"Lost" Three Minutes (2006)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Stephen Williams

Writers:

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

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

17 May 2006 (Season 2, Episode 22)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

Michael's whereabouts during his 13 days in captivity in the "Others" camp are detailed while in the present, he tries to convince Jack to help him mount a search party for his son Walt still being held captive. Meanwhile, Locke struggles with a choice whether or not to abandon the hatch.

Plot Keywords:

Plane Crash | Flashback | Survival | South Pacific | Doctor

Cast

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje	...	Mr. Eko
Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Malcolm David Kelley	...	Walt Lloyd
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Harold Perrineau	...	Michael Dawson
Michelle Rodriguez	...	Ana-Lucia Cortez (credit only)
Cynthia Watros	...	Libby (credit only)

Runtime:

45 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Certification:

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

Company:

Bad Robot

Trivia:

The location of The Other's campsite and hatch is on the windward (southeastern) part of the island of Oahu. This can be discerned by the vegetation, a low scrub grass.

Quotes:

[during the funeral Sun looks out at the ocean]
Sun Kwon: Boat. Boat!

Movie Connections:

References The Dirty Dozen (1967)

A good set-up for the finale

"Three Minutes" is meant to fill in some gaps, mostly involving Michael's absence for several episodes earlier in the season, and to set up the finale. It succeeds in doing so, and is involving and entertaining enough, but despite being in the top 15 or so episodes from the second season it still feels a bit like a missed opportunity. This could have been truly pulse-pounding and thrilling, but it needs more than a Giacchino score and lots of camera motion to be truly thrilling. There needs to be an emotional connection for the audience, and what we're seeing doesn't show us anything new about Michael. It feels sort of same-old same-old, like stuff we've already seen this season rehashed.

Still, the episode is very good and quite involving, as far as island-based flashbacks for 815'ers go it's better than "Maternity Leave" but not on par with "The Brig". There's a lot of mythology-based fun relating to Walt (and even a hint at Room 23, which we would see in season 3 and a "Missing Pieces" episode), and we get to see a whole lot of the Others, possibly more than we'd seen in one episode up to this point in the series.

All in all there's not much to talk about. Stephen Williams is an erratic but talented director, and this is not one of his finer efforts. The script is very good, but could have packed a bigger punch. Setup episodes for the finales can be magnificent, see season 3's "Greatest Hits" or if you consider them separate from the second parts, "Exodus: Part 1" or "There's No Place Like Home: Part 1". It's a successful episode at getting everything ready for the naturally mind-blowing finale "Live Together, Die Alone", and it's entertaining, so I'll give it:

8/10