If you look at the tag at the bottom of these, you will find that I have written about Lost a lot. It is not just my favorite show, it's also my favorite thing. As a result, though, I only allow myself to rewatch it once every three years, and we are not scheduled for another viewing until 2023, so I can't try a new slant on it for this year's article with a fresh viewing. So instead, I'm going to pay homage by revealing, for the first time ever on the blog, my definitive ranking of all of the episodes.
A couple of notes before you dive in. First, I don't have recaps of these episodes, but you can read my full recap of every episode here: Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6. I've also done a ranking like this for the mobisodes that you can find here. I don't, therefore, have episode descriptions below (it's just the list) since you can find VERY in-depth looks at every episode there (if you haven't seen the show, I encourage you to watch it before clicking those links, though this post is the rare spoiler-free one for Lost).
Second, I will say straight-up that Lost is something I love, even at its worst. I genuinely liked the finale, and think that the people who got super angry about the ending were either expecting too much (the philosophy of Lost poses questions that humans haven't been able to answer in the past 2000 years-I doubt a weekly ABC program could find the solutions) or are the kinds of people who only want things to end the way they wanted to (I suspect the Venn Diagram of people who really hated the Lost finale and hated The Last Jedi would resemble a circle). As a result, this is just a ranking of episodes on the show...none of these episodes are ones that I skip when I rewatch, none of them are ones that I hate. Even at its worst, Lost was usually the best hour of television on that week.
Finally, these are a personal list. I understand qualitatively that some episodes are technically better than others, and while that bears out in the rankings (#2 is pretty much every Lost fan's favorite for a reason), it also means that I will favor episodes that center on certain characters more than others. John Locke, Ben, Sawyer, & Sun are my favorite characters that regularly got their own episodes so they'll rank higher, and I tend to like some of the lighter fare because I know how serious the back-half of the series gets & I love getting to just hang out with these characters (#14, for example, moves up virtually every time I rewatch the series under this logic). So if you have quibbles, bring them to the comments, but keep that in mind before laying into me for a personal favorite that feels slighted or an unsung hero that is way higher-than-expected. And with that, here are my rankings:
1. Through the Looking Glass (3.22)
2. The Constant (4.5)
3. Deus Ex Machina (1.19)
4. The End (6.17)
5. Exodus, Part 2 (1.24)
6. The Candidate (6.14)
7. The Incident, Parts 1 & 2 (5.16)
8. Exodus, Part 1 (1.23)
9. There’s No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3 (4.13)
10. The Other 48 Days (2.7)
11. Walkabout (1.4)
12. Sundown (6.6)
13. Greatest Hits (3.21)
14. Tricia Tanaka is Dead (3.10)
15. Live Together Die Alone (2.23)
16. Ab Aeterno (6.9)
17. The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham (5.7)
18. Flashes Before Your Eyes (3.8)
19. The Shape of Things to Come (4.9)
20. Happily Ever After (6.11)
21. Pilot, Part 2 (1.2)
22. The 23rd Psalm (2.10)
23. The Man Behind the Curtain (3.20)
24. The Man from Tallahassee (3.13)
25. Solitary (1.19)
26. Not in Portland (3.7)
27. Dead is Dead (5.12)
28. Ji Yeon (4.7)
29. D.O.C. (3.18)
30. Raised by Another (1.10)
31. Orientation (2.3)
32. The Substitute (6.4)
33. LAX Parts 1 & 2 (6.1-2)
34. The Long Con (2.13)
35. Do No Harm (1.20)
36. Confirmed Dead (4.2)
37. Lighthouse (6.5)
38. Whatever Happened, Happened (5.11)
39. Confidence Man (1.9)
40. …In Translation (1.17)
41. Dr. Linus (6.7)
42. The Cost of Living (3.5)
43. The Whole Truth (2.16)
44. Because You Left (5.1)
45. Enter 77 (3.11)
46. Man of Science, Man of Faith (2.1)
47. Everybody Hates Hugo (2.4)
48. Everybody Loves Hugo (6.12)
49. White Rabbit (1.5)
50. I Do (3.6)
51. A Tale of Two Cities (3.1)
52. One of Us (3.16)
53. LaFleur (5.8)
54. Lockdown (2.17)
55. There’s No Place Like Home, Part 1 (4.12)
56. Numbers (1.18)
57. The Glass Ballerina (3.2)
58. What They Died For (6.16)
59. Outlaws (1.16)
60. Jughead (5.3)
61. Dave (2.18)
62. The Lie (5.2)
63. Pilot, Part 1 (1.1)
64. Across the Sea (6.15)
65. Recon (6.8)
66. Catch-22 (3.17)
67. What Kate Did (2.9)
68. The Variable (5.14)
69. S.O.S. (2.19)
70. 316 (5.6)
71. House of the Rising Sun (1.6)
72. The Economist (4.3)
73. Every Man for Himself (3.4)
74. Maternity Leave (2.15)
75. Left Behind (3.15)
76. The Last Recruit (6.13)
77. Par Avion (3.12)
78. Two for the Road (2.20)
79. The Beginning of the End (4.1)
80. Special (1.14)
81. Cabin Fever (4.11)
82. Expose (3.14)
83. Further Instructions (3.3)
84. Hearts + Minds (1.13)
85. All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues (1.11)
86. Tabula Rasa (1.3)
87. The Brig (3.19)
88. This Place is Death (5.5)
89. The Hunting Party (2.11)
90. The Other Woman (4.6)
91. Something Nice Back Home (4.10)
92. Homecoming (1.15)
93. Collision (2.8)
94. One of Them (2.14)
95. Meet Kevin Johnson (4.8)
96. The Package (6.10)
97. And Found (2.5)
98. He’s Our You (5.10)
99. Whatever the Case May Be (1.12)
100. Namaste (5.9)
101. The Moth (1.7)
102. Follow the Leader (5.15)
103. Eggtown (4.4)
104. Some Like It Hoth (5.13)
105. ? (2.21)
106. The Little Prince (5.4)
107. Born to Run (1.22)
108. The Greater Good (1.21)
109. What Kate Does (6.3)
110. Adrift (2.2)
111. Abandoned (2.6)
112. Fire + Water (2.12)
113. Three Minutes (2.22)
114. Stranger in a Strange Land (3.9)
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