enter 77 is more or less pitting the Oceanic principles (Kate, Locke, and Sayid) against the Others again. But Bea was willing to die than give up her people. Mikhail reluctantly shoots Bea but still does so and threatens to kill Sayid when he lets his guard down. Rousseau does make a point that Mikhail should be killed but Sayid reflects on his past of torture and how he was spared by Amira, so committing to that isn’t acceptable.

Locke blowing up The Flame (Sayid had found Dharma Initiative manuals in the underground tunnels under the station), destroying the communications systems (this station does seem to serve The Barracks in terms of outside contact), and later (in the episode, The Man from Tallahassee) bombing the sub with C4, Ben indicates it is because he was “afraid of *him*”. Locke afraid of his father enough to blow up The Flame and a bona fide submarine! That sort of revelation left me almost throwing my hands up.

But Kate’s face seeing Jack playing football with Tom, later visiting Jack’s room to tell him she returned to rescue him—with Jack all cozy in a comfy home while working out a melody on a piano!—says it all. The wearing off of shock soon leads to a conversation between Sayid, Locke, and Kate where they consider Jack’s behavior as purposed towards some reason they don’t yet know. But when she does encounter Jack and is taken captive due to cameras in the house, once again Kate is in trouble. She can’t seem to keep from being in a position of vulnerability. But when Jack visits her while Kate is being handcuffed and imprisoned in a room, telling her he was heading home, her reaction is expected. She was on the beach with her Oceanic survivors, and a decision to go for Jack results in seeing him preparing to *leave*. Jack negotiates with Ben about them being let go and the façade regarding getting on the sub (complete with Juliet thanking Ben for “keeping his word”) soon comes to an end when a sweaty Locke apologizes for taking away his mode of transportation. Jack continuing to tell Kate she shouldn’t have came back for him, the regret and disappointment in this journey’s intent and the results that bind her and frustrate him speak volumes of how time on the island can change and alter perspective and behavior. Kate's feelings for Jack and Sawyer, complicated as they are, Juliet serves to make matters even more difficult.

Enter 77 - *** / ****
Par Avion - *** / ****
The Man from Tallahassee - *** / ****