Season 1, Episode 2 — "The Pilot, Part II"

"Two players, two sides. One is light, one is dark."

Those are the words spoken by an unnamed man (in hindsight, of course, we know him as John Locke), who was explaining the game of backgammon to young Walt. More on that later.

I'm only two episodes into the big re-watch, so to speak, but I'm already realizing what's going to happen here: The "Holy Shit" moments that blew you away the first time around lose much of their effect the second time through, but that allows you to focus on the details.

And let's face it, "Lost" has always been about the details, anyway.

Now, about Locke's cryptic description of backgammon. I won't pretend to remember what I was thinking when I first watched this episode, but I'm fairly certain Locke's line would have been lost in the fervor of this episode in which we: learn Charlie is a smack head; find out a prisoner and a U.S. Marshal were among the passengers, see Sawyer shoot a polar bear (!!!), find out Kate was the aforementioned prisoner, and discover a distress signal that has been transmitting on a loop for 16 years, 5 months. Oh, and don't forget that comic book Walt found, which contained a picture of a polar bear -- another minor moment we underestimated until much later, when we find out Walt is "special."

When you've endured all that in an hour, Locke's line about backgammon might get lost in the shuffle. But we know things now that won't allow us to dismiss it. Most notably, we have some indication that Ben and Widmore are playing some sort of game (remember the Season 4 episode in which Widmore "changes the rules"?) and we get the idea that one side is good and one is evil, though I'll be damned if this show ever makes the distinction as simple and clear-cut as Locke's "one is light, one is dark" explanation.

But enough about that. I think I've established my belief that this was a fine bit of foreshadowing, and most certainly one that was forgotten by most viewers long before it became relevant.

The other thing that strikes me two episodes into the project is how much the characters have changed -- most of them for the better -- since the crash. In this episode, Jin is depicted as a domineering husband, forcing Sun to button her top button when Michael comes over to the beach, and Sun looks miserable. It's clear in retrospect that Jin and Sun are actually happier "now" (after being stranded on the island for months) than they were then. It's also funny to see Hurley hating on his future buddy Sawyer (a "chain-smoking jackass" is what he called him after Sawyer accused Sayid of being a terrorist).

But this episode's real twist was feeding into our notion that the show was going to be about some type of monster (the Black Smoke Monster, which made a brief cameo early in the episode) before letting us know in the final few minutes there was much more going on than we possibly could have believed. And we've only just scratched the surface.

THE RUNDOWN
Beginning: Charlie is a smack head.

Middle: Walt finds some handcuffs; Sawyer and Sayid get in a fistfight; Walt finds a comic book (with a polar bear); Sawyer reads a note on the beach; Kate, Sayid, Shannon, Boone, Charlie and Sawyer go on a hike with the transceiver; Locke teaches Walt about backgammon (and much more, I have a feeling); Claire feels Aaron kick; Sawyer shoots a polar bear (with a gun he took off a U.S. Marshal); the handcuffs belonged to Kate.

End: The transceiver picks up a radio signal, which turns out to be a distress signal (from Frenchy) that's been looping for 16 years, 5 months (Sayid's rough estimate). For the second time in as many episodes, rock star Charlie leaves us with an existential puzzler to end the show, muttering "Guys ... where are we?" If only he knew how complicated that question was.