Season 1 - Episode 01 (Pilot 1) and Episode 02 (Pilot 2)
Episode 01 (Pilot 1)
This is Jack's eye. This is Jack's eye opening. This is Jack's eye discovering that he has survived falling out of a plane, somewhere between 30,000 feet and this bamboo grove, and he's managed to hang onto some remarkably unbroken bottles of booze. Oh, and this is Jack's eye spotting Vincent the dog, who naturally shows up just before Jack gets some bad news.
After a quick, panicky run through the jungle, Jack finds himself on the beach amid a hellish tableau of airplane and human wreckage. We see Charlie wandering too close to the still running (more on that in a minute) engine, nicely foreshadowing his almost total lack of good judgment. The first words we clearly hear spoken by a main Lostaway are some Korean from Jin, who isn't yelling "Sun, Sun?!!" but something else I would love to have translated. The next main character to speak is Michael and oh, what a surprise, he's yelling "WAAAAALTT?!? WAAAALTTT!?!" Next, we see Shannon standing alone and screaming, nicely foreshadowing her almost total lack of contributory skills. At this point, Jack springs into action, like the {ahem} natural born leader he is {giggle}. With the help of a fully mobile Locke and an extra, they pull some poor shmoe out from under some twisted up airframe and Jack gets a chance to do some doctoring. Then he spots poor, pregnant Claire and puts his triage skills into effect. He delegates! Locke and the extra take Mr. Shmoe away from the engine while Jogger Jack trots over to help Claire and Aaron. While he's asking Claire ER questions, Mr. Darwin Was SO Right wanders a little too close to the still running engine and gets himself turned into hamburger. At this point, we run into the first really debatable point in the show. Do we, or do we not, see the smoke monster for the first time just as the engine explodes?
Judge for yourself.
Jack then enlists Hurley as contraction monitor while he rushes off to stop Boone from killing Rose with kindness. At this point, Hurley nicely foreshadows his role as island comic relief guy with the line "Oh, you gotta be kidding me..." Hurley further foreshadows the whole friggin' show after they nearly get blown up and he's lying on the beach face down and says "Dude. I'm not goin' anywhere."
Darn tootin', Jabba.
Once he's saved as many as he can, Jack finds a conveniently placed sewing kit and heads out into the jungle for his fateful meeting with Kate and her drapes. This nicely foreshadows Kate's ability to sew. Oh, and her ability to suck it up and get the job done when necessary.
We get a panorama of most of the Lostaways and are introduced to the most practical guy on the island, Saayid. He's building a signal fire. And not asking, but telling Charlie and others to help him. If he wasn't of Middle Eastern background on an American show, I'd already have pegged him as the one in charge.
We are also introduced to the ill fated Marshall and his ugly chest wound. And Kate's impressive ability to both tell and obscure the truth at the same time...
Cue the intimate campfire setting, and just when things are starting to make some sense, courtesy of Jack and his amazing leaf plane (He's a PALM PILOT!{tee hee} I couldn't resist.), we get introduced to the island's first BIG BAD. Mechanical and eerie sounding, something is moving through the jungle, and judging by the many sudden castaway head turnings, it's either moving really fast or there are more than one somethings...
Cue the first flashback. Who do we meet first, besides Jack? Cindy, the other "Cute in an 'I've been terrorized by the Others for 40 days kinda way" tailie. She slyly gives Jack the incredible, unbreakable booze bottles and smiles fetchingly at him. There may even have been a little wink...
The next person we meet is Rose and her amazingly invisible husband. I feel like I know the guy. I bet he's white.
Panic, pressure drop, oxygen masks, engine noises, beach.
Back on the island we hear another of the little teases the writers like to throw at us, when Rose says about the weirdness last night: "That sound that it made. I keep thinking that there was something really familiar about it." Then, someone incongruously asks her where she's from and we find out "The Bronx". This little fact probably has no bearing on the Great Tree Pusher, but it seems to stand out none the less.
Jack, Kate and Charlie are off to find the cockpit and we learn some of Charlie's background and that he's really not a very good singer. "You all everybody" might be Kate's friend Becky's favourite, but with just Charlie's high harmony, it's nails on a chalkboard time. Those nails attract the attention of Vincent the dog, who, naturally shows up just before some bad mojo. Speaking of bad mojo, some serious rain rolls in (Both at the beach and inland) and Charlie has what I consider to be the first "Island in a bottle" line: "Hey guys, is this normal? Kind of day turning into night, you know, end of the world type weather... Guys?"
At this point, Locke has his first "Zen Hunter, Man of Faith" moment. While the rest of the survivors are scrambling for shelter from the rain, Locke sits on the beach, spreads his arms and embraces the weather, symbolically accepting his fate and the island itself.
Cue the return of the Great Tree Pusher.
Naturally, Jack and pals find the nose of the plane, but am I the only one who thinks that it was WAY too easy for them to find, considering how big the island seems to be? I know that Kate showed Jack where she saw smoke and all, but would it really be that easy to find the spot where you saw smoke rising from the jungle the day before? I have serious issues with that...
After a long hard climb through bodies and seats, while Charlie is off powdering his nose, they reach the cockpit. Lo and behold, the pilot just happens to regain consciousness as they arrive, so he can relay the unfortunate news.
They're screwed. Royally and totally screwed.
"Six hours in, my radio went out. No one could see us. We turned back to land at Fiji. By the time we hit turbulence we were a thousand miles off course. They're looking for us in the wrong place."
Cue the Great Tree Pusher, again. It pulls right up to the drive thru window and gets itself a pilot to go. Rare.
And now, we run. The three heroes get separated but as the rain stops, Kate finds Charlie, the two of them find the body of the pilot in the tree and Jack finds them all. The view of the "pilot" in the tree is, in my opinion, inconclusive. I can't say I am certain that what we are shown is actually the pilot at all. Speculation abounds that the pilot was a Dharma plant to get the Losties thinking along the "We're screwed" lines...
Finally, Charlie gets the last word in Episode 01: "Guys? How does something like that happen?"
Discussion
Episode 02 (Pilot 2)
Jack, Kate and Charlie, fresh off of the great transceiver scavenger hunt are headed back to the beach, full of tales of pilots and monsters and hopelessness. Kate asks Charlie what he was up to in the bathroom in the plane, but not knowing his heroin addicted ways, she lets him get away with the explanation that he was throwing up.
"Every trek needs a coward," he says. How Wizard of Oz of him. To bad there aren't any other "Oz" references in the show or that might have been a clue...
Meanwhile, on the beach, clothes are being sorted, Shannon is being useless and Claire is being pregnant. Clothes sorting? These people crashed yesterday and they're already building their island wardrobes? Funny. I would have suggested starting work on a big S.O.S. sign on the beach before I started scavenging garments from the dead...
Fisherman's son Jin is already out in the tidal pools gathering up some tasty sushi for the gang when Michael comes around looking for Walt. Jin gets all manly jealous when he notices that Sun doesn't have her sweater (It's a flippin' tropical island and she still has a sweater on!) done all the way up. One button. If she undid just one more button, we could all see her neck. Michael gets the message and heads off to look elsewhere. "WAAAALLLTTT??!"
Walt of course, is looking for Vincent the dog. He finds handcuffs instead. Michael finally finds him, so for a little while, he can stop yelling "WAAAAALLTT?!?"
Sawyer and Saayid get into a brawl, since Sawyer seems to think that it's Saayid's fault that they crashed. Sawyer manages to begin his alienation with a well timed "Shut up, Lardo," directed at Hurley, in front of everyone. Saayid starts work on the transceiver and we find out that Hurley's buddy in the 104th Airborne fought on the opposite side of the Gulf War from the Republican Guard Saayid was in.
Darlin' Kate goes for a dip. Not an important plot point, but an important factor in my continued enjoyment of the show.
Saayid gets the radio going and he and Kate prepare to hike it to higher ground for a signal, while Doc Jack prepares to work some island surgery magic on the ill fated Marshall.
While hand-slappin' Jin tries to play sushi chef to the hungry survivors, Sun unbuttons that uber-sexy top button of hers again.
Rebel.
Jin can't convice Hurley that a raw sea urchin is good for anything beyond its "ping", so he moves on.
Walt starts on the Spanish comic book with the polar bear in it. I've provided a link to the whole book, in English, or this one takes you directly to Mr. White Fur himself.
The hiker detail saddles up, including the heretofore useless Shannon. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm betting that someone that useless must have a hidden talent that might just come in handy...
Sawyer too decides to join the merry band and they all head up, up and away...
As the quest for the island summit continues, Jack gathers supplies for his island surgery and gives Michael the good news that Vincent the dog is alive and panting.
Walt is not around to hear the news, since he's off introducing himself to Mr. Locke and the wonderful world of backgammon with its wonderful black and white symbolism. Locke hears that Walt's Mom got sick and died a few weeks back and sums it all up for Walt in the most elegant and eloquent single sentence ever uttered on the show.
"You're havin' a bad month."
Locke further cements his position as resident cool guy with an explanation of the history and game play of backgammon, delivered with a reserve that I can only describe as "wickedly Zen". Of course, he then creeps me right out by asking Walt if he wants to know a secret. Too, "Do you want some candy, little boy" for me. No wonder Michael will eventually be dead set against Locke and Walt having contact.
Jin convinces Claire to eat the magic fish. Lo and behold, Aaron kicks! Imagine what might have happened if Hurley had eaten some...
Back in the jungle, our intrepid band of hikers get attacked by the island's second BIG BAD giving Sawyer the opportunity to A) Shoot a polar bear. B) Say "Guess what? I just shot a bear." Within minutes of Mr. Whitey Fur biting the big one, Kate takes Sawyer's gun away. I'm having deja vu.
Jack tries to operate on the Marshall, with the help of Nurse Hurley. Nurse Hurley turns out to not be so good around blood. Within seconds, Jack has two unconscious guys on his hands.
Another flashback shows us that Kate was actually the prisoner that the U.S. Marshall was escorting. I knew that girl was trouble. But she still has the good heart to go along with all her other nice body parts, as demonstrated by her altruistic act of putting the Marshall's oxygen mask on before she puts on her own. Speaking of Marshall Bad Luck, he wakes up during surgery and he's so dedicated, the first words out of his mouth are "Where is she?" Give that man a raise.
Expedition Team Alpha finally reaches a point where they can get a signal bar on the display screen, only to discover that another transmission is already broadcasting from nearby. In French.
Boone knows first hand that Shannon Frenches.
He also knows that she spent enough time in France that she should be able to translate the repeating message. "Please help me, please come get me. I'm alone now, on the island alone, please someone come. The others, they're dead. It killed them, it killed them all." By Saayid's reckoning, this message has been repeating for 16 years, 5 months.
Charlie again gets the last word and puts it all together with another of those elegant, eloquent one liners: "Guys? Where are we?"
Discussion
This is Jack's eye. This is Jack's eye opening. This is Jack's eye discovering that he has survived falling out of a plane, somewhere between 30,000 feet and this bamboo grove, and he's managed to hang onto some remarkably unbroken bottles of booze. Oh, and this is Jack's eye spotting Vincent the dog, who naturally shows up just before Jack gets some bad news.
After a quick, panicky run through the jungle, Jack finds himself on the beach amid a hellish tableau of airplane and human wreckage. We see Charlie wandering too close to the still running (more on that in a minute) engine, nicely foreshadowing his almost total lack of good judgment. The first words we clearly hear spoken by a main Lostaway are some Korean from Jin, who isn't yelling "Sun, Sun?!!" but something else I would love to have translated. The next main character to speak is Michael and oh, what a surprise, he's yelling "WAAAAALTT?!? WAAAALTTT!?!" Next, we see Shannon standing alone and screaming, nicely foreshadowing her almost total lack of contributory skills. At this point, Jack springs into action, like the {ahem} natural born leader he is {giggle}. With the help of a fully mobile Locke and an extra, they pull some poor shmoe out from under some twisted up airframe and Jack gets a chance to do some doctoring. Then he spots poor, pregnant Claire and puts his triage skills into effect. He delegates! Locke and the extra take Mr. Shmoe away from the engine while Jogger Jack trots over to help Claire and Aaron. While he's asking Claire ER questions, Mr. Darwin Was SO Right wanders a little too close to the still running engine and gets himself turned into hamburger. At this point, we run into the first really debatable point in the show. Do we, or do we not, see the smoke monster for the first time just as the engine explodes?
Judge for yourself.
Jack then enlists Hurley as contraction monitor while he rushes off to stop Boone from killing Rose with kindness. At this point, Hurley nicely foreshadows his role as island comic relief guy with the line "Oh, you gotta be kidding me..." Hurley further foreshadows the whole friggin' show after they nearly get blown up and he's lying on the beach face down and says "Dude. I'm not goin' anywhere."
Darn tootin', Jabba.
Once he's saved as many as he can, Jack finds a conveniently placed sewing kit and heads out into the jungle for his fateful meeting with Kate and her drapes. This nicely foreshadows Kate's ability to sew. Oh, and her ability to suck it up and get the job done when necessary.
We get a panorama of most of the Lostaways and are introduced to the most practical guy on the island, Saayid. He's building a signal fire. And not asking, but telling Charlie and others to help him. If he wasn't of Middle Eastern background on an American show, I'd already have pegged him as the one in charge.
We are also introduced to the ill fated Marshall and his ugly chest wound. And Kate's impressive ability to both tell and obscure the truth at the same time...
Cue the intimate campfire setting, and just when things are starting to make some sense, courtesy of Jack and his amazing leaf plane (He's a PALM PILOT!{tee hee} I couldn't resist.), we get introduced to the island's first BIG BAD. Mechanical and eerie sounding, something is moving through the jungle, and judging by the many sudden castaway head turnings, it's either moving really fast or there are more than one somethings...
Cue the first flashback. Who do we meet first, besides Jack? Cindy, the other "Cute in an 'I've been terrorized by the Others for 40 days kinda way" tailie. She slyly gives Jack the incredible, unbreakable booze bottles and smiles fetchingly at him. There may even have been a little wink...
The next person we meet is Rose and her amazingly invisible husband. I feel like I know the guy. I bet he's white.
Panic, pressure drop, oxygen masks, engine noises, beach.
Back on the island we hear another of the little teases the writers like to throw at us, when Rose says about the weirdness last night: "That sound that it made. I keep thinking that there was something really familiar about it." Then, someone incongruously asks her where she's from and we find out "The Bronx". This little fact probably has no bearing on the Great Tree Pusher, but it seems to stand out none the less.
Jack, Kate and Charlie are off to find the cockpit and we learn some of Charlie's background and that he's really not a very good singer. "You all everybody" might be Kate's friend Becky's favourite, but with just Charlie's high harmony, it's nails on a chalkboard time. Those nails attract the attention of Vincent the dog, who, naturally shows up just before some bad mojo. Speaking of bad mojo, some serious rain rolls in (Both at the beach and inland) and Charlie has what I consider to be the first "Island in a bottle" line: "Hey guys, is this normal? Kind of day turning into night, you know, end of the world type weather... Guys?"
At this point, Locke has his first "Zen Hunter, Man of Faith" moment. While the rest of the survivors are scrambling for shelter from the rain, Locke sits on the beach, spreads his arms and embraces the weather, symbolically accepting his fate and the island itself.
Cue the return of the Great Tree Pusher.
Naturally, Jack and pals find the nose of the plane, but am I the only one who thinks that it was WAY too easy for them to find, considering how big the island seems to be? I know that Kate showed Jack where she saw smoke and all, but would it really be that easy to find the spot where you saw smoke rising from the jungle the day before? I have serious issues with that...
After a long hard climb through bodies and seats, while Charlie is off powdering his nose, they reach the cockpit. Lo and behold, the pilot just happens to regain consciousness as they arrive, so he can relay the unfortunate news.
They're screwed. Royally and totally screwed.
"Six hours in, my radio went out. No one could see us. We turned back to land at Fiji. By the time we hit turbulence we were a thousand miles off course. They're looking for us in the wrong place."
Cue the Great Tree Pusher, again. It pulls right up to the drive thru window and gets itself a pilot to go. Rare.
And now, we run. The three heroes get separated but as the rain stops, Kate finds Charlie, the two of them find the body of the pilot in the tree and Jack finds them all. The view of the "pilot" in the tree is, in my opinion, inconclusive. I can't say I am certain that what we are shown is actually the pilot at all. Speculation abounds that the pilot was a Dharma plant to get the Losties thinking along the "We're screwed" lines...
Finally, Charlie gets the last word in Episode 01: "Guys? How does something like that happen?"
Discussion
Episode 02 (Pilot 2)
Jack, Kate and Charlie, fresh off of the great transceiver scavenger hunt are headed back to the beach, full of tales of pilots and monsters and hopelessness. Kate asks Charlie what he was up to in the bathroom in the plane, but not knowing his heroin addicted ways, she lets him get away with the explanation that he was throwing up.
"Every trek needs a coward," he says. How Wizard of Oz of him. To bad there aren't any other "Oz" references in the show or that might have been a clue...
Meanwhile, on the beach, clothes are being sorted, Shannon is being useless and Claire is being pregnant. Clothes sorting? These people crashed yesterday and they're already building their island wardrobes? Funny. I would have suggested starting work on a big S.O.S. sign on the beach before I started scavenging garments from the dead...
Fisherman's son Jin is already out in the tidal pools gathering up some tasty sushi for the gang when Michael comes around looking for Walt. Jin gets all manly jealous when he notices that Sun doesn't have her sweater (It's a flippin' tropical island and she still has a sweater on!) done all the way up. One button. If she undid just one more button, we could all see her neck. Michael gets the message and heads off to look elsewhere. "WAAAALLLTTT??!"
Walt of course, is looking for Vincent the dog. He finds handcuffs instead. Michael finally finds him, so for a little while, he can stop yelling "WAAAAALLTT?!?"
Sawyer and Saayid get into a brawl, since Sawyer seems to think that it's Saayid's fault that they crashed. Sawyer manages to begin his alienation with a well timed "Shut up, Lardo," directed at Hurley, in front of everyone. Saayid starts work on the transceiver and we find out that Hurley's buddy in the 104th Airborne fought on the opposite side of the Gulf War from the Republican Guard Saayid was in.
Darlin' Kate goes for a dip. Not an important plot point, but an important factor in my continued enjoyment of the show.
Saayid gets the radio going and he and Kate prepare to hike it to higher ground for a signal, while Doc Jack prepares to work some island surgery magic on the ill fated Marshall.
While hand-slappin' Jin tries to play sushi chef to the hungry survivors, Sun unbuttons that uber-sexy top button of hers again.
Rebel.
Jin can't convice Hurley that a raw sea urchin is good for anything beyond its "ping", so he moves on.
Walt starts on the Spanish comic book with the polar bear in it. I've provided a link to the whole book, in English, or this one takes you directly to Mr. White Fur himself.
The hiker detail saddles up, including the heretofore useless Shannon. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm betting that someone that useless must have a hidden talent that might just come in handy...
Sawyer too decides to join the merry band and they all head up, up and away...
As the quest for the island summit continues, Jack gathers supplies for his island surgery and gives Michael the good news that Vincent the dog is alive and panting.
Walt is not around to hear the news, since he's off introducing himself to Mr. Locke and the wonderful world of backgammon with its wonderful black and white symbolism. Locke hears that Walt's Mom got sick and died a few weeks back and sums it all up for Walt in the most elegant and eloquent single sentence ever uttered on the show.
"You're havin' a bad month."
Locke further cements his position as resident cool guy with an explanation of the history and game play of backgammon, delivered with a reserve that I can only describe as "wickedly Zen". Of course, he then creeps me right out by asking Walt if he wants to know a secret. Too, "Do you want some candy, little boy" for me. No wonder Michael will eventually be dead set against Locke and Walt having contact.
Jin convinces Claire to eat the magic fish. Lo and behold, Aaron kicks! Imagine what might have happened if Hurley had eaten some...
Back in the jungle, our intrepid band of hikers get attacked by the island's second BIG BAD giving Sawyer the opportunity to A) Shoot a polar bear. B) Say "Guess what? I just shot a bear." Within minutes of Mr. Whitey Fur biting the big one, Kate takes Sawyer's gun away. I'm having deja vu.
Jack tries to operate on the Marshall, with the help of Nurse Hurley. Nurse Hurley turns out to not be so good around blood. Within seconds, Jack has two unconscious guys on his hands.
Another flashback shows us that Kate was actually the prisoner that the U.S. Marshall was escorting. I knew that girl was trouble. But she still has the good heart to go along with all her other nice body parts, as demonstrated by her altruistic act of putting the Marshall's oxygen mask on before she puts on her own. Speaking of Marshall Bad Luck, he wakes up during surgery and he's so dedicated, the first words out of his mouth are "Where is she?" Give that man a raise.
Expedition Team Alpha finally reaches a point where they can get a signal bar on the display screen, only to discover that another transmission is already broadcasting from nearby. In French.
Boone knows first hand that Shannon Frenches.
He also knows that she spent enough time in France that she should be able to translate the repeating message. "Please help me, please come get me. I'm alone now, on the island alone, please someone come. The others, they're dead. It killed them, it killed them all." By Saayid's reckoning, this message has been repeating for 16 years, 5 months.
Charlie again gets the last word and puts it all together with another of those elegant, eloquent one liners: "Guys? Where are we?"
Discussion
posted by Greybishop at 11:53 a.m.
