Lost Rewatch: Do No Harm

 

Few episodes in the history of Lost would be more powerful than this one. To explain one of the reasons, a little history is in order.

Even this relatively early in the Golden Age, the average viewer was used to the deaths of regular characters on cable television even relatively early in the series run. By 2005, network television had caught up with cable and was in some cases ahead of the curve: 24 had stunned the world of television at the end of its first season by killing Terri Bauer in the last minutes of the day – even The Sopranos had not been willing to kill its first series regular until Season 2.

But there’s a difference between killing a character off and a lingering death; one of the key stories of Peak TV then and now was that when  a character died it came so suddenly as to shock the characters and the viewers equally.  By contrast the kind of death that the viewer has to spend a long time preparing for was more a habit of the old era than the new: Bobby Simone’s lingering death that took five full episodes in NYPD Blue; Mark Greene’s perishing of a brain tumor after nearly a half a season of lingering on ER. It’s not really a coincidence that the few deaths that can take a full episode to shock were on hospital dramas; ER had already done as much as much with Lucy Knight dying from injuries in 2000 and Grey’s Anatomy, very sadly, would become infamous for it.

We probably shouldn’t be that surprised that it this kind of death that Boone is undergoing in this episode.  What makes it different is the context. Many characters will die over the course of Lost but, with one critical exception, none will be as protracted as his.

You have a feeling that Jack must know the second that he begins to ‘operate’ on Boone that this is more or less a lost cause: even if he were facing a similar patient in a hospital, the odds of Boone surviving would still be remote, much less in the condition he has too. I have a feeling that is the real reason that the flashback in this episode has to do with the events leading up to Jack’s wedding. To be clear, this is a vital arc in the life of Jack and we will spend much of the next several flashbacks dealing with the repercussions of it (it is his marriage, after all.) But to be clear, the reason we are seeing this is to see that in a sense, Jack is doing everything he can to save Boone, even though he knows it almost certainly doomed, for essentially the same reason he’s marrying Sarah: he cannot let go once he’s committed to something.

We get our first hint of this when Sarah gives her toast. (By this point, Julie Bowen had already made a small breakthrough on TV in the cult series Ed, the following year she would become a regular on Boston Legal and finish the 2000s in her greatest role as Claire on Modern Family.) Sarah has clearly fallen in love with Jack more because she can separate the miracle he has performed on her from the man. (We’ll learn next season that Jack may have had more than one reason for fulfilling this role.) At a certain point Jack should have known that this was a bad idea and the fact that he has chosen to commit to it despite all that clearly demonstrates this larger problem. Given what we saw in Jack’s previous flashback, we’re not inclined to think highly of Christian at this point, and our opinion doesn’t improve when he only shows up after the wedding rehearsal and seems to be arguing that Jack probably shouldn’t be marrying Sarah. (It’s worth noting that in a web episode we’ll learn that Christian didn’t truly feel this way and might have had more awareness about his failings than we thought.) However, when you listen to their conversation its very clear that Jack has doubts about this already and given what he already know about he and Christian’s relationship, he chooses to take this as an act of rebellion more than genuine advice. It probably won’t escape those who might have been paying attention that Christian is essentially giving Jack the same advice Locke gave Boone about letting go of Shannon, and it takes until Boone realizes the truth of his situation when he basically gives the same advice to Jack.

By this point, however, it’s pretty clear that the dying man was literally the only person who could tell Jack what to do: he has already been in the process of setting his own leg, demanding everybody’s blood type and in what will be one of the prime examples of refusing to listen to reason draining his own blood in the hope that it will help Boone. And it is well worth noting that even in what will be the most draining (physically and literally) procedure he’ll perform on the island, the petty and self-righteous nature of Jack Shephard is fully on display. Even though Sun is doing everything in her power to help him, he snaps at her vehemently throughout this episode and when she tells him that ‘he’s done enough,’ he practically shouts Locke’s most famous line at her. When Boone begins to telling him what happened to him, there’s a period where he actually seems more fixated on learning the truth about what Locke’s been doing than helping his patient. And that’s not taking into account his actions at the end of the episode (which I’ll get to in a moment.)  Jack told Kate that he would count to five and then not fixate on the fear. Apparently he would never think the same when it comes to his self-righteousness.

All that said, this is arguably Matthew Fox’s finest hour in Season 1, as he delivers one of the widest ranges of emotion he will give this season. His rage is a constant throughout the episode, but for once both that and his self-righteousness seem more than a mask for the fact that he is doing everything he can to avoid the inevitable: Boone is going to die and he cannot fix him. Boone finally has to tell him what he knows better than anyone before Jack has to give in, and just let Boone die.

But for all the power of Fox’s performance, Do No Harm essentially belongs to the women. It will be maddeningly rare on Lost for an episode where all of the female regulars are used as significantly – and successfully – as this episode.

Yunjun Kim gives arguably her most magnificent performance to date as Sun, playing a role she never expected to do but is perfectly equipped for. She is willing to try and spell Jack during the hard work to get some air, she finds something that can work as a needle, she does everything she can to get Jack stop doing blood, and when she realizes just how far he’s willing to go to try and save the patient, she draws a line in the sand. This is the first time that we realize that there is a backbone of steel behind that persona.

It's also worth noting that this is a great moment for Daniel Dae Kim too; when he sees what is going on with Claire, he drops everything that’s he doing and runs to the caves. Even when he sees just how dire the situation is, he momentarily calls a halt on his rift with Sun to tell her exactly what’s going on and for her to tell him what they’re going to need to do to help. Jin does little more than give moral support during the actual birth, but it’s worth noting that at that moment, moral support is actually what Claire needs.

Because the inevitable has finally happened: Claire is going into labor and the only person qualified to deliver the baby has a patient on the table. Kate, who up until this point has been significant, more wanting to be part of the boys than anything else is now forced to the position of midwife.

Evangeline Lily and Emilie De Ravin are superb throughout the episode: for much of what’s happening it’s clear that both of them are terrified about what’s going to happen, albeit for completely different reasons. Neither is able to let the fear in and just move on. Claire is now frightened because in addition to everything else, she genuinely wonders if the baby knows how hard she tried to give him up.

And honestly, it is impossible to imagine anyone being more supportive and loving that Kate during this sequence. She is clearly as terrified as Claire is, but when push come to shove, she knows she has to be strong for both of them. The scene of the birth of Claire’s baby is one of the most significant in Lost,  less for the significance of the child but because it bonds Claire and Kate together in a way stronger than most blood relations are.

But of course while everything is going horribly for Boone, the one person who needs to know is unaware. Many people have a problem with Shannon’s character (I never objected to her as strongly as some) but it’s hard not to watch the scenes with her and Sayid and not feel utter pain as she talks about how she’s going to have a relationship with Sayid while Boone’s still around. And there are few scenes in the series as powerful as Maggie Grace’s acting when Jack walks up to her and Sayid afterwards and tells her what has happened. With what will become what amounts to Michael Giacchino’s funeral dirge playing, we watch as Shannon breaks down over Boone’s body.  Throughout the season she has belittled her stepbrother at every opportunity, and now that he is dead she looks utterly lost.

Boone is the first major character death in the series and while it is significant in the usual ways, there’s one critical issue. When it came to dealing with the loss of Boone, everyone was willing to come together. Sawyer did not even flinch before handing over all the alcohol that he had (and it was  destroyed before it could get used.) Charlie was willing to ask everyone in the camp for their blood type and ran as fast as he could to try and help Claire with the birth of her child. Michael was willing to do what he needed to amputate Boone’s leg, and even though Jack let him go, he made it clear he would offer. Even the squeamish Hurley stuck it out and helped when he could.

There was one significant absence and we all know who it was. Jack’s reaction that Locke ‘murdered’  Boone is by the far most extreme and it will make the gaps in their relationship irreparable. While it’s unlikely Jack could have saved him if he’d gotten the truth, Locke’s disappearance – and far worse, his eventual attitude towards Boone’s death – is something that much of the camp will be never be able to forgive. Locke will not show up until the next episode and when he does, the fractures between him and the rest of the camp will start to form and even excluding Jack, quickly become irreparable.