Post by Forever Xena on May 14, 2005 4:40:42 GMT -6
Matthew Fox Wonders About a 'Lost' Love
(Friday, May 13 01:18 PM)
By Kate O'Hare
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) The first season of "Lost" is likely to conclude with at least a few of the many questions it raised left unanswered.
In "Do No Harm," the Wednesday, April 6, episode of ABC's hit drama about plane-crash survivors stranded on a mysterious island, flashbacks showed a chapter in the love life of castaway Jack Shepard (Matthew Fox), a neurosurgeon.
He operated on a woman named Sarah (Julie Bowen, "Ed"), who suffered a broken back in a car accident. Along the way, Jack fell in love with Sarah, and the flashbacks showed the events leading up to and including their wedding (but stopping just shy of the actual "I dos."). Jack apparently was having some doubts, which he expressed poolside to his estranged father (John Terry).
Although some fans may wonder if Jack bolted right before saying the fateful vows, Fox has another idea.
"I think people walked away from that," he says, "feeling that that they did see the full wedding ceremony, and that they are married. But the really cool thing was like, holy s**t, now they flash back, and we realize that Jack's never mentioned anything. He doesn't have a wedding ring on. He's never mentioned anything about a wife.
"So, somewhere between three and four years, maybe five years, before we meet him on the plane as our hero, this guy was married to a woman that he absolutely adored. So what the hell happened in the interim? How did that come to an end?
"A lot of the story for next year on Jack will be about exactly that same thing. What happened to the relationship?"
Fox also wonders about Jack's motivation for marriage in the first place.
"There was that scene at the pool with his dad," he says, "where he said, 'Am I marrying her because I saved her life? Am I taking that idea of commitment so far that I'm actually confusing love and adoration with commitment and with following through on saving somebody's soul? Am I confusing that line?'
"So he does enter into that with questions. He's clearly conflicted and then ends up making leaps. So we'll see what happens, why it all came apart."
Also in "Do No Harm," Jack suffered great guilt and frustation because of his inability, despite heroic measures, to save the life of injured Boone (Ian Somerhalder). Fox sees all this as part of Jack's personality and why he became a doctor.
"It's a really great detail to his character," Fox says, "and to specifically Jack as a doctor. Jack has this feeling -- a lot of doctors probably have this, but there are a lot of doctors out there who probably don't -- which is this insane, beautiful, complete commitment to the preservation of life.
"To have something like that, an incredible compassion and an incredible drive to heal and to preserve life at the same time that they're making an incredible living out of being a surgeon, I think that is really remarkable.
"A part of the reason people become doctors is because it's one of the highest-paying jobs there is, and ultimately after doing it for 15 or 20 years, you turn into a mechanic. But then there are also those doctors who go into the field because they have that core of compassion and desire to preserve life. I think that Jack Shepard certainly has that kind of drive."
Despite his knowledge and dedication, Jack is forced to improvise constantly to treat patients, making use of the limited medications and supplies he could salvage from the doomed Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.
"Yeah," Fox says, "and that frustrates him. There's this contrast between him being angry at the situation and being ... we're always joking how we don't want the show to become like 'MacGyver.' We want to try to always keep those things that are invented on the island, or that we're suddenly capable of doing on the island, as not being too outlandish.
"There is that line where suddenly people are fabricating radios out of nothing. We're always dealing with that, trying to keep the balance."
Although the entire first season of the show has taken place in less than two months real time, one wonders when the castaways might start to run out of important supplies.
"Yes, for sure," Fox says. "They are going to run out of things, but there would be a lot of stuff available. If you look at an airliner, the luggage would have a ton of crap in it. The plane itself would have a lot of usable stuff in it."
"Lost" airs its first-season finale on Wednesday, May 25, which puts it in direct competition with the season finale of FOX's talent-competition juggernaut "American Idol." Although both shows draw huge ratings, Fox isn't too concerned.
"I'm sure they'll do substantially better than us," he says, "but I think that you'll find is they won't hurt us. I just don't think they're the same audience. I don't think the people who are watching 'American Idol' are watching us, going, 'Am I going to watch a bunch of pop singers, or am I going to watch "Lost"?'
"The fact that they're going up against each other is kind of a moot point, doesn't mean a whole lot."
(Friday, May 13 01:18 PM)
By Kate O'Hare
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) The first season of "Lost" is likely to conclude with at least a few of the many questions it raised left unanswered.
In "Do No Harm," the Wednesday, April 6, episode of ABC's hit drama about plane-crash survivors stranded on a mysterious island, flashbacks showed a chapter in the love life of castaway Jack Shepard (Matthew Fox), a neurosurgeon.
He operated on a woman named Sarah (Julie Bowen, "Ed"), who suffered a broken back in a car accident. Along the way, Jack fell in love with Sarah, and the flashbacks showed the events leading up to and including their wedding (but stopping just shy of the actual "I dos."). Jack apparently was having some doubts, which he expressed poolside to his estranged father (John Terry).
Although some fans may wonder if Jack bolted right before saying the fateful vows, Fox has another idea.
"I think people walked away from that," he says, "feeling that that they did see the full wedding ceremony, and that they are married. But the really cool thing was like, holy s**t, now they flash back, and we realize that Jack's never mentioned anything. He doesn't have a wedding ring on. He's never mentioned anything about a wife.
"So, somewhere between three and four years, maybe five years, before we meet him on the plane as our hero, this guy was married to a woman that he absolutely adored. So what the hell happened in the interim? How did that come to an end?
"A lot of the story for next year on Jack will be about exactly that same thing. What happened to the relationship?"
Fox also wonders about Jack's motivation for marriage in the first place.
"There was that scene at the pool with his dad," he says, "where he said, 'Am I marrying her because I saved her life? Am I taking that idea of commitment so far that I'm actually confusing love and adoration with commitment and with following through on saving somebody's soul? Am I confusing that line?'
"So he does enter into that with questions. He's clearly conflicted and then ends up making leaps. So we'll see what happens, why it all came apart."
Also in "Do No Harm," Jack suffered great guilt and frustation because of his inability, despite heroic measures, to save the life of injured Boone (Ian Somerhalder). Fox sees all this as part of Jack's personality and why he became a doctor.
"It's a really great detail to his character," Fox says, "and to specifically Jack as a doctor. Jack has this feeling -- a lot of doctors probably have this, but there are a lot of doctors out there who probably don't -- which is this insane, beautiful, complete commitment to the preservation of life.
"To have something like that, an incredible compassion and an incredible drive to heal and to preserve life at the same time that they're making an incredible living out of being a surgeon, I think that is really remarkable.
"A part of the reason people become doctors is because it's one of the highest-paying jobs there is, and ultimately after doing it for 15 or 20 years, you turn into a mechanic. But then there are also those doctors who go into the field because they have that core of compassion and desire to preserve life. I think that Jack Shepard certainly has that kind of drive."
Despite his knowledge and dedication, Jack is forced to improvise constantly to treat patients, making use of the limited medications and supplies he could salvage from the doomed Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.
"Yeah," Fox says, "and that frustrates him. There's this contrast between him being angry at the situation and being ... we're always joking how we don't want the show to become like 'MacGyver.' We want to try to always keep those things that are invented on the island, or that we're suddenly capable of doing on the island, as not being too outlandish.
"There is that line where suddenly people are fabricating radios out of nothing. We're always dealing with that, trying to keep the balance."
Although the entire first season of the show has taken place in less than two months real time, one wonders when the castaways might start to run out of important supplies.
"Yes, for sure," Fox says. "They are going to run out of things, but there would be a lot of stuff available. If you look at an airliner, the luggage would have a ton of crap in it. The plane itself would have a lot of usable stuff in it."
"Lost" airs its first-season finale on Wednesday, May 25, which puts it in direct competition with the season finale of FOX's talent-competition juggernaut "American Idol." Although both shows draw huge ratings, Fox isn't too concerned.
"I'm sure they'll do substantially better than us," he says, "but I think that you'll find is they won't hurt us. I just don't think they're the same audience. I don't think the people who are watching 'American Idol' are watching us, going, 'Am I going to watch a bunch of pop singers, or am I going to watch "Lost"?'
"The fact that they're going up against each other is kind of a moot point, doesn't mean a whole lot."