Category Archives: Brought here for a reason

Matthew Fox (Jack) gets his turn at “Ask Lost”

Matthew Fox in "Ask Lost"

Matthew Fox in "Ask Lost"

Did you ever see the old Groucho Marx TV show, You Bet Your Life? It was a game show where contestants answered questions in various categories. In each episode, there was also a “secret word.” A toy duck was lowered from the ceiling with the secret word in its beak, so that the audience could see what it was. If any of the contestants said the word while chatting with Groucho, the duck would come down again and give them a prize of $100.

Ever since I decided, on a whim, to name this blog “For a Reason,” I’ve become hyperaware of that phrase. Now, whenever I hear one of the characters say “for a reason” on the show or hear one of the actors say the phrase in an interview, I feel as if they had just uttered the secret word. I think “Ding ding ding!” and wish that a toy duck would descend from the ceiling bearing a prize.

While watching this video, the sixth in the “Ask Lost” series, I had one of those wishing-for-Groucho’s-duck moments, because Matthew Fox does indeed say the secret phrase “for a reason.” Give that man a hundred dollars!

You KNOW, Jack. You know that you’re here for a reason.

In this week’s official video podcast, Matthew Fox talks about the evolution of his character Jack.

The podcast starts with a clip from the Season 4 finale, where Jack and Locke, on top of the Orchid Station, are having another one of their arguments about destiny.

Locke tells Jack that he is not supposed to go home. Jack gets mad and yells, “What am I SUPPOSED to do?”

Then he says, “Oh, I think I remember. What was it you said on the way out to the hatch?”

He is referring to their argument in the Season 1 finale — the same argument that I wrote about in my previous post.

This is a great example of the crazy intricate way that LOST works. A conversation starts in Season 1, then picks up again, three years later, in Season 4, then is referenced on the internet in a podcast in the middle of Season 5.

I think this conversation is coming up in the podcast now because finally, after four-and-a-third seasons of Jack and Locke having the same conversation over and over, something is starting to shift.

In the Season 1 argument, Locke said that Jack may not believe the Island is his destiny, but he will believe it at a later time.

That later time appears to be now.

At the Orchid Station, Jack says to Locke that back at the hatch, Locke had told him that crashing on the Island was their destiny.

Locke says, “You KNOW, Jack. You know that you’re here for a reason. You know it.”

“And if you leave this place,” Locke continues, “that knowledge is going to eat you alive.”

Which is exactly what we saw happen in the flashforwards.

In the podcast, Matthew Fox talks about how Jack has always needed to be in control, but now he is starting to give that up.

I have mixed feelings about that in terms of the dramatic possibilities. I do like seeing Jack’s character develop and grow, but if Jack gives in completely to his sense of destiny, what will happen to the tension between Jack and Locke that has been such an important part of the show so far?

For a reason — Season 1 finale

Each one of us was brought here for a reason.” — John Locke

This is the line that inspired the title of this blog, and it’s a line that sums up the central mysteries of LOST:  Why were the Lost-ies brought to the Island, and who or what brought them there? Locke says the line, or variations of the line, in more than one episode — most memorably in this scene from the finale of Season 1:

The short scene is like a greatest-hits recap of all the lines that lay out the show’s themes. Man of science versus man of faith. The Island brought us here. This is no ordinary place. It’s destiny. A sacrifice that the Island demanded. Jack: “I don’t believe in destiny.” Locke: “Yes, you do. You just don’t know it yet.”

So the groundwork for all these themes was already set in place in the first season. Now, part-way through Season 5, some of them are finally starting to come to fruition.

3/2/09 Editing to add Late last night (actually in the wee hours of the morning), I turned on the TV to see if there was anything on, besides infomercials, that I might watch for a few minutes before I went to sleep. I flipped through the channels, and there was a rerun of an old episode of LOST! About a minute later, the scene in the clip above, part of this post that I hadn’t yet finished, came on! Spooky! Cue Twilight Zone music.

I ended up watching the rest of the episode — the very end of Season 1. Even though I am writing two LOST blogs, I haven’t rewatched many episodes yet — I only became a hard-core LOST nerd recently, as a result of writing the blogs, rather than the other way around. It was interesting to see that piece of the Season 1 finale now — to see Walt so small, to see Hurley freak out when he saw the numbers inscribed on top of the hatch, to remember how it felt to watch that episode the first time, to remember the almost unbearable suspense of wondering what was inside the hatch.

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