Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Alpha Male by Luhks



Throughout its four seasons, Lost continues to impress with its ability to juggle its storytelling back and forth across multiple time periods. By refusing to commit to just one specific time period, the show retains the ability to drift far away from the present in order to change our perspective of characters and events. Cabin Fever provides a perfect example here, as its opening frames transport the viewer farther back into the past than ever before. Chronologically, the birth of John Locke now represents the very beginning of the show’s narrative timeline. In the case of Cabin Fever, a series of flashbacks uncover revelations about Locke that would have been unthinkable during the early days of the series.

The show also demonstrates perhaps an even more impressive ability to jump around between different genres. This characteristic of the series has been no more evident than during the previous two episodes. The Shape of Things to Come consisted of fast-paced action and adventure from start to finish, while Something Nice Back Home offered an intimately detailed psychological drama. Cabin Fever contains a few instances of action and a few scenes of introspection, but it does not fit very neatly into either of those two categories. One might be tempted to classify this episode as science fiction, but on closer examination the story actually fails to incorporate many scientific concepts at all. Ultimately, this particular episode holds more elements in common with works of fantasy and mythology than anything else. As a whole, Cabin Fever almost serves as the equivalent of a superhero origin tale for its most iconic character, John Locke.



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