TheAmunRa Reviews

Lost: Pilot: Part 2 (2004) Season 1, Episode 2

A suspenseful episode that successfully continues the mythology story while giving us first insight into characters' complexity

[10/10 · 10 March 2020]

(This review was written after already watching and rewatching the entire TV show)

After intense and plot-driven premiere episode, "Pilot part 2" takes the story to the next level, elevating tension between the characters and giving us first insight into their shady pasts. The characters' complex personalities and their past actions would eventually become a major (if not "the" major) theme for the show's evolving story.

On second day of the crash, characters' "masks" start to fall and the tension eventually elevates in the camp when bits of their pasts start to get revealed. The episode very quickly shakes things up by showing us audience in form of flashbacks that Charlie, the cheerful rock star from previous episode, is actually a drug addict, who ventured to the cockpit with sole intention to retrieve his stash of heroin. But while Charlie's revelation is known only to us audience, a pair of handcuffs discovered near the crash site at the beginning of this episode brought a lot of tension and distrust among the survivors themselves.

The two characters finding themselves in most unwanted spotlight regarding the handcuffs were an Iraqi former soldier Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and a guy named Sawyer (Josh Holloway), with suspicion raising in both cases likely because of national stereotypes in first case, and aggressive "redneck" behavior in second case, even more after they discovered a gun in his possession. The survivors' speculation turned out to be far from truth though as through another flashback, the person in handcuffs is revealed to be Kate and federal marshall escorting her being the heavily wounded man that Jack has been actively treating in this episode. Kate's fugitive status is not yet known to any character at the end of this episode but the revelation raises several questions and potential future plot points for her.

In the midst of all character revelations and tension, this episode manages to successfully capture the mystery element as well, revealing a presence of a polar bear on the island and more importantly a chilling French distress message originating somewhere from the Island that has been playing in a loop for over 16 years. If previous episode didn't make it clear enough that they won't be getting off-island anytime soon and that they're stranded in a very mysterious place, then this chapter definitely did. Charlie's closing line "Guys, where are we?" pretty much summarizes the question the audience must have been wondering about as a very chilling and mysterious story is about to unveil.

In my opinion, "Pilot part 2" is just as important and quality episode as its predecessor and marks the beginning of a crucial LOST theme, which is the characters themselves. We see first glimpses of their darker sides and how the protagonists may not be as "good" as we may have believed at first. Apart from that, the episode introduces more island mysteries that the audience would keep wondering and speculating about and expanding the show's mythology.

All in all, "Pilot part 2" is another very gripping piece of LOST which expands the show into new directions, provides insight into show's major themes and keeps the hype going for future episodes with its mystery elements. On my list, "Pilot part 2" gets 10/10 just like its predecessor, being my 16th favorite LOST episode overall.

Lost: Pilot: Part 1 (2004) Season 1, Episode 1

An intense and thrilling opening chapter that makes you look forward to the rest of the story

[10/10 · 31 January 2020]

(This review was written after already watching and re-watching the entire TV show)

When it comes to such complex stories, the first chapter is very important in order to make you invested and I think "Pilot part 1" very much succeeded in this task. While more straightforward and story-focused compared to later episodes, the episode itself is a thrilling ride that very much made me look forward to the rest of the story.

The episode is intense from the get-go as it starts with the Oceanic plane crashing on an unknown island and soon introduces us to the show's protagonist Jack (Matthew Fox) who does everything in his power to help fellow survivors. Eventually we get acknowledged with other characters such as young woman named Kate (Evangeline Lilly), with whom Jack immediately formed some sort of connection, Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) who turns out to be a former rock star, a friendly guy named Hurley and Claire, the pregnant lady.

The first part of this episode focuses on this basic survival stuff as the characters start to operate as a group and set up camp. While most of the characters remain in the background in this episode and don't play an active part, I feel the episode very well establishes the growing bond between Jack and Kate, a combination of attraction and mutual trust. Those scenes truly made me want to see more of them together on screen in future episodes as I sensed they have a beautiful connection.

The episode grows much darker in second half when Jack, Kate and Charlie venture into the jungle to find the transceiver in the cockpit of the crashed plane. After finding the pilot Seth Norris who turned out to have survived the crash as well, and realizing the plane was off-course for the span of multiple hours, the group gets attacked by an unseen creature which snatches and brutally kills the pilot. The scene becomes very claustrophobic and horror-like as the survivors find themselves on the run from this creature (dubbed "monster" in later episodes). My personal highlight of this scene would be Kate screaming for Jack as she finds herself alone in the forest, and later counting down from 5 in order to calm down, having heard the story from him later. I believe this scene indicates their connection. Eventually, the three remaining survivors managed to reunite and head back to camp, the story that will continue into next episode.

The yet-unseen appearance of this "monster" marks the introduction of the show's mythology elements which are one of the major reasons for me getting hyped for future episodes. I feel this sequence was very well done and truly captured the dread and thrill while making us care about the characters at same time.

To wrap this up,"Pilot part 1" is an intense, thrilling and very effective opening chapter, working very well to make me want see more. While the story is not heavy on characters yet, this episode enabled me to get attached to two major characters, captured a very thrilling tone and introduced the mythology that increased my wish to delve deeper into the show. All in all, successful recipe for hype. On my own list, this episode gets 10/10 and is my 17th favorite out of 114 LOST episodes and my 5th favorite from first season.

The X-Files: Shadows (1993) Season 1, Episode 6

An episode that returns to scary roots, but is very predictable overall

[7/10 · 21 August 2018]

Side note: this review was written after watching all the episodes

After not-so-great "The Jersey Devil", the series again returns to its horror roots with this episode. "Shadows" is another stand-alone piece of season 1, but unlike "Squeeze" and "The Jersey Devil" which focused on human killers with unnatural abilities, this one delves deeper into supernatural territory and deals with more mystical force.

The episode is centered on young woman Lauren Kyte whose boss Howard Graves died by commiting shortly before the events of this episode. Whenever she appeared in danger or something didn't go her way, a mysterious force intervened and protected her. Whether it was mugging, issues at work or the agents interrogating her, the mystical force was always there. Initially seeming that she has a psychic powers herself, the events started to imply on spiritual presence of another being that had something to do with Graves's death.

In my opinion, the most positive thing about this episode is that it is scary and almost feels like a horror movie. There are scenes of people getting killed in gruesome way, including their throat slowly being crushed by unseen force, a scene of a bath tub slowly filling with blood while screams of a man are heard, and an ominous presence of a shady government agency that refuse to reveal anything to the agents. There is uneasy atmosphere in the air all the time and the central character is visibly frightened through all the story.

But on negative note, I could see the twist of this episode incoming from a mile away. Despite the scary scenes, the revelation that Howard Graves has been murdered by Lauren's current boss Robert Dorlund and that his spirit returned to this world to exact revenge and help Lauren was something I could sense incoming and left me quite underwhelmed. It turned out Dorlund was the true antagonist to the story, not the mystical presence, and the story resolved in a way that Lauren convinced Graves's vengeful spirit to spare Dorlund, putting his spirit to rest in the process. For an episode that started on very scary note, this whole resolution took away a lot of horror impact in my eyes.

To wrap it up, "Shadows" is a creepy episode and an improvement over its predecessor, but ultimately fails to deliver an intriguing story in my eyes, thus being one of my less favorite S1 episodes. It's the first of many episodes where spirits return from the dead, but not the best one among them. So my final verdict for this episode would be a low 7/10.

The X-Files: The Jersey Devil (1993) Season 1, Episode 5

A relatively realistic monster-of-the-week episode which at the end of the day fails to build suspense and horror

[6/10 · 17 August 2018]

Note: this review was written after watching all the episodes

"The Jersey" devil is the second monster-of-the-week episode but unlike its predecessor "Squeeze", this one deals with very little paranormal elements and is significantly less scary in tone. It deals with Mulder trying to resolve the case surrounding the mysterious predator in the woods which appears to be human by nature.

Despite the scary opening scene where a father gets snatched by an unseen feral creature, the episode soon loses its horror tone and goes on a more complex and realistic route as the predator slowly starts to unveil its nature as a feral human who lives in the forest and behaves like an animal. And at the same time, the local police is hunting the unseen predator as an animal with intention of shooting it on sight. The main story thread starts to spin around the idea how people have animalistic nature, regardless of how developed and civilized they are, and the creature soon becomes the "protagonist" of the story while the police serves as antagonist.

While this approach to the story is very realistic, the episode lost the suspense in my case as hunting a feral human being was not particularly gripping. The creature itself is not really involved in the story itself and it barely appears on screen, resulting in very little horror atmosphere and scary scenes overall. The only moment when the story seemed to include a bit of a twist and suspense is when Mulder finds out they're hunting a feral woman and that they may have had offspring. The whole story regarding "the Jersey devil" resolves in a way that after Mulder's close encounter with this feral woman the Police hunt down and kill her, having killed a feral man years before, and Mulder is visibly sad by her death. For me personally, turning initially very dangerous creature into something so harmless felt very flat and totally removed a horror element from the story

A significant portion of the story is also focused on Scully's private life, including an attempt of a date, and I personally found this part very distracting and out of place. I get that the writers were trying to flesh out both characters but for a show built on a horror premise, I feel they should stick to the path itself and not wander off with these casual day to day life scenes.

To conclude this, "The Jersey Devil" is one of the weakest S1 episodes for me. The story is very dull and lacks the suspense and horror the previous episodes built up, making it a very uninteresting episode. I get the writers wanted to deliver more deep message with this episode, but for me personally, it felt very flat and so non-TXF-like. So my final verdict for this episode is 6/10.

The X-Files: Conduit (1993) Season 1, Episode 4

An intense, but not very climatic semi-mythology episode

[7/10 · 6 August 2016]

Note: This review was written after watching most of the episodes

"Conduit" is an episode, which is connected to aliens but serves more as a stand-alone story. It is named after central character Kevin Morris, who is believed to be the "conduit" between Earth and outer space, after his sister Ruby mysteriously disappeared at night and is believed to have been abducted by aliens.

This episode marks the first time, when Mulder is actively searching for his sister Samantha. But because Mulder already explained the story about her disappearance in "Pilot", the scene between Blevins and Scully loses a bit of impact. In my opinion, the scene could have been more powerful if both the audience and Scully had no prior knowledge of her. On the other hand, it was nice to see Blevins again, considering that first season wasn't particularly fond of recurring characters.

In my opinion, this episode isn't very innovative because the plot is very similar to "Deep Throat". Someone is abducted, Mulder is desperate to unveil the truth, certain people in town are obsessed with aliens, Scully is in total disbelief and some shady characters hinder the agents' investigation.

My biggest grip of this episode is that it really lacked resolution at the end of episode. Apart from the beginning, there was no "strange light" that would signify the alien presence in the forest and Ruby just appeared on the ground. The same goes for Kevin, who was supposed to be the conduit. Was he wandering in the forest because he sensed that Ruby returned? The TV series apparently abandoned the "human conduit" idea because no other episode featured a similar character. Nevertheless, the ending is a very typical one, when the characters are silenced by government agents and Mulder and Scully are again left completely in the dark.

On more positive note, the atmosphere is again really intense and thriller-like, such as when NSA agents storm into Scully's room at night or when Mulder and Scully are having a conversation in the library with the girl they cannot see. And David Duchovny's performance was really great as we see Mulder's vulnerable side for the first time. An exceptional scene was the one, when he interrogates Tessa, a girl who was jealous of Ruby and was there on the night of her disappearance. Mulder almost loses his temper, figures out that she killed Ruby's boyfriend and nearly accuses her of murdering Ruby. This scene shows us, how far is Mulder willing to go when it goes for uncovering the truth.

While I have several grips about the episode, I can understand all those things if I consider that the episode is more focused on Mulder's personality. While slightly worse than "Deep Throat" and "Pilot", the episode is still an intense experience and my final verdict is 7/10.

The X-Files: Squeeze (1993) Season 1, Episode 3

A gruesome and exceptionally creepy stand-alone episode, worthy of a horror movie

[10/10 · 5 August 2016]

Note: This review was written after watching most of the episodes

After two intense conspiracy episodes, the series goes into full horror mode with its first stand-alone episode, which is also one of the scariest X-Files installments.

"Squeeze" is the first episode in category of "serial killers with unnatural abilities". Its name probably originates from the central character Eugene Victor Tooms, who is able to "squeeze" himself into very tight places, giving the episode a very claustrophobic feeling and constant sense of dread.

Doug Hutchison's portrayal of Tooms is one of episode's highlights. From the moment I saw his glowing eyes in the drain, I got the feeling that he is someone very dangerous and that I'm watching a horror movie. Even when he was revealed as a "normal person", there was something very creepy about him. I was initially worried that explicitly showing the killer would lessen the horror impact but thankfully, I was wrong.

His backstory is no less gruesome than his present actions. Awakening every 30 years, preying on people in order to tear out their liver and then hibernating in newspaper nest, drenched with bile... Detective Briggs's words: "The horrors I've seen there... like the God created some kind of monster.." describe him pretty well. He is more of a monster than human being. Amazing performance by Henry Beckman at this point.

This episode is also the first one with recurring theme "Scully in trouble". After exploring his apartment, Scully unknowingly becomes his final prey, when he snatches her necklace while being hidden in the ceiling. What follows, is an intense and scary sequence in Scully's apartment but then Mulder comes and saves the day. Well, he actually saves Scully. Tooms is put into mental hospital but the episode leaves an open end for any potential sequel.

With Doug Hutchison's amazing performance, very creepy atmosphere and a story worthy of a horror movie, "Squeeze" is one of my favorite stand- alone episodes and my second favorite episode of season 1. It was one of the best ways to introduce stand-alone episodes with almost no flaws in it, so my verdict can't be any lower than 10/10.

The X-Files: Deep Throat (1993) Season 1, Episode 2

An episode, full of intense moments, and a proper introduction to Government conspiracy

[8/10 · 13 July 2016]

Note: This review was written after watching most of the episodes

While "Pilot" only subtly introduced the Government's involvement, this episode throws it in our face. Mulder and Scully are called to investigate the disappearance of a military pilot, but soon discover that there is something much more complex going on with a possible involvement of the government and U.F.O technology.

The episode is named after a shady government character, played by Jerry Hardin, who becomes Mulder's first informant. I pretty much enjoyed his performance, especially his unnaturally calm voice. The fact that he was never named on screen, brings another layer of mystery to the show and the character himself seems like a both trustworthy and untrustworthy character.

For mythology episode, "Deep Throat" is an episode with little paranormal elements. And as opposed to previous episode, there are no signs of "higher force" in this episode. It instead focuses more on the element "Trust no one". The atmosphere is really tense with constant implications that Mulder and Scully are being followed, such as the helicopter chase scene, ambush on the road and the journalist being revealed as government agent.

This episode marks the first time when one of the main characters finds himself/herself in a very dangerous position. In this case, it is Mulder who ventures deep into the base before being captured by army soldiers who perform some weird medical stuff on him. Well, at least Scully was able to expose the agent and trade him for Mulder. Otherwise, I have no idea what would have happened to him Apart from that, this is one of the few moments, when an alien spacecraft is accurately shown on screen (although in this case, it is actually a modified military plane), proving that U.F.O technology actually exists. At this point, I can say that the effects of the plane hovering over Mulder were really beautiful.

Being one of the first mythology episodes, Mulder and Scully are left mostly in the dark but remain suspicious. While Mulder was very close to discovery, the medical experiments messed up his memory. And Scully as a skeptic outright refuses to believe in anything paranormal but she becomes aware of the possible government involvement. The pilot returns to his family, but with strong implications that he was forcibly silenced. At the end of the episode, Deep Throat appears for the second time, confirming that the aliens are already present and possibly indicating that he may be the only source of information at this point.

"Deep Throat" is a bit less creepy and also less paranormal than the "Pilot" but manages to introduce us to crucial government elements and keep the suspension through entire episode. I enjoyed it a bit more than the Pilot and again, my verdict is 8/10.

The X-Files: Pilot (1993) Season 1, Episode 1

A creepy, but great way to start the series.

[8/10 · 9 July 2016]

Side note: This review was written after watching most of the episodes

And so it begins. The Pilot is a great premiere episode to start the series. After the mysterious and creepy prologue, we are introduced to Dana Scully played by Gillian Anderson who is assigned to assist agent Mulder in the X-Files and also to debunk his work. Her face expression pretty much defines her character - she is a strict woman who follows orders and relies on science. I can say that I immediately got an uncomfortable feeling when she entered Blevins's office, mostly because of the presence of Cigarette Smoking Man, who doesn't speak a single word but gives an impression of figure of authority who is respected by even Blevins and the other unnamed agent.

After that, we are introduced to agent Mulder, who is pretty much the opposite. He immediately gives an impression of a "special" person and also very free-willed one. I immediately felt a connection between those two, but not a romantic one.

After that scene, the atmosphere becomes much darker. Even before they reach their destination, a pretty intense moment happens when plane starts to shake. Soon, we are also introduced to a paranormal element, when Mulder hears a strange noise and draws an X on the road.

Through the whole episode, the atmosphere is really intense and creepy. While discovery of Soames's body (believed to be an ape) was funny for me at first, it immediately changed when Mulder stated that the mutation may have been caused by experiments performed by aliens. The events really mess up Scully's head to the point that she mistakes mosquito bites for alien marks. And she experiences paranormal event when their car gets stuck in time and they lose "9 minutes". All these events indicated that something really sinister is going on.

Billy Miles was a nice twist to the episode as I initially did not expect any people being involved in alien abductions, let alone the boy in vegetative state. The story is partially resolved at the end when Billy Miles is exposed but the "mysterious white light" remains a secret and a matter of speculation.

This episode only subtly introduces us to Government conspiracy, an element that becomes more prominent in the episodes to come. But still with destruction of Scully's research, it is made clear enough that someone does not want the events to be explained, a fact confirmed when Cigarette Smoking Man enters a huge storeroom, filled with evidence.

To conclude, I think Pilot is a great premiere episode and managed to introduce us to both Alien mythology and the dynamic between Mulder and Scully. While the episode feels a bit different and does not match other alien episodes, its atmosphere is more creepy than in other mythology episodes. My final verdict would be 8/10.