The 23 Best Episodes of ‘Lost’

20 years ago, “Lost” premiered on ABC and made TV history.

The series premiere was already the most expensive TV pilot ever made, but from the moment Jack (Matthew Fox) opened his eye in the pilot created by Damon Lindelof, J.J. Abrams, and Jeffrey Lieber, nothing would ever be the same. Over the course of six seasons and 121 episodes, “Lost” earned Emmys and accolades, amassed a hugely dedicated and intrepid fanbase, and changed the television landscape.

A lot has changed in the two decades since that series premiere. For some, the show’s legacy was tarnished by later seasons and particularly the Season 6 finale (agree to disagree). More troublingly, writers and actors from the “Lost” heyday have spoken out about what they found to be a sexist, racist, and generally toxic work environment. Actor Harold Perrineau was actually speaking honestly about his experiences back when he was still a series regular, but it would take years for the wider entertainment industry and audiences to pay attention.

'The West Wing'

“Lost” is not a perfect show (look no further than Season 3’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” for that confirmation), but it is still an important one. The creative missteps informed future writers, showrunners, producers, and executives on how to craft a show that was both successful and creatively fulfilling. The misconduct behind the scenes caused lasting damage to careers and psyches, but at a minimum can be used as examples of how not to run a workplace. Even at its worst — in front of and behind the camera — this was a show that had viewers utterly transfixed by storytelling, production, and unforgettable performances. We can’t talk about it without discussing the good, the bad, and all the gray areas — a topic that “Lost” in particular loved to occupy with its themes.

With all that in mind, it’s time to go back (!), and to revisit the best of what this show had to offer. In honor of the show’s 20 year anniversary, here are the 23 best episodes of “Lost.”

23. “Not in Portland” (Season 3, Episode 7)

Writers: Carlton Cuse, Jeff Pinkner
Director: Stephen Williams

Along with a couple of notorious castaways, Season 3 introduced another series regular who would utterly captivate the hearts of “Lost” viewers: Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell). Juliet was a lethal mystery for six episodes (where’d she learn to snap a neck like that??) and then a grueling 13-week hiatus, but her origin story took the spotlight immediately after the break.

Before becoming an “Other,” Juliet was a fertility doctor in Miami, where her groundbreaking (and off-the-record) research got her recruited to a mysterious and promising work opportunity by one Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell). Instead of six months, she’s been on the island for three years, largely against her will and for which she blames Ben. There’s a lot of interpersonal drama among the Others in the island storyline, where Ben is still on the surgery table while Kate and Sawyer try to escape, but the backstory adds layers to Juliet with every scene, changing the entire context of her character by the time it ends (and earning her some goodwill for shared hatred of Ben and stopping the sadistic Danny from killing Sawyer). She’s still one of them, but clearly things are not as black-and-white as viewers thought.

22. “Tricia Tanaka is Dead” (Season 3, Episode 10)

Writers: Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Director: Eric Laneuville

“Lost” did comedy as well as it did drama — just in smaller doses. The burden of these moments often fell to Hurley (Jorge Garcia), who becomes the de facto heart of the castaways. This underrated Season 3 episode depicts Hurley’s ongoing struggles with winning the lottery, starting with a comet striking his old Mr. Cluck’s workplace (and the death of the titular reporter played by Sung Hi Lee) and eventual suspicious return of his father David (Cheech Marin). Hurley might seem gullible (and struggle to keep a secret), but he immediately sniffs out David’s true intentions and joins the long list of “Lost” characters with daddy issues.

Speaking of daddy issues — it hasn’t been revealed yet, but they led directly to a skeleton in a Dharma fan that Hurley finds in the jungle, prompting a delightful camping trip and repair mission with the motley crew of Charlie, Jin, and Sawyer. Like all the lighter storylines, we know it won’t last — but what a sight to see these characters smiling and whooping on a joy ride through the jungle, carefree for just the briefest moment which they all deserve.

21. “The Other 48 Days” (Season 2, Episode 7)

Writers: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse
Director: Eric Laneuville

Four disheveled people on a beach; 'Lost'
‘Lost’©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection

With Michael’s ominous “What happened to you people?” hanging over the first chunk of Season 2, “Lost” bet big and rewound to the day of the crash from a different perspective. It’s the rare. “Lost” flashback that stays in the past without cutting to the present, and it’s focused on an entire group instead of any individual character. While creating a foundational basis for upcoming flashbacks for Ana Lucia and Mr. Eko (but sadly not Libby), the episode builds out the horror of the Others through Goodwin and the ongoing abductions, and contextualizes the events that hardened Ana Lucia and silenced Eko. As much as “The Other 48 Days” details the tailies’ trauma, it’s exciting to rewatch in context because of how it elevated the show’s storytelling possibilities.

20. “The Incident” (Season 5, Episode 16 & 17)

Writers: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse
Director: Jack Bender

The “incident” was on “Lost” fans’ radar since Season 2, when it came up in a Dharma Initiative orientation video and hinted at the terrible consequences of their island experiments. After a season filled with perilous time travel and knowledge that the island houses a lethal bomb, that moment draws closer in the 1977 storyline. Jack wants to detonate the bomb to reset the timelines, despite Miles’ (Ken Leung) warning that they may in fact be inciting the very incident they want to prevent. As it unfolds, the Incident is more dreadful than audiences could have imagined, because the big difference between Season 2 and Season 5 is how much people have invested in the characters, especially Juliet. Watching her ripped — literally yanked — away from the love of her life, after it seemed like they found their happily ever after, and hearing their strained goodbyes feels like an act of aggression from the show itself. It’s nothing short of heartbreaking, and with one season left, there’s no time to recover.

In the flashbacks, we finally meet the powerful Jacob, a man who meets various castaways (and Juliet) and key moments in their lives, but who has a mighty enemy with no name. We don’t need to know or even like Jacob to know that it’s a fatal mistake when Ben stabs him, and that this will reverberate throughout the final season.

19. “Orientation” (Season 2, Episode 3)

Writers: Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Craig Wright
Director: Jack Bender

This aptly named episode did indeed initiate viewers to a lot of Season 2’s larger arcs and puzzles pieces that impact the series at large. The title comes from the film strip Locke and Jack watch in the hatch, where scientist “Marvin Candle” (François Chau) introduces the Dharma Initiative, the Swan station, and the computer with a button that has to be pushed every 108 minutes. At the same time, we get a minor orientation to Desmond’s backstory, which will be expanded later, and to the Tailies (though we’re initially meant to think they’re Others). In the flashbacks, Locke experiences rare joy in his relationship with Helen (Katey Sagal), but it’s threatened by the lingering attachment to his father and why Anthony did what he did. Terrified to let go, Locke takes a leap of faith — and encourages Jack to do the same on the island by pressing the button. “Why do you find it so hard to believe?” Locke asks, to which Jack immediately retorts “Why do you find it so easy?” “It’s never been easy,” John replies. Jack can’t know why, but the audience does.

18. “Born to Run” (Season 1, Episode 22)

Writers: Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Director: Tucker Gates

Kate’s character (Evangeline Lilly) takes some hits throughout “Lost” either as the writers lose steam or as a byproduct of being a woman often written by men, but “Born to Run” leans into the intrigue and humanity of our resident fugitive (before she was relegated to seeking therapy via love triangle). Flashbacks show a tender relationship between Kate and her childhood sweetheart Tom (Mackenzie Astin), melancholic as they reunite because she’s already on the run. Whatever Kate did, it’s not the car accident at the end that kills Tom, and it’s enough to make her dying mother (Beth Broderick) scream out for help when Kate is in the room. The island storyline unfolds in tandem like a crime procedural; Michael (Harold Perrineau) gets sick while expediting raft construction, leading the audience to suspect Sawyer (obvious suspect), then Kate (on the lam!), only to be the work of Sun (Yunjin Kim) but masterminded by Kate (genius!) — along with the reveal that Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) burned down the first raft because he doesn’t want to leave. Lots of tension in this group!

17. “The Man From Tallahassee” (Season 3, Episode 13)

Writers: Drew Goddard, Jeff Pinkner
Director: Jack Bender

After a bone-chilling cliffhanger in which Jack (Matthew Fox) is found palling around with the Others, Season 3 picked up with a Locke-centric episode (after the interlude of “Exposé) and one of the most horrifying flashbacks in “Lost” history (a high bar to clear); after Locke severs ties with his father, a young boy suspects that Anthony (Kevin Tighe) is now conning his mother, and ends up dead after probing further. When Locke goes to confront him, Anthony pushes him out of a window, leaving his son wheelchair-bound with permanent spinal damage.

On the island, Locke separates from the Jack rescue team to find Ben (Michael Emerson) and locate the submarine so he can destroy it — which he successfully executes, leading to one of the more menacing Locke/Jack faceoffs where Dr. Shepherd is in fact ready to do harm. This is one of those details that makes the episode, on top of everything else. Another quiet but potent moment occurs when Rousseau (Mira Furlan) glimpses daughter Alex (Tania Raymonde) from a distance after so many years apart, or when Alex tells Locke that Ben is manipulating him, because that’s what he does. That’s it, that’s the whole show!

16. “Ab Aeterno” (Season 6, Episode 9)

Writers: Melinda Hsu Taylor, Greggory Nations
Director: Tucker Gates

A 17th-century man laying on the floor while another man offers him a key to his chains; still from 'Lost'
‘Ab Aeterno’©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection

Season 6 divides viewers with how much “Lost” leaned into the heavily mythological — but not in this episode. After three seasons with the sage and ageless Richard Alpert, what viewer wasn’t dying to for answers, even if it meant taking a week away from the regular island storyline and flash sideways? “Ab Aeterno” is the show’s foray into period drama and romance, with Richard’s 19th century love story, death sentence, and subsequent arrival at the island on the Black Rock. As complex and supernatural as the Island’s mysteries are, we see them fresh through the eyes of someone from a different time, a man who has loved and lost and suffered immeasurably before pledging his loyalty to anyone who can end that pain. Carbonell carries the episode effortlessly, comfortable with his place on “Lost” even if the flashback scenes were new territory. It’s a testament to the episode’s greatness that it’s his only one, and that even though another would dilute the magic, we can’t help but still want it after all these years.

15. “Numbers” (Season 1, Episode 18)

Writers: Brent Fletcher and David Fury
Director: Dan Attias

Hurley (Jorgé Garcia) is the show’s de facto comic relief, but “Numbers” spotlight’s his effortless range as an actor through this flashback episode. It turns out that happy-go-lucky Hurley wasn’t lying about being worth millions, and that bad luck followed him everywhere after winning the lottery and he blames the numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. His search for meaning about the numbers takes him to Australia (via brief sojourn at the in-patient facility he once lived in, an excellent nugget for future episodes) and ostensibly onto Flight 815, only for it to crash on the island — where he finds the numbers again, on Rousseau’s documents. Hurley tracks Rousseau down on the island, putting his life in danger from a character only depicted so far as disturbed and unpredictable, and they find the smallest comfort in each other by agreeing that the numbers are cursed, and they’re not crazy to think so.

14. “Lockdown” (Season 2, Episode 17)

Writers: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse
Director: Stephen Williams

A priest speaking to a couple wearing black at a cemetery; still from 'Lost'
Terry O’Quinn and Katey Sagal in the flashback of ‘Lockdown’Mario Perez/©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection

After his chilling monologue about luring the survivors into a trap, “Henry Gale” remains prisoner while Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Kate, and Hurley go to find his hot air balloon. Locke’s flashback reveals the depths of his daddy issues and the toxic dynamic that not only gave him lifelong trauma, but ruined his relationship with Helen (Katey Sagal). The computer system at the Hatch malfunctions, causing the metal doors to drop down in lockdown mode, and trapping Locke beneath one of them. With no one around except Henry, Locke begs for his help and promises to vouch for him, forming a bond during the vulnerable time they spend alone in this mysterious place (the Hatch, not the Island itself). Just when Locke starts to believe this man is exactly who he says, the search party returns — revealing that they found the balloon, but that Sayid dug up the grave next to it (sir?!), where he found a man named Henry Gale.

13. “Solitary” (Season 1, Episode 9)

Writer: David Fury
Director: Greg Yaitanes

“Lost” was ambitious — brazen, even — to include an Iraqi character as a lead in 2004, and perhaps less so to reveal that he was a torturer in the Gulf War. But “Solitary” reveals the true Sayid in full, a character who becomes the castaways’ and audience’s moral compass despite all the things he did in his past. During his time as a torturer, he ends up face-to-face with his childhood friend and longtime love Nadia (Andrea Gabriel), whom he helps to safety at great personal risk. On the island, Sayid’s morality leads him to banish himself from the camp after torturing Sawyer, only to be abducted and tortured by Rousseau in her first appearance. Elsewhere on the island, Hurley creates a golf course to remind people what fun feels like, and a survivor named Ethan (William Mapother) makes his first appearance.

The flashbacks offer excellent character building for Sayid, but the on-island action really takes this episode to the next level. Mira Furlan’s Rousseau feels so fully formed despite minimal background, with a haunting, feral edge that infuses every scene. She touches Sayid’s face tenderly toward the end of the episode, a gesture that immediately conveys how lonely this woman is and how the island derailed her entire life. That raw moment is directly juxtaposed with the steely delivery of “Alex was my child,” another chilling reveal before the final showstopper: a jungle full of whispers…

12. “The Man Behind the Curtain” (Season 3, Episode 20)

Writers: Elizabeth Sarnoff, Drew Goddard
Director: Bobby Roth

A man in a jumpsuit welcoming another man and his son to an island; still from 'Lost'
Jon Gries, Sterling Beaumon, and Doug Hutchison in ‘The Man Behind the Curtain’©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection

Once “Not in Portland” established that the Others would and could get flashbacks, anticipation was high for the inevitable back story of Ben Linus. “The Man Behind the Curtain” — what Locke calls Ben to his face, accusing him of being a fraud just like the Wizard of Oz — opens with Ben’s birth, not on the Island where he tells everyone he was born, but back in the outside world. Raised by an abusive father and feeling isolated even in the idyllic Dharma Initiative encampment, young Ben found solace in visions of his dead mother, in a “hostile” named Richard, and eventually in wiping out the entire non-native population of the island in an unflinching act of genocide. In the present, Ben fights to retain control of the Others and of Locke, who is poised to become their new leader — a growing fear that Ben can no longer ignore after Locke hears Jacob’s voice. The cabin scene is one where “Lost” dips fully into the horror genre, from the gravelly disembodied voice to the shaking fixtures and Ben being clearly overpowered by whatever Locke can’t see. Who is Benjamin Linus? Not someone you cross — as Locke learns the hard way when Ben shows him the Dharma grave and shoots him in cold blood.

11. “The 23rd Psalm” (Season 2, Episode 10)

Writers: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse
Director: Matt Earl Beesley

In his first of two flashbacks, the writers and Akinnuoye-Agbaje demonstrate how Eko become such a beloved character so quickly, and despite little over a season on the show. As a boy, he’s forced into a life of crime to save his brother from the same fate, ending up on a dangerous path. Their relationship is never the same, but the story reveals that Eko still couldn’t save him, and that he became a priest by accident after losing Yemi (Adetokumboh M’Cormack). It also gives Akinnuoye-Agbaje plenty of scenes to chew the heck out of in both past and present. On the island, all this circles back to Locke and the plane that killed Boone (Ian Somerhalder), which turns out to house multiple decayed bodies, including Yemi’s. It’s a more overtly religious “Lost” episode than most — despite the arc of the series and Season 6 especially — but even then it feels spiritual and inclusive, with Eko using God and his life’s journey to make sense of the island.

10. “There’s No Place Like Home” (Season 4, Episodes 12, 13, & 14)

Writers: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse
Directors: Stephen Williams (Part 1), Jack Bender (Parts 2 & 3)

Five people paddling a dingy in the ocean; still from 'Lost'
‘There’s No Place Like Home’Mario Perez/©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection

Forgive us the three-parter, but that’s just one of many ways in which this episode had no business going as hard as it did. “Lost” Season 4 was famously truncated by the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, but the condensed episode run it yielded is utterly relentless and epitomized by these final hours. The flash forward picks up right after the Oceanic Six are rescued, with the menacing promise that what’s about to happen between then and now is going to be so awful that the survivors agree to never speak of it or the island — and a thrilling teaser: how do these six people end up together and safe, with everything currently happening on the island?

Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Michael (reunited!) try to neutralize Keamy’s (Kevin Durand) bomb as he pursues Ben and Locke, while Faraday and Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) devote their energies to saving as many castaways as possible via freighter ferry and helicopter. It’s hard to pick the most shocking and impactful moments from this run; the chopper losing fuel, Sawyer (Josh Holloway) jumping into the ocean, the freighter explosion (Sun’s screams!), the island disappearing, Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) and Penny’s reunion(Sonya Walger) — to say nothing of the flash forward that brings us full circle to Season 3’s finale, a reminder further pain awaits those who escape and that somehow John Locke is going to end up dead in a coffin with the name Jeremy Bentham.

9. “The End” (Season 6, Episodes 17 & 18)

Writers: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse
Director: Jack Bender

A group of people smiling at a baby in church; still from 'Lost'
The End’Mario Perez/©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection

When all is said and done, “Lost” really was just the friends we made along the way. “The End” cared little for the mystery-box questions of Season 1… but cared endlessly for the characters that viewers came to love and cherish over the course of the series. In the flash-sideways, they all find each other and prepare to move on, guided by Christian’s declaration that “the most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people… you needed all of them, and they needed you.” On the island, those who remain close ranks to fight and flee from the Man in Black, with Jack finally sacrificing himself to save the Island and leave Hurley as its protector. With his last breaths, Jack lays down in the jungle and watches his friends fly to safety, accompanied by Vincent before he closes his eye one last time. Imagine watching that and getting mad! Couldn’t be me.

8. “Through the Looking Glass” (Season 3, Episodes 22 & 23)

Writers: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse
Director: Jack Bender

Two women confront a man tied to a chair; still from 'Lost'
‘Through the Looking Glass’©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection

After the sluggish bulk of Season 3 gave way to brilliant momentum in the final stretch, “Lost” swung for the fences with “Through the Looking Glass” — and changed its own history forever.   On the island, Jack is ready to do anything it takes to get in touch with Naomi’s boat, including sacrificing Jin, Bernard, and Sayid while they stayed back to attack the Others. The gunshots indicating their death turn out to be a fakeout and one of the episode’s many tense twists (in terms of tension, “Through the Looking Glass” walked so that “There’s No Place Like Home” could run). Charlie dies while unjamming the radio waves from the Looking Glass in one of the show’s most anguished and well-written scenes; using his musical skills to crack the code, dangling a Desmond and Penny reunion in front of viewers, and going out like a hero with “Not Penny’s boat” scribbled across his palm.

All of that is juxtaposed with the bearded Jack Shephard off the island, who appears to be lower than we’ve ever seen him, considering death by suicide when he saves two people from a car crash. He drinks on the job, blasts screamo music in his car, and is visibly torn up by an obituary he finds in the newspaper — while flying Oceanic. All of this turns out to be not the past but the future; three years after Flight 815 first went down and after Jack, Kate, and unknown others have left the island — but as he tells her in the episode’s final moments, “We have to go back!”

7. “LaFleur” (Season 5, Episode 8)

Writers: Elizabeth Sarnoff & Kyle Pennington
Director: Mark Goldman

An episode title that instantly had fans speculating, this one reveals its meaning within minutes and starts to set up the enormous stakes of Season 5. When the Dharma Initiative’s Horace (Doug Hutchison) is drunk at the security perimeter, his comrades alert LaFleur: Sawyer, firmly established in the community and head of security to boot. The episode goes on to reveal Miles (Ken Leung), Juliet, and Jin all living comfortably among the Initiative, building new lives and identities since the time flashes stopped in 1974.

But the biggest and best reveal is that Sawyer and Juliet, a pairing that barely shared screen time before this season, are now together and absolutely explode on screen. Holloway and Mitchell have beautiful chemistry, but what makes it so much better is how obviously good Sawyer and Juliet are for each other, in direct contrast with many other romantic interests on the show who care for each other but can’t make it work (hint: two of them just landed outside the perimeter!). Sawyer’s final closeup reveals his shock to see Jack, Kate, and Hurley back on the island, but also disappointment and terror; the brief peace is over, and life is about to get complicated once again.

6. “Do No Harm” (Season 1, Episode 20)

Writer: Janet Tamaro
Director: Stephen Williams

A man and woman tending to an injured, bleeding man; still from 'Lost'
‘Do No Harm’©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection

Jack’s episodes are some of the best when it comes to interweaving past and present, and “Do No Harm” is a master class right up there with “Through the Looking Glass” for juxtaposing (“jackstaposing”) the good doctor’s best and worst. On the island, Jack fights to treat Boone’s injuries after he was crushed by the plane, the island’s medical limitations at odds with his own hero complex. The flashback reveals at least part of where Jack got his saving-people-thing; from Sarah (Julie Bowen), the woman whose spinal column he once fixed after others though she’d never walk again. In the jungle, Claire (Emilie De Ravin) goes into labor, creating a perfect cocktail of island chaos intercut with some of the most happy, peaceful days of Jack’s life as he weds Sarah. The episode wastes not one second of its real estate, from a stress-filled cold open to an appearance from Christian Shepherd (John Terry) to Claire’s fear that the baby won’t want her. It also ends with the first full version of “Life and Death,” which would become the series ode to the fallen for years to come.

5. “Man of Science, Man of Faith” (Season 2, Episode 1)

Writer: Damon Lindelof
Director: Jack Bender

“Lost” Season 1 didn’t end with an answer about what was in the hatch — but Season 2 came out swinging. The now-iconic opening set to Cass Elliot’s “Make Your Own Kind of Music” pictured the then-unknown Desmond Hume going about his daily routine in the hatch until Jack and Locke bust it open with dynamite. The entire hatch storyline is laced with fear and paranoia, from Kate disappearing into its depths to Desmond’s own defense against the castaways. The first time we meet him in earnest is in Jack’s flashback to when he first met Sarah and the stress of operating on her crushed spine and confided this in a friendly Scottish stranger who calls him “Brother.” After that first utterance of the word, “Lost” was never the same.

4. “Greatest Hits” (Season 3, Episode 21)

Writers: Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Director: Stephen Williams

For the first three seasons of “Lost,” Charlie Pace was a fan favorite (even when his arc stalled and hit some particular lows in Season 2), so his end was always going to be a huge event. Unlike other character deaths which shocked viewers, Charlie was warned of his by the Desmond several episodes prior, creating a pervasive sense of dread for both character and audience as the finale approached. As such, “Greatest Hits” gives Charlie an one-of-a-kind sendoff; a retrospective of the best moments of his life on and off the island, which celebrated those uncanny character connections the show loves so much as well as his impact on the other survivors and the audience. It’s the only flashback deliberately curated by the main character as he marches to his death (shoutout to Michael Giacchino for layering Charlie’s cello theme with “Life and Death,” how dare you)… only to arrive alive and well in the Looking Glass, unprepared for what’s to come.

3. ”Walkabout” (Season 1, Episode 4)

Writer: David Fury
Director: Jack Bender

It would be a long time before “Lost” answered the question of what the island was (some would argue that it never did), but the first inkling that this place is not only sinister but wondrous came in Episode 104. The crash’s most enigmatic castaway emerges as a hunter and leader, juxtaposed with his subdued and frustrated flashback persona — an immediate illustration that no one on the island is who they seem to be, driven home by the jaw-dropping revelation that pre-crash Locke was in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. There was no better way to establish Locke and the kind of character building that viewers could look forward to.

2. “The Constant” (Season 4, Episode 5)

Writers: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse
Director: Jack Bender

“Lost” introduced its fair share of love stories over the years, but none with the instant emotional heft of Desmond and Penny. The show saw these two town apart by space and time and circumstance but fighting through it all — and never is that more evident than in “The Constant.” Desmond’s consciousness becomes untethered in time and starts to jump between the present and 1996, prompting him to seek out Penny in both timelines in an effort to anchor himself and stay alive. There are snippets of Desmond’s pre-island life as well as chilling introductions the freighter, but the episode soars by presenting the prospect of Desmond and Penny’s reunion, which finally comes via satellite phone call at the end. Cusick and Walger pack volumes into just a few shots, buoyed by Giacchino’s score and an impeccable edit. Since 2008, this episode has become a constant for TV fans returning to excellence, and a perfect bridge between the show’s sci-fi elements and immense emotional core.

1. “Pilot” (Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2)

Writers: Damon Lindelof, J.J. Abrams
Director: J.J. Abrams

Two men help a pregnant woman away from a smoking plane wreck; still from 'Lost'
Matthew Fox, Emilie De Ravin, and Jorge Garcia in the ‘Lost’ pilotMario Perez ©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection

20 years later, the “Lost” pilot is still a masterclass. If anything, time has only added to the awe inspired by watching this story unfold and the masterful writing, performances, and production working together to achieve that. From the opening shot of Matthew Fox’s eye to the idyllic tropical setting to the harrowing post-crash opening sequence, the episode starts at a roaring clip that only lets up to introduce new thrills of adventure and foreboding. An unseen force shakes trees in the jungle, leaving behind the pilot’s mangled body. The plane’s transceiver is blocked by a distress call that has been on a loop for 16 years. And through it all there’s Jack, Kate, Charlie, Sun, Jin, Sayid, Sawyer, Michael, Walt, Boone, Shannon, Claire, Locke — all of them introduced with expert subtlety and just enough intrigue to get viewers instantly hooked and coming back for more.

“Lost” is now streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+.

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