“This Place is Death” saw the end of Charlotte’s bloody time sickness as she died in the jungle with her island boy friend faithfully looking over her. I turn to Charlotte’s namesake C.S. Lewis for help putting this episode together. The writer of the famous Narnia books also wrote some other things. Namely, for our purposes of this episode, I want to look at the novel The Great Divorce. Not that it has anything to do with the episode other than the title itself for the story is about people that take a bus ride to get out of “the grey town” (which could be a representation of hell) and end up at the gates of heaven. As the story goes on, the people on the bus realize they are ghosts and that their trip has all been for their own redemption in order to get into heaven. See that doesn’t have anything to do with LOST. (Damn, there’s that pain again, a white hot searing pain in my head that causes everything to go white for a moment.)
For simplicity sake, divorce is described as “ the dissolution of a marriage”. A marriage, of course, is a union of two people in holy matrimony. “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”, indeed. This Place is Death had it’s share of “divorce” happening all over the place. Let’s look a little close at these dissolutions, and I don't even know if that is a word.
Rousseau and her crew plus Jin are trying to figure out their next move. Of course Jin’s plans don’t jive with Danielle and her crew. They want to find a radio tower to put out their distress signal and we know how that works out; while Jin wants to find his camp so he can find his wife. They all take off for the radio tower and are attacked by Smokey. Can we call this the “first” time we see Smokey in action? Either way, it was the one that gave us the most answers. Aside from Smokey pissing me off by killing the hot blond French chick first (maybe Smokey is a girl?), we have the same type of attack we have seen before. Those other two times I am referring to is when it killed Eko and when it tried to pull Locke down into the hole. Now we know what the hole was, sort of. Rousseau’s boyfriend or husband (it was never made clear what their relationship was, at least I don’t think it was) called it a temple. Or maybe it’s THE Temple that Richard and Ben spoke about before. Apparently Smokey is the guardian of the temple or even the island itself like Danielle described. Of course this could also be another example of the untrustworthy narrative that LOST likes to use as well.
Montand is pulled through the jungle and down into the hole and then … well, his arm was ripped off! Of his body! Entirely off! Wow! So even Montand had a disagreeable divorce with his own arm. At least it wasn’t a trial separation! Jin flashes but not too far forward. The only members of Rousseau’s group left are her and Robert. We still don’t know all of the story about what happened to them to cause Danielle to kill them but we know she did. I’m still not sure if she was right and they were sick or if it was the other way around but she was the only one who didn’t go into the temple after Smokey. I also think that there was something wrong with Robert as he quickly changed his tune and tried to shoot Danielle when her guard was down. He tried to shoot her with the same gun she had removed the firing pin from that Sayid tried to use on her back in season 1. Nice parallel in story telling there and it is because of those simple details that anything and everything can be brought into the time traveling story and actually mean something more than we thought. Rousseau violently “divorces” herself from Robert but right before we are shown her music box (the one Sayid fixed for her) with a bride and groom dancing together. Another cruel and ironic LOST moment.
Another flash later and Jin is reunited with Sawyer and the rest of the left behinds. Notice the joy of their reunion quickly turns as Jin asks Sawyer where Sun is. The mood was hectic while Jin is getting the news about the time flashes and Sun being alive but it was lightened a little by Miles when he tells Sawyer “He’s Korean, I’m from Encino.”. In a season where it’s difficult to say who the episode is centric to, this a Sun and Jin episode. Sun is show off the island to be just as concerned about her husband as Jin is about her.
Ben sees the O6 reunion dissolve as quickly as it was put together. Kate “divorces” herself from the group and Sayid does the same. Sun, Jack, and Ben leave together to get the proof that Jin is alive. Jack apologizes to Sun for not saving Jin and Sun asks Jack if he is saying this to keep her from killing Ben. Jack tells her that if she doesn’t do it he will himself for what Ben did to Kate. Ben literally slams on the breaks and throws a patented Ben hissy.
Charlotte is down and Daniel won’t leave her behind. As the rest of the group go off she tells them to “Look for the well” and we already know that Charlotte has been on the island before, we don‘t need TPTB to hit us over the heads anymore, hell some of this writes itself now. Charlotte says in her delusional mumblings; “Why can’t Daddy come with us?” and then goes on to say “You know what my Mum would say about marring an American.”, both a marriage and separation reference. Locke sees the well Charlotte spoke of and he prepares to “divorce” himself from the island.
Charlotte tells Daniel what we already knew, that she had been there before. Another quick reference to C.S Lewis is made when she tells Daniel that after she left the island with her mother that whenever Charlotte asked about the island, her mother would tell her that it was a fantasy world that she had created in her head. Something the children are told in the Narnia story. A short sidebar here, the story that Charlotte tells Daniel is something that was supposed to happen during the strike shortened season 4 and the writers had to scramble to scrap that episode but still keep the same points of the story for some later episode. This was that point in time. Charlotte goes on to tell Daniel that there was a man on the island when she was a little girl that told her to never come back and if she did she would die. She says that man was Daniel! Anyone see a version of Charlotte when she was a little girl on the island making an appearance in a later episode?
Locke says to Sawyer “Goodbye James.“, but he says "See you when I get back." to Miles. I won't dive deeply into that one but does Locke know about Miles’ ability to speak to the dead? And if Locke does make it back to the island but dead, Miles will be the only one who Locke can communicate with? Jin gives Locke his wedding ring (a symbolic divorce of sorts) and tells him to give it to Sun and to tell her that he is dead. You have to give some kudos to Locke for his blind faith, something that often causes him and those around him trouble and pain but to say the man has some courage is an understatement. Him going down that well and into the dark was as heroic if not more so than Sawyer jumping out of the helicopter last season. Sawyer asks Locke if he wants them to lower him down into the well, you have to just love the little laugh and the grin on Locke's face when he answers “Where would be the fun in that?”. The grin was even better this time than when he saw a young Widmore on the island. In another storytelling trademark of LOST, Juliette thanks Locke for doing what he is about to do even though she has no idea what it is he is going to do or if it will even work. Previously in this episode we see Ben telling Jack and Sun that if they knew what he had to do to keep them all safe they would never stop thanking him. Quite a different set of circumstances. All Ben wants is to be appreciated but gets none.
Another flash later and Locke falls like Icarus down the well and Sawyer is left holding the rope, notice the rest of the well is gone too. Sawyer, in his desperation to not allow another person leave him forever (like his parents and Kate did) begins to dig. Notice that they are putting a darker focus on Sawyer when they film him to show his many feelings of guilt, pain, abandonment, and sorrow all the while putting more light on Juliette, even to cast her in an almost angelic light. None of that means anything it's just an observation.
Charlotte’s last words before she dies are “I’m not allowed to have chocolate before dinner.”, is another nod at C.S. Lewis' Narnia. One of the boys is bribed by the evil witch to tell her where the rest of his siblings are. The item she uses to bribe him? A piece of chocolate called a “Turkish Delight”. I had a “Turkish Delight” before but it had nothing to do with chocolate and it also cost me a hundred and fifty bucks. Ouch, there’s that pain again and I just noticed there is a little blood on the keyboard. Where did that come from?
Back in the well, Christian Sheppard makes his season 5 premier and tells Locke that he was supposed to move the island and not Ben. He tells Locke to find Eloise Hawking and she will be able to tell him how to save the island. Christian is as always, the cold hand of God, or as close to it as we have on the island, as he tells Locke “I suppose that’s why they call it sacrifice.”; when John tells him that Richard told him he was going to die. Christian goes on to tell him that the wheel has slipped off of it’s axis and it needs him to give it a little push. Leave it up to Ben to forget to set the parking break on a whole goddamn island! Christian adds to the painful path Locke has to travel alone by not helping John get up. The man had a bone sticking through his leg! As Locke fades away, Christian tells Locke to say hello to his son. Locke doesn’t get the answer when he asks Christian who his son is. I don't think Christian could have told him even if he had the time. There’s just some things in this show that people are not allowed to do or know.
Back at the church, Ben tells Sun about Locke giving him Jin’s wedding ring. Just when I thought Ben was starting to come clean and be trustworthy we find out that he had seen Locke before he died. Seems it’s all about semantics with this guy. Then Desmond shows up. They all go into the church and meet Ms. Hawkins (or however you spell her name), who, as it turns out, is Faraday’s mother. Who saw that coming? We will wait to see if Desmond recognizes her as the time jumping antique dealer lady or not. She asks Ben where the rest of them are he tells her that this is the best he could do on short notice. She says it will have to do, for now. So do they need all six or not? What the hell? One other thing I wonder about after this episode is; if Ben wasn’t supposed to be the one to turn the wheel and Locke was, will the island allow Ben to come back seeing as how it looks like he wasn‘t supposed to leave in the first place? Maybe that is where we are headed with Ben's story. It also points to the fact that maybe Locke is just a pawn being used by the island. Or maybe since we know Locke has to die, maybe Ben is going to be allowed to go back since he was never suppose to leave and since Locke is “special” to the island maybe he will be able to be resurrected back on the island like Christian Sheppard is, sort of.
I better go the nosebleeds and the headaches are getting worse. Now, would someone come up here and serve these two Rustlers rare? Someone find Tara and tell her to take them out to their table, please. What am I doing at this computer? Leslie, can I go on break? Leslie?
7 comments:
I hate to correct you but you wrote something incorrectly. You wrote the sentence: "Charlotte is down and Daniel won’t leave her behind." It would have been MUCH funnier if you had written "Charlotte is down and Daneil won't leave her behind alone!"
Again, I hate to correct you once more but I'm afraid turkish delight ain't got nothin' to do with chocolate. It's candy, sure, but it's not made of chocolate. In fact, of all the turkish delight I've ever had or seen, it's never been flavoured with chocolate. Probably because it would be gross.
I'm afraid Tara can't deliver those two Rustlers rare because Derwood sweat on 'em.
Just a little query: I was wondering as to the source of Charles Widmore's incredible wealth. As he is shown to be a simple grunt back in the 1950's and here and now he's a skazillionaire or something, would it be safe to assume that somehow through his connection with the island and all the time travelling back and forth that Charles Widmore gained some succulent financial knowledge as to what to invest in -- sorta like having tomorrow's newspaper today. Could he at some time have experienced the zapping back and forth through time thing and used it to make choice investments he would know would be worth millions...before he was eventually exiled from the island. He may even, in fact, have suspected he would one day be expelled from the island and used his loaf to make sure he'd have a substantial nest egg back in the "real world". Just a thought.
Ok so I missed a chance to make a funny.
As for the turkish delight not being chocolate simply look up "Fry's Turkish Delight" it's a chocolate bar.
Ew!
Your Widmore thought is a pretty good one but my thought is that years ago there was a power struggle between him and Ben and since Ben can go on and off the island and possibly time travel it was him that had all the money and he paid Widmore a hefty sum (let's call it 3.2 million dollars to reiterate the amount Miles asked of Ben for Miles to keep quiet) to turn the wheel and be removed from the island. Weather or not Widmore knew he would never be able to go back to the island after doing so would be unknown unless this scenario actually plays out.
Hmmm...that's an interesting thought. You don't really think Ben would bribe Charles Widmore into turning the frozen donkey wheel and NOT tell him he could never come back, do you?!?!? The mere THOUGHT of such duplicity is enough to send Ben's hush puppies slamming into another brake pedal!
Whatever this "Fry's Turkish Delight" thang is, the actual confection called turkish delight and got no chocalate innit! And I think somebody somewhere outta buy me a nice supply of turkish delight and send it to me.
Not because it'll prove any point or anything just because I like to nosh copious amounts! Oh, and while you're at it make sure you send some jelly babies as well. Ooo, and those Swedish fish. Don't forget the Australian licorice! Even a Rustler Chocolate Supreme would be accepted -- even though I never really like those.
You fickle bitch
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