Lost - Catch 22

This is without doubt a beautiful episode, with a big time event for the series as a whole. For the first time we get to see Desmonds visions from his point of view. Not only this we get to see Desmond trying to understand and come to terms with them - he comes to the wrong conclusions but its fascinating to see how worked up he gets trying to make his vision comes true.

The flashback is good as well as at first it looks like an in-joke explaining why Desmond calls people "brother" all the time. Like in the present part of the episode we see him making decisions and coming to the wrong answers. However in a wonderful twist we find out that the flashback is the tale of how he meets Penny as she turns up unexpectedly right at the end.

There's a little bit of fluff about the Jack - Kate - Sawyer love triangle but its very uninteresting. Of note is Charlie and Jin doing a lot more than usual as is the reveal we have a new character who is somehow linked to Desmond, 9/10.

Lost - One of Us

There is a lot of stuff going on in this episode which is a relief after the start of the season. We see more of Juliets back story as her flashbacks fill in her time on the island and fill us in on her motivations before throwing in a possible swerve at the end. 

The majority of the episode is the ramification of Juliet switching sides from The Other to the Losties* and the issue of will they accept her. There's decent stuff happening here with Claire getting some screen time and Juliet gets a rather convenient chance to prove herself. We get a good bit of character stuff as various Losties get to interact with Juliet - some for the first time with Hurley stealing the scene he's in and Sayid & Sawyer showing their distrust.

It's a 7/10 from me and a really good strong flashback which adds a lot to the episode and helps colour in a character we hadn't met until this season.  

* I need a shorthand for the regulars and this is all I've got 

Lost - Left Behind

This is a very tight episode, there is a lot going on but it has the feel of an episode where not a single shot is wasted. It's another episode where the action is spread over multiple locations; the flashback, the Others Barracks and the beach camp. The flashback bearing in mind the subject matter is the weakest part of the episode - plus it seems to mix up the Left Behind metaphor the episode is based around with Never Go Back. In order for this episode to work we need to see more of what Kate left behind. We get two good guest actors on show in the shape of Kim Dickens off of Deadwood and Elizabeth Broderick of Teenage Witchery fame - other shows may apply. They should have been given better material.

The stuff at the Barracks is brilliant, everything is from Kate's point of view - not from a camera Peep Show sense but it's certainly from her lens. Juliet is viewed as suspicious and Jack as some kind of end of level trophy that she has her aim on. There's a good scene with Locke early on which perfectly sums up his character, he's trying to be judgemental, aloof, looking for a moment where he gets to say goodbye and "ascend" but like Kate we don't care - we want to know where Jack is. We get a good set piece with Kate and Juliet handcuffed and encountering the smoke monster - we find out The Others don't know a lot about it and that the Pylon fence is designed to keep it out. The theme of this section is that The Others have gone and left behind everyone they (or Ben?) don't want - including Juliet.

The stuff at the camp with Sawyer and Hurley is lovely character stuff. Hurley manipulates Sawyer to be the leader they need in a series of comical set pieces and at this point we're getting the double act we didn't know we needed as the two characters bond.

It's a strong 8/10 from me and with a stronger flashback this could have been something special.

Lost - Expose

When I review something I like to review what is given to us viewers on the screen, however that is not going to be possible for this episode. The meat of this review is what happened backstage and due to the nature of the show it's going to centre on the production team's continued path to distrust. First of all a quick sum up of the episode, it's a good bit of fluff and gives the camp something to do while we take an episode away from the rescue attempt, ordinarily this would get a fun fluffy 6/10.

I fully believe that the production team let down Kiele Sanchez & Rodrigo Santoro the actors who play Nikki & Paulo and threw them to the wolves. From day one the producers of Lost were clear that they had a plan, as a viewer I was cool with that liked what I saw and decided I was in this for the long haul. And then season two happened, on my watch through (which started before these reviews) the season was better than I remembered but then it did spend half the season introducing "the tailies" a group of five character's (two main, two supporting and an occasional guest character) who were then killed off, or thrown into the background or given an average of one scene a season. But then again they did introduce Ben so we got a bit of goodness and a lot of dead end story that went nowhere.

We reach season three and we're repeating the start of the previous season in that it's a very slow start and the show has never been good at pacing the use of characters. If you take every regular and put them in the category of overused, underused or just right very few will be in the third category. Due to the pacing fandom of the show was at a low ebb as season three got going and the wrath of fandom was taken out on Nikki and Paulo who started cropping up in the background of scenes and like most of the cast based at the camp didn't do a lot. The producers to appease fans announced they had a plan for the show and it would be a six season run, then to appease us short term killed off Nikki and Paulo.

This is just abject cowardness imo and shows a lack of production management, also it takes away a little trust as a viewer. From this point there would always be a bit of suspicion between myself and the producers. As an episode it's fine, it even has a lot of fannish touches for viewers in bringing back characters from the dead for some flashbacks. Everything I've read about the initial plans for the characters sound brilliant and going through with those storylines would have been a good way to get the show on track. As such from a character point of view we have Nikki and Paulo playing their endgame characters for this episode and are not recognisable to the characters we've seen for the entire run up to now. It's like watching episode one of Robot seeing Tom Baker making his debut as The Doctor and not tuning in again until episode four as Logopolis the performances are unrecognisable from each other but in Tom's case we saw the character change. As such this episode gets two marks 6/10 for what we got on screen and 0/10 for the spineless producers.

Lost - The Man From Tallahassee

I had forgot how brilliant this episode is, we've been building up to this one for some time as the rescue party has been moving closer to The Others camp. It's not the all action affair that "Not in Portland" was earlier in the season but that's ok - we get something we weren't expecting. We get a character episode where Ben and Locke are pushed to the for-front and we get so many good scenes with them both. All centred around the fact that one of them is in a wheelchair and the other isn't.

The rescue is over quite quickly - so quick it's easy to assume viewers would have been disappointed. Kate, Sayid, Rousseau and Locke against The Others to rescue Jack is an event that sells itself. After being overwhelmed they all get their moments but going into this episode I was expecting more. Jack's plan to escape is quite frankly a good one and there's a brilliant low level telegraph that this rescue attempt is going to lead to it failing.

We finally see how John lost the use of his legs and it's a good reveal. It's the conclusion of his flashbacks going back to season 1 and it's a case of a long standing plot line ending well. The placement of Lockes flashback in this episode is perfect as we see him with his private agenda of seeking to keep the use of his legs - he cares about no-one or nothing else. It feels at first that we're going to see a Locke episode where he isn't manipulated but them Ben enters onto the stage and we get a battle of wits between the two of them with each getting the upper hand at different stages.

Again it's a 10/10 episode which is mainly due to the level of performance of Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn. As with most highly regarded episodes we get a fantastic finale/cliff hanger and of note we get one of the main differences between Season 2 and 3. In the previous season we had endless scenes with Jack & Locke however as Locke blows up the submarine and Jacks way off the island we have the first time their paths cross this season. We're left in a wilder place than when we started the episode and I can't wait for the next one.

Lost - Par Avion

 A quick review due to time constraints.

A good Claire centric episode with flashbacks centring on the fact she's Jacks stepsister and introducing Daddy Shepard into her life. The mission to rescue Jack continues apace with some interesting tidbits about "the others" through the dialogue and things get more interesting when we reach the pylon fence. The stuff at the beach is good character stuff as Claire finds out about Desmond's visions. It's a good slow build performance by Emilie de Ravin as she's asked to be low key in her own centric episode but her performance get's more frenetic as the episode goes on. As well as a good character episode it's a good logistical episode as there is a lot of things going on and a lot of characters get screen time 8/10.

Lost - Enter 77

A rare run of the mill episode that just feels flat, nothing that happens in this episode is bad technically just uninspiring and bland. Sayid's flashback is uninteresting and the thing that sums up the episode best is when Rousseau (a character we've been waiting to turn up all season) decides to skip the episode and wait for the rest of the rescue team under a tree.

The Flame Station is a disappointment, Klugh's death is annoying and it feels like a wheels spinning while everyone goes through the motions. Mikhail is interesting but its faint praise. The classic example of a 5/10 episode.

Lost - Tricia Tanaka is Dead

Despite the title this is a lovely fluffy fun episode for Hurley that has a few plot elements tucked in to keep the viewers happy. Hurley's flashback is fun and raises a few laughs and the tone is set straight away by his Mr Cluck fast food joint gets hit by a meteor. Timeline wise this takes place just before Hurley heads to Australia and it's all good set up. Special mention to Cheech Marin who sets his character to the tone of the episode in ways most actors are unable to.

In the meat of the episode we get a character piece on Hurley who after taking so many blows since the start of season two reaches the point where he needs a win. We get a sequence where the Losties find a camper van with a dead body in it (Roger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and decide to get it going again - the van not the dead body. During this sequence Kate and Sawyer return to the camp and Kate promptly packs some water and leaves again taking Locke and Sayid to rescue Jack. The stuff with the compass reading is utter balls but recruiting Rousseau to the party is a tasty development as Alex has been well set up this season and we could see a development of the separated mother/daughter plot thats been in play since season one.

It's a lovely fluffy 7/10 from me and I'd forgot the Dharma work clothes and Roger were introduced so early. This episode flies or crashes based on Jorge Garcia's performance as Hurley and for me it flies, it's a rare example of an actor displaying their full range.

Lost - Stranger in a Strange Land

A notorious episode for a number of reasons, first of all it's an episode based on Matthew Fox tattoo and secondly it's the final episode shown on Virgin in the UK before Sky took Sky1 away and didn't give it back for one and a half seasons. I approached this episode with a sense of trepidation and came away a tad shocked when it turned out to be quite good.

It's a character episode with a bit of filler thrown in as in what remains a bonkers flashback Jack gets his second in what feels like a too soon story based on the actors tattoo. On Hydra island we see the ramifications of the escape and Jacks attempt to turn Bens operation into a hostage situation. The best moment is when we see Cindy from the tail section and the introduction of Isabel. The escapees are still on their way back to the camp in a traditional "it takes a few episodes to cross the island" sequence and Karl is written out.

In short a good slow burn character episode let down by a week flashback, at worst this episode is unengaging and at best a much requested look at "The Others" society, 8/10.

Lost - Flashes Before Your Eyes

I absolutely adore this episode, when we got Desmond's first flashback episodes in the season finale it felt pretty special. But "Flashes Before Your Eyes" comes after one of my favourite episodes and arguably knocks it out of the park. Even more impressively it does it with a different set of characters and little to do with the previous episode. This is where Lost is at its strongest - throwing story lines, characters and twists at you that leave you wanting more.

I'm going on record with this statement, Desmond has the strongest collection of flashback episodes in the show. There's the odd unique one here or there like "The Other 48 Day" but no other regular has so many classic episodes. There are so many nice touches in this episode from the whiskey to Charlie turning up around the same time of the man in red shoes. Where seriously into time travel territory at this stage of the show when the network famously made the producers take references to time travel out of season one episodes. Its not done in a sci-fi way, its done in a scary yet fully character manner. 

We see other characters who we don't see much of this episode such as Eloise Hawking (for the first time) someone full of mystery, Charles Widmore played by the wonderful Alan Dale and Penelope Widmore whose chemistry with Desmond helps create one of the most important relationships of the show. Its all about Desmond though and giving him a mission that has been very well set up in previous episodes. He's come a long way since that entrance as a mad man in a hatch. 10/10 

Lost - Not in Portland

This episode is no filler all killer as we get the conclusion to last episodes story, Kate & Sawyer are on the run on Alcatraz hunted by The Others while Jack sabotages surgery on Ben in an attempt to hold The Others at bay while the viewer is unaware about whose side Juliet is one. Blimey that was a long sentence! This is a culmination of so many plots as the mysterious girl Alex is revealed to be Bens daughter and tries to help the Losties escape in the hope they rescue her boyfriend and take him with them. Juliets motivation is revealed through her flashback - she's like a different person in the flashback and the performance shows how much life on the island and empty promises has broken her.

As the episode moves on it has a breathless energy, combined with the plot throwing multiple swerve balls at us this episode feels big. On top of feeling big we have Nestor Carbonell making his debut as Richard, it comes as a bit of a shock in that they sneak him in via Juliets flashback and I was sat there sitting gobsmacked as I forgot this was where he turned up. There is no clue what so ever about the character he will become and its a very satisfying performance in hindsight.

To sum up just when you think this episode can't get any better Rob McElhenney off of Its Only Sunny in Philadelphia turns up.

Lost - I Do

This is a very unusual episode in that essentially its the opening episode of a two part storyline. Its all about the set up to cliff hanger and how we get there. Theres some stuff happing on the main island at the camp however its rubbish and only exists to give us something to cut away to from the main action. 

Kates flashback is a good character piece, it feels like this is the closest we'll get to see Kate settle down since going on the run. Nathan Fillion makes a good guest character appearance, he needs to have the acting chops to go up against Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway the male members of the cast who we know Kate is interested in. We know Kate won't stay with him but it shows how good he is that he convinced me for a few seconds that I could ship them as a couple.

The main action on Hydra Island is absorbing as Ben tries to manipulate Jack despite not having much time to do so and appearing to achieve his goal. It all ends as Jack during surgery cuts Ben and holds him hostage unless Kate and Sawyer are released. Meanwhile Pickett is set up as a low level villain in that he wants revenge for Colleen murder, originally when aired the wait for the next episode was unbearable but the ending was fantastic. Its a 9/10 from me being a near perfect set up episode with the only negative being the disrespect given to Mr Eko in not giving him a funeral.

Lost - The Cost of Living

Its a goodbye to Mr Eko but he goes out in some style. Its hard to review this episode as its so tempting to just list the things I like, obviously I give the episode 10/10 as its not only excellent from an artistic standpoint but also a production standpoint. From Eko's view point the episode feels like a last moment gasp of breath before death, theres a distance in him from the other characters - there always has been but its more defined in this episode. His flashbacks have a yellowish filter to help convey the feel of Africa which makes a visual difference even from other flashbacks set outside of America. The story of the flashback perfectly counterpoints where Eko was when we first met him on the island as before his arrival he had sunk to a judgemental low, murdering in a church and defiling his brother church Amina's line about owing Yemi one church lingers long in the mind long after viewing.

I mentioned production earlier, as one main character leaves others are introduced in the form of Nikki and Paulo - we'll bang our heads against a wall about them later. The Losties head out on a mission separate from Eko but heading in the same direction adds emotional distance. As viewers we want details about this mission, we want to know about eyepatch guy but we're tied into Eko. Eko's ending confrontation with the smoke monster who kills him is dynamic and raises the threat of the Smoke Monster to another level, up to now its been a mystery, a bit of fluff when an episode needs excitement - now its a killer. Without going into spoilers it feels like something wanted Eko and because it couldn't have him wouldn't let anyone else have him.

The stuff on Hydra island is low key which is good as our main attention is elsewhere this episode but as we say goodbye to Eko the show moves on and the plot of the next few episodes are developed. We now know for sure why they took Jack, what they want from him and that Juliet isn't what she seems. 

A pivotal and powerful episode.

Lost - Every Man For Himself

This is the point where I stop harping on about the slow start as at the four episodes mark more is happening and we're moving on from the start of the season. The flashback is perfectly counterpointed with the main action as we see Sawyer in action as a con man in a well constructed plot line featuring Bill Duke of Predator fame. In real time Ben slowly toys with and manipulated Sawyer into thinking he has an implanted pacemaker that will blow up his hart if his blood pressure gets to high.

Theres also other stuff going in, we get repercussions from earlier in the season as Jack is asked to perform surgery on Colleen only to find an x-ray of spinal cancer. At the Losties camp Desmond appears to predict a lightning strike giving another indication that Desmond is seeing the future.

A fun tight episode with lots of things going on an 9/10 from me.

Lost - Further Instructions

Houston we have a problem, season 3 continues to stall before it can get started. For those of you unaware while this is the third episode but before broadcast it was planned as the second. This episode focuses on the camp and the aftermath of the explosion at the end of season 2. Before I go into the episode itself I don't believe that rearranging the episode does anything to help or hinder them as they are largely character based moody episodes that don't have much of an opening night feel to them it pains me to say it but despite the episodes being individually decent they do not flow together well which results in a tough sit.

The episode itself is a case study in John Locke in that he wakes up after an explosion and decides to go on a vision quest so the island can tell him what to do. Anyone else would have checked they were in one piece, checked everyone else was ok and then regrouped back at the camp. Needless to say via a memorable vision quest scene and an excellent cameo from Ian Somerhalder as the deceased Boone to go off and find Eko who is missing. The rest of the episode is Locke and Charlie mounting a rescue of Eko from a feral polar bear. The flashback is based around an episode of Lockes life when he's living in a hippy commune growing drugs and is duped by an undercover cop. Its good stuff as the more we find out about Locke the more we find that theres nothing to him as he goes through life being dictated too by other people and events feeling more and more sorry for himself with each of lifes defeats. Lockes strength as a character is his shallowness and the extreme lengths he goes to on the island to make himself look the opposite. 

We also see Desmond and Hurley for the first time this season, Desmond appearing to be in shock and naked as he was at the epicentre of the explosion. We don't find out a lot about the explosion but we do find out it likes thirsty Scots. He hooks up with Hurley whose on his way back from the pier where The Others kidnapped Jack and co. The main thing of interest happens at this point as Desmond tells Hurley to relax as Locke has made a speech about making a rescue attempt - a speech he doesn't make until later in the episode! Something has happened to Desmond but we don't know what yet!

Watching this episode back there are a few surprising nods to Live and Let Die, ie the drugs and the hairspray moment. We don't find out anything about the explosion although there is the prospect of finding something out in the future with Desmond. This is a good episode enough to get a 6/10 from me but its frustrating as the season continues to open at a snails pace. Desmond steals the show despite having limited screen time and its nice to see Charlie doing something. Hurley though has gone through the ringer in the last few episodes he's had his girlfriend killed, been forced to go on an expedition, tasered, tied up, blindfolded, then told to bugger off by The Others and made to walk back across the island - poor sod! To sum up its a good episode but frustrating and it feels like the producers and the show have lost their way.

Lost - The Glass Ballerina

This is an episode that I'd forgotten about and wasn't expecting to come in this position. After last weeks episode I rolled into this episode looking forward to seeing what was going on at the camp after the explosion and that isn't touched upon this episode. In all honesty I'd forgot that Sayid, Sun and Jin were on the boat looking to link up with Jacks party in an ambush attempt. As enjoyable as this episode is there is an element of "hurry up and get back to the hatch" about this episode.

I enjoyed this episode and in particular the flashback, we get some meat on the bone of Sun and Jins story. Despite being a shared flashback between the couple a lot is packed in such as the state of their marriage, Sun not being a pure as we're led to believe, Jin willing to do so much to keep Sun in his life and the effect Mr Paik has on their lives. I don't need the flashback to always be pivotal to the episode and this one works as a rather nice character piece.

Its a busy episode away from the flashback as Kate and Sawyer are put to work clearing rocks and we see and meet more of The Others including someone who looks to be the girlfriend of Karl from last week. The Others mount an attack on the boat as Sayid sets up a trap, this all feels like its writing by numbers to get the boat away from the Losties but it makes Sayid look stupid as he tries to set up an ambush with three people while trying to keep it a secret from one of them. Sun being the one to actually shoot someone is a good touch and helps the episode in its mission statement to "muddy" her.

The final scene with Jack and Ben is a good one, it asks questions such as what is their interest in Jack and why isn't he being put to work with Kate & Sawyer. I could have done without the TV and "current events" moment which ties The Others and the show to America in a way that takes the shine off. The Red Sox joke could have been done any other way any other time and it doesn't land at this moment but nice try. 

To sum up a very good episode 8/10 but not the episode this viewer was looking for.

Lost - A Tale of Two Cities

Finally my rewatch of Lost has reached season 3 which I'm slow burn watching with my sister whose never watched it before. Its been a gap of nearly two years since I finished season 2 and the wait has been due to watching a number of shows with my sister and getting some variety in our viewing. Like with previous seasons I want to say something about my memory of this season and thoughts going in. 

Season 3 is one of my favourite episodes, its one where as viewers our status quo is shaken as we get to see more of the others and the island. We start to do some deep dives into characters that were introduced and as a series we reach what I call the "lock in" phase where the show decides viewers are either in deep enough to go Full Lost or their out. Also a little bit of trivia, long term viewers who watched the show on initial broadcast may remember that during this season Virgin got into a spat with Sky and Sky 1 got taken off the Virgin subscription and replaced with Virgin 1 which didn't carry Lost. As a result I'm watching the series on the same box set that I watched the show on originally after the episode about Jacks tats.

Anyway onwards with the episode, we start with a fantastic cold open where we're introduced to Juliet whose preparing to host a book club meeting in a suburban setting. During the meeting there is an explosion and after some impact shocks the club members go outside and see the Oceanic 815 breaking up in mid air just as its about to crash - OMG we're in a flashback to the opening events of the first ever episode! We get a few cameos of Others who we've already met come running out of their houses Henry Gale, Ethan and Goodwin. Henry sends the other two off to infiltrate the survivors and we get a camera pan showing the suburban area is a small village of the island that we haven't seen and Juliet is an Other!

I'm going to cover the flashback briefly as quite frankly its uninteresting, we're seeing Jack after the break up of his marriage and how his obsession with Sarahs new partner impacts on his life. The most important impact is that Jack drives his father back to drink creating the events that will result with him being on the Oceanic 815 crash. We get a moment later in the episode where Jack is offered the chance to find anything about Sarah and refuses. We know Jacks obsessive nature and the damage it can do and this moment is about as cheap as a Mick Foley pop.

The action taking place in the present revolves around the Losties who were abducted in the finale of last season. Of note the pre episode recap mostly features characters from this episode so we only see three of the main regulars with the fates of the rest unseen for now. Jack, Kate and Sawyer are kept separated from each other for most of the episode. We learn that they are being kept in another Dharma station called The Hydra which seems to be at first glance an animal research station that is partly under water. Three seasons in and we finally get an explanation for the polar bears! We see glimpses of the station, some fun stuff with Sawyer as he completes some obstacles in his cage and wins a fish biscuit, Kate sees the showers and gets treated to breakfast before being caged. The highlight of the opening episode is the scenes between Jack and Juliet in the shark cage. Elizabeth Mitchell gives an incredible low key performance and debut as Juliet and she is the hook of the episode. She's playing Juliet as someone whose had her soul ripped out and is dead behind the eyes, as an acting decision this works.

Of note in this episode is the brief (so brief the meme of no polar bear explanation exists) explanation of the polar bears and the breakfast scene that a number of fans became so obsessed about that Damon Lindelof had to issue a press release saying that it contained no hidden meanings. Its a 7/10 for me, a slow but intriguing start with hopefully some more meaty episodes around the corner.