"What They Died For"

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

FOCUS: JACK, LOCKE, DESMOND, BEN
EPISODE: 6.16
AIRED: MAY 18, 2010

There’s a “law” of sorts, particularly for television, that states that unless we see the body, a character isn’t dead. So when Smokey “kills” Richard in “What They Died For”, I knew it was BS, just like I was pretty sure Lapidus wasn’t dead (though things were a bit grimmer for him since we at least saw his body hit the floor). You can fool me with the timeline and other nonsense, but you can’t fool me into thinking someone is dead when they’re not, Lost!

Actually a lot of the island stuff is kind of dumb in this one. I really hate how Widmore goes out, simply being shot moments after arriving on the main island. Especially at the hands of Ben; while I understand the “poetry” of it (for lack of a better word), Ben’s random return to villainy didn’t sit well with me, and since I always enjoy the idea of enemies teaming up against bigger enemies, I was hoping for more of their uneasy alliance leading into the finale. Widmore was sort of a 2nd main villain on the show after Smokey – he should have been part of the finale. Points for Zoe's death though, not only is it a good shock moment, it's also hilarious that Locke points out how pointless she was. Good call, Smokey!

It also makes “Across The Sea” even more annoying, since Jacob explains all the key points anyway. Again, had thAT episode taken place at the beginning of the season, the refresher would be appreciated, but this aired a week later – we haven’t forgotten the basics. I like that Jack takes over, however, and Sawyer’s “God complex” line is hilarious – it’s the rare time I disagree with Kate (I would have laughed and shook his hand for that one, not told him to shut up). At the time, I was sort of like “Wait, this is already settled? What the hell is going to happen in the finale?”, so on a re-watch it’s actually a lot of fun – Jack’s NOT the guy after all.

The sideways stuff is a hoot though. Giacchino’s score is wonderfully frantic, particularly in the later scenes where Desmond is playing puppet master. Ana Lucia’s appearance was a nice surprise (why she wasn’t “ready”, I’m still unsure), as was Hurley’s ugly orange Camaro. I would have liked a little more with Desmond and Hurley planning things out, but I guess that would have been hard to do without giving away the big secret. One thing that’s sort of odd about the revelation is that no one seems to mind that (spoiler!) they’re dead – with the exception of Jack, they sort of take the news pretty easily.

And I love the Ben/Desmond scene. Even a second time around I thought he was going to run Locke over again, which is just hilarious. But I also like how he “wakes” Ben up, by beating the bejesus out of him one more time. I bet the makeup folks on Lost were glad it was over, knowing they’d never have to make Michael Emerson look beat up ever again. The stuff with Alex is also very sweet, and again ties into the idea of the flash sideways being a way for them to put their biggest personal demon at rest (which again is why the Sawyer and Sayid sideways stuff was largely horrible). Jack and Locke’s scene is a bit on the nose (nearly every line is a repeat of a line they have said before – Christ, why didn’t THAT wake them up?), but again, it’s always nice to see them talking as friends again. When you watch the first season, even when they disagree, there was always a mutual respect for one another, and I really missed that as the show progressed. One of the show’s biggest failings, I think, was killing Locke off without ever having one last real scene with Jack (though “The End” at least has a good line of dialogue to make up for it).

Well, that’s it! Tomorrow’s the big finale! I’m about to get 90 minutes of my day back!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"The Candidate"

FEBRUARY 1, 2011

FOCUS: JACK, LOCKE
EPISODE: 6.14
AIRED: MAY 4, 2010

I don’t recall why there was a week off in between “The Last Recruit” and “The Candidate”, but it works in its favor for a second viewing. A lot of Lost works better in back to back, but this episode in particular has a really sad moment that was totally killed by the confusing flash sideways stuff. So not only did I enjoy the episode more this time due to having just watched the one before it, I also got to be sad when two of the more beloved characters perished.

I guess I should preface by explaining my original theory for the flash sideways world. My belief for pretty much the entire season was that when the hydrogen bomb went off, it created two timelines: one in which the characters magically got transported back to 2007 instead of dying in a massive explosion, and then another where Jack’s plan worked and the plane never crashed. And I never contemplated the specifics, but the idea was that everyone had to die in the rather grim Island timeline in order to correct whatever issues might arise in the “sideways” (happier) timeline. In retrospect it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it was my idea anyway. Thus, when Sun and Jin died, I didn’t really find it too sad, because I *knew* they were alive in the other timeline anyway. Ditto for Sayid, but in his case I didn’t really care because they had already killed him at the beginning of the season and turned his character into an incoherent mess.

I mean, really, why did he turn good again? Was it simply Desmond asking him what he was going to tell Nadia when she asked how she came to be alive again? If he’s been “claimed” by some sort of infection, would the simple words of a Scottish dude he barely knows be enough to kill that darkness inside him? I like that he went out a hero, but he also went out as a major plot hole, in my opinion.

But anyway, now that I know it’s real, I did find Jin and Sun’s death to be pretty damn sad. That “Life and Death” piece from Michael Giacchino would give me sad chills even if it was playing over a shot of Clark Griswold punching an animatronic moose, so as soon as it kicked in I could feel the sadness, and this time around the tears did fall. I wish it wasn’t so clunky (what the hell is trapping her, anyway? It looks like three railings? And how did an explosion on the other side of the ship cause that much irreversible damage?), but I guess I shouldn’t complain – the better written it was, the more upsetting it would be. Same as Charlie’s death, which could have been avoided entirely anyway, but was also foreshadowed for an entire season (as was Jack’s, to some degree). Really, Juliet was the only one to ever get a good death scene that wasn’t played for shock value, I think.

Another issue I had concerns Anthony Cooper (funny note – Kevin Tighe’s credit appears as his name is mentioned for the first time in the episode. Nice bit of synchronicity), who in this timeline had a good relationship with Locke. I buy that Jack can have a son and Sawyer can be a cop, because everything changed from a moment that occurred when they were very young, but how did Cooper and Locke end up being close when he abandoned Locke’s mother before he was even born, long before 1977 (when the timeline changed due to the bomb)? Again I guess you just got to chalk it up to the fact that none of this actually happened and it’s some sort of metaphorical series of events designed for the characters to get over their biggest personal demon (which for Locke would be his shattered relationship with his father), but it’s inconsistent with the basic logic of trying to present it as a real, possible world. Though, maybe they figured since the next episode would just be a giant waste of time and thus they only had three hours left to explain the sideways world (actually half that since those episodes had a lot of Island stuff to cover as well), they had to start dropping hints.

Speaking of inconsistencies, I had to laugh when Jin refused to take the oxygen bottle after Jack told him he could make it without it. “No, you can’t, Jack,” Jin tells him, but he totally could. As I pointed out yesterday, Jack is one hell of a swimmer – he got through the cave/tunnel/temple whatever to the bomb in S5 without any problem, and just yesterday he swam from the middle of the ocean back to the island in fairly quick time while wearing a backpack. Not only could he have made it, he probably could have had time to go back and help try to free Sun. He totally missed his calling.

I didn’t notice the first time around, the episode once again depicts the writers’ fairly casual approach to killing people who weren’t necessarily bad (and/or the characters’ approach to letting them perish). Both the sub captain and his mate don’t seem to be killed when the bomb goes off, but no one bothers trying to save them. Hell they don’t even seem to care about Lapidus (I also noticed a bit of irony – there was a first aid kit behind him; if they had found it they might have all died since Jack’s pack never would have been opened), who is assumed dead for this and the next episode, but without any fanfare. No wonder they all went to heaven together, these 815ers are the most cliquey bunch of assholes in the world. I bet they had to have some sort of mental staff meeting to vote on whether or not Penny and Desmond would be allowed to come along.

For all my nitpicks, it’s a good episode though. The action’s fun (love Locke just picking dudes off on the dock), it puts most of our characters together for pretty much the last time, Sawyer and Jack sort of make up, and the flash sideways story is above average, particularly the sweet scene of Jack and Claire at the law office (“You’re family.”). It’s the last “relaxed” flash story too, so, you know, respect. From here on out it’s all crazy running around fake LA stuff.

Tomorrow... *sigh*

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Lighthouse"

JANUARY 23, 2011

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 6.5
AIRED: FEBRUARY 23, 2010

Oooh, spooky – the 108th hour of Lost aired on the 23rd of the month. They DID plan this whole show out! I shouldn’t joke though, as “Lighthouse” is actually a really good episode, focusing on pretty much the last bit of Jack’s resistance to the idea that they were on the island for a reason being washed away due to a magic lighthouse. Lost being the only show that could get away with introducing a magic lighthouse, I quite liked this concept, with each bearing on the lighthouse wheel corresponding to a Candidate’s house (which seems kind of worthless though - what if they go to work?).

I also liked that it was a rare team-up between Jack and Hurley. In 6 years, I am pretty sure this was their only island adventure together without anyone else around, despite what Hurley claims is a return to “old times”. They make for a good pair, and I wish it wasn’t so rare that they got to play off of each other. It’s cute that Hurley thinks he’d be a good dad too.

And it’s a fitting line, since the flash sideways deals with Jack’s son. Whaaa? While the other changes in the sideways world were largely “well since the island isn’t there, this person is now on the mainland” based, with the basics still the same – Claire still an unfit mother, Kate on the run, Locke in a wheelchair, etc. But where the hell did Jack’s son come from? How did the lack of an island have THIS much of a change in his life? We don’t see the mother in this episode, and we find out later who it is, which makes more sense out of it (another “they didn’t have an Island to be on” explanation). Thus, knowing what all these scenes mean, Hurley’s comment takes on a new meaning – perhaps this comment was fresh in Jack’s mind as he was dying (which occurs in, what, a few days?), and part of his “letting go” process was accepting that he was never going to be a father, which is kind of depressing. Poor Jack.

But this subplot also kind of annoys me once you realize that it wasn’t real, since it was one of the few genuine moments of emotion that we got in the season prior to the big finale. Jack talking to his mom, realizing that his kid might be afraid of him the same way he was of his own father; the big teary moment after the concert, etc – these are all terrific character moments. And they’re not real. What IS real? Claire killing a guy with an axe and a guy named Dogen trying to stop Hurley from pressing magic stones.

Oh, and a reminder of Adam and Eve, with Hurley even helpfully offering a popular fan theory, that the skeletons were those of some Oceanic survivors (Rose and Bernard or Kate and Sawyer being the most popular theories, if memory serves), as the result of time travel. Of course, that wasn’t true, but just the fact that it was brought up really awkwardly was a pretty big clue that it would be one mystery they didn’t plan to leave unanswered. You know, like the one about Christian’s body. I had actually forgotten about it until Jack explained about the coffin (I guess no one mentioned it when they were LIVING there?) – why did Christian’s body disappear? If it was “taken” by the Man in Black so he could appear as Christian at various points throughout the seasons, why was Locke’s body left intact? One way is “wrong”, no matter how you slice it, and this is an instance of a time they should have just kept ignoring it, rather than remind the audience about their sloppy writing.

I also don’t get why they brought up Jack’s appendix. They went to the trouble of applying the scar makeup to Matthew Fox, but never made any sense out of it. His mom tells us that he had it out when he was 7, so there’s an explanation – but one that doesn’t make any sense when you consider the true nature of these scenes. Why does his dying “fantasy” include elaborate explanations for things that happened to him on the island? I mean, I’m sure I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: I don’t mind the concept of this being their “waiting room” before moving on in the afterlife, I just hate how needlessly confusing and inconsistent it is.

For no real reason I’d like to point out that I also (re-)watched the movie Let Me In today, and the kid who played Jack’s son also played the bully in that film, so it was kind of funny to see him playing a total jerk who picked on the type of kid he himself was playing here (especially when you consider Jack himself was bullied as a kid). LEVELS, man.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"316"

JANUARY 8, 2011

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 5.6
AIRED: FEBRUARY 18, 2009

While it wasn't exactly a return to 1st season heights, "316" is one of my favorite episodes of the 5th season, thanks to a minimum of time travel (it only occurs when they transfer from the plane to the island), and more importantly - a focus on one character (Jack) in which the story and his personal demons are linked. You know, like the old days.

The key difference is that it's presented in one long "flashback" (it's technically a flashforward through time), something that only Desmond and Michael have been offered so far. The structure keeps most of the island folk off-screen entirely (only Locke's corpse appears, and Jin at the very end), which is fine by me. No time travel and we get to see Jack doing his Jack-thing for the bulk of the hour? Sign me up!

One nitpick I never really thought of before - this all takes place, what, a week after the season 3 finale, where we saw him as a total wreck? Yet he's totally cleaned up (as is his apartment) and functioning normally. I only noticed because Kate is now the one who's all depressed, spending most of the episode crying or hiding behind sunglasses. Their love scene is so damn depressing; as much as I enjoy seeing my lady engaged in bedroom behavior, it's just uncomfortable - maybe they should have just cuddled? Or, if Jack was still all messed up too, it would have been sort of cathartic. Oh well.

Jack undergoes a pretty big transformation as this season continues (and goes full blown in S6), and it really starts here. First with the shoes practically falling in his lap, and then with the suicide note - you can really see that he's starting to buy into this stuff once and for all. One could argue that he felt that way the moment he read Locke died, but I saw this more as a guy at the end of his rope seeing an opportunity to redeem himself, not as a "holy shit, he was right!" moment. It's just a damned shame that the two men never really had another scene together.

And I have to applaud the writers (Lindelof and Cuse in this case) for sticking with Jack despite what seemed like a lot of action occurring elsewhere. It could have easily been another scattered episode, if they showed why Kate was sad, why Sayid was under arrest, why Ben had been beaten to a pulp for the umpteenth time, but they saved all that stuff for later. It's the rare occasion that it seemed they were withholding information not just to keep us coming back, but also to ensure they were providing a focused and just plain GOOD episode of the show.

It also has two of my all time favorite moments from their respective characters. First is Ben's hilarious response (and Michael Emerson's delivery) when Jack asks what will happen to the other people on the plane. It's not only funny because Ben doesn't care, but it's also a good meta-joke - you know there were some people wondering about it, so it was the writers' way of "explaining" that it doesn't matter. I always mock my wife for caring about the person who dies in the opening scene of a horror movie ("Why do you care if they die? You don't even know their name!"), and this is along the same lines - they're just anonymous blurs, and we only have 30 episodes left. There are more pressing matters! I also love that Hurley used his wealth to keep the body count down by buying every available seat. Good on you, Hugo.

The second A+ moment occurs a few minutes later, when Frank sees everyone on the plane and sighs "We're not going to Guam, are we?" I love that he barely knows these folks and is instantly OK with whatever nonsense they're up to - he could have easily turned the plane around before any shit went down. For whatever problems I may have had with the last two seasons, that Frank was still around (I figured he would be killed after 2-3 episodes, initially) made up for some of them. When Desmond was introduced, I was excited, thinking all new characters would be as interesting. Sadly, most weren't, but Frank bucked the trend - just a shame we never got to know too much about him.

All in all, a solid episode of Lost; the type that, when it aired, would rejuvenate my interest for the following week (when more often than not, something would annoy me and make me wish I could just wait for the DVDs or something).

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Something Nice Back Home"

DECEMBER 26, 2010

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 4.10
AIRED: MAY 1, 2008

(Note - I skipped Christmas. Happy Holidays!)

Sometimes I wonder why Lost’s creators were always so hell-bent on awkwardly withholding information from the audience for 30 seconds or so. “Something Nice Back Home”, Jack and Kate are now together, but they try to hide it from us for a few moments, even slightly disguising Kate’s voice when Jack talks to her in the shower. Why go to the trouble? It’s not as annoying as disguising Ben in “The Economist”, but it still seems like a giant waste of limited time.

The episode is actually pretty full of little moments that either delight or irk me. Perhaps it’s because I find the appendix subplot to be insanely pointless that I focus on the details on this one more than usual. For example, there’s a quick scene with Keamy and his men almost catching Sawyer, only for Frank to help ward them off. Good scene, but why are so many of Keamy’s men still alive? Didn’t the smoke monster take these guys out? Leaving Keamy alive is OK (and preferable), but the fact that there are like 3 other guys still up and about and one just injured makes the smoke monster seem incompetent.

I’m also somewhat confused by Jack’s behavior in the episode. Three episodes (so also, three days) ago he kissed Juliet quite passionately, yet here he’s 100% pro-Kate, demanding she be there during his surgery even though he has to know by now how worthless she is in such situations. It’s almost like his flash forwards are warping his mind in the present. “No, I want Kate there, because of the time we had hot sex after I read to Aaron.”

It’s also an episode that could very easily be the cause of a lot of folks’ confusion about “Lost Heaven”. There’s a scene in the flash forward where Hurley posits that they are all dead and in Heaven, because everything is too perfect. Now, that’s pretty much exactly what the flash sideways were about, but this scene really DID happen, as the flash sideways took place in some undetermined, metaphysical future where they were all dead (from old age or whatever). I recently discovered my wife thought all of the flash forwards were part of purgatory, and I’m sure she’s not the only one – this certainly didn’t help my explanation.

But it’s got some great moments too, like Jin’s awesome dressing down of Charlotte. It’s rare Jin got to display his badass side on the island, as it seemed to soften him, so this was a great way to let him be “dark” but still very much sympathetic and heroic. Also, not being a woman, I didn’t know that Daniel liked her either, so that was nice. Likewise, I enjoyed her little (possibly meta) line about “adding it to the list” when there’s a question we never got an answer to.

And since I always complain about the guest stars being spoiled by the credits, I have to admit that the listing of John Terry for a brief appearance near the end worked for once. Because it was a Jack episode (not Claire or whoever), it made sense that he’d be there somewhere, and it was fun trying to figure out how. I’m still not sure about the logistics – we know now he was seen on the island via the smoke monster, who couldn’t leave, so how did he appear to Jack? Guess Jack was just legit seeing things. But also, Claire walks off with “her dad”, which meant we’d be seeing him again soon. I always wished they would add him as a regular on the show. Love that guy.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Through The Looking Glass"

DECEMBER 8, 2010

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 3.22
AIRED: MAY 23, 2007

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit...." - BC, May 23, 2007

After spending most of "Through The Looking Glass" trying to figure out where the "flashbacks" fit into Jack's narrative (and why John Terry wasn't around), it finally dawned on me when I saw the maps in Jack's apartment - this was a flash forward! Jack got off the island! And grew a Tom-esque fake beard!!!

One thing that's always bugged me about Stephen King's writing is that he's constantly "spoiling" things, ending chapters with things like "it would be the last time he had a soda, because he would die that day", several chapters before he actually died. But this potentially crippling revelation actually invigorated the show - we knew by this point that it would run for 3 more seasons, so obviously it wouldn't be as easy as getting on a helicopter and returning home. At the same time, knowing that at least two people made it (the other being Kate) bought them some goodwill - at least we knew there was some semblance of a happy rescue at some point.

Also, knowing it was a glimpse into Jack's future made it more intriguing. We knew he had problems in the past, but he never seemed suicidal, nor was he hooked on pills or driving around listening to lesser Nirvana tracks. I may have issues with Lindelof and Cuse's writing at times, but I got to hand it to them - I can't think of any other form of entertainment where telling you the 'end' halfway through actually made it more interesting.

And it's a good "present day" episode too! I never really believed Jin and the others were dead, but they did a good job of keeping us in suspense about it. Hurley's day-saving was incredible, and while I may not have liked to see Tom bite it so soon, Sawyer's "That's for taking the kid off the raft." is a pretty badass moment (and a totally justified one, if you consider the chain of events that followed).

Actually a lot of folks get some great kick-ass moments; Jack beating the shit out of Ben, Locke stabbing Naomi, Charlie saving Desmond, Sayid breaking that dude's neck... hell even Bernard gets to take out a few others (and Rose telling Jack she'll hit him if he says "Live Together, Die Alone" is friggin hilarious). I also love that Mikhail seemingly gets sick of people failing to kill him and just does the job himself.

Only drawback is that it really kicks off Lost's annoying habit of having its characters stay vague or refuse to answer simple questions in order to make the plot work. Why can't Ben just tell Jack about Widmore? Why can't Walt tell Locke what's going on? It even extends to the flash-forwards - why doesn't that other doctor ever point out to Jack that his father is dead? It would just get worse from here (that the temple, easily the worst concept in the show's run, gets its first mention here is quite fitting).

I also wish they could have structured Charlie's death better, since he very easily could have survived. Even if the water was already rushing in, his act (locking the door and thus keeping Desmond safe) still would have been a bit foolish, but doing it beforehand is just idiotic. Especially in hindsight, since Desmond's vision never came true anyway. Poor Charlie. Died for nothing and never got beyond first base with Claire. Also, lost his ring.

Well that wraps up Season 3. It had a few weak spots but overall I think it was an improvement on S2, mainly based on these last few episodes and a couple knockouts like "Flashes Before Your Eyes". It also wraps up the show's impressive use of its ensemble; from here on out, characters would be wasted, couples would be split apart more or less forever, and with a few exceptions ("The Constant" for one example), the writers would really lose sight of the emotional connections these folks had to one another (and the audience) in favor of excess mythology and sci-fi mumbo jumbo. On the other hand, we get Myles and Lapidus.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Stranger In A Strange Land"

NOVEMBER 26, 2010

FOCUS: JACK('S TATTOOS)
EPISODE: 3.9
AIRED: FEBRUARY 21, 2007

The date that "Stranger In A Strange Land" aired, I was celebrating my 5 year anniversary to my wife (not of being married - of dating). Excellent juxtaposition, then, since while we were celebrating ongoing love and all that good stuff, Lost was airing the episode that threatened to end my (and many others') affection for the series once and for all (luckily, the next episode turned out to be one of my all-time favorites, making everything OK - not sure about everyone else). It's also kind of funny that I already planned to skip watching an episode on Thanksgiving (not a horror movie though!), because I knew I'd be getting backed up on reviews and folks are barely reading this site anyway, so they sure as hell wouldn't be looking on a holiday. And thus I was even happier with this decision when I realized what episode was next - I'd have hated to spend part of my holiday suffering through this shit.

I never knew that this was the episode that prompted ABC to finally set an end date for the show (I just read it now on the Lostpedia entry), so I guess it's got some value after all. Also, if you hate Jack, he gets one of the most savage beatings of the show's history at the end, so that was probably enjoyable on some level. Otherwise though - Jesus Christ. Jack's fucking tattoos. I mean, seriously, who gave a shit to begin with? With all the half-assed and throwaway explanations we got for things that actually mattered, did we really need an entire episode about Jack getting his tattoos? Especially one that skips over the most baffling part of the whole episode - why the hell was he in Thailand to begin with? It's not even entirely clear where this part of his history took place in the timeline - it's post-divorce, apparently, but when did he have the time to up and go to Thailand for a while? Seems like he was always tailing Sarah and butting heads with his dad.

The present day stuff isn't that much better, especially in retrospect. There's some nonsense about Juliet getting "marked" and thus more stuff that makes the Others look like some sort of cult, neither of which are ever explained in any satisfactory way. Plus, they build up the character of Isabel like she's someone important... and then we never see her again. I don't even recall if she's ever mentioned in future episodes.

Really, the only part of this entire "A story" that I like is when Tom brings Jack a sandwich and Jack gets all annoyed that it's not grilled. Tom's odd fondness (attraction?) for Jack is one of those rare things that never really goes anywhere but I like anyway - the scene of them playing football in an upcoming episode is hilarious. It almost seems born more out of Matthew Fox and M.C. Gainey being pals and throwing in some extra business in their scenes together. But I mean, as much as I love the combination of humor and sandwiches, one good scene does not make an episode worth my while.

The Kate and Sawyer story is SLIGHTLY better, because Sawyer gets to make a Jaws reference and he has a nice "father/son" chat with poor Carl, who misses Alex because they used to name stars together. Sawyer's clearly not really doing it because he's a hopeless romantic, but it's an amusing subplot all the same, mainly because Carl is just so damn goofy. But even this stuff is problematic - why do him and Kate bicker so much, a day or two after they made love (and even spooned!)? It just seems kind of out of nowhere.

Perhaps not too unsurprisingly, the writers for this episode are Christina M. Kim and Elizabeth Sarnoff, who also wrote "The Hunting Party" and "The Whole Truth", episodes which were also filled with go-nowhere subplots and stuff that sticks out as "wrong", such as Sun telling Jin she never had an affair in "The Whole Truth" when we find out like 8 episodes later that she did. But at least those episodes (and most of their others) are actually GOOD, overall. This is just a waste of 42 minutes. It was, however, the only episode ever directed by Paris Barclay, so at least there were SOME consequences from this drivel.

And again, fan reaction was apparently so bad that it prompted ABC to decide to schedule an end date, so that Damon/Carlton/etc could make sure that they got to tell their story in its entirety and guaranteeing fans a real ending (as opposed to an abrupt one caused by sudden low ratings), while also inspiring them to get focused knowing exactly how many hours they had left to tell their story, and hopefully not waste time on shit that didn't matter like this. As we all know, it wasn't an entirely successful plan, though as much as I was disappointed by 5 and 6, I never completely lost interest the way I did for say, The X-Files, which ran about 3-4 seasons too long and eventually became something I watched in the background. I always paid attention to you, Lost!

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"A Tale Of Two Cities"

NOVEMBER 17, 2010

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 3.1
AIRED: OCTOBER 4, 2006

Shortly after “A Tale Of Two Cities” aired, I met actor Brett Cullen (Goodwin) in an elevator in Hollywood, and told him how my mind had been blown by the opening scene of the episode, which revealed that the Others actually lived in a little suburban “town” on the island (and that Ben doesn’t like Stephen King, making his earlier reference an ironic joke). He said 'thanks' and then my floor came up so I got off without asking him about his work with Meat Loaf. Oh well.

Anyway, great opener, especially now that I’ve gotten over my initial annoyance that we didn’t see anyone besides Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Give us our Hurley, goddamn you! They could have at least shown him making his way back to camp; it would be better than the pointless escape attempt from Sawyer, who gets tazed by Juliet. Though that little bit kind of made me smile, since this is the first time I had watched the episode since seeing the episodes showing that they eventually hooked up. Since their reunion in the afterlife was one of the few times I was “moved” in the series finale, it was nice to see how it all began: with her shooting him in the neck with electricity. Aww.

I certainly never complained about Kate’s usage in the episode. It’s almost like an apology for the Hurley/Locke/Desmond/etc lackage – she showers, puts on a nice sundress, etc. Good stuff. Oddly, I was reading the Lostpedia entry on the episode, and apparently the scene where Ben offers her breakfast was seen to be a hint at things to come by some fans, and they’d constantly pester Lindelof about it. I never saw it that way at all, personally – it was just a guy who really wasn’t all that evil offering a beautiful woman something to eat. I was never one to really read into every little thing on the show; sometimes I was just happy to enjoy the scenery and action at face value. And I don’t regret it; I’d hate to be one of those psycho fans who come up with elaborate theories for things that just turn out to be honest mistakes by the prop guys.

Hell, I’m such a casual fan that I never even noticed that JJ Abrams actually co-wrote this episode, the first time he had done so since the pilot. I always figured he had no real involvement (despite his listing as a producer) after S1, so this was a sort of surprise. Of course, by now the show had been going on for a while without him, and Lindelof is credited with the story and the other “teleplay” credit, so how much he contributed is unknown to me.

Whoever wrote the scenes with Sarah deserves a smack though – why can’t she just tell Jack the guy’s name? Whatever his failings as a husband may have been, HE LITERALLY PERFORMED A MIRACLE FOR HER. I think that’s earned him a “His name is Phil and he works at an accounting firm” or whatever. I mean, she obviously still cares about him a little if she’s calling his dad and bailing him out of jail, so this plot contrivance has always annoyed me.

They make up for it with the little detail about Christian being sober for 50 days, only for Jack’s behavior to knock him off the wagon again, and seemingly for good. There is no definitive time placed on the episode, but it seems not too long before the crash – after all, if Jack STILL didn’t know the guy’s name it couldn’t have been too long later, and in a general sense it seems like he and Christian were never on good terms again. So while Sawyer bought the drinks, it is indeed, albeit indirectly, Jack’s fault that he drank himself to death. Ouch.

It’s interesting that S3 started and ended with two of the bigger “holy shit” moments in the show’s run, since so much of the season was a lot of forgettable time-wasting. As the creators didn’t know how long the show would run, they were forced to dick around instead of propelling the story forward, and it shows at times. Silver lining though – this meant a lot of focus on the characters, right before they either forgot about or ruined most of them in the following seasons.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"The Hunting Party"

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 2.11
AIRED: JANUARY 18, 2006

Ever notice how like half of all Lost episodes involved some folks grabbing weapons and heading off on some mission? How has this show never been turned into an RPG of some sort? “The Hunting Party” is one of my favorites though, because it’s the rare one with a team of Locke, Jack, and Sawyer (I bet there are some slashfics inspired by this episode), and they encounter one of my favorite others, Tom, aka Mr. Friendly (but for now only known as Zeke). Sure, he has a shitty fake beard and kidnapped Walt, but he’d eventually become one of the most compelling Others – I still laugh when I think about him and Jack playing football. Shame he got killed off so early.

But it’s also a good episode because it has one of the most crucial moments in Jack’s past, something only hinted as thus far: his wife leaving him. And man, it’s such a gut punch of a scene. I mean she just fires on all cylinders – she’s already packed, she’s been cheating on him... hell she doesn’t even want him to help her with the dishes! And you can see that he knows he’s been fucking it up and is trying to make amends, but it’s all for nothing. On the surface it might seem like it has no connection to the Island stuff, but I think the final flashback sums it up perfectly – when she leaves he does nothing to stop her. He’s not going to make the same mistake with Michael, even if it is another lost cause. But more obvious, Jack’s a good guy, and he will always try to do the right thing and help people, even at the expense of his personal life (he basically tosses Kate to the curb, twice, in this episode).

Come to think of it, it’s kind of a bummer episode all around. Jack’s flashback deals not only with the death of his marriage, but the death of the father of a really hot Italian lady who wants Jack to look into her back(side) as well. Even though she kisses him, I’m guessing that in the long run, women tend not to stay with the guys who are involved with the death of their father (take note, AJ Frost). And you can’t help but feel bad for Charlie when he sees Claire and Locke playing with the baby, ignoring him. Even the light moments have a grim side, like when Charlie and Hurley are just chilling listening to records and Sayid comes in and says “This music is depressing”, as if anyone had asked him.

It’s also a bummer as a viewer who has seen every episode, because there at least two plot threads that never go anywhere. One is Walt being “special”, of course, which Tom tells us, just as Brian and Lock have in the past. The other is the final scene, with Jack asking Ana Lucia to train an army. I mean, I remember the final season of Buffy, with her and Faith training an army of Slayers – THAT was an army. What the hell does Ana Lucia ever do?

(Speaking of this scene – what the hell is all over that bottle Jack gives Ana Lucia? It looks like blood or rust or something. They don’t have detergent in the Hatch?)

The confrontation with Zeke/Tom is awesome though. I love his analogy of “coming over someone’s house”, and the idea that they’re there because the Others LET them stay is sort of chilling, even now with the knowledge of the Others’ true intentions (well, some of them – I still don’t get they had Kate put on a sundress and shovel rocks. Unless they’re working to simply appease my prurient interests). Plus, I’m a big fan of actor M.C. Gainey (Swamp Thing!) and was happy to see him get a meaty, multi-dimensional “villain” role, and his work in season 3 (plus season 4’s episode about Michael in NY) were definite highlights for me.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Man Of Science, Man Of Faith"

OCTOBER 25, 2010

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE 2.1
AIRED: SEPTEMBER 21, 2005

As I learned today on the Lostpedia, “Man of Science, Man of Faith” is actually the highest rated episode of Lost ever, attracting around 23 million people (the lowest was a S5 episode with only 8 million viewers. Of course it would be those numbers). I can’t help but wonder: if the episode was a little more satisfying, would that have remained the case? Because while it’s a perfectly good episode in the grand scheme of things, not a lot happens in this, and so some of these new viewer might have been like “this is what I’ve heard about? Screw this!” and then resumed CSI or whatever they found more compelling.

Really, all that happens in this episode is our three main characters go into a hole and meet a guy. We don’t know anything about the raft, or the Others, or why Michelle Rodriquez had been added to the main cast. Future season premieres would follow this mold, unfortunately – the finale would have three cliffhangers, but the premiere would only address one of them. It’s one of those things that made even die hard fans a bit antsy, so it’s easy to see why the numbers started dwindling from here on out.

Even the flashback is anticlimactic. Will Jack make this woman walk again? Um, yes, because already heard the bulk of this story in his last episode, which detailed their wedding. Not that it’s bad – it’s nice to have Sarah’s “I will dance at my wedding” take on a new meaning, and Julie Bown and Matthew Fox have terrific chemistry together (we also get another one of those prized civil moments between Fox and John Terry, with Christian trying to get his son to be a bit more optimistic), but for an opener, it doesn’t really charge out of the gate.

Plus, the biggest revelation (besides that Sarah's accident involved Shannon's dad, something I missed the first time around) is that the guy in the hatch is someone Jack met before, but this moment arrives so late in the episode (and Henry Ian Cusick is too good of an actor to not stick out a bit anyway) that it comes across as a bit clunky. They would have done better to make him more of a presence throughout the flashbacks, so we could just think he was a good actor in a guest turn (like Evan Handler in Hurley’s upcoming “Dave” episode). But it’s near the end of the episode and this guy suddenly takes center stage in Jack’s flashback – of COURSE he’s the guy in the hatch!

I also like the little callbacks to previous episodes (Kate counting as she went down the rope), and I LOVE that Locke sat around waiting for her, because he knew she would come. It’s in this season that we really start to get a sense for how well these people know each other; we feel that they actually have a life outside of the events of an episode. I also love Hurley’s conversation with Jack about his terrible bedside manner. Hurley would become a more fully rounded (pun not intended) character this season, and I couldn’t be happier about that.

One thing I noticed as I watch everything back to back (though yes, you may have noticed I took a day off between S1 and S2 – I’m swamped here! Have you seen my new column at Badass Digest?) – Rose was pretty much completely absent throughout the season. She was never a fulltime cast member, but they usually included her in premiere/finales. However she is nowhere to be found, and I can’t remember if she does appear again until Bernard appears in a few episodes. I’m not sure if L. Scott Caldwell ever got any acting nominations for her role here, but if not she was robbed. I always loved her wonderfully optimistic and yet to the point, no-bullshit missives toward the others. Seriously, was any moment on the show as awesome as when she told them to leave her and Bernard (and Vincent!) alone because they were sick of dealing with all their nonsense? Amazing.

My memories of season 2 are probably my weakest, because it’s been about four years since I watched it. Also, Season 2 is the only one I didn't rewatch before rewatching the season that just came to DVD (usual tradition for DVD was to watch the previous season, i.e. if Season 4 was coming out on DVD, I'd rewatch Season 3 before rewatching Season 4 to prepare for Season 5). So it’ll be fun seeing all of the adventure again with less than fresh memories. I do recall that the season had more action (and sex!) than the others, so that’s good. Also, pretty soon: Ben!

Where are we?

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"Do No Harm"

OCTOBER 19, 2010

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 1.20
AIRED: APRIL 6, 2005

If you don’t like Jack, or Jack episodes, then “Do No Harm” probably pissed you off, since this makes his third (fourth if you count the pilot) while most folks had only gotten one (and Shannon hadn’t even gotten that much!). But I am on team Jack, so I was perfectly OK with it, especially in retrospect, as its one of his few relatively happy episodes, detailing his wedding to Sarah (Julie Bowen, as lovely as always), a stark contrast to the island stuff, where he spent the entire episode making the “Jack-face” as he tried to save Boone (for some reason).

It’s also one of the even fewer (only?) times he and his dad have a nice, conflict-free scene together, sharing a drink and discussing Jack’s inability to pen his vows. It was a bummer for me to watch, since my dad died shortly after I got engaged, so it was the first time since his funeral that it really hit that he wouldn’t be there at my wedding (which was about 3 months from the time this episode aired). Not that we’d share a drink (my dad did not drink! Smoked like a chimney though – hence why he wasn’t with us anymore. Don’t smoke, kids!), but it would have been nice to have him there, obviously. Way to bum me out, Lost.

On that note, I had to laugh at his cutaway during the actual wedding. Jack and Sarah kiss, everyone applauds, Christian smiles... and immediately looks off to the side. My guess – he was planning his route to the bar.

The point of his flashbacks was to illustrate Jack’s inability to let go and fix things, which of course plays a big part in pretty much every decision the guy will make over the next six years. Granted, we’ve already sort of learned this from the other ones, but it’s nice that they found a way to depict it in a rather happy manner, instead of the usual angry outbursts and fighting that permeates most Jack-isodes. And I like that Boone, moments from death and probably in some pretty unbearable pain, had to be the one to tell him not to use the makeshift guillotine to amputate his leg, because Jack refused to listen to Sun or anyone else. Hilariously enough, it had been so long since I had seen the episode that I couldn’t remember if he actually went through it or not, so these scenes were kind of suspenseful all over again.

Speaking of Sun, they never really explored her role as a sort of 2nd doctor on the island, with her herbal remedies and more level-headed approach to things. I wish they had done more with it, though then again I can’t really think of too many extreme situations like this – pretty much everyone else that died on the show died instantly (well, except for Paulo, the poor bastard).

Jack shouts “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” at one point, which is cool but I think sort of premature in the grand scheme of things – it would have been more of a “moment” if we had gotten further into the Jack vs. Locke “war”, one that basically started in this episode. Up until now they had been casual friends/allies, but from here on they would more or less constantly be at odds for some reason or another.

The other big thing is that Claire finally has her baby, despite looking ready to pop when they crashed 40 days ago. It’s a pretty typical TV moment to have a baby delivered in a less than ideal place by a non-doctor (Michael Giacchino’s score basically seems to be mocking it), but it plays well, and it’s worth it for Jin’s reactions to Charlie throughout the process. It’s the first time that Jin has been warm and friendly to another character; even when he’s doing something helpful (like building the raft) he always seems pissed off. Good ol’ Jin and his inexplicably fast-growing hair. I also like the bit where, for once, he communicates with Sun as translator – it’s underplayed, but it's pretty much the first time they’ve really spoken civilly since he found out she spoke English.

And this is the first time I’ve watched the episode since it became a “thing” that Kate would raise Aaron. So that takes on a nice little bit of extra meaning. You can even go deeper – Jack refused to help deliver him, just as he would later shun the chance to have any contact with him (and going even deeper than that – it’s your nephew, dude!). LEVELS, man.

Anyway, RIP Boone. May you appear in several random flashbacks over the next five years.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues"

OCTOBER 1, 2010

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 1.11
AIRED: DECEMBER 8, 2004

Unsurprisingly, Jack was the first character to get a 2nd "centric" episode, even though many characters (Hurley, Michael, Jin...) still hadn't even had one. And the flashbacks in "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" aren't as strongly tied to the island story as previous episodes had been; we learn in the very first flashback that Jack doesn't quit easily, which will factor into the final segment of the episode, but otherwise, the story about him being the worst son in the world has little ties, thematically or otherwise, to the island story, which concerns a rescue mission for Charlie and Claire.

But it's a damn powerful backstory all the same, plus gives us the first interplay between Matthew Fox and John Terry, which would be one of the highlights of the show, in my opinion. Most of their exchanges were strained, but both actors were always on their A-game for these scenes, and despite the abundance of father issues on the show, theirs is the only one that I would consider fully fleshed out. The scene where Christian manipulates Jack into signing the false report by actually complimenting him for once is heartbreaking, and it's just a taste of things to come.

We also learn, or at least get hints, about a number of other characters this week. Hurley alludes to being rich, Kate talks about her father, Locke reveals he works for a box factory, and Boone reveals both the nature of his business (wedding dresses) and his familiarity with Star Trek, which foreshadows stuff both on-show (his death) and off (JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof being part of the team that resurrected Trek's big screen franchise, 5 years later).

The hatch also makes its first appearance, which seems kind of early now that I think about it, since it would take the rest of the season (we're not even halfway through it) to open the goddamn thing. What gives, Locke? Locke also begins to display his animosity towards Jack this week, looking about 2 seconds away from kicking his ass throughout most of their scenes together. But he's typical Locke with Boone, showing off his uncanny "Island" skills (predicting the rain) and making odd, dry jokes. And his response to the "red shirt" phenomenon is classic in every way shape and form.

Oh and Charlie dies for a little bit, only for Jack to pull an Abyss and beat the piss out of him until he resuscitates. It's a great sequence - Kate's reaction is still pretty gut-wrenching, even when I know he'll be OK for another 60 or so episodes. Plus, Lost was the rare show where I never really believed anyone was safe (besides Jack and Kate), so scenes like this worked perfectly the first time around. As anyone who reads Horror Movie A Day knows, I am very critical of movies that constantly put people in danger when we know they can't die, so those rare occasions that it works (i.e. I'm not sure if they will make it) are truly appreciated.

No unanswered questions this week, unless you count Walt's suspicious "luck" at backgammon as another sign of his "special"-ness, which of course we never got an answer for. However, according to the Lost wikipedia, the show takes place on their 16th day on the island, which means if I had stuck to my initial plan (to watch each episode on the date it took place), I wouldn't be watching this one until October 8th. Maybe I should take that approach after all - October's already in full swing, and finding time for this plus a daily horror movie is just going to get harder.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"White Rabbit"

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

FOCUS: JACK
EPISODE: 1.5
AIRED: OCTOBER 20, 2004

I never noticed, but the actor playing Jack's dad in "Walkabout" was clearly not John Terry. "White Rabbit" was the actor's first appearance on the show, and over time he'd come to be one of the show's most interesting supporting characters, popping up in just about every Jack episode and even in a few others. Just about every character on the show had father issues of some sort (Michael being one exception, because he himself was a dad), but none of the others came as close to being full fledged regulars as Christian Shephard (how did it take them 6 seasons to finally make a joke about this name?).

Of course, here he's just a ghost, we only see him as a living character in the opening flashback, when he gives the least encouraging father-son talk of all time (it practically makes "It should have been you" from Stand By Me look loving), and then it's a kid playing young Jack. Matthew Fox and Terry had terrific chemistry, but it wouldn't be exploited until future episodes came along. But like the last few episodes, it sets up another character mystery (why him and Jack weren't speaking), and explaining how Jack ended up on the plane.

What it DOESN'T explain is where the body goes, and I can't remember if we ever got a satisfying answer for that. (SERIES SPOILERS!) We saw Locke's body even when he became a ghost/monster/whatever, but did we ever see Christian's? Part of the problem with season 6 is that it became so uninvolving with regards to the characters, I think I started missing minor reveals in the later half of the season, because I'd be too busy tweeting "Where the hell is Desmond?" or something.

One interesting thing about this episode is that for the most part it seems like Jack is truly thinking about these events in his life as they flash back (most of which are sans the "whorrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmm" sound). I remember it was a debate among fans at first, though after a while it didn't matter (especially once they started doing flash-forwards). But here, we see Jack "snap out" of his flashbacks on a couple occasions, and the final one, detailing when he identified his father's body at the morgue, resulted in him breaking down and crying on the island. I can't remember too many other instances of this precise tie between the island and the flashback stories.

As for the island stuff, they were still going out of their way to include every character, even if they weren't up to anything interesting or involved in the main "B-story", which in this case was the disappearance of their few remaining bottles of water (note: fellow geek phenomenon Battlestar Galactica had an early episode revolving around the need for water, and it remained one of the series' all time best hours). So you get a nice little moment with Walt using the "toothpaste" that Sun showed him, or a rare instance of Sawyer actually explaining one of his nicknames (I wish that had continued throughout the show; he called Jack "Dr Giggles" at one point. "It was a slasher movie from 1992 with the guy from LA Law!").

They also finally start to turn Locke into his actual character. After he saves Jack (the first of the episode's two fairly annoying conveniences), the two have a nice talk, and Locke delivers the first of what will be 116 "The island is special" speeches, instead of just being creepy for no reason. One of the things I hated about the way Locke's character was "resolved" was that he and Jack never got to repair their friendship face to face; it was just a bunch of "Now that the other guy is gone maybe he was right" type things, so it's nice to go back to when the men had a bond.

The other annoyance was Jack finding the cave. Perhaps it's just the way that the show was edited, but it seems like he was camped about 17 feet away from it. It's like in Halloween when Loomis sees his/Michael's car across the street after waiting around all night and never noticing. Of course, there is a very strong "Everything happens for a reason" theme on the show (the words are actually said in this episode, in fact), but these two things seemed more like convenient "let's move things along" writing than any sort of mystical/thematic occurrence. The distance between locations would continue to be a problem on the show, with people taking longer/shorter a time to get from A to B depending on the needs of the show. It may be nitpicky, but this is the double-edged sword of writing great characters - you start to buy in the reality of everything. I never cared much on 24 that everything was never more than 5 minutes away or no one went to the bathroom - the characters/story were so ludicrous to begin with, it seemingly existed in some sort of fantasy world anyway.

I haven't mentioned Michael Giacchino's score yet, and this is a good place to start, as this episode has the first appearance of the melancholy "Life and Death" theme that usually accompanies someone dying or other sort of emotional scenes. It's one of the finest pieces of music I've ever heard on a TV show (this is the first show where I've actually sought to obtain a score CD), and using it over an already sad scene would practically guarantee the rare opening of BC Waterworks, Inc. Hence, I put it below in lieu of my usual obscure video related to the episode title.

Oh, and this one introduces "Live together, die alone", an overused and eventually mocked mantra of Jack's. But those who stuck with the show til the end can now look at it as a sort of foreshadowing. Chalk another up for the "they had it planned all along" team.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...

"Pilot" (Part 1 and 2)

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

FOCUS: CHARLIE, JACK, KATE
EPISODE: 1.1, 1.2
AIRED: SEPTEMBER 22/29, 2004

When Lost premiered, I didn’t have DVR or Tivo. I was still using VHS and the ever tricky “timer”, which caused many a panicked “Did I shut the VCR off? Did I cue the tape up to the right spot?” moments in my life (we didn’t have Hulu back then either). And I can’t remember what it was, but I was already taping something else the night Lost premiered, so I had to watch it live. By the end of the hour, I knew this was going to be a show I ALWAYS watched live, or as close to it as possible.

Because I watch a lot of shows, and some just sort of get left behind, caught up during the summer season (I just finished 24 like, last month). But Lost is the exception – throughout its 6 year run, I never went more than a couple hours after it aired without watching it. If something came up and I had to be out late, I’d watch it when I got home, even if it was 2 am and I had to be up at 7. There were two reasons for this. One – it was a show built on revelations that folks could spoil on the internet. I remember during season 3, a major death was spoiled by someone on the East coast, as I was on the West before it aired. That’s not cool.

But the main reason is, the show was just too damn good, and I didn’t want to wait for the new episode any longer than I had to – it would be like opening your gifts on December 27th, as far as I was concerned. And re-watching the two part pilot just reminded me of that all over again. I hadn’t seen it since the days leading up to Season 3 (I would always re-watch the previous two seasons whenever one was about to begin), and while I could have made the same point then, it’s even more relevant now: the pilot is almost remarkably simple when you think about the show as a whole, and it got so much right that other serialized shows got wrong.

The pilot is fascinating by virtue of how much ISN’T in it. No Ben or Juliet, hell, no Others, period! No time travel. No Desmond (boo!), no hatches, no Dharma, no convenient stockpiles of food or fully developed neighborhoods, nothing. Just 48 people and some plane wreckage, for the most part. So many of the serialized shows that came after Lost made the fatal mistake of introducing all of its mysteries right up front, giving you too much to process and too little reason to care. But Lindelof/Carlton (and Abrams, I guess) knew that in order for anyone to stick around for the long haul, they needed to care about the folks at the center of the story. The debate over whether or not they had the whole show planned from the start will go on forever, but we can probably all agree that they never intended to have 5-6 seasons of folks on an island simply trying to survive until rescue comes.

Yet, in the pilot, we are only given brief tastes of that sort of stuff. The monster eating the pilot (which I still don’t get, in the long run, the smoke monster didn’t usually just kill folks at random), the French broadcast, and the goddamn polar bear are the only “big story” things in the two-part pilot. Just quick tastes and hints - nothing that ever overshadows the always compelling “desert island” scenario. And for every “sci-fi” type moment, there are about 5 that are nothing but character development. Sure, the scene with the polar bear is pretty bad ass, but the scene where Hurley gives Claire some airplane food, and then gives her an extra for her baby, is the type of stuff that got people to love the show.

And they were terrific at setting up character mysteries without them being too distracting. Sawyer reading the letter, Jin and Sun’s volatile relationship, etc – these are small moments that help you realize that understanding the truth about these folks is just as, if not more, interesting than anything involving polar bears. The one exception is Locke, who is just too creepy in these episodes. I suppose it can be chalked up to him just being weirded out by having the use of his legs again, but these moments just don’t feel right to me. Especially in contrast to folks like Hurley or Jack, who already had their characters down pat. Of course, I think Locke was the most mangled character over the show’s run, but we will discuss that more when it starts to become relevant. Otherwise, another amazing thing about the show is how little it suffers from the usual pilot problems, such as different looks for the characters, clunky exposition, or a focus on things that ultimately aren’t embraced by the audience and thus phased out. It’s not just a pilot, it’s a great episode of Lost – that’s not something you can say about too many shows (Community comes to mind – the pilot of that show is borderline painful at times, and almost every character is completely different than the one they ended up being).

Even without all of the “looking at it now...” type stuff making it interesting, it’s simply an amazing pilot episode, yet to be topped in my opinion. The opening post-crash stuff is as riveting as anything that was ever on ER, and the journeys around the island (transceiver, high ground for the signal) are exciting in all the right ways – there’s a sense of adventure, some tension/suspense, and a lot of character building – I love the bit where Kate’s trying to get Jack as impressed as she is about Charlie being in Driveshaft, and Jack’s just like “What? Whatever, can we go?” There’s also a great deal of humor, and even that reveals character (Shannon explaining why she doesn’t know French). This show characterizes 12-15 people in one episode better than most shows do with half that number over an entire season.

One thing I never really noticed before was that Jack was barely in the 2nd half of the pilot (possibly leftover from the fact that he was originally going to die, at the hands of Smokey if memory serves). It’s an ensemble show through and through, but Jack was always sort of the main character (him and Kate appeared in the most episodes, whereas folks like Jin or Desmond would disappear for 4-5 episodes at a time), and there aren’t too many hour long episodes in this first season that he wasn’t a significant driving force behind the island stories, even if the flashbacks were about someone else. But the 2nd half is mostly about the folks going off with the radio, and he’s not in their number.

Kate is, however, and I guess I should get this out of the way in case I haven’t made it clear over on HMAD or twitter – I think Evangeline Lilly is the most beautiful actress in the world, and I was smitten almost instantly with her (despite that horrid orange shirt). It’s funny how often I’d read about people hating Kate, and I was never sure if I just disagreed for real or if I was just mentally blocking any potential issues I might have with the character because she was played by someone I found so alluring. One thing I’ll definitely be doing with this “re-view” is trying to look at her character more objectively to see if she really was a weak link of sorts.

Another thing I will be doing is pointing out mysteries that were never really solved in any satisfying way. I can let the goddamn sneaker slide, but I’m still sort of baffled how Jack got that far away from the plane, in thick brush, without his seat (we see that he is buckled in during the crash) and with almost no signs of injury. Plus Rose was right next to him on the plane (and Locke right behind her), but they both were on the beach. This is the sort of thing that probably didn’t help when the finale came around and lots of unintelligent people thought they were dead the whole time.

Also the fact that the comic book seemed to mirror some of the island events, I don’t recall any explanation for. But then again my memory is shit, so if I think something went unsolved, and it didn’t, please let me know!

The biggest thing I took away from the pilot was how much I am going to miss this show, and more importantly, how much I miss what it used to be – simple, centered on character, and not disappointing. Every season had a couple of clunkers, but I never was disappointed by a season as a whole until the last 2, which I thought spent too much time on things that didn’t matter (S5 – 1977, S6 – The Temple) and lost sight of (or just plain ruined) too many characters. I didn’t hate the finale like many did, but I definitely had problems with it. But this pilot? It’s friggin perfect.

Where are we?

PLEASE, GO ON...