105 – White Rabbit

Review:

Jack-centric episode.  The episode is called White Rabbit, obviously a reference to the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, who Alice followed down the rabbit hole and into wonderland.  This is one of the first of many references to Alice in Wonderland.

This episode fits perfectly after Walkabout, it sets up the on-island mythology to do with Jack.  We see a lot of Christian, this has a lot to do with season 4, in which we, again, see a lot of Christian.  After watching this episode I think I’m willing to change my opinion of Jack, I have really disliked him for a long time.  Now I think I’m ready to like him again.  Next season he’s supposed to change a lot, he’s supposed to be more like what Locke was like in the first season.  Anywho, this was a good episode, and I love to see Christian so I’ll give it a 9.0/10.

Ratings:

-16.39 million viewers

-Aired Oct. 20, 2004

Questions:

-What was Christian doing in Australia?

-How is Christian walking around the island if he is dead?

-Is Christian just a hallucination?

-Where was the body?

-Why were there a bunch of dolls in the caves?  (obviously they were from the plane but why what was the significance?)

Character Impressions:

Jack

-Jack feels guilty about not saving everyone.  This is when I really stopped liking Jack, after I find out that he has this outrageous saving people complex.

-In Jack’s flashback, we see him as a child and Christian says he, Christian, has what it takes to be a leader/hero because he can forget the mistakes he makes and live with the bad things that happen with a clean conscience.  He also says to Jack, don’t be a hero, because you don’t have what it takes.  Clearly Jacks lack of confidence in his own leadership is connected to what his father said.

-Two memorable quotes in this episode, “every man for himself”, and “live together die alone”.

-I believe Jack cries three times in this episode.

Kate

-Kate and Sawyer have a fun wrestling moment in this episode.

Charlie

-Charlie sees someone in the ocean drowning, he gets Jack to save her because he says, “I don’t swim”.  But we know that his dad tricked him into learning how to swim.  And we saw him do some pretty fancy swimming to get down to The Looking Glass Dharma station in the season 3 finale.

Boone

-Boone tries to take charge of the survivors, in a backwards way by stealing the water, but at least he tried.  He then blames Jack for the death of the red shirt.

-Boone tries to take control while Jack is running after Christian but he doesn’t know what he’s doing and gets into a lot more trouble than he expected.  Sawyer then informs him that he’s now at the bottom of the ladder.

Shannon

-N/A

Claire

-Claire believes in astrology not surprising, she believed the crazy psychic guy.

-Without a doubt Claire gets sick more than anyone else on the island.  Jack should have just kept her around all the time just in case of emergencies.

Michael

-Another sign that Michael is a bad father, he doesn’t know how to respond to the “Why” questions that kids always ask.

Walt

-N/A

Jin

-N/A

Sun

-Sun seems almost suicidal at the beginning of this episode.

Locke

-Locke, almost, takes on a leadership role when he volunteers to save everyone by looking for water.

-Locke also recognizes that the people on the beach need a leader.  Even though it’s clear that he has no intentions of filling that role.  He immediately volunteers Jack.

Sawyer

-Sawyer has a great conversation with Shannon in this episode, absolutely hilarious.

Hurley

-N/A

Sayid

-N/A

Rose

-N/A

Flashbacks (what we knew then):

A red-shirt dies in this episode, which is always fun, I always enjoy seeing the backgrond people die, for some reason it makes the show fun for me.  It seems strange that the woman, Joanna, is never mentioned.

Flashforwards (what we know now):

Jack sees Christian again.  This time standing in the ocean, perhaps to indicate the water that the survivors so desperately need.  Also later Boone says to Jack, “Who appointed you our savior, what gave you the right?” and just at that moment Jack sees Christian standing by the jungle, he follows him, after a lot of story Christian leads Jack to the caves where there is fresh water.  I think that Christian is the important thread in this storyline. In the last episode Walkabout Jack sees Christian and follows him into the jungle he leads him to Locke who has a dead boar.  Does this just mean that Christian is leading Jack to survival, is he just trying to keep the Oceanic survivors alive?  In the Missing Pieces we see Christian on the day of the crash, he is in the jungle and he tells Vincent to go to Jack because he has work to do.  It was very creepy and very informative.  Christian seems to think that Jack needs to do something, one would assume that he means Jack needs to lead the survivors.  We know that in season 4 Christian and Jacob are best buds, but what if Christian isn’t following Jacobs orders at this point, maybe they haven’t met.  Maybe Jacob wants to use Ben at this point but Christian wants to use Jack.  After a while Christian stops appearing to Jack.  In season 3 Jacob starts appearing to Locke.  Then in season 4 Jacob and Christian both appear to be communicating with Locke.  Then after the Oceanic 6 leave the island Christian starts appearing to Jack again, during the same time that Locke is having problems on the island.  Maybe Christian is trying to put Jack back in charge of the island.  They have made it very clear that Christian is not Jacob, he can speak for him but they aren’t the same individual, so I think that Christian is trying to take over Jacobs role as some sort of authority on the island, that’s the kind of thing that Christian would do.  For years Jacob has been using Ben, Christian comes along and suddenly Jacob is rejecting Ben.  Perhaps Christian doesn’t like Ben and wants to use Jack as the leader of the island.  They can’t agree so they choose a different person, Locke.  Locke doesn’t work out so they have to choose Jack again.  This could be why Locke says Jack needs to come back to the island.

-In his flashback Jack is insisting that the coffin be put on this plane because he has set up a funeral for him as soon as they land in L.A.  he says that he absolutely needs to do it because he NEEDS to bury is father.  As we know Jack doesn’t bury is father, or have a funeral for him until after he gets back from the island.  After he does that, does he change?  I submit that yes he does.  After he says the speech at his funeral he may actually change his ways, not necessarily becoming a better person, but possibly becoming a better leader, the two can be mutually exclusive.

-Locke and Jack have an interesting conversation.  He tell him that this place is magical place, even though he doesn’t usually believe in magic.  He says that Jack should try to follow his white rabbit and see what the island gives him.  Jack agrees, this is so strange for us now because by the end of season 1, Locke and Jack are on opposite sides of the argument with Locke being the man of faith and Jack being the man of science.

-When Jack opens the coffin there is nothing inside, proof, in my mind, that Christian was reanimated by the island.  I don’t think he’s alive necessarily but I think that it hardly matters because he’s there and he’s doing a lot.

– Izi