Adrift (S2 ep. 2)

Adrift (S2 ep. 2)

"Never on land or by sea will you find the marvelous road to the feast of the Hyperborea."

- Pindar, Greek Poet

Michael: “WAAAAAALLLLT! WAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLTT! They TOOK my SON!”

Thoughts:

--Michael’s lawyer is played by Saul Rubinek, otherwise known as W.W. Beauchamp of Unforgiven and Lee Donowitz of True Romance, among many other character roles.

--During the last episode we entered the Hatch from Jack’s POV. During this episode we enter it from Locke’s. Not only does this give the writers a chance to show off more of the Hatch, it literalizes the distinction between Jack and Locke in terms of how they have approached this mystery up ‘til now, and how they’ll approach it going forward. Both of their points of view on the Hatch will drive this season.

--Locke follows Peter Venkman’s advice and says yes when Desmond mistakes him for the [del]poor unfortunate sucker[/del] new recruit that’s meant to help him/replace him. Unfortunately, Locke isn’t up on his third-grade jokes, so Desmond’s question to him (“What did one snowman say to the other snowman?”) goes unanswered, and the jig is up.

Michael: “They TOOK my SON!”

--The Dharma Shark makes his first (and I believe, only) appearance under the raft that Michael and Sawyer are using. The infamous Dharma Shark logo is still a terrific easter egg, and the actual symbol on the shark isn’t one we’ve seen since. It looks most similar to The Arrow’s symbol, but it’s not the same.

-- I'd like to smack Susan's lawyer directly in the face. She's like a smugly evil Cheri Oteri.

Great Sawyer Line (post-bullet removal): “You got a band-aid?”

--As of this episode they’ve been on the Island for 34 days (over the course of 26 episodes).

--A model of a ship that looks like the Black Rock is located in the room where Michael and Susan discuss their son’s fate.

--The Dharma Pantry is discovered!

--Interesting that Locke is held at literal gun point and made to enter the Numbers into the computer. He’ll be at figurative gun point until the end of the season.

--Apollo Bars make their first appearance here. Want some random-yet-intriguing-and-seemingly-relevant info on the history of Apollo? Okay!

1) Apollo was associated with medicine and healing, and was also seen as a god who could bring sickness and plague – a yin and yang-like combination.

2) Apollo, in one form/name or another, existed as far back as ancient Babylon.

3) Here’s where things get interesting: Apollo’s human mother, Leto, was forbidden from giving birth on ‘terra firma,’ and so found the floating Island of Delos and gave birth there. Delos was surrounded by swans and the island became sacred to Apollo.

4) Here’s where it gets more interesting: According to myth, Hera kidnapped the goddess of childbirth to prevent Apollo’s mother from going into labor. Is it coincidence that up until at least the 70s, giving birth didn’t equate to death, but that in the period up to and through Aaron’s birth it did?

5) Finally, it’s said that apollo rode on the back of a swan to the land of the Hyperboreans. Hyperborea supposedly contained an island as well – a mirror island to Delos, one might say:

Among the many designations of the Hyperborean center that came to be applied also to the Atlantic center was Thule, or “White Island”, or “Island of Splendor” (the Hindu Sveta-dvipa; the Hellenic Leuke island; the “original seed of the Arian race” or Ariyana Vaego in ancient Iran); and “Land of the Sun”, or “Land of Apollo”, that is, Avalon.…the “Island” or “Land of the Living” (the term “living” here referring to the members of the original divine race), which is the land to which the well-known symbols of the Supreme Center of the world allude, was often confused with the “region of the dead” (the term “dead” here referring to the extinct race). Thus, for instance, according to a Celtic doctrine, mankind’s primordial ancestor was the god of the dead (Dispater) who dwells in a faraway region beyond the ocean, in those “faraway islands” whence, according to the Druids’ teachings, some of the prehistoric inhabitants of Gaul came directly.

Interesting, right?

--Michael gives baby Walt a stuffed polar bear.

--Sawyer and Michael stay alive until morning, when they discover that they’ve drifted back to the Island. They agree that the ‘current’ must have brought them there, but as we’ll learn from Desmond, it’s hard to leave this Island, and this place has ways of getting you back.

--This episode ends with one of my favorite teases – Jin running out of the jungle with arms tied, barking out ‘Others’ as Sawyer and Michael look up and see a group of shadowy, menacing figures there like a Lord of the Flies fever dream.