Jorge Garcia as Sawyer

I had hoped to attach this to the Sawyer post, but I just can't seem to make it work. So I'm going to try on a separate one.

The lead-in paragraph would have said:

I’ve heard two different theories about this, but it is a fact that Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, and Dominic Monaghan all read Sawyer’s lines when auditioning for the show. I’ve heard they read Sawyer’s lines simply because his was the only character fully written. I’ve also heard that Garcia and Monaghan both were actually auditioning for the role of Sawyer. Can you imagine Garcia as Sawyer? If not, this should help:

James "Sawyer" Ford, Season 5

One of the things I really like about Lost is comfortable producers feel adapting its characters to the actor. One character that has really benefited from this is Sawyer. Sawyer was always a con man, but initially he was a Prada-wearing con man. The producers liked Josh Holloway’s audition so much that Sawyer went from a city-slicker to a Southern boy. It took the actor a while to catch on that the producers wanted him to use his natural Southern accent (Holloway was raised in Georgia). Even “Freckles”, Sawyer’s nickname for Kate, was also Holloway-born.

Sawyer’s Finest Year…or Three

This season, Sawyer had to do the seemingly impossible: accept the fact that he was skipping through time. In their first flash, the Left Behinders discover that their beach camp is gone. Sawyer, meeting Daniel for the first time, scoffs when the physicist says the camp hadn’t been built yet. When Daniel at first refuses to explain what he believes is going on (saying it would be difficult to explain to a quantum physicist), Sawyer slaps Daniel, threatening to slap Charlotte if she interferes. Daniel tries to explain, of course, but Sawyer wants nothing of it. Instead, he wants to break back into the Swan Station to get clothing and food, but Daniel stops him – “You can’t change the past, James.” And indeed, James did not. Desmond never responded to Sawyer’s pounding on the Swan Hatch. When he sees Kate assisting Claire give birth, he stands by, staring in agony. By Jughead, the third episode of the season, Sawyer doesn’t seem to question John when John refers to time travel. What was really funny was watching James trying to explain their time travel situation to Jin.

We also see James take on the role of a leader. In The Little Prince, Sawyer, taking John’s suggestion they go the Orchid, determined that was were the Left Behinders needed to go. After John turns the wheel, Sawyer announces that they’ll wait for John to come back, no matter how long it takes. When he pronounces his plan to wait at the beach and Miles questions the plan, Juliet supports Sawyer (though she later tells Sawyer she thinks it was a stupid idea). Miles then asks, to no one in particular, “Who put him in charge?”

When the Left Behinders find Amy in trouble, Sawyer acts heroically, rescuing her from the Hostiles. He then turns into con man-mode, creating a story on the fly (I guess he didn’t think that confessing they were from the future would be believed). James renamed himself “Jim LaFleur”, and said that the Left Behinders were shipwrecked while trying to find the slave ship, the Black Rock. They were wandering the jungle looking for missing crewmen. Horace believes James, but tells him they have to leave, because “Jim” is clearly not “DHARMA material.” An interaction with Richard Alpert later, James has bought them two weeks to search for their missing crew.

Jim is Accepted by Society

By the time three years have passed, the” “crew” remains missing, and James has become chief of DHARMA Initiative security. Further, everyone in security (and apparently janitorial) are terrified of him. He commands respect, something he’s never had before. And he’s comfortable in that skin. So much so, that he can confront Jack when pushed:

SAWYER: Evening, Doc. … Take a load off. You want a beer?
JACK: No. No, I'm fine.
SAWYER: What can I do for you, Jack?
JACK: I don't even know where to start. Uh... how about with Sayid?
SAWYER: I had no choice. He was running around in the jungle, got caught by my people. And seein' as how he can't tell the truth about how he got here, I had to improvise.
JACK: Improvise?
SAWYER: Uh-huh. And for now, Sayid is safe, which is all that matters.
JACK: So where do we go from here?
SAWYER: I'm working on it.
JACK: Really? Because it looked to me like you were reading a book.
SAWYER: I heard once Winston Churchill read a book every night, even during the Blitz. He said it made him think better. It's how I like to run things. I think. I'm sure that doesn't mean that much to you, 'cause back when you were calling the shots, you pretty much just reacted. See, you didn't think, Jack, and as I recall, a lot of people ended up dead.
JACK: I got us off the Island.
SAWYER: But here you are... right back where you started. So I'm gonna go back to reading my book, and I'm gonna think, 'cause that's how I saved your ass today. And that's how I'm gonna save Sayid's tomorrow. All you gotta do is go home, get a good night's rest. Let me do what I do ...now ain't that a relief?
JACK: Yeah.

Later, Sawyer tells Sayid: these people trust me! I've built a life here – and a pretty good one.

I have to wonder, is this the first time that Sawyer has fit into a community? Been an upstanding member of society? Respected and feared not because he is a thief and a con man but because he is good – really good – at his job – being a security guard. It’s the most conventional and traditional that Sawyer has ever been. Granted, he’s in the DHARMA Initiative, which is hardly conservative.

Part of the wonderful life that James builds involves a romantic relationship with Juliet. I will, of course, talk more about this in a later post. But I will state here that it appears to be a strong bond between the two, and Juliet’s beliefs clearly inform much of Sawyer’s behavior, as I noted later in this post.

Sawyer’s Alternative World Comes Crashing Down

Unfortunately, the return of the Oceanic Six (technically Four since Aaron was left with Carole Littleton and Sun was left in 2007) changed everything. Sawyer fought it for a long time, doing everything he could to integrate the Four into the DHARMA Initiative. He didn’t see how their return ended his comfortable life. He just didn’t get it. He couldn’t control events. He couldn’t prevent 12-year-old Ben trying to escape his horrible life by freeing Sayid. He couldn’t prevent Sayid from trying to kill Ben. He couldn’t control the DHARMA Initiative. Or any of the things that brought his life spiraling out of control.

After Sayid shot Ben, Sawyer was less concerned about the boy’s fate than in doing what Juliet wanted him to do. Thus, he sought Jack’s medical help. Thus, he helped Kate take Ben to the Others: “When I found out Ben was gone, and Juliet told me what you were up to, I asked that exact damn question. Why are you helping Ben? And she said...no matter what he's gonna grow up to be, it's wrong to let a kid die. So...that's why I'm doing this. I'm doing it for her.”

Phil’s discovery of the videotape implicating Sawyer in taking Ben was the final nail in Sawyer’s comfortable life in the DHARMA Initiative. Sawyer saw two options: take the sub to escape or hide in the jungle. He was against finding Daniel’s mother. He tried to talk Kate into joining him on the beach, but Juliet, angered at the use of the nickname “Freckles” gave Kate the information she needed to pass the sonic fence. This was the first fracture in James’ relationship with Juliet (explored more in another post).

Not that he had been hidden, but the old Sawyer seemed to return as Radzinsky beat him, once the remaining DHARMA learned that James and Juliet were not who they seemed to be. He refused to answer any questions, pointing out to Juliet that they wouldn’t believe him anyway. However, once Phil figures out that hitting Juliet will make James talk, he does, drawing a map to the Hostiles so that Sawyer and Juliet can get on the submarine. And when Kate joins them on the sub, breaking the sweetest moment ever, James clearly couldn’t care that Jack planned to detonate a hydrogen bomb. Instead, he wanted to finally leave the Island. Just like saving Ben, he only changed his mind because of Juliet.

So, Sawyer tries to talk Jack out of blowing up the Island. This is one of the best scenes involving these two in the episode. It starts with:

SAWYER: I ain't gettin' in the van. I need five minutes, that's all. I'll say what I gotta say, and then you can do whatever the hell you want to. But you're gonna listen. You owe me that much, Jack.
JACK: Five minutes.
SAWYER: Take a load off, Doc.
JACK: No, thanks.
SAWYER: Sit down, Jack.
SAWYER: My folks died when I was 8 years old. I ever tell you that?
JACK: No.
SAWYER: Con man took my dad for everything he had. He didn't deal with it very well. He shot my mom, then he blew his own head off. I was hiding under the bed when it happened. I heard the whole thing.
JACK: I'm sorry.
SAWYER: Yeah. That was a year ago.
JACK: What?
SAWYER: Right now it's July 1977, which means that happened last year. So I could've hopped on the sub, gone back to the States, walked right in my house and stopped my daddy from killing anybody.
JACK: Why didn't you?
SAWYER: Because, Jack... what's done is done.
JACK: It doesn't have to be that way.
SAWYER: What did you screw up so bad the first time around you're willing to blow up a damn nuke just for a second chance?
JACK: That's not what this is about.
SAWYER: Then what is it about?
JACK: Three years ago, Locke told me that all this was happening for a reason, that us being here was our destiny.
SAWYER: I don't speak "destiny". What I do understand is a man does what he does 'cause he wants something for himself. What do you want, Jack?
JACK: I had her. I had her, and I lost her.
SAWYER: Kate? Well, damn, Doc, she's standing right on the other side of those trees. You want her back, just go and ask her.
JACK: Nah, it's too late for that. Your five minutes is up.
SAWYER: Jack... if what you're doin' even works, you and Kate will be strangers, and she'll be in damn handcuffs.
JACK: If it's meant to be, it's meant to be.
SAWYER: Well, I guess there's nothing I can say that's gonna change your mind.
JACK: No, I guess there's not.

Then, of course, the fight that’s been brewing between these two since the Oceanic 816 crashed. I’m normally bored by fights, but this one was so essential to these two characters, that I just enjoyed it. Until Juliet broke it off. She’d changed her mind. More on that in a later post. But once again, Sawyer agrees to act in a way contrary to his nature because of Juliet. And we all know what happens next.

The Actor

Josh Holloway seems to stay under the radar. However, he had one bit of exciting news this year, the birth of his daughter, Java Kumala Holloway, born April 9, 2009. I’m sure the name has some kind of meaning. I just don’t know what.

In my research for this post, I learned something I didn’t know about Josh Holloway and one of my other favorite shows. You may have known that Daniel Dae Kim and Sam Anderson had both guest starred on Angel. It turns out that Holloway was the first vampire that Angel dusted in LA. Who knew?

Kate Austen, Season Five

I wish that I could say I like Kate more than I do. I haven’t quite figured out whether my disdain for her is because of the actress or the character. I rather think that it is the character. I think the actress if perfectly fine, and I really like the way she expresses some of Kate’s stronger emotions without saying a word. But at times I have found Kate to be tedious, judgmental, and selfish.




You would think that with her compelling story I would be more sympathetic. Kate’s mother divorced the man Kate thought was her father, Sam Austen, to marry Wayne Jannsen, an abusive alcoholic. After nearly being caught shoplifting as a girl, Kate apparently led an exemplary life, a straight A student with only a couple of speeding tickets. But her world came apart when she was 24. In creating a scrapbook for Sam, she found evidence that her mother became pregnant while Sam was posted overseas. It was not Sam, but Wayne who fathered her. That night, Wayne came home drunk. While he tried to grope Kate, she helped him get into bed. She sped away on her motorcycle as the house exploded, killing her father. She later told an unconscious Sawyer, as though he were Wayne, that she killed Wayne because: It's because I hated that you were a part of me -- that I would never be good. That I would never have anything good.

Kate was thus a fugitive when she was caught in Australia by U.S. Marshal Edward Mars. Although she took the opportunity to start fresh on the Island, she never wavered in her desire to leave, either. A woman of strong convictions, she was always horrified when someone put another’s life in danger. She stayed in the middle of things because she was never content to sit still when action was needed. And let’s not forget, of course, her attraction to both Jack and Sawyer. This, of course, is the subject of a later posting.

In Season 4, we saw what Kate’s life off the Island was like, and frankly, it looked idyllic. Kate was raising Aaron as her own son, in a nice home, and apparently out of trouble with the law. Thanks to a settlement with Oceanic, money was not a problem. Although her relationship with Jack ended unpleasantly, her life looked pretty sweet.





So the very first episode of the season saw Kate’s wonderful life in jeopardy. Dan Norton came a-knocking, armed with a court order for a blood test to determine maternity. Kate did what she spent a lifetime doing, she packed up and left. I don’t think she had a clear goal in mind, and she accepted Sun’s call with gratitude. It didn’t take Kate long to figure out it was Ben trying to take Aaron from her.

We learned how Kate came to be known as Aaron’s mother. She told Jack (and presumably the remaining survivors) she should pretend he’s her child because “After everyone we’ve lost..Michael, Jin, Sawyer…I can’t lose [Aaron] too.” As if to buttress her argument, she told Jack that Claire had planned to give the baby up for adoption. (That makes it okay, right?) In other words, Kate kept Aaron not because it was what was best for Aaron, but because it was best for her.

We also saw the results of the hinted-at and hardly surprising promise Kate made to Sawyer. Kate found Cassidy and Clementine, bearing lies and cash. She told Cassidy the truth about the Oceanic 6, but not about Aaron. That’s okay, because Cassidy is one of the most intuitive people on Lost, and she figured it out. Three years later, after Kate loses Aaron in the grocery store, it is Cassidy who tells Kate the truth. Kate took Aaron because “Sawyer broke your heart. How else were you supposed to fix it?”

And that’s when Kate does the most unselfish thing she’s ever done. She gives Aaron back. Well, she gives him to his grandmother, who hadn’t even known he existed. Then she decided to return to the Island, not to find Sawyer (yeah, right) but to find Claire.

Kate’s devastation was palpable. She made Jack promise to never ask about Aaron, later admitting her anger at Jack for insisting she return to the Island. On the plane, she sat alone, telling Jack that just because they were all on the plane didn’t mean that they were together.

Back on the Island, Kate remained the Kate we know and love. She is still clearly attracted to Sawyer (more on that in a later post), she is still uncomfortable around Juliet, and she is still a woman of action. When a house was set on fire by Ben’s runaway VW van, she jumped right in to rescue the inhabitants.

And she shone, frankly, when Ben was shot by Sayid. True to form, she was horrified when Jack refused to operate on the 12-year-old Ben. Not being a surgeon, she did the only she knew how to do – she donated blood as a universal donor and tried to comfort the worried father. When Juliet came up with an alternative solution to Ben’s medical care, Kate jumped, even though the plan sounded awfully wacky. When told that Ben would forever be altered if given over to the Others, Kate didn’t hesitate for him to receive care.

Whatever Happened, Happened was Kate’s finest hour.

Despite my growing affection for Kate, I still wouldn’t have been unhappy if Kate had been shot by the Other in Follow the Leader. And how I groaned as Juliet and Sawyer’s tender moment on the submarine was interrupted by the inclusion of a captured Kate (was I the only one who was reminded of the time Kate followed Jack, Sawyer and John as they tried to find Michael, only to be caught by the Others in The Hunting?).

Notwithstanding my fleeting affection and disaffection for Kate, it’s really not her fault that we learned in The Incident that it was her presence, indeed, her very existence, that sparked much of the action that ensued. Jack decided that it was a good idea to blow up the bomb because he lost Kate. Juliet decided that Jack was right to want to blow everyone up after Sawyer looked at Kate, not Juliet, while Rose and Bernard talked about the importance of being together. Kate just wanted to do what was right, and she found it hard to believe that blowing up everyone on the Island to erase the past was a sane option. True to form, she was horrified when Sawyer first refused to help her stop Jack. She was incredulous that Rose and Bernard didn’t care if the bomb was exploded.

But she folded too, eventually listening to Jack, and agreeing to support him. I’m not sure that I bought her conversion. But once she did, she was, as always, all in.

The Actress

The blogosphere was buzzing in February over rumors that Evangeline Lilly was auditioning for pilots that would air in 2009. Did this mean that Kate would be killed? Lilly’s reps denied the rumors as numerous fans rejoiced at the impending end of Kate. Of course, it didn’t happen that way. Kate lives, and Lilly really wasn’t auditioning for a pilot.

The actress made a number of interviews at the beginning of the season, including Good Morning, America, Jimmy Kimmel, Dave Letterman, and Conan O’Brian. In interviews with Entertainment Weekly, she revealed that the science fiction aspect of the show was her least favorite. She also denied a personal preference in Kate’s choices between Sawyer and Jack.

Evangeline Lilly and Dominic Monaghan have been in an on-again, off-again relationship for quite some time. Rarely seen together, they reportedly are currently still a pair.

My Pledge to…Well, Karen

As a regular fan of Lost, I could just join the numerous other fans in the anti-Kate club. But as a blogger, I feel that I should be able to explain my own dislike of Kate better. I can’t explain why I don’t like Kate. And I respect the fact that one of my readers finds Kate to be likable, strong and flawed. So, once I’ve finished with these Season Five profiles, I plan to spend time watching all the Kate-centric episodes, with the goal of giving Kate a chance. Or, giving myself a chance to verbalize just what it is about the character I don’t like. To be continued…

Emmy Nominations Announced!

So, I have a secret. I’ve always preferred the Emmy Awards shows to the Academy Awards. If you think about it, it makes sense. I rarely see all (or even any) of the nominated movies, but I’ve seen a lot of television. And even if I don’t watch a particular show, I’ve certainly read about it. I always have opinions about the major categories, frequently yelling at the TV through the show. With the advent of DVR, is there’s a speech I don’t care to hear, I can just fast-forward through it.

This doesn’t mean that I actually agree with the awards or the nominations. For example, despite the fact that Patrick Stewart did some fantastic work as Capt. Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, he was never once nominated for Outstanding Actor. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of the best dramas in the past 20 years, was never nominated for Outstanding Drama, and received all of one nomination for Outstanding Writing. These, and oh so many other oversights, have led to very mixed feelings about the Emmy Awards when they come on every year. But don’t let this fool you; I’ll be watching the show this year, just like always.



Unlike Star Trek and Buffy, Lost has been feted at the Emmys. The show won for Outstanding Drama its first season and J.J. Abrams won Outstanding Director for his work on the Pilot. Terry O’Quinn and Naveen Andrews were both nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor, losing to William Shatner.

Lost was pretty much shut out for its second season, with Henry Ian Cusick getting a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor, Jack Bender getting a nomination for Outstanding Direction, and Carlton Cruse and Damon Lindelof getting nominated for Outstanding Writing.

Bender, Cruse, and Lindelof received nominations again for Lost’s third season, but the exciting category was Outstanding Supporting Actor, since both Terry O’Quinn and Emerson were nominated. How I jumped for joy when Terry O’Quinn’s name was called! This was the one bright spot in an otherwise dismal show, in which James Spader won for Outstanding Lead Actor, instead of James Gandolfini.

In the meantime, enjoy this:



Lost’s season five is returning to the Emmys. The two highest profile nominations include Outstanding Drama and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama – Michael Emerson. The season finale, The Incident, also garnered nominations: Outstanding Writing, Outstanding Sound Editing, and Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing.

So, I’ll be watching on Sunday, September 20, cheering my favorite show. And rest assured, I’ll be blogging about it afterward. Go Emerson!

Jack Shephard Season Five

Can you imagine Lost without Jack? The Pilot that aired was as it was initially conceived, except that Jack was supposed to be killed by the Smoke Monster. The producers thought that killing the character we most identified with would be groundbreaking television. The network executives, however, thought this might be too groundbreaking, and asked for Jack to survive. Michael Keaton, who had been cast as Jack, was out, and Matthew Fox was in. The killing still occurred, but it was the pilot of the plane, played by Greg Grunberg, JJ Abrams’ childhood friend, who was plucked from the cockpit of the plane and tossed to his death by the Smoke Monster.

Since then, the producers, writers, and Fox have developed a very complex and flawed character. Jack was the child of an alcoholic with a strong drive to fix things. He became the de facto leader after the plane crash, caring for the sick, planning for the future, and trying to get rescued. Jack’s primary rivals for leadership and the attentions of the winsome Kate were John Locke and Sawyer, respectively. A lot can be said about Jack’s relationship with Sawyer, but I am going to save it for a fuller discussion on the Dreaded Quadrangle (in case you don’t know: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet).

Cross the Road, Jack

But Jack’s rivalry with John Locke is of most interest here. For most of four seasons, Jack had been the logical one, the rational doctor, who relied on his intelligence, senses, and skills as a leader. He didn’t believe that the island had mystical powers, didn’t know that so many surrounding him had been miraculously healed (John (paralysis), Rose (cancer), and Jin (low sperm count), among others), and didn’t think that everyone was supposed to remain on the island indefinitely. Jack had no faith in the island, and didn’t believe in destiny. John, of course, clearly felt otherwise, and the two frequently clashed on the island. There seemed to be no meeting of the minds between the Man of Science and the Man of Faith.

Once off the island, however, Jack fell apart, despite a relationship with Kate and a promising career, afflicted by self-doubt, drug abuse, and alcoholism. All of his vaunted strengths and leadership skills seemed to desert him, and he disappointed Kate, Hurley, and Sun. His path toward drug and alcohol abuse, interrupted by his time on the Island, returned. Jack had nothing to live for, nothing to fix. \

And so it was when John Locke, calling himself Jeremy Bentham, arrived at Jack’s hospital emergency room. A bloated, unshaven Jack confronted John. It went from hostile to worse:

JACK: What are you doing here?
LOCKE: Jack, how did you find me?
JACK: You were in a car accident and you were brought into my hospital. What are you doing here?
LOCKE: [Grunts] We have to go back.
JACK: [Laughing] Of course. Of course we do.
LOCKE: Jack, the people I left behind need our help. We're supposed to go back—
JACK: --because it's our destiny? How many times are you gonna say that to me, John?
LOCKE: How can you not see it? Of all the hospitals they could've brought me to, I end up here. You don't think that's fate?
JACK: Your car accident was on the west side of Los Angeles. You being brought into my hospital isn't fate, John. It's probability.
LOCKE: You don't understand. It wasn't an accident. Someone is trying to kill me.
JACK: Why? Why would someone try to kill you?
LOCKE: Because they don't want me to succeed. They wanna stop me. They don't want me to get back because I'm important.
JACK: Have you ever stopped to think that these delusions that you're special aren't real? That maybe there's nothing important about you at all? Maybe you are just a lonely old man that crashed on an Island. That's it. Good-bye, John.
LOCKE: Your father says hello.
JACK: What?
LOCKE: A man--the man who told me to move the Island--the man who told me how to bring you all back--he said to tell his son hello. It couldn't have been Sayid's father, and it wasn't Hurley's, so that leaves you. He said his name was Christian.
JACK: My... my father is dead.
LOCKE: Well, he didn't look dead to me.
JACK: [Voice breaking] He died in Australia three years ago. I put him in the coffin! He's dead.
LOCKE: Jack, please, you have to come back! You're the only one who can convince the rest of 'em. You have to help me! You're supposed to help me!
JACK: John, it's over! It's done. We left, and we were never important. So you... you leave me alone. And you leave the rest of 'em alone!

At this point, it is clear that Jack was still clinging to his belief as the Man of Science. Jack had already told Hurley that he would never return to the island. It would have seemed that Jack was immobile on the subject.

But we know that was not so. Indeed, Ben informs John that Jack had bought a ticket to Australia after John’s visit. We already knew after the first flash forward in Through the Looking Glass that Jack subsequently booked numerous flights to Australia in the hopes that one of the planes would crash, returning him to the Island. At the very least, the Man of Science believed he needed to return to the island.

Just Who Is This Guy, Anyway?

Apparently, turning from science to faith also turns a man from one of action to one of passivity. The first evidence we had occurred in Jack’s first confrontation with Sawyer. When Jack found Sawyer reading a novel instead of, I don’t know, breaking Sayid out of Dharma-jail, Jack threw a punch, “Because it looks to me like you were reading a book.” When Sawyer stood up to himself (beautifully, may I say?), Jack did something I didn’t think he could do. He backed off. He appeared content to let Sawyer lead.

Jack continued to allow himself to take a backseat to the action. Instead of saving Ben (a task he was uniquely qualified to do), he made sandwiches. Why? “We can’t change what’s already happened. This has nothing to do with me.” Oh, and “I’ve already saved Benjamin Linus, and I [operated on him] for you, Kate.” Oh, and “when we were here before, I spent all my time trying to fix things. But did you ever think that maybe the island just wants to fix itself? And maybe I was just getting in the way?”

Oh, okay. You can’t change it, you did it once before, and you would just be in the way?

And now you believe in the island?

But as the season ended, we learned the real reason for Jack’s decision to return to the island. It turns out, it was all about Kate. This played out with Jack’s decision to adopt Daniel Faraday’s crazy plan to blow up the island. If Jughead is detonated, then everything that happened, every “miserable” moment, is wiped away. He’ll have never lost Kate, since they’ll be back on the airplane, he slowly but surely getting toasted on airplane liquor, and Kate in handcuffs. And, if it’s meant to be, Jack and Kate will have another chance to get back together.

Right.

It’s not just that Jack acted uncharacteristically. I’m okay with people on Lost doing that. But Jack’s change wasn’t organic. It seemed forced and false, and not necessarily a logical occurrence based on everything that had happened to him before. What changed the active man of science into the passive man of faith? Was it the alcohol/drugs? The mention of his father? The general disintegration of his life? We don’t know. And I think we needed a few more clues or signs to help us feel this change that Jack undergoes in Season Five.

The Actor

Matthew Fox made headlines this year when he announced that he was done with television to focus on his movie career. The blogging public guffawed loudly at this. Some found it ludicrous that Fox would leave television for what has so far been a lackluster movie career. Others bemoaned the David Caruso-hubris Fox showed by turning his nose up at television. Just who does he think he is?

Honestly, I think we should give the man a break. Granted, he’s been in a handful of movies, of which only We Are Marshall gathered him any critical praise, as far as I can tell. But Matthew Fox’s first series, a failed drama called Freshman Dorm, aired in 1992. Party of Five came along in 1994, lasting until 2000. Another failed show, Haunted, aired in 2002. Lost, of course, started in 2004. That’s 13 seasons. That’s a lot of time. From what I understand, an actor playing a main character on a television show doesn’t have much of a life when the show is taping. Fox has a wife and children that he moved to Hawaii for this gig. I imagine the paychecks have been pretty nice. If he’s saved enough, he might not really need the work.

The comparison with Caruso is absurd. Until NYPD Blue, Caruso had been a minor character actor in various movies and series, including Hill Street Blues, where he played an Irish gang-member. Caruso famously left NYPD Blue under the impression that his movie career was going to take off. Clearly that didn’t happen. Now Caruso has spent nine seasons phoning it in on CSI: Miami. Caruso did not earn the respect he demanded; Fox has. More power to you, Fox.