Lost Review: “The Greater Good”

vanyel
has submitted a review of this week’s episode of
Lost. Read on for his/her/its perspective.

We learn more about Sayid, among other things…

The Greater Good

Cast & Crew

Director: David Grossman

Written By: Leonard Dick

Starring
Naveen
Andrews
as Sayid Jarrah

Emilie
de Ravin
as Claire Littleton

Matthew
Fox
as Jack Shepard

Jorge
Garcia
as Hugo “Hurley” Reyes

Maggie
Grace
as Shannon Rutherford

Josh
Holloway
as James Sawyer

Malcolm
David Kelley
as Walt Lloyd

Daniel
Dae Kim
as Jin Kwon

Yoon-jin
Kim
as Sun Kwon (as Yunjin Kim)

Evangeline
Lilly
as Kate Ryan

Dominic
Monaghan
as Charlie Pace

Terry
O’Quinn
as John Locke

Harold
Perrineau Jr.
as Michael Dawson (as Harold
Perrineau)

Ian
Somerhalder
as Boone Carlisle (2004-2005)

Guest Cast

Donnie Keshawarz

Jenny Gago

Dariush Kashani

Episode Information

Originally Aired: May 4, 2005

Season: One

Episode: Twenty One

What Happened


Jack searches for Locke, but without results. A
funeral is held for Boone, during which Locke
appears and tells what happened. Jack doesn’t believe
him and calls him a liar in front of
everyone, which has unintended consequences later.

Sayid’s backstory is extended, in which he is forced
to make an extremely difficult choice.

Sayid talks Locke into taking him to the plane, during
which Sayid grills him on the events
and comes to a conclusion about them, which isn’t
necessarily shared by everyone.

Charlie takes care of “turnip-head”, while Claire gets
some rest, with some surprise help.

Review

This episode was primarily about completing Sayid’s
backstory, with a
secondary plot of dealing with the aftermath of
Boone’s death. While
another step forward in the filling in of information,
that’s really all
it was — we learned nothing more about the mysteries
of the island or
anything too surprising about any of the characters.
Nevertheless, Sayid’s
story is interesting and satisfying — it was a good
episode, even if it
doesn’t have the stuff of a great episode.

High Points

Sawyer and the baby

Low Points

The scene where Locke talks to Shannon about
Boone. I thought the dialogue was
something one would first be inclined to write,
rather than something rewritten
into what someone would actually say in the
situation.

An Iraqi with a Scottish accent?

A minor nit, but when they’re carrying Boone to
the funeral (“open tarp” as it were),
Boone’s head roles around a bit at one point. By
this time, rigor would have set well
in and I don’t think he’d be moving at all.

The Scores

Originality: There’s not anything that hasn’t
been done elsewhere, though it’s mostly all
handled well. 3 out of 6.

Effects: Not a lot of effects, though there
were a couple of “point of view” shots that
were well done. When Sayid puts a bug (the electronic
variety) in a glass of liquid, however,
it wouldn’t hiss like a match being put out (add that
as a Low Point nit actually; it’s power
source was almost certainly in the device it was
pulled out of). 5 out of 6.

Story: Sayid’s backstory was advanced
significantly, but not much else was. 4 out of 6.

Acting: I don’t think I’ve ever seen any bad
acting on this show, with the possible exception
of Maggie Grace (Shannon), but I think that’s just her
character. No one really gets a chance
to do anything outstanding though, and I’m not sure I
really understood Jack’s attack on Locke.
That might be because I missed last week’s episode
though. 4 out of 6.

Emotional Response: The tension was good
everywhere Sayid was involved, but in particular, I
just didn’t feel it at Boone’s funeral. Even though I
like Ian Somerhalder a lot, his character
had such a minor share of the story and we really
didn’t know him that well, so I just didn’t
feel it. 3 out 6.

Production: Typically great — the plane, the
raft, the setting, but nothing unsually great…
5 out of 6

Overall: A good episode, but not a major step
forward. 4 out of 6.

Total: 28 out of 42

5 replies on “Lost Review: “The Greater Good””

  1. Backstory
    In this episode, I really felt the backstory didn’t have as much suspense as what was happening on the island. It is good to know that had Sayid not taken the body, he wouldn’t have ended up on the island. That was intriguing.

    I think that while this episode didn’t have any big revelations, it did have some smaller ones, and even better it had some that will come over into next season. Shannon tried to kill Locke, that tension between her and everyone else, espically Sayid isn’t going away soon. I really quite dislike her character. Actually what we’ve seen shows her no value whatsoever to anyone on the island, anyone except Sayid that is. That will add some dramatic tension in the next few episodes I would expect.

    • Re: good episode…
      It was probably the weakest episode so far, and it was still pretty good, esp. the final scene.

      It seems like they’re trying to give Shannon very little to do, acting-wise. Showing her reaction to Boone’s death in a very wide shot, having her be “saddened into silence” a lot…

      And last week’s episode was just a recapitulation of everything that had happened before, so you didn’t miss anything.

      • Re: good episode…

        It was probably the weakest episode so far, and it was still pretty good, esp. the final scene.

        It seems like they’re trying to give Shannon very little to do, acting-wise. Showing her reaction to Boone’s death in a very wide shot, having her be “saddened into silence” a lot…

        And last week’s episode was just a recapitulation of everything that had happened before, so you didn’t miss anything.

        What was cool about last week were the Twilight Zoney voiceovers. They actually needed more of them.

  2. He/She/It
    Obviously not a Mercedes Lackey fan ;-) Vanyel is male FWIW…

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