MUSINGS OF A SCI-FI FANATIC: LOST S1 E22: Born To Run

"Don't open it. Don't open it Mr. Locke.

Don't open that thing.

Just don't open it."

-Walt-

Season One of LOST continues to be an absolute joy to watch. That's no small task for a season running 25 episodes in length.

This writer kept asking himself why it is so much fun to watch. It's clear to me it is the combination of character, casting, location shooting coupled with the danger elements of its crashed-on-an-island-a-long-way-from-home-mystery premise that made it so compelling. The series just captures the imagination and taps into a kind of primal reality.

Spacerguy put it quite succinctly in a comment "Fresh, young, exciting with an element of danger and so totally lost." That is about as perfect a from the gut assessment if ever there was one.

LOST, Season One, Episode 22, Born To Run, keeps the proceedings moving fleet a foot with more thrills a minute than a dance between a snake and a mongoose named Riki Tiki Tavi.

Well, maybe not that exciting in this one, but the episode jockeys nicely between those interested in digging deeper into the island via John Locke's discovery of the handle-less hatch and those looking to run from the island via Michael's raft boat. The juxtaposition of those two threads is intriguing. Flight or fight. One wants to flee the island while the other thread wants to probe and dig deeper into its mysteries. Both are equally thrilling.

Highlight: There are not a lot of moments that spoke to me in Born To Run.

Walt's exchange with Locke regarding the dangers of the hatch which would inform so much of Season Two is likely one of the most intriguing elements. Locke's exchange with Jack over the hatch also rates.

Sawyer calling out Kate from usurping his spot on the raft may be a close second as reasonably tense scenes go.

Nevertheless, the squaring off between Jack and Locke becomes seemingly more pronounced here in Born To Run as sides appear to be more defined. The contrast between the styles of the two men takes even greater form giving us a glimpse of the shape of things to come.

Born to Run sees the story of the various castaways move ever so slightly.

"Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run" (Bruce Springsteen). The Kate flashback, which predates Whatever The Case May Be (E12), was either not compelling enough for this writer or sleep was getting the better of me. As a result, Born To Run, like The Greater Good is a slightly weaker entry than normal in the series, but things are about to propel to a head for the denizens of LOST.