TGLR - SEASON ONE - EPISODES 13, 14, 15

[fernandito]

Episode #13 - "Hearts and Minds"
Shannon's relationship with Sayid gets more personal. Locke and Boone try to get into the hatch they found. Boone wants to tell Shannon about the hatch and Locke gives him a drug that causes him to hallucinate, sending him on a mental trip which eventually helps him to let go of Shannon. In flashbacks, Boone tries to get rid of Shannon's abusive boyfriend by paying him off, only to find out that it was all a scam perpetrated by Shannon, who proceeds to sleep with Boone.

Episode #14 - "Special"
An annoyed Michael confronts Walt, who has been studying knife skills under Locke, and enlists his help in scavenging parts from the wreck to build a raft, but Walt wanders off. Michael and Locke track Walt into the jungle and find that he has been trapped by a polar bear. Michael risks his life to save Walt and they reconcile. Flashbacks show that when Walt was only a few months old, his mother accepted a job in Amsterdam and took her child with her. She later married a co-worker named Brian when Walt was two and refused to let Michael speak to Walt. Years later, Susan dies and Brian does not want custody of Walt because the boy is "different." Later, Locke and Boone find Claire stumbling out of the jungle.

Episode #15 - "Homecoming"
Claire is back among the survivors, but still has no memory beyond the plane flight. Ethan confronts Charlie, threatening to kill the other castaways one by one until he gets Claire back. Despite security measures, Scott is murdered. With the guns from the briefcase and Claire as bait, Jack, Kate, Locke, Sayid and Sawyer set a trap and Ethan is captured. Although the plan is to keep Ethan alive, a vengeful Charlie kills him. In flashbacks, Charlie tries to get drug money by stealing from a rich girl.

[fernandito]

Re: Episode #13

What does everyone think of the part where Locke asks Boone how he felt after he thought Shannon was really dead and he responds "relieved" ?

Oh, and I've always loved the brawl between Jack and Ethan in EP15, can't wait to watch that again.

[Darkthoughts]

Dude, I am sucking big time!! I will get caught up by the weekend for realz!

[fernandito]

I'll hold you to that ! :D

[Darkthoughts]

What does everyone think of the part where Locke asks Boone how he felt after he thought Shannon was really dead and he responds "relieved" ?
I loved that part because, not only does it go on to free Boone of Shannon, but it frees Shannon from her destructive obsession with Boone (that she's heretofore been able to turn around and put solely on him).

It's also a bit creepy on the rewatch, knowing what happens to Boone, because I wonder at what point Locke realises Boone may become a sacrifice, because on some level I think he's accepted that eventuality long before it happens. I mean, he never lets himself bond with Boone in the way say that he does with Walt. Locke likes to teach Walt and guide him, whereas Boone is never more than a lackey to Locke, who he expects to blindly follow his instructions.

[Darkthoughts]

There are some brilliant theories about Walt on this Lostpedia page: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Walt_Lloyd/Theories

Contains spoilers for all future eps!

Also check out this screen cap of Walt's comic. I noticed this on rewatching and was like OMFG!!

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c39/towerjunkie19/Castledome.jpg

To me, it's such a huge foreshadow of the ending. There's the point where Desmond returns and says the island is like a snow globe, then also when Jacob and the MiB use the domed bottle of wine to show what the island is like.

[Mattrick]

Hearts and Minds and Special are two of my favourite episodes from the first season. I don't really see that as foreshadowing to the ending. They obviously didn't know how the show would wrap up when this episode aired. Always just seemed to be a homage to The Dark Tower as they are huge fans of the series. The bottle wasn't the important part of MIB/Jacobs presentation of what the island was, it was the cork. If this is anything at all foreshadowing, it's the island inverted, what would come up from beneath the island if it came to that.

[Darkthoughts]

Damon and Carlton have said they always knew how they would end the series and what the island is, it's just a chunk of the inbetween stuff that they weren't so clear on in the first few seasons.

But yeah, what you've said also - about the bottle/cork - you get the general gist of what I saw in the image though was my point :)

[Ricky]

Are you sure, Lisa? In the interviews I always saw/read, they always said that they know what the final image of the series is, just not totally sure of how they were going to get there.

[Darkthoughts]

Yep, I'll have to see if I can find it, but they said that - looking at the series like a journey, they knew the starting point, the final destination and a couple of necessary stops along the way. Plus, in the podcasts in particular they were always saying "There will be moments at the end where you will look back on what we did in the earlier seasons and say - wow! They really did know where they were going with that!"

[DoctorDodge]

Right, here's some long overdue thoughts from me on these 3 eps.

Hearts and Minds
I like that the Boone/Shannon relationship is finally fully explored here, and we get to find out just why Boone is always so obsessed and in many ways conflicted about his "sister". The final line that he "felt relieved" when he thought she had died? Considering how he constantly couldn't decide if he loved or hated her (with the revelation that the two had slept together before Shannon had decided immediately afterwards that she "wanted to go back to how it was before" being a perfect example), I couldn't say i was surprised to hear him say that in the first place. It's a good moment that gave a small kind of resolution to that sub-plot. 7/10

Special
And here we find out just how much of a weird kid Walt is! Another good relationship building episode that's a good example of what Lost does best: explore some interesting character backstory, essentially showing just how the problems they carried with them on the plane started before being fully resolved in the present on the island. If there's one problem I have with the story, it's what i've just described: after just 14 episodes, Lost is already becoming a little bit predictable and formulaic. However, that can be said of many shows: what really matters is how good and interesting the show can make each story whilst sticking to that formula. This one, whilst good at including a little more mystery and moving the relationship between Michael and Walt from near strangers to father and son, isn't great: it's not particularly memorable, at least not compared to many other episodes of the season. At least, not until that cliffhanger, anyway. 7/10

Homecoming
Yay! The return of Claire! And Ethan! Now this is a lot more like it: not just another mere character development ep but one that, for once, also builds significantly on the plot. Ethan not only makes a great villain, being cold, calculating and ruthless, (making it almost a shame that he gets killed off by Charlie so soon, really but thank God for the flashback eps, at least) and really shows off just how much of a danger "the Others" are. The ending between Charlie and Claire, showing just how much he not means to her but how quickly she can trust him all over again, just with something as simple as "peanut butter", was a great moment that made something so significant out of something so tiny, something the writers of Lost were usually excellent at doing. 9/10

[DoctorDodge]

EDIT: darnit, bloody double post!

[fernandito]

Right, here's some long overdue thoughts from me on these 3 eps.

Hearts and Minds
I like that the Boone/Shannon relationship is finally fully explored here, and we get to find out just why Boone is always so obsessed and in many ways conflicted about his "sister". The final line that he "felt relieved" when he thought she had died? Considering how he constantly couldn't decide if he loved or hated her (with the revelation that the two had slept together before Shannon had decided immediately afterwards that she "wanted to go back to how it was before" being a perfect example), I couldn't say i was surprised to hear him say that in the first place. It's a good moment that gave a small kind of resolution to that sub-plot. 7/10


The "I felt relieved" part was ... intense. I get chills every time I watch that scene. To say that you're relieved to see your sister die because she was that much of an emotional and psychological burden on you, that's extreme.




Special
And here we find out just how much of a weird kid Walt is! Another good relationship building episode that's a good example of what Lost does best: explore some interesting character backstory, essentially showing just how the problems they carried with them on the plane started before being fully resolved in the present on the island. If there's one problem I have with the story, it's what i've just described: after just 14 episodes, Lost is already becoming a little bit predictable and formulaic. However, that can be said of many shows: what really matters is how good and interesting the show can make each story whilst sticking to that formula. This one, whilst good at including a little more mystery and moving the relationship between Michael and Walt from near strangers to father and son, isn't great: it's not particularly memorable, at least not compared to many other episodes of the season. At least, not until that cliffhanger, anyway. 7/10


Agreed , this episode was lacking a bit outside of the Michael/Walt dynamic. Still, that aura of mystery surrounding Walt and his 'specialness' is a great deal of what makes LOST so great.



Homecoming
Yay! The return of Claire! And Ethan! Now this is a lot more like it: not just another mere character development ep but one that, for once, also builds significantly on the plot. Ethan not only makes a great villain, being cold, calculating and ruthless, (making it almost a shame that he gets killed off by Charlie so soon, really but thank God for the flashback eps, at least) and really shows off just how much of a danger "the Others" are. The ending between Charlie and Claire, showing just how much he not means to her but how quickly she can trust him all over again, just with something as simple as "peanut butter", was a great moment that made something so significant out of something so tiny, something the writers of Lost were usually excellent at doing. 9/10

I love, love, loved Ethan in the role of the cold, menacing villian. The peanut butter scene you mentioned is one of the highlights of the entire series IMO, so subtle and yet so very memorable and powerful. It was a perfect summary of Claire and Charlie's relationship in the simplest of terms. Great episode.