Matt and Justin's Lost Rewatch

Pilot Part 1 & 2

JUSTIN SAYS:

Wow. What an epic beginning. I so clearly remember watching the Pilot episodes six years ago and just knowing that this show was going to be amazing. I could have never imagined just how amazing.

Maybe I’m biased and my opinions will be slanted as such, but it will be hard for any pilot episode ever to match the epic-ness of the LOST Pilot. I mean it is so cinematic it looks and feels like a full-length feature film. The camera work is stunning. The special effects are top-notch. The directing and acting are some of the finest to grace the small screen. So many small nuanced moments make the Pilot episodes so special, often with no words. Jack laying in the jungle. Sawyer smoking his cigarette inside the wreckage of an engine staring at the letter. Sun looking longingly at Kate bathing wanting to be THAT woman, not the trapped woman she was. I have watched several pilots for new shows in the last week, and while some were good and will get me watching their respective shows, none held a candle to the LOST Pilot. Here’s some of what I caught this time around.

Great LOST Quotes:

“Yeah, good idea. You go get me a pen” – Jack (This is now officially my new code phrase for “go away”.)

“Terrific.” – Charlie

“I used to have a stomach” – Claire

“Dude, I’m not so good with blood.” – Hurley

“I’m a complex guy, sweetheart.” – Sawyer

And, perhaps the greatest LOST quote of all time….

“Guys, where are we?” – Charlie

Interesting that Charlie quotes/questions close both parts of the Pilot – the aforementioned closes Part 2 and Part 1 ends with him asking “Guys, how does something like that happen?” referring to the pilot in the tree.

And, while we’re talking about the final scene of the Pilot, I must say that the radio transmission scene is perhaps my favorite scene of the show ever. It is just perfect on every level. It was then I knew I was going to love this show. But, it was another episode, coming up soon that forever cemented my fan fervor. More details on that to come.

Congrats, Congrats

I would be remiss to not mention Michael Giacchino. I mean, not even five minutes in and you’re already mesmerized by his score. “Credit Where Credit Is Due” was the first piece that hooked me.

Let’s say this now. If they had killed Jack in the Pilot as originally planned, this show would not have been nearly as strong. Go watch the dural-sac-angel-hair-pasta-1-2-3-4-5 scene and tell me that the show would have improved without Matthew Fox.

Also, I know there was a lot of hate for Kate, but not sure why. I think her acting, especially in the Pilot is really great. Wow. That was totally, unintentionally Seuss-ian.

Random Thoughts

It’s amazing how young all the actors look. Apparently six years in Hawaii isn’t all it’s cracked up to be! =)

I was struck by how many things were set up early on. Example: the Apollo bar that Boone tried to give Shannon. Who would have thought that Apollo bars would be such a popular, recurring motif and that six years later fans would be shelling out like a bajillion dollars each for a candy bar from a TV show.

Jack told Kate he took flying lessons – just like flashsideways Locke. Very cool.

Vincent in the bushes watching Jack, Kate and Charlie still creeps me out to this day. I’m calling it right now, Vincent worked for DHARMA.

Man, Jin was such a jerk to start out. You could never have convinced me that six years later he’d be such an endearing character.

Just in case you weren’t keeping score yourself, the first in a string of countless nicknames from Sawyer was “Lardo” given to Hurley. Followed closely by a less-than-affectionate “Doc” sneered at Jack.

Lingering Questions

Is that Christian Shephard’s shoe in the tree?

Did Kate see THE smoke in the valley? Like is that a first reference to MIB/Smokey? At first it seemed a passing comment and could have just been wreckage smoking in the jungle, but I wonder if it was a nod in the direction of Smokey. Methinks yes.

A question posed long ago was why didn’t MIB kill anyone but Seth Norris in the Pilot. My thought? He didn’t want any chance of them getting off the island before his plan could be hatched to kill Jacob. So, he eliminated the Pilot. Although, what would he fly… Perhaps it was just because Greg Grunberg wanted to go be on that OTHER show…

In Closing…

A lot of the Pilot episodes are about setting up what this show is going to be. Establishing characters, getting a feel for the locale, establishing some of the core mysteries that will drive the show forward. Who are these people? Where are they?  What is in the jungle? A polar bear? Who made this transmission and when? But, I think we get our first big mythological nugget in Part 2 in the scene with Locke and Walt on the beach with the backgammon set. Two players, two sides.  One is light, one is dark. The black, the white. The yin and yang of LOST was established then and there. To me, this solidifies the fact that they had a grand plan all along.  Jacob and MIB were the two players locked in this epic battle for the island. Did they make things up as they went? Of course they did. If you want proof of that, watch Exposé. They course-corrected based on what wasn’t working. But, I will never agree with the opinion that they had no idea. There are too many little clues along the way, this being the first and one of the best.

As I said to start, there may never be another Pilot episode of a show like LOST. It was beyond the scope of anything I thought a TV show could be and the beginning to a magical six-year journey. I am so happy to be back on the island. See you next time for Tabula Rasa and Walkabout.

MATT SAYS:

While I’ve seen the pilot a few times throughout the years, it was exciting to finally sit down and watch it, now knowing the entirety of the story. The main goal of the rewatch for me is to see how the great puzzle they laid out before us fits together…where seeds were planted, where storylines were abandoned, and how many points came full circle.

Justin has already mentioned the amazing score and cinematography, which to this day, remain unmatched in any pilot episode I’ve seen. So I’ll jump right in with some things I noticed:

Jack landed so far away from the other survivors, in what we now know is very close to the “heart” of the island. He has cuts on this face, but also a pretty huge gash on his back, however, there’s virtually no wreckage around him. It’s clear Jacob had some special plans for him from the beginning.

We know in season 3 that, according to Desmond, no matter what he does to save Charlie, Charlie’s gonna die. It seems like this was destined from the beginning, as he almost walks into the engine (that moments later sucks up Gary Troup), then almost gets hit with falling debris when the wing falls, and finally gets pursued by Smokey in the jungle…not to mention he survived a plane crash…all in the first hour.

Hurley and Jack are among the first to interact with each other, Jack telling Hurley to keep watch over Claire. In the end, they’re also the last to see each other before Jack dies, there Jack telling Hurley to keep watch over the island.

Kate talking about sewing the drapes for her apartment (when Jack asks if she’s ever sewn, to stitch him up) always makes me chuckle. She doesn’t do taco night, so I can’t see her sewing drapes.

Make note people: here we have Dural Sac Mention #1! Interesting that he’s telling Kate the story of this surgery on the island, which right after said surgery is when Jacob touches him off island.

Jacob’s pulling people to the island is pretty strong, seeing as the vehicles they’re in end up in the middle of the jungle (cockpit of 815, the Black Rock)

I think it’s safe to say now that Smokey is super pissed the survivor’s first night because Jacob has delivered an entirely new group of people to the island. Seeing Smokey rumbling around in the jungle also means that he can’t be trapped in Jacob’s cabin via the ash at this time.

It’s interesting to see Jack comforting Rose on the plane during turbulence, as she is the calm and reassuring one to him in of LA X

One of the things that really stuck out to me when I first watched the pilot was some of the normal everyday shots that took on a creepy factor, like John Locke’s orange smile to Kate and terrifying Vincent evilness looking out from the bushes.

Trying to shield Walt from hearing about the dead bodies, Hurley incorrectly spells out loud B-O-D-Y-S, introducing his sub-par spelling abilities, that we see later when he’s rewriting The Empire Strikes Back.

While talking to Kate about Drive Shaft, Charlie refers to his DS ring, saying “Second tour of Finland” Need to check my facts, but wasn’t it his grandpa’s?

In the cockpit, we don’t get a good look at pilot Seth Norris’s hands to see if he’s wearing his wedding ring. The decoy pilot Widmore planted in the fake Oceanic wreckage wasn’t wearing his ring, which is what set off to Frank Lapidus that something was wrong with the wreckage.

Parallel between Oceanic and Ajira flights: It seems like both planes came to the island with a little mixture of Jacob and Dharma… the pilot says the radio went out and they turned back. Did Jacob make that happen? Either way, we know that Jacob said he brought them there. So getting them on the course of the island + Desmond failing to push the button resulted in the plane crashing. Now, with Ajira, there’s a Jacob connection as well, obviously telling Illana and crew what plane to get on, he knew it was coming. In addition, he had the Others build the runway it would eventually land on. Pair this with Dharma’s contribution of the Lamp Post telling Eloise which window to use and it appears that both flights had a bit of Jacob and a bit of Dharma that resulted in how they got to and landed on the island.

I always wondered how Jack, Kate and Charlie got away from Smokey so easily, but now know he must have realized they were candidates at some point. Did Smokey know the pilot wasn’t a candidate? It seems like he has an idea about who he can and can’t kill. Or does he just try to kill everyone and those that are candidates can’t die?

When the plane starts breaking apart, Charlie seems to be in the front section of the plane, sitting down pretty close to the bathroom he was in. So how’d he get back with the fuselage folks?

Interesting that Sawyer thinks Sayid is a terrorist, implying that he had something to do with the destruction of the plane, and in the end Sayid saves Sawyer and other’s lives by mimicking the acts of a suicide bomber.

While fixing the transponder, Sayid says that perhaps a ship will pick up their distress call. Funny to think that in 3 seasons, that exact thing happens, with Widmore’s freighter picking up Jack’s call

Michael tells Walt that when they get home, he’ll get Walt another dog…makes me wonder if he ever did after they made it back. Maybe Walt’s grandma didn’t like dogs.

I think this episode marks the first and last time that a jungle trek was proceeded with the words, “Look, everybody can come.”

Locke lays out the Jacob/MIB light/dark issue

Locke says backgammon is the oldest game in the world. I’m wondering if it’s older than senet? Will have to look that up.

This episode also shows an interesting “sharing” side of our LOSTies…fans usually voiced frustration that the castaways never discussed some of the crazy things that were happening with each other. However in this ep, Boone somehow knows the pilot was killed by the monster and Sayid knows about the handcuffs Walt and Michael found, so earlier on the survivors must have been a little more chatty with each other.

Seeing Sawyer shoot one of the polar bears makes me wonder how many there were in total on the island. Throughout the years, we’ve seen a few…we know there’s the one Sawyer killed, the one that takes Mr. Eko in season 3, one that Charlotte finds in the Tunisian desert that turned the Donkey wheel…any others I’m missing? I’d like to think there were at least 4 so it would be one of the numbers.

Do we ever get a definitive idea of how long the marshal pursues Kate for…is it several years, several months?

Right before the marshal gets hit on the head with the falling case during turbulence, Kate asks him for one favor. Do we ever find out what this was?

Man, the pilot sure is full of a lot of threads, really setting the stage for the epic tale that is LOST. No other pilot I’ve seen has matched its perfect blend of mystery, adventure, comic moments and great characters. This rewatch is going to be awesome!