Welcome back, Losties old, new, and gently used! Today we’re exploring the 2nd half of season 3, and boy, is it crazy! Full of twists and major events, it’s got a lot to write about!
So, I ended my last post saying that the so-called “Sawyer-coaster” would take a big turn in the latter half of this season, but I didn’t say whether that turn would be a rise or a fall. Truth is, this one can be seen as a great rise or as a great fall, depending on how you look at it. I’m talking about “The Brig,” the 19th episode of the season. So somehow, the Others have gotten Locke’s father, Anthony Cooper, onto the island, and Ben tells Locke he needs to kill his father in order to learn the secrets of the island. But Locke’s not a killer, and has qualms about killing an unarmed, helpless man, even if that man did steal his kidney, ruin his romantic relationship, and—oh yeah—RENDER HIM PARAPLEGIC BY PUSHING HIM OUT A WINDOW! But still, Locke can’t bring himself to kill the guy. Lucky for him, he gets to have his cake and eat it too, thanks to the file on his father that Ben gave him. What follows is a big reveal that we as the audience find out at the same time Sawyer does in the episode, something I first started to suspect 6 episodes ago in “The Man from Tallahassee” when Anthony explicitly referred to himself as a “con man.” Locke’s father is, in fact, the same con man who ruined Sawyer’s life when he was a child, the guy he’s been looking for all these years. When sawyer finally realizes this, he forces Anthony to read the letter he wrote all those years ago, and then strangles him to death.
This ties in with the old theme of interconnectivity between the characters, but it has even more significance for Sawyer’s character development. What we have in front of us is a character finally exacting revenge after almost 30 years of trying. What we have in front of us is also a man strangling another man to death with his own handcuffs. What we have in front of us is also, in a lot of ways, an act of redemption and closure on Sawyer’s part. Of course killing an unarmed prisoner is wrong, and therefore the viewer’s first reaction may be to think less of Sawyer as a character. However, the more and more I thought about it, the more and more I saw this murder as something more. Let’s start with who Anthony Cooper was. He was the ONLY character to this point on the show to be portrayed as completely and totally evil. I know I’ve talked a lot about the moral relativism in the show and how none of the characters is fully good or fully evil, but this guy is the exception. I mean, EVERY SINGLE THING he has ever done has been incredibly harmful (whether physically, emotionally, or both) to someone else, and has been beneficial to nobody but himself. He doesn’t seem to even regard his fellow human beings as worthy of being alive. We as viewers never see even an ounce of good intentions in him. And, on a show where even a character like Ben Linus has a few shining moments of decency (helping Locke when his leg was trapped under a door in the hatch, genuinely believing himself to be a “good guy”) in between his long stints of criminal insanity, that is saying something! So, to me, the character of Anthony Cooper represents pure malice and unadulterated bad intentions. There’s also the factor of Sawyer having murdered the innocent shrimp vendor in Australia, who he’d been tricked into thinking was the con man he was looking for. Ever since then, whether he admits it or not, Sawyer’s conscience has been weighed down by this instance of mistaken identity that ended in the death of an innocent man at Sawyer’s hands. And he has never stopped searching. That’s plain to us in the season 1 episode “Confidence Man,” when Kate finds the letter he wrote as a boy. So, now let’s re-consider what has just happened. Sawyer has eliminated the one purely evil character after forcing him to read the old letter. In a way, this atones for having killed the shrimp vendor, who had done nothing wrong. In both murders, Sawyer’s aim was the same, but this time he got the right guy, and this time, the man he killed actually did deserve punishment. It’s as if Sawyer has gotten a second try, a do-over, and now he has done what he had originally set out to do. (It’s also worth noting that Anthony is indirectly responsible for Sawyer being on the island in the first place, since Sawyer’s arrest for murder in Sydney was what landed him on Flight 815, so now that can be added to Sawyer’s list of grievances against him.) Anyway, Sawyer’s nightmare is over, and so is Locke’s. The man that ruined both of their lives is dead, and now both Sawyer and Locke can carry on without this enormous burden to bear. So what do you think? Did Sawyer act justly? Did he do the right thing? Is this a rise for him, or a plunge? Feel free to leave your opinions in the comments below!
We absolutely can’t talk about the 2nd half of season 3 of Lost without bringing up episode 20, “The Man behind the Curtain.” WOW. What an amazing episode. This one comes right after “The Brig,” and consists of Ben showing Locke “the secrets of the Island.” It also answers a lot of our questions, while also (of course!) creating scores of new questions. This is the first (and maybe the last, for all I know) time we get a glimpse into Ben’s back story. Let’s face it: he’s the one that viewers (meaning me) are most eager to see the back story of. With the exception of Anthony Cooper of course, Ben currently seems to be the most evil person on the show, even though he thinks of himself as a “good guy.” We are DYING to see how he got to be such a sick and twisted individual. Now in the past, the flashbacks have shed light onto characters that seem to be evil, or at least pretty mean. The flashbacks have showed us why they are the way they are, and have provided some justification for their actions, making them seem not so bad after all (Sawyer, Jin, and Juliet to name a few). So at the instant when I realized that it was Ben’s back story I was watching, I prepared myself for the possibility that the writers would try to get me to sympathize with him and see him as a victim. In my head, I reminded myself of all the terrible things Ben had done so far in the series, not wanting these flashbacks to mess with me and alter my perception of him as a bad guy.
Turns out, the flashbacks did indeed mess with me in some ways, but they did not change my perception of Ben as a character. Even after seeing what a tough life Ben had growing up, I still don’t find his actions justified. Oddly enough, I found Ben’s youth to be strikingly similar to Voldemort’s youth in the “Harry Potter” series. I mean, mother dead in childbirth, grew up hating his father and feeling lonely and disconnected from all the other children, and this grief and rage one day driving him to commit genocide, starting with his father. Once I noticed these similarities, it was nearly impossible for me to see Ben as anything but a bad guy. I mean, true, we still don’t know why the DHARMA Initiative had quarrels with the natives (including Richard, who apparently doesn’t age?), but even if they were treating the natives poorly, that’s hardly a reason to kill every living person in the DHARMA barracks. So that’s my current verdict on Ben, but who knows? Maybe I’ll end up sympathizing with him yet.
The scene in that episode where Locke first encounters the mysterious (and invisible) Jacob was compelling and highly well done. I loved the intensity of this scene, with things blowing around, windows cracking, the works. It was also great to see a new emotion out of Ben: jealousy. He’s been proud, afraid, angry, sad, vengeful, but never before jealous. His jealousy stems from the fact that Jacob spoke to Locke (through mental telepathy or something, maybe, since only Locke heard it). Ben’s position as leader, as the only one on the Island who can see and communicate with Jacob, has been put in jeopardy. And this fact terrifies him more than anything, certainly more than having a life-threatening brain tumor ever did. I can’t wait to see how this plays out; as of the end of season 3, we’ve seen no more of Jacob, nor has the incident been brought up, but there’s no doubt it’ll come to a head eventually, and when it does, I’m sure it’ll be EPIC.
There’s one final thing I’d like to bring up, and it’s something that’s been bugging me for a while. I feel like so many of the castaways’ problems could be solved if only they had better communication skills. Over the course of these 3 seasons, there have been so many mishaps that could have been avoided if the castaways had regular meetings or something to sit down and all share what they knew. This really jumped out at me twice in the finale, “Through the Looking Glass.” When the castaways are holding Ben prisoner and he starts telling them not to contact the freighter, the only reason he gives is the vague “because if you do, every living thing on this island will die.” Now, by this point, the castaways all know damn well that Ben is a lying liar who lies, and of course most of them dismiss his claim as just more of his bull. Which raises the question: why doesn’t he elaborate a bit more on his point? If he had, at that point, told the castaways IN DETAIL everything he actually knew about who sent the freighter, who was on it, and exactly what they planned to do, they may have been even slightly more inclined to believe him, instead of dismissing his words as a lie told in desperation. A while later in the episode, Locke comes out of nowhere and kills Naomi, their supposed rescuer, giving no reason why other than a cryptic “it was what I had to do; it’s what’s meant to be.” Really, John? That’s all you have to say on the matter? You just killed your fellow castaways’ best chance of being rescued (or so they think at the time) and that’s all you have to say for yourself? Why not explain to them your concerns regarding this woman and who she might work for? I mean, sure, they’re in no mood to listen to Locke right now after what he just did, but I feel like if he had explained himself like a rational human being, he could have at least avoided almost being shot in the head by Jack. Anyway, my point is, these characters could use some communication skills; maybe have daily or biweekly meetings to discuss what’s been happening. Then again, that would make for a really boring TV show, instead of a really amazing one. So maybe the characters’ communication issues are something I’ll just have to live with
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Okay, so I guess I lied about that being the final thing I would bring up. I just want to say how much I absolutely ADORE Desmond right now. He is definitely my favorite character at this point. The poor guy had to re-live an extremely difficult part of his life and was powerless to change it, and now he’s stuck seeing into the future but essentially still being powerless to change it. And yet, he still goes into the ocean after Charlie to help him out at the underwater Looking Glass DHARMA station, even though he’s seen repeatedly that Charlie is destined to die. Desmond just can’t sit back and let his friend die; he needs to do something about it, even if it means risking his own life and possibly never seeing the love of his life again. Now that right there is a great man. I also can’t help but notice the resemblance between Desmond and Jesus, with the long brown hair and beard, and the fact that he addresses everyone as “brother.” Significant? Maybe.
OK, that’s really the last of this post. Join me next time for Season 4! (Since it’s a short season that’s about half as long as the other seasons, I have decided to each talk about season 4 as a whole.) Things get trippy, time gets bendy, and Richard doesn’t get any older! Also, the unthinkable happens—I START TO SYMPATHIZE WITH BEN!!!!!
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