Marathon #1: LOST

I have spent the past 8 days of my life in the world of LOST, leaving me more excited than ever about the Season 4 premiere on January 31st. I am, however, experiencing some serious withdrawal right now, probably because I've gotten about 10 hours of sleep total and watched almost 50 episodes over the past 3 days. Walking outside today through my rainy, cold campus, all I wanted to do was get back to that island.

I decided when I started my marathon that I was going to keep track of a few important things: my favorite episodes, big unanswered questions, and, most importantly, the best Sawyer quotes.

(For this list, I limited myself to only 1 season premiere and 1 season finale since those episodes are often so pivotal that it seemed like cheating to put them all on there.)
TOP 10 EPISODES:
10) "Deus Ex Machina" Season 1, Episode 19- Locke's flashbacks reveal that his father conned him into giving him a kidney transplant, Boone becomes "the sacrifice that the island demanded," and Jack helps Sawyer with his headaches.
9) "Outlaws" Season 1, Episode 16- Sawyer seeks revenge against a boar, and he and Kate play 'I Never' by the fire.
8) "The 23rd Psalm" Season 2, Episode 10- Mr. Eko carves Scripture into his "Jesus stick" and Charlie takes him out to the Nigerian drug plane from his past.
7) "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead" Season 3, Episode 10- Hurley finds a Volkswagen van and rides around with Jin, Charlie, and Sawyer.
6) "The Other 48 Days" Season 2, Episode 7- Flashbacks show what happened to the Tailies after they crashed on the other side of the island. Introduces a whole new dimension to the Others (Goodwin killed Nathan because "He wasn't a good person. That's why he wasn't on the list").
5) "What Kate Did" Season 2, Episode 9- Kate takes care of Sawyer and thinks he is inhabited by the man she killed, who turns out to be her real father.
4) "Flashes Before Your Eyes" Season 3, Episode 8- After turning the fail safe key in the hatch, Desmond relives part of his past and learns that he can't change history.
3) "Pilot" Season 1, Episode 1- Jack saves many survivors from the plane wreckage and becomes the reluctant leader.
2) "Through the Looking Glass" Season 3, Episode 23- Charlie dies a hero, and Jack's flashbacks turn out to be flashforwards in which he and Kate (and who else?) have left the island.
1) "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" Season 1, Episode 11- Jack and Kate go after Claire and Charlie. Boone and Locke find the hatch. (This episode is my favorite because I remember realizing as I watched it on television that LOST would be the greatest show of my entire life.)
-Other amazing episodes that deserve mentioning: "Greatest Hits," "One of Us," "The Man from Tallahassee," "Lockdown," "Confidence Man," and "The Moth"

Major questions that have not been resolved yet...
Who is Jacob and why could Locke hear him? What is the smoke monster and why did it kill Mr. Eko the second time he faced it? Sub-question: Are the whispers part of the smoke monster? Why did Jack see his father/Eko see his brother/Ben see his mother? How does the island affect health (i.e. cancer, age, pregnancy)? How is Walt special? Why was Libby in the mental hospital? Why was Desmond in prison? Who tried to make it look like nobody had survived the plane crash? What does Locke's dream in "Further Instructions" mean? Why do the Others make lists and take people? What is the 4-toed statue? Who was in the coffin?

TOP 10 SAWYER LINES:
10) "Look, I don't know what kind of commie share-fest you're running over in cave town, but down here possession's nine-tenths and a man's got a right to protect his property."
9) "Oh I don't know, Mr. Clean, I probably would have gone around Mt. Vesuvius. (Locke: Why'd you pick that name?) Ain't it obvious? All you need is an earring and a mop."
8) "Come on, Freckles, wait! You need me to make you a mix tape?"
7) "Oh yeah, there's my favorite leaf. How could I forget this place?"
6) "What, don't you read? It's from Of Mice and Men. You'd like it. Puppies get killed."
5) "Well gosh, you sure know how to butter a man up, Stay-Puff!"
4) "Do I get a lollipop?"
3) "One second, I'm like this close to the high score on Donkey Kong."
2) "Great plan, Moonbeam. After that we can sing 'Kumbaya' and do trust falls."
1) "You got a band-aid?"

I love Sawyer. My favorite scene is when he is saying goodbye to Jack in "Exodus," the Season 1 finale, and he tells him what his father said in the bar in Sydney about wanting to call his son and tell him that he was sorry and that he was proud of him.

I wish that I still loved Jack. He used to be such a hero- when he saved Charlie's life, when he tried to save Boone's life- but now he's just a tool. Although I will say this for him, when Juliet asks him what he wants to know about his ex-wife, and instead of asking who she left him for, he asks if she's happy, I thought that was very noble. It didn't last very long...