Lord of the Flies: Episode 2 Recap

Jack is in the forest examining a hoof print on the ground, covered in mud. We immediately switch to a flashback to Jack in full school uniform, watching as other children receive hugs and goodbyes from their parents, before embarking on the evacuation flight. No one is there to wave Jack off, and his face briefly betrays his feelings before returning to his usual impassiveness. Back on the island, Jack, and eventually Maurice (Cornelius Brandreth), stalk the pig, interspersed with events on the plane. Maurice stands on a twig, startling the pig who runs away from the hunt. At the same time, the plane begins to fall from the sky, with the sounds of children screaming. Jack snaps to Maurice: ‘Next time keep silent’.

We move to the rest of the boys where Piggy (David McKenna) is telling the littluns the story of ‘Chicken Licken’. In a foreshadowing, Piggy asks the littluns if anyone in the story listened to Chicken Licken’s warnings and whether they should have. Ralph (Winston Sawyers), who is building shelters, asks Jack if he’s here to help, but Jack replies that he’s there to swim. Ralph says ‘we’ve worked damn hard’, but Jack retorts, ‘So have we, Ralph’. Jack suggests that they bathe – ‘everything’s better when we bathe’. They race each other to the beach and playfight in the sea. This scene reminds me of the part in the book where Ralph and Jack look at each other with ‘shy liking’, and helps to show that these two boys could quite easily be friends in different circumstances. They discuss the littluns’ nightmares and Simon arrives to say – directly from the book – ‘as if this wasn’t a good island’. Jack wants Ralph to join his team of hunters, but Ralph explains that the chief has to stay on the beach. Piggy joins them to ask if they’re having a pre-meeting and says that they are ‘sort of the core leaders’. Jack disagrees.

Jack drags a construction across the beach and seems to sense something behind him. On a small piece of land in the ocean, Jack spots some debris from the plane. He attempts the perilous claim to retrieve it, before being forced to give up. The camera focuses in on Jack so we can feel his terror, but also his frustration at his failure. Both Maurice and Roger (Thomas Connor) agree he should descend and the latter helps him make his way down. Just as in the first episode, when he fails to kill the pig, Jack says to the others: ‘Don’t tell anyone about this’. From the signal fire, he sees a rest spot for pigs, and asks Maurice to navigate to this point. Jack suggests they paint their faces for disguise, and they’ll need a ‘full choir attack’ in order to box in the pigs. Simon (Ike Talbut) finds Jack in the forest and sarcastically says – ‘what a jolly good time you’re having’. Jack insists that he’s just taking the situation seriously. He talks about his father and the idea of a test. We get the sense here that Simon and Jack have a prior complicated relationship when Simon says ‘your father is not coming for you’ and indicates that his father is just the same in response to Jack’s angry reaction. In a change from the novel, Simon tells Jack that he’ll get off the island; something which he says to Ralph in the book. Simon paints Jack’s face in a touching moment.

Following some visuals of the boys sleeping in an enormous heap, and insects devouring a caterpillar, we move to a meeting where Piggy is talking about the problem of toilets and drinking water. The other boys, including Jack and Maurice don’t take anything he says seriously, and Roger stands up and makes sarcastic remarks about Piggy and the conch, dismissing it as a shell. Amidst the cacophony of noise, Ralph attempts to get through to them, but notes that ‘things are breaking up’, and wonders if that’s because they’re afraid. Jack takes the conch and calls the littluns ‘cry babies’. He says there isn’t a beast and throws the conch on the sand. One of the littluns tells them that he’s seen ‘twisty things’. Another littlun takes the conch – the camera focuses in on his face – and he says his name and full address. Percival (Freddie Lee-Grey) is unable to say anything else aloud as he’s too scared and upset. Maurice fools around to release the tension. Percival whispers in Jack’s ear and who relays the message: ‘Ralph, we may have a problem. He says it comes from the sea.’

The hunters prepare to attack the pig by painting their faces and gathering their weapons. They move their bodies in strange ways and seem to become something other than human while making nonsensical sounds. The camera closes in on Jack’s face and his small smile, intentionally blurry. The boys surround the boar and stab it with their spears, beating it repeatedly in a shocking scene. Jack slashes it with his knife and blood spurts, horrifyingly, all over the camera, and all over Jack. The camera shows the hunters in turn, and all of them are clearly shaken by what they’ve done. The always menacing Roger smiles as he looks at the pig’s body, heavy with blood and gore. Roger tells Jack: ‘everyone’s going to be so pleased with you’. Jack smiles, revealing he has blood in his mouth.

The boys transport the pig’s body on two poles, while the pig’s head is carried on a stick. They splash in a pool while the pig’s head looks on. They discover a suitcase (which doesn’t happen in the book) and have fun trying on the clothes and using the products. Simon’s diary is discovered, but Jack warns them not to read it. They proceed to the beach, chanting ‘Kill the beast, cut its throat, spill its blood’. The other boys are in panic, desperately shouting and waving at the ocean. A ship is just about visible in the distance. Jack dashes to the fire, which Ralph is trying to rekindle but Simon explains that the ship is going. There’s a confrontation between Jack and Ralph and Ralph calls him a ‘failure’ for breaking the rules. Here, Jack says the famous line from the book: ‘Bollocks to the rules’. Piggy sarcastically says to Jack ‘thank you for keeping me prisoner on this island’. Jack is incensed and punches Piggy, causing one side of his glasses to break: ‘Now I’ve only got one eye’. Jack describes everything as ‘boring’ and decides to form his own camp. As Jack walks away, out of sight of the other boys, he cries. He stares at his reflection in the pool. Piggy tells Ralph that Jack will punish him, rather than Ralph as ‘he’ll happily hurt the next thing. The next thing’s me’. The hunters join Jack at the pool. Cue chaotic music. In the closing moments, Simon sees a dead body and Jack reads Simon’s diary.