Lost 1.20

My episode reviews of Lost Season 1 continue. I took down some notes for the end of the season back in January, and I'm just getting round to transcribing them now.

CB1: Claire's having a baby.
CB2: Kate'll have to deliver the baby. These are oddly oblique commercial breaks.
CB3: They have to amputate.
CB4: Boone dies.

Yep, this is the episode where we contrast Life vs. Death. Baby vs. Boone. You can see it in all of the CBs, and the end of the episode contrasts the new baby being presented to the tribe with people bury Boone.

It's very much an episode exploring Jack's character. He has to make a choice between which patient to treat (Boone or Claire), and he chooses the hopeless case. "I am gonna save you," he says. Jack is defined by his need to take responsibility, but he also questions himself and has doubts.

Three script-writer notes:
1, Jack's "Don't tell me what I can't do!" mirrors Locke.
2. Jack worked a miracle on his wife (who had a similar injury to Locke), therefore the script makes us believe he can save Boone.
3. There's no comedy in this episode.
4. Next episode promises a Jack vs. Locke smackdown ... and see how we're really getting into follow-on continuity now?

Some other character notes:
We're seeing Charlie as father - he's seeking redemption via creating a family. Charlie is also the new Boone - a wannabe hero.

Jin knows a lot about healing for a rich girl.
Man, Daniel Dae Kim is an awesome actor. He was good-ish in Angel, but he's knockin gthis out of the park.
I love how the crisis of Claire's pregnancy forces Jin to talk to Sun.

Observations:
Water, running, everywhere - it means a lot of ADR, but it's an easy way to create motion in the background.
Flashbacks in non-chronological order reflect the truth of being human - we can learn a lesson and then be in trouble again; we have patterns that we fall into.

Notes that I've written down and have no idea what they mean:
This is different from pregnancy ???
Sawyer helped Kate, twice.
Community, despite language barrier.

And a question:
How'd they get he cargo container up to the caves? Maybe it was addressed in an earlier episode, because it seems implausible to me.

Filed in: tv script lost review