LOST Season 1, Episode 1 – “Pilot (Part 1)”
Written by Jeffrey Lieber (story) and J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof (story and teleplay)
Directed by J.J. Abrams
Aired September 22, 2004 on ABC
“Fear’s sort of an odd thing.” – Jack
From the moment it began twenty years ago, LOST was a series about mystery and discovery; of character, of story, and of self. Without a single line of dialogue, the first episode’s opening scene introduces us to Jack by immediately establishing its storytelling rhythms; panning out from his eye to reveal he’s wearing a suit, watching carefully as he stands and takes a small container of vodka out of his blazer pocket, and pausing curiously when he’s approached by a golden retriever. The man in the suit then runs down to the beach, revealing a serene beach setting – until it slowly pans to the horrific aftermath of a plane crash, the sounds of screams and explosions washing over Jack, and the audience, like a wave of terror.
In a few short minutes, LOST grabs the audience with an assured confidence few pilots, especially those carrying the price tag and inherent pressure LOST was in 2004, have ever delivered on; as the stranger in a suit makes his way down the beach to the traumatic event unfolding, “Pilot (Part 1)” immediately establishes its voice and storytelling rhythms; mystery, reveal, resolution (a format the series would use and contort to so much great and ill effect over its six-season run), repeating the format as Jack makes his way through the beach, and begins to interact with the then-strange, now-iconic faces of the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors.
“Pilot (Part 1)” is one of the best paced pilots in television history; after laying out a number of intriguing threads in its chaotic, explosive (literally) first seven and a half minutes, LOST slowly begins to pull back to offer up the first few glimpses of the faces we’ll come to know and love (or hate) over the next 120 hours. But those first few minutes preview our merry band of castaways with such a careful touch amidst the increadibly dramatic, chaotic scene playing out in front of Jack: a disheleved man barely cognizant to the plane breaking apart around him; a blonde girl screaming her brains out; a woman unconscious on the beach as someone tries to administer CPR on them.
All of these images swirl together as Jack helps a pregnant woman get to safety and then teaches a lifeguard how to do CPR properly – quickly cementing Jack as our de-facto protagonist for the first hour, the guy who calmly notes he took a “few flying lessons” while trying to pep up a stranger to perform surgery on him (in the form of a needle and thread… “what’s your color preference?” the somber, pensive woman she asks). It’s a rather grand introduction for Jack, a character who LOST will spend so much of its time deconstructing and reconstructing over its run; here, the character setup works perfectly to deliver the episode’s only monologue (the first of many Jack Speeches, of course), where Jack talks about fear, how it envelops us – and how that can be useful, if we are able to harness it.
From there, LOST takes a step back to being introducing the audience to a handful of its main players. Some of them, like Sawyer, are only offered silent, evocative images for their introductions; others, like Hurley, aren’t named, but fill clear roles in building out the mosaic of tones and personalities of the show’s cast. The characters we learn the most about, besides Jack, are Charlie, a musician from what appears to be a formerly popular band (“we’re still together!” he insists) – and oddly enough, Sharon, who complains about having to eat chocolate and insists there’s nothing that needs to be done, since their rescue would be soon upon them.
As night settles in and “Pilot (Part 1)” begins to calm its tone after the explosions and shaky camera work of its incredibly tense opening sequence, it slowly pushes its lens wider – but never lingering, only pausing for a moment to show images of a young, very pregnant Australian woman, or an Asian couple with a (seemingly) clear power dynamic – or of course, a shady man smoking a cigarette and calmly watching things unfold around him.
The first half of the episode (from Jack opening his eye to the first rumblings of “The Monster”) is such a rewarding sequence; it works for first time viewers in quickly getting the audience familiar with some of the 48 survivors (a number Jack probably made up, if we’re being honest) – and for those returning to the series, is such a rewarding reminder of how carefully thought out so many of the smaller beats and incidental moments of “Pilot (Part 1)” were, be it Kate rubbing her wrists when she first appears on screen, Rose holding her wedding ring, or Charlie writing “FATE” on tape he’s wrapped around his fingers.
The entire episode is a rewarding rewatch, but those first twenty minutes remain incredibly impressive – even with characters like Locke, who has no lines in this episode, nothing but a few images of a scarred man, sitting on the beach, smiling as a torrential downpour drenches the survivors the morning after the storm. While some of LOST‘s deeper, more esoteric mysteries won’t start developing for episodes or seasons to come, the storytelling tracks and rhythms are already on full display here – like with Jack’s bottle of alcohol, which is used as an antiseptic to heal his wound, and later, is given to him by a flight attendant in the show’s first flashback (Jack notes that his drink isn’t strong enough, as telling a sentence as when he tells Boone “I’m a doctor!” in the episode’s opening scene).
Of course, “Pilot (Part 1)” is certainly not absent of mystery; and as rumblings of a strange, machine-like apparatus starts scaring the shit out of everyone on the beach, LOST‘s first hour shifts from its intense focus on character into a more traditional, dramatic storytelling mode, as Jack, Kate and Charlie lead the first expedition of the series off the beach, in their hunt to find the transceiver supposedly trapped in the plane’s cockpit.
The second half of the hour is a tonal shift that could make for a really confusing pilot episode; however, by couching its sense of dread and fear into characters on multiple levels, it works just as effectively as the opening sequence, turning the external horrors of the plane crash and its aftermath into something more harrowing and internal; the dual realizations that the survivors had some unpleasant company on the island – and that most likely, nobody knew where they were and would be looking for them in the wrong place.
That dread, which grows throughout the episode’s second part, turns LOST into an incredibly tense thriller for fifteen minutes, as the three climb the plane’s suspended cockpit, discover a pilot still alive – and then, find themselves in the path of a terrifying, unseen monster that kills said pilot in dramatic fashion. And boy, does this sequence hold up; it’s tense and cinematic in a way network television’s rarely been in the twenty years since – and still holds up, even though J.J. Abram’s shaky camera work in the episode’s bigger moments occasionally feels a bit hokey and repetitive.
By the time Kate is stranded alone in the woods, LOST has built itself to a fever pitch; as Michael Giacchino’s deep, rumbling drums crash against the stark soundscape of the pouring, blinding rain, “Pilot (Part 1)” hits a white-knuckle high, a scene that still keeps me on the edge of my seat twenty years later. It’s an incredibly effective moment, one of the first real surprises LOST pulls out of its back pocket, declaring itself as a series not just of mysteries and drama, but capable of real, existential terror, and undercurrent the series would continue to tap into, to great effect through its run.
“Pilot (Part 1)” ends with Charlie, Kate, and Jack looking up at the pilot’s bloody remains perched in a tree Predator-style, before hard cutting to black and offering audiences the first earful of the show’s iconic “LOST thud”. Though not a fascinating moment in itself, LOST‘s first hour ends in a particularly confident place, pushing audiences into the second episode with a cascading series of narrative mysteries representing some of the show’s earliest external conflicts. As effective as that is, what remains impressive 20 years later is how powerfully resonant its first few character moments are; how quickly LOST builds a bridge to its audience remains its greatest asset, and the one lesson the many series it inspired (FlashForward, anyone? Terra Nova?) consistently missed.
Equal parts extravagant and unassuming, LOST‘s first episode remains a treasure for both newbies to the island, and those returning to the science fiction masterpiece. It delivers its opening salvo with a conviction and confidence missing in so much television of the 21st century, immediately establishing itself as an intriguing series to watch with compelling characters like Jack, and a series of still-impressive visuals – LOST remains not only one of the most expensive pilots ever produced, but one of the best, that rare combination of budget and quality most shows struggle to find after dozens of episodes, much less deliver in their first hour (which itself is really just half of the show’s first episode, making it even more impressive how neat and purposeful each image of “Pilot (Part 1)” is). There are few perfect pilots on TV; LOST, even after twenty years and multiple viewings, remains worthy of its incredibly rare designation, as one of the most thoughtful, satisfying pilots in television history.
Grade: A
Other thoughts/observations:
- Welcome to LOST season 1 reviews! I couldn’t be more excited to celebrate the first season of one of the greatest shows in television history, with new reviews publishing each Sunday (or Monday).
- If LOST‘s first episode aired in 2024, there would be so many tinnitus sound effects. So glad they aren’t here – proof of concept they aren’t needed, in 90% of circumstances (if not more)!
- Jack watches Boone do CPR: “You need to seriously think about giving that license back.”
- To think Jack was once going to die halfway through the episode, while being played by Michael Keaton. Matthew Fox is so good with dialogue and personality in this episode.
- “Pilot (Part 1)” also does really well mixing in bits of humor into its story; my favorite is Boone getting all the different pen colors for Jack, telling him “I didn’t know which one worked best.”
- Jack’s arm is full of tattoos, which is a great inside joke for anyone who’s made it to at least season 3 of LOST.
- Jack details a story where he spilled out a 16 year old’s nerves an spinal fluid while doing a 13 hour surgery, where he developed his “Five Seconds of Panic” theory, later utilized by Kate in the episode’s climactic moments.
- Kate stayed awake through the whole crash: “I knew the tail was gone, but I couldn’t bring myself to look back.” Hint, hint!
- Jack also notices Kate seems to know the guy who has a big ass piece of shrapnel stuck in his side.
- Love when Rose notes the sound of The Monster sounds familiar to her because she grew up in The Bronx, a nod to old cab typewriter sounds being used in its sound design.
- We very briefly meet Sayid as he sets up a fire for the supposed rescue team to see… though his introduction is longer than Sun’s, which is limited to a somber face looking offscreen while her husband talks to her in Korean.
- Hurley spells bodies “B-o-d-y-s” when trying to shield it from a young child’s ears (who we know to be Walt… oh, we’ll be talking about Walt this season).
- “You all, everybody!” You just heard the melody in your head when you read that, don’t lie.
- I love a good, classic blood spray, and we certainly get one when the pilot is yanked from the cockpit by The Monster.
- “Guys… how did something like this happen?” – a question to be asked by nearly every character at some point during LOST‘s long, strange run.
- Up next: Everyone goes for an important hike during “Pilot (Part 2)”.