Lost Rewatch On VHS: The Lie

 

A personal but pertinent digression. I have written some Lost fanfiction over the years. I won’t go into the plots or stories not because I’m ashamed but because it’s irrelevant to the guide: none of the stories take place on the island. What is relevant to this piece is that it essentially begins at the equivalent of the opening of the episode.

Jack is persuading the survivors that they have to lie about what happened after the crash and Hurley is the biggest objector. Jack’s argument in this case is far easier to stomach; what happened to them on the island is so unbelievable that if they tell the story to the world, they will all be institutionalized. Hurley takes some persuasion but he doesn’t go along with it nearly as reluctantly as he does here.

Most people write fanfic because they want to tell stories in the fandom. In this case I was also dealing with a problem so big that when Nikki Stafford referred to it in her chapter in Finding Lost, it’s hard to understand why anybody went along with it.

Jack’s reason for lying makes no sense. To quote the right honorable Nikki:

“Jack says the main reason to lie is to protect the survivors from Widmore. But Widmore knows they are lying. He knows that several people survived the plane crash and that some people are still alive on the island they crashed into.”

Listening to Jack talk to the Oceanic 6, you really wonder if he actually heard anything that was discussed the last week.  Sayid knows that Widmore knew about the crash, and if he believed Michael he knows Widmore staged the wreckage in the Sunda Trench. Penny is there and she knows better than him how ruthless her father can be to find he what he wants and she has to know that he won’t believe the lie. Even the idea that the island is gone probably won’t be enough to stop him from finding it.

When Jack says if Hurley tells the truth about what happened, the world will think he’s crazy, he’s closer to the mark. It’s likely even if the Oceanic 6 had been willing to tell Hurley’s version, they would think it was the product of a delusion or a hoax. So the question now become not why they are lying but why Jack determined to make this the reason for the lie?

The answer is simple. Jack has spent the last 100 days having every aspect of what he believed as a man of science thrown into question and at every step of the way he has chosen to either compartmentalize or outright deny it. He did so even when the island disappeared right before his eyes. He also would have to constantly deal with the many people who died as a result of his leadership, much of which he has blamed on either Locke or Ben over the last few months. As we know when it comes to Jack, denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.

That is why he forces everybody to lie. It’s not for their benefit or safety, but for his. As we saw in the flashforwards over Season 4, he was far more comfortable telling the false narrative, to the point that he committed perjury for Kate. It’s why he visited Hurley in ‘The Beginning of the End’, it’s not just that he was afraid Hurley would spill the beans, it’s because he didn’t want to have to face the truth. When he says at the end of Through the Looking Glass to Kate that he’s sick of lying, it was unintentionally one of the biggest ironies of all: Jack built the lie, made sure it was maintained, and now because of his own guilt of it, he wants to go back to the island.

When we see Jack with Ben in the motel and Ben tells him point blank that the trip to the island is one-way, Jack barely flinches. Ben is one of the most frightening figures to this point in the series, but there’s something scarier about how Jack just seems fine with leaving the entire world (including his mother, who already lost him once) behind.

It also illustrates the extreme selfishness in Jack’s attitude, which in a way hasn’t changed since the flashback that opens the episode. Jack bullies his friends into going along with his story. We’ll learn that he helped maneuver Kate in a subsequent episode and Sun is still grieving the loss of Jin. (She barely nods when Jack asked her if she’s okay with this.) Sayid puts up more of an argument, but he probably goes along with it because at his core, he’s of the same mindset of Jack and wants to forget the island as badly as he does.

Now Jack makes the same decision here. He has no problem condemning Sun to a life without Ji Yeon, dragging Hurley away from his parents who still clearly love him, Kate from the domestic life she has with Aaron (at this point he is unaware of what is going on) and though he clearly doesn’t know it, putting Sayid back into the company of the man who clearly despises him. You honestly wonder if the real reason Jack wants to go back to the island is because there’s nothing left for him in the real world or because he’d rather do that than tell the truth about what happened.

Contrast this with Hurley. The last thing he says to Sayid before the flashback ends is that if Sayid ever asks for help, he won’t give it to him. We then cut to Hurley frantically driving down the road with a barely alive Sayid in the passenger seat (I love how Hurley makes sure Sayid is buckled up). He doesn’t blink when ‘Ana Lucia’ tells him to smarten up and try to find a way help protect Sayid and himself. (Interestingly Ana does not instruct him that the best way forward is to go back to the island the way ‘Charlie’ seemed too.)

Hurley then goes to the Reyes house where both his parents are there. I need to make it clear that I think David Reyes gets a bad rap by some Lost fans. His reaction may not be as openly loving as Ma, but he still acts to try and help both his son and his friend. To be fair Hurley did just show up on his door with Sayid on his back, the cops have just shown up telling him that his son killed three people and Hurley is not exactly being open as to what’s going on or why he’s lying. And if actions speak louder than words, David drives past the cops with the unconscious body of man who is wanted by the LAPD and possibly has several international warrants out on him (given what he spent the last two years doing for Ben, it’s probable) Then he brings Sayid to Jack and when Jack does what he plans to do, he tells him outright that whatever Jack’s got him mixed up him, he doesn’t have his sons best interests at heart. David Reyes is dead on in this because it’s pretty clear the first thing Jack does is call Ben and tell him that he has Sayid and where to find Hurley.

Jorge Garcia is magnificent throughout the entire episode in a way he rarely gets credit. There are moments of great humor in the episode as well as many of the lines he delivers, but the panic and torment he’s going through is very real. Hurley has always been the most selfless character on the show as well as fundamentally honest, so it’s clear the last three years have been hell on him. When he finally tells his mother what really happened on the island, there is a certain amount of humor (Hurley is, after all, basically summing up the last four seasons in thirty seconds) but like so much of the humor we’ve seen in the flashbacks, there’s just as much pain. The fact that his mother listens to her son and tells him that she believes him clearly lifts a burden off him and I think the tears on his face are as much out of relief as sadness.

I love the scene between Hurley and Ben at the end, not just because of the Hot Pocket but because of how much it contrasts with everything we’ve seen with him and Jack. (Michael Emerson’s line “In fairness, I’m not particularly trustworthy’ is one of the funniest lines he’s ever said on the show.) Ben has spent the last three seasons manipulating everyone else on the island, but the lies have never worked as well with Hurley as anyone else. I think it’s because Hurley, who does not believe in misdirection from his friends – and who doesn’t really hate people the way everyone else on the show distrusts some people – is less prone to manipulation than some of the rest. He doesn’t believe that Jack and Sayid, who spent all their time on the island hating Ben, would easily go over to him off the island, and at the end of the day he still trusts his friends. So when Ben promises him exactly what he has wanted for the last year, as well as the added bonus of not having to lie any more, he does exactly what Sayid told him too. The look of astonishment on Ben’s face is hysterical; he clearly did not think Hurley was going to be the biggest problem of the Oceanic 6.

Meanwhile Kate is still dealing with the fallout from the previous episode and is called by Sun, who based on what their reunion she hasn’t seen for three years is like. It’s another one of those all too rare all-female scenes on the show and its fascinating because it shows how the dynamic between these two women, who were close friends on the island, has clearly shifted.

Throughout their time on the island Kate was Sun’s most trusted confidant; she was one of the first people who learned Sun knew English, Sun went to Kate when she lost her wedding ring and when she learned she was pregnant with Ji Yeon. She told Sun who Juliet was among  the Others and when Jin and Sun weren’t sure whether to trust the freighter folk, she confirmed her suspicions and offered to help them escape.

But now the power dynamic has changed. Kate is clearly unsettled by what the attorneys have done and Sun is colder, icier. We already know that Sun has partnered with Widmore and we know she’s lying about why she’s here. There’s a calculatedness to the way she talks, and there’s clearly a sting to it; you get the feeling that Sun is manipulating Kate’s emotions in a way she never did with anyone before. At the time I actually thought there was something fake about how she reacted to the news of the attorneys, and I wondered if Sun had been the person who sicced them on Kate in the first place. After all, it has led to Kate coming right to Sun’s doorstep at her hour of need.

It’s rare for the action off the island to eclipse what’s happening on it, but for much of the episode it seems that way. The island doesn’t skip during the episode and everyone kind of seems at a loss. Dan knows this is a pause – and he clearly knows what is wrong with Charlotte – but he doesn’t let on.

To be fair, he doesn’t get a chance as fire starts to rain from the sky. If we had any remaining uncertainty that the rest of the action was going to deal with any of the remaining redshirts, the climax of this episode pretty much erases it – and most of the background survivors who die a horrible flaming death as they try to escape from an attack from the Others. Everyone scatters: Dan, Charlotte, and Miles go in one direction; Juliet and Sawyer in another. It’s worth noting Sawyer is starting to take more of a leadership role; he’s the one who yells that everybody meet up at the creek. Of course, in true Lost style, they never make it there because they run right into the Others.

By the way I’m pretty sure this is where the Dharma Initiative coined the term ‘Hostiles’ for them because that’s really on the nose here. Not only have they fired fiery death from above on most of the survivors without warning, they grab Juliet and Sawyer and make it clear they’re going to cut one of Juliet’s hands off before they want to know why they’re here. Locke manages to come to save Juliet and James when they need it (love his nonchalant behavior) but it’s clear going forward that these Others really don’t like visitors. (And that’s before you realize they’re wearing uniforms that clearly don’t belong to them.)

Like the action on the island, the episode ends with another blast from the past. A hooded figure is working on a computer, scribbling calculations on a blackboard and erasing them, while a pendulum roles over a map on the floor. There’s a message on a computer (which looks like its from the same era as the Dharma Initiative) that says WINDOW HORIZON.” This individual walks up a long flight of creaky stairs to Ben and tells him that they have 70 hours. Then she takes off her hood and we recognize her: It’s Miss Hawking, the creepy woman who somehow knew everything about both Desmond and the island in Flashes Before Your Eyes.

She has the same eerie calm with Ben that she does with Desmond, and the same utter disdain for what he wants and thinks he can do. And Ben, for the first time in a long time, lets someone speak over him and tell him what he has to do or ‘God Help Us All.” How does he know this woman and what is her connection to the island? We’ll get an answer to that question as the season progresses and theories as to the rest later on. But it’s worth noting that we are instantly reminded of the line she said to Desmond about your path: “You don’t do it because you choose to. You do it because you’re supposed too.” Desmond didn’t believe her but he ended up doing what she said anyway. Ben clearly thinks she has that same authority and has put his faith in her.

But we also remember that line she said that ‘the universe has a way of course-correcting’. Maybe that’s why she’s so eerily calm throughout this episode and the rest of the season. She thinks that despite what Ben says he can’t do, everything’s going to play out the way it’s supposed to. Ben seems certain she can get him back to the island if he does exactly what she says. Perhaps that’s the real lie of the episode.