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Date Posted: 03:52:04 11/14/05 Mon
Author: Rufus
Subject: Lost 2.6 Abandoned spoilers for 2.6

What keeps me coming back week after week to Lost is the relationships between the characters and how each one changes as time passes. This week was one I was spoiled for but it didn't ruin the impact of the death of Shannon for me. Shannon was the girl who was the spoiled pain in the ass, who made her step-brother Boone crazy with her antics. So, who was she? That's the kicker, seems that Shannon may have been wayward, but she was someone who had a future that was taken from her by the death of her father. Shannon was abandoned when this death left her alone in a world that she didn't know how to survive in with the few skills she had. Didn't help that her mother-in-law cut her off with nothing, giving her own son a job making sure he was taken care of. Shannon wasn't perfect, but she was only eighteen and with her skill at ballet had landed a potential future which will never be realized.

But the episode was called 'Abandoned', and she is not the only one who has felt the loss of a father, or spouse, or brother. The each person on that island has brought their emotional baggage which slowly is revealed. This week we see Shannon's story, but we also see glimpses of the others.

Sayid is the one who has connected to Shannon in the most meaningful way but he has a dangerous streak in him that may have one trigger. Early in the episode we see the shelter he has made for Shannon, who wonders aloud about the gun he carries:

[They kiss, and there's a sound when Shannon puts her arms around him. Sayid pulls a gun out of the back of his waistband.]
SAYID [putting the gun away]: I'm sorry.
SHANNON: You need to carry that all the time?
SAYID: I only carry it because I have someone to protect.

I'm not surprised that Shannon was able to find the one person who would take her protection so seriously, and do it out of love, not obligation. Then we have the folks from the tail end of the plane who are travelling with Sawyer, Jin, and Michael. Sawyer is pissed off with Michael because he feels that Michael has abandoned them. He doesn't expect him back and that hurts more than the gun shot wound. Michael does come back and I think that Sawyer depends on his friends more than he'd like to think:

SAWYER: Mike only cares about himself and his kid, and neither's got squat to do with me.
MICHAEL [appearing]: Glad you feel that way.
SAWYER: Didn't expect to see you again.
JIN [to Sawyer]: [Says something in Korean, and looks at Sawyer's wound.]
SAWYER: Yeah, yeah, Chewie, I know. My arm's about to fall off.

I found the Star Wars reference kinda cute, does that make Sawyer a reluctant Han Solo, stuck with the constant choice of doing the right thing over doing what's most profitable for himself? Thing is, he didn't like being abandoned any more than anyone else does. Deep down he understands why Michael is compelled to search for Walt but his affection to those around him is one he finds almost impossible to show.

Then we have Charlie and Claire. The baby is crying after being kept up the night before and it's one man who helps her:
LOCKE: Babies like the feeling of being constricted. It's not until we're older that we develop a desire to be free. [Finishing up with the blanket] There.

Now is it me, or is that little sentence funny considering the issues of abandonment Locke has himself. Locke swaddles the baby, telling Claire what a baby needs while before he was certainly constricted in a wheelchair. Locke has chased around a father who doesn't want him, needing something he isn't able to put words to, and he is the one who talks to Claire about the progression from constriction to the desire to be free which is something that happens while someone grows up in a hopefully healthy way, or, he could be making a point about Charlie.

CLAIRE: Charlie read me the riot act last night for waking him. And as mad as it made me -- turns out he was right. You know, it's like we're playing mum and dad to this baby. Yet, I don't remember marrying him. [Locke laughs] No, seriously. I mean, we're practically strangers, him and me. For all I know, Charlie could be some religious freak.
LOCKE: Yeah, I seriously doubt that.
CLAIRE: Then why is he carrying around a Virgin Mary statue?
LOCKE: What?
CLAIRE: You know, one of the little statues? He says he found it in the jungle.
LOCKE: Hmm, how about that?

Locke gives Charlie a chance to explain himself without telling him he knows about the statue:

CHARLIE: She's got a bit to learn about being a mum -- responsibility and all.
LOCKE: Hmmm, now that's an interesting thing to say -- for a heroin addict.
CHARLIE: Recovering addict.
LOCKE: Recovering. It's your turn.

Charlie says nothing, and he fails the test...wonder what happens after that?

Sawyer is acting out his anger at Michael and being his usual belligerent self:

SAWYER [to Michael]: What? You suddenly give a damn about me? [taking his arm from around Jin's shoulder] Leave me alone. Both of you. I got it.
[Sawyer starts walking away, but collapses.]
MICHAEL: Hey, hey, hey [he puts Sawyer's head in his lap] Okay. Hey, Sawyer, you okay?
SAWYER [barely conscious]: I would have left you behind.
MICHAEL: Shut up, man. Don't try that.
SAWYER: I did leave you behind.
MICHAEL: Yeah, well, good thing I ain't you. [He smiles at Sawyer and Sawyer passes out.] No, no, hey, Sawyer. Sawyer, hey.

So, what's Sawyer so angry at, himself for being the type who abandons or at Michael and Jin for being the types who don't? We get to see what happens when people work together, but it's not without a confrontation between Mr. Eko and Ana:

EKO: We have to cut inland.
ANA: What? Into the jungle. They said their people were on the beach. If we keep walking...
EKO: The beach goes into a peninsula ahead. It may not be passable.
ANA: May not?
EKO: May not.
ANA: You're doing this to get the cowboy back faster, aren't you? You would risk our lives to help him?
EKO: It's the only way I know.
ANA: I liked you better when you weren't talking.

Mr. Eko is the one who convinces Ana to help Sawyer, and she's outnumbered by folks who would rather have danger and discomfort, than have to face the quilt of abandoning someone who needs help. For Mr. Eko it's the only way he knows, just like it is for many people.

We get to the end of the story as Shannon and Sayid reach an understanding of where they are in their relationship:

SHANNON: Why don't you believe me? [Sayid doesn't answer] I need you to believe in me.
SAYID: I do believe in you.
SHANNON: You don't! No one does. They think that I'm some kind of joke. They think I'm worthless.
SAYID: Shannon, you are not worthless.
SHANNON: You say that now, but you don't -- you're just going to leave me. I know as soon as we get out of here you're just going to leave me.
SAYID: I will never leave you. I love you. I'll never leave you.
SHANNON: You do?
SAYID: I do.

This is Shannon, the real Shannon who had been living down to her step-mothers real or imagined expectations. The Shannon who feels worthless and so afraid of ultimately being abandoned. Sayid makes her understand that he loves her and will never leave her. It's then that fate interrupts and Shannon again sees Walt and rushes to find him and gets shot instead. It's Ana who shoots Shannon, her paranoia of the Others prompting her to shoot first and the episodes to come the opportunity to regret that she never took the time to ask any questions. Shannon, she is dead, but not abandoned, and if she has to die, to die loved is better than nothing.



The survivors of the plane crash are abandoned on an island that has taken some and scared the heck out of the rest. There will be a rush to judge Ana in the most absolute way, but I think one has to listen to what the people in the tail section have suffered in the same time the ones we know well.

ANA: If he talks he's going to get us all killed.
MICHAEL: By what? Them? I thought they lived a day back that way?
ANA: How about you shut your mouth and get your buddy over here moving?
MICHAEL: What happened to you people? You want us to take you back with us? Fine. But you want me to keep quiet then you need to tell me why I have to.
ANA: They came the first night that we got here. They took 3 of us. Nothing happened for 2 weeks, then they came back. They took 9 more. They're smart, and they're animals, and they could be anywhere at any time. Now we're moving through the jungle -- their jungle -- just so you can save your little hick friend over here. And if you think that 1 gun and 1 bullet is going to stop them -- think again. So shut your mouth and keep moving.
MICHEAL: They took my son.
ANA: They took a lot of things.

The people in the tail section have a story that we don't know much about yet, and we can only go on the little we know from the past few episodes but they have a story to tell. In the preview for the next weeks we see Mr. Eko with some children and we see children being dragged away from safety by who knows. Ana is afraid and afraid of something that has proved deadly to her fellow passengers. Abandonment, it's something that's awful to endure but something that can be overcome by reaching out to others and taking the chance of being tossed away again. We now have the both ends of the plane reaching each other, in the weeks to come we can only wonder what they have to offer each other.


I have to thank the folks over at Lost-TV for the transcript

Lost-TV transcripts

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