'Lost': Exodus, Part 1

This is a dark episode of Lost, y'all. Come on: we have black smoke. A Dark Territory. We have Pearl Jam crooning "Black" on Hurley's CD player. OK, so two out of three ain't bad. But here's where the pace, a touch languid recently, takes it up a notch. Sorta like Manos. (See 0:44 for the reference.)

We all know what goes down. We all know the emotional impact. So get your Kleenex, your Arzt-proof poncho, and come on board!

Exodus, Part 1

4) In Short

"I'm not crying; it's just raining on my face."

8) On the Island

Walt walks to the edge of the jungle, sensing something. He sees Danielle, rifle in tow, walking silently through the jungle towards the beach. He tracks her back to the beach, waking his father up in the process. Sayid alerts everyone to her identity as Danielle eyes Claire's child. She tells Sayid that the Others are coming.

She says that her team of six crashed 16 years ago. When they crashed, she was seven months pregnant. A week after birthing the child, she saw black smoke on the horizon. That night, a group of people took Alex, her child. Danielle tells them tonight will see the same thing happen. The Lostaways have three choices: run, hide, or die.

Jack's skeptical of Danielle's message, putting his priority on getting the raft complete. He employs the entire group of castaways to help Michael finish it, wondering why, you know, nobody lifted a finger in the first place. Everyone helps, and everyone's facial expressions convey a season's worth of agony. Gorgeous shot. With everyone's help, Michael guides the raft into the ocean, and just when everything looks like it's going to plan, the boat goes off the levers. As if that wasn't bad enough, the group sees black smoke in the distance.

Looks like Jack's come around to Danielle's way of thinking. She wonders where Jack could hide 40 people. He leads her and Hurley to the hatch, along with Locke and Danielle. She says she's never seen any structure like this on the Island, which is endlessly amusing or a downright lie, given that our Lostaways eventually come across roughly 150 such structures in their first 8 weeks on the Island.

Jack tells the Lostaways to stay put while they go for supplies. Arzt, High School Biology Teacher, reveals that he knows Jack's real plan, and offers to come along and shield everyone from the eventual explosions. OK, he doesn't quite say that, but we all know what's going down here. Speaking personally, I had it out for Arzt once I saw him in that neck bandana. But that's just me.

SHIRTLESS SAWYER ALERT! He's all Paul Bunyan, chopping down bamboo to help with getting the boat into the water. Jack hands Sawyer a gun, and wishes him good luck. Sawyer stops him, and unleashes one of the best monologues of Season 1, during which he tells Jack about his encounter with Christian back in "Outlaws." I won't try to do it justice; just be happy that occasionally, television provides moments this good. Luckily for us, there are a few more yet to come in these final episodes of the season.

Kate, you guessed it, wants to come with Jack. Charlie collects messages for a bottle to accompany the boat. Those going to the Black Rock say their goodbyes to those going on the raft. Kate looks for Sawyer, but can't find him. As such, she leaves knowing she might not ever see him again. The Dynamite 6 (not as catchy as the Oceanic 6, I know) set off across scenic landscapes. Locke at one point asks about the scratches on Danielle's forearm; she blames them on a bush. Riiiiight.

They eventually come across a black piece of cloth, which conveniently marks the beginning of the Dark Territory mentioned so often during the season. This is "where it all began," according to Danielle. Stories about Montand "losing his friggin' arm" freak Arzt out, who bails on the Dynamite 6, yielding the TNT 5. It's raining in the Dark Territory, even though it's perfectly sunny back on the beach. I'd say this was a meteorological event unique to the Island, but having experienced similar weather patterns in Boston this summer, I can say this isn't actually weird anymore. In a related note, I'd like to apologize to Al Gore, and ask him to stop wreaking vengeance on all of us that were initially unwilling to hear an inconvenient truth.

The TNT 5 hear something coming in the jungle. Oh, it's just Arzt. Oh crap, it's Arzt followed by the big honkin' monster! Most of them start running, except for Locke, who urges Hurley to be still. The rest of the folk head inside the banyan trees, led by Mademoiselle Nutball. As the rain stops, Locke notes that it's heading off in another direction. Danielle tells Jack and Kate that the monster is a security system, designed to protect the Island. The Dynamite 6 are reunited, and it feels so good.

Walt walks over to Shannon, who is folding clothes. He offers Vincent to Shannon, noting that Vincent was a good listener after his mom died. Wow, getting a little dusty in here. Stupid pollen. Yea, it's pollen, and I'm sticking with that story.

Sayid gives Michael a makeshift radar, cobbled together from elements from the Beechcraft, and a flare gun. Both are meant to be used sparingly. Sun walks over to Jin, and hands him a book of phonetically translated phrases for use on the boat. And know what? I'm out for the rest of the scene, my absolute favorite of Season 1, and second only to the end of "The Constant" overall in my personal rankings. THIS is why Lost transcends everything else on television: it's not monsters and hatches and Initiatives and donkey wheels but real interactions between people this show makes us care about.

(Oh, and a big F you to Vincent for running out after the ship and making me lose it that much more. My wife would chime in, but she's too busy bawling on the couch.)

The Dynamite 6 finally arrive at the Black Rock, which is not so much a rock as much as a giant freakin' boat from another century. Hot damn, what's THAT doing in the jungle?

15) Off the Island

(In which we check in on various Lostaways in the hours before getting on Oceanic 815...)

Walt looks out of his Australian hotel room. It's 5:23 am, and he blasts the television in a fit of defiance of his father. He tries to escape with Vincent, shouting over and over again that Michael is not his father.

A woman talks to Jack at the airport bar. Seems like she overheard Jack screaming to the Oceanic ticket agent back in "White Rabbit." She notes he's not much of a drinker. Heh, just give him time. She asks if he's married; he tells her not anymore. (Remember when the show tried to lodge these two together, much like Sayid and Shannon? This feels like forever ago.) Ana Lucia takes a phone call, and tells Jack to meet her for a drink on the plane. She tells him the "worst part's over." Boy, she's just full of wrong information on this particular day.

Sawyer gets set down at a desk in the police station originally seen in "Hearts and Minds." Turns out, Sawyer got into a bar fight during which he head butted an Australian government official. The cop knows all about Sawyer's past, including his real name: James Ford. He informs James that he's being deported that afternoon, and to never set foot in Australia again.

In an airport holding room, a security official is going through the marshal's Halliburton case. The official notes the surfeit of guns, and wants to know about the toy airplane. We learn via the marshal that Kate started phoning the marshal over the years, appealing to "mitigating circumstances" surrounding her crime. The marshal sought to trap her by putting the toy plane into a safe deposit box in New Mexico, which explains that little tidbit of info nicely. He theorizes that the plane is her penance for causing Mackenzie Astin's death.

Shannon's lounging in the airport, doing a crossword puzzle. She's solving 8 Down:  a five-letter word for a spoiled rich chick. Sayid comes over, and asks her to watch his bag for a moment. God's Friggin' Gift to the Airline Industry walks by and says he couldn't get the two of them booked into first class, noting that her technique of "screaming in anger" didn't go over too well. As the two argue over Shannon's generally cheery disposition towards life, Shannon narcs on Sayid, just to prove a point to her step-brother.

Sun nervously carries a tray of fast food over to Jin, clearly nervous as she does so. She then spills coffee all over him while a nearby couple gives the equivalent of racist Statler and Waldorf commentary nearby.

16) The Mythology

With the reveal of the Black Rock, the show revealed an extra layer of history to this crazy Island. They took it even further at the end of Season 2, but consider this the first layer of the archaeological dig of the Island's past. What's insane about the reveal is not so much that it was a ship (interesting and compelling in and of itself), but that the ship was unnaturally far inland, almost as if dropped from the sky onto that particular place.

One can't help but wonder if events surrounding The Orchid station, coupled with what Isaac the faith healer, have something to do with the Black Rock's location. Let's go back to what Isaac said to Rose in the episode "S.O.S":

There are certain places with great energy -- spots on the Earth like the one we're above now. Perhaps this energy is geological -- magnetic. Or perhaps it's something else. And when possible I harness this energy and give it to others.

Now, I'm not terribly interested in them ever giving me a specific faux-scientific explanation for how a polar bear or a Ben can go from the Island to Tunisia. The fact that "exotic matter" is involved is about as much as I want or really need. (Call this the "Midichlorian Fatigue Factor.") But I would say that while the Island's properties are unique, Isaac suggests they are not singular. Moreover, there's nothing to say that these "certain places" on Earth couldn't send one TO the Island, as opposed to merely FROM it.

As for the monster: I'm going to hold off talking about it until the next recap, where I can look at it, and the Dark Territory, more fully.

23) The Moment

Sun and Jin. Sun and Jin. Damn you, Darlton.

42) In Retrospect

1. Loved the seemingly innocuous detail of Danielle's scratches coming up here. Just shows that the writers knew EXACTLY what happened to Claire in her brief absence from the show mid-season.
2. Given the later tension between Jack and Sawyer (thanks, Kate), it was refreshing to see the basis for their enduring respect for each other in this episode. The way in which Sawyer gives Jack a measure of closure over his father's death is a wonderful moment, and coupled with his heartbroken look at Kate's empty tent before sailing away, really fleshes out this character going into Season 2.

108) In Summary

Even though the show spun its wheels for a few weeks getting to this point, it's still stunning to see how much happened in 40+ minutes. Even more stunning is just how all the puzzle pieces that were laid down throughout the season start paying off, one by one. You can think of the show much in the way as you can view the construction of the raft: a laborious, time-consuming process in which the details matter in order to produce a complete whole.

Course, we haven't even scratched the surface of some of the biggest reveals, as you already know. But we'll get to those next time. But for now, let's all celebrate just what an incredible episode this was, before delving into the tragedies to come in the near future.

Leave your thoughts about this episode below!

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude, then peruses Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group.