Athens Exchange - Lost Recap: "Cabin Fever" Review

Lost Recap: "Cabin Fever" Review

Writer’s Note: Sorry for the lack of a cool Paint picture this week. I thought I would let my words speak for themselves… plus my computer was down for a while.Remember the days when a B-plot for Lost concerned trivial things like a poker game to get back some medicine from Sawyer? Those were the days, huh? Now, the B-plot involves Michael trying to avoid getting shot by a ruthless gun-for-hire. Its clear that as the series progresses, the island is going to grow even more dangerous.

This week’s episode was entitled (with a loving wink) “Cabin Fever,” a reference to both the increasingly-dangerous freighter and the trek to Jacob's creepy Ghost Shack. Following the destruction of the Barracks by the Freighties, Locke took Ben and Hurley on a journey to try to get back to Jacob’s love pad in order to get further instructions.

After getting a vision featuring one of the original Dharma men, Horace Goodspeed, Locke and Co. went back to the mass grave, where Ben put the causalities of the Purge. Doing a little bit of grave robbing, Locke found an old map leading him to the cabin.

As they headed to the cabin, flashbacks gave us snapshots of Locke’s life and the different influences that the island has had on him without him even realizing it. I particularly enjoyed the scene where an adult Richard Alpert paid young Locke a visit. Placing five seemingly random objects in front of him (a comic book, a knife, a basketball glove, etc.), Alpert asked him which one of these already belonged to him. Though he didn’t entirely understand the question, young Mr. Clean picked the knife. Frustrated, Alpert collected his things and told Locke’s guardians that he wasn’t the boy that they thought he was. As for the meaning of this (or of any of Locke’s strange run-ins with the island), your guess is as good as mine.

Back on the freighter, Keamy tried to kill Michael for being the mole, but the island apparently still doesn’t want him to punch his ticket just yet. Frustrated, Keamy forced Frank to take the soldiers back to the island. Though he initially refused, Keamy’s twin murder of both Doc Ray and Captain Gault helped persuade the pilot.

Meanwhile, Sayid took a dingy and headed for the island to get as many people of the island as possible before the soldiers get there. Desmond has decided to stay put since he decided that he spent enough time on the island. It looks like Desmond and Michael are going to square off against the Freighter Folk without the help of Sayid. Sucks for them.Here’s a few things this recap would be incomplete without mentioning (in no apparent order):*Jacob seems to be one busy man. He never seems to be home. Instead, the Good Shepherd’s dad seems to occupy the shack most of the time, getting what I assume to be pretty decent money house sitting.*For my money, Claire is dead. I read a theory that she actually died in the house explosion from “The Shape of Things to Come.” Now this doesn’t make much sense if you apply Sixth Sense rules, but we need to learn to play by Lost rules (which we’re still trying to figure out). I read a theory that Claire died in that explosion and that her soul (or mind or heart or whatever) became disembodied. Claire in the physical sense is dead but she continues to have a real presence on the island, where the rules of life and death and time and space are a little skewed.*I hate that we lost Captain Gault. We only met him a few episodes ago in “Ji Yeon,” but I thought he was sympathetic to the 815er’s cause and was an all around decent guy.*The scene between Hurley and Ben and the candy bar… priceless.*Both Ben and Locke’s moms were named Emily. Coincidence? Not on this show.*This season has achieved the possible: I am starting to root for Michael and Ben. Crazy, huh? If these were the “bad guys” two seasons ago, who knows what we’ll be thinking in season six when the series wraps up.*Locke’s new mission is to “move the island.” It’s kind of weird. At that moment, I thought I could hear ten million voices from around the country say in unison: “What the hell?” *Richard Alpert scares the hell outta me. It’s more than just the fact that the man doesn’t age (though this certainly doesn’t help). No, it’s the fact that he seems so oddly cool and calculating. Look back at season three and how he conned Locke into getting Sawyer to murder Anthony Cooper. It’s possible that Alpert is the real Man Behind The Curtain. I would go out on a limb and surmise that he is one of the few who knows the real nature of the island.*Who is Jacob? We received confirmation last night that it was not Christian (I know three or four of you who now owe me money). I still think that Jacob might just be the disembodied spirit of Locke. But then again, I’ve been wrong before.

When Lost started, I had a sort of vision for how the series would end. Jack and Kate, exhausted from all their island adventures, settle down. He goes back into practice and she (for some reason) no longer has to run from the law. One day, as they are enjoying Just Another Day In Surburbia, Charlie stops by and visits. They reminisce about all their old island adventures (“Hey Jack, remember when we were being chased by that column of smoke? That $#*& was crazy!”)

Now its obvious that this little idea of mine will never come into fruition (which is great because I would have hated for Lost to end on such a clichéd note). However, more than that, I now realize that though this might have been a possible outcome in the beginning, Lost has grown up so much that a pat ending like that would no longer suffice. Now we know that rescue is not the most important thing, nor is the outcome of a love triangle. No, Lost has matured. If a happy ending is indeed in store for the story, not all of the characters are going to get to see it, and most likely, it won’t be a happy ending for everyone.

Come back next week and we’ll discuss Part 1 of the finale, “There’s No Place Like Home.” You can pass the time by stopping by www.flippofilms.com. Until then… Namasate!