S3: Stranger in a Strange Land

"He walks among us, but he is not one of us."

Jack spends some time abroad and gets himself a tattoo that he should not have gotten from a woman who claims to see who he really is.  What does his tattoo really mean?  Is Jack from another planet?  Is this another thing to make the viewer guess and form theories on what the tattoo artist really saw.  Did the tattoo artist see anything?

I'm not sure where this episode falls in the timeline, but if I had to guess, Jack left the country sometime after his divorce.  It's hard to keep track at this point since we are getting the pieces out of order, but as they pertain to what is happening on the island.

Jack decides to help Ben who stitches are infected which is turns help Juliet from being executed for killing Pickett who was going to shoot Sawyer and Kate.  In the end, Jack's plan works and they all leave the island and go back "Home", but where is home?  Could it be where they were when they saw the plane crash?  Could be.

S3: Flashes Before Your Eyes

During last season's finale, we got some information concerning how Desmond got to the island.  Now, we get to see Desmond's life before that and seeing what moves him on his course.  What is unique about Desmond's experience is that he appears to get a second chance at things and makes the same mistakes.

After turning the fail safe key at the Hatch, Desmond have been seeing flashes of a possible future where Charlie's life is put in danger and results in his death.  Desmond built a lightning rod and saved Claire from drowning to prevent Charlie's inevitable death twice.

Overall, Desmond episodes are great and his love story with Penny are inspiring.  He is one of the few characters on Lost that are part of the group, but at the same time, outside of the group which provides the writers some neat opportunities to expand the plot.  His ability to survive electromagnetic anomalies will be key in the future.

S3: Not in Portland

Everybody gets what they want in this episode.

Jack gets to fix Ben like he wanted and Kate and Sawyer go free.  Juliet wants to go home after being on the island for three years, and Ben says he will let her go home for helping Jack.  Pickett is killed and even though he probably didn't want to die, he gets to be with his recently dead wife, if you believe in that sort of thing.  Alex gets to free her boyfriend Karl, unfortunately Juliet does let her go off the one island with Kate and Sawyer.

This is Juliet's first flashback episode and we learn she's some sort of scientist that deals a lot with pregnancy and research.  Her sister who looks like a cancer patient, is pregnant thanks to Juliet's research and tests with an experimental drug.  Mr. Alpert, our first introduction to this character, wants her to come to Portland.  But he later reveals that his company isn't exactly in Portland.

So let's put the pieces together for a minute.  The Other's captured Claire at one point who was pregnant.  The took all the kids from the tail section and they took Walt, so they are interested in children.  And now thanks to showing Ethan being connected to Mr. Alpert, we see that they are recruiting a pregnancy specialist of some sort.  So thinking about the big picture, there must be something going on concerning the island where having babies is involved and it's all getting hinted at in small doses.  We'll see how plot element plays out while this show continues to enrich the characters.  Great scene between Jack and Kate hearkening back to the first episode when Kate stitches up Jack.  I liked the music that played when Kate and Sawyer paddled away, the same tune that plays over and over again when a touching moment is happening, but unfortunately without Jack escaping with them the victory felt incomplete.  I guess we'll see what happens next time.

S3: I Do

In a bizarre twist of events, we get a Kate flashback episode where she appears to have settled down.  But Edward, the Marshall that had Kate on the plane, told her that he would stop chasing her when she stopped running.  But we all know that Kate is a runner, and after all is said and done, she's isn't the settling down type.  She's not doing taco night, she's not having a baby, she's just plain done sticking around with her husband Kevin.  She loves him, but she leaves him.

On island, Kate tries to convince Jack to do the surgery to save Sawyer's life.  Jack refuses.  Hours later, Jack is let out of his cell and happens upon the room where Ben watches the monitors and sees Kate and Sawyer awfully cozy.  Jack decides to do the surgery, but he has a plan of his own.  In surgery he cuts Ben's kidney to allow Kate and Sawyer an hour to escape.  Jack and Kate argue and he yells run as the screen goes black.

On the other side of the island, the group that went out to the The Pearl buries Mr. Eko out there and they use his prayer stick as his headstone.  Locke sees a verse that Mr. Eko carved by John saying to look North.  So things are set in motion with Locke and we'll see how that plays out in the coming weeks.

It's funny that the previous episode was 3/4 on the main island and 1/4 on the Other's island and this episode was the other way around.  I'd be interested to see if these episodes were written together and then split apart since they seem almost like brother and sister.

S3: The Cost of Living

Mr. Eko and the Smoke Monster duke it out in this episode.  Unfortunately, for Mr. Eko, the Smoke Monster wins.

A recovering Eko who was attacked by a bear has visions of his brother and heads to the plane where his body was buried/burned.  Locke, who had a plan to use the computer at The Pearl in an attempt to contact another Dharma station, turned out to be heading to the same location as Mr. Eko.

Eventually all converge on the same location.  Locke, Sayid, Desmond, Nikki and Paulo contact a station where a man with an eye patch shuts off the camera, while above Mr. Eko meets his demise.  I don't know if the Smoke Monster is testing him to see how easily he can be manipulated, but Mr. Eko does not apologize or ask for forgiveness and suffers the consequences almost if the Smoke Monster was the final judge and jury.  It was sad to see him go and it just felt too soon.  Mr. Eko's final words to Locke:  "You're next."

On the other side of the island, nothing much is happening that I can recall.  Ben asks Jack to the do the surgery and Juliet reveals her intentions that she wants Jack to not fix Ben and have something go wrong in the surgery.  So there are a lot of story-lines being set up that will hopefully lead to some exciting conclusion.

S3: Every Man for Himself

The con man gets conned in this episode.  Ben sees that Sawyer is not just a thief - he's a smart thief, a sentiment which is echoed in a flashback while Sawyer is serving time.  So Ben decides to earn Sawyer's respect.

When a failed escape attempt by Sawyer is foiled by the smarter Ben, he knocks Sawyer out and makes him believe that they put a pacemaker inside of him set to go off if his beats per second gets too high.  Ben later reveals his con and shows that escape is futile since they are on another island about twice the size of Alcatraz.

Back on the other island, Desmond is shown to have some sort of ability to see the future.  He builds a lightning rod and saves Claire, Charlie and the baby from a lightning strike.  His new found ability to see the future was hinted at when Locke gave his big speech about finding the others.  At the time of this episode, it's unclear where Locke is.

Other reveals of note:  Sawyer has a daughter who he made a savings account for her when he got compensated for helping in a police investigation by playing informant while incarcerated.  Jack happens to see x-rays of a 40 year old man's back who has a tumor and asks Juliet who he's there to save.  Of course, she never answers him, and we are left to wonder until next time. 

S3: Further Instructions

Last, and certainly not least, we get to see what happened to the group in the hatch.  Charlie escaped fine and was hanging out on the beach like he had no care in the world.  Sure, he hated Locke and wasn't a big Mr. Eko fan at the moment, but still, you would think that he'd go looking for them.  Claire had some ambition that rose to the surface and then quickly went away.  Oh well, she's got a baby that requires attention.

Thankfully, we find out that Locke is bloody but all right.  He gets further instruction from the island by using a sweat hut.  Boone guest stars to tell Locke he needs to clean up his mess.  Locke finds Mr. Eko who was dragged off by a polar bear which seems very "Star Wars Wampa/Luke" esque.  Locke and Charlie bring Eko back to camp.  Locke gives a speech that they are going to find their friends.

Earlier, Hurley returns to finds Desmond who survived the implosion of the hatch, but is stark naked.  He talks of the speech that Locke didn't give until later.  There's something special about that Desmond character!  :)

Overall, the episode I was waiting for the most was probably the most disappointing of the three, probably because the other two filled in some back story about the Others.  This episode had no Others and was another sad/pathetic flashback story of Locke getting taken advance of, yet again.  I had forgot he lived in a hippie commune so it kept my interest but it just reaffirmed that Locke is very easily manipulated and "amenable to coercion", which come to think of it, will make more sense later on in this season or next if I'm remembering correctly.

S3: The Glass Ballerina

The first episode of the Season 3 showed us what happened to the main group.  Now we get to see what happened to the boat group.  Well Sayid in his infinite wisdom, continues to sail against Jin's instructions and they come upon a dock.  Sayid lies about it being abandoned and decides to set a trap for the Others.  Unfortunately, the Others steal the boat and Sun barely escapes after shooting one of the Others.

Flashbacks take us back to Sun breaking a glass ballerina as a child and lying about it.  We also learn that she did sleep with the man teaching her English and is caught by her father who instructs Jin to regain his family's honor.  Jin is only told that he dishonored Sun's father; he doesn't know that the man slept with his wife.  Jin beats the hell out of the man and lets him live but tells him to leave the country and never come back.  A few moments later the man jumps out of the building, killing himself while holding a gift that he attempted to give Sun. I guess he couldn't live without her and the shame.

Overall, it was nice to see what happened with Sayid, Jin and Sun, but I don't really get the glass ballerina reference.  The only thing that I can come up with is that Sun isn't as pure as one may have initially thought.  We thought she wanted to get away from her asshole husband, but it's apparent that she's no innocent either.

It  is unfortunate that they lost the boat.  It would have been neat to drive home the point that they are really stuck on the island if they attempted to leave.  Plus maybe they could have wrote some adventures that took place without them walking all the time.  Oh well, the gang begins their LONG walk back to the beach where everyone else.  We'll see how many episodes it takes for them to get back.

S3: A Tale of Two Cities

The first episode of Season 3 doesn't pull any punches.  We forget all about the hatch when we are reminded, within the first five minutes, of the very first episode of LOST from the perspective of the Others.  It's a great but tragic shot of Oceanic Flight 815 breaking into pieces in the sky, but fantastic how fast Ben reacts and assigns Goodwin and Ethan their tasks.

This episode is a "Jack" episode and we are shown that he can't let go of his ex-wife and allow her a divorce.  His father tries to help him, but Jack doesn't listen and ends up attacking him and consequently Jack is arrested.  Sarah, Jack's soon to be ex-wife, posts his bail and tells him to not worry about who they were, but who they are now, a sentiment echoed by the new Other we meet for the first time in this episode, Juliet.

Juliet seems to be giving Jack some special treatment per Ben's orders.  Also, for some weird reason, Ben allows Kate some sense of "normalcy" before telling her that she will enduring two weeks of hell.  Meanwhile, Sawyer is stuck in a bear cage.  I was right there cheering with him when he figured out how to not get shocked by the machine in his cage and receive a reward.  Tom's response that it only took the bears two hours to figure it out and Sawyer's questioning of how many bears it took was some much appreciated humor to a very serious episode.  Great start to Season 3!

S2: Live Together, Die Alone: Part 2

As the boat group converges on the Other's location, it is found deserted.  Michael is not taking the main group back to where he was held, but some place else.  Just as the main group realizes this, the Others attack with stun guns.  Stun guns, fake beards, theatrics, boats, guns, cunning, who are these people?  Michael asks this question and Ben answers, "We're the good guys."  Yeah, sure they are.  If you have to say you're the good guys, you're probably not, which is a contest theme through Lost.  The Others let Hurley go to deliver a message to the rest of Losties back at the beach to not venture out that far.  Michael leaves the island with Walt on the boat as Jack, Kate and Sawyer watch.

Meanwhile, back at the Hatch, Charlie and Mr. Eko are trying to get into the blast doors with the extra dynamite from the Black Rock and end up hurting themselves more than anything.  In flashbacks we are shown more of the hatch, Kelvin using bleach to paint the map of the Dharma stations on the back of the blast doors, a task that began with Radzinsky, who blew his head off with a shotgun at some point while working there with Kelvin.  We also learn that Kelvin has been fixing up Desmond's boat and is one week away from leaving the island, but Desmond realizes that Kelvin's hazmat suit is torn and there isn't any danger outside so he follows him only to end up accidentally killing him.  Desmond rushes back to push the button to stop a "System Failure".  Thanks to the paperwork at the Pearl monitoring station, Desmond realizes that he may have crashed the Oceanic flight.

Locke, determined not to press the button, smashes the computer and allows the timer to go past zero and shit really hits the fan.  The electromagnetic properties of the area need to be discharged every 108 minutes and without discharge, all the metal starts to converge on one location, and ends up imploding the metal timer.  Desmond scrambles to get the fail safe key and find a letter from Penny he never received.  The last thought in his mind was of her as he professes his love and turns the key.  A bright white light is seen and a loud noise comes from the island as it shakes and the sky turns violet in color.

After the flash, everyone appears to be all right on the island.  Charlie appears, but Mr. Eko, Locke and Desmond are not shown.  Thier fate, and the fate of Jack, Kate, and Sawyer will be shown, hopefully in the first episode of Season 3.

Note:  Thanks to the turn of the fail safe key, the electromagnetic anomaly is detected by men hired by Penny.  Dun dun dun!  :)

S2: Live Together, Die Alone: Part 1

As it was in the last season finale, so it is again in the 2nd season finale:  the Losties are split into 3 groups.  The main group (consisting of Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer) are on their way to the Other's camp with Michael.  The 2nd group (Sayid, Jin, and Sun) are on Desmond's boat to the same location to plan a surprise because the main group are walking into a trap.  The third group (Locke, Desmond, Mr. Eko, and Charlie) are having a disagreement on whether the button in the hatch should be pushed or not.  Since this is part one of two, all the pieces are put into place and the results will be shown next time.

This episode gives us flash backs of Desmond's life before the island and on the island before the Losties got there.  Widmore and Penny are introduced.  Libby shows up unexpectedly and gives Desmond a boat.  And we find out that Desmond's partner was Kelvin, the same American soldier that worked with Sayid back in Desert Storm.

Overall, there is so much going on, and so much information is shared that it's shaping up to be a pretty interesting finale.  Oh, and the most interesting "character" was introduced in this episode:  the four toed statue.  Also, what did one snowman say to the other?  Smells like carrots!  Remember that.  :)

S2: Three Minutes

In this episode, I don't recall any off island flash backs, but we were shown what was happening with Michael two weeks before he came back.  It put together the pieces that his obvious motivation was to save his son.  He was given a list of people to bring back and after some work, Michael finally has the four people he needs, but Sayid believes something fishy is up.

The Losties bury Ana Lucia and Libby, Locke takes off alone into the jungle, Mr. Eko takes over pushing the button, and Charlie attempts to finish the church by himself as he finally disposes of the heroin.  During the burial a boat appears!  Is it rescue?  Spoiler alert!  It's Desmond!

Overall, this episode doesn't feel like it, but it's actually the first episode before the finale.  Everyone is put in place like chess pieces.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out because I don't remember all the events fully.

S2: ?

Locke and Mr. Eko find the question mark location on the map that was drawn on the hatch door.  Inside was the Pearl Dharma station, a station were a person monitored the other stations or maybe just the Swan.  I don't remember exactly, but the point that was made was that the button was an experiment, rats in a maze with no cheese as Locke put it, deteriorating his faith even further in the button.  Thankfully, this trip renewed Mr. Eko's faith and he would push the button if John wouldn't.

Pre-island we see Mr. Eko taking on his role of priest very seriously, but at the same time getting some illegal documents to get to the states.  I don't know why he wanted to go to America, but who doesn't right?  Anyway, before leaving Mr. Eko meets the physic that Claire met and it was pretty much confirmed that he was a fraud.  Also before getting on the flight, the psychic's daughter confirmed that Mr. Eko would be seeing his brother again.

Overall, I forgot about this episode and even though it centered on a non main character, I enjoyed it.  With only a few more episodes left until the finale, I'm anticipating the future and I'm pleasantly surprised when I've anticipated incorrectly.

S2: Two for the Road

Yay, Michael is back!  Yay, Michael is awake!  Yay, Michael knows where the Others are!  Yay, Michael shots and kills Ana Lucia and Libby?!?  Wait, what?

In Ana Lucia's second and final flash back episode, we get to see her and Christian hanging out together and we get to learn a little more about Christian.  Since he's dead, the only way to learn more about him is his interactions with other characters.  And JUST when we start liking Ana Lucia again, boom, dead.

Oh Libby, we hardly knew ye, it was nice knowing ya!  See ya later when you're selling Desmond a boat, maybe, for no reason whatsoever except to drive the fan boys crazy?  Good job writers!

S2: S.O.S.

S.O.S. - Save Our Show, I kid, but on second watch the second season has had some good moments but is no where near the quality of the first season.  The writers did a great job in the first season building up the hatch and Locke's involvement and now, thanks to Ben planting the seed of doubt in Locke's head, Locke is done with the hatch.  He's lost his faith and he's chasing the image revealed to him in "Lockdown" when the black light came on in the hatch.  His journey didn't end at the hatch like he thought, but continues on, he just didn't know it.

At the center of this episode were Rose and Bernard.  Bernard takes a dying Rose to be healed by some healer in Australia who can't heal her because it's not the right energy.  She then reveals that the island healed her and she knows that the island has healed others as well, i.e. Locke who she saw in a wheelchair before boarding the flight.

Overall, this was another lack luster episode that tried to have a touching moment at the end showing all the couples together.  Michael has returned in the final moment of the episode to move the story along.  There are only 5 more episodes left and I'm definitely looking forward to putting Season 2 behind me and moving onto Season 3.