Lost and Found: Chapter 3: Taking it Back

Whatever The Case May Be: Leave it to a Kate-centric episode to drain your faith in a series. After a good run of spectacular episodes, Lost drifts into a more tedious and sluggish chapter of the series. It begins with this meaningless story about Kate and a team robbing a bank vault, for some reason that we will eventually realize. The main conflict of this episode is Kate and Sawyer fighting over who will get the titular briefcase. Only time will tell if it amounts to anything, but right now, it doesn’t.

Hearts and Minds: Once again, we have another episode where absolutely nothing happens to move the plot forward. Of all the background checks Lost has done, Boone and Shannon’s is one of the least interesting. We get that they’re both superficial twits, and the island storyline doesn’t do anything to aid that. It’s all just a fever trip of Boone’s influenced by Locke’s infamous island putty. So it’s not at all Lost’s finest hour.

Special: Things finally pick up a bit, and we finally learn the origins of Michael and Walt’s relationship. Michael has been one of those characters who are hard to get behind, because he seems so forceful and unreasonable. However, he’s had good reason to be. He lost his first chance at being a father, but now he gets another chance on this island. We finally get another threat to one of our characters, and it’s brilliant to see the father-son team finally coming together. Still, I have absolutely no clue why Walt is so special.

Homecoming: After watching this episode, I kept asking myself why the producers of Lost didn’t think so fondly of it. Events move forward dramatically, and we get closure to a suspended plot string of the series. Then again, there are plenty of flaws to this episode. Claire’s sudden loss of memory does seem unnecessary, as she acts completely the same. However, we get some more character building flashbacks for Charlie, and the action picks up and leads to final standoff between Jack and Ethan. Still,

how did Charlie get a gun?

Outlaws: Sawyer is back, and we finally learn exactly why he was in Australia, and what he did there. It’s somewhat satisfying and infuriating when more happens in the flashback than on the island. Sawyer looks for revenge on the boar that stole his tarp, while in the flashback, Sawyer seeks revenge on the man who killed his father. This leads to a surprise encounter with Jack’s father Christian, who Sawyer meets in a bar. Eventually we’ll learn just how many people Christian came in contact with.

In Translation: After looking at how controlling Jin has seemed over the past sixteen episodes, one response has emerged as the majority: Dick! However, as they did with Michael, we finally get to sympathize with his character. This is mostly a companion piece to House of the Rising Sun, except so much more happens here. There is another conflict with Michael and Jin, and somebody does learn that Sun speaks English. Unfortunately, that somebody is Jin. I always enjoyed Jin as a character more than Sun, and this episode is one of the reasons why.

Numbers: There’s been quite a lot of brooding going on, and nothing much has come of it. Nothing much comes of this episode, but it’s still a sprightly change of pace for the series, and I quite enjoyed the dark comedy of Hurley’s predicament. He’s one of the most lovable characters on this show, despite the fact that he might get some of our favorite characters killed. Of course, there’s the main plot line of returning to Danielle to retrieve a battery. There’s some nice emotional play between Hurley and Rousseau at the end, and it really ties everything up nicely. Then, that sight of the hatch as the end adds another layer of mystery onto the island.

Deus Ex Machina: Closing out another slow chapter of Lost is our second look into the pre-island life of John Locke. We do not learn exactly how he got in that wheelchair, a story better left for another time, but we find out that he wasn’t always in one. We learn of Locke’s father, who’s been hinted at in previous episodes, but not elaborated on until now. For so long we’ve seen John being the guiding force for our castaways, going bravely into the night to save our group. Now, we see him, for the first time, afraid and alone.

We get some comic relief in this episode, mainly surrounding Sawyer suddenly figuring out he’s farsighted. However, the main plot of this episode remains the same. We get our first look into John Locke’s head, and he sees some messed up things. It’s a miserable life he leads, and things are about to get worst. With Boone’s death, anger and distrust is on the horizon for our characters. The next chapter will undoubtedly shatter Locke’s position as the savior of our castaways, as this episode shattered the facade of Locke being a fearless leader.