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.