Lost: The Other 48 Days Rewatch

September 5, 2023 7:21 PM - Season 2, Episode 7

Revisiting the Tailies.

S2E7: The Other 48 Days: (Lostpedia | transcript): air date 16th November 2005 • writers Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse • director Eric Laneuville • days 1-48 on the island • no flashbacks; or all flashbacks, if you prefer

Tail section goes splash • bodies in the water • Libby sets a leg • Goodwin comes from nowhere • Bernard, in a tree • night attack • Eko’s club • kids, taken • it’s a list • now’s not a good time to talk? • Nathan, suspected • you got a problem with this? • you’ve had him down there four days • Goodwin releases Nath— wait what • DHARMA bunker • a glass eye and a radio • you weren’t wet, you were never even in the ocean • Goodwin, spiked • Boone on the radio • you’ve been waiting 40 days to talk? • you waited 40 days to cry • Jin in the water • fast-forward * Shannon, shot again

Therese Odell, Houston Chronicle: Lost: Are you on the list?

The two sides of the plane had wildly different experiences on the island. The poor Tailies had to make do with a clinical psychologist, rather than a surgeon. They lost the majority of their people to the crash, had fewer supplies AND were being raided by Others by night one.

And yet, there are many similarities. Jack and Ana-Lucia play the same role: hero/leader/autocrat. In fact, they both perform CPR on people and resuscitate them, and help with injured legs. Both groups are infiltrated by Others, who are later discovered via the use of a list and are eventually murdered. Both groups find DHARMA hatches, and take refuge inside. Both groups discover radios, and actually communicate with each other.

But more than just the whole “they both have radios!” “they both find DHARMA hatches!” both sides of the plane are dealing with the fact that their previous life is over; that, as Ana-Lucia puts it, “There are no survivors. This is our life now.” The crash is a moment of rebirth, a “belly of the whale” moment, particularly as it is portrayed in this particular episode, with the Tailies emerging from the water.

The Tailies are baptized in the original meaning of the word– they are fully immersed in the ocean before they manage to drag themselves onto the island. And how interesting that this is Goodwin’s tell, the thing that gives his true identity away: he wasn’t wet when she first encountered him…he wasn’t baptized (at least, not with them). It’s a whole new life: their previous one has been washed away.

Alan Sepinwall, What’s Alan Watching?: Wha happen?

Brett Cullen, who played Goodwin, is one of my favorite Hey, It's That Guys (TV division), and once again he got the job done. The scene on top of the mountain where Ana-Lucia and Goodwin pleasantly chatted while each was sizing the other up for the kill was the kind of character-based suspense this show does so damn well.

The one problem the producers have is that they introduced Ana-Lucia in a way designed to make viewers just despise her — sneering in every scene, bullying three of the main characters, yelling loudly whenever anyone tries to get answers and, last week, killing Shannon — and now they're backtracking and trying to show why you should like her. It doesn't work that way. Ana-Lucia has built up so much bad karma with the viewers over only a few weeks that she may never enter their good graces.

Melanie McFarland, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Shedding light on a 'Lost' villain

In truth, many passed sentence on Ana Lucia long before she killed Shannon. They despise her perpetual scowl, her take-charge nature, her inability to be reasoned away from her dictatorial decisions in leading her fellow survivors from the back end of Oceanic Airlines flight 815.

The campaign against Ana feels a bit different in that it is, at its core, impatient and a tad hypocritical. Like everyone else on the island, her past has shaped the way she's reacting to the cruel circumstances of the present. She was a trained law enforcer who, when the plane and chaos exploded around her, fell back on her training to take charge, just like Jack did for the primary group. She saved lives and helped organize her fellow survivors. But, unlike the other group, the Tailie group was smaller and less cohesive -- prime prey for the Others, the island's disturbing residents.

Most people would have gone as feral as she under the circumstances. But let's put things in perspective. "Lost" fans adore Sawyer, a con man, Charlie, a heroin addict who leeched off of people in his other life, and Kate, a wanted fugitive. Even the soulful Sayid used to torture his fellow Iraqis. An ocean's worth of distance from their pasts have made them softer.

Somehow Ana Lucia is less worthy of redemption because she's the most thoroughly unredeemable of women: a tomboy, and a bitch.

Rewatch companion: THE STORM: A Lost Rewatch Podcast - S2, E7: "The Other 48 Days"

Joanna Robinson: “The reason why I would say this is an all-flashback episode is, you know: the function of the flashbacks on Lost is to help illuminate characters that we've made judgments about, right? So if we're feeling a certain way about Ana-Lucia and her leadership and the way the Tailies are; you know, they've alluded to losing people, or even how many people they lost. But to see it happen, and to see the way that Goodwin duped them, and all that sort of stuff like that. It helps open up your understanding, your empathy for the way which they treated Sawyer and Michael and Jin. And that's really powerful, you know? Like, do I think Ana-Lucia's a great leader? No! Should she have shot Shannon? No! But like, do I understand why she's so jumpy? Yeah, I do.”

Neil Miller: “She's had a rough couple of weeks.”

Joanna Robinson: “It's bad. Here's this tall drink of Texan water, and then nothing. So.”

Neil Miller: “Right. He turns out to be the worst.”

Dave Gonzalez: “Well, not to give too much away, but next episode will continue our dive into Ana-Lucia, to try to understand who she is. Because the Losties are going to be very mad, rightfully so, but—”

Neil Miller: “She's obviously a very important character, because she killed Shannon.”

Joanna Robinson: “And I will say that I think that's a mistake. I really like this episode a lot. This is actually like a top tier episode for me. Not to get too much into next week, but I think it's a mistake. I think the show lingers a little too hard on Ana-Lucia, all at once, between the run up to this, and then this episode, and then next week's episode. And I will just say, in a calm way, I will just say Ana-Lucia was not a character that was super well received by the fandom.”

Dave Gonzalez: “So, I was doing some listening to the official Lost podcast, which now is broadcasting back in the past at the same time season two is airing. So if you listen to this week's episode about The Other 48 days, they do talk about casting Michelle Rodriguez, who at this point was in, like, Blue Crush, and Girlfight, and SWAT, I think. And she was like, you know, big fan of the show, I would love to be involved, but could you please not make me like a bitch ballbuster, because that's what I'm being cast as. And Damon and Carlton were like, well, here's the thing. That's what we need. But we promise you that that will be expanded upon, as soon as possible, so that people don't hate you. Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough, and Lost was at the height of its popularity, and there were a couple of weeks which were like, why is this little ballbuster kicking Sawyer in the face all the time? They do eventually come around to it. But I think a lot of the reason why it is, all of this, bunched together is Michelle Rodriguez the whole time was like, all right, but you're going to let people know why I'm doing this. Like any time, any time, do this. Because her introduction was very nice: she got to talk to Jack in the bar, we didn't even really know that she was going to be recurring. And then when you next see her, she is scared for everybody that's around her, and mistrusting of everyone — except Mr. Eko, I guess, because he's seen her cry — but it's a complete flip that we have to discover, in proper Lost flashback style, after we've already spent some time with the traumatized version of the character. So it's not done perfectly,
but I do think it works better in a rewatch than it did from week to week with poor Michelle Rodriguez having to go grocery shopping in Hawaii, and stuff.”

“This is our life now. Get used to it.”

L O S T

posted by We had a deal, Kyle (1 comment total)

Currently streaming in the US on Hulu (subscription) and Freevee (free with ads); in the UK on Disney+; and available for purchase just about everywhere. Next episode will post at the weekend. Ish. I know.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 7:21 PM on September 5, 2023