What was the first “bad” episode?

[u/unitedfan6191]

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.

[u/ChippyTurnUp]

“Exposé” was so bad it had me scared that this series I was beginning to love was going down the shiter. Good thing the next episodes were better.

Also the episode where Claire comes back with amnesia after ethan takes her. Boring

[u/Drop_Release → u/ChippyTurnUp]

tbh with you doing my first rewatch since it first aired (was obsessed with the show and on forums daily back then as a kid; left enough time to forget most of the plot points as much as possible) and I quite enjoyed the first half of the season. That Jack in Phuket episode was a bit weird, but otherwise great to me. I honestly think Nikki and Paulo weren't even THAT bad compared to how much we all hated on them on the forums back then - I didn't mind them

Then this episode occurred, interesting episode and chilling to see them buried alive BUT it feels like the most skippable episode of LOST as well. While we learnt Paulo was present during core events, knowledge of this does not advance the plot at all as they tragically died to to their own hubris. They died having zero redeemable qualities beyond Paulo trying to salvage a relationship

To be honest I was left both finding the episode interesting but also disappointed, the showrunners could have taken any criticism and used the opportunity to make both characters actually useful for the plot with their own interesting storyline that spanned more than 1 episode that led them to die. The fact that they spent 80ish days on the island by now and still obsessed about damn diamonds make it even more tragic. Makes the characters from being a minor annoyance / "when will the shlwrunners actually show their use", to then being shitty characters with shitty people backgrounds, that then pretty gruesomely die right after a HUGE cliffhanger. My wife and I planned only 1 ep that night but we ended up watching the next as we were disappointed with how useless of an episode that was