A Very Special Lost

Lost Episode Title: "Special"

Character Involved: Michael and Walt (the father and son)

TV Guide Description: Violence ensues and a mysterious island beast makes a re-appearance when Michael and Locke clash over Walt's upbringing. Meanwhile, Charlie is tempted to read the missing Claire's diary, and Sayid enlists Shannon to help decipher the French woman's map.

Brian's Deeper Meaning Guess: I’ve been all over this one for a while. Remember in the first episode, when Walt looked at the Spanish comic book with a picture of an angry polar bear, and minutes later people were being attacked by a polar bear? Coincidence? Remember in the third episode, when Walt wanted Michael to look for his dog Vincent but it was raining and Michael said "I’ll look when it stops raining"? It immediately stopped raining. Coincidence? Remember when Walt needed very particular rolls of the dice against Hurley when playing backgammon and kept getting them every time? Coincidence? I THINK NOT! There is something seriously up with this kid. He is "special". He has "magic powers." Did he have them before they crashed on the island? Maybe. Is the island somehow causing them? Maybe. The previews say "From start to finish, this episode answers more questions than any other episode ever has". Could so many of the island’s mysteries be tied to Walt?

TV Guide Description Breakdown: The mysterious island beast makes his reappearance this week, meaning last week the monster was 100% inside Boone’s head. Is the monster somehow tied to Walt? If you think about it, the monster has only "appeared" twice times where people saw more than the trees moving. The pilot in the first episode. Dead. Locke in the fourth episode. Drastically changed. Everyone else simply hears the mechanical sound and sees trees moving.

Could the monster somehow be connected to "violence" occurring on the island? In the first episode, there was the violence of the plane crashing into the island and the forest. In Locke’s episode, he was attempting to kill the boars, an animal of the island. The monster as a defense mechanism on the island? This could explain why the description says the monster reappears when "violence" occurs between Locke and Michael.

The clash between Michael and Locke has been brewing since episode one. Locke taught Walt backgammon in the first episode - "a game of light and dark". Walt showed interest in wanting to hunt with Locke in later episodes, and looks up to him. Michael somewhat abandoned Walt for his own self interests when he would rather golf than hang out with Walt. There’s a definite rift there.

Why is Locke so interested in Walt? If you think about it, Locke has been working to better everyone on the island so far. Helping Jack get over his father’s death, helping Charlie kick his drug habit, helping Boone un-obsess about Shannon. Could Michael be a negative influence on Walt, that Locke is trying to free him of? Why was Ethan so concerned about kidnapping pregnant Claire? Is there something about babies / kids on the island that give them some magic power? Has Locke figured this out, and wanting to combat the "evil" Claire baby, is recruiting the "good" Walt to his side?

Charlie is still obviously obsessing about Claire - and it’s about time someone did! Since her disappearance three episodes ago, she hasn’t hardly been mentioned. However, I expect that to change next week, where the episode is about Charlie again (and smart money is on his flashback being of what happened when Ethan abducted him and Claire), and the episode is titled "Homecoming." Is Claire coming home? Will she be with or without child? Wait, this is a topic for next week’s Email - I digress…

The last point is about Sayid enlisting Shannon’s help to read CFL’s maps (not to be confused with CCL). But… didn’t this happen last week… and the week before? Maybe this means they actually venture out to follow the maps this week.


Last Week’s Episode Discussion Points:
Last week’s episode was fantastic. It touched upon many characters, hinted at a LOT of different things. I would probably rank it my third favorite, behind the Locke episode and the Charlie episode. Let’s get at it:

LOCKE. Good? Evil? I’m thinking good now. I think Locke is preparing all of them for a battle (the survivors of the plane crash vs. the "Others" on the island OR maybe the cave people vs. the beach people). He's now prepared Jack, Charlie, Boone, and now looks to be working on Walt by making them "let go" of their inner demons / troubles. Does he know that some big battles is coming, and he’s shoring up his side?

Also, can Locke see the future? He was preparing the ointment he put on Boone’s head long before Boone mentioned anything about telling Shannon… and at the end, he said to Boone "Is that what IT made you see?" referring to the monster? This makes the monster seem more physical than something imaginary. Does Locke know that the monster makes you see things? What did the monster show him? The "inner beauty of the island" or whatever he said?

KATE. Where was the plane this week? She seemed totally happy and upbeat compared to last week’s episode, which was weird.

BOONE. What caused the hallucination? The monster? Did Locke know that if someone is left alone in the forest, the island will make them see things? The weird thing is that Shannon’s body was torn up very similar to the pilot’s, and Boone never saw the pilot’s body - only Kate and Jack did. So either it’s a big coincidence that in Boone’s mind, the monster would attack in the same way as in Jack and Kate’s minds, or the monster is actually causing these visions of death. Did the pilot from the first episode really die? Or exist at all?

THE METAL HATCH. I thought the Michelangelo speech Locke gave was very interesting. What is inside the metal hatch? There’s no outside handle, so it can only be opened from the inside. This must mean there is an entrance somewhere else on the island. I think it must be some entrance to a research facility type place. The other option is that it’s some sort of fallout shelter, if the island was used for nuclear experimentation.

THE COMPASS. When Locke gave Sayid the compass, he said "I don’t need it anymore." Sayid and Jack determined that the compass does not point north. Did Locke tamper with the compass to keep Sayid from following the maps and finding something? Or was Locke unaware the compass didn’t work, and simply meant "I know the island well enough to not need this anymore"?


Yikes - I think I’m in trouble, because looking at this Email, almost every sentence is ending with a question mark. I have so many questions! Hopefully, tonight will answer some of them, as promised in the previews. Here’s the other exciting news. Apparently, ABC is working to get the show’s producers to make 24 episodes, rather than the typical 22 episodes most shows have each year. YES! The bad news is that after tonight, there are no new episodes until February 9th.

Also, here are the upcoming episodes, their titles, and the characters involved, just to whet your appetite:

"Homecoming" - Charley’s Second Flashback (will we see what happened when he and Claire were abducted?)

"Outlaws" - Sawyer’s Second Flashback (will we see what caused him to be in the same prison as Boone in last week’s episode?)

"… in Translation" - Jin’s Flashback (how clever is that episode title? Think about it for a second…)

"Numbers" - Hurley’s Flashback (the last flashback of the regular characters - this one has to be huge)

After that, there’s at least 4 more episodes (and I’m hoping 6!), one of which is Locke’s second flashback - so you know that has to be good.

Okay, the Delta House is open for business tonight for Lost / Alias / Meeting point for going to Burning Desires after Lost, if you’re still young and fun.