LOST the Re-Watch

I hadn't planned to begin re-watching my all time favorite series until mid July when I had returned from a planned trip to Alberta. My aunt and uncle are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and we've planned a little side trip to Vulcan and a stop in Calgary to visit a new friend I have met on the message boards. But the weather has been grey and cool, forcing me to remain inside and not floating in my pool.



So fasten your seat belts and put your trays in their upright position. We're about to have a bumpy landing.

This was the fourth time I've seen the Pilot episodes, and each time I found myself enraptured. If we didn't already know that there had been a plane crash, I would have wondered why a man in a suit was waking up in the middle of a bamboo forest.

The scene when Jack emerges from the forest onto the beach and it is silent with the sea lapping against the sand. It was such a serene scene that belied the tragedy that had, and was, unfolding. I still get chills as Jack turns and runs and the noise grows louder and louder until there is no mistaking the calamity.

Jack afforded himself a few seconds to gather his thoughts and then took off running. He ran from one catastrophe to another saving lives and preventing needless deaths. On after he was certain that everyone who immediately needed help had been taken care of did he find a quiet spot to tend to his own injury.

The visual shocks to the viewers just keep coming as we begin to meet the people we will come to know and Losties. Boone. Shannon. Claire. Charlie. Kate. Micheal. Walt. Locke. Sawyer. Sayid. Sun and Jin. Hurley. I know they are not in order of appearance and, in my defence, I didn't keep track of who showed up when. I claim laziness.

We all know the story, so I don't want to just do a rehash of the episode, but I'd like to point out a few things I noticed.

1. Vincent was really creepy. For a dog that had just survived a traumatic event and was separated even more from his people, he didn't seem in any hurry to find his boy. He seemed as if he had places to go and people to see. Things to do, if you will, before returning to his boy's side.

2. When Kate took the shoes from the dead body, I got the sense that she was doing what she had to do. This is important for later when we see what she did to warrant being chased around the world by the Marshall. She did not want to take the shoes and it's not like the dead body was going to be using them, right?

3. I'm not going to talk about Locke's weird orange smile. It still creeps me out and it was the scene that began my growing distrust of the character.

4. Sawyer is seriously suffering from a major inferiority complex and dislikes and distrusts authority figures. How ironic considering he becomes Head of Security for Dharmaville. A position steeped in authority. I didn't dislike him but I didn't like him either. I'm sensed his early scenes, shooting the polar bear, fighting with Sayid and butting heads with Jack, were forced and awkward. Almost as if he wanted to agree with them but just couldn't bring himself to do it on principal.

5. Jin was a real jerk to his beautiful wife and I loved the scene when he takes the sliced urchin and offers it to the other survivors. Sun glares at his back and undoes the button. It was our first hint that this was a woman who didn't like the man who was her husband. I wondered why she was married to him and tolerated him.

6. Hurley is just so affable. The exchange between Sayid and him was classic. It revealed to us the scope of Hurley's nature. His acceptance is personal and not based on outside influences. I think he also liked Sayid because Sawyer didn't, and Hurley was not feeling the love for our future LaFleur after the sweet nothings he had sent his way.

7. When I first saw this show I knew there was something off about Charlie but until I actually saw him with doing heroin I didn't guess. Watching again, I kicked myself for missing the obvious clues.

8. This is my last point. The trek to the cockpit and then the trek to send the SOS transmission was indicative of what was to come. As our survivors spend more time on the island they will venture further into the jungle. They will encounter beings that defy the bounds of their reality, meet Others who will terrorize them and, as time passes, they will come to think of the island as their home. Some will make it. Some will not. Some will get to go home. Some will not. But until that point I'm going to enjoy the ride.

I have a few questions and if anyone can answer them, please do so.

Why didn't any of the passengers know that the plane had changed course? Wouldn't they have felt the plane banking and turning? I don't fly very often, but I certainly feel it when the plane banks either left or right.

Why didn't anyone see Sawyer taking the gun and badge off the injured Marshall?

Did they take the bodies off the beach and put them back into the plane for safe keeping?

That giga spot light that Sawyer used to seriously tick off the boar, where did it come from?

Why didn't Gary Troupe have a red shirt on when he was sucked into the engine?