"Lost" The Beginning of the End (2008)

Director:

Jack Bender

Writers:

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

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

31 January 2008 (Season 4, Episode 1)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

Charlie's dying message casts doubt on the intentions of the people that Jack believes to be their rescuers. A power struggle ensues between Jack, who wants to leave the island, and Locke, who thinks that they're supposed to stay.

Plot Keywords:

Flash Forward | Helicopter | Boat | Warning | Painting

Cast

Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Desmond Hume
Jeremy Davies	...	Daniel Faraday
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Michael Emerson	...	Benjamin Linus
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Ken Leung	...	Miles Straume (credit only)
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Rebecca Mader	...	Charlotte Lewis (credit only)
Elizabeth Mitchell	...	Juliet Burke
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace

Runtime:

43 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | Venezuela:PG-13 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company:

ABC Studios

Trivia:

The Oceanic "lawyer" that visits Hurley in the institution is played by Lance Reddick. His character's name is Matthew Abaddon, and is later shown to have visited other Oceanic survivors such as Locke. Lance Reddick also plays Agent Phillip Broyles on J.J. Abrams' FOX endeavor, "Fringe" (2008).

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When the detective tells Hurley that he can put him in the nut house, Hurley respond by hugging him. Over the detective's right shoulder, during the over the shoulder shot of Hurley, you can clearly see the left hand of the camera operator, and most of the lens.

Quotes:

James 'Sawyer' Ford: You wanna talk about it?
Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes: Talk about what?
James 'Sawyer' Ford: Charlie. I mean, you two were buddies, I just thought...
Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes: We'll probably get to Jack faster if we don't talk.

Movie Connections:

References First Blood (1982)

Lost returns with a vengeance

A thoroughly satisfactory follow-up to "Through the Looking Glass" did not feel anti-climactic to me after waiting all those months for the show's return, and on DVD seems about as good. It's not a brilliant episode, but it's an emotional gem pretty much throughout, and it's got some winning moments of humor and heart which elevate it beyond the typical season opener. It doesn't quite hit the highs of "Man of Science, Man of Faith", but it's significantly better than "A Tale of Two Cities", and the shift from Jack to Hurley works very well, although Jack is still featured prominently in the flashforwards.

The on-island events are a logical extension of "Through the Looking Glass", and work as both follow-up to that episode and a setup for the rest of season four, and pretty much cover all bases in relation to the characters involved in season three's climactic stages (unlike season three's opening stages, which took several episodes to even get to some of the characters impacted by season two's finale, and only set up the Hydra pod of episodes). I don't care at all for Naomi's not being dead, which pretty much redefines 'plot contrivance', or for Rose's line about Claire treating Charlie 'real good' when (sigh) he returns. The rest of it is pretty great, especially the only real surprise in the episode, Hurley's encounter with Jacob's cabin.

The flashforwards are clearly happening well before "Through the Looking Glass", and work well as a setup for the rest of the flashforward stories which would ultimately lead to Drunk Bearded Jack's visit to the mystery coffin. All in all this is a good script, very well-performed and nicely-directed which functions as a pleasingly efficient and rewarding season opener.