Tom Reviews Lost: Season 1 Episode 2 "Pilot(2)"
So the second episode of Lost takes the opportunity to begin building some of the other characters while also revealing that some weird stuff is going on in this island. So as of this episode, I feel like we know 18 out of the 48 survivors, although some of them are kind of debatable. I still don't know most of their names, but that doesn't change the fact that some of them are too important for me to NOT talk about them. So here they are, and I promise that at some point I'll look up their names if I continue to not catch them in the episode.
18. The Pilot: He's dead. He died last episode, and might not even count as one of the 48, but I'm counting him anyways.
17. Vincent: The dog. He's a real dog! I know, he probably doesn't count as one of the 48 either, but he's gotten more screen time than 30 of the 48 characters, so I'm counting him!
16. The old black woman: She was sitting near Jack on the plane. I don't know much more about her than that.
15 and 14. The Asian couple: These two don't speak any English, which is kind of annoying when they don't subtitle them, but I'm interested in their dynamic nonetheless. The guy appears to be very misogynistic and conservative, while the woman is mostly submissive, but clearly wants to rebel as seen when she unbuttons her top button on her shirt. His attempts to help feed the other survivors shows that the guy isn't all bad, although he's very uncomfortable amongst the westerners.
13. Pregnant Woman: Something's up with her pregnancy. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it's clearly not normal. I wish there was more to this character than her being pregnant though.
12. Hurley: This guy looks funny, and that seems to be the main purpose for his character right now.
11 and 10. The Father and Son: Apparently, the son was raised by his mother, who died, and is now going to live with his estranged father. So the show has set up the series to have the father and son bond, and become very close. I love father/son stories, so I'm interested to see how these two characters grow throughout the series.
9. Janet/Shannon: So it turns out Janet's name is actually Shannon. Whoops. I love that her character's motivation seems to be to be as useless as possible. So I hate her, but I appreciate that the writers have made a character like this. Sure she can speak French, which is useful, but she decides to deny it. Why is she such a bitch? I have a theory that there's a reason, but I have no idea what it could be.
8. Boone: Shannon's brother. Other than telling Shannon how useless she is, I don't know what the point of his character is. I guess he's good looking, so he'll probably be a romantic interest for someone at some point.
7. Hostile Guy who thinks Sayid is a terrorist: I really want to know this guy's name, because I'm going to get tired of typing that. He seems to be a belligerent asshole, which is fun. I'm curious as to what that letter is about, so I'm looking forward to seeing more of him. Also, he shot a polar bear. I have no idea what a polar bear is doing on a tropical island, but he's there, so I better get used to it.
6. Shrapnel Guy/ Cop: He looks to be in very bad shape, and I thought his whole story was going to be based on whether he survives or not, but it turns out that he had Kate in custody in the flashback. I was impressed by this twist, which shows that the writers are smart enough to outwit me.
5. Old Guy: He's really weird, and seems to be unphased by what's going on around him. My prediction for him is that we're going to be lead to believe he knows what's going on with the island, but ultimately we find out that he doesn't have a clue.
4. Sayid: So apparently he fought on the other side of the Gulf War, which means that he's an Iraqi, and not an Indian. I'm REALLY glad I never called him the "Indian guy" now. I like that he seems to be the tech guy, and that the writers appear to be using him to deal with elements of racism and the modern stereotypes of all Arabs being terrorists. I hope that's not the only thing that defines his character.
3. Charlie: So we got to see that it was indeed drugs that he got out of the bathroom. I'm kind of disappointed that it was exactly what I suspect it was. He didn't do much this episode besides that.
2. Jack: He really faded into the background in this episode, which I liked. I still like him, and think of him as the main character, but I like that this show chooses to focus on other characters, and build them up. It makes this a good ensemble piece.
1. Kate: So Kate is my favorite character so far. I love that this episode featured the mystery that started when the father found the handcuffs, and we learned that someone on the plane was a prisoner being transported, but that I never guessed that the prisoner would be Kate. I don't know why she was a prisoner, but I'm looking forward to finding out more. The writers got me with this one, so I have to give it up to them. Plus, and this is really really important, Kate is hot. I hope she bathes in the ocean more throughout the series, because that was thirty seconds of TV gold.
Rating: 7 out of 10 dead polar bears.
This was a good episode, but it wasn't as good as the first episode. I appreciate that the series took an episode to build on the large cast of characters, although this episode doesn't particular focus on any one in particular. This episode was great to have in the beginning of the series, where I just want the writers to establish the characters, while giving us minor plots and mysteries. However, the weakness of this episode was that it was a little too scattered, so while many of the characters began to be established, none of them really popped out. I think the show should have focused on character in particular to develop in this episode, while still touching on the other characters. Without one character to focus on this episode doesn't have a very strong force driving it forward, so while it was still fun to watch, it was clearly missing something.
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