Down The Hatch

Josh Wigler (@roundhoward) and Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) dig into “Homecoming,” and… really? This is Damon Lindelof’s least favorite LOST episode?

In “Homecoming,” Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) takes center stage in the past with a weird little ditty about puking into photocopiers or something, and okay, it’s not great, but! What about everything happening on the island? With Claire (Emilie De Ravin) back at camp, questions abound about Ethan Rom (William Mapother) and the Others he represents, leading to one of the tensest hours in early LOST history — forgiving the flashbacks, at least. With an ending that was very frustrating to some in the moment, “Homecoming” may warrant a new perspective and evaluation. Josh and Mike are here to do exactly that.

“Homecoming” was directed by Kevin Hooks and written by Damon Lindelof. It originally aired on February 9, 2005.

LOST: Down the Hatch is a full-tilt spoiler-filled rewatch of LOST. Every week, Josh and Mike break down an episode of LOST with the benefit of knowing the series’ full trajectory, using the following structure as a guide:

Each episode of Down the Hatch clocks in at no less than 108 minutes. If the podcast falls short of that runtime, Josh and Mike have triggered a crisis! Consequences may (and almost certainly will) ensue thanks to the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Wigler (@roundhoward) and Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) hate Susan and Brian so. Freaking. Much. And they’re going to tell you all about it in their recap of season one, episode 14, “Special.” But first, let’s get one thing off the chest:

*deep inhale*

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALT!

*deep exhale*

Okay! So, in “Special,” Michael (Harold Perrineau) gets the flashback treatment, as does his son, Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). We come to find why they were estranged before the crash, how Michael has attempted to father Walt from a distance, and why he’s faring so poorly now that they’re together — at least until they find a way to reconnect over a polar bear.

There’s additional drama on the island: Michael threatens to kill Locke (Terry O’Quinn), for one, and manages to get one over on Boone (Ian Somerhalder) as well. He also decides to start building the raft, the beginning of one of the most important story arcs of the season. Meanwhile, Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) gets punched in the face and reads Claire’s diary because he’s “bloody scum.” But how can he be both bloody scum and a bloody rock god? A mystery for another time.

Also, Brian and Susan Porter are in this episode, and they are the worst.

“Special” was directed by Greg Yitanes and written by David Fury. It originally aired on January 19, 2005.

LOST: Down the Hatch is a full-tilt spoiler-filled rewatch of LOST. Every week, Josh and Mike break down an episode of LOST with the benefit of knowing the series’ full trajectory, using the following structure as a guide:

Each episode of Down the Hatch clocks in at no less than 108 minutes. If the podcast falls short of that runtime, Josh and Mike have triggered a crisis! Consequences may (and almost certainly will) ensue thanks to the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Wigler (@roundhoward) and Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) apply some strange sesame paste to their open wounds in order to properly trip on through “Hearts and Minds.”

The first (and only!) flashback focused squarely on Ian Somerhalder’s Boone, “Hearts and Minds” focuses on the wedding empire prince’s journey down to Sydney in order to save his sister Shannon (Maggie Grace) from an abusive boyfriend — except that’s not the full story, on a few fronts. On the island, Boone once again finds himself tasked with rescuing Shannon — but again, not the full story.

“Hearts and Minds” is often remembered as the episode where Boone and Shannon’s sibling rivalry becomes something else entirely, but is that a fair place in history, or is there more to the story here? Josh and Mike investigate that question as they dig into the Boone of it all, as well as the breakout storylines for so many of the other characters: Jack (Matthew Fox), Locke (Terry O’Quinn), Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and more.

“Hearts and Minds” was directed by Rod Holcomb and co-written by Carlton Cuse and Javier Grillo-Marxuach. It originally aired on January 12, 2005.

About Down the Hatch …

LOST: Down the Hatch is a full-tilt spoiler-filled rewatch of LOST. Every week, Josh and Mike break down an episode of LOST with the benefit of knowing the series’ full trajectory, using the following structure as a guide:

Each episode of Down the Hatch clocks in at no less than 108 minutes. If the podcast falls short of that runtime, Josh and Mike have triggered a crisis! Consequences may (and almost certainly will) ensue thanks to the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

Additional reading/listening/viewing from the podcast:

The 23 Points Character Tracker, as of “Hearts and Minds” …

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Wigler (@roundhoward) and Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) go swimming with their jeans on as they try to open up “Whatever the Case May Be,” the current title holder for worst episode in LOST history.

Are the rumors true? Is “Whatever the Case May Be” really the worst episode in LOSThistory? Almost definitely not! Josh and Mike begin their deep dive into the episode with a look at the circumstances leading into the episode’s creation, and how that helps explain some of its more uneven aspects.

Then, Josh and Mike dig into the plot: Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) finds a mysterious case on the island, and obsessively tries to open it, keeping all others from finding out its true contents — specifically, the toy airplane that belonged to “the man [she] loved,” who also happens to be “the man [she] killed.” In flashbacks, we discover the circumstances that led to Kate finding the airplane… sorta. Not really, honestly. It’s just a bank heist that probably did not need to go down. Anyway, we’ll talk about it!

“Whatever the Case May Be” was directed by Jack Bender and co-written by Damon Lindelof and Jennifer Johnson. It originally aired on January 5, 2005.

LOST: Down the Hatch is a full-tilt spoiler-filled rewatch of LOST. Every week, Josh and Mike break down an episode of LOST with the benefit of knowing the series’ full trajectory, using the following structure as a guide:

Each episode of Down the Hatch clocks in at no less than 108 minutes. If the podcast falls short of that runtime, Josh and Mike have triggered a crisis! Consequences may (and almost certainly will) ensue thanks to the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Wigler (@roundhoward) and Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) sprint off into the jungle in search of the dangerous man at the heart of “All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues.” Good thing they’re not wearing red shirts!

In “All the Best Cowboys,” Jack Shepherd (Matthew Fox) takes it upon himself to track down Ethan Rom (William Mapother), the sinister Other who abducted Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) and Claire (Emilie de Ravin). Mission accomplished on the Charlie front, but not without some significant obstacles, including administering jungle CPR to a hanged man and weathering the most vicious beatdown of the series thus far. All the while, Jack contends with memories of his dead father Christian (John Terry), and the circumstances that led to his fatal trip to Sydney.

Elsewhere, John Locke (Terry O’Quinn) makes a new friend in Boone (Ian Somerhalder) as the two of them team together to find Charlie and Claire. They find something else instead: a mysterious hatch embedded in the earth of the island — and while it may be a while before they crack it, the door is now wide open for the rest of the climactic season.

“All the Best Cowboys” was directed by Stephen Williams and written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach. It originally aired on December 8, 2004.

LOST: Down the Hatch is a full-tilt spoiler-filled rewatch of LOST. Every week, Josh and Mike break down an episode of LOST with the benefit of knowing the series’ full trajectory, using the following structure as a guide:

Each episode of Down the Hatch clocks in at no less than 108 minutes. If the podcast falls short of that runtime, Josh and Mike have triggered a crisis! Consequences may (and almost certainly will) ensue thanks to the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Wigler (@roundhoward) and Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) take a trip to the psychic to talk through “Raised By Another,” the first Lost episode focused squarely on Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin).

In “Raised By Another,” Claire suffers from strange night terrors, both dreamlike and all too real. She swears she’s being attacked, leading some to immediately rush to her aid, such as Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) and Hurley (Jorge Garcia), the latter of whom sets off on a mission to identify all the Oceanic 815 survivors via census. But others in the camp — namely, Jack (Matthew Fox) — aren’t so sure about Claire’s claims of an attack in the night. Her fears are confirmed to be all too real in horrifying fashion at the end of the hour, as she and Charlie find themselves at the mercy of Ethan Rom (William Mapother), the first ever Other introduced in Lost lore.

Off the island, Claire learns about her pregnancy and finds herself abandoned by her terrible boyfriend Thomas (Keir O’Donnell), then somehow falls into even stranger circumstances thanks to Richard Malkin (Nick Jameson), a psychic who may or may not actually have psychic abilities.

“Raised By Another” was directed by Marita Grabiak and written by Lynn E. Litt. It first aired on December 1, 2004.

LOST: Down the Hatch is a full-tilt spoiler-filled rewatch of LOST. Every week, Josh and Mike break down an episode of LOST with the benefit of knowing the series’ full trajectory, using the following structure as a guide:

Each episode of Down the Hatch clocks in at no less than 108 minutes. If the podcast falls short of that runtime, Josh and Mike have triggered a crisis! Consequences may (and almost certainly will) ensue thanks to the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Wigler (@roundhoward) and Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) are pleased to welcome you to the first ever Island Open, as they dive headlong into Lost season one, episode nine, “Solitary.”

In “Solitary,” Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) explores the island amid his period of self-imposed exile, still ashamed over torturing Sawyer (Josh Holloway). He discovers a cable on the beach, which brings him on a collision course with the mysterious French woman Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan), the first non-Oceanic survivor introduced in the Lost mythos. In a series of flashbacks, Sayid recalls falling in love with Nadiya (Andrea Gabriel), and the sordid path they traveled during their time together.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Oceanic 815 survivors become obsessed with a new island mystery: the curious case of the new golf course. Hurley (Jorge Garcia) has taken it upon himself to set up a tournament in order to take everyone’s minds off of their awful situations. It’s an early sign of his eventual leadership status, as even Jack (Matthew Fox) can’t help but crack a smile.

“Solitary” was directed by Greg Yaitanes and written by David Fury. It first aired on November 17, 2004.

About Down the Hatch …

LOST: Down the Hatch is a full-tilt spoiler-filled rewatch of LOST. Every week, Josh and Mike break down an episode of LOST with the benefit of knowing the series’ full trajectory, using the following structure as a guide:

Each episode of Down the Hatch clocks in at no less than 108 minutes. If the podcast falls short of that runtime, Josh and Mike have triggered a crisis! Consequences may (and almost certainly will) ensue thanks to the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

Additional reading/listening/viewing from the podcast:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Wigler (@roundhoward) and Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) go Down The Hatch to read a book about bunnies. Just kidding, Josh has barely started “Watership Down.” Instead, he and Mike are here to talk about “Confidence Man,” an episode Bloom describes as his own personal “Walkabout.” Intriguing! Find out why he loves it so much in this week’s edition of the Lost rewatch.

In “Confidence Man,” we finally pull the curtain back on James “Sawyer” Ford (Josh Holloway), the grifter with a heart of gold — though you wouldn’t know it from his latest island antics, in which he allows his fellow castaways to believe he’s hoarding crucial asthma medication. As Jack (Matthew Fox), Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) all conspire different ways to gain Sawyer’s cooperation, the con man’s defenses slowly fray, as a flashback storyline reveals the truth about his dark past.

Elsewhere on the island, Sun (Yunjin Kim) devises a way to ease Shannon (Maggie Grace) through her asthma attacks, thanks to some help from Michael (Harold Perrineau) and some skepticism from Jin (Daniel Dae Kim). Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) convinces Claire (Emilie de Ravin) to move from the beach to the caves, with the aid of some non-existent peanut butter.

“Confidence Man” was directed by Tucker Gates and written by Damon Lindelof. It first aired on November 10, 2004.

LOST: Down the Hatch is a full-tilt spoiler-filled rewatch of LOST. Every week, Josh and Mike break down an episode of LOST with the benefit of knowing the series’ full trajectory, using the following structure as a guide:

Each episode of Down the Hatch clocks in at no less than 108 minutes. If the podcast falls short of that runtime, Josh and Mike have triggered a crisis! Consequences may (and almost certainly will) ensue thanks to the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Wigler (@roundhoward) and Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) go Down The Hatch to talk about boars, bugs, drugs and bloody rock gods in their conversation about “The Moth,” the first ever Charlie Pace-centric episode of Lost.

In “The Moth,” Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) wrestles with heroin withdrawal, and begs John Locke (Terry O’Quinn) for his drugs back. Instead, Locke offers Charlie a three-strike system with which to choose whether or not to return to his addiction. Charlie’s faith is tested both on and off the island as he reckons with his rockstar past and his rock god present, rescues Jack (Matthew Fox) from a cave-in, and ultimately chooses to become a moth bursting forth from a cocoon. (No Wilford Brimely sightings this time, sadly.)

Meanwhile, Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) concocts an elaborate plan to triangulate the French woman’s signal, leading to yet another jungle trek alongside Kate (Evangeline Lilly). When Sawyer (Josh Holloway) catches up with them to share the news about Jack, he instead decides to lie to Kate about the doctor’s health — another instance of the confidence man inflicting pain on both himself and others, a theme that will come into focus in Sawyer’s forthcoming first flashback episode.

“The Moth” was directed by Jack Bender and co-written by Jennifer Johnson and Paul Dini. It first aired on November 3, 2004.

LOST: Down the Hatch is a full-tilt spoiler-filled rewatch of LOST. Every week, Josh and Mike break down an episode of LOST with the benefit of knowing the series’ full trajectory, using the following structure as a guide:

Each episode of Down the Hatch clocks in at no less than 108 minutes. If the podcast falls short of that runtime, Josh and Mike have triggered a crisis! Consequences may (and almost certainly will) ensue thanks to the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Wigler (@roundhoward) and Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) handcuff themselves to one another as they travel back to the very first Sun-centric outing of LOST in season one’s “House of the Rising Sun.”

In the latest Down the Hatch, Josh and Mike stop down to discuss two characters who have gone largely ignored up until this point: Sun and Jin Kwon, played by Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim, respectively. In the early going of LOST, these two characters were presented as outsiders to the rest of the Oceanic 815 survivors, with only Sun truly endearing herself to the great community in the course of the ABC drama’s first year. How did these characters leap from the sidelines into becoming major players in the greater mythology? Josh and Mike begin to drill down into these questions and these characters, and how they emerged as two of Bloom’s very favorite LOST players in the cast.

In “House of the Rising Sun,” Sun (Yunjin Kim) becomes drawn into the greater camp drama when her husband Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) assaults Michael (Harold Perrineau) without any apparent warning or reason. As it turns out, Jin’s attack was spurred on by his association with Sun’s father, a brutal businessman who has turned Jin into a brutal force of nature in his own right. In order to save her husband, Sun entrusts Michael with her biggest secret: she has learned how to speak English, and has not told her husband. In communicating Jin’s true intentions, Michael is able to defuse the conflict, though the tensions between Jin and Michael — as well as Jin and Sun, with still so many secrets between them both — remain simmering.

Meanwhile, further into the island, Jack (Matthew Fox) leads Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Locke (Terry O’Quinn) and Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) to the caves, which turns out to not only provide a source of fresh water, but also houses a pair of skeletons: Adam and Eve — two characters who will come to have much more specific identities (if not names) much later in the series. Jack decides the caves are a viable shelter for the greater group, causing division within the camp, and specifically between himself and Kate. Meanwhile, Locke and Charlie are drawn together by music and faith, setting the stage for the next installment, “The Moth.”

LOST: Down the Hatch is a full-tilt spoiler-filled rewatch of LOST. Every week, Josh and Mike break down an episode of LOST with the benefit of knowing the series’ full trajectory, using the following structure as a guide:

Each episode of Down the Hatch clocks in at no less than 108 minutes. If the podcast falls short of that runtime, Josh and Mike have triggered a crisis! Consequences may (and almost certainly will) ensue thanks to the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices