Lost #2.3: Orientation
OK, I’m back with the Lost! 2.3 is called “Orientation,” so I guess I picked a good one to start up again on. And there were new characters!
The last episode ended with Jin, Sawyer, and Michael being chased by Others. Well, in this one, they were caught by Shirtless Other With A Giant Club In His Pants*, and tossed into a cage in the ground. Then later, the Pretty Girl who was flirting with Jack at the airport before the plane left Sydney was also tossed in to the cage. And then later, it turns out she was a spy, tossed in to the cage to figure out who the 3 guys were! Are the Others also survivors of the very same plane crash? That is mindblowing!
Also, the last episode was dealing with Jack and Locke and Kate looking around the Hatch. Well turns out that Desmond had been down there, regularly entering The Numbers into an old Radio Shack computer every 108 minutes. Jack and Locke watch an orientation video which explains this, but nobody really knows what will happen if the code isn’t entered, thus making this story a somewhat strange exercise in suspense-writing. The clicking timer sure helped build the suspense, as Jack and Locke argued about whether or not to believe something would happen as it clicked down. (Sayid of course nailed their argument when he said, “this isn’t relevant!”) Oh yea, and Hurley was down there too, but pretty much only so he could have a scene where he discovered all the food. Then Locke, for reasons I don’t get, made Jack push the button to save them from the unknown danger. He did, and so now we don’t know what would have happened. And let me guess… probably never will? Desmond ran away into the forest.
There was also a Locke flashback, where he was in a relationship with Peggy Bundy, who was helping him learn to lose his anger. Mission accomplished! He’s all calm now!
Anyway it was a fine episode. I hope there is more about Dharma, the creator of the Hatch and the Orientation video and whether or not they’re playing mindgames. The video referenced BF Skinner, so maybe they’re some sort of human experiment thing. Maybe they were conditioning people to do something (push a button every 108 minutes for no known reason), just like Skinner did with rats (he studied behaviorism). Maybe this also plays into how Jin and Sawyer and Michael were tossed into a cage.
Hey, look, my psych degree is paying off!
*not a euphemism