Pilot, Part 1 by Sam

This damn show. Even if I'm disappointed with the final fifteen minutes of the series, the first fifteen SECONDS of the opening episode are enough to put that all right. I'm sucked back in all over again and I barely care that I know how it ends. There's so much to wonder about still.

I really hope that we're able to upload our podcasts because I think B and I did a bang up job. Also, her thoughts on Shannon's incessant screaming need to be shared with the world.

Like Bridgette, I didn't have any major OHMYGODOFCOURSE! moments watching this episode post-finale, but it was certainly different. I remember the curiosity of the first few episodes where you don't know that Kate was the one with the cuffs or that Charlie was snorting the bad stuff in the cockpit. Establishing those things immediately might've been too much considering how much chaos is set up in the first episode, but I like that they started laying the ground work. A plane full of people crashing on an island...it's cool that they didn't just let that be the driver of the story. These people are going to have issues before they rack up all the island-miseries.

Even in its most obvious moments, there's something really classy about the way that we're introduced to everyone in the pilot. We see a twitchy Charlie. A sweet Hurley who gives pregnant little Claire the extra dinner. Lame ass screaming Shannon who paints her toenails. Well-meaning Boone who brings those damn pens about three hours too late. Force-of-nature Jack who takes charge and can single out every cry for help in the middle of exploding engines and general turmoil. Suck-it-up-and-do-the-damn-thing Kate, who stitches up Jack in one of the most over-referenced scenes in Lost.

And Locke. He was my main man before my beloved Desmond came around. I was immediately interested in Locke. Physically, he looks a lot like my dad. Wrinkles around the eyes, sweet smile, bald as all hell. But past that...what a badass!, smiling at Kate like that when she's stealing a dead man's shoes. That's BOLD! I want to be that person. It's awesome to see that scene again, knowing his history, knowing that he really wasn't that person until he got to the island. Way to take charge of a new chapter in life.

Essentially, re-watching the pilot made me realize just how innocent and pure everything seems upon first glance. Who knew Sayid was a torturer who'd end up working for his nemesis Ben, die, get zombiefied by the smoke and explode himself in a sub? The hell kind of show is this?

Awesome, that's what. Bring on the next episode!

Pilot, Part 1 by Bridgette

Jack opens his pretty little eyeball. It’s sad to know this time around that I’ll watch him close it for the last time later. If you listen to the podcast, we spend a lot of time discussing whether or not we think that the whole series is about Jack. I can see how some people think it would be, and I think that deep down I do too, but I was never the biggest Jack fan, nor did I spend the entire series thinking it was all about him – I think I chose for my LOST experience to be more about the other characters, but I do agree that Jack was changing A LOT. AS far as discussion about what the end means – I’ve kinda given up. I pretty much agree with what anyone else has to say about it, and I can never find a solid, “this is the end of LOST according to Bridgette.” Maybe this project will help me to do that!

In looking for similarities to the finale and foreshadowing and all of that magic, I wasn’t like intensely overwhelmed like I think every LOST fan hopes to be. I did think it was pretty cool that I hadn’t re-watched the first episode in forever and now I know that when the airline staff rushes past Jack and Rose that they were going to get Charlie from the bathroom.

I guess just a few things to touch on would be:

How much I love Vincent – seriously, I just love him. It would be so soothing to have Vincent around in such a stressful situation. Sam and I also talked about how Vincent weaved in and out of their lives at times that seemed pretty important. It seems to me that Vincent was typically used as a reason for everyone to go out into the jungle - but I also think about how he laid next to Jack as he died in the end.
Hurley as a character is so incredibly different in the beginning that he is at the end – our dear sweet Hurley who everyone loves so much. Not that Hurley wasn’t lovable at the beginning, but when you know his story and you’ve seen the man weep on a beach you kind of feel like he’s your best friend.

For some reason Boone really cracked me up when he brought back all of those pens.

One of the biggest memories of the LOST experience for me has got to be the scene of the plane crashing. You know, the one where the plane RIPS IN HALF and bodies are FLYING OUT THE MIDDLE?!?! Holy buckets – I forgot how well done that scene was. I can’t even imagine surviving that!

So here’s what I’ve really been thinking about – the end of the episode where Kate, Jack, and Charlie go into the jungle, and find the plane and the Pilot. (Oh, Matt Parkman!) This is when we are introduced to our darling Smokey. Well…kind of. I swear to you, I thought it was a dinosaur for so long! At any rate – we talked in the podcast a bit about why The Man in Black is doing what he’s doing at this point. Why is he scaring everyone? Why doesn’t he just take people out? I think any good villain has to show you how scary they are and what they can do before they start really doing it. I guess my other question, and I’m going to try to kind of watch this through the seasons is this: can he control the weather? It seems to me that conditions were always just right for good old NotLocke.

When the monster rips the pilot in half, Charlie says, “What the hell just happened?” I remember thinking the same exact thing, and that is why I loved LOST from the beginning. :)