White Rabbit (Lost)

"White Rabbit" is the fifth episode of the first season of Lost. The episode was directed by Kevin Hooks and written by Christian Taylor. It first aired on October 20, 2004, on ABC.

The episode is centered on the character of Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox), with flashbacks revealing his past, including his childhood and his trip to Australia looking for his missing father Christian Shephard. In present-day events, the plane crash survivors begin to struggle as they realize they are running out of fresh water. While Jack tries to solve the conflicts, he starts seeing Christian in the jungle, and chases the hallucination of his dead father.

The episode attracted an estimated 16.82 million live viewers. It received mostly positive reviews, and was listed as #49 on IGN's ranking of every episode of Lost. After the broadcast of "White Rabbit", ABC picked up Lost for a full season, adding an additional nine episodes to the thirteen that were already scheduled.

Plot

Flashbacks

A young Jack Shephard (John O'Hara) and a friend are being beaten up. One bully gives Jack the chance to leave, but he decides to help his friend, causing Jack to be further assaulted. When Jack's father, Christian Shephard (John Terry) sees his son's beaten face, he tells Jack he should not be a hero because he "doesn't have what it takes."

Many years later, Jack (Matthew Fox) visits his mother, (Veronica Hamel) who tells him that Christian has left for Australia, and asks Jack to bring his father back. Jack reluctantly agrees, and after arriving in Sydney searches the hotel at which his father was staying. The manager informs Jack that his father has not slept at the hotel for several days following an incident at a bar, and Jack finds bottles of alcohol, pills, and his father's wallet in Christian's room.

Jack is shown identifying his father's corpse in a morgue, where the coroner (Geoff Heise) tells Jack that the death was possibly caused by an alcohol-induced heart attack. Jack later argues with Oceanic Airlines ticket agent Chrissy (Meilinda Soerjoko), who says the documentation to board Christian's coffin aboard Flight 815 is incomplete. Jack, frustrated, explains that all the arrangements are set for the funeral once he arrives at LAX, and he needs to bury his father, because he needs it "to be over".

On the Island

Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) rescues Boone Carlyle (Ian Somerhalder) in the ocean as Boone fails to swim out to save a drowning woman, Joanna. Later, as Jack is approached by Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia) and Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) as they question how to deal with the diminishing water supplies of the survivors, Boone confronts Jack regarding how he saved him and not Joanna, asking who made Jack their leader. Jack again sees the man who he saw in the previous episode, "Walkabout", and runs off after him. Once Jack catches up, he recognizes the man as his father, and the man runs away again. While chasing him, Jack trips and rolls down a mountain, just barely grabbing on to the edge of a cliff.

Back at the beach, Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin) faints due to dehydration, and Charlie is unable to find the remaining water. John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) volunteers to search for water in the jungle, and, while searching, discovers Jack hanging on the precipice. After rescuing him, the two talk, with Jack saying he does not want to be a leader because he "doesn't have what it takes", while Locke advises him to pursue his "hallucination" of his father, comparing it to the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland and explaining his belief that everything on the Island happens for a reason. At nightfall, Jack follows a sound he heard in the jungle, leading him to stumble upon a cave containing a spring of fresh water, where he finds some debris from the plane, including his father's coffin. Jack opens it and finds the coffin empty, leading him to tear it apart in frustration.

Back on the beach, Boone gives water to an unconscious Claire. After being caught by Charlie, Boone admits that it is he who stole the water, in an attempt to take responsibility for its rationing. A fight between him and some of the other survivors begins, but Jack returns and interrupts with a speech, saying that he has found fresh water and that they must all band together if they are to survive, because "if we can't live together, we're going to die alone."

Production

Christian Shephard, played by John Terry, appeared in the previous episode, but was played by a different actor as Terry hadn't been cast yet.

"White Rabbit" aired on October 20, 2004.^[1] The episode was directed by Kevin Hooks and written by Christian Taylor.^[2] Taylor declared the underlying message was of "a man's journey to find out who he really is", in how solving Jack's conflicted relationship with his father gave him an excuse to reinvent himself and was "integrated into what Jack becomes in the context of the series".^[3] Showrunner Damon Lindelof was enthusted in working with the episode, even if "it did not end with a big shocking twist or surprise" like predecessor "Walkabout". Lindelof was particularly positive about "this great scene between Jack and Locke in the woods,"^[4] which still influenced the characters' later discussions about faith, such as in the fourth season finale "There's No Place Like Home".^[5]

In the scene when Jack is dangling from the cliff, Matthew Fox performs the stunt himself, as he considered that relying on stunt doubles "always sort of inhibits the director's ability to shoot it in cool ways."^[3] Fox dangled from a thirty foot high cliff in front of a blue screen, that through digital extensions appeared to be hundreds of feet high. However, Fox's long time stunt actor, Steve Blalock, performed Jack's rolling down the mountain before grabbing the edge of the cliff, given Fox considered that "there are some things that I'm not gonna be able to do".^[3]

The episode is named after the White Rabbit from the tale Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, who leads the story's title character, Alice, deeper and deeper down a hole to a whimsical world called Wonderland, while meeting different characters. Just as Alice followed the White Rabbit deeper and deeper down the hole to Wonderland, Jack follows his father deeper and deeper into the jungle.^[1] Geoff Heise, who shows Jack his dead father at the morgue, is also in the Pilot episode as a survivor. It is unclear why this is so, and whether or not his portrayal of two seemingly unrelated characters has any symbolism.^[6] The episode marks the first appearance of actor John Terry, who plays Jack's father, Christian Shephard (the mysterious man who Jack chases in the jungle). In the previous episode, "Walkabout", Christian was played by a stand-in actor, as the character hadn't been cast yet; thus, only the back of his head was shown.^[7]

Reception

"White Rabbit" first aired in the United States on October 20, 2004.^[1] An estimated 16.82 million viewers in America watched the episode on its first broadcast,and it finished second in its timeslot behind the 2004 Major League Baseball season playoffs.^[8] Among adults aged 18 to 49, the episode earned a ratings share of 6.3/16, finishing in fourteenth place for the week.^[9][10] Based upon the series' success, ABC picked up Lost for the full season soon after the broadcast of "White Rabbit", ordering another nine episodes beyond the thirteen it had already agreed upon.^[11]

The episode received mostly positive reviews. Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A-, writing that "The structure of 'White Rabbit' is kind of half-formed, in a way that strikes me as very similar to the structure of 'Tabula Rasa', but I think that feeling of everything having been tossed together at the last minute suits the episode in a way it didn’t the earlier one." VanDerWerff also writes, "the more I think about this episode, the more I admire it for taking away Jack’s agency."^[12] IGN reviewer Chris Carabott gave the episode a 7.9/10, writing that it "features one of the best flashbacks dedicated to Jack."^[13] Robin Pierson of The TV Critic gave "White Rabbit" a 72/100, praising on how the writers did another "character heavy" episode without "trying to cram unnecessary action." However, Pierson added that the cliff scene was clichéd, particularly as "we don’t really believe that he will die, so it is an action movie scene which we probably didn’t leave."^[14]

Ryan McGee of Zap2it described "White Rabbit" as "a worthy successor to 'Walkabout,' and one of the stronger Jack-centric eps the show ever produced."^[15] Lost Episode Guide for Others: An Unofficial Anthology by Robert Dougherty says the episode is a must-see; it is "our first in depth glimpse at Jack's character".^[16] Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly gave the episode a B+, complimenting the "tantalizing peek" into Jack's dysfunctional relationship with Christian, "producing both juicy questions and eerie revelations".^[17] IGN listed "White Rabbit" 49th on their ranking of every episode of Lost, describing the "live together, die alone" speech as iconic.^[18] A similar ranking of episodes by Todd VanDerWerff for the Los Angeles Times placed the episode at 82nd, feeling it was "more notable for the things it introduces -- like the Monster impersonating dead people" than the plot.^[19]

References

Works cited

• Dougherty, Robert (2008). Lost Episode Guide for Others: An Unofficial Anthology. Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-4401-0289-9. 
• Stafford, Nikki (2006). Finding Lost: The Unofficial Guide. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55490-276-7. 

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: White Rabbit

• "White Rabbit" at ABC
• "White Rabbit" at the Internet Movie Database
• "White Rabbit" at TV.com