ORBzine - TV Review - "Lost" June 2005 Special

The show gets off to an explosive start, with a passenger jet crashing on a desert island. A handful of assorted characters stumble from the wreckage - 48 survivors, we are told later, though only the main 14 have names and lines of dialogue. That said, that's twice as many central characters as any other show would have!

When exploring the jungle interior they discover there's a super-predator - a huge, roaring, unseen menace that tears down trees [like at the end of Deep Rising ].

[Season 1, Episode 2] Pilot (2)
Shown 23rd May 2005 [Monday]

The Iraqi fellow fixes up the radio, but they have to take it to a higher altitude. About half the named characters join him in the hiking expedition. Dodging the super-predator they encounter another unexpected beastie.

The pay-off is when they get the radio working. Only it doesn't work the way they expected it to.

This is a Bad Robot show, produced by JJ Abrams [ Alias ].

The hikers come back to the plane. The flashbacks mostly concern Kate, and her bounty-hunter [who's dying ...]. What did she do? It doesn't matter.

Also .. still on the beach? Where's the high tide mark? Shouldn't they get organised and retrieve all the luggage?. They'll be in for the long haul!

Locke [Terry O'Quinn - Alias, Millenium ] is a survivalist. He takes Kate and Perrineau on a wild-boar hunt.

Locke's flashbacks lead up to an incredible, unforseeable twist. This ep takes the show to a completely different level, and changes our understanding of the island entirely. And coming so closely after the pilot episode, that's saying something!

Now it's Doctor Jack's turn to go walkabout and have flashbacks. We get to see his relationship with his father.

This ep lays groundwork for the survivors' continued survival on the island. However, it doesn't really answer any questions.

The Korean guy attacks Harold Perrineau. We get the Korean wife's backstory, and her secrets [she tells HP one].

Meanwhile, Locke and Doc lead Kate and the Hobbit to the cave. Locke and the Hobbit start to bond. Kate tries to flirt with the Doc.

The discovery of the bodies of previous survivors in the caves reminds us that Doc and Locke don't know about the 16-year message.

The choice is now: safety in the caves or hope of rescue from the beach.

This is the Hobbit's story. It's predictable, nothing surprising. A bit of a letdown, compared with previous eps.

The Hobbit gave his stash to Locke, he will give it back if the Hobbit asks 3 times. This gives him time to examine his life. And when Jack gets trapped in a cave-in, who can try to save him.

The Iraqi tries to get the radio working again. But someone doesn't want him to succeed ...

Apparently the spoilt bitch has asthma. Everyone thinks Sawyer has her inhalers, and nobody even considers trading. Locke even suggests that Sawyer was the one who beat up the Iraqi guy.

Sawyer refuses to hand over the inhalers. Doc beats up Sawyer [breaking the hypocritical oath], and the Iraqi tortures him. Kate's the only one who's decent to him - she obviously feels he's a kindred spirit. The flashbacks are Sawyer's, showing him try to con Peter Deluise out of vast sums of money. Nice twist.

The Asian babe is caught talking to Perrineau. Meanwhile, the detoxed hobbit tries to befriend the pregnant Aussie chick.

The Iraqi is on walkabout, and he discovers what happened to the French girl. We see his flashbacks, as a torturer in the Republican Guard. The guest star is Mira Furlan .

Meanwhile, the fat guy tries to take everyone's mind off the stress. We see another of the 40. He has a few lines, though he doesn't seem to have a name and he's not in the credits.

Emilie de Ravin has nightmares that she'll lose the baby. Locke is her vision guide. Her flashbacks show her visiting a psychic, who gives her unexpected [well, actually kinda predictable] advice.

The others take a census, and make an incredible discovery ...

This is part 2 of the story. Now the characters are developed, the adventure begins.

Ethan, whoever he is, has amazing speed, strength and skill

The pursuers pair off - Locke and Boone, Doc and Kate. Both pairs find something shocking ...

Now that the characters are all well-established and the plot arc is well underway, we get into the story without excessive exposition. For example, Boone and Locke disappear into the jungle without explanation. We don't have to be reminded about the US Federal Marshal who had to be buried. The Korean woman overhears Kate and the Doc talking about her mysterious past ...

Sawyer and Kate discover a locked suitcase. He takes it, and she wants it back because something from her past is in there. Neither of them considers using sex as a trade. No surprise, really, when nobody [except possibly the married Koreans, off-screen] has been having any kind of physical affection since the show started.

The flashbacks are of Kate being caught up in a bank robbery. And typically of this show, nothing is quite what it appears to be.

Boone and Locke are still working on their secret discovery. Boone wants to tell his sister, Shannon - and the flashbacks let us understand more about their relationship. Locke decides to teach Boone a lesson ...

Meanwhile, Kate and Sun bond while planting a vegetable garden. Jin and Hurley go fishing together. Life goes on as usual.

This is another example of how character-based writing can defeat plot-based - the comparison, of course, being Peter Benchley's Amazon . Strangely, this ep was written by Nash Bridges creator, Carlton Cuse.

Michael is still trying to bond with his son, Walt. Walt prefers the company of Locke, who treats him like an adult. Michael decides to start building a raft, to escape the island. The flashbacks explore Michael's past, explain his relationship with Walt, and even imply that Walt may be Special ...

Walt finds a Spanish-language comic-book about a polar bear. As in the pilot ep, we get to see a REAL polar bear!

After last ep, Boone is totally loyal to Locke - and impervious to Shannon's manipulations.

Charlie looks for Claire's diary, which gives an excuse to involve Kate and Sawyer. Yes, this is an arc story. of sorts.

Claire's back, but she has amnesia. Worse, Ethan is after her. And he'll kill the survivors, one by one, until he gets her.

The flashbacks are Charlie's. Whereas his first time they were about his relationship with his brother [BOOOORING!], this time it's with his girlfriend. The twist is okay, and we certainly understand his relationship with Claire better now.

Things from previous eps start popping up. Claire's diary, the box of guns, Michael's raft ...

Sawyer is attacked by a wild boar. It seems to have a grudge against him, so he takes his pistol and sets off to hunt it down. Kate tags along, to trade the pistol back to the doctor. They develop their ... relationship?

En route they run into Locke and Boone. Nobody bothers asking Locke to help them kill the boar, and nobody remembers that the boar will be a good source of meat. Especially since Locke hasn't brought home the bacon in weeks!

Sawyer's flashbacks are even better than his first ones. This time a fellow con-man [Robert Patrick - Terminator 2 ] sends him to Australia to confront the real Sawyer.

Jin and Sun's relationship is under stress. Michael stupidly intervenes, which means there's yet more cause for discontent. A pity, since even Sawyer is helping out with the raft.

The raft is torched. The obvious suspects are Ethan's people, but everyone blames Jin. Sawyer abducts him and hands him over to Michael - strangely, Kate only pops up briefly to comfort Sun.

The flashbacks are Jin's, filling in the blanks left by Sun's - soooo many weeks ago! Similarly, the Korean language is used, the words subtitled. On Primetime US TV, this is very unusual indeed.

Hurley discovers that The French Woman [ Mira Furlan ] wrote a series of numbers on her charts. Those numbers have great significance to him, so he goes looking for her.

In his flashbacks, Hurley shows us one of the most unlikely stories yet. But also, strangely, the most arc-important. The most shocking thing about this episode [after the Australian woman's accent] is that when he reaches the end of his quest, we see yet more of what was hinted at in Claire's story - in far more depth.

Claire bonds with Locke - Boone is nowhere in sight. Maybe Locke is covering for him, or maybe they've broken their partnership ...

Locke and Boone try to get the door open. However, all they learn is that Locke is losing the sensation in his legs. Luckily, he has a vision [like something out of Twin Peaks ] and they go on a quest. But what will they find?

Locke's flashbacks, impressive as ever, concern Swoosie Kurtz [Dangerous Liaisons]. She pops up and tells him ... lots of unlikely things. Hmm, will it all end in tears?

Meanwhile, Sawyer has severe headaches. Kate has him go to his rival, the love-doctor.

Taking off where the previous ep ended, the Doc has a patient. Surgery will be difficult, and the Doc's record with the Hippocratic oath [where the ep's title is from] is poor.

The flashbacks are to Doctor Jack's marriage jitters. He's engaged to a former patient [unethical?]. She's gorgeous, and thanks to Jack she can still walk. But will he go through with it?

Meanwhile, Kate discovers Claire in the early stages of labour. Sawyer and Michael mysteriously disappear before they can help ...

Lost has finally sunk to the depths of the old US TV favourite [since it was invented by Starsky and Hutch, anyway] - the clip show. This is more like an extended story so far bit; the clips are sequential. It consists of the best bits from all prior eps - characterisation and arc [no flashbacks!]

After the events of the last proper ep, we move on to Locke's guilt and confession. Blondie doesn't believe him, so she sends Sayid to interrogate him. Sayid sees right through Locke. Very impressive!

The flashbacks are Sayid conscripted by the CIA to uncover some terrorists in Australia. This manages to neatly tie up the loose ends in his previous flashback.

We start with a Hitchcockian flashback to Kate's past. On the run, she gets a message and has to go on a special errand. As the story unfolds we discover more about her past. A lot of old questions are answered, but yet more ones are raised! For example ... 16 years ago she buried the toy plane in a time capsule ...

Locke, Sayid and Jack discuss the big mystery of the island. Walt realises something bad will happen.

Michael decides to launch the raft, even though the Monsoon season is coming. Kate wants Sawyer's place, and starts a rivalry with him. Then Michael gets poisoned!

All in all, a lot of secrets get exposed. But yet more questions get raised.

Mira Furlan comes to town, and brings news that the Others are on the move. The answer? Well, if the survivors had somewhere to hide ...

Jack and Sawyer have a heart-to-heart, as do Sun and Jin, and the raft sets sail.

Mira leads Jack, Locke, Hurley and a new guy, Artz, into the jungle. They encounter The Beast [again, raises more questions than it answers] and discover an even stranger wreck!

The flashbacks are in the airport, prior to departure. Every character gets something to do, strangely ironic when the previous eps are taken into account. The blonde disrespects both Sayid and Boone. Sawyer promises the police he will never set foot in Australia again. And Jack flirts with an unrecognisably Anglo-looking Michelle Rodriguez , who's unfortunately been given seat 42 at the back of the plane.

The team get the dynamite from the Black Rock. It's unstable ... which leads Jack to act over-protective of Kate.

Rousseau is also unstable. She thinks she heard the others say they were after The Boy, so she tries to do something about it. And we get to find out how she got the claw marks on her arm that Locke spotted in the previous ep.

Sayid and the Hobbit go into the jungle. The Hobbit's flashback into an encounter with a junkie groupie chick comes even more into perspective when he encounters the plane full of heroin. It should come in useful when Sayid does the Butch and Sundance: The Early Years bit.

Sayid and the Hobbit reach the far side of the island. It's not really that big at all. Though ten by ten miles is still a hundred!

Locke prepares to blow the hatch. He believes it contains Hope - which ironically was the last thing to emerge from Pandora's Box! Jack, a man of science, distrusts Locke's faith. And Hurley is still obsessed about his numbers. Kate got sold out for 33,000 dollars ... And the numbers are on the hatch!

The flashbacks are to the boarding of the flight, a wonderful chance to see how much the characters have changed. Hurley's luck is terrible, as always. He does everything he can to get his flight. The consequences are amusingly ironic.

The ending? Multiple cliff-hangers, of course!

Season Two

Finally, we get to see what is down the hole. Sort of. Jack decides there's nothing of value there. But Locke decides to go exploring, and Kate tags along.

At the caves, they still have no idea about what happened to the raft. Shannon goes looking for the dog. She hears whispers, and has a vision of Walt ...

The flashbacks are Jack's. He meets a beautiful blonde patient who's engaged to Anson Mount [Crossroads, Line of Fire]. Someone else he meets is also important - the climax is specially edited to give one of the best, most confusing cliffhangers yet!

Michael and Sawyer are trapped together. Sawyer has been shot and immersed in salt-water, but shows no ill effects! Michael blames Sawyer for everything, refusing to take responsibility for anything. The flashbacks undermine his relationship, or lack thereof, with the mother of his son. Saul Rubinek [True Romance] plays his lawyer.

Meanwhile, Kate's not the damsel in distress that Jack thinks she is. Locke, on the other hand, finds that every answer he gets just creates more questions.

Ironically, Michael gave Walt a stuffed toy polar bear!

The computer in the bunker has to be repaired, before the 108-minute countdown hits zero. Jack doesn't care, assuming it's all a hoax. Hurley knows the numbers are evil. But Locke, Kate and Sayid all have faith.

Locke and Jack watch the bunker's orientation film. It answers a few questions, and can be linked together with other info gained at the end of last season. But yet more questions are raised.

Locke's flashbacks show his growing obsession with his father. Katy Sagal [ Futurama ] tries to give him emotional support, and cure him.

The 3 boatmates are reunited, along with Michelle Rodriguez . Hey, all 4 of them are in the title credits as Season regulars, even if they haven't been in all the episodes so far, so it's not a spoiler!

As everybody can guess, this ep revolves around Hugo. The Doc puts him in charge of the food store. But this means he has to keep secrets from everyone. And Hurley hates that.

In the flashbacks, we see Hurley hanging out with his best buddy - DJ Quails [Road Trip]. We also get a surreal vision/dream of Daniel Dae Kim .. speaking English!

Meanwhile, the Aussie chick discovers the msg-in-a-bottle bottle. She shows it to blondie and the Korean wife, who buries it ...

Our 3 castaways are held prisoner by Adabesi from Oz. They get to learn more about what happened to the tail section, and about the Others. Michael wants to go after Walt - which means Jin and Sawyer have to make a choice.

Back in the camp, Sun has lost her wedding ring. She gets help from various people to find it. The only one she tells about the bottle is Kate.

The flashbacks are Sun and Jin - both showing their POVs of the events leading up to their meeting. Oddly enough, a magical prediction plays a part. In any other show it would be a coincidence, but here it has meaning.

There's a 3-week gap in the original US airtime between this and the next ep. That means there is a big cliffhanger laid on by the promo trailer at the end!

This is the big cliffhanger one. Sawyer's dying, and Ana Lucia [ Michelle Rodriguez ] wants to leave him. She's totally unlikeable, and makes Sawyer seem nice! And Michael is annoyed at Sawyer for basicaly repeating what Michael publicly stated - that all he cares about is himself and his boy!

Adabesi [now called Mr Echo] takes the group through the jungle, towards safety. But the Others rule in the jungle!

Back at the camp, Locke inadvertently intervenes between the Hobbit and the Aussie chick. She mentions the virgin mary stauette ...

Shannen becomes obsessed with finding Walt. She's the only one who has visons of him. Also, she has survivor's guilt since Boone's death. To find Walt she tries using the pet dog as a sniffer, even though there's no continuous trail to follow. Better, she gets Sayeed to help. She tells him about the bottle, and he promises not to dump her as soon as they are rescued.

The flashbacks are Shannen's. She used to have a job - as a ballet instructor! Unfortunately her dad was killed in a car crash [with Dr Jack's wife-to-be??] Then the wicked stepmom cuts off her allowance! No wonder she turned into a money-hungry bitch!

The story starts with the splash-down on the beach. Only we're seeing the other side of the island, and it's the people on the tail section.

Ana Lucia keeps everyone together. Mister Eko is a tough SOB all right - he kills men in a fistfight.

The real revelations concern The Others. They abduct specific survivors, especially children - their purpose is not known. And when Ana Lucia starts to suspect one of her people might be a bad guy, she digs the prison-pit ...

In the aftermath of the fatal shooting, Sayid and Ana Lucia both go a bit crazy. He gets tied to a tree, held hostage.

The Flashbacks are Ana Lucia's. Predictably, she used to be a cop. Rachel Ticotin plays her mother! Things went bad, and we get to see why Ana Lucia's so stressed out.

Mr Eko gets Sawyer to the Doc, and Kate provides nursing attention. The Doc gets reunited with Ana Lucia - it looks like Lurve Interests have been assigned!

It seems that the island is getting smaller. Either that, or the Hatch is now a lot closer to the beach!

Yes, we finally get to see what Kate did. It's pretty bad. And then we find out to WHOM she did it, and WHY ...

The flashbacks are Kate's, as she tends to the injured man. Their relationship becomes yet more complex. This plays well after the pig-hunt episode.

Locke and Mister Eko study the film again. Eko has another clue, and they find out more about the computer. Then Michael does the one thing he is not supposed to do, and gets another clue about Walt's whereabouts!

Eko finds out about the Virgin Mary's statue. He forces Charlie to guide him to the plane.

The flashbacks are Eko's. Not only do we find out why he is religious yet an expert killer, We also learn about the plane of drugs.

It's nice to see the contrast between Eko's life and Charlie's.

Meanwhile, Locke teaches Michael how to shoot.

Michael goes to save Walt.

Jack, Locke and Sawyer go to save Michael. Unfortunately they think that blundering about in the darkness, waving flaming torches and shouting at each will allow them to avoid the Others.

MC Gainey appears as the leader of the Others.

In the flashbacks, Jack tries to save a patient ... and his marriage.

Charlie has strange vivid dreams. The message is, the baby is in danger. He takes it upon himself to baptise the child, not necessarily with the virgin mother's consent.

Locke has somehow become the baby's new protector. He discovers that his faithy in Charlie was misplaced.

The flashbacks are Charlie's. Not very informative or exciting, we just learn more about his brother. Although apparently English commercial directors making adverts in the UK use the US word daiper instead of the proper word, Nappy.

Ana Lucia and Jack plan to start an army. They need volunteers, and Locke's guns. Then someone attacks Sun ...

Sawyer and Kate suspect that Ana Lucia was behind the incident, to get the hands on the guns.

The flashbacks are Sawyer's. He met a woman [Kim Dickens] who asked him to teach her how to con people. But we begin to wonder, who's conning who?

This is a good ep, back on track after the Charlie one. In fact, this is pay-off while the other one was just set-up!

Rousseau captures a stranger, and hands him over to Sayeed. Is he One of Them? Sayeed takes him back to the bunker, to get the truth out of him.

The flashbacks involve US Intel officer Clancy Brown [ Highlander ] teaching Sayeed how to torture people. This was ten years previously, during the Kuwait conflict. Kuwait, of course, is a bunch of CGI backdrops. And the yanks seem too nice to be realistic.

Locke and Jack argue over the morality of letting Sayeed question the man. Locke points out the irony of the fact that Jack wanted to start an army, but wouldn't let the only trained soldier, Sayeed, use his skills. Jack, however, will let the counter run down rather than let Locke win.

Sawyer goes looking for an annoying tree-frog that is keeping him awake. Hurley, apparently hoarding food, helps him out. Kate, however, is nowhere in sight.

The baby has a fever. Claire starts to recover her memory fom the missing 2 weeks. The fever may be from something Ethan injected her with ... and the Others must have the cure.

Kate borrows a gun from Sawyer. She and Clare team up with Rousseau, and venture into the Others' territory. The flashbacks are Clare's missing time. We discover that Ethan's boss, the beardy thug MC Gainey, has a boss of his own. And we get a clue about Rousseau's daughter - Tania Raymonde .

Mr Eko discovers that they have a prisoner. He demands to talk to the man alone.

The prisoner still acts innocent. But he is smart enough to exploit the emotional rift between Jack and Locke. And Locke still hasn't learned his lesson from the time that Sawyer exploited that vulnerability.

Sun has flashbacks to when she was having marital difficulties with Jin. She was unable to get pregnant. But now she needs a pregnancy test from Sawyer ...

Locke gets Ana Lucia to interrogate the hostage. He draws her a map to the balloon, so she takes Sayid and Charlie to find it. Ana comes across as more sympathetic ... and Charlie is now accepted by other folk. He even has a pistol!

The hostage is still playing very subtle mind-games with Jack and Locke.

The hatch bunker goes into Lockdown mode. Locke and the hostage are trapped inside. Is the stranger trustworthy?

Jack is too busy playing cards with Kate and Hurley. It's important to him that he defeats Sawyer ... To win a bet for all the medicine.

Locke remembers the death of his father [Kevin Tighe]. Turns out the old man was a pro con-man. And he's about the right age to be the original Sawyer! We also find out how Locke's relationship with Katey Sagal ended.

The huge pallet of food sends Hurley into flashbacks to his days in the looneybin. He sees a pal from there, Dave. His Shrink [Bruce Davison - X-Men ] always said that Dave was a bad influence, but did Hurley listen?

There's a couple of twists in this story. The first is quite obvious, but the second is well-layered and very shocking!

Charlie and Eko are building something.

Jack goes to parley with the Others. He borrows Charlie's pistol from Ana L, and recruits Kate.

Holling and his wife are the subject of the flashbacks. They only met and married a few months previously, and their trip to Australia was their honeymoon. Not very convincing, that 2 life-long singletons with nothing in common should wed.

Eko and Charlie are building a church! Holling wants to make a huge "SOS" sign, so planes will see it and rescue them. Pity that his managerial style sucks!

Jack and Kate bring Michael to the hatch. He tells them about the Others' camp - though it doesn't match with what Kate told Jack.

Ana L still has anger issues. Henry hates her, and it's mutual. She's a bad person, a murderer. Can she change and be reemed?

Anal's flashback is about her trip to Australia. Jack's dad hired her as bodyguard when he went to see his daughter. Her relationship with her mother mirrors Jack's with his dad.

Hurley tries to take Libby on a romantic picnic.

Eko has a vision of AnaL and his bro, asking him to make Locke take him to the ? . He and Locke discover what countdown in the Hatch is for, and whether or not Henry told the truth about it.

Libby is suffering. Jack gets Sawyer to hand over the heroin, but makes Kate tag along to see where the guns are.

This is a nice way to clear up a couple of arcs, but is a bit anti-climactic.

Eko's flashbacks introduce him to the Aussie girl's psychic. The guy claims to be a fake ...

The flashbacks are Michael's. They start 13 days ago, and show what happemed when he went missing. The Others gave him Three Minutes with his son.

While Kate and Hurley dig graves, Michel tries to organise a revenge party. He wants Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer to follow him to the Others camp All of them, and nobody else.

Eko takes over the duty at the Hatch. Charlie sorts out his drug habit and is on speaking terms with Claire, though he has to finish the church by himself. And Locke goes walkabout.

This is the Season finale, a double ep. Desmond returns!

Michael leads Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. Meanwhile, Sayid takes Jin and Sun round the other side of the island, to outflank The Others. We discover who the Others' real leader is. P> Locke and Eko have a confrontation - Locke's faith in the button is gone. Locke teams up with Desmond and tries to let the button run down, while Charlie and Eko try to stop them.

The flashbacks are Desmond's. He was going to marry a rich English woman. He borrowed Libby's yacht to enter the race. His partner in the Hatch was US Intel officer Clancy Brown [ Highlander ]! And we discover the truth about the Hatch and the surveillance system.

Special

       S- 2        200     21 Sep 05   Destination Lost
       S- 3        300     11 Jan 06   Lost: Revelation

Season Three

We start with the monotonous life of Juliet [ Elizabeth Mitchell ]. Her regime mirrors Desmond's, although she lives in a suburban area.

Jack is locked in a dungeon. His flashbacks are of his relationship with his wife and father. It turns out that it may be his fault they left him ...

Sawyer and Kate are in bear cages.

This ep explores the relationship between Sun and Jin. She guards the yacht, while he and Sayeed wait to ambush the Others.

In Her flashbacks we discover how she shirked responsibility, and the real reason she wanted to leave her husband. This doesn't really follow from the reasons given in the previous 2 Seasons: it seems tacked-on, without foreshadowing.

Locke tries to get Charlie to help him. Together they must save Eko from the Polar bear ...

Locke's flashbacks put him on a farm full of hippies. He invites a new kid to stay - all very convenient. And whatever happened to Locke's job, his money, his life?

Desmond and Hurley meet up. It seems that Desmond has come out of the hatch with an extra power

Sawyer and Kate think their jailors are a dimwitted bunch, easy to escape from. It turns out they're smarter than they look, and they have a cunning plan to stop Sawyer escaping.

Sawyer's flashbacks are to his most recent jail sentance. He was put there when his most recent victim [the Deadwood survivor] pressed charges. Now she claims to have given birth to his daughter. Sawyer must decide where his loyalties lie. Bill Duke [ Predator ] plays the prison governor.

Jack is called in to save Colleen [ Paula Malcolmson , the show's second Deadwood refugee].

Eko wanders into the jungle to find his brother's ghost. The smokelike security system is still there, though ... He has flashbacks to his life as a priest in Africa.

Locke leads a team of volunteers to the Pearl station. We get something of an introduction to the pair of twentysomethings who have been hanging around in the background.

Jack is asked to help The Others. But it seems they have secret dissent among themselves ...

Locke and Sayeed try to sort out the messy remnants of the previous ep.

Kate and Sawyer try to sort their relationship out. One of the guards intends to murder Sawyer at the first chance.

Kate's flashbacks are to her marriage. Yes, while she was on the run she married Nathan Fillion [ Serenity ] - a cop!

Jack must decide whether he does the operation or not. This all leads up to a nail-biting cliffhanger ... to be concluded after Xmas!

Juliet's flashbacks take us to her original recruitment into Dharma.

Desmond's flashback is from the moment the hatch exploded, when he experienced a hallucination and relived a former part of his life.

Sawyer and Kate take Karl back to the plane crash. Unfortunately he has yet to recover from the brainwashing.

Juliet is put on trial by The Others.

Jack's flashbacks concern his holiday romance with Bai Ling , a tattoo artist. Apparently his oriental tattoo has a special meaning ...

Tricia was a TV reporter who interviewed Hurley after he won the lottery. Back when his luck left him and everything bad happened. Except that his long-lost father [Cheech Marin - From Dusk Til Dawn ] came back ...

Meanwhile, on the Island, Hurley discovers an old van. He tries to get it running, with help from Jin, Sawyer and Charlie.

Sayeed, Kate and Locke encounter another structure, a Dharma communications hut with a satellite dish. The man who lives there is Andrew Divoff [ Wishmaster ]. He claims to be the last survivor of Dharma, before the purge by the Hostiles. But whose side is he on?

Sayeed's flashbacks are to Paris, where he is recognised by a fellow Iraqi. But truth and lies are hard to tell apart, as always.

Claire wants Charlie to help her catch migratory seagulls, so they can get a message to civilisation. However, Desmond has a plan of his own.

Claire's flashbacks let us know why Jack's father had to visit Australia.

Kate's climbing skills come in useful while infiltrating the Others' camp. And Locke seems to have a secret agenda of his own.

Claire and Sayeed try to save Jack. Danielle wants to find out what happened to her daughter. And while Locke's secret plan is revealed, we have to wait to see what angle Ben is playing!

Locke's flashbacks are to a time when his dad is on the grift again. The old boy supposedly retired after he faked his death, but he's going around under a traceable name and acting suspiciously!

We finally get to find out what happened to Locke before the Pilot ep. And an even bigger surprise is the identity of one of Ben's assets, The Man From Tallahassee.

The ep starts with the new character, Nikki, running for her life. Her flashback reveals her to be an actress working with Billy Dee Williams [ Empire Strikes Back ], and reveals the basis of her relationship with Paolo.

They were expected to become regular, main characters. However, we now see the main events of the last 3 Seasons - retold from Nikki and Paolo's POV. Lots of familiar faces reappear: Shannen and Boone, Ethan, Artz ... Events are re-interpreted, perhaps in a fan-wanky way as every cliche is joked on ...

There is a hard edge to the story. Charlie and Sawyer must come to terms with some of the bad things they have done. And the ending is just pure Edgar Allen Poe!!!

Kate and Juliette face off. They're abandoned together, chained like The Defiant Ones, Let the catfight begin!

Kate's flashbacks introduce her to Kim Dickens. They compare notes and swop advice over each's respective predicament.

Meanwhile, Hurley talks Sawyer into doing good deeds to ingratiate himself with the other survivors. The alternative is a threat of bannishment.

Juliette accompanies Jack and the rest back to the main camp. The survivors, especially Sayeed and Sawyer, don't trust her an inch.

Claire falls ill with some mysterious malady. Juliette knows what it is, and offers to cure it. It seems she was involved in the medical experiments the Others performed on Claire ...

The flashbacks are Juliette's. We see her follow up her recruitment, and her interaction with Ben. And we actually get an insight into the Others' plan. It turns out that women on the Island are unable to conceive, and Juliette is the only medical researcher who can even hope to cure the problem!

Desmond sees Charlie die in the jungle. But he also sees someone arrive on the island. So he persuades Charlie, Jin and Hurley to accompany him on an expedition ...

Desmond's flashbacks tell us why he calls everyone brother - he used to be a monk! That was before he met Penny ...

Meanwhile, Kate is all angsty now Jack has Juliette. Sawyer gets some quality time alone with Kate, and a ping-pong match with Jack ...

The explorers try to render first aid to their casualty. However, they encounter a most unlikely character!

Sun is pregnant. Juliette takes her to a secret medical lab, to see how long she has been pregnant. If she conceived before the island, by her lover, then she will live. But if she conceived on the island, by her hubby, then she will probably die!

The flashbacks are Sun's. We see the original source of discontent in her marriage; they never really had a chance!

Locke returns, and lures Sawyer out into the jungle. He claims to have kidnapped Ben - but is it a trap?

Meanwhile, Jack is mistrusted by the rest because he hangs out with Juliette.

Locke forces Ben to take him to see his boss - a man that only Ben can speak to ...

The flashbacks are Ben's. We get to see who Roger the Work Man was, and why the van full of beer was left in the jungle. We also discover what happened to the Dharma Initiative ...

Jack plans a trap for the Others, using the Frenchwoman's dynamite.

Charlie's flashbacks are to his early life, from his childhood to the band's first success. His happiest moments - his Greatest Hits.

Sayeed plans to transmit a message to the rescue ship. However, he'll need Charlie and Desmond to disable the Others' jamming station first.

Sayeed, Jin and Bernard lay a trap for the Others. Meanwhile, Jack leads everyone else to the Radio Tower.

Ben tries damage control. He takes his daughter, and hikes out to the Radio Tower himself.

Kate tries to bond with Sawyer ... who's changed for the worst, since his excursion with Locke.

Jack's flashbacks are from after his divorce. He hits rock bottom, but tries to claw his way up again.

Ben tries to talk Jack out of contacting the ship. Things get heated, as several subplots all colide.

Hurley gets to be a hero! Unfortunately at least one recurring character is killed off ...

Charlie and Desmond try to unlock the radio jammer. Which leads to another discovery ...

The ending is Jack's flashback: we find out what drove him to rock bottom, and it makes for an amazing cliffhanger!

Season Four

The Season kicks off with a car chase through the streets of L.A. Jack's trying to recover from his addiction, and Hurley gets himself sectioned again. He's approached by a couple of people, including a lawyer for Oceanic who wants information.

The flashbacks are Hurley's, as he remembers the island. Desmond meets up with Hurley, and tells everyone about Charlie's message. The survivors must choose - stay with Jack, and get rescued, or go into hiding with Locke.

The rescue team, if that's who they are, hit bad weather and bail out of their chopper. The winds scatter them across the island. One of them is a neurotic who may be one of Hurley's former co-inmates. He meets Jack and Kate, and takes them to his colleague ... a psychic who can speak to ghosts.

The flashbacks are from the rescue team. An alcoholic pilot [Jeff Fahey - Planet Terror ] sees the footage of the sunken Oceanic plane, and thinks it could be fake. We get to meet the team's boss (introduced in a previous ep), and their radio contact on the Freighter sounds a lot like Zoe Bell !

Meanwhile, Locke and the others encounter another rescuer, a young woman. She's an anthropologist who discovered a Dharma polar bear in the Morocco desert. John Locke reveals the reason Ben's bullet didn't kill him. It wasn't luck or the island's magic, it was because he didn't have a kidney on that side. Talk about irony!

The pilot offers Sayeed a trip back to the ship, on condition that he rescues Charlotte from Locke's clutches.

After the rescue, Sayeed is a Corporate Headhunter. But who he's working for and why he's doing it are the ep's mystery.

Kate has to get her life sorted out. She asks one of the Prisoners for help, but he demands to be given time alone with Ben. Naturally, Locke will never allow this - so Kate will have to ask Sawyer for help.

Desmond arrives on the Freighter - or does he? He has flashbacks to his time in the Army, in a base near Glasgow run by English men! Fisher Stevens [ Early Edition ], the ship's radio operator, has been hospitalised with the same symptoms as Desmond. They're unstuck in time.

Jack's pair of rescuers go walkabout. Juliet helps hunt them. However, she bumps into a familiar face - one of the Others. Apparently Ben wants her to kill the rescuers, because they're going to kill everyone on the Island. They know about Ben's poison-gas factory! Can Juliet trust Ben?

Juliet's flashbacks continue from her story in the previous Season. Her relationship with Ben is shown in more depth ...

Sun is one of the Oceanic Six, heavily pregnant. The Flashbacks are Ji's, as he tries to obtain a stuffed toy of a Panda for a birthing celebration.

Back on the Island, Sun wants to visit Locke and Ben.

Michael is back in NYC. The guilt of his escape from the island, and his estrangement from his son, have made him desperate. So when he meets a familiar face ...

Michael is a reluctantly recruit of The Others. He joins the crew of the Freighter, and does whatever Ben orders him to. But what is Ben's agenda?

Ben tells the French woman to take their daughter to safety. He knows the Rescuers will use her as a hostage against him. But what's his plan? And who is she in most danger from?

A villainous squad of Mercenaries besiege Locke's team. They're after Ben, and things take a turn for the worse ...

Sawyer takes Clare and the new guy to the beach.

Jack's sick. Kate and Juliet have to work together to save him.

The flashbacks are of Jack, as he tries to make his life work again.

Locke has a vision of Doug Hutchinson [ Punisher: War Zone ], and discovers the way to the cabin. The flashbacks fill in certain gaps in his life.

On the boat, Sayeed discovers whether Ben is the villain or not.

The Season's plots are tied up. Ben gets to confront the murderer, and sorts out Locke's destiny.

We see how the Six get home. It's a happy end for some, but not everyone on the Freighter lives happily ever after.

In the future, Jack is told he must get everyone back to the Island. But Claire orders Kate not to bring the baby back. Also ... we find out who the dead man is!

Unfortunately, we don't get a conclusion to the show. Just another cliffhanger!

Special

       S-200                17 May 07   Lost: The Answers
       S-2000                27 Sep 06   Lost: A Tale of Survival
       S-3000                 7 Feb 07   Lost Survivor Guide

Season Five

Sawyer makes it back to the Island, and meets up with Frogurt and the remaining survivors. But they won't survive for long, because they soon come under attack.

Three years later, Ben and Jack team up to bring everyone back to the Island.

Hurley and Sayid are under attack from Widmore's people. Hurley goes for a drive, and gets pulled over by Ana Lucia!

Desmond tries to find Daniel, the mad scientist. He discovers some of the secrets of Daniel's research into time travel, and his relationship with Charles Widmore. But this just asks more questions than it answers.

Locke and the rest meet the Others ... but they're not the same as the bunch he's used to. This lot are led by Richard Albert (who looks the same age he's always been), and are fighting against 1950s US Military types who want to test an H-Bomb on the Island.

We discover more about Charles Widmore's past, and his obsession with the Island ...

Kate has legal problems. A top-notch lawyer somehow knows that she is not Erin's real mother. She's terrified of losing custody. But who is the lawyer working for?

Jin wants revenge on Ben, blaming him for her husband's death. But he claims that Sun is still alive, on the island ...

The island is still jumping through time. We meet the young, pregnant Danielle Russeau. We also discover what the Smoke Monster is. Sort of ...

Locke and the others try to get to the Orchid station. The plan is to stop the island jumping through time.

Ben manages to persuade the Oceanic Six to return to The Island. He seems to have the right intentions, but can't have a casual conversation without lying. He's totally untrustworthy .

Locke leads his crew to the well, so he can turn the wheel. He meets Jack's dead dad again.

Locke tells the episode in flashback. After exiting from the Island, he visits each of the Oceanic Six. We all know how that turned out.

The interesting scenes are when Locke visits people who meant something to him. Walt is on the list, as is Katey Sagal . The real kicker is when Locke comes face to face with Ben.

After skipping a few episodes, we are reunited with Sawyer and his group. They must adjust to a life on the island without Locke or the Oceanic Six. And whatever happened to the rest of the survivors?

The time skips forward to a time when the Dharma Initiative is in charge, run by Doug Hutchinson [ Punisher: War Zone ] and Reiko Aylesworth .

The Losties are smuggled into the Dharma Initiative, posing as new arrivals on the Submarine.

The Dharma Initiative try to get answers out of Sayid. They think he is one of The Others, so they take him to their own private interrogation expert ...

Ben is in the IUC, and the Losties are split as to whether they should help him or not. Lafleurs puts everyone under house arrest. Hurley tries to understand the temporal paradox, and points out all the time travel inconsistencies. Juliet and Kate want to save Ben, but Jack won't help. Their only answer is to get help from Richard Alpert ...

Kate's flashbacks show her trying to be a mother to Erin. She also visits a mutual friend of hers and Sawyers.

Ben and Locke go to visit the smoke monster. Ben tries to get some closure with Alex's ghost.

Back in 1977, the Dharma Initiative notice that young Ben is MIA. They realise there might be a security breach, and start to get paranoid.

Miles and Hurley are sent to deliver a package to a senior Dharma man. But he is at the site of the new Swan station, secretly built in Hostile territory.

Daniel Faraday finally divulges what he knows about the Island. His flashbacks show his experiments, breakdown and recruitment by Widmore. And like Charlotte, he may have stronger links to the Island that he knows.

Sawyer and Juliet are prisoners of The Dharma Initiative. Jack and Kate are with The Other Ones (led by Widmore and Daniel's mother). The Asian guy gets his dad to evacuate the civilians.

Back in the modern age, Locke, Ben and Richard take the Other Ones to see Jacob ...

Centuries ago, Jacob (Mark Pellegrino - Supernatural ) has breakfast with Titus Welliver. The flashbacks are also of Jacob as he meets certain of the Survivors at pivotal moments in their lives.

Jack decides to follow Faraday's plan to change the future. Kate goes to get Sawyer and Juliet, to stop Jack. We also find out what happened to Rose and Bernard.

Thirty years later, Illona and Lapidus take a cargo crate across the island. Elsewhere, Locke outlines his plan, and the part Ben plays in it.

Jack and Sawyer finally have their showdown.

This is the climax of the Season. One of the main cast members got a better job on another TV show, so that character won't be coming back!

Season Six

The guys wake up around the crater that will become the Swan station. Presumably they are still trapped in the 1970s.

Sayed is dying. Jack, Kate and Hugo take him to the temple. Unfortunately there is a mysterious gang of gun-toting folk there. They are friends of Jacob, so presumably they are linked to The Others.

Back in the alternate time-line, the plane lands at LAX. Kate makes her break for it, running into Sawyer, Frogurt and Clare the pregnant Aussie.

Jack's father's body has been mislaid. At the Lost property office he bumps into Locke, whose knives are missing. Can he cure the irreparable spinal damage?

Jin is rescued by Clare.

Jacob makes Hurley take Jack to the Lighthouse.

Sayeed faces off against the Samurai. Locke gives the people at the temp0le until sundown to join him.

Sayeed's alternate life lets him visit his brother's family in LA. He has to help them against evil Loan Shark Martin Keamey!

Richard Alpert goes to the Black Pearl slave ship to kill himself.

It seems the Man of Science may have had his Faith restored.

Ben is digging his own grave, because Zuleikha Robinson is a neat freak. Luckily for Ben, the smoke monster who looks like Locke wants him alive.

In another life, Ben is a school-teacher. With the help of fellow teacher Artz he makes a Machiavellian play for the Headmaster's job. But he has to choose between his personal success, and the future of his protege - Alex Rousseau!

The smoke monster who looks like Locke sends Sawyer to the other island. But Widmore is around, causing trouble as usual. With two of the major villains about to face off, what is Sawyer's plan?

The Alternate Sawyer is a detective. His partner is Miles (who doesn't talk to dead people), and he dates Charlotte ( Rebecca Mader ). But he's still hunting the man who killed his parents.

Richard Alpert has an extended flashback to 1867. We learn how he arrived on the island, aboard the Black Pearl slave ship. There are several anachronisms: the USA had abolished slavery by that stage, and the slavers could not have been British (as portrayed in this show) because it had been abolished in the British Empire decades previously.

The surviving candidates get aboard the sub. But as with the freighter, there is a bomb on board. Three candidates are eliminated.

The show is returning to its roots - a version of the game show Survivor. But this is still a very touching episode, as some much-loved characters die. That said, the Jacob storyline seems very much tacked-on. It certainly could have been introduced in the first Season, if the storyline had actually been thought out back then.

In the alternate time-line, Jack meets John Locke again. They swap stories, and John gives a version of how he lost the use of his legs. He was piloting a plane, he says - it crashed, and his father was killed by the impact. Will Sawyer be denied his revenge in this version?

This episode is set centuries ago. Jacob and his brother (Titus Welliver - ) are raised on The Island by crazy hermit woman Alison Janey (West Wing).

Ben, Richard and Miles (the Chinese-American psychic) go to the Dharma Initiative village to get enough C4 to blow up the plane.

Widmore and Locke are both looking for Desmond, and both end up bumping into Ben.

Elsewhere, Jacob confronts the final 4 candidates.

In the alternate universe, Desmond beats up Ben. Then he turns himself in, so he can get locked up with Kate and Sayeed. Hurley and Ana Lucia are around, too.

Jack (Jacob's successor) and Locke (possessed by Titus Welliver) race to the core of the Island. Will the Island be saved or destroyed? Will the survivors (as few of them as there are) escape alive? This is basically a chance to tie up loose ends.

The other plot, instead of flashbacks or flash forwards, is the flash sideways. Everyone is happier in the parallel world. Hugo gets everyone together for a big party. This is just to give a happily-ever-after climax, as everyone's favourite characters pair off two by two.

The metaphysical stuff comes on too strong, however, as the schmaltz and sugar is ladled on too thick. At the risk of introducing a spoiler, the final scene is sickeningly reminiscent of a certain Narnia book. Not altogether surprising, when the show has a character named Charlotte Staples Lewis.