Lost Re-view: Pilot

I've decided to watch all of Lost from the beginning, something I explain in greater detail here. Again, a reminder that if you haven't finished the series, I'm going to be spoiling things in these reviews! And the journey begins with the original pilot episode.

...except it doesn't! I mentioned the 13 "mobisodes," each a self-contained scene that slips somewhere into Lost's first three seasons. Well, the last one of those 13 episodes was called "So It Begins," and it takes place chronologically just minutes before the opening frame of the first episode.

I can't be harsh enough about this mobisode. It should be blotted out of existence. If the writers could somehow go back in time with full knowledge of where their own show would end up, able to change only one thing about the journey? I'm confident their change would be to never have made this mobisode.

It's a simple enough scene. Jack's father Christian comes across Vincent the dog into the bamboo forest on the Island. He greets the dog and tells him "my son is just over that way. I need you to go wake him up. He has important work to do." Cut to the first scene of the show, the close-up on Jack's eye as he awakens after the crash.

First of all, this scene is a blatant lie. (Though of course, the truth wasn't known to the writers at the time they made it.) We would would later (much later) learn that "Christian" is really an incarnation of the Man in Black. And while his powers may include turning into black smoke, they do not include any Dr. Doolittle-like power to talk to animals. And even if they did, there's no need for Smokey to lie to the dog and claim that Jack is "his son." And there's no "important work" for Jack to do -- not from Smokey's perspective, anyway. Basically, this scene was written under the assumption that Christian really was some kind of incarnation (or reincarnation) of Jack's actual father, and he behaves accordingly in this scene. Knowing now that's not the case, the scene makes no sense.

Worse, in cheapens the entire narrative structure of the show to include it. We now know the final frame of the final episode of Lost: a close-up on Jack's eye, closing as he dies in the same spot he first awakened on the Island. A perfect bookend to the story. Unless, of course, you drop the other bookend and shatter it!

If you didn't know about this particular mobisode until just now, I'm actually sorry I told you about it. It simply should not exist. Lost begins with the pilot episode, and that's that.

So, on with that!

I would have testified about my happy memory of sitting down to watch the two-hour Lost pilot for the first time back in September of 2004. I'd have bet money on it. And I'd have lost that bet, because every reference I can find says that it aired originally as two separate hours, during two different weeks. It's even two separate episodes on the DVD. Nevertheless, I chose to watch it all in one sitting this time around.

It's remarkable just how much about what Lost would become, what its defining characteristics would be, were present right there in the first two hours. The flashback structure was in place (albeit without the familiar whooshing sound effect to bridge in and out of them), used here to show Jack, Kate, and Charlie's perspective on the plane crash itself. Composer Michael Giacchino began his brilliant work right out of the gate, establishing at least four major musical motifs that would endure for the entire run of the show. "The monster" menaced from the forest, though was not yet revealed as black smoke.

Character was clearly demonstrated to be the major focus, even amidst all the Island weirdness (and there was plenty of that too). For every polar bear in the jungle, every mysterious distress signal on a loop for 16 years, there was a character mystery to keep equal count. What's written on the paper that Sawyer's reading? What did Kate do that had her in a U.S. marshal's custody?

In fact, character was so solid from the outset that many of the characters were already displaying traits that would define them for the bulk of the show. Hurley was already a caretaker looking after others (particularly Claire, in this episode). Michael was already spending almost every moment running around looking for Walt. (His first line of the first episode? "Walt! Walt!!") Sawyer is already calling people names (though he would do a lot better than "Lard-O," given time.)

But one character really stands out as being quite inconsistent with how we would later know her: Kate. The Kate of the pilot is a much weaker woman than the one we would come to know over six years, or for that matter, even by the end of the first year. She's nervous about stitching up Jack's wound. She seems far more terrified of the monster than Jack or Charlie. She's uncertain how to unload a gun (though you could claim that this was just an act, trying to maintain a "cover" at this point in time). Make no mistake, she doesn't come off as a helpless damsel in distress. (No, we had Shannon around for that!) But she's rather mousy compared to the character she would become. Perhaps that just says that no matter how hard killing a man and going on the run is, how much that would change you, being on the Island is harder and will change you more. (And I believe that.)

Some people expressed frustration with Lost over the years at the way that characters would often hold back information. (Well, the frustration I think was more with the other characters, who wouldn't demand the full truth from the info-holders.) This "secret agenda" element was baked right there in the pilot too. When Jack, Kate, and Charlie all head off into the jungle to look for the cockpit, they're all doing it for different reasons. Only Jack is operating at face value, actually looking for a radio to send a distress signal that will help the whole group. Kate's really just wanting to keep close tabs on any potential rescue, to keep her secret safe and make sure no one knows or learns that she's a fugitive. And Charlie's just in it to retrieve his drugs from the lavatory.

Behind the scenes, there were some things set from day one too. Damon Lindelof, one of the two show runners that saw Lost through all the way to the end, co-wrote the pilot episode. But in a key difference between how things began and how they ended, the other head writer, Carlton Cuse, didn't even start on the show until later in the first season.

And then there was J.J. Abrams. This was years before he directed Star Trek, or even Mission: Impossible 3, but he was still a known name from Alias and Felicity. And he got a lot of the credit for Lost for years, long past the point where he was involved with the show on any regular basis. (He was pulling away almost immediately, for the most part.)

Yet Abrams definitely was key in starting Lost on the course it would sail. The writing in the pilot bears a lot of his signatures (as one who watched those other Abrams shows can readily identify), and the entire writing staff would continue to mimic these sensibilities after he was gone. Plus, he directed the pilot episode. It not only established a look and feel that would remain basically consistent for the entire run, but was an awesome achievement just in and of itself. It was the most expensive pilot ever made by ABC, costing upwards of $10 million, and you really see it all on the screen. Sweeping shots of the beautiful Hawaii locations, clever use of visual effects...

...and that opening sequence! It feels like most of that multi-million dollar budget is right there on the screen in the extended opening, the immediate aftermath of the plane crash as Jack rushes around helping different people in the midst of complete pandemonium. What an attention grabbing start to the series!

The two hours contained strong character moments for nearly every major character. Among the highlights that would come back again later in the show: Jack tells Kate the story of his botched spinal surgery, and "counting to five" as a way to accept, but then compartmentalize, fear. Sun submits to the domineering Jin, but defiantly unbuttons the top button of her blouse when he isn't looking. Rose's thread of separation from her husband Bernard is introduced.

Random factoid that wasn't ever important later: did you know that Jack took a few flying lessons?

And yes, the first questions that would never be answered were here in the pilot as well. One is but a trifle. Why was Rousseau's repeating distress signal left running for 16 years? It seems to me like the Others would have wanted to turn that off at some point. Well, like I said, not a terribly important question to consider.

But perhaps more worth consideration: why did the smoke monster kill the Oceanic pilot? Obviously, as a writer's device at the time, it was to make the monster a credible threat to our heroes. But in the full spectrum of the series, we know that the monster was really the Man in Black, and he never acted without a reason. You have to imagine a reason here. Personally, I don't think I have one that I feel holds a lot of water, but maybe something will occur to me as I watch more episodes.

I've saved for last my pick for the coolest scene in the pilot. With the benefit of knowing the full course of the show, I believe that honor goes to the scene in which Locke explains the game of backgammon to Walt. Two opposing forces, Locke says. Five thousand years old. One light, one dark. That is the conflict between Jacob and the Man in Black, expressed in metaphor right there in the very first episode.

Now, I don't believe this was specifically planned. Even if you give the writers credit for thinking in the back of their minds that maybe the Monster might be a He and not an It, I think there's no way they knew who the hell Jacob was at this point in the game, or that the fundamental struggle on the Island was between these two brothers, several millennia old. But I think they did know that good vs. evil, light vs. dark, was going to be a major recurring theme on the show. A character's own past contrasting with his present. Maybe even the idea of "Others" on the Island in conflict with Our Heroes. They lucked out with the "thousands of years old" reference, but I think they did know the scope of the tale they hoped to one day tell, and laid a beautiful groundwork for it here in episode one.

And the scene was capped with the first of many brilliant line deliveries by Terry O'Quinn as Locke: "Do you want to know a secret?" (The miraculous recovery of his ability to walk, perhaps?)

So, wow, that was a lot. But I think it appropriate, since it was clear from the first episode that Lost was going to be a lot, offer a lot, provoke a lot of thought. The pilot episode kicked this off in perfect fashion. I rate it an unqualified A.