Jumping the Gun: Ranking this Season

My look at the season as a whole continues. Today, I couldn't resist ranking all the episodes we've seen so far.

I should just wait until the end of the season, after we see this week's Desmond/Faraday episode, next week's Juliet episode, and the two-hour season finale's ***** episode. (Those last two are just vaguely educated guesses.)

But I couldn't resist. So when the season's over, I'll add them into this master list. For now, here are my rankings of the season so far:

(Disclaimer: As an obviously huge Lost fan, I should add that the only episode I can genuinely say I disliked is the very last one on the list.)

1. "316"

An episode heavy on well-deserved Season 1 nostalgia. Jack at his best. The strand about Locke's suicide note was extremely well-written. Caesar and Ilana haunted the plane like ghosts. A perfect episode.

2. "Whatever Happened, Happened"

On island: each character reacts in their own way to Ben's shooting, and Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet are chagrined to find that something inside them won't let Young Ben die. Off island: Kate is 100% redeemed and finds new purpose. A welcome Richard appearance at the end.

(Aside: it's funny how Jack and Kate are often thought of as the "boring" characters and yet turned in the best episodes.)

3. "LaFleur"

Sawyer comes into his own. Great opening reveal of Sawyer as head of Dharma security. Interesting intrigue with pregnant Amy. Very satisfying Sawyer/Juliet pairing at the end.

4. "Jughead"

The early part of the season takes a brief respite from all the time jumping and explores the 1950s-era Others, including a teenage Widmore, a young Ellie Hawking, and a big bomb that might come into play in a big way later. Locke's meeting with Richard perfectly sets up and explains Richard's "test" to kid Locke. Plus, we got a cool off-island story with Desmond hunting down Hawking.

5. "Some Like it Hoth"

A perfect intertwining of Lost's humor and mythology. Long-overdue Miles backstory, plus more from the always-welcome Pierre Chang.

6. "Dead is Dead"

Still sad about Ben shooting Caesar. But Smokey's "Judgment" of Ben, with the Alex appearance, was one of the season's best climaxes. Ben's flashbacks, especially his attempt to kill Penny, were cool.

7. "Because You Left"

The premiere. Jumped all over the place and couldn't really build; less an episode than a collection of cool moments. The opening with Faraday in the '70s with Chang: excellent. Richard randomly popping up to take the bullet out of Locke's leg: very cool. Lots of Faraday, lots of Sawyer.

8. "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

A good and important episode, but not higher because of some flaws: Locke's decision to kill himself seemed rushed, Kate seemed unnecessarily cruel (probably in an attempt to sell us on Locke's decision), Abaddon's character seemed to be awkwardly tweaked from his very evil-ish appearance to Hurley, and Locke's decision not to try to bring Walt back just seemed arbitrary. However: beginning, with Widmore in Tunisia, and ending, with Ben and Locke in the hotel room, were excellent.

9. "The Lie"

Solid, but nothing too special. Sayid being tranquilized for the whole episode was a creative move. Hurley's explanation of the entire plot of Lost so far to his mother was a comedic highlight.

10. "This Place is Death"

Originally had this ranked #12, but the opening with Rousseau and Jin single-handedly propels it up a few spots. The rest suffered badly from the lack of focus of the time-hopping early season.

11. "He's Our You"

Why so low? If you take out Sayid's climactic shooting of Ben and our inherent bias towards Sayid as an awesome character, it wasn't actually that good. Sayid's childhood flashback felt derivative of Eko's (with yet another bad dad). And the rest of his flashbacks featured umpteenth examples of A Smart Character Being Manipulated By Ben Way Too Easily. On the island, his encounter with the truth serum was largely pointless (and the "He's our you" line wasn't even accurate -- the guy was a non-torturing kook).

12. "Namaste"

Another "nothing special" episode. The lack of a central character hurt it, but it wasn't bad; just a necessary plot-driven go-between stuck after a string of better episodes.

13. "The Little Prince"

Kate's off-island Aaron story: totally blah. The incessant on-island momentum-destroying time-hopping: also totally blah. A stinker of an episode.

TAGS: 316, Episode Rankings, Season 5, The Little Prince
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