I thought it would be interesting to see what everyone's favorite episodes were from season one. It'll work just like the Love Lists from other shows, only we're ranking the episodes.

If you don't mind sharing the explanation(s) for your rankings, too, that'd be great! It would be helpful to know WHY you've ranked them a certain way

Got blog?

• RE: Season One Episode Love List,J Slice, 03:41 PM, 10-09-05
• PM's love list,PhoenixMons, 07:37 PM, 10-09-05
• RE: Season One Episode Love List,Steph_Fan, 08:07 PM, 10-09-05
• RE: Season One Episode Love List,LozengeofLove, 00:15 AM, 10-10-05
• RE: Season One Episode Love List,Q, 09:52 AM, 10-10-05
• RE: Season One Episode Love List,Das Mole, 11:12 AM, 10-10-05
• My List,Rhyn, 11:29 AM, 10-10-05

LAST EDITED ON 10-09-05 AT 03:42 PM (EST)

I'll just give you my top 4, in order:

1. Numbers - This is the first epsiode that actually made me cry; when poor Hurley and Danielle realize they're cursed, and he said "thank you," I nearly died. Hurley's a pretty mysterious guy, and the numbers had me totally captivated.

2. ...In Translation - Damn, I wish Daniel Dae Kim was on tv more often. He's delicious. Plus, the whole Sun-Jin plot has a really gorgeous backstory to it.

3. Deus ex Machina - I just like Locke a whole lot. I wish I knew more about him (the Orientation episode, with Katey Sagal, was fantastic, imho. They're good together)

4. House of the Rising Sun - The beginning of the Sun-Jin story. Very sweet and sad episode.

Just don't tell me what I can't do.

LAST EDITED ON 10-09-05 AT 07:38 PM (EST)

1. House of the Rising Sun - This was without a doubt my favorite episode of the first season. It was still early on and we were just getting to know everyone, but after this episode, I knew Sun was my favorite character. The writing was excellent and the musical direction was absolutely brilliant in this episode.

2. Solitary - Gotta love the Sayid-Nadia angle. I thought the whole episode was well-written and we learned quite a bit more about the island as well.

3. ...In Translation - More of Sun and Jin. Great directing in this episode, too.

4. Numbers - Hurley finally gets his time to shine. Great story and great insight into the numbers/island.

5. Walkabout - Finding out about Locke being in the wheelchair prior to the crash was pretty cool emotional (yep, I'm a sap). This episode was also the first time we really got a sense of the island as a character in and of itself.

6. Confidence Man - We first learn what makes Sawyer tick...being the sap that I am, I loved getting to see the softer (real) side of Sawyer (and crying over the letter).

7. Deus Ex Machina - More about Locke and the hatch stuff.

The others are all great, with the exception of Kate's first two episodes, White Rabbit, and The Moth. I think Whatever the Case May Be was definitely the worst of the season...it was far less interesting than the others with boring backstory details and borning island stuff and it was about Kate (she's just such a dull character, IMO). The Moth is a close second for worst episode of the season.

Got blog?

Fun thread idea! I just put 8 here, because doing the whole season was a bit too much at once.

1. Walkabout - The revelation of Locke's paralysis is still one of the biggest moments of the show so far.

2. Whatever the Case May Be - I'm a sucker for Kate and Sawyer, and loved their swimming scenes. And Kate's backstory gets more and more intriguing, like Locke's, while others' seem to get less and less mysterious.

3. Born to Run - More excellent Kate backstory, and tense times between her and Sawyer.

4. The Greater Good - I cried over Sayid's dilemma, knowing how he was being pushed into a corner.

5. Numbers - The numbers are a centerpiece of the show, and Hurley is great! He's more than just a sidekick, and I'm looking forward to his upcoming development in the show.

6. In Translation - Sun's secret was powerful throughout the first season, and her complex feelings toward her husband are amazing to watch.

7. Do No Harm - Jack isn't my favorite, but he was intense in this episode. Excellent positioning of Aaron's birth with Boone's death.

8. Outlaws - Sawyer and the boar cracked me up.

Courtesy of Phoenix Mons

1. Hearts and Minds is my absolute favorite for some reason. I don't really even like Boone that much. I just think the writers did an amazing job with all of the character interaction (esp. "secondary" in terms of not Boone or Locke, i.e. all the sidestories)
2. Born to Run is the episode that made me a Kate lover. sigh.
3. Exodus (both parts) - LOVE all the airport flashbacks.
4. House of the Rising Sun - LOVE the Sun/Jin storyline...that's why I also love...
5. ...In Translation
6. Numbers - who DOESN'T love Hurley
7. Special - The Michael storyline isn't that great. It's Walt that makes this episode.

OK, my favorite episode:

1) Was the one were Kate is robbing the bank, in order to get the safe deposit box open. I loved the trick she played on the guy she shot.

2) My next favorite is the one were Sayid meets up with Danielle and we get her story and info on the others and her crash.

The others are all good, but those two were best for me, from a story perspective.

It is astonishing how foolish humans can be in groups, especially when they follow their leaders without question - States: The Bene Gesserit View. All States Are an Abstraction.

1. House of the Rising Sun - Thought it was a great episode, I thought Yunjin Kim was great in it. It was amazing. Not to mention that I was able to come up w/a great line with the Korean that I could remember: "What time is it? (11:15)?" "Yes (deh)."

2. Born to Run - Great episode, made me like Kate even more.

3. Whatever the Case May Be - Again...Kate.

4. Numbers - It was funny in some parts, a great episode altogether. Interesting to see the story of the "cursed" numbers.

5. In Translation - "Didn't see that one coming." Neither did I, and we even know that she speaks English!

I can't possibly rank all of the episodes, but here are my unequivocal top five, in order:

1. Numbers

• Hurley's backstory was amusing, tragic, and an absolute departure from the island. I loved it, the mystery of it, and the order (Winning, then hinting at a curse, and ending in Australia with the revelation that the numbers probably came from the island they crashed on.).
  
• I love that Charlie and Hurley seemed to grow closer in this episode. Instead of being a group of individuals, they are becoming friends, and I love that.
  
• I loved that Hurley grew a pair and basically told the "leaders" (I would include Jack, Locke, Kate, and Sayid in that group) that they should wait while he goes around.
  
• I totally felt his desperation to find out the meaning of the numbers, via Rosseau, and his absolute relief that he wasn't crazy when she corroborated his feelings about the numbers. The hug was very powerful.
  
• I love the Charlie and Hurley exchange at the end of the episode, where Charlie confides in Hurley about his drug use, but doesn't believe Hurley about his net worth.
  
• But the absolute best sub-plot was the Locke-Claire story where she is "helping" him build something, which turns out to be a cradle for her baby-to-be.

2. Confidence Man

• You cannot top the imaginary peanut butter for touching moments on this show. There are many (like the picnic that Sayid creats for Shannon, the Rosseau hug, the baby cradle) but this one was so incredibly selfless and simple and sweet.
  
• The backstory was another favorite "Flashback" for me. I love when the story reveals a little, then grows more complex, then even more so, and so on. It was nicely written, and thoroughly enjoyable.
  
• I love that Sun was able to offer Shannon some relief from her asthma with herbal rememdies. It really pointed to the survivors ability to adapt, and it made them seem all the more competent. They are making the change from "waiting" to "surviving" and I really dig on that.
  
• Kate and Sawyer's kiss was a good one.
  
• That Sayid felt such guilt and needed to leave the camp (with all the people) to come to terms with what he did to Sawyer while torturing him was an interesting story, too, and it revealed a lot about the Sayid character.

3. House of the Rising Sun

• I really take this episode and the next together, but they have to stay in order. I love them so very much for their parallels, and in particular the scene in this episode where Jin comes home with bloody hands that is repeated in ...In Translation but from Jin's point of view.
  
• The backtory is beautiful and sad, and it's my favorite "flashback" of the whole show so far. I especially like how we have seen Sun and Jin as weak versus strong in the first couple episodes on the isalnd, but in the flashback, Sun is the wealthy, powerful one and Jin is the hopeless romantic scraping a living by working as a waiter.
  
• The orchid at the beginning and end was so romantic and heartfelt (without being cheeseball corny).
  
• Jin beating up Michael, the handcuffs, the tenderness Sun shows Jin while he is locked up, and the revelation that it's all about the watch are so telling and so very much complimentary to the flashbacks (which isn't usually the case. For instance, Jack's flashbacks seem awfully out of place and forced for what he is going through on the island).
  
• The bees chasing everyone was funny, but I don't like that Kate had to get all naked. That felt contrived.
  
• Charlie's desperation to sneak a hit, and his willingness to give up his habit -- on his own terms -- in exchange for another of his passions, the guitar, was nicely done, too.
  
• And, of course, finding the caves really added to the "waiting" versus "surviving" theme that I like. Adam and Eve and the black and white stones added to the mystery, too, which is always fun.
  
• I especially liked that different characters had very different motivations for going to the caves or staying on the beach.

4. ...In Translation

• Oh, the backstory. So sad, and so beautifully produced. I love seeing the blood scene from Jin's perspective, and seeing his desire to flee with Sun to America after taking care of this one last job. Such a stark difference to what Sun thought was happening in Jin's mind.
  
• Seeing Jin's actions on the island also startled me. The fact that he covered her when she was in a bikini, and that he "turned on" her after her secret comes out (suspecting Michael of impropriety, too) is so intriguing.
  
• Of course, the shock of Sun's hollaring before everyone that they "STOP IT" when Jin is suspected of burning the raft.
  
• The raft being burnt by Walt, of all people, was interesting, too. That Locke knew it just lends itself to making Locke more omnipotent and elevated, which is such a good move for his character.
  
• Jin says "boat" at the end and comes to help in the rebuilding effort. The start of his and Michael's rocky relationship, which is so much fun in later episodes.

5. The Greater Good

• Sayid has such an interesting character: a romantic, idealistic Iraqi soldier. So very interesting, and while I loved the first backstory he got, I did find it hard to imagine him as an Iraqi in Iraq -- his look is really off, he's so not Iraqi, and putting him into a uniform with other Iraqi characters surrounding him made that glaringly obvious -- but it was easier to believe that when he was displaced in Australia.
  
• The guy who played his old roommate was so passionate. I thought him a very good actor, as he totally sold me on his performance. I was very wrapped up in the backstory, and was horribly saddened by the ending.
  
• Nadia being used as a bargaining chip was a nice touch, too. Sayid is such a romantic character that a motivation based on his feeling for a woman is so totally believable and undestandable.
  
• Shannon asking Sayid to kill John Locke is so indicative of her irrationality, or her absolute mischaracterization of her boyfriend. She must have known he wouldn't kill Locke. It's so far outside what his character would do, it makes the fact that she even asked him a glaring admission of her lack of understanding who Sayid really is.
  
• The whole Sawyer's voice calms the baby was a sweet, funny little subplot. I liked it a lot, especially that so many other things were tried. It's so cliché to have someone burst into song or something else equally as ridiculous as Hurley singing James Brown (badly) and voila, the baby is soothed. I loved that they tried it, but it didn't work.
  
• This episode also has the first time Locke shows the Hatch to someone else. Sayid asks Locke to take him, and he does.