"Lost"
Pilot: Part 2 (2004)

Director:

J.J. Abrams

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (story) and
J.J. Abrams (story) ...

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

29 September 2004 (Season 1, Episode 2)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

As Jack, Kate and Charlie return from their little "trip", Sayid is trying to fix the radio. He goes together with Kate...

Plot Keywords:

Labrador Retriever | Mysterious Plane Crash | Mysterious Island | Number Stations | Head Butt

Cast

Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Maggie Grace	...	Shannon Rutherford
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Malcolm David Kelley	...	Walt Lloyd
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Harold Perrineau	...	Michael Dawson
Ian Somerhalder	...	Boone Carlyle
Fredric Lehne	...	Marshal Edward Mars (as Fredric Lane)

Runtime:

40 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Korean | French

Certification:

UK:15 | Venezuela:PG-13 (DVD rating) | Portugal:M/12 | USA:TV-14

Company:

Bad Robot

Trivia:

The case that flies out of the locker and hits Fredric Lehne on the head was made of rubber. Lane had tiny tubes hidden in his hairline which then released blood to run down his face.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the flashback sequences for both the pilot and the finale, different characters are meant to be traveling through different sections of the plane, although it appears that, with the exception of business class, the same section was used for filming but with different people. This becomes a problem when spoken lines referring to seat numbers as well as the footage from right before the crash doesn't match at all to the boarding footage in the finale.

Quotes:

Locke: You're having a bad month.

"Guys... Where are we?"

Although I'm not among those who consider "Pilot, Part 1" to be a superior episode of "Lost", despite it being excellent, I am a big fan of the second half of the pilot, with its brilliantly multi-layered writing for the on-island events as well as the Kate and Charlie flashbacks. The subtle introduction of further character traits works excellently here- particularly for Hurley, Sayid, and Charlie.

The superlative music from Michael Giacchino helps accentuate this remarkably emotional episode of "Lost", along with J.J. Abrams' excellent direction. The performances here are absolutely superb with Harold Perrineau's Michael Dawson and Terry O'Quinn's John Locke immediately standing out in the fine ensemble cast. The relatively poorly-developed characters of Boone and Shannon are minor annoyances in an otherwise fine episode, and I grew to like both of them eventually.

I've always loved the atmosphere created in "Pilot, Part 2". "Pilot, Part 1" was about the shock of landing on this mysterious island and meeting the monster for the first time. "Pilot, Part 2" introduces the sense of wonder and anticipation that plays into later seasons of "Lost" a lot as we uncover more of the island's mysteries. In this episode it is a simple message on a loop for 16 years. Yes, 16 years. That scene is followed by the line that to this day completely defines "Lost", when Charlie says "Guys... Where are we?". It's a brilliant line, so well-placed that if you weren't hooked by "Pilot, Part 1" you definitely would be now.

The best scene of the entire two parts of the pilot is the backgammon scene between Walt and Locke, which plays brilliantly on the 'black vs. white' theme with the backgammon pieces, and introduces key character traits for both of these characters.

"Pilot, Part 2" is the episode that hooked me on "Lost". It's a masterstroke of writing and production skill. Simply phenomenal.

10/10