TV Review: Lost Episode 2.11

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

From ABC: Jack, Locke and Sawyer pursue a determined Michael after he heads into the jungle toward the dreaded "Others" in search of Walt. Meanwhile, Sun has a surprising reaction to Jin's desire to join the search party, and Hurley and Charlie commiserate over the age-old conundrum of "what women want."

My Rating: 3 out of 4

All right, I admit this episode titled "The Hunting Party" didn't really grab me at first. In fact, up until the point the mysterious man showed up, I was rather disappointed in this episode. This probably saved the episode in my eyes because up until we were finally able to see the others, the episode had bored me. Let's talk about it though.

The episode opens up with Locke knocked out on the floor of the gunroom. When Jack finds him, Michael comes up behind him and locks them both in the gunroom. He is now off to find Walt. We don't see him at all again the entire episode. With Locke and Jack in the room locked up, concern about the button comes into play, but Kate and Sawyer show up soon after, so Jack can change Sawyer's bandages. As soon as they are released, Jack and Locke load up on guns, and they are off after Michael. Sawyer joins them, and Kate wants to, but Jack stops her. Somebody is needed to take charge of the button.

The men are off with Locke tracking Michael. They hear gunfire in the distance at one point, but they continue on. Sawyer and Jack snip at each other some, and Jack even blurts out that Sawyer loves Kate in a moment of anger. It isn't pursued though then. When night falls, Locke loses the trail, and he says they should return to camp. Jack doesn't want to, and it is then that we see the mysterious others for the first time.

One of them approaches them, and the rest remain in the shadows. This was definitely a tense moment, and the man tells the three that they are still alive on the island because they are allowed to - kind of scary if you ask me. When the man asks for three men to leave their weapons and go back, Jack is adamant on continuing on to find Michael, but his tune soon changes when Kate is pulled out. She had followed the men after having Hurley take over button duty for her. The others had captured her. With this presenting itself, Jack and the others have no other option but to do what they have been told to do. Kate is released, and they start the journey back to camp. Jack is obviously upset with Kate, but Sawyer tells her he'd have done the same in her shoes.

Meanwhile, back at camp, we see many of other survivors. Charlie and Hurley talk over their female woes. Claire had thrown Charlie out last week after the drug discovery. Sun and Jin also have airtime this week with Sun stopping her husband from following after the three men. This doesn't set that well, and Jin confronts her by the end of the episode. However, Sun stands up for herself basically telling him she had only done what he had been doing to her the last four years. He finds no argument in that, and all appears well. We see Claire and Ana Lucia briefly when Jack and Locke return to camp. Jack goes to Ana Lucia, and Locke stops to talk to Claire. I see Jack allowing himself to develop some kind of emotions for Ana Lucia since he feels Kate is unobtainable with how she feels for Sawyer. Jack also asks her about how long it would take to train an army. In fact that is how the episode ends.

Since this was a Jack flashback episode, we see more of Jack's past, and his relationship with his wife comes to the forefront. We see him working on another miracle case of an older man. His daughter is also a huge part of things, and she develops feelings for Jack. When her father dies on the table, she turns to Jack for comfort, but he pushes her away after kissing her. When he returns home, Sarah tells his she is leaving him and she has been having an affair. This after he tells her he killed the old man's daughter no less. Her plans to leave him were already in play at the time though.

As I said when I began this review, I didn't really like the episode until the others showed up. Even then it felt a bit of a letdown. I don't know but I think I'd wanted to see the others for so long I expected more. It did improve the episode for me though. I was excited to see the others. I just expected more. The episode felt really sluggish at points near the beginning. I loved the Sun and Jin interaction as well.

Another criticism I have of this episode is this - another Jack centric episode? I like Jack, but I think another episode following him when we just had one not too long ago is a bit much. That might be only my opinion, but as soon as I saw it was a Jack episode, I was immediately unhappy. I had pretty much figured the history with his wife from previous episodes. This episode only confirmed my suspicions. Next week we have an all-new episode, download the preview here courtesy of voodoo_in_tx on live journal.