Lost - "One of Them"

Episode Title: “One of Them”

Brian’s Deeper Meaning Guess: Inevitably in life, sides are always drawn. No matter who you are or what you do – in the end, sides will form. You’re either going to be one of us or one of them. Philosophical discussions about stereotypes aside, what does it mean to us?

On the Island, the episode title clearly refers to this curious fellow:



Who is he? SAT-style multiple choice time!

a. A survivor of Flight 815 who somehow ended up on his own?
b. An ever-elusive “Other”?
c. Kelvin, the supposedly dead co-Hatch-dweller of Desmond?
d. A resident of another Hatch, not affiliated with any of the aforementioned parties?
e. None of the above.

See, it’s tricky because I threw in that “none of the above” answer. However, I’m leaning towards D. Why? One big clue. Remember the “timer” we saw in the preview, counting down to zero, causing gasps and little girl shrieks of joy from the Delta House viewing faithful (note: shrieks came from me, not any of the girls in attendance). Look closer:



They’re different. They seem to be doing the same thing – but they’re not even close in appearance. So (unless it appears in some dream sequence, which would anger me more than anything in the world) there’s obviously some other timer on the Island. Where better than inside another Hatch? Although back in the day, I originally thought that each Hatch would have its own “experiment” going on (since the Orientation video listed all the different “focuses” of Dharma), it now seems as though at least two have the same “push the button” action going on.

Strange.

A bigger question is why did this guy leave his Hatch? Assuming he’s anything like Desmond, he believes that he has to be there or else something terrible will happen. I can’t imagine that he would leave his post, unless he ran out of supplies?

In the end though, the important thing is that he doesn’t appear to be one of our Survivors. He’s not one of us, he’s one of them… and that’s the most dangerous thing someone can be at this point on the Island.

Fresh off the attempted Sun abduction (which remember, most still think was the work of an Other), any strangers to the Survivors are a potentially dangerous enemy. Let’s not forget that so far everyone they’ve met on the Island has either kidnapped them, murdered them, stole their children, or talked them into pressing a button every 108 minutes. Not a good track record.

But let’s not forget this is also a Sayid-centric ep, so I’m thinking the title also refers Sayid being “one of them”. Through his other flashbacks, we’ve seen that Sayid was a torturous Iraqi with a heart, a sucker for ladies with big brown eyes, and willing to do a little spying for the Great Satan of America if it means he can get closer to his one true love (not Shannon).

When we last left Sayid in his flashbacks, he was pretty much a good dude - so, I think we’re going to see Sayid thrown in with stereotypes of being a flag-burning Iraqi commie, “one of them” to Americans who don’t trust him no matter how much he helps them. There’s also a chance we see him as a traitor to his fellow Iraqi countrymen, since he’s helping the Americans spy rather than fighting them.

Look for the parallels between Sayid being persecuted for being an outsider or different in his flashbacks while the innocent stranger on the Island is being persecuted for being mysterious – likely ending with Sayid finding he can’t torture this person, because he feels his pain.

TV Guide Description: When Rousseau leads Sayid to a mysterious captive in the jungle, he becomes determined to find out if he is one of the "Others." Meanwhile, Sawyer discovers Hurley's potentially devastating breech of the survivors' trust and blackmails him into helping track an elusive island creature that won't leave Sawyer alone.

TV Guide Breakdown: Again, the real mystery for me is “how did this guy get captured”? If he were a true “Other”, he would have the catlike cunning to avoid the trap in the first place. But if he were a Hatcher like Desmond, what is he doing in the jungle where he would get trapped in the first place? Very confusing.

Hurley’s devastating breech of the survivors’ trust? The only thing I can think of is that he’s been hoarding food from the Hatch this whole time (thus explaining why he’s not losing weight). I can’t imagine any other situation that would involve Hurley losing the trust of the other Survivors. Sawyer likely stumbles upon Hurley’s food stash on the way to his own gun stash, then blackmails him into tracking that darn cat – er, boar – that’s been tormenting him for going on two seasons.

I agree, bringing the whole boar storyline back seems like an unnecessary rehash of last year’s storyline. I mean, didn’t we already resolve this when Sawyer let the boar go? Why is he suddenly being tormented again? I’m hoping for something different, but I fear this storyline will leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Overall, I’m more excited for this episode than last week’s. The promise of a new character on the Island, the return of CFL, and a potential new Hatch are enough to make it a worthwhile episode that will actually advance the storyline on the Island.

Previously on Lost…

Locke Box. As predicted, Locke claims he’s keeping the Heroin as pain medication. Riiiiiight. I’m telling you, he’s evil! (Although it was pretty funny when Jack asked why he didn’t break the Virgin Mary statues…)



Vincent. Once again, Vincent seems to show up right before disaster strikes. This time, it’s before another freak rain storm and Charlie’s “Other” impersonation. Is this a coincidence? Does it represent how dogs can sense evil? Or could it be there is some sort of connection between Vincent and the seeming all-knowing Walt. Is Walt no longer appearing as a Ghost to warn about danger, but instead having Vincent go in his place? It might be a little too “Timmy in the Well” for Lost, but it’s better than Sully’s “Dog is God spelled backwards” theory…



Script. Did you see what Hurley was reading by the campfire?



Hello product placement! Guess what book is coming out on May 2nd?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401302769/sr=8-1/qid=1139881978/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7105998-4498266?%5Fencoding=UTF8



So what’s the deal? This book, actually written by Lost writers, is authored under the pen name “Gary Troup” (FYI – rearrange the letters to spell “PURGATORY”!!!!). Here’s his bio:

Bad Twin is the highly-anticipated new novel by acclaimed mystery writer Gary Troup. Bad Twin was delivered to Hyperion just days before Troup boarded Oceanic Flight 815, which was lost in flight from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles in September 2004. He remains missing and is presumed dead.

Fun, huh?

The story in the book has nothing to do with the story on the Island, as it was “written” before the plane crashed. But I’d be willing to bet there’s some symbolism hidden in there that we can correlate to the Island. Needless to say, I’ll be buying it when it comes out and reading it. Stupid Lost Media Machine! I’m powerless in your grasp!

Kate. Did you catch the waitress in the diner in Sawyer’s flashback? That’s right, it was Kate’s mom. Again we see how the Survivor’s lives have all nearly criss-crossed (jump, jump) without their knowledge. Is there some master plan at work, or is this just an example of how we are all connected to one another without knowing it as we move through our day to day lives?

Love. Okay, so Sawyer turns out to return to his rebel roots. After thinking he was going soft by letting Kate cut his hair and altruistically going after Michael and Walt, he goes and totally turns on us. It definitely is a shake up to the balance of power on the Island, ripping it away from Jack / Locke, and making Sawyer king. Does this mean when Survivors start taking sides, it’ll be Jack or Locke or Sawyer? Or will Jack and Locke compete for Sawyer to join their side, knowing that it will give them all the power? At any rate, it doesn’t look like the army is going to be trained any time soon, not without any guns.

Here’s the part that I don’t get – Sawyer pretty much ruined any chance he had of hooking up with Kate. Con or no con, that’s a bad move on his part. She’s freakin’ hot!



Radio. Sometimes I think the Lost writers throw things in an episode just because they want me to type pages upon pages of pages of analysis about them, only to read them and laugh at how I’m their puppet. Not this time. During the Sayid and Hurley scene with the radio, Hurley comments on how the song seemed to be “from another time”, which instantly made me think the whole “time warp” theory was back… except Hurley instantly followed his comment with “or not”, as if to brush the whole thing off as a joke. A joke from the writers to me. Very funny. Stop toying with my emotions!


Owls. Lastly, something else you could chalk up to “intentionally messing with the viewer” is the intentional shot of the book that Locke was pulling off the bookshelf in the Hatch when Sawyer came in.



"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is the story of a man who is sentenced to death by hanging at the Owl Creek Bridge of the title. When he is hanged the rope breaks and the main character falls into the water, from which he begins a journey back to his home. During his journey, he starts to feel some strange physiological events that ultimately end with a searing pain in his neck. It turns out that the man never escaped; he imagined the entire thing during the time between being pushed off the bridge and the noose finally breaking his neck.

Are we to take this to mean that the whole Purgatory theory is alive and well, and that everyone on the Island is dead? Only imagining they are alive. JJ Abrams is on record saying this is not the case, but admits that it’s a good theory. I’d chalk this up to another Red Herring.

But fun nonetheless. That's all for this week.