Tabula
Rasa - the actual definition or meaning of Tabula Rasa has to do with the
theory that people are born as a blank slate. All knowledge a human has, comes
from their experiences. In other words, this theory leans towards the idea that
a mean person was not just born that way, but became that way thanks to their
past experiences. A very interesting theory when it comes to Lost. Mainly
because you start to get the feeling (especially in this episode) that these
people are going to have to get used to their new lives on the island. Though
it has only been a few days since the crash, rescue hasn’t come yet even though
nearly everyone has expected it.
Almost
all of the survivors were strangers before they took off from LAX. Now they
have slowly gotten to know each other and have to live together in this
community of other survivors. But as Jack so aptly puts it at the end of this
episode, "It doesn’t matter who we were or what we did before the crash,
three days ago we all died. We should all be able to start over" While
that sentence very nicely ties the episode together and helps illustrate the
definition of the episode title, it did come on the heels of Kate telling Jack
that she wanted to confess her crime to him since Jack now knows (and has let
Kate know) that he is aware of her criminal past. But Jack decides to let her
off the hook, thereby making us, the viewers suffer for many more episodes
before finding out what exactly Kate did. Not to mention, Jack asks the dying
U.S. Marshall what Kate did, but the Marshall
doesn’t tell him. So Jack does want to know, but he allows
Kate the courtesy of not feeling forced into the confession. Is it Jack’s crush
on Kate? Or is it just a good way to extend an intriguing and curious mystery?
This
episode sort of revolves around Kate for the most part. She is featured in the
flashback which is post-criminal activity while she is on the run from the Marshall. In this
flashback we not only see how Kate gets caught, leading her to be a passenger
on the plane, but more importantly we see some of our themes that we talked
about from last episode continued in this episode. The man whose farm that Kate
lands on in Australia, takes
her in for a few months only to be the one that gives her up to the Marshall. So what themes?
Glad you asked…
- Kate
lied to the farmer about her name and reason for being in Australia
- The farmer
also lied to Kate, telling her that he would drop her off in town when really
he was delivering her to the authorities after finding out that she was wanted
for criminal activity.
- The entire crew of Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Charlie, Boone and Shannon lie to the rest of the camp about the transmission that they heard over the radio. (Even though Kate does tell Jack later on)
- As
Kate goes after her wages that were hidden in a tin can in the middle of the
night, she is caught by the farmer. He tells her that she should’ve felt
comfortable enough to let him hold on to her money, rather than hiding it in a
can. She responds by saying: "I got trust issues." Ironic since she
would have her trust abandoned by said farmer only hours after that moment.
-
Speaking of irony, the man gave up Kate because of the reward: $23,000. Hmm
where have I seen the number 23 before? Further indication that the writers
knew what they were doing with these numbers right from the beginning.
Though this
is not a theme that we have talked about before, we definitely see some good development
of Jack's character in this episode. Character development is of course a major
theme in any good show, but as arguably the ‘main character’ (at least in this
season) Jack is focused on quite often.
In his
efforts to save the Marshall's
life we are seeing Jack's tendency to always want to fix things. We will see this
repeated in many ways throughout the series, but in this episode, this
character trait revolves mainly around Jack's responsibility as a doctor. Aside
from the pilot episode of course, we see here how Jack is the ‘never-give-up
doctor’ who always seems to be willing to believe that he can fix it, save it,
or make it better. Though the camp wants Jack to put the Marshall out of his misery, Jack refuses to
give up on him. Claiming that he is "not a murderer" even though he
later is forced to be the one that puts the Marshall 'out of his misery' after
Sawyer takes matters into his own hands and misses his shot at the Marshall's
heart with the one bullet the camp had left. This episode definitely continues
to mold Jack as the rational, reasonable hero character that we have seen from
the beginning.
'Reasonable'
is a quality of Jack's that will stick with him until only very recently. Until
season 5 Jack is the rational-thinking 'man of science' through and through. In
my opinion, this is illustrated with an explanation point when Hurley asks Jack
if the 'monster' was a dinosaur and Jack easily and confidently says 'No'.
Hurley questions how Jack can be so sure and Jack (in typical Jack fashion)
says it’s because 'dinosaurs are extinct.' Of course! How could Hurley not have
thought of that? It MUST be something other than a dinosaur that makes that
horrific roaring sound, knocks down trees and tosses humans around with ease.
We know now that it is in fact NOT a dinosaur, but it was definitely typical of
Jack to write off the possibility of it being a dinosaur with such confidence
and ease. A much different tune from the Jack we know in season 5 that seems to
think anything is possible even if it seems unreasonable or irrational. That’s
why it's funny seeing these episodes again after knowing what I know now. That
line may not have seemed so significant, but it was definitely important
character development.
*Sidenote
about important character development in this episode: We see how Walt is a
'special' character and/or how the island is 'special' when it immediately stops
raining after Walt's father, Michael promises that he will go find Walt's dog,
Vincent "as soon as it stops raining'.
Last but
not least, speaking of character development, we get a little more acquainted
with one of my favorites; Mr. John Locke. We have seen him speak to Walt, but
we still know relatively little about him. He whittles a dog whistle to find
Walt's lost dog, then he kindly allows Michael to take the credit for it
because he thought it would help better the relationship with his son. A very
nice gesture indeed. So what’s with this Locke guy exactly? That’s all we know
so far, but I got goosebumps again when watching the final scene of this
episode even though I have seen it several times before. Everyone seems to be
happy and getting along now, but how do you not get some sort of feeling when
that camera slowly pans around Locke as he watches Michael, Walt and Vincent
the dog while the gentle, uplifting music fades to a creepy silence. I know
from speaking with a few different people that the end scene really hooked them
into thinking that Locke was going to be an evil character.
I must
admit, that ending scene does do a great job of implying that this may wind up
being the case, but I've watched enough TV that even when I first watched it, I
thought they might go the other way this time. It’s hard to explain, but it was
just a feeling I had. I think it might be due to the following dynamic that the
writers subtly put forth; Locke was portrayed as mysterious, quiet,
knowledgeable, perhaps with an agenda, but still comes across innocent, genuine
and kind (especially after the act of finding Vincent and allowing Michael to
take the credit.) One thing is for sure, we want to know more about Mr. Locke,
and that’s exactly what we get in the next episode: Walkabout.
But what
promotional products make an appearance? I know you were dying to know. The
promotional bottled water is back, but it remains throughout most of the series
so I think it’s the last time I will mention it.
However I
did see a few new ones: Jack’s custom printed mini flashlight helped him find medicine in the
dark remains of the fuselage of the plane, and later in the episode Sawyer uses a promotional Bic lighter to attempt lighting his cigarette after
shooting (but not quite killing) the Marshall.
Did anyone else find it weird that the lighter didn’t work so he threw the
cigarette in frustration? Clearly there was a fire burning right next to him,
but who knows…maybe cigarettes just don’t taste the same when lit over a large
campfire.