1.01 - Pilot, Part I

Recap: After their plane crashes, a group of survivors from Oceanic Flight 815 struggle to orient themselves on a mysterious island. The plane broke into three parts, with our survivors coming from the center of the plane. We also meet the show’s trademark flashback technique, in which we experience the moments leading up to the crash. At the cockpit, Jack, Kate, and Charlie meet the pilot, who tells them they’re so far off-course that rescue efforts will take a while, but he’s quickly killed by the thing that makes the strange noises.

Thoughts: I don’t think any of us were ready for a television experience quite like this one when it debuted on 9-22-04. The opening plane crash is at once disorienting and terrifying, getting us ready for the ride we’re about to undertake. The series starts strong with a well-balanced play of fleshed-out characters and mysterious suspense. As half of the pilot, LOST is off to a swimming start.

Favorite moment: Boone suggesting an emergency tracheotomy; Jack pauses and says “Yeah, good idea, you go get me a pen!” Later in the episode, Boone dashes in with a handful of pens.

Characters introduced (in order):

• JACK, male lead, fearless leader, and physician
• VINCENT, the slightly mysterious dog
• CHARLIE, British rocker
• JIN, overprotective Korean man
• MICHAEL
• SHANNON, conceited valley girl
• LOCKE, mysterious bald man
• CLAIRE, pregnant girl
• BOONE, helpful realist with some connection to Shannon
• HURLEY, chubby comic relief
• ROSE, mysterious older black woman
• KATE, female lead and romantic interest
• SAWYER, mysterious cowboy
• SAYID, mysterious Arab
• WALT, Michael’s son
• SUN, Jin’s wife
• CINDY, flight attendant (flashback only)
• THE PILOT

What we learned:

• We got introduced to a lot of main characters (as well as their basic personalities) and the primary conflict of the show – the plane crash on a strange island and the ensuing struggle to survive.
• We got a basic theory of how the plane crashed – Jack suggests it was an air pocket and turbulence. By the end of Season Two, we’ll know how wrong he was.
• We also learned that the plane is a thousand miles off course, so rescue is a long way away.
  

Questions:

• Why hasn’t anyone come to rescue them?
• How does Kate know the man sitting next to her?
• What the heck are these strange noises on the island, and how are they related to the falling trees? What killed the pilot?
• Why was the pilot killed?
  
• Why does Locke sit by himself thinking all the time?
• What’s Charlie hiding?
• Why doesn’t technology work on the island?

Things that are going to be important in Season Six:

• Jack’s idea about fear and how you just count to five and then push the fear away has come up a couple of times, so it’s probably a safe bet that this’ll reappear.
• Jack says he took flying lessons. Will this come up?
• Locke’s ideas of rebirth – he treats the sudden rainstorm like a baptism – keep coming up. Who will be reborn?
• The thing that makes the strange noises, we know by now, is “the black smoke monster.” We know nothing else beyond that, but its appearances in later seasons – especially in Season Five – tell us that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the monster.