S1E3
Black smoke sighting!!! Lol that had to be a deliberate nod to Lost, but so far there’s been nothing to indicate we might see anything that defies our assumed nature of reality.
The constant flash forwards with no flashbacks seemed to me to be an immediate red flag for Dorothy (aka Dot, aka Dotty), our POV character for this episode. I thought a new operative was on the way to the island, but maybe I misunderstood. The shadow organization already has a second operative on the island. Could it be the character I least suspect…?
But then it cuts to her selling drugs in high school. The big reveal was what issue this episode would tackle.
Dot and Shelby look for shelter. An accident reveals Shelby’s partial dentures to Dot.
In the flash forwards, Dot demands every gourmet kind of food she can think of. And strangely, the guys interviewing her are friendly enough that the next shot shows her with everything she asked for.
So wherever they are after the island must be on the mainland or have one hell of a chef on staff.
In the flashbacks, Dot struggles to not give in to her overdeveloped sense of responsibility, but her father is dying. She doesn’t want to let go.
“People live so hard for someone else that they forget to live for themselves.”
Lost excelled at making the flashbacks in each episode into their own kind of self-contained story, and this show does the same. Dolly’s flashbacks cover a lot of ground, up through her dad deciding it’s time to decide when he goes. But he needs Dot’s help to give him the morphine overdose.
In e2, the girls set off for the summit. This time in e3, a new trio sets off for the plane wreckage a fair distance into the water. Thanks to a calm surf, they make it a lot more easily than Tom Hanks and Wilson. The idea is that the wreckage probably has essential supplies. I’ve got to wonder how deep they’ll have to dive, but they brought along Rachel, the olympic-level diver. Well, not that kind of diver. But she’s great in water and the best person for the task.
They return to the shore with a huge find: the black box. They open the box and take out the recording, ready to finally know the truth of how they crashed.
Much as I waited for the magnetic sounds of the Lost island, what we hear is far more chilling. It was a real accident that should have killed all of them, and yet somehow, they’re alive.
There would be a comfort in knowing someone was behind this, even if they’re malevolent. Instead, they believe this was fate.
The truth is almost ready to reveal itself…because what’s this at the end of the episode but a clue that maybe I was right after all! In a flashback after Dolly’s dad died, we see her talking to the leader of the shadow organization. She tells her fine, give her what she wants and she’ll do what the shadow org wants.
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“You ready to bring your A game?”
“I mean… I’m ready to bring a game…whatever that means.”
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“How do I get a guy to like me?”
“Oh…you just stop paying attention to them and then they just, like, appear out of nowhere.”
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Trigger warning: extreme simulated violence toward reptiles
