Honestly, I sometimes think that Lost may have been made specifically for me. It has literally everything I look for in a work of art. There's multiple characters, complex ones with lots of different directions and layers. There's thick plotting, storytelling, and attention-to-detail; you're rewarded if you get obsessed, and there's no easy answers, but always clues. It somehow manages to be a mystery, an epic, an ensemble, a tragic romance, and a tale of loneliness, hope, and purpose all in one. It's literally everything I'm ever hoping to see in a television series, and in my opinion, though it may have dipped slightly, it was always wonderful and always the best thing on television at the time. There's a reason that below there is an episode from literally every season of the series-I never lost interest, and was always onboard. Honestly, though I love literature and movies a bit more than TV, if I lined them all up in an impossible "best of the best" list, Lost would top my favorite books and favorite movies. As a result, most of these episodes would quite frankly make my list of favorite TV episodes, period, and so I hope you enjoy our last little sojourn through my favorite TV shows.
(Note: I normally don't get all spoiler alert-y on these posts as the show has been off-the-air for five years, but since it is my mission in life to make people, specifically my brother, watch the series, I am just putting the alert out now that this thing gets spoiler-y).
This is one of the best episodes in one of the most maligned seasons, and I don't care that some people weren't fans of the Tailies, the reality is that this group of survivors would have been just as compelling to watch as the ones we had loved for over a season. Eko, Bernard, Libby, Ana Lucia, even the quickly disappearing Cindy were all worthy of their own storylines. It's a testament to the writers that they so quickly made us engulfed in these characters' lives, and that they were able to so properly illustrate the "it could have been worse" answer to the initial first season's hardships. This is perhaps Rodriguez's finest hour in the show, and she earns the starring role she'd get for the remainder of the season. Kudos also have to go out to the editors toward the end, as we are washed into the episodes we already know with speed and respect to the storyline (and that wicked timpani).
The first episodes may have started out iconic, but it's this episode that began the truly legendary stature of Lost. This episode features Jack seeing his dead father across the way, Locke facing the thing he would become in the jungle, and a truly emotional realization during the funeral that this is the way of life from now on, and in the cases of some characters, forever. To top it off, though, we are getting the best of the best with Locke's sideline story-we see that this is a man who can so easily see the faith in the island, mostly because he was the first it touched. His obstinacy in the face of impending doom would be his greatest ally on the island, and only when he gave in to it did he falter. Locke is the most fascinating character in the show's long history, and so it is fitting it starts out for him with such an emotional catalyst.
From start to finish, a blissful ride; the second part gets all of the credit, as we officially go down the rabbit hole in that episode, but this one's a doozy too. Every single flashback is relevant, even Shannon's as she tries to incarcerate Sayid and proves how she does and doesn't need her brother. There are better ones, of course, with Kate pinning down Edward, Jack meeting Ana Lucia, and Sun's sneaky smile about speaking English. There really isn't anything to put down in this episode. Quite frankly, it's the only episode in the entire series that I think had this been the series finale, I would have been okay with it. The iconic launching of the raft (one of the best moments in the history of Lost) steals the show, but there's also the trek to the Black Rock, the haunting black smoke, Rousseau's warnings about the Others. The next episode may be even better, but this was a killer and a thriller.
And so there were six. At the end of the previous episode, quite frankly it was difficult to see how the six would be sorted out from Jin, Michael, Desmond (well, it turns out, not so much Desmond), Juliet, and Sawyer. It turns out some people would have to die, some would merely be left behind, and some would be presumed dead. It's interesting to see, after all the work people did to get off, that the only people who were truly happy at the end of this episode were likely Miles, Charlotte, and Locke, all of whom stayed on the island. I also think it's interesting that a season that largely gave us a bridge between the first three and final two seasons gave us so few answers, and yet was ridiculously entertaining. Like The Two Towers, it doesn't say where we're going or how we got there, but it's a portrait of what the world (in this case, the world of the Island), is completely capable of being. Brilliant on every level.
This is perhaps where the show truly began for me. It was no longer a mere curiosity, it was no longer an excellent, bump-in-the-night sort of thriller, but in fact something more-something to ponder, something...higher. It's also the moment where the Island storylines would remain the more interesting aspects of the story. Everything is in the episode, which of course features the one-and-only John Locke at its core. There is deception, in the form of the most sinister father to enter Hollywood's psyche since Noah Cross. There's a fascinating island co-storyline, with John Locke's paralysis returning as he tries to unlock the mysteries of the hatch. There's even an hilarious side story about Sawyer needing glasses. And yet, in those final moments of the episode, we are treated to something more-the light coming from the hatch, and a man so lost, he'll desperately cling to anything including a metal hole in the middle of an uncharted island, to find purpose. And, as luck would have it, the meaning of his life would be hidden behind that door. It's a masterpiece, and the start of something wonderful.
Finally, after a sleepy season, we get the masterpiece we so deserved. Everyone is firing on full cylinders (except the missing Desmond) for the entire episode. Ben and Locke on their quest to kill Jacob, Ilana with her package full of John Locke, Juliet and Sawyer with their soon to be expired love, Jack, Kate, Hurley, and of course, the magnificent duet of Jacob and the Man in Black. Every scene is filled with significance, and with a sense of impending war. I love that all of these story lines come to a head, and some people are blinded by their own rage (Ben, Jack, Sawyer), and others suddenly see the light (Sayid, Juliet, Richard). The next season wouldn't have had quite the finite urgency that it did without this watchful, brilliant episode and the way that it unites all of the castaways in their fight to find home and salvation.
I can genuinely say, with only three episodes left in the series at "The Candidate," that the show had never quite gotten me, emotionally, like this episode. I'd sat through character deaths, I'd sat through disappointment and betrayal, but this was almost too much. Watching as Sun, Jin, and Sayid disappeared into the ocean deep, the stuff of one of the most diabolical schemes in TV history, I felt like that innocence still left in the show had slowly vanished, and the harsh reality was we were all taken, at least a little bit, by this long con. In the long pantheon of Lost, this is the moment where we realized that evil could indeed win, and that we may have to sacrifice our beloved characters in order to defeat it. The screams of Claire as she's abandoned, the look of malice on Locke's face as the sub begins to sink, and those final moments where Sayid sacrifices himself, the Kwons are drowned and pulled apart, and our four survivors bury themselves in grief-never again would we so trust the producers, or doubt that Lost can make masterworks.
When discussing the "best" episodes of Lost there is probably only one episode that consistently shows up on every person's list, and it is this one. There is no question about the brilliance on display here, and the trust that the writers have in the audience. For starters, we abandon the back-and-forth, and the story is told almost entirely in linear action, and we get an explanation of what may be happening on the island, and perhaps more than any episode, we get an explanation of what this Island could be capable of. This is, perhaps, the turning point in the series, where it goes from a quest to getting people rescued and the mysteries of the Island to what their purpose in life is. It's complex science on network television, and the show never shies away from it. And it gives us the most satisfying moment in my personal favorite love story on the show, that of Penny and Desmond. The episode really seems to have been an entire season's worth of memories (the new freighter team, the auction house, the explanation of time travel), and the fact that it happened in 44 minutes, well, that's just icing. When all is said and done, when I think of the reason that I love Lost, this episode remains MY constant.
And so we say goodbye to Lost's best season, and head down the long winding road to the present day. I've heard the writers only planned the first season out, and then planned out the next five seasons. While I question this, one could definitely believe it based on the great tying-together of this episode. The series quite frankly could have ended with the two-part Exodus, and it would have made sense-this show needs to maintain mystery. Thankfully it didn't, and we can enjoy this as a cliffhanger rather than a horizon. The show is littered with iconic moments, from man of faith/science to the black smoke to the blowing of the hatch. Like Part 1, everyone brought their A-Game, and in what is the longest episode in Lost until the finale, we really give everyone their moment to shine. In the final moments, though, this becomes one of the best episodes in the history of the show, particularly with Walt's kidnapping and the blowing of the hatch. The legendary Locke/Jack rivalry came to a head-there's so much to say about it, but at the end of the day it can be summed up with one look at the photo above-looking ahead to the madness that would come from opening Pandora's Box.
My favorite episode of my favorite show. Its competition relies heavily on mythology of the Island or the Others, but this one relies on more conventional, but just as compelling mysteries, primarily-will they get off the Island? It opens up a whole host of new questions-whose boat is it exactly? Why do they have to go back? But posing questions isn't the only purpose of this show-it's a show-stopper of an episode. The way that they lead you on for the entire episode, making you think that this is another vestige of Jack's horrible divorce to Sarah (until they sucker punch you at the end), the way that we finally get to be on the inside of a crazy person's plans (Charlie), the way that Rose tells Claire to congratulate Charlie for his bravery-this is a marvelous piece of television, and one that will be remembered always in the land of the Lost.
And there we have it my friends-the best episodes of Lost! What are your thoughts-what did I miss or shouldn't I have included? And what series are you surprised never made it on the list? The comments are there-go forth and make them.
For more of my favorites: Girls, Pushing Daisies, How I Met Your Mother, Game of Thrones, The Office, Ally McBeal, Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, South Park, Mad Men, The Twilight Zone, Friends, Gilmore Girls, The Simpsons
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