Thursday, April 9, 2009

Best LOST Ever?

My boy TJ really liked last night's episode of LOST. And TJ really likes LOST. Seriously, he says so all the time. And behind closed doors, he's calling last night's episode quite possibly the best episode ever.

Do I agree with him? Rarely if ever. I think he's just still high on the adrenaline of the episode being less than 24 hours old, but I also think he's going to let me be the godfather of his children some day.

Anyways, it raises an interesting question: If last night's episode wasn't the best ever (and it wasn't), which one was? It's such a consistently high quality show that it's tough to pick out a single standout.

In my mind, it's hard to beat "Through the Looking Glass", the season three finale. It's a wonderfully paced ride with great action, high tension, emotional impact to boot and so many great moments (Hurley saving the day with the van, Sayid actually being a badass, Charlie's sacrifice, Locke's resurrection, Jack beating the shit out of Ben, Sawyer killing Mr. Friendly, Rousseau beating the shot out of Ben, and so on and so on). And of course the kicker, the big flash forward reveal--how can you top that?

But hey, what do you think?

9 comments:

Sean T. Collins said...

I find I have a really hard time remembering specific episodes, like, as a unit, rather than remembering specific moments. I think the pilot's pretty unindictable television, I loved the season premiere of season two, and I think the murder of Alex was so well done that that entire episode really rises to the top in my estimation.

Jim Gibbons said...

That one where we found out about Jack's tattos was pretty bitchin', right?!

TJ Dietsch said...

Like Sean, I don't remember specific episodes very well, but this episode just had so much awesome stuff: Locke being awesome and mysterious, how Ben got Alex, young Ethan, Widmore on the island, slightly more info about the Temple, a look at the hieroglyphs under the temple wall, Sun and Locke teaming up, Iliana going crazy (possibly because she was already on the island? or the sickness?), actual emotion from Ben (maybe). And that's just all the stuff I can remember. I was freaking out the whole episode.

Actually, the Nicki and Paulo episode WAS pretty good...

Ben Morse said...

Oh don't you start with the Nicki/Paulo stuff...I know you're just trying to bait me, Dietsch!

Sam said...

I too have a hard time remembering specific episodes, but I know that that one with Desmond and his initial time travel madness was pretty awesome.

If anything, to me it's all the little moments that make Lost awesome. Like when Hurley's CD player died in the first season and the music went away or when they all played golf and when they found the VW van, or when Sawyer told Jack that thing about his dad and then got all teary and stuff, or when Desmond found Penny and when Charlie died to save them...Good times.

Ben Morse said...

I agree with what you guys are saying (except TJ...well, and Jim), which is why if pressed I go with "Looking Glass" as my favorite because it contains more of those moments than any other ep I can think of.

Josh Wigler said...

The thing about Lost is that there's so many different classes of episodes, it's almost hard to fairly put one above the rest. When you're talking about mythologically significant episodes, I'd agree that Through the Looking Glass is pretty darn tough to beat, though Exodus (the three hour finale to season one) has a soft spot in my heart thanks to the epic music as the raft sails off, and Arzt blowing up everywhere.

But there's also some excellent, smaller episodes like "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead," which has some of the funniest moments between Jin, Sawyer, Hurley and Charlie while also being emotional -- just an excellent character episode.

I think of those episodes, "The Man From Tallahassee" ranks very high on the list. Finally learning how Locke got in the wheelchair was a relief but also very brutal to watch... his whole thing with keeping Jack and Juliet from leaving the island, blowing up the submarine... Ben talking about the "magic box" and revealing Locke's father is on the island... that episode had so many moments that flipped me out at the time and still do to this day.

And, of course, The Constant. Can't forget that.

I just can't wait until we find out wtf that Smoke Monster is. That'll either be the best episode or the worst hour of television ever.

KP said...

After thinking about this, I think the initial Dharma Initiative episode was my favorite. To my mind, seeing Ben commit genocide was the moment where the show started tipping away from island life and big vague mysteries to the deep exploration of the themes and set pieces we've gotten to know over the past two seasons.

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