Monolosts: 101 Pilot, Part 1

Written by J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof
Directed by J.J. Abrams
Centric – Jack

'LOST'

Well it starts off with the now famous opening: an eye opening. The eye belongs to a man, who we have all grown to know and love, as Dr. Jack Shephard. As the camera pulls away from him, we get one of the smallest unresolved mysteries in the show. A black bar of sorts lying just above Jack’s left shoulder. What is this black bar? Is it a torch? Is it Ben Linus’ baton? We still don’t know... or really care...

Jack then sees a yellow Labrador retriever: Vincent... I suppose that isn’t his biggest worry at the moment seeing as he’s in the middle of a jungle, and there’s a bottle of vodka in his pocket (surprisingly unscathed)... Ah well... time to run. Running through the jungle he runs straight past something that hasn’t been addressed on the show itself, but rather via the mobisodes. For those of you, who haven’t watched the mobisodes, allow me to explain. In the final mobisode, entitled ‘So It Begins’ (which I will cover in more detail later), Vincent has a ‘conversation’ with Christian Shephard, A.K.A. Jacks dad. This takes place moments before Jack awakes. Christian tells Vincent to go wake up Jack, but more importantly, Christian is wearing white tennis shoes, and it is one of these which is seen hanging from a tree which Jack runs past.

‘Hey you, just give me a hand! You, come on! Come over here, give me a hand!’

As with any TV pilot... you need something to grab your attention straight away. In this case... how about flaming wreckage with lots of people screaming? I think that works. Jack enters the scene and looks about.

The first main character we see is Charlie Pace, A.K.A. Merry Brandybuck in ‘Lord of the Rings’. He’s just kind of... wondering about... a bit close to the turbine than health and safety would allow but ah well. Next on the list is Jin Kwon shouting for his wife, followed by Michael Dawson, shouting his, soon to be, trademark phrase, ‘WAAAAAALT!’ Walt is his son. We also have Shannon screaming, followed by a man, who looks remarkably like ‘Tom Friendly’, shouting ‘Stay away from the gas.'
After hearing a man shouting for help, jack runs over. A man is trapped under the wheels. Not being that strong, jack calls for help... I like how people come over when jack shouts, but no-one came before... Carrying on... amongst those who came to help JACK, is John Locke.

Next on Jack’s to-do list is to help the pregnant girl, Claire. Just after we find out she is 8 months pregnant, a man gets sucked into the engine which promptly explodes. I have to say... watching that in HD is quite amazing. All is then quiet for a moment before action resumes. Jack then calls over the resident fun guy, Hurley. Jack gives him instructions to stay with Claire, before he goes running off to help another person.

Jack stops the resident pretty-boy/lifeguard, Boone, from performing CPR on Rose... because he’s doing it wrong. As Jack says... ‘Yeah, well, you need to seriously think about giving that license back.’ Jack then sends Boone to gather pens for a pointless test... Jack then saves Rose before noticing another disaster. The wing, in which Claire and Hurley are sitting under, is about to collapse!

Jack runs to save them, and he does, just in the nick of time! The wing falls and as with any good action sequence, explodes! Charlie (the hobbit), then has an ‘O SHIT’ moment, as part of the flaming wreckage comes crashing down behind him. All is then calm...

‘No. Standard black.’

After that awesome opening of an episode, Jack finally finds time to deal with himself. After rummaging through some suitcases, he finds a sewing kit... to sew himself up with.

He disappears into a secluded section of the beach to start the ‘operation’ but alas, he cannot reach the wound. But just in time, along wonders Kate, who he asks for help. She says that the only thing she’s sewn before were the drapes in her apartment, and she used a sewing machine for that... ah well... she does it anyway.

‘ No-one will see it if it isn't big.’

Ahhh... Time for a calm montage. Sawyer is relaxing by having a cigarette; Claire has decided to stand at the water’s edge; Hurley is sorting out all the food, and Locke, with his trademark scar, are just sitting down, and staring out at the ocean. This peaceful moment is then ruined, by Boone failing to get a signal of his phone. Sayid (who I’ll talk more about later) and Charlie then start building a fire. Rose is sitting down kissing the ring on her necklace.

‘I might throw up on you.’

We return to Kate, who is still sewing up Jack. They have a conversation about fear and jack tells, the now famous story, ‘Count to 5’.

‘Well, fear's sort of an odd thing. When I was in residency, my first solo procedure was a spinal surgery on a 16 year old kid, a girl. And at the end, after 13 hours, I was closing her up and I; I accidentally ripped her dural sac. Shredded the base of the spine where all the nerves come together, membrane as thin as tissue. And so it ripped open. And the nerves just spilled out of her like angel hair pasta, spinal fluid flowing out of her and I … And the terror was just so … crazy. So real. And I knew I had to deal with it. (He's crying). So I just made a choice. I'd let the fear in, let it take over, let it do its thing, but only for five seconds, that's all I was going to give it. So I started to count: One, two, three, four, five. Then it was gone. I went back to work, sewed her up and she was fine.’

‘I'll eat on the rescue boat!’

Time for one of those rare, relaxing scenes. Sayid and Charlie are sitting by the fire, Charlie writing ‘F.A.T.E’ on some tape around his hands, whilst Sayid is wondering why no-one has come to rescue them yet.

Shannon, Boone’s sister, is just sitting on the beach doing her nails... as you do... Boone offers her some chocolate. [[For those observant enough, you’ll notice it’s an Apollo Bar! For those who don’t know what an Apollo Bar is, and why it’s so important, an Apollo Bar is a brand of chocolate made for, and often seen, in LOST.]] Shannon declines the offer of chocolate, saying that she’ll eat on the rescue boat because they know exactly where they are... Oh, if only she knew...

We then see the various goings-on at the beach. Hurley wonders over to Claire and offers her some food. They have a small chat about ‘baby stuff’, before moving on to giving food to others, but not before giving her an extra meal. Michael is sitting with his son Walt, seeing if he’s warm enough, whilst Jin, the angry Korean man, tells his wife Sun not to leave his sight. Jack and Kate are seeing to a man with a piece of shrapnel in his leg. This man was sitting next to Kate on the plane... That detail becomes more important later.

‘Took a couple flying lessons. Wasn't for me.’

Jack and Kate have another cosy moment, with Jack and Kate telling their accounts of the crash.

‘We must have been at about 40,000 feet when it happened. Hit an air pocket. Dropped, maybe, 200 feet. The turbulence was … I blacked out.’ – JACK

‘I didn't. I saw the whole thing. I knew that the tail was gone, but I couldn't bring myself to look back. And then the, the front of the plane broke off’ - KATE

They then talk about finding the cockpit so they can get the transceiver. Kate says that she saw some smoke in the jungle and that she’ll go with jack to find it. But then, they are interrupted....

‘It's not Vincent.’

The second big mystery on LOST (after where are they of course): The Monster. The survivors all hear something in the jungle... something big, that’s knocking down trees and making large, scary noises... So what do the survivors do? Go towards it!! Idiots...

‘This of course breaks some critical FAA regulations.’

The one and only flashback in this episode features Jack on the aeroplane. After receiving some illegal vodka, Charlie rushes past, followed by the aeroplane security, to the bathroom... or is he? The turbulence then starts... We find out that Rose’s husband has gone to the bathroom, but then the plane drops... more shaking... and then the oxygen masks come down...

'Sure it's monkeys. It's Monkey Island. '

Back in real time, Michael, Rose, Shannon, Charlie, Sayid, Hurley, Rose and Sawyer are all having a chat about the monster. All suggestions are wrong and stupid... monkeys for Pete’s sake... Anyway, Jack and Kate talk about their upcoming adventure and Jack suggestions she gets some better shoes. So she does... from a dead guy... She also see’s Locke who does the
‘orange’ smile from the Godfather. Kate just has a WTF look on her face.

‘You think we should do something about the, uh … b-o-d-y-s?’

Michael, Walt, Charlie, Sayid, Boone and Shannon, are having a chat when Hurley approaches. He says that the fuselage looks pretty grim and thinks they should do something about the bodies, which he spells out (incorrectly) to avoid scaring Walt... which was pointless because Walt corrects the spelling. GO SUPER KID! Kate and Jack approach to say that they’re off on a mission. Charlie decides to come along.

‘Have you ever heard of Drive Shaft?’

One of the funniest bits of the episode... Kate recognized Charlie, but doesn’t know where from. Charlie reveals he was in a band called ‘Driveshaft’, and starts singing... hilariously. Jack doesn’t care and so tells them to keep moving. But all the time, they are being watched... by Vincent...

‘Hey guys, is this normal? Kind of … day turning into night, you know? End of the world type weather. Is this—guys?’

All of a sudden it starts to rain... a lot! Locke enjoys it, but everyone else runs for cover. But then, the monster re-appears. I say re-appears; we don’t actually see it, and just the tree’s it knocks down. Kate, Jack and Charlie carry on, and finally reach the Cockpit...

‘I'm fine. Charlie's fine, by the way. Okay?’

So they reach the cockpit... which is slightly more vertical than they would have liked but ah well. They climb to the top and try to enter the cabin, but it’s locked. Jack smashed the handle until the door opens, and who greats them? The dead co-pilot still in his chair! I bet they enjoyed that. Kate and Jack ask if each other is ok... totally ignoring Charlie, before carrying on into the cabin. There, they meet the semi-conscious pilot (played by J.J. Abrams’ lucky charm, Greg Grunberg). They tell him that 48 people survived, and that it’s been 16 hours since they crashed. The Pilot then tells them...

‘Six hours in, our radio went out. No-one could see us. We turned back to land in Fiji. By the time we hit turbulence, we … we were a thousand miles off course. They're looking for us in the wrong place.’

The pilot then gets the transceiver for them. They then notice that Charlie is not with them! Kate finds him in the bathroom. Hmmmm, suspicious...

But then the monster returns! They try and clean the windows to see it, but fail. The pilot leans out of the window, only to be snatched away by the monster! Luckily, he leaves the transceiver on the seat which is nice of him. They think it best to run out of there... and I agree with them.

While running away, Charlie trips over, and Jack, being the hero that he is, runs back to get him. Kate carries on though and hides in a magical bamboo grove... She steals Jack’s idea and counts to 5.

After a few minutes, Kate decides to leave the safety of the bamboo and runs into Charlie. He says how they didn’t see the monster, and doesn’t know where Jack is. Charlie says how there’s a ‘certain gargantuan quality about this thing’.

‘Guys? How does something like that happen?’

Kate and Charlie backtrack through the jungle. Charlie complains how Kate only called for Jack. They come to a large muddy puddle, and notice something in the mud. She picks it up... It’s the pilot’s badge. They then see a reflection in the water of the pilot's body in the tree above them. Jack then approaches... We then see the mangled body of the Pilot.