Recap / Lost S01E02 "Pilot, Part 2"

Season 1, Episode 2:

Pilot, Part 2

"Two players, two sides. One is light. One is dark."

Written by J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof (story & teleplay) & Jeffrey Lieber (story).

Directed by J.J. Abrams.

"Guys, where are we?"

— Charlie Pace

Jack, Kate and Charlie bring the cockpit's transceiver, which isn't working, back to the beach. Walt finds a pair of handcuffs in the jungle. Sawyer attacks Sayid, accusing him of being a terrorist and crashing the plane. Sayid, a former communications technician in the Republican Guard, volunteers to try and fix the transceiver. Once the transceiver is working, Sayid proposes an expedition to higher ground where he can get a signal and call for help. He is joined by Kate, Sawyer, Charlie, Boone and Shannon.

Jack continues to try to help the man with the shrapnel stuck in him, but things aren't looking good for him. Jin continues to act controlling towards Sun. Jin catches a sea urchin, and Hilarity Ensues when he tries to share it with the other survivors. Claire feels her baby kick for the first time since the crash, and instinctively calls it a "he". Locke teaches Walt how to play Backgammon. Sayid's group encounters a polar bear, which Sawyer shoots dead with a gun he found on a U.S. Marshal who was on the plane. Kate takes the gun, and Sayid tells her how to take it apart. The group reaches high ground. They can't send a distress call, as there is already another signal blocking it. A message in French, which Shannon translates. It's a woman, saying that she's on the Island alone, and "it killed them all". Sayid calculates that it's been playing on a loop for sixteen years.

In flashbacks, it's revealed that Charlie is a drug addict, and recovered his stash from the bathroom during the mission to the cockpit. It's also revealed that Jack's patient is the U.S. Marshal, and Kate was his prisoner.

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Tropes in this episode include:

• Afraid of Blood: Hurley repeatedly tells Jack that he's not good around blood. Sure enough, he faints after Jack pulls the shrapnel out of the Marshal.
• Bears Are Bad News: The group with the transceiver are attacked by a very aggressive polar bear, which Sawyer has to shoot dead.
• Captain Obvious: After Sawyer shoots the polar bear, Shannon points out that polar bears don't live in the jungle. Charlie lampshades this with a deadpan "Spot on."
• Comically Missing the Point: After Sawyer shoots a polar bear.
  Kate: Where did that come from?
  Sawyer: Probably Bear Village. How the hell do I know?
  Kate: Not the bear, the gun.
• Establishing Character Moment: Locke speaks for the first time when he introduces Walt to backgammon, showing how intelligent he is while also having an air of mystery to him.
• Establishing Series Moment: Continuing from the introduction of the Monster, which showed that this is not an ordinary island, the survivors find a polar bear in the middle of the jungle.
• Exact Words: When Jack asks her if she knows the Marshal, Kate answers, "He was sitting next to me on the plane." She doesn't mention that he was next to her because she was in his custody.
• Fanservice: Kate strips off in the ocean. Interestingly, Sun is the character we see gawking, although it's implied to be because she's jealous of Kate's freedom to show off her body, while she remains under the thumb of the domineering Jin, who orders her to keep her top shirt button closed.
• Feeling the Baby Kick: Claire is worried because her baby hasn't moved since the crash. After eating a piece of fish Jin offers her the baby suddenly starts moving again. She's delighted to know the baby is okay and grabs Jin's hand so he can feel.
• Flashback: The ones in this half of the pilot show Charlie snorting heroin in the plane's bathroom just before the crash and revealing that Kate was the prisoner of the US Marshal.
• Foreshadowing: Locke's description of Backgammon refers to a central conflict of the series, the true nature of which won't come to light for several seasons:
  "Two players. Two sides. One is light. One is dark."
• Hope Spot: When Sayid manages to pick up a signal on the radio, and they start hearing a transmission in French.
  Charlie: It's French! The French are coming! I've never been so happy to hear the French!
• Innocently Insensitive: Having failed to find Vincent, Michael tells Walt that he'll get him another dog.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Locke and Walt start to strike up one of these as they play Backgammon together.
• Jerkass: Sawyer. He attacks Sayid and accuses him of being a terrorist who caused the plane crash, and is generally confrontional and abrasive towards all of the other survivors, while playing Commander Contrarian to all of Jack's ideas for how to get them rescued.
• Language Barrier: Michael tries to ask Sun and Jin for help finding Walt when he wanders off, but since they don't speak English, this is of no help.
• Pet the Dog: Jin has spent most of the first two episodes acting like a total jerk, but he shows a kinder side here by offering the pregnant Claire a fish he caught and (reluctantly) feeling her baby kick when she asks him to.
• This Is Gonna Suck: After getting just a small taste of the mystery of the island, Charlie closes the pilot by saying "Guys...where are we?"
• Wham Line:
  • After Sawyer shoots the bear.
    Kate: Guys, this isn't just a... bear. That's a polar bear.
  • Two in connection with the French woman's message:
    Shannon: (translating) It killed them... it killed them all.

    Sayid: If the count is right... It's been playing over... and over... for sixteen years.
• Wham Shot: A flashback reveals that Kate was the prisoner that the U.S. Marshal was transporting.
• What You Are in the Dark: When the Marshal is knocked unconscious during the flight, Kate puts an oxygen mask on him despite having every incentive to let him die so she can escape, even though nobody would ever know what she did in the circumstances. It's a clear signal to the audience that despite whatever crime she committed, Kate is not a bad person.

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