"Life's not so bad, right? I mean sure, the Others are coming to like, eat us all, and every once in a while someone blows up all over you, but we do get to sleep in every morning." - Jorge Garcia as Hurley
Lost: The Complete Second Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
When Lost, a series following the survivors of Oceanic Airlines flight #815 as they struggle to live on a dangerous but beautiful tropical island, premiered on ABC in the 2004-2005 season, viewers and critics alike wondered how the creators would be able to follow up the strange, imaginative first season. Quite nicely, as it turns out.
As Lost: The Complete Second Season begins, whiz kid surgeon Jack (Party of Five's Matthew Fox), paraplegic-turned-survivalist Locke (Millennium's Terry O'Quinn), all-American Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and unlucky lottery winner Hurley (Jorge Garcia) have blown open the mysterious hatch Locke discovered in the jungle. Reluctant father Michael (Oz's Harold Perrineau), con man Sawyer (Josh Holloway), and surly Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) are lost at sea after their escape raft was destroyed by the Others, a group of mysterious island residents. The Others also kidnapped Michael's son, Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). Former heroin addict Charlie (The Lord of the Rings' Dominic Monaghan) grows closer to single mom Claire (Roswell's Emilie de Raven) and her new baby. Former Iraqi Republican Guard officer Sayid (The English Patient's Naveen Andrews) continues his relationship with Shannon (Maggie Grace), who becomes convinced that Walt is back on the island. Sun (Yunjin Kim) tries to enjoy life without her husband, Jin.
Season two introduces several new characters. Rose (L. Scott Caldwell), a peripheral character among the crash survivors, insisted throughout the first season that the tail end of the plane crashed on another part of the island and that surely other passengers must have survived. It turns out she was right. When their escape raft breaks up, Michael, Jin, and Sawyer find themselves on the opposite end of the island where they meet "the Tailies." When the tail section crashed, there were twenty-three survivors. Of those, only five remain. Mr. Eko (Oz's Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is an imposing Nigerian priest with a rather unpriestly past. Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) is a former L.A. cop with severe anger management issues. Libby (The Drew Carey Show's Cynthia Watros) is a clinical psychologist. Bernard (Perfect Strangers' Sam Anderson) is the husband Rose never gave up for dead. Cindy (Kimberley Joseph) was a flight attendant on Oceanic flight 815. The other survivors from the tail section were snatched in the night by the Others. It seems that the Others are extremely active in the Tailies' section of the island, so they decide to set off with Michael, Jin, and Sawyer to the other camp. On the way, Cindy is taken by the Others, the first of several tragedies to befall the remaining Tailies.
Another intriguing new character is Henry Gale (Michael Emerson), a mysterious stranger who is captured in the woods by Rousseau (Mira Furlan). She turns him over to Sayid, claiming that he is one of the Others. Henry, however, insists that he crash landed on the island with his wife in a hot-air balloon. Sayid, Jack, and Ana Lucia imprison him in the bunker in order to discover his true identity. With his almost near-perfect blend of menace and harmlessness, the character is extremely well-written and well-acted.
Season two's most vibrant new character isn't even human - it's the hatch. In a brilliantly banal move, the interior of the hatch is introduced to the strains of Mama Cass' "Make Your Own Kind of Music" blaring out of a record player (a device no doubt completely foreign to many of Lost's younger viewers). Only when an explosion sends the needle skittering across Mama Cass' LP do we suddenly realize that this Ikea-meets-Goldfinger bachelor pad is actually inside the hatch. Soon Locke and Kate have discovered the hatch's occupant, Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), an oddball who insists that a special code - 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 - must be entered into a circa-1979 computer every one hundred and eight minutes or the entire island will be destroyed. When Desmond runs off, leaving the castaways in charge of entering the code and "pressing the button," the underground geodesic dome (filled with retro computer equipment, a fully-stocked pantry, an arsenal filled with guns, a shower, and a washer/dryer) becomes a new home base for several of the series' characters.
The discovery of the bunker and its accompanying repetitive task leads to a major season-long conflict between Jack and Locke. The title of the first episode, "Man of Science, Man of Faith," says it all. Locke wholeheartedly accepts that from now on, someone will have to remain in the bunker to enter the numbers every one hundred and eight minutes. To him, this is simply an extension of the island's mysticism. Rational Jack, however, thinks it is a waste of time. Entering a bunch of numbers into a computer can't possibly save the world, so why should they bother doing it? An orientation film explaining that the bunker was created by a research project called the Dharma Initiative, and promising grave consequences if the instructions are not followed, does little to convince Jack. Mr. Eko becomes a believer, too, but Locke begins to doubt the sanctity of the numbers when he and Mr. Eko make a startling discovery in another hatch.
One of the major undercurrents in season one was a focus on father issues. This continues in the second season. Locke's absentee father (Emergency!'s Kevin Tighe) tricked him into donating his kidney before cutting him off again. In season two, his father returns for even more chicanery. Sun's cruel father soured her marriage to Jin, while Jin tries to cover his own father's fisherman roots. Jack's competition with his father (who is also a doctor) eventually contributed to his father's death. And we finally find out why Kate was on the run from law. Let's just say it involves her father and leave it at that.
Lost: The Complete Second Season isn't perfect. Its flaws - no matter how minor - are especially noticeable when the episodes are subject to DVD marathon viewing. This time around, it often seems as if the same characters are constantly the subjects of the series' flashbacks. Motivations and attitudes seem to change from episode to episode. In one episode, Jack proclaims that punching the buttons is useless superstition. In the next, he's complaining that no one is manning the computer. In the next, he's back to his initial skepticism. The inconsistencies are minor, however, and probably won't be that noticeable to viewers who don't watch the series in concentrated spurts.
The twenty-four episodes that make up The Complete Second Season are divided onto six discs. A seventh disc contains bonus features. Each disc is decorated with images relevant to the episodes on that disc - the hatch's timer on disc one, a teddy bear on disc two, Mr. Eko's stick on disc three, a statue of the Virgin Mary on disc four, the hidden map on disc five, "the button" on disc six, and the Dharma Initiative's orientation film on disc seven. The discs are housed in a foldout case decorated with publicity photos, production stills, and the Dharma Initiative logo. The seven discs attach to four panels - three of the panels hold two discs one on top of the other in a figure eight pattern. Another panel of the foldout case includes a folder which holds an episode guide. The case slides into a clear plastic sleeve which, as in season one, cleverly makes use of negative space to reveal the photos on the foldout case beneath it.
Once again, the full motion DVD menus perfect reflect the mood and tone of the series. Part of the fun of this set is anticipating what each disc's unique menu will look like. Viewers can play all episodes or choose them individually. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes include chapter stops.
