Funerals aren't so special for the tailies.
In this series of features, we’ll take a look at six episodes of LOST – one episode from each season. These are not recaps or reviews to the episodes. Instead we will be mostly be discussing the formal construction and storytelling modes of each episode and what that form reveals about a particular season or the series as a whole. Needless to say I will be freely discussing SPOILERS; if you haven’t seen the show yet…what are you waiting for? This week, we continue with episode 2.07, “The Other 48 Days.”
The first season of LOST was a full-bore phenomenon thanks to its engrossing mysteries and rich storytelling. Ending with a particularly pointed cliffhanger (WHAT’S INSIDE THE HATCH?!), the Season Two premiere would answer the question in characteristic fashion, simultaneously blunt and head-scratching. The reveal of Desmond and the computer in the hatch exemplify the widening parameters of the narrative in Season Two.
Season One was all about the shared search for redemption by the castaways and the physical struggle for survival. Now, the threat of nature is displaced by the threat of foreign invaders – literally a mysterious group called The Others. There’s the threat of shifting truth and things that can’t be known – who were the Dharma Initiative? Are these strangers really other survivors of Flight 815? What happens if we don’t press the button?
By this point, the producers and writers had internalized the structure and clearly felt more comfortable giving major running time to the flashback scenes; this had the added benefit of slowing down the progress of the island story at a time when the overall length of the series arc was very open-ended. A typical flashback might not leave viewers agape, but it could still be a well-written standalone story and an escape from the increasingly dense Island story.
Just as Season Two begins the process of really expanding the scope of the show, however incrementally, it also marks the point when the flashback formula is comfortable enough that the writers can begin to toy with it and eventually abandon it. “The Other 48 Days,” while a major departure from LOST, is actually a pretty straightforward narrative. It is the first continuous flashback; that is, rather than the typical back and forth of island-flashback-island-flashback and so on, the flashback story is portrayed in one long uninterrupted diegesis. Most of the episodes done this way bookend the flashback with a scene from the continuing Island narrative to start and end the episode; “The Other 48 Days” is the only episode of the series that is strictly chronological.
Despite its linear narrative structure, “The Other 48 Days” is still bold for network TV. There are hardly any of the show’s regular cast members, and certainly none of the sexy leads such as Matthew Fox or Evangeline Lilly, nor the breakout fan favorites like Terry O’Quinn. It’s hard to imagine an episode of, say, The Big Bang Theory that focuses solely on events outside of the show’s familiar settings or is missing Penny and Sheldon. Or an hour of Mad Men with no Don Draper. This episode is a particularly vigorous example of the confidence with which LOST employs its large cast – confident enough to hold off on its biggest, most popular characters, sometimes for weeks at a time.
Traditionally, TV bases its diegetic world – and its business model – on bringing back viewers every week with a stable of six to eight main characters and several less frequent recurring characters. The way TV salaries used to be structured, a main cast member was paid regardless of screen time, so if they are not in an episode (an absence that could potentially alienate finicky viewers), the studio is essentially paying for the actor’s week off. LOST seems to leave these tricky business considerations in the dust in service of telling its sprawling story. Later in Season Two, “SOS” focuses on the recurring characters Rose and Bernard, while the season finale spends over half an hour in the flashbacks of Desmond, a character barely seen in his previous episodes. “Across the Sea,” the controversial antepenultimate episode of the whole series, has none of the main cast, save for a bit of archive footage.
By jettisoning the regular stars and setting aside the flashback formula, “The Other 48 Days” essentially plays like a clip show of an alternate version of LOST – a grittier, less TV-friendly version in which there is no chiseled doctor to save the injured, no natural shelter or cargo to salvage, and especially no benign supernatural guardian guiding the characters to a redemptive destiny. Knowing now the forces at work on the island, it’s tempting to read the different circumstances as The Island’s and Jacob’s ickily efficient way of winnowing down the candidates – the final candidates are hail from the original Season One castaways. Or perhaps it’s the mechanism of fate – all of the tailies eventually were killed, except Bernard, who should have been sitting in the same row as Rose and Jack. The smart presentation of the episode – lots of shaky, handheld camera work, jagged editing, and many short, stark scenes – never allow the viewer an escape from the growing tension.
The episode touches on Season Two’s key themes and recurring motifs. The events of the tailies are driven by ever-increasing paranoia about The Others, a group whose moniker conveys how a lack of understanding can lead to fear and hostility. We’ve already seen how the tailies and castaways have gotten so paranoid they initially label each other as Others. We get background on the key tailies, emphasizing Libby’s warmth and Eko’s steadfast nature. Most importantly, the episode provides a glimpse into the psychology of the hard-edged Ana Lucia. Initially, her aggressively glum attitude irritated viewers – she made the tightly wound Jack look easy-going by comparison. But seeing the ordeal she and her people went through softens the character and makes her more sympathetic. We also see The Other’s main M.O. at work again, as Goodwin infiltrates the group by impersonating a crash survivor, like Ethan at the beach camp in Season One (and meeting the same fate as well).
Just like the castaways, the tailies find their own mysterious door to apparent shelter filled with mysteries to ponder. When the Arrow station’s usefulness is exhausted, the tailies move on – unlike the castaways, who ultimately battle over cracking the secrets of The Hatch. If the end of the series truly vindicates John Locke, and he is correct in his goal of unification with The Island (and all the ineffable forces in our lives), then the tailies should ultimately be rebuked. Mere survival isn’t good enough – what’s the point of surviving without understanding?
