White Rabbit- by JeffersonAirplaneOne pill makes you larger And one pill makes you small, And the ones that mother gives you Don't do anything at all. Go ask Alice When she's ten feet tall. And if you go chasing rabbits And you know you're going to fall, Tell 'em a hookah smoking Caterpillar Has given you the call. Call Alice When she was just small. When the men on the chessboard Get up and tell you where to go And you've just had some kind of mushroom And your mind is moving low. Go ask Alice I think she'll know. When logic and proportion Have fallen sloppy dead, And the White Knight is talking backwards And the Red Queen's "Off with her head!" Remember what the dormouse said: "Feed your head. Feed your head. Feed your head!"White RabbitAgain, an episode of Lost opens with the Opening Eye. Again it is Jack, but this time as a young boy. Jack's been knocked down by a bully, while his friend Marc Silverman is getting beat up. The bully puts it to him bluntly: "Stay down. It's your choice man, walk away now and you won't get your ass kicked." But Jack doesn't stay down. He is moved by the plight of the other boy, and gets up. And then he gets his ass kicked. "You should've stayed down, Jack," says the bully. The philosopher John Locke was a great proponent of Free Will. We see that theme again in this episode. Nicely juxtaposed with our own Locke's mantra, "Don't tell me what I can't do," we see Jack getting it from his dad and his mom. In one flashback, the young Jack listens to his father, a Chief of Surgery, relate a story where he failed to save a young boy. Jack's father is able to come home, eat dinner, and laugh at Carol Burnett. He explains, "I mean even when I fail, how do I do that, Jack? Because I have what it takes. Don't choose, Jack, don't decide. You don't want to be a hero. You don't want to try and save everyone because when you fail... you just don't have what it takes." His father admonishes Jack: don't choose this path. Now Jack is all grown up, and his father is missing. Jack's mom tells him in no uncertain terms of his responsibilities (and starting with a nice bit of misdirection, too):Mom: He was right about you. Jack: Right about what? Mom: You don't understand the pressure that he's under. Jack: I understand pressure. Mom: Jack, please you know how he gets... he doesn't. He won't take care of himself. You have to go after him. Jack: I'm sorry. I can't. Mom: "I can't?" You don't get to say I can't. Not after what you did. Bring your father home, Jack.Jack has choices. He may be reluctant at times, but it is his instinct to choose to answer the call to help. On the island, he hears a woman crying for help out in the ocean. He swims out to sea, but isn't able to reach her. Instead, he rescues the hapless Boone. This isn't the first time we've seen Jack fail. He failed to save the life of the Marshal, and eventually had to perform a mercy killing. How well is Jack dealing with failure?Jack: She was just swimming this morning, got caught in a riptide. We've been here 6 days and I never talked to her. Never said a word to her. Kate: Jack, don't. Jack: There were 47 of us and I never said a single word to her. Kate: You tried. Jack: No I didn't. I thought maybe I could... I thought maybe I could bring him back and still have the time. I was there, in the water. I didn't try. I decided not to go after her.Even in failure, Jack has to take responsibility for his choices, but he doesn't even give himself the benefit of the doubt. He doesn't need bullies to beat him up, for he's quite adept at doing it himself. The truth is, he did go after Joanna. He heard the call, and he answered. It wasn't his fault that he had to end up saving Boone instead. If Boone hadn't tried to be a hero, Jack would have saved Joanna. A short time later, Jack's confronted with the diminishing supply of water on the beach. Hurley and Charlie follow him incessantly throughout this scene, complaining that people will freak out if they discover how little water there is, and whether they should employ the dog or dowsing techniques to find more. They ask Jack what to do, but Jack refuses: "I'm not deciding anything," Jack declares. Complicating Jack's situation is the fact that he's started seeing things. Foreshadowed in the previous episode, Jack sees a man in a suit one second and in another second the man is gone. This happens several times, and Jack thinks he's going crazy. He finally follows the mysterious disappearing vision into the jungle. Jack never catches the vision, but to his shock and dismay discovers that the vision is of his father. Through Jack's flashbacks, we discover that Jack's father is actually dead. Jack went to Australia to find him, and practically has to beg the ticket lady at the Oceanic Airlines desk to let him and the corpse onto the plane. Jack is beside himself, but not for long. He ends up sharing a nice conversation with John Locke, the man who has reason to throw reason out the window. Jack shares with Locke his self-doubt:Jack: How are they, the others? Locke: Thirsty. Hungry. Waiting to be rescued. And they need someone to tell them what to do. Jack: Me? I can't. Locke: Why can't you? Jack: Because I'm not a leader. Locke: And yet they all treat you like one. Jack: I don't know how to help them. I'll fail. I don't have what it takes.Maybe Jack doesn't have what it takes to deal with failure?Down the Rabbit HoleThe title of this episode is quite apt - White Rabbit. It refers to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, a staple of children's literature and possibly one of the most nonsensical pieces of fantasy written. Alice chases a white rabbit down a rabbit hole and has all kinds of crazy adventures. She drinks potions and eats cakes, changing from very small to very tall and back again. She talks with caterpillars and grinning cats, her own tears become a flooding pool, she plays croquet with the Queen of Hearts. The metaphor of following a white rabbit into adventure and strangeness is well known in popular culture, especially in science fiction. In the episode "Shore Leave" of the famous original series of Star Trek, Dr. McCoy is exploring a strange planet when he encounters a large white rabbit on who declares, "Oh dear, oh dear, I shall be late!" After seeing Alice following the rabbit, McCoy thinks he needs some rest. In "The Matrix", Neo is told through his computer to follow the White Rabbit - seconds later, a knock on the door reveals a number of people inviting him to a club, and one of the women has a white rabbit tattooed on her shoulder. Later, Neo is invited by Morpheus to "go down the rabbit" hole to find out what The Matrix really is; he swallows a little red pill like Alice, only to find himself literally sliding down a chute into the subterranean caverns of planet Earth. Jack is much more resistant than Alice or Neo. He really wants no part of this experience. He ends up sitting among some fantastically wide tree limbs talking to John Locke about his dilemma. The scene evokes Alice's encounter with the Caterpillar, or even Luke Skywalker's tutelage under the mysterious Yoda.Locke: Why are you out here Jack? Jack: I think I'm going crazy. Locke: No. You're not going crazy. Jack: No? Locke: Crazy people don't know they're going crazy. They think they're getting saner. So, why are you out here? Jack: I'm chasing something. Someone. Locke: Ah. The White Rabbit. Alice in Wonderland. Jack: Yeah, Wonderland, because who I'm chasing... he's not there. Locke: But you see him? Jack: Yes. But he's not there. Locke: And if I came to you and said the same thing, then what would your explanation be, as a doctor. Jack: I'd call it a hallucination. A result of dehydration, post traumatic stress, not getting more than 2 hours of sleep a night for the past week. All the above. Locke: All right, then. You're hallucinating. But what if you're not? Jack: Then we're all in a lot of trouble. Locke: I'm an ordinary man Jack, meat and potatoes, I live in the real world. I'm not a big believer in magic. But this place is different. It's special. The others don't want to talk about it because it scares them. But we all know it. We all feel it. Is your white rabbit a hallucination? Probably. But what if everything that happened here, happened for a reason? What if this person that you're chasing is really here? Jack: That's impossible. Locke: Even if it is, let's say it's not. Jack: Then what happens when I catch him? Locke: I don't know. But I've looked into the eye of this island. And what I saw... was beautiful.Locke's comment of looking into the eye of the island echoes across the series. So many episodes begin with an opening eye. The symbol for Oceanic Airlines looks like an opening eye. Young Jack had an "opening eye", as does Island Jack. Young Jack also has a "black eye" after getting beat up - his left eye. Even Claire has something to say about eyes and leadership: "People don't seem to look me in the eye here. I think I scare them. The baby. It's like I'm this time-bomb of responsibility just waiting to go off." Charlie looks into the eye of Claire, and what he sees... is beautiful.Watership DownWatership Down, by Richard Adams, is a book about bunnies. It details the adventures of several plucky rabbits as they escape from Sandelford Warren, which is demolished by a bulldozer. They make their way to Watership Down, where they establish a new warren which they call The Honeycomb. However, they have no females in their group. The leader, Hazel, plans a couple of daring raids. First they free a couple of does from a hutch at a nearby farm. Later, Hazel has one of his best bucks infiltrate another warren, Efrafa, which is run under strict military supervision by General Woundwort, a mighty rabbit. Many more does are freed, but General Woundwort launches a counterattack on Watership Down which is thankfully thwarted at the last minute by a large black dog. The book has several parallels to Lost. One of the rabbits, Fiver, has prophetic visions. Jack (who has a "5" tattooed on his arm) has been having visions of his father. Both Watership and Lost explore a variety of leadership styles and models for running a society, after tremendous disasters. The caves Jack finds are not unlike some large burrows discovered by the wayward rabbits. Structurally, both stories employ framing smaller stories within the narrative - in Lost we see flashbacks, in Watership Down we read historical myths of the famous El-ahrairah, a hero among rabbits. Incidentally, a "jack rabbit" isn't really a rabbit at all. It's a hare, which doesn't live in communal warrens like rabbits do. The hare is also mythically tied to the role of the Trickster, as hares are known for their tricky maneuvers in raiding gardens and eluding predators. Such trickster characters in popular culture include Bugs Bunny and Brer Rabbit. Rabbits have big ears, so they have good hearing.SticksIn White Rabbit, we hear three references to "sticks." The first comes when Shannon approaches Sawyer, attempting to negotiate for some bug spray. Saywer gives Shannon the nickname "Sticks" for her long legs. Shannon is at first confused, and in a blonde moment thinks he's said "lightsticks." "Lightsticks" are plastic rods filled with luminescent chemicals, and are often found at rock concerts, at Halloween, and even in golf balls (where a small stick is inserted into a clear ball so that it can be played and found at night!) We also hear a reference to "dowsing sticks" from Charlie, as he and Hurley seek guidance from Jack about the water supply. Dowsing is a discredited superstitious method of divining water sources - the dowser wanders around a field wielding a forked stick, and when he "feels" the stick tugging towards the ground, he takes this as an indication of where to dig a well. Sticks are also prominent in Tarot, and are often referred to as Wands, the Element of Fire, the symbol of Spirit. After Jack has received his tutelage from John Locke, he builds a fire out in the jungle and waits. Sure enough, his vision of his father returns (which Jack hears instead of sees, it being night.) Jack takes a large stick from the Fire and uses it like a torch - a "light" stick - to follow the man through the jungle. Jack finds a cave. As if he were following a dowsing rod, Jack has discovered a great source of fresh flowing water.Twins, Mirrors and HeroesAnother symbolic reference comes from a brief snippet of conversation between Kate and Claire: Claire is into astrology, and guesses correctly that Kate is a Gemini. This brief exchange doesn't serve any plot or character development, but alerts us to a narrative technique that runs throughout Lost. Gemini is the sign of "twins", and you better believe that we have another set of mirror-twins on our hands, and a mirror-twinned Heroic Journey as well! The theme of The Hero has also been echoing throughout these first five episodes. Sawyer has twice referred to Jack as "the hero"; now we hear Jack's dad warning him against the hero's path, and Boone challenging Jack's noble heroism. In this episode, Jack is mirror-twinned against himself, pre-Island. Pre-Jack has an "opening eye" moment, the impulse to be a hero, to save someone in distress. This is twinned on the Island in Pilot (Jack's opening eye) and then continued in White Rabbit, with Jack trying to save Joanna. PreJack fails to save Marc (a man) and PostJack fails to save Joanna (a woman). PreJack is told by his father that he "doesn't have what it takes," PostJack tells himself that he "doesn't have what it takes." PreJack goes off on a Quest to find his father and bring him home; his father is the boon of the quest. PreJack is reluctant, he says he can't do it, but an elder (his mom) doesn't accept that answer and convinces him to go. PostJack is off on a Quest to find his father; he's reminded by an elder (Locke) of what's expected of him, that "he can't" is not an acceptable answer. PreJack finds his father, dead, in a morgue - an Inner Chamber. His quest fails when the plane crashes. PostJack finds his father's coffin (in a cave, an Inner Chamber) but not his father; his quest is ultimately a success because he brings a boon (fresh water) back to camp. A second mirror-twinning shown is between Jack and Boone. Jack and Boone both answer the call to help, but from completely different angles. Jack is competent, Boone is not. Jack is looked up to, Boone is not. Jack is a leader and a hero; Boone is not. Jack is reluctant, Boone is not. Jack chooses to answer the call to heroism, but he did not choose to be a hero, to be a leader. Boone, on the other hand, wants to be a hero and a leader, but his own lack of quality stands in his way. Despite being a lifeguard, Boone fails to save Joanna. Later, Boone decides to hide the water for future rationing. His decision backfires and causes a quicker panic than if he'd just left it alone. In the Pilot episode, Boone nearly kills Rose with his poor CPR technique, and has to be dispatched on a fool's errand to retrieve pens for an intubation that never happens thanks to Jack's superior skills. The mirroring is reflected in the dialogue.Boone: Why didn't you leave me? Hey, I'm talking to you. Jack: Not now, man. Boone: I could have made it back. What? Not going to answer me? I told you to leave me. Jack: You were drowning. Boone: You should've saved her. Jack: But I didn't save her. And neither did you. Boone: You think you're all noble and heroic for coming after me? I was fine. You're not the only one who knows what to do around here, you know that? I run a business. Who appointed you our savior, huh? What gives you the right?Jack is challenged as the group's savior, but he has only nice things to say about Boone before his final soliloquy on the beach: "A woman died this morning just going for a swim and he tried to save her, and now you're about to crucify him? We can't do this." And in case you didn't notice, when Jack goes after Joanna... ends up bringing a Boone back to camp. Mirror-twinning has been occurring across episodes as well. The final montage of our Lostaways on the beach mirrors the final montage of characters on the beach in Tabula Rasa. In Tabula Rasa (with commercial music) we see Jin stroking Sun's hair off of her face, Boone handing sunglasses to Shannon, Sayid tossing an apple to Sawyer, Michael returning the dog Vincent to his son Walt. The scene occurs during the day, while Kate and Jack sit on the beach together (Kate on the left, Jack on the right) and Jack gives a nice speech. In White Rabbit (with orchestral music) the scene happens at night, after Jack gives a nice speech. Sun thanks Jin for getting her water. Michael brings water to his son Walt. Sawyer empathises with Boone's newfound role as camp scapegoat, while Kate and Jack talk and sit on the beach together - Jack on the left, and Kate on the right. The clearest mirror-shots occur in Jack's flashbacks. In one, he's in his father's den, and he's looking at a reflection of himself in the window - but it's not a clear reflection; it's ghostly. The best mirror shot occurs in his father's hotel room in Sydney, but Jack doesn't see himself. He's either talking to a concierge, or we see his back in the mirror. Jack never sees himself clearly in the mirror. In the morgue, every wall has a metallic reflective surface, but they are all hazy. Jack's quest on the Island is not about finding his father, and not about finding water, but about finding himself. He returns to camp a changed man. Jack is the boon that he has brought back to camp.Political EconomyJack and the Lostaways have some important choices to make as far as governing their makeshift society on the Island. They have to attend to real-world issues of survival, and they seem to have the basics in hand. They now have a source of water. Locke provides them a source of food. The wreckage of the plane is used for makeshift shelter. Now the question is, how are they going to organize themselves? We've seen several examples of how they might go about this. The first example, which we're quite familiar with the US, is that of capitalism. Sawyer embodies this philosophy, and not just in name. Sawyer is the one who has salvaged the most from the wreckage. He uses his resource to engage in trade. We see him bartering with Shannon for insect repellent, trading water for fish from Jin, and he keeps his stash safely banked away. Sawyer represents "every man for himself." The second example we see is that of authoritarianism. It's evoked from the militaristic style of General Woundwort's warren in Watership Down, but it's also evident in several of our characters. Jin obviously uses his authority to influence his relationship with Sun. He is the one who practically orders her to exercise modesty, to follow him, to do what he says. Sun is the passive one, asking plaintively, "When will someone tell us what to do?" Michael is every bit the authoritarian with his son Walt, which Walt obviously chafes at. Even Sayid understands "the chain of command" from his military background. The camp ultimately takes a communal or even socialistic direction. Food and water are shared. Many people are already taking on the responsibilities of leadership - from Sayid with his practical knowledge to Kate with her relentless volunteering. Hurley and his friends take on the thankless task of rationing and distribution, and even Claire helps out by leading the funeral ritual. And so, Jack makes his decision:Every man for himself is not gonna work. It's time to start organizing. We need to figure out how we're gonna survive here. Now I found water... fresh water up in the valley. I'll take a group in at first light. If you don't want to come then find a way to contribute. Last week most of us were strangers. But we're all here now. And God knows how long we're gonna be here. But if we can't live together...we're gonna die alone.What is "it" that Jack's father talks about? Why does Jack's dad have no friends? Jack's dad had the ability to turn off his empathy, to isolate himself, to disconnect - that is how he deals with failure. Guess what, Jack's dad ultimately died alone. Jack has learned something completely different. Jack has started to connect, to form relationships - he actually opens up at the end and tells Kate something intimate, that his father has died. Jack has learned to "live together."