Our rankings for the first 15 episodes of this season.
#15 “The Little Prince”
It’s no surprise that a Kate-centric episode was my least favorite of the season, as her episodes always distract from the drama on the Island to focus on her personal issues. With the Island jumping through time and Mrs. Hawking working with Ben to get the Oceanic 6 back, I’d prefer if the show didn’t waste time on Kate’s pointless obsession with protecting a kid who isn’t even hers.
#14 “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”
I’ll admit that seeing Ben kill Locke was amazing, but most of this episode just had Locke traveling around, hanging out with his old friends and having conversations that ultimately led nowhere. And while there are many unanswered questions about this show, here’s another: why was Walt even in this episode?
#13 “He’s Our You”
Perhaps it’s an issue of personal taste, but I’m generally bored by Sayid-centric episodes. Here we saw him get captured by someone posing as a bounty hunter to get back to the Island while he was tortured on the Island. Things got weird when Sayid shot young Ben, but since he somehow didn’t kill him, that cliffhanger was pointless.
#12 “The Lie”
Hurley’s wacky misadventures are always comical, and the second half of the two-hour premiere was only moderately entertaining, though it got exciting when it re-introduced Mrs. Hawking.
#11 “This Place is Death”
The Jin-Rousseau storyline was entertaining, but like most of the show, it didn’t seem to go anywhere. And it was sad to see Charlotte die, but she went with style.
#10 “Whatever Happened, Happened”
This Kate-centric episode was mildly dull because amidst all of the time travel and Island intrigue, there’s no room for Kate to talk to Cassidy about keeping her fake baby safe. And on the Island, this episode provided a way-too-convenient scenario where the Others could cure young Ben’s bullet wound and make him completely forget about everything that happened, allowing the show to shamelessly avoid gigantic continuity errors.
#9 “Follow the Leader”
There’s nothing really wrong with this episode, but it’s almost all set-up. The penultimate episode of the season was simply used to put all of the characters where they needed to be for the finale, and though Richard Alpert was featured prominently, we learned nothing new about him.
#8 “Some Like it Hoth”
We finally got confirmation that Miles was Dr. Chang’s baby from the opening scene, and we also got a nice ending with the return of Faraday. However, your enjoyment of this episode greatly depends on how much of Hurley’s shenanigans you can put up with.
#7 “Jughead”
Desmond-centric episodes are always great, but what made this one particularly fantastic was the events in 1954 on the Island when Faraday met his young mother, a hydrogen bomb, and a young Charles Widmore. Now it seems like no big deal, but when the show revealed that Widmore used to be an Other, it was one of those huge revelations.
#6 “Because You Left”
If you enjoy time travel, the season premiere was brilliant, from the mind-blowing opening scene that found Daniel Faraday working at the DHARMA Initiative in 1977 to the introduction of the Island’s time jumps which provided a fascinating sci-fi twist to the show.
#5 “Namaste”
Things got a little shaky when Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid all returned to the Island in 1977, and here we got to see the initiation process as two different sides of Oceanic 815 tried to work together.
#4 “Dead is Dead”
Two words: Michael Emerson. In my mind there is no doubt that Emerson is the absolute best actor on the show, and this episode that focused on Ben confronting the Black Smoke Monster certainly proved he’s up to any acting challenge.
#3 “316”
Certain moments on Losy stick with you, and for me, seeing Jack wake up in the middle of the jungle on the Island after returning was one of those moments that was truly shocking.
#2 “LaFleur”
Who is Jim LaFleur, head of security for the DHARMA Initiative in 1977? It’s none other than Sawyer, and this episode brilliant introduced a new group of characters who became very important this season.
#1 “The Variable”
As a huge fan of time travel, I could watch an entire episode of just Daniel Faraday theorizing about relativistic physics. Sadly, in this 100th episode of the series, Faraday was killed by his own mother who sent him back to the Island knowing it would happen.
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
