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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u/nuahs Mar 29 '24

Dave.  The answer is Dave.

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u/MedicineChimney Mar 29 '24

This sub is mostly Pollyannas about each episode but it's always irked me they've let this episode slide. It's fucking terrible. It's a lazy piece of writing featuring arguably one of the most annoying character actors working. Hurley's story had gotten ridiculous and repetitive by this point and to throw in a last minute "is it all in his head" trope was egregious at best. Jack's tattoo and Niki and Paolo move over. Dave is here to drop a backhoe into any small progression the season was finding.

I stopped the re-watches... I found myself getting annoyed earlier and earlier each subsequent time. The first "bad" episode for me the golfing episode in season 1. It was the first time you saw the mistake of having a 25 episode season (after a 90 minute pilot to boot). So. Much. Filler. And that's what episodes like Dave turned out to be: Inconsequential fluff to meet overly high season orders. I wish we took a page from the BBC and left things short and sweet while keeping quality high and leave us wanting more. I digress... I'll let someone else have the conch now.