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

The boy and I just finished a year long tribute to Joss Whedon, beginning with Buffy, moving to Angel and ending with the Firefly series/Serenity movie. Since neither of us particularly like the idea of watching television like normal folk (commercials? Ick), we were kind of flummoxed as to what we should watch next. I’d been hearing little bits of gossip and rumor about a show called Lost. Truthfully, it sounded like a glorified Gilligan’s Island to me, but the boy found Season One, Disc One at the library, so we gave it a go… and had to go buy the rest of the DVDs the next day because I sure as hell wasn’t going to wait around for people to bring the other discs back to the library!

I honestly never thought I’d find another series as captivating, as intelligent, as well-written as the Buffy/Angel/Firefly series, but I was wrong. Of course, as soon as I saw Daniel Dae Kim’s name (Jin here, Gavin Park on Angel), as well as episodes written by long-time Joss writer, David Fury, I had hope. Anyways, enough Joss-fondling. It’s time for a little Lost recognition.

For you all everybody living under a rock, Lost is the tale of the survivors of Oceanic flight 815, which crashed on an island on a trip from Sydney to L.A. The 48 survivors are a very diverse group, and each has secrets, each has a past, they have to learn to co-exist, survive. In almost every series I’ve watched, you have to give it at least three-five episodes before you can call yourself “hooked”. Not so here. I was thoroughly hooked by the middle of the first episode. There are fourteen “main” characters, even though there are (initially) 48 survivors. Each episode picks one (or two if they’re connected) main character and shows their back story through flashbacks.

I’ve come to the realization that the secret to a phenomenal series is foresight and looooong story arcs. The way certain themes play out in tiny ways throughout this first Season shows evidence of the writers’ foresight. The characters’ back stories being revealed in agonizingly slow bits shows that they’re planning seasons in advance. Kudos.

As to the characters… because, let’s face it, with the best writing in the world, if you don’t have good characters, you’ve got nothing… I was skeptical about there being fourteen main characters. I mean I can only love or hate so many people at one time, right? Wrong. Some episodes I love person x, other episodes I hate him. It changes all the time. But regardless of how I feel about any given character (and no, it’s not because I’m fickle), I always feel something. I’m drawn to the characters. I want to know who they really are, who they were before the island, where they’re going and how they’ll get there.

Read on, in the Episode Guides (especially some of the quotes) to get a bit more feeling for each of the main characters, though I must warn you now (as I learned by writing these ridiculously long episode guides for other series), it’s impossible not to give some season spoilers when writing an episode play by play such as this. The one huge spoiler I did mark, but proceed at your own risk… You’ve been warned!


* * * * * Episode Guide * * * * *

1.1 ~ Pilot (1) ~ Original Airdate: 9/22/2004 ~ Written by: J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof ~ Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Shannon (Boone offers candy): As if I'm gonna start eating chocolate.
Boone: Shannon, we may be be here for a while.
Shannon: The plane had a black box, idiot. They know exactly where we are. They're coming. I'll eat on the rescue boat!

A man wakes up in the jungle, stumbles out toward the beach. As he slowly becomes more aware of his surroundings, the noise and chaos start becoming clearer. Parts of a jet are on fire on the beach, people are running every which way. Some people are crying, others are helping. Our boy Jack, who happens to be a doctor, becomes one of the helpers. We then meet a few of the other 48 survivors: an Iraqi named Sayid who shows survival skills and sets off building a signal fire; a heroin addict rock star named Charlie; a pretty, young woman named Kate, and a few others.

1.2 ~ Pilot (2) ~ Original Airdate: 9/29/2004 ~ Written by: J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof ~ Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Hurley: How do you know how to do all that?
Sayid: I was a military communications officer.
Hurley: Oh yeah? You ever see battle?
Sayid: I fought in the Gulf War.
Hurley: No way! I got a buddy who fought over there. He was in the Hundred and Fifth Airborne. What were you, Air Force? Army?
Sayid: The Republican Guard.

Jack, Kate and Charlie, having escaped the unseen creature that devoured the plane captain, mull over what he told them: they were over a thousand miles off course when they went down: the rescuers will never find them. They do bring back the plane’s transceiver to see if Sayid can send out a signal. Sayid, Sawyer, Kate, Shannon and Boone pick up a French signal from somewhere on the island that’s been looping for 16 years.

1.3 ~ Tabula Rasa ~ Original Airdate: 10/6/2004 ~ Written by: Damon Lindelof ~ Directed by: Jack Bender
Charlie (to a very pregnant Claire): So, your, uh. . . your husband, was he on the flight?
Claire: Oh, no, I'm not married.
Charlie: Oh.
Claire: I know. How modern of me.
Charlie: Well, who needs men, right? Bloody useless.

Jack and Hurley find out a little bit about Kate’s past from the dying Marshal. The group with the transceiver decides not to tell the other survivors about the French woman’s terrifying message. Locke and ten-year-old Walt begin bonding, much to Walt’s father, Michael’s chagrin. The flashbacks begin: this time, they are Kate’s flashbacks, to when she was arrested in Australia.

1.4 ~ Walkabout ~ Original Airdate: 10/13/2004 ~ Written by: David Fury ~ Directed by: Jack Bender
Kate: Do you have a better idea?
Sawyer: Better than three of you wandering into the magical forest to bag a hunk of ham with nothin' but a little bitty hunting knife? Hell no! It's the best idea I've ever heard.

The survivors are awakened by wild boars running through the beach, and all are getting hungry. Kate and Michael join Locke on a boar hunt, in order to feed the group. The flashbacks are Locke’s and we learn that there’s something not quite natural about this island.

1.5 ~ White Rabbit ~ Original Airdate: 10/20/2004 ~ Written by: Christian Taylor ~ Directed by: Kevin Hooks
Locke: But I've looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw... was beautiful.

Flashbacks: Jack and his tenuous relationship with his alcoholic father. On the island, Jack is exhausted and seeing someone who seems to be leading him further into the jungle. When Locke catches up to Jack, he encourages Jack on this soul searching expedition.

1.6 ~ House of the Rising Sun ~ Original Airdate: 10/27/2004 ~ Written by: Javier Grillo-Marxuach ~ Directed by: Michael Zinberg
Charlie (to Kate and Jack): If you two are done verbally copulating, we should get a move on.

Flashbacks: Non-English speakers, Jin and Sun, and their courtship, marriage, and Jin’s working for the Korean mafia, led by Sun’s father. On the island, Jim attacks Michael, and no one understands why. Kate, Jack, scavenger-Sawyer and Sayid argue about whether the survivors should stay on the beach (more chance for exposure to rescuers) or move inland to the valley with fresh water that Jack found.

1.7 ~ The Moth ~ Original Airdate: 11/3/2004 ~ Written by: Jennifer Johnson, Paul Dini ~ Directed by: Jack Bender
Charlie: Bless me Father for I have sinned, my last confession was two weeks ago.
Priest: Go on.
Charlie: Last night, I had... physical relations with a girl I didn't even know.
Priest: Is that all?
Charlie: No. Then, directly after that I had... relations with a different woman.
Priest: Is that all?
Charlie: No... then I watched... as... they... had... physical relations with... each other.

Flashbacks: Charlie’s rise to fame, descent into drug addiction. On the island, Locke is helping Charlie to kick his heroin addiction, while the rest of the survivors work to free Jack from a cave-in.

1.8 ~ Confidence Man ~ Original Airdate: 11/10/2004 ~ Written by: Damon Lindelof ~ Directed by: Tucker Gates
Sawyer: You know, Ali, I don't think you've tortured anyone in your life.
Sayid: Unfortunately for us both, you're wrong.

Flashbacks: Sawyer’s childhood and career as a “Confidence Man”. On the island, Boone tells Jack that Sawyer has Shannon’s inhalers and she’s having asthma attacks. Sayid and Jack resort to torturing Sawyer, in order to retrieve them.

1.9 ~ Solitary ~ Original Airdate: 11/17/2004 ~ Written by: David Fury ~ Directed by: Greg Yaitanes
Hurley: Welcome to the first and... hopefully last Island Open! It's two holes, for now, three par, and no waiting!
Jack: Hurley, you built... a golf course?
Hurley: Rich idiots fly to tropical islands all the time to whack balls around!

Flashbacks: Sayid’s military career in Iraq, his love interest Nadia. On the island, Sayid finds Danielle, the French woman from the transmission when she traps him, ties him up and tortures him. Hurley tries to bring a little happiness to the survivors by setting up a golf course.

1.10 ~ Raised by Another ~ Original Airdate: 12/1/2004 ~ Written by: Lynne E. Litt ~ Directed by: Marita Grabiak
Charlie (after Claire starts having contractions): We have to time them right? Okay ,one sugar plum fairy , two sugar plum fairy...

Flashbacks: Claire’s pregnancy, her boyfriend dumping her, a psychic who convinces her to fly to L.A. to give her baby up for adoption. On the island, Claire is having horrible nightmares about people trying to harm her baby. Hurley discovers that one of the survivors, Ethan, wasn’t on the plane.

1.11 ~ All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues ~ Original Airdate: 12/8/2004 ~ Written by: Javier Grillo-Marxuach ~ Directed by: Stephen Williams
Boone: What do you do in the real world, Mr. Locke?
Locke: Why don't you guess?
Boone: Well, you're either a taxidermist or a hit man.

Flashbacks: Jack, and more of his alcoholic father. On the island, Charlie and Claire have been taken by super-human-strength Ethan. Jack, Locke and Kate try to follow, and are only able to find Charlie. Boone and Locke begin bonding, and they find another island goodie.

1.12 ~ Whatever the Case May Be ~ Original Airdate: 1/5/2005 ~ Written by: Damon Lindelof, Jennifer Johnson ~ Directed by: Jack Bender
Sawyer (wrestling Kate for the case): Well Freckles, I know you wanted it, just didn't know how bad.

Flashbacks: Kate robbing a bank to get into a safety deposit box, in order to retrieve a toy airplane. On the island, Kate finds the dead Marshal’s case, and convinces first Sawyer, then Jack, to go to extreme measures to open the case. Sayid begins bonding with Shannon.

1.13 ~ Hearts and Minds ~ Original Airdate: 1/12/2005 ~ Written by: Carlton Cuse, Javier Grillo-Marxuach ~ Directed by: Rod Holcomb
Hurley (after being stung by a jellyfish): Pee on my foot! I saw it on tv once.

Flashbacks: Boone and Shannon ~ a wee bit more than step-siblings. Locke deems it necessary to teach Boone a lesson, which ends in Boone being able to distance himself from his sister. Kate learns that Sun speaks English, though Jin doesn’t know.

1.14 ~ Special ~ Original Airdate: 1/19/2005 ~ Written by: David Fury ~ Directed by: Greg Yaitanes
Jack: What is that?
Charlie: Claire's diary.
Sayid: You read her diary?
Charlie: Yeah, I know. I'm bloody scum.

Flashbacks: Michael and Walt. Michael let Walt’s mother take him to another country when he was a baby, and allowed her husband to adopt him. When Walt’s mother died (three weeks before the plane crash), his adoptive father asks Michael to take the boy. On the island, Michael forbids Walt to hang around Locke. Sayid and Shannon bond some more.

1.15 ~ Homecoming ~ Original Airdate: 2/9/2005 ~ Written by: Damon Lindelof ~ Directed by: Kevin Hooks
Jack: Do you know how to use a gun?
Sawyer: Well there's one polar bear that seems to think so.

Flashbacks: Charlie. More of the same… drug addiction, etc. On the island, Claire has returned with a bit of amnesia. The torture boys decide to do their thing on Ethan until he tells them what he knows of the island, and “the others.” Charlie puts the ka-bosh to that idea.

1.16 ~ Outlaws ~ Original Airdate: 2/16/2005 ~ Written by: Drew Goddard ~ Directed by: Jack Bender
Charlie: Hurley, look, I appreciate the help. You don't have to. I killed Ethan, I can bury him.
Hurley: Yeah, 'til he raises from the dead. Dude, I know how this works. This is going to end with you and me running through the jungle screaming crying. He catches me first because I'm heavy and I get cramps.

Flashbacks: Sawyer’s issues are explained as we see how his mother was hoodwinked by a “Confidence Man”, and his father, bankrupted and ruined, kills his mother and himself, all while little Sawyer (who took the name of the original Confidence Man) hid under the bed. I keep going back and forth on my feelings for Sawyer. I love him. I hate him. On the island, Kate feels much the same way. The two bond over some scavenged alcohol and a boar hunt.

1.17 ~ ...In Translation ~ Original Airdate: 2/23/2005 ~ Written by: Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Leonard Dick ~ Directed by: Tucker Gates
Sun: My husband is many things. But he is not a liar.
Sawyer: You gonna lecture us about lying, Betty? From the look on his face (pointing to Jin) even your old man here didn't know you speak English!

Flashbacks: Sun and Jin’s troubled marriage. Sun was planning on leaving Jin, which is why she had learned English. She changed her mind moments before boarding Oceanic Flight 815. On the island, someone has burned down Michael’s raft and he’s convinced it’s Jin, though Locke knows the truth.

1.18 ~ Numbers ~ Original Airdate: 3/2/2005 ~ Written by: Brent Fletcher, David Fury ~ Directed by: Dan Tallias
Hurley: "Back home I'm worth $156 million.
Charlie: I bare my soul and all you can do is tell jokes?

Flashbacks: Finally, a Hurley-centric episode showing how Hurley won the lottery, but comes to find out the numbers were cursed and nothing good is coming of them. The numbers, of course, are connected to the island. On the island, Hurley goes searching for the French woman for some answers about the numbers, and Jack, Sayid and Charlie follow him.

1.19 ~ Deus Ex Machina ~ Original Airdate: 3/30/2005 ~ Written by: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse ~ Directed by: Robert Mandel
Sawyer (after Jack offers to examine him): Sorry Doc, my insurance ran out.

Flashbacks: Locke’s reunion with his father, and his father manipulating a fully-haired Locke into giving up a kidney for the hope of gaining a father. After the surgery, Locke is duly disposed of. On the island, Locke is losing his ability to walk again. He and Boone are still trying to get the hatch open. Boone is hurt badly in an accident.

1.20 ~ Do No Harm ~ Original Airdate: 4/6/2005 ~ Written by: Janet Tamaro ~ Directed by: Stephen Williams
Shannon: Oh, okay. Are you lost?
Sayid: No, absolutely not. Those trees look really familiar. It's this way...I think.
Shannon: Did you just say 'I think'?

Flashbacks: Jack’s wedding. He saved a girl’s ability to walk because he wouldn’t give up, and they got married. On the island, he’s showing the same unflinching determination to save Boone. Elsewhere on the island, Kate and Charlie and Jin have to assist Claire when she goes into labor.

1.21 ~ The Greater Good ~ Original Airdate: 5/4/2005 ~ Written by: Leonard Dick ~ Directed by: David Grossman
Charlie: You get some rest, and I'll take care of Turniphead.
Claire: Turniphead?
Charlie: Yeah, it's what I'm calling him until you name him. His head looks like a turnip.

Flashbacks: Sayid’s attempts to reconnect with Nadia bring him in contact with the CIA, as they force him to go undercover against his friend, a future suicide bomber. On the island (HUGE SPOILER ALERT) Shannon is going after Boone, as both her and Jack blame Locke for Boone’s death. (End Spoiler). Sawyer seems to be the only one who can calm Claire’s unnamed baby boy.

1.22 ~ Born to Run ~ Original Airdate: 5/11/2005 ~ Written by: Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz ~ Directed by: Tucker Gates
Sawyer: Don't worry pudding, your secret safe with me. But just so you know. . . no way in hell you're getting my spot on that raft.
Kate: Hey, Sawyer. I want your spot. . . I'll get your spot.

Flashbacks: Kate’s childhood love, and how her reckless behavior caused his death. On the island, Jacks sees the hatch, and is more convinced of Locke’s growing insanity. Walt decides he wants to leave the island after all.

1.23 ~ Exodus (1) ~ Original Airdate: 5/18/2005 ~ Written by: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse ~ Directed by: Jack Bender
Danielle: You have three choices: run, hide or die.

Flashbacks: Different survivors in the days and hours before boarding the fated flight. On the island, Danielle, the French woman, wanders onto the beach warning the survivors of “the others”. Black smoke is rising from in the jungle. Michael and Jin have almost completed the raft and are deciding who the fourth candidate is.

1.24 ~ Exodus (2) ~ Original Airdate: 5/25/2005 ~ Written by: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse ~ Directed by: Jack Bender

Flashbacks: More of the survivors before they board Oceanic 815. On the island, Jack, Hurley, Locke and Kate are trying to use dynamite found at Black Rock to blow the hatch open. Michael, Jin, Sawyer and Walt meet the others at sea, after they leave in the raft. I hate Season-ending cliffhangers.


* * * * * Cast and Main Characters * * * * *

Naveen Andrews ~ Sayid Jarrah
Emilie de Ravin ~ Claire Littleton
Matthew Fox ~ Jack Shepard
Jorge Garcia ~ Hurley Reyes
Maggie Grace ~ Shannon Rutherford
Josh Holloway ~ Sawyer (James Ford)
Malcolm David Kelley ~ Walt Lloyd
Daniel Dae Kim ~ Jin Kwon
Yunjin Kim ~ Sun Kwon
Evangeline Lilly ~ Kate Ryan
Dominic Monaghan ~ Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn ~ John Locke
Harold Perrineau Jr. ~ Michael Dawson
Ian Somerhalder ~ Boone Carlisle


* * * * * Miscellaneous Notes and Trivia * * * * *

~ The original pilot script had Jack dying near the end of the episode, and the show was going to be built upon Kate being the strong leader type. Abrams and Lindelof thought it would be memorable. The few lucky ones to get an advanced reading of the script absolutely forbade Jack’s death. They thought it would be downright mean.

~ References to The Lord of the Flies can be found all season long. The boar hunt is one such reference. John Locke shows bits of both Jack (the hunter) and Simon (the boy with a disability – epilepsy). The group splitting up geographically (beach and valley).

~ In JJ Abram’s other show, Alias, the number 47 is often worked into the episodes. At one point, there are 47 survivors on the island (after the Marshal dies).

~ The tattoo you see on Charlie’s right shoulder is a holdover from his days as a Hobbit: it is the elvish word for "nine", he, along with 8 other cast members of The Lord of the Rings got the tattoo after shooting the movies.

~ Numbers, numbers. Who’s got the numbers? During one of Hurley’s flashbacks in the last episode, the winning lotto numbers are everywhere: Hurley’s hotel room number 2342, on the panel of his car (42km, 16kph, 23 deg.) right after it broke down. On the screen of the Oceanic computer: "Arrival 1:42", the 815 flight number, "crazy 8's" on the hat of the old man. A team with numbers on their shirts: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42, the big sign "gates 14 thru 23"…

~ * My title comes from the Driveshaft song, You all everybody. It was revealed in one of the bonus episodes that the song lyrics come from a time when creator Damon Lindelof was watching Phil Donahue and an angry guest stood up and said “You all everybody acting like it's stupid people wearing expensive clothes”, which end up being the exact lyrics in the song (music written by Jude).



* * * * * DVD Bonus Materials * * * * *

It took me roughly one lazy Sunday to get through the entire seventh disc of Bonus Materials, but I did it. Some parts were hilarious, others boring, but here’s a list of all anyways:

~ The Genesis of Lost featurette ~ how the show came about
~ Designing a Disaster featurette ~ about the plane crash set
~ Before They Were Lost featurette ~ about casting the show, complete with Audition tapes.
~ Welcome to Oahu: The Making the Pilot~ a documentary about the struggles with shooting the pilot for the show in Hawaii.
~ The Art of Matthew Fox shows pictures Matthew Fox took during the pilot as he talks about them.
~ Lost @ ComicCon ~ a look at the reaction the show got when they brought the pilot to ComicCon.
~ Lost: On Location ~ Featurettes involving the boars (the first time they were CGI), the sets, the characters.
~ On Set with Jimmy Kimmel is a clip from his show, when he visited the set and talked with the cast and crew. There’s a hilarious moment when Jimmy and Dominic (Charlie) create a “Lost Theme Song”.
~ Backstage with Driveshaft ~ a fictional history of Charlie’s band.
~ The Lost Flashbacks ~ two flashbacks from the season finale that didn't appear in the show (Claire and Sayid).
~ Deleted Scenes
~ Bloopers from the Set
~ A Clip from the panel discussion at the Museum of Television and Radio, including some audience Questions and Answers.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12