The Lost Discussion Thread - Raised by Another

In case you weren't aware, Giant Bomb Chicago's own Patrick Klepek and Max Temkin just started up a new Lost themed podcast, wherein they rewatch the first season and discuss each episode, one week at a time. I haven't seen the show myself, and now that Game of Thrones is over for another year, I thought this would be the perfect time to start.

This thread is intended for discussion of the show from other people who have not seen it yet, and are following along with the podcast. If you've already seen it, and would like to make a comment about a future episode that feels relevant to the episode we are currently discussing, please mark it as a spoiler.

The idea of this thread is to recapture some of the internet buzz and fan theorizing that surrounded the show as it aired. I think the best way to keep everything on track is to go by the podcast schedule. Try to refrain posting about an episode until the corresponding podcast has been uploaded, which should be every Monday.

Also, they'll likely only cover the first season with the whole "one episode at a time" format. After that, if there's still interest in finishing the series, we'll probably stick with one episode every Monday.

This week is Pilot (Parts 1 & 2).

EDIT: To keep everything clear about what episode we're on, and to avoid unintentional spoilers, I'll be updating the thread title weekly with the name of the episode we're talking about.

I have already seen Lost but I just wanted to say one thing. Does Lost have the most appropriately named pilot episode that is named Pilot? The first episode of Fringe is also name Pilot and that deals with a plane crash as well. Maybe it is just a JJ Abrams thing.

I thought it would be a realistic drama about crash victims trying to survive on a harsh jungle island, like Gilligan's Island. But then polar bears and wizards showed up and I stopped watching.

Also isn't this show like 15 years old now?

Love Lost so much, this is a great idea, I already emailed in and got a reply from Max!

The first episode of a TV series is known as a pilot.

10 years later and the pilot is still an amazing piece of television.

@pinner458: I know, but not always.

Also never seen the show and am planning on watching the episodes as the podcasts come out.

At the moment it's very similar to Under The dome, including some stereotypes and needless yelling.

I'm also having trouble believing a dog can survive a plane crash while in a cage, break out and come out unharmed, there wasn't even a scratch on that dog nor a limp.

@ravelle: A wizard did it.

Lost is good until the last couple of seasons upon which time it takes a sudden nose dive into boring and poorly written.

Its a good show, though, for a long time (most of the episodes- 4 and a half seasons worth or so). The first season alone is must see. It's a shame it never got any better than that, but there are a lot of shows that can't even say that so... it's all about relativity I guess.

I'm not ready to do my yearly Re-Watch. That is happening in September.

I absolutely LOVED Lost. Only watched the entire series once, and after those final two episodes, highly doubt I'll ever have interest in going back to watch it again. All it took were those two episodes to ruin the entire show for me :(

It will be interesting seeing Patrick's reaction to the show though from the beginning.

It's pretty awesome watching the series again because you can find little extra clues that hints at what happens at the series finale. Jack having his appendix taken out in Season 4 was for a reason.

I'm in the camp of I love Lost even though the final season is pretty damn bad. For me, the disappointment of how everything wrapped up can't tarnish the journey of getting there. That feeling of having no idea what was going to happen next during the height of Lost was still too awesome to let the end sour that.

This is my first time re-watching any part of the series since it ended (I haven't listened to the podcast yet but I will tomorrow) and there were two things that really stuck out:

• There is some really shoddy CG work, which isn't too shocking considering the series is 10 years old now.

• Evangeline Lilly is not a very good actor.

This is awesome news. I'm stoked about the idea of listening to people geek out about Lost each week. I actually started rewatching the series a month ago once I realised it was on Netflix, but I'm happy to jump back to the start to keep up with the podcast.

When Lost originally aired, it was such a special experience. The hype around the show and the online communities obsessing over it between each episode was something I hadn't experienced since the X-Files, but to a much greater extent. It's funny how Max and Patrick's experience with the show is so similar to my own, having been a Somethingawful.com TVIV Lost thread participant at the time, even though I live on the other side of the world in Australia. Internet nerds gonna nerd, I guess.

I'm also in the camp that thinks the ending of the series is hot garbage, but that hasn't dulled my appreciation for the rest of the show's good points. I think Lost was the first TV series where I had a greater understanding of the realities behind making a TV show and how that influenced the plot of the show itself. I can forgive when certain early story threads in the series that seemed like core plot points are later completely abandoned or changed due to outside influences (the writer's strike, actors ageing or leaving the show, etc.), even if they had immense potential in my mind. I can still enjoy watching them unfold, and imagine what might have been.

I wonder if they'll keep up with the podcast after the first season, because one episode per week is going to take a long god damned time to do the whole series. I'm okay with that, but I'd like to see them maybe do multiple podcasts per week.

I get to discuss Lost again? I'm in!

I saw the pilot when it aired back in 2004 and it hooked me immediately, literally everybody at my school were talking about it. The polar bear, the monster (obv. everyone thought it was a dinosaur), the repeating message. I hadn't been part of anything like it at the time, and I haven't ever since, it was truly a once in a lifetime phenomenon.

Watching the pilot again, it's odd to see that they don't actually name some of the most important characters of the series (Locke, Sawyer etc.), and also noticing the theme of Black and White being there at the very beginning (backgammon game).

Lost jumped every shark there is third season. This video sums up my feelings about Lost almost perfectly (spoilers, not that it matters for reasons that quickly become apparent.)

Abrams & co admittedly made some awesome shit, and then resolved absolutely fucking nothing.

This show seems alright. Could be great.

Hope it doesn't get too weird though.

The Pilot for Lost is fantastic. One of the best pilots. And the first two seasons are fantastic television.

I'm not sure where I fall on the series as a whole. There's just so much wrong with it.

By trying to be something for everyone, they were setting themselves up to fail. Without giving too much away, the end of the series takes a definitive stance about "WHAT THE SHOW IS REALLY ABOUT!" The characters! So if you came to the show for the plot and the mystery --something they spend SEASONS teasing--haha fuck you, that's not what this whole thing was. It was about the characters that you don't really care about that much because we've spent seasons of wasted airtime with boring, cliche flashbacks.

And addressing Patrick's notion of "all writing is making it up as you go along," that's definitely not the case. The broad strokes of the story are the things you want cemented down early. What you make up as you go along is how you get from point A to B to C, etc. The problem with Lost's storytelling is that they didn't even have the broad strokes nailed down. It just becomes painfully obvious after a while.

I think I'm going to end up agreeing with Max on just about every point. Very excited for this podcast though. Hope they move on to the x-files next, though I imagine I'll have similar problems with re-visiting that series.

I like that they have...is it Jana? Jen? (I can't recall her name) on the show to bring the newbie's perspective to things.

@sinusoidal: If you pay close enough attentinon (and study up on lostpedia and the like for a bit) you'll find that you can answer most of those questions. I get what you mean though.

@sinusoidal: I'm with you and the maker of that video completely. Seasons 1 and 2 were setting up something pretty great and then they totally shit the bed. It's just a series of plot points where people tell the main characters "We know you want answers but we need you to do something first..." "Okay we did it now what?" "Kill them!" Fuck that show for playing with peoples' expectations in the most blatant ways imaginable. I kind of liked that episode that flashes back to Richard's past in the final season but again nothing is resolved by that.

I watched the pilot when it debuted. I've seen about 3 random episodes since then, to date.

I will listen to this.

That's pretty clever, I didn't notice that.

Its been quite some time since I watched Lost, but this is a great reason to. The pilot still feels a little off since there's no focused character and flashbacks that the standard run episodes have. But they do a really good job setting up the island and giving you just enough of a taste of things that you really want to know more. The show has a lot of ups and downs but seems to find its footing much faster than many shows. Star Trek and Babylon 5 take a couple seasons for the characters and stories to solidify but Lost has things in order very early on.

I did watch the first two seasons when they originally aired but hardly remember any plot points. And I too found this an opportune time to try watching it again.

All I can say so far though is that I remember the acting not being as terrible as it is.

So, I've seen the show already. I watched the whole thing over the course of a month or two a couple of years ago. I'd known of the discontentment fans held towards where the series ended up, so I went in with tempered expectations. Of course the first couple seasons were fantastic, but when it started getting weird, I was fine just being taken on a ride. Finding out how these characters stories resolved was fun enough for me.

I liked the episode, but please try to refrain from it devolving in to a soap box of how Lost turned out and focus on the episode at hand.

Really liked the scene where Sawyer shot the guy in the lung. That immediate change from "I'm doing what you're not strong enough to do" to "I fucked up pretty bad" was delicious.

Hmm, seems like a good time to start this show then.

Does anyone know what unexplained "food" thing Max was referring to somewhere around 30:00-35:00?

Question to all the LOST fans: Who are the universally Loved and Hated characters on the show? Everyone has their preferences of course but some characters are really easy to love as well as to hate. (State no reasons why that could be spoilers)

My guesses: Hurley as the most loved, hard to hate the dude. Most hated.....never made it past mid season 3 and a lot of the characters I hated end up dying, but I'll go with Michael.

Personal Favorite: Sayid

Personally Hated: Shannon

Side note: I thought this was about Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa where the discussion was lost since it has long since shutdown.

@chazzlabs said:

I'm gonna take a stab at he is referring to the

I haven't seen all of the show but that seems like something they would never explain

I agree. Maybe they need someone that hasn't seen the show before on as a guest each time to ground them to the current episode. A lot of the discussion on Tabula Rasa broke down to how disappointed they were in the way the show went later on.

As this is a 'rewatch', clearly there's going to be insight on what happens later on in the series, but I feel like the actual plot of this episode was barely touched on.

I've never seen Lost so I thought this was a thread about the "lost" MMO Tabula Rasa. I'm just gonna go now.

@nightriff: they actually filmed an epilogued and revealed where the food drops were coming from

@gista: So was that not what Max was referring to? I was just taking a stab in the dark guessing.

@nightriff: no thats it i read your comment wrong and thought you werent sure as well and were just taking a random guess as to where the food was coming from lol my bad i got confused, so yeah im guessing Max or Patrick didnt see that since Patrick didn't seem to say anything either

Just finished the episode and it reminded that the Kate backstory episodes were always the weakest. Generally, her "off the island" stuff was usually the least interesting. It was also reminded me that Sawyer is awesome. He's gotta be in the top 5 TV scumbags of all-time. Everything that comes out of his mouth is just dripping with sleaze.

I haven't listened to the podcast this week yet (I'll do first thing tomorrow) so I'm not sure if they touch on that ending montage, which is SUPER corny but in kind of an endearing way. The reunion between Walt and Vincent still gets me though. What can I say, the easiest way to make me feel something is to involve a puppy.

God, not being able to click that "next episode" button is torture.

@milkman: Completely agree about Kate. Desmond is by far my favourite character on the show, maybe my all time favourite TV character.

Really loving this podcast so far. Lost is one of my favourite shows of all time even if it's a very flawed show.

wow. I feel like the show only really blew it in the last hour of the last episode. right up to hero and villain fighting on a cliff in the rain - i was on the edge of my seat. then it offered a series of things I didn't want. I think it felt sour because we'd just seen a rad rain fight between neo and agent smith. and we'd just seen a great send-off concert on conan o brien's cancelled show. so the climactic things Lost was offering didn't seem big enough. think i'm mostly pissed about that concert. they should have hired beck and pearl jam to write a catch song that echoed the emotions of the ending, instead of glossing over the concert completely. bleh. but. i think the ending was also trying to be about how nothing can live up to what you expect.

If everyone hates season3 on, does that mean they don't care about mr. echo? or faraday? or miles? weird. weeeird.

Totally forgot about that scene, haven't seen it since I bought the box set. Thanks for the link. I was pretty sure he was talking about the drops but not certain. On one hand I hope they don't keep making references without explaining them in the podcast, but then again thanks to you guys.

Well they also made a point of saying the rewatch podcast won't spoil the show for first time viewers, which I think is fine.

Regarding Max's question about the food thing:

Guys I think there's a hidden message in this week's episode. They tried to hide it by saying there was a storm going on, but that's just misdirection. If you listen to the words they're saying when the sounds of the storm happen, there's a clear theme.

(39:47) ...this is something...

Max starts by telling us these messages are something

(40:02) ...True Detective...

Is the message about a true detective? or are WE the true detectives for finding the message?

(40:25) ...watched Lost...

The TD (True Detective) they're talking about watched Lost. The thunder sound behind these words was louder than the others, so it must be very important. Could Patrick or Max be the TD?

(40:58) ...a mystery...

The TD is a mystery guys!

(41:51) ...uhhhhh...

Patrick says "uhhh" right as another thunder sound is played. Has Patrick been caught out as the TD?

(42:03) ...mystery comes..

Max again reinforces the mystery aspect, possibly to indicate Patrick isn't the TD and the mystery continues?

The rest of the stuff they're saying when the storm happens doesn't really fit with this theme, so we should just disregard it and focus on the stuff that reinforces the TD Mystery. Don't even mention how the other stuff doesn't fit, it's not important.

I thought that might be the end of the hidden messages for now, but then I started thinking about the earlier part of the show. Hannah referred to Patrick as "Patrick Klip Klop" and I started to think... maybe that wasn't out of the blue. What could that name mean?

Patrick Klip Klop

Patrick KK

Patrick Klepek Knows

What does Patrick know? Does he know the identity of the TD (True Detective)? Does he know because it's someone close to him (Max?) or because PATRICK IS THE TD!?!?!?!?

I think this is big, guys. This could be the main mystery of the Rewatch podcast.

I gotta reiterate what a few people have already said: Please talk more about the episode at hand, and less about your overall feelings about the series. I don't really see how a weekly podcast where we hear the same overall opinions every week is going to work.

As for the episode, fucking hell I forgot how good Josh Holloway was in that first season. Max & Patrick rightly called out the "I just shot a bear!" moment from the pilot as a standout, but "I'm in the wild!" tops it. God, that character was strong in the early seasons. And then that jerk LeFleur came along...

@kevin_cogneto: Agreed! just to lay out the ground rules: do we need to use spoiler tags when talking about events that occur in this weeks episode?

If the podcast corresponding to that episode is out, it's fair game. I'm going to try and stay on top of keeping the thread title current, too. If it's a future episode you think is relevant to events in the current one, definitely tag it.

Obviously, if anyone else wants to keep talking about the show once the podcast is finished, we'll need to modify these rules a little.

When doing a re-watch you’ll inevitably see things that you didn’t notice before. Eric and Patrick were talking about “mystery” versus “thriller” and when Jack pulls out Kate’s mug shot you can tell, in retrospect that there were hints and titbits that it was indeed Kate who was handcuffed in the plane.

I simply loved seeing Kate for the first time in the pilot. She is rubbing her wrists where she was cuffed up until supposedly a few moments ago.

While Kate’s story may not be the most beloved one of the survivors this episode is an amazing showcase in those old Lost staples: “lifting the curtain” and “Cause and effect”.

Hurley asks the question that is on the audience’s mind: “What do you think she did?” We want to know the cause why Kate got caught. The effect is in plain (pun intended) sight, as we all know at this point Kate was caught and was transported back to the States. Instead of getting an answer to the cause we are treated to more insight in the effect. We are told how Kate got caught, learning valuable character information as we go along. For a supposed deceiving, hard-core criminal, she risked her freedom and safety in order to save the man that just sold her out. The curtain is lifted to an extent, but not in the way we would like or expect.

Whether you’re a fan of Kate’s story or not doesn’t really matter if you’re looking at Tabula Rasa from a storytelling point of view. For someone who is revisiting Lost it is certainly a reminder why I fell in love with the series in the first place.

Another highlight in Tabula Rasa is Sawyer’s streaks of grey in his anti-hero demeanor. It’s really showcased at the end of the episode when Sawyer “does what Jack can’t”. His intentions are right but his reason flawed and the execution off course is miserable. When he fumbled with lighting his cigarette I can’t help but feel sorry for him. Great storytelling.

lost started in 2004 guys

patrick klipklop was the best bit

Sad to see this thread is kind of dead :(

There will probably be a short burst of activity after today's Rewatch is posted. I'm holding off on talking about this week's episode until then.