Lost: Season 1 Episode 14 "Special" Review

"A penguin...with a sunburn?  That's dumb."

-Walt Lloyd

The 14th episode of Lost follows Michael (Harold Perrineau) as he discovers his son, Walt (Malcolm David Kelly), being taught how to throw a knife by Locke (Terry O'Quinn).  They have a heated confrontation and Michael warns Locke to stay away from him and Walt.  esperate to get Walt off of the island, decides to start building a raft and forces Walt to help.  Walt sneaks off to speak to Locke, who tries to respects Michal's wishes and tells Walt to go away, but Michael returns before Walt can leave and threatens to kill Locke.  Michael and Walt get into a heated confrontation that ends with Michael throwing Walt's comic book in the fire.

Later, Walt sneaks off again and Michael hunts down Locke, but Walt is nowhere to be found.  The two men stack Walt and find him trapped in a banyan tree by a polar bear.  Locke and Michael work together to rescue Walt and drive off the bear.  That night, the father and son bond over all of the birthday cards and letters Michael had sent Walt over the years, but Walt had never seen them because his mother, Susan (Tamara Taylor) had hid them.

While tracking down Claire's (Emilie de Ravin) luggage, Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) discovers Claire's diary is missing.  With Kate's (Evangeline Lilly) help, he tracks down Sawyer (Josh Holloway) who had indeed stolen the diary.  After a physical confrontation, Charlie gets it back, but ends up reading it himself and discovers Claire had had a dream about a Black Rock, which Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan) had mentioned to Sayid (Naveen Andrews).

Locke and Boone (Ian Somerhalder) go off into the jungle to look for Vincent, who ran off during the polar bear attack, but instead they come across Claire.

In flashbacks, we see that not long after the birth of Walt, Susan accepts a job in Amsterdam and takes Walt away from Michael.  Some time later, Susan tells Michael she is marrying her boss, Brian Porter (David Starzyk), and moving to Italy.  Angry, Michael decides to go get Walt back from her, but is hit by a car and sent to the hospital.  Susan visits him and offers to pay for all of his medical bills, but wants to have Brian adopt Walt.  Michael resists, but Susan convinces him that this is what's best for Walt.  

When Walt is ten and living in Sydney, Australia, Susan dies and Brian goes to visit Michael and admits he didn't want to be a father, but Susan made him go through with the adoption.  He asks Michael to take Walt, partially because Walt has some unusual abilities that have unnerved Brian.  Michael goes to Sydney to get him.  Walt's nanny gives Michael the box full of cards and letters.  Walt is resistant about going with Michael, who comforts the boy by taking Vincent with, who actually belonged to Brian.  The two of them eventually board Oceanic 815.

What Works:

One of the things I liked most about "Special" is how both Michael and Walt are written.  We get great perspective about both of these characters and how they are feeling and what they want.  All of their decisions in this episode make complete sense, with Michael being overprotective and Walt being rebellious.  They have a great dynamic and their final scene looking at Michael's cards and letters is a really sweet ending to their story in this episode.

The flashbacks are pretty fantastic and do a great job of making Michael a sympathetic character (which the show will later undo spectacularly) and we really feel bad for him because of the way Susan treats him.  He wanted so badly to be there for Walt, but she wouldn't let him, and when he finally gets to be his father again, it's under the worst possible circumstances.  It's a tragic story and another very strong aspect of this episode.

I also liked the setup of Walt's strange abilities,  In this episode, we see Walt seemingly summoning animals twice, with the bird and the polar bear.  We never get satisfying answers in regards to Walt's abilities, but the setup was solid.

Finally, the cliffhanger of "Special" is excellent.  I've mentioned that the last two episodes were a bit frustrating due to the lack of progress on the Claire storyline and we finally get some momentum here with her return.  It's a fantastic moment and I vividly member cheering in my living room when this episode first aired.

What Sucks:

Going back to the flashbacks, I do have one problem with them and that is the character of Susan, who I found to be underwritten.  She is one of my least favorite characters in the entire show and the way that she treats Michael is just awful.  This is effective and making us like Michael more, but I found her motivation to be problematic.  Some of the stuff she did just seemed cruel.  She convinced a guy who didn't want kids to adopt her son so she could keep Walt away from Michael.  Why?  Michael is shown to be a great guy who loves Walt dearly.  But she isn't really portrayed as evil in the episode.  It's bizarre and I wish we had gotten a stronger motivation for her.

I also didn't really care for the Charlie story.  The quest for Claire's diary never really leads to anything and I don't know why Charlie was so determined to find her luggage.  It was a bit creepy, but I will say that the scene where Charlie is struggling with whether or not to read the diary is extremely funny.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most useful character in a given episode.  For "Special", the award goes to John Locke.  He made some good points when speaking with Michael, but respectfully bowed to his wishes.  Later on, he put his differences aside and helped Michael save Walt.  This is Locke's third time winning the award, which ties him for first place with Jack (Matthew Fox).

Verdict:

"Special" is a solid episode of Lost and does a great job of developing both Walt and Michael and gives us a really awesome cliffhanger.  Susan could have been better developed and Charlie's story is fairly pointless, but this episode has still got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good