Summary:
After the crash, Jack runs around saving people. We are introduced to some of our main characters as they discuss their
situation and hear monster noises in the jungle. Jack, Kate, and Charlie venture into the jungle to find the cockpit and
the transceiver. They find it, but lose the pilot to the monster in the
process. Brief flashbacks show Jack talking to Rose on the plane, Charlie doing
heroin in the bathroom, and Kate revealed as the marshal’s prisoner.
Jack removes the shrapnel from the critically injured marshal, who
warns him about someone. Sayid suggests getting to higher ground to boost the transceiver
signal. A party forms to go on the mission, and Sawyer kills a polar bear. They hear the distress call of a French woman who says “it killed them
all” and has been playing on a loop for sixteen years. “Guys…where are we?”
Review:
No matter how many times I watch it, that opening beach sequence never
ceases to be amazing. Lots of dramas try to start their first episode with a
big action sequence that attempts to hook you in, but all too often it falls
flat. Not this time. We’re thrown into chaos but we’re not required to know how
we got to this point. It’s very clear what happened. And since nobody knows
each other here, we don’t feel like we’re missing crucial pieces of the story.
Jack immediately makes an impact as a competent and heroic leader. They even
manage to squeeze a tiny bit of humor out of it with Hurley’s sarcastic
responses, Boone’s obsession with the pens, and Charlie nearly getting smashed
with the engine.
In the aftermath, we get brief glimpses into who each of our main
characters are. Shannon is spoiled. Jin is uptight. Sayid is logical. It’s not
much, but when you see how wooden and lifeless some characters on other shows
can be for WEEKS at a time, those little beats are welcome. In the last third
of the episode, they wisely decided to have us focus on just three characters.
Trying to make everyone three-dimensional at the same time would have been too
overwhelming, so they give us Jack, Kate, and Charlie off on their own to give
us a three-person core, which can then snowball into others. Charlie’s
neuroticism and humor helps to offset the dire events that follow.
The rest of the cast each gets a moment in the spotlight for part two.
The fight between Sawyer and Sayid instantly calibrates us to hate one, and
sympathize with the other. It’s hard to believe, but this aired only three
years after 9/11, so the Muslim terrorist angle was still very much of a new
thing. Sayid was one of the few major Muslim characters on TV at the time and
he is given the Hero/Savior role for the 2nd hour. We get more time
to set up future stories, from Locke’s alleged secret, to Sun’s silent
unbuttoning of her shirt when Jin leaves. So small, yet so loud.
The French distress signal was the perfect way to end it, relying more
on psychological and imaginative chills rather than visceral carnage like the
pilot getting chewed up. There’s a lot of railroad track being laid down in
just 88 minutes, and tons of places to go. How bizarre then, that for a show
infamous for holding out on mysteries, we will actually come face-to-face
with the French woman just seven episodes from now.
Connecting the Dots:
These early episodes don’t have a whole lot in the way of island mythology, so there won’t be as much to dissect until we really start getting into the saga of the hatch and beyond. But a few things I would like to bring up:
I suppose one thing that never really sorted itself out is: why did Jack wake up in the bamboo grove far away from everyone else? I guess the “real” answer for this is that the writers wanted to start the show ambiguously and build towards the plane reveal, but this section isn’t really meant to figure out the behind-the-scenes reasoning. So for now, this will have to be a peculiarity.
“If that had been me, I think I would have run for the door.” The first of many times that we will be told Kate likes to run from things.
Another Kate quote: “I saw some smoke, just through the valley.” She’s referring to the cockpit, but it’d be cool if she was accidentally referring to the smoke monster, trying to sneak a glimpse at his new playthings.
Now for what this section was REALLY made for. Seth Norris, the pilot, is our first on-screen kill for the smoke monster. If Smokey can kill him directly, that means he isn’t one of Jacob’s candidates. And indeed, the name “Norris” does not appear anywhere on the Lighthouse nor the Cave candidate lists. Not every name is shown, but if Smokey can kill them, it should be conceded they are not a candidate……with an exception, which we’ll get to later. Oh, we’ll get to you, Mr. Eko.
The 2nd part lays the groundwork for some backstories we’ll explore soon enough, such as Sawyer’s letter, Kate being a prisoner, Charlie’s drug addiction, and Locke’s “secret”. Although the first half of the season is pretty light on island myth questions, it throws down quite a few character mysteries, which give each new flashback an air of mystique and excitement.
Ah, the backgammon game. “Two players. Two sides. One is light. One is dark.” The SparkNotes version of the show’s endgame. It’s difficult to think of Jacob and the Man in Black so early in the show, since it seems like an entirely different planet at this point. Interestingly, this conversation is between Locke and Walt: the man that the Dark Player will use as his pawn, and the boy that will, presumably, take over as the new Light Player.
Possibly reading too much into this, but Jin’s agitated rejection of touching Claire’s pregnant belly could be the reopening of a sore wound, since we learn that he and Sun were unable to conceive a child off-island.
And let’s not forget the polar bear. Despite clever theories regarding movement of the island or some sort of special vortex, in reality they were just brought here by DHARMA for experiments. Some people still don’t know this, apparently. Sad.
These early episodes don’t have a whole lot in the way of island mythology, so there won’t be as much to dissect until we really start getting into the saga of the hatch and beyond. But a few things I would like to bring up:
I suppose one thing that never really sorted itself out is: why did Jack wake up in the bamboo grove far away from everyone else? I guess the “real” answer for this is that the writers wanted to start the show ambiguously and build towards the plane reveal, but this section isn’t really meant to figure out the behind-the-scenes reasoning. So for now, this will have to be a peculiarity.
“If that had been me, I think I would have run for the door.” The first of many times that we will be told Kate likes to run from things.
Another Kate quote: “I saw some smoke, just through the valley.” She’s referring to the cockpit, but it’d be cool if she was accidentally referring to the smoke monster, trying to sneak a glimpse at his new playthings.
Now for what this section was REALLY made for. Seth Norris, the pilot, is our first on-screen kill for the smoke monster. If Smokey can kill him directly, that means he isn’t one of Jacob’s candidates. And indeed, the name “Norris” does not appear anywhere on the Lighthouse nor the Cave candidate lists. Not every name is shown, but if Smokey can kill them, it should be conceded they are not a candidate……with an exception, which we’ll get to later. Oh, we’ll get to you, Mr. Eko.
The 2nd part lays the groundwork for some backstories we’ll explore soon enough, such as Sawyer’s letter, Kate being a prisoner, Charlie’s drug addiction, and Locke’s “secret”. Although the first half of the season is pretty light on island myth questions, it throws down quite a few character mysteries, which give each new flashback an air of mystique and excitement.
Ah, the backgammon game. “Two players. Two sides. One is light. One is dark.” The SparkNotes version of the show’s endgame. It’s difficult to think of Jacob and the Man in Black so early in the show, since it seems like an entirely different planet at this point. Interestingly, this conversation is between Locke and Walt: the man that the Dark Player will use as his pawn, and the boy that will, presumably, take over as the new Light Player.
Possibly reading too much into this, but Jin’s agitated rejection of touching Claire’s pregnant belly could be the reopening of a sore wound, since we learn that he and Sun were unable to conceive a child off-island.
And let’s not forget the polar bear. Despite clever theories regarding movement of the island or some sort of special vortex, in reality they were just brought here by DHARMA for experiments. Some people still don’t know this, apparently. Sad.
Ranking:
1.
Pilot, part 1 (9/10) (Despite part 2 devoting
more time to more characters equally, it can’t beat the big opening set piece, and
the monster encounters.)
2.
Pilot, part 2 (8/10) (Getting glimpses of our
cast’s personal histories and the island’s own bizarre offerings gives us
plenty to chew on moving forward.)
No comments:
Post a Comment