LOST Fun Fact: Whenever Carlton Cuse co-writes an episode the chances of seeing a polar bear dramatically increase!
And so it goes with Further Instructions, a bit of a bright spot in an otherwise sluggish Season 3 so far. Well, at least it is for the first 29 minutes before it gets a tad silly at certain spots.
Right off the bat I breathed a sigh of relief; we were FINALLY getting back to the beach camp and seeing some 'ole favorites like Locke, Claire, and Charlie. The twist: Locke lost his voice and needs to "talk to the island" in a sweat lodge. It's fair to ask: why didn't Locke use this technique before to communicate with the island? I don't have the answer to that.
Bonus points for some funny jabs from Charlie aimed at Locke, particularly...
CHARLIE: You're not taking drugs are you, John? I only ask because of the strict zero tolerance policy you've enacted, and I wouldn't want you to have to start punching yourself in the face.
After a bizarre yet beautifully directed sequence featuring Boone, Locke discovers what he needs to do: save Eko. Long story short, Locke ventures into a cave (yep, at roughly the 29:00 mark) and saves Eko from the clutches of a polar bear. The 'ole hairspray-torch defense is something you rarely see on the Discovery Channel. On the way back to the beach camp, Locke delivers one of the cheesiest couple lines I've ever heard him say: "I burned that bear good! I don't think he's going to come after us." Yikes.
After a comical exchange between Hurley and naked Desmond, they all convene at the beach camp and swap bad news (introducing Nikki and Paulo by the way). As Desmond hinted moments earlier, Locke delivers a speech that's not a speech:
LOCKE: I'm going to find our friends. I don't know how yet, but I will. We're going to find them. All of them. And then we're going to bring them home.
The words alone aren't bad, it's the fact that three different people call it a speech. Charlie even says, in the cheesiest way possible, "not a bad speech". By speech standards I'd say it absolutely IS a bad speech.
Now to the flashbacks: Locke picks up hitchhiker Eddie Colburn and ultimately takes him back to an exclusive rural community. Locke's found the family he never had and it appears Eddie's looking for the same thing, so the two naturally develop a friendship over six weeks.
Whoops! Eddie's a cop and the commune has more marijuana than a Tom Petty concert. Locke was being manipulated all along, pegged by the cops as being "amenable for coercion". The parallel with the island is obvious since Ben Linus apparently picked up the same vibe.
This is pretty much the highlight of Further Instruction's writing — getting back to flashback/island parallels. As far as the island storyline goes, if you don't mind stretching the limits of credibility a bit it's rather enjoyable. Perhaps most importantly, the Desmond arc is set up very nicely by the time the closing credits roll.
Chalk up another terrific performance by Terry O'Quinn. It really is amazing how he can take any set of roles, no matter how diverse, and make them all work. We've seen the hunter and the dejected son, now we get a humble, happy resident of a rural community.
He doesn't even need to speak, proven by the first few scenes where he relies on Charlie to protect his sweat lodge. Somehow TOQ knows how to speak volumes without saying a word, especially when he's on the verge of knocking Charlie into the middle of next week.
Accolades for Dominic Monaghan in being a great sidekick for Locke all the way through. His delivery style for humor was sorely missed over the previous few episodes, especially in the way it contrasts with Locke's ever-serious approach.
Justin Chatwin (Eddie) pretty much broke even in my book. He certainly wasn't bad but certainly didn't blow me away. Something about his inflection on certain lines just didn't ring true to me (particularly in the scene where Locke draws a gun on him), but nothing so egregious it warrants deductions.
Minor deductions for everyone at the beach camp after Hurley announces that Jack isn't coming back. You hear at least four or five people cheesily exclaim, "What? Huh? What do you mean? What are you saying?" The concept of Jack being captured isn't all that hard to grasp.
This is the category where Further Instructions really shines. The sweat lodge sequence, where Boone pushes a shirtless wheelchair-bound Locke through an airport, is visually striking and incredibly well-directed. Seeing all of our Losties in various roles at the airport was surreal and mentally stimulating, an effect that was augmented by the sharp contrasts and shot selection.
Even Locke's initial plunge into the polar bear cave was a cinematic success. Once again contrast plays a big part in this, such as the flames of a torch highlighting Locke's mud-soaked face. The shot of the toy truck and DHARMA clothes were a nice touch which boosted the adrenalin levels.
When it comes to the polar bear my views remain unchanged. It's true that the bear scenes aren't the best CGI you'll ever see but they're certainly good by television standards. We got more head-on glimpses of the bear in Further Instructions than ever before — nothing stood out as God-awful in terms of visual realism. There was one brief glimpse of the bear running away from the flames and that seemed a little off-kilter, but nothing was altogether ridiculous.
Compared to a majority of the series Further Instructions is relatively low on the rewatchability scale. Compared to its neighbors in early Season 3 it's very high.
Even though Eko was saved, it could be argued that it was a stretch for him to be in the caves in the first place. Therefore, no bonus points for significance there. The bit about Locke being "amenable for coercion" carries some weight for sure, but even without this episode one could connect those dots on his/her own.
The most important bit lies in the fact that Hurley helped to plant the seed of the Desmond arc.
The atmosphere of Further Instructions was actually quite good. I'm not sure how much of that is relief from getting away from boxes and cages, but I digress. The airport sequence got me amped up early, and hey, maybe that scene was so bizarre it made me more "amenable" to Locke fighting a polar bear.
I've seen people absolutely crucify this episode, but I personally think if you relax the credibility standards just a bit you can have a little fun with it. If there were major advancements in the mythology I might rate it a bit more harshly, but it's mostly a self-contained episode. No harm done.
