"LOST": A Tale of Two Fathers

 

"LOST": A TALE OF TWO FATHERS

During its Season Two, "LOST" had aired an episode called (2.09) "What Kate Did". The episode revealed the crime that led castaway Kate Austen to being a fugitive for three years - she had murdered her father, Wayne Janssen, and used his death to collect insurance for her mother, Diane Janssen. The episode had also revealed Kate's reason for her act of murder. She had just learned that Wayne - a man she had presumed to be her stepfather - was actually her father.

Kate had made it perfectly clear that she disliked Wayne Janssen. She held him responsible for her mother's break-up with Sam Austen, the man she had longed believed was her father. She certainly disliked the fact that he was an alcoholic who physically abused Diane. And she found his habit of occasionally leering at her disgusting and beneath contempt. Many believed that Kate had been a victim of sexual abuse. And that Wayne had been the perpetrator. But "What Kate Did" hinted that Wayne may not have abused Kate. In this scene, Kate talks to an unconscious fellow castaway, James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway), whose body she believes had been temporarily possessed by her late father:

"Can you hear me? Sawyer? Wayne? [Sawyer stirs] I'm probably crazy and this doesn't matter, but maybe you're in there somehow. But you asked me a question. You asked me why I -- why I did it. It wasn't because you drove my father away, or the way you looked at me, or because you beat her. It's because I hated that you were a part of me -- that I would never be good. That I would never have anything good. And every time that I look at Sawyer -- every time I feel something for him -- I see you, Wayne. It makes me sick.".

Judging from her comments, it seems quite apparent that Wayne had never sexually abused her. Kate did accuse him of leering at her, which was conveyed in a flashback at the beginning of the episode. However, there are fans who still insist that Wayne may have abused her. They are entitled to their opinions. Frankly, I have doubts that Kate had ever been abused. But if she had . . . Wayne Janssen would not be on the top of my list of suspects.

When "What Kate Did" first aired during the 2005-2006 television season, I had also viewed an episode of "HOUSE" called (2.13) "Skin Deep". I noticed how Dr. Gregory House (portrayed by Hugh Laurie) had correctly guessed that a 15 year-old female patient, who happened to be a model, had sex with her father. How did House come to this conclusion? He had noticed the close relationship between the model and her father. He noticed how the former seemed overtly concerned with pleasing said father. This scene had also revived about memories from the 1995 movie, "DOLORES CLAIRBORNE". Based on Stephen King' 1992 novel, it told the story about a Maine woman who had murdered her husband in order to stop him from continuing his sexual abuse of their daughter. What I found interesting was that the daughter had over-idealized her abusive father. And he (in flashbacks) had over-idealized his mother, who I believe may have sexually abused him.

Both that particular episode of "HOUSE" and "DOLORES CLAIRBORNE" led me to suspect that if Kate had actually been sexually molested, I would have suspected her stepfather, Sergeant Sam Austen, of being the perpetrator. After all, Kate had expressed nothing but contempt for Wayne. Yet, she had a tendency to idealize Sergeant Austen. And in an odd way, she had this same tendency to idealize other men who probably reminded her of the Army sergeant - Tom Brennan, her husband Kevin Callis, and leader of the island castaways, Dr. Jack Shephard.

Below is a link to a web page that lists traits of those (especially adult women) who may have suffered sexual abuse as a child - Beyond Victim. Included on the web page is a small list of the following traits of victims of sexual abuse:

*You feel powerless in important relationships and are terrified of honest confrontations. Yet you try to control and manipulate other people.

*If you were sexually abused by your father, you also may have felt unconsciously empowered by him; you are his special girl and you can do and be whatever you choose (as long as you don't replace daddy with a new man in your life with whom you can be truly intimate). Your troubled relationships with men present a sharp contrast to other areas of your life.

*You over-idealize your father and fail to see his destructive side while seeing the negative side of your mother and ignoring her positive attributes. Consequently, you over-value and perceive men while devaluing and discounting women. Or . . . if you had been sexually abused by a woman parental figure, you may over-idealize your mother and see your father as totally bad. This was revealed in a single flashback scene from "DOLORES CLAIRBORNE".

I am not claiming that Kate had definitely been a victim of sexual abuse. Nearly seventeen years have passed since "What Kate Did" first aired and the producers of "LOST" have never supported the theory that she had. I do find it interesting that Kate's feelings toward Sam Austen had followed a pattern similar to those harbored by sexual abuse victims, toward their perpetrators - as described above. Yet, the series has never out-and-out conveyed that she had experienced any sexual abuse of any kind.

Despite Kate's soliloquy in "What Kate Did" and the lack of any evidence of her experiencing abuse, I find myself wondering why a certain number of fans still continue to believe that her father, Wayne Janssen had abused her. Perhaps they cannot accept that Kate's cold-blooded murder of Wayne had never been justified. And they could not deal with this, considering she had been the series' leading female character. Who knows?

“BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER” – Who Is To Blame in (7.19) “Empty Places”?

"BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" RETROSPECT: WHO IS TO BLAME IN (7.19) "Empty Places"?

Seven ago, an episode viewed by many "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" fans as controversial, aired during the show’s final season. The name of that episode was (7.19) "Empty Places".

In this episode, the citizens of Sunnydale, California had finally desert the town in masse after realizing that their chances of surviving the upcoming apocalypse might be non-existent. Even demons like Clem had deserted. Vampire slayer Buffy Summers, the Scoobies, the souled vampire Spike, and fellow vampire slayer Faith Lehane and the Potential vampire slayers were still smarting from their defeat at the hands of a priest named Caleb and the demonic Bringers who followed him in the previous episode, (7.18) "Dirty Girls". To relieve the Potentials of their gloomy moods, Faith took them for one last night of fun at the Bronze, a local nightclub. The fun ended in near disaster, after an encounter with police. But when Buffy suggested that Caleb may be hiding something of great value in the vineyard – the scene of their last defeat – the Scoobies, the Potentials, Giles, Wood and Dawn finally turned their backs on her . . . and kicked her out of her own home.

I had found the general reaction to the characters’ actions in "Empty Places" back in 2003 rather interesting. I realize that I should not have been amazed, considering human nature. Yet, I was. Some fans came to the conclusion that all of the characters had reacted badly to the situation. These fans even managed to pinpoint the characters’ fears and flaws that led to their individual decisions. But the majority of fans seem determined to place the blame of what happened on either Buffy or on those who had rejected her. In regard to the latter, many fans had vented their ire on a handful of characters.

Personally, I believe they were all at fault. To be honest, Buffy had not a good leader throughout Season Seven. This became painfully clear after she had assumed leadership over the Potentials. Instead of resorting to the usual methods she had utilized when leading the Scoobies against the Big Bads at the end of the previous seasons – listening to her friends and considering their suggestions – Buffy resorted to behaving like General von Summers by insisting that should accept her views as correct, ignoring any advice given by others and viewing herself as the law whose word should not be questioned. She painfully reminded me of the Watchers’ Council at their worst. Which should not have surprise me, considering her only guide on how to be a leader came from a Watcher. Namely, her Watcher . . . one Rupert Giles.

Giles’ own actions before this episode had contributed a great deal to the schism between himself and Buffy. He had been the one who had insisted that Buffy lead the Potentials. Also, he had taught her to be a killer, instead of a leader. And when she failed to become an effective leader - no surprise there - Giles had constantly complained about her ineffectiveness. To make matters worse, he had betrayed her by trying to arrange Spike's death behind her back . . . and never expressed any remorse for his actions. Naturally this had pissed off Buffy. But when she finally rejected his role as her authority figure, he became resentful and even more critical . . . and stabbed her in the back, again. Yet, the fans had ended up expressing more hostility toward characters like the Potentials (especially Kennedy and Rona), Robin Wood, Dawn and the Scoobies than toward Giles. I guess as a long established authority figure, they had considered Giles as an exempt from their hostility. Well, from the hostility of most fans. There had been those who kept claiming that Giles had changed during Season Seven. And there had been those who condemned him as much as they condemned the others. By the way, I never thought think Giles had changed. Well . . . not much. I believe that for once, his fear had threatened to overwhelm him. And I believe Buffy's view of him had changed.

The other characters' actions did not serve them very well. Fellow Scoobies Willow Rosenberg and Xander Berkeley seemed resentful of Buffy’s growing distance from them. Despite enjoying their friendship with her, both had occasionally demanded that she live up to her role as "the Slayer" for several years. Willow and Xander had constantly put Buffy on a pedestal. Yet at the same time, they had demanded that she remain as a close friend as long as possible. Buffy's younger sister, Dawn Summers, had harbored insecurities that had originally spawned from her own encounter with the First Evil in (7.07) "Conversations With Dead". Dawn's main fear had led her to wonder if Buffy cared more about being a Slayer than being her sister. This fear eventually led Dawn to finally reject Buffy’s role as authority figure in this episode. I am not saying that Dawn was wrong. She had every right to reject Buffy’s authority. Only, she did it by insisting that Buffy move out of the house . . . her sister’s house. I would not be surprised that Robin Wood still maintained a resentment against Buffy for choosing Spike – the vampire who had killed his mother in 1977 – over him in (7.17) "Lies My Mother Told Me", forgetting that he tried to get revenge against an individual who had changed from the vampire who had killed Nikki Wood. As for Faith . . . well, she had never really rejected Buffy’s authority. She only questioned it.

But the characters who has received the greatest ire from many fans over what happened in this episode were the Potentials – especially Kennedy and Rona. A good number of "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" seemed to resent Rona for openly expressing doubt toward Buffy’s skills as a leader. Then again, many of the fans had been expressing hostility toward Rona since her first appearance. Why? She was sarcastic, always questioning Buffy's decision and was portrayed by African-American actress, Indigo. Apparently, a black Potential had even less right to question Buffy's authority than a white Potential. Yet, even more fans had resented Kennedy for not being Willow's new lover, following Tara Maclay's death in Season Six.
Unlike Willow, Tara and Willow's previous love interest - Daniel "Oz" Osbourne – Kennedy was an extrovert. Worse, she had an aggressive personality that many found offensive. Which I found a bit hypocritical, considering Willow's tendency to be the dominate partner in her previous romances. But the single biggest criticism that many fans had laid at the Potentials’ feet was their decision to reject Buffy as their leader. For some reason, many seemed to harbor the view that they had no right to reject Buffy, let alone question her decisions. They seemed to believe that the Potentials should have blindly followed Buffy, regardless of how they felt about her.

You know, I never fail to be amazed at how hypocritical people can be. Honestly. Take the relationship between Buffy and the Potentials in Season Seven for example. In the past seasons, Buffy's continuous attempts to maintain a personal life and resist Giles' attempts to turn her into a single-minded Slayer had drawn cheers from the viewers. When she had resisted and finally rejected the Watchers Council’s authority over her in Season Three’s (3.12) "Helpless", the fans cheered. When she had continuously questioned Professor Maggie Walsh and the Initiative’s demon hunting actions and encouraged boyfriend Riley Finn to do the same in Season Four, the fans cheered. And when Buffy had made it clear to the visiting members of the Watchers Council in Season Five’s (5.12) "Checkpoint" that they no longer had any power over her, the fans had erupted into rapture.

Then in Season Seven, Buffy became an authority figure. Actually, she became one following her mother’s death in late Season Five, when she became Dawn’s only guardian. But her interactions with the Potentials led her to become an authority figure on the same scale as Giles, Maggie Walsh, and the Watchers Council. And like those before her, Buffy made some very questionable judgment calls – including her decision to attack Caleb at the local vineyard without any real reconnaissance in "Dirty Girls". As Buffy had done so in the past, the Potentials rejected her as their authority figure. But since their authority figure happened to be Buffy . . . many fans had condemned them for not blindly following her.

Apparently, it was okay for Buffy to resist or reject the authority figures she had faced. But when she became an authority figure herself - and not a very good one at that, many fans decided that "no one" - especially the hated Potentials - had the right to resist or reject her. I hate to say this, but this could easily be construed as a bad case of double standards by those fans. They had no problems with Buffy rejecting authority figures. But they had refused to accept the Scoobies and especially the Potentials' rejection of Buffy as a leader. The fandom's waffling reeked of hypocrisy to me. What I found even more offensive is that after twenty years or so, many willing to condemn those who would do the same to Buffy after she became an authority figure reeked of hypocrisy to me. Although there are many fans who are beginning to understand that the Potentials and the Scoobies had every right to reject Buffy as their leader, there are still a good number of fans who believe otherwise. From their view, the main protagonist is always right.

"The Essence of the First Slayer's Power"

”THE ESSENCE OF THE FIRST SLAYER’S POWER”

One of the more controversial characters that has appeared on ”BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER” happened to be the character known as the First Slayer. First introduced in the Season Four finale, (4.22) ”Restless”, the First Slayer’s presence stirred a great deal of controversy amongst the series’ fans and critics. However, I am not really interested in the controversies that have surrounded the character. I am more interested with her role as a demon slayer and how this role related to Buffy and other Slayers throughout history.

To clarify myself, I would have to start with the origins of the First Slayer. Thousands of years ago, three East African shamans became wary of the increasing demonic activity plaguing their community. To deal with the matter, the trio came up with the idea to create a supernaturally enhanced demon slayer. They kidnapped an adolescent girl named Sineya, staked her to one spot and implanted her with the essence of a demon. The possession entailed supernatural strength, stamina, a predatorial instinct, fast reflexes, rapid healing, intuition and prophetic dreams . . . enough abilities for a Slayer to face vampires and other supernatural bad guys. In other words, the three shamans committed supernatural rape upon an innocent girl in order to create a weapon they could utilize and control. But this article is not about the moral ramifications of the shamans’ act. It is about how the essence of the First Slayer related to the series’ leading character, Buffy Anne Summers.

Buffy and the other Scoobies – Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris and Watcher Rupert Giles – had spent most of Season Four dealing with the U.S. Army sponsored task force called the Initiative and the mess the latter had created in capturing and experimenting on demons. The organization’s biggest mistake turned out to be a human/demon Frankenstein-style hybrid created by the Initiative’s leading scientist, Dr. Maggie Walsh. After killing Dr. Walsh, this monster – named Adam – created more havoc throughout Sunnydale by killing innocents and recruiting other human/demon hybrids (read: vampires) to his cause for a new order. In the second-to-last episode, (4.21) “Primeval”, Buffy and the Scoobies finally managed to defeat the near invincible Adam. They did so by using a spell to invoke the powers of the First Slayer to be put into Buffy’s body. Each Scooby represented the main attributes of the First Slayer’s powers – the Spirit, the Heart, the Mind and the Hands – in the spell. Willow acted as symbol of the First Slayer’s Spirit, Xander as the Heart, Giles as the Mind and Buffy as the Hands. By invoking the First Slayer’s power through Buffy, the Scoobies created a formidable foe that led to Adam’s defeat and death.

Many Buffyverse fans saw the spell invoked in ”Primeval” as an argument why Buffy should never separate from her friends and Watcher. They saw the spell as an argument for the old saying - ”no man is an island”. But the spell led me to wonder about Buffy’s role as a Slayer and her connection to the other Scoobies. If those African shamans had created a Slayer that possessed enough strength to defeat someone like Adam, did that same strength ever get passed on to the Slayers that followed her? Slayers that included Faith . . . or Buffy? Or did Buffy and the other Slayers that followed only inherited one particular attribute of the First Slayer – namely the Hands, which all Slayers use to kill their prey?

If the First Slayer did pass on all of the abilities of her power to her successors, why did Buffy need the Scoobies to represent the Heart, the Spirit and the Mind of Sineya? Surely, she could have summoned all of those attributes within her to defeat Adam. Or perhaps Buffy’s problems in dealing with Adam had originated with her two Watchers – Rupert Giles and Merrick.

One of the aspects from Season Seven that I found interesting was Buffy’s transformation into a leader of adolescent girls with the ’the Potential’ to become the Slayer. Unfortunately, Buffy’s introduction as a leader nearly ended in disaster, when the Potentials, the Scoobies, Dawn and everyone else rejected her leadership and tossed her out of the Summers house in (7.19) “Empty Places”. Spike and Andrew were in Gilroy on a mission for Giles and missed the big event. Their rejection seemed understandable, considering that Buffy was on the road to becoming an ineffectual leader. And who is to blame? Buffy’s Watchers – Merrick and Giles. I found it ironic that Giles literally dumped the Potentials onto Buffy’s lap and told her that she needed to become a general. The problem was that neither Giles or Merrick ever taught Buffy how to lead. Instead, they taught her how to stalk and kill demons. They taught her how to utilize ’the Hands’ of the First Slayer . . . and nothing more. To Giles, Merrick and the other Watchers, being a Slayer only meant being a killer of demons. I can only wonder if other Slayers between Sineya and Buffy were given the same limited lessons.

But what does this say about the other Scoobies’ roles in the battle against Adam? More specifically, what does this say about their roles in Buffy’s life? I am not advocating the idea that Buffy should have ended her friendship with the other three. But was it really necessary to invoke the First Slayer’s other three traits – the Spirit, the Heart, and the Mind – through the Scoobies? Personally, I believe that Buffy could have found a way to use all four traits on her own . . . if she had bothered to try. If she had inherited the power of Sineya like all of the other Slayers before her, I see no reason why she or any other Slayer throughout history could not learn to embrace all four of the First Slayer’s attributes as their own.

Or perhaps Buffy had already began to embrace the full power of the First Slayer by late Season Seven. She managed to prove that the old saying - ’no man is an island’ - is not always true. After being booted by the others in ”Empty Places” and comforted by a returning Spike in (7.20) “Touched”, Buffy set out on her own to retrieve a magical scythe from another formidable foe, namely a misogynist priest named Caleb, endowed with the strength of the First Evil. And she succeeded. On her own. After retrieving the scythe, Buffy went on to rescue a wounded Faith and a group of Potentials who had wandered into a trap set by Caleb and the First Evil. Again, she achieved this on her own, using her Spirit, Heart, Mind and Hands.

Does this mean that Buffy should seriously consider that she might not always need the Scoobies by her side? Frankly . . . yes. Perhaps no one man or woman is an island, but each and every one of us is always alone, no matter how many people we surround ourselves with. With the Buffy saga continuing in comic books, perhaps Joss Whedon considered a new lesson for his main character and the fans – there are times when we need our friends, family or some kind of help with us; and there are times when we have to face the fact that each of us is alone. And sometimes, we have to set about on a task . . . by ourselves. If Buffy ever truly learn that lesson, she will truly learn to utilize the full power of the First Slayer’s essence on a regular basis.