Part I - "Pilot Episode"

Air Date: September 22, 2004

"Well, fear's sort of an odd thing. When I was in residency my first solo procedure was a spinal surgery on a 16 year old kid, a girl. And at the end, after 13 hours, I was closing her up and I, I accidentally ripped her dural sac, shredded the base of the spine where all the nerves come together, membrane as thin as tissue. And so it ripped open and the nerves just spilled out of her like angel hair pasta, spinal fluid flowing out of her and I: and the terror was just so crazy. So real. And I knew I had to deal with it. [tear comes down his face]. So I just made a choice. I'd let the fear in, let it take over, let it do its thing, but only for 5 seconds, that's all I was going to give it. So I started to count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Then it was gone. I went back to work, sewed her up and she was fine."

Jack - talking with Kate about fear

RECAP:
A man wakes up in the jungle and is very disoriented. A golden retriever walks by him, which seems strangely out of place. He stands and reveals he's wounded and has a little bottle of alcohol, the kind you would get on a plane. He starts running through the jungle and sees a pair of shoes hanging in a tree. He quickly comes to an opening, and see a beautiful beach. He can hear a woman screaming and some mechanical noises, so he takes off in that direction and sees the wreckage of a plane crash.

He gets some of the survivors including a bald man in a blue and white shirt to help him free a man from under one of the landing gears. Next, he sees a pregnant woman screaming. She tells him that she's having contractions and is 8 months pregnant. He tells us her, "You're going to be okay." He gets a overweight man with curly hair to help the pregnant woman. Another man is suddenly sucked though a jet engine and then it explodes. He leaves the pregnant woman's side, and the overweight man says, "hey, what's your name?" The hero of the hour replies"Jack."

A lifeguard is trying to help an African-American woman, but is performing CPR wrongly. Jack has to help the lady and when the young man suggests, "Maybe we should do one of those hole things. You know, stick the pen in the throat? " Jack sends him an a errand to find a pen, to get rid of him. Jack saves her life and then sees that a wing is about the fall on the overweight man and the pregnant woman, he rushes over and saves them as well.

Soon after Jack finds some things in the wreckage and wanders off alone, we takes off his jacket and shirt and we see tattoos and a gapping wound on his back. He asks a beautiful woman that walks up on him to sow him up. He reveals that he is a doctor. The first twelve minutes of LOST are some of the most exciting television moments ever filmed in my opinion.

Charlie and Sayid are the next people that we learn names. Sayid is trying to build a signal fire and asks Charlie to help him make it big. The would-be life guard spends a lot of time with a blond woman, he calls her Shannon. She won't even think about anything but the rescue boat. The African American man apparently found Walt, but he doesn't respond to him when he talks to him. The Asian couple have decided to stay sepereated from everyone.

The beautiful woman that sowed up Jack is concerned about the man that was sitting next to her on the plane crash. Jack thinks that they were at about 40,000 feet when they hit an air pocket and they dropped about 200 feet. He blacked out, but the beautiful woman didn't black out. She knew the back of the plane broke off, and she saw the front of the plane broke off. Jack took a couple of flying lessons and has some ideas he thinks that going to the cockpit might help them get rescued. We learn the woman's name, Kate. Then strange noises in the jungle occur. It sounds like something large and metallic is moving through the jungle, it looks and sounds very strangle with trees being tossed around. Charlie sarcastically says, "terrific."

We see a the plane flying the air and see Jack looking out of the window. He's flirting with the stewardess, and she gives him some alcohol. The African American lady that he resuscitates was sitting a couple of seats over. Charlie comes rushing by with another stewardess following him saying "sir, excuse me." Turbulence hits the plane. Jack says, "It's normal." We find out that the lady is married and her husband went to the bathroom. "Don't worry it's going to be over...." And then plane starts nose diving and the oxygen masks drop.

The next time we see is Jack back on the island, standing on the beach. The other survivors are discussing the weird sights and sounds from the previous night. The African American lady says that she's from the Bronx and that there was something really familiar about the sounds. Someone suggests monkeys.

Kate showed Jack were the smoke was coming from and she is insistent that she is going with him to find the cockpit. She goes and finds some hiking boots off a dead body.

the African Man says "whatever it was it wasn't natural." The overweight man suggests that they do something about the dead bodies in the fuselage. Jack tells the group that he's going to look for the cockpit. Charlie says that he wants to help, so he follows along.

Kate thinks that Charlie looks familiar. He tells her that he thinks he knows what it is, he says that he's in a band called Driveshaft, and starts singing a song "You All Everybody." Kate is familiar with the song and says that her friend Beth loves Driveshaft. Kate keeps referring to the band in the past tense, but Charlie keeps correcting her, saying at the that "They are good; they're in the middle of a comeback." Jack leads them on into the jungle, it appears someone is watching them. The golden retriever is revealed in the brush. Then as the Charlie puts it "end of the world weather" starts with "day turning into night."

Charlie, Jack and Kate find the cockpit, and one of the pilots is still alive. At this point it had been 16 hours since the crash. He tells them that 6 hours into the flight the radio went out and that at the time of the crash they were over 1,000 miles of course, so any search party would be looking in the wrong place. Charlie disappears and it appears that something bad might have happened, and then he burst out of the bathroom. The strange noises and movement from the night before ban heard right outside of the front section of the plane, and as they are looking for what it was, the pilot put down the transceiver and then gets violently ripped out of the plane as strange loud noises are made in the jungle. Then something pushes the front section of the plane down.

Our three adventurers tare off through the jungle with something or someone chasing them. It seems whatever it is, is closing in on them when Charlie gets entangled in some roots. Kate is sacred to death and can barely scream, "Jack." She takes Jack's advice about fear and counts to 5, and then suddenly Charlie pops up behind her and scares her again. None of them saw the "thing" even though it was right there. The rain stops, and Kate says that we have to go back for Jack. Charlie says that there a certain gargantuan quality about this thing, and Kate replies, "Then don't come."

While looking for Jack, they stumble across the pilots wings in the mud, and the pilot in the treetops, whatever snatched him out was obviously not a normal predator. Jack says that he didn't see whatever it is, and that he dove into the bushes. Charlie asks an important question,"How does something like that happen?"

Flashes Before Our Eyes:
The Plane Crash.

What in the World Moment!:
What made those noises and moved those trees?
What violently snatched him out of the plane, killed him and threw him into the tree tops?

New Information, New Questions, New Answers:
Jack is doctor who has perform spinal surgery. He has many tattoos, and likes a strong drink.
Charlie is in the bass player for the rock band, Driveshaft.
Driveshaft has a popular song called, "You All Everybody"
The Plane's radio went out went out 6 hours into the flight and no one knew where they were.
When they crashed, they were 1,000 miles off course (toward Fiji).

Why was Jack in the jungle, instead of on the beach?
Why did the radio go out?
What caused the plane crash?
When did Jack take flying lessons?
Who is Kate's friend Beth?
What is in the jungle that killed the pilot?
Will a search party find them?

DISCUSSION:
Jack is leading the way in the first piece of the LOST mosaic. From the first image of his eye to him saving at least 5 lives on the beach (trapped man, African American lady, pregnant lady, baby, overweight man), to leading the way to the front of the plane and finally saving Charlie from whatever that thing is in the jungle. And along the way, Jack encourages with his actions and his words. The conversation with Kate about fear is one of my favorite moments in this episode. Jack shares about a terrifying moment in his life, when he rips the a girl dural sac. Not too many hours later, his words give Kate the strength to face another terrifying time with something chasing them in the jungle.

Fear can easily be contagious. We see many examples of both in the Bible. When Moses sends 12 spies into the Promised Land to survey it, 10 of those spies return with a fearful and faithless report about giants in the land, and their report quickly spread throughout the camp and all of the Israelites hearts melt with fear.

We are commanded to encourage one another in Hebrews 3:13, "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Webster's defines encourage "to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope." We all need some inspiration, some courage and some hope. Jack is able to give Kate those things in sharing a little of his own dealing with fear in his past.