Review: Lost 1.25: Exodus (Part Three)

Locke and Jack look down the Hatch in an iconic shot.

Lost - Season One, Episode Twenty-Five - Exodus (Part Three)
Written 14/6/13

Lost's cliffhanger ending was a barnstorming climax, pulling off one of Lost's irresistible hooks and carrying the series to new heights. As the death and despair was contrasted with a few moments of happy relief, our intrepid heroes were presented with a bleak scenario that pushes us into the awesomeness of Season Two, with the questions being presented to us: what the fuck is down the Hatch, who was the beardy guy on the boat, and why does Josh Holloway's hairstyle keep changing?
     The crew from the Black Rock were chased through the jungle by The Smoke Monster in his first visual appearance, and a conversation between Jack and Locke afterwards reveals just how much the latter has been taken by this island faith spiel. Despite Hurley's objections to blowing the hatch due to its serial code being The Numbers, they blow it up anyway. The raft found a boat with a beardy fisherman, but it turned out that they were The Others and they kidnap Walt, blowing up the Raft in the process. Sayid and Charlie get back Aaron (pronounced Air-on by Charlie for some fucking annoying reason) and Charlie begins his steep descent into dick-dom when he insults the clearly troubled Rousseau.
     Walt's kidnap was mainly down to the fact that the producers had realised that Malcolm David Kelly was going through puberty, and that the amount of growth he'd undergone in a year or so wouldn't make sense in a series where fans can tell you what precise date each episode happened on. While it was devastating when put next to their recent reconciliation and I think that was done very well, this is the first step to what I would consider to be the wasting of both of these characters. Next season would continue to see decent development, but the only black member of the cast would then go on to become the hated traitor.

Beardy Guy (Or Tom as I know him) comes to steal Walt.

      The scene between Jack and Locke after the Monster attack is quite telling, and the themes espoused here run over into the first few episodes of Season Two as Locke's faith gives him the annoying habit of challenging Jack to do crazy shit. It creates a conflict between the two that provides some really great moments, as well as providing an unintentional dilemma for the viewer. I want to support Locke because in general he's earnt the right to be a dick for a bit and Jack takes a bit too much joy in it, but on the other hand philosophically I'm on Jack's side. My problem is that the argument between the two isn't fairly represented, and as such Jack comes off as a bit of an idiot. (But that's later, don't worry, he's great here.)
      And thus this 25 week trek comes to a close, as we leave the show on an uncertain note in its plotting and a very confident note in its quality, as the show promises to develop in ways the early audiences in 2004 couldn't possibly have imagined. As a finale, the episode and the two preceeding it summed up the first season like nothing else, and while it didn't answer our core mysteries, it didn't need to. This first season has been absolutely smashing, and I really can't wait to get started on the second at the start of 2014!

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: CHRISTMAS! Matt Smith drops out and some other person (I'm writing this from June, remember, oh, I do hope it's not a skinny white male again...) is gonna replace him. Funtimes.