Seeing this episode again last night reminded me of what I loved about Season One. It had all the elements that made season one so great:

1. It incorporated all of the main characters at least to some extent (except Claire, but she was missing from a lot of last season)
2. It had the great tension of the conflict between Jin and Michael, balanced by the light quality of Kate and Jack.
3. It had the suspense of the flashback elements--Jin with mysterious bloody hands, Sun planning to escape from Jin.
4. It had the awesome reveal of Sun speaking English (and the clever clue in the first scene when you see her POV of Kate and Jack and you can understand what they are saying, meaning she understands as well).
5. It had great snarky lines from Charlie which I miss.
6. It had an awesome musical montage at the end showing those who chose the beach versus those who chose the caves.

Just classic. Now, compare that to any episode in Season 2 of your choice. Does any one episode contain all of these elements anymore? So many Season One eps I would classify as perfection (Walkabout, HORS, Confidence Man, Numbers). While I like Season 2, I'm just not sure it still has these things that made Season 1 so great. What do you think? What do you consider to be Season 2's strengths?

pacejunkie, dang man you post a lot. I see you all over this board! But I do have to disagree with you. What Kate Did was awesome, as was the recent ML. What about The Other 48 days, that answered tons of questions we had. Also the Long Con was a mad slap in the face, right?
I will agree that the style is different from last year, but I would attribute that more to the writers and producers feeling more comfortable. Last year they had to hook their audience, and then keep adding more viewers. Now (and I like this) they are able to do the sloooow burn, feeding us tons of information but not spoon feeding it like last year.
However, that is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

What do you think? What do you consider to be Season 2's strengths?
i think season 1 was much better than anything i've seen in season 2.. if i had to come up with a strength of season 2, it would be eko.. although a.l. kind of counteracts the good that eko brings to the show..

pacejunkie, dang man you post a lot. I see you all over this board! But I do have to disagree with you. What Kate Did was awesome, as was the recent ML. What about The Other 48 days, that answered tons of questions we had. Also the Long Con was a mad slap in the face, right?
I will agree that the style is different from last year, but I would attribute that more to the writers and producers feeling more comfortable. Last year they had to hook their audience, and then keep adding more viewers. Now (and I like this) they are able to do the sloooow burn, feeding us tons of information but not spoon feeding it like last year.
However, that is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

I think you hit the nail on the head at least for me -- they had to hook their audience. And they did. Not so sure that the if the episodes this year were used for the first year that the ratings would be all that great. If we hadn't been hooked from last year would we be watching.

Don't get me wrong -- I think that the character developement and the acting are great but they've got so much going on that they can only focus on one part at a time. And that means that favorite characters are left out and storylines are absent.

I mean look at the dissappearace of Michael -- no one has even mentioned it -- no continuity. Compare it to when Claire dissappeared. They had Charlie grieving over her in one episode and looking through her diary in another just to keep that storyline alive while they focused on other characters.

Amost every episode in the first season got my attention but the only one this season that really had that wow factor for me was the Long Con -- and that was because of the twist in the end.

Pacejunkie I think I felt the same way you did a couple of weeks ago when I saw the Pilot -- that season one just seemed so much more than what we've seen in season two. You've made some great points about what made season one so great.

hey pace...i agree it is totally different...this year the task of answering questions, closing arcs, opening the tailies can of worms...my fav four last year were...
Deus Ex Machina
...In Translation
Special
The Moth
this years four...
MOSMOF
Abandoned
...One of Them
Long Con
last year had the comfort to be extreme, funny, scary, and mysterious....
i miss the fun between jack and hurley, i miss the exchange between michael, jin, and sawyer, loved the interaction of jin and hurley, the friendship of claire and charlie, shannon and boone's going at each other...so snarky

this year more stress to cover the huge plate lost has become...trying to keep it moving while trying to bring in new viewers...i still am finding each epi to be a wild ride, that i don't want to get off of...the things i've enjoyed this year are the discovery of desmond and his humble abode, i love the conversations between charlie and eko, the addition of another baddie to the group with ana, and the reuniting of bernard and rose
thanks pj good thread got me to thinking of the huge difference, between season 1 and 2...
skybluelost:-))