I gotta say it: This episode was lacking everything that made the first season of Lost so compelling.

Here's my theory.... ABC and TPTB were working on a two hour season premiere of Lost and at the last minute they decided to cut the two episodes into two. Because except for the stuff on the raft and Michael's Flashbacks episode 2 featured what felt like episode 1's deleted scenes. At least that's what I thought. A complete filler episode.

*moved to proper episode forum.