"Lost" Cabin Fever (2008)

User Rating:

8.6/10   

Director:

Paul A. Edwards

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator) and
J.J. Abrams (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

8 May 2008 (Season 4, Episode 11)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Locke, Ben, and Hurley continue their search for the cabin so that Locke can talk to Jacob. Back on the boat, Keamy prepares to take off again, this time for a all-out assault on the island.

Plot Keywords:

Shipper | Mother Son Relationship | Wet Jeans | Fate | Death

Cast

Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Desmond Hume
Jeremy Davies	...	Daniel Faraday (credit only)
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Michael Emerson	...	Ben Linus
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford (credit only)
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Ken Leung	...	Miles Straume (credit only)
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Rebecca Mader	...	Charlotte Lewis (credit only)
Elizabeth Mitchell	...	Juliet Burke
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke

Runtime:

44 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Canada:14+ | USA:TV-14 | Netherlands:12 | Venezuela:PG-13 (DVD rating)

Company:

ABC Studios

Quotes:

Ben Linus: Destiny, John, is a fickle bitch!

A classic Lost episode

For some reason it's apparent that when choosing which writers should write which episodes, the head writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse select Elizabeth Sarnoff to write the episodes that are heavy on relationships, specifically romantic relationships, or maybe she asks to do them. This seems like a ridiculous strategy to me because once again it becomes clear that she is most suited to writing mythology-based episodes. After the excellent episodes she co-wrote like "The Man Behind the Curtain", "Meet Kevin Johnson", and now "Cabin Fever", I would probably say I was wrong about her being my least favorite Lost writer, she's just been getting the wrong episodes. Leave the relationship heavy stuff to Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, whose knack for well-written conversation helps keep such episodes from becoming soapy and silly. While we're discussing writers, I must mention that this wasn't just the Lost writing debut for Kyle Pennnington, it is also the first episode he has written for TV, period. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of his work and look forward to seeing more from him.

"The Constant" is still my favorite episode of Season Four, but "Cabin Fever" is easily so far my favorite Lost episode from Season Four. Allow me to explain- "The Constant" was brilliant, but it was also really very different to most of the episodes we have seen over the past four seasons of Lost. "Cabin Fever" is a more traditional Lost episode, one with revelatory flashbacks, a genuine sense of mystery on the island, and some brilliant character interaction. It stands among the finest of its kind.

The episode is divided in three, with one storyline following the events on the freighter, where it is fully established that Keamy is going to play a major role in the remainder of the season, and where we witness the fate of Doc Ray and Captain Gault, as well as get another scene with Michael. I would be disappointed if Michael was killed off at the end of this season because it would seem quite cheap and ridiculous considering that we've barely seen him outside of his episode "Meet Kevin Johnson". It would be an unreasonable artistic decision and unfair to actor Harold Perrineau.

The other story lines are the Locke flashback, which spans basically most of his life, and the scenes involving Ben, Locke, and Hurley heading toward Jacob's cabin. The Locke flashback is probably my favorite Locke flashbacks and just generally one of my favorite flashbacks we've had on Lost. As much as I've been behind the flashforwards and the other changes we have seen in season four it was nice to get back to a fun, mysterious, exciting episode like this one, which we haven't really seen the likes of since season three. It sure was great to see Richard Alpert again, and boy did they use the character well. Same goes for Abaddon, who is played just brilliantly by Lance Reddick. I love that it turns out Locke's arrival on the island was orchestrated, that he was meant to be on the plane. A really great flashback in general, and of importance as well is the scene with Locke as a child, which I'm sure will be analyzed by someone who can do it better than myself.

The writing for Ben, Locke, and Hurley while they were heading toward the cabin was excellent, providing most of the humor in the episode but never seeming out of place or silly, just tasteful. Ben and Locke in particular had some interesting conversation such as when Ben thought Locke had manipulated Hurley into going with them and Locke tells Ben, "I'm not you". Very interesting character writing there. I have to say I was both dreading and anticipating this episode and the return of the cabin because I had a feeling that the whole cabin arc could either be brilliant or ruin the show, and based on tonight it seems to be the former. I'm glad the writers definitively said that Christian Shepard is NOT Jacob because that speculation was frankly just annoying me, and every single second after Locke entered that cabin was pure brilliance. If the final stretch of season 3 promised an action-packed finale, I have no words for how good this finale will be.

I was anticipating this episode a great deal, but I was also nervous about it, especially when I discovered it was written by my least favorite Lost writer (whom I now really think deserves more credit than she's getting from fans as a collective) and a complete newcomer to television whose only film work is a little-seen short from 2005. Both writers proved I had nothing to worry about and delivered one of the best-rounded and most entertaining episodes of the entire series.

Season four is just getting better and better. At this point I'm wondering if the two-part finale can top some of the great episodes we've seen this season, and really, to do so would be to be the best Lost episodes to date, probably.

9/10