“The Hunting Party” has a moral woven in as subtly as any episode of 7th Heaven. That moral, inexplicably, is “Don’t tell other people what to do.” Lost, in the past, has themed its episodes around more conventional archetypes: religion, parent-child relationships, deceit, sweeps periods. “Don’t nag” doesn’t seem to fit that mold.
Episode #2.11, "The Hunting Party"
Written by Christina M. Kim & Elizabeth Sarnoff
Directed by Stephen Williams
Guest Stars: Julie Bowen (Sarah), Monica Dean (Gabriela), M.C. Gainey (Mr. Friendly), Ronald Guttman (Angelo), John Terry (Dr. Christian Shephard).
Air Date: January 18, 2006
Sun confronts Jin on his past dominance, Kate defies Jack’s order to not come along, Locke tells Jack that there won’t be any persuading Michael to come back, that you can’t go “telling people what they can or can’t do” (strange wisdom coming from the man who represents that bastion of bullying, religion). Even the Others get in on it, ordering Jack, Locke and Sawyer to take their woman and go back home. I suppose being bossed around is something we all have to deal with at one point or another, but is that cause to incorporate it so heavily in the episode? Unless this was written by a petulant adolescent whose parents keep telling her she’s too young for makeup or birth control, it strikes me as an odd episode cornerstone.
Michael, still determined to find his son, confines Jack and Locke in the armory and takes off into the jungle with a rifle. Given that he just completed his first shooting lesson, this should go well. After Kate and Sawyer free them, all four head into the jungle to bring Michael back. Except that Jack, for whatever reason, orders Kate back to camp, saying she’s not invited on their excursion. Kate, for whatever reason, goes back. While tracking Michael, Locke let’s on that he knows “Sawyer” is a pseudonym and seems quite taken with the name that John Ford chose for himself--more so than why he changed his name in the first place. Also, Jack and Locke bicker, as usual, about what it is they should be doing. Jack feels finding Michael is paramount while Locke feels it is pointless, that the man is looking for his son and won’t be coaxed out of the jungle.
It’s after nightfall, while they are arguing whether or not to go back, that the Others appear. Or one of them, anyway. Listed as “Mr. Friendly” (Gainey) on IMDb, the spokesman is the same one who did all the talking when the Others took Walt from the raft. Looking like the Gorton’s Fisherman, Mr. Friendly takes the survivors to task for coming to their island uninvited, eating their food, opening doors they have no business opening (which he delivers while looking at Locke). The little summit is rather cordial, but in the end, Mr. Friendly takes their guns, delivers Kate, whom they caught following the trio, and paints a line down the middle of the island that the survivors are not to cross. But the joke will be on the Others, when they realize that the bathroom is on the survivors’ side of the island! Oh, comedy!
This is all interspersed with flashbacks of Jack as he takes on a miracle case. Gabriela (Dean) has heard about what Jack did for Sarah (Bowen), and wants him to do the same magic for her father (Guttman). Jack agrees, to his father’s (Terry) ire. I (Baker) love parentheses. They’re like little hugs.
Christian also whips out the Fatherly Wisdom card when he detects that Jack and Gabriela are dangerously close to crossing a line. After Jack fails to save the old man in surgery, he consoles Gabriela and she responds as any grieving daughter would, by kissing him. Jack doesn’t put up much of a fight but eventually pushes away. He goes home and almost immediately confesses to Sarah, promising to do more for her, spend more time at home, blah, blah, blah. To which Sarah responds that she’s been cheating on him and is leaving.
Typically, the flashbacks and current island events have some bearing on each other, but I’m struggling to see the connection this time. It could be Jack’s failure as a doctor and a husband in the past and failure as a leader in the present, but that’s tenuous. The “don’t be bossy” theme doesn’t quite fit in there either, as Jack wasn’t being commanding in the past. Quite the opposite; he succumbed to Gabriela’s doe-eyed plea and agreed to perform on her father and he was doing the dishes, clearly a woman’s job, as he confessed to Sarah. There is mention of “crossing a line” in both time frames (cheating in the past, encroaching in the present), but that doesn’t hold up either.
Not that there has to be a connection, I guess. I suppose Lost settling into a formula would be a pretty bad turn for a show known for it’s counter-establishment style. But if all I’m pulling away from this episode, aside from general plot turns and a desire for Monica Dean pics, is to not tell others what to do, I feel I must be missing the larger picture.
By the end, Hurley and Charlie visit an alternate reality where they are college roommates circa 1970, during which Hurley relates that he has designs on one of the Tailies. As with almost every seen with the big guy, I liked this one. Occasionally the characters’ barely-rumpled clothing and neatly groomed appearances grate on the believability of deserted island life. This was a more intentional juxtaposition and it was fun to watch.
And finally, Jack talks with Ana Lucia on the beach, but it’s not long before he gets to a question that’s been eating at him since the run-in with Mr. Friendly: how long would it take to organize an army? Jack brings this up with her, he says, since she was a cop. Why he doesn’t ask the resident soldier, Sayid, first is somewhat boggling. Unless Jack’s concerned that the former member of the Iraqi Republican Guard will suggest WMDs. Of course, this island has to be the only place Bush hasn’t looked in his exhaustive search to protect freedom, so anything’s possible.
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