LOST, Three Seasons in Three Posts (Part II)

If you read my recap of the first season of LOST probably you've been waiting for the second installment. While season four is on its way, let's spend some time on the second season of the LOSTies.

Just a quick reminder: In the interest of space and time I will keep most of the details out. I will post a Who's Who guide soon for those of you interested on the main characters of the show.

SEASON TWO:More survivors, more strange events and the hatch

Season one left us and the survivors in the dark. Locke finally got the hatch open. At the same time some of the survivors tried to escape the island in a raft. Both events will lead to the main storylines of this new season.

With the hatch finally open, the main question was... who's first in? Locke ventures in followed by Kate. They get to meet Desmond, the keeper of an experiment that forced him to enter some numbers in a terminal to prevent 'the end of the world' (you probably heard about the famous numbers). Jack and Locke get watch a tutorial about the DHARMA initiative.

The DHARMA initiative seems to be the project that brought to the island the first set of inhabitants. The goal of the project was to conduct a different set of experiments related to human and animal behavior. The hatch leads to one of the stations destined for experiments, the actual name of the station is "the Swan". Jack and Locke set up shifts to insert the famous numbers into a computer every 108 minutes. Locke spends most of the season trying to figure out more information about the DHARMA initiative, which leads him to other stations and developments as we will see by season's end

Back to the people on the raft, we had Michael, Walt, Yin and Sawyer trying to find a way out of the island on the finale of season one. Sailing away they spotted a light and fired the only flare they had. Unfortunately that boat was not there to rescue them. Walt is taken prisoner, and the other people on the raft barely make it back to shore. With the taste of the kidnapping still fresh, they realize that they are not alone in the shore (namely, Yin starts to scream "Others").

These others end up being the survivors of the back of the plane, a smaller number of people lead by Ana Lucia (a former LA police officer) and Mr Eko (a Nigerian drug dealer turned priest). These survivors also had their encounter with the "others" that kidnapped all the kids from the group. We get to know some of their stories during the season.

An interesting incident starts a series of events that will lead to the season's cliffhanger finale. Russeau, a french woman that we met in season one, finds in one of her traps a man that she believes is one of the Others. This man is taken to the Swan where he claims that his air balloon crashed into the island. While his story is being checked Michael comes back in a shock state, apparently after an escape from the Other's camp. While most of the survivors cope with all the events (Michael, the prisoner and the trip to check his story), Locke and Mr Eko shift 'allegiances' to the numbers' experiment. Locke realizes that this is just a psychological experiment done by the DHARMA initiative, but Mr Eko believes that the experiment has a 'purpose'.

All these events lead to a great finale: The story of the captive does not check-up... is he one of the Others? Michael helps him escape, not only that but he kills two of the survivors from the tail on the attempt. Kate, Jack, Sawyer and Hurley are lead by Michael's to an encounter with the Others where they are taken by surprise and become hostages in an exchange for Walt (except for Hurley that has to come back and rely the message to the other survivors).

If this was not enough to get you hooked, here in another 'pearl': Locke decides to test the numbers' experiment and let the count go to the end without putting the numbers into the computer... the entire Swan station starts to collapse inwards as the magnetic field that is under the station cannot be contained. Desmond decides to release a fail safe key that is located under the station and a short magnetic burst stops the reaction, leaving a huge crater in place of the station.

What will be next on our Losties menu: Did Locke, Desmond and Eko survive the collapse of the Swan? Will Jack, Kate and Sawyer escape from the Others? Will the Losties be ever found by the outside world? Stay tuned for the recap of season three.

Class dismissed!