Tom Reviews Lost: Season 1 Episode 4: "Walkabout"
First off, I have decided for some reason to keep track of how long they've been on the island. This episode begins by telling us that this is the fourth day, and it ends the next night, so by my count this episode ends on Night Five. We'll see how long I can keep that up.
First off, I don't know which quotes are considered to be classics by the fans, but Locke has one that clearly should be.
"Don't tell me what I can't do!"
Anyways, this was a Locke episode. I wasn't surprised by the ending where it is revealed that Locke was in a wheelchair prior to the crash, because I had semi-predicted this during the boar scene when Locke is staring at his feet, but I still found the reveal to be very satisfying. I like the twisted backstory of Locke, which includes him having an 8 month long relationship with the phone sex artist, Helen. Locke is a weird guy. That's one of the biggest things I took away from this episode. He's really weird, and not a real Colonel. I guess that his obsession with the Australian Walkabout will serve him well though, as he appears to know everything there is to know about hunting and outdoor survival, at least in theory. I would have enjoyed seeing Locke kill the boar, but I guess the writers decided it was better to have the mislead that Locke might have been attacked by the still unseen monster haunting the island. I didn't worry about him though, which shows that the writers have yet to establish how much danger these characters are in. They should take a page out of Joss Whedon's book and kill off Kate, so that we think that anyone might die.
I'm kidding. I love Kate. I'm pretty sure that the writers didn't know who they were going to have Kate hook up with at this point, so the directors have decided to have the actress build sexual tension with every male in the show. So far she appears to have some chemistry with Jack, Sawyer, Sayid, and even a little with Locke. That's pretty impressive, but it's clear to me that the Jack/Kate ship is going to the big one of this series. There was one scene in this episode where the two both just briefly touched each other, and it was clear that there was a massive amount of heat between them. I'm sure that scene is used often by the ship vidders. I'm really impressed by the chemistry between these two actors. Usually when something in a TV show is working, it's because of good writing, but this goes beyond that I think. There's just really good chemistry there.
The pregnant girl's name is Claire, and the older black woman's name is Rose. I remember previews of the show that spoiled something related to one of these characters or something they said, so I'm not going to spend too much time talking about them. Overall they were kind of boring this episode, although I appreciate the writers keeping them present in the show for the audience.
I've decided I like Shannon and her decision to be an apathetic bitch. It takes a strong person to stand by their apathy in the face of such overwhelming tragedy. Boone can take his empathy and suck it.
This episode did a nice job of starting to add depth to Sayid. The idea of him having pictures of some lost love or whatever she is seems to me to be a rather lame way to do it, but it helps us understand his tension later in the episode. He's one of a very small number of people amongst the survivors who is actually doing anything helpful, and I guess that puts a lot of pressure on a person. By the way, if the writers decide to have Kate and Sayid hook up, I will be okay with it just because of how much of a curve ball that would be.
Jack appears to be uncomfortable with the sentimentality of mourning the dead. From last episode, we know that Jack has a respect for human life, but here it's shown that he's a pragmatist when it comes to the idea of the afterlife. He just wants to burn the bodies so that no more wild boars attack them all. Understandable. What is not understandable, is his weird vision of a guy in a suit. What's up with that? I'm going to throw a crazy prediction out there, and say that it's his father, just because we learned in this episode that Jack became a doctor because of family tradition. So I'm guessing he has father issues.
I enjoy Michael trying to impress his son by going hunting, although I have no idea why he would have Sun, one of only two people on the island he can't communicate with easily, be the person to watch Walt. It lends credence to my belief that at some point he'll hook up with her though.
Charlie's drug habit annoys me, but his fishing scene with Hurley was fun.
Rating: 9 out of 10 burning wheelchairs.
This episode had a lot going on, and yet it didn't feel cluttered. The writers packed a lot into this episode without hurting the pacing, and the result was a very enjoyable episode that helped develop nearly all of the characters. I'm mostly ignoring the mysterious science fictiony elements of the story, and my hope is that the show doesn't focus too much on those elements. I'm much more interested in the character dynamics, and I want to see these people try to create a new society on the island. The thriller and mystery aspects don't need to disappear by any means, but I want the focus to remain on finding out more about these people. I would also appreciate learning about some of the other survivors, and seeing the main characters interact with them. For now though, I'm really enjoying this series.
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