LOST: The Season So Far…

Last Thursday’s episode, 4×08 Meet Kevin Johnson, marked the beginning of a mini-break until Lost returns on April 24th with 6 more episodes to round out the season. With this pause, we decided to evaluate season 4, how it stacks up thus far, and what we are looking forward to when the show returns!

*Note: We will be discussing everything that has aired so far, so if you haven’t watched the show and do not want to be spoiled, then look away!*

Overall Impressions:

So far, we have to say season 4 is doing a good job with answering questions and making some key reveals–however we are somewhat disappointed in the quality of writing, especially with these last few episodes. There have only really been two truly great episodes, while the rest range from mediocre to flat-out terrible *cough–Eggtown–cough*. While we appreciate that the writers are trying to move in the direction of answering questions, and the flash-forwards and decision to take some characters off-island is incredibly brave…it’s just the actual execution of some of these ideas falls short.

We love that we now know Charles Widmore is financing the frieghter folks and that he orchestrated the fake plane crash. We love the idea that the Island wants (needs) the Oceanic Six to return…but why are these reveals made with some of the worst dialogue imagineable, e.g. “You can’t kill yourself Michael, the Island won’t let you!” (COME ON). The contrived terribleness of The Tempest station and the deadly!gas! countdown, the ludicrous court scenes in Eggtown (“Do you LOVE the defendant?”), the complete lack of character continuity (Claire mourns Charlie for 10 seconds in 4×01 The Beginning of the End and then that’s it? She’s discussing baby caring techniques and serving coffee with Kate? Uhhh WTF?), and most importantly the unnecessary kiss of death to Karl and possibly Danielle…well, let’s just say we’re not particularly thrilled with these developments. Maybe we just want our cake and eat it too with this wish for solid character development, compelling plot reveals and outstanding writing…but this is what Lost has been about from the start. It’s a bit disappointing really, to have stumbling now.

That said, there was one particular episode this season that could possibly be one of the best episodes EVER. And that is a shining beacon of hope in the murk.

Best Moments:

The best moment so far HAS to be the phone conversation between Desmond and Penny in 4×05 The Constant.

Other honorable mentions include: the reveal that Michael is the saboteur on the freighter, the experiment scenes with Daniel Faraday (the time lapse of the payload signal reaching the island in 4×02, the maze and hemmoraging of Eloise in 4×05), the discovery of a polar bear skull wearing a Dharma collar in Tunisia, the revelation that Sayid is a hitman working for Ben off-island, the casting of Jeff Fahey (the Lawnmower Man himself!) as Frank Lapidus.

Worst Moments:

Good Ol’ Benry and the Ham

Oh, where to begin! The rabbit out of the arse creation of a completely new hatch called the Tempest which can whoosh! incapacitate everyone on the island with poison smoke, the reveal that Benry is a prancing wiz in the kitchen, the reveal that Goodwin’s wife has a moleymoleyMOLE that deserves recognition in the credits as a cast member, the incredibly bad writing of the entire courtroom scene in Eggtown, the reasoning Kate’s mother has for not testifying against her daughter in the same episode (how is she still alive by the way? Terminal cancer my foot!), the writing of Locke as he morphs from badass cool island channeller to whiney pissy lost leader (apparently from the Jack school of communication and leadership), the stupid completely unneccessary bitch-fight between Charlotte and Juliet, Charlotte in general, Miles in general (the epic Milesface versus Jackface showdown), should we keep going?