"My name is Henry Gale"
Apr. 27th, 2009 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAll I've heard about the American movie version of State of Play confirms me in my decision not to watch it. I liked the BBC miniseries too much. Which makes me wonder about cases where I did like a remake as much or more than the original, and at the moment I'm hard pressed to come up with something, but it's early in the morning. (West Side Story as much as Romeo & Juliet doesn't count.*g*)
In other news, I recently went back to Lost's season 2 and rewatched the Henry Gale episodes. It was the first time since years that I watched s2 again, and it felt very odd in places (the general focus of the narrative was quite elsewhere then), but considering how much continuity was improvised because Michael Emerson impressed the producers so much (another actor in that role, and Ben as a character would never have existed), it's amazing how well these episodes hold up on a Watsonian level, when looked at with later revelations (especially from the recent Dead is Dead) in mind.
I don't doubt that when the season 2 One of Them was written the scriptwriters had no idea about who "Henry" was beyond someone posing as Henry Gale but really a member of the Others, but actually the few things Rousseau says about him before handing him over to Sayid play into who he's later revealed to be beautifully. Firstly, she states without any doubt "he is one of them" - not that she thinks he is. That she knows. Then she says "He will lie to you. He will lie for a very long time." No kidding. Really, the only problem the later retcon of Ben stealing baby Alex himself (and thus having a scene with young Danielle) isn't that this scene can't be interpreted as Rouseau recognizing him and knowing exactly who he is, but that it begs the question as to why she hands him over at all instead of having a go herself in order to make him tell her where her daughter is. But you can fanwank that - maybe she thinks Sayid, professional torturer whom she knows him to be, will do a better job, for example.
Of course as it turns out using torture on Ben is not only pointless but gives him ideas about making you his minion. That's the other thing that holds up terrifically well, but before I get to that let me say Lost generally deals very responsibly with torture. To wit, it never gets you what you want but degrades the torturer instead, in addition to damaging the victim. Incidentally, One of Them is also the episode where we learn in flashbacks that Sayid was made into a torturer byBrother Justin the Americans during the first Gulf War, and considering when it was first broadcast, I wonder whether it was one of the earliest critical comments on the Bush administration's "Yay, torture!" policy (as opposed to 24 celebrating it). Given Sayid's entire life and his propensity of ending up with ruthless bosses using him as a lethal, brutal tool (from the Americans via Clancy Brown to the Republican Guards to Benjamin Linus), the show asks a few questions about personal responsibility there. Sayid telling "Henry" "my name is Sayid Jarrah, and I am a torturer", Sayid telling Charlie that the reason why he's sure "Henry" is lying is because he doesn't feel guilty about torturing him (and that what the Americans made him do was always in him), versus Sayid, three seasons later, being absolutely lost when Ben cuts him loose (once again, it was genius to make that and not Sayid claiming a belated moral epiphany the reason why he doesn't work for Ben anymore), protesting to Ben later that no, he's not a killer (and then off he goes and kills the people watching Hurley just as Ben wanted), and then deciding he can solve his problem by killing a child all forms an intricate pattern.
If Sayid rakes up the bad karma by torturing "Henry", so does Locke by initially agreeing to it. One of the startling differences if you go back to watching these s2 eps is that you remember the whole "we're preparing for war with the Others" thing they had going then, very much in a "you become what you fight" way if you look at the overall narrative (the "war with the Others" thread comes to a climax in s3 and of course then the Freighter folk arrive, at which point the show deliberately stages some first encounters in which "our" Castaways are filmed and come across exactly as the Others came to them). Considering how important the Locke/Ben relationship turned out to be, I'm trying to pin point where it starts in these early episodes, and came to the conclusion the first element clicks into place when Locke, during "Henry"'s second episode, brings him something to read, Dostojewsky, no less (and "Henry" asking "you don't have Stephen King, do you?" cracks me up because of the s3 opening scene containing one of the Others ranting about how Ben supposedly disliking Stephen King and Juliet delivering a great smackdown), both because that later gives them something to talk about and because good old Ben uses it as the basis for his very first manipulation/mindgame (the "but are you Hemingway or Dostojewski?" question to Locke). Speaking of manipulation, the playing Jack and Locke against each other is laughably easy for him, and you can almost see the scriptwriters coming to the conclusion that Jack versus Locke as a main plot thread is played out at this point, hence s3 switching to Jack versus Ben and Locke versus Ben instead, with the Jack-Locke rivarly simmering down to a minor subthread. Very characteristic for later Ben - and also one of Ben's flaws - is the scene where he screws with both of them at the same time, the whole "hm, if I were an Other, what would I do to your friends?" rigmarole, because that particular mindgame is a little too early and comes from Ben's certainty of being the cleverest person in the room. Which he is, but it's the same kind of hubris which later gets Alex killed; the absolute certainty he can push the right emotional buttons with people if he really needs to. The point where the show first indicates that "Henry" and Locke are headed towards something more complicated than simple antagonism comes one episode later, in Lockdown.
Lockdown is also where I noticed Michael Emerson starts to change the original accent he used for "Henry Gale from Minnesota" (which to my non-American ears sounds quite different to the way he later talks) to Ben's type of precise pronounciation, gradually. And I still love the cleverness of juxtaposing these particular flashbacks from Locke's life to what goes on in the present day, because of the thematic connection. Locke screwing up the relationship with Helen because he can't let go of his father, because at this point, he still wants his father to love him, making that original lie to be true somehow despite knowing full well what his father is, doesn't just tie with something Ben tells him a season later in The Brig ("because a part of you still thinks he has a perfectly rational explanation for stealing your kidney and severing your spine") but, imo, plays into the entire relationship that's developing between him and Ben, down to the most recent events, and that priceless "let's talk about the elephant in the room" scene with Ben rattling off a "perfectly rational" explanation for killing Locke and Locke replying "actually, I was just hoping for an apology". Locke has a temper, and he's definitely above grudges and vengeance (not even in his current zen state - the steady sarcastic remarks like "you just make friends whereever you go" to Ben are deliberate needling), but if he becomes attached, he stays attached. Even if you screw him over a couple of times. Especially since Ben did one thing for him Anthony Cooper didn't do, and he does it in Lockdown. The way the show goes from Locke's flashback - where both Helen and his father (again) leave him - to his present day, where he calls for "Henry", and then is stunned when Ben actually shows up works so very well in retrospect. Because Locke's "thank you - thank you for not leaving me, thank you for coming back for me" really is spoken with more emotion than only the current day situation warrants. It's really not surprising both that he ended up in near despair in The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham and that Ben could talk him out of it once he showed up; in addition to "your life is pointless and has no meaning", I'd say that "being left alone" is Locke's ultimate nightmare scenario, and if you provide both a mystery to be solved and come back, then you have him.
(Their rivalry/shared adoration for the island is an element absent in these early eps, but that could not click into place until Ben gave up the Henry identity, and comes into full play for the first time in The Man from Tallahassee in season 3.)
Something only tangentially related to the above that struck me when rewatching these episodes; I still like Ana Lucia as much as I did when watching the first time (when I couldn't understand why she was so unpopular). And she has a good arc of her own, being one of the few characters who really do learn from the past, using her cop skills to verify or refute "Henry's" story instead of resorting to the brutality which got an innocent man killed.
In other news, I recently went back to Lost's season 2 and rewatched the Henry Gale episodes. It was the first time since years that I watched s2 again, and it felt very odd in places (the general focus of the narrative was quite elsewhere then), but considering how much continuity was improvised because Michael Emerson impressed the producers so much (another actor in that role, and Ben as a character would never have existed), it's amazing how well these episodes hold up on a Watsonian level, when looked at with later revelations (especially from the recent Dead is Dead) in mind.
I don't doubt that when the season 2 One of Them was written the scriptwriters had no idea about who "Henry" was beyond someone posing as Henry Gale but really a member of the Others, but actually the few things Rousseau says about him before handing him over to Sayid play into who he's later revealed to be beautifully. Firstly, she states without any doubt "he is one of them" - not that she thinks he is. That she knows. Then she says "He will lie to you. He will lie for a very long time." No kidding. Really, the only problem the later retcon of Ben stealing baby Alex himself (and thus having a scene with young Danielle) isn't that this scene can't be interpreted as Rouseau recognizing him and knowing exactly who he is, but that it begs the question as to why she hands him over at all instead of having a go herself in order to make him tell her where her daughter is. But you can fanwank that - maybe she thinks Sayid, professional torturer whom she knows him to be, will do a better job, for example.
Of course as it turns out using torture on Ben is not only pointless but gives him ideas about making you his minion. That's the other thing that holds up terrifically well, but before I get to that let me say Lost generally deals very responsibly with torture. To wit, it never gets you what you want but degrades the torturer instead, in addition to damaging the victim. Incidentally, One of Them is also the episode where we learn in flashbacks that Sayid was made into a torturer by
If Sayid rakes up the bad karma by torturing "Henry", so does Locke by initially agreeing to it. One of the startling differences if you go back to watching these s2 eps is that you remember the whole "we're preparing for war with the Others" thing they had going then, very much in a "you become what you fight" way if you look at the overall narrative (the "war with the Others" thread comes to a climax in s3 and of course then the Freighter folk arrive, at which point the show deliberately stages some first encounters in which "our" Castaways are filmed and come across exactly as the Others came to them). Considering how important the Locke/Ben relationship turned out to be, I'm trying to pin point where it starts in these early episodes, and came to the conclusion the first element clicks into place when Locke, during "Henry"'s second episode, brings him something to read, Dostojewsky, no less (and "Henry" asking "you don't have Stephen King, do you?" cracks me up because of the s3 opening scene containing one of the Others ranting about how Ben supposedly disliking Stephen King and Juliet delivering a great smackdown), both because that later gives them something to talk about and because good old Ben uses it as the basis for his very first manipulation/mindgame (the "but are you Hemingway or Dostojewski?" question to Locke). Speaking of manipulation, the playing Jack and Locke against each other is laughably easy for him, and you can almost see the scriptwriters coming to the conclusion that Jack versus Locke as a main plot thread is played out at this point, hence s3 switching to Jack versus Ben and Locke versus Ben instead, with the Jack-Locke rivarly simmering down to a minor subthread. Very characteristic for later Ben - and also one of Ben's flaws - is the scene where he screws with both of them at the same time, the whole "hm, if I were an Other, what would I do to your friends?" rigmarole, because that particular mindgame is a little too early and comes from Ben's certainty of being the cleverest person in the room. Which he is, but it's the same kind of hubris which later gets Alex killed; the absolute certainty he can push the right emotional buttons with people if he really needs to. The point where the show first indicates that "Henry" and Locke are headed towards something more complicated than simple antagonism comes one episode later, in Lockdown.
Lockdown is also where I noticed Michael Emerson starts to change the original accent he used for "Henry Gale from Minnesota" (which to my non-American ears sounds quite different to the way he later talks) to Ben's type of precise pronounciation, gradually. And I still love the cleverness of juxtaposing these particular flashbacks from Locke's life to what goes on in the present day, because of the thematic connection. Locke screwing up the relationship with Helen because he can't let go of his father, because at this point, he still wants his father to love him, making that original lie to be true somehow despite knowing full well what his father is, doesn't just tie with something Ben tells him a season later in The Brig ("because a part of you still thinks he has a perfectly rational explanation for stealing your kidney and severing your spine") but, imo, plays into the entire relationship that's developing between him and Ben, down to the most recent events, and that priceless "let's talk about the elephant in the room" scene with Ben rattling off a "perfectly rational" explanation for killing Locke and Locke replying "actually, I was just hoping for an apology". Locke has a temper, and he's definitely above grudges and vengeance (not even in his current zen state - the steady sarcastic remarks like "you just make friends whereever you go" to Ben are deliberate needling), but if he becomes attached, he stays attached. Even if you screw him over a couple of times. Especially since Ben did one thing for him Anthony Cooper didn't do, and he does it in Lockdown. The way the show goes from Locke's flashback - where both Helen and his father (again) leave him - to his present day, where he calls for "Henry", and then is stunned when Ben actually shows up works so very well in retrospect. Because Locke's "thank you - thank you for not leaving me, thank you for coming back for me" really is spoken with more emotion than only the current day situation warrants. It's really not surprising both that he ended up in near despair in The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham and that Ben could talk him out of it once he showed up; in addition to "your life is pointless and has no meaning", I'd say that "being left alone" is Locke's ultimate nightmare scenario, and if you provide both a mystery to be solved and come back, then you have him.
(Their rivalry/shared adoration for the island is an element absent in these early eps, but that could not click into place until Ben gave up the Henry identity, and comes into full play for the first time in The Man from Tallahassee in season 3.)
Something only tangentially related to the above that struck me when rewatching these episodes; I still like Ana Lucia as much as I did when watching the first time (when I couldn't understand why she was so unpopular). And she has a good arc of her own, being one of the few characters who really do learn from the past, using her cop skills to verify or refute "Henry's" story instead of resorting to the brutality which got an innocent man killed.
