LOST 5/4/05 Spoilers, of course!

[Rel]

And that's exactly why he does. Michael isn't a father, in every way except the literal. He doesn't have experience being a father. Walt's mother took him away, and the reason Michael is in Sydney is to pick up Walt after his butthole step-dad doesn't want to deal with him.

I'm aware of the history but it still looks as though Michael is acting in a more or less fatherly manner when it comes to Walt's safety. In some ways I'd think that the dynamic between them would make Michael tend toward practicality and say, "Look son, I love you but a small boat on the open sea is no place for a young boy and we can't bring the dog anyway. So you stay here and try not to get eaten by polar bears and whatnot and I'll send help when we get to civilization."

 

[Steverooo]

So if Kate goes on the raft, does Walt stay?

 

[Rel]

So if Kate goes on the raft, does Walt stay?

I doubt it.

 

[Taelorn76]

I see Michael as trying so hard to be a father that he does not want Walt to leave his side. He is over parenting and thinks as long as his son is by his side he can protect him.

 

[fett527]

I see Michael as trying so hard to be a father that he does not want Walt to leave his side. He is over parenting and thinks as long as his son is by his side he can protect him.

I concur. He definitely believes that no matter what, Walt is safer with him.

 

[Rackhir]

You're right, he should have made a play for Hurley instead.

And why is everyone knocking the boat idea? For decades the running Gilligan's Island joke has been "If the Professor was so smart why didn't he know how to build a boat?" Given the monster, bears, boars, voices in the woods and homicidal people living somewhere else on the island I think I'd be inclinded to leave too.

Well for one thing they are someplace in the Pacific, instead of the Caribean. The castaways were only supposed to have been on a 3 hour tour out of someplace in Florida. The Pacific is a BIG ocean and that raft doesn't look like it is going to have much in the way of steering. They don't know where they are, so they don't even know which direction to go in. Nor does the raft look like it will have a whole lot of room for food and water. Given that they could be hundreds or even thousands of miles from any help, that's not a good thing.

Also nobody's built cars out of bamboo or a working nuclear reactor on THIS island.

 

[Taelorn76]

I always thought the castaways were actually out in the Pacific Ocean. Three hour tour from Hawaii. I remmber Tiki Gods and such, that's all Pacific Rim lore, not caribean. Plus the caribean doesn't get hit by typhoons

 

[WizarDru]

Well for one thing they are someplace in the Pacific, instead of the Caribean. The castaways were only supposed to have been on a 3 hour tour out of someplace in Florida. The Pacific is a BIG ocean and that raft doesn't look like it is going to have much in the way of steering. They don't know where they are, so they don't even know which direction to go in. Nor does the raft look like it will have a whole lot of room for food and water. Given that they could be hundreds or even thousands of miles from any help, that's not a good thing.

Heh. You just failed your Knowledge: 70s TV Trivia check. Gilligan's Island was set in the Pacific. A mythic Pacific, but the Pacific nonetheless.

The raft's biggest problem is we don't see a sail, as you point out. They may be planning on rowing, like virtually ever polynesian tribe in the Pacific did...but they have no experience at sea. Tracking birds is a good way to find landmasses; again, the polynesians. What is clear is they don't have a good way to store supplies...even supposing they've been building up a supply, which they haven't been, that we've seen. Unless they're planning on recreating a scene from a Haitan refugee disaster, this won't end well.

 

[Silver Moon]

Well for one thing they are someplace in the Pacific, instead of the Caribean. The castaways were only supposed to have been on a 3 hour tour out of someplace in Florida.

Actually no, if you rewatch the opening credits and the very first episode you will see that the S.S. Minnow clearly left from Honolulu, Hawaii, which I'm pretty sure is in the Pacific. And as noted in the above post, during the series three year run there were also other references to them being on a Pacific island.

 

[Rel]

The raft's biggest problem is we don't see a sail, as you point out. They may be planning on rowing, like virtually ever polynesian tribe in the Pacific did...but they have no experience at sea. Tracking birds is a good way to find landmasses; again, the polynesians. What is clear is they don't have a good way to store supplies...even supposing they've been building up a supply, which they haven't been, that we've seen. Unless they're planning on recreating a scene from a Haitan refugee disaster, this won't end well.

Jin has sailing experience from working with his father on the fishing boat (presumably). And it looked to me like the way they were constructing the boat with the bamboo overlaying the aircraft beams there would be a narrow space in between to store supplies in. We've not seen them laying away stores but I doubt they'll have a hard time getting others to gather such supplies for them. Long term storage may be a problem but I'm guessing that they'll plan on stopping at every island they come to in order to find additional food and water as well as look for inhabitants. What they really need to find is a parachute aboard that crashed Beechcraft so they could use it for a sail.

All of that is utterly moot of course because we're not dealing with "what could actually happen". We're dealing with "what the writers think makes for a good show". And losing 4-5 major characters at sea or having them get washed up on another island or having them find help are all BAD for the show. Therefore that will not happen.