DVD-style commentary - Rematch
The lovely janie_tangerine requested a commentary on Rematch, and who am I to deny her?
My commentary is in bold. I hope it's not too difficult to read that way.
The plane is going down and Jack smiles.
This first line, word for word as is, came to me in the shower one morning. Got out of the shower, wrote it down, and poof, a fic was born (cookies to anyone who gets that reference). And yeah, it took a little more effort than that, but the first line was just...there.
I was so disturbed in TTLG by Nirvana!Jack (tm janie_tangerine - thanks for the confirmation, ES) and his telling Kate that he doesn't care about the other people on the planes he wishes would crash. Even more disturbed by that than the beard, which is saying a lot. This is not a nice smile. Poor people around him - they must have thought he was psycho. Or in this day and age, a terrorist who had somehow caused this crash? Who knows. It was not a pleasant smile, at any rate.
The passengers around him are screaming and reaching for their oxygen masks and praying out loud. The woman sitting beside him reminds him vaguely of Rose
I have this woman in my head, and she looks nothing like Rose. She's a little young Caucasian woman who would remind none of you of Rose. But nearly dying causes the mind to make strange connections - and this was also my way of saying Jack actually does care in some way about the people on the plane, irregardless of what he'd told Kate in TTLG.
and another plane crash and a promise he'd made - so he helps her get her mask on and gives her his doctor smile before reaching into his pocket for the small flask.
All doctors have a doctor smile. I find this very irritating. The doctors who have shit for bedside manner, like Jack, have the most irritating doctor smiles. I was going to find a screencap of his, but I think you all can picture it in your mind. Add the Nirvana!Jack beard, and yikes. Poor Not!Rose.
The scotch is cool going down and then there's a painful popping in his ears with the drastic change in elevation.
Of course he's drinking. Perhaps Jack should stop drinking on planes...
And then there's nothing.
-----
His first thought upon awakening is that he's made it. There's blue sky above him and he can hear the ocean and he can admit it to himself now - he'd never really believed he'd be able to get back.
Yeah, he really did never believe he'd get back. He's suicidal at this point - this is TTLG Nirvana!Jack, after all. So why was he smiling as the plane went down? I guess at this point, he figures either way he's golden - plane crashes and he dies, he gets his death wish; if by some strange, impossible chance he does get back to the island, well, he gets to right his wrongs and become the hero again. Win-win situation.
But now there are familiar voices, even. People crowding around him, talking over each other, shocked tones. It's...it's the doctor!
As I was writing this, I knew who these people were. This was a redshirt. In my mind, it's the hypochondriac who was always worried about the heat rash, etc. Even though I think he's still alive on the show? For our purposes, he's here. And kind of nervous about it.
Oh my God, Jack's here!
That's Boone. He never expected Jack to be here. Ever. Jack was immortal in his eyes.
Hey, Libby, it's Jack!
I don't remember who this was. Shannon, maybe, only because she might have attached herself to the other pretty dead blonde for some companionship in this strange version of the afterlife.
(Libby?)
I was hoping the reader hadn't suspected, until now, that Jack had not made it back to the island, but was in fact dead. You were supposed to figure it out with Jack. I don't know if that worked, but I was hoping it would.
He struggles to sit up - stiff, but seemingly (surprisingly) uninjured from the crash. He takes an outstretched hand and lets himself be hauled to his feet, and it takes him several moments to register that it's Boone who's helped him up. Boone, standing on two legs, skin once again unmarred. Jack touches his own arm, where he'd pumped his blood into the young man, as he looks around at the rest of the group.
Boone. Jack's first major island failure, in his mind. I imagine, before the realization that they're all dead, Jack is pleased to see Boone standing upright - maybe he had fixed him, after all.
Shannon. Paulo. Even Ana Lucia and Eko, though they're still keeping their distance, even here. (Here?)
Poor Ana Lucia and Eko. So quickly introduced, so quickly torn away. They really never did get to be a part of the group while they were living, and it seems that they're still a bit on the outside among the dead. I do imagine that Charlie found it comforting to find Eko over here on the other side, though. I like that image.
“You're...you're all...”
“Dead?” supplies a familiar, cheerful voice, and he whips his head around to see Charlie crouched off to the side of the group,
Dead, but also here. I like that this small line referencing Charlie seems to meld well with his new dead-but-also-here persona of current canon. Trust Charlie to be all cheerful about things. And just for a visual, he's crouched off to the side with his guitar in hand. Jack's arrival interrupted the new song he's writing - or maybe a rehearsal of "The Monster Eats The Pilot."
but Jack's gaze is soon focused on the man standing behind the musician.
“Tough breaks, ain't it?” The man smirks, as if pleased to have been in on this little game before Jack was.
I originally had this end scene between Jack and Sawyer as an on-island, living occurrence. But I couldn't get it to mesh in my mind with the at-the-time new TTLG canon. I hate killing Sawyer, just *hate* it, but I hoped this scenario was relatively angst-free. It made me smile to think of Sawyer's smugness over experiencing this Craphole Island Afterlife before Jack did.
“Dead wouldn't've been my first choice either, Doc, but I guess it beats the hell out of that damned island. Been waitin' for you to show up, in fact. These amateurs ain't givin' me no competition.”
Sawyer missed Jack! There's a shout-out to all you J/S 'shippers, of which I am not one. But I can appreciate their chemistry, and their ping-pong scene is one of my favorite non-serious Lost moments.
Jack barely recovers in time to catch the object tossed his way. A ping pong paddle. And Sawyer's just standing there, twirling its match in his hand, as if it's an everyday occurrence to wake up from a plane crash (again) and start seeing dead people (again).
Won't Jack be surprised when Christian Shepherd shows up here, too? He is dead, after all...
“How 'bout a rematch, Doc?”
Who won? Well, that's left up to your imagination - but my own pet theory is that Sawyer got Jack all flustered by making some inappropriate comment about the new Jack!beard and won at the last minute. Jack's new nickname must be something like Blackbeard. Or...The Unabomber?
My commentary is in bold. I hope it's not too difficult to read that way.
The plane is going down and Jack smiles.
This first line, word for word as is, came to me in the shower one morning. Got out of the shower, wrote it down, and poof, a fic was born (cookies to anyone who gets that reference). And yeah, it took a little more effort than that, but the first line was just...there.
I was so disturbed in TTLG by Nirvana!Jack (tm janie_tangerine - thanks for the confirmation, ES) and his telling Kate that he doesn't care about the other people on the planes he wishes would crash. Even more disturbed by that than the beard, which is saying a lot. This is not a nice smile. Poor people around him - they must have thought he was psycho. Or in this day and age, a terrorist who had somehow caused this crash? Who knows. It was not a pleasant smile, at any rate.
The passengers around him are screaming and reaching for their oxygen masks and praying out loud. The woman sitting beside him reminds him vaguely of Rose
I have this woman in my head, and she looks nothing like Rose. She's a little young Caucasian woman who would remind none of you of Rose. But nearly dying causes the mind to make strange connections - and this was also my way of saying Jack actually does care in some way about the people on the plane, irregardless of what he'd told Kate in TTLG.
and another plane crash and a promise he'd made - so he helps her get her mask on and gives her his doctor smile before reaching into his pocket for the small flask.
All doctors have a doctor smile. I find this very irritating. The doctors who have shit for bedside manner, like Jack, have the most irritating doctor smiles. I was going to find a screencap of his, but I think you all can picture it in your mind. Add the Nirvana!Jack beard, and yikes. Poor Not!Rose.
The scotch is cool going down and then there's a painful popping in his ears with the drastic change in elevation.
Of course he's drinking. Perhaps Jack should stop drinking on planes...
And then there's nothing.
-----
His first thought upon awakening is that he's made it. There's blue sky above him and he can hear the ocean and he can admit it to himself now - he'd never really believed he'd be able to get back.
Yeah, he really did never believe he'd get back. He's suicidal at this point - this is TTLG Nirvana!Jack, after all. So why was he smiling as the plane went down? I guess at this point, he figures either way he's golden - plane crashes and he dies, he gets his death wish; if by some strange, impossible chance he does get back to the island, well, he gets to right his wrongs and become the hero again. Win-win situation.
But now there are familiar voices, even. People crowding around him, talking over each other, shocked tones. It's...it's the doctor!
As I was writing this, I knew who these people were. This was a redshirt. In my mind, it's the hypochondriac who was always worried about the heat rash, etc. Even though I think he's still alive on the show? For our purposes, he's here. And kind of nervous about it.
Oh my God, Jack's here!
That's Boone. He never expected Jack to be here. Ever. Jack was immortal in his eyes.
Hey, Libby, it's Jack!
I don't remember who this was. Shannon, maybe, only because she might have attached herself to the other pretty dead blonde for some companionship in this strange version of the afterlife.
(Libby?)
I was hoping the reader hadn't suspected, until now, that Jack had not made it back to the island, but was in fact dead. You were supposed to figure it out with Jack. I don't know if that worked, but I was hoping it would.
He struggles to sit up - stiff, but seemingly (surprisingly) uninjured from the crash. He takes an outstretched hand and lets himself be hauled to his feet, and it takes him several moments to register that it's Boone who's helped him up. Boone, standing on two legs, skin once again unmarred. Jack touches his own arm, where he'd pumped his blood into the young man, as he looks around at the rest of the group.
Boone. Jack's first major island failure, in his mind. I imagine, before the realization that they're all dead, Jack is pleased to see Boone standing upright - maybe he had fixed him, after all.
Shannon. Paulo. Even Ana Lucia and Eko, though they're still keeping their distance, even here. (Here?)
Poor Ana Lucia and Eko. So quickly introduced, so quickly torn away. They really never did get to be a part of the group while they were living, and it seems that they're still a bit on the outside among the dead. I do imagine that Charlie found it comforting to find Eko over here on the other side, though. I like that image.
“You're...you're all...”
“Dead?” supplies a familiar, cheerful voice, and he whips his head around to see Charlie crouched off to the side of the group,
Dead, but also here. I like that this small line referencing Charlie seems to meld well with his new dead-but-also-here persona of current canon. Trust Charlie to be all cheerful about things. And just for a visual, he's crouched off to the side with his guitar in hand. Jack's arrival interrupted the new song he's writing - or maybe a rehearsal of "The Monster Eats The Pilot."
but Jack's gaze is soon focused on the man standing behind the musician.
“Tough breaks, ain't it?” The man smirks, as if pleased to have been in on this little game before Jack was.
I originally had this end scene between Jack and Sawyer as an on-island, living occurrence. But I couldn't get it to mesh in my mind with the at-the-time new TTLG canon. I hate killing Sawyer, just *hate* it, but I hoped this scenario was relatively angst-free. It made me smile to think of Sawyer's smugness over experiencing this Craphole Island Afterlife before Jack did.
“Dead wouldn't've been my first choice either, Doc, but I guess it beats the hell out of that damned island. Been waitin' for you to show up, in fact. These amateurs ain't givin' me no competition.”
Sawyer missed Jack! There's a shout-out to all you J/S 'shippers, of which I am not one. But I can appreciate their chemistry, and their ping-pong scene is one of my favorite non-serious Lost moments.
Jack barely recovers in time to catch the object tossed his way. A ping pong paddle. And Sawyer's just standing there, twirling its match in his hand, as if it's an everyday occurrence to wake up from a plane crash (again) and start seeing dead people (again).
Won't Jack be surprised when Christian Shepherd shows up here, too? He is dead, after all...
“How 'bout a rematch, Doc?”
Who won? Well, that's left up to your imagination - but my own pet theory is that Sawyer got Jack all flustered by making some inappropriate comment about the new Jack!beard and won at the last minute. Jack's new nickname must be something like Blackbeard. Or...The Unabomber?
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