Flashback - Claire
This week’s flashback began with Goth-era Claire, a piercer at a tattoo bar, waking up after a car accident, during which her mother flew through the windshield. Under police interrogation at the hospital, Claire was non-committal about her explanation that a truck forced her off-road, and she angrily denied her mother had died. After going home for a shower, Claire returned to her mother’s bedside, where her finger-pointing Aunt Lindsay expressed disapproval that Claire dared to leave her comatose mother’s side. A Dr. Woodruff then entered and explained that Claire’s mother suffered a severe head trauma, and fairly widespread damage. The elder Ms. Littleton was on life support, and Dr. Woodruff could not say with any confidence that she would wake up. However, the doctor revealed that Claire’s mother’s expenses were already covered, but the source asked to remain confidential. The veil of confidentiality dropped when Claire encountered the mysterious American benefactor in her mother’s room during a later visit. He was the man we recognize as Dr. Christian Shephard, aka the source of Jack’s daddy issues. Seeing Claire, Christian apologized and said he shouldn’t be there. Aunt Lindsay returned and obviously knew him. Christian suggested that Lindsay should tell Claire who he is. Claire demanded to know why Christian was covering the bills. In a Luke-deduces-Leia-is-his-sister moment, Christian told Claire he was her father.
(Cue my first aside: We all saw this coming. After all, Christian died in Australia on a botched trip to reconcile with his illegitimate daughter, and Claire was the only Australian woman in the cast. Kudos to the Powers that Be for teasing something and having it actually turn out to be true…)
Later, Christian showed up at Claire’s workplace, and offered to buy her some coffee, after which he said he would leave her alone forever. He clarified that Claire was the offspring of a fling. He visited her several times when she was little, and even sang to her (credit EW.com, who recalled that last season’s Claire flashback in the medical hatch showed a mobile for soon-to-be-born Aaron that played the same song that, in the Season 1 Claire flashback, she remembered her father singing to her as a baby; query – does this song further the sense that Christian may have been involved in some way with the Others?). Christian eventually stopped visiting because Claire’s Aunt hated him (was that the Aunt who refused to give Christian access in last season’s Ana Lucia flashback?) and his mother hated that he had another family, but this time he came because he wanted to help. He tried to suggest that Claire should pull the plug, which Claire angrily interpreted as trying to fix his mistake. She angrily reminded him she did not even know his name, and now she wanted to keep it that way.
(Cue my second aside: …and jeers to the Powers that Be for another excruciating example of dramatic irony, in allowing us to know that Claire and Jack are half-siblings, but depriving Claire of the opportunity to discover this by refusing to learn her dad’s name).
Christian warned Claire not to keep her mother alive for the wrong reasons, then said good-bye. Some time later, the familiar blonde, pregnant Claire visited her still-comatose mother, and turned on a nature show about migratory birds. Claire told her unresponsive mother about her pregnancy and her plan to give the baby away. She was apologetic for being such an awful daughter to the mum who raised her alone. She cried as she recalled that said some hateful things in the car, i.e. that she hated her mother, wished she weren’t her mother, wished that she were dead, and, worse of all the accident was all her fault…
A parting thought on the flashback: Claire has long endured second-class status as a character on the show. That said, her flasbacks have been some of the most insightful and intriguing when it comes to theory fodder and concrete answers. I have often commented that, having borne Aaron, her usefulness to the plot is limited and she may be on deathwatch for that reason. But I have to come to hope she sticks around long enough to keep providing key clues to WTF is going on. Now, on to Real Time action, Part I:
REAL TIME - The Beach
On the beach, Claire awakens to a plate of fruit with a sign that reads “G-Day” and a picnic prepared by Charlie. Claire comments on Charlie’s sudden emersion from his funk. Desmond interrupts Claire and Charlie’s picnic, insisting not-too-subtly that Charlie join him on a hunt and scrap the picnic. Claire sees seagulls flying over head and excitedly claims she knows how to get them off the island. She runs to Sun and Jin and demands a net, fish and buckets, because they need to catch the gulls. Claire explains that she saw the gulls were tagged, and she wants to attach a message to the scientists who tagged them to a caught bird’s foot and resend it on its migratory path. Charlie is hesitant, and tells Claire he doesn’t see the point. Claire and Jin construct a soccer-goal-shaped net, while Jin practices his English. Sun brings some fish chum to bait the trap. Sun relates that her mother always feared that she would end up working with her hands. Claire tells Sun that her mother was a librarian, to which Sun responds, “was?” Just as Jin is about to trap a gull, Desmond appears and fires a shot, scaring the birds away. He claims half-assedly that he was shooting at a boar. Claire doesn’t buy the line. She suspects Desmond and Charlie don’t want her to catch the birds and accuses Charlie of conspiring with Desmond to ruin her plan. Charlie belittles her plan, and she is more than a little upset that he wouldn’t support her idea. She angrily chases him away from Aaron and says she doesn’t want a liar around her baby.
Later, Claire decides to get some answers. She follows Desmond out onto a tide pool, and demands to know what he was doing. He found one of the birds (he seemed to know right where it would be), and it is indeed tagged. Desmond tries to deny that he knew where the bird would be, but she doesn’t buy it. He points to a spot on the rocks, and says he saw Charlie fall in and break his neck at that spot. All the weird behavior was just the latest attempt to stave off Charlie’s death – the theory was if Charlie didn’t support Claire’s bird hunt, he wouldn’t die approaching the bird Desmond had just “found.”(Aside number 3: does anyone else notice that every time Desmond “saves” Charlie, it is by driving a wedge between him and Claire, whether by rescuing Claire before Charlie could drown in the attempt, or chasing Charlie away from Claire’s bird hunt? We’ll need to keep watching to see if this pattern has consequences other than Charlie’s continued existence…)
Claire brings the tagged bird back to Charlie at the tent. She says Desmond told her everything about the recurring Charlie’s death dreams. Charlie and Claire review the letter they are tying to the bird. It’s a message of hope and survival, begging the recipient not to give up on the survivors of flight 815. Claire says she won’t give up on Charlie, either, and that they’ll get through this together. They place the letter and send the bird off to rejoin the migrating flock, a biological message in a bottle to the outside world. The flock flies over the jungle…
REAL TIME - the Jungle
Sayid is trying to read the map from the Flame station. He and Locke argue over their various techniques for navigation (a not-to-scale diagram vs. an inscription on a dead man's stick), and, accused of intentionally destroying the Flame, Locke points out that Kate and Sayid never warned about the C4 in the basement (take that, Locke-haters!). After some debate about the merits of killing Mikhail, Kate spurs the troops on. At a stream, Kate finds it odd that Rousseau has not asked about Alex at all. Rousseau responds that, after 16 years and a virtual certainty that her daughter will not remember her, she has not asked questions about Alex because she does not want to know the answers. As the crew trudges on, Kate asks Mikhail how he got to the island. He says at age 24, he was brought to the island via submarine. After the sky turned purple, however, it became impossible for any who leave the island to return, because the guiding beacon no longer functions (query: why would people who have lived on an island for years need a beacon to find their way back? Shouldn't a compass bearing do the trick?). When Kate expresses incredulity that anyone who could leave the island would want to return, Mikhail smiles that she would not understand. Kate asks why, and Mikhail clarifies she is not capable of understanding because she is not "on the list." Mikhail refers to a magnificent man who brought the Others to the island, and smiles when he says that man is not Ben. Kate, John and Sayid are not on the list because they are "flawed" (looking at Kate), "angry" (looking at Locke) and "weak" (looking at Sayid). He knows their names and sarcastically claims he couldn’t know who they are. Just as he is about to reveal to the group John’s prior paralysis (and the fact that he knows about it), Rousseau interrupts. She has spotted a row of posts with what look like microwave emitters on either side. John states, rather obviously, “well, it looks like we’re here.” Sayid tells Kate not to even go near the pylons. He thinks they are a security perimeter, either an alarm system or a trap. Mikhail says that, like everything else on the island, the perimter has not functioned in years, and, as confirmed by Sayid's map, the pylons completely surround the barracks, so there is no going around.
Locke decides to test the "inoperative for years" claim and pushes Mikhail into the path of the barrier, which erupts with a loud hum. Trapped in the sonic blast, Mikhail says to John, “thank you.” Mikhail begins to foam at the mouth, his neck bleeding, and he is ultimately blasted backwards. Sayid says it looks like a cerebral hemorrhage.
Kate is pissed that John killed their bargaining chip, and John says they never would have traded Jack for Mikhail. Sayid demands to know 1) how Locke knew this, and 2) whether Locke is there to save Jack or for some other agenda. They plan to go over the fence rather than around or through, and as Sayid goes to retrieve the ax from Locke's bag, he finds C4, and confronts Locke over his now-obvious lie about not knowing there was C4 in the Flame (oooh, big point for the Locke-haters!!!). The crew gets a fun A-Team-style montage in building a ramp over the pylons. Kate volunteers to be the first one over. She lands safely. Locke follows as Kate inspects Mikhail’s body. He is still breathing. The four of them move on in a group as Claire’s flock of seagulls flies overhead. Sayid says, “we’re here" as they approach Othersville. They think they see Jack fleeing, but in fact, he is tossing a football with Tom!!! And he seems very happy to have made it to the “end zone.”
Parting Thoughts
- I really hope Mr. Bakunin is not dead. He was a fun character for revealing puzzle pieces, even if at least half of what he said was steeped in lies. And what's with the suicidal tendencies, anyway? First he tried to shoot himself, then he was relieved to be sonic-blasted. Jacob's fury must not be kind...
- Who the heck is on the list? If not Jack, Kate or Locke (who perhpas Ben was not really trying to recruit), then who? Cindy and the nameless abducted tailies? Why should we care about them? There needs to be a clear sign that someone in the camp is on the list so we can start to think about what gets you "listed."
- What on Earth is Locke's game? We know he has sabotaged efforts to escape the island before, but why? Couldn't he just choose to stay behind if everyone else gets rescued, or does he feel his destiny needs them to be there, too? And after Mikhail revealed that travel to and from the island is now impossible, why kill his best source of intel?
- Is Jack already an Other? What has he learned about their purpose on the island that would make him so happy to join them in their life in a way he never seemed to join the beach crew?
- Since next week's episode, "The Man from Tallahassee," supposedly reveals the mystery of how Locke got paralyzed. Personally, I've always cared a lot more about how he got unparalyzed, but I guess we should take our answers when we get them. In anticipation of next week, any theories on how Mr. Locke ended up in that wheelchair? Send me your thoughts!
1 comment:
Always nice to read ... having seen the epi, though, I'm more interested in reading your interpretation. But that's cool.
The more I read and think, the more I believe J-Lo lost the use of his legs in a car accident -- perhaps involving Jack's wife ...
My prediction, of course, means that something completely different will surface as the real reason since I'm horrible at figuring these things out! ;-)
J-Lo's injuries sure do look like a car accident, or perhaps an explosion? He seems to have a lot of shrapnel (glass?) wounds.
Keep up the good work, my man!
Incidentally, I'm lightenupjack on the LU site ...
peace ...
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