Lost ReWatch: Two for the Road
Season 2, Episode 20
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Hero of the episode: Hurley Zero of the episode: Michael
Quote(s) of the episode: “You don’t want my help, you’re going to have to get it from somewhere else.”—Mom to Ana-Lucia | “Don’t you want my phone number?”—Sawyer to Ana-Lucia | “This is what you needed protection for—the suburbs?”—Ana-Lucia to Christian | “I’m here because I can’t apologize to my son.” --Christian
Music vibes: punchy and frenetic when Fake Henry attacks Ana-Lucia | simple piano notes when Hurley and Libby talk
Little things: reveal that Jack has a sister | Hurley wants to play music on the radio for Libby like in the movie Say Anything | Sayid telling Hurley about the private beach he took Shannon to.
Episode notebook:
Ana-Lucia focused flashbacks. She’s dealing with the aftermath of killing the man who shot her.
Mom knows Ana-Lucia murdered this man. Ana quits rather than deal with the trauma.
Fake Henry attacks Ana when she calls him a killer.
Ana-Lucia took a job as airport security. She meets Christian Shepherd in an airport bar, and he makes her an offer. Fate brings these people together in so many ways.
Ana wants revenge on Fake Henry. Libby warns her not to do anything stupid.
Fake Henry tells Locke he was sent to get him because John was one of the “good ones.”
Kate and Jack bring Michael back to the hatch, who tells tales of the Others.
Christian and Ana-Lucia are in Australia. The disgraced doctor wanted to see his daughter but was rebuffed by her mother. Spoiler alert on a twenty-year-old show, Jack’s sister is Claire. But I don’t think we deal with this again for a while.
Ana-Lucia tries to fight Sawyer for his gun. They end up losing their clothes in the process. Well, that’s one way to get a weapon.
Michael wants to go after the Others.
Locke and Jack reach a truce. Jack heads back to the beach to get the guns from Sawyer.
Hurley stumbles trying to create a romantic picnic for Libby.
Before the crash, Ana-Lucia was ready to head home and face the music. She was tired of running.
Michael makes a desperate choice.
Episode recap: Fake Henry is still staying mostly silent, unwilling to cooperate with people who wish him harm. Even refusing food from Ana-Lucia--until she hits him where it hurts. As a former cop, she’s used to killers who like to talk and is baffled by Fake Henry’s silence. That flips a switch, as the captive springs up, attacking Ana. She killed two of his people and doesn’t get to claim the moral high ground. Locke intervenes, hitting the fraudster over the head before he can choke the life out of Ana.
When attacked, Ana-Lucia hits back. Off the island, she executed the man who shot her and feigns innocence when her police captain mother questions her about it. No evidence points to her daughter, but Mom is no dummy. While an investigation will likely turn up nothing, Mom knows if Ana-Lucia doesn’t deal with the storm brewing in her head she’s going to crash and burn. Rather than face the music, Ana-Lucia resigns. Running away from problems is easier than dealing with them.
Working in airport security is more routine and mundane for Ana-Lucia. Getting people through metal detectors and drinking with random strangers at the end of the day is more Ana’s speed. One stranger, Christian Shepherd (Jack’s dad), offers her an opportunity. Protect him on his trip to Sydney, Australia. Seems like a dubious offer, but fate brings people together on this show even when they’re running from their problems like these two. Christian would rather drown himself in alcohol than admit his son was right to expose his drinking problem to the hospital board. Ana would rather run off to Australia than admit her mother was right.
On the island, Kate and Jack return with an unconscious Michael. Once awake, he tells tales of the Others. People who live in tents, eat dried fish, and wear tattered clothing. Here would have been a good time for the writers to have Kate’s character speak up about the other hatch and what she found. The makeup, the fake beard, and the ratty clothing point to the Others putting on a show. A show to appear less sophisticated than they are. But just silence from Kate as Michael says he returned for reinforcements; they have the numbers and the weapons—not the Others. They can get Walt back; they just need to get the guns back from Sawyer. Surely, he’ll give them up easily? Ana-Lucia had to fight him and then some to covertly steal a gun from him. What will Jack have to do?
Lovestruck Hurley is oblivious to the machinations going on. Instead, he’s focused on doing something nice for Libby—a romantic picnic on the beach. Trying to find the secluded portion of the beach was a comedy of errors, poor Hurley passed the same tree three times before admitting defeat. Libby’s fine with just picking any spot, only to find out he didn’t bring blankets or drinks. Hurley’s on beverage assignment and Libby heads to the hatch for blankets. The cute and lingering looks at each other should have been a clue that something sinister was ahead. As soon as a main character has a bit of happiness (see Shannon and Sayid) it’s taken away.
Days before the crash, Ana-Lucia was swimming in misery and nearly let Christian drown her. He wasn’t ready to stop running, leaving him behind Ana was heading home on Oceanic Flight 815. She never got there, but her problems didn’t magically go away on the island. An attempt at revenge on Fake Henry falls flat. Ana-Lucia had the gun pointed but couldn’t pull the trigger like she did in the past. She didn’t get a cathartic release when she killed the man who shot her, and it won’t happen if she kills Fake Henry.
However, Michael doesn’t want to pass up the opportunity to punish someone likely responsible for kidnapping Walt. Taking the gun from Ana-Lucia, Michael isn’t a man bent on revenge but wracked with guilt for what he has to do next. Shooting Ana-Lucia and innocent bystander Libby, all so he can let Fake Henry out. When this originally aired, I thought it was a bold choice to make a character we’ve grown to care about, Michael, the enemy. He’s not like the Others but was this his only choice? Desperate people will take desperate action if left with no other choice. Michael clearly made some kind of deal to get Fake Henry released. But was murder the only way? With their deaths, we won’t get more backstory on Libby or Ana-Lucia. Grrrr!! Why drop the nugget that Libby was in the same mental hospital as Hurley, only to kill off her character a couple episodes later. Dropped storylines were so annoying on this show, but I still mostly love it! Please come back next week for recaps of episodes twenty-one and twenty-two.
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Monday: Summer Reading on the Backlist
Thursday: Lost ReWatch for episodes twenty-one and twenty-two