1. Man of Science, Man of Faith

Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: Lost: Season Two: 1. Man of Science, Man of Faith
Aired September 21, 2005

Writer: Damon Lindelof
Director: Jack Bender

Guest Cast
Julie Bowen: Sarah
John Terry: Dr. Christian Shephard
Henry Ian Cusick: Desmond
Masayo Ford: Nurse
Larry Wiss: Anesthesiologist
David Ely: Intern
Anson Mount: Kevin

The hatch is open, but Jack is reluctant to go inside and decides that they should wait until sunrise before entering. Locke disagrees and decides that he'll find out what's inside the hatch even if he has to descend alone. He's soon, however, joined by Kate and the pair quickly discover more than they bargained for inside. Meanwhile, Shannon sees Walt in the jungle, but she has trouble convincing anyone else that she did. Through flashbacks, Jack encounters his future wife shortly after her accident.

Jack backstory IV

Notes:
-The name of the dead accident victim is Adam Rutherford. Some have speculated that he is related to Shannon, perhaps her father.
Several numbers sightings...
-Adam's time of death is 8:15, two of the numbers and the flight number.
-The man on the exercise bike at the beginning goes at a speed of 16
-The label on the drug with which the man injects himself says CR 4-81516-23 42.
-According to Malcolm David Kelley, Walt's message to Shannon, when played backward, is "Don't press the button, the button's bad".
-Continuation of Day 44

-Unanswered Questions: Why is Desmond in the hatch? How did he get there? What in the hatch is causing the strong magnetic force? Did Shannon really see Walt in the jungle? Why does Desmond have so many guns in the hatch?

By LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 8:11 pm:

Not bad. The inherent problem I see with the answers to the questions left hanging by the finale is that the finale was so outrageously good in causing us to wonder and speculate what was in the hatch that our expectations were raised so high that the answer who almost certainly come across as mundane. The revelation of what was down there wasn't bad or anything, but it didn't blow me away like the finale did.

Sun's hair appears to be longer than I recall it being in the finale.

I'm glad that Charlie asked about Arzt and that the others voiced noises of grief and shock when Jack said he didn't make it, despite my prediction in hte finale that he wouldn't get the Boone treatment.

The appearance of Desmond when Jack was doing his tour de stade was slightly confusing, because with his accent, which I thought was Australian, I thought that this scene occurred long after Sara's operation, and Jack's dad's fall from grace, and Jack's pursuit of him to Australia, and that this scene, therefore, was in Australia. But when Jack mentioned Sara's operation, and we then saw him with her in the beginning of the final act, I understood that he was still in the States before his dad's working-while-intoxicated incident, and that the fact that Desmond was Australian (assuming I'm correct there) was just incidental (or was it a deliberate red herring?).


By ScottN on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 12:31 am:

I thought it was more of an Irish accent. Anybody from the UK or Down Under have a better clue as to the accent?


By Influx on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 8:51 am:

...must ...resist ...reading ...posts

Due to a massive storm in the area last night, all power was out during the broadcast of this episode. Nothing like waiting all summer and then being denied...

This happens a lot more at the end of the season in May, when season and series finales are interrupted by storm warnings. (Yes, I know they are important, but the extent of local coverage borders on the ridiculous.)

I've emailed the local station asking them to rebroadcast it.


By ScottN on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 9:26 am:

Looking back, Desmond also has a bit of what seems (to my untrained ear) to be a West Indies accent as well.

I figured out it was Desmond even before he said "Brother".

Desmond's lair is rather interesting. All the technology seems to be late '70s (the "mainframes", the oscilloscopes and the Apple ][ computer). But we know that Desmond was in the US in the late '90s early 2000s.


By Rona on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 9:44 am:

It's difficult to rate this ep, as it was probably the most anticipated opening episode of any show this season. Few shows could live up to all the hype. I tuned in to see if the show had found a more satisfying angle on the kidnappers of Walt. Most media reviews of the show hated those hillbilly pirates (as did I). Well, that plot element was totally ignored in this ep. Guess we'll have to wait some more.

The episode opens with what looked like the begginning for some show about a retro-yuppie who likes playing his old fashioned record player. He injects himself with what? Wait a moment, this is all happening below the survivors. With all the electricity the mystery man is using, shouldn't there be a generator running- a generator whose noise would have come to the attention of the survivors long ago. The interior resembles some sort of 70's 0r 80's survivalist camp. The survivors didn't seem to be too deterred by the quarentine warning.

Hurley is jolly one moment, then he suddenly turns sour and tells Jack that his bedside manner "sucks". It seemed out of character for Hurley.

The backstory for Jack seemed like an intrusive interruption in the story at first. Jack's treatment of the female patient made some rather heavy-handed points. I didn't like the message that Jack should believe in miracles (and become more superstitious). I found it unlikely that the patient would be conscious right before surgery, and also be fully conscious after surgery. What stadium remains open in the middle of the night to let people jog around in it?

The twist at the end was too much. The man in the hatch was also the man who talked to Jack in the stadium! That was too much of a coincidence.

If you missed the deleted scene from the show that ABC news ran on its morning program, you didn't miss much. It was only a few seconds long; Charlie informed Jack that Kate "was a girl" and that she really wanted him to dissuade her from going into the hatch.

In the recap episode preceding the opening one, the back cover of the comic book Walt is reading is digitally blurred out. I don't remember if it was also done in the initial episode with Walt reading the comic book.


By ScottN on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 10:47 am:

Hurley is jolly one moment, then he suddenly turns sour and tells Jack that his bedside manner "sucks". It seemed out of character for Hurley.

Actually, I thought the way Hurley did that was perfectly in character for him.


By ScottN on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 10:49 am:

What stadium remains open in the middle of the night to let people jog around in it?

A University stadium? It's never established where Jack had his practice. He could be associated with {INSERT_UNIVERITY_HERE} Medical Center.


By Rona on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 6:25 pm:

Then that was a mighty big university stadium.

On the plus side, Jack's wig was much better than Locke's wig from last season.


By Josh M on Friday, September 23, 2005 - 7:52 am:

Rona: Then that was a mighty big university stadium

I'm not completely sure about this, but while most stadiums do tend to be smaller than professional venues, there are a few that are quite larger. Ohio State's football stadium is a good example.


By ScottN on Friday, September 23, 2005 - 9:36 am:

Ohio State's stadium can hold 100,000 people. The Rose Bowl (UCLA plays there) also holds 100,000.


By LUIGI NOVI on Friday, September 23, 2005 - 5:08 pm:

Influx, if you need a copy of the episode, let me know. I have it on tape. Email me at nightscreamnovi1972@yahoo.com. :)


By Josh M on Sunday, September 25, 2005 - 11:53 pm:

I loved that the inside of the hatch was the first thing they showed us. I did figure out that it would be Desmond down there after his scene with Jack. The connection between the only guy to get an entire scene and the character with the unshown identity was a little obvious.

I wonder why Desmond turned the light back in Deus Ex Machina. Has Locke been down there before? If he has, does he remember it?

There is something up with that dog. I wonder if Vincent is somehow attuned to the forces of the island or Walt. To me, Vincent's escape and Shannon's vision seem linked somehow.

I can't wait for next week. Especially if we get to see how the raft guys are doing (not good I'd imagine).


By Influx on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 8:20 am:

Influx, if you need a copy of the episode, let me know.

Thanks, Luigi, but it's no longer necessary. I emailed my local station to request a rerun, and they said they couldn't do it due to residual reasons, permissions, and the like. However, ABC was kind enough to rerun the premiere in the timeslot before the new episode last night.

I was at the gym during the two hours it was on last night, and was concerned that of the several TV's that were on there, someone would be watching the show and I'd see something in the middle that I didn't want to know yet. Fortunately I was able to avoid seeing anything at all so I went into watching the tape with no knowledge of what was to come. That's the way I like it (and why I avoid previews of a show I know I'm going to watch.)

I was not disappointed -- but each answer raises several more questions. I do hope the creators have a plan... I mean, "Everything happens for a reason", right?


By Influx on Tuesday, October 04, 2005 - 11:39 am:

I'm glad that Charlie asked about Arzt and that the others voiced noises of grief and shock when Jack said he didn't make it, despite my prediction in hte finale that he wouldn't get the Boone treatment.

Yet he still pronounced it "Artz", having missed Arzt's rather bellicose insistence on the correct pronunciation on the way to the Black Rock.


By colston12 on Saturday, October 08, 2005 - 2:26 am:

Desmond's accent seems to be Scottish. (At least, I think it is, and I'm Scottish - it seemed pretty good to me!)


By Jesse on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - 2:15 pm:

Rona: Then that was a mighty big university stadium.

The largest stadium in the world belongs to the UNVIERSITY of Michigan.


By LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 2:11 pm:

TIME NOTE: Josh, not only is Adrift is a direct continuation from this episode but there is time overlap with it and the episode that preceded it:

MINOR SPOILER FOR "ADRIFT": Not only do we see Locke and Desmond befriending one another before Jack confronts them, which occurred at the end of this episode, but we also see the events from the closing moments of Act 4 of Exodus Part 2.

Therefore, this episode also occurs "44 days" since the crash, as Locke says in the next episode.


By Rodney Hrvatin on Thursday, February 02, 2006 - 1:26 pm:

Oh Luigi, if you think Desmond's accent was Australian you have a LOT to learn!
It just confirms my belief that Hollywood, despite the large proportion of Australian people (hell, there's one ON THE SHOW!!) that they still feel they have to get American actors to do Australian accents!
I'm leaning towards Irish- but Scottish is just as viable. It sounds like an Irish/Scot accent tainted by British living.
We just started this season here in Oz but our network that screened it didn't over-hype it, they DID do a few ads with "In the first three minutes you WILL see inside the hatch..." and showed some of the sppoky Shannon images of her in the forest before she sees Walt. They were too busy plugging Prison Break and Commander-In-Chief to worry about Lost and Desperate Housewives...


By LUIGI NOVI on Friday, February 03, 2006 - 5:22 am:

Henry Ian Cusick was born in Trujillo, Peru to Peruvian mother and a Scottish father with some Irish ancestry.

I know I was just guessing, but it didn't sound what I was used to hearing as "British", so I'm not suprised that I was off.


By ScottN on Friday, February 03, 2006 - 8:59 am:

As I said earlier, it sounded West Indies to my untrained ear.


By Art Vandelay on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 3:12 pm:

Those comments about Locke and Desmond a few posts back are a spoiler for the next episode, albeit a small one.


By Josh M on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 6:51 pm:

There we go