Favorite Lost Episodes 10-6

In honor of the sixth and final season of Lost, I'll be listing off my ten favorite Lost episodes starting with 10-6

Confirmed Dead - Season 4's second episode immediately put an infusion of new blood into the on island action with four new players, with three actually being notable. Unstable physicist Daniel Faraday(that great American eccentric Jeremy Davies) physic Miles(Ken Leung becoming the shows most effective procurer of sarcasm) and that old grizzly bear pilot Frank Lapidus (played by the criminally underrated Jeff Fahey) Not only does this episode give a greater idea of how the rest of the world reacted(and were misled) to Oceanic 815, we get fascinating teases on why the boats crew is really there.

The Man From Tallahassee - One of the best John Locke episodes revolves largely around the great interplay between Locke and Ben Linus as both duel with each other(which was the focal point of other strong Locke based ep's like Lockdown and Cabin Fever), with Linus outsmarting Locke by episodes end to his purpose. But it's the flashback where we learned the cause of Locke's paralysis and it was much worse then the viewer could ever have guessed, further securing Locke as one of the great tragic characters in tv history.

One of Them - It was a toss between this and The Economist as the best Sayid episode (and therefore one of the series best), but while The Economist has a truly awesome flashfoward story, One of Them, is one of the best episodes of Lost in showing how morality on this island (as in real life) is completely relative. It's filled with the great mysteries that were only answered until later in the series such as Rousseau's knowledge of Ben (here Henry Gale) and of course the introduction of Linus himself whose pleas of innocence become more fascinating in retrospect given what we later know of his character (and Emerson nailed it out of the park from the first).

LaFleur - The episode where Sawyer truly became the James Ford (or in this case Jim LaFleur) that should have been had the tragic event of 1976 not come to pass. The
episode jumps from 1974 to 77 showing how Ford, Juliet, Miles, Jin and Daniel hooked up with the Dharma Initiative. The inter cutting compellingly shows how deeply this band of time travelers have become involved with the island community. It's Lost at it's communal loving best (something the show hadn't been as strong on since the first season), as well as introducing what arguably became Lost's best romance between James and Juliet (ok after Desmond and Penny), but also providing one of those classic Lost reunions at episodes end which hit the right amount of sentiment and classic romanticism.

Flashes Before Your Eyes - If isn't wasn't for the season 4 masterpiece The Constant this would be Desmond's best episode, still Flashes is probably just as representative, not only to the special place Desmond has in the Lost universe, but also to that classic Lost theme of freewill vs fate and provided the series with it's first major dip into the time travel waters it would consistently wade in. It also provides a deeper look at both Charles Widmore and an introduction to Eloise Hawking who would play a much larger role by the fifth season. But as much as anything it's the Desmond and Penny relationship that resonates above all else, providing the series with it's true heart and soul.