Sayid maybe, but it was his job. I'm not saying that's a full excuse though, I did consider adding him. Charlie shot someone in self defense, at least arguably. Who did Eko kill? I can't remember. Maybe one of the Others? That isn't murder though. Ana Lucia cold bloodedly premeditately murdered someone, as did Sawyer. Kate did it during a bank robbery which is just as bad.

I don't agree with the Ana Lucia and Jack comparisons, they seem very different. She is hot headed and self absorbed, he is calm and measured and written as more selfless. Ana has more in common with Sawyer to me.

I don't think that this aspect with her mother and his fathr working on the same jobs as themselves is a coincidence. This is Lost, in Lost there are no coincidences.

I think Jack can be just as hot-headed. It definitely semed this way in the last episode when he grabbed the gun and wanted to go after Ana-Lucia until Eko calmed him down.

I see your point. Eko killed two others with a plank.

Oh, and Kate didn't kill that guy in the bank. She shot him in the leg. I actually think they haven't shown her kill anyone, though in the drinking game she said she had. She may have blamed herself for her childhood boyfriend's (Tom?) death. I guess we'll find out next week.

Maybe every character will have killed someone, cold-blooded or not, by the end of the series!

Maybe every character will have killed someone, cold-blooded or not, by the end of the series!

Jin killed someone too if I remember correctly.

And Jack sort've counts because of what he did to his dad, it wasn't direct but he was the reason that happened.

He didn't, he has just beaten up a guy and saved his life by doing so.

Oh, my mistake. I think that episode I was listening to music in the background or something, I wasn't paying that much attention because the Korean flashback episodes bore me. I just remember Jin standing over a bloodied guy and walking away.

I'm another one who thought the last episode was a good one. I definitely do not hate Ana-Lucia, she just only sort of annoys me. I really did not like Shannon, so that helps...

Do you guys know that after this coming Wednesday, there won't be another new episode until January 11? Talk about withdrawal...

No, last year they still had a couple more weeks of new episodes until the hiatus!

And its returning January 11 or 4??
Last year it was January 5 and Dancing with the Stars is gonna premiere Thursday Jan.5 this year, so I hope Lost comes back as well!

Isn't the fact that Jin didn't kill the guy one of the reasons why he is in trouble with the Korean mob (Sun's dad)?

No, the problem is that they found out that he planned on escaping Korea and the mob of Sun's father. They found it out and this guy at the airport said that he will never be free. That was the problem, I think.

By beating up the guy he cleared the problem actually. So that's not an issue.

Okay. So the beating up just made Jin take a second look at what he was involved in then.

Incidentally, if anybody does make it off the island, I don't think it will be anybody who is considered a cold-blooded murderer. Sawyer, Kate, Ana-Lucia... they won't make it!

We don't know if Kate is a cold-blooded murderer.

Do you guys think the end-game will be some sort of mythological/religious/virtuous conclusion or scientific (sci-fi included) explanation.

Not so much as to whether its purgatory or if if it's an experiment but moreso why they're there: if they were chosen because of things they have done and each for a special reason or they just happen to be part of a larger scheme?

Something science fictiony. But I also consider that there is one other option that would explain the weird backstories: their memories are false, somehow. They are not who they think they are. If that were true it would explain so many otherwise unexplainable things.

Generally though I put stuff like that out of my mind while watching the show because I think it will be 2 or 3 years before we're told anything concrete. And Abrams on Alias showed he can just do whatever he wants and then explain it after with exposition so probably all options are open to him.

I think....

there was no plane crash.

the following is not an attack on your response, just my thoughts on the subject we're discussin...

I think it's beginning to be useless to keep comparing Alias to Lost. It seems as though everytime JJ left Alias for a while, it started following a path, at times unsure, and at times quite starying from the original perspective. And JJ always comes in and sort of re-established the direction and focus.

Not to insult the writers of Alias (after all, some behind-the-scenes people did come to Lost from Alias) but it just seems the regular writers for Lost seem to have a much better grasp at the entire focus of the show than Alias writers do without JJ.
That may in part be due to the fact that Lost does have an end-game set. It could also be due to the fact that the creativity behind Lost is not just JJ, but Lindelof, who, it seems like, is 100% engaged only in Lost.

Alias seemed to have some masterful planning behind it up until the final scene of Season 2. It's quite obvious to see that the entire direction the series took after season 3 started wasn't really in the grand scheme of things. The Rambaldi end-game and the underlying foundation might have been there but unlike Lost, Rambaldi can easily be separated from the series while all of Lost's themes and foundations are intertwined and connected.

Lost had started out with the brilliant planning Alias had in its first 2 seasons but after the show really took off I could see a great deal more of meticulous planning and detail that we were rarely exposed to in Alias.

I don't want to fully stand by the following comment I will make because I think in its own right Alias was one of the best shows of its time, but I'll say it anyway... I think what JJ learned from Alias' missteps and faults, he applied to Lost, which in the end (when all is said and done) will result in Lost being a bigger success than Alias in terms of a TV series and not-withstanding any ratings jumbo.

I get the sense that the regular writers for lost are not now the same ones as last season. I could be wrong but the show just does not feel written the same, it seems more obvious than it used to in many dramatic moments. Such as the we're both dead inside talk between sayid and ana or the man of science man of faith talk with locke. The first season seemed more subtely written, up till the finale.

Raffiki I have to ask, would there ever be a point in which you'd be openly critical of Lost?

i get the feeling that the Lost writers dont really know what they are doing. Alias (to me at least) has been consistently good. Sure, seasons 3 and 4 had their problems, but so did 1 and 2, and i am really liking the final season so far.
As for Abrams, i doubt he has any kind of substantial involvement in either show. He never seemed that involved with Lost, ever. All he did really was direct the pilot. He may participate in some writers room discussions and things like that, but he seems just about disconnected (except of course when there is praise to be given, cause then it all goes to JJ for some reason). Here is how many eps of each season of all 3 of "his" shows that he did:

Felicity:
S1-wrote/cowrote 13, directed 2
S2-wrote/cowrote 8
S3-wrote/cowrote 2 (short season, 17eps)
S4 (year that Alias premiered)-wrote 1

Alias:
S1-wrote/cowrote 7, directed 2
S2-wrote 3, directed 1
S3-wrote 1
S4 (year that Lost premiered)-cowrote 2
S5-none so far

Lost: (this wont take long)
S1-cowrote Pilot, directed Pilot
S2-none so far

So his involvement decreases every season until he gets a new show, at which point he all but dissapears.
That was just kind of a pent up JJ Abrams rant, but enjoy!

I agree with that. Completely. This whole season just feels....different.

Then again, it would be hard to reach to first season's standards. That was pretty much one of the finest pieces of television ever created.

Well, you guys have to realize that Lost really evolved very quickly. It's a completely different show now than what it used to be. That has alot to do with the changes in writing.

I think this season has still been just a slight notch better than Season 1 in their respective covered time (like this season's 7(?) episodes versus last year's 7).

The writing credits. A few names are the same but notice how many are different.

Season 1 http://www.lost-tv.com/episodes/season01.html

Season 2 http://www.lost-tv.com/episodes/

I totally agree. It used to be good, now it's bad.