'Lost': The Moth

First post?! I'm so glad I watched the episode before reading this post Ryan or I would have thought you were being extremely harsh. I had had rather fond (though vague) memories of this episode.

Much to my surprise, however, upon watching it again yesterday I was shocked by how "hit you over the head" the metaphor was. Though I wasn't bothered as much by it as you were.

In fact, I even liked Locke's speech [if it is true] since I didn't know that the moth has to struggle to escape in order to strengthen it -- kind of felt like I was watching an episode of Nova or Nature for a moment, and just kind of ignored how heavy-handed the symbolism was.

I think this episode was probably an attempt to see if a more "on the nose" attempt at the writing would work or not for the show, and perhaps get some people to tune in to the show that need the more overt symbolism. (When they wrote and filmed this episode it probably wasn't clear yet that they didn't have to worry about ratings.)

By the way, glad to see you haven't lost your writing touch: "Gozer the Gozarian" , "meh", etc.

Oops -- gotta go run an errand. I'll post more later. (Couldn't p*** up the opportunity to perhaps be the first post!)

I enjoy your writing and the writing on LOST also must I say this was the first episode of Lost I saw back in October of 2004 and I wastnt hooked until "raised by another" and now Im hooked for life.

Watching this episode again, what stuck out at me whenever Sayid gets beaned is a similar scene in The Empire Strikes Back, when Luke is out on patrol on Hoth. His tauntaun smells something su****ious and starts acting up, to which Luke asks, "What's the matter, girl? Ya smell something?" Brief second-and-a-half pause, then this huge paw comes out of nowhere and slams Luke on the side of the head, knocking him to the ground. I was in fifth grade at the time and had a girlfriend named Kristina. We were sitting in the front of the theater, and when that paw smacked Luke, both Kristina and I shouted loud enough to be heard by Kristina's father, who was sitting in the back (he didn't trust me, and with good reason, hee-hee-hee). What I find ironic is that Danielle Rousseau was just as dangerous, in a way, as the creature (the name of which escapes me at the moment) that smacked hell out of Luke Skywalker. Big difference, of course, is that she didn't hang Sayid upside down in her lair and go to work gnawing on bones. That we know of...

Anyway, I've always been a bit hot and cold towards Charlie, mainly because of episodes like this. His backstory was actually a one-act play that got stretched into a mini-series, and not a good one at that. After about the fourth time of seeing Charlie with Driveshaft, getting high, blather-blather-blah, I grew tired of him. In fact, it wasn't until the middle of the second season, when his relationship with Claire really matured, that I started to like him. I'm just glad that they never made any reference whatsoever to Dominic Monaghan's work on The Lord of the Rings, even as a snide little bit of wordplay, or some sort of blink-and-you'll-miss-it-until-it-comes-out-on-DVD sight gag.

My other problem with this particular episode was the continued use of Shannon as the requisite *****. Sure, she actually did what she was supposed to do when she set off the flare, but I really, really wish the writers could have done more to make Shannon more than a one-note stereotype. Even with her relationship with Sayid later on, Shannon was never really given the chance to redeem herself the way others were (multiple times, in some cases). By far, her character is the only one that I've never missed; even Boone and Ana-Lucia had some uses, although in the latter case, she usually just ended up standing in for the *****-Archetype after Shannon bit it. True, no show is going to be perfect from the get-go, nor is this going to change if that show has a nice, long run, as Lost will have. It would have been nice, though, if Shannon had been given a better chance to develop as a character. Instead, for viewers like me anyway, she will always be like that last scoop of ice cream at the bottom of the container, when most of the flavor has been replaced by freezer burn and ice crystals.

I think as an audience that we have such high ecpectations for Lost and it's writers. Watching this episode I realized that I didn't warm up to Charlie until much later in the series and that was in part to episodes like this, where it is difficult to connect with him. Flashbacks do a lot to enhance these characters, this flashback was kinda weak.

I too wish that Shannon, and even Boone, Libby and Ana Lucia were fleshed out more. As was stated before, in watching earlier episodes you see subtle changes in characters and begin to long for those charateristics to present themselves again. I am still praying that Walt will come back in dramatic fashion and do more w/his "gift" than kill birds.

I personally miss the Locke of Season 1. He was more hard-core then, but now he has kinda become a wuss.

The whole communications storyline made more sense when it first aired, but now it seems a little mis-guided. They keep going on about the fact that the distress call is still playing after 16 years. Maybe it's just me, but who would bother turning off a distress call if they were rescued. I know it's all symantics, but they just seem to be putting too much emphasis on it.

I do miss Charlie, but I will agree that his earlier outtings were a bit weak. Luckily he redeemed himself and had a larger plot in Season 3.

It's always creepy when hooded Charlie comes out to play. It's the only time he doesn't even have the slightest resemblance to Pip.

One thing I did appreciate about Charlie's flash back was that it showed us his desire to be a good person. Before everything gets mucked up by drugs, being a rock god, etc, we see that he has a good heart, good intentions. Definitely not the person we've seen shown on the island thus far.

"They don't so much make 'cute' as make 'meh,' a hallmark of these early scenes between them."

So true. In fact, my wife and I both think the producers were shopping Kate around with the other male characters to see who she'd click with the most to for the Triangle. There's a bit of something between her and Sayid in the early episodes, but it quickly becomes a comraderie and Sawyer eventually gets the role of the other man.

It's a little heavy-handed, the way they try to push Jack and Kate together at the beginning of the show, rather than letting it mature slowly.

It took me until season 3 to figure out it was Locke who sabotaged Sayid's triangulation attempt because I had forgotten pretty much every moment of "The Greater Good".

I don't think that Locke's moth speach to Charlie was that corny. With addicts like Charlie, you've got to keep it simple. I thought the moth analogy was actually spot on because it was exactly what Charlie needed to do in order to survive withdrawal without rehab. I really did not enjoy Charlie's backstories all that much throughout the entire series. It did give us an idea that he at least tried to be a good Catholic boy. He did love his brother, his music and God which makes him sort of like a sheep that lost his way. But, is Locke the shepard that herds him back and keeps him in line? I thought Jack was supposed to be the shepard, hence the good doc's name.

I never really cared much about who Kate would hook up with. I still don't. I, personally would like to see Sawyer end up with Kate simply because I know that he loves her and because I think that Jack is too selfish at this point for love. He proved that when he allowed Jin to be left behind after he allowed Sawyer to jump out of that helicopter.

I agree, Chris. I'm not really invested in Kate's love life, but I would prefer to see her with Sawyer.