Which episodes to cut?

[rafterman1701]

One of the nice things about seasons 4-6 is how they've had fewer episodes, an end date to reach and not a lot of time for episodes with redundant flashbacks.
If you could go back to the first few seasons and delete episodes from existence, which ones would you cut to make the series have more sense of momentum early on?
While I've enjoyed every episode to some degree, episodes like Born to Run, Adrift, Fire + Water just don't really add a lot to the overall structure. You could almost skip them and not really miss anything.

Any episodes you'd cut?

 

[Mr Light]

"Fire and Water", a lot of the Sun/Jin flashbacks, a lot of the Kate flashbacks, a lot of the Jack flashbacks...

 

[Starbreaker]

Fire+Water works so well now because it set up The Long Con. I really wouldn't get rid of that one.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Yes the wonderful thing about seasons 3-5 was the fact that there was an unbroken chain of goodness week in and week out with every episode for the most part being interesting. There wasn't a single episode in 4 or 5 I would drop--all were at least above average outings although I might find a way to splice together "Eggtown" and "The Other Woman"--another unanswered question who did Juliet remind Ben of according to Harper(she didn't make much of a splash did she)--his mom?

For season 3 I'd condense those first six episodes and drop Kate's "I Do", the John flashback one whose name escapes me with him as a pot grower and all that spiritual mumbo jumbo in a makeshift sweatlodge, Stranger in a Strangeland--very weeak Jack flashback, horrible with that trashy Asian chick and the horribly misleading promo for it that promised three of the show's biggest mysteries would finally be answered, the Kate/Juliet in the middle of season 3 was it "One of Us" where we learn Kate befriended Sawyer's partner--it was the first really average episode since the turnaround triggered with "Not in Portland", "Enter 77". Dump the stupid Chicken flashback one with Hurley--"Tricia Tanaka is Dead" or some such thing--I never remember the crappy episodes or their titles. YOu can tell I'm not a big Hurley fan.

Season two had a lot of crap so much so I can't even remember the names but "Dave" would be one, "Everyobody Hates Hugo", "Fire + Water" another--the Charlie goes bad episode--not even sure that freaky vision he had makes much sense even all these years later. Season one ditch "Whatever the Case Maybe" and the one that was mostly centered on golf.

Season 6--oh boy--the writers needed to take a cleaver to this year--the storytelling efficiency they so expertly demonstrated in the last 3 years was gone. I can't believe that if they wanted to stop with the mysteries they set up in the last 3 years and go for a straightforward adventure with alliances forging and dissolving repeatedly they couldn't have done so in fewer episodes instead of dragging them out. This season definitely did not need 18 episodes to tell this particular story. Focus on more interesting material and of course they had more than 18 episodes worth doing but they didn't. "What Kate Does"--goodbye. "Everybody Loves Hugo"-adios. "Happily Ever After" the first real episode with one main storyline instead of a whole bunch of jumping from subplot to subplot and it is booooooooring--instead of Heroes' "Company Man" or "Ab Aeterno" we got a very dull hour barring the exciting stuff with Widmore/Des in the present.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I plan to never rewatch How Jack Got His Stupid Tattoos.

Everything else, I'll keep.

That is an amazing success rate for a six-season show!

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I plan to never rewatch How Jack Got His Stupid Tattoos.

I actually rewatched it once and was surprised at how much sense it made.

Or maybe it was some other show.

 

[DeafPoet]

"Adrift" hands down.

I used to really hate "Fire + Water" but I think it was just where it was situated in the abysmal season 2 airing schedule. I've watched the series about 3 times now at various points and while it's not one of the strongest episodes out there it's got some thematically interesting stuff going on. But as one of the only two episodes of Lost I got that month (or something) it really pissed me off.

As for "Stranger in a Strange Land", let's not mince words, it fucking blows. But I wouldn't cut it. Especially knowing what I know now. The entire episode sucks except for the last scene with Juliet and Jack at the cages and the explanation of what Jack's tattoos mean. I don't mean the story of how he got them but rather just the line where Isabelle says what they are:

"He walks among us but he is not one of us."

It suited Jack then and it really suits him now. I always found that really interesting. It just wasn't worth a dedicated episode to figure it out.

 

[FormerLurker]

I plan to never rewatch How Jack Got His Stupid Tattoos.

I actually rewatched it once and was surprised at how much sense it made.

Or maybe it was some other show.

Memorable for Bai Ling not showing her nipples.

 

[Starbreaker]

I forgot about Locke growing the pot. That was stupid beyond belief. That's probably the worst flashback.

 

[Mr Light]

^^ At the time, the young undercover cop appeared to be an Other who was scouting out Locke to be recruited. But I guess that wasn't actually the case. I didn't mind that flashback too much. Because it showed Locke contemplating murder but not being able to do it. I liked the fact that even though Locke was in some ways a "bad guy" he would never ever kill someone not even his evil father... so when he abruptly murders the Widmore girl in the S3 finale I was pretty shocked and disappointed.

 

[Warp Coil]

There are probably 3-4 episodes from each of the first three seasons that could be cut. I am pretty happy with the shorter episode order, and ultimately tighter storytelling, from season 4 onward.

 

[DarthPipes]

Jacks tattoos and Locke at the pot farm are definitely among the worst flashbacks. Two others I would suggest....

1) The episode where Hurley wanted to blow up the supplies because he didn't want people to hate him. That included the flashbacks where he didn't report that he won the lottery right away. I hated that episode, thought it was useless, and Hurley's attempt to blow the hatch made him look like a selfess dick.

2) Kate orchestrating a bank heist to retrieve a toy plane. Probably at the point where Kate stopped being an interesting character.

I really could have done without the entire Kate and Sawyer in a cage saga.

 

[startrekwatcher]

1) The episode where Hurley wanted to blow up the supplies because he didn't want people to hate him. That included the flashbacks where he didn't report that he won the lottery right away. I hated that episode, thought it was useless, and Hurley's attempt to blow the hatch made him look like a selfess dick.

Yes that was ep 2.5 "Everybody Hates Hurley" that I mentioned in my post. I know many people feel that Hurley is such a sweet cuddly guy and good for comic relief but he annoys the f*ck out of me at times and when he is the focus I just dislike those episodes. He is almost as annoying as Hiro.

Apparently from what I can tell many loved this season's "Everybody Loves Hurley" but it was grating to sit through. I mean the idiot just acts so stupidly and impulsively like when he blew up the Black Rock without telling anyone. He lies to them and keeps information from them like when he knew Smokey was going to attack the Temple and kept it from Jack--their friends could be there and not to do anything BS. And I couldn't believe Jack went along with Hurley's brilliant idea of going to Smokey and chit-chatting with this creature that just slaughtered all those people at the Temple.

"Dave" was a snooze too. Like Kate, Hurley is best in small doses and not the focus of an episode--just someone caught up with everybody else and reacting to the situation they are in is the best use for them. And I was never particularly interested in his romance with Libby.

 

[DarthPipes]

Hurley's one of my favorites and one of the best characters on the show but I will agree with you that his plans this season seeemd to have been a disaster.