Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Goodbye Mr. Clean (Candle in the Wind, Elton John / Bernie Taupin)

I've been thinking a lot about The Brig, the most recent episode of LOST. I don't know if I'm happy with how it played out or not. I guess it's a sort of grim satisfaction; I don't condone revenge, but Anthony Cooper ruined Locke and Sawyer's lives, not to mention many others, and it certainly doesn't seem safe to let him go roaming around the island. It was an intense episode as two of my favorite characters struggled to face their demons. The ending seemed inevitable but not anything to celebrate.

This parody, to the tune of Candle in the Wind, is sort of a sequel to my first Sawyer soliloquy, which had him griping at Locke (who I call Mr. Clean again, even though he only used that name once; I just get such a kick out of it...). Now, Locke has managed to help him cast off the shackles of yesterday, though it was as much for Locke's benefit as Sawyer's, and it meant getting more blood on Sawyer's hands. He was so traumatized by the misery of killing an innocent man that he can no longer get any real pleasure from killing his intended target. On some level, I think he's grateful to Locke because he doesn't have this hanging over his head anymore; on the other hand, he feels used, and he's discovered he's really not cut out to be a killer.

I've always compared Sawyer to Inigo Montoya, and pop cultural dynamo that he is, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the comparison occurred to him too. Sawyer's dedicated decades to hunting down the man who destroyed his life. I love Inigo, but I can't help but wonder what happens to him after his revenge is accomplished. So much of his life was focused on that goal, will he know what to do with himself now that it's out of the way? Same with Sawyer. Is his life just about payback, or can he finally move on now and start fresh?

Goodbye Mr. Clean

Goodbye Mr. Clean.
Guess you're not so great after all.
You couldn't face that troll yourself.
You made me take the fall.
Don't think because you couldn't
Lay a finger on your old man,
That somehow makes you better.
You just used me for your plan.

And it seems to me you love to lie
Like your bug-eyed buddy Ben,
Trickin' me into this thing to
Feel secure again.
Well, your deadbeat dad disowned you,
And since I was a kid,
I dreamed of settling the score,
But I hate what I did.

Is his death enough,
Enough to make the nightmares fade?
What if he was right about where we are?
Was this a mistake we made?
It's your fault that he died.
He deserved it, yeah, that's true,
But my pain won't go away.
I have more blood on my hands thanks to you.

And it seems to me you love to lie
Like your bug-eyed buddy Ben,
Trickin' me into this thing to
Feel secure again.
Well, your deadbeat dad disowned you,
And since I was a kid,
I dreamed of settling the score,
But I hate what I did.

Goodbye Mr. Clean.
Guess you're not so great after all.
You couldn't face that troll yourself.
You made me take the fall.
Goodbye Mr. Clean,
From the man who lost his parents long ago,
Who needed some closure but wants to be more
Than a vengeance-driven Inigo.

And it seems to me you love to lie
Like your bug-eyed buddy Ben,
Trickin' me into this thing to
Feel secure again.
Well, your deadbeat dad disowned you,
And since I was a kid,
I dreamed of settling the score,
But I hate what I did.

I dreamed of settling the score,
But I hate what I did.

Candle in the Wind

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