I continue to learn about plane crashes and tropical island survival from this show. The first step will be to involved in such an incident. The plane in Lost left from Australia and I fly in planes that leave from Australia all the time so I’m set there. I’ve been debating the value of being a doctor after a plane crash. On the one hand I could save people’s lives and be a hero, but if I wasn’t a doctor the injured people would die and there’d be more supplies for the rest of us. A tough call. The seriously injured people probably wouldn’t survive anyway. Medical assistance would just stretch out their painful death.

From that last bit you may have guessed that the injured Marshal isn’t doing well.[ftn] He has had the metal in his belly removed but there aren’t strong enough antibiotics to fight his infection.[ftn] The Marshal’s hapless plight highlights the theme this episode: the slow change of the group from following civilised laws to a more survival orientated outlook. Sawyer, while looting alcohol and cigarettes from inside the plane, laughs at Jack’s attempts to save the marshal and tells him to wake up to the fact that they’re “in the wild”. The climax at the end of the episode is a confrontation about what to do with the Marshal. I wouldn’t get too attached to him, if I were you.[ftn]

It’s looking like each episode will focus on a different character past and tell their back story. This episode Kate is the one suffering from a flashback disorder. She’s severely afflicated and spends most of the episode staring into space. It’s a contagious disease with a short incubation period. Her flashbacks leave some questions unanswered so I’m hoping she’ll catch the disease again.

For the rest of the survivors, once the hiking group from last episode return, they start making some long term plans for survival. Shannon is still convinced they’ll be rescued and won’t do anything to help. No one has dealt with the dead bodies; they’re going to stink up the place soon. There’s plenty of other subplots on the boil but they’re too numerous to mention here. On the naked front, there is a backshot of Sun topless.

The episode ends with a cheery music montage and a sudden close up of the bald guy looking evil.[ftn] He’s up to something.

Footnotes

1. Or possibly not. It’s been sometime since my last review about Lost and you may have forgotten the plot so far. To sum up: The Marshal is injured and the prognosis isn’t good.
2. Mr Chemist, I may be involved in a plane crash so I need your strongest antibiotics.
3. He isn’t even given a name, so he’s a goner. Everyone just calls him the Marshal[ftn]
4. The one with a scar over one eye.
5. Unless that’s his name, although I don’t know any parents who’d call their kid ‘the Marshal’.

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This entry was posted by the illustrious Andy Cocker on Wednesday, January 5th, 2005. It concerns such pressing issues as . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.