"Lost" All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues (2004)

Director:

Stephen Williams

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator) and
J.J. Abrams (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

8 December 2004 (Season 1, Episode 11)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

Jack, Kate, Locke and Boone go after Ethan, Claire and Charlie. They separate, and while Jack and Kate confront Ethan, Locke and Boon find another mystery at the jungle. Flashbacks reveal more about Jack's past with his dad.

Plot Keywords:

Labrador Retriever | Mysterious Island | Plane Crash | Flashback | South Pacific

Cast

Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Maggie Grace	...	Shannon Rutherford
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Malcolm David Kelley	...	Walt Lloyd
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon (credit only)
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon (credit only)
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Harold Perrineau	...	Michael Dawson
Ian Somerhalder	...	Boone Carlyle
William Mapother	...	Ethan Rom
John Terry	...	Christian Shephard

Runtime:

42 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:15 | Portugal:M/12 | USA:TV-14 | Venezuela:PG-13 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company:

Bad Robot

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: While Jack is speaking with his dad, you hear the pen his dad hands him click, yet it is clearly a pen that needs to be twisted and you then see Jack twist it to sign the document.

Quotes:

Sawyer: Who got taken by what?

Movie Connections:

References "Fantasy Island" (1978)

Excellent

"All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" features a Jack flashback that while effective in terms of developing his character doesn't quite gel with the rest of the episode. It is odd that Grillo-Marxuach went with another story about Jack's relationship with his father here, because a story about Jack's guilt and need to fix things (which the flashback touches on but doesn't quite fully explore) would have fit better with the events on the island, with Jack, Kate, Boone, and Locke attempting to find Claire and Charlie.

"All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" is perhaps the most utterly enthralling on-island story up to this point in the show's run (episode 11 in season one). Many memorable, classic scenes feature here- Jack's fight with Ethan, the scene involving Locke, Boone, and rain, Jack and Kate finding Charlie hanging on a tree (still one of the show's best shock moments), and finally Locke and Boone discovering the hatch. It's a jam-packed, thrilling episode with a fine script by Grillo-Marxuach, but the flashback, while strong, doesn't quite match the pace and quality of the rest of the episode and is less intriguing than "White Rabbit", the previous Jack flashback, was.

This episode marked the directing debut for producer Stephen Williams on "Lost", and also the end of a string of very poorly-directed episodes. Williams' work isn't flawless, but he has an assured sense of pacing and creates tension superbly well (see, again, the scene where Charlie is found in that state). Giacchino's work here is particularly good as well, alternating successfully between sweeping dramatic pieces and exciting, creative action/adventure music.

"All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" is a fine episode when all is said and done, packing in an admirable amount of character interaction and development in addition to the straightforward action/adventure plot.

9/10