LOST Revisited: MIssing Pieces 1-7 (Mar 12)
Since you may not have seen these, I’ll try to recap them as completely as I can before offering my thoughts. Also, I’ll list them in the order in which they appear on the Season Four DVD, which does not appear to be the original broadcast order. There are 13 Missing Pieces, so I’ll cover the first seven today, and the remainder next time there’s a skip week.
Episode 1: “King of the Castle”
A close-up of a chessboard. Benry and Jack are playing, in the former’s house. Benry is in a wheelchair, still recuperating from his surgery. Jack mentions how his father taught him to play chess. Benry (sort of) jokingly asks Jack if he’ll consider staying on the Island, before assuring him that he “intends to honor our deal”. Jack asks whether he “intends to” or whether he “will”. Benry explains that it’s not up to him – if the Island doesn’t want Jack to leave, it won’t let him. Benry promises that he won’t do anything to prevent Jack from leaving, but warns him that the day may come when he’ll want to return. In the chess game, Benry avoids Jack’s trap by castling and ends with “Nice try, though.”
Now remember, this was originally supposed to air during Season Three. At that time, we didn’t have an indication that anybody would leave, and we certainly didn’t know they’d want to come back. They planned to show a lot of their cards in a little-seen piece of bonus material, which is really pretty great. Of course, plans changed and this ended up airing between Seasons Three and Four, which turned it into retroactive foreshadowing. I like Benry’s promise that he won’t do anything to the submarine. Since he just put Locke into a position to blow it up himself, Benry was technically correct. Which is, of course, the best kind of correct.
Chess, of course, has been a recurring theme for a long time. And in this case, Benry is playing the dark pieces, which is really what you’d expect. Of course, if you want to read significance into the specific gameplay, castling involves moving the King two squares toward a Rook moving into the square that the King skipped. It gets the King out of the center of the board, while putting the Rook in a position where it can be more easily deployed. I can’t tell if it’s too much of a stretch, but I think moving the Island certainly got Benry out of the middle of the board, while forcing Locke into a more active role. Foreshadowing, or just showing that Benry is really good at chess?
Episode 2: “Jack, Meet Ethan. Ethan? Jack.”
Set during Season One, while Jack is rounding up all the medicine available, Ethan brings him a briefcase full of prescription drugs. Ethan thanks Jack for his leadership and his perspective. Disparaging the other Lostaways, Ethan says: “Most of them still thing we’re going to get rescued any day now.” Jack: “And you think I don’t?” Ethan: “No, I think you’re smart.” Ethan makes a reference to Claire, and how Jack might have to deliver that baby himself. Jack says “it’s nice to know that at least I have an assistant”, which makes Ethan get all weird and silent. Finally, as he’s getting ready to leave, Ethan explains that his wife died in childbirth, “and our baby didn’t make it either”. With that, Ethan leaves.
There’s not a lot here, other than a glimpse of Ethan amongst the Lostaways. We didn’t actually see him in the series until right before he turned out to be a spy. Cornering Jack like he did, it looks as if he was trying to interact with people rather than blend in with the crowd. It certainly seems possible that Ethan’s wife really did die in childbirth, since that’s what happens on the Island. We’ve never seen any other references to Ethan’s family, but I’m inclined to believe him here.
Episode 3: “The Adventures of Hurley and Frogurt”
Set during Season Two, Hurley is seen leaving Bernard’s tent, carrying something. He’s startled by Neil Frogut, and drops the bottle of merlot. Neil asks what’s going on with Hurley and Libby. When Hurley doesn’t want to answer, Neil complains that he’s “holding up the line”and Hurley should step aside to let “a real man show her what’s what”. Hurley explains that he and Libby are going on a picnic date – he’s bringing the wine, she’s bringing the blankets. Neil tells him that if he’s not careful, it’s going to be “Neil time – now, and forever”.
You may remember Neil Frogurt from the Season Five premiere, where he got a couple of lines, let Sawyer have a shirt, and then got shot in the chest by a flaming arrow. Turns out, he kind of had it coming. This short is most notable for exactly when it was set – when Libby went to get the blankets from the Hatch, Michael shot and killed her. So this scene takes place more or less at the moment that Libby gets shot. Kind of depressing, huh?
Episode 4: “Room 23”
It opens in a hallway of the Hydra Station, outside “Room 23”. There’s an alarm sounding, and Others are scurrying about in a panic. Juliet waits outside the door, and when Benry arrives, she says “He did it again”. (We hear a thump from inside the room.)
Benry: “You’re going to have to tell him to stop doing it.”
Juliet: “I’m not going in there.”
Benry: “Fine. Get Beatrice.”
Juliet: “She’s not going in there either. None of them will. Tom won’t even bring him food. They’re all scared. Look, Ben. His father is out there looking for him. We could bring him back.” (More thumps)
Benry: “No.”
Juliet. “This is all your fault. You’re the one who wanted him here.”
Benry: “Jacob is the one who wanted him here. He’s important. He’s… special.”
Juliet: “He’s dangerous.”
Benry: “He’s just a kid, Juliet. He’s a child!”
Juliet: “He’s just a child? Come see.”
Juliet leads Benry outside where a dozen dead birds lay outside a boarded-up window.
Juliet: “What kind of child does this?”
Awesome. OK, this is clearly Walt that they’re talking about. We know that they were testing Walt, but we don’t really have a clue as to the nature of those tests. Room 23, though, is the same room where Karl was being held for brainwashing oh, so long ago. (It’s also one of the Numbers.)
“Beatrice” would probably be Miss Beatrice Klugh, who was shown to be Walt’s caretaker while in captivity at the end of Season Two. Back then, she mentioned the tests, but again, no clues. And if you go back to Season One, in the first Michael / Walt flashback episode, while Walt’s feeling neglected by his mother and Brian an incredibly rare bird that’s not native to Australia flies into the window and dies. The same bird that Walt was looking at a picture of at the time. (The previous two sentences brought to you by Bad Sentence Structure, Inc.) And now when Walt’s feeling threatened, a whole army of birds kamikaze the window. Yeah, he does sound important right about now.
I really like this one, because it picks up on some dangling threads from seasons past. It doesn’t provide any sort of resolution, but it does show that they’re still thinking about it. We might just find out the mysteries of Walt yet.
Episode 5: “Buried Secrets”
Jin is out on the beach, threading a fishing line. Sun’s watching from the jungle, and sneaks off unnoticed. Alone, Sun takes a California driver’s license out of her pocket. It shows her picture, but the name “Dahlia Choi”. She digs a small hole, apparently to bury the license. As she does so, Michael bursts into the clearing, calling for Vincent. He notices the license on the ground and hands it back to her. She breaks down and tells him that she “was going to leave Jin and start a new life in America”. She explains that she changed her mind at the airport, because she was afraid. Michael reassures her that they’ll be saved any day, but Sun says the Island is her punishment. Michael gives here a comforting hug, and they almost kiss. At the last moment, Vincent shows up, barking. This breaks the mood, and Sun makes a run for it.
So, this would be during Season One. (Jin still has the broken handcuff on his left hand, which is some nice continuity.) There seemed to be sort of an attraction between Michael and Sun in those early days, and it’s way more upsetting to see it start to play out now than it would have been at the time. Remember when Jin was violent and sort of jerky, and Michael was just the regular guy trying to take care of his kid?
I think it’s neat that Sun’s new name would have been “Dahlia”, which presaged “LaFleur” in terms of the Lostaways giving themselves flower-based names.
Episode 6: “Operation: Sleeper”
Jack wakes up to see Juliet in his tent. She tells him that the Lostaways don’t trust her. When Jack reassures her, Juliet explains that they’re right not to trust her. She reveals that Benry sent her to the beach to find out which women were pregnant, so they can “take them”. They talk about the submarine explosion – Jack blames it on Locke, but Juliet believes Benry is to blame. Juliet tells Jack that if Sun is still on the Island in a month, both she and the baby will die. The scene ends with her saying: “I’ve been living Benjamin Linus’ dream for three years. It’s time to wake up.”
This scene is obviously less significant now than it would have been when it was originally streamed, since all the plot points introduced were pretty well covered during Season Four. We do get to see Juliet confide in Jack, specifically that she came as a spy. For a long time, we had the impression that she was an exile from the Others, and it’s nice to see that she told Jack the truth earlier than we realized.
I like the way both of them assume that the person they know best was responsible for blowing up the submarine. Jack blames Locke, and Juliet puts the guilt squarely on Benry. They’re both at least partially right, but it’s interesting to see how Jack is willing to go so far as to overlook Benry’s evilness in his zeal to blame Locke for all of life’s misfortunes.
Episode 7: “The Watch”
Jack is on the beach, throwing stones into the ocean. When the camera pans out, we see that he’s on a regular beach, rather than an Island beach. Christian approaches him. Jack says that he went outside rather than sit with Sarah and the wedding planner to talk about flowers. Christian presents a gift to Jack – the watch that his own father gave him on his wedding day. He says that he never wore the watch. Jack’s grandfather thought Christian’s marriage was a mistake and told him so. On the day of the wedding. Christian then tells Jack that “Unlike me, you have made the absolute right choice”. Jack puts on the watch, and Christian asks for a favor. “If you and Sarah have a kid, try to treat him better than I treated you.”
This is a nice moment between father and son. Also, the first mention of Jack’s Grandpa Ray, who makes his first appearance during Season Five. That’s right, we now have two minor characters from the current season who were introduced in Missing Pieces. We see here what may have planted a seed for Jack. It sure seems like Christian really likes Sarah, here. Well, when their marriage went south, Jack assumed that she was having an affair with Christian. And of course, despite Christian’s approval, Jack’s marriage clearly wasn’t “the absolute right choice”.
This means that two Lostaways had important watches – Jack and Jin. We saw Jack put this same watch in the tray to get through airport security on the day of the flight. And immediately after the crash, Jack gave the watch to Hurley to time Claire’s contractions. I wonder who has that watch now. This scene is mostly a nice character bit, but with Christian’s regular appearances as Jacob this season, we can’t overlook anything involving him.
OK, those are the first seven. I’ll hit the other six later. Those six feature guest appearances from Michael, Jin, Juliet, Vincent, the surprisingly lively corpse of Christian Shephard, Smokey, and Arzt. And I’ll see you next week for a pre-game report and a piping hot recap. Together, we can get through a Lost-free week!
