Summary: In flashbacks, Desmond is discharged from prison and meets with Charles Widmore who doesn't want him to talk with his daughter Penny anymore. Desmond decides to do a race around the world to win Widmore's respect to get Penny. He ends up on the island and meets Kelvin. Desmond learns from Kelvin that the button is to discharge intense electromagnetism but that there is a failsafe to blow it all up instead. After two years, Desmond discovers Kelvin was lying to him and accidentally kills him in an argument. Desmond misses the button counting down and a system failure occurs but it is aborted. This ends up causing the Flight 815 crash. On the island, Desmond is the man in the boat. Sayid comes up with a plan where he, Jin and Sun take the boat to the camp while Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley follow Michael through the jungle. After engaging in a fight with some of the others who followed them, Jack reveals to everyone that Michael is lying and they continue. However, Michael leads them into a trap. Sayid raids the camp but finds nobody there, and Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley are captured in an ambush. Michael is given a boat and leaves the island with Walt. Hurley is sent back to the camp, and the remaining 3 are taken by the others. Meanwhile, Locke tells Desmond that the button is just an experiment and they lock Eko out of the computer room with a lockdown. Desmond realizes that the button is actually real but Locke doesn't believe him and breaks the computer. The timer runs down and the hatch starts to destroy itself. Desmond desperately goes to the failsafe and turns the key. Elsewhere, two people detect an electromagnetic anomaly and inform Penny that they finally found it.
The Good: Similar to "Exodus", this was an epic finale that concludes the season's stories with a bang, completely changing the landscape of the show for the next season. There were tons of major events and reveals in this episode, and it was a blast to watch the entire time. Though the episode was a season finale, it was still a character-centric episode. I think it actually worked quite well as Desmond was a good character to center on for such a big episode considering how we knew nothing about him and that his story ties directly into the history of the hatch. As expected with "Lost", the show gave Desmond a surprising amount of depth, and we learn a lot about him in this episode. Back in "Orientation" we saw a picture of Desmond with another girl, who we can only assume that he was in a relationship with. Now we learn a little bit about that relationship. The episode is subtle with the details of their story, and from what I can determine, Desmond left her out of fear and ended up in prison after disobeying orders in the army. He wrote to her frequently, but Penny's father Widmore hates Desmond and intercepted his letters. To prove to Widmore that he is worthy, Desmond took the race around the world but tragically ended up on the island, away from the woman he loved. It's a sad story, but also a good one that leaves room for further exploration in future episodes. I think the writing really made this story stand out. The writers used clever tricks to tell us this story, relying on character dynamics and emotions to tell us the story rather than giving us major exposition dumps. It's an expertly crafted story and it's clear that a lot of thought was put into writing this. Once Desmond reaches the island, the story takes a big turn. We meet Kelvin, who is a surprisingly familiar face (see: The Unknown), and he provides us tons of interesting answers. We learn the history of the blast door map, the nature of the hatch, and more hints about what the sickness actually is. His scenes with Desmond are quite good, and it becomes easy to understand why Desmond is so hysterical in the present, having been trapped in this little world for so long with a man who he learned was lying mere moments before his death. Desmond's life was a misery without any purpose, filled to the brim with unanswered questions to drive him insane. That scene near the end where Desmond finally snaps after reading the letter from Penny was extremely powerful and gave the episode the emotional heart is needed (see: Best Moment). In the present, the hatch storyline was superbly done. There was tension from the conflict between Locke and Eko. The return of the dynamite was a good way to build some unpredictability, and Charlie's involvement was also intriguing even if it didn't amount to much (see: The Bad). The closer the countdown got to zero, the more intense things seemed to get. Once Eko knocked himself out, Desmond began to get doubts and tension came from that. We get two very strong hints that The Pearl was the real psychological experiment, and that added to the sense of building dread as Locke forced Desmond to wait until zero, even going as far as to break the computer. The moment where the timer reached zero was fantastic. The direction was superb as we got to see everything falling apart while Locke reacts in a stunned panic, realizing that he was wrong. The turn of the key at the end was a dramatic moment that the show nicely transformed into an emotional moment as well, turning it from a great scene into something even better. This was a pretty tricky story to execute. Had Locke's motives not been understandable for all of this, that would have destroyed the credibility and believability of what we were watching. But I was quite impressed with how well Locke's turn had been handled in the past few episodes. This episode gave us some surprisingly poignant moments with Locke. First we get to see him tearing up in the jungle after he gets hit and scolded by Eko which is a small but effective moment to show us Locke's headspace. Then later we get a brilliant speech from Locke as he reveals to Desmond how the island had betrayed him, reflecting on Boone's death and how much it had shaken him. The speech was wonderful, and it recapped the sadness of Locke's story effectively. The episode gave us some big answers to long-running mysteries, and all of them were quite satisfying. We learn that the button is real and that it's used to disperse electromagnetism which charges to an extreme degree every 108 minutes. The incident was an electromagnetic leak which likely did a lot of damage. Everything isn't crystal clear, but these are effective answers that fit with everything we have learned so far. On top of that, we also get an unexpected reveal that Desmond actually crashed Flight 815 with a burst of electromagnetism from the hatch. I don't think very many people were wondering why the plane crashed, but "Lost" went the extra mile to impress us by answering a question we didn't know that we had to ask. The other half of the episode saw a trek across the island, which is becoming a signature for "Lost". The trek was filled with drama considering that only Jack and Michael were aware that there was something deeper going on. This resulted in a large amount of tension which culminated in a brilliant scene where Jack puts Michael on the spot and gets him to confess to what he did. That scene was superb. Everybody acted tremendously, and Harold Perrineau continued to impress me as he embodies Michael's guilt in a near-perfect way. I really appreciated Hurley calling Michael out on his claims that killing Libby was an accident, and Michael's response to all of this was tremendous. All he can say is "it's my son", a feeble attempt to justify what he did as the right thing, not only to the others but to himself as well. The Bad: I have a few griped with this. The biggest problem with this episode, and perhaps even the season itself, is Charlie. Charlie is impossible to like in this episode. He relishes in Locke pain and never seems to have anything nice to say to anybody. That may be acceptable if the writers want him to be a character we detest, but seeing that Charlie kisses Claire at the end of the episode, I don't think that's the case. The last scene with Claire was really bad. Charlie doesn't seem to care whatsoever that Eko, Desmond and Locke may be dead, and he makes no effort to help them. He doesn't even tell anybody what went down in the hatch! It's so unbelievable that he would do this, and his sarcastic replies to Claire are more frustrating than charming. The character has done nothing to deserve the kiss he gets at the end of the episode, and I can't help but feel that the writers have turned a rather simple redemption story into something nearly unwatchable because it makes little sense and completely destroys a character who I really liked in season 1. There are some holes in Michael's plan. The others never communicated to him that he should be taking Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley to anywhere other than the camp he visited. That's a big hole, and it made the dramatic ambush mean less since the writer's fingerprints are all over the episode in order to set up that scene. I was also confused by Sayid charging into the others' camp all alone. What would he have done if people were actually there? There's no way he could fight them all by himself. There are also some inconsistencies with the planning from the others. It looks like Henry is some kind of a leader among them. If that's the case, then why has he allowed to be captured by Rousseau? Also, a major issue for Michael was getting Hurley to join the trek, especially since he isn't a fighter. This is pretty much what allowed Sayid to determine that Michael was lying to begin with, since Sayid couldn't come along. Yet the others inexplicably let Hurley go back to the camp. SO why did Michael need to bring him specifically? Bringing Sayid could have been way easier and he would have served the same purpose! The Unknown: Libby appears in Desmond's flashbacks. Is there still more to learn about her and her dead husband? What's with the bird that shouted Hurley's name? What is that four-toed statue? Who built it? What destroyed it? Michael is apparently only able to leave the island at a specific bearing. How is this possible? Why is this the only way to leave the island? How are the others aware of this? Was the Dharma sickness fabricated by Kelvin somehow? He seems to be completely aware that it isn't real but he still tricks Desmond into believing that it is. Is Henry the leader of the others? He seems to be in command of everybody else. We also learn the names of "Zeke" and "Miss Klugh" as Tom and Bea respectively. Is there any significance to the others hiding their true names? What happened when Desmond turned the failsafe key? Why did the sky turn purple? What happened to the hatch? What happened to Locke, Desmond and Eko? Are they still alive? Very interesting ending scene. Is Penny aware of the island's existence? How? Is she looking for it because she knows Desmond is there? Will we be seeing her next season? Best Moment: Following Kelvin's death, Desmond realizes there is no purpose in his existence and he contemplates killing himself. But at his lowest moment, he finds a letter from Penny encouraging to keep fighting so they can be together again. Now unsure of what to do, Desmond panics and has a complete breakdown. Henry Ian Cusick is brilliant in the scene and makes it remarkably easy to sympathize with Desmond. Then we get to see Locke at his lowest moment as well, and unknowingly both of them give each other the hope to keep pushing on. It's a beautiful message, and the scene ends on an optimistic note. Then we cut to the present where Desmond tells Locke this story and decides to repay Locke by saving his life. That's fantastic writing, and it makes me connect a lot more to the characters. Character of the Episode: Desmond. Conclusion: This was excellent stuff. A huge episode to end the season in a memorable way while also including some new mysteries and big cliffhangers to pave the foundation for season 3. This is everything I want to see in a season finale, and then some. This season has been rough for "Lost", but at least the show found its groove eventually. The first half was very inconsistent, with plenty of disappointing episodes saved by a few outliers that included some of the best episodes of the entire series. But thankfully, the second half found some consistency, and while the writing was still a little awkward at times, I was hit by the same emotional magic that "Lost" had mastered in season 1. This season took the show in a new direction with an emphasis on plot development, but the characters still managed to shine in several episodes, including this brilliant season finale. But I still feel that this season pales in comparison to season 1, which I think is one of the greatest TV seasons of all time. This season is still very good and at times excellent, but there's no denying that it is a step down in quality. I look forward to season 3, and I hope that we get a more consistent season that can balance plot and characters in a more effective way. Score: 83
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Summary: Flashbacks show Michael going after the others. He is captured and taken to a small camp where he is broken by a brief meeting with Walt. The others send him back to free Henry and to bring them Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. In the present, Michael tries to get Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley to attack the others, but everyone decides to have a funeral first. Sawyer invites Sayid on the trip so Michael goes to him and tells him not to come. At the funeral, Sayid tells Jack that he suspects that Michael is lying, and suggests that they play along for now. Meanwhile, Charlie learns that Eko is no longer working on the church. He tries to work alone and accidentally stumbles upon the heroin which he throws into the ocean. At the end of the episode, a boat appears off the coast of the island.
The Good: Harold Perrineau carries this episode. His performance is incredible and he gives it his all to make Michael somewhat sympathetic, an impressive feat considering that he just murdered two people in cold blood. This episode does a great job of making us understand why Michael did what he did. We learn that he wasn't brainwashed; he did everything of his own accord, and the reason he did so is presented simply, but effectively through an outstanding scene with Walt (see: Best Moment). Outside of Michael's story, this is good if unspectacular set-up for the season finale. The tensions in the camp develop organically to prepare for another epic trek across the island in order to get Walt back. The ending cliffhanger is very interesting, and I'm curious to see who is on the boat and what it means for the story (see: The Unknown). The flashbacks were some of the most interesting parts of the episode. The others were portrayed just as mysteriously as ever and I was fascinated by the little tidbits that we learned about them. The others are very cunning, and the ambush to capture Michael was clever and intimidating. Their interrogation of him was very interesting. Miss Klugh's questions for Michael intrigued me and it seems like these people are much more interested in science and experimentation than any kind of physical torture, recruitment or whatever else that has been theorized. There were a few moments that I really liked. Eko's speech about the boy and the dog was a signature Eko moment. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje plays the role with such charisma that every scene with him becomes must-see. I also liked that Claire was momentarily afraid of Charlie's claims that he tried the vaccines, considering his history as an addict. I was very happy with Sayid being able to see through Michael's crap and determining that something was up. Locke being able to walk again after such a short time was also quite nice. The Bad: Some things didn't work in the episode. I was surprised that Jack agreed to let Michael decide who went on the trek. Jack has always been overly emotional and often insists on being in control of things, so I expected that he would have wanted to make some suggestions. The fact that he was alright with Hurley going with them is quite baffling. Hurley doesn't even know how to use a gun! And he's also proven to be squeamish (Tabula Rasa) and fearful of violence (Exodus). Why would anybody want to take him to go kill people? Charlie throwing away the heroin was a wasted moment. It feels too late for him to pass up on the heroin as his character has already been sabotaged by poor writing and questionable behaviour. The moment doesn't have the weight that it would have had if Charlie had been giving a better story. This simply felt like a hollow attempt to course-correct a character who had been badly mishandled. It's a small detail, but the location where Michael had a brief gunfight with the others doesn't match up with the location in "The Hunting Party". It's a small thing, but it did bother me. The Unknown: Why do the others want Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley specifically? Does it have something to do with them assorting people as good or bad? Miss Klugh mentions that Walt was apparently appearing in places he wasn't supposed to be. Does this have something to do with Shannon randomly seeing Walt earlier this season? What tests are the others doing on him? What are the others pretending to do? Does this have something to do with those fake beards that Kate found? Also what is the room that Miss Klugh threatened Walt with? Who is on that boat? Is it the others? Could it be Desmond? Or another group of people who have discovered the island? Best Moment: The others allow Walt to speak with Michael, albeit briefly and the relief in Michael's eyes is palpable. But then Walt has to be taken away from Michael again and we get to see the panic set in as Michael is forced to watch, helpless, as the other take his son away from him once again. And it breaks him. Michael breaks down into tears and submits to the others, willing to do whatever it takes so that he wouldn't have to look at himself as a failure of a parent anymore. It's a really sad scene that is acted brilliantly, and it allows us to sympathize with Michael. Character of the Episode: Michael. Conclusion: This was a solid enough set-up episode elevated by Harold Perrineau pouring his heart out to make Michael sympathetic. Score: 68 Summary: In flashbacks, Eko is sent by the church to investigate a miracle he doesn't believe. A girl, Charlotte has apparently come back to life, but her father, Richard Malkin, denies that it happened. Charlotte reaches out to Eko and tells him that Yemi left a message for him and that they will see each other soon. On the island, Eko dreams of Ana Lucia who tells him to get Locke to take him to the question mark. Eko arrives at the hatch and leaves with Locke to track Henry. Michael tells a story that Henry escaped and shot them all. However, Libby is still alive and Jack tries to treat her. Hurley learns what happened to Libby and comes to the hatch. Libby eventually dies. Meanwhile, Locke has a dream showing him where to go next. He and Eko find the question mark underneath the Beechcraft. They find a hatch and discover another Dharma station, The Pearl. They watch an orientation video explaining that the button is apparently a psychological experiment. This shatters Locke's faith and he angrily lashes out, but Eko decides that he is going to start pushing the button now.
The Good: This was a true return to form for "Lost". This season has had its moments and I've been entertained during most episodes, but it never seemed to threaten the consistently jawdropping storytelling of season 1 until now. Now we've had a stretch of strong episodes which have built up to this one, which develops the mythology and advances characters in a brilliant and organic way, making me feel the same sense of wonder that I felt while watching season 1. Dreams have been badly misused this season, becoming meaningless (like in "Everybody Hates Hugo" and "Fire + Water"). Thankfully, that changed in this episode and the mystique of dreams has returned as the island seemingly guides Eko and Locke throughout this episode by sending dreams, just like in "Deus Ex Machina", one of the best episodes of the show. This episode takes a lot of inspiration from "Deus Ex Machina" and I think that's one of the reasons that it is so fantastic. It's so refreshing to see an episode that feels so important, and the narrative is given a driving force through the use of dreams. The character arcs of Eko and Locke become intercut in this episode, and seeing the contrast between them makes for incredible television. Eko is now in the position Locke was in back in season 1. He's the optimistic believer while Locke is the disappointed skeptic. I greatly enjoyed their interactions, and I thought that the advancement of their journey was a joy to watch. I especially liked their wildly different reactions to the orientation video, showcasing how each character is on a different journey, taking different meanings from what the island shows them. Eko's arc is the main focus of the episode, and it's a joy to behold. In the flashbacks we learn that while Eko has taken over Yemi's line of work out of guilt, he isn't truly a believer. He doesn't have the faith nor the passion to be a priest. But Charlotte delivers him a message from Yemi which evidently sways Eko a little bit. And so when Eko lands on the island and actually finds Yemi in the plane (this plot also brilliantly explains why Eko seemed so unhinged when Claire showed him the Virgin Mary statue), he truly starts to believe. And so Eko takes instructions from the island without question, and his faith holds strong throughout the episode as he forces Locke to come with him in an attempt to get him to find his way again. Locke on the other hand, has a completely different story. Fresh off of yet another failure which resulted in the deaths of two people, Locke is bitter, upset and completely unwilling to go anywhere with Eko. He is more shaken and lost than he has ever been. But when the possibility of his faith being rewarded presents itself, Locke begins to believe again and it's wonderful to see. From Locke standing eagerly while Eko climbed to him wanting to open the hatch himself, it's easy to see that Locke is beginning to feel that he can believe again. But that all get snuffed out when he watches that orientation video which seems to confirm that everything he had been doing so far was pointless. It's sad to see Locke slowly realize that everything was for nothing, and his disappointment and anger following that is completely understandable. I've been critical about Locke's character arc earlier in the season and my complaints still stand strong, but I have to admit that the show has recovered his story in an outstanding way. Once again, Locke has become one of the show's most compelling characters. It was lovely to get some answers in this episode. The ? was brought up a few episodes ago, and now we get to see what it is. Like in "Maternity Leave", it was very fun to explore a brand new Dharma station just because of the possibilities of what could be found in there. The orientation video was a lovely surprise that deepened the mystery of the island. (see: The Unknown). The story in the hatch was pretty solid as well. Libby's death was suitably sad, as was Hurley's guilt over forgetting the blankets. I was pleased with Jack finding a way to determine the location of the guns by sending Kate with Sawyer to get the heroin. Sawyer hiding the guns in his own tent was a fittingly clever move from him and I liked the reveal. The Bad: Unfortunately, the storyline of Sawyer getting the guns led absolutely nowhere. There were a few filler B-plots showing Sawyer being an asshole, but that's all the pay-off we got from that exciting ending to "The Long Con". That's quite disappointing. Libby waking up and having some dramatic final words felt needlessly melodramatic. Showing some restraint and having her die quietly while unconscious would have been a much more powerful moment. It seems strange that Jack wouldn't question Eko's choice to take a man on crutches to go after Henry. The Unknown: So Richard Malkin is apparently a fraud. Should we believe him? If the show is simply confirming that Malkin was a fake all along, that is quite a disappointing answer especially seeing how desperate he was to get Claire to raise her baby. Could it be that he was a fraud that unexpectedly had a legitimate vision which promptly scared him? I do hope that we get to see more of Malkin so we can learn more about what happened. Where are the Dharma headquarters that the notebooks were being sent to? Is anybody still there to receive Locke's note? The Pearl is apparently a psychological station. What are all of the TVs for? Do they all show various parts of The Swan? Is the button actually real or is it all just a psychological experiment? Could it be that Dharma simply created a psychological experiment out of a job they actually needed to do? Does the button actually do anything? Why does Marvin Candle have a different name in this orientation video? Best Moment: Eko and Locke's differing reactions to the orientation video were amazing. Locke is angry and lets out his rage in an incredible way. Whereas Eko takes the video as reaffirmation of his faith and he tells Locke his entire story. Eko's speech is such a wonderful moment for the character, and his decision to push the button himself was great. Character of the Episode: Eko, though Locke is a very close second. Conclusion: What an episode. I've been very critical of this season so far despite it still offering very good television regularly because it feels like a big step down from season 1. But this episode makes it feel like going through the rough patches of the season was well worth it. There are still brilliant stories to be told, and this episode makes it clear that "Lost" hasn't forgotten what made it so good to begin with. Score: 82 Summary: In flashbacks, Ana goes to Australia after her mother figures out that she murdered Jason. Ana meets Christian who is in a pathetic state. Ana initially agrees to be his bodyguard, but leaves him after realizing how toxic his behaviour is. She decides to go back home. On the island, Ana tries to get more answers from Henry who attacks her. Locke knocks him out. Ana goes to Sawyer in an attempt to get a gun. Sawyer refuses but Ana has sex with him and steals his gun. Jack and Kate bring Michael back to the hatch. He wakes up and tells them that the others are extremely unprepared and that they need to fight. Jack, Locke and Kate go to Sawyer to get back the guns, leaving Ana and Michael in the hatch alone with Henry. Ana tries to kill Henry but realizes that she's unable to do it. She gives the gun to Michael who kills her and Libby before freeing Henry and shooting himself in the shoulder. Hurley had set up a picnic with Libby who had gone to the hatch to get blankets.
The Good: What a fantastic ending. The show just delivered an incredible cliffhanger that left me speechless. I was legitimately stunned when Michael shot Ana Lucia, and then Libby's death immediately afterwards was even more shocking. I think that this was the biggest scene of the show so far that completely changed the direction that the show was heading in. A sense of grandeur doesn't necessarily guarantee an awesome scene however. The execution of the scene is half of the battle, and I'm pleased to say that this was done perfectly. Harold Perrineau did a spectacular job of conveying Michael's emotions as he worked up the courage to kill Ana Lucia, and then afterwards when he started feeling the guilt of what he just did. The directing was also top-notch. The shots and camera angles were done perfectly, and the lack of music made the scene carry much more weight. Before that ending, this episode was all about Ana Lucia, and it told two very compelling stories in the past and present that see Ana grow as a character and change her behaviour for the better. It's quite sad that she dies immediately after we see her resolve her inner conflict. On the island, her storyline mirrors the flashbacks we saw in "Collision". Courtesy of the flashbacks in this episode, we see the negative consequences that revenge murder had on Ana Lucia's life. Her murder of Jason, and also her murder of Shannon on the island, drove a wedge between her and everyone else she knew. She became distant and lost herself by denying any help. Now when she's given a chance to kill again, she doesn't make the same mistake twice and overcomes one of her biggest character flaws. It's a lovely bit of storytelling, and it's so easy to sympathize with Ana here when she realizes that she isn't the person she thought she was. In the flashbacks we get a similarly effective story. After killing Jason, Ana runs away from her problems by going to Australia and drinking. When she's there, we get another surprise appearance as she meets Christian who gives her a reason not to stay in Australia, lest she become as miserable and pathetic as he is. Seeing his sorry state, Ana decides to go back and fix her life, calling her mother and righting the wrongs she had done. The phone call with her mother was a very powerful scene, and the fact that this scene precedes Ana's emotional speech to Michael gives the episode a perfect emotional climax. There were some small things I liked. Hurley and Libby's relationship was suitably sweet throughout the episode, and I liked Hurley asking Sayid for the radio. Jack burning the end of Sawyer's book was pretty funny and fit with Jack's character. Ana having sex with Sawyer just to get his gun was pretty clever. The Bad: The only thing preventing this from being top-tier television is the lack of urgency. The story is well told throughout, but there is never any drive or excitement until the final few minutes when you realize that Ana Lucia has a gun and is alone in the hatch with Henry. Had I began to grow uneasy with tension earlier in the episode, this would have been much better. The Unknown: Henry's claim that the two dead others were good people who were leaving Ana alone is very interesting. Why would he think this? Does this imply that the others wouldn't have done anything aside from kidnapping some of the people? Does Henry think that the others are in the right with their actions? I like what that implies since the best villains are always the ones with good intentions and sympathetic motives. Who is Christian's daughter? Does Jack know that he has a half-sister running around somewhere? How old is she? Is she going to play a role in the story, whoever she is? Is Michael's story about the others accurate? Seeing that he just freed Henry, I have my doubts about it. Speaking of which, why did Michael agree to kill the survivors and free Henry? Was he brainwashed? Did he make some sort of deal with the others? Has he joined with the others? Christian bumps into Sawyer on the way to the bar, adding on to the many coincidental character meetings that we have seen in the flashbacks. Best Moment: The ending of course. Character of the Episode: Ana Lucia. Conclusion: This was a really strong character piece which became a fantastic episode in the final 5 minutes with an emotional conclusion for Ana Lucia's character and a stunning cliffhanger that promises an exciting final act in the season. Score: 78 Summary: In flashbacks, Rose and Bernard meet and immediately take a liking to each other. Bernard proposes to Rose and they marry, but Rose reveals she is dying of cancer and only has a year left. Bernard takes Rose to see Isaac, a healer. Isaac can't heal Rose, but Rose decides to tell Bernard he healed her. On the island, Bernard tries to get the survivors to help him make an SOS sign out of rocks to get rescued. Rose is opposed to the idea and in the end, the plan falls through. Rose reveals to Bernard that Isaac didn't heal her but the island did, and the two of them decide that they are staying on the island. Meanwhile, Locke leaves the hatch in frustration but has his faith restored in a conversation with Rose. Jack takes Kate to make a trade with the others. They make it to the line and Michael suddenly appears.
The Good: Bernard and Rose's relationship is explored in a beautiful way. Their romance is sweet and they have fantastic chemistry with each other throughout the episode. I can easily buy into the fact that these two love each other. What's more impressive is that the writers manage to weave a serious conflict into this episode without ever damaging the credibility of their relationship. Both of them are understandable in how they differ. Rose is frustrated by how Bernard seems more interested in doing things instead of spending time with her. Whereas Bernard is earnest and noble in what he's trying to do, and you can sympathize with the motivations behind his actions. I love how their conflict ends up being the same in past and present just with a slightly different spin to it. What made this episode work so well was how it felt like a standalone episode. The episode started with Bernard and Rose first meeting and ends with them deciding to spend the rest of their day son the island. This episode doesn't feel like part of a story because the writers told a complete character story with an emotional conclusion at the end. The episode is not quite a formula break like "The Other 48 Days" was, but it's similar in the reasons that it was successful. The themes of this episode are another highlight. The way this show explored its characters suggested that everyone was ultimately meant to find fulfillment on the island. This is the first time that we have seen some characters address that the island is where they are meant to be. This is a very important moment for the show, and it is nice to get confirmation that most, if not all, characters are likely to find closure on the island. Furthermore, we also get to see the island's magical properties in action for the first time since "Walkabout". Now we learn that the island has also cured Rose's cancer, which is a surprising reveal that makes perfect sense. I love seeing the mythology of the island developed more, and that makes this episode much more significant than a small scale love story for minor side characters. Everything else in the episode was very good. I really enjoyed the inclusion of Isaac, a healer who uses some kind of energy to cure people. This is such a fascinating inclusion that raises important questions about the island (see: The Unknown). Isaac's mysterious nature reminds me of Richard Malkin, and I'm always pleased to learn more lore. Locke's character arc continues in wonderful fashion. We get to see Locke's frustrations early in the episode, and for the first time in a long while, we see Locke completely lose faith. He leaves the hatch and sits on the beach, looking aimless and confused. But then a stellar conversation with Rose (see: Best Moment) restores his faith, and by the end of the episode he is back to working on solving the blast door map. Kate and Jack's story was also very good. The scene of them getting caught in Rousseau's trap was surprisingly fun. Kate and Jack have always had pretty unspectacular chemistry, so I didn't expect much from the scene. But this time something clicked, and the scene held the same kind of flirtatious fun that we typically only get from Kate and Sawyer's scenes. Then of course there's that great cliffhanger as Michael suddenly returns (see: The Unknown). I'm hoping that this is the catalyst that can kick the story into motion for the final few episodes of the season. The Bad: Unfortunately, this episode feels out of place. I didn't get to say it in my last review, but I feel similarly about "Dave" as I do with this episode. With about 5 episodes left in the season, it feels like we should be kicking the plot into action for an exciting conclusion. Instead, we have gotten two slow-paced character-driven episodes that haven't advanced the plot at all. Now I'm all for character episodes, but it certainly feels like these episodes should have happened earlier in the season, not right at the end. In season 1, we had two outstanding episodes in "Numbers" and "Deus Ex Machina" as episodes 18 and 19, and it should be pretty easy to see why the latest two episodes aren't as satisfying for me near the end of the season. I could see other people being very unsatisfied with this episode. Focusing on two very minor characters makes this episode feel unimportant, and I wouldn't blame anybody who was unsatisfied with this episode because they just didn't get invested in the story being told. It was odd that nobody seemed willing to help Bernard. Surely most people still want to get off this island! I understand that the writers want us to believe that Bernard's "management problems" forced everyone away, but instead everyone comes off as selfish and stupid for not wanting to bring rocks to the beach to help get off of the island. Of course Kate wouldn't have told anybody about the medical facility she found back in "Maternity Leave". It isn't "Lost" if characters don't frustratingly keep secrets all the time. The Unknown: What is the energy that Isaac was talking about? Does this energy fuel the island's powers? How does it work? Does this energy have something to do with why the Dharma Initiative went to the island? Could it have something to do with the hatch? Where has Michael been this entire time? Did the others get him? Did he escape from them? Or was he sent to Jack and Kate as a response to the trade? Why is Eko building a church? Why is Henry trying to manipulate Locke? Does he have a goal in mind? Best Moment: I really loved Locke and Rose's conversation. Their light-hearted banter was a lot of fun, and I appreciate that Rose did to Locke what he has tried to do for so many of the other survivors: help him resolve his inner conflict. Locke was broken as he sat on the beach, and Rose gave him the clarity he needed to get back to his feet and return to the hatch. Plus, there was also that fantastic line from Rose where she said that they both know that things heal faster on the island. It was a fascinating moment, and I loved seeing the two people with the most faith having a brief talk about the powers of the island. Character of the Episode: Rose. Conclusion: This was terrific stuff. The character work was great, and the exploration into the nature of the island's powers was fascinating. The only issues come from the episode's placement in the season, and that prevents the episode from scoring higher than it otherwise would have. Score: 71 Summary: In flashbacks, Hurley is at a mental hospital with a friend Dave. It's revealed that Hurley has been obsessively eating to cope with how he indirectly killed two people when he caused a deck to collapse. Hurley's doctor lets him know that Dave is imaginary and personifies Hurley's negative behaviour. Hurley is able to rid himself of Dave. Libby is revealed to be in the mental hospital with Hurley. In the present, Hurley destroys his secret stash with Libby's help but immediately stumbles upon more food. He encounters Dave again, who tells him that everything isn't real and that he has been asleep this entire time. Dave tries to get Hurley to jump off a cliff but Libby stops him and they kiss. Meanwhile, Sayid continues interrogating Henry but Henry doesn't reveal anything. Locke speaks with Henry who tells him that the button doesn't do anything.
The Good: Hurley gets some of the best character work of the season in this episode. We learn a truckload of things about him in this episode, and for once it feels like an episode this season is completely dedicated towards telling a singular, focused story about the struggles of a character. It works very well and leads to one of the more emotionally powerful episodes of the season. This episode surprisingly focuses on why Hurley is so fat. Hurley's size is something that needs to be acknowledged, and I'm very happy that that writers had the courage to tackle this subject. The background we get on Hurley is very sad and it brings his story full circle in a brilliant way. We finally learn that Hurley's past in a mental hospital was due to a traumatic experience he had when he accidentally killed two people. As a result, he picked up the habit of eating as a way to both cope with guilt and punish himself for what he did. This story is really easy to relate to, and it humanizes Hurley even more, revealing a surprisingly tragic past that Hurley carries around with him. The Dave aspect of the episode is also very well done. Dave is cast very well and he plays Hurley's subconscious very well. Dave clearly represents that part of Hurley that hates himself for what he did, and across both the island and the flashbacks plots, the story is that Hurley needs to free himself of his self-hating qualities (Dave) and move on with his life in a positive way. It's a very satisfying story to tell, and both of the cathartic moments in the episode work well. Hurley letting Dave leave in the past is a good moment, but even better is Hurley choosing not to jump and going back with Libby to move past his baggage and get on with his life. It's surprisingly heartwarming stuff that is very well executed. I really love that the show acknowledges the "dream theory" that everything is taking place in somebody's head, a joke theory that always seems to be suggested as an answer to complicated plots. Furthermore, the writers fully went through with the idea of dream theory, basing an entire episode around it rather than just poking fun of the idea. It made for a surprisingly effective story, and Hurley seemed suitably crazy for suggesting that nothing is real. The story is also helped by Dave giving surprisingly good reasons for everything being in Hurley's head. Sayid's interrogation of Henry was stellar stuff for the most part. I liked the way that he caught Henry in yet another lie, and Sayid's growing frustrations were very understandable. The Locke/Henry scene was also terrific, and one of the episode's best scenes. It's so unclear if Henry is lying or not, and that makes it fascinating for us to be given this "reveal" that the button does nothing. It's also a great move for the show because it forces Locke to face the idea that all of his faith may have been for nothing, which is the next step towards advancing Locke's character arc this season. There were a lot of little things I appreciated. Locke refusing to be put back in a wheelchair was a nice tough. Hurley beating up Sawyer is probably one of the best scenes of the entire show from a comedy/entertainment point of view. I'll always enjoy that scene. Lastly, Hurley eating peanut butter off of a leaf was suitably disgusting, and it demonstrated how horrible Hurley's eating habits are in an unexpectedly effective way. The Bad: The Dave twist is unfortunately quite easy to predict. Being predictable doesn't necessarily hurt the story too much, but it does diminish the emotional impact of Hurley realizing that Dave doesn't exist because we already know that fact and aren't experiencing the same emotions as him. Sayid attempting to murder Henry was completely idiotic. How do you plan to get information out of him if he's dead? The Unknown: Was the island testing Hurley by giving him more food immediately after he destroyed his stash? It doesn't seem like a coincidence that Hurley was given more food immediately. Could Dave have been sent by the island somehow as another test? Who is this leader that Henry mentions? How does the others' hierarchy work? What is Eko building? Was Henry telling the truth about the clock resetting on his own? We really can't trust anything he says now that he's been exposed as a liar. Why was Libby in the mental hospital? Does this have something to do with why she is getting closer to Hurley? Best Moment: Hurley revealing what happened in the accident to Dr. Brooks was fantastic stuff. It's really powerful, and all of Hurley's self-destructive behaviour is explained wonderfully in this scene, from his eating habits to the existence of Dave. Character of the Episode: Hurley. Conclusion: This was a fantastic character episode for Hurley. Sure, it was predictable and there wasn't much plot advancement, but the character work here was some of the season's absolute best. Score: 70 Summary: In flashbacks, Locke learns that his father has died. He goes with Helen to the funeral and ends up running into Anthony alive and well. He has faked his death and asks Locke to bring him money. Locke does it but lies to Helen and says he hasn't seen him. When Locke brings Anthony the money, Helen follows him and leaves him for lying. On the island, Locke is trapped with Henry inside the hatch when a lockdown occurs and the blast doors suddenly come down. Locke tries to lift the doors and squeeze under but the door crushes his legs, trapping him. Henry goes through the vents and presses the button. The doors come up and Henry helps nurse Locke back to health. Meanwhile, Jack and Kate find a supply drop in the jungle. There they meet with the returning Sayid, Charlie and Ana Lucia. The group goes to the hatch and apprehends Henry. They found the balloon and the grave, but the man buried in the grave was the real Henry Gale.
The Good: The plot here was refreshingly strong. The lockdown was a big surprise since I had completely forgotten about the blast doors. Having Locke and Henry trapped together allowed for some solid character development while providing some tension with the timer counting down on the other side of the blast doors. The plot was engrossing and it built up organically to a wonderful climax where a mysterious map was revealed (see: Best Moment). The episode didn't stop there though. Sayid, Charlie and Ana Lucia's returns allowed for a wonderful twist at the end: Henry Gale is an other. Had this happened in any previous episode, it wouldn't have been a surprise. But this episode did an astonishing job of making Henry seem innocent through his growing bond with Locke. The shift in tone in this episode made the ending reveal a genuine surprise, proving once more that "Lost" is still capable of producing compelling twists. Locke's story is also quite good. His island and flashback stories don't correlate very much but they are both excellent stories in their own right. On the island, Locke has been succumbing to his frustrations more and more often this season. So naturally, the island tests his faith once again by taking out his legs. Locke's frustrations are prevalent once again, but then things turn around with the reveal of a surprise blast door map and Henry's decision to stand by Locke and help him. Locke's faith may have been building up once again, but now it seems that Henry was manipulating him all along. I can't imagine that Locke will have a particularly positive response to this reveal, and I'm excited to see where the character goes after this. In the flashbacks, Locke once again finds himself dragged down by his relationship with his father. In "Orientation" we see Locke leave his father behind and make his choice to stay with Helen. But when Anthony seeks him out, Locke finds it too difficult to simply leave behind an opportunity to get that fatherly love he so badly desires. Locke's response to Anthony is so understandable, and that makes it much more painful when this one unfortunate decision costs Locke everything as Helen leaves him for lying. Once again, Locke's desire for a father in his life has led to him making a very bad decision that ruined his life. I was pretty happy with Hurley commenting on how he's not in the loop and isn't allowed to know all of the secret information. At least the show is self-aware with how unrealistic it is to have all of these absurd secrets. The Bad: The poker story is a boring B-story that feels like filler. It only serves as an explanation for why Jack doesn't come back to the hatch during the lockdown. Furthermore, we get to see Jack completely own Sawyer in poker which feels like needless fanservice to show that Jack is still higher up on the island hierarchy than Sawyer is. The gangsters that showed up in Locke's flashback could not have been more generic. The leather jackets, the voice, the name "Jimmy Bane"? Come on now. The Unknown: Why was the lockdown triggered? Does it have anything to do with the supply drop that Jack and Kate found? Who dropped the supply drop anyways? Is the Dharma Initiative still operational? Who is Henry actually? It seems that he is an other. What is his position in the others' society? What was that blast door map? What is the "?" in the middle? Why did black lights come on anyways? Best Moment: The appearance of the blast door map was perfect. The episode built and built to the moment that the timer reached zero, and the tension had never been higher. And right at the moment of peak tension, the blast door map appeared and offered us a tantalizing glimpse at what this island has to offer us. And just like that, it was gone. Character of the Episode: Locke. Conclusion: This was an excellent episode. We had an engaging plot filled with mystery, and two fantastic stories for Locke. This is everything that I want from a "Lost" episode. Score: 75 Summary: In flashbacks, Jin and Sun try to have a baby but a fertility doctor says that Sun is infertile. Sun visits Jae Lee regularly to learn English and reveals that she is planning to leave Jin. The fertility doctor hunts down Sun and reveals that Jin is sterile and she is fine. On the island, Sun and Jin have an argument. Sun gets a pregnancy test and learns she is pregnant. She is afraid to tell the truth to Jin, but after talking with Jack she tells him she is pregnant and they reconcile. Meanwhile, Locke invites Ana Lucia to interrogate Henry. Ana Lucia gets him to draw a map to his balloon and she goes to find it with Sayid and Charlie.
The Good: The Ana Lucia storyline was the best part of this episode. Her interrogation of Henry was terrific and she asked some pleasingly logical questions that I'm surprised Sayid didn't ask. She gets Henry to draw a map to the balloon which is a really significant development. Her mission with Charlie and Sayid is pretty entertaining and it leads to a fantastic character moment as Ana Lucia accepts that she isn't well liked and finally apologizes to Sayid for what she did. That scene felt very real, and Sayid's reaction where he redirects his anger onto the others was tremendous. Sun and Jin's story was fairly enjoyable as well. The writers have done a spectacular job of hinting at Sun and Jin's history of being unable to have a child by showing us their gentler behaviour around babies. This has happened countless times in previous episodes, as recent as "Maternity Leave" which sees Sun telling Claire that a mother shouldn't leave her child. As for character development, Sun gets a decent look here as she makes the decision to tell Jin the truth instead of keeping more secrets, proving that she is unwilling to make the same mistakes that ruined their relationship in the past. Jin on the other hand, goes through a similar arc as he forces himself to give Sun the freedom she craves so that she can be happy, unlike before when Jin was cruel and condescending. There were some little things I really liked. The Jin POV sequence where we get to see how confusing it is for him when he can't understand anyone was very good. I really liked Sun refusing to get in the car with the doctor in the flashbacks. It was a small moment of humanity that added to the realism of the show. Lastly, I love that the show went the extra mile to provide multiple reasons that Sun didn't tell Jin she was learning English. Not only was it because she planned to leave, but also because she was secretly meeting with Jae Lee which Jin certainly wouldn't have approved of. The final scene of Henry goading Jack and Locke was a bit generic, but it was still a very fun way to end the episode. Michael Emerson did a great job, and the cliffhanger builds up a lot of excitement for the next episode. The Bad: The many secrets that characters hold are getting more frustrating by the episode. Ana Lucia not telling Jack and Locke about the map is simply absurd. Why wouldn't she let them know so they can plan their next move accordingly? The writers don't even provide a reason for her to not tell them, instead we just get yet another one-liner about how Locke and Jack are fighting. Add this secret on top of Locke not telling Jack he invited Ana Lucia in, Jack wanting nobody to know about Henry, Hurley hiding his food stash and Sun trying to hide her pregnancy. And that's only from this episode. Plus Eko and Charlie still haven't told anyone about the monster so there's that too! With all of these secrets floating around, this episode feels like it came straight out of season 2 of "The Walking Dead". This season doesn't seem to be capable of hitting the highs of season 1 with any kind of consistency. The character work isn't what it used to be. This episode tells a passable story for Sun and Jin but it is nothing special. The island story is also quite bland. Even with a plot focus this season, the island storylines aren't as consistently entertaining as they were in season 1. This episode has practically no stakes and even in the most interesting story (Ana, Sayid and Charlie's trek), literally nothing exciting happens outside of Ana's apology. Some small things bugged me too. Sayid's confusion at how Ana Lucia got Henry to cooperate was baffling to me. Surely the torturer would know the most efficient methods to get somebody to give information. Charlie is still a complete asshole and it feels so out of character. His constant smirk and rude behaviour to Ana Lucia just felt awkward. The Unknown: Did Sun have an affair with Jae Lee? If she did, then the baby would likely be his. But I won't disregard the possibility of the island curing Jin's sterility like it did Locke's legs. Is there actually a balloon or has Henry set up an ambush somehow? Best Moment: Ana Lucia apologizing for killing Shannon was a lovely moment. Character of the Episode: Ana Lucia. Conclusion: This was a decent episode with some good moments. Unfortunately there is nothing special about this and the many secrets are becoming frustrating. Score: 61 Summary: Aaron gets sick and Claire is concerned. Rousseau shows up and warns Claire that Aaron may be infected. Claire talks to Libby about her amnesia and she starts to slowly remember what happened when she was taken by Ethan. Claire remembers being in a medical facility which has vaccines for the sickness. She goes with Kate to where this facility was with Rousseau's help. Claire doesn't find any vaccines but remembers that she was helped by a teenage girl, likely Rousseau's daughter. Claire returns to camp and Aaron is fine. Meanwhile, Eko finds out that Jack and Locke are hiding somebody in the hatch. He gets Jack to take him to Henry where Eko apologizes for killing two others.
The Good: I was surprised by the slight change in the flashback formula. Instead of getting flashes to a time before the plane crash, this episode flashes back to Claire's memories when she was taken by Ethan. This slight change makes the episode a lot more interesting as the flashbacks give us some vital information about the others while also letting us explore another Dharma station, which is engrossing and entertaining. And as a bonus, we even get the return of Ethan. The story was entertaining, and it was a good plot to have Claire attempting to find the medical facility again. We're never quite sure of what she's going to find there and that adds a degree of tension to the episode. There's also some good stuff here for Rousseau. We get to see her at her lonely best here as she seems so detached from Claire and Kate emotionally. It's evident that Rousseau is only there in the hopes that she may find Alex, so it's pretty heartbreaking when she realizes that Alex isn't there and that she must keep on living alone. Everything happening at the hatch was pretty interesting. The introduction of Henry has focused the plot on the hatch for the moment, and I really like that. This season was in dire need of a focused plot because it was extremely messy during the first 13 episodes. Everything surrounding Henry made for some compelling television. Locke has been going through a lot of frustration off-screen this season and I've mentioned before how unsatisfying that felt. Now with Henry introduced, Locke's frustration are starting to be explored and this storyline is starting to become meaningful, especially with that ending scene. On the other hand we have Eko who steals the show. Eko quickly determines that Jack and Locke are hiding something and he acts on it to further his own interests. What's so fascinating is that we aren't entirely sure what Eko's motives are so his ensuing conversation with Henry is filled with suspense and fascination, comfortably making it the best scene of the episode (see: Best Moment). The Bad: Unfortunately the character journey for Claire falls flat because she is thoroughly unlikable the entire time. She is pretty annoying and whiny and she is rude to literally everyone. She disturbs Jack really late at night and continues to complain to him about everything. Then she's rude and hostile to Sun who she asks to watch over Aaron. Finally, her interactions with Rousseau are downright horrible. Sure, Rousseau did try to take Aaron, but Claire still comes off as unnecessarily rude, especially since she needs Rousseau to help her get back to the facility and Rousseau seems willing to help. Then we have Kate who has apparently become Claire's mom off-screen considering how she turns Claire's business into her own. It's frustrating to watch Kate treat everybody like they are inferior, particularly Libby who she is unfairly mean to. I don't know why the writers think that making characters behave rudely for no reason will help us sympathize with them. "Lost" has a problem of making its characters keep unnecessary secrets. I've complained a lot about this season's poor handling of the hatch, and now it's threatening to go down the same route with Henry by having Locke and Jack inexplicably keep his presence a secret. We aren't given any good reason as to why they wouldn't tell everyone that he is there. Another issue that I'm noticing is the show's newfound desire to focus on plot instead of character. Season 1 was so good because there were outstanding character arcs in every episode that amplified an exciting island storyline. But season 2 seems to be more fixated on plot than character, especially with recent episodes like "One of Them" and "The Hunting Party" which, while great episodes, were much more interested in building up the plot instead of telling us a fresh and powerful character story. Don't get me wrong, episodes focused on plot can still be great, but they aren't as memorable as the emotions that season 1 episodes made me feel. I'm not too please with Henry trying to sow conflict between Jack and Locke. The prisoner causing dissent between his captors is such a predictable story that I've seen several times before, so I hope that we get something else instead. The Unknown: We learn so many interesting things about the others here. Judging by what Kate finds in the lockers, it appears that the others' ragged appearance may be a show. Kate finds ragged clothing, fake beards and theatrical glue. This discovery, furthered by the presence of a beardless Zeke in the flashbacks, suggests that there may be a lot more to the others than what we've seen so far. Zeke mentions a possible leader among the others. Who is this leader? Is there a hierarchy among the others? How many of them are there? What positions of power exist in their community? What is the vaccination for? Is there actually a sickness? The others seem to be concerned about it. Why hasn't it affected the survivors yet? Best Moment: Eko and Henry's conversation is fascinating. After getting beaten up by Sayid, Henry looks suitably horrified when he sees the intimidating Eko enter the room. Eko is so fascinating to watch here and he does something surprising: he gives Henry a confession. Eko confesses his guilt for killing the two others back in "The Other 48 Days" because he needed to get it off his chest. It's a wonderful bit of character building for Eko, and the show expertly uses his mysterious and unpredictable nature to really surprise us and make us think that he's doing something much more sinister than what he actually does. Character of the Episode: Eko Conclusion: This episode advanced the plot nicely and had some good moments, but the poor character development for Claire and her annoying behaviour really drag this episode down. Score: 62 Summary: In flashbacks, the US military attacks where Sayid is working and want him to cooperate with them so they can find a pilot who was interrogated there. Sayid is used to get the information from his commanding officer, and Sayid is convinced to torture him to get the pilot's location. The pilot is already dead and the US military end up leaving Iraq. Sayid is released. On the island, Sayid finds Rousseau in the jungle. She takes him to a place where she has caught a man in a trap. The man claims to be named Henry Gale but Rousseau thinks he is an other. Sayid takes him back to the hatch and interrogates him. Locke changes the combination in the armory so that Jack can't stop Sayid. Jack convinces Locke to open the door when he prevents Locke from pushing the button. Sayid is convinced that Henry is an other and beats him up. Jack pulls him off. Sayid goes to Charlie and explains why he believed Henry is guilty. Sawyer enlists Hurley to help him find a tree frog.
The Good: The premise of this episode is fantastic. A mysterious person has been captured and it is the job of the survivors to determine if he is innocent or if he is an other. This is a fantastic way to create drama, and it leads into a lot of fascinating inter-character conflict and internal conflict towards the end of the episode. What makes this work so well is that it is unclear if Henry Gale is innocent or not. Since I can't predict the plot, I'm hooked the entire time by a drive to get answers. As a result of my total investment in this episode, the interrogation scenes end up being fantastic. I've always been a fan of Sayid's pragmatic approach so I loved seeing him go after Henry, trying to pry a lie out of anything he says. However, Henry seems solid and he has all the right answers. It's fascinating to follow Henry's actions as Sayid does, and it becomes clear what Sayid is looking for. Due to his experience as a torturer, Sayid knows that the way to get the truth is to search for a lack of emotion which would suggest that Henry is lying. Even though Henry has all of the right answers, the devil is in the details. It's apparent that Sayid believes that Henry's actions and emotions don't match up with what he is saying, and that is what makes Sayid believe he is guilty. But there's another angle to this: what if Sayid is wrong and is still too unstable following Shannon's death to make an unbiased decision? Sayid's questionable mental state still makes it unclear if Henry is telling the truth or not. This uncertainty keeps the drama, while Sayid's logical approach makes the interrogation satisfying. It's a brilliantly put together sequence. While all of this is happening, Jack and Locke further their conflict in an excellent way. Jack has always been bloodthirsty and demands revenge against the others. Even though Jack is emotionally driven and is always quick to grab the guns, he still has morals. We see that here as Jack doesn't wish to torture Henry Gale for fear that he's innocent. Evidently, he's still a little shaken from when Sayid tortured Sawyer back in "Confidence Man". Locke on the other hand, continues to behave in a more extreme manner following "Fire + Water", and he is willing to do what has to be done to ensure the safety of the survivors. It's an interesting change for the two of them, and it leads to some excellent conflict, particularly when Jack threatens to let the timer run out if Locke doesn't give him the combination (see: Best Moment). Sayid's flashbacks were very well done. The story was a joy to watch and it had a nice amount of depth to it. It's important for us to know how Sayid ended up as a torturer, and the story is quite compelling. It's sad to see the loyal soldier become a torturer due to his desire to do the right thing. The Bad: Unfortunately, the episode hurts itself badly in its final few minutes. Sayid goes to Charlie and explains why he believes Henry to be guilty. And the explanation is completely at odds with what we had just seen. Apparently Sayid believes Henry is an other because he doesn't feel any guilt when he beats him up. That seems like such a flimsy basis to make a decision off of, and it is completely at odds with the realism that I've come to expect from Sayid. It's a shame because this scene with Charlie could have been used to clarify the story of the episode but it only serves to confuse everything. It very nearly ruins a fantastic episode. This episode felt like it was padded with unnecessary filler outside of the scenes with Henry. The flashbacks are very good, but they are hardly essential for Sayid's character. The tree frog plotline in fine for comedy, but it is a complete waste of time. The change in Locke's character to make him more ruthless hasn't been conveyed well at all. It effects this episode too because Locke's decision to let Sayid torture Henry doesn't feel like something he would agree to. The Unknown: Who is Henry Gale? Is his story true? Or is he an other? It would have been nice if Sayid had been given more time to ask questions. Henry's wife apparently got sick and died. Is this the sickness that Rousseau was talking about? What were those hieroglyphs that appeared after the timer hit zero? Best Moment: As Sayid started punching Henry, the tension escalated dramatically and Jack went to the extreme to get inside the armory. His threats to Locke that he would let the timer run out were fantastic, and Jack looked almost deranged as he threatened Locke and got to exhibit some dominance over him. Then the tension ratchets up as we worry about both the timer and Sayid at the same time. It's brilliant stuff, and the scene concludes in wonderful fashion as we get a tantalizing hint about what happens when the button isn't pressed. Character of the Episode: Sayid. Conclusion: This was pretty great stuff for a lot of the episode, but a fair amount of little issues plagued this and prevent it from being one of the show's best episodes. But still, this is an excellent episode that I enjoyed very much. Score: 71 Summary: In flashbacks, Sawyer does a long con on a woman named Cassidy who has $600K. He falls in love with her and doesn't want to continue, but eventually he decides to do it anyways and he takes her money and leaves. On the island, Sun is attacked and everyone gets riled up in fear of attacks from the others. Kate and Sawyer suspect Ana Lucia is responsible and tried to scare everybody into joining the army. Sawyer warns Locke that Jack is coming to get the guns so Locke hides them. Locke and Jack get in a blowout, but Sawyer reveals that he tricked everyone and stole the guns. Kate is disgusted by Sawyer's actions and claims that he wants to be hated. Later he meets with Charlie, who was working with Sawyer and is the one who attacked Sun and followed Locke to the guns.
The Good: I love watching cons. I find stories that pay attention to details absolutely fascinating because they reward rewatches and include lots of lovely little details that are simply satisfying. As such, I loved the conning themes in this episode. It was really fun to see Sawyer execute two cons, one in flashbacks and one on the island. The way that everything slotted together by the end of the episode was lovely. This episode felt like it had much more focus and heart put into it than most episodes this season. The gun story is pretty well set up. I wish this episode was the direct follow up to "The Hunting Party" because a lot of the plot involves the fallout of the confrontation in the climax of that episode. The tension in the camp surrounding the others increased naturally, and as a result there was much more emphasis on the Jack/Locke conflict as they both approach the new threat completely differently. But enough about the plot. This episode is all about Sawyer, who has been given consistently great development. This season he has felt a little bit adrift (he's done nothing but flirt with Kate for the past few episodes) and there wasn't much character development surrounding him. That changed here as Sawyer does the most despicable thing he has done since season 1. We learn a lot about why Sawyer is the aggressive and vile man he is despite showing potential to be a better person. As Kate says at the end of the episode, Sawyer wants to be despised by everyone, because if he can be redeemed for his crimes, than so can the Mr. Sawyer who ruined his life. And for a man driven by his desire for revenge, confronting the possibility that Mr. Sawyer may actually be a decent man isn't possible. So Sawyer compensates by making himself hated by everyone, especially the ones he loves, who are Cassidy and Kate in this case. It's a wonderful bit of character exploration that shows us that Sawyer isn't a bad person at heart, but he wants to believe that he's a bad person. This also does a good job of explaining why Sawyer has been a mix of hateful and lovable throughout the series, as sometimes his true nature seeps out and he isn't able to be that hateful person he knows he must be. There were some pleasing moments of good writing in this episode. Sayid has been in the background for a while now, so the writers check in with him in a nice little side story to show him trying to move past his grief. I also liked the little touch of Sawyer losing his glasses on the raft and Kate having to read to him. Lastly, there was another random Easter Egg as Kate's mom appeared in Sawyer's flashback with Gordy. The Bad: The plot to build an army is a good idea but the execution here was pretty bad. The main issue is we see absolutely nothing of the community. The extras are hardly used in this episode and we aren't shown Ana Lucia and Jack actually doing anything. Everyone talks about making an army, but we never see anybody actually making the army. It's a classic case of the writers failing to abide the "show don't tell" rule, and that hurts the episode. There's too much exposition here which could've been replaced with us actually seeing how the camp feels about training an army. Charlie's story arc isn't working at all. He's become such a cartoony evil now, and couple that with his comical hood and we might as well call him "Darth Charlie". He's an utter prick in this episode as he is motivated purely by hate and anger, working only to hurt others instead of benefiting himself. His attack on Sun is quite shocking and it's really hard to buy into Charlie stooping so low as to do that. The Unknown: What does Sawyer plan to do now that he has all of the guns? Where is he hiding them anyways? Hurley makes a curious comment regarding the music transmission that Sayid picked up. He notes that the transmission could be from "any time". Could being unstuck in time or something like that possibly explain how this island has never been found before? Best Moment: Sawyer's speech declaring he's in charge again was very well done. Character of the Episode: Sawyer. Conclusion: This was a really fun episode that gave us more strong development for Sawyer. Score: 70 Summary: Flashbacks show that Liam was intoxicated during the birth of his daughter and was later kicked out for dropping his daughter. He returns to Charlie and secretly sells his piano in order to repair his own life. On the island, Charlie has frequent dreams about needing to save Aaron and starts acting irrationally. Charlie goes to Eko who says Aaron must be baptized. Locke follows him to his secret stash and takes it away from him. Soon after, Charlie decides to baptize Aaron himself and lights a fire to distract everyone while he does it. Claire notices and everyone stops Charlie. Locke punches him.
The Good: The Hurley and Libby story is decent for a B-story. There are a couple of decent laughs, and this new relationship does serve to get us to know Libby a little better, which is welcome. With better execution, there's a good story here for Locke. Freeing Charlie from addiction was one of his first successes on the island, so it should be easy to see why he would be so frustrated with Charlie seemingly returning to drug use. The Bad: Unfortunately that's all I have for the good. This episode was all-around terrible. One of this show's best strengths is its ability to make me sympathize with just about everyone. So it's quite a big shock when an episode like this one comes around in which almost every character is completely unsympathetic and I find myself detached from everyone's emotions. Charlie gets it the worst. He's not using drugs, but he may as well be with how irrationally he behaves all the time. He's a liar whose motivation and behaviour is so suspicious, and we're never given an adequate explanation for why he is acting like this. Claire on the other hand, is just an outright bitch for most of this episode and somehow I can't even sympathize with her fear of Charlie. Locke behaves completely out of character throughout this episode. For whatever reason he seems to have abandoned his faith to take care of Claire, and all of his actions are wildly different from the character that I remember from season 1. Lastly there's Eko who is frustratingly vague and unhelpful throughout the episode. The sloppy character writing leads into a plot that makes no sense and is simply frustrating to watch unfold. Just like in "Everybody Hates Hugo", this episode opens up with a strange dream sequence. I don't know why these sequences keep coming up when they seemingly aren't even relevant to the story. It diminishes the impact of dreams when they aren't used to advance the plot like they did back in "Deus Ex Machina". Anyways, these dreams provide a forced catalyst to make Charlie behave irrationally through a lot of stupid moments. The sleepwalking scene was poorly done. It seemed an innocent mistake and should have gone down as a big misunderstanding. It wasn't Charlie's fault, yet people inexplicably treat it like it was his fault, including Claire who goes to the extreme and slaps him for no real reason. It's really frustrating stuff, yet it's nothing compared to what came afterwards. Charlie decides that the best course of action is to light a fire that could destroy the camp so he could secretly baptize Aaron. In what world is this a good idea? Why would he do this? This is actually worse than Hurley's decision to bring dynamite into the hatch. The plan is stupid, and it's hard to believe that somebody who is sober would behave like this. Then we have Locke, a pretty peaceful guy normally, punching Charlie hard for his actions. This has to be one of the most out-of-character actions that anyone has taken in this show. I could maybe understand if Locke had been pushed to this point, but he really wasn't. He seems frustrated, but we aren't given a chance to explore why he feels this way. Is he disappointed in the island? In Charlie? Why? How does it make him feel? None of this is explored whatsoever, and that makes analyzing Locke's behaviour feel like guesswork instead of character analysis. On top of all of this nonsense, Charlie's character arc is completely useless. There is no meaningful story being told about him. It's just rehashes of what we already knew from season 1. Charlie has struggles with addiction (The Moth), and he has a desire to save others (Homecoming). Is there anything in this episode that we couldn't have figured out about Charlie from the aforementioned episodes? The flashbacks also fall into being useless filler. Once again Liam screwed Charlie over by selling his piano for his own selfish gains. We have already seen Liam screw Charlie over before, so what's the point of showing us the same story again? It's a completely empty storyline. Also I really could have gone without seeing that stupid diaper commercial being filmed. The Unknown: Will Charlie's dreams be relevant? I doubt it. Does Hurley actually know Libby from somewhere else? Why is Eko marking trees? Best Moment: It's really, really hard to find a good moment. I'll go with Hurley and Libby talking in the hatch. Character of the Episode: Hurley. Conclusion: This was bad. Just when I thought that "Lost" was finding its footing again, we get this. This season has to be the most inconsistent season of television I've ever seen. There have been some genuine high points, but the good gets soiled when we got awful episodes like this one. Something really needs to change because episodes like this are just unacceptable for a show of Lost's caliber. Score: 32 Summary: In flashbacks, Jack is approached by a woman named Gabriela who wants him to do an impossible surgery on her father to save his life. Jack does it but is unable to save his life. He ends up kissing Gabriela. He returns home to Sarah who he hasn't been spending much time with. Sarah reveals she is going to leave him. In the present, Michael locks Jack and Locke in the armory and leaves to go after Walt. Kate and Sawyer free them, and they all go after Michael. Jack orders Kate to stay behind. Jack, Locke and Sawyer follow Michael's trail and they hear gunshots. After giving chase they encounter Zeke who has come with a force of others hidden int he jungle. Zeke gets them to surrender their weapons when he reveals that he has Kate and plans to kill her. He lets them know that they don't have freedom of the island. The group returns to the camp unsuccessful. Jack goes to Ana Lucia with a plan to train an army.
The Good: It looks like "Lost" is finally picking up steam again. The island story in this one was superb. From the first minute it was intense, important and exciting. The hook of Michael leaving to go after Walt works tremendously well, and the ensuing mission to go after him creates some organic conflict and character exploration. This all builds up to an outstanding confrontation with the returning Zeke. The others have never been so mysterious and threatening as in this scene, making this a huge escalation in the conflict between the survivors and the others. Zeke was wonderfully charismatic in the role, making it clear that the others hold a real power in the jungle, one that the survivors, even with their guns, cannot hope to match. The flashbacks told a very good story too. Across the entire run of the show we have learned a lot about the good-hearted, yet immensely flawed character that is Jack. But there were still some holes in his story that needed to be filled, most importantly, the reason that his marriage with Sarah failed. We got a wonderful story encapsulating why Jack was unable to keep his marriage, and it fits perfectly with the character that we have come to know. As Sarah says herself, Jack is always obsessing over something and trying to fix something. He's never just being himself, he's always out to prove himself to his father, to get that little bit of acceptance that he desires so much. And here, Jack completely blows up his life with his own need to validate his actions. He gets more involved with Gabriela than he should, he takes his failure to save the old man's life too personally, and he consistently ignores Sarah throughout all of this. By the time Jack tries to set things right, it's too late. And what's worse is that it's nearly impossible to believe that Jack would have been able to save his marriage even if he did try -- once he knew that they were on stable ground, he would just focus on something else in a fruitless attempt to gain his father's approval. Jack's story on the island ties into this flashback story very nicely. He's angry, stubborn, overly emotional and unreasonable pretty much the entire time. Just like in the flashbacks, Jack's drive is that he desperately wants to fix something. In this case, he's desperate to bring Michael back to the camp. The connection between stories works very well, and Matthew Fox does a tremendous job conveying Jack's emotions, as always. Additionally, I really liked the parallel between this episode and "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues". Both of those episodes showcase Jack's negative side as he recklessly goes after somebody through the jungle, but impressively enough, both episodes tell very different stories about Jack. I liked the brief Sun/Jin side story. I really like that this story stemmed from Michael's departure, just like the main storyline, giving the episode some focus. As for the story itself, it was a good way to examine Sun and Jin's relationship a little more without detracting from the central plot of the episode. The Bad: The played up love triangle stuff isn't doing much for me. There are so many melodramatic moments, like Jack accusing Sawyer of loving Kate and then later not accepting Kate's apology. It's too cheesy to be compelling television. Yet again, Kate completely fails as a hardened criminal as she gets captured. That aspect of her character has been poorly demonstrated since the beginning of the show. The Unknown: What happened to Michael? Did the others get him? What were those gunshots? Zeke called for somebody named Alex to bring Kate out. Is this Rousseau's daughter? How do Jack and Ana Lucia plan to train an army? Best Moment: The confrontation with Zeke was awesome television. This is the most urgent and intense this season has been outside of episodes 1, 3 and 7. Zeke was a frightening presence even when alone, and it was great to see his charisma going up against Jack's stubbornness early on. But then Zeke turns the tables in a splendid way. The "light em up" moment was genuinely chilling, and it shifted the tone of the scene suddenly and effectively. After that, Jack was never in control of the conversation and Zeke used both intimidation and power to wrestle him into defeat in such a fantastic, villainous way. This was great stuff. Character of the Episode: Jack, though I'll give an honourable mention to Zeke. Conclusion: This episode delivered. The island plot was epic, and the character exploration for Jack was very well done. It looks like the show is finally starting to pick things up. Score: 76 Summary: Flashbacks reveal that Eko was a war lord in Nigeria. He goes to his brother Yemi, a priest, to transport drugs out of the country via plane. Yemi initially refuses but Eko threatens him to get him to do it. Yemi calls the military and ends up being shot in the chaos and sent out on the plane in place of Eko. On the island, Claire tells Eko about Charlie's Virgin Mary statue. Eko is aware of what it is and goes to find Charlie, demanding that he take him to the plane. Claire is angry when she learns that heroin is in the statue. On the way to the plane, Eko and Charlie encounter the smoke monster. Once at the plane, which si the same plane from the flashbacks, Eko mourns over Yemi's body.
The Good: Eko's first episode delivered the goods. His past is every bit as dark and fascinating as I had hoped it would be. The story of Eko being a war lord in Nigeria is a big surprise, and the man we see in the past is the stark opposite of the religious man on the island. It's a surprising twist that makes Eko's story immediately gripping and exciting to follow. The story we are told in flashbacks is actually very good. The brotherly relationship between Eko and Yemi is nicely explored, and we are shown that they do care quite deeply for each other despite their differing morality. The background we get on Yemi is effective, and it's enough to make Eko finding his skeleton in the plane a harrowing moment (see: Best Moment). Furthermore, we get the bonus of learning the history of the plane in the jungle, solving one of the show's bigger mysteries from season 1. The island story was refreshing in how it reverted to season 1's style of storytelling. One of the things that season 2 hasn't done very well is creating a dramatic and exciting story on the island. With the return of a mission through the jungle filled with tension and conflict, the show regains some of its ability to create compelling drama. The conflict came from the start of a unique new relationship between Eko and Charlie, while the drama came from the unexpected presence of the smoke monster, which was an excellent addition to the episode. The scene where Eko stared down the smoke monster was intense and fascinating, raising several questions about the monster (see: The Unknown). It was nice to get some advancement in Charlie's character arc. He had been carrying the Virgin Mary statue for a while now with nothing much of substance happening. It's past time that he gets some focus. Eko is the perfect person to bring the focus onto Charlie as he stumbles around, desperately making excuses to make himself look better. Of course Charlie isn't using, but he did make a mistake by not telling Claire about the statues, and now it seems his new character arc will be about owning up to his decisions, and even though he hasn't been using, he needs to accept that he has to win back the trust of the people around him, including Claire, Locke and Eko. This is excellent set-up for that storyline in a Charlie-centric episode down the road. The Bad: Why didn't Charlie tell people about the monster? It's the same issue from "Exodus", only this is even more unbelievable because this is the same Charlie who was gossiping in the last episode. Would he really keep his mouth shut like this? He should be freaking out! Instead he's calm as can be for the rest of the episode, which is completely implausible. The same goes for Eko. Stoic or not, Eko should have had a more pronounced reaction when he was confronted by the supernatural. Claire's unnecessarily rude to Charlie here. Sure he lied to her, but he doesn't deserve this treatment from her. It's highly unbelievable that she wouldn't care to help Charlie recover from his addiction, especially seeing how kind Charlie has been to her, and how he went to save Aaron back in "Exodus". Claire's behaviour here isn't consistent with that. This episode doesn't quite hit that level of excitement or emotion to get it close to an 80. Don't get me wrong, this is an excellent episode, but it doesn't ever threaten to go above and beyond that. The Unknown: How did Eko transition from a war lord to a priest? Why didn't the smoke monster kill Eko? What was it doing to Eko? If you pause when the camera moves through the monster, there are flashes of Eko's past visible. What does that mean? Is the smoke monster reading his memories? How can it do that? Why would it do that? Is this what it did to Locke back in "Walkabout"? Why didn't it do the same thing to the pilot in the first episode? What did "Walt" communicate to Michael? Where is he? Will Michael try to go after him? Will somebody find Charlie's stash of statues? Will Charlie be able to free himself from the clutches of heroin before it backfires on him in a big way? Best Moment: Eko enters the plane and discovers that one of the bodies inside is Yemi. In a rather unsettling scene, Eko hugs this decayed body and cries over the loss of his brother. It's a very sad moment that provides the catharsis for the flashback story. Character of the Episode: Eko. Conclusion: This was great stuff. The island story and flashback stories both hooked me immediately and told a compelling story. This was one of the better episodes of the season for sure. Score: 73 Summary: In flashbacks, Kate kills her step-father Wayne, who abused her mother. Kate lets her mom know what she did before she leaves. But her mother turns her in and Kate is apprehended. After a car accident, Kate escapes and goes to her father, confessing that she killed Wayne when she learned that he was actually her biological father. In the present, Kate watches over Sawyer as Jack attends Shannon's funeral. Sawyer becomes momentarily possessed by Wayne so Kate runs away, panicked and thinking she's crazy. She runs into Jack who comforts her and they end up kissing. Later, Kate returns to Sawyer and confesses why she killed Wayne. Sawyer wakes up. Meanwhile, Locke shows Eko and Michael the orientation video. Eko reveals that he found some cut parts of the film in a book on the other side of the island. Locke and Eko watch the unedited video, which claims that communication with the computer is forbidden. Michael is contacted on the computer by somebody claiming to be Walt.
The Good: It took a very long time, but we finally got a Kate-centric episode that's willing to explore her character instead of just painstakingly raising more and more questions about her backstory. We get plenty of answers here, as we find out what Kate's crime was, why her childhood was troubled, and presumably why her mother was so afraid of her back in "Born to Run". It's nice to see the show finally giving us the emotional story that Kate deserved to have gotten back in season 1. Kate's character development in this episode is pretty well done. It's wildly different from everyone else because we get to see how utterly selfish Kate is. Sure Wayne was a bad person, but Kate only killed him for herself, not anybody else. All of her motives are selfish, and this carries into her island story too. Kate selfishly abandons Sawyer when she becomes a little spooked, and she even kisses Jack for no reason other than to make herself feel better. The lack of follow-up between them actually works in this case, because the kiss wasn't due to love, just Kate's own selfish desires. I also like that we got to explore why Kate was attracted to both Sawyer and Jack. By all rights, Kate should be with Sawyer - they have far better chemistry - but Kate is constantly reminded of Wayne when she is with Sawyer, which makes her feel like she should be with the heroic, perfect, Jack. Eko was terrific once again. He has a wonderfully mysterious aura that makes all of his scenes gripping, plus a natural charisma. His speech about Josiah wasn't entirely necessary, but it was fascinating to listen to as Eko patiently got to the point. All of his interactions with Locke were simply spectacular, and it was wonderful to see some focus put back onto the hatch. The other stuff in the episode was also fairly well done. I liked Charlie gossiping to Kate about all of the new people. Sayid's state of depression was well acted, and a natural follow-up to Shannon's death. I laughed at Hurley's comment about Bernard being white, and also at Sawyer thinking they were rescued after waking up in a bunk bed. The Bad: Something about this episode didn't click the way it should have. I was entertained throughout, but I didn't find myself connecting to very much of the episode, which isn't a problem I've usually had with "Lost". Perhaps this had something to do with the character of Kate, which was a problem once again. Most of the problems surrounding Kate had to do with her emotions. I never felt like I was sympathizing with her the way I should have been. Her selfish reasons for killing her father do make her character stand out, but it does make it far tougher to sympathize with her. This disconnect between me and Kate led to me not enjoying this character exploration as much as I should have. On the island, Kate goes through a brief arc where she thinks she's going crazy. The problem with this is that the storyline is rushed and not very satisfying. Jack went through this same story in a much more satisfying way back in "White Rabbit". The emotional beats of this story just felt hollow, and I think the writers didn't commit enough to the story to make it memorable, or even plausible. It also doesn't help that Wayne possessing Sawyer felt like a lazy plot device to illustrate Kate's conflicting feelings about him, rather than a compelling reason for Kate to believe she is crazy. I was a bit disappointed by Jack and Ana Lucia's conversation. They didn't really give us anything new in their conversation, and there was no development whatsoever for either character. The Unknown: What's with the horse? Where did it come from? Is it the same horse from the flashbacks? What is the significance of this horse? What does it symbolize? How could Sawyer possibly have been possessed by Wayne? This might end up being explained, but I highly doubt it. Why are there blast doors in the hatch? Does it have something to do with the incident? Very interesting ending. Who is talking to Michael? Is it actually Walt or is it just one of the others posing as Walt? Where is this communication coming from? Best Moment: Eko's speech was quite fascinating, and the interactions between him and Locke were a joy. Character of the Episode: Kate, though Eko came close to passing her. Conclusion: This was another solid episode that was missing a few things from being great. This season has been very strange so far. Its had the two best episodes of the series so far, but also the two worst. And everything in between has been simply average as the show has been unable to replicate the spark the made season 1 so compelling. I really hope that the show can find its footing again, because while this is fine television, there is potential for so much more. Score: 63 Summary: Flashbacks reveal that Ana was a cop. She was shot on the job while pregnant, killing her unborn child. Her attacker is caught and Ana ensures he is freed so that she can kill him herself. In the present, Ana knocks Sayid out when he attacks her and ties him to a tree. She threatens everybody as she tries to assess the situation. Eko leaves and takes Sawyer to Jack and Kate to save his life. He passes the news of Shannon's death but refuses to take the angry Jack to where Ana Lucia is. Michael gets Ana Lucia to let him leave, and the others leave soon after. Michael goes to Jack and offers to lead him to Ana Lucia. Eko convinces them to go without guns. Ana eventually decides to let Sayid go after pondering things over and speaking with him. Jack arrives and reunites with Ana Lucia. At the beach, Rose and Bernard are reunited, as are Jin and Sun.
The Good: Ana's story here is quite good. In the previous episode we took a look at her island persona, but this episode dives deeper into her background, giving us insight into her aggressive and commanding behaviour on the island. Her history as a cop is a natural solution to her behaviour, and it's quite nice to see a few little details touched up on. We've learned why Ana wasn't too fazed by murdering Goodwin (she's killed before), why Ana was so determined to help the kids (she's lost a child), and why Ana was able to shut off her emotions and adapt an extremely pragmatic leadership style (she's a police officer). This episode did a good job of putting Ana Lucia's behaviour under examination, while giving her a nice flashback storyline which culminates in a very good twist. On the other hand, the island story is also pretty well done. The situation she's in forces Ana Lucia to act quickly and forcefully in order to remain in control. Her aggressive behaviour here will likely put some people off, but I thought it was an effective and realistic way for a cop to deal with guilt. While in an intense conflict with herself, Ana Lucia immediately acts to maintain control, fearful of her friends no longer trusting her, and equally fearful of people criticizing what she had just done. It was pretty relatable, and I could sympathize with her as she gave out needlessly aggressive orders while simultaneously isolating herself from everyone. It was sad to see her overreact in such a big way, but it was consistent with the character we get to know in the flashbacks. The climactic conversation with Sayid ended up being pretty good as Ana told him her story before letting him go, finally ready to face the consequences of what she has done. Eko had a great episode as well. He gets to act as the moral compass of the group, making decisions that he feels are best for everyone. Just about every scene with him was really good, and Eko's pacifistic nature really got to shine here. The highlight scenes were Eko refusing to lead Jack to Ana Lucia, and him demanding that Jack leave the guns behind so as to not create more unnecessary conflict. The ending reunions led to some pretty good moments. It was great seeing Jack deal with yet another miracle as he is brought face to face with Ana Lucia, another ghost from his past (though a much more recent past than Desmond). The two romantic reunions between Rose/Bernard and Jin/Sun were both quite good, and I would be lying if I said that I didn't smile while watching them. The Bad: The Kate/Jack story didn't work for me. The golfing part of the episode just screamed filler, as the writers could certainly have reminded us of their relationship in a more important storyline. I also wasn't very happy with the scenes dedicated to saving Sawyer. After how gripping Jack's attempts to save Boone were in "Do No Harm", it feels quite disappointing that the episode didn't even try to turn Sawyer's deteriorating condition into something genuinely threatening. Instead all of the focus was on setting up a Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle, which does not interest me at all. Love triangles typically result in pretty poor storytelling, so I hope this show stays well away from that trope. While I liked parts of the ending montage, I didn't like the entire thing. I was very disappointed that there were no questions asked about Michael and Jin's sudden return with a couple of unfamiliar faces. Why wasn't anybody upset about their chances of rescue becoming practically zero? Why wasn't anybody asking about where Sawyer and Walt were? Why wasn't anybody inquiring about these two new people and the mysterious others? There should have been more panic and fear catalyzed by Michael and Jin's return, but the show instead only shows us everyone happily reuniting and chatting. It's awkward not to address the elephant in the room, and it damages the emotion of those final scenes. As always, I had a couple of nitpicks. It seems irresponsible for Kate, Charlie and Hurley to be golfing so close to the camp where they could easily injure somebody with an unlucky swing. It seems odd that Jason would be deemed innocent just because Ana Lucia didn't identify him. Surely Jason's confession should be enough to take the case to trial. The Unknown: What will Jack and Ana Lucia's interactions be like? How will the relationship they had developed in "Exodus" be altered by the events of the island? Best Moment: Ana and Sayid's conversation at the end of the episode was very good stuff. Character of the Episode: Ana Lucia. Conclusion: This was a pretty good episode. While not on the level of some of the show's best episodes, this still told a good character story while bringing us to the big reunion of camps that was expected. Score: 66 Summary: The episode details the 48 days the Tailies spent on the island. After the plane crashes, Ana Lucia takes control and tries to calm everyone down. At night, the others attack and take a couple of people, Mr. Eko kills 2 of them and stops talking. The group decides to wait for rescue while Ana Lucia becomes suspicious of Nathan. Another attack from the others result in 9 kidnappings. Ana Lucia kills one of them and finds a list of names. She concludes that there is a traitor in the group. Ana Lucia thinks it's Nathan and starts torturing him. The real culprit is Goodwin who sneakily kills Nathan. Ana Lucia eventually figures out that Goodwin is with the others and she kills him after a short fight. Afterwards, she finally breaks down and Eko comforts her. A montage takes the story to the moment where Ana Lucia shoots Shannon.
The Good: Television is often at its best when it completely blindsides you with something wonderful. This episode completely broke the established formula of the show and gave us something that was different from anything "Lost" has ever done before, and it worked spectacularly. From the first few moments, it was clear that we were watching a special episode. This episode skips over the "previously on" segment, recaptures the chaotic feel of "Pilot Part 1" and even adopts a unique formatting by separating the story into different days. The allure of something new and different immediately struck me, and within seconds I found myself hooked, excited to see what this episode could accomplish. And this delivered big-time. The Tailies are all mysterious people who we know precious little about. And that stays true after this episode. There are no flashbacks and no backstories explaining why a character behaves the way they do. Instead the episode is shrouded in mystery regarding the history of these characters, and we are allowed to form opinions on them solely based on their actions on the island. It's similar to how we were introduced to the characters back in season 1, and it sets up for each individual character's flashback episode to really surprise us and potentially offer that same shock if our understanding of a character turns out to be completely wrong ("Walkabout", "Confidence Man" and "...In Translation" are wonderful examples of this). But this episode doesn't only build up for future reveals. The change in character-based storytelling gives us a more linear storyline focused on Ana Lucia, who tries her best to lead her ragtag group of people through desperate times where everyone's lives are on the line. Ana Lucia is positioned similarly to Jack, and what makes her character stand out is the different approach she takes to leadership. Ana Lucia somehow manages to be even more emotionally driven than Jack while maintaining an even greater degree of rational decision-making as she makes decisions for the best of the group while actively working towards ensuring everyone's survival. It's a great story, and condensing 48 days of struggle into just 40 minutes works in the episode's favour as we are subject to the extreme mental strength Ana Lucia must have in order to deal with all of this. This becomes increasingly apparent towards the end of the episode with Ana Lucia's experiences with Goodwin and Nathan which cause her to finally snap and realize what everything has come to. Her line to Bernard where she tells him to get used to his new life hits really hard, and some quality acting makes it easy for us to understand how difficult it is for Ana Lucia to lead the group the way that she does. All of this background on Ana Lucia's leadership makes her murder of Shannon even more powerful. Now it's so easy to see why Ana Lucia would be so quick to pull the trigger when Shannon stumbles out of the woods, and it's much harder to fault her for her actions. I'm even more excited to see the fallout of this scene now. The Goodwin and Nathan plot was phenomenal. The episode does such a good job of tricking you into thinking that Nathan is an other. From the Goodwin scene in "...And Found", we naturally assume that he was killed by the others, not that he was an other himself. Furthermor, Nathan's shifty behaviour, the dramatic stare-downs between him and Ana Lucia, as well as the connection to Ethan with his home country being Canada all suggest that he is the culprit. So when Goodwin suddenly snaps Nathan's neck, it's a huge surprise that immediately elevates the tension of the episode. The ensuing scene with Ana Lucia and Goodwin is fantastic. It's a fantastic gun-under-the-table scene with the knife being passed back and forth, and Ana Lucia starting to ask Goodwin some suspicious questions. The tension escalates naturally in a brilliant way and the brief fight at the end is exciting, even with the outcome predetermined. I appreciate that the fight was short and explosive. It made me forget for just long enough that Goodwin is destined to die here, making the fight more dramatic than it would have been if it was stretched out. There were some very good minor moments. Mr. Eko's background story as he seemingly takes a vow of silence was pretty good, and it culminated brilliantly in that scene with Ana Lucia (see: Best Moment). Also, I really liked the reveal that Bernard was the person who Boone contacted back in "Deus Ex Machina". It makes Boone's death feel even more tragic, knowing that it was all for nothing. The Bad: It is annoying that a big cliffhanger isn't advanced in the following episode for the second time this season. Though I do like the way that this episode made Shannon's death have a little more weight to it, I still don't like having to wait even longer to find out what happens next. Surely Nathan's excuses should have been much better if he was actually innocent. Nobody was ever going to buy his bathroom excuses, so it seems really strange that he was innocent all along. His actions and words don't seem to correlate with what an innocent man would say. The ending montage was a decent way to speed through the footage that we had already seen. However, it does feel like a waste of time to spend something like 5 minutes on scenes that we were already familiar with without much alteration. I feel like there is a better way to advance to that final scene without it feeling so redundant. The Unknown: What were Ana Lucia and Mr. Eko's lives back in the real world? They somehow seem like even more of a mystery after this episode. Why is there a quarantine sign on the door of the other Dharma station? Do all stations have quarantine on them? What was with the glass eye inside the station? How about the bible? How did the others obtain a US army knife? Best Moment: As excellent as the Ana Lucia vs Goodwin scene was, I have to go with the scene by the stream between Ana Lucia and Eko. Ana Lucia finally cracks as the guilt of murdering Goodwin and torturing Nathan gets to her. Mr. Eko is there and he decides to speak for the first time in 40 days, comforting Ana Lucia. These two are hardly friends, but Eko still goes over to her and comforts her as she finally lets out all of the pent up emotion inside of her. It's a powerful scene that nicely shows us the trust that the Tailies have built after spending 40 days together. Character of the Episode: Ana Lucia. Conclusion: What a ride. This episode set out to do something different and it gave me an experience completely unlike anything "Lost" has ever done before. Somehow, this changed the formula yet still kept the heart of the show, providing us with some of the best 40 minutes of drama you will ever find. This is one of the best episodes of the series for sure. Score: 89 Summary: Flashbacks show Shannon's rocky relationship with her step-mom Sabrina. When her father dies, Shannon's inheritance is kept by Sabrina since there was no will. As a result, Shannon is unable to pursue a job opportunity and she lashes out at Boone who doesn't seem to believe in her abilities, just like Sabrina. On the island, Shannon sees Walt but Sayid doesn't believe her claims which frustrates her. Charlie and Claire have a smallfight and Claire goes to Locke, letting him know about Charlie's Virgin Mary statue. Mr. Eko, Jin and Michael reunite with the rest of the group and press on to the survivors' beach camp. Sawyer passes out due to his wound so they decide to cut through the jungle. Cindy vanishes and Ana pulls out her gun. Shannon looks for Walt through the jungle with Sayid. They reconcile but Walt suddenly appears. Shannon goes after him but is shot and killed by Ana Lucia.
The Good: This episode was balanced much better than every episode this season since the premier. Every storyline was interesting and there was an appropriate amount of time spent advancing each conflict. It's nice to see the pacing return to normal, and I think that made this episode easier to watch. Furthermore, it was nice to finally get flashbacks for Shannon, giving the flashbacks importance, which was missing in "Everybody Hates Hugo" and "...And Found". Shannon's backstory is solid. She has always been a bitchy character who has been difficult to like. It's good to see that the writers thought up of a good story to explain why she behaves in such a toxic way. Shannon's relationship with Sabrina is horrible, and the pressure of constantly being deemed a failure seems to have gotten to her repeatedly. She freaks out against Boone who is only trying to help, and she does the same to Sayid on the island. Her inner conflict is easy to understand, and it adds some depth to her when we learn why she is so determined to prove herself once people start doubting her abilities. Shannon's island story is interesting too because of Walt's mysterious appearances (see: The Unknown). His seemingly random appearances are very creepy, and they add some dramatic weight to the episode. The ending scene is very well done and it delivers a real surprise when Shannon is shot and killed. Shannon's scenes are also inter-cut brilliantly with the Tailies storyline as Cindy is taken by the others right when Shannon and Sayid begin hearing the whispers. Speaking of the Tailies, their story was solid again. We finally get to the point where they have intersected with the main group of survivors, and the stage has been set for a big conflict. Shannon has died, the Tailies have some horror stories to tell about the others, Sawyer is in critical condition, and the survivors will learn that the raft will not be bringing rescue. The scenes with Charlie/Claire/Locke were fine. There wasn't anything special here, but it does look like the writers are developing a long-running story centering around Charlie's Virgin Mary statue. I'm interested to see where this goes. The Bad: Shannon's death does feel a bit lazy. She has done practically nothing in the entire season, and it feels like she was killed because the writers were unsure of what to do with her now that Boone is dead. Her death scene was surprising and it will likely have a big impact on the story, but it doesn't feel like a major game-changing death, likely because Shannon has firmly been a background character for much of the show. It's not as impactful as if somebody like Sawyer had died instead. The writers still have not addressed why Sayid is engaging in a romance with Shannon. Shannon brings up that he's just going to leave her for Nadia, but we don't really get to see how Sayid actually feels about that. We haven't been shown why Sayid would want to be in a relationship with Shannon, and we also don't know how he feels about it. That's a problem, and it's one of the reasons that this romance never quite felt right for me. It's odd that Locke wouldn't immediately confront Charlie on his drug abuse when he hears about the Virgin Mary statue. Instead Locke just vaguely accuses Charlie of being a druggie and doesn't follow up at all. That's not like the wholesome sage Locke that we had gotten to know in season 1. Once again, "Lost" is sacrificing character communication for the sake of meaningless drama. The Unknown: Why is Walt appearing randomly. Since Sayid saw him, he's clearly not an illusion. Is he with the others? Were they around when he showed up? Is he trying to escape? Or warn the survivors? What was he trying to say to Shannon? Did Cindy really get taken like that? How? Why? What motivates the others to do this? Apparently they took a lot of the Tailies, including some kids. Why did they do that? Why haven't they taken anyone from them fuselage survivors' camp? Ana Lucia refers to a point when Mr. Eko apparently wasn't talking. Why wasn't he talking? When was this? How will Sayid react to Ana Lucia killing Shannon? How will the camp react to this? Will there be any major conflict? Best Moment: The ending scene was a good surprise and an effective cliffhanger. Character of the Episode: Shannon. Conclusion: This was a solid episode that improved on the season's unbalanced pacing. While not a special episode itself, this does nicely set up for what will hopefully be better stuff in the next few episodes. Score: 65 Summary: Flashbacks show Sun getting set up with Jae Lee to be married. But Sun is heartbroken when she learns that Jae plans to go to America to marry an American woman. Meanwhile, Jin gets a new job at a hotel but he eventually quits when he is forced to act against his morals. Afterwards, Sun and Jin meet each other for the first time. On the island, Sun decides to bury the bottle from the raft. Sun loses her wedding ring and talks to Jack, Hurley, Locke and Kate trying to find it. She eventually finds that she lost it while burying the bottle. The tailies begin to go across the island to the survivors' camp. Michael goes off in the jungle to find Walt and Jin and Mr. Eko go after him. They have a near miss with the others. Jin finds Michael and convinces him to come back.
The Good: Once again, the tailies storyline saves the episode. The wonderful joy of getting introduced to interesting new characters is showcased in this episode as we learn more about Ana Lucia, Mr. Eko and Libby who are immediately interesting. Ana Lucia comes off as sarcastic and confident, Libby very casual and quirky, and Mr. Eko is intimidating yet wholesome. It's a wonderful mix of characters and the promise of learning more about them makes me more engaged with everything going on in the tailies storyline. The tailies story does one other thing right, and it does so masterfully. That thing is building up the others as a threat. The episode does a fantastic job of establishing how horrifying the others are. Libby's claims about the others are intriguing, and it's evident that the tailies are terrified of these people. Then we come across Goodwin's corpse, which is a horrific image and it does a wonderful job of letting us become afraid of the others based off of what we are shown rather than what we have seen. Then everything culminates in an outstanding moment as Jin and Mr. Eko hide in the bushes, watching several silent figures moving through the jungle (see: Best Moment). The tension is built up with every moment, and the episode does a wonderful job of building up our fear for that frightening climax. The flashback story is decent entertainment. It's nice to get a look at what Sun and Jin were doing before they met each other, and there are some good moments that deepen these characters. We get to see Jin's morality more, making his transformation into Mr. Paik's hitman even more horrifying. Plus we get to see more of Sun's desire to break free from her family's constraints. It's all pretty solid stuff. What really makes this story work is probably the accurate depiction of Korea and its cultural style. Everything feels completely different from what we would expect in Western countries, and I think the episode did a really nice job of including details to make the setting feel more realistic. The Bad: Unfortunately this episode feels almost entirely like filler. Outside of the tailies story, nothing else feels important. I enjoyed the flashbacks but I don't think they were necessary at all. They don't provide anything important to the series at a whole outside of a fun side-story. If you take out the flashbacks, I don't think out perceptions about Sun and Jin would be any different at all. Even worse is Sun's storyline which is completely meaningless. Sun losing her wedding ring isn't a good story in any way and I had zero interest in it. I found myself groaning whenever the scene shifted back to Sun. The scenes of Sun talking to various other survivors are admittedly written pretty well (Locke is his usual self, Hurley is as funny as ever), but they still feel pointless as the conversations don't serve to advance the plot or characters in any particular way. This makes two slow episodes in a row. The momentum coming out of the big reveals in "Man of Science, Man of Faith" and "Orientation" is completely gone now, and I'm finding myself less invested in the season than I was before. I feel like the writers should have put in more effort to advance the plot consistently in every episode. Having 2/5 episodes be packed with fast-paced plot development while nothing happens in 3/5 episodes is a very strange balance. The pacing needs to improve because it is all over the place at the moment. The Unknown: What did the others do to the tailies? Who was Goodwin and what happened to him? Why did the others kill him? Also, there appeared to be a child carrying a teddy bear in the group of others that walked by. Why do they have a child with them? They have Walt too, so do they specifically go after children? Best Moment: The creepy moment of the others shuffling by was fantastic and filled with dread. It was set up perfectly too with Mr. Eko immediately shutting Jin up and searching for a hiding place the moment he heard a sound. Character of the Episode: I'll have to give it to Mr. Eko. He's been a blast to learn about. Conclusion: This episode has one really strong storyline but I couldn't shake the feeling that most of this episode was unnecessary. This is a fine if unspectacular watch. Score: 60 Summary: In flashbacks, Locke meets Helen and they begin a relationship. However, Locke can't get over what his father did to him and he consistently wakes up early to park his car in front of his father's house. Helen forces him to break this habit in order to be with her, encouraging Locke to take a leap of faith. On the island, Kate knocks out Desmond who accidentally shoots the computer. As Desmond scrambles to fix it, Locke and Jack watch an orientation video explaining what the computer is for. Desmond's attempts don't work so he leaves and starts running. Jack confronts him and Desmond remembers him. Jack lets him go. Kate brings Sayid who fixes the computer. Locke encourages Jack to push the button to take a leap of faith. They argue but Jack ultimately gives in. Meanwhile, Michael, Jin and Sawyer get imprisoned. They are joined by Ana Lucia who was also on flight 815. Sawyer hatches an escape plan but Ana Lucia takes his gun and escapes, revealing herself to be one of the others.
The Good: This was a massive episode for the show. I'll go as far as to say that this is a contender for the most important episode of the series so far. So much happened in just 40 minutes, and by the end of the episode I was breathless. This episode expertly sets the stage for the major storylines in season 2 and I'm incredibly excited to see what comes next. This episode was generous enough to give us loads of information about the hatch. Apparently it's a station called The Swan for a company called the Dharma Initiative. I'll have much more to say about this in "The Unknown". But this was a huge reveal and my curiosity in the backstory of this island must have increased by tenfold in this episode. The writers did an absolutely incredible job of revealing so much information while still leaving so much in the dark meaning that I somehow walked out of the episode with more questions than I had going into it, despite being given loads of answers. That's a perfect way to build up mystery. Even with a large emphasis on plot, character storylines weren't forgotten in this episode. Both Locke and Jack were given so much in this episode that furthered their feud in very meaningful ways. This episode neatly served as a part 2 to "Man of Science, Man of Faith" in terms of the Locke/Jack story. Where the season premier was more focused on Jack, this one was more focused on Locke. Through the flashbacks, we get more important backstory on Locke. Not only do we get to learn who Helen was (mentioned in "Walkabout"), but we get to see Locke take a big leap of faith. This of course ties into the climactic scene of the episode where Jack takes his first leap of faith. The message here is obvious: having faith isn't as easy as it may seem, and even Locke has struggled to let go of his beliefs and put his trust in something else. This was a very good exploration into the man of science vs man of faith theme. On top of that, there is a nice bit of development for Locke. Locke has total confidence that the computer will be fixed, but when he is left alone with hope dwindling, we see a little bit of fear creeping into Locke. In spite of everything that has changed, Locke still fears that the island will let him down just like his father did. It's lovely storytelling and you have to wonder if this will come into play in a more significant manner down the road. Jack gets a lot of good moments in this episode. He's so convinced in his man of science approach that he almost appears to be emotionally unstable at times. It's so good to see his approach in contrast to Locke's. Locke is more than happy to put his faith in what is going on, never once pausing in order to fully understand what is happening. Jack is the total opposite, refusing to let Desmond do anything until he fully understands what is going on. This erratic behaviour of Jack's works really well and it even feels realistic when you recall how perturbed he must be about encountering Desmond on the island. This, on top of the existence of a mythical smoke monster, provides Jack with evidence of miracles and destiny. Jack isn't ready to face of believe any of it however, so he spends the episode immensely frustrated and in conflict with himself. To deal with this, he flails his gun around and continually threatens Desmond. But once Desmond recalls who Jack is, there's no escaping it for Jack, who is forced to face his own emotions directly in what was one of the episode's best scenes. The Michael/Jin/Sawyer storyline was in the background of this episode, but what we got was really good. Ana Lucia made a welcome return, and her affiliation with these other people raises major questions (see: The Unknown). I liked how she was able to get information out of Michael, Sawyer and Jin. I'm very interested to see how the next episode follows up on this storyline. As ever, there were loads of little details that I loved. The orientation video was put together in a wonderfully authentic way, looking like it was straight out of the 70s. I was also a big fan of Jack offering a pleasingly logical explanation for the button being a psychological experiment especially after the orientation video did mention that the Dharma Initiative performed psychological tests. His ensuing scene with Desmond where he brought this up was wonderful, as was Desmond saying that he contemplated if it was actually real every single day. It's a lovely little look at how human beings would react in the situation. If you were in Desmond's position, would you really have the courage to let that timer run out? The Bad: This episode honestly feels a little bit too busy. Thankfully the content is so good that this isn't a major problem, but it is certainly jarring to go from a meandering episode like "Adrift" into a thrill ride of an episode like this one. I can't help but wonder if it would not have been better to put some of the material from this episode into "Adrift" so that the pacing could be a little more consistent. The ending scene of the episode was a little bit awkward. The image of several characters standing around this computer reminded me of the outstanding transceiver sequence in "Pilot Part 2". Unfortunately, this scene was too fixated on Locke and Jack to hit the same highs as the other scene. Sayid and Hurley felt like they should have been much more involved. Hurley should have been panicked and freaking out the entire time, while Sayid really should have just pushed the button himself. It feels lazy that the writers only partially used Hurley and Sayid in this scene and then ignored them in favour of Jack and Locke. It's a shame, because this could have been a classic scene with better contributions from Hurley and Sayid. I understand that the writers want to use Hurley for comedic purposes, so they don't want him to change much. But he really should have been more panicked in this episode, and it's odd that Hurley would not be thinking about the presence of the numbers. So there was a front door to The Swan. How did nobody find it? The facility isn't that big, so it's hard to buy into the idea that nobody would have noticed this large metal door sticking out of the ground. The Unknown: Who was Kelvin? Why was he in The Swan? Why was he alone? What had happened to his partner? How about his replacements? I have so many questions from the orientation film. Is the button actually doing something? What is it for? Who are the Dharma Initiative? Are they still active? Are they on the island? Could they be the others? What is their goal for the research they are conducting? Is all of their research done on the island? The Swan is apparently station 3 of 6. Are the other 5 stations on the island too? Where are they? What will be found inside of those? Also, The Swan is apparently a station studying electromagnetism. That seems to explain the magnetic wall we saw back in "Man of Science, Man of Faith". Why aren't there any electromagnetic studies happening though? Could that be evidence of this being a psychological test? Furthermore, if pushing the button is so important, why haven't more replacements come? Also, what was the incident that Dr. Marvin Candle mentioned? Why was the computer only implemented after the incident? Who was the girl in the picture with Desmond? Also where has he gone now? I imagine that won't be the last we see of him. Seeing that Locke had dubbed a sex line worker with the name "Helen" back in "Walkabout", I think we can presume that his relationship with Helen doesn't end well. What happened between them? Why is Ana Lucia working for the others? Did she get recruited by them? How does that work? Or was she lying about what happened to her after the crash? Best Moment: The orientation video was a piece of art. I was gripped the entire time watching to ensure that I didn't miss a single important detail. The whole thing was amazingly put together, and it did a fabulous job of giving us information without ever giving us too much. The cherry on top was Jack and Locke's wildly different reactions to the video. I was personally 100% on Locke's side. "We're gonna need to watch that again". Character of the Episode: Locke. Conclusion: This episode reminded me a lot of "Pilot Part 2" because of how much it got me invested into the season 2 storyline while simultaneously doing a ton of character work. Even though the highs of this episode were arguably better than the highs of the pilot, this episode was also more flawed. In the end, I view both episodes as about equally effective. Score: 80 Summary: In flashbacks, Michael tries to prevent Susan from leaving the country with Walt so that he can remain his father. Eventually Michael caves in and lets them go. On the island, Locke goes into the hatch after Kate. When Locke arrives, Desmond threatens him with a gun. Desmond locks Kate into a closet but Locke gives her the tools to escape. Kate enters the vents. Desmond questions Locke until Jack arrives in the hatch. Michael and Sawyer float through the ocean on wreckage from the raft. They argue and blame each other for Walt's kidnapping. Eventually they float back to the island where they find Jin shouting "others". A group of people descend down on them.
The Good: The scenes in the hatch were the highlight here. It was a unique idea to show us a different POV leading up to the confrontation at the end of "Man of Science, Man of Faith", and I think it worked in some levels. Desmond's scenes with Locke were very good and they raised loads of new questions (see: The Unknown), fleshing out the mystery in an enjoyable way. I was on the edge of my seat to ensure that I didn't miss any important details. Plus there were some very nice moments here like Locke excitedly assuming that he is the "him" that Desmond has been waiting for, the reveal of that mysterious computer that Locke typed the numbers into, and Kate enjoying a chocolate bar in the pantry. The raft story has a few good parts too. There was a pretty good story being told as Michael starts the episode off by blaming Sawyer for everything. He is completely blinded by his loss and makes an enemy of the one man he has for company. But by the end of the episode, everything sinks in for Michael and he accepts that Walt's kidnapping was his fault. It's a solid character arc to build an episode around. I liked Sawyer pulling the bullet out of his shoulder with his bare hands. We also got a classic one-liner to follow-up. The Bad: This episode did not do a good job of continuing the story from the last episode. After that epic season premiere, there was a ton of momentum going into this episode and it was all squandered. There were multiple moments where I found myself impatiently waiting for a scene to end so we can move onto something more interesting. This made the episode drag on, and it felt like an eternity until we finally caught up to the events at the end of the last episode. And then in a frustrating move, we still didn't get to see what happened next. Somehow the writers managed to stall the story for an entire episode. The scenes on the raft weren't very interesting either. When the extent of the story is that two characters are floating on a raft, there needs to be some extremely good character exploration to ensure things stay interesting. This episode didn't provide a fitting amount of character development. All we really got to see was Michael and Sawyer fighting for something like 15 minutes, and that wasn't interesting. Michael was a complete asshole to Sawyer the entire time. I understand why the writers had Michael blame Sawyer for Walt's kidnapping, but Michael went too far with his accusations, particularly with his claim that Sawyer took a bullet to save himself instead of Walt. Also, telling Sawyer to get off his raft when there is a shark in the water has to be one of the worst things Michael has ever done. He could have died! Speaking of the shark, the writers tried to create some tension-based drama with the presence of the shark. It didn't work at all. It was blatantly clear that nobody was getting eaten by a shark so I never got too worried for the safety of Michael and Sawyer. The death fake-out didn't work for me either, and it felt like a desperate attempt to squeeze some drama into what would have otherwise been a meandering and dull storyline. Sadly, the writers failed to produce any good drama so we ended up with a meandering and dull storyline anyways. Michael's flashbacks didn't offer much to the story at all. Sure there is the contrast of Michael fighting to get his son back both on the island and off the island, but that doesn't offer much storytelling depth. All of the episodes in season 1 had flashbacks with more depth than this. Furthermore, we don't learn anything new about Michael from his flashbacks. We know he didn't want to give Walt away, we know he loves his son, and we know that Michael has always been quick to anger. Nothing new is established here, so the flashbacks feel like a waste of time. The only redeemable part would be Michael's scene with young Walt, but I feel like we could have had a better story leading up to that moment. The Unknown: "Dharma" seems to be the corporation responsible for the hatch. Why did they make it? When? Where is the company now? What is their goals? How did they find the island? Why haven't they revealed it to anyone? Desmond brought up tons of questions. Who was the man he was waiting for? Is he waiting for somebody to replace him? What's the answer to "what did one snowman say to the other snowman"? How long has Desmond been in the hatch? The scratchings on the wall suggest that it has been an extremely long time. What is this sickness that Desmond mentioned? Is it the same one Rousseau's crew was infected with? Why aren't any of the survivors sick? Also what's with the computer? Typing the numbers into it and pressing execute resets a timer. What's the timer for? Why do the numbers have to be used? What's the point of all of that? Did Jin get taken by the others? Who are these people that are descending down on Jin, Sawyer and Michael? Best Moment: The final scene was pretty awesome. Jin finally appears and screams for Michael and Sawyer. He frantically keeps shouting "other" over and over again, and the episode ends with a brief shot of a group of people surrounding the trio. The visual is excellent, and the scene serves as an epic yet horrifying cliffhanger. Character of the Episode: Sawyer. Conclusion: I guess the title "Adrift" was an apt one for this episode. The pacing of the episode is comparable to a piece of wood adrift in the ocean. This ended up being a frustrating episode that did nothing for the show overall. It's immensely disappointing that we got this lazy episode following the series' best episode so far. Score: 47 Summary: In flashbacks, Jack treats Sarah who has very little chance of regaining the ability to move below the waist. Christian tells Jack to improve his bedside manner, and Jack ends up telling Sarah he is going to fix her. Stressed out after he fails the surgery, jack goes for a run and speaks with a man named Desmond who encourages him to believe in miracles. Miraculously, Sarah can wiggle her toes and Jack is stunned. On the island, a man is revealed to be living inside the hatch. Jack decides not to go into the hatch because the ladder is broken and he talks Locke out of going in. Jack makes a speech to the panicked camp that he will stay with them until morning and they will be safe. Locke goes out to the hatch and Kate joins him. Locke lowers Kate down into the hatch but something happens to her. Locke goes down to investigate. Jack decides to go to the hatch anyways and he goes in. He finds Locke with a gun to his head, and discovers that Desmond in inside the hatch.
The Good: That first scene was a perfect way to start the season. I've never seen a season of television open up with such a bold, thrilling, and shocking twist/reveal. This was just a genius idea, and it was executed to perfection. With that painful cliffhanger at the end of "Exodus", everyone is clamouring to see what is inside the hatch. So when we are presented with what seems to be a flashback sequence, we get a little bit frustrated. But then as the scene goes along, things get really weird. I was engaged in trying to unravel what was going on, and I was hit by a huge surprise once I realized that the show had given us exactly what we had wanted (a look inside the hatch) without us even realizing what was going on. The transition to the shot of Jack and Locke looking inside the hatch was a magnificent reveal and it capped off an extraordinary opening sequence. As for the bulk of the episode, I thought it was incredible. This did everything you would want from a season premiere. From the first minute, this episode was packed with intrigue and excitement. There were so many questions raised, and this did an absolutely brilliant job of keeping my interest. The episode is also packed with drama, including Kate's descent into the hatch, Jack exploring inside of the hatch and Shannon seeing Walt in the jungle. There was so much to enjoy here, and I think anybody would be immensely satisfied with this. But what sends this episode over the edge is the wonderful character exploration it does alongside the drama. Jack is given a very thorough examination in two departments: his inability to give out hope, and his dedication to being a man of science. I'll discuss the former first. We have seen throughout the first season that Jack is a very realistic man, and he is horrible at giving people hope. That character trait is explored here as we see Jack utterly fail at giving out hope in the flashbacks. He gives Sarah a harsh truth and Christian pulls him aside and chides him for it. Jack doesn't listen to Christian, and we see the consequences when Jack horrifies Sarah's fiance. In response to seeing the effects of taking away hope, Jack goes too far and gives Sarah too much hope. Having been unable to strike an effective balance between optimism and pessimism, Jack ends up wracked with guilt. But the pay-off comes on the island when Jack finally gets to apply what he has learned in a fantastic speech. His speech works so well because we see him completing his mini-arc of character development as he steps up as a leader and gives out hope to the camp, easing everyone's minds and cooling the panic. It's a lovely scene that was built up to in a very good way. On the other hand, the episode also explores Jack's determination to be a man of science. Both on the island and off the island, Jack stands by his realistic world view, evidenced by his response to Hurley's claim of being cursed. "They're numbers" is what he tells Hurley, and he is unwilling to even consider the possibility of the supernatural, immediately honing in on the idea of Hurley having been in a psych ward beforehand. He ignores any possibility of the supernatural, even going as far as to ignore the mythical smoke monster he had just seen a couple hours earlier. Jack refuses to believe in faith or destiny and we are shown how far he is willing to go with this belief. But what makes this storyline so compelling is that Jack is forced to confront the existence of miracles twice in the episode. The first time is in the flashbacks. In a wonderful scene where Jack meets Desmond, he discusses how he doesn't believe in miracles at all. Yet the next day, he finds that Sarah has miraculously regained feeling in her legs. Jack still doesn't accept the miracle, and as we see from "Do No Harm", he is more than happy to assume that he was simply successful in the surgery. But on the island he is faced with a miracle he can't ignore. In the ending scene, Jack comes face to face with Locke who has a gun to his head. Yet Jack seemingly couldn't be happier. Locke's "destiny" has led to his life being threatened, and Jack is more than happy to taunt him instead of attempting to save him. But right in his moment of triumph, Jack is forced to face the possibility that destiny may actually be real as encounters Desmond again in what must have been a one-in-a-million chance. Jack is forced to toy with the idea that destiny must be real, and that is a fantastic cliffhanger to end the episode on. The rest of the episode is filled with lovely little scenes. I was very pleased to see Kate and Locke talking about the smoke monster. They both saw something fantastical and it is only natural to want to discuss it. I was similarly pleased with Jack confronting Hurley about his crazy behaviour in the last episode. Another great moment comes from Kate as she is lowered into the hatch. Her dialogue with Locke is really well written, and it's a joy to watch. I also really like the callback to the pilot as Kate counts down from 5 when faced with fear. The Bad: I don't have much to add here. I suppose it would have been nice to see Kate and Locke also question Hurley's behaviour from the last episode. The Unknown: Now I have plenty to add here. How long has Desmond been in the hatch? How did he get there? Was it connected to his race around the world? What is he doing there? What is the facility he is running? Why have we never seen him leave it? Is he alone? Why? What was with that strange injection he took? What's with that computer that woke him up? Is it an alarm or something? Why does he have so many guns available? Where does he get all of his supplies? Also what was with that wall that Jack was looking at? The key around his neck was attracted to it. Is there something magnetic in there? I have so any questions and I'm really excited to learn more. Why did the hatch door say quarantine on it? Does that have something to do with the sickness that Rousseau claimed her crew had? Was Walt really in the jungle? How did he get there? Was it just a vision? What was he saying? The victim of Sarah's car accident was a man named Adam Rutherford. Shannon's last name is Rutherford. Could that be her father who we know is dead? Best Moment: It has to be the opening scene. Just wonderful television. Character of the Episode: Jack. Conclusion: Now this is how you start a season. Not only was this a dramatic episode that sets up the season in an interesting way, but it also served as an excellent character piece for Jack that gave him some brilliant conflicts to deal with. This is fantastic television and is the best episode of the series so far. Furthermore, this is also the best season premiere I have ever seen. Season 2 is off to an amazing start and I cannot wait to see more. Score: 90 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
February 2024
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