Looking Back at Lost

Season two opened up with a bang.

Michael, Sawyer and Jin lost Walt to the mysterious Others, who promptly blew up their raft.  When they washed ashore we think they meet more others-but it turns out to be the Tailies.  Who are the Tailies?  Simply put, they were survivors of the crash from the back of the plane.  It was a smaller crew, many had disappeared.  They were led by the paranoid Ana Lucia.  Her paranoia was understandable, the Others had depleted the survivors.

Our heroes convinced them to return to their side of the island.  Supporting Ana Lucia were Libby, Mr. Eko and Bernard.  One of my favorite characters of season one was Rose.  She calmly waited for her husband to show up-despite Jack’s protests that he was dead.  Turns out Rose was right and Jack did not know what he was talking about.  Of course, this should have been a sign to the audience.  Jack does not know what the hell he is talking about.  Bernard was Rose’s husband.

The writers apparently thought the relationship we cared most about was the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle.  No.  I’d rather of had more episodes following Rose and Bernard.  They were clearly in love and genuinely respected each other.  We learned that Sun was pregnant-and that she had an affair with the person who taught her English…so, whose baby was it?  This was further complicated by the fact that Jin was unable to produce strong enough sperm to get Sun pregnant.

Also at the end of season one, they managed to pop the top to the hatch that John Locke had found.  Upon entering, they found a strange living unit manned by Desmond who seemed a bit… crazy.  But after he ran, leaving the survivors behind, they discovered a computer monitor where they had to enter a series of numbers every so many minutes (there was even a countdown clock)-all to save the world.  John believes this is important, while Jack thinks it is madness.

Sayid had begun a relationship with Shannon, but in a very Joss Whedon moment, Ana Lucia shot and killed her.  The last of the Tailies integrated in.  The standout character was the devout Mr. Eko, no doubt.  He walked around saying nothing, having committed to silence for a certain number of days, and he carried a big stick with Bible verses carved into it.  Eko was such an interesting character for television, because he was not typical of most religious characters.  He took Charlie under his wing and apparently had a darker past than one might have expected.  And yet, his faith never seemed false.

Hurley gets a crush on Libby, who has similar feelings.  It was rather charming to see the budding relationship.  Meanwhile, Charlie and Claire had a thing going-but Charlie screwed that up by succumbing to his heroine addition.

The other standout character was Henry Gale from Minnesota.  After being found in the jungle by Eko, he was brought back to the hatch.  After some interrogation, they started to discover that Henry Gale may not be Henry Gale.  In fact, they found out that he was Ben-one of the others.  Ben strikes a deal with Michael to get Walt back.  So, Michael helps set Ben free, and kills both Ana Lucia and Libby (who was preparing for a date with Hurley).  How much of these demises were due to outside events (both actresses had big deal DUI arrests in Hawaii) and the dictate of story is up to debate.  But it sure feels like they had more planned with the Libby storyline and then dropped it rather un-naturally.

By the end of the season, Desmond was back, unable to leave the island.  He wanted to find his lady love, Penny Widmore, daughter of mysterious Charles Widmore.  Desmond had met an older woman who seemed to share his ability to glimpse the future.  She pushed him towards a boat race that resulted in him crashing on the island.  And now he had repaired his boat, no matter how he tried he could not get away from the island.

Michael convinced Hurley, Jack, Kate and Sawyer to go with him to get Ben, claiming Ben killed Ana Lucia and Libby.  Just in case, Jack sends Sayid, Sun and Jin in Desmond’s boat.  This boat trip kicked off mass fan speculation as the boat past the remains of a statue… a three toed foot.  We had to wait three more seasons before we got to see more.

Michael led Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer into a trap.  Michael got Walt back, and Ben gave him very specific bearings so Michael and Walt could leave the island.  The Others sent Hurley a-packin’ to tell the rest of the plane crash survivors to stay away.  Meanwhile, Locke loses his faith, and decides to let the countdown… well, count down to zero.  Desmond knows this is a bad idea-why?  Desmond did that once and apparently it crashed the plane.  Eko is sure John is making a mistake, so John tricks him out of the room to lock the doors and finish the countdown.  And then things go to hell.  John is really sorry about it, but the whole place starts to go kablewy, and Desmond runs to a fail safe telling everyone else to get away.  The sky turns purple across the island.

Somewhere in the arctic, two guys are cold.  Then they see a flashing light.  They make a call, and turns out to be to Penny Widmore.  See you next season.  Uh, tomorrow.