Lost 4x11: "Cabin Fever"

[Mr Light]

Reasons Claire (Probably) Isn't Dead:
1) Sawyer pulled her out of the house wreckage 30 seconds after the RPG hit. Not enough time for a smokey/ghost to set up shop.
2) She's wearing a band-aid.
3) The writers said they have an important storyline for her coming up.
4) Aaron must not be raised by another.
5) Christian took her to the cabin so that she would be safe from the impending attack/bombardment/nuking/volcano eruption/time flux.
6) Every ghost we've seen up till now has been unnatural, freaky, not capable of holding a normal conversation. Aside from Christian apparently, but the circumstances of his "death" remain in question.
7) Miles was oogling her b/c a) she had a baby on the Island after crashing here remember Charlotte oogled her for the same reason, b) aforementioned she's a hottie, c) she mentioned having a vision in this episode and Miles can sense/hear that.
8) I just can't believe they would keep her character around squatting on the beach for four years just to kill her off-screen from an injury from an attack she survived.
Though to be fair it wouldn't be the first time they prematurely offed somebody. She didn't get a DUI though, right?

 

[TK421]

I gave it above average.

Something about Locke episodes I always find engaging. Locke the best character on the show. imo.

 

[Mitty]

BTW I think the latest spoiler in the spoilers thread indicates what's up with Claire. I won't post it here but check the thread if you wanna see.

 

[label]

I'll address a couple of these

1. She left her baby in the jungle, by itself, unprotected.
2. She did so after seeing her (un)dead father holding said child.

Neither of these indicate that she's dead per say, just that she has bizarrely decided to trust her dad.

This just doesn't hold any water for me personally. You can't convince me that Alive-Claire would be serenly sitting in a cabin where the mysteries of the island are known by dead-christian and ghost-jacob while her baby was just sitting in the jungle, unattended. Some of my reasons I can see the argument against, this one and the Miles storyline are ones that I think are more or less irrefutable.

Plus, Claire is giving Christian this knowing, coy smile in the cabin in th episode means she's privy to the islands secrets - or at least some of the major ones - and I don't think she gets that info without a cost.

3. Charlie's dead.....there's really not much point for her to be around.

Claire always had a point outside of Charlie. Her point was to raise Aaron. The baby can't be raised by another. Charlie's death would also indicate it's pointless to get rid of Claire because, then, his sacrifice would be in vain.

This is a fair counter-point. I'll concede that Claire does serve a purpose outside of Charlie. That being said, this show tends to kill the other half of a pair when the other half dies. See: Shannon/Boone, Nikki/Paulo, Rousseau/Alex/Karl, etc, etc.

Rose and Bernard don't serve a point every day, they haven't been eliminated. I honestly don't think Sun or Jin serve a point, they're still there.

I think Rose, Bernand, Sun and Jin do play important parts. A show like this needs flushed out anciallary characters for the main characters to interact with. Characters we are at least somewhat invested in for their plight to matter. In this case, those four characters can and do play important parts in the show at times, like Bernards recent help blowing up the others at the end of Season 3 or his assist to Juliet for Jacks surgery or his talk with Jin on the boat that helped Jin get some perspective.

Claire, on the other hand, is one of the "main" characters and when she stops having a purpose - like Charlie did - then her fate, to me, becomes a cloudy issue.

She's a hot blond.

lol.

Yes, she is very much that. That being said you cannot simply write off Miles interest in her and some of the comments he made to her about being alive after the attack and him saying "I wouldn't be so sure" are merely because he's horny. This is one of the most compelling pieces of evidence to me and the fact that Sawyer - onscreen - points out this wierd behavior seems to be the writers telling anyone who will listen that Miles = person who sees/talks with the dead and Claire = a dead person.

She needs to live so she can raise Aaron. The island isn't going to let her die.

This is possible, I'll admit. However, the fact that she's acting so very different in the cabin with her dead dad leads me to believe otherwise.

8. It's clear from Kate's flash foward that she considers Aaron her child now and that's permanent.

Well, she doesn't think she can get back to the island.

Maybe. But when Jack brings up the possiibility of going back, she doesn't say "That's impossible", she simply doesn't want to do it. In her mind, Aaron is now hers permanently. So much so that she's set up in that house and is willing to marry Jack and live happily ever after. You don't do that if your just "watching" Aaron because Claire couldn't come.

9. It's also clear from the flash-foward that the baby is a very touchy subject for Jack, probably because Jack finds out he had a sister on the island with him all that time and he never knew until it was too late. (You know Jack, he'll blame himself for not being pyschic or something....)

It's also clear from the flash forward that Jack's not supposed to raise Aaron. That's because it's not supposed to be raised by another.

Agreed. Jack's not supposed to raise it. We got no such indication that was true for Kate though.

 

[label]

Reasons Claire (Probably) Isn't Dead:
1) Sawyer pulled her out of the house wreckage 30 seconds after the RPG hit. Not enough time for a smokey/ghost to set up shop.

I don't think Claire = Smokey. I think Claire = undead Claire. (Or whatever Christian is). What's good enough for daddy is apparently good enough for her.

2) She's wearing a band-aid.

Hehe. Can't argue with that.

3) The writers said they have an important storyline for her coming up.

Which tells me something major happens with her character. Becoming undead and learning the secrets of the island would seem to qualify.

4) Aaron must not be raised by another.

Yeah, I have a hard time reconciling this one myself. I assume it'll be addressed because it was brought up only a couple of episodes ago to Jack. But, maybe Claire took the baby as far as she was supposed to and that's why she just left the baby sitting in the jungle, because she knew Kate would end up with the child and raise it so that the baby would be happy.

5) Christian took her to the cabin so that she would be safe from the impending attack/bombardment/nuking/volcano eruption/time flux.

Possibly. Still, that doesn't explain her coy, knowing looks to Christian as Locke struggles to make sense of the situation.

6) Every ghost we've seen up till now has been unnatural, freaky, not capable of holding a normal conversation. Aside from Christian apparently, but the circumstances of his "death" remain in question.

But the fact that Claire is closely related to Christian and it's Christian who's holding her baby and takes her to the cabin are very good indicators that whatever happened to Christian has happened to Claire. And we know Christian is dead. That much has been confirmed by the writers. They've only ever said that "what is death" is a question we ought to be asking.

7) Miles was oogling her b/c a) she had a baby on the Island after crashing here remember Charlotte oogled her for the same reason, b) aforementioned she's a hottie, c) she mentioned having a vision in this episode and Miles can sense/hear that.

"A" is possible but doesn't seem likely given his specific interests and talents which have nothing to do with the baby. "B" I just don't buy at all. "C" doesn't hold alot of water either since that scene was even cut from the show to begin with.

8) I just can't believe they would keep her character around squatting on the beach for four years just to kill her off-screen from an injury from an attack she survived.

This is Lost. Would you really be that suprised? Just because she was killed offscreen doesn't mean we won't revisit all the things Claire's experienced at a later time much like we did with Michael in the end of Season 2.

Though to be fair it wouldn't be the first time they prematurely offed somebody. She didn't get a DUI though, right?

Not that I'm aware of. I have heard she wants off the show though because she's not getting much in the way of a story and she doesn't get paid what the other "main" actors do.

 

[PsychoPere]

[...] you cannot simply write off Miles interest in her [...]

This is also the first person, other than Ben, that Miles has shown any sort of interest in.

She didn't get a DUI though, right?

These jokes stopped being amusing two years ago.

 

[Starbreaker]

No, the joke is actually still funny. Jimmy Kimmel even said "have more than two bears and get in a car".... and you're dead or whatnot. It's still hilarious.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

No, PsychoPere is right. The joke is not funny anymore. It's only obnoxious now.

 

[Mr Light]

Re: Claire's behavior in the cabin: It looks like she's drugged up or something so that she's cooperative to me. Maybe Christian gave her some of that paste that Locke force fed to Boone?

I know the Claire vision was cut out of the episode but there's a line that references it in the aired episode (having strange dreams or something), so it did happen in the show.

I dunno, I see it being a 50/50 chance at this point. Either side has good points in its favor.

 

[Mr Light]

Sorry, didn't know the DUI thing was so touchy a subject. But in fairness, didn't the same thing happen to AAA? Or was that just an expired license?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

No, he was driving without proof of a license. The chargers were later dropped.

The DUI joke isn't a touchy subject, it's just a very old joke (one that I never found all that funny in the first place).

 

[label]

[...] you cannot simply write off Miles interest in her [...]

This is also the first person, other than Ben, that Miles has shown any sort of interest in.

Good point. It's not as if Kate, Juliet and Sun are slouches to look at so I don't buy the "Claire's Hot" deal. And since Miles interest is the dead and he's interested in Claire......well, there you go.

 

[McCoy]

A couple of interesting points people have made re: Ben and Locke.
- both were born prematurely
- both had mothers named Emily
- both were sought by the island at an early age

Based on Richard's Lama-like tests, and the above, it seems that Roger was probably coaxed to the island only to get Ben there. Maybe Mittelos was established in part to catch the interest of Locke and other potentials, and draw them in for testing too.

Ben has always treated Locke like a rival for leadership of the island, but with a grudging kind of respect. And now he's acting like he's been usurped by Locke once and for all, and that he has to accept it.

I don't know, I think this all hints at a really big, almost religious mythology for the island beyond just spacetime hijinks.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Above Average. Almost Excellent, but I want to save the top score for the really killer episodes.

Nice way to do a flashback - the kid they got to play teenage Locke looked uncannily like him (tho his acting was less convincing - even as a teen, Locke should have been more, well, Locke-like).

Great seeing Richard again! The scene in the cabin with Christian was surprisingly eerie.

The stuff on the freighter was also good - makes perfect sense that Des wouldn't want to set foot on the Island again, while Sayid takes matters into his own hands, no matter what.

This has really got me wondering why Dharma wants to shoehorn Locke into a "man of science" mold, when clearly his innate instincts are more than just that. I'm rooting for Locke to be the badass he wants to be, and to hell with "destiny" (if the message here is that he was defying destiny to pick up the knife, both as a kid and on the Island).

 

[Capn Flukie]

while Sayid takes matters into his own hands, no matter what.

I loved the familiar musical refrains as he left the freighter.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I can see why everyone thinks Claire might be dead, but everyone also assumes Christian is dead. I don't even think he's dead.

There's always the possibility that the Island can resurrect the dead. And that would explain the bizarrely high survival rate from that unsurvivable plane crash. Christian is alive for the same reason his son, daughter and grandson are. The deaths we've seen of Charlie, Eko, Ana-Lucia, Libby, etc are simply the Island reclaiming what it temporarily gave them.

I know Keamy's an evil, evil, bastard, but MAN he's HOT!!!

Ech, I think he's creepy as hell, you have have him! I'm in the "die horribly, you bastard" camp.

This has probably already been discussed and dismissed, but maybe what the psychic meant was he can't be raised by an Other. Not another. In that case, everything has come to pass as it was meant to be. Claire's dead, and Aaron is being raised by a Lostie.

No, I'm with ya there. I think not raised by an Other = raised by the people fighting the Others, aka Dharma.

 

[Super Grover]

Someone else might have already posted this, but the scene when Richard asked young Locke to select the items he knows are already his is exactly how in real life each Dalai Lama is selected. When the Dalai Lama dies, there is one special monk who would travel Tibet looking for special children and testing them to see if they were the living reincarnation of the Buddha. If they were, then they would know what items they owned in their previous life and thus they would be chosen as the next Dalai Lama. Watch Scorcese's "Kundun" and you'll see it all recreated. I think the "Lost" writers are aware of this and it seems are creating a parallel.

I think you have a point.

This was also done in the animated series "Avatar:the Last Airbender" because the main character "The Avatar" is a reincarnation of the one before him.

They also did it in a King of the Hill episode. These Buddhist monks come to Arlen to see if a reincarnated Lama is there. They only planned to test the two Buddhist kids, but Bobby ends up choosing the correct item.






I don't think Claire is dead either, I mean Sawyer was interacting with her for the most part.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I haven't seen any discussion of Horace's bleeding nose, which is a visual that's been used to indicate someone who is mental-time-jumping. Could Horace somehow be jumping from the past into his present-day body (which would be problematical since his present-day body is a skeleton lying in a pit, but it was also a dream, so the literal rules don't need to apply.)

If his consciousness from 12 years ago is speaking, that would explain how he can be alive and dead at the same time. Is this a clue about the other not-quite-dead people we've been seeing? Is time travel somehow the cause of their apparent immortality?

 

[Rowan Sjet]

I haven't seen any discussion of Horace's bleeding nose, which is a visual that's been used to indicate someone who is mental-time-jumping.

I'm pretty sure that's just a reference to how he died. A bleeding nose was one of the symptoms of that gas the hostiles used in the Purge, along with coughing and, well, death.

 

[DarthPipes]

Above Average. Really enjoyed this episode. It was a big improvement over last week's show. Nice to get the return of the old Locke and his backstory was intriguing. Glad to see Christian finally be revealed and Claire actually has a storyline now. Funny how they managed to go into Jacob's cabin but didn't show Jacob or answer any of the lingering questions.

He's detestable but Keaney comes across as one of the most legit badassess on TV.

"Fix my gun, Frank."

Can't wait for next week!