Episode Analysis of 1.01 & 1.02 "Pilot (Parts 1 & 2)"

WARNING: If you have not already seen all of LOST, please DO NOT READ THIS.

My LOST re-watch and episode analysis will include major details from the entirety that is LOST, and will be written with the perspective of having seen everything already. You will be SPOILED if you read any further. It is far better if you learn the story of LOST for yourself, as it is meant to be seen. Trust me on this, and don't say that I didn't warn you first. Seriously. Stop it. Now. Go watch it.

To read my original posts on these episodes, please refer to Pilot, Part 1 & Pilot, Part 2. It's insane how long my posts have gotten since then.

The episodes Pilot (Parts 1 & 2) were written by J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, and were directed by J.J. Abrams. They originally aired separately, on September 22nd, 2004 and September 29th, 2004. Despite what everyone might think, these are the only two episodes of LOST written and/or directed by J.J. Abrams. Damon Lindelof steered the ship when J.J. left. Give credit where credit is due.

This is a Jack Shephard, Kate Austen, and Charlie Pace flashback-centric episode.

We begin with the opening of Dr. Jack Shephard's eye, which is quite moving when looking back at the entire series of LOST in hindsight. When you realize that it ended where it all began, it is a chilling moment to watch this scene again.

Jack Shephard wakes in the jungle, in a bamboo forest. There is a dog nearby, who sees him and runs away. He gets up slowly and painfully, finds little airplane bottles of alcohol in the jacket-pocket of his Armani suit.

There is a mysterious white tennis shoe hanging from a tree.

Jack runs through the jungle and arrives at a beach. There is a quiet moment of peacefulness, and then, the storm emerges. Jack suddenly hears screaming coming from nearby. He runs onto the beach where he sees the wreckage of a plane, surrounded by wounded survivors.

Jack runs into the burning wreckage to help the survivors. He asks a bald man to help him pull another man who is trapped underneath the plane. Then he helps a pregnant woman who is having contractions on the beach.

JACK: "Hey, you, give me a hand! You, come on! Come over here, give me a hand! [A group of redshirts and John Locke gather around to lift the metal piece that's trapping the man.] On the count of three: One, two, three."

[Jack pulls the man out from under. One leg is bloody. Jack starts ripping the man's pants to get to the wound. Jack uses his tie as a tourniquet.]

CLAIRE: "Help! Please, help me! Help me, please. Help me!"

[Jack sees Claire, who is is pregnant and on her hands and knees.]

JACK: [to a redshirt and Locke.] "All right, get him out of here! Get him away from the engine! Get him out of here!"

[He runs over to Claire through a lot of wreckage.]

CLAIRE: "Help me, please. I'm having, I'm having contractions."

JACK: "How many months pregnant are you?"

CLAIRE: "I'm, I'm nearly eight months."

John Locke and another man are carrying the tourniquet man away from the wreckage while someone walks in front of the engine. Locke stops to warn the man, but he has really bad timing.

LOCKE: "Hey! Hey, hey, hey, get away from there!"

[The man stops to hear what Locke is saying, and gets sucked into the engine and the engine explodes.]

And that's all she wrote for Gary Troup.

Jack tells Claire that she's going to be okay, but that she has to sit absolutely still, while he watches Boone do CPR on Rose incorrectly. Jack puts Hurley on pregnant chick duty. He tells him to get Claire away from the fumes and that if her contractions occur any closer than three minutes apart, to call out for him.

HURLEY: "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

Jack runs to help Boone not kill Rose. Someone get Boone away from Rose now, please. I don't want her to die.

JACK: "Stop! Her head's not tilted far back enough. You're blowing air into her stomach."

BOONE: "You sure?"

[Jack starts giving her mouth-to-mouth.]

BOONE: "That's exactly what I was doing. I'm a lifeguard. I'm licensed."

JACK: "Yeah, well, you need to seriously think about giving that license back."

BOONE: "Maybe we should do one of those hole things. You know, stick the pen in the throat?"

JACK: "Yeah, good idea. You go get me a pen."

While Boone is looking for a damn pen in the middle of a plane crash, Jack actually saves Rose's life. Jack then hears a noise, and notices the unstable wing of the plane hanging in the air, right on top of where Claire and Hurley are sitting. Jack dashes across the plane-wrecked beach, to warn them to get out of the way. They get away just in time, but not before another awesome, but completely unnecessary explosion. A huge piece of burning wreckage lands right next to where Charlie is standing. He seems pretty unfazed by it.

JACK: "Stay with her."

HURLEY: "Dude, I'm not going anywhere."

[Jack, sort of stumbling around the beach, takes a break and looks into the fuselage.]

BOONE: [Walking up holding out a handful of pens.] "I didn't know which one would work best."

JACK: "They're all good. Thanks."

Jack looks through a suitcase and finds a sewing kit. He walks away to a secluded area on the beach and removes his jack and shirt, exposing a large gash on the side of his back. A woman comes walking out of the tree line of the beach, rubbing her wrists. Jack asks her if she's ever patched a pair of jeans. She says she made the drapes in her apartment. Jack asks her if she wouldn't mind sewing his wound for him. He tells her that he would, that he's a doctor, but he just can't reach the wound on his back. She's reluctant, says that with the drapes, she used a sewing machine, but she finally agrees to help him out.

JACK: "No, you can do this. I'm telling you. If you wouldn't mind."

[Jack looks at her pleadingly.]

KATE: "Of course I will."

Jack gives her the airplane bottle of vodka from his jacket to sterilize her hands. He tells her to save him some for the wound.

The aftermath of the crash begins to die down as the survivors settle on the beach. Sawyer smokes. Claire looks out at the ocean. Hurley begins taking inventory on the food. Locke looks out at the ocean as well. Boone checks his cell phone but gets a "no service" signal.

Sayid starts a large fire, and asks Charlie for some help. He says that no one will see it if it isn't big.

Kate continues to sew Jack's wound.

KATE: "I might throw up on you."

JACK: [Shaking his head.] "You're doing fine."

KATE: "You don't seem afraid at all. I don't understand that."

JACK: "Well, fear's sort of an odd thing. When I was in residency, my first solo procedure was a spinal surgery on a sixteen year old kid. A girl. And, at the end, after thirteen hours, I was closing her up and I, I accidentally ripped her dural sac. Shredded the base of the spine, right where all the nerves come together. Membrane as thin as tissue. And, so it ripped open. And the nerves just spilled out of her like angel hair pasta, spinal fluid flowing out of her and I.. And the terror was just so.. crazy. So real. And, I knew I had to deal with it. (Crying.) So, I just made a choice. I'd let the fear in, let it take over, let it do its thing, but only for five seconds. That's all I was going to give it. So, I started to count: One, two, three, four, five. Then it was gone. I went back to work, sewed her up and she was fine."

KATE: "If that had been me, I think I would have run for the door."

JACK: "No, I don't think that's true. You're not running now."

Jack and Kate meet, and the "count to five" begins.

It's night, and the survivors are still settling in. Charlie sits next to Sayid, while he tapes his fingers and writes the word FATE on them.

SAYID: "You'd think they would have come by now."

CHARLIE: "Huh? Who?"

SAYID: "Anyone."

Shannon paints her toenails. Boone offers her a candy bar. Hurley passes out airplane food to everyone. He checks on Claire, and gives her two meals. Michael checks on Walt. Jin tells Sun not to leave his sight, that they need to stay together.

Jack takes care of a man with shrapnel in his side, Kate watches and asks questions.

KATE: "Do you think he's going to live?"

JACK: "Do you know him?"

KATE: "He was sitting next to me."

Jack and Kate discuss the plane crash.

JACK: "We must have been at about 40,000 feet when it happened. Hit an air pocket. Dropped, maybe, 200 feet. The turbulence was.. I blacked out."

KATE: "I didn't. I saw the whole thing. I knew that the tail was gone, but I couldn't bring myself to look back. And then the, the front of the plane broke off.."

JACK: "Well, it's not here on the beach. Neither is the tail. We need to figure out which way we came in."

KATE: "Why?"

JACK: "Because there's a chance we could find the cockpit. If it's intact, we might be able to find a transceiver. Send out a signal, help the rescue party find us."

KATE: "How do you know all that?"

JACK: "Took a couple flying lessons. Wasn't for me."

KATE: "I saw some smoke. Just through the valley. If you're thinking about going for the cockpit, I'm going with you."

JACK: "I don't know your name."

KATE: "I'm Kate."

JACK: "Jack."

[They hear a metallic sound coming from the jungle. Everyone on the beach is looking.]

SHANNON: "What was that?"

CHARLIE: "That was weird, right?"

WALT: "Is that Vincent?"

[Walt gets up and goes toward it.]

MICHAEL: [Getting up to follow.] "It's not Vincent."

[Shot of trees moving, getting smashed down.]

CLAIRE: "Did anybody see that?"

HURLEY: [in disbelief] "Yeah."

[Boone gets up, moves off.]

SHANNON: "Boone!"

[Everyone moving toward the sound, except Michael who backs off. Everyone looking out at the trees moving and getting smashed.]

CHARLIE: "Terrific."

We go into our first flashback. Jack looks out an airplane window at the clouds over the wing of the plane. A flight attendant approaches him and asks about his drink.

CINDY: "So, how's the drink?"

JACK: "It's good."

CINDY: "That wasn't a very strong reaction."

JACK: "Well, it's not a very strong drink."

CINDY: [hands him two more bottles] "Shhh. Just don't tell anyone."

JACK: "This of course breaks some critical FAA regulations."

Jack pours a bottle of vodka into his plastic cup, drinks it, and then gets up to go to the bathroom, as Charlie passes him by quickly, and flight attendants nervously follow him. Jack sits back down, as there is a bit of turbulence. He puts on his seat-belt and talks to the woman sitting across the aisle from him.

JACK: "It's normal."

ROSE: "Oh, I know. I've just never been a very good flier. My husband keeps reminding me that planes want to be in the air."

JACK: "Well, he sounds like a very smart man."

ROSE: "I'll be sure to tell him that as soon as he gets back from the bathroom."

[The plane is really shaking now.]

JACK: "Well, I'll keep you company until he does. Don't worry, it's gonna be over..."

A passenger suddenly flies out of his seat and hits the ceiling of the plane. The oxygen masks deploy and the plane starts to go down. Jack and Rose put on their oxygen masks.

On the Island, Jack looks out at the ocean as the other survivors discuss the events behind him.

ROSE: "That sound that it made, I keep thinking that there was something really familiar about it."

SHANNON: "Really? Where are you from?"

ROSE: "The Bronx."

Kate approaches Jack while he looks out at the ocean. She asks if he's ready to go. Jack says that she showed him where the smoke was coming from, that she doesn't have to go with him, but she insists. Jack says that she's going to need better shoes.

Kate takes the shoes off of one of the dead bodies, as she looks up as John Locke, who smiles at her with an orange peel in his mouth. I'm not sure if Kate is more disgusted by Locke or the dead body.

Michael, Walt, Charlie, Sayid, Boone and Shannon talk, with Hurley approaching.

HURLEY: "So, I was just looking inside the fuselage.. It's pretty grim in there. You think we should do something about the, uh … [stopping and looking at Walt] b-o-d-y-s?"

MICHAEL: "What are you spelling, man? Bodies?"

WALT: "B-o-d-i-e-s."

Sayid says it's a good idea, but of course Shannon says that they'll deal with it when they get there. Jack approaches to tell them he's going to find the cockpit of the plane. He says they're going to see if they can find the transceiver, to send a distress signal, so they can help the rescue team. He tells Boone to keep an eye on the wounded, not to let the man in the suit remove the shrapnel if he wakes up. He says the man with the tourniquet should be okay, that he stopped the bleeding. Charlie says he wants to go with, that he wants to help, doesn't want to stand around. Jack, Kate and Charlie leave on their hike to the cockpit.

KATE: "Can I ask you something?"

CHARLIE: "Me? I'd be thrilled. I've been waiting."

KATE: "Have we ever met, anywhere?"

CHARLIE: "No, that would be unlikely. I look familiar, though, right?"

KATE: "Yeah."

CHARLIE: "Can't quite place it?"

KATE: "No, I can't."

CHARLIE: "Yeah. I think I know."

KATE: "You do?"

CHARLIE: [singing] "You all everybody! You all everybody! You've never heard that song?"

KATE: "I've heard it. I just don't know what the hell it is.."

CHARLIE: "That's us. Drive Shaft. Look, the ring—second tour of Finland. You've never heard of Drive Shaft?"

KATE: "The band?"

CHARLIE: "Yeah, the band."

KATE: "You were in Drive Shaft."

CHARLIE: "I am in Drive Shaft. I play bass."

KATE: "Seriously?"

CHARLIE: "Yeah. Charlie. Track three. I do backing vocals."

KATE: "My friend Beth would freak. She loved you guys."

CHARLIE: "Give me Beth's number. I'll call her."

JACK: "Hey.."

KATE: "Have you ever heard of Drive Shaft?"

CHARLIE: [singing] "You all everybody. You all every.. body."

JACK: [shakes his head] "We've got to keep moving."

KATE: "They were good."

CHARLIE: "They are good. We're still together. In the middle of a comeback."

Vincent watches from a distance. Creepily. It begins to rain suddenly and heavily. Jack, Kate and Charlie walk through the jungle in the pouring rain.

CHARLIE: "Hey, guys, is this normal? Kind of, day turning into night, you know? End of the world type weather. Is this—guys?"

John Locke feels at home on the Island. I fucking love this shot.

He sits on the beach looking peaceful as the rest of the survivors run for cover from the rain. Jin yells at someone to get away from his spot with Sun. We hear the MONSTER again.

CLAIRE: "There it is again."

ROSE: "Oh my god."

Jack, Kate and Charlie arrive at the nose of the plane, which is at a forty-five degree angle in the middle of the damn jungle. They begin to climb up inside it to get to the cockpit.

JACK: "You okay?"

KATE: "Yeah. You?"

JACK: "Yeah."

CHARLIE: "I'm fine. Charlie's fine, by the way."

Jack breaks the cockpit door open, and a dead pilot comes falling out. Jack and Kate go inside the cockpit to look for the complicated walkie-talkie. Kate climbs over the pilot to look for it, when suddenly, he wakes up, gasping for air. They're both shocked that he's still alive. Jack checks on him.

PILOT: "How many survived?"

JACK: "At least forty-eight. Does anything feel broken?"

PILOT: "No, no. Just my head's a little dizzy, that's all."

JACK: "Yeah. It's probably a concussion."

PILOT: "How long has it been?"

JACK: "Sixteen hours."

PILOT: "Sixteen? Has anybody come?"

JACK: "Not yet."

PILOT: "Six hours in, our radio went out. No one could see us. We turned back to land in Fiji. By the time we hit turbulence, we.. We were a thousand miles off course. They're looking for us in the wrong place."

Seth Norris shows them where the transceiver is. Jack wonders where Charlie is, while Kate looks back into the passenger area for him. It's filled with dead bodies. Charlie comes flying out of the bathroom door, looking as fucked as he's ever been.

KATE: "What were you doing in the bathroom?"

CHARLIE: "What?"

The nose of the plane begins to shake, and they hear noises from outside. The pilot asks what the hell it is, but none of them could even explain it if they tried. They see the shadow of the MONSTER pass the window of the cockpit. The pilot climbs through the broken window to try to see it, but he gets sucked out, leaving blood splattered on the window of the plane behind him.

CHARLIE: "What the hell just happened?"

The nose of the plane begins to shake, as it falls to flat ground. They all start to leave, but Jack reaches back for the transceiver. They run outside in the jungle, Charlie falls, and Jack goes back to help him up. Kate reaches her viney, bamboo tree, all by herself. She screams for Jack, and counts to five.

Kate hears something approaching, so she decides to pounce on it. It's Charlie, and not Jack, unfortunately. Kate asks Charlie where the hell Jack is, as Charlie explains that he doesn't know, that he fell down, and Jack came back to save him, then they got separated.

KATE: "Did you see it?"

CHARLIE: "No. No! But, it was right there. We were dead! I was. An.. And, then Jack came back, and he, he pulled me up. I don't know where he is."

KATE: "We have to go back for him."

CHARLIE: "Go back? There? Kate, there's a certain gargantuan quality about this thing."

KATE: "Then don't come."

Charlie and Kate go walking through the jungle, past a huge ass tree, looking for Jack.

CHARLIE: "I heard you shout. I heard you shout Jack. I'm Charlie, by the way."

Kate looks down and sees something. It's the pilot's wings. They notice a reflection in the puddle left from the rain that has now stopped. They look up to see the pilot's bloodied body in a tree, as Jack arrives.

JACK: "It's the pilot."

KATE: "Did you see it?"

JACK: "No. It was right behind me, but.. I dove into the bushes."

CHARLIE: [pointing up to the pilot in the tree] "Guys? How does something like that happen?"

Jack, Kate and Charlie walk through the jungle, back to camp. Charlie keeps asking if there's anything on the transceiver, as Jack checks it.

JACK: "You keep asking if there's anything."

CHARLIE: "Pardon me for appearing desperate, but before the pilot was ripped from the cockpit, he did say that no one's going to find us unless we get that transceiver working. So.. Is there anything?"

JACK: "No."

CHARLIE: "Okay."

KATE: "What were you doing? In the bathroom?"

CHARLIE: "I thought you could tell. I was getting sick. Puking. My one tangible contribution to the trek."

KATE: "No. I'm glad you came, Charlie."

CHARLIE: "Every trek needs a coward."

KATE: "You're not a coward."

We go into Charlie Pace's first flashback. Charlie sits aboard the plane, while a flight attendant, Cindy, checks on him. Charlie is sweaty and shaking, like a drug addict. She notices he's suspicious, and walks away, to talk to the other flight attendants. Charlie is aware of this immediately, and he gets up from his seat, nearly running Jack over in the aisle. Cindy goes after him.

Charlie tries the first bathrooms he sees, but they're locked. He goes further up in the plane, in Business Class, passing through the row where Shannon and Boone are sitting. The turbulence begins, and Cindy stops to use the intercom to tell everyone to fasten their seat-belts. Charlie reaches the bathroom near First Class, which is open. He takes off his shoe, which has a bag of heroin in it. A male flight attendant knocks on the bathroom door, asking if he's okay. Charlie snorts some heroin, followed by wiping some on his gums. The male flight attendant demands that he open the door now. Charlie looks into the mirror, fucked out of his mind. Charlie drops the heroin in the toilet, and as he's about to flush it down, the plane hits more turbulence, and he flies up and hits the ceiling of the bathroom.

Back on the Island, Boone attempts to get Shannon involved and contributing like everyone else, but she's too busy being getting a tan and being a mega-bitch. Claire asks Shannon if Boone's her boyfriend, and she says "Yeah. My boyfriend AND my brother. That isn't creepy at all, right?"

Claire says she used to have a stomach, and Shannon asks her if she knows what her baby is. Claire says no, and that she hasn't felt it move since yesterday. It's okay, Claire. You look way hotter than that bitch, Shannon, right now. That is, until you get annoying too.

Jin is fishing, Sun is watching. Michael comes up to them to ask if they know where his damn boy is, but they don't speak English and Jin gets mad at Michael for talking to his woman. Come on, Michael. It's a damn Island. There aren't that many places to look.

MICHAEL: "Uh, excuse me. Hey, uh.. Have you, uh.. Have you seen my boy?"

Jin motions for Sun to button the top button of her sweater. Wouldn't want Michael to see any collar bone. And, Michael. You ALREADY lost Walt?!

Walt is in the jungle, close to the beach, carrying a dog collar, whispering for Vincent. He finds handcuffs on the ground. Michael comes up on Walt, yells at him for not listening, because he told him to stay on the beach. He questions Walt about the handcuffs, and gets worried.

Sayid and Sawyer fight on the beach, while everyone stands around watching. Jack is the only one to try to break it up.

SAWYER: "Son of a bitch!"

Sayid says that Sawyer thinks he's the one who crashed the plane. He says something in Arabic that I'm sure wasn't very nice. Sawyer says that Sayid was sitting in the back of Business Class the whole flight, with his hands folded underneath a blanket, and he never got up. He says for some reason, the guy next to him didn't make it.

SAYID: "Thank you so much for observing my behavior."

SAWYER: "You don't think I saw them pull you out of line before we boarded?"

Kate yells, and for some reason, everyone stops.

KATE: "We found the transceiver, but it's not working. Can anybody help?"

SAYID: "Yes. I might be able to."

SAWYER: "Oh, great. Perfect! Let's trust this guy!"

HURLEY: "Hey! We're all this together, man. Let's treat each other with a little respect."

SAWYER: "Shut up, Lardo."

JACK: "Hey! Give it a break."

SAWYER: "Whatever you say, doc. You're the hero."

Boone asks Jack if they found the cockpit, and if there were any survivors. Jack says no. Sayid says that the transceiver is a dual band, Military Spec. He says that the battery is good, but the radio is dead, that he needs some time to fix it. Rose tells Jack to check on the man with the shrapnel.

Sayid takes a look at the transceiver, while Hurley comes up to talk to him.

HURLEY: "Tsss. Chain-smoking jackass.."

SAYID: "Some people have problems."

HURLEY: "Tsss. Some people have problems? Us. Him. You're okay. I like you."

SAYID: "You're okay, too."

HURLEY: [laughs] Hurley. [He reaches out to shake Sayid's hand, then sees he's busy with the transceiver and puts it down] Uh, just.."

SAYID: [reaching to shake hands] "Sayid."

HURLEY: "How do you know how to do all that?"

SAYID: "I was a Military Communications Officer."

HURLEY: "Oh yeah? You ever see battle?"

SAYID: "I fought in the Gulf War."

HURLEY: "No way! I got a buddy who fought over there. He was in the 104th Airborne. What were you.. Air Force.. Army?"

SAYID: "The Republican Guard."

Kate is bathing herself at the shoreline, while Sun comes up to her pointing, to indicate that she is needed somewhere.

Kate talks to Sayid on the beach. Sayid says that the transceiver is working, but they're not picking up a signal because the radio isn't getting reception. He says that they could broadcast blind and hope that someone, a ship or something, would pick up their distress call, but that would be a waste of the battery, which might not last long. Sayid says that they could try getting a signal from higher ground. He points out the huge mountain behind them.

Jack is working on the Marshal, while Kate interrupts him. Kate asks if he can do anything for him, Jack says that he could pull the shrapnel out.

KATE: "But, you said yesterday that if you took it out.."

JACK: "I know. But, that was yesterday. I was hoping he'd be at a hospital by now. If I leave him like this, he'll be dead within a day. If I open him up.. If I can control the bleeding and if he doesn't go into sepsis, and if I can find some antibiotics.. He might be all right."

Kate tells Jack that she's going on a hike, that Sayid fixed the transceiver, but they can't use it from on the beach. She tells Jack that he's the one who said that they had to send out a signal.

JACK: "Look, you saw what that thing did to the pilot."

KATE: "Yeah, I did. What makes you think we're any safer here than we are in the jungle?"

JACK: "Wait for me. I don't know how long this will be.."

KATE: "Sayid said the batteries won't last."

JACK: "All right. If you see, or hear, anything.. Anything. Run."

Sun sits by the shore, while Jin cuts up some sea urchin. Sun reaches for a piece, but gets denied with a slap by Jin. Jin takes off to distribute to the others, and Sun rebels by undoing her the top button of her sweater. Jin approaches Hurley to offer him some sea urchin.

HURLEY: "What's that? What, that? What, eat that? [laughs] Dude. Dude. I'm starving.. But, I'm nowhere near that hungry. [laughs] No. No. No, thank you! No way, no." [laughs]

Walt reads a comic book with a polar bear in Spanish, Michael approaches and asks if he reads Spanish, Walt says no, that he found it. Michael tells Walt that when they get home, he'll get him another dog. This pisses Walt off, so he walks away.

Charlie goes off from the rest of the survivors and does drugs again, and Jack asks Hurley for help.

JACK: "I need you to help me go through the luggage. I need any kind of prescription medications you can find. Especially drugs that end in -mycin and -cillin. Those are antibiotics."

Shannon is upset. Maybe she should've taken a plane crash a little more seriously.

BOONE: "What are you doing?"

SHANNON: "I think I was mean to him."

BOONE: "What?"

SHANNON: "The guy from the gate.. He wouldn't let us have our seats in First Class. He saved our lives.."

BOONE: "Come on, Shannon. We're trying to clear some of the wreckage. You should help out. You're just being worthless over here."

SHANNON: "I'm being what?"

BOONE: "What do you want me to say? You're sitting on your ass staring at bodies."

SHANNON: "I've just been through a trauma here, okay?"

BOONE: "We've all been through a trauma. The only difference is, since the crash, you've actually given yourself a pedicure."

Shannon and Boone argue in front of everyone. Shannon says that it's easy to make fun of her, and tries to get attention by saying that she's going with Kate and Sayid on their hike to get to higher ground. Boone tells Kate and Sayid that's what Shannon does, that she's making really bad decisions to upset her family, which, at the moment, is him. Kate says that she doesn't think it's a good idea.

SHANNON: "What are you? Two years older than me? Please. [to Charlie] You're going, aren't you?"

CHARLIE: "Yeah, are you?"

SHANNON: "Yup."

CHARLIE: "Yeah, I'm definitely going."

KATE: "Look, everybody can come. But, we're leaving now."

CHARLIE: [to Shannon] "You couldn't tell from that, but she's actually really nice."

Sawyer smokes, as we see him sit on plane wreckage, reading "the letter" for the first time. He watches the others walking off to begin their hike. He decides to join them.

KATE: "You decided to join us."

SAWYER: "I'm a complex guy, sweetheart."

The hikers climb the steep mountain-side, as we hear the infamous Michael Giacchino "Hollywood & Vines" trekking theme for the first time. Man, I fucking love that theme.

Jack looks through luggage for a blade, and he talks to Michael.

JACK: "How's your son?"

MICHAEL: "Walt? Yeah, I think he'll be all right."

JACK: "How old is he?"

MICHAEL: "Nine.. Ten—Ten. Walt's more worried about his dog than anything. The dog was on the plane, so.. Kids, you know."

JACK: "Is it a Lab?"

MICHAEL: "Yeah."

JACK: "Yeah? I saw him yesterday, in the jungle."

MICHAEL: "What? Where?"

JACK: "Over there. Couple hundred yards in or so. He looked good."

Jack finds a straight edge razor. John Locke sits on the beach playing backgammon, and Walt curiously approaches him from behind.

WALT: "What is it, like checkers?"

LOCKE: "Not really, it's a better game than checkers. You play checkers with your Pop?"

WALT: "No. I live in Australia with my mom."

LOCKE: "You have no accent."

WALT: "Yeah, I know. We move a lot. She got sick. She died a couple of weeks ago."

LOCKE: "You're having a bad month."

WALT: "I guess."

LOCKE: "Backgammon is the oldest game in the world. Archaeologists found sets when they excavated the ruins of ancient Mesopotamia. Five thousand years old. That's older than Jesus Christ."

WALT: "Did they have dice and stuff?"

LOCKE: [nods] "Mhhm. But theirs weren't made of plastic. Their dice were made of bones."

WALT: "Cool."

LOCKE: "Two players. Two sides. One is light; One is dark.. Walt, do you want to know a secret?"

Claire sits on one of the seats from the plane, writing in her diary. Jin approaches her, offering some sea urchin. She says no at first, but then takes some. Claire feels the baby move, and she makes Jin, who tries to refuse her, feel her belly.

CLAIRE: "Oh, gosh. I just felt it. I just.. Come here, feel this. Please. [Jin resists, but Claire keeps insisting]. Please. Please. Do you feel that? There! Right there! That's a kick! There! There.. Right there's a foot! Oh no, he's, wait, he's moving around.. "He". "He". I guess I think you're a "he"."

Sawyer keeps annoying Sayid to check the damn radio, but Sayid is being practical and making sure to save the battery because they're still blocked by the mountain. As they argue, they suddenly hear a noise, and something, loudly and heavily, barreling toward them. They all scatter away, but Sawyer stands still, facing whatever is coming toward him. Kate tries to go back for him, but Sayid says to let him go, just as Sawyer takes out a gun from the back of his denims and shoots several times. A large, furry, white object drops right in front of him.

SHANNON: "That's.. that's a big bear."

BOONE: "You think that's what killed the pilot?"

[Kate looks at Charlie.]

CHARLIE: "No. No, that's a tiny, teeny version compared to that."

KATE: "Guys, this isn't just a bear. That's a polar bear."

Hurley helps Jack with the Marshal. He asks Jack if the guy is out, and Jack says that he is, but Hurley asks how he doesn't know that he won't wake up when he yanks the shrapnel out. Hurley needs to be sure.

HURLEY: "Hey, guy, are you awake? Yo, there's a rescue plane! We're saved! Yaaay! [Marshal Mars doesn't react at all.] Yeah, he's out. So—what do you want me..."

JACK: "Look, it's unlikely that he'll regain consciousness. But, the pain might bring him around. And if it does, I need you to hold him down."

HURLEY: "Uh.. I'm not so good around blood, man."

Jack tells Hurley not to look, while Hurley begins talking to himself to stay occupied. Jack begins the procedure. He pulls out the shrapnel, and the Marshal begins bleeding profusely. Hurley makes the mistake of looking at what's going on, as Jack repeatedly asks him to hand him the strips. Hurley passes out on top of the Marshal.

The hikers asses the situation with the polar bear.

BOONE: "That can't be a polar bear."

SAYID and KATE: [at the same time] "It's a polar bear."

SHANNON: "Yeah, but.. Polar bears don't usually live in the jungle."

CHARLIE: "Spot on."

SAYID: "No, polar bears don't live near this far south."

BOONE: "This one does."

SAWYER: "Did. It did."

KATE: [to Sawyer] "Where did that come from?"

SAWYER: "Probably Bear Village. How the hell do I know?"

Kate questions Sawyer about the gun, who says that he got it off one of the bodies. Shannon points out that people don't carry guns on planes.

SAWYER: "They do if they're a U.S. Marshal, sweet cheeks. There was one on the plane."

KATE: "How do you know that?"

SAWYER: "I saw a guy lying there with an ankle holster, so I took the gun. I thought it might come in handy. Guess what? I just shot a bear!"

KATE: "So, why do you think he's a Marshal?"

SAWYER: "Because he had a clip-on badge. [Sawyer holds up a badge] I took that too. Thought it was cool."

Sayid now accuses Sawyer of being the prisoner that was on the plane.

SAYID: "You found a gun on a U.S. Marshal. Yes, I believe you did. You knew where it was, because you were the one he was bringing back to the States. Those handcuffs were on you. That's how you knew there was a gun."

SAWYER: "Piss off."

SAYID: "That's who you are, you son of a bitch."

SAWYER: "Be as suspicious of me as I am of you."

SAYID: "But, you are the prisoner."

SAWYER: "Fine! I'm the criminal. You're the terrorist. We can all play a part. [to Shannon] Who do you want to be?"

Kate suddenly grabs the gun from Sawyer and points it at him.

KATE: "Does anybody know how to use a gun?"

CHARLIE: "I think you just pull the trigger."

Sayid says not to use it. Kate says that she wants to know how to take it apart. Sayid tells her to push the button on the grip to eject the magazine, but that there's still a round in the chamber. He tells her to hold the grip, and pull the top part of the gun. Kate follow his instructions. She gives the magazine to Sayid and the gun to Sawyer.

SAWYER: [grabbing Kate's arm] "I know your type."

KATE: "I'm not so sure."

SAWYER: "Yeah. I've been with girls like you."

KATE: "Not girls exactly like me."

Kate Austen walks off to have her first flashback. She's on the plane. The flight attendant asks her if she could get her a refill, but Kate says no. The flight attendant then asks the man sitting next to her if he wants a cocktail or a soda, but he asks for coffee, black. The man sitting next to Kate is the U.S. Marshal. She is the prisoner aboard the flight.

MARSHAL: "You look worried. I'd be worried too, if I was you. But, you've got to stay positive, kiddo. You know, there's always that off chance that they'll believe your story. I know I sure do."

KATE: "I don't care what you believe."

The Marshal asks Kate if she's sure she doesn't want so more juice. Kate says she's sure, as she leans down to finish what she has left, and we see her handcuffs. The turbulence begins, as Cindy speaks on the intercom, saying that the Captain has put on the "fasten seat-belt" sign.

KATE: "I have one favor to ask.."

MARSHAL: "Really? Well, this oughtta be good. What.."

The severe turbulence begins, as a passenger flies up and hits the ceiling. A heavy, metal briefcase hits the Marshal on the head, while he begins bleeding, and passes out. The oxygen masks come down and Kate struggles to reach them because she's wearing handcuffs. She reaches over to the Marshal and gets the key out of his pocket, takes off the handcuffs, and puts an oxygen mask on the Marshal and herself. The tail section of the plane rips off.

Back on the Island, Sayid says that they should keep moving. Jack continues to work on the Marshal, while Hurley is passed out. The Marshal wakes up, and grabs Jack's shirt.

MARSHAL: "Where is she?"

JACK: "Who?"

Kate walks with the group of hikers. Sayid takes the transceiver out, and Sawyer complains that now is a good time to check it. Sayid says that they're up higher now, as he checks the transceiver.

SAYID: "Bar. Hey! We've got a bar! Mayday! Mayday!"

Sayid says there's feedback on the radio, and Sawyer says that he didn't even fix it.

SAYID: "No. No, no, no, no, it's not broken. We can't transmit because something else is already transmitting."

CHARLIE: "Transmitting from where?"

SAYID: "Somewhere close. The signal's strong."

CHARLIE: "Somewhere close? You mean on the Island? That's great!"

BOONE: "Maybe it's other survivors."

Sayid says that it could be a satellite phone or a radio signal. He adjusts the frequency, as they hear something.

CHARLIE: "The rescue party. It has to be. [They hear the transmission]. It's French! The French are coming! I've never been so happy to hear the French!"

Sayid asks if anyone speaks French, so that they can translate. Boone says that Shannon does, but she, of course, argues with contributing anything.

BOONE: "What the hell are you talking about? You spent a year in Paris!"

SHANNON: "Drinking, not studying!"

They hear a male voice reading off iterations of numbers, and a female voice repeating a message in French. Sayid says that the batteries are dying. They convince Shannon to try to translate. She listens closely.

SHANNON: "It's.. it's repeating."

SAYID: "She's right."

BOONE: "What?"

SAYID: "It's a loop. Iteration—it's repeating the same message. It's a counter. The next number will end.. "533"."

RADIO: "Iteration 17294533."

SAWYER: "Does anyone know what the hell he's talking about?"

SAYID: "It's a running count of the number of times the message has repeated. It's roughly thirty seconds long, so.. how long.. [we see him trying to figure it out in his head]."

SAWYER: "Don't forget to carry the one, chief."

RADIO: "Iteration 17294534."

SHANNON: "She's saying.. "Please." She's saying, "Please, help me. Please, come get me."

SAWYER: "Or she's not! You don't even speak French!"

KATE: "Let her listen!"

BOONE: "Shut up, man!"

CHARLIE: "Guys, the battery. The battery."

RADIO: "Iteration 17294535."

SHANNON: [translating] "I'm alone now. I'm.. On the Island alone. Please, someone come. The others, they're... they're dead. It.. It killed them. It killed them all."

BOONE: "That was good."

They are all shocked at what they just heard, while Sayid is computing the numbers in his head.

SAYID: "Sixteen years."

SAWYER: "What?"

SAYID: "Sixteen years, and five months. That's the count."

BOONE: "What the hell are you talking about?"

SAYID: "The iterations. It's a distress call. A plea for help. A mayday. If the count is right.. It's been playing over and over.. for sixteen years."

BOONE: "Someone else was stranded here?"

KATE: "Maybe they came for them.."

SAWYER: "If someone came, why is it still playing?"

CHARLIE: "Guys. Where are we?"

Interesting Notes & Observations:

• Absolutely love the opening sequence. I've probably watched it a hundred times, and still, every single time.. I'm in complete and utter awe. Not only was the opening of Jack Shephard's eye incredibly symbolic, considering where everything ended up, but, especially at the time of its airing, it was phenomenally written and directed. To me, it's the perfect opening to the greatest pilot episode that television has ever seen. It's crazy how many times I've watched this scene, and yet, viewed it differently almost every time.
• Before you watch the show, if this is the first episode you see, you expect to see the plane crash in the beginning, but you don't, and you never actually do see the whole thing happen ever during the show.
• I love that Jack wakes up on the Island in the same place that he would later die, and with Vincent at his side.
• Does Jack's tie have little planes on it? Probably wasn't the best idea to wear a tie with planes on it to your father's funeral, Jack.
• There was a theory, when Benjamin Linus was seen carrying around his black, telescopic baton in Every Man For Himself and The Shape of Things to Come, that it was in the opening scene, laying next to Jack in the jungle. 
• The object can be seen just to the northeast of Jack's left hand/shoulder in the screenshot below..
• I remember formulating my own theory that it was some sort of time-traveling device. 
• From Lospedia: The telescopic baton appears to be an homage to the character of Agent 355 in the Y: The Last Man comic book by Brian K. Vaughan. Vaughan co-wrote The Shape of Things to Come.
• I also had an extensive theory early-on, that the whole story was going through some sort of time-loop, and they had all lived through this several times before. Even though it never actually ended up happening, I like to pretend that it all actually did happen, and Jack is waking up in the jungle after he just died. Afterall, the series was originally supposed to be called "The Circle".
• Christian Shephard sends Vincent to wake up his son, because he has work to do, as seen in the LOST Missing Pieces webisode, So It Begins.
• I'm pretty sure that's the "Hurley" bird flying overhead when Jack is getting up in the bamboo forest.
• I fucking love the music of the whole opening sequence. Jack waking up in the jungle, running out to the beach.. First, complete and utter silence, and then, screaming bloody murder. Jack springs into action, and so does Giacchino's music.
• We see a white tennis shoe hanging from a tree in the bamboo forest where Jack wakes up. It can be assumed that this is one of Christian Shephard's shoes. Apparently he wasn't good enough for shiny dress shoes, according to Jack, in 316.
• Shut up, Shannon. Seriously. You don't have to be so damn dramatic with the screaming.
• Get away from that damn engine, Charlie. Seriously. How many damn times are you going to almost die? And tell Gary Troup to do so as well, while you're at it.
• We get our first "WALT!!!!!" in the opening sequence.
• The guy that's trapped under the wreckage, yelling "HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" always sounds like Bernard to me.
• Hey, creepy, bald guy who just got up and walked for the first time in four years? Yeah, you. Get over here and help me save this guy.
• We see John Locke help Jack pull a man from the plane wreckage, but we don't know that he just got up and walked for the first time in four years. That moment in Walkabout is still what sold the whole show to me.
• In the opening sequence, everyone is wearing blue, black or grey, so when Jack pulls the guy out from underneath the wheels of the plane, the red blood on his leg stands out. That's a classic movie trick. It was also used by Steven Spielberg in Saving Private Ryan to highlight the brutality in the opening sequence of that film.
• Look, I know that Claire is pregnant and all.. but, when she's bent over on the beach screaming for help.. damn. One of my favorite shots ever.
• Remember when Claire was cute in Season One and not annoying or crazy at all? That was awesome.
• You heard Jack. Get away from that damn engine. At least he was right about something.
• Probably not the best idea to stop and ask someone what they said right in front of a damn engine.. huh, Gary Troup?
• Gary Troup was the guy who wrote the script that Hurley finds in The Long Con, and Sawyer is later seen reading in Two For the Road, called Bad Twin.
• I'm sure people get sucked into plane engines all the time.. but, does the engine usually explode when they do? No. Probably not. But, it looks cool.
• Plane wings falling down also cause explosions. Watch out, Charlie.
• Speaking of exploding things almost landing on Charlie, I plan on continuing my list of all the times that Charlie came close to dying.
• The opening sequence must've been so much fun to film.
• My God. Evangeline Lilly.
• We see Sawyer smoking, but I don't recall ever having seen him smoke in a flashback episode.
• Sayid and Charlie are buddies already.
• Jack tells Kate his "count to five" story. Really, Jack? You thought of that all on your own? I'm pretty sure you stole that whole story from your father, Christian Shephard. Now, I know that he was hard on you and everything, but at least give the man credit for the story that defines who you are.
• Jack cries. Again. Always. Seriously, dude? You JUST met her, Jack.
• From Lostpedia: At one point in the development of the script, Boone's name was going to be "Five" (He would have been named "Boone Anthony Markham V" and gone by "Five"). When they decided to change it back to "Boone," they ran a find-and-replace on the script, which resulted in the the dialog between Kate and Jack in the stitching scene reading as, "One, Two, Three, Four, Boone." (Pilot, Part 1 Audio Commentary)
• Right away, Sayid knows what's up.
• Of course Shannon is giving herself a damn pedicure. What else would she be doing? She's bloody useless.
• What I don't get is.. if she doesn't want the damn candy bar, then why the hell does she get so pissed off when Boone eats it? What a bitch.
• Hurley hands out plane food. He takes care of everyone, as per usual.
• Michael has always gotten a lot of shit for being a bad father, but honestly.. I think that he was trying to do the best he could. He just crashed on a damn Island with a son that he's never had the chance to be the father of. Give the dude a break.
• Remember when everyone hated Jin? Ah, the good old days, when Jin and Sawyer were unlikable characters.
• Jin is just trying to protect his wife.
• Kate says, about the Marshal, "He was sitting next to me." Good one, Kate.
• Jack says, about knowing what to do to help the rescue party, "Took a couple of flying lessons. Wasn't for me." I remember when I thought that was significant, like somehow he knew that he would crash on an Island, so he took flying lessons because of it.
• Kate says, "If you're thinking about going for the cockpit, I'm going with you." And so it begins..
• Smokey doesn't like trees. ticka-ticka-ticka..
• Cindy makes shitty drinks. She gives Jack two bottles of vodka to make up for it. This is almost the exact scene that would be mirrored later, in LA X.
• Jack tells Rose, "It's normal." Jack is used to plane crashes.
• Oh, Rose. He's not coming back from the bathroom anytime soon.
• JACK: "Don't worry. It's gonna be over just as soon as we flash through time and end up back in 1977 with the DHARMA Initiative." Oh, wait. Wrong plane crash.
• Rose says, about the MONSTER, "That sound. I keep thinking that there's something really familiar about it." That's because it's from the meter on a New York City taxi-cab, Rose.
• Why is "Really? Where are you from?" a suitable response to someone saying that a scary monster on some deserted island sounds familiar? How is where you're from even relevant to that, other than the fact that it gives the audience a clear hint as to where the sound effect was taken from?
• Rose is from the Bronx. Of course she is.
• I still can't hear the noise of a New York City taxi-cab meter without thinking of LOST. Nor can I enter a grocery store without thinking that I'm Desmond in The Swan station.. I don't think that will ever go away.
• Pulling shoes off of a dead body is fucking creepy.
• I don't think that I ever knew what the hell a fuselage was before this show.
• B-O-D-I-E-S. Walt PWNS Hurley for the first, and definitely not the last, time.
• Transceiver. Distress Signal. Check. Got it. Should I remember any of this for later? Nah. Probably not.
• Charlie doesn't feel like standing still. I wonder why.
• Why the hell would Kate have ever met Charlie anywhere? I can't comprehend why she would ever ask him that. I'm guessing she doesn't meet too many people while she's on the run from a crazy U.S. Marshal.
• YOU ALL EVERYBODY! YOU ALL EVERYBODY!
• Again.. Who in the hell is Beth?! I need to know.
• Jack's never heard of Drive Shaft because he's a damn square.
• Vincent watches. Smokey? Creepy.
• Charlie asks, "Guys, is this normal? Day turning into night, kind of end of the World-type weather?" Why yes, Charlie, it is.
• Jin yells at people in Korean. "GET OUT OF MY DAMN TENT AND GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DAMN WOMAN." That's a rough translation.
• MONSTER still hates trees.
• There are the wires they stripped from the fuselage!
• Thanks for the info, Seth Norris. They won't find you anyway, buddy.
• Jack asks, "Where's Charlie?" Getting fucked in the bathroom, that's where.
• Just like a drug addict. They always answer a question with a question. It's called deflecting. You should know when a person is lying, Kate. And, you should know what a damn drug addict looks like, Jack.
• Yeah, you put that transceiver thingy down right there on the seat, Captian Seth Norris.
• Charlie is freaking out. Handle your high, dude.
• When Seth Norris puts the transceiver down on the seat of the cockpit, we can see his wedding ring, as referenced by Frank Lapidus in Confirmed Dead.
• If you watch the LOST Season One DVD Special Features, you will see how the ran in place, yet made it look like they were running through the damn jungle.
• Kate steals Jack's "count to five," which he stole from his dad, in her viney tree of salvation. Viney tree of salvation? Where did I get that from? I think it was The LOST Flashbacks Podcast.
• "One. Two. Three. Four. Five." Evie acting her ass off. I actually really like this.
• When Kate pounces on Charlie.. Is this the closest thing to action Charlie ever got on the Island? Probably.
• The music here reminds me of the light cave. Is that a harpsichord, Mr. Giacchino?
• The reflection of the pilot in the puddle of water is still awesome.
• I remember when they used to give kids pilot's wings on planes.. Do they still do that?
• Oh, how convenient. NONE of you saw that big, scary thing chasing you? Seriously?
• Charlie says, "Pardon me for appearing desperate." You always do, Charlie.
• This must be an awesome hallucination for a drug addict.
• Charlie almost dies again. Twice. From hitting the bathroom ceiling and food cart on the plane.
• Shanon in bikini. Damn. Only thing she's there for. Eye candy. I don't mind it, either.
• Jin is fishing. He learned from his pop, as learned in D.O.C..
• I've picked up a little Korean watching LOST. I know that "BALI!" (Or, however you spell it in English.) means "BUTTON THE TOP BUTTON OF THAT DAMN SHIRT, WOMAN!"
• Walt went looking for Vincent. He finds handcuffs. Hmm.. Whose could those be?
• When Sawyer and Sayid fight, Sawyer throws sand. He fights dirty. I guess you kind of have to when you're fighting Sayid. Also, I'm willing to bet that Sawyer is the one who started it.
• What does Sayid say in Arabic? Probably nothing nice. I have not picked up any Arabic watching this show.
• Of course Sayid can help with the transceiver. Because he's fucking awesome.
• Hurley tries to make peace, but Sawyer dishes out his first insulting nickname.
• The Hurley and Sayid comradery begins. I really enjoy their repore as characters.
• I don't think I knew what the Republican Guard was before this show started either.
• SAYID: "I was a Military Communications Officer." Good to know, Sayid. That won't ever come up again, will it? Nah. Probably not.
• Kate washes up in her underwear. Thank you kindly to whoever wrote that one in.
• When Sun unbuttons her top button as Jin walks away. Oh yeah... That's hot. I realize that I'm starting to make myself sound like a perv. I'm okay with that. The unbuttoning, though, is later referenced in The Package.
• Jin offers Hurley some sea urchin, but Hurley apparently denies his honor.
• Walt reads Green Lantern/The Flash: Faster Friends #1 comic.
• Listen, Michael. It's probably not the best idea to tell him that you'll get him another dog. The kid just lost his mom and was in a plane crash. He doesn't need to be reminded that he just lost his damn dog, too.
• Shannon cries. Shut up. Stop feeling sorry for yourself.
• SHANNON: "I think I was mean to him." Really, Shannon? You THINK you were mean to him?
• We see Sawyer reading the infamous letter for the first time.
• Hiking up a cliff, which was more like a hill next to a parking lot, according to the Season One DVD Extras.
• John Locke plays backgammon and talks to Walt. This scene reminds me a lot of "Man in Black" and Jacob and their Senet game. The numbers are also seen on the backgammon board.
• LOCKE: "Walt. Do you want to know a secret?" That line seemed so creepy back then. I bet the naysayers are still wondering what that secret was.. I guess we'll never know.
• It's funny how much Josh Holloway was trying to hide his southern accent in the first two episodes. You don't realize it until you go back and watch it again.
• Something's coming. I wonder what it is.
• It's a freaking polar bear. Sawyer shoots it with.. a gun? Where'd he get that? Wait.. Where'd the polar bear come from?! They're on an Island!
• If you listen to the commentary on the Season One DVD, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof talk about how they first shot this with a fake polar bear and thought it would work, but it looked horrible, and they later replaced it with a CGI polar bear. I remember seeing that the first time I watched this episode. It looked ridiculously silly.
• HURLEY: "I'm not so good around blood." And, that's why they call him Hurley.
• KATE: "Does anybody know how to use a gun?" Funny, Kate. Great acting job. You don't know how to use a gun? Hilarious! This is later referenced in Whatever the Case May Be.
• Kate conveniently steps aside to have her flashback. Doesn't anyone think this is weird?
• The plane starts going down, and Kate puts an oxygen mask on Edward Mars. See. She's not that awful.
• EDWARD MARS: "Where is she?" You might want to be a little more specific.
• SAYID: "We've got a bar." Do I detect an English accent there, Mr. Naveen Andrews?
• I remember them listening to the distress signal on the promos before the show started.
• Sayid says the distress call has been playing for sixteen years, and five months. That would be April 1988, when Danielle Rousseau crashed on the Island, later seen in The Little Prince.
• BOONE: "Maybe it's other survivors." I'm very impressed by your observation there, Boone. Also, foreshadowing like a mofo.
• CHARLIE: "Guys? Where are we?" That line was also on all of the promos.
• The whole pilot episode watches like a film.

Answered Questions:

• The reason everyone didn't die in the plane crash was because they were candidates and they actually couldn't die because of Jacob. Regardless, I still think that's pretty shitty. A lot of people died for nothing.
• The Smoke Monster, or "Man in Black" killed the pilot, Seth Norris, because he wasn't a candidate. Apparently the dude was just in the damn way. Yeah, you put that transceiver down on the seat before you get eaten, Seth. Thanks. That'll come in handy.
• We now know that the DHARMA Initiative brought polar bears to the Island, as seen in the The Swan Orientation film, in Orientation, and in Epilogue: The New Man in Charge.

Unanswered Questions:

• How can a plane rip apart in mid-air and in three pieces so cleanly? Nearly all of the mid-section survives without a scratch after cart-wheeling through the jungle. I realize that the answer is either Jacob, or there is no answer, but still..
• How is Jack not more severely injured after falling through bamboo in the damn jungle? 
• How does Jack know to run to the beach, or even which direction the beach is if he blacked out when the plane crashed?
• What ever happened to the guy with the leg? I need to know these things.
• How was Charlie not injured more severely after flying up and hitting the ceiling in the plane? 
• How or when does Charlie get to the back of the plane? He ends up in First Class when he goes to the bathroom, and then sits down nearby, but he's not in the nose of the plane when they land on the Island.
• Why is the flight attendant so pissed off when Edward Mars asks for coffee?
• Why does everything between Kate and Edward Mars seem so personal?
• Why is Edward Mars so turned on by turbulence?
• How in the hell did Danielle Rousseau hike to the radio tower when she was nine months pregnant?
• Why didn't Danielle Rousseau leave the distress signal in more than one language like when she questioned Sayid in Solitary? I think it would be more helpful.
• Why doesn't Sayid know any French? He lived in Paris too! I realize that we found this out, in Enter 77, and they probably threw it in there way after the fact, but still.
• Why do Jack and Kate seem like they know eachother already?
• How did polar bears get on the Island? Just kidding.

Favorite Moments:

• The opening sequence of the series will always be one of my favorites of the series.
• Jack tells Boone that he needs to seriously think about giving his Life Guard CPR license back.
• "Does anybody have a pen?!" still cracks me up. Oh, Boone. God's freakin' gift to humanity.
• Charlie tapes his fingers with the word "F A T E" after the crash. How ironic.
• MICHAEL: "It's not Vincent." Just the way he says it.
• CHARLIE: "Terrific." Charlie has all the best lines in the beginning.
• John Locke is The Godfather. Kate is so creeped out. That makes me laugh every damn time.
• I absolutely love the shot of Seth Norris in the tree. I still think that it's one of the most iconic shots from the show.
• When we see the flashback of Kate and the U.S. Marshal, Edward Mars, and the plane starts to hit turbulence, if you look at the Marshal's face, he has this creepy smile, as if somehow he's enjoying that the plane is about to go down. Seriously, why does he enjoy this so much? Every single time that I see the smile on his face, it simultaneously makes me laugh, and creeps me the fuck out. This is the closest screenshot I could find to show the look on his face when the plane starts to hit turbulence, but it doesn't quite capture it.. Seriously, go back and watch it.
• I love the look on Kate's face when Shannon announces that she's going with them like a silly teenager that needs attention.
• Claire making Jin feel the baby move.
• I love the way Sayid says "You son of a beech!" to Sawyer.
• Pretty much the whole episode.

Overall Significance:

• Of course, Pilot (Parts 1& 2) are two of the most important episodes of the series, and they always have been, for obvious reasons.. But, they are even more so now that everything is over and we know where it all ends up. The significance of the series opening on Jack Shephard's eye is even more meaningful now than it ever has been before. 
• I still wonder what the eye-openers mean.. I remember when that was something that I actually thought deeply and profoundly about, trying to formulate a theory, but I still have nothing, and, to be fair, it probably means absolutely nothing. I just always thought that there was some sort of correlation between the episodes that began with an eye opening and the story that was being told. However, it is obviously just an artistic choice that J.J. Abrams started with the first episode, and was carried on throughout the series, and that is all. I'm officially dropping it.
• From Lostpedia: Jack was originally intended to get killed off in the pilot episode, with Kate replacing him as the defacto leader of the survivors. However, due to strong notes from the network against the death, the writers decided to keep Jack and introduced the short-lived pilot character instead. (Pilot, Part 1 Audio Commentary) Contrary to popular belief, this story change occurred long before the casting of Matthew Fox. 
• The first time that Jack and Kate meet, she comes walking out of the jungle, rubbing her wrists. We didn't know it at the time we first met her, but she had just gotten done yanking the oxygen masks down for her and Edward Mars on Oceanic Flight 815. It's actually pretty cool to go back and notice little things like that. 
• Jack asks Kate to sew his wound because he can't reach to do it himself. I've never been the biggest fan of this scene, because somehow it always seemed to be a bit too much for me.. But, looking back now, I like it a whole lot more. Not only is it the first time that Jack and Kate meet eachother, but it is also the first time we hear Jack's "count to five" story, which he totally stole from his father, Christian Shephard, and passed off as his own. This story is literally the one which defines who Jack Shephard is, and is integral to the story of Jack and Kate. Not to mention that it is literally Evangeline Lilly's acting debut, because she had never actually had a speaking part in anything before. I think that's pretty damn amazing.
• We think that Sun doesn't speak English, but if you go back and watch it now, you can totally tell that she understands every word people are speaking in English.
• We also think that Jin is a complete douche, but little do we know that the roles would be completely reversed.
• It baffles me when people say that LOST isn't "Science Fiction" and that they had never even thought of that.. Really? You didn't notice the MONSTER in the very first episode? Seriously? There's a MONSTER that eats the freaking pilot, Seth Norris. I still think that whole scene, and him ending up in the tree, with his reflection in the puddle of water is a fantastic, iconic shot.
• From Lostpedia: The pilot, although uncredited, was played by Greg Grunberg. Grunberg, a childhood friend of J.J. Abrams, has appeared in many of his productions as a good luck charm.
• Charlie taps his DS ring nervously on the seat of the plane, and he later shows it to Kate on their hike to the cockpit. I believe (Not sure where I heard this.) the "Second tour of Finland." line was improvised by Dominic Monaghan, which is later seen paying off in the episode Greatest Hits.
• Sayid says that the transmission could be a satellite phone, which would be significant later, in Through the Looking Glass.
• The polar bear is the first introduction of the DHARMA Initiative. Other than the Monster, this is the first time we realize that there are very strange things happening on this Island. 
• From Lostpedia: The Black Rock is first mentioned in this episode on the French transmission, but Shannon does not pick up on it in her translation.
• September 22, 2004 is the date Pilot, Part 1 originally aired. It is also the date of the plane crash, as seen in Live Together, Die Alone.
• From Lostpedia: Filming for this episode was wrapped on April 24, 2004, which was also Damon Lindelof's birthday. Six years later to the day, the series finale finished shooting.
• The title, "Pilot" has a double meaning. Get it?

Final Thoughts:

• If people didn't think that this was a true character show, I suggest they go back and watch Season One, because, though they sprinkle in some mystery and mythology here and there, the entire season is truly an introduction to the characters, and that is what made me even begin to care about this show.
• Right off the bat, they make you care about everyone. You're rooting for their survival. That's what gets you sucked in. Everyone has played the "If you were stranded on a deserted island.." scenarios. So, in a way, you can relate to their situation because you've wondered how you would survive that before.
• I love the fact that we know what Jin and Sun say to eachother with subtitles, but if they are speaking to anyone else, we don't know a goddamn thing (Unless you speak Korean. Or look it up on the internets.) that they are saying. This is because when Sun and Jin are speaking to eachother, we are seeing it from their perspective, but if they are talking to someone else, we are seeing it from the perspective of not understanding a damn thing they are saying. I think that's pretty awesome, and totally unlike anything I had ever seen at that point. Also, it was so damn frustrating in the beginning.
• The fact that they would even have a couple that only speaks Korean on the show, especially an American television show, is amazing to me. But, what's even more astounding, is that they wrote a main character that was not only Muslim, just a few years after 9/11, but also Iraqi, just a few years after the start of the Iraq War II, which began under false pretenses. And, to have another character, right off the bat, accuse them of being a terrorist and being the cause of the plane crash. The fact that they not only wrote this, but that ABC actually allowed them to do it in the world that we currently live in, is incredible to me. Not because I have any bias against Muslims or Iraqis. Not at all. At the risk of getting too political here.. I'm glad that they did it. Because not all Muslims are terrorists, and we didn't belong in Iraq in the first place. Not only were they not afraid to take risks and get at least, somewhat controversial, but they turned a Muslim, Iraqi, Republican Guard, torturer into one of the most lovable and relatable characters that there has ever been on television, and in the United States of America, no less. Sayid Jarrah would definitely become one of my favorite characters.
• I think, in the very beginning, Charlie was my favorite. He had so many funny, sarcastic lines in the pilot. Plus, Dominic Monaghan was probably the biggest reasons for me actually watching LOST. He was just coming off of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and I was a huge fan of it.
• The fourteen main characters are from all different walks of life. I like that there is a character for everyone to relate to.
• Everyone looks so damn young in this episode. 

I can't believe that LOST ended one year ago (May 23, 2010) today. It feels like it's been long enough for me to get back into watching it again. I definitely needed a break from it, but I now that I'm back doing this, I actually really enjoyed it. I'm going to try to do a post on an episode per week, probably on Wednesdays, since it's LOST Day and all.. Though, judging by the length of this post, don't hold me to it. Episodes with multiple parts will continue to be reserved for one post, and it's still going to take forever to get through the whole series. I'm going to be sticking to the format that I've done here, though I do have some more ideas for future endeavors. This was a lot of fun, regardless of how time-consuming it is.

I'll be back next week with my analysis of Tabula Rasa. Thanks to those who actually read this. Peace out, homies. 

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