The Tail Section

Episode 4.11 “Cabin Fever” Afterthoughts

Lost Recaps — May 8, 2008 at 7:05 pm by admin

I’m pretty sure that my brain exploded when we first caught a glimpse of Jacob in season 3.  One reason I love Lost is because it’s a show that constantly finds new ways to shock and surprise me, and the Jacob reveal may have been one of the biggest mind benders of all.  Suddenly Lost wasn’t just an island adventure and a touching character drama, but a full blown haunted house horror show.  From that moment on, I knew that Lost was capable of going absolutely anywhere.  Nothing was out of the realm of possibility.

On tonight’s episode, Locke, Hurley, and Ben returned to Jacob’s shack to have a little sit down.  Did it live up to expectations?


Sitting down to type out my afterthoughts after an episode as amazing as "Cabin Fever" is almost an impossible task.  First of all, it’ll probably take days for my mind to stop spinning from an hour that dense and wrapped with mythology.  I don’t even know if I can form a coherent thought at this point, but I’m going to do my best to give it a try.

There was a lot of stuff to dig into in this episode, but possibly the most interesting piece of information is the fact that Mittelos Bioscience was trying to recruit John from the time he was a young boy.  How could Richard Alpert have known that John was special when he was still a baby?  If Lost leaned a little bit more toward the fantasy side of things, my guess would be that Locke was part of some ancient prophecy.  Since that’s probably unlikely, my guess is that Richard Alpert is able to travel through time.  Maybe he knew how important Locke would be to the island in the future, and decided he might as well go back and recruit him as a youngster.

The other big moment in the episode involved our pal Jacob.  Well, technically not Jacob, since he was out grocery shopping or something when Locke stopped by, but Christian Shephard standing in for him.  Jacob wants Locke to move the island.  This reveal led me to exclaim, "What? How? Why?!"  While I certainly can’t answer the "how," I have to imagine that the "why" is so Charles Widmore will be unable to find it.  The moment in Ben’s flash-forward when he told Widmore that he’d never find the island suddenly makes more sense.  Obviously they were successful at moving it, but how?

Also hanging out in Jacob’s cabin, and seeming completely creepy in her nonchalance about the situation, was Claire.  (A hearty pat on the back to TTS reader David, who spotted her in one of the promo pics we posted.)  Was that really Claire?  While I’d imagine she’d be happy to see her dad again, I doubt she’d be so thrilled that she’d completely forget about Aaron.  Either Claire is dead, possessed, drugged, or somewhere else entirely.  Her sly smile after Locke asked how he could save the island was completely creepy.

While we may not know what the heck happened to Claire, at least we learned the fate of Doctor Ray on the freighter.  He had his throat slit by Crazy Keamy, but he had it slit after he had already washed up dead on the beach.  Speaking of the freighter, what was with that DHARMA document that Keamy found?  He said that it would tell him exactly where Ben was going.  If Ben is able to teleport, which we all know he can, could this document have laid out the locations where he might teleport to?  Or is it simply a detailed map of the island, pointing out all of Ben’s secret hiding places?

Nestled in between all of these humongous questions were wonderful shout-outs to previous Lost episodes.  We once again saw Horace Goodspeed from "The Man Behind the Curtain" and learned that he built Jacob’s cabin.  We learned that John liked to play backgammon even when he was six-years-old.  The episode kicked off with an oldies song, though this time it was Buddy Holly instead of The Mamas and the Papas.  Keamy’s gun jammed when he tried to kill Michael, proving that the island still has him in its grasp.

Despite all of the questions about Jacob, Claire, Mittelos, and time anomalies, this episode really belonged to John Locke.  The one scene that will leave us all theorizing about Locke’s ultimate destiny was the moment when Alpert visited him as a child.  Alpert pulled numerous items out of his backpack and asked John to identify which already belonged to him.  John chose the knife, but apparently that was the incorrect answer.  To paraphrase Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he chose. . .poorly.

What did this scene mean?  Is Lost introducing the notion that John Locke may have been reincarnated? Was he one of the original inhabitants of the island?  This idea seems out there, even by Lost’s standards of weirdness.  Just about everything on the show can be explained scientifically, but reincarnation would throw the show right into spiritual waters.  Perhaps there’s another explanation for how Locke would recognize one of those items, but I’m not sure what it could be.

Here are a few of the major questions we can ponder until our brains turn to dust:

How did Alpert know that John was special?  Why did he expect him to recognize one of those items?

What’s up with Claire?

What was in the documents that Keamy found?

Why is Hurley the only one who can find the cabin?

How is it possible for them to move the island?

Is Matthew Abaddon officially an Other?

I’m sure everyone has about eight million theories after this episode, so feel free to send them in and get them posted on TTS.

————————————

Have your theories posted on The Tail Section!

"Your Voice" is a new TTS series in which Tail Section fans submit their articles, theories or reviews to be published on The Tail Section for all their fellow fans to read.  Have you spent far too much time pondering the origins of the DHARMA Initiative?  Have you alienated your co-workers by rambling about Daniel Faraday’s wacky time anomaly experiment?  If so, we want to hear from you.  Send your own Lost theories, reviews, or general thoughts to Editor(at)TheTailSection.com.  Please keep all submissions between 300 and 1,000 words.  We will read through all submissions and contact you if we publish your entry.  You will also receive byline credit on our site.

Which Lost Character Are You?

Exclusive Interviews

Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof LOST
Doc's Exclusive interview with Lost show runners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof.

Doc Interrogates Benjamin Linus himself!

Doc encounters William Mapother and gets the lowdown on the Ethan Vs. Locke cut scene.

Doc interviews the portrayer of his namesake! Daniel Roebuck!

Doc gets the truth out of Dr. Marvin Candle / Wickmund / Haliwax

Doc finds out what on of Lost's best writers ever is up to.

Doc catches up with TLE's Rachel Blake, Jamie Silberhartz!
Fans of America's Next Top Model | Big Brother | Big Brother 10 | Dancing With The Stars | One Tree Hill |

Powered by WordPress

Terms Of Use