Tonight's episode is called "Collision" and begins right after Ana shot Shannon in the chest. Thanks to everyone who joined us in the chatroom. Sorry I wasn't too chatty. I was busy typing up this recap post.
The episode surrounds Ana, and it's the first time we've had an episode's flashbacks surround one of the tail-enders. There's a bunch of little spoilers up front, so I'll save most of the details for after the jump.
I'll just start by saying that all the promised thrills of last week's episode come through in this one. There's a lot of tension and interesting bits going on as the two ends of the plane move closer and closer to collision....get it? Anyway, we open with a flashback into Ana's life and you can find out more after the jump...Everything starts with Ana, angry as usual, firing off rounds at a firing range. This is followed quickly with her seeing a therapist and she asks if she can go back to work. He consents by handing her her badge. We come out of the flashback and Sayid goes to attack her but Mr. Eko takes him down and they tie him up to a tree.
So we know Ana is a cop, and the more the episode goes on the more I realize why I don't generally like cops. They tend to go power mad, just like Ana has done ever since she first showed up on this show. Ana is a cop and it turns out her mother is her captain. We discover that she's was in an officer related shooting.
Mr. Eko defies Ana and throws Sawyer up on his shoulders to take him to the other camp, saying, "I'm not doing it for him. I'm doing it for me."
Back into a flashback with Ana in a police car with her partner. Evidently, Ana had a love interest named Danny who went splitsville with her according to the conversation. As she's been doing on the island, she bullies her partner into taking a call that wasn't theirs. A baby is crying and she flips out and pulls her gun. Her partner starts yelling at her and says, "Holster your weapon, now," and we cut to her holding her gun and looking at Sayid. Michael takes Sayid water and says to Ana, "I'm taking him water. You want to shoot me? Shoot me." He talks to Sayid and brings him up to date with everything and tells him about Walt's abduction by the others.
The other story line of the show so far has featured Kate and Jack having a little golf competition, teasing and flirting with one another. Jack shanks one into the trees, and stubbornly goes after it rather than taking the drop. Mr. Eko comes from behind him with Sawyer over his shoulders and says, "Where is the doctor?" They take him underground where Locke is sitting watching the button and Jack begins to treat him. Locke comes to ask what happened just as the timer starts beeping. Mr. Eko is looking around the bunker at the guns and somewhat confused when Locke comes up and they exchange hellos.
Cut to Ana still looking upset as Bernard comes to ask what they're doing just sitting there. She's a total nut job. Sayid yells out that she has no plan, only guilt and a gun. She starts asking for supplies from the other camp, including more ammo. Jin agrees to stay with Sayid while Michael goes to get the supplies.
Back into another flashback where Ana's partner is confronting her about her previous actions of pulling the gun. They are interrupted by someone announcing that they got Ana's guy. Turns out someone confessed to shooting her 4 times in the chest (into her vest), but Ana says it's not the guy when she goes to identify him. Out of the flashback to Ana looking at Shannon lying dead on the ground and then we cut to Eko and Locke in the bunker. Eko tells Locke about the accident where Shannon was shot. Mr. Eko keeps looking at the guns in the bunker and tells Locke that he cannot take him to the other tailenders.
Back to Jack and Kate trying to help Sawyer. Kate helps Sawyer take a pill to help fight the infection. Jack jokes that he never learned the whole "whisper in the ear thing" in medschool. Ana's people start leaving her, beginning with Bernard who says he is going and doesn't want to do anything to do with what she is doing. Libby leaves with him and Ana tells Jin to leave too and he abandons her with Sayid. What the hell, Jin? Evidently, Sayid gave him a head nod, but come on!
We come back to Michael running through the woods and he finds Sun at her garden, asking her to take him to Jack. In the bunker, Jack starts yelling at Eko to take him to the others, Locke starts trying to calm him down but he's not listening and Michael shows up. They start packing up guns to leave. Mr. Eko says that Ana Lucia made a mistake and Jack seems to recognize the name so he agrees to go with Mr. Eko alone out to where they are.
Back to Ana and Sayid. Ana is asking Sayid where he is from and if he has kids. Sayid asks if she intends to kill him and she asks him if she should. He talks about torturing Sawyer and other men and says maybe she should. At this point, she stands up and says that she's a cop. She begins to tell the story of her partner and her showing up at a robbery. A kid said he was only reaching for his ID but he pulled a gun and shot her. She said she thought she was dead and that she feels dead and then Sayid asks what happened to the guy who shot her.
And here's where we see the very nasty secret that makes Ana the big bad crazy person that she is. We enter another flashback where Ana is in a bar following the guy who shot her out. She calls out his name in the parking lot then pulls her gun and says "I was pregnant" and shoots him 6 times. So she lost her baby because of the shooting and her guy left her. When the police catch the guy and he confesses she says that she doesn't recognize him, just so she can have the opportunity to track him down and kill him herself. After having this flashback and telling Sayid that she never found the guy, she cuts him free and throws the gun at his feet, saying to shoot her and that she deserves it. Sayid says, "What good would it be to kill you, if we are both already dead?" He then walks over to Shannon's dead body and embraces her.
Kate is tending to a shaking Sawyer, showing him more affection, consoling him by saying that he's home. Then we see Michael walking up on the beach in slow motion and Vincent runs out to greet him. Bernard and Jin emerge from the trees and Charlie runs up to embrace him and Bernard and his wife, Rose, spot each other, smile and walk up to one another and embrace and kiss. All this is filmed in slow motion with strings playing in the background. Sun is washing clothes and she sees Jin and they run into each other's arms and kiss and hug. Then we return to the woods with Jack and Mr. Eko walking slowly up to where Sayid stands holding Shannon's dead body and Jack looks over to Ana and the final shot is them standing face to face at either end of the shot, Jack in profile on the far left and Ana on the far right with the jungle and the island between them.
Make sure you check back tomorrow afternoon for Ryan's coverage of the episode in our TV Squad Lost podcast.
Sesame Street's 40th: Five biggest controversies
Press Kits Unwrapped: The Prisoner
Ask TV Squad: Eureka, The Prisoner and more!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-23-2005 @ 10:37PM
Brad said...
It was a great episode. The scene with Sayid and A-L talking about how she was shot and what happend to the guy and then the cut to her blowing him away was good. Nice solid line from Sayid about how they both feel dead inside. I think that maybe this line will gain more meaning later. I don't know if they would've made so much out of it as they seemed to have if it didn't matter later.
I wonder what happened to Kate before she came on the island, though. That should be a good episode.
Reply
11-24-2005 @ 12:00AM
losty said...
i have an information about all the six dharma stations (the logos actually):
check out this thread: http://www.dharmasecrets.com/forum/index.php/topic,335.0.html
Reply
11-24-2005 @ 12:00AM
Vince said...
at one point Locke is doing a crossword puzzle and they focus on "Enkidu's friend" the answer to that is Gilgamesh I'm sure it has something to do with the show but I dont see how it relates: http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=enkidus&gwp=13
Reply
11-24-2005 @ 2:19AM
LC said...
don't believe she was power hungry because she was a cop. I believe she got that way after being shot four times.
Someone who is power hungry does not allow a suspect to reach behind them. That shooting was what made he into the woman she is today
Reply
11-24-2005 @ 7:22AM
Dr.Funbags said...
To #2 - that video is a well produced fake - those are fan generated images.
Reply
11-24-2005 @ 9:05AM
Guido said...
I thought it was a good- not great- episode this week. It's the first one in awhile that didn't really leave you with any lingering questions at the end of the show. A somewhat happy ending episode for Lost which is weird.
This is the fork in the road for the show.. now that the "sides" are together, where do you go from here.
On a side note I'm happy to see "Eko" become a regular character. I loved the guy when he was on Oz and he's just as good on this show.
Reply
11-24-2005 @ 9:16AM
Patrick said...
This was the the first episode of this season that seriously delivered, I think. We actually had several things resolved, finally combined the two groups, had some great character moments, etc.
I also think the review is a bit harsh on Ana though. I imagine being shot several times by a random thug and losing your child as a result would have serious long-term effects. Obviously she's made some bad choices since then, but I can't help being sympathetic.
Anyway, a totally sweet episode. I can't wait to see next week's.
Reply
11-24-2005 @ 10:35AM
Annie W. said...
Yeah, Jin did look to Sayid to make sure it was okay to leave. Sayid gave him a slight nod and half-mouthed "Go". I thought he would've sprinted out of there and into Sun's arms, but it was good that he looked to Sayid first.
I liked this episode, but it felt strange to not have some crazy cliff-hanger ending. Sweet reunion.
Reply
11-24-2005 @ 11:14AM
Jimmy said...
This was, by far, the best episode of the season for shear dramatic oomph. She's still not my favorite, but we finally learned jsut why Ana-Lucia is such a crazy bitch. I actually felt sorry for her. The look that passed between her and Jack was just priceless.
Reply
11-24-2005 @ 1:33PM
Dr.Funbags said...
Hmm, check out this Theory - I think it holds some merit:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2005/11/23/ed-dharma-make-mid-season-appearances/#comments
Reply
11-24-2005 @ 10:00PM
TC said...
Anybody else notice Ana-Lucia had a wedding ring on when she was talking to Bernard in the middle of the episode? Was it "Danny's" ring?
Reply
11-24-2005 @ 11:26PM
Sherman Lee said...
It was gratifying to see a good balance of season and series arc closures, and leaving some (but not too many) unanswered questions... something Lost has not done too well over its history. Very satisfying to see the long-awaited reunions plus some really good comparison between the "dead man walking" burdens of both Sayid and A-L.
Unfortunately I could NOT get over the implausibility of A-L working under her mother's command and that was BEFORE her being shot. As for her return to the police force, A-L should have been reassigned to a different captain. Was it even necessary to have her mother as captain? This episode would have been great without that suspension of disbelief.
Reply
11-25-2005 @ 12:35PM
Ian said...
This series is excellent for the time spnet building up the characters background and what has made them the individual they are today. This is especially true of the many "flawed" people. And really by flawed it means the average person is affected by incidents in their life, both good and bad. The island seems to garner the "good" rather quickly and we are left with a much deeper understanding of the human frailties of the many flawed people. In truth the more flawed the more interesting they are.
It's absorbing to feel ones attitide to individuals change, as their life becomes an open book. The series has so many twists that preconceived opinions are quite often corrected as we get to see the fullness of what made these people. None of them are complewtely "bad" persons, even their worst actions are in some way shaped by prior events. Then it becomes interesting to see how all the individuals finally adapt to the current environment.
Sayid's comment about "being already dead" is very telling. He finally shows incredible compassion and is unable to judge another, even under extreme circumstance. Why? Because he knows what bad actions he has been commited and that to judge another, also judges himself.
This whole series has almost C.S. Lewis quality of inuendoes of religion. These people are slowing being unwrapped as characters, but at the end of the day they find themselves no better and no worse than anyone else and they allow someone else to be their judge.
Reply
11-25-2005 @ 6:43PM
andy said...
I was really disappointed in the back story, because it contained such obviously unrealistic components - you CAN'T work for your mother at a police dept., you just can't. And if you shoot a cop, leave your prints, and then confess...you won't be playing pool that night no matter what any witness says, even the cop you shot.
Reply
11-28-2005 @ 10:57AM
cynhia said...
Does anyone recognize Ana Lucia's partner? Isn't he the cop that was involved with Kate's capture??
Reply
11-29-2005 @ 4:36AM
Belgand said...
Very disappointed in this episode. It has some of the most obvious and worst written moments of the entire season (and that's saying a lot). As soon as the psychiatrist mentions Ana feeling comfortable holding a gun again it's obvious that she's a cop who either shot someone or was shot herself, but they try to needlessly draw out the reveal that she's a cop, when she lets the suspect go her entire demeanor makes it pretty obvious that she's going to catch up to him and her entire persona makes it pretty obvious that she's going to shoot him when she does, when she grabs the knife though it was terrible... this is something that's been done time and time again and has never been tense. As a cop she was a bad cop (unimaginably stupid when she got shot, unimaginably stupid when she pulled a gun on an unarmed, non-violent suspect and should have been pulled off the force for a blatant disregard for police procedure, excessive force, reckless endangerment and just plain bullying).
If anything it made me like Ana even less realizing that she wasn't driven paranoid and angry by the crash and the isolation and the others, but that she's always been like this (and quite frankly from the brief scene with her I got the impression that her mother isn't much different). Maybe if they had also shown her a bit from before she was shot it might have worked, but not as written.
Basically it was an hour-long episode that failed to advance the plot or really grow the characters much at all and basically just consisted of the most loathed character on the show sitting around brooding as always.
Reply