Lost 2x02 'Survival'

by Ian Austin

As Danielle recovers, Sayid takes a group down to check on those who stayed on the beach. But when Danielle reveals a shocking revelation, Shannon rushes to catch up the them, worried for their safety. Meanwhile, Jack and Locke search for a missing Kate.

Its premiere showed that there's some clever and very different ideas at work behind this show, so Lost Alternate Season Two is back with 'Survival,' a Charlie-centric episode that should hopefully continue on from the very different start to the season. However, while the writing itself was of a high standard, the structure of the story itself got a little confusing, with a lot to try and establish in a short space of time that left the episode tripping over itself a little. Let's see if 2x02 manages to learn from that!

A gunshot and a woman named Mary seemingly on the receiving end of it takes us straight into Charlie's flashback, waking in his crappy apartment in a crappy part of town. He's going cold turkey, apparently, and not having much luck with it as he starts tearing his apartment to pieces looking for something. He finds his phone, calls his dealer and we jump back to the island, where the feverish Danielle is still being cared for by Sun. Already, there's a distinct voice coming out in the stage direction here - Austin is clearly a writer who likes to feel more like he's chatting casually to his readers than standing on a soapbox dictating a story to them. Shannon and Sayid are at loggerheads over what to do with her, but as Charlie tries to ask where Hurley is, he gets ignored - something that happens to him a lot, as we know. It seems there's a bunch of people waiting on the beach who aren't convinced that the Others are dangerous (huh? did they miss, you know, the kidnapping and death?), so Sayid gets Charlie with Newbies Eve and Logan to go persuade the Beachies to come back. Eve makes an odd comment about not wanting to go with Charlie because she can't stand Catholics (which seems a little strange - Charlie's not exactly the type to bang on about his religion, is he?).

Down in the jungle, Jack's about to head through a steel door to get into the hatch (hang on, have I missed something? Dana sort of found this other entrance last week, but then it was Jack and Locke emerging from it - so something's not flowing right here) when Locke and Dana show up, and the two have an angry clash. Jack wants to go inside to look for Hurley, but Dana persuades him to go back to the caves first. Jack gives up a little too easily if you ask me, and then there's two moments between Jack/Dana and Locke/Dana which have Foreshadowing written all over them before we rejoin Sayid and Eve in the jungle. Sayid pauses to observe an out of place cactus, while Charlie and Logan are trekking through the rain (and Charlie's already falling into the trap of saying 'bloody' and bleeding' every thirty seconds) and obviously not getting on all that well. Have to say, the new characters this show's thrown at us are sticking out a bit too much at the moment - the idea is obviously that they've been here since the start, but Eve marks herself out as a potential flunky for Locke with her hope for what's inside the hatch, while Charlie hears a voice from his past that launches him into the next Flashback - Charlie meeting some unsavoury characters to get hold of his next fix. The fixer, a surly chap named Simon, hands him a gun and it seems they're about to push Charlie to more desperate measures to keep him coming back for more. We return to the Island and see Kate tied up inside her tiny room (with the colourful stage direction starting to grate a lot by this point - and is there any need to use the phrase 'fucking petrified' in capital letters?), and with a nice self-referential moment where she does the Count To Five Technique for staying calm, her mystery captor appears. She asks Kate what she's doing on her island, and we black out.

Jack returns to the caves to check on Danielle, with Sun doing what she can to help out. When Jack learns of Sayid's trip into the jungle, he starts freaking out - but now I'm getting confused again. Why is everybody still so convinced that the Others are coming? I thought Charlie and Sayid went to some effort to tell everyone that it was all a setup by Danielle? Although, I suppose Jack won't have spoken to them yet. Anyway. Jack asks for Locke's help finding Kate, and for some reason Locke seems to be enjoying the power this request gives him over Jack. Sayid and Eve think they're being followed - but it's Charlie and Logan. D'oh. Logan disses Sayid but quickly backs down when Sayid gets in his face, before Lostzilla shows up for the first time this season! Sadly, the comically drawn out 'roooaaaaarrrr' stage direction saps any kind of tension that its appearance could have had - more Lostzuki than Lostzilla. And I know nobody's going to get that reference. Moving on. Eve is happy to sit and wait for the beast, and Logan waves the Obvious Flag by telling her how much like Locke she is. Yes, we get it already. Eve and Logan come to angry words about their respective opinions of Locke, which for some reason flips Charlie back into a Flashback - doped up, he's with Simon and some other goons as they meet a chap named Romero (yeah, very subtle pop culture reference there), backed up by goons of his own. They're here to make a trade - and we see Mary at last, a terrified sixteen year old girl in Romero's custody. The plot thickens!

Jack and Locke are out looking for Kate, with Locke seeming to lap up Jack's frantic search attempts as he calmly steers him the right way. They find a spatter of blood, footprints - and then a dead end. Locke seems to think whoever has Kate is doing too good a job of hiding her, and we cut from that to Kate, still being interrogated. Her captor is threatening all kinds of violence if Kate doesn't start telling the truth - or at least, do so in a way that convinces her - but pushes Kate a little too far when she actually cuts her. Logan seems suspicious about Eve, but Sayid clearly trusts Logan a lot less, dropping the old 'manifest' card to highlight his suspicions. At the caves, Danielle wakes up and asks Shannon what's going on, and Shannon suddenly displays a fluency in French - but as Danielle freaks her out and Shannon runs off, we cut back to Danielle - who's fast asleep. Aha! Freaky Dream time. Good stuff. Sayid and the others reach the beach - but everyone's gone. Eve finds a diary that seems to suggest that the Beachies waited patiently but were surprised by someone, and as Logan starts to bug out he and Sayid finally come to blows. Logan runs off but Eve makes sure Sayid doesn't chase him, while Kate's busy being interrogated still. She loses a bit of her little finger (ouch!) before the captor says she can't let Kate go, because 'they' would find her. Hmm! Charlie catches up to Logan, who seems to be working himself into a frenzy about something, attacking Charlie before he finally calms down. Shannon stumbles into frame, followed by another Newbie, Andrew, and then Laura. Charlie gets out the best line of the episode before the group head for the beach - and we hear a gunshot! Uh oh. Charlie flips back to Flashback CIty, where the trade for the scared Mary goes tits up when somebody shoots Simon, and Charlie scurries for cover as things go all Sin City around him. Back on the island, Sayid's got a bullet in his shoulder from somewhere, passing out as Eve grabs his gun, reeady to defend them both.

Shannon races out onto the beach, freaked out that Danielle told her somebody's going to die because of her, and all hell breaks loose as Shannon does her best to take charge. There's obvious emphasis on making more of Shannon in this season, so bravo for that, and her determination to get Sayid fixed up and back to safety marks out her character growth. Kate gets injected with a mystery black substance as Jack and Locke have found a hole. Locke seems to think Kate's down there somewhere (that old 'everything happens for a reason' thing), and tells Jack to go back to the caves while he searches for Kate. A few digs between the two about Boone leads to a nice face off, before Jack ventures down the hole to look for Kate. On the beach, Laura is preparing to dig the bullet out of Sayid, while Jack reaches the bottom of the hole, which is where Kate is being held. Or was. There's no sign of her, and Jack has no option but to climb back up. Laura gets the bullet out, but as Charlie catches up to Andrew, BLAM! He's dead. So what was the point of him, then? Eve takes a grazing from a bullet before Logan shoots back and hits someone at last. The others start to head back to the caves, but Eve spots a blood trail leading along th ebeach and decides to follow it. Charlie struggles to save Andrew as he Flashbacks to the dark alleyway again, and as Romero tries to drag Mary away, Charlie pulls a gun on the fearsome people trafficker. Romero tosses some heroin Charlie's way, and it slows him down for long enough for Romero to drag him away.

Jesus, this episode feels like it's been going for a long time now. We're into the last little segment now, as Jack arrives back at the caves just as Sayid is brought in (chest wound? might want to check that, guys), and as Jack gets to work on him we're back to Charlie, where Andrew has slipped away. Charlie stands, frustration washing over him as the rain starts again, and we end. So... what happened to that moment we saw at the start, then? It looked like Charlie's flashback was leading to some kind of resolution, but it feels like it just ended too soon.

A muddled and annoyingly over-directed episode. The conversational and overly jokey tone of the majority of the stage direction takes you right out of the script, so it feels more like you're listening to somebody who loves to hear themself talk recount the story to you than watching it yourself - or maybe watching the episode with a very verbose director's commentary to accompany you. It pushes the page count way over acceptable levels, and a lot of it is wholly unecessary. There's also a distinct lack of subtlety here that was prevalent in the last episode - Lost is a show that revels in slowly unfolding mysteries and simmering plots, gradually building up the clues as time goes on and never failing to surprise you. At least, the real version does. This show so far is whacking the audience over the head with plot hints at every available opportunity, with over-enthusiastic stage direction that feels at times like an excited child who can't wait to tell you what he learned at school today. Some degree of restraint is going to have to be introduced fairly rapidly here - tone down the direction and stop being in such a hurry to tell us what's going on! Let us find things out at our own speed, because there's no better feeling with Lost than having a theory of yours confirmed or turned on its head later on in the season, built up from clues dotted throughout the preceeding episodes. People here are repeating information and having repetitive conversations that don't seem to push any plots forward all that much, and after two episodes it doesn't feel like we've moved very far forward. Instead, we've got a clutch of new characters to get used to and a slew of new plots that are already starting to trip over themselves. The continuity wobbles aren't helping either (the Dana/Jack/Locke sequence outside the Hatch being the most noticeable), so all in this show needs to start getting a lot tighter if it's going to work.

Charlie's flashback had the potential to be quite good and character building, but his lack of activity in the rest of the episode lessens the impact consdierably. This episode isn't focused on any one character, and as a result Charlie's development gets sidelined. There are some good pieces of dialogue, and a decent knowledge of how the various characters tick is evident in some of what goes on, but Lost must try harder and start showing more coherence if it's to maintain interest - the ideas are here, but they're being sabotaged by some wonky writing and erratic structuring at the moment.

ZPM RATING: