Season 2, here we go...

Within a matter of two days I managed to watch episodes 1-8 of Season 2. Matter of fact, the only reason I didn’t tear through all of S2 by Sunday night is because I don’t own the DVD set and I *still* can’t get the full episode player at abc.com to work (a Google search let me know that I was not the only one with this frustrating issue). Really great stuff so far, even though the first ten minutes of ep. 1 again had me asking, “What the hell is going on here??”

In the opening of S2E1 (season 2 episode 1), when the then “mystery man” is going through his routine, I had assumed it was a Locke flashback, since the place had 70’s feel to it, maybe going back before everything happened with his dad. Once the “boom” happened though, I figured it out- holy crap that’s the inside of the hatch! Mystery guy grabs his gun and it’s on. Over the course of a couple of episodes they go back and forth with the showdown between Jack and “mystery guy”, who turns out to be Desmond of “See you in another life, brotha!” fame. He eventually gets the hell out of there and leaves Jack & co. to the hatch..which is actually a pretty sweet set up! Music, food, a blender, artificial daylight, a shower, a closet chock-full of guns, and no taxes. Somewhere out there a Libertarian is creaming his pants.

Michael and Sawyer wash up on shore and Jin comes running out of the jungle tied up, mentions “the others” only have this big ass Kimbo Slice looking mug hand out some serious ass beat-downs to our boys and throw them in a pit. A little while later a woman is tossed in with them who winds up being…Ana Lucia! She then drops Sawyer like a bag of potatoes. Twice. Which isn’t surprising considering Michelle Rodriguez’s other roles- she specializes in women kicking ass (SWAT, Fast & Furious, Girlfight). I thought that left hook looked familiar. Ana-Lou then takes his gun. Damn Sawyer, punked all around. It turns out that these people are not in fact “The Others” at all but the survivors from the tail section of the plane who crashed on the other side of the island, and that the big dude is Mr. Eko. I can’t wait to see his back story- still waters indeed run deep.

We learn that Ana has some serious, SERIOUS issues. A little trigger-happy, perhaps? Control freak? Her shrink should have been fired. It will be interesting to learn how she’s dealt with after everyone learns that she shot Shannon, even if it was by accident. Will also be interesting to see what the good doctor has in store for her.

My two favorite episodes by far have to be “…And Found” and “Collision”. Why? Because they’re Jin and Sun’s episodes. Their story is great, they could do a whole show just on them and how they got together and the complications surrounding their relationship. The writers have done well, you really don’t like Jin at first but the more you learn about him and how he got to where he is, and where he started from, and how devoted he is to Sun the more you like him. Same with Sun. It was great to see them back together. Oh, and Bernard and Rose. Wow.

I have to say I’m glad everyone is back together again..I didn’t like the parallel tribe thing. So now there is the mystery of this Dharma Initiative and The Others..who apparently have infiltrated both camps. The outside world obviously knows about the island, so…what now?

And where the hell does Desmond think he’s running off to?