The episode: AbandonedOriginal Airdate: November 9, 2005
Written by: Elizabeth Sarnoff
Directed By: Adam Davidson
Content: When Shannon sees Walt in her tent, she becomes convinced that he needs her help. Meanwhile, Sawyer's bullet wound starts to become infected, prompting the tail-section group to pick up the pace, and risk cutting across the jungle where the Others attacked them from.
Why It's Worth Re-Watching: If you're a Shannon fan, why wouldn't you? It's the character's finest hour. She's sort of redeemed for all the bad behavior she displayed during season one. And it's good to remind yourself that Boone and Shannon were once active characters in the show. Sure Boone is dead by the time this episode airs but he does appear.
This isn't the most mind-bending 42 minutes of LOST. I mean, really, when you think about it, this episode's purpose is to set-up the initial conflict between our favorite LOSTies and the tailies for the rest of season two but that doesn't really last too long (the conflict). In fact, the death of Shannon essentially falls by the wayside as the season continues. There's a great scene in 'The Hunting Party' in which Charlie and Hurley are hanging out in The Swan listening to music when a particularly depressed Sayid wanders in, is silent, and remarks 'this music is rather depressing.' I also enjoy, prior to Sayid's arrival, this exchange between Hurley and Charlie:
HURLEY: So what do you think's the story with that Libby chick?
CHARLIE: The story?
HURLEY: She's kind of cute, right? You know, in a I've-been-terrorized-by-the-Others-for-40-days kind of way.
CHARLIE: Yeah, there is that.
HURLEY: I think I have a chance with her. I mean, it's the classic desert island scenario. If I ever had a shot, this is it.
But I digress. This episode is Shannon-centric and is entirely about her abandonment issues hence the title 'Abandoned.' When her father dies, she is left alone pretty much though, once upon a time, she got along swimmingly with Boone before Boone let her down by choosing to work for his mother and failing to help her. She reaches a point when she absolutely believes she has no one who she can count on, no one who believes in her. It sort of explains why she's such a bitch during season one (but not really). Her abandonment issues come to head in this episode and poor Sayid takes the brunt of it. She becomes angry when Sayid doesn't believe that she saw Walt in the tent Sayid constructed for her (for a very intimate evening). This sets her off. She thinks about her stepmother who essentially tells her that she's a worthless waste of space who has no ambition nor direction in her life. She eventually tells Shannon that she is on her own. Her stepmother won't even give her the money her father left her in the will (though Sabrina says there was no will I call bollocks on that). In one of the more overt we'll-hit-you-over-the-head-with-the-theme-of-this-episode scenes, Shannon exclaims to Sayid that no one believes in her, that everyone thinks she is worthless, and that Sayid will just leave her once they get off of the Island (i can tell you he probably would have considering Nadia showed up when Sayid returned with the Oceanic 6). Sayid swears he won't. Walt arrives. And then she runs off like a madwoman into the jungle and is shot by Ana-Lucia.
Speaking of Ana-Lucia and arriving at this particular plot point, I really should've predicted where this episode was heading when I first saw it. I made the mistake before the episode of wandering into the TWoP LOST speculation with spoilers (i thought it was the speculation WITHOUT spoilers thead--the memory still haunts me) and finding out Shannon would die. Well, her and Ana-Lucia are on a collision course. Ana-Lucia's insanely paranoid throughout this episode because of The Others ("The Other 48 Days" seeks to defend Ana-Lucia's actions but eh she shouldn't have pulled the trigger(and then in "Collision" she shoots a dude in cold-blood--yes it was revenge but still!)). Shannon is looking EVERYWHERE for Walt. I chalk this incident up to fate. Ana and crew (with Michael, Jin, and a near-death Sawyer) are trekking to the beach. Eko suggests they move through the jungle because it would be faster and it would give Sawyer a better chance to live. Once again, if Ana-Lucia wasn't trigger-happy, the route would've been great.
Speaking of this journey back to the beach, Sawyer feels terrible about not assisting Jin after Michael went off into the jungle to search for Walt in "...And Found." Michael helps Sawyer anyway which I find heart-warming. Little did we know Michael would eventually become so desperate for Walt that he'd kill Ana-Lucia and Libby and set Ben free. Of course this eventually leads to the fantastic season four episode "Meet Kevin Johnson" (which will be written about in the very near-future) and the subsequent redemption-arc which culminates in a great moment in the season four finale on the freighter.
There's also some story with Claire, Locke, and Charlie in this episode. Claire gets lectured by Charlie for waking up Aaron late at night. She then feels like Charlie is right when Aaron won't sleep until Locke teaches her how to swaddle Aaron. Claire and Locke bonded when he built her the crib in 'Numbers.' But then Charlie gets jealous which leads to a good scene between Locke and Charlie as they play backgammon and trade digs at one another (a bit of set-up to "Fire + Water).
Overall, this is a decent episode of LOST. "Hearts And Minds" is the better of the flashbacks which involve Shannon. I should also mention how Jack saves the life of his eventual wife over Shannon's father. It's a split-second decision (the scene is in "Man of Science, Man of Faith").
P.S. I would include various scenes from 'Abandoned' but there are literally none on YouTube which makes it all the more obvious that this episode has been forgotten about it. This episode is remembered by the Foot, Lindelof and Cuse. Grant me an interview!
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE PART 5
I'll tell you. It's hard to review these webisodes because they pretty much re-hash everything there is to know about the Dharma Iniative. The one part that stuck out to me was the geography of where the D.I. is which would tell us where The Island actually is. All 5 parts are available to watch on hulu.com. I wish they opted to do more Missing Pieces but oh well. Mysteries of the Universe is still worth watching.
No comments:
Post a Comment