LOST Exhaustive Ep. Guide: 1.1 "Pilot (Part 1)"

Episode Resources

Transcript: Pilot 1+2 (Presented by the LOST-TV Forum)
Wiki: Lostpedia

Basic Guide for Markings

* = Will be appended after future research
Background information will appear green.
Theoretical questions and information will appear orange.
Trivia will appear blue.

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The pilot episode of any show, if you didn't already know this, is what the network airs in order to test a show's viability. I am not sure if the LOST pilot was ever considered a test on-air, but apparently it was never re-packaged with a proper title. My assumption is that it was used in some fashion as a true pilot, either on-air or in focus groups.*

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Opens with a man's right eye, closed, which then opens suddenly. The eye is kind of a hazel with brown splash. It belongs to Jack, but we will not discover his identity until later.
(First eye, Jack's, right.)

What is the significance of eyes on LOST? As we know, the close-up-on-eye scene opener is a motif of the show. Most of the main characters and even some of the minor characters have been featured in such a way.

From this man's point of view, we find that he is flat on his back looking up from the ground in a bamboo thicket. The man is dressed in a coat and tie, and he has fresh scratches on his unshaven face.

(Note that in S5, when Jack returns to the island after having left, he also wakes in a bamboo thicket wearing a suit and tie, and the scene also begins with his closed right eye opening.) This, combined with the fact that Jack claims to have blacked out during the crash, has caused some to speculate that Jack did not crash either time, but that he flashed into the jungle in both cases.

He hears a noise nearby and looks around to see a yellow Labrador sniffing around, coming towards him. The dog whimpers once and begins to run, crossing directly over the man's forehead. We will learn later that this dog belongs to Walt Lloyd, the son of Michael Dawson. They actually stole the dog from Walt's adoptive father Brian Porter before they left Sydney on Oceanic 815.
The man struggles to rise and feels pain, then comes to realize he's sustained a major injury on his left side. He recovers slightly, then finds a miniature bottle of vodka in his jacket pocket. He walks, then begins to run out of the thicket. He emerges into some trees, and his pace increases. As he runs, we see a single white sneaker hanging from its lace from a tree.

It has long been a question: What's up with the shoes? Are they important, or just a strange factoid? Jack's father Christian Shephard (who was dead and in a coffin on the plane) will be seen like an apparition on the island, and he will occasionally be seen wearing white sneakers. It will be revealed in season five that Jack hastily put sneakers on his father's body because he couldn't be bothered to find him some dress shoes.
The man emerges from the jungle upon what at first looks like a quiet and deserted beach. But, as he looks around he begins to hear screams and mechanical noises, like engines revving. He turns toward the sound and then moves toward it. Finally we find that he is walking through the site of a plane crash, and panicked people are all around the burning wreckage.

We then begin to encounter people who we do not yet know are major characters.

A young bearded man (Charlie Pace) can be seen wandering by a fallen engine, turbine still spinning (that would ultimately suck up a passing redshirt and explode) indicating that for some reason, he is not sensing any danger there.

An Asian man (Jin Kwon) is seen yelling in Korean.

An African-American man (Michael Dawson) appears next, yelling "Walt!" (which is, amusingly, something that will become a running joke for many as the result of one of S2's main subplots). (First use of the name "Walt", 1.1, 3:29 - so the first character named on the show is, technically, Walt.)

A young blonde woman (Shannon Rutherford) appears next, standing in the middle of the wreck screaming at the top of her lungs.

A bald man (John Locke) is summoned to help the man from the thicket (Jack) get a man out from under a piece of the plane.

A heavily pregnant woman (Claire Littleton) is calling for help on the beach.

The man in the suit gives some instructions about how to handle the trapped passenger and rushes to help the pregnant woman, who is further toward the water. The woman is distressed, claiming to be having contractions. The woman is seen to be wearing a necklace made of an Asian character.* The man asks how many months along she is, and she says eight months. He asks how far apart they are as he surveys the area.

He spots a young man (Boone Carlysle) giving CPR to an unconscious African-American woman (Rose).

The pregnant woman says she doesn't know how far apart the contractions are. They only just began.

In the background we see the bald man and the redshirt have succeeded in freeing the injured man from the wreckage. At that point, one of the passengers heads across the front of the engine's turbine. The bald man is yelling at him to get away, but he can't understand the warning. He is then sucked into the engine, which causes a huge explosion.

More panic ensues, but the man in the suit keeps his head. He shields the pregnant woman from the burning debris and then tells her that she's going to be OK. She just needs to keep still. He's preoccupied with the young man giving CPR, so he summons a rather large man with curly hair (Hugo "Hurley" Reyes) to come and take the pregnant woman away from the fuel fumes and to look after her contractions. He gives the fat man a watch to time them, and then gives the man some instructions, but the man just says "Oh, you gotta be kidding me..." What is the significance of this watch? Is it the same watch given to him by his father on his wedding day?

The large man then yells after the man in the suit as he goes to see about the CPR, "Hey! What's your name?" to which the man in the suit replies "Jack!" (First mention of "Jack" 1.1, Approx 5:47 into the episode).

Jack tells the young man to stop what he is doing, for he is administering CPR improperly, blowing air into her stomach instead of into her lungs. The younger man suggests that they give the woman an emergency tracheotomy with a pen. Jack sends the young man off to collect pens (which is actually just busy work to get him out of the way so that he can have space to work on the unconscious woman). Jack begins to perform CPR properly and the woman revives. A noise is then heard.

Jack turns to realize that a portion of the plane's wing is about to fall on the pregnant woman and her hefty companion. He runs toward them, yelling for them to move. The wing collapses only moments after they get out from under it, and it sets off a huge explosion that detonates numerous other parts of the wreckage. Jack and the two others are blasted to the ground.

A large chunk of debris hurtles out of the air and smashes into the beach behind the bearded young man (Charlie Pace) and he is mildly surprised, but seems to have a less than frightened reaction to this. (The "best guess" is that he's either in shock or a very calm fellow, but we will soon learn that he's a heroin addict and is stoned at the time.)

Jack, the pregnant girl and the large fellow recover from the blast. (Hurley's first-ever utterance of the word "dude" occurs: 1.1, 7:22)

After most of the obvious emergencies are handled, Jack takes a moment to himself in a piece of the fuselage, where he breaks down somewhat from the stress and shock. (First time Jack cries like a baby: 1.1, 8:04)

The young man returns with a fistful of pens. Jack assures him that all of them are good, and thanks him. (Boone wears a ring on his left middle digit and a necklace of some sort on what appears to be a leather cord.)

Jack then searches in some luggage and finds a hotel style sewing kit. He retreats to a secluded place near some water and begins to painfully remove his jacket. When he does, we see a large gash, bleeding. He removes his shirt and we see plainly that it's a deep cut in need of stitches. That explains the sewing kit. We see also that Jack has tattoos on his left arm, on both the inside bicep and shoulder. (These tattoos were a matter of much speculation until they were finally addressed in S3, though only the Chinese characters on his outer arm were discussed there. There is also a number 5 with what appear to be clock-markings which would indicate the five seconds of fear Jack will claim he allows himself to feel before diving in and tackling a tough probloem. The 5 second story will be told in this episode. He also appears to have a tattoo on his left shoulderblade, but it is indistinct.)

As Jack is doing his best to inspect his wound, a young woman appears among the trees, walking in a half daze, rubbing her right wrist. Jack asks her if she knows how to use a needle. Though she balks at his request for assistance, she ultimately agrees to help him stitch his wound. We learn that Jack is a doctor in the midst of this conversation. (Doctor mention, 10:42)

The scene cuts to a shot of a scruffy looking man lighting a 'Quantus 500' cigarette. He takes a couple of puffs as he surveys the area, then flings the cigarette away as he strolls through the wreckage. Pregnant girl stands on water's edge, feeling her belly. Fat fellow stacks airline food in trays. Bald man sits on the beach looking at the ocean. The young lifeguard attempts to get a signal on his mobile phone. An Arab man is building a bonfire.

The Arab man asks the young bearded man his name, and the reply is "Charlie" (12:48). He asks Charlie to help him make the fire as big as possible, so it can be spotted from a long way off. Charlie asks the Arab his name, and the reply is "Sayid". (12:55)

The African American woman who was revived earlier is seen fretfully kissing a ring on a chain.

Cut scene to Jack having his wound stitched by the young woman. The 5-second story is told.

Cut scene to night time on the beach. Charlie is seen writing F A T E on the white medical adhesive tape on each of his left fingers. Sayid ponders the delay in rescue. (Charlie has a ring on his right middle digit.)

The young blonde woman is painting her nails. The young lifeguard arrives and offers her a candy bar. (The candy bar appears to be an Apollo bar, which we will later learn is a DHARMA Initiative product not available in the "real world". Is that what it actually is? If so: Where'd Boone get that?) The blonde refuses the food, claiming she will eat when the rescue boats arrive. The young lifeguard refers to the blonde as Shannon (16:04).

The fat fellow brings the pregnant woman some of the airline food. Asks if she's having any more 'baby stuff'. Gives her an extra plate of food as he departs.

The African-American man sits with the young African-American boy (assume this is Walt). Asks if he's warm enough. The boy doesn't reply, but nods slightly.

The Korean man now appears with a Korean woman. He explains to her in Korean that she is to stay near him at all times.

Jack and the young woman who stitched his wound examine an unconscious man from the plane. He has a piece of metal protruding from his left side. The young woman asks if the man is going to live. Jack asks if she knows the man, and she claims he was sitting beside her on the plane.

Jack and the young woman sit beside a fire and discuss the crash. Jack uses a model of the plane made from a large leaf. He speculates that they hit an air pocket at 40,000 feet and dropped into massive turbulence. Jack claims he blacked out at that point. The young woman says she was awake the whole time. Jack remarks that neither the cockpit nor the tail of the plane are on the beach. Jack mentions that if they could find the cockpit, they could recover its transciever and try to send a message for help. The young woman says she saw some smoke in the jungle, and says that if he's going for the cockpit, she's coming with. (First utterance of Kate's catchphrase: 1.1, 19:35)

Jack mentions that he doesn't know the young woman's name. She replies "I'm Kate" (19:52)

Suddenly, a strange noise comes from the jungle. The survivors all react, and begin to assemble together. The young African American boy asks "Is that Vincent?" (At this time, we don't know that the Yellow Lab is Vincent.) Whatever it is in the jungle is tearing down trees.

Shannon calls after the young lifeguard, who is heading to investigate the phenomenon: "Boone!" (20:36)

(The sound of Smokey if first heard: 20:38)

The scene cuts back to the airplane, where a flight attendant is checking in on Jack. She secretly gives him extra vodka, and he drinks one bottle's worth. The African American woman he revived on the beach is sitting across the aisle from him. Charlie bolts past down the aisle, pursued by the flight attendant.

Turbulence begins. The African American woman mentions that she has a husband.

Back on the beach, the next morning, various survivors are discussing the phenomenon in the jungle. The African American woman, seen in the background, mentions that the sound they all heard seemed familiar to her.

Somebody suggests it was monkeys. Another remark is "Monkey Island". Another remarks "I don't know if we're on an island..."

Kate and Jack prepare to hike to the cockpit, but after witnessing the strange tree-ripping thing in the jungle, Jack is now feeling protective. He doesn't want Kate to go along. She insists that she's going. He says that if she's going along, she needs better shoes. (There is an inverse joke about this in the S5 episode 316, in which Kate tells Jack he needs to bring better shoes than the dress shoes he has sitting on the counter.) Kate finds a dead body with feet the same size as hers and takes its shoes (hiking boots). As she is taking the dead person's shoes, she looks over and sees the bald man looking at her. He smiles and reveals that he's been eating a slice of orange, and he's got the rind over his teeth. She doesn't smile back, so his tone changes, and he continues to chomp on the fruit.

Another group of survivors discuss the strange jungle phenomenon. The African American man says "whatever it was, it wasn't natural". The fat man suggests that something should be done about the bodies in the fuselage. Jack approaches, announces his trip to the cockpit, and gives Boone some instructions about tending to the wounded. Charlie volunteers to go along.

On the hike, Charlie and Kate chat. Kate thinks Charlie looks familiar, and Charlie reveals that he was in a hit rock band called Driveshaft, reveals that his ring is related, got it on their second tour of Finland. Jack's never heard of Driveshaft. A strange pan downward reveals the Yellow Lab watching them hike from within the shrubline.

A rainstorm begins. People run for cover. The Korean man refuses to share his space with anyone else. The bald man stays out and enjoys the shower.

The strange thing from the jungle appears again.

The hikers come across the broken cockpit, and then approach it to climb in. It's on a steep tilt, so they have to climb up the first class seats. (Note: There are only a couple of bodies in the first class section.) Jack breaks open the cockpit door with a fire extinguisher. The body of one dead pilot falls out. They make it into the cockpit, and find that the pilot survived, and is stranded in his seat, somewhat injured. Jack tells the pilot that at least 48 people survived. It's been 16 hours since the crash at this point.

Pilot reveals: 6 hours into the flight the radio went out, no one could see the plane, they turned back to go to Fiji, and realized they were 1000 miles off course. He produces the transciever.

Jack looks for Charlie, Kate finds him in the bathroom.

The strange noise made by the thing in the jungle sounds off outside the plane. Whatever it is, it's right outside the plane. A wide, dark shape moves past the window, but it's fogged over, so nothing can be clearly seen. Jack attempts to peer out. The pilot attempts to climb out the window, and the creature attacks him. Metallic slashing sounds can be heard, and then the pilot is yanked out of the plane. Blood splatters the windows. The creature bashes the plane, and causes it to fall flat. Jack recovers the transciever and they all run out of the now level plane section.

In a frenzied flight toward the beach, the three are first separated when Charlie gets his foot snared in a root and falls. Jack returns to help him, as Kate keeps fleeing. Kate makes it to a thicket of trees and looks around to find that she's alone. She begins to scream for Jack. Kate employs Jack's five second rule in order to calm herself and focus.

Charlie appears, but Jack is gone. (It was the original plan to have Jack die at this point, and to make Kate the 'hero' of the show. A great TV disaster averted!) They go and look for Jack. Kate spots the pilot's wing pin in a puddle, and then catches the reflection of the pilot's corpse stuck high in a tree above. The pilot appears to have been brutally killed by something. Charlie asks "How does something like that happen?" and the episode comes to a close.