Gettin' Lost 3: 'White Rabbit' and 'House of the Rising Sun'

"Gettin' Lost" is a regular series here where I (a Lost fan boy) discuss Lost with my partner Elizabeth (who has never seen it before) episode by episode. It's like reading a podcast! See all the Gettin' Lost posts here.

Episode 5: White Rabbit

Episode 5 Recap:

• We start with a childhood Jack flashback where Jack intervenes when another kid is being bullied. The bully then turns on Jack.

• Back in the present, someone is drowning in the ocean. Jack swims out to save Boone, who was trying to save a woman drowning even farther out. Boone tells him to leave him and go after the woman, but Jack takes Boone back to shore first. He isn’t able to save the woman: Joanna, a scuba diver who was just swimming in the ocean for some reason.

• We find out that there were 47 people on the island, 46 now, and Jack feels bad for having never spoken to her and for not saving her.

• Jack sees the man in the suit again, standing calf-deep in the ocean.

• Kate thinks he needs to sleep, which, yeah, probably.

• Sawyer (racist AND misogynistic guy) is bartering with people using stuff he found on the plane.

• They’re very low on bottled water, but only a few people know, and Jack does not want to be the decision maker.

• In a continuation of the bullying flashback, Jack’s dad scolds Jack for getting involved because he “doesn’t have what it takes” to make decisions. He tells him not to be a hero. A little on the nose, no?

• Boone’s pissed at Jack for not saving the woman: “Who appointed you our savior?”

• The suit man is back. Plot twist (which I predicted): It’s his dad! Jack runs after him.

• Flashback of adult Jack and his mom, who blames Jack for his dad leaving: “after what you did.” She tells Jack to go find him in Australia.

• Claire collapses, and Charlie can’t find the water. They bond a bit though.

• Locke (who is still super creepy, by the way) goes looking for some more water.

• In another flashback, Jack is at an Australian hotel looking for his dad, who left his wallet there and was probably drunk the last time he was seen.

• Jack runs through the jungle after his dad, then falls down a big hill and nearly off a cliff. After a literal cliffhanger, Locke pulls him back up.

• Sayid confronts the Korean couple about an empty water bottle they have. They point to Sawyer, the first person they should’ve questioned after the water was stolen.

• Kate (who seems to be in charge when Jack’s not around) and Sayid confront him, but he says he didn’t steal it and they can’t find it.

• Locke and Jack talk about leadership. Jack says, “I don’t have what it takes,” and tells Locke about seeing someone, but not that it’s his dad.

• To further prove he’s insane, Locke says, “This place is special.…I’ve looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw was beautiful.” He tells Jack to finish what he started so he can come back and be a leader (so Jack just stays in the jungle?!? At night??? By himself???).

• One more flashback: Jack is in a morgue. He identifies his dad, who he is told died from a heart attack.

• Jack finds a nice waterfall of what must be fresh water because he’s very excited.

• There are super creepy dolls in and around the water—along with the other half of the plane and his dad’s casket.

• Jack’s dad… is not in the casket. Jack gets very upset.

• Turns out, Boone took the water because he thought someone needed to take responsibility for it.

• It’s only been six days since the crash, so roughly one episode per day so far.

• Jack comes back and is immediately the leader again. He says they need to stop waiting for people to save them and figure shit out as a group.

• There’s a montage of everybody sharing water, which is clearly supposed to be moving.

Logan: So, we’ve got Jack’s backstory becoming relevant to some on-island mysteries (his dead dad walking around, body missing), Boone being a whiny little kid, and the first death of an islander after the initial chaos (I guess maybe the Marshal was first, but he was never in great shape). We also get the first real look at Locke and Jack’s tension/different approaches to life/leadership. Locke is all about profound journeys of self discovery and Jack feels like he needs to save everyone and be practical. But Jack goes on his own little journey and now seems more confident in his leadership, even without wrapping up the mystery of his dad. What were your overall impressions?

Elizabeth: Probably that first death would have been more meaningful if we had heard about or seen the character before, no? I guess I don’t really see why Jack would suddenly be more confident in his leadership ability—because he knows he isn’t crazy now that he’s seen the casket is empty? Personally, I’m not sure anyone should be taking advice from Locke, although I am interested to learn more about what he saw and felt when he saw the monster. His line about the island being beautiful was probably the creepiest moment for me so far.

Logan: Yeah, we literally never saw the dead lady, right? But it’s too early to start killing off the characters we know! Lost was notorious for killing off characters, though, so it’ll come. And yeah, why exactly Jack is more confident now is a little unclear. Practically I think it was sort of a reset for him, he was able to just get away and think. Metaphorically, I think it’s supposed to be about the journey into the wilderness and coming out more knowledgable or something. But that didn’t totally land. How did the whole dead dad backstory and empty casket land for you? I remember thinking those were such cool, compelling mysteries when I first watched it, and I think they held up mostly for me.

Elizabeth: Well, Jack’s dad seems like such an asshole that I’m interested to see what Jack could have done to make his mom take his dad’s side. I like the sort of mystery around whether Jack wanted to be his dad or not—like, they clearly didn’t get along very well, but he seemed pretty emotional in the morgue. So how’s he feeling about the fact that he’s now… a zombie? His little freak-out after finding the casket made it seem like he was angry.

Logan: Yeah, his relationship with his dad is a bit ambiguous, though clearly complicated. I think part of the freakout was maybe the lack of closure—his rant at the airport was about he just needed to get the body to the funeral and be done with it, and now not only can he not do that but his dad is maybe just wandering around the jungle silently? And I think that outburst maybe also helped him reset leadership-wise. Everyone needs to breakdown by themselves once in a while.

On another note, the kind of cheesy ending with the water reminded me that this was a show premiering on ABC in 2004, it felt like such a “we need to have some sort of weekly plot that gets wrapped up in a feel good moment. Grading on the curve of 2004 ABC dramas it’s great, but in retrospect that’s a moment that would’ve not existed or been way quicker if the show was airing today and written for HBO or something. But I also think the ABC-drama of it all does help the show stop itself from getting too self serious at times, which I could definitely see if these writers had complete creative control (I’m thinking of season one of Lindelof’s The Leftovers, which aired on HBO).

Episode 6: House of the Rising Sun

Episode 6 Recap:

• In a Sun and Jin flashback, we learn that she was rich and he was a waiter. (They’re both very attractive.) They’re in love and want to get married, but Sun knows her father won’t approve. Jin promises to talk to him and get his blessing.

• Kate and Jack are just shamelessly flirting about Jack’s tattoos.

• Jin, seemingly out of nowhere, tackles Michael and basically tries to kill him. Sawyer and Sayid break the two up and handcuff Jin to some wreckage, then try to figure out what caused him to attack Michael. It’s hard, since Jin doesn’t speak English and Michael has no idea what’s going on.

• Jack takes Kate, Charlie, and Locke into the jungle to see the waterfall and plane wreckage. He tells them to look for drugs, to which Charlie responds, “Drugs…right.”

• Charlie steps on a beehive, so he has to stand still while the others find a way to cover it without cracking the whole thing open.

• In the next flashback, Sun’s dad gives them permission to get married, but Jin has to work for her dad for a year, and she seems pretty upset by that.

• Charlie can’t help himself (there are bees all over his face!) and swats a bee. He loses balance, so the hive cracks open and the bees swarm like crazy.

• Kate and Jack strip and get in the water; Kate finds a couple of dead bodies in the cave, which they start referring to as Adam and Eve.

• They’ve been dead for 40 or 50 years, Jack estimates. He finds a pouch with two stones, one black and one white, which he hides from the others.

• In the flashback, Jin gets Sun a puppy to keep her company since he works so much. He’s clearly started dressing nicer and enjoying his job; she doesn’t seem happy.

• Jack suggests bringing everyone to the caves with the water since it’s a pretty good shelter and carrying water back and forth is hard

• Walt says that Walt’s mother never talked about Michael. They hardly know each other, though Michael seems to be trying.

• Flashback Jin comes home all bloody, but it’s not his blood. Sun asks, “What did you do for my father?” They have a skirmish and she slaps him. He angrily says that he does whatever her father asks, “for us.”

• Some more insufferable Jack and Kate flirting.

• Charlie and Locke stay to search through the wreckage. Locke knows Charlie and his band. Charlie misses his guitar, and Locke says he has faith that he’ll see it again.

• Jack and Sayid disagree about where to set up camp. There’s a better chance of being seen by a plane or ship on the beach, but the cave is a better overall shelter. It’s a battle of the optimists and pessimists. (Or the dreamers and the realists.)

• Over time, Jin’s job makes him into an asshole, and Sun decides to leave him. A friend helps her get documents and stuff and she plans to leave him while at the airport.

• Turns out Sun totally knows English, which we learn when she talks to Michael. She tells him that Jin attacked him because Michael was wearing Sun’s father’s watch, which they must have lost at some point. She calls it a matter of honor.

• Locke confronts Charlie about the drugs, telling him that “this island might give you what you’re looking for” (his guitar), “but you have to give the island something” (his drugs). Charlie gives Locke his drugs and then Locke points out Charlie’s guitar case.

• Kate doesn’t want to “be Eve” so she’s staying on the beach. Jack asks her, “How did you get to be this way?” (which, ouch) and asks why she was on the run before. She tells him, “You had your chance to know.”

• Michael confronts Jin with an ax and just rants at him for a while. He gives him his watch back and cuts him loose.

• Flashback Sun can’t get herself to go through with the plan, which is sad since she wouldn’t have been on the plane when it crashed if she had left Jin.

• Hurley, Jin, and Sun join Jack, Locke, and Charlie in the caves. (Along with some unnamed characters, I assume.)

Logan: So you’re not a Jack and Kate shipper???

Elizabeth: What gave it away? “Insufferable”?

Logan: What were your overall thoughts on this episode? It introduced the first of several “will they won’t they” relationships (I think several of them end up involving Kate lol) with Jack and Kate, which really felt like it went from 0 to 100 really fast. I remember finding Sun and Jin’s backstory really compelling in my first watches, and I think it held up for me here.

Elizabeth: I think the flashbacks did a good job of explaining where the tension we’ve seen between them in the first five episodes came from. It definitely seemed like an abusive husband vibe, and he does seem a lot more restrictive about what she wears and stuff than we saw in the flashbacks, so it’s interesting to complicate that assumption a little bit and throw in Sun’s dad. I really enjoy her as a character so I hope she can continue to stand on her own. I like the optimists v. pessimists divide this episode proposes. Seems like the kind of ideological divide you’d be really into.

Logan: The ideological divide is a little undercut for me by what you pointed out while we were watching it—just take turns having a few people stay on the beach with the fire and everyone else can stay in the cave. I think that conflict does a good job of reminding the audience that these people are still hoping for rescue/assuming this isn’t long term—the audience knows it's a show and they’re not getting rescued anytime soon.

Are there any characters who haven’t had flashbacks yet that you’re wanting to know more about? And, any thoughts on Locke’s interactions with Charlie? He is really taking on the “older man who gives advice to people” role.

Elizabeth: I still want to know what Kate did, and I’ll never forgive Jack for ruining that for me. But otherwise… I’m not sure. Maybe Claire? And Sayid, for sure. Locke is so much. I guess I see why he trusts the island in a way that seems ridiculous given the circumstances—it “healed” him. But am I supposed to believe the island actually gave Charlie his guitar back? Because it seems pretty obvious to me that Locke just found it and used it as a way to get Charlie off drugs and maybe induct him into Locke’s new cult.

Logan: Yes, I interpreted that as Locke just manipulating Charlie into his faith in the island and not as the island actually doing anything mysterious. I want to say we find out what Kate did in season 1, maaaybe season 2? It’s not a thing that gets dragged out for too too long, at least. And yes, Sayid has some interesting stories to tell when we get there. Before we wrap up this episode I just want to note the white and black stones they found with the bodies—I won’t spoil what those connect to (I don’t think it comes up until well into the final season actually), but those are an example of a classic debate in Lost around “did the writers put that in there with a plan or did they throw stuff in randomly and then come up with an explanation later on”.

Any final comments or ideas before we launch into the next episode?

Elizabeth: The final season?! That definitely feels like something they forgot about until they were almost done. But we’ll see! I think that’s all for me.