Season 1 - Episode 19 (Deus Ex Machina) and Episode 20 (Do No Harm)
Episode 19 (Deus Ex Machina)
This episode's title, "Deus Ex Machina", is translated from Latin to English as: "God in the Machine". Anyone who recalls their High School English lessons will remember that "God in the Machine" was a device used in Morality Plays in the Middle Ages and perhaps earlier. The idea was that an "Everyman" would get himself into some horrible trouble, usually by disobeying a Commandment and then, just as all looked lost, the "Machine" which was an elevator like device raised up from below the stage would bring "God" to the man's rescue. To this day, traditional Shakespearian productions are performed on a stage with an elevator pit in the centre, a device that can be directly traced to Middle Age Morality Plays.
Not surprisingly, this episode opens on a machine. This machine is actually part of a game that Locke is putting together to display in the toy store he works in. "Mousetrap" is a game wherein an elaborate and convoluted trap is built, which then stands ready until the victim lands on exactly the right spot. The trap then springs and the victim has to watch the inexorable progression of the mechanism as it winds its way across the board to its final purpose of capturing the prey.
Sound familiar?
As he is demonstrating the game to a young customer, Locke notices a woman in a fur coat watching him. As any good retail store employee would, he asks if he can help her. She wants to know where the footballs are.
Aisle 8 for regulation, aisle 15 for Nerf.
Cut back to the final stage of "Mousetrap" wherein the victim is captured in the plastic cage, ending the game.
Speaking of elaborate devices, Locke and Boone are examining the hatch together. They've built an elaborate machine called a "Trebuchet" to deliver half a ton of force to the glass of the hatch and gain them access. Boone is skeptical of the contraption and of Locke's faith in it working. It turns out that Boone's skepticism was well founded, since the device fails to crack open the hatch or even to crack it's glass window. In the attempt, the metal spike they were using to pierce the hatch disintegrates and a piece ends up in Locke's leg. Oddly, considering how deeply the metal stabs into his leg, he feels nothing when it slices into his flesh, nor when he pulls it free. Back in the cave, while bandaging his wound, he uses a pin to test the feeling in his leg. When he can feel no pain from the pin, on neither his wounded nor on his good leg, he pulls a burning stick from the fire before him. Even the burning branch, despite producing audible results as it sears his flesh, doesn't cause him any pain.
Back in the jungle, Locke explains to Boone that if their next construction project fails to open the hatch, the island will tell them what to do next. Boone is still understandably skeptical. Locke is beginning to have trouble with the leg.
In the toy store parking lot, Locke sees that mystery fur coat lady, just after he pulls a "lost dog" flyer from his windshield. What is it with Locke and lost dogs?
He follows the fur coat and in the process nearly gets run over by a familiar looking gold car. Really familiar.
When he finally catches up with the fur coat lady, she has an extremely profound revelation for him. She's his Mother. This calls for coffee.
Over coffee, Locke's Mother tells him that he's special. He's part of a design. Not only that, he was immaculately conceived.
Sun is pointing out a plant that Sawyer should be using for his headaches. The plant and even his stash of aspirin isn't helping. Kate takes the problem to Dr. Jack. Jack doesn't want to help Mr. Ungrateful.
Boone and Locke are arguing about what kind of sign the island will send them to help them open the hatch, when Locke sees a small plane fly into the trees, trailing a plume of smoke. As he asks Boone if he saw it, a sound turns his attention to something in the jungle. It's the Virgin Fur Coat Lady. She's pointing at something. Turning back to Boone, he sees that his co-worker is now covered in blood, repeating "Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs," while staring off at the area where the plane went down. Locke finds himself in his wheelchair. He struggles out of it, only to fall on his face as he begs, "No, please don't take it back." He awakes in a sweat and a panic.
He wakes Boone before dawn, determined to follow his vision into the jungle.
Across the table, a private investigator has a dossier prepared on Locke's Mother. Turns out Emily Locke has been repeatedly institutionalized for a form of schizophrenia. He also has a dossier on Anthony Cooper, Locke's Father. The two men meet in Cooper's livingroom and chat about Emily over scotch. Locke tells a chuckling Cooper how Emily believed that John had been immaculately conceived. The two men agree to go hunting together on the weekend.
Locke tells Boone about his dream. When Locke quotes his dream Boone saying "Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs," Boone's skepticism falls away.
Michael and Jin are doing a much quicker job of putting together Raft II than Jack expected, thanks to Michael's previous experience. Sawyer's attitude pushes Jack away when he tries to ask about Sawyer's headaches. Sawyer's family history of brain tumors scares him enough to bring Jack back for a consultation. When Jack offers to examine him more closely, Sawyer returns to form and pushes him away.
When they're walking through the jungle, Locke's injured leg gives out beneath him. As he pulls himself back to his feet he notices something hanging from a branch behind Boone. It's a cross, and it doesn't belong to anyone from camp. It belongs to the priest who's corpse is stuck in the tree directly above where Locke fell.
Speaking of convenient coincidences, Locke shows up at Cooper's house an hour before Cooper anticipated him being there. Cooper is hooked to a dialysis machine, but he doesn't want Locke's sympathy for his condition.
The two intrepid vision followers examine the corpse that fell from the tree more closely. The priest was carrying money from Nigeria and something very un-priest-like: A gun.
Kate has finally had enough and forces Sawyer to go see Jack about his headaches. A typical examination follows, including some very embarrassing questions about Sawyer's personal and sexual history. All of this in front of Kate.
"When was the last outbreak?"
Turns out that Sawyer needs glasses.
Back in the jungle, Locke's leg is worse and now he's having trouble with his "good" leg too. Boone tries to convince him to go see Jack about it. Locke says that Jack, the spinal surgeon, wouldn't know the first thing about what's wrong with him. He's probably right. Locke tells Boone about his disability and miraculous recovery. He also tells him that he thinks that the island wants him to follow what he saw in his vision. He convinces Boone to help him continue his quest.
"Just help me up, son."
Locke and Cooper are out hunting together, discussing Cooper's future, Locke's Mother and the finer points of blowing away doves.
Boone tells Locke how Theresa was his nanny when he was a kid. He used to torment her, forcing her up and down the stairs until one day she took a bad step and broke her neck. Boone was only six. When he relates this to Locke, the older man paradoxically starts to laugh. Boone is naturally offended by this reaction to his nanny's death until he realizes that Locke is laughing about the plane perched precariously in the jungle canopy behind where Boone is standing. It's just like the plane Locke saw in his vision. Unfortunately Locke is incapacitated, so Boone will have to climb up and check it out.
In the hospital, Locke echoes the words of the private investigator that found his Father for him when he tells Cooper that "This was meant to be." Of course, the private detective was warning him that even though it felt like it, things aren't always meant to be. Cooper smiles and tells him that he'll see him on the other side.
On the other side, er...the beach, Jack tells Sawyer the bad news. Sawyer has hyperopia. More Latin.
He's farsighted. Jack tries various scavenged glasses with him. "Better or worse?"
When they figure out Sawyer's prescription, Saayid McGuyvers a pair of glasses for the con man, using fire and a stick...
We only see Hurley once in this episode, but as usual, he has the line.
"Dude. Looks like someone steamrolled Harry Potter."
Boone is climbing the trees to the plain while Locke roots him on below. Inside the plane, he finds another body. Actually, it finds him and makes him scream like a girl. He also finds crates full of Virgin Mary statues, full of Virgin Mary Brand Heroin. So much for Locke's sign. Now, if the Virgin Mary statues had been wearing funky fur coats, maybe he'd have something.
Still inside the plane, Boone finds a radio that still has some juice in it. As he tries to get it to work, the plane shifts dangerously. He keeps trying and finally gets something on the transceiver. I wonder who's on the other end? I bet he has bad teeth.
The plane falls and Locke forces his legs to work for him as he struggles to get Boone out.
Kate and Jack are having a laugh over the whole Sawyer situation when Locke stumbles into camp with Boone. Jack asks Locke for background on the accident. Locke tells him that Boone fell off a cliff. Locke leaves before he can answer any more of Jack's questions.
In the hospital, Locke wakes up to find the bed that he expected Cooper to be occupying is empty. His Father left him there without so much as a goodbye or a message. Emily appears at the door. She explains that Cooper orchestrated the entire charade to maneuver Locke into donating his kidney. Denial is his first reaction. He moves quickly on to the anger stage, hammering his steering wheel furiously as he drives away from his Father's home.
He finds himself in the same position on the hatch. Furiously angry at the island for not giving him what he needed to open it, he pounds his frustration into the glass and metal of the hatch. Suddenly a sign appears to him. Light from within appears and he is saved from despair.
Deus Ex Machina
Discussion
Episode 20 (Do No Harm)
The title of this episode comes from a line widely believed to be in the Hippocratic Oath that physicians take when they graduate from medical school. The phrase actually doesn't appear in the Hippocratic Oath, but seems to be derived from Hippocrates "Epidemics" in which appears the phrase "primum non nocere" (do no harm) in the context of: "Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future; practice these acts. As to diseases, make a habit of two things×to help, or at least to do no harm."
The actual Hippocratic Oath runs: "I swear by Apollo the physician, by Asculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgement, the following Oath.
To consider dear to me as my parents him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and if necessary to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art if they so desire without fee or written promise; to impart to my sons and the sons of the master who taught me and the disciples who have enrolled themselves and have agreed to the rules of the profession, but to these alone the precepts and the instruction.
I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.
To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.
Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion.
But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art.
I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.
In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.
All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.
If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot."
Whether the writers intended the audience to think of the Hippocratic Oath or Epidemics, there are certainly "Lost" related referenced to be inferred in both. We certainly see plenty of Father/Son and other relevant imagery in the actual oath, as well as some odd references to reading the future and past in Epidemics.
The episode opens with Jack in triage mode, giving orders and reinflating lungs like only a spinal surgeon can. He is in control. He's taking charge.
He's tying a bow tie. Even twenty years later, he's still taking care of his best friend, fixing things.
Boone has lost a lot of blood, but Jack is going to fix him. He's going to save him.
On the beach, a pensive looking Claire asks Michael how long before the raft is ready. He figures a week or so. As the conversation turns to Jin and Sun, Kate runs up to Sawyer, sent by Jack to secure all of his alcohol stash. She gives Sawyer the Reader's Digest version of current events and runs back to the cave.
Jack is stitching the worst of Boone's wounds but he knows that Mr. Cheekbones needs blood. Sun takes over for a while, pushing Jack out to get some air and some clarity.
At his wedding rehearsal dinner, Jack sits, teary eyed, as his future bride toasts him and his ability to fix things. She's marrying him because he fixed her and he's her hero. Thanks to him, she'll dance at their wedding.
Jack and Sun set Boone's leg. Boone isn't enjoying it.
Kate, in her haste to get back and help, trips and breaks a bunch of the alcohol bottles. As she gets up, she sees Claire who has gone into labour. Claire doesn't want to have the baby right now. Kate calls for help. Jin runs to the sound and when he arrives, Kate sends him to get Jack. Jin is more than happy to be sent away from the woman who is about to give birth.
Jack is trying to find a way to get blood into Boone, while Boone has found numerous creative and fun ways to get blood out. Sun has some suggestions, but Jack snaps her head off, his frustration growing by the minute. His efforts won't make a difference if they can't find an A- donor.
Saayid has Shannon on a trek with him. He takes her from the secluded beach to a secluded beach. What a romantic.
When Charlie is unable to find an A- donor, despite asking the whole camp, Jack reveals that he is a universal donor, O-. Sun has come up with a sea urchin solution to the needle crisis and Jack is going to use his own lifeblood to ensure that Boone doesn't die.
While playing piano, his future wife points out that a cute girl and her trashy friend are checking Jack out. The couple do a little "Heart and Soul" while discussing writing their vows for the wedding. Sarah is willing to let Jack slide on them, but he insists.
Jin runs into camp, looking for Jack. Jack is a bit busy right now, trying to keep Boone from bleeding to death by donating his own blood to the cause. Sun translates as Jin explains Claire's predicament. Jack sends Jin and Charlie back with Delivery 101 instructions for Kate. She's going to have to deliver this baby.
In the jungle, Claire's water breaks.
Boone wakes up enough to tell Jack about the plane and the hatch. Jack tries to get more out of him but only learns that Locke wanted Boone to keep the hatch and plane secret.
On the beach Saayid and Shannon are getting close. Shannon tells him how Boone is actually her step-brother and that Boone is in love with her. She conveniently leaves out their night of alcohol induced pseudo-incest. Saayid wants to know how she feels about Boone. She doesn't feel "that" way about him and wants to take things with Saayid "a little" slow. I'm guessing that means the kinky rope tricks she previously alluded to won't be happening until their second or even third date, at least. After all, it's not like she's a whore willing to prostitute herself to any man who can provide life's necessities for her.
Charlie and Jin find Kate and Claire in the jungle and he imparts Jack's instructions to Kate. Kate don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no babies! As she and the hobbit argue, Jin comforts Claire. She's worried that the "Others" might have done something to the baby. Kate shares her fear with the soon to be Mother and assures her that they'll get through it together.
Jack realizes that the injury to Boone's leg is too severe and is drawing all the blood to it, stealing it from the rest of his body. Jack sends Hurley to find Michael.
Christian Sheppard comes upon Jack who is sitting at the hotel pool, trying to write his vows. They share a drink and when Jack admits that he's worried that he might not be the husband and father he wants to be, Christian shares some fatherly advice with his son. Commitment makes Jack tick. Letting go isn't his strong suit.
Michael and Jack are preparing to use the cargo container door to amputate Boone's leg. It's the only way that he has any chance of surviving.
Kate is coaching Claire through delivery. Claire is trying to fight it, but the baby has other ideas. When things look there worst, Charlie is ready to leap to Claire's side, but Jin holds him back with a knowing, smiling shake of his head. This is girl time. Kate helps her get through her guilt at planning to give away the baby and together they continue the birthing process. Michael and Jack load Boone onto a makeshift stretcher and take him to the cargo container. Sun tries to reason with him, but Jack utters an all too familiar phrase
"Don't tell me what I can't do."
Just as he's about to amputate Boone's leg in a futile effort to save the dying man, Jack meets Sun's eyes. He raises the door.
On a beach, in front of God and their families, Sarah is reciting her vows to Jack. Jack's vows are a little less traditional than hers were. He didn't write any.
Turns out that he feels that he didn't fix her, that she fixed him. Awww.
Just as he's about to take Boone's leg, Boone comes around enough to tell him to wait. Boone knows that he has no chance. Boone knows that Jack made a promise, but he's letting him off the hook.
That sounds just like what Rose said to Jack way back when...
Kate finally helps Claire bring the little tyke into the world in typical Hollywood fashion...One, two, three, PUSH and voila! Claire's a Mommy! Jin and Charlie hug to celebrate, their jobs complete.
Boone wants Jack to tell Shannon something. Unfortunately, he dies before Jack can find out what.
On the beach, a crowd gathers to greet the island's newest inhabitant. Proud Mommy Claire shows off her son to the assemblage. Down the beach, Saayid and Shannon appear, arm in arm. Jack breaks off from the group and does his duty as a physician, breaking the sad news to them.
Fortunately for everyone, quiet, comforting piano music works for both birth and death.
Jack is packing some water. Kate wonders if he wants to talk about Boone dying. Jack doesn't feel that Boone died. He considers it murder and he's going to find John Locke.
Discussion
This episode's title, "Deus Ex Machina", is translated from Latin to English as: "God in the Machine". Anyone who recalls their High School English lessons will remember that "God in the Machine" was a device used in Morality Plays in the Middle Ages and perhaps earlier. The idea was that an "Everyman" would get himself into some horrible trouble, usually by disobeying a Commandment and then, just as all looked lost, the "Machine" which was an elevator like device raised up from below the stage would bring "God" to the man's rescue. To this day, traditional Shakespearian productions are performed on a stage with an elevator pit in the centre, a device that can be directly traced to Middle Age Morality Plays.
Not surprisingly, this episode opens on a machine. This machine is actually part of a game that Locke is putting together to display in the toy store he works in. "Mousetrap" is a game wherein an elaborate and convoluted trap is built, which then stands ready until the victim lands on exactly the right spot. The trap then springs and the victim has to watch the inexorable progression of the mechanism as it winds its way across the board to its final purpose of capturing the prey.
Sound familiar?
As he is demonstrating the game to a young customer, Locke notices a woman in a fur coat watching him. As any good retail store employee would, he asks if he can help her. She wants to know where the footballs are.
Aisle 8 for regulation, aisle 15 for Nerf.
Cut back to the final stage of "Mousetrap" wherein the victim is captured in the plastic cage, ending the game.
Speaking of elaborate devices, Locke and Boone are examining the hatch together. They've built an elaborate machine called a "Trebuchet" to deliver half a ton of force to the glass of the hatch and gain them access. Boone is skeptical of the contraption and of Locke's faith in it working. It turns out that Boone's skepticism was well founded, since the device fails to crack open the hatch or even to crack it's glass window. In the attempt, the metal spike they were using to pierce the hatch disintegrates and a piece ends up in Locke's leg. Oddly, considering how deeply the metal stabs into his leg, he feels nothing when it slices into his flesh, nor when he pulls it free. Back in the cave, while bandaging his wound, he uses a pin to test the feeling in his leg. When he can feel no pain from the pin, on neither his wounded nor on his good leg, he pulls a burning stick from the fire before him. Even the burning branch, despite producing audible results as it sears his flesh, doesn't cause him any pain.
Back in the jungle, Locke explains to Boone that if their next construction project fails to open the hatch, the island will tell them what to do next. Boone is still understandably skeptical. Locke is beginning to have trouble with the leg.
In the toy store parking lot, Locke sees that mystery fur coat lady, just after he pulls a "lost dog" flyer from his windshield. What is it with Locke and lost dogs?
He follows the fur coat and in the process nearly gets run over by a familiar looking gold car. Really familiar.
When he finally catches up with the fur coat lady, she has an extremely profound revelation for him. She's his Mother. This calls for coffee.
Over coffee, Locke's Mother tells him that he's special. He's part of a design. Not only that, he was immaculately conceived.
Sun is pointing out a plant that Sawyer should be using for his headaches. The plant and even his stash of aspirin isn't helping. Kate takes the problem to Dr. Jack. Jack doesn't want to help Mr. Ungrateful.
Boone and Locke are arguing about what kind of sign the island will send them to help them open the hatch, when Locke sees a small plane fly into the trees, trailing a plume of smoke. As he asks Boone if he saw it, a sound turns his attention to something in the jungle. It's the Virgin Fur Coat Lady. She's pointing at something. Turning back to Boone, he sees that his co-worker is now covered in blood, repeating "Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs," while staring off at the area where the plane went down. Locke finds himself in his wheelchair. He struggles out of it, only to fall on his face as he begs, "No, please don't take it back." He awakes in a sweat and a panic.
He wakes Boone before dawn, determined to follow his vision into the jungle.
Across the table, a private investigator has a dossier prepared on Locke's Mother. Turns out Emily Locke has been repeatedly institutionalized for a form of schizophrenia. He also has a dossier on Anthony Cooper, Locke's Father. The two men meet in Cooper's livingroom and chat about Emily over scotch. Locke tells a chuckling Cooper how Emily believed that John had been immaculately conceived. The two men agree to go hunting together on the weekend.
Locke tells Boone about his dream. When Locke quotes his dream Boone saying "Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs," Boone's skepticism falls away.
Michael and Jin are doing a much quicker job of putting together Raft II than Jack expected, thanks to Michael's previous experience. Sawyer's attitude pushes Jack away when he tries to ask about Sawyer's headaches. Sawyer's family history of brain tumors scares him enough to bring Jack back for a consultation. When Jack offers to examine him more closely, Sawyer returns to form and pushes him away.
When they're walking through the jungle, Locke's injured leg gives out beneath him. As he pulls himself back to his feet he notices something hanging from a branch behind Boone. It's a cross, and it doesn't belong to anyone from camp. It belongs to the priest who's corpse is stuck in the tree directly above where Locke fell.
Speaking of convenient coincidences, Locke shows up at Cooper's house an hour before Cooper anticipated him being there. Cooper is hooked to a dialysis machine, but he doesn't want Locke's sympathy for his condition.
The two intrepid vision followers examine the corpse that fell from the tree more closely. The priest was carrying money from Nigeria and something very un-priest-like: A gun.
Kate has finally had enough and forces Sawyer to go see Jack about his headaches. A typical examination follows, including some very embarrassing questions about Sawyer's personal and sexual history. All of this in front of Kate.
"When was the last outbreak?"
Turns out that Sawyer needs glasses.
Back in the jungle, Locke's leg is worse and now he's having trouble with his "good" leg too. Boone tries to convince him to go see Jack about it. Locke says that Jack, the spinal surgeon, wouldn't know the first thing about what's wrong with him. He's probably right. Locke tells Boone about his disability and miraculous recovery. He also tells him that he thinks that the island wants him to follow what he saw in his vision. He convinces Boone to help him continue his quest.
"Just help me up, son."
Locke and Cooper are out hunting together, discussing Cooper's future, Locke's Mother and the finer points of blowing away doves.
Boone tells Locke how Theresa was his nanny when he was a kid. He used to torment her, forcing her up and down the stairs until one day she took a bad step and broke her neck. Boone was only six. When he relates this to Locke, the older man paradoxically starts to laugh. Boone is naturally offended by this reaction to his nanny's death until he realizes that Locke is laughing about the plane perched precariously in the jungle canopy behind where Boone is standing. It's just like the plane Locke saw in his vision. Unfortunately Locke is incapacitated, so Boone will have to climb up and check it out.
In the hospital, Locke echoes the words of the private investigator that found his Father for him when he tells Cooper that "This was meant to be." Of course, the private detective was warning him that even though it felt like it, things aren't always meant to be. Cooper smiles and tells him that he'll see him on the other side.
On the other side, er...the beach, Jack tells Sawyer the bad news. Sawyer has hyperopia. More Latin.
He's farsighted. Jack tries various scavenged glasses with him. "Better or worse?"
When they figure out Sawyer's prescription, Saayid McGuyvers a pair of glasses for the con man, using fire and a stick...
We only see Hurley once in this episode, but as usual, he has the line.
"Dude. Looks like someone steamrolled Harry Potter."
Boone is climbing the trees to the plain while Locke roots him on below. Inside the plane, he finds another body. Actually, it finds him and makes him scream like a girl. He also finds crates full of Virgin Mary statues, full of Virgin Mary Brand Heroin. So much for Locke's sign. Now, if the Virgin Mary statues had been wearing funky fur coats, maybe he'd have something.
Still inside the plane, Boone finds a radio that still has some juice in it. As he tries to get it to work, the plane shifts dangerously. He keeps trying and finally gets something on the transceiver. I wonder who's on the other end? I bet he has bad teeth.
The plane falls and Locke forces his legs to work for him as he struggles to get Boone out.
Kate and Jack are having a laugh over the whole Sawyer situation when Locke stumbles into camp with Boone. Jack asks Locke for background on the accident. Locke tells him that Boone fell off a cliff. Locke leaves before he can answer any more of Jack's questions.
In the hospital, Locke wakes up to find the bed that he expected Cooper to be occupying is empty. His Father left him there without so much as a goodbye or a message. Emily appears at the door. She explains that Cooper orchestrated the entire charade to maneuver Locke into donating his kidney. Denial is his first reaction. He moves quickly on to the anger stage, hammering his steering wheel furiously as he drives away from his Father's home.
He finds himself in the same position on the hatch. Furiously angry at the island for not giving him what he needed to open it, he pounds his frustration into the glass and metal of the hatch. Suddenly a sign appears to him. Light from within appears and he is saved from despair.
Deus Ex Machina
Discussion
Episode 20 (Do No Harm)
The title of this episode comes from a line widely believed to be in the Hippocratic Oath that physicians take when they graduate from medical school. The phrase actually doesn't appear in the Hippocratic Oath, but seems to be derived from Hippocrates "Epidemics" in which appears the phrase "primum non nocere" (do no harm) in the context of: "Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future; practice these acts. As to diseases, make a habit of two things×to help, or at least to do no harm."
The actual Hippocratic Oath runs: "I swear by Apollo the physician, by Asculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgement, the following Oath.
To consider dear to me as my parents him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and if necessary to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art if they so desire without fee or written promise; to impart to my sons and the sons of the master who taught me and the disciples who have enrolled themselves and have agreed to the rules of the profession, but to these alone the precepts and the instruction.
I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.
To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.
Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion.
But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art.
I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.
In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.
All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.
If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot."
Whether the writers intended the audience to think of the Hippocratic Oath or Epidemics, there are certainly "Lost" related referenced to be inferred in both. We certainly see plenty of Father/Son and other relevant imagery in the actual oath, as well as some odd references to reading the future and past in Epidemics.
The episode opens with Jack in triage mode, giving orders and reinflating lungs like only a spinal surgeon can. He is in control. He's taking charge.
He's tying a bow tie. Even twenty years later, he's still taking care of his best friend, fixing things.
Boone has lost a lot of blood, but Jack is going to fix him. He's going to save him.
On the beach, a pensive looking Claire asks Michael how long before the raft is ready. He figures a week or so. As the conversation turns to Jin and Sun, Kate runs up to Sawyer, sent by Jack to secure all of his alcohol stash. She gives Sawyer the Reader's Digest version of current events and runs back to the cave.
Jack is stitching the worst of Boone's wounds but he knows that Mr. Cheekbones needs blood. Sun takes over for a while, pushing Jack out to get some air and some clarity.
At his wedding rehearsal dinner, Jack sits, teary eyed, as his future bride toasts him and his ability to fix things. She's marrying him because he fixed her and he's her hero. Thanks to him, she'll dance at their wedding.
Jack and Sun set Boone's leg. Boone isn't enjoying it.
Kate, in her haste to get back and help, trips and breaks a bunch of the alcohol bottles. As she gets up, she sees Claire who has gone into labour. Claire doesn't want to have the baby right now. Kate calls for help. Jin runs to the sound and when he arrives, Kate sends him to get Jack. Jin is more than happy to be sent away from the woman who is about to give birth.
Jack is trying to find a way to get blood into Boone, while Boone has found numerous creative and fun ways to get blood out. Sun has some suggestions, but Jack snaps her head off, his frustration growing by the minute. His efforts won't make a difference if they can't find an A- donor.
Saayid has Shannon on a trek with him. He takes her from the secluded beach to a secluded beach. What a romantic.
When Charlie is unable to find an A- donor, despite asking the whole camp, Jack reveals that he is a universal donor, O-. Sun has come up with a sea urchin solution to the needle crisis and Jack is going to use his own lifeblood to ensure that Boone doesn't die.
While playing piano, his future wife points out that a cute girl and her trashy friend are checking Jack out. The couple do a little "Heart and Soul" while discussing writing their vows for the wedding. Sarah is willing to let Jack slide on them, but he insists.
Jin runs into camp, looking for Jack. Jack is a bit busy right now, trying to keep Boone from bleeding to death by donating his own blood to the cause. Sun translates as Jin explains Claire's predicament. Jack sends Jin and Charlie back with Delivery 101 instructions for Kate. She's going to have to deliver this baby.
In the jungle, Claire's water breaks.
Boone wakes up enough to tell Jack about the plane and the hatch. Jack tries to get more out of him but only learns that Locke wanted Boone to keep the hatch and plane secret.
On the beach Saayid and Shannon are getting close. Shannon tells him how Boone is actually her step-brother and that Boone is in love with her. She conveniently leaves out their night of alcohol induced pseudo-incest. Saayid wants to know how she feels about Boone. She doesn't feel "that" way about him and wants to take things with Saayid "a little" slow. I'm guessing that means the kinky rope tricks she previously alluded to won't be happening until their second or even third date, at least. After all, it's not like she's a whore willing to prostitute herself to any man who can provide life's necessities for her.
Charlie and Jin find Kate and Claire in the jungle and he imparts Jack's instructions to Kate. Kate don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no babies! As she and the hobbit argue, Jin comforts Claire. She's worried that the "Others" might have done something to the baby. Kate shares her fear with the soon to be Mother and assures her that they'll get through it together.
Jack realizes that the injury to Boone's leg is too severe and is drawing all the blood to it, stealing it from the rest of his body. Jack sends Hurley to find Michael.
Christian Sheppard comes upon Jack who is sitting at the hotel pool, trying to write his vows. They share a drink and when Jack admits that he's worried that he might not be the husband and father he wants to be, Christian shares some fatherly advice with his son. Commitment makes Jack tick. Letting go isn't his strong suit.
Michael and Jack are preparing to use the cargo container door to amputate Boone's leg. It's the only way that he has any chance of surviving.
Kate is coaching Claire through delivery. Claire is trying to fight it, but the baby has other ideas. When things look there worst, Charlie is ready to leap to Claire's side, but Jin holds him back with a knowing, smiling shake of his head. This is girl time. Kate helps her get through her guilt at planning to give away the baby and together they continue the birthing process. Michael and Jack load Boone onto a makeshift stretcher and take him to the cargo container. Sun tries to reason with him, but Jack utters an all too familiar phrase
"Don't tell me what I can't do."
Just as he's about to amputate Boone's leg in a futile effort to save the dying man, Jack meets Sun's eyes. He raises the door.
On a beach, in front of God and their families, Sarah is reciting her vows to Jack. Jack's vows are a little less traditional than hers were. He didn't write any.
Turns out that he feels that he didn't fix her, that she fixed him. Awww.
Just as he's about to take Boone's leg, Boone comes around enough to tell him to wait. Boone knows that he has no chance. Boone knows that Jack made a promise, but he's letting him off the hook.
That sounds just like what Rose said to Jack way back when...
Kate finally helps Claire bring the little tyke into the world in typical Hollywood fashion...One, two, three, PUSH and voila! Claire's a Mommy! Jin and Charlie hug to celebrate, their jobs complete.
Boone wants Jack to tell Shannon something. Unfortunately, he dies before Jack can find out what.
On the beach, a crowd gathers to greet the island's newest inhabitant. Proud Mommy Claire shows off her son to the assemblage. Down the beach, Saayid and Shannon appear, arm in arm. Jack breaks off from the group and does his duty as a physician, breaking the sad news to them.
Fortunately for everyone, quiet, comforting piano music works for both birth and death.
Jack is packing some water. Kate wonders if he wants to talk about Boone dying. Jack doesn't feel that Boone died. He considers it murder and he's going to find John Locke.
Discussion
posted by Greybishop at 10:47 AM
