5 out of 5 stars from me!!
Any time a show or movie can mindf**k me like that is well deserving of 5 stars! I remember the first time I saw this episode, all of us discussing and trying to guess who's flashback we were watching. I think the general consensus was that it was a Jack episode set years and years ago. It looked like it could be his eye. The technology we were seeing was old. Maybe it was his college days? Then BOOM!! The explosion shakes the place shaking dirt down from the ceilings and HOLY SHIT!!! We realized this whole flashback we've been watching wasn't exactly a flashback but the point of view from SOMEONE IN THE FRIGGIN' HATCH!!!
It's so crazy to realize there's some guy living down there and then other things start to dawn on you. You start recalling the whole scene, all that technology. He's got running water, dishes, a blender, furniture, washer and dryer, a shower, a record player, a computer (very old one but an actual, working computer), a friggin' exercise bike and weights... All that stuff all in a hatch hidden underground. Man oh man, does your mind start going crazy overdrive with questions! How is that all possible and more importantly, where did he get the food and supplies from? How long has he been down there? What exactly IS he doing down there? Is he an Other? And wait, what did he inject himself with and where in the heck did he get that "medicine" or whatever it is? The eagle-eyed viewers had the rest of us running back to our DVRs to rewind and pause at the point when Desmond opens the cabinet of medicines....
The freaking numbers are on the vials!!! 4-81516-23 42. I so love the amazing details and tiny little easter eggs hidden in the show that had you rewinding and pausing and hunting. So much fun!
Then the ending where you finally see who it is and then HOLY SHIT again! It's the guy from the stadium! WTF is he doing there? Jack's flashback at the stadium was in 2001, three years before the plane crash. That means that Desmond can't have been there longer than three years. So how did he end up there? Recalling his conversation with Jack at the stadium, Desmond told Jack that he was training for a "race around the world." Did he shipwreck there during that? But then, he looks so settled in in the hatch. He's got a routine down. He looks all wild and crazy now. He's giving himself some kind of shots. Is he sick? SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!
Jack's flashback shows us when Jack and Sarah met. And did you hear the name of the guy that she hit when her tire blew and her car jumped the divider? Adam Rutherford. Shannon's dad! Well, they called his time of death so we know that that left Shannon at the mercy of her stepmother. Wonder if that's what caused her to change into the beyotch she is now? Wow, the connections are so crazy. Jack and Shannon had that connection and didn't even know it and probably never will. Jack is the doctor that had to make a decision and it had been to tend to Sarah, leaving Adam to die. Well, I get the feeling that Adam wasn't going to make it anyway. Did you hear the time of death they called out? 8:15.
Kate pointed out something very interesting about the hatch door. It says 'QUARANTINE' on it but on the INSIDE. Usually you put a message like that on the safe side of something to warn about what's on the other side of the door. That would mean that it's the island that's under quarantine and that Desmond had been in an area safely away from it. Hm, Danielle did keep talking about having to kill her crew because they got 'sick' and she also asked Sayid if any of the survivors had gotten sick yet. It had seemed like ravings of a mad woman and that maybe she'd gone a little mental and killed her whole team, husband included, but now, with that quarantine sign, you have to wonder.
Holy crap, what was with Walt appearing to Shannon? It's not the first time someone had seen someone on the island that wasn't really there. There was also Jack seeing his dad a couple times. But I remember how the other characters talking to Shannon and Jack pointed out that they hadn't had much sleep in days before these visions occurred so are they just hallucinations? If not, do you have to be in a foggy state of mind where you don't have something you'd think was not a possibility blocking or logic getting in the way, allowing your mind to be more open to receive these visions? And what was Walt saying? It was clearly gibberish. I think even the subtitles said so. But you know what happened shortly after that episode aired? Some really clever Losties decided to study that scene and when one person took Walt's gibberish and played it backward, IT CAME OUT AS ACTUAL WORDS!! How clever are people and how clever are those writers to go to such lengths to hide a whopping easter egg like that one?
It was definitely run backward. He said, "Don't press the button. The button is bad." So question is, was that a hallucination or did Walt astral project? We know he's been referred to as "special" many times and has done weird things so it's possible. It doesn't seem like he's done anything on that level though but we also know the island is special in a way. It gave Locke the ability to walk again so maybe it heightened Walt's special ability. Before he left, we saw that it seemed like he was tapping into it more. Remember when Locke touched Walt's arm and Walt said "Don't open that thing" and we knew he was talking about the hatch and yet, Walt didn't even know the hatch existed?
Jack is strangely cold and straightforward in his first flashbacks with Sarah. Actually, kinda mean. When she asks him about her condition, he does not sugarcoat it in the least or even attempt to soften the blow. What the heck happened? It wasn't until Jack met Sarah's douche of a fiance that he seemed to soften and take a total change. I think it's because he suddenly saw someone who needed to be fixed in a very bad way. Not only was this woman losing her ability to walk but it seemed she was going to be deserted because of it. Then when he's about to do the surgery and Sarah tells him that it's okay, that she understands she's not going to dance at her wedding, reminding him that there's most likely not going to be a wedding and she doesn't even know it, it's like something snaps in him. He leans down to her level and says in such a determined, absolutely sure way "I'm going to fix you." Lol, the way the nurses were all looking at him. Even with their masks on, their eyes and they way they stared spoke volumes. You just don't do that, make promises like that. It was insane and the intensity of his vow was crazy! I think we see in that moment how much he thrives on fixing people.
Sarah's ex-fiance, Kevin, was a total douche. I can't believe him and by the look on Jack's face when Kevin was asking his questions, Jack couldn't believe it either. Sarah is WAY better off without him. I understand that it's extremely difficult and not everyone can handle the task of taking on someone with such an immense disability but this was just beyond all that. This was a self-centered douchebag who didn't even want to try and his main concern was to find out if she'd be able to have sex. Wow, really, guy? Your fiance almost died and is lucky to be alive and the doctor just went over her condition and you straight up ask the doctor if she'll be able to still have sex? Wow. Just.... wow. Like that was the determining factor. Not "do I think I'd be able to take care of her" but "will I be able to still get laid." What a horrible human being.
I love when they do callbacks to things that happened in earlier episode. In this one, we see a really nice one going all the way back to the pilot when Kate counts to five as she's being lowered down the hatch. Omg, I was on the edge of my seat! Pins and needles. And when the branch broke and she started falling fast, AHHH! She was so scared! Lol, I couldn't help but laugh when Locke was like "Are you alright?" and Kate, before she can even finish saying "I think you should pull me back up" is being lowered okay and all like "Oookay...." Lol, way to show what you really care about, Locke! Discovering what's in the hatch is #1 on his list.
Holy crap, how scary was it when she starts to say "I think something's down here" then the bright light goes on, total silence and stillness, then the rope is yanked as something got hold of Kate. Then the rope goes slack and the light turns off. Omg, I was so scared! No!!! You can't kill Kate! What got her? Was it the monster? We did see the monster was able to go underground. Omg, it was scary and we didn't know yet what was down there.
Thank goodness Jack decided to go back there and when he returns, we see that Locke is gone too. That crazy man is so obsessed with the damned hatch that he went down there too, despite what just happened. Jack starts lowering himself down and I wanted to yell at him to be careful! That whole scene was intense as well! We finally got to see a little bit of the hatch. Weird mirrors everywhere, some wall mural with so much on it a Lostie could spend hours finding all the delicious easter eggs but we definitely spotted the ginormous 108 in the middle (one of the numbers that pops up a lot and is the sum of 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 added together), and if you pause, you see so much more!! There's the number 16 and 42, there are stick figures that appear to be falling (perhaps out of the sky??), there's a picture of an eye followed by M Sick (another reference to some sickness), and just so very much stuff!
And that wall. What was all the stuff? Some buckets of corroded looking stuff and when Jack got close, the metal key lifted as if there was a huge magnet field coming from behind that wall. That could also explain why Sayid was saying the compass was way off. Huge magnetic interference. That's as far as we got with exploring with Jack as the music blasted and scared the crap out of me.
So crazy how we find out Desmond is the one holding the gun on Locke. What a strange, small world. Thinking back on the flashback, both Desmond and Locke seem to have this immense faith. Remember in this ep, when Jack is saying that he can't fix his patient and Desmond says "but what if you did?" and Jack insists it's impossible and Desmond just repeats "But what if you did?" Kinda reminded me of that scene in White Rabbit when Jack is telling Locke that the person he's chasing is not there and Locke was saying something like, "But what if he is?" and Jack insists it's impossible and Locke says something about, "Maybe it's not."
Locke believes in miracles, Jack does not. That's the emphasis of this episode. You've got your non-believer man of science and your man of faith. Those three years ago, Desmond talked to Jack about faith and miracles and Jack basically shot them down. Then in the next flashback scene, you see Jack talking to Sarah, apologizing that he wasn't able to fix her but then, she shows him she can wiggle her toes. I think in that moment, as he laughed with tears of joy in his eyes, he believed in miracles. Something in the three years between then and now, things happened to make him completely revert back to a non-believer.
Wow, this is definitely one of the longest reviews I've written and honestly, I could continue to go on and on! It's amazing how just this one-hour episode could provide so very many things to ponder and discuss. Just one of the reasons why I love this show so damned much!
Favorite quotes/moments:The whole scene of Kate getting lowered into the hatch. So intense!!
Hurley: (to Jack) You should go ahead, man. Don't want Locke making time with your girl.
Hurley: Life's not so bad, right? I mean, sure, the Others are coming to, like, eat us all. And every once in a while, someone blows up all over you, but you do get to sleep in every morning.
Hurley: You'll think I'm crazy.
Jack: Try me.
Hurley: Awhile ago I was in this kind of psych ward, and there was this guy, Leonard -- and all the time I knew him all he ever said were these numbers -- 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 -- over and over and over again. And they kind of got stuck in my head. So, when I got out -- well, actually a couple of months after I got out -- I was buying a frozen burrito and I thought, hey, I should play the lottery. And I guess those numbers were still stuck in my head so I played them. And I won 114 million dollars. That's when it started happening -- my grandpa died, my house caught on fire, the chicken joint that I worked at got hit by a meteor -- well, actually meteorite. Okay, so tonight I see the same freaking numbers on the hatch thing -- just written on the side -- and that's why I tried to stop it -- because that thing is cursed, man.
Jack: You were in a psych ward?
Hurley: What's that thing where doctors make you feel better just by talking to you?
Jack: Bedside manner.
Hurley: Yeah, that. Yours sucks, dude.
Kate: Kind of unlike you -- the whole glass half-full thing.
Jack: There's a glass?
Kate: So, you want me to go down first?
Locke: Well, you're lighter. I can belay you down and bring you back up just as easy. The shaft might get narrower down there, too.
Kate: You left out the part where you just want to see if I get eaten by something.
Locke: Yeah, well, that too.
Desmond: (to Jack) See you in another life.
I was curious myself about what Walt was saying, so I changed the audio into english, but didn't make sense either. xD But wow, thanks for the information about the backward meaning!! The Lost producers seemed to be like the gods of doing a plot of a tv show! I never watched a show with so much details and above all so much connections and A-HA moments! And just am at the beginning of season 2! So I'm looking forward to all the other seasons and hope it won't lose it's awesomeness (like unfortunately a lot of tv shows does...)!