"Lost"
Special (2005)

Director:

Greg Yaitanes

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator) and
J.J. Abrams (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

19 January 2005 (Season 1, Episode 14)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

John Locke is teaching Walt Lloyd to throw knives, and Michael Dawson feels jealous with the situation...

Plot Keywords:

Mysterious Island | Hit By Car | Labrador Retriever | Soaked Clothes | Surrealism

Cast

Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Maggie Grace	...	Shannon Rutherford
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Malcolm David Kelley	...	Walt Lloyd
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon (credit only)
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Harold Perrineau	...	Michael Dawson
Ian Somerhalder	...	Boone Carlyle
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Monica Garcia	...	Nurse
Natasha Goss	...	Dagne
Madison	...	Vincent the Dog
David Starzyk	...	Brian Porter
Tamara Taylor	...	Susan Lloyd

Runtime:

43 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Korean | English

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | UK:15 | Venezuela:PG-13 (DVD rating) | USA:TV-14

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company:

Bad Robot

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Walt is lost in the forest looking around him. When panning across the landscape of the forest a crewmember and a portable toilet can be seen on the right side of the screen in behind some bushes. It may only be visible in wide screen.

Quotes:

Hurley: We're playing for the last of the deodorant sticks!

Massively under-appreciated episode

"Special" is an episode I find hard to get through, due to its quality. To say the least, "Special" is a bafflingly unappreciated episode of "Lost" and just an excellent script in every way imaginable. I find it hard to get through because the drama is so involving and because Michael is such an intensely involving character in my opinion. The scene where he has a phone conversation with Susan and then gets hit by a car is one of the most intensely effective scenes in "Lost" as a whole.

"Special" is almost entirely character-based. There is a minor subplot dealing with Charlie and Claire's storyline, but for the most part it revolves around Michael. Before the season two Michael-hate spread through fandom like a wildfire, "Special" seemed to be held in reasonably high esteem. Since, it has become, like anything else involving lots of Michael, the subject of much derision. David Fury's script is really superb and convincing in terms of its handling of character and dialogue in particular, and once again made me wonder what would have happened had he stayed on with the show.

Greg Yaitanes, responsible for the horribly-directed "Solitary", takes a mellower approach and displays a sizable amount of talent here. Consistently well-shot, "Special" moves at a fast pace with no truly annoying moments on a visual level. Giacchino's score for this episode is particularly good, although I know that is not a popular opinion.

"Special" is an intensely dramatic, stunningly well-acted, and involving piece of drama. The fans of "Lost" who have no time for anything but the dense mythology of the show get a reward for sitting through the episode with the surprise ending of the episode, but it's a shame they couldn't enjoy the rest of it.

9/10