That's a face only a mother could love...
Alright guys, I’ll be back to posting scene lists tomorrow, but today I have to ask you to forgive me for taking a little detour and being incredibly wordy. Um…sorry about that in advance.
There are certain episodes of Lost that I feel are inarguably great: “Walkabout”, “The Constant”, “The Man Behind the Curtain”, “Through the Looking Glass”---they’re classics plain and simple. But for every classic there’s a little episode that has either been forgotten or ignored or in some cases just plain detested.
Weirdly, some of these episodes are actually among my favorites. I chose these eight episodes in particular because of their ambition or because they reveal something interesting about the characters. They’re not perfect, most of them are deeply flawed and in some cases I think the concept was far better than the execution with the exception of the first one which is pure brilliance.
And no, “Stranger in a Strange Land” is not on this list. Sorry Darlton, even I can’t defend that one.
8 Criminally Underrated Episodes of Lost
1. The Brig
“Well how about that, Sawyer’s my name too.”
I’m not entirely certain “The Brig” is as underrated as I think it is; my opinion of the episode may be skewering my world-view a bit. The truth is I think this is one of the finest hours “Lost” ever produced. Written by Darlton and directed by Eric Laneuville, in my opinion it’s the ultimate Sawyer story. The last one in fact because that was pretty much the last time I ever thought of James Ford as “Sawyer”.
It’s beautifully shot and dark as hell. The scene in The Black Rock when Sawyer finally snaps and kills the real Sawyer is so raw it’s almost hard to watch. Despite Sawyer’s popularity, I think Holloway is criminally underrated as an actor. Yeah he’s pretty, but given the right material he’s also a phenomenally talented actor. Pre-“The Incident” this is the finest performance he had ever given.
And let’s not forget Locke. In retrospect this episode was probably the one that sealed his fate. His inability to kill his father himself is telling. Watching him stand outside the door waiting for Sawyer to kill Anthony is simultaneously pathetic and heartbreaking and as always beautifully played by Terry O’ Quinn. When he walks off into the jungle with his father over his back to claim a people that will never truly be his, I get chills every single time.
It’s an intense, powerful episode and will always be in my personal top five.
2. Ji Yeon
“Where Sun go. I go.”
I love when shows break their own formats: in medias res beginnings, stories told from multiple or unexpected points of view---this sort of thing is my narrative crack. Lost has such a unique storytelling style that it doesn’t often get a chance to do something different, but when it does the results are pretty much always mind-blowing (“Flashes Before Your Eyes”, “The Constant”). “Ji Yeon” was no exception.
The flashforward seemed pretty uninspired at first glance: Sun was giving birth; Jin was trying to purchase a stuffed panda bear. Nothing spectacular, but then we reach the point when the flashforward should come together and instead we see Sun visiting her husband’s graveside with Hurley and Jin telling a businessman that he’s in no rush to have kids---in other words it’s a flashback and a flashforward.
This revelation left me feeling sucker punched and a little bit in awe of the fact that four seasons in Lost could still leave me scraping my jaw off the floor.
3. The Other 48 Days
“If I were a savage, I would’ve cut his finger off already. That’s tomorrow.”
This episode had the misfortune of airing mid-cliffhanger and focusing on a group of people we as viewers didn’t exactly care about (yet). At the time I found it slow, plodding, and unnecessary.
Now? It’s still not terribly necessary given how quickly all of the Tailies who weren’t Bernard bit the big one, but it’s an interesting episode if for no other reason than the fact that it shows a much darker (possibly more realistic) look at what would happen if you crashed on a deserted island.
The Tailies had it pretty rough---their shelters were meager or non-existent, they didn’t have a case full of knives or guns to use for boar-hunting, and they had Others popping out of the jungle every night to kidnap members of their group.
The episode is beyond bleak, showing us an ever dwindling group of survivors slowly turning on one another. Anchored by the amazing Michelle Rodriguez and the equally talented Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, this episode is one that could only really be appreciated with time.
4. Exposé
“I’m just a guest star and we all know what happens to guest stars.”
Wait! Come back! I promise it’s not as bad as you remember. Admittedly this is an episode that should come stamped with a “your mileage may vary” warning, but personally I loved it. Then again my sense of humor runs towards the dark side and growing up watching an endless parade of Twilight Zone reruns certainly gave me an appetite for twisted surprise endings and genre stories with a gooey moral center.
This episode had both. Oh, Nikki and Paulo if only you’d learned to hang out with the A-Team maybe you wouldn’t have been BURIED ALIVE!!! All that was missing was a Rod Serling voice-over to wrap things up.
5. What Kate Did
“It’s because I hated that you were part of me…that I would never be good.”
This is my favorite Kate episode, in fact I think everything we ever wanted to know about Ms. Austen’s psychology can be found right here. On a superficial level, that opening is just chock-full of badassery. Kate on her motorcycle riding off into the distance as the house explodes behind her taking her asshole of a father with it is one hell of an image.
But the real meat here comes from what we learn about Kate. She kills Wayne in part to get him away from her mother (I’ll always believe that despite what she says), but mostly because she finds out he is her biological father. Was this selfish? Misguided? Yes and yes, but also I feel in many ways entirely understandable. She grew up living with this monster and the only thing that kept her going was the belief that she could one day leave that life (and him) behind and never look back.
The truth is he’s a part of her and this leaves her feeling tainted in a way that she’s never going to entirely escape.
This plays out in a delightfully creepy scene in which Sawyer is seemingly possessed by the spirit of Wayne. Kate sleep-deprived and emotional finally tells us why she’s been fighting so hard not to have feelings for Sawyer---because she sees a bit of Wayne in him and she sees him in herself and she can’t stand that.
It’s sad and screwed up and completely breaks my heart. The final scene in which she and Sawyer walk outside and both see the horse is a beautiful ending, even if I think it’s too much to hope that either of these characters will ever truly make peace with who they are.
6. S.O.S
“Rose, I love you will you marry me?”
“Bernard, I’m dying. I’m sick and I’m dying.”
This is another episode that I wasn’t fond of initially. But when I rewatched it recently I found it incredibly moving. It’s not a showy episode, it’s quiet and slow, but Bernard and Rose are the heart of the show in many ways. They’re not as dysfunctional as the rest of the castaways and this episode reflects that---it’s a small story about love and faith.
The scene between Locke and Rose alone is worth the price of admission.
7. Homecoming
“It was imaginary peanut butter actually.”
This is a sentimental favorite in many ways. In particular, I adore the flashbacks. Charlie is always looking for someone to take care of in hope of finding a reason to take care of himself. He tries so hard here to be the person Lucy believes he is---good, sweet, down on his luck but basically harmless. As always though, addiction and self-loathing get the best of him.
Meanwhile on the island, Claire comes back sans memory and Charlie does the one thing he knows will keep her safe---shoots the man who kidnapped her and left him for dead. It’s impulsive and rash like most of Charlie’s decisions, but his heart was in the right place.
This also has that strange scene of Charlie trying to sell copiers set to the weirdly jaunty music. It’s a bit like being dropped in the middle of a French New Wave film---jarring, strange and it leaves you feeling a bit queasy. Still, it’s a wonderful episode for Dominic Monaghan and one I’ve watched more times than I care to admit.
8. 316
“We’re all convinced sooner or later, Jack.”
And everyone reading this just collectively rolled their eyes. Of all of the episodes I put on this list, this is certainly the most flawed. All of the Eloise recreating the flight business is flimsy, full of holes and quite frankly makes little to no sense. So let’s just ignore that part for the moment and focus on Jack.
Jack is a character that I’ve always found intriguing, more so lately than ever before in fact. He started as someone stubbornly set in his belief that he didn’t need to believe in anything but himself (Why do you find it so hard to believe, Jack?--- Why do you find it so easy?). I’ve always found that sentiment relatable on a deeply personal level.
But since season one the island with all of its weirdness and moments of coincidence has slowly chipped away at Jack’s resolve until he ultimately hits rock bottom and looks up to sky and pleads, “Forgive me.” He’s a man without faith having a crisis of faith.
This episode he decides to surrender to destiny (one thousand cool points to anyone who can correctly identify what show I just referenced without googling) and is rewarded when the stars align just right and everyone shows up in the airport on their own. He sees it as a sign, he has finally found his path---this is what he’s supposed to do. The truth is he’s still floundering and he’s about to land on that island and set into motion a truly horrible chain of events. But in that moment---he believes.
This episode to me is about a man preparing to go tilt at some windmills. We see him pack, eager to leave the real world and all of his mistakes behind, and say his goodbyes (hi there Grandpa Ray!) seemingly without regret. Technically speaking it’s a gorgeous episode---I remember a lot of blue. But the scene that guaranteed I would always think of the episode fondly was the very first one: Jack wakes up on his back in the jungle (again) clutching a torn slip of paper that simple says, “I wish…”
It’s strange, ominous and so very Lost that I can easily forgive the scifi-mumbo jumbo that brought us there. It’s a pure character moment and what I feel was probably the metaphorical first word of the final leg of the Lost journey.