"Pilot: Part II"

Written by JJ Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, and Damon Lindelof
Directed by JJ Abrams


In which the survivors begin to fight amongst themselves as the reality of their situation settles in, while several of them take a trip to higher ground to attempt sending a mayday...

Status Report - Final Analysis







Status Report
Picking up where the first half of the pilot left off (literally on the tree tops), the episode begins with a closer look at several of the main characters. Most of the episode is spent drawing lines in the sand and completing the job of laying the foundation for future conflicts. Many of the characters don’t like each other, while others are simply trying to keep their secrets intact. That’s tension enough for any series, but the mystery of the island itself continues to expand, leaving the survivors on even less solid ground.

Dr. Jack, the self-appointed leader of the family since he awoke from the crash, returns from the expedition to find the cockpit with less than pleasing news. Of course, that’s immediately overshadowed by the fact that the survivors are already beginning to attack one another, thanks to the timely discovery of a pair of handcuffs. The survivors make the natural assumption that there was a criminal in transport on the plane. Perhaps even worse, there’s a survivor with a massive piece of shrapnel in his gut and a terrific head wound, forcing Jack to scavenge for medical supplies.

It doesn’t take much to figure out that Kate is the alleged criminal in question. For one thing, she seems a bit too concerned over the news that handcuffs were discovered. She’s also the least likely out of the cast to have a dark past, based on the first hour, and her intentional silence regarding her own past has been a nagging question from her first appearance. In a nice touch, there’s some question as to what kind of criminal Kate’s supposed to be and whether she’s even guilty. It’s entirely possible that she committed some white collar crime that doesn’t involve violence.

As if to remind the audience that Kate is supposed to be well-written eye candy (ala Sydney Bristow), Kate strips down to her civvies in a photogenic moment designed to promote the glories of the underwire. She certainly doesn’t seem a threat to anyone, but her constant drive to get off the island could betray a desire to hide her past. After all, despite her claims to the contrary, she looked very comfortable with that gun.

Charlie’s secret was more than adequately foreshadowed in the first hour, and the writers do well to resolve that little question right away. Yes, indeed, Charlie is a drug addict, and one with a very limited supply of his particular vice. Dominic Monaghan does a great job of portraying a strung-out musician with every reason to want to get off the island. He’s probably endured withdrawal more than once, and he has no desire to experience that again.

Hurley, the rather large young man with an apparently gentle nature, seems to be one of the more sympathetic characters. As such, one should immediately be worried about him once the food situation becomes critical. Some of the more violent survivors could easily see him as a liability, despite his eagerness to help. For now, of course, he’s a mixture of common sense and comic relief, both of which are necessary to keep the series from becoming an exercise in depression.

Sayid, a character that was notable for his work ethic in the first hour, gets some serious character development in this episode. This is great example of character that would have been better served by the original format of the pilot. Sayid definitely knows how to survive, and he’s not afraid to make the tough decisions. Unfortunately for him, he was also a member of the Iraqi Republican Guard. Between that and his Middle Eastern background, many of the American survivors aren’t willing to give him a chance. That’s a compelling conflict, because he comes across as a very humane individual, and the others are overlooking the fact that he’s a former member of the Guard, something that suggests he might have left of his own accord.

The survivor most suspicious of Sayid is Sawyer, an ugly American who seems to think he’s a badass. Sawyer is very unhappy when the rest of the survivors prevent him from beating the crap out of Sayid for simply being Arabic, and when Sayid and Kate decide to search for higher ground to use the transceiver (which Sayid repairs to the best of his ability), Sawyer insists on coming along.

This is rather useful from a writing perspective. By taking Sawyer along, Sayid’s actions are constantly under hostile review, revealing much about both characters. It would have been easy for Sayid to come off task and deal with Sawyer directly. He didn’t, and that speaks volumes about his desire to be rescued and work with others to that goal. Sawyer, on the other hand, seems reckless and unable to focus on anything but his own paranoia. However, he does seem to have some amazing ability to make small-caliber bullets penetrate the very tough hide of a polar bear, which could be useful in the days ahead.

Lest Kate be the only female eye candy on the island, Shannon is laying out on the beach in a string bikini and looking very much the sorority queen in the process. Not only is she not lifting a finger, she is deeply in denial mode, refusing to believe that the plane crash is little more than an unplanned diversion to a tropical paradise. Her denial is so deep that she can’t bring herself to translate the recorded distress call that comes over the transceiver, because acknowledging what she’s hearing will force her to accept her situation. Her brother Boone seems to exist solely to pressure her into making the right choice out of spite.

Claire could very well turn out to be a sympathetic character that attracts Boone. For one thing, they are both young and pretty, and for a very pregnant woman, Emilie is still exuding the hotness. Her baby is still alive and kicking, and since it is likely to come sometime during the season, someone is going to have to take Claire and the baby under their wing if the two have any chance at survival. Boone is the perfect one to do so, if he can manage to retain his decency.

Michael and Walt are a wonderfully complex father/son relationship. Walt is clearly suffering from the loss of his mother, and even worse, his father is a stranger. Michael seems to have few parenting skills, and that makes it very difficult for him to know how to deal with his son’s trauma. Finding Walt’s dog could be useful, but the condition of the dog when it’s found could only make things worse.

Jin and Sun, the Korean couple, get some interesting character development of their own. It’s not clear what the relationship is between the two characters, but Jin certainly comes across as the severely conservative Asian male stereotype. It’s quite likely that he understands and speaks English, and has no intention of letting the other survivors know it. It is good to see Jin and Sun’s Korean spoken without subtitles; it allows the audience to experience the same level of communication breakdown that the survivors are dealing with. Not only is Sun revolting against the strict expectations of Jin and their culture, but she might also be the first to admit a knowledge of English when she tries to gain allies of her own.

Locke, played by Terry O’Quinn, continues to exude a certain level of sinister intent. It seems clear that he knows more than he’s telling, and he seems all too comfortable with their situation. He does what it takes to survive, of course, but he’s also doing nothing to help facilitate rescue. One has to wonder what he told Walt, if anything.

The island itself is a character all its own, and in this case, it yields two very important secrets. The polar bear is notable for several reasons, not the least of which is its survival in the same jungle as the unknown creature stomping around and eviscerating pilots. Could it be that the unknown creature hasn’t seen the polar bear as a threat, because both of them have been on the island for a while? Could that explain the apparent lack of indigenous wildlife?

The theory given in the review for the first hour (the island is a deserted military base for a secret genetics experiment) is supported by the revelation that a distress call was sent out more than 16 years earlier, describing a lone survivor of some terrible disaster. If the polar bear was being held at that installation as part of the experiment (perhaps for polar bear DNA), then it would explain a great many things. How many other odd animals have survived?

Taken as a whole, it’s easy to see why the first two episodes should have remained a two-hour pilot film. While the story certainly doesn’t come to a resolution, the first two episodes clearly outline the main character conflicts that should be explored over the rest of the season. The mystery of the island itself is mostly a lot device, a means of establishing an external source of plot elements for individual episodes. This sets the series in a different perspective, eliminating the likelihood of monotony that would inevitably result from focusing solely on the interpersonal conflicts of the survivors.

That said, since the series is riding on the ability of the mystery to keep the conflicts fresh and give them scope, much rides on the ability of the writers to expound on that mystery in a consistent and interesting manner. If the mystery becomes mired in same kind of contradiction as too many other shows with an undefined mythology, the result could be frustration and abandonment by the audience. If the mystery can be deepened and extrapolated intelligently, then the series should be able to maintain the current level of intensity.

As it stands, the pilot is a great introduction to the series’ premise. Now that the actual episodes will be coming in the weeks ahead, the next hurdle will be maintaining quality with a lower budget. The fact that the second hour was relatively cheap, with the exception of the plane crash footage, should be comforting. It will also be interesting to see what happens when Abrams steps back, letting Lindelof take over as showrunner. Only time will tell, however, if either factor has a major effect on the quality of the work.


Final Analysis
Overall, this episode is a strong second hour for the pilot. While this material really should have been aired immediately following the second hour, to avoid some serious editing problems, the material itself was strong enough to stand on its own. The characters are fleshing out nicely, and the mystery of the island has expanded well from the “creature feature” start in the first hour.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10




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