Lost
“S.O.S.”
Originally aired April 12, 2006
A word of caution. This episode makes me cry. A lot. A LOT. And so, if you find it irritating when I write something like OMG!! I AM CRYING!!! CRY CRY CRY CRY!!!! (which I do more often than I care to admit) then you’re in for a tedious entry. Because, this episode, while not necessarily one of my favorite episodes — it doesn’t really move the story forward much, truth be told — it is a moving episode. It’s not treacly, it is not saccharine, it’s not mushy. It’s moving. And it makes me crrrrrrrry.
And it serves as a nice reminder that if not for the characters, if not for their backstories and the wonderful acting that brings them to life, Lost would be just another sci-fi show. The characters are the true heart of this series, not the smoke monster or polar bears or hatches. And so, yes, when this episode first aired, I’ll admit, I was irritated that it didn’t particularly illuminate any of the central mysteries, specifically this DHARMA business. But now, with some distance and time, I’ve come to appreciate this episode as a pause, a breath before we move ahead, deeper into the forever deepening enigma that is this show. It’s also an opportunity to get to know the lovely Rose and Bernard a little bit better. And this episode, like the episode before it, might actually have been one of the more illuminating episodes from this season in terms of where the story was headed all along.
Reasons why I’m grateful I live here in balmy (read: sweaty) H-town: 1. I never ever ever have to try to get my car unstuck from a snowbank. It’ll never happen. Ever. But poor Rose, here in New York somewhere, is good and stuck in said snow, madly spinning her wheels and getting nowhere. Bernard approaches the car, and, what’s this? He doesn’t seem to know her? They’re strangers?
Baroo?
So, Bernard offers Rose some advice on becoming unstuck from the snow, but I wasn’t paying any attention because, like I said, I’ll never ever have to do this, and then he goes around the back of the car, pushes her out and comically falls face-first into the snow.
Reason #2 I’m glad I live in H-Town: I will never take a comic pratfall into gross dirty snow. Well, I mean it’s possible if I go skiing or up to New York to visit friends or something, but I digress. So they introduce themselves, and then Rose is like, “What the hey? Let’s go get some coffee!” And they do! And that’s how Rose and Bernard meet cute.
5 months later, Bernard and Rose are enjoying a lovely meal overlooking Niagara Falls, and Bernard is looking all over the place but at the natural beauty, and Rose is all, “What does God have to do to get your attention?” But Bernard is busy waving over some violinists because he’s about to make A Big Gesture, and propose to Rose. He makes a big speech about how he thought he’d be a bachelor his entire life but knew within 5 minutes of meeting Rose that she was the one.
But Rose? Decides that this is the moment to drop her Cancer Bomb on him. Bernard waves the violinists away (and, P.S., does this happen anymore? With the violinists wandering the fancy restaurants? Did this ever happen? Because I’ve been to my share of restaurants and have never seen such a thing. Mariachis? Sure. Violinists? Nope.) and Rose explains that while she had been in remission for a couple years now, the sickness has come raging back and she’ll be dead in a year. Bernard absorbs this information, and then? He persists and notes that Rose hasn’t answered his question. COMMENCE THE CRYING, PART THE FIRST.
Oh, and Rose accepts.
Bernard and Rose honeymoon in Australia, which, AWESOME. And they’re driving around the Outback, near Uluru, specifically, getting themselves lost. Rose notes that she wanted to be on a beach for their honeymoon, and A. Just wait, Rose. But B. Australia? Is an island? With LOTS of beaches. I mean, they’re covered in the most dangerous sea life in the entire freaking universe, all of which want to eat, poison, or stab you improbably through the heart, but there are beaches!
Bernard knows where he is, thank you very much, they are most certainly not lost. As they pull up to some houses, Bernard explains that he brought Rose here to see someone, a healer. Rose is skeptical, and not a little irritated, but Bernard persists and explains that this healer, this Isaac of Uluru, is the real deal. Some people? Called Bernard? And told him so? Rose finds this explanation, and the $10,000 donation that Bernard made to this “healer,” to be suspect, and informs Bernard that she’s made her peace with her situation. Bernard, however, has not. And he can’t just sit by and do nothing.
To humor Bernard, Rose heads into Isaac’s home or office or home office which is covered with crutches and thank you notes. Rose seems overwhelmed.
Isaac, who is not, in fact, Captain Picard …
… but rather Governor Tarkin, but not the awesome Peter Cushing one, because he died, but that’s not to say that Isaac wasn’t good as Governor Tarkin, he was just different.
ANYWAY, Governor Tarkin enters and explains to Rose that, “There are certain places with great energy — spots on the Earth like the one we’re above now. Perhaps this energy is geological — magnetic. Or perhaps it’s something else,” and that he somehow harnesses this energy, and then waves his hands around people’s faces to cure them. Which is what he’s going to do to Rose.
So, Governor Tarkin waves his hands around Rose’s face and then suddenly his eyes pop open, and Governor Tarkin is like, “Dude. No. I can’t help you. FAIL!” Rose kinda shrugs, but Governor Tarkin’s like, “But wait! There might be someplace that has the right energy for you! Just not here!” Rose is all, “Mmm-hmm.”
Governor Tarkin offers to return Bernard’s donation, but Rose refuses it, and tells Governor Tarkin that she intends to deceive her husband into believing that Governor Tarkin fixed her. Heck of a way to start a marriage, Rose.
BUT ALSO? CRYING AGAIN.
Alright. So. On the island, Fenry is still not talking, or eating or drinking, and hasn’t been for 2 days now. And Jack’s patience is just about dried up. While tending the wound on Fenry’s shoulder, Jack informs him that he intends to go out into the jungle, back to that “line” he was told he wasn’t allowed to cross, and demand that they make an exchange: Fenry for Walt. This seems to be the thing that inspires Fenry to finally talk as Fenry announces that they’ll never give Walt back. Well, well! Isn’t that interesting?
Jack explains to Ana Lucia that he’s going out, and he needs her to stay in the hatch to keep an eye on Fenry and Locke who is busy having a pout in the computer room. Ana Lucia urges Jack to take a gun and a buddy. So, Jack asks Kate to come along, which makes Sawyer sulk, but yeah. Too bad.
Kate is THRILLED at being asked to come along, instead of having to sneak around, get herself caught, and be a huge liability. For a change. But when Kate mentions to Jack just how happy it made her to be invited along, Jack has to go and ruin the moment by explaining that he asked her because The Others didn’t want her. After all, they let her go when they had her. Of course, they didn’t want Jack either. Damaged goods. Yeah, that’ll change. Also? Jack? Way to be a jerk.
As they traipse through the jungle, there are some shenanigans involving one of Danielle’s baby traps, a net, sexy fumblings in said net, and a gun.
Jack shoots them down (really? Gotta say, not very believable, writers.) and then they get back to the business of trying to find The Others. Or something.
Kate reveals the whole business about The Others wearing disguises and the medical hatch and all that, and Jack is like, “WOW. AND YOU WERE GOING TO TELL ME THIS, WHEN?” But Kate essentially tells him to suck it, and that’s when they find the clearing. So Jack starts screaming like a crazy person, letting The Others know that he has their man, and isn’t giving him back until they return Walt. So there.
However, The Others choose to ignore Dr. Crazypants.
So Jack and Kate settle in for a while, and Kate apologizes for kissing Jack, and Jack’s all, “I’m not sorry.” And where’d that come from? But it doesn’t matter much, because there is suddenly noise coming from the jungle and ZOMG!!!! it’s Michael. And he doesn’t look so good.
Back in the hatch, Locke is having issues. He’s trying to remember the map that he saw during the lockdown, but isn’t having much luck, he’s still on the danged crutches, and the alarm is going off and he’s not sure whether he should push the stupid button. What’s the point, you know?
After Jack leaves, Locke demands to speak to Fenry, but Ana Lucia won’t let him into the armory, since the gun’s with Jack. So, instead, Locke is forced to yell his questions through the door. Specifically, Locke wants to know if he entered the numbers or pushed the button. Oh, yeah he did, Locke. He pushed the big red button on your back is what he pushed. Boy, howdy, did he push it.
Locke heads out to the beach for a pout, which is where Rose finds him and basically tells him to buck up, lil’ camper! Even though Jack says that it’s going to take weeks for Locke’s leg to heal, Rose and Locke both know it won’t take that long. And this is enough to send Locke back into the hatch, where he has something of a breakthrough while drawing his lockdown map.
And while all of this is going on in the hatch, and out in the jungle, over on the beach, Bernard has had just about enough. It’s when he and Rose are setting up the beach kitchen with all the DHARMA food drop noms that no one seems to question that finally breaks Bernard. He doesn’t understand why no one is doing anything to get them rescued, why everyone seems to have just given up on being saved. But that’s H’OK! BERNARD HAS A PLAN! QUICK! GATHER ‘ROUND! GO GET FROGURT GUY! (And be sure to tell him to back off Libby already. Dang.)
Once Bernard has collected a bunch of people and directed them to an empty expanse of beach, he explains that they’re going to make a sign. No, like a REALLY BIG SIGN. NO. LIKE REALLY REALLY BIG. Bernard reasons that if the food was parachuted in, planes or satellites must be flying by, so why not make a huge S.O.S. so they can be spotted? Great idea, right? RIGHT?
But everyone just kind of shrugs. And then Rose suggests that they run this by Jack first. This, unsurprisingly, insults Bernard, who takes Rose aside and asks her what harm could come of this project? And Rose answers: false hope. Now, Rose, I thought we all learned that there’s nothing false about hope. And apparently, Bernard is an Obamaniac, too, because he just can’t sit around doing nothing. Yes, we can, B. Yes, we can.
Bernard begins looking for other able bodies to help on his little project and approaches Mr. Eko and Charlie who are busy on their own project. And because they’re busy on their own project, they aren’t free to work on Bernard’s. And no, he may not have any of these logs that they’ve chopped down. Bernard wonders (as does the audience) what it is exactly Mr. Eko and Charlie are working on, and Charlie explains that it’s a church. This, somewhat predictably, sets Bernard off again, and he complains that everyone is building something on this island, while he’s working to get them all saved. Mr. Eko responds that people are saved in different ways. Which, you know, is kinda predictable. Way to throw that one over the plate, B.
When Bernard returns to the sign site, there are considerably fewer people there. Seems Frogurt and Craig took off as soon as Bernard turned his back, because, yo, who wants to lug a bunch of heavy rocks and drop them in the sand? NOBODY, that’s who. And the remaining few aren’t too keen on the idea of lugging giant rocks half a mile while Bernard yells at them and takes the “drawing lines in the sand” job for himself. You catch more flies with honey, Bernard.
Bernard’s other job appears to be recruitment, and he approaches Sawyer for a little help, with the predictable results. Bernard explains that he had 15 people and is now down to 4, and somehow this is Rose’s fault? For not being supportive? Rose suggests that it’s his managerial skillz, and wonders why Bernard can’t just let things alone. And Bernard spirits back that if he didn’t always try to do something, she wouldn’t be on the island, which is true, but I kinda don’t get it? Because he’s saying it in an angry way? Like somehow he’s blaming her? When clearly he’s blaming himself? I dunno. Rose storms off.
And when Bernard returns to the worksite, the only person left helping him is Jin. When Bernard gets all up in Jin’s grill for not putting the rocks down the way he wanted him to, Jin is like, “OMG. LATERS.” And Bernard has a sad.
Later that afternoon, Rose brings Bernard some dinner, with an apology on the side. See, she maybe, kinda, sorta lied to him? About Isaac? And the curing? Maybe none of that happened. However! That doesn’t mean she’s not cured, though. She explains that when one is sick, one can feel that something isn’t right inside. And after the crash, she didn’t feel that anymore. The island cured her! Bernard is like, “well, how do you know it wasn’t Isaac?” And Rose is like, “I KNOW. JUST TRUST ME. GAH.” Finally, Bernard puts two and two together and realizes that, wait a minute! ROSE DOESN’T WANT TO LEAVE! AH! And Bernard agrees that if the island has cured her, they’ll never leave. And then they cry, AND THEN I CRY BECAUSE COME ON.
Oh, and as Rose reveals all of this to Bernard? we have this flashback moment at the airport in Australia, wherein she drops her pills, and who should wheel by …
… but one John Locke who returns them to her. SEE? That’s how she knows! Awesome. Also: Locke in a wheelchair? CRY.
And you wanna hear something else that makes me cry? The events in this episode, Rose’s whole story is based on events in L. Scott Caldwell’s (Rose’s) real life. True. Freaking. Story.
From the bonus material on the Season Two DVDs:
L. Scott Caldwell: It’s loosely based on events in my life… in my personal life. My husband, who I married during the pilot, had an advanced cancer, and about a year after we married, he died. When you meet somebody who’s in the final stages of their life, the other person, the healthy person, is going to do all they can to keep you living … [Isaac’s room with crutches shown] so that’s the dynamic of this story. And the person that’s going through it, at least in my experience, after they’ve been fighting for so long … you just reach that fork in the road, where you can just keep going down that path of struggle, or you can stand where you are, and accept where you are, and accept it as a blessing. And that’s a very powerful place to be.
SOB. POOR ROSE. I mean, as if that episode isn’t enough of a tear-jerker, you mean to tell me it was based on not only a true story, but L. Scott Caldwell’s true story? TOO MUCH.
Alright. Done with crying. I promise.
A little Bible-learnin’ for ya: Isaac, as in Isaac of Uluru, is the son of Abraham, Israel’s first patriarch. Abraham and his wife Sarah were barren despite God being like, “Abraham, look, you’re going to be a dad, and your kids? totally going to be the start of a nation. For true.” But it had been so long, and no babies, that Sarah decided it was time to take matters in her own hands, and set her husband up with their handmaiden. Which, I’m sure seemed like a good idea at the time, but predictably, Sarah got all jealous of the handmaiden, and started treating her poorly. Eventually, the handmaiden has the baby, Ishmael, and Sarah never really warms up to him. So, then, God tells Abraham and Sarah that, no, really, they are going to have a kid together, and Sarah laughed and laughed and then, HEY! What’s this? She’s pregnant! So, Sarah sends Ishmael and his momma away, because who needs them anymore, you know? And she names her improbable child Isaac, which means “laughter.”
RIGHT. SO. Fast forward about 37 years or so, and God is like, “Hey, Abraham, guess what? I’m going to need you to sacrifice Isaac.” And Abraham kinda shrugs, grabs his son, and leads him up Mount Moriah (like the wine) to kill him.
At the last second, an angel appears and stops Abraham, explaining that it was all a big joke or something and orders the old man to sacrifice a ram instead. Ha ha! After nearly being killed by his father for no particular reason, other than another of God’s pesky pop quizzes, Isaac comes down off the mountain and goes on to marry Rebekah, and after another period of barrenness, the two have twins! Esau and Jacob! Whom we’ve all heard enough about at this point, I think we can all agree.
And, so once again we have ourselves another patriarch, another name related to Jacob, of whom, at this point in the story we have yet to hear. So, yes, this is a gentle clue, a dash of foreshadowing of the mysterious character we will meet in the next season. But Isaac’s value in the story is more related to his gifts and to his home. If you’ve been reading the blog for any amount of time, I’m sure you knew that for me the most important line in the episode is Isaac’s explanation of his healing powers: “There are certain places with great energy — spots on the Earth like the one we’re above now. Perhaps this energy is geological — magnetic. Or perhaps it’s something else. And when possible I harness this energy and give it to others.” The idea that the Earth has special locations, hotspots of energy that have mystical powers, is something that we have explored many many times before in this blog. There are actually two very special locations in this episode, Niagara Falls and Uluru.
Uluru, or Ayer’s Rock, is actually a large mound of sandstone, a monolith, an enormous single stone, if you can believe it. It’s also an inselberg or (wait for it) an “island mountain.” I know. And according to the certainly unreliable crystalinks.com site, Uluru is magnetic. It is a sacred location for the Aborginal peoples of Australia, and is tied to their creation story, and involved in Dreamtime. In fact, according to the Aborigines, those who attempt to take pieces of the rock with them are cursed.
But, going back to Isaac’s statement regarding the healing properties of the rock: Uluru, according to your New Agey-types, is located on one of the Earth’s grid points, or ley lines, which contain some sort of heightened energy. The intersection of some of these vectors, known as the vile vortices, are locations where mysterious events, namely disappearances or strange phenomena, would occur. Often these locations are on or near ancient civilizations, leading some to believe that the ancients settled there because they were attracted to this energy. The first traces of human activity near Uluru dates back 10,000 years.
Right, so, Isaac’s theory is that Uluru is one of these grid points, that it emits some sort of healing energies. But the key here is that he has to serve as a conduit for this energy. It’s not enough that Rose (or whomever) to simply go to Uluru for the healing to take place; Isaac has to harness the energy and focus it on the receiver. And that’s what’s interesting. Isaac’s powers, Isaac’s specialness is a necessary component to the healing process, not unlike Jack. A patient can’t just go stand in St. Sebastian’s and presto! be healed of their spinal injuries. They require Jack’s intervention, Jack’s skills to leave the operating room restored. And similarly, (although this really only applies to Catholic priests, the Protestants tend to take a more personal view of their relationship with God) parishioners can go to their local church and pray all they want, but without the sacraments, mediated by priests salvation is incomplete. You can go to these holy, or healing spots, but without some help from the local talent, you’re not going to get very far.
Which brings me back to Jacob. Because of Berny’s CONSTANT LYING, it’s difficult to suss out the truth about Jacob and his relationship to the island, granted. But Benry certainly suggests that it is Jacob that has the ability to heal when he promises Juliet that Jacob will cure her sister. Couple this (which may or may not be a lie) with the fact that Benry develops a tumor, despite the fact that cancer is not supposed to exist on the island, and one is left to ponder whether or not Jacob isn’t the Isaac of the island, granting or withholding the island’s healing properties. And if so, this means that Locke and Rose were not simply healed upon crashing onto the island — but rather, Jacob chose to heal them. They are chosen ones.
Of course, the real story in this episode is more concerned with Rose and Bernard, and the issue of hope and faith. Bernard, unlike Rose, will not accept her fate, and will not accept the survivors’ fate here on the island. He clings to hope, whereas Rose has made peace with her lot. Both of their approaches are demonstrations of faith: Bernard has faith that there is yet some way to be saved, whereas Rose’s faith has allowed her to submit to her destiny, to God’s plan for her. What’s interesting is how this struggle between the two of them mirrors Jack and Christian’s debate in “Man of Science, Man of Faith.” After Sarah’s spine is crushed, Jack is brutally honest with her about her very small chances of ever walking again and Christian expresses his displeasure:
CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD: You might want to try handing out some hope every once in awhile. Even if there’s a 99 percent possibility that they’re utterly, hopelessly screwed, folks are much more inclined to hear that 1 percent chance that things are going to be okay.
JACK: Her spine’s crushed. I tell her that everything’s going to be okay — that’s false hope, dad.
CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD: Maybe. Maybe, but it’s still hope.
Sarah, like Rose, accepts that she may not be healed, telling Jack moments before her surgery that she knows she won’t be dancing anymore. She, like Rose, has let go, emotionally has moved on, and has accepted her fate. But, like Bernard, Jack has decided that, in fact, he is going to “fix” her:
SARAH: Come here. Come here. I want to tell you a little secret. Come on, closer. It’s okay. I know I’m not going to be dancing anymore. I can still roll around at my wedding. You’re invited, okay.
JACK: I’m going to fix you.
And, so here’s the lovely thing: Bernard, like Jack with Sarah, does “fix” Rose. As he points out in the midst of their spat, she wouldn’t be on the island if it weren’t for his refusal to give up on her. If he hadn’t been so desperate to cure her cancer to bring her halfway around the world, she would have never crashed onto this miraculous place. By acting, by doing something, by working, Bernard did save her. The trick now is letting go. Just like Jack, who has difficulty knowing when to let go, who can’t give up Sarah after he’s saved her already, Bernard doesn’t realize that he has done his work, and now must step back and let it be. Because he believes that Isaac cured Rose, Bernard is desperate to take her back home to live out their lives together. Thus, the sign. His S.O.S. Bernard is so busy creating his own sign, that he doesn’t see the giant, flashing sign in front of him. He doesn’t see that he did bring her to a place of healing, the trick is that they can’t ever leave.
Which, now in retrospect, is so very very clear. When this episode first aired, it was maybe the first time that I realized that this show wasn’t going to end with the characters being saved and going home and living happily ever after. I certainly never expected that they would be rescued halfway through the series and then struggle to go back, I’m not that prescient. But after this episode, I suspected that the series would end with rescue of one sort or another, and that each individual would have to choose whether to stay or go, or with the ultimate irony of Jack realizing, for one reason or another, that none of them can leave the island. Which of course is what happens, but only after a detour in the real world. It’s interesting — this and the previous episode, “Dave”, which I also discussed as not being one of my favorite episodes — are perhaps the two episodes in this season that really suggest where the series is headed. Like Hurley realizing that he must stay in Santa Rosa to be healed, to be saved, Rose and Bernard come to understand that they must stay on the island to be healed, to be saved. Mr. Eko, speaking words of wisdom: “People are saved in different ways.”
Lost originally aired on ABC and is now available to stream on Hulu and IMDb.
This post originally appeared on the Hearst site Tubular.