Television Review: Live Together, Die Alone, Part II (Lost, S2X24, 2006)

Live Together, Die Alone: Part II (S02E24)

Airdate: 24 May 2006

Written by: Carlton Cuse & Damond Lindelof
Directed by: Jack Bender

Running Time: 43 minutes

Season finales of Lost are supposed to be spectacular, featuring events that alter everything on and about the Island microcosmos and delivering cliffhangers that would need dozens of episodes to properly resolve. The second part of the Season 2 finale, Live Together, Die Alone, doesn't disappoint, and, apart from putting everything into new perspective, does provide some interesting answers to the viewers, showing how the production team of Lost had, at least in this era, possessed extraordinary ability to provide logical and credible answers to mind-boggling questions while creating new ones. This episode stands as a testament to the show's unique ability to balance high-concept science fiction with deeply personal character drama, all whilst expanding the mythology in ways that recontextualise everything that has come before.

The main storyline is dedicated to the issue that plagued characters for most of Season 2 – the Button that is supposed to be pushed in the Swan Station. Its secret is, more or less, revealed, partly through flashbacks featuring Desmond and showing his last days and weeks in the station. Kelvin Inman, who was Desmond's predecessor and mentor on the island, gets drunk and allows Desmond to see the fail-safe mechanism that is supposed to work as an alternative when the Button fails. He becomes careless and reveals himself to be a fraud, or, at least desperate enough to deceive Desmond with hazmat suits and tales about quarantine and infection. The whole charade was only for Inman to secretly repair Desmond's sailboat and use it for his own escape from the island, while leaving for Desmond the task of saving the world. This revelation is crucial because it strips away the mystique of the Dharma Initiative, replacing it with a gritty, human desperation. Inman is not a mystic guardian but a conman tired of his shift. Desmond, later, for the first time follows Inman outside, and this leads to physical confrontation in which Inman dies. Desmond returns to Swan Station but not in time to properly start a sequence, so this leads to system failure, which is stopped only by Desmond, desperate, hitting the keyboard. Desmond is later despondent, not knowing whether he destroyed the world or not; he even contemplates suicide until weeks later, by another major coincidence, he hears Locke outside the hatch in his own crisis of faith. Both men inadvertently save each other’s lives – Locke by pointing out that there is a person outside, and Desmond by turning on the light, which Locke interprets as a divine miracle. This circular causality is one of the show's strongest narrative devices, illustrating how the Island manipulates time and fate to ensure its own ends.

Back in the present day, two men start as allies, only to switch their view and allegiances due to conflict with Eko who, helped by Charlie, wants to push the Button. The Swan Station is in lockdown and Eko wants to open blast doors by dynamite taken from the Black Rock ship. The blast doors, designed to withstand a nuclear bomb, hold; the explosion instead injures and incapacitates Eko, while Charlie is dazed. Back in the computer room, Desmond begins to have second thoughts about allowing the Button to be unpushed. When looking at Pearl Station printouts, he realises that the system failure occurred on 22 September 2004 – the very same day Oceanic Flight 815 crashed, concluding that the phenomenon that he had failed to prevent was responsible for the catastrophe. This is the pivotal moment of the episode, the "logical and credible answer" that the audience had been clamouring for. It grounds the supernatural crash of the plane in a pseudo-scientific event, validating the long struggle of the characters in the hatch. Locke, however, rejects this, refusing to admit his mistakes, and instead destroys the computer, preventing the Button from being pushed. The system failure, this time permanent, starts to affect metal objects, causing destruction ultimately resulting in deafening noise all over the Island and strange atmospheric phenomena. Desmond, to whom a defeated Locke admits "he was wrong", goes down to trigger the fail-safe mechanism and the phenomenon stops. It is a moment of high tragedy and redemption, where Locke's stubborn faith is shattered by reality, and Desmond finds a new purpose.

At the other side of the island, Sayid arrives at the Others' settlement and finds it completely abandoned, and the entrance to the hatch is revealed to be a mock-up, covering nothing but rock. This discovery is chilling, as it reveals the depth of the Others' deception. They are not merely hiding in the bushes; they are orchestrating a grand theatrical performance to manipulate the survivors. At the same time, the Others bring Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley to Pala Ferry pier. It is there where "Henry Gale" reveals himself to be their leader, or, at least, superior to Tom a.k.a. "Mr Friendly". He talks to Michael and honours their previous agreement by returning Walt to him and giving him the boat to leave the Island. Hurley is to be released back to the survivors' camp simply to tell them not to come to their part of the Island. This scene is masterfully understated. The leader, played with chilling calm by Michael Emerson, exudes control without raising his voice. The release of Hurley, seemingly an act of mercy, is actually a psychological tactic, a way to demoralise the survivors by sending back their "comic relief" as a messenger of doom.

Charlie, dazed from the explosion, leaves the heavily damaged Swan Station, with the fate of Eko, Locke and Desmond uncertain. He later helps other survivors clean up the chaos of the phenomenon. Claire expresses her gratitude by kissing him. While this provides a momentary emotional respite, it feels somewhat jarring against the apocalyptic backdrop of the failing hatch.

The episode ends on the other side of the world, in a polar research station manned by two Portuguese-speaking scientists. They suddenly notice an electromagnetic anomaly and immediately report to their superior, who is revealed to be Penny. This final scene expands the universe of Lost exponentially. It confirms that the Island is not merely a geographical anomaly but an event with global repercussions. It introduces an external force—Penny Widmore—that is actively searching for the Island, shifting the dynamic from a survival story to a rescue thriller with high-stakes geopolitical undertones.

As season finales go, Season 2 ends in a much better way than Season 1. The cliffhanger here looks like a real cliffhanger, putting protagonists in real life predicaments without allowing them and the audience to ponder the implications. There aren't any distractions in the form of cheesy musical montages; the events on the Island, albeit indirectly, are revealed to the outside world and the stakes are much higher than the fate of a few dozen marooned people. The narrative momentum is relentless, driving the characters into corners from which there seems no escape.

The only possible alteration to this approach is Claire finally, perhaps because of the shock of the electromagnetic phenomenon, finally seeing Charlie in a new light and not only rekindling their strained friendship, but actually allowing it to develop into something more. At this point, it looks too neat, too soapy and some sort of red herring to a romantically inclined audience that wanted some alternative and glimmer of hope in a sea of apocalyptic darkness. Whilst the kiss is a nice character beat, it feels slightly unearned in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophe that should have left everyone questioning their existence rather than snogging in the jungle.

Live Together, Die Alone Part II also points to Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof's talent to make their twists look not random, but part of a carefully thought-out narrative structure. Locke and Desmond, by happy coincidence – which Lost had more than a fair share of in Season 2 – are revealed to have helped each other in their moment of lowest point. Furthermore, Season 2 ends with a scene [identical to Season 1] – Walt ending on a boat, but this time, it is a happy occasion, being reunited with his father and presumably returning to civilisation. This bookending technique provides a sense of poetic symmetry, suggesting that whilst the circumstances change, the cycle of the Island remains constant.

The episode, despite plenty of story, also allows for some intriguing worldbuilding. Deception, which was the modus operandi of various factions of the Island before, seems to be perfected by the Others – branded as "the Hostiles" by Inman, presumably their Dharma Initiative adversary – and manifests in an entire Potemkin village built for the sake of trapping their valuable prisoners. The fake hatch and the abandoned tents serve to show that the Others are not just survivors but strategists who understand the power of perception. They create a reality that they want their victims to see, much like the Dharma Initiative created a reality for the Swan station inhabitants.

Another interesting aspect of the episode is the hint of deep ideological conflict as the engine of dramatic conflict, perhaps even deeper than the conflict between Locke's faith and Jack's science. The title of the episode, and Jack's own motto, is taken from the English lyrics of L'Internationale, the famous socialist anthem. The survivors are, by necessity, forced to rely on each other and live as some kind of socialist commune, with rugged capitalist individualists like Sawyer being portrayed as some sort of adversary. This reading adds a layer of sociopolitical commentary to the survival dynamics. The characters are forced into a collectivist structure not by choice but by the harsh environment of the Island.

The episode brings it to a whole other level by portraying the Dharma Initiative as some sort of powerful soulless multi-national corporation, the epitome of 21st century capitalism, based on ruthless exploitation of drones like Inman or Desmond. The Swan station is a factory floor; Inman is the middle manager seeking early retirement; Desmond is the unwitting intern. The Others, on the other hand, represent an extreme alternative that, for one reason or another, rejected modernity and took socialism into a Khmer Rouge sort of extremism, with a deliberately rundown and poor cult look like a third world Communist regime, but whose leader "Henry Gale" confidently describes his camp as "good guys". This dichotomy between the sterile, technological oppression of Dharma and the primitive, moralistic oppression of the Others creates a fascinating tension. It suggests that on the Island, the spectrum of human organisation is limited to two extremes: the corporate machine and the cultish tribe, both of which demand total subservience from the individual. In the middle are our survivors, stuck between a rock and a hard place, forced to live together lest they die alone.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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