So: the episode title. What MEME (Multiple Etymological Meanings of Episodes) titles are we looking at this week?
Before the show aired, I’d guessed that the episode title would explore the other " best cowboys" on the island besides Jack, and think I was mostly right about that, although I admit I got blindsided. I assumed (mistakenly) from the get-get that Locke would not be involved in any cowboy rescues-- (he’s been pretty cryptic and standoffish ever since the boar hunt episode, “Walkabout” ) – I picked Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid and possibly Ethan as being those who the episode would focus on. Well, Jack and Kate was basically a gimme, and the latter couple got a scene together, but the more compelling pairings I completely missed were Walt/Michael and Locke/Boone.
Jack - We now know that the crux of Jack’s adult relationship with his manipulative father: father operated drunk, Jack backpedaled on a cover-up of his father’s cmplicity. Father was stripped of his license and became a full time drunk, ending up finally in Austrailia on a bender where he died. No wonder Jack didn’t think his father would listen to him and come home when his mother demanded he go find his father. No wonder Jack’s mother was so appalled by Jack’s refusal – “after what you did.” Jack still desperately seeks his father’s approval.
Walt - Got lots of screen time this week and fleshed out this lil’ cowboy’s daddy issues nicely – as well as expanded some offscreen backstory. Walt’s open hero-worship of Mr. Locke causes no little consternation with Michael, evoking echoes of Shane. More tellingly, I think, was Walt’s casual evoking of his step-dad Brian – and how Brian called him “lucky.” I find it telling because that suggests a pre-island disposition to causing luck to come alive. By the way: rolling three times in a row exactly the dice you need? Spooky.
Kate – Nice revelations about her relatonship with her Ranger father. Presumably he taught her how to track, to work hard, to forage the land. Handy skills to know if you’re on the run in Austrailia for ---- doing something.
Boone – interestingly, what was learned about Boone’s father we got mostly through omission: I think maybe he didn’t have his father around, or the kind of father figure he would have liked to have. I surmise he grew up in a matrirachial household, and ended up in a very feminine business dealing with demanding female clients. He possibly felt unfulfilled. No wonder he reads books about bunnies and tries to man-up around his ridiculously spoiled sister, Sharon. Most intriguing development? His apparent adoption of Locke as an island father figure. He and Walt are going to have some interesting times ahead.
Locke – A box company? That man is a cypher as ever. The only daddy issue I see here is that HE’S the island big daddy among the castaways (Sorry, Hurley) and he still has an unspoken agenda. Anyone else think it was odd that he kept trying to send people back to the caves as he tracked down Claire and Charlie ? Yet for all the supposed danger, he didn’t protest when Jack and Kate veered off on their own to find Charlie. Isn’t it weird Locke unerringly found the metal plate? Are there people living underground?
Weird thought: When Locke and Boone were exposing the metal, I was flashing back to the scene in the movie Ice Man when the thawed-out neanderthal discovered the cable on the floor of his habitat and found out he was in a 20th century lab under scientific scrutiny. Hmmmm.
Sayid and Sawyer - interestingly, these two wounded cowboys on the mend did not have much to offer in explore in terms of daddy issues – well, you MIGHT argue that the beach fire signal is Sayid’s and Sawyer’s symbolic “baby” but I pulled that one out my ass. Also --as cowboys go, they’re both kind of marauders and somewhat reckless in their way. Interesting to see them make a truce.
We all know Jack s prone to hallucinations, but I don’t think he was hallucinating this time. I think that Ethan really did beat the crap out of Jack and Ethan had help hanging Charlie. I re-watched the scene where he put his foot on Jack’s chest – no, he didn’t leave muddy footprint – but then, it was very wet and and there was a lot of vine strewn undergrowth where he was standing, not muddy at all. Also, I really don’t see how he dragged two people through the jungle, blindfolded Charlie, fashioned a vine-rope and hanged him off a freaking banyam while also preventing Claire from calling out or running away. If there are “others” around, Ethan had help.
Bottom line? MEME this week explored more than one cowboy’s daddy issues. This was more like a “theme” than a cleverly inverted title – unless someone else has an interpretation I missed.
