Okay. Time for the big surprise, an episode nobody could see coming!
1. Man of Science, Man of Faith - Season 2, Episode 1 (Jack-centric)An unknown man wakes up as he hears a beeping sound. He quickly jumps down from his bed, jumps on a chair, slides to the computer (which is revealed to be the source of the sound) and enters something. The sound stops.
He then goes to his vinyl-collection and picks out "
Make Your Own Kind of Music" and proceeds on with the day by doing daily chores. He does the dishes, works out some and then takes a hot shower. He mixes up a protein-drink and injects himself with some form of medicine/serum. However, he is soon abruptly interrupted by the sound of an earthquake.
As he quickly runs around gathering his uniform, boots and weapons, it is revealed that this takes place down the hatch, and that the sound we just heard was Locke, Jack, Kate and Hurley in the end of Season 1 blowing up the hatch.
In flashbacks we get to see Jack and how he meets his future wife, Sarah. She has been in a car crash, but Jack manages to succeed with the operation, though he tells her that she may never walk again.
There's a lot going on in Jack's head, so he goes to run a "
Tour De Stade" (running the stairs of a stadium), while running he falls and meets another runner, Desmond. Jack talks about his situation with Sarah, and how he feels like he has failed her, but Desmond tries to cheer him up. When Jack later goes to see Sarah, he finds out that she has recovered miraculously.
Back on the island the survivors are arguing about what they should do about the hatch. Locke wants to go down right away, but Jack thinks they should wait for the sun to go up. They head back to the caves to discuss it with the other survivors.
Locke however makes it clear to Jack that he will go down the hatch, and when he leaves, Kate follows.
Locke lowers Kate down the hatch, but she suddenly disappears and the hatch lights up. Jack decides to go after Locke and Kate. When he gets to the hatch, nobody is there, so he decides to go down. Down there he finds a mural on the wall, and the key he has around his neck is drawn towards the wall, revealing a strong magnetic force. After this he hears music playing, and he enters a bigger room that reveals computers and other interesting things, something you wouldn't expect to find on the island. Locke soon appears to be at gunpoint by the unknown man, who says that he will kill Locke unless Jack surrenders. When Jack refuses, the gunman steps out of the shadows, and it is revealed that he is in fact Desmond from Jack's flashback.
I think part of the reason why I rank this episode so high is because of all the fond memories I have attached to it. It may sound silly, but I think that other circumstances that happen simultaneously with something can make that memory even more powerful, or sort of boost the experience. (In the same way it can work negatively I suppose)
I had just watched through season 1 which ended with the big cliffhanger, and I wasn't able to watch Lost for a few days because I had lots of schoolwork. (took all the discipline I had to actually study instead of watching)
But when the Friday came, I aced my test in school and got the highest score, to celebrate this I picked up a Pizza on the way home, and watched the start of Season 2. I don't know if it was just the episode, the pizza OR getting full score on my test, but it all added into this episode being so damn good.
We finally got to see what was in the hatch, and we also got to see Desmond, who made a really strong impact on me right away. All I could think about after watching, was: "who is this guy?" and "how did he get to the island?". Because we didn't see him in Oceanic Flight 815, so this made me very interested in learning more about his origins.
I think the first minutes of this episode is probably the best start to a season ever, "Make Your Own Kind of Music" playing, Desmond doing his daily stuff when he is suddenly interrupted. Kinda like with the start of Season 3, nobody expected the first scenes to take place on the island itself, but then it was just like "holy shit, this is on the island!".
While The Constant was more emotional, and Through the Looking Glass being good in many aspects, Man of Science, Man of Faith just had me on suspense throughout the whole episode. It's very much possible that the other experiences I had surrounding the episode affected it, I couldn't watch Lost for a few days so it kinda built up expectations and "I have to watch more", and when I finally did it was even better than expected.
From what I've seen, this episode is generally regarded top20-material, but rarely this high.
So, thanks for following the list. It's been really cool doing it. If someone else wants to make one now or later on, I'll totally be following since Lost is so great. But for now I think that's it. So thanks to everyone.