Grading the First Eight

Following in the footsteps of Nadine and Entertainment Weekly, I figure I'll chime in and rank, from best to worst, the first eight episodes of Season 4.

1. The Constant

The clear favorite. When I initially recapped this episode, I said it was easily one of the twenty best Lost episodes ever. It's only grown in stature in the month since its airing; it will probably go down as one of the best, if not THE best, non-premiere, non-finale episode.

2. Confirmed Dead

I consider "The Beginning of the End" to be a footnote on Season 3, and "Confirmed Dead" to be the true season premiere. In pitch-perfect Lost fashion, it introduced us to four fascinating characters and deepened the off-island mysteries.

3. The Economist

I'm not entirely thrilled with Locke's power trip, and the scene where Hurley back-stabs Kate and Sayid is painfully out-of-character. But everything with Sayid, my favorite character, was golden, and the working-for-Ben twist was superb.

4. Meet Kevin Johnson

I didn't have nearly as much of a problem with this episode as many people seemed to. Danielle's abrupt death was unfortunate, but I really liked the whole off-island story with Tom and Michael.

5. Eggtown

Kate has gotten a bit annoying, but the writers had fun with the whole Othersville-as-dorm-hallway scenario that Locke's camp is living in. And like The Economist, the final "Aaron!" twist was pretty sweet.

6. The Beginning of the End

For a season premiere we've been waiting seven months for, it didn't do a whole lot for me. Charlie's appearance was neat, and Abaddon was hands down the best part. On the island, though, we were basically in the castaways' position: waiting helplessly for the Freighter Folk to get there so the story can begin.

7. The Other Woman

Meh. Solid enough storytelling, but nothing happened.

8. Ji Yeon

The Jin and Sun dialogue was strangely awkward, the flashback/flashforward twist was a cheat, and we don't even know if Jin is really dead or not. If you're going to go to great lengths to trick your audience, at least make the payoff be something other than, "Wait, so how am I supposed to feel about this?"

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Grading the First Eight

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