Six Questions About “D.O.C.”
1. Okay, what does D.O.C. stand for?
Date of Conception, which is an important distinction to the episode. You see, if you conceive a child off the island (Rousseau, Claire), you’ll be a-ok. If you did so on the island, well, it’s kind of up in the air. This distinction is explained by Juliet, who appears to have secret knowledge relating to the “abandoned” medical hatch.
2. So how’s the sex life on the island?
Well, let’s think back to who exactly has had sex on the island. We’ve got Jin/Sun (Although we never really saw that coupling), clearly, considering the result of the ultrasound, but what about Kate/Sawyer? The end of the episode seems to indicate that Kate might be pregnant as well. And if that’s the case, would Ana Lucia have been pregnant should she have not been, well, shot? And what does this mean for pretty well anyone who has sex? I assume that people are having sex on the island (Come on, it’s been a long time now), so does this mean that there is a whole lot of pregnant women walking around? It raises a lot of interesting questions.
3. Is Juliet’s motivation any clearer?
Yeah, not so much. Although, at the episode’s end, we get a fairly substantial glimpse into her true emotions…while at the same time confirming her greatest motivation is in the hands of Ben and the Others. We still, however, don’t know why she’s working with him even in her apparent distain for every fiber of his being. The episode certainly showed that she is certainly still going along with Ben’s plan, but yet she doesn’t seem to be as much of a true believer as we saw in “One of Us” two weeks ago. It’s still very, very vague.
4. Who is this parachute girl exactly?
We still don’t have an answer to this question, let’s be fair. We know that she speaks a whole bunch of different languages, we know that she seems to know a lot about Oceanic 815, but we’re currently missing a name, an identity, and an answer to our questions about why she knew Desmond’s name, why she had a copy of the photo. We got a few new questions, if anything, as opposed to any sort of answers. It was somewhat overshadowed, though, by the fact that Mikhail came back from the dead to save her life. I am much more interested in his miraculous recovery from apparently having his brain blown out than I am about this woman.
5. Is Jin and Sun’s Back Story any interesting?
I’d argue it is, but I worry that it’s a little bit repetitive. I think, though, that it did a good job of reflecting the episode’s themes (Unsure as to her relationship with Jin, questions of the past coming back to haunt you, etc.) while having its own little narrative. This was a big episode for Sun’s character, and I think that her concern over Jin’s past showed some strong development. The arc of the story flowed well, and showed the level to which she wants their relationship to work; she basically sacrificed their marriage over it. Their story is a fantastic tragedy, and this episode continued this.
6. Any big revelations?
YES. Okay, this blew my mind. You know how so many times people have these crazy adventures, and then they don’t actually TELL anyone else about it, so it’s like this big secret. Well, in this episode, they revealed that they DO talk. In fact, they knew a lot of details about it. Honestly, this is kind of mind blowing for me. They should do this more often.
…oh, you mean other than that? Well, there was sort of the fact that Oceanic Flight 815 was already discovered. They found the plane. There was no survivors. Naomi (Parachute Girl)? She’s totally just there for Desmond, not these apparently dead people. That’s kind of intense, really…but I’m more impressed that they actually communicated. That’s a breakthrough right there.
But these questions don’t cover everything in the episode, although it does cover most of it. Much like last week, this episode was really quite centered on Sun/Jin and didn’t deal with a broad range of issues or anything. If you want all the details, however, continue reading for a full recap.
So, tonight was the first part of the rather epic Idol Gives Back event on American Idol, and the singing was just…ok. I thought Jordin was pitchy in the beginning, contrary to the judges, but really there wasn’t much to really say about the performances. There is a lot to say, however, on the subject of the cultural ramifications of Idol Gives Back. The elder McNutt has taken an interest in it, and I’ve assisted in analyzing and considering the issue over at McNutt Against the Music. I implore all of you to go over and check it out, it’s quite interesting (I even bring up Baudrillard!).
So, I haven’t been paying too much attention to Dancing with the Stars, but I’ve seen enough to know that the show is suffering the same fate as The Apprentice: its contestants are losing respect for the program. It’s one thing for viewership to fail, but the past two weeks has seen Clyde Drexler and Heather Mills give absolutely biting exit speeches that attack parts of the show’s structure.
Claire
Nathan
Mr. Bennet
Peter
Sylar
Mohinder
Cultural Learnings 