100 things I love about 'Lost', Part 3
You know the drill by now: I'm counting down 100 things I love about "Lost" in anticipation of this week's 100th episode. Today: 20 things from Season 3! 'Cuz we like to roll sequentially up in here.If you missed them, be sure to check out Season 1 and Season 2 before moving on.
41. The Others have a book club. And somehow this makes them even creepier.
42. Kate and Sawyer help build a runway, which in and of itself is pretty lame. However, in retrospect, the show was building an important piece of the narrative puzzle to deploy years later. Then? Bored to tears. Today? I stand in awe. Long live long-form narrative.
43. Locke's creepy crazy sweat lodge sequence, in which Boone guides him through an Australian airport full of familiar faces. God's Friggin' Gift to Humanity was never better employed than here.
44. "You speak to me as if I am your brother." Not only creeptastic, but helped provided possible context for the various people, items, and Kate's horses seen on the Island to date.
45. Ben uttering the potentially most important line in show's history. In response to Jack's question, "You want me to save your life?", Ben replies, "No, I want you to want to save my life." "Lost" isn't about mind over matter, but mind INTO matter. And that matters.
46. A bus greeting Edmund Burke at roughly 50 MPH. Fate, Others' intervention, or Sandra Bullock? You decide!
47. All of "Flashes Before Your Eyes," an episode that started us down the long rabbit hole towards time manipulation, paradox, and the sense that we would have to recontextualize every event of the show at some point.
48. Hurley, Charlie, Sawyer, and Jin as giddy as schoolgirls riding around in a restarted Dharma van. This came at a point where they audience needed a victory as much as the characters did, and this simple character moment reinvested many of us into the show.
49. Locke's "Blow Up Everything Useful Towards Leaving the Island '04" tour. Personally, I want a t-shirt as a memento.
50. Locke and Ben's interactions throughout Season 3. Hell, every interaction between these two actors is gold. Try looking away when these two engage each other in verbal and mental combat. Yea, didn't think so.
51. Smokey CLANGing into the sonic fence. Not only did this moment suggest a history between the DI and the monster, but was possibly the first thing I ever correctly predicted about the show. Also, possibly the last. So I hold this moment near and dear.
52. Hurley's first scene with Juliet upon her arrival at Lostaway Beach. A touch of humor to start, with Hurley coldly pointing out Ethan's gravesite to end it. Deftly written, deftly played.
53. Juliet's mixture of relief and terror upon determining Sun's D.O.C. Not like I needed this moment to cement Elizabeth Mitchell's fairly miraculous work on the show as a whole, but damn, it sure didn't hurt.
54. The almost unbearably claustrophobic confrontation between Sawyer and Anthony Cooper inside the bowels of the Black Rock. I need some air just thinking about it.
55. Speaking of not breathing, how many of you unconsciously held your breath as Benjamin Linus returned to the Barracks to see the aftermath of The Purge? Because I certainly did.
56. Annie's interactions with a young Benjamin Linus. Oh, Annie, are you OK? Are you OK, Annie?
57. Charlie's final scene with his best friend on the Island, Hurley. Textbook definition of "heartbreaking," right there.
58. Jack's beatdown of Ben after he thinks Sayid, Jin, and Bernard have been murdered. As cathartic as they come, with Jack doing the very thing most of the audience had wanted to do since the end of Season 2.
59. "Not Penny's Boat." Moment of silence, people.
60. "We have to go back!" The single most important moment in "Lost" history, the make-or-break scene from which it emerged not only unscathed but emboldened and invigorated.
OK, that's 20 things I loved in Season 3. Tomorrow: Season 4! Be sure to leave your favorite Season 3 moments in the comments below.
Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude. He invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed.
27 Comments


"Annie's interactions with a young Benjamin Linus. Oh, Annie, are you OK? Are you OK, Annie?"
Yeah, I definitely want to know what became of Annie. I think it's going to be important down the road (obviously it was very important to Ben at some point). I wouldn't be surprised if, more than anything Roger or Smokey may have done, what happened to Annie is what turned Ben cold and cynical and emotionless.
Beyond that, there's all sorts of nifty foreshadowing going on in Season 3 that's starting to pay off now, and I'm feeling the need to go back through the whole season and try to pick it all up. I'm sure I'll do that over the interminable months before the final season begins...
now I've got that song stuck in my head... great lists... can't wait for the next two!
Will #100 be the gl*** eye? Please, let it be the gl*** eye!
You left out: Alex, this is your mother.
Don't forget about Locke being pushed out of a window by his father. This was a big reveal we had all been wondering about and was more horrible than we initially imagined (though it is a very sad flashback).
Hurley starting that Van is still my favorite all-time Lost moment.
@Jeff: Oh yeah, I totally forgot about the defenestration of Locke. Definitely one of my top moments.
But of course, anything that affords me the opportunity to use the word "defenestrate" in a sentence is bound to be worthwhile.
I'm loving remembering all these great LOST moments and it's got me wondering... any plans for a "We Have to Go Back" Vol. 2 that re-examines the first four seasons after all the revelations that season 5 provides?
60. "We have to go back!" The single most important moment in "Lost" history, the make-or-break scene from which it emerged not only unscathed but emboldened and invigorated.
Oh so true, Ryan. The Looking Gl*** station was aptly named, because this reveal just basically told the audience "Hey, ya know that rabbit hole you keep tumbling down, episode by episode? Well, it's ALOT freakin' bigger than you ever realized."
I was in utter shock and awe after that, and it perfectly filled me with the sense of dread that hung over everything in Season 4; we KNEW where this story ended, and soon we would know why.
Season 3 had alot of great things (not counting The-Episode-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named); we got Locke going nuts, Ben's backstory, the introduction of the awesome Juliette, Jack finally having enough of the Others, the (brief) return of Walt, Desmond becoming important, and the heartbreaking loss of Eko and Charlie.
The scene where Kate goes back to save Jack and finds him playing football and laughing with Tom? Beautifully edited, it still gives me chills.
I also loved Jin's ghost story when the boys go "camping."
You missed three of my favorite moments in Lost history:
John Locke's "Dad?!" upon seing Cooper on the island.
Hurley coming to the rescue of the other losties with the van, running over the Others in the process.
And the call to the Kahana, which unleashed hell on the island.