Lost Rewatch: Tricia Tanaka is Dead

 

Like most of the episodes centered around Hurley, Tricia Tanaka is Dead initially seems to more about comic relief than anything connected with the overarching story. This seems to have been a design of the writers throughout the first half of the show: every episode having to do with Hurley always followed what had been more important storyline to the overarching narrative. The most obvious example was with Dave, in which we seemed to spend an episode trying to dealing with Hurley’s eating problems rather than the revelations about Henry Gale’s true identity.

But, as with Hurley himself, there are always layers underneath and a method to the madness. The flashback tells us a bit more about Hurley’s childhood, how his father abandoned him as a child and how he returned just before Hurley got on the flight to Sydney. Because the story involves Hurley, it’s not as tragic as so many of the other backstories involving parents, which doesn’t make it any less painful. We never know why exactly Mr. Reyes chose to leave his wife and family at the start of the flashback but by the standards of the parents we’ve met on Lost, he doesn’t seem so much evil as just basically a deadbeat and opportunist. (The one real flaw in Carmen Reyes seems to be that she’s so willing to accept him back into her life – and hysterically, into her bed – so quickly. But ‘A woman has needs.’)

Even Mr. Reyes’ con, half-assed as it is, seems to come out of a genuine desire to help his son. Mr. Reyes doesn’t have the best reputation in the eyes of fans of the show, but I’ve always kind of been a fan of his. It’s not so much because he’s played by Cheech Marin (who is actually underplaying his well known antics) as to the fact that there really does seem to be affection for his son that we just don’t see in so many of the fathers on this show. When he comes into Hurley’s room as he’s packing for his trip, I really think he is making an effort to reach out to his son and that Hurley, who is so often the picture of humor, is so justifiably hurry by his father’s abandonment that he refuses to see the gesture for what it is. And it’s worth noting that when Mr. Reyes tells his son that he will be waiting for him when he gets back from Sydney, he will actually keep his word. Mr. Reyes is never going to be a model father, but we have to give him points for effort.

Garcia actually gives one of his best performances in the first half of the series in this episode, particularly given the opening scene on the island. Here he reveals his fears and anxieties in a way that almost none of the characters ever do. Of course, because this is Lost he is doing it to someone who has already died. (Was the fact that we see him talking to Libby as if she were still alive a foreshadowing of a character arc to come?) Then Hurley goes to talk to Charlie who tells him that Desmond has seen his death.

Hurley’s reaction is actually keeping in with what we already know about his character.  At the end of ‘Numbers’ he told Charlie that the crash might have been his fault. Given everything that has happened since then – given everything that happened in what has basically been the last two weeks – it’s hard not to understand why he feels this way.

That actually makes much of his action in the next episode almost out of character. Hurley has spent so much time in the jungle seeing death and destruction that you’d thinking finding an abandoned car that has a skeleton in the driver’s seat something he’d run from. Instead, he truly chooses to see the glass is half-full. I don’t entirely blame the rest of the survivors for looking at him like he’s crazy when he tells that he found a car and they can fix it up – repairing a busted van does seem like a fool’s errand – but it’s hard not to love the enthusiasm on Hurley’s face. So much of the time on the show he’s clearly been trying to fake his good mood; it’s rare to see him – or anyone – genuinely optimistic.

Hurley spends much of the episode hauling in recruits. Jin involuntarily joins the event, but after awhile it’s clear he’s getting to it. The bigger surprise is Sawyer. Indeed, this episode leads to a significant shift in the Sawyer-Hurley relationship. Considering all of the derogatory nicknames Sawyer has bestowed already (and there are more to come) Hurley is genuinely happy to see Sawyer, no doubt because he thought there was a very real chance he’d never see him again at the end of Season 2. Even stranger is that Sawyer actually seems glad to see Hurley. Much of the banter between them in this episode is funny without openly being cruel on Sawyer’s part. Perhaps that might explain part of what happens near the end of the episode: When Sawyer fires another in a long line of insults at Hurley, Hurley responds: “Shut up, Red…neck…man!” This is a pretty pathetic insult but Sawyer is clearly so impressed by the effort, he just says ‘Touché’ and keeps going.

The car itself is important to the plot of Season 3 in more ways than one. It’s not just that it’s clearly a relic from the Dharma Initiative, it’s the fact that the driver is Roger Workman. Sawyer correctly deigns that Roger is a janitor. (He has no idea that the two of them will end up spending a lot of time together.) The viewer has no reason to think this is an unimportant mystery, one that might be less important. In fact, we will not only learn the identity of the driver, but who he is related to on the island and how he ended up dying.

Hurley convinces Charlie to take the car out for a ride because ‘they both need a win’. Charlie is trying to convince himself that his death isn’t imminent. Hurley is trying to prove to himself that there is no such thing as a curse and that we make our own luck. So he and Charlie have their car with no brakes, pushes off the edge of a cliff towards a pile of jagged rocks. There is a long, long pause before Hurley turns the key – and an eight-track starts playing.

The moment of joy and triumph that we see not just on the faces of Hurley and Charlie, but Jin and Sawyer is genuinely wonderful because it’s hard not to see this as some kind of triumph, perhaps not over death but of the human spirit. Sawyer said before that “there ain’t no hope on this island” and this seems to have proven him wrong. The scene near the end shows optimism: Jin and Sun look at each other warmly (perhaps Jin uses one of the phrases that Sawyer taught him). Claire and Charlie curl up together and Charlie looks happy for the first time this episode. Sawyer comes back to his tent with beer in his hand and looks happy – until he notices who’s missing. And Hurley just sits in his car, looking like a king and drives off. (This too is a foreshadowing of how Hurley will end up using one of these cars to save the day in not one, but two season finales.)

Now the reason we do not quite give this episode the due it is owed is because it seems to overshadow something far more significant. Kate and Sawyer have made it back to camp, and the two of them are still bickering. It’s worth noting that both of them actually have a point to their arguments: Kate doesn’t know how to explain why they came back without Jack. Sawyer comes back and argues why they didn’t bother to come looking for them, and he’s not entirely wrong. They have no idea what happened to Sayid’s boat, so they don’t clearly have an idea how that ended and for all of Locke’s speech at the end of Further Instructions, no one in the camp made a concerted effort while they were still there. (This cuts both ways: Kate and Sawyer have no idea what happened to the hatch while they were gone; when Sawyer steps on a dart, he has no idea where it came from even though we do.)

Once the reunion begins Kate spends exactly two seconds before she turns around and says she’s going after Jack. This is the ultimate example of Kate not listening to Jack and going into the jungle after him, of course. It’s worth noting that Locke and Sayid do a fairly solid job of trying to find out what happened from Kate, and however brusque her summary of events is, she does pretty much hit the bullet points which is more than Jack would do in that situation, even to Locke and Sayid. (Michael and Walt are mentioned and just as quickly forgotten.)

At the end of the episode Kate goes into the jungle with every intention of finding Jack. Locke and Sayid have followed her with every intention of helping her. It should be mentioned that Locke seems to be basing this on something he saw on Eko’s stick: the reference to “LIFT YOUR EYES AND LOOK NORTH John 3:05.” Sayid, who is fundamentally a practical man, considers this with sarcasm, and does not think otherwise even though it will be proven a stepping stone.

Kate, however, has chosen another source. For the first time since we saw her at the end of Maternity Leave, Rousseau reappears. It’s never clear how Kate knew where exactly to find her but she is a tracker and since the end of Season 1, no one has tried that hard to look for her. Besides, at this point Kate has been Rousseau’s company more than anyone other than Sayid, so it’s hard not to see why Rousseau might at least trust her.

Even so, the help Kate wants is not the kind that Rousseau would be inclined to give. Except Kate remembers what Claire told Rousseau at the end of Maternity Leave and she also remembers Rousseau’s sad words: “You’re not the only one who didn’t find what you were looking for.” Now Kate is offering her outright proof that Alex is alive and that she is among the Others. The look on Mira Furlan’s face at the end of the episode is truly remarkable as an expression that we haven’t seen before – perhaps because its one she has never allowed herself to feel in sixteen years.  Tricia Tanaka has included several major reunions. It ends with the potential for one that a character never thought might be possible.

 

VHS Rewatch Notes: The teaser for the next episode actually is more honest then many of the ones we get. It tells us a major character we will meet, an idea of what will happen during this encounter, and an idea how it will end. We will also see a critical moment in the episode. As to what that moment accomplishes – well, you can’t blame the producers for lying about it.