Lost Season 1

Lost Season 1 consists of twenty-four episodes that originally aired between September 2004 and May 2005.

Lost Season 1 Plot

• Oceanic Flight 815 Sydney to Los Angeles crashes on a tropical island
• Survivors of the crash build camps and settle on the beach and in the jungle
• Survivors explore the island
• Discovery of a mysterious "smoke monster"
  
• Survivors interact and get to know one another, friendships, relationships, enemies, etc.
• A raft is build for an attempted escape from the island
• Mysterious natives of the island kidnap two members of the Survivors
• The Survivors find a mysterious man-made hatch built on the island

Lost Season 1 Summary

Close to fifty people survive a violent plane crash at an unknown location in the South Pacific. A dieing pilot reveals that the plane was about a thousand miles off course when the crew lost radio contact. While no one knows exactly where or why the plane crashed cooler heads are confident they'll soon be rescued.

Jack, a surgeon from LA quickly establishes himself as the leader of the group and organizes rounding up supplies, finding water, and building shelter.

A failed attempt at fixing a communication radio results in a group being strangely attacked by an out of place polar bear before eventually learning that much to their chagrin all radio transmittance is blocked.

As supplies begin to run low Survivors led by outdoors-man John Locke begin fishing and hunting for food. Discontent grows amongst the stranded Survivors and two disagreeing camps form. The first camp holds on to the optimism view that they'll be rescued in short order and that the best thing to do is to stay posted up on the beach where they're most likely to be found by a plane of ship. The second camp succumbs to their position and in preparation for what might likely be an extended stay on the island they set up their camp in the jungle closer to the fresh water and food supply.

While mapping out the island Sayid encounters a man made cable that he follows until he reaches Danielle Rousseau's camp where she has been living in the middle of the jungle for the past sixteen years. This marks the first time that any of the Survivors learn that anyone other than themselves are on the island, let along someone that has been there for over a decade.

The history of the island becomes the focal point for all future seasons and Sayid's encounter with Rousseau marks the first glimpse the Survivors and the viewers at home get into the dynamic history of the mysterious island.

While conducting a census that involves cross checking the Survivors with the plane's passenger manifest that was found a discovery is made. It's realized that Ethan Rom who has been living amongst the Survivors was not on the plane and is in fact somewhat of a native of the island, a member of a group the Survivors eventually call "The Others." With his cover blown Ethan kidnaps two of the Survivors (who are later recovered) and flees.

After two weeks on the island a very mysterious sealed hatch is discovered in the ground in the jungle. Despite Locke's best efforts the seemingly abandoned hatch can't be opened.

Michael builds a raft in a desperate attempt to flee the island with his son Walt. His attempt at escaping is thwarted when a group of Others intercept the raft, kidnap Walt, and destroy Michael's raft.

The Survivors discover a mysterious nineteenth century wooden British ship called the Black Rock. Of particular interest is both the age of this ship (indicating how long it's been on the island) and the fact that a very large ship built for the seas has somehow ended up in the middle of the jungle on what was at one time believed to be a deserted tropical island.

Very old volatile dynamite is found on the Black Rock ship and the Survivors are able to use this dynamite to open the hidden man made hatch built into the jungle ground.

The season one finale concludes with the Survivors peering down into the hatch that has now been blasted open.

Additionally Lost Character Development

While the above synopsis concisely aggregates the major plot development of the first season of Lost there is unquestionable a significant amount of character development that goes on during twenty-four one hour episodes (including commercials).

It's beyond the scope of this Lost blog to go into significant detail with regards to each characters back story, but it is worthwhile to explain that typical episode structure involves progressing the on island story line while interspersing flashbacks of a particular characters life off the island before the crash. Typically, each episode will be committed to one individual characters back story with additional attention given to most high profile characters which for season one can be described as Jack, Kate, Charlie, Sayid, Locke, Hurley, and Sawyer.

Closing Thoughts on Lost Season 1

• The island has an expansive past far beyond what any of the Survivors can possibly imagine.
• Through flashbacks the audience watching at home is able to realize that there are many subtle connections between the surviving characters. While it isn't apparent to any of the Survivors the audience realizes that in their lives before the island there was often only one degree of separation (i.e. one acquittance away) from knowing one another despite hailing from various spots around the world.
• There is something supernatural about the island that may or may not be able to be explained by science. Science vs. Faith is an overwhelming theme through the seasons.

If this summary seemed long to you I can assure you that reading it took less time than watching all twenty-four one hour episodes. I will concede that reading this Lost Season 1 summary is no where near as enjoyable as watching every minute unfold on DVD.

The success of Lost has widely been credited to its character development.

During the first season there were fourteen main characters and eight supplement characters that appear throughout the first season with significantly less regularity.

Lost Season 1 Characters

The fourteen main characters in alphabetical order (by first name) are:

1. Boone Carlyle
2. Charlie Pace
3. Claire Littleton
4. Hugo "Hurley" Reyes
   
5. Jack Shepard
6. James "Sawyer" Ford
7. Jin-Soo Kwon
8. John Locke
9. Kate Austen
10. Michael Dawson
11. Sayid Jarrah
    
12. Shannon Rutherford
13. Sun-Hwa Kwon
14. Walt Lloyd

The eight supplemental characters in alphabetical order (by first name) are:

1. Ana Lucia Cortez
2. Christian Shepard
3. Cindy Chandler
4. Danielle Rousseau
   
5. Edward Mars
6. Ethan Rom
7. Leslie Arzt
8. Rose Nadler

You shouldn't spend the time right now to review all of the characters names above but keep in mind that they will most certainly come up throughout the Lost season summaries and whenever you want more detail you can read more about the characters through their hyperlinked names.