Lost

[Geezer]

For the first few episodes he was my favourite character, but it's been downhill from there.

I agree with you regarding Matthew Fox, it feels a bit like he was miscast, especially in the parts where he has to do 'hard man' stuff.

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His flashback stuff today did manage to totally suck me in though, I really felt for the guy

[peeveen]

maybe i'm alone on this, but i thought it was excellent.

Not alone ... I really enjoyed it also. I'm not sure why anyone who has enjoyed the series up till now would think this episode to be particularly poor.

[dc-arena]

Thought Season 3 had a great opener.

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It's still totally WTF though which is cool. There's no point in asking questions here though huh? It was odd that they when they had what we thought was an earthquake, then, what 15+ seconds later they see the plane fly over. Anyone else find that weird? Maybe the rumble/shacking was from when the plane went through the islands force field

[Concept]

The only wtf moment was

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in the first 'two minutes'.

There are three very simple ways they could have played with the audience's head which would have added something.

1) When Jack is at the AA meeting about to accuse his father and the people there turn around and say they know him, I honestly thought it was going to be a revelation where the flashbacks are being generated and controlled by his handler. It would have been a mind twister to have the past start acting in line with what's going on in the present.

2) When Julianne had access to his entire life's file I thought that had to be it... she was going to reveal his past and flashbacks weren't his own and they were generated by Dharma. But no.

or

3) Before she tries to give him food for the first time and suggests he might hallucinate... when he escapes and opens the door filled with water they could have easily made it so that he awoke back in his cell and found it was a hallucination. That in itself would have implied Dharma can control either what they see or remember.

The problem with this episode is that it highlights the frustrations in the three-pronged narrative backbone. You either have:

a) What's happening in the mundane day-to-day on the island
b) The island's backstory
c) Character flashbacks

Just like the end of Season 2, which although had some interesting things happen revealed nothing of the main points people would like information on, the whole episode was a)... Jack, Soyer and Kate just getting through a hard day-to-day struggle (in terms of activity) that reveals very little of what's going on. There was barely even a snippet in this episode that we didn't already know (we were already aware at the end of Season 2 that the 'Others' weren't savages, there might have been a zoo on the island and that Henry was their leader).

The problem with the series is that it neglects the reason why most people come to it for and episode one of season three wasn't even remotely a pricktease like some of the best episodes of the first season were.

They don't need to reveal everything in a short space of time but they could have clarified or shed light on one of the few hundred or so plot threads they've already messily left hanging and have got S3 off to a better start.

[dvdmike]

Good ideas Concept but with JJ back on the show nothing is going to be easy to figure out great opener to the series

[HaHaUK]

Excellent opening, but thought the rest of the episode was a bit meh. Still leaving more questions unanswered, which I think we wont get to the bottom of until the last season

[segages]

A great first 5 minutes

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and then more of the same from last time. All the caged **** was odd and I could do with less Jack crap. Then 'Henry Gale' aka Ben(?) said he wanted to make Kate feel good as the 'the next two weeks will be difficult' was a proper tease.

Still, we'll be back for more.

[buster_broon]

Thought Season 3 had a great opener.

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It's still totally WTF though which is cool. There's no point in asking questions here though huh? It was odd that they when they had what we thought was an earthquake, then, what 15+ seconds later they see the plane fly over. Anyone else find that weird? Maybe the rumble/shacking was from when the plane went through the islands force field

or probably

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the pulse firing that brought the aircraft down caused the quake

good to see its meh already

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kate was told it would be a nasty 2 weeks, guess thats 20 episodes then

[VR46]

I thought it was quite a good first episode must admit.

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be interesting to see what the nasty two weeks are, wonder if that will take us up to the mid season break and be the cliff-hanger in a few weeks ?

[Soi]

It was a fantastic episode. My wife and I loved every minute of it. In my view there was no filler, and everything was interesting. The flashbacks were interesting too (

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and revealed a dark side to Jack that I think is going to get more pronounced

)

In my view, loads of things were revealed (

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the most interesting for me being that fake Henry (Ben) really is their leader, was wasn't just pretending at the end of Season 2, and that the Others have this cosy little village)

) and it posed some genuinely interesting questions. Such as:

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1) Why did fake Henry (Ben) order Ethan and the other bloke to infiltrate the two lots of Losties as soon as he saw the plane? Why are they so scared of the Losties? What do they have to hide? Were they expecting the plane crash ?was it planned?

2) I think Jack, Sawyer and Kate are all being tested. Jack's test involves the interrogation room, Sawyer's the cage. But what is Kate's test? Lou thinks that Kate is going to be treated well, but was told at the breakfast that she will choose who out of Jack and Sawyer lives.

3) Before the plane crash, why were the others just chilling and having book clubs? What are they doing on the Island?

4) How did they know all that stuff about Jack? Though, to be fair with a net connection, they could have just google'd him for all the information that they had found out (they said they had his whole life, but only talked about his job, qualification and wife's name). It isn't uncommon for American professionals to have their whole CV online.

5) And obviously, what caused the plane to just split in two in the way that it did and what was the earthquake/noise before the plane arrived?

[peeveen]

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5) And obviously, what caused the plane to just split in two in the way that it did and what was the earthquake/noise before the plane arrived?

Didn't you watch the end of season 2? The "event" in the bunker when the timer counts down to zero?

PS. So is every new series going to start with some sixties pop fluff?

[Fuddle]

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3) Before the plane crash, why were the others just chilling and having book clubs? What are they doing on the Island?

5) And obviously, what caused the plane to just split in two in the way that it did and what was the earthquake/noise before the plane arrived?

i think the answer to 5 is pretty obvious,

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we know that desmond didnt enter the numbers on the day that the plane crashed...and he certainly beleives he's responsible for it, so i assume the earthquake was the discharge which brought the plane down...i guess its just bad luck that it broke in two on the way.

with 3

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i think that the others are the leftovers from all the old hanso experiments that we hear about in the movies. their village looks ok, but all the stations look quite neglected. so perhaps they were stuck too, and just making the best of it....now the planes crashed they've been forced into resuming their work....????....or something.

[Rossco]

Its strange that they made such a big deal about it, hopefully we find out sooner rather than Series 4!

[Yoshimax]

Superb episode - Loved it I don't get some of you lot you just want it all wrapped up in an episode

I'm sure I saw the hyroglyphics at one point - May have been a sign in the hospital.

Did my eyes deceive me or was that

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Mr Beard

lying in the hospital bed in one of the scenes from Jacks flashback ?

[ascender]

Interesting episode, I quite enjoyed it. I just wish there would be some closure on at least some of the plot points though, I've lost track of the number of unanswered questions from the first couple of seasons.