Tom Reviews Lost: Season 1 Episode 3 "Tabula Rasa"
It's a Kate episode! So what did we learn about Kate in this episode? Well she's Canadian, and her name isn't Annie. This episode left us wondering why exactly Kate was a fugitive to begin with, but I've already decided that if the show decides to never reveal that bit of information, it will be okay with me, because it makes Kate more mysterious to NOT know what her crime was. Although, we have to assume it was pretty bad, since there appeared to be a pretty big bounty on her head. That poor old guy. He did Kate wrong, but only after giving her a home for three months, and it was clear by his fake arm that he had a hard life that nearly dying in a car accident would NOT make any easier. Although, that whole car scene was kind of awkward. Why didn't he just pull over if he was planning on turning Kate over?
So Sawyer is the name of the belligerent guy from last episode, and he appears to have embraced his new life on the island, and is already going a little wild. I definitely think there is going to be a love triangle between her, Kate, and Jack. Jack and Sawyer contrast each other too much not to end up having to be compared against each other in a love triangle, or at least compete each other for chiefdom amongst the survivors.
Speaking of the chiefdom, it seems that his technical knowledge, and the fact that he knows about the 16 year old distress call has endowed Sayid with the power to lead the survivors. I'm actually very interested to see his whole dividing them into three groups with each group having a leader play out, since I think that'll be a great way to show the dynamics of the relationships between the various characters. Sayid's character still lacks any real depth, but he keeps coming up with good ideas for the plot.
When it comes to the plot, I think it's obvious that the overall arc of the story of Lost will be for the characters to get un-lost. I'm curious to see how this plays out on an episode to episode basis. Many shows are procedural shows, in which every episode presents a new case to solve, or patient to treat, or criminal to catch; but Lost doesn't have that luxury. It's more like Battlestar Galactica, which had that one main storyline of trying to find Earth, but each episode dealt with different types of situations. Battlestar Galactica had the luxury of being set in space with an army of robots constantly threatening the main characters however, while Lost just has a bunch of trees and an unseen monster. "Was it a dinosaur?" Who knows, but I'm not sure how they'll manage to spin this into over a hundred episodes.
While I'm not sure about how the plot will unfold, I am sure that this series will rely on me falling in love with these characters. I've already fallen in love with Kate and Jack, but this episode hooked me on the relationship between the father and son whose names I now know from this plot synopsis are Michael and Walt respectively. The old man whose name I learned is Mr. Locke helps Michael by finding Walt's dog, and letting him take credit. I actually teared up a little when I saw Michael present Vincent the dog to Walt, as it has become clear already that Michael is doing the best he can to establish a good relationship with his son, and despite his ineptitude, I really admire his effort. I would also like to predict that Michael and Sun will have some sort of romance on the island, despite her appearing to be married, because her relationship with her husband does not appear to satisfy her, although I'm starting to suspect that he's not as big an ass as I originally thought he was.
So I guess the only thing left to talk about is the plot of this particular episode, which resolved around the question of euthanasia, although it was never really discussed in those terms. The cop with the shrapnel wound was dying, and there was nothing to do but either allow him to suffer or end his life as quickly as possible. To be honest, I think this topic has been done many times, and the issue has been thoroughly discussed on medical shows and other places as well. To me the choice, and even the debate and reasoning behind the choice to kill the dying man quickly instead of letting him suffer was rather ordinary. What I loved about this episode though, was the way killing the man was actually handled. All throughout the episode we were lead to believe that the man was going to be put out of his misery with the gun containing only one bullet. The gun was introduced at the beginning of the episode seemingly for this sole purpose. We were then lead by the Kate flashbacks to believe that since she was the one with the gun that she would be the one to kill him. Mislead 1. Then we see her walking out of the tent, and we believe she couldn't do it. Mislead 2. Then we hear the gunshot and realize that Sawyer shot the man. Mislead 3. If the cop had died there, it would have been a fine choice on the writers' parts, a mislead and a reveal to help develop two of the main characters. Instead, we find out Sawyer screwed it up, and Jack is forced to finish the task without the use of the gun. The gun, Kate walking into the tent seemingly to kill the cop, Kate coming out without having done it, and Sawyer going ahead and shooting the cop were all misleads. So what does this accomplish? Plotwise it's no different than if the guy had died on his own, but characterwise we got to learn so much about these three people. Kate doesn't have it in her to kill a dying man,even though she believes that's the merciful thing to do, Sawyer does but he needs it to be made easy by having a gun to help, and Jack who doesn't believe in euthanasia at all has it in him to kill without the gun.
Finally, I've decided I like Shannon. She simplifies the whole situation, by wishing the guy would just die because his moaning annoys her.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Dog Whistles.
This episode was pretty much exactly what I asked for in my last review. It focused on one character, Kate, while delivering plenty of character development for several of the other characters. I wasn't necessarily blown away by anything in this episode, although I did love the way they handled killing the cop. I'm looking forward to what happens next in this series.
No comments:
Post a Comment