Welcome aboard again, readers! Today, we take a look at the first half of season 2. I’ve got a whole lot of “tailies,” DHARMA, and more to talk about, so let’s get started!
Upon starting season 2, there were 2 things that jumped out at me as being different from season 1. First of all, they revamped the music. That means no more sliding trombones to signal danger. However, the new music is just as enticing, although I have yet to pick out a single recurring musical theme that stands out as much as the trombones did. The other shift is that the flashbacks now connect more directly to the episode material. In the first season, the main purpose of the flashbacks was to introduce us to the characters and show us what they were like pre-island. Now that we know a considerable amount of everyone’s back story, it’s time for the flashbacks to dig a little deeper. What I mean by this is that, in many episodes of season 2, the character’s flashback and the character’s current island escapades are united by a common theme. We see the character facing some sort of problem on the island, and then we are taken back to a time in their past when they were challenged by essentially the same problem back in the “real world.” The first season flashbacks did this to some extent, but it gets A LOT more prevalent here. I find this unification of island life and pre-crash life to be fascinating. It very effectively conveys the idea that, even in dire circumstances, people will still be plagued by familiar problems, albeit ones that manifest themselves in unfamiliar ways. One of my favorite examples of this trend is in the episode “Adrift,” the second episode of the season. In both the island action and the flashbacks, Michael fights relentlessly for custody of his son. Granted, in the flashback, this battle involves his ex-girlfriend and some lawyers, while on the island it involves the barbaric Others who enjoy kidnapping children, but in terms of dramatic tension, they do mirror each other.
Speaking of flashbacks, I mentioned in my last post that they were getting a little trite at times. I am very happy to report that, by this point, that problem has completely disappeared. There are a couple of reasons for this. First of all, as of the end of episode 6, “Abandoned,” the two characters with what were, in my opinion, the least interesting back stories, are both dead. That means no more uninteresting back story from either of them! But the other, more significant reason for this improvement is the introduction of 5 (oh wait, I mean 4) new characters. I speak, of course, of the “tailies,” the few survivors of the tail section of the plane, which broke off on the other side of the island during the crash. So it’s been about 7 weeks on the island, and the two groups finally meet up (not under the most pleasant of circumstances, I might add). This was a clever way for the writers to introduce new characters because, like I said in my last post, where else are new characters going to come from? I mean, they are on a deserted island after all, and the show would likely have gotten a tad boring if they had never added any new characters. I also love the manner in which the tailies are introduced, how we are first led to believe that they’re the Others. Anyway, new characters = new flashbacks! Thus, we have a few more people that we as an audience need and want to get to know, and the flashbacks of these characters give us this knowledge that we wanted.
Another interesting point of discussion involving the tailies that I’d like to bring up is how hardened and untrustworthy they are as opposed to the rest of the characters. This edge that they have to them is due to having had more traumatic encounters with the Others than Jack’s group did. This difference in character reminded me right away of one of child psychology’s major discussion points, “nature vs. nurture.” The landing on the island was a metaphorical “rebirth” for the characters in many ways, as discussed back in the season 1 episode “Tabula Rasa.” Thus, keeping with the childhood metaphor, we now see how the respective psyches of the two groups developed differently because of the circumstances they were each exposed to on the island. The tailies, who had a very tough “childhood” (48 days), are now distrustful of others, kind of mean, and –oh yeah— MUCH more ready and willing to kill. The main castaways have better retained their positive human qualities because their island experience has not been as traumatic. This example is only one of the numerous ways in which life on the island is a perfect microcosm representative of real-life society, a theme I will discuss further when we get to the 2nd half of the season.
I can’t speak about season 2 of Lost without bringing up the DHARMA Initiative (is it supposed to be all caps like that?). Wow. What a crazy plot twist. As of now, the viewer has yet to find out precisely what the DHARMA Initiative is, and the plot developments keep us guessing. The main thing I want to mention concerning the DHARMA Initiative is that I love the way a main problem of season 1 segues flawlessly into a main problem of season 2. With most serialized TV series, a problem will begin at the beginning of the season and then solved by the end of the season. Next season, a new problem presents itself. Not the case here. The solution of season 1’s “How do we open this hatch?” problem leads directly into season 2’s “What is this DHARMA Initiative thing?” problem. One of the reasons this works is because, unlike most other shows, season 2 picks up at the very MOMENT where season 1 left off. In many TV shows, it is assumed or even said that the characters took the summer off, just like the viewers did, and that now they are back from 3 months of not doing anything terribly important. Yet another way that Lost breaks the mold. I guess we can call Lost “super-serialized.”
One final point: I mentioned in my last post that “unseen horror becomes seen horror” in the first half of season 2. More specifically, the viewer gets to see both the smoke monster and the Others for extended periods of time in two consecutive episodes, “The 23rd Psalm” and “The Hunting Party.” I also said in my previous post that these foes, even though they have now had ample screen time, are still just as terrifying as before. The way that the writers pulled this off was by making sure to deepen the mystery surrounding both the smoke monster and the Others along with the reveals. In “The 23rd Psalm,” Eko and Charlie are ambushed by the smoke monster. Just when Charlie thinks they’re goners, Eko STARES THE MONSTER DOWN until it GOES AWAY. So, now we’ve gotten a clear glimpse of the smoke monster, but he/she/it is stranger and creepier than ever. Now, new questions arise in the minds of the viewers: “What’s special about Eko that made him able to win a staring contest with a bunch of black smoke?” and “Does the smoke monster have certain criteria for who it attacks?” The same goes for “The Hunting Party” when Jack, Locke, Sawyer, and Kate meet the Others. We see their apparent leader, a big man with a beard, and we now know that there are more of them than the characters had thought/hoped. As a result of this meeting, the audience is still inquisitive about these Others: “Why do they say it’s ‘their island’?” “How did they get here?” “What’s with their creepy fixation with children?” Thus, they’re still just as scary, especially since we viewers have a hunch that we won’t get treated to the answers to these questions for a good long time.
Well, Losties new and old, this is where my post ends, and your commenting begins! I’m already looking forward to reviewing the latter half of season 2; we’ll take a ride on the “Sawyer-coaster,” look at the island society as a microcosm, and explore moral relativism in the series. You stoked? I know I am!
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