I agree; White Rabbit is one of the most important episodes in Season 1 and maybe in the whole show. As you say, it establishes Jack as the hero (in the Campbellian sense as well as main protagonist), and tells us what kind of story this is going to be. I don’t think mainstream viewers in 2004 thought for one minute…

Myles -- I haven’t even read this review yet. But PLEASE let me tell you -- THANK YOU so much for writing these reviews up. The more Survivor content out there the better. Losing the AVClub’s reviews for recent seasons hurt me and I’m so pumped to see it back, especially for the most epic season of all time. 

-First off, Myles, it’s great that AVC had you do this.You do a fantastic job. I’m really hoping they’ll let it be a weekly thing but if not, at the very least, I hope they let you do a couple of drop ins throughout the season (say Merge and then Finale).

Am replying to both posts here.

>>couldn’t we conclude that this is where the frozen donkey wheel would later be? If the answer is yes, then both Ben and Locke would see the light behind the wheel when they go down below to turn it.

>>So in other words, Jacob running things is like a trying to fit a square peg into a round hole?

Oooh, I liked. There’s a lot to say about “The End!”

I’m glad you brought these episodes up. I just rewatched both of them before writing this, and Across the Sea has to be one of the most luminous and beautiful episodes in the whole series. On the first watch, I had tears in my eyes practically the whole way through. For four years (I started watching late) I had…

You have a little fanfic where Hugo heals Jack? Sorry, I must have missed that. I wrote one of those, too (“Five Minutes,” link) Did you ever link me?

>>So to have Hurley back in Santa Rosa and spending time in group with Libby seems depressing to me. I feel like he suffered enough before the crash and after the Oceanic 6 were rescued.

>>Re: our recent discussions about Rose and Hurley, and why they “chose” to be the way they were in the FSW. For everyone to remember and eventually reunite, certain events in their life had to remain in place.

>>Re: Ben and Jacob, if Ben did have a long standing hatred of him, it would have started around the time that he moved the Island instead of Locke doing it. We see him underground at the donkey wheel, and as he’s getting ready to turn it, he looks up and says, “I hope you’re happy now, Jacob.”

FSW comments:

>>#1. MiB “wearing” Locke’s face: I do believe there is some Locke bleeding through in MiB’s words and actions, but this is still a very evil presence that the castaways are dealing with. [snip] It may walk like a duck and talk like a duck, but it ain’t a duck.

>>You wrote this in a previous discussion: “You notice he’s also wearing gloves when he visits Ilana in the Russian hospital. Speculation: he doesn’t want to arouse suspicions if she heals unnaturally fast from her injuries. This leads me to think that the healing nature of Jacob’s touch isn’t quite voluntary;…

>>Did he get to Claire a bit with the dreams? Probably. But his real impact came, of course, when he used Aaron as a way to isolate her from the other castaways, and start hammering at her during the three years when everyone was elsewhere.

>>Are we still talking about the FSW?

>>how much effort is [MiB] really putting into it?

>>remembering all that, and then seeing his childhood home at the lighthouse, everything for Jack just built up too much where he couldn’t hold back anymore, and smashing those mirrors in a million pieces was the most cathartic thing he could do.

>>it looks like the writers are just reminding us of better times for the show and maybe this is where some of the complaints come into play.