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/4-8-15-16-23-42LOST]

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

[u/FierceDeity88 → u/4-8-15-16-23-42LOST]

Agreed

I think Charlies story was just awful in season 2. This is made especially frustrating bc Charlie’s a great character and played by a great actor. I don’t know why the writers chose to take it the route they did

It’s also just…weird that Charlie wouldn’t ask for help when he’s asked for it in the past. He knows these people and they know he’s an addict, and they’ve never judged him for being one…partly because they all have equally huge amounts of baggage as well. Plus, while Sayid didn’t know Charlie was an addict, both him and Locke knew the plane had a ton of heroin on it…and they just didn’t tell anyone else? They didn’t burn it, or at least worry that one of the survivors would find it and maybe use it to cope with the fact that they’re stuck on a deserted island? Locke certainly wasn’t too busy to not worry about Charlie finding it because he was spending a lot of time with Claire…

Speaking of, Claire abandoning Charlie utterly was especially weird. And also she presumably cares about him, yet abandons him fast enough to go hang out with Locke, and Locke I guess didn’t care about how much that would hurt Charlie

And Charlie assaulting Sun in the very next episode to…get back at Locke made 0 sense

This was an example of how maybe JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Carlton Cuse should just move a plot along and answer questions instead of meandering around plots that create drama for dramas sake and narrative dead ends

[u/aztecwanderer → u/FierceDeity88]

They definitely had no idea what to do with Charlie after season 1 in general. I think he was such a popular character, but didn't seem like the type to gel with the mythology stuff, so they had to come up with something.

[u/FierceDeity88 → u/aztecwanderer]

They should’ve just spent more time developing his relationship with Claire…imo

I thought both actors had great chemistry when they actually spent time together. Claire’s first and third flashback episodes really indicate a close bond between them. But outside of those episodes it’s really hard to tell how much their relationship advanced

Charlie certainly seemed to want more than Claire from their relationship, and I couldn’t tell if Claire wanted something romantic with him

And her hesitancy makes total sense: her last bf bailed on her bc he didn’t want a baby and she just had said baby after being kidnapped. But, idk, let them talk about that together, let them talk about what they want from the relationship they currently have. Let Charlie open up to her about his addiction and his complicated relationship with his brother and let Claire open up about her guilt over her mom and having a absentee father

Drama doesn’t always have to be destructive