[disjunction]

I liked the episode.

I've always liked Lost for the flashbacks, the more irrelevant to the island the better. The first year especially, it was the best possible vehicle to put contemporary short stories on TV. A show with a different short story every week (like the Twilight Zone except not sci/fi) while an awesome idea, would never get ratings because you'd forget to watch next week. Lost had all these strangers on a plane and those first episodes could be anything you want.

These serial plots with the OMG WHAT DOES THE HATCH DO are everywhere, the show would never hold on that alone. And the more developed the characters are, the more restrictions get put on the short stories.

So I can't judge these episodes on how much they develop the main plot. I thought this short story was alright. Not great, but alright. I did like the punchline.