Lost from the beginning (NO SPOILERS)
- Thread starter OdoWanKenobi
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That episode title effectively sums up the entire series.
Eko has a dream that, par for the course on this show, turns ugly. First, he sees Ana Lucia covered in blood. Then he sees his brother telling him to find Locke and have him take him to the question mark. He's in for a nasty surprise down in the hatch, though. Ana Lucia is DOA, but poor Libby is still clinging to life, and dying slowly. Sadly, everyone has bought Michael's story, and no suspicion is cast his way. Slowly, but surely, Libby succumbs to her wounds and dies. Poor Libby. We barely knew you. Poor Hurley, too. The guy finally has something good happen to him, and it gets snatched away, like that. Sawyer also shows his human side a bit, when he gives up the control he has over the guns in order to get the heroin so that Libby can be a little more comfortable as she dies. I like Sawyer's character the best when he's actually acting as part of the group, and not just a jerk. Of course, if he didn't act like a jerk, those good moments wouldn't be as special.
Eko makes good on what his dream tells him to do, and hunts down Locke. The question mark turns out to be one of the symbols that Locke drew off the blast door, and it would seem the symbols are a map to the island. Coincidentally, the question mark just happens to be right underneath the heroin plane. Interesting that Locke and Eko were both led to the same place by a dream, and that both times someone else climbs that mountain because Locke's leg is hurt. Thankfully, Eko doesn't share the same fate as Boone this time.
Underneath the question mark is another Dharma outpost. This one would seem to be the listening post, watching all of the others. The tape they find there would imply that the button really is just a ruse to see if someone will keep pressing it. This breaks Locke's faith completely. Yet, oddly, Eko is unfazed. His resolve is strengthened. Eko believes so completely in the prophesy of his dream, that he's going to take Locke's place as hatchmaster. Possibly of note is Locke sending his map through the pneumatic tube. Since the tube is said to leave straight to Dharma headquarters, or something, will that come back to bite him?
Almost forgot the flashback in all of that. Looks like Eko's faith was found even more recently than I thought. He was still (in his mind) posing as a priest until right before he boarded the plane. The girl that died and came back brought a message from the beyond to him.
Oh, and lastly, Michael needs to die. Soon.
That episode title effectively sums up the entire series.
Eko has a dream that, par for the course on this show, turns ugly. First, he sees Ana Lucia covered in blood. Then he sees his brother telling him to find Locke and have him take him to the question mark. He's in for a nasty surprise down in the hatch, though. Ana Lucia is DOA, but poor Libby is still clinging to life, and dying slowly. Sadly, everyone has bought Michael's story, and no suspicion is cast his way. Slowly, but surely, Libby succumbs to her wounds and dies. Poor Libby. We barely knew you. Poor Hurley, too. The guy finally has something good happen to him, and it gets snatched away, like that. Sawyer also shows his human side a bit, when he gives up the control he has over the guns in order to get the heroin so that Libby can be a little more comfortable as she dies. I like Sawyer's character the best when he's actually acting as part of the group, and not just a jerk. Of course, if he didn't act like a jerk, those good moments wouldn't be as special.
Eko makes good on what his dream tells him to do, and hunts down Locke. The question mark turns out to be one of the symbols that Locke drew off the blast door, and it would seem the symbols are a map to the island. Coincidentally, the question mark just happens to be right underneath the heroin plane. Interesting that Locke and Eko were both led to the same place by a dream, and that both times someone else climbs that mountain because Locke's leg is hurt. Thankfully, Eko doesn't share the same fate as Boone this time.
Underneath the question mark is another Dharma outpost. This one would seem to be the listening post, watching all of the others. The tape they find there would imply that the button really is just a ruse to see if someone will keep pressing it. This breaks Locke's faith completely. Yet, oddly, Eko is unfazed. His resolve is strengthened. Eko believes so completely in the prophesy of his dream, that he's going to take Locke's place as hatchmaster. Possibly of note is Locke sending his map through the pneumatic tube. Since the tube is said to leave straight to Dharma headquarters, or something, will that come back to bite him?
Almost forgot the flashback in all of that. Looks like Eko's faith was found even more recently than I thought. He was still (in his mind) posing as a priest until right before he boarded the plane. The girl that died and came back brought a message from the beyond to him.
Oh, and lastly, Michael needs to die. Soon.
Three Minutes:
Nearing the end of season two, now. The survivors are, understandably, looking for some revenge. Sadly, they're after the wrong people here. Michael is really insistent on only Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley coming. He gets super pissed when Sawyer brings Sayid into the fold. In fact, he's so over the top that I'm surprised Sayid was the only one with suspicions. Thankfully, Jack listens to reason this time. Looks like Michael's plan won't go off without a hitch.
That flashback mostly show us stuff I had already pieced together. Mostly that Michael had come across the Others. They had offered to trade Walt in exchange for him freeing NotHenry. He then felt that killing Ana Lucia was the only way to get NotHenry out, and Libby was a tragic accident. The only detail I hadn't figured out yet was the list of names. The Others want those specific four for something. Quite convenient that those four happened to be the only ones in the hatch at the time, though.
There are a couple good character moments. Charlie FINALLY throws those damn heroin statues into the ocean, and Sawyer tells Jack that he's the closest thing he has to a friend. Awwwwwww, I didn't know the big lug had it in him. Hurley gets serious, too, and tells Michael that he's going with. Of course, we hate hearing this because it's exactly what Michael wants.
Ah, Michael. How much he's changed. At the start he was a somewhat aloof, but well meaning guy. He loved his son, and that at least was commendable. I understand a parent's bond, but nothing permits cold-blooded murder like that. I don't think I can ever do anything but hate Michael ever again. If he gets some kind of free pass at the end of this, I don't think I can accept it.
The episode ends on a cliffhanger. During the funeral, Sun sees a boat. Could rescue be at hand? There's still four more seasons, so that's unlikely.
Nearing the end of season two, now. The survivors are, understandably, looking for some revenge. Sadly, they're after the wrong people here. Michael is really insistent on only Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley coming. He gets super pissed when Sawyer brings Sayid into the fold. In fact, he's so over the top that I'm surprised Sayid was the only one with suspicions. Thankfully, Jack listens to reason this time. Looks like Michael's plan won't go off without a hitch.
That flashback mostly show us stuff I had already pieced together. Mostly that Michael had come across the Others. They had offered to trade Walt in exchange for him freeing NotHenry. He then felt that killing Ana Lucia was the only way to get NotHenry out, and Libby was a tragic accident. The only detail I hadn't figured out yet was the list of names. The Others want those specific four for something. Quite convenient that those four happened to be the only ones in the hatch at the time, though.
There are a couple good character moments. Charlie FINALLY throws those damn heroin statues into the ocean, and Sawyer tells Jack that he's the closest thing he has to a friend. Awwwwwww, I didn't know the big lug had it in him. Hurley gets serious, too, and tells Michael that he's going with. Of course, we hate hearing this because it's exactly what Michael wants.
Ah, Michael. How much he's changed. At the start he was a somewhat aloof, but well meaning guy. He loved his son, and that at least was commendable. I understand a parent's bond, but nothing permits cold-blooded murder like that. I don't think I can ever do anything but hate Michael ever again. If he gets some kind of free pass at the end of this, I don't think I can accept it.
The episode ends on a cliffhanger. During the funeral, Sun sees a boat. Could rescue be at hand? There's still four more seasons, so that's unlikely.
Live Together, Die Alone:
WHAT. A. RUSH!
That was two hours of pure adrenaline. Awesome, awesome, awesome!
The boat from the last episode contains Desmond of all people. I'm sure he's thrilled to back. Someone said earlier in the thread that a character from later in the series jumped up to near the top of their favorites list. I'm guessing they were talking about Desmond. After this episode, I would have to agree. The flashback detailing his past are beautifully tragic. Discharged from the army, losing the woman he loves, and being shipwrecked during the race he was using to make himself worthy of her again. Interesting that the man he found in the hatch is the same army officer that manipulated Sayid in the Gulf War. Desmond is forced to spend three years beneath the hatch, before things finally come to a head. We do learn how the blacklight map got on the blast door, but not to what purpose. There's more to this flashback, but before I get to that, let's talk a little more about the present.
Michael's party is about to head out, and Sayid suggests using the boat to get a head start and meet them at the beach. Thus, the umpteenth jungle trek begins. After an encounter with some Other scouts, Michael is forced to reveal his role. I'm surprised at the relatively calm reaction everyone has. I was sure Hurley would lose it. He beat the crap out of Sawyer for petty insults, I would have thought he would kill Michael for killing his girlfriend. Their trek does reveal something interesting, though. They come across a huge pile of the notebooks from the Pearl station. Looks like the joke was on them. The experiment was on the Pearl people, not the Swan, and those notebooks have never been read. Right then, though, they're captured by the others.
Sayid's crew comes across another disturbing thing: a four-toed statue. Now what could that mean? Their plan fails, though, as the Others' camp was a ruse, and their hatch wasn't real.
The Others are good on their word with Michael. They give him Walt, and the two of them speed off in the boat, possibly to rescue. Is NotHenry the leader of the Others, then? Can we get his real name soon? I'm getting kinda tired of calling him that. They let Hurley go to tell the rest of the survivors not to come back. So what do they want with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer? I guess we'll find out next season.
The real meat of this episode take place in the hatch, though. Locke has decided that enough is enough with the button, and recruits Desmond to his cause. If he has his way, that button is never going to be pushed again. They lock Eko out and start waiting. It's odd. We, the viewers, know that absolutely no good is probably going to come of this, but we want to see Locke succeed. We want to see exactly what happens when that button doesn't get pushed. Well, get to see it. All hell breaks loose. Interesting that we get to see it in flashback before seeing it in the present. But you see, there's a reason for that: Desmond followed his partner out of the hatch one day, and found out that he was repairing his boat. In rage, he accidentally killed him, but didn't get back in time to push the button. The huge magnet started powering up, and things got nasty. The funny thing about this, though is waht day this happened. The day of the crash. Desmond caused the plane crash. Boom. Bombshell dropped. There's more too it of course. The magnet doesn't explain how they ended up 1000 miles off course, or all of these people having met each other before, even if they didn't know it. There's some other reason they're here than pure accident. The flashback also supplies us with another great moment. There's a callback to the end of "Deus Ex Machina" where Locke is crying at the hatch, and a light goes on. That moments was one of my favorites in the series, and the explanation is rather beautiful. Locke and Desmond were both men at their wits end, and unknowingly gave each other the hope they needed to carry on without ever speaking a word to one another. That little bit is easily one of the best single moments of the series so far. It's a quiet, emotional moment in what is otherwise an adrenaline rush of an episode.
Well, the button doesn't get pressed. Locke destroys the computer. Eko possibly destroys himself, too, when he uses the stashed dynamite to try to blow the blast doors. All hell starts breaking loose. A horribly distraught Locke is forced to admit he was wrong. Desmond decides it's time to make the ultimate sacrifice. He takes the failsafe key, and blows the hatch. The whole island erupts with bright white light. What does this mean? Is the necessity of pressing the button gone? What has become of Locke, Desmond, and Eko? If the magnet is now destroyed, has whatever kept the island from being un-findable also been destroyed? Is leaving possible, now?
The last bit of the episode adds another layer to the plot. A monitoring station in some snowy place picks up the detonation. They put in a call to, of all people, Penny, Desmond's love from his flashbacks. They tell her they think they've found the island.
Bravo, good sirs. Bravo. You had me on the edge of my seat this entire episode. Though this season had some ups and downs, the final stretch was top notch. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go start season three.
WHAT. A. RUSH!
That was two hours of pure adrenaline. Awesome, awesome, awesome!
The boat from the last episode contains Desmond of all people. I'm sure he's thrilled to back. Someone said earlier in the thread that a character from later in the series jumped up to near the top of their favorites list. I'm guessing they were talking about Desmond. After this episode, I would have to agree. The flashback detailing his past are beautifully tragic. Discharged from the army, losing the woman he loves, and being shipwrecked during the race he was using to make himself worthy of her again. Interesting that the man he found in the hatch is the same army officer that manipulated Sayid in the Gulf War. Desmond is forced to spend three years beneath the hatch, before things finally come to a head. We do learn how the blacklight map got on the blast door, but not to what purpose. There's more to this flashback, but before I get to that, let's talk a little more about the present.
Michael's party is about to head out, and Sayid suggests using the boat to get a head start and meet them at the beach. Thus, the umpteenth jungle trek begins. After an encounter with some Other scouts, Michael is forced to reveal his role. I'm surprised at the relatively calm reaction everyone has. I was sure Hurley would lose it. He beat the crap out of Sawyer for petty insults, I would have thought he would kill Michael for killing his girlfriend. Their trek does reveal something interesting, though. They come across a huge pile of the notebooks from the Pearl station. Looks like the joke was on them. The experiment was on the Pearl people, not the Swan, and those notebooks have never been read. Right then, though, they're captured by the others.
Sayid's crew comes across another disturbing thing: a four-toed statue. Now what could that mean? Their plan fails, though, as the Others' camp was a ruse, and their hatch wasn't real.
The Others are good on their word with Michael. They give him Walt, and the two of them speed off in the boat, possibly to rescue. Is NotHenry the leader of the Others, then? Can we get his real name soon? I'm getting kinda tired of calling him that. They let Hurley go to tell the rest of the survivors not to come back. So what do they want with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer? I guess we'll find out next season.
The real meat of this episode take place in the hatch, though. Locke has decided that enough is enough with the button, and recruits Desmond to his cause. If he has his way, that button is never going to be pushed again. They lock Eko out and start waiting. It's odd. We, the viewers, know that absolutely no good is probably going to come of this, but we want to see Locke succeed. We want to see exactly what happens when that button doesn't get pushed. Well, get to see it. All hell breaks loose. Interesting that we get to see it in flashback before seeing it in the present. But you see, there's a reason for that: Desmond followed his partner out of the hatch one day, and found out that he was repairing his boat. In rage, he accidentally killed him, but didn't get back in time to push the button. The huge magnet started powering up, and things got nasty. The funny thing about this, though is waht day this happened. The day of the crash. Desmond caused the plane crash. Boom. Bombshell dropped. There's more too it of course. The magnet doesn't explain how they ended up 1000 miles off course, or all of these people having met each other before, even if they didn't know it. There's some other reason they're here than pure accident. The flashback also supplies us with another great moment. There's a callback to the end of "Deus Ex Machina" where Locke is crying at the hatch, and a light goes on. That moments was one of my favorites in the series, and the explanation is rather beautiful. Locke and Desmond were both men at their wits end, and unknowingly gave each other the hope they needed to carry on without ever speaking a word to one another. That little bit is easily one of the best single moments of the series so far. It's a quiet, emotional moment in what is otherwise an adrenaline rush of an episode.
Well, the button doesn't get pressed. Locke destroys the computer. Eko possibly destroys himself, too, when he uses the stashed dynamite to try to blow the blast doors. All hell starts breaking loose. A horribly distraught Locke is forced to admit he was wrong. Desmond decides it's time to make the ultimate sacrifice. He takes the failsafe key, and blows the hatch. The whole island erupts with bright white light. What does this mean? Is the necessity of pressing the button gone? What has become of Locke, Desmond, and Eko? If the magnet is now destroyed, has whatever kept the island from being un-findable also been destroyed? Is leaving possible, now?
The last bit of the episode adds another layer to the plot. A monitoring station in some snowy place picks up the detonation. They put in a call to, of all people, Penny, Desmond's love from his flashbacks. They tell her they think they've found the island.
Bravo, good sirs. Bravo. You had me on the edge of my seat this entire episode. Though this season had some ups and downs, the final stretch was top notch. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go start season three.
This remains one of my favorite moments in the entire series. Not because it was rarely topped, but because this moment was truly that incredible. I think that was the first time while watching the series that I really broke down in tears. Tears of joy.
Live Together; Die Alone is one of my favorite episodes of this show. It's beautiful. And you're right about the scenes in the Hatch being the best part of it.
I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying, yes, you will soon know his real name.
So when does season three start for you?
Right now.
A Tale of Two Cities:
So, we start in a quiet suburban neighborhood. Some people are getting together for a book club meeting. This is interrupted by the plane crash.........wait, what?
They're not in suburbia. They're on the island, and they're the Others. That's perhaps one of the best teasers of the whole series.We then get to see the status of the three captives. Jack is stuck in a cell behind glass. Kate is in a locker room, and Sawyer is in a cage. Jack acts stubborn toward new regular character Juliet (I know this because her name is in the credits.) but finally lets hunger and thirst get the best of him. Or does he? He attacks Juliet and holds her hostage out into the hall. Despite the urging of her and NotHenry, he opens a door and water rushes in. This place is underwater. Is this where the Dharma Shark was held?
Kate has a shower and some breakfast with NotHenry, who wants her to have something nice to hold on to, because the future is going to be unpleasant. Sawyer sits in a cage, until the guy in the cage next to him tried to escape. They both get caught, and Sawyer gets put back in the cage. If the Others are the "good guys" as they say, then why the hostility? I'm not sure I even know what to make of them.
The Flashback is pretty worthless. We just see Jack being irrational and obsessive over who his wife cheated on him with. I think we're starting to get to the point where there's very few really relevant stories left to tell in the flashbacks. I hope they can find a way to shake this up soon.
The episode ends with Jack letting go of his obsession over his ex-wife. Juliet then heads out into the hall and addresses NotHenry by his real name: Ben. Wait....Ben? If I may quote myself from early in season two:
JMGNGDFGKNEDKPCMPDKMPIKODG
Okay, okay. Calm down, Ben, calm down. That's not the only thing. The store number of the grocery store that I work at is 1516. My clock in number there is 4815. It seems like it was fate that I should one day watch this show.
Now I see why some people were chuckling earlier in the thread. Hehe.
Overall, though, I'm a tad underwhelmed by this episode. The lot doesn't really move forward a whole lot. Also, of the dangling threads from the previous season, I was really more interested in the fate of those in the hatch. This bit seems like standard heroes are captured stuff.
You're now at the point where I started watching Lost (I had to backtrack when S3 was in hiatus).
In some ways which I'm not sure I should talk about just yet I'm glad I started where I did...though as you can imagine it was massively confusing, and I'm not sure I ever quite sorted it all out in my head.
In some ways which I'm not sure I should talk about just yet I'm glad I started where I did...though as you can imagine it was massively confusing, and I'm not sure I ever quite sorted it all out in my head.
The episode ends with Jack letting go of his obsession over his ex-wife. Juliet then heads out into the hall and addresses NotHenry by his real name: Ben. Wait....Ben? If I may quote myself from early in season two:
JMGNGDFGKNEDKPCMPDKMPIKODG
I've been waiting for precisely that reaction since you made that earlier post. You have no idea how badly I wanted to tell you right there and then that one of the villains of the show was named Ben.
Okay, now I'm a little worried for you!
The episode ends with Jack letting go of his obsession over his ex-wife. Juliet then heads out into the hall and addresses NotHenry by his real name: Ben. Wait....Ben? If I may quote myself from early in season two:
JMGNGDFGKNEDKPCMPDKMPIKODG
I've been waiting for this.
Okay, that just adds to the niftiness of it all.
I'm glad no one blabbed. It would have diminished the impact.
To backtrack just a bit, the season 2 finale was quite brilliant. Good to see you enjoyed it too.
S3 is my third favorite season of the show--behind S4 and S5. Its unevenness held it back from being higher up. It had its ups and downs. It hit a low point for the series. It was here that the series was at its most frustrating in terms of not giving answers and stalling but at the same time it marked a point where the series soared into its most creative periods and never looked back finally advancing stuff and giving answers at a much better clip and finally came into focus narratively forging ahead with a purpose it had previously lacked.
I thought "A Tale of Two Cities" was an adequate hour. As was often the case with LOST it would cram a myriad of cliffhangers in the previous season finale then tackle them in chunks over the course of the following season's first few episodes and it would usually be an awkward period as we switched from the excitement generated by the last few episodes from the spring from a season of build up to a period of reorienting and setting up the new season's threads, new characters etc. And this was fairly well done with the Others, Ben, Juliet and the rest we will come to know. Karl is introduced and I have to say his mini-thread is a highlight.
This episode's highlight was the effective teaser. LOST was great at examining the same event from multiple perspectives and now we get to see the plane breaking up ground level from the Others POV. It still stands as one of the series' most memorable images. Another thing the show did well was its use of music and I love Juliet humming along to "Downtown".
The episode as was the pattern for LOST just introduces a series of questions and teases the audience--what do the Others want from these 3? Who are the Others? What is that huge file on Jack--where did they get all this info? Episode confirms they are in contact with the outside world. At this stage you wonder if they are responsible for the smoke monster. Have they encountered it? Were the Others just as confused by the strange goings on--How much do they really know? Are these Dharma folks? Did something happen for them to abandon their research? Why did they take blood samples? to see if infected like Rousseau's team? What are the Others looking for from all thee people who end up on the island? What is their ultimate goal? What made them so ruthless? Why do they remain on the island when there is a way off? How much do they know about the island? Are they the good guys? Are they trying to somehow save the world? Who is Ben?
The episode at the end is more of a collection of puzzle pieces that takes on more significance and one's appreciation when you get more pieces and set it properly in the larger context. I give it a B. I have a lot more to say about this episode but by discussing it now it would spoil it so I'll wait until the appropriate episodes.
I thought "A Tale of Two Cities" was an adequate hour. As was often the case with LOST it would cram a myriad of cliffhangers in the previous season finale then tackle them in chunks over the course of the following season's first few episodes and it would usually be an awkward period as we switched from the excitement generated by the last few episodes from the spring from a season of build up to a period of reorienting and setting up the new season's threads, new characters etc. And this was fairly well done with the Others, Ben, Juliet and the rest we will come to know. Karl is introduced and I have to say his mini-thread is a highlight.
This episode's highlight was the effective teaser. LOST was great at examining the same event from multiple perspectives and now we get to see the plane breaking up ground level from the Others POV. It still stands as one of the series' most memorable images. Another thing the show did well was its use of music and I love Juliet humming along to "Downtown".
The episode as was the pattern for LOST just introduces a series of questions and teases the audience--what do the Others want from these 3? Who are the Others? What is that huge file on Jack--where did they get all this info? Episode confirms they are in contact with the outside world. At this stage you wonder if they are responsible for the smoke monster. Have they encountered it? Were the Others just as confused by the strange goings on--How much do they really know? Are these Dharma folks? Did something happen for them to abandon their research? Why did they take blood samples? to see if infected like Rousseau's team? What are the Others looking for from all thee people who end up on the island? What is their ultimate goal? What made them so ruthless? Why do they remain on the island when there is a way off? How much do they know about the island? Are they the good guys? Are they trying to somehow save the world? Who is Ben?
The episode at the end is more of a collection of puzzle pieces that takes on more significance and one's appreciation when you get more pieces and set it properly in the larger context. I give it a B. I have a lot more to say about this episode but by discussing it now it would spoil it so I'll wait until the appropriate episodes.
The first half of season three (with one exception) is in my opionon, very weak. However, once a certain point is hit, the series kicks into high gear and never slows down again. *Wikipedia disagrees with me on this point, so removed.*
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