Lost season 2 rewatch

Last night I finished season 3 of Lost but before I can write about this here are my thoughts on season 2 which I finished watching over the Christmas holiday (which is my excuse for not getting it up sooner). Here are the highs, lows and everything else that I thought is relevant from watching this season with full knowledge of what has happened since.
What occurred had much to do with this:

And with the hatch within which this computer resides. Season 2 of course focused on the hatch and opened up the Dharma world to both the Losties and the audience. The other area of focus was expanding the idea of who and what the others are and that there were other survivors from flight 815. My highlights from this season include:

• Interesting new characters: Desmond, Henry Gale (to become Ben Linus in S3), Mr Eko.
• Regarding Desmond, I had an automatic emotional connection to his story with Penny and I think this relationship is perhaps the strongest romantic one that this show has produced as you care immediately about the fate of them.
• Speaking of Penny the introduction of Widmore as a potentially shadowy figure sets the character up well for what we know about him now, especially that he will stop at nothing.
• Michael Emerson is probably the best addition to the cast that the show has ever had and it was a pleasure to watch him work his manipulative magic with Locke all over again. Seeing Sayid torture him was also interesting considering what is to follow (or rather what has already happened).
• Bernard and Rose being reunited got me all misty eyed and it was good to see that she was right in keeping hold of his ring for so long. It was also nice to see that someone saw Locke in his wheelchair at the airport, though like Locke Rose has a medical miracle thanks to the island.
• Death wise in season 2, the big ones were Shannon, Ana Lucia and Libby. With Shannon they did the classic TV trick of making you like the character even if you didn't all season before they bite it (see Marissa in The OC). The Ana Lucia and Libby deaths are still as shocking now as they were when I first watched it, and even though I was not that attached to either character it made me a little sad (probably because Hurley was so sad).
• The divide between Locke and Jack becomes irreparable after this season as both believe that they are doing the right thing but go about it in very different ways: "Why is it so hard for you to believe?" "Why is it so easy for you to?" This being what sums up their differences in simple terms (Man of Science, Man of Faith).
• Sawyer becoming a hero and once again the antagonist: not enjoying his hero status Sawyer enlisting a pride wounded Charlie manages a great con and gets all the guns returning to his position as the camps most disliked.
• 'Don't mistake coincidence for fate' is a theme that flows throughout this season, though is it fate or coincidence that led Locke to the hatch the night that Desmond was going to kill himself?
• One criticism of this season is that there are perhaps too many Kate and Jack flashbacks and it would be good if a couple of those episodes would be best served on other less fleshed out characters as by this point we know that Jack needs something to fix and that Kate likes to run.
• Though it was good to have some resolutions to some first season stories like what happened to Claire when she was taken (with this we also get a proper introduction to Alex, the daughter of Rousseau who had been taken 16 years previous- great casting as well), where the yellow plane came from, what the monster looked like and what caused Oceanic 815 to crash, Though with every answer that was given, in Lost tradition many more questions were thrown in the air and questions posed in this season have still yet to be resolved, one of the most frustrating being why was Libby in the mental institute?

Season 2 is my least watched season and that is one of the reasons why I enjoyed watching it again as there are some brilliant episodes and moments throughout and it really does set up the mythology of the show regarding Dharma and the Others for seasons 3 and 5. It isn't all brilliant but with the introduction of two of my favourite characters this season is definitely one which I have underrated and is one reason why I am glad that I decided to rewatch the show from the start.

Season 3 recap to follow with the aftermath of the what happens in the season 2 finale:

Photos courtesy of Lost-Media