Things I Noticed Vozzek69

Ana Lucia Shakes Down Goodwin

The Other 48 Days was one of the most highly anticipated episodes of season two. The cherry on that sundae was this amazingly tense scene between Ana Lucia and Goodwin, which marked the first time we'd been up close and face-to-face with an Other.

Way back in S2E8, we were clawing our own eyes out to know more about the Others. Finding out about the tail-end survivors was great, but the episode quickly evolved something more important: sniffing out the rat that had infiltrated the tailies group. No one was more qualified for that job than Ana Lucia, and the way she played Goodwin out on that hilltop instantly made this one of the best scenes of season two.

By the time Goodwin calls for a break, the jig is already up. Ana is 99% certain that Goodwin is an Other, and he's 100% sure that she knows it. For the next two minutes, the rest of the conversation is just a formality. Ana's motivation is to gather information on exactly what The Others want; she knows she might have to kill Goodwin here, so she needs to get whatever she can out of him before their confrontation gets physical.

Conversely, Goodwin has been trying not to kill Ana Lucia. In later seasons, we'd learn that he was actually "making a case for her" with Ben and his group. Sensing Ana's uneasiness - especially after her interrogation of Nathan - Goodwin was making an attempt to slip away from the tail-enders. But the second Ana 'offered' to go with him, he pretty much knew he was next on her list of suspects.

The dangerous game played with the US Army knife jacked up the tension in this already suspensful scene. As they passed the weapon back and forth each character was feeling the other out, like two gunslingers waiting for each other to draw. Every person watching LOST knew what was about to happen, but we all prayed that we'd get some answers out of Goodwin before Ana killed him... and it was a pretty safe bet that she would.

The tang stamp on the knife provided another mystery that would be solved many seasons later, when the US military would bring Jughead to the island. We'd see many other WWII references throughout LOST, from M1 Garand rifles all the way back in the Pilot episode where Kate finds the pilot's WWII-issued airman's wings. In fact, the entire flight crew of Oceanic 815 wears these exact wings, including Cindy the flight attendant. Since the US military stopped giving out those wings in the 1950's, the circumstances surrounding that concidence seem strange at best.

Ana puts the last piece of the puzzle together here, and Goodwin can no longer deny it. It was easy for Goodwin to fool the rest of the tail-enders, as they were all still reeling from the crash. Ana Lucia's experience as a cop however, was something he didn't count on.

This last line by Goodwin was absolutely chilling. Not only does he finally acknowledge being one of The Others, but we also get some insight into why they've been kidnapping and harassing the tail-end survivors. This officially kicks off the "good guys / bad guys" motif, which gets carried on through the rest of the show. At this point we're not sure how The Others know so much about the passengers of Flight 815, but they're not just randomly picking and choosing their victims. They've got a definite agenda, and that's highly important.

Messing with the kids... not a good idea. This is what really pisses Ana off, and leads to Goodwin getting the business end of Ana's stick. His last words though, about the children being better off? They really got everyone thinking.

'Better off' can mean a lot of things. In this case, it looks to mean that the kids are somewhere much better than the tailies grimy campsite. Later on we'd learn they've been taken to The Others' barracks, where they get three square meals a day and a roof over their heads. Hell, they even have a swing set.

Metaphorically speaking however, the kids are better off because they're with "the good guys". The children were young, innocent, and uncorrupted by the every day trials of life. So much of LOST is about judging people - especially when it comes to the smoke monster. As judgment is meted out on the island, the children are perhaps exempt from being considered this way. They're not part of LOST's big equation, so they get yanked from the playing field as early as possible. The same thing happens to Walt, and almost happens to Aaron, too.

Goodwin's hilltop confrontation with Ana Lucia remains one of my favorite scenes in the entire show. The writers took two characters we'd never seen before, and built a whole season's worth of suspense into that one episode. They presented new mysteries, asked new questions, and then resolved the whole situation before the hour was out with a crazy, violent climax.