Lost: Collision

 

TV History Note: The actor who plays Ana Lucia’s partner in the patrol car, Michael Cudlitz, was basically unknown in the fall of 2005. In 2009 he would be one of the lead actors on a failed NBC drama called Southland  which he played another LAPD officer. The series would be cancelled after one failed season but be picked up by TNT and run for another five. The show was one of the most critically acclaimed of its era and Cudlitz in particular received much praise and award nominations. Cudlitz himself would win a Supporting Actor prize from the Critics Choice Awards in 2013, the year the show was cancelled. Immediately after leaving, he joined the cast of The Walking Dead and his character would famously meet his end at the hands (and bat) of Negan. His last major role was on the cast of the failed (but fascinating) Clarice. Small world, ain’t it?

 

Collision is rarely considered among the all-time great episodes of Lost, even though it has some of the most powerful moments in the season and perhaps the series. Again, I think this is mainly because of how quickly the tail section survivors became non-entities within a season. But watching this episode, you really get the feeling that was never the plan of the writers. There are so many moments in this episode that make you think that the writing staff clearly had long term plans for all of them.

This is particularly clear in the case of Ana Lucia who becomes the first survivor of the tail section to get her own flashback. Seeing her story unfold you can clearly see the parallels the writers are trying to draw between her and many of the characters we’ve already met. For one, like Jack, she clearly has issues with a parent she’s spent her life trying to live up to. Just as Jack became a spinal surgeon to try and prove himself to his father, Ana Lucia clearly became a cop to live up to the expectations of her mother. (As we shall see, there’s a more direct link than that.) Unlike Christian, Teresa Cortez is more protective of her daughter than Christian was,  but Ana Lucia clearly bucks against her just as much as Jack does Christian and there’s clearly bitterness as part of this. (Teresa may have spoiled the surprise for Ana Lucia because of her true unhappiness as to why her daughter won’t let her protect her.) Teresa wants to help her daughter after the horrible trauma that unfolded but she is blind as to just how damaged Ana Lucia is.

There are also clear links to Kate and Sawyer in that, like them, Ana Lucia killed a man in the past (we saw Sawyer’s murder, we’re about to see Kate’s) and as we learn in the worst possible way,  she has a link to Claire. But the character she has the clearest link to is Sayid.

By the time the episode has even begun, Ana Lucia has permanently torched any possible chance of any civil relationship between them because of her accidental killing of Shannon. One of the great ironies of this is well before we learned anything about Ana Lucia’s past, it was already clear that she and Sayid were far more suited for a romantic relationship that he and Shannon ever were. Both were fundamentally haunted by their actions in the past, both had experience in law enforcement and firearms, and both fundamentally felt themselves as solitary well before they came to the island. When Sayid shouts out that Ana has no plan: “She has only her guilt… and a gun,” it’s clear that he’s been exactly where Ana was so long before.

Ana’s leadership over the tail section survivors has been fragmenting ever since the trek back to the beach and this officially unravels it. Eko’s first reaction to Sayid’s rage is to tackle him, but its done solely to protect further violence. When Ana demands Eko search Sayid for weapons, he is stunned and refuses to help her. Ana’s leadership is now being maintained by gunpoint and when Michael goes to give Sayid water, it’s clear that even he has the measure of Ana now. By that point Eko has made the decision that he must save Sawyer and once he is gone, the rest of it unravels.

There’s something terribly sad about watching Ana Lucia during this episode. It’s been clear for a while she’s been leading based on terror rather than authority and as soon as outsiders began to question what she’d been doing, it was inevitable she didn’t have that any more. When she orders Michael to get her ammo and survival equipment, it’s pretty obvious that she has decided  the only path forward for her is isolation. After Bernard begins to challenge her – understandably – she finally gives up. It’s telling that Jin is the last to leave – he desperately wants to see Sun again, but he knows that if he leaves there is an excellent chance Sayid will not survive.

The last scene between Sayid and Ana Lucia is incredible as well as one of the most heartbreaking. It’s clear that Sayid has resigned himself to his fate and there is clearly a part of him that welcomes it. Shannon’s death has clearly taken all the heart out of him and he doesn’t seem to see a way forward. The former torturer doesn’t have to lay a hand or even say anything to Ana to get her to reveal her darkest secret,

It's just as clear that Ana doesn’t see a reason to live anymore. She reveals something we’ve suspected for a while – the shooting truly killed her spirit as much as it did her unborn child. (The flashbacks have clearly been hinting at it in both her therapy session and the fact that Ana snaps when she hears a crying baby on the distress call.) She can’t bring herself to confess what she actually did to the man who nearly killed her, but when she frees Sayid its clear that she’s hoping that his actions will absolve her of the murders she committed. There are those who say that Sayid’s decision not to torture Ana Lucia showed that he had managed to move forward from his actions. When he tells her: “What good would it do to kill you if we’re both already dead?” there’s an argument that he has entirely given it up. He’s already told Ana that he has spent his life carrying the guilt of his actions; perhaps he thinks it is just as fitting that she carry the guilt of hers.

By the time this has ended, we’re dealing with a new set of circumstances brought about by a different set of reunions. Kate and Jack have spent the season so far calm, charming and by the time we get to this episode, playful with each other again. Then when they are actually in the middle of play, Eko shows up with Sawyer on his back.

Jack devotes his attention to trying to save Sawyer’s life but as much as he tries to hide it, it clearly stings that Kate is able to get Sawyer to take pills that Jack initially gives him. It’s now obvious that the gentleness between them only happened because Sawyer wasn’t in the picture any more.

A meeting that is going to be critical for the season that follows – and doubtless was going to be more important – is the first meeting of Locke and Eko. This is the first time we’ve been back in the hatch for three episodes and its worth noting that we haven’t seen Locke back in for a bit either. The diminishing of Locke’s character hasn’t been obvious for a while, and he’s been making more of an effort to be social in a way he wasn’t in a bit. (He has just learned there’s a real possibility Charlie is using again but he won’t try to deal with that for a bit.) Admittedly, there’s a troubling sign when he asks Jack what’s going on when he brings in Sawyer, and all Jack to say is: “Locke? The button,” to get rid of him.

But for the rest of the episode he’s closer to being who he was. He asks Eko what’s going on, he’s clearly upset Shannon’s dead, and while he’s a little put off as to why Eko won’t take him to his friends, he seems to believe Eko’s explanation.

Jack initially can’t handle Eko’s infinite calm any better than Locke’s faith, though in this case he has a valid reason too – Shannon has been murdered, Sawyer is clearly critical, and there’s a good chance if they stall Sayid will be dead too. But when Eko shouts: “Stop!” and then loudly demands what he hopes to accomplish, Jack freezes in a way we haven’t seen before – with good reason. Many people have challenged and even defied Jack’s leadership over the past seven weeks, but no one has ever commanded him to stop. Jack momentarily tries to challenge Eko, and then he is frozen when he tells him that ‘Ana Lucia made a mistake.’ This shakes him nearly as much as seeing Desmond did earlier this season for basically the same cause: he clearly never expected to learn that someone he knew before he got on the plane was also on the island. Eko will clearly be seen as a connection to many of the characters going forward, but he will never be used in connection with Jack quite as much, though based on the few times they interact going forward it’s pretty clear that the writers were trying to set Eko up as much as a counterpoint to Jack as they were Locke. When you learn the original plan was for the writers was to keep Eko alive until at least the fifth season, much of what you are seeing here is clear.

It’s interesting also to know that at this point Michael is clearly still focused on getting everybody back together more than he is finding his son. He is appalled by Ana Lucia’s decision to tie Sayid up, outright calls her bluff when he goes to give Sayid water, has no problem telling him what’s happening and when he agrees to go and get Ana what she needs, we know very well he has no intention of doing so. At this point his loyalty is to his friends. He makes it very clear to Sun that Jin is fine than he goes to the hatch and is more than willing to help Jack end the standoff with Ana Lucia and is willing to use violence if he has too. At this moment Michael knows the only path forward is part of the team and only an outside event will change that.

The last two minutes are among the most profoundly moving in the show’s history: almost twenty years later I can’t watch it without misting over. Rose and Bernard’s reunion is profoundly moving, particularly from the look of astonishment on Sam Anderson’s face as he finally accepts the reality of what’s been told and L. Scott Caldwell managing to maintain her composure even as he hold him. And then of course there is the equally wonderful moment that we’ve waiting for longer: Sun and Jin’s reunion on the beach; Jin making his way through the bodies to find Sun, Sun doing a double take when she finally sees her husband again, and the look of joy that crosses both their faces when they reunite. The Sun-Jin love story has begun in earnest from this point on and will be one of the great joys of these series the rest of the way.

Then we see Sayid carrying off Shannon’s body, barely acknowledging Jack and Eko as he walks back to the beach. And then there is the most unlikely reunion of all: Jack and Ana Lucia. When they first met Jack seemed wrecked beyond repair and Ana Lucia seemed totally together (though in hindsight its never clear why she seemed so good back then.) Now after forty eight days, things have completely changed. Both have been de facto leaders for that long, but while Jack’s leadership seems to have given a path forward and made him whole, Ana Lucia’s tenure has fundamentally broken and perhaps permanently wrecked her in a way she wasn’t even before she came back to the force. Jack has been able to fix a lot of things. Can he fix Ana Lucia? He might have…had outside circumstances not intervened.