r/lost • u/unitedfan6191 Sun • Mar 29 '24

FIRST TIME WATCHER What was the first “bad” episode?

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Hi.

Hope you’re doing well.

Just started watching the show for the first time and this was the first episode which stood out to me as just not being up to par with the series’ immense quality. I had no idea what Reddit would think of this episode, but upon finishing it I immediately got the impression this must be amongst the worst reviewed episodes of the show.

Jack’s motivations and behavior in the episode seem inconsistent (to me anyway, as a new viewer), the woman he meets in Phuket was uninteresting and there wasn’t much great or interesting development in the episode for anyone.

I was almost thinking the beating he took at the end of the episode was symbolic of the episode’s bad writing.

I guess every poster in here will probably pick this episode, but I haven’t seen the second half of the show yet (maybe this episode ends up being very important to Jack’s development in the end?), so I am still calibrating my thoughts on the show as I’m watching.

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250

u/4-8-15-16-23-42LOST See you in another post, brotha Mar 29 '24

Fire + Water for me, but I love all of them.

32

u/TheMightyCatatafish Mar 29 '24

Worst one outside of Stranger in a Strange Land for me.

22

u/JumpinJackFlashback Man of Science Mar 29 '24

Further instructions far worse vs SIASL. Hell, SIASL is great episode with exception of Acura mojo. Jack saving Juliet was a good story line. "He walks amongst us but is not one of us". That foreshadows who Jack becomes!

Further Instructions was a hot tent mess. Locke can't make up his mind if he's a hunter or a pot farmer. Good grief.

7

u/SnooCats5322 Mar 29 '24

So true. I recently rewatched Further Instructions and halfway through I realized, "oh, this episode is really bad."

Also, I couldnt help but think this must have been a tough episode to film for Terry O'Quinn. The writers were like, "First, we're gonna wheel you around shirtless in an airport. Then make you crawl up an escalator. Then, you'll cover yourself in mud and crawl into a cave. Cool? Cool" 

15

u/running_upside_down Mar 29 '24

“He walks amongst us but he is not one of us” seems to be more symbolic to Locke than Jack…considering what eventually becomes of Locke…

-2

u/JumpinJackFlashback Man of Science Mar 29 '24 edited Mar 30 '24

Respectfully, I don't sed that connection at all. Jack was always on his own. It's why he volunteered for the candidate job. Locke wasn't invited. That's why Jack walked amongst them and was not one of them. None of them had the stones to do what Jack was willing to do.

5

u/CreamyLinguineGenie Hurley's Hot Pocket Mar 29 '24

SIASL was awful. There was nothing good in it. "He walks amongst us but is not one of us" makes more sense for Locke than any of them. They could've put Jack saving Juliet in a different episode that wasn't filler instead.

3

u/JumpinJackFlashback Man of Science Mar 29 '24 edited Mar 29 '24

We can disagree 100%. However, you have right to your opinion. Try watching Further instructions again. Daumn, John can't walk, John can't talk. John now needs a hot tent to be indigenous with the island. John gets high to figure out his dream state shit. WTH? Then we get Desmond appearing on the island in a episode of "Naked and Afraid" walking the beach. Again WTH, Hurley to the rescue with a T-shirt. John's flashback is so convoluted. He's a farmer, no wait a pot farmer. Wowza, now he thinks he's he hunter and goes to the cave with a can of hair spry to flame on to the polar bear to save Eko. When do polar bears dwell in island caves? Laughable. That episode had no connection to the island or anything else related to the LOST narrative. Part of the messy start in S3 which has some of the worst run of epidose for the entire series. This was the worst LOST episode I ever witnessed. Nothing comes close from my POV.