Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

It must be that time of year again. The DVD set for the latest season of Lost is out, and unsurprisingly, this huge fan of the show has been doing precious little aside from watching the bonus features and repeat viewings of various episodes over the past few nights since he got his hands on it. Those of you who were avid enough fans that you bought the Season One DVDs will probably already know that you need to get this (assuming you don't already have it), and those who haven't watched the show at all will probably be confused as hell if you don't start with the first season, so really, who do I have to review this for? Probably the viewers on the fence - those who thought the show was pretty good in its first season, but got so frustrated with the many dangling plot threads, tricky situational cul-de-sacs, new characters eating up screen time, or egregious scheduling of the episodes, and decided to either give up on watching the show altogether, or at least to wait for the DVD in order to get an uninterrupted viewing experience. You're the ones who I want to assure that yes, you should watch these episodes. (At least, most of 'em.) You should get, or at least rent, this DVD set. I'll freely admit that Season Two isn't as good as Season One, but Season One was awesome. So this is still some pretty darn good TV, with a fairly interesting set of bonus features for those who like a little insight on how a show like this concocts its crazy ideas and makes them come to life on the small screen.

But I'll back up a minute, for those of you who are still catching up on what the heck this show is about. The basics, which you may know just from the amount of buzz this show has been getting, are essentially this:

- The show follows a group of plane crash survivors stranded on an island in an unknown location
- There's a main cast of roughly 14 characters, with one of these characters getting "flashbacks" to their pre-crash life in a given episode
- Many of these people have crossed paths in their lives before the crash, often without knowing it
- There are other people on the island
- They found a mysterious "hatch" that was opened, but the contents of which weren't revealed, at the end of Season One
- The show explains things at a generally slow pace, if at all

That's what you probably know by now. What you may not know is that, despite the hints of sci-fi and conspiracy thriller that give the island its many mysteries, Lost is largely a character-driven drama, which really keeps itself going on the strength of its diverse cast. That is, I think, the show's largest selling point - a group of writers who are keen on remembering development in a particular character's arc and referencing it later to add extra depth to a character's actions, which may not be necessary knowledge to understand the episode at hand, but can cause the current episode to resonate a lot more deeply. It's also got a pretty good cast - a few characters may suffer from underuse or occasional awkward writing just due to the large number of them on board, but I don't think any of them act their part poorly. These actors experiment at times and communicate a lot even when not using words, so even when the show's off on some cockamamie tangent about weird scientists or polar bears or whatnot, you generally feel for, and worry about, a lot of the characters.

Season Two may suffer a little bit in terms of how much this "hatch", and the ornate mythology that lurks in the shadows like an iceberg we've only seen the tip of, take over the show from time to time. Despite that, an emotional connection is nearly always provided, often via flashbacks, and that makes sense. If aliens landed in your backyard tomorrow, you wouldn't necessarily just go "Cool!" and board their spaceship without a second thought like the hapless victim in your average B-grade sci-fi flick. You'd probably stop and think, maybe evaluating the risk if you were a careful person or you had been traumatized by losing someone in a freak accident years earlier. Or you might think it was some sort of a response to prayer if you were a religious type. You'd have emotions of some sort, and possibly even conflict. Lost's first season superbly dealt with the varying emotions among this group of people as they learned to live with each other and the sometimes harsh elements of nature - Season Two seeks to add a few layers to that by having many of them interact with decidedly "weirder" situations. That they're able to humanize most of it makes it ring true even when it's pretty far out there.

There are moments when this season is a bit too much, though - either a fairly silly contrivance is required in order to set up a conflict or adventure for a particular character (though they're mostly smart about intertwining existing events from past episodes into a new dilemma for a character we didn't expect to be affected by it all), or time is wasted in a few episodes on a major plotline that is really fairly mundane. Part of this may just be the frustration a lot of us felt during the scattershot schedule of reruns vs. new episodes as each of these aired - we'd spent three weeks awaiting the next new installment, only for the hype of the show's return to not pay off as time was spent on characters who really weren't involved in a whole lot of danger or conflict. Lost's lighter moments are worthwhile - several characters can bring humor to even the most unlikely places, and some of them are skilled enough to act out scenes which turn from sexy to frightening to genuinely touching within a few short minutes. Some of this might have played out better if we didn't feel like a few episodes were just placeholders that required us to wait another week for something really interesting to happen - but that's the nature of the beast when you're dealing with episodic TV that is difficult and time-consuming to produce.

I would say that show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse generally got it right in their first season of calling the shots with co-creator J. J. Abrams mostly not around. But there are times when they seem to indulge a little too much in their own fascination with how creative they are and how many little tidbits for hardcore fans they can bury in an episode (clues get tiring to hunt for after a while when you start to worry that you'll miss something if you don't freeze-frame every scene of every episode!), though casual fans who don't post on message boards and listen to podcasts like I do may never be bothered by these little things which are just meant to be clever and amusing. I will admit that Season Two was the point where I mostly gave up on trying to work ahead and solve new mysteries that were presented to me, and I became more content to let other obsessive fans chew on stuff while I just enjoyed the drama and awaited the answers that the writers were willing to present. If all you want is your questions answered, there may be several episodes in Season Two that misdirect you into thinking you'll get them when in fact you'll get nothing of the sort, which could really bug you. In an effort to prevent you from having those expectations, I'll just encourage you to watch for the drama as these characters interact with each other in different and sometimes surprising ways - not everyone gets along, including the people you thought were "good" after the close of Season One. The show's got a good team of writers who, despite how they divvy up episodes and concentrate mostly on an individual character for a particular episode, are really good at following each others' leads, filling in the gaps and improvising a bit along the way to some larger story arc that the show creators had in mind all along. You may not always like what these characters do, but they're incredibly consistent (I'll note a few exceptions below) and generally understandable and believable. These guys are the show. If it were just two no-name explorers with no feeling and just a lot of guns and ammo on this same island with these same mysteries, chances are I'd have tuned out long ago.

Well, I keep gushing about the characters, so I guess now's the proper time to introduce (or, more likely, re-introduce) you to them.

--CHARACTERS--

Jack, played by Matthew Fox
The heroic doctor and de facto leader of the band of survivors takes a slightly darker turn in Season 2, not becoming evil by any stretch of the imagination, but becoming a lot more desperate, frustrated, and sometimes even hypocritical. The actor infuses Jack with just the right amount of dramatic tension, so I have to give Foxy credit even when Jack gets on my nerves. The guy's got a lot to deal with as the hatch becomes a focal point for some of the survivors' lives, and he's forced to respond to uneasy conflicts among the group, perceived threats from The Others, and even a few deaths. I actually like him more this time around than in Season One.

Kate, played by Evangeline Lilly
Kate, the ever-present one-woman support group and hunting posse sidekick who was once a wanted criminal, seems a bit scaled back in Season Two, but I think her adventures ring truer and her sole flashback this season is more on-point than the rather confusing outings she had in Season One. She's still one of the show's main starts, and still the focus of sexual tension that you could cut with a knife, but thanks to the addition of Michelle Rodriguez to the cast, she's no longer the sole "lead female" of the show, so she's not shoved in our face as much as someone we're supposed to believe is a major bada**. Similarly to how I feel about Jack, I like her more now than I used to.

Locke, played by Terry O'Quinn
The great bald hunter, the man of mystery from the first season, seems to find his purpose and gleefully accept it early in this season, only to become increasingly more frustrated and cynical as time wears on. The actor's frustration with his character's limitations this year accurately reflects the annoyance felt by his character as things begin to fall apart, but some of the more intriguing plot twists actually come about due to the various ways that Locke is forced to grapple with his lack of control. He's less "shaman" and more "human" as he squares off against "The Island" and suffers quite a bit as a result.

Sawyer, played by Josh Holloway
Good old Sawyer. I once thought he was overexposed, but now he's probably my favorite character. This sarcastic outlaw bad boy started to become an unlikely saint toward the end of Season One, and thanks to both The Island and some other castaways proceeding to put him in his place, the old Sawyer gets to come out and play again, with guns blazing (figuratively, anyway... OK, maybe literally... but maybe not). I kind of like how he starts to hate himself a little for being good, so while some folks were frustrated by his eventual reversion, this actually hints at one of Season Two's major themes - "a tiger don't change his stripes", meaning that people ultimately don't change, which is in stark contrast to the various "Redemptions" that began at the end of Season One. In any event, you can always count on Sawyer for a cocky attitude and a snappy one-liner.

Ana-Lucia, played by Michelle Rodriguez
First appearing in one of Jack's flashbacks late in Season One, this fellow passenger becomes Jack's counterpart of sorts when her section of the plane (which landed on the other side of the island... come on, we all saw how that flashback basically telegraphed that the Tail Section had some survivors, too) is forced to fend for themselves under even worse conditions than the characters we got to know in Season One. She's a tough cookie with a major chip on her shoulder, which is pretty much a perfect character for Michelle Rodriguez (who, in real life, can be lovably amusing one minute and then an extreme hothead the next) to play. Her presence polarized audiences from the get-go, particularly due to one colossal mistake that she makes about a quarter of the way through the season.

Eko, played by Adewale Akinnouye Agbaje
This mysterious and foreboding man, who can beat you to a bloody pulp with his stick but who seems as even-keeled as ever due to being a man of few (heavily accented) words, ironically ends up being one of the show's most watchable. AAA (as I will henceforth call this actor, because no way I'm typing out that egregiously long name every time!) plays his role with so much finesse that Eko very nearly ends up becoming the new Locke. He was my favorite character on the show for a while, though he, too, takes part in some rather questionable actions toward the end of the season.

Michael, played by Harold Perrineau
I considered him to be a minor player in Season One, perhaps one of the least enjoyable to watch due to his nearly constant bursts of anger, but the man came to really love his estranged son Walt, and it was heartbreaking to see the kid get ripped out of his hands in the Season One finale. Michael becomes more of a major player in these episodes, which is at first annoying because he isn't given much to do besides barreling through the jungle screaming "WAAAAAAALT!" and throwing all caution to the wind, but Harold plays the desperate father to the best of his ability. He's actually gone for a good chunk of the season, but when he returns, he too becomes a rather polarizing character - you're not sure whether to sympathize or totally hate the guy.

Jin, played by Daniel Dae Kim
Jin was Season One's greatest success story, I think - portrayed stereotypically as the domineering Asian husband at first, but rising far above that to become one of the show's most beloved characters come May sweeps. A lot of his development in Season Two concerns his love for (and sometimes his quarrels with) his wife Sun, including the physical separation of the two due to the destruction of Michael's raft, which gets him involved in the action and forces him to learn how to communicate better with his comrades during the first few episodes. Daniel Dae Kim has rightfully become an anti-stereotype - and Asian man who is a bit of a sex symbol in American culture - and even though I don't "play for that team", I've got to admit he's a darn good looking and charming guy, who amusingly speaks perfect English and really bad Korean in real life, while pretending to do the opposite on the show.

Sun, played by Yunjin Kim
I do play for this team. And Yunjin Kim is like, the European bittersweet chocolate of eye candy (compared to, say, Evangeline Lilly, who is also eye candy, but more of a Hershey Bar). But that's not the only reason I've been enthralled with this character. Sun is a quietly mysterious woman, who is easy to sympathize with, and who has greatly outgrown her original portrayal as the submissive Asian wife. Her standing up to Jin was the best thing for their relationship, and she gets some great moments in Season 2, some touchingly romantic, some defiantly independent, and some deliciously ambiguous. I've never seen an actress say as much with her facial expressions as Yunjin does, so she and AAA kind of tie for the honor of "Most important information conveyed without words." However, Sun lost her title of "favorite character" in Season Two due to some not-so-bright actions and dialogue that were written for her here and there - most notably, her side of the story in the couple's first flashback episode of the season. She's still high on the list, though. She just needs more to do and more consistent writing.

Hurley, played by Jorge Garcia
You gotta love Hurley. He was the everyman in Season One, the guy who always had an amusing comment that hit close to home in terms of what we, the audience, might say about the various events on the island. His character became quite integral to some of the island's mysteries late last year, and now, we actually get to see the "fat guy", who has often served as "comic relief", turn out some surprisingly dramatic performances in both of his flashback episodes. Lest we forget, he has feelings too, and from now on, we might all have to think twice before snickering at the fat jokes.

Libby, played by Cynthia Watros
Libby, another of the survivors from the tail section, is a generally affable and insightful character who retains a big question mark over her head for the entire season, most notably because she's the only member of this year's main cast to never get her own flashback episode (kind of like Shannon last year, though this blonde chick is a lot nicer). It's hard to have anything against her, particularly when she strikes up an unlikely friendship with one of our favorite castaways, and yet you're always wondering if there's something more going on behind those slightly nervous eyes.

Charlie, played by Dominic Monaghan
Charlie, the "recovering" heroin junkie and has-been rock star, very quickly ended up on my "crap list" this year for being a rather annoying, self-centered buffoon, whining about why he wasn't in on the loop when other castaways would go off on their adventures, being a bit controlling with Claire and her baby, and showing a lot of weakness when his temptation of choice magically manifested itself on the island after he thought he was over it. I guess they can't play everyone as sympathetic, but it's difficult to watch a character who was supposed to be one of the show's main stars (he was a major bright spot in the pilot episode) undergo such a fall from grace, which in my opinion is not in the least sympathetic. He can still be amusing, and even quite helpful at times, but for the most part, I just want to smack him (no pun intended).

Claire, played by Emile de Ravin
Poor Claire. She was one of last season's most likeable characters, and this year, she's almost entirely tethered to her baby, spending most of her time screeching about little Aaron's needs or bickering with Charlie. Some of that is alleviated by the ambiguous relationship that begins to form between her and Locke, but for the most part, I'm disappointed in how little of interest this character is given to do. Ironically, when her turn comes up for a flashback, it turns out to be the best episode of the season, hands down.

Sayid, played by Naveen Andrews
And Poor Sayid! He also isn't given as much to do this year - in most episodes where this former member of Iraq's Republican Guard appears, he tends to play a secondary role, usually as the MacGeyver-type guy who explores and intuits things, but he never really gets to be the main guy calling the shots despite obviously having the most superior intelligence of anyone on the island. His unlikely relationship with Shannon, which carries over from last year, provides a little reprieve from that, as does some of the character's angst later in the season, but for the most part, he's bordering on being a recurring guest star.

Shannon, played by Maggie Grace
Shannon's appearances this season are practically blink-and-you'll-miss-'em, which is tragic considering how much potential there was to develop this character after the end of last season, when her brother Boone was killed, and the bratty rich girl suddenly had to learn how to assert her own self-worth in his absence. The few plotlines that involve her are important ones, mostly, and she gets her own flashback episode at long last, but ultimately I'm rather disappointed at how this character was handled (even if that does seem to be due to factors beyond the writers' control).

Walt, played by Malcolm David Kelly
"WAAAAAAAALT!" The kid, who may or may not have mysterious powers, is frequently referred to this season, but rarely seen, and accordingly, Malcolm David Kelly is only credited as a regular in a few episodes. However, his story isn't done being told. The kid was kidnapped at the end of last year, so his absence makes sense and proves to be a huge plot point that could very well affect the rest of the series. I do miss the unique viewpoint that having him among the other survivors provided, and I'm sad that we'll likely never get a full flashback episode from his point of view, but well, those are the breaks when you cast a kid who plays a character who ages a lot slower than the actual actor does.

Desmond, played by Henry Ian Cusick
This character proved popular when introduced this season, despite only being in four episodes (he was actually the only actor from the show to be nominated for an Emmy this season), and he's been upgraded to a regular for Season Three, so I figured it'd be prudent to mention him here. In true Lost fashion, he's a character who has briefly crossed over from someone else's past, who shows up in an unlikely location on the Island, a bit deranged, and potentially holding clues that could unravel several of the show's mysteries. His constant use of the term "Brothah!" can start to get annoying, but ultimately, he turns out to be a likable and intriguing character.

Henry, played by Michael Emerson
Another recurring guest character who will be a regular in Season Three, Henry shows up midway through the season, and arguments ensue among the castaways regarding whether this guy is one of the mysterious "Others" or not. The character is one of the most memorable examples of how Lost likes to screw with your mind, and he'll continue to do so long after you find out whether his story checks out or not. He's responsible for some of the show's most shocking (and in one case, hilarious) cliffhangers.

Vincent, played by Madison
Vincent is Walt's dog, who obviously has to be watched over by somebody else for the majority of the season, and yes, I can consider a dog a character if I want to, especially given the odd connection that seems to exist between this clueless pooch and impending disaster on the part of nearly any character who interacts with it.

--EPISODES--

SPOILER WARNING: I've tried not to give away any of the major events of Season 2 in writing about the characters, but the nature of this show is that one episode builds on events from the previous one. Read with caution if you have not seen these episodes yet and wish to remain unspoiled. Most of them are worth watching and re-watching, with only a few rating "average" in my book, so that should tell you what you need to know about their quality.

2.1 "Man of Science, Man of Faith" ****
The frustration we all felt at the end of last year's finale is partially alleviated by this episode, which finds three characters eventually taking the plunge and descending into "the hatch". The episode focuses on Jack, and the pressure he faces to protect his people from the supposed siege that The Others are about to bring upon the group, and in flashbacks, we also see him dealing with the pressure to "fix" Sarah (Julie Bowen), the car accident victim who we know he will eventually marry. These flashbacks can feel a bit cruel as they cut away from the developing story on the island that we really want to know about, and it's almost criminal that the fate of Michael, Jin, and Sawyer after the sabotage of their raft is not seen until the next episode, but this episode is still one of the creepiest and most memorable in the Lost canon thus far. The opening teaser, in particular, is perhaps the single most brilliant instance of misdirecting the audience that the show has pulled off thus far. It almost doesn't feel like the same Lost you know from last year, but what remains the same is that it's one hell of a ride.
Quotent Quotable:
"You know that thing that doctors have...the one where they're supposed to make you feel better just by talking to you?" --Hurley
"Bedside manner." --Jack
"Yeah, that... well, yours sucks, dude." --Hurley

2.2 "Adrift" ***1/2
This episode focuses on Michael, and his grief after having Walt taken from him, as well as his fight for survival as he and Sawyer struggle to stay afloat on the raft's remains throughout the night. It actually suffers a bit due to a disagreement that the network and the show runners had about who the episode's flashbacks should feature - the network wanted a more prominent fan favorite like Sawyer, whereas the show runners felt it made more sense to let it be about Michael and Walt. Ultimately, the show runners won, but not before wasting a bit of time on an aborted Sawyer flashback (which, sadly, is not among the DVD set's deleted scenes) and having to scurry to cobble together a Michael flashback in time, which ends up being about his legal battle with Susan (Tamara Taylor) over custody of Walt, meant to parallel his current determination to get Walt back from The Others, but which really doesn't tell us much that we didn't already learn from last season's Special, so the bulk of the episode revolves around Michael and Sawyer bickering back and forth as they float aimlessly on the dark water. The B-plot concerns the initial exploration of the hatch, though it takes place during the same few hours as the previous episode, so we see some of the same scenes, just from a different point of view, and frustratingly, that plot thread halts at the same cliffhanger that ended the previous episode.
Quotent Quotable:
"You got a Band-Aid?" --Sawyer (to Michael, in reference to an agonizing bullet wound)

2.3 "Orientation" ****
This might be the episode that got the message boards a-buzzin' with crazy fan theories up the wazoo more than any other, as Locke begins to learn exactly what the hatch is about, and we're introduced to a scientific project known as the Dharma Foundation (which leads to some humorous in-show branding of various products throughout the rest of the season, and man, they're fools if they don't try to market some of that stuff in real life!) Tons of new mythology is unearthed here, including a great nugget for "numbers freaks", and Locke's flashback, which shows us how he met the mysterious Helen (Katey Sagal) and tried to deal with being bamboozled by his own father (Kevin Tighe), is pretty interesting until it starts to turn a bit schmaltzy at the end. The episode, which should be a bona fide classic, stumbles with an awkward ending containing one of the most ridiculous Locke/Jack arguments (and there are a great many this season) of all time. Dude, I don't care whose responsibility it ends up being, just somebody do something about the damn situation already! Plus, the revelation that there's another entrance to the hatch will likely elicit groans and eye-rolls from most of the audience, given the struggle that Boone and Locke went through trying to get the top of it open last year - they should have found the "front door" with great ease! On the upside, the story of the raft crew starts to get interesting again, and we finally get to see Michelle Rodriguez in action - doesn't take long for her character to make an impression!
Quotent Quotable:
"I've got a thing for bald men." --Helen
"I'm not bald." --Locke
"I can wait." --Helen

2.4 "Everybody Hates Hugo" ****1/2
This being the first episode to take place in broad daylight (episodes 1-3 pretty much took place in the middle of the same night) is a bit lighter in tone after the intense start of the season. You might guess from the title that this one's about Hurley (whose real name is Hugo), and you'd be right, though the concept of everyone hating him seems to be mostly in his head (he's generally more loved than Raymond will ever be). Hurley is given a responsibility by Locke, specifically inside the hatch, and his reaction is basically "Why me?", as he flashes back to the days immediately following his discovery that he had won the Lottery, and his internal struggle whether he should tell anyone about it. There are plenty of humorous moments here, but also some surprising dramatic bits, as Hurley befriends Rose (L. Scott Caldwell), who I was thrilled to see again after a long absence last season, and she attempts to lend him a hand. This episode is a winner because it shows a keen sense of memory, taking several iconic moments from early Season One and offering a bit of closure or continuation to remind us that this is still the same show with the same characters, and they don't just magically forget what happened last year like the folks on your average sitcom. And Hurley's buddy Johnny (DJ Qualls) from back in L.A. makes the perfect sidekick - he's such a skinny little twig and I love how they're two peas in a pod despite the visual disparity. Over on the other side of the island, Sawyer's back to being his bad self again as he and Ana-Lucia get into some scuffles over who's the boss, and we start getting to know Eko and Libby for the first time, and finding out what these people's lives have been like since the crash. There's a great reveal at the end of this episode that is both surprising and touching - you might kick yourself for letting your prejudices cause you to not see it coming, but then, misleading the audience is part of what makes Lost a great show.
Quotent Quotable:
"Drive Shaft. More like Suck Shaft!" --Johnny

2.5 "...And Found" ***1/2
Just like last year's "...In Translation", this episode's title can be joined to the show's title to form a complete though - namely, this one is about things that are lost being found, and things that don't want to be found. Emotionally speaking, it's one of the most lightweight episodes of the season, with the only real sense of danger or conflict coming from the island's far side, where Michael unexpectedly takes off into the jungle after Walt (much to Ana-Lucia's chagrin) and Jin, deciding to be the heroic buddy (interesting how they're such good friends now despite hating each other's guts for most of last season), attempts to track him down and bring him back to the group. That plot thread turns out to be a bit of a dead end, though it does provide some tantalizing tidbits about The Others, but it seems freaking brilliant when compared to the A-plot involving Sun, who literally spends the entire episode searching for her missing wedding ring. While this gives Sun the rare opportunity to have some interesting conversations with characters she hasn't talked to much thus far (Claire, Jack, Hurley, and Locke, to be specific), it feels like a big waste of time when we finally find out where it was. I'm also annoyed that for once, the women on the show share a secret, something they can decide how to handle without the men's input, and it ends up being totally dropped and never really discussed again. The flashback is cute - it shows Sun and Jin in almost entirely separate stories, living in the same city but not having yet met each other. Jin attempts to get a job at the Grand Seoul Hotel, where Sun unknowingly crosses his path due to unwillingly fixed up with rich hotel owner Jae Lee (Tony Lee). Jin and Sun are always charming to watch; it's just that it doesn't feel much like Lost because there's very little tension or danger here, and I'm frustrated to see an episode about two of my favorite characters wasted as if they were just a cute little sideshow, with no integral relation to the important mysteries that make Lost tick.
Quotent Quotable:
"Seoul, is that in the good Korea or the bad Korea?" --Hurley

2.6 "Abandoned" ***1/2
At long last, Shannon finally gets to be the woman of the hour. Many viewers have hated this character, despite attempts to make her more sympathetic after the death of Boone (Ian Somerhalder), and they're probably going to hate that this episode tries to do that via her flashbacks. Yet, it's not just about selfish Shannon learning how to grow up. She's given an intriguing burden on the island, after seeing a vision of Walt and having to explain to Sayid that what she saw was disturbingly real... kind of a post-coital mood-kill, if you ask me. Sayid assumes that this is happening as a result of her trauma over Boone dying, and of course, since this is a Shannon flashback, we get to see Boone again in those memories, which deal with the death of her father, and the resulting estrangement between Shannon and her stepmother, Boone's mother Sabrina (Lindsay Frost). Some felt that the explanation provided here was a poor excuse for why Shannon turned out the way that she did; personally, I say that not every explanation of a person's actions is meant to excuse those actions. Anyway, this episode has a heartbreaking ending (which I can honestly say made me more p!ssed off than I've perhaps ever been at a TV show) that surprisingly ties together the stories taking place on both sides of the island, and that made a particular character immediately shoot to the top of many viewers' "Most Hated" lists. (And in a surprising, but unrelated, bit of trivia, Kate is nowhere to be found in this episode, and Jack only makes one appearance, which is so brief that you'll almost certainly miss it.)
Quotent Quotable:
"Death sucks, doesn't it?" --Boone

2.7 "The Other 48 Days" ****1/2
This was a brave move on Lost's part - creating an episode that focused entirely around the show's newest cast members, with little to no appearances by the show's Season One cast - and I'm surprised the network let them get away with it. It turned out to be one of Lost's best episodes thus far, starting with a much lower-budget, but almost equally frightening and captivating, depiction of the aftermath of the plane crash, Tail Section-style. (Those who saw it when it aired on TV could have been fooled into thinking the first few seconds were one of those tranquil Corona ads, and then BLAM!) There are no off-island flashbacks here, just the screen going black from time to time in order to prompt us about what day it is (the episode has to go through all 48 within an hour, and some presumably less eventful days are skipped outright). Ana-Lucia and Eko, and to a lesser extent, Libby and Bernard (Sam Anderson), are the main characters in action here, as well as another member of their meager and rapidly shrinking group named Goodwin (Brett Cullen) - even though you've already been told from an episode taking place after this that the dude died, don't count him out in terms of interesting things that we have to learn about him. It's intriguing to see how this group had some similar experiences, and some harrowingly more difficult experiences, than the group we already knew from the plane's midsection, and even how the two groups were able to briefly contact each other without realizing this. My only complaint is that, to bring the episode up to present-day events, they felt the need to end it with a cheesy montage of "action" music and snippets of scenes we had already seen from Adrift up through Abandoned. Still, it's a highly unique and memorable episode, which somehow kept me on the edge of my seat despite already knowing a lot of the events that awaited these hapless survivors in the days to fall.
Quotent Quotable:
"If I was a savage, I would've cut off one of his fingers by now. That's tomorrow." --Ana-Lucia

2.8 "Collision" ****
Here's where the fit hit's the shan, and the two groups collide violently... or so we were supposed to believe. This is an episode which, despite almost completely failing on the promise that its lead-in offered, turns out to be fairly strong. The intrigue is largely provided by the first of Ana-Lucia's flashbacks, where she is revealed to be an LAPD cop, who had been out of service for a while due to a traumatic experience, and who has to negotiate with her superior officer (Rachel Ticotin) in order to get back out on the beat. The scenes where she's driving around in a cop car sort of amuse me, because you can totally tell it's Honolulu and not L.A., but whatever, that's part and parcel of a show entirely filmed on the island Oahu. Ana-Lucia's backstory explains a lot, even if I don't find it to be all that sympathetic. The conflict between Ana-Lucia and Sayid that is supposed to erupt on-island turns into a bit of a half-hearted hostage standoff, and I found that the characters were a bit too reasonable given what had just happened. All of Ana-Lucia's gun-waving and sneering and suddenly she's gonna pour out her life story to a guy she just met? Whatever. On the upside, it's great to finally see some other folks from the Season One cast interact with Eko for the first time (especially Locke), we get another nod to Hurley's golf course from last season, and the scene on the beach near the end never fails to bring tears to my eyes (again, they got me with the damn dog). I enjoy this episode, even if I'm not quite convinced by the emotional strings that they try to pull in its last few seconds.
Quotent Quotable:
"You know, the ladies' tee at my club back home is about 10 feet closer, so..." --Jack
"Shut up, Jack." --Kate

2.9 "What Kate Did" ****
Kate finally gets an episode devoted to her - the only one this season, which is surprising, but by this point I was ready for it. We find in the teaser exactly what Kate did (in spectacular fashion, I might add) that resulted in her being on the run from the law, and as expected, her backstory is action-packed, though for once her actions make sense (in the flashbacks, anyway), and we don't have a silly toy plane to deal with. There's a pretty good emotional tie between this backstory, which introduces Kate's parents, and the present-day story, which finds her caring for Sawyer and hearing him mutter some rather disturbing things in his fever dreams (his barely-conscious state caused by infection from the bullet wound he received from The Others back on the raft). Her emotional conflict is, for once believable, even if it results in a few odd contrivances on the island. For once, the love triangle between her, Jack, and Sawyer is pushed to the forefront in a sensible way that fits with whatever else has been going on among the castaways. Good drama here, and the supporting characters are not forgotten - Eko and Locke piece together an interesting bit of information based on something found in one of the other "hatches", and Michael given something to do other than yelling for Walt and griping at Ana-Lucia (whose presence is surprisingly minimal in the next few episodes, leaving a lot of potential story threads untapped as the supposed resentment other survivors might feel towards her is pretty much ignored), as he starts to ask questions about the hatch and how everything inside it works. As far as lighthearted moments go, there's no beating this episode's opening, with Sun and shirtless Jin coming out of a tent after the first night of their sweet reunion, and Jin getting the thumbs up from Hurley, though this delicately turns to the dramatic as Sun looks in the other direction to see a fellow survivor digging a grave. Other than the awkward funeral scene later on and one or two odd contrivances, this episode plays out quite well, and the cliffhanger, which left us drooling over the long winter break, is a real doozy.
Quotent Quotable:
"That's about the sweetest thing I've ever heard... Who the hell is Wayne?" --Sawyer

2.10 "The 23rd Psalm" ****
If you thought they were teasing at religious allusions last season, then well, you'll either be delighted or disgusted at how blatant this one is, because it largely revolves around two of the show's most religious characters, Eko and Charlie. The flashback focuses on Eko, and the dubious methods by which he came to wear the scared collar, tracing back to his boyhood in Nigeria. It's always interesting to see a character in flashbacks for the first time, and Eko, more than most characters, appears to have a direct, if somewhat bizarre, tie to the mythos of the island. Eko and Charlie become an unlikely pairing due to some information that Eko gleans from Claire about Charlie, which greatly disturbs him. For a Charlie-heavy episode, it's surprisingly enjoyable - he's a pain in the butt as expected, but his lines tend to be more humorous than irritating, and it starts off an unlikely friendship between two despite there being a bit of animosity at first. There's a series of shots that you'll probably want to freeze-frame when "the monster", which has been absent since the season finale, makes a spectacular appearance, and a somewhat interesting B-plot with Michael trying to throw together a hasty plan to - what else - go get his son back from The Others. While I've grown to mistrust musical montages at the end of Lost episodes, I have to say that this one, where Eko is shown reciting the titular Bible verse, is quite fitting.
Quotent Quotable:
"What are you gonna do, beat me with your Jesus Stick?" --Charlie (to Eko)

2.11 "The Hunting Party" ****
Time for another Jack episode, I guess. This one features Jack attempting to - what else? - save one of his comrades. This time it's Michael, who takes off after a rather ugly confrontation in the hatch, and Jack, knowing that Michael is off to get revenge against The Others and is hopelessly outnumbered, forms a search party with Locke and Sawyer in an attempt to catch up with them (humorously, the ever-present butt-in-ski Kate is told she can't go this time). This is somehow related (really, they need to work on these parallels) to a patient Jack was asked to operate on, whose recovery would basically be considered a miracle, and who just happened to have a gorgeous daughter named Gabriela (Monica Dean). You can see where this one's going a mile away. Thankfully, despite the flashbacks kind of sucking, Locke and Sawyer help Jack to carry the episode, and Jack himself deserves credit for a gusty confrontation when The Others finally show up. Not much in terms of a B-story here, though there are some well-played Sun/Jin moments that interestingly reverse some of their conflicts from Season One, and show some real growth in their marriage. I have to give credit to writers Elizabeth Sarnoff and Christina Kim - every time they touch these two characters, the writing is pure gold. The episode has one of those endings which is similar to last year's Do No Harm, in that it totally ratchets up tension for what's to come, but it turns out to be a false lead, as the conflict or idea it presents may elicit a gasp from the audience, but it really goes nowhere in the episodes that follow.
Quotent Quotable:
"Oh, I don't know, Mr. Clean, I probably would have gone around Mt. Vesuvius." --Sawyer
"Why'd you pick that name?" --Locke
"Ain't it obvious? All you need's an earring and a mop." --Sawyer

2.12 "Fire + Water" ***1/2
Well, you knew there had to be a Charlie episode sooner or later, and that it would probably involve his heroin addiction again, time to get it over with. I thought The Moth and Homecoming were two of last season's low points, and this episode struggles as well, but ultimately, it's the best Charlie episode thus far. We can thank the writers for this, because they don't mind letting Charlie go to a dark place and stay there instead of just reverting back to the nice guy who people like at the end of the episode. The biggest problem with this one it's that it's always a bit sketchy to predicate an episode of a show like this on a character's dreams and visions. Charlie has some rather amusing ones, with religious imagery abounding, telling him that it's his job to save baby Aaron from some sort of disastrous fate. Problem: Claire threw him out two episodes ago, and doesn't want this smack addict around the baby. It's kind of fun to see the world from Charlie's delusional point of view, and man, does he have a hard time in this episode, particularly in his interactions with Locke. In flashbacks, we see him trying to sober up as he and his junkie brother Liam (Neil Hopkins) make a last-ditch attempt to revive the flailing career of Drive Shaft (there's an embarrassing, but totally hilarious, scene here where they attempt to do a "music video" of sorts). It goes pretty much how you'd expect - for once, I'd love it if a Charlie flashback would actually surprise us. I enjoy this episode as an example of how the castaways don't even need The Others, they're enough of a threat to themselves, Lord of the Flies style. But some things just plain don't make sense here, especially Claire's actions at the end.
Quotent Quotable:
"Kate sees a horse. Nothing. Pretty much everyone's seen Walt wandering around the jungle. But when it's Charlie, it must be the bloody drugs, right?" --Charlie (to Locke)

2.13 "The Long Con" ****1/2
This episode is really a defining moment for Sawyer, who gets his flashback due at long last - one which is perhaps better positioned than it would have been in Adrift. We see him in flashback, setting up a con game that appears to be scripted exactly like the one in Confidence Man, only for a girl named Cassidy (Kim Dickens) to see right through his ruse and demand that he let her in on one of his "big cons". So they go on a bit of a spree, Bonnie & Clyde style, and it becomes a classic game of "who's playing who". Back on the island, Sawyer is right in the middle of a crisis as Sun becomes the victim of a botched kidnapping attempt, and Jack and the rest of the group's leadership powwows to figure out whodunnit and how to go after them. This episode marks the only real interaction you'll get between Kate and Ana-Lucia, which is basically a cold glare - the writers seemed to want to set up a major catfight between these two and it never manifested. But I love the episode where suspicion and paranoia run rampant in the Losites' camp. Just when all hell's about to break loose, you find out what really happened and who was involved, and it's a brilliant twist that plays smartly off of the events of several prior episodes. It might require a little suspension of disblief to accept that someone knew certain characters would react in certain ways to certain things, but since this is a Sawyer episode, a spoonful of nasty nicknames will help the medicine go down.
Quotent Quotable:
"Hell, you even got Locke to take a swing at you. That's like getting Ghandi to beat his kids." --Sawyer (to Charlie)

2.14 "One of Them" ***
Sadly, this is Season Two's weakest episode. Poor Sayid drew the short straw again, after being the subject of the lackluster The Greater Good last year. Ironically, this is the episode where Henry Gale is first introduced, having been caught in a trap set by lone wolf Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan), and who is suspected of being one of The Others. Most of the episode revolves around Sayid's "interrogatory" methods of getting the information he wants out of Henry - this is smartly informed by Sayid's very personal anger against The Others. It's a rather brutal episode, which is somehow made more painful by the fact that the brutality is coming from a character who we've generally found to be likeable (this'll be nothing new if you were an Alias fan), and other than brief appearances by Ana-Lucia and Danielle, this is the episode where women suddenly cease to exist on the island. Sayid's flashbacks take us back to the Gulf War in Iraq, when he was captured and expected to torture one of his own superior officers in order to obtain useful information for the U.S. Army. While his captors (played by Lindsey Ginter and Clancy Brown) are intriguing characters, this story is a bit difficult to swallow in the end, and there's really no way to make Hawaii look like Iraq, so they resorted to some really fake CGI for most of the outdoor flashback scenes. Ironically, though, what really makes this episode subpar is a useless B-plot involving my two favorite characters, Sawyer and Hurley, on a search for an annoyingly loud tree frog. It's got to be the biggest "who the hell cares?" plot line ever to disgrace an episode of Lost, and that's saying a lot after the whole debacle with Sun's wedding ring.
Quotent Quotable:
"This is how people get killed in scary movies." --Hurley
"If this was a scary movie, I'd be with a hot chick. Not you, Barbar." --Sawyer
"It's 'Babar'." --Hurley

2.15 "Maternity Leave" *****
Strangely, the season's weakest episode is immediately followed by its strongest, and this time, it's the girls' turn to have a little fun. Well, at least if your idea of "fun" is reliving scary dream visions and trudging through the jungle to retrace those disturbing steps. That's Claire's idea, I guess. Or she wants to find a vaccine for her baby, or something. The set up is a bit of a stretch (Claire's worried about Aaron's rash, and Jack is his usual dismissive self, big surprise), but once Claire recruits Libby (I almost forgot she was on this show!) to help her unlock her memories of when she had been kidnapped by Ethan, and Kate (who seems to suddenly kick all kinds of a** when she's around Claire) to go on a trek with her to find the place where Ethan held her captive, things get pretty awesome pretty quick. Never mind that screechy Claire and loopy Danielle are major players in this episode. This one gives us plenty to geek out over, because it's the first instance of an on-island flashback, as Claire remembers bit-by-bit what happened during her time spent in a creepy maternity ward with - you guessed it, Ethan. It's a treat to see William Mapother return to the role that was frustratingly cut short last year when Charlie blew Ethan away, and it's neat to have flashbacks occurring in the same place as the present-day story for a change. This means we won't learn a whole lot about Claire's pre-crash past until next year, but it sheds light on one of last year's biggest mysteries, so I'm cool with that. Bonus: There's a great Claire/Sun scene that very nicely sets up the following episode.
Quotent Quotable:
"I need a gun. And you don't get to ask why." --Kate
"Well, Thelma, seeing as I got all the guns, I do get to ask why." --Sawyer
"No, you don't." --Kate
"Yes, I do. Watch... Why?" --Sawyer

2.16 "The Whole Truth" *****
For all of the complaining that some of us fans have done about the weak writing for female characters on this show, I'd like to point out that two of the season's strongest episodes are focused on female characters. From Claire, the frightened single mother trying to protect her child, we shift focus to Sun, a character about whom we were given subtle hints last year that she might have some sort of baby/fertility issues. This proves to be a nice bit of foreshadowing that went as far back as Homecoming, as Sun is forced to deal with the astonishing possibility that she might be pregnant. In flashback, we see her, and especially Jin, being very disappointed to learn that they're infertile, which leads to tension in their marriage, which opens the door for one of them to be tempted by a ghost from their past. This episode's got everything you could ever want from a Lost episode - at least three shirtless men, a hot but classy bedroom scene with Sun in a nightie (which features Jin as the requisite shirtless man - my wife and I consider this to be an "equal opportunity" drooling scene), writing for two of the show's best characters that really shows sensitivity to both their backstories and cultural background, inclusion of peripheral characters such as Rose and Bernard, clever callbacks to previous episodes, and a surprising subplot involving Sayid, Ana-Lucia and Charlie that ends up making all three of them enjoyable to watch, against all odds. For once, Sun being the center of attention doesn't mean putting a hold on exploring the creepy island mysteries - the captive Henry Gale has a show-stealing scene at the end that will scare the hell out of you and make you laugh all at once.
Quotent Quotable:
"You guys got any milk?" --Henry

2.17 "Lockdown" ****
In some ways, this episode strongly resembles last year's Dues Ex Machina, since it focuses on Locke, and he's kind of a rat in a maze, hapless victim to the whims of the mysterious hatch, and in flashback, the whims of his supposedly deceased father. Strange and trippy event abound as an unexpected "lockdown" occurs inside the hatch, leaving Locke trapped with Henry for the better part of a day, and also separating Locke from the all-important "doomsday computer". Another similarity to Deus Ex Machina lies in a subplot concerning Jack and Sawyer that is mostly played for laughs - some viewers get tired of the constant machismo-driven standoffs between either Jack and Locke or Jack and Sawyer, but this one's a winner. Some highly intriguing discoveries are also made later in the episode, when Jack and Kate (who have conveniently been kept away from the hatch all day, thus not discovering the lockdown situation) stumble across something weird in the jungle, and Sayid, Ana-Lucia and Charlie return to report their findings. The flashbacks are a bit disappointing in that they still don't tell us the most important thing that we'd like to know about Locke (Season 3 had better explain that damn wheelchair or I'm gonna go crazy), but they relate to the island in the sense that Locke has to decide who to trust and how far to trust them.
Quotent Quotable:
"Should I go get a ruler?" --Kate (to Jack and Sawyer)

2.18 "Dave" ****1/2
Dave's not here, man. Or at least, that's what Hurley hopes is true when he starts getting weird visions of a guy he knew from back in his days at the Santa Rosa Mental Institute, which are finally explored in his second flashback episode of the season (how lucky for us that this great character got two this year!) This is definitely an episode where the writers get to poke a little fun at their obsessive audience, toying with a pet theory that several fans have clung to even though it's been basically debunked by the show's creators. Dave (Evan Handler) is the rare lucky actor who has been able to appear in both flashbacks and on the island sets, and he plays his role with sarcastic glee. The bizarre situation from the previous episode also ties into this one in a way that is both humorous and tragic. Libby finally gets a bit more to do, due to the relationship she's slowly been building with Hurley, and this is the episode where we really become hungry to know exactly what the deal is with her. The episode delves into some of Hurley's deep-seated emotional problems, and it's a delicate balance due to some scenes that are hard to watch, and might get played for laughs by lesser writers, but which instead ask us for a bit of sympathy, and generally manage to get it. There's also a hilarious fight scene, probably one of the most awesome moments in the entire show thus far. The flashback at the end is a total "OMGWTFBBQ!" moment, too.
Quotent Quotable:
"Did anyone see a man run through here in a bathrobe with a coconut?" --Hurley
"No, but I saw a polar bear on roller blades with a mango." --Charlie

2.19 "S.O.S." ***1/2
Well, we asked for it, and they gave it to us. Despite not being full cast members with regular weekly roles, several fans had asked about the backstory of Rose, who had appeared just enough in Season 1 to intrigue us all, and her husband Bernard, introduced this season. Their backstory - which is largely not what you'd expect from a middle-aged couple who has thus far been a fairly low-key presence - is touching, and it playfully teases at a few mysteries that we've been yearning to solve. On the island, Rose and Bernard get into a bit of a quarrel when Bernard decides to build a huge S.O.S. sign on the beach and gets no support from his usually lovable wife. The downside to this A-plot is that it borders on being one of those "nothing happened" weeks similar to when Sun lost her ring. This is helped a little bit by a B-plot involving Jack and Kate going on an expedition into jungle in an attempt to cut a deal with the others, but this story has its expected contrivances and much of it is a big fat "Who cares?" until the very end. Promotion for this episode wasn't handled well, with nearly all of it focusing on the Jack and Kate subplot, as if Rose and Bernard weren't interesting enough to draw in an audience. Sam Anderson and L. Scott Caldwell really do carry the episode superbly - it's just plagued with apathy problems here and there, and part of me is a bit annoyed that even they got an episode and Cynthia Watros, a fully credited main cast member, didn't get a Libby episode.
Quotent Quotable:
"I think I liked you better when you just hit people with your stick." --Bernard (to Eko)

2.20 "Two for the Road" ****
Well, I don't know if you were clamoring to know more about Ana-Lucia after Collision. I really wasn't, but I guess they had to explain what the heck she was doing in Australia, so here we go. The aftermath of her highly illegal actions in Collision is played out here, resulting in an episode where she's mostly running away from her responsibilities in about the most foolish way possible. Fortunately, this bizarre adventure gives us a pretty major pre-crash crossover with another character, and hints at another possible link between to characters, if you're paying really close attention. On the island, Ana-Lucia is faced with the question of whether to let Henry live or die, especially after the group has been informed of Michael's encounter with The Others after his return to camp. This episode is fairly serious and intense, aside from what is initially a cute subplot involving Hurley planning his first date with Libby. The ending is probably one of the most shocking, controversial, and ultimately defining moments in the series thus far. You won't see it coming until maybe a few seconds ahead of time, and if you're unlucky enough to predict what one character's about to do, it makes it all the more difficult to watch, in my opinion.
Quotent Quotable:
"You tell anybody about this, and I'll kill you." --Ana-Lucia
"I guess that takes cuddling off the table." --Sawyer

2.21 "?" ****
You gotta love the fact that they named an episode after a punctuation mark. We get to delve into Eko's memories again here, though his story is decidedly more confusing than it was in The 23rd Psalm (hey, with a title like ?, I don't know why you'd be expecting total clarity). We get to find out what Eko was doing in Australia and how he, too, had a crossover with another character before the crash (let's just say that this show does a really good job of digging past guest stars out of their archive when needed). Like Fire + Water, a good part of this episode's character motivations are based on dreams that they've had (in this case, mostly Eko, who drags Locke out on a quest to find - you guessed it - the question mark, despite being sent by Jack to do something else entirely). At this point the dreams have been too much of a plot device to just be written off as a coincidence, so make of that what you like, but the discovery that it leads Eko and Locke to is an important and fascinating one. Meanwhile, Jack is left to deal with an urgent crisis in the hatch, and it ain't pretty. This was another difficult sub-plot to watch, but I can say that I was genuinely surprised by the outcome.
Quotent Quotable:
"You hit me! Why did you...?" --Locke
"Because you were being difficult." --Eko

2.22 "Three Minutes" ****
It's always a bit dubious to re-use footage from a previous episode so heavily, but since this one focuses on Michael and exactly what he was doing during the days that he went missing - similarly to Claire in Maternity Leave, it's kind of necessary to repeat some of the events of The Hunting Party from his perspective. His flashbacks are on-island, though the transition between them and present day is a lot less imaginative, with title cards that say "X days ago" or "Today", much like in The Other 48 Days. Those who have been waiting to see more of The Others will have a field day with this episode - once Michael is away from camp and in their territory, things get really weird really fast. All of this is, of course, meant to help us understand his actions upon returning to camp, and it's a tricky balance for Michael to maintain as he struggles to stay in control of the final plan for him and Jack and some of The Others to go get Walt. You can tell that the man is coming apart at the seams by this point, which is well-played by Harold Perrineau, who shows a lot more range here than he did when he was simply screaming for his son during most of the season's first run of episodes. I'll give 'em credit - they realized they were dangerously close to having a one-note character, and they corrected course without changing the character's motivations. This makes Three Minutes one of the most exciting episodes of the season, and a great lead-in to the finale.
Quotent Quotable:
"I'll see you in the funny pages." --Pickett (to Michael)

2.23 "Live Together, Die Alone ****1/2
I had just assumed that this year's season finale would work like last year's, with various characters getting flashbacks related to a singular theme, while everything came to a head on the island. This double-length episode actually surprised me by instead featuring the return of Desmond (after being absent since Orientation), and allowing him to bear the burden of being the flashback character, which explains a great deal about his past, how he ended up on the island, and most importantly, his experience with the hatch prior to the castaways blowing it open. During the second hour, both the flashbacks and the present-day action for Desmond take place in the hatch, so you do have to pay attention as the presence of other characters is the only visual clue to the timeframe. But a fair amount of questions are answered, so it's worth watching it closely more than once. Every character is given something to do in this one, be it Charlie and Eko squaring off against Locke and Desmond over whether "the button" should continue to be pressed, Michael and his squad of Other-hunters (or unwitting victims, depending on how you look at it), Claire and her decision of whether or not to vaccinate the baby, and thankfully, even Sayid and his reconnaissance mission to the other side of the island, with an unlikely sailing crew in tow. (Plus, we get to see a deceased character in a flashback, which is always fun.) Many things seem to happen in this episode that have never happened on Lost before, the ending leaves quite a few lives hanging in the balance, and there's even a surprising coda that has definitely gotten the theories flying back and forth over the long summer as we wait for Season 3. All in all, I liked Exodus better as a finale, but this one's still pretty solid, offering some great nuggets to fans regardless of whether they're in it for the characters, the mystery, the humor, or whatever else.
Quotent Quotable:
"Do you know how they opened the hatch door?" --Eko
"No, but if you hum a few bars..." --Charlie

There are commentaries for the episodes Man of Science, Man of Faith, What Kate Did, The 23rd Psalm, The Whole Truth, and Dave. For Man of Science, Man of Faith and The 23rd Psalm, the commentary is done by the show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, with perhaps a director or other important crew member on board; for the other episodes, it's done with the main actor(s) featured in those episodes, plus one or two writers/crew members. Of these, the commentary with Elizabeth Sarnoff and the three Kims on The Whole Truth is the most interesting. Some of the other actors and crew members have a bad habit of getting so caught up in watching the final cut of the show (sometimes it's the first time they've done so) that they'll go for long stretches without saying much, which kind of deprives these features of some of their worth. Compare this to Battlestar Galactica, where the series creator has done fairly meaty podcast commentaries for nearly every episode, and it kind of puts Lost to shame in that department. (Though Damon and Carlton do host short weekly podcasts while the show is airing new episodes - the value of these is greatly diminished by their smarminess, time-wasting horseplay, and general unwillingness to give actual answers to questions, though.)

--BONUS FEATURES--
Disc 7 contains all of the bonus materials, and this time around, they've really outdone themselves with the DVD menus, disguising them as a grainy Orientation film, and bringing back Francois Chau to reprise his role as Marvin Candle, who helpfully narrates each menu and tells you why it is of the utmost importance to be thorough and complete each "task". This will likely get tiresome upon repeat viewings, but you can easily skip to the actual menus, so it's no biggie.

Lost: On Location
These are fairly meaty features that take a few minutes to explore one or more aspects of 10 different episodes, usually dealing with the special effects, actors briefly describing the story they're about to act out or revealing how the stunts were done, funny things that happened off-camera during filming, etc. Definitely worth watching if you're curious about the various minds and talents who work behind the scenes, though I'm annoyed that there's nothing on Maternity Leave.

The Lost Flashbacks
These are basically just deleted scenes that happen to be flashbacks - two of Shannon's from Abandoned, and one of Locke's from Lockdown. Except for one emotional scene between Shannon and her wicked stepmother, these aren't terribly interesting or informative. I'm really disappointed that the missing Sawyer flashbacks from Adrift didn't show up here - they'd better be saving those for Season 3.

Deleted Scenes
Far more numerous than the Lost Flashbacks, these are snippets of on-island action and dialogue that were largely cut for time. You aren't told what episodes each brief scene belongs to, though you can generally figure it out from context and the fact that they're presented in chronological order. Many of them feature characters that were underused in Season 2 (generally, the women other than Kate, and also Sayid), and while not all of them were keepers, a few of them should have definitely been kept. At the very least, they could have worked some of this dialogue into later episodes instead of wasting time on wedding rings and tree frogs, you know?

Bloopers
Everyone knows what these are. Nearly every DVD has 'em. They're not terribly funny this time around, for the most part.

Fire + Water: Anatomy of an Episode
This fairly lengthy feature gives you an inside look at how a Lost episode is created, from the very first stages of conceiving the story, all the way through filming and post-production. It's a painstaking process, made even more complicated by the fact that they film in Hawaii and do post in L.A., and part of me thinks that they did this just to remind us that it takes a lot longer than a week to create one episode, which is why they couldn't have a new one every single week. OK, I get that, but it's your job, quit whining about how hard it is. Some of this is interesting, some of it is rather routine, and I have to wonder why they picked this of all episodes to put under the spotlight (it was one of the weaker ones this season, and the writers and show runners appear to be blissfully aware of what an irritating character Charlie has become when they talk about the plot they've come up with and how exciting they think it'll be for the viewers).

Secrets of the Hatch
This piece shows how they conceived, and constructed, the Swan Station set (a.k.a. "the hatch") from scratch. It's pretty amazing to see how much thought went into it, actually. Some viewers were annoyed that the hatch took over so much of the action in Season2, but I think they got their money's worth out of the set, it provided an interesting and sometimes creepy counterpoint to the wildness of the jungle, and it definitely beat the caves in terms of the various plotlines that could play out within those walls.

Lost Connections
This is a fun (though fairly clunky on DVD players that take a few seconds to load new information when you're skipping chapters back and forth) interactive piece that allows you to explore the connections that existed between each survivor of Oceanic Flight 815 (and several flashback characters, plus a few locations that they had in common) before the crash. I'm mildly annoyed by the fact that some characters who appear to have a ton of connections are really just linked up to the same person twice, but get lost in this one for long enough and you'll find a few interesting tidbits which hint at possible connections that observant fans have already hypothesized, and which will hopefully be revealed in Season Three.

Channel 4 UK Promo
A surreal advertisement that was done for Season One of the show when it aired in the UK. Some fans have found it to be really haunting/amusing. I think it's just plain weird, and gives away too much that viewers shouldn't know before watching the first season of the show.

Mysteries, Theories and Conspiracies
Mostly a fluff piece, which goes back and forth between fans, cast members, and the in-the-know folks who write the episodes, talking about the various unanswered questions on the show, and how the fans have responded in a much more obsessive way than the creators originally anticipated, which has led them to include a lot more in the way of blink-and-you'll miss it connections and cute references and so forth as the show has progressed. It's interesting to hear what some of the cast members think about their own characters and what might happen next, but don't expect a whole lot of new information to be revealed when you watch this. It's mostly here to get you hyped for Season Three.

The World According to Sawyer
Last but not least, there's an amusing piece on my current favorite character, Sawyer, and the decidedly un-PC nicknames and smart remarks that he likes to fire off at anyone in his wake. it doesn't manage to capture an exhaustive list of insults, but the interspersed commentary from various cast members (including what Josh Holloway thinks of his own character) is amusing to watch.

You can visit this site for a list of hidden "Easter Eggs" in the Disc 7 menus, most of which, in my opinion, aren't as interesting to watch as the fact that you found one of them.

http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Lost:_The_Complete_Second_Season_%28DVD%29

Contrary to reports that you'll see on some sites selling this DVD set, the piece "Canine Castaway", which talk about Vincent and the dog Madison who plays him, how he was trained and so forth, is not a part of this set. It was featured on a special CD that came with a recent TV Guide cover story on the show.

--PACKAGING--
I complained about the Season 1 set, how every DVD was attached to one continuous fold-out panel, and how the even-numbered discs were under the odd-numbered discs such that you had to pull out one to get to the other, and that's been maintained with this set. However, the introduction of the Dharma Initiative on the show has given them the opportunity to get really creative with the visuals, which means that the episode guide looks like a Dharma manual, and the symbols for four of the "hatch" stations can be seen underneath the plastic after removing the discs. Each disc, rather than featuring one of the characters' faces, is branded with the picture of an iconic object from one of the episodes contained on that disc. The edition I bought at Best Buy came with a bonus disc, which came in a loose sleeve (like the kind you might package a cheap CD single in) that can't easily be stored with the rest of the set, but then, there's not much on there besides a flimsy clip show called Lost: Reckoning and a few extra on-location pieces and brief deleted scenes anyway. So, no big deal.

I found this sucker selling for about $39 the week of its release, and if you hurry, you can catch it at that price, too. Even if they could have done more with the bonus features, and the writing slips a tiny bit from the quality of Season One, I think that this set is an important, and highly entertaining, continuation in a story that keeps getting weirder and weirder. Catch up now, and then hopefully the only future agony you'll have to deal with is waiting for the Season 3 premiere, and waiting through the long break between the first six episodes and the rest of the season, which will air with no reruns from February to May of 2007. And you know some of that stuff's gonna compel you to watch select episodes of Seasons 1 and 2 again, so come on, you might as well be prepared for the inevitable clue-hunting.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older