Monsters of Television

“He can’t be told what that is. He has to find it himself.”

I’ve been talking a fair bit about ideas of leadership and trust, two issues that I think are core themes of this season, and are issues that are hinted at in small ways during the episode. But I want to take a step back and think, briefly, about another element that the show has decided to engage the audience with.

Like “Exposé” before it, this season has been decidedly meta-textual, and this particular episode allows that tendency to stretch out a bit. The writers and Team Darlton (who penned this particular episode) are speaking to fans about the show and about the show itself. It could come off as a cheeky and mildly self-indulgent, but the show nicely manages to avoid these by speaking through Hurley.

Hurley, like in episodes past (his brilliant recap of the entire show in “The Lie” from last season springs to mind), is serving as the writers’ mouthpiece but also as the fans’ mouthpiece. The two end up being in a conversation with each other, even if it is only through one character (though Miles gets a few chances to play this game as well). And since Hurley is an audience favorite (does anyone not like Hurley?) and since Hurley was set up as being pop culturally savvy, the writers sidestep those concerns of indulgence and cheekiness I mention above (Jorge Garcia’s terrific line delivery helps immensely as well).

So Hurley commenting to Jack about how their trek through a jungle is just like old times, or when looking at the Adam and Eve skeletons in the caves (remember the caves?), he theorizes that if they were to time travel again, it could be them, the writers reward fans by acknowledging their theories (the “dinosaur times” mention a nice nod to the theory that the Smoke Monster was a dinosaur). Indeed, the entire season could be construed as a reward for the viewers who have stuck with the show through all the insanity.

As Jack and Hurley find the lighthouse, Jack wonders why they never saw it before (a fair question). Hurley’s response that maybe they just weren’t looking for it acknowledges audience frustrations with mysteries that go unanswered for some time (“What are the numbers?”) by indirectly saying that these mysteries, while interesting, may not necessarily be what audiences need to focus on. The writers will get to it in their in their own time, just like Jack and Hurley got to the lighthouse in their own time.

And then there’s Jacob, perhaps the ultimate stand-in for the writers’ room (which works since he talks through Hurley in the same way the writers talk through Hurley). Jacob is manipulative and more than a little smug. But his explanation of how and why two different people do things corresponds with two different types of audiences that watch the show. There’s Hurley, who Jacob can just hop in a taxi with, say, “Go to the Island,” and Hurley is off. This is the audience that is, essentially, along for the ride. Sure, they  have questions, but they’re willing to follow the show wherever, and hopefully enjoy it.

With Jack, however, you have the audience that needs answers to be able to go on with the journey. Jack leaves the temple because there are no answers to be found, and when confronted with potential answers (the mirrors in the lighthouse), he needs time to stare at the ocean. It’s similar to the audiences that watches the show over and over again, looking for any clue that might supply a TOE for the show. Any new answers force them to double back and start all over again, just as Jack is faced with reliving his entire life as he stares out at the ocean, wondering if he had been controlled all this time, much as the theory-centric audience wonders how many more times the wool can be pulled out from under them.

Jack’s flash-sideways, dealing with his son, carries through with his idea of looking at things from differently to find new perspectives. The bedroom Jack has for David is plush but sterile, nothing like David’s room in his mother’s house, which is filled with sheet music and a bit messy. It takes a crisis, David not answering the phone calls, for Jack to wise up about his son’s motivations, as it takes Island Jack the crisis of realizing he’s been controlled by Jacob for so long  to hopefully do something (and you can sometimes never tell what Jack’s going to do).

I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss Claire. The sequence with her, Jin, and Justin (poor Justin, we hardly knew ye) works amazing well. First and foremost is that the situation occurs with Claire and Jin, two characters who never had much to do with one another, and since Claire has gone bananas, there’s no reason for her to ask why Jin can speak English as well as is, the plot can move forward at a decent clip.

Emilie de Ravin clearly spent her year off finding crazy Claire. It never feels overplayed, and small bits of business, like the gently swinging axe in her hand, or the sly smile as she comments that the one thing on the island that will kill someone and that’s infection (another nice nod to audience members), totally sells the character. And if it wasn’t, the conviction that was felt in his statement that she’d kill Kate if she had had Aaron was pitch-perfect. That Smocke is her friend wasn’t all that surprising, though I long to find out what Sawyer thinks about all of this, because I can’t imagine that Sawyer, even in all his grief, will be thrilled with crazy Claire.

FINAL THOGUHTS

• I had something interesting to say about Jacob’s cave from last week and the lighthouse from this week, but I forgot it between falling asleep last night and then writing this. If it comes back, I’ll add it in.
• Seeing the baby basket in Claire’s hut was a tender, sad sign of her obsession. The animal skull baby that was in that basket? Creepy as all hell.
• Now that we’ve seen Claire infected, a large part of me wants to see what Naveen Andrews would do with an infected Sayid. I suspect, however, that we’ll only get one crazy main cast member and not two. Shucks.
• Happy that flash-sideways Jack still has the jeep.
• Also happy that Daniel Dae Kim maintains Jin’s somewhat gruff tone when speaking English, as if it still gets a bit clogged in this throat. It’s a nice bit of vocal work (why isn’t this show getting more acting awards?!).
• Best line of the episode: “And I just lied to a samurai.” Stitches.