A Look Back At This Season Of Lost So Far : Rate The 8 First Episodes
By fred | April 21, 2008
This week is another pretty awesome week for all Lost fans, because it is the week what is the best season to date of Lost is coming back to end its run, and if the first eight episodes we got to see so far were any indications, and I bet they were, we’re in for some pretty great television.
Some people have complained or lost their faith in the show, and for a while so did I, but if there’s one thing this season has proven is how great this show truly is, and how it was able to win over all the people who may have doubted the show. Not only that, but with amazing creativity they have been able to expand the limits of the show way beyond anything we first suspected.
In what could be an indication of things to come, they showed us that there was a life after the Island, and that that life might be as important, complex and mysterious as the one on the Island may be.
This season started on a roll, and with the introduction of the brilliant new story-telling device that are flash-forwards, the creative minds of the show added an entirely new dimension : time. We’ve all know how time was somewhat odd on the Island, but the show used to be about the Island and what happens there, or what already did happen there in the past.
But this season, we had to deal with what will happen, on the Island as well as away from it, in the rest of the world. Especially in the first few episodes, the future outside of the Island was as important - if not more - than anything happening on the Island. Not just because it brought us many revelations about the future of things to come on the Island, starting with who the Oceanic Six were, but because a new story was being told, one that took place outside of the Island completely, though the Island still remained the central element of it.
We had lies being told, new mysteries in place, ghosts of dead friends visiting, and new alliances being made as the fight continued. I don’t know if the rest of the season is going to bring us back into that future, and stay more on the Island as latest episodes did, but one thing for sure is that either way, it will be something, something amazing and that, probably, none of us saw coming.
I can’t wait, but since we’re not really Thursday yet, let’s have a look back on all episodes of what I’d say is without a doubt the best season of the show so far, and rank them. I will list all the episodes, from my least favorite one to the best one, and I am sure some (or many?) of you will disagree with that list. That’s fine, more than fine, and I urge you to give us your own episode rankings in the comments, so we can see if there’s a pattern, if we can reach an agreement or not.
#8 : Ji Yeon (S04E07)
As far as I’m concerned, picking out the least favorite episode of this season was pretty easy, as Ji Yeon is the only episode so far with which I’ve actually been disappointed. At one point I called it weak, that may have been a mistake, but it was disappointing, and nowhere near as good as any other episode this season.
The main reason for this is that there wasn’t much in this episode, really. Yes, a mix of flashback and flash-forward, but I didn’t like it. I did not, because I felt it was quite easy to tell what was going on, with Jin’s behavior that didn’t match, with his phone that was nothing but gigantic (and after last season’s finale, we all knew such things mattered), with the Year of the Dragon (which didn’t mean nothing to me, but did to some), or with the fact that no one recognized him, at all, while we’ve been shown how all of the Oceanic Six were worldwide superstars now.
My list:
Ji Yeon
- I don’t agree with a lot of the negative stuff you said about this episode Fred. I agree that i thought there would have been a better twist because of the hype - i remember Jorge said in an interview that this ending would blow our minds, but i was actually pissed that they killed Jin off (even though it was in the future and i hadn’t thought of the possibility of him being still alive on the island) i think that might have been because of the needless use of the flashback to through people off. Even though that was a good tactic naratively…in the long run we’re just left with a pointless flashback. Also the on island action did seem like filler. Maybe i do agree with you Fred.
The other woman-
I wish i could put this higher because of the great acting from Michael Emerson, but the gas station storyline wasn’t handled as well as it should have been. They tried to make it dramatic with the timer countdown but if Charlotte and Dan had of explained what they were doing to the losties/us we would have been more engaged in the suspense.
Meet Kevin Johnson- Disappointing. After waiting since the end of series 2 to see what happened to Michael and Walt this was a bit anti-climatic. I was hoping that Ben had told them to go on a bearing that would transport them back in time 5years to before the crash therefore when Michael tried to tell someone that they were survivors they wouldn’t believe him. Then 5years later Walt would have been the age he is in real life and they would have made their own way back to the island to help everyone because there was no place for them in the real world any more. -does anyone think this would have been better -Fred?
Confirmed Dead- Great introduction to new members of the cast. However if you think about Naomi…she asked Abadaom what would happen if she encountered survivors of oceanic flight 815 i.e. she was aware of the possibility of them being alive on the island however when she later lands on the island she is overwhelmingly shocked that they’re alive because ‘they found the plane. everyone was found dead.’ This seemed to me like the writers wrote that twist in last series just to make us think they were in a parallel universe then went back on themselves this series with the storyline that a small group think they’re alive.
Eggtown - It’s high up on my list because of the way camp Locke were acting like the new others in the barracks along with the twist that Aaron was Kates kid.
The Constant
-Great rollercoaster of an episode. However if you stop to think about the contradictions of the time travel it makes us think Damon and Carlton didn’t think it through fully. i.e. when Desmond tells Penny that she won’t hear from him till Christmas eve 2004, were the characters aware of this when we seen them in previous flashbacks that took place after this conversation (e.g. at the stadium)
The beginning of the end
-Introduced to the Oceanic Six. Groups divided. Jacob’s cabin. Hurley being a member of the Oceanic 6. Jack pulling the trigger on Locke.
The Economist-
I believe the Economist had it all. Mystery. Travel. Sex. Murder. Twist on island of Kate staying with Sawyer. Double-bluff twist with Sayid’s girl playing Sayid to find out who HE was working for, followed by a huge twist that Sayid worked for Ben.
Also the Economist had this dialogue:
Frank Lapidus: This guy Sayid, where’s he from?
Jack Shephard: Iraq.
Frank Lapidus: Iraq? So he is just going to go and work everything out. What was he, a diplomat?
Jack Shephard: No. He was a torturer.
Brilliant. The Economist also had the reveal that Ben has been leaving the island
Hey Aidan,
A few comments…
Meet Kevin Johnson : I now that many were disappointed that we didn’t get to see what actually happened to Michael and Walt after they took off, how they actually got to find their way out, especially since leaving the Island hasn’t been the easiest thing to do (ask Desmond), and I still hope we’ll find out a bit more about it later on, but we will never be shown anything just because they can’t use Walt no more, since Malcolm David Kelley grew up.
About your little idea, I’m not sure how I would have felt, but you seem to believe that people can just travel through time as they want ! Remember that there’s actually no evidence of such time travel. For Desmond, it was only the mind, the consciousness that travels, not the body, and we know there’s something fishy with time and leaving or coming to the Island, but there’s no actual evidence that it can allow one to time travel!
Confirmed Dead : I don’t know, Naomi was definitely aware of the possibility they could find some survivors, but as we now know everyone was supposed to be dead, all their dead bodies have been found. She wasn’t lying to Hurley, they’re all officially dead. Maybe Naomi didn’t really believe she would met any survivors, maybe she was a bit out of it after her landing on the Island, and just didn’t think any further than the fact the wreckage was found, with all dead bodies.
The “problem” with this whole thing isn’t really Naomi or the Freighters’ reactions, because we can think if they know about Ben and the Island, the idea of finding survivors of 815 was something they had accepted. The weird part I’d say is that Hurley didn’t ask Naomi what it meant that “everyone was found dead”, that they don’t care about that, but it’s just one of those things on Lost I guess, like how no one ask Juliet, Dan, or Charlotte despite all that happened and all that they probably know…
The Constant : Yes, maybe lots of “contradictions” in this one, and there wasn’t a deadline set for the show, if producers didn’t know the exact number of episodes left for the entire series, I would fear they just made things up without thinking it more throughout. But since they know when it will end, and they have to work on how it will end and how to get there, I want and choose to believe it mostly looks like so to us, because so far we don’t know everything they know.
But it was one of those episodes that just blew us away while watching. I remember watching it and being completely excited, blown away, and amazed by it. It brought lots of new things on the table, made us think and theorize a lot more, I just love it!
The Economist : Yes, definitely a great episode. But The Beginning Of The End really set everything in motion : the future, Oceanic Six, the Hurley and Jack chat, Hurley “meeting” Jacob, even Dan showing up!
But yeah, it was a really good one.
Anyways, at least it seems we have a consensus when it comes to what were the three best episodes so far. (And that Ji Yeon and The Other Woman were the least good ones.)
Now let’s see if some episodes will be even better than The Beginning Of The End, The Economist, or maybe even The Constant…
I’m sure they will be!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3YQj6oRxfD8&NR=1