"Lost" and Found: Chapter 2: Relations With Each Other

6. House of the Rising Sun:

As the next chapter of Lost begins, we learn more about the less significant characters in the first season of the series. This one gives us a closer look at our Korean pals, Sun and Jin. They’re definitely just as flawed as the rest of the group. As a matter of fact, concerning the ongoing mythology of the series, they may have been optioned by Jacob to rule the island as a team. Their flaws are as a whole, and they really aren’t anything without each other.

The ensemble essence of the show continues on through here, with some brilliant bits including Locke and Charlie, Kate and Jack, and even Michael and Walt. John Locke continues to be the most impressive character on this show, giving Charlie some early guidance in the series. You might wonder why nothing ever really happened with Jack and Kate, and that’s the biggest inconsistency with this show. Maybe it’s just how irrational a character Kate is. Maybe it’s Jack being so damn distracted.

7. The Moth:

This is actually the first episode of Lost I saw, catching up on it before the final season premiered. This is what got me so invested in the show, and it made me grow a deeper sympathy for Charlie than most people. He always stuck me as such a tragic character, and from the beginning of the series, we know that most of these characters have sad deaths coming for them. It’s really heartbreaking in a way, and Charlie is the perfect example of that. He’s not a bad person, but due to the circumstances placed before him, he’s gone down a path of destruction.

We also get our split up group back together after Jack gets trapped in the cave. We see Michael and Jin, who were pit against each others throats one episode ago, working together to get their leader free. Charlie saves the day in the end, but it’s nice to see all that teamwork. There’s the side plot of Sayid attempting to find the signal, but that isn’t nearly as urgent or important as the main story. Ultimately this show isn’t about getting off the island at all.

8. Confidence Man:

We’re coming full circle on the main characters of this show, now focusing on the suspected bad guy of the series, Sawyer. After seven episodes painting him out to be complete a*hole, he gets a certain degree of justification for who he is in his flashback. I must credit the writers for coming up with such an amazingly detailed show. Now we have six characters with such dynamic background stories (five if you’re not a fan of Kate) and this is just the tip of the iceberg. We haven’t even met Mr. Eko, Ben Linus, Desmond Hume, or Ana Lucia yet.

This episode, like most of the first season, is a masterstroke, if only for James Ford catching the sight of that little kid in the flashback. You have to be stone cold not get a deep sad pit in your stomach at that sight. We are then led into Sayid’s story for the next episode, with his anger getting the best of him. We get a glimpse of him seeing Shannon, and if you believe in their relationship like the writers did, it had deeper meaning for you. Either way, Sayid going on his own little walkabout at the end of this installment is the beginning of an expansion of the mythology of the island.

9. Solitary:

Finally we get to the Iraqi torturer with a heart, and the flashback we’ve been waiting for. It doesn’t quite deliver the thrills of the first eight episodes, but it isn’t meant to. This one is actually a bit of a relief. Sayid meets the French woman from the transmission, Danielle Rousseau, and we learn about the whispers and the others, two mysteries that will play out in a very big way over the next few years. Sayid went out to expand their knowledge of the island, and he kind of did.

As for our main group, there isn’t so much of an internal struggle as there was a bit of a vacation. Hugo figures that everybody is stressed out of their mind, so he sets up a golf course for people to have fun. Hugo is really one of the underrated characters of this show, and he knows how to take care of people. And then the golf-off ends abruptly and we never learn what happens. That ending remains one of the biggest mysteries of Lost for me.

10. Raised by Another:

Let me get this episode out of the way, because the land mark tenth episode of this series is kind of corny and disappointing. There’s psychics, weird nightmares, pregnancy scandals, and creepiest of all, Ethan Rom. This is a huge black mark of this otherwise great series. The ending of this one feels so rushed and ridiculous. Claire’s flashbacks reveal that there may be a higher knowledge that put them on the island, but it’s mostly just stupid. This could’ve been a better episode, but it wasn’t. This chapter’s ending is a real disappointment.

11. All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues:

Fortunately enough, Raised by Another isn’t the end of this chapter. Chapter two ends with another Jack-centric installment that reveals a little more of the nature of Jack’s relationship with his father. Now that the flashback’s aren’t focusing on how they got to the island, their actually a little more creative. Jack’s conflict with his father is a very interesting part of this episode, and Christian Shepherd has definitely made his share of mistakes. As interesting as that aspect of the story is, there’s still much more pressing matters at hand.

Ethan Rom has kidnapped Claire and Charlie, and Jack, Kate, Locke, and Boone go after them. This leads to a number of talking points, like Jack and Locke’s first big argument. Jack knows that it’s his fault for upsetting Claire, and he’s not going to stand back and let somebody else take care of it. At the same time, Locke realizes that if Jack dies, they will all die very quickly without a doctor. Locke is a hunter and a leader, while Jack has too many issues (Daddy and otherwise) to keep a level head in the face of such trauma.

However the best part of this episode is what happens when they find Charlie. Our favorite former drug addict is found hanging by his neck in a tree, a haunting image that’ll be hard to get out of your head. They really sell that this may very well be the end of Charlie, but Jack isn’t willing to give up. In one of the most amazing miracles of this show, Jack never gives up and brings Charlie back, beyond all hope. It’s one of those overjoyed and beautiful moments that gave me such faith in this show. Even when somebody doesn’t die, they milk the emotional value for all they can. That is the end of this chapter of Lost.