Adrift takes us to the other side of the Exodus coin, the major cliffhanger that wasn't addressed in Man of Science, Man of Faith. We finally see that Michael and Sawyer survived the raft explosion, but Jin's fate is unknown and Walt's a hostage in the Others' boat.
This almost qualifies as a "bottle" episode, and by that I mean a situation where the story is restricted to a confined space (in this case, pieces of the raft) so that the focus falls more heavily on characters than anything else. I'm generally a big fan of such episodes, so I enjoyed the Michael-Sawyer byplay.
Initially I thought it was odd to have a Michael-centric so early in Season 2, then it dawned on me that the parallel was just too good to pass up. In both present-day and flashbacks, Michael is powerless and tortured by the prospect of Walt being taken away. He puts up a considerable fight in both cases, though in the flashbacks he eventually acquiesces.
The on-island storyline rewinds a bit and then re-enters the Hatch through Locke's perspective. This was an odd moment in terms of both writing and directing, for outside of episode recaps I can't recall many occasions where the same scene was played multiple times. It's unfortunate in this case because I wasn't shocked at Desmond pointing a gun at Locke the first time around, let alone subsequent times.
That bump in the road aside, I still very much enjoyed the way bits and pieces of the Hatch were revealed including the pantry, the countdown clock, and the dining nook.
Bonus points for the cliffhanger, with Sawyer and Michael running ashore and Jin frantically running away from shadowy "others."
Deductions for the sheer number of "WALTTTT!" screams. Realistic and/or as funny as it might be, it's mocked by the LOST community for a reason.
It was nice to see Harold Perrineau featured so early and so prominently in Season 2. After his performance in Adrift I'm thoroughly convinced he's one of the most underrated and underutilized actors on the series.
The highlight of this particular performance has to be the flashback where he says goodbye to toddler Walt. If he wasn't channeling some real-life anguish in that scene he certainly gave that impression, at least judging from the tears that welled up in his eyes.
Holloway's performance was pretty much middle-of-the-road, though he did nail a few memorable lines such as, "Oh, well I'll just stop bleedin' then!"
Terry O'Quinn was particularly good in his Hatch scenes, especially when Desmond forced him to type at the Swan computer. His timing and hesitation in that scene were about as realistic as it gets.
Bonus points to Saul Rubinek (Finney) and Jeanetta Arnette (Lizzy) for their convincingly slimy performances as attorneys.
Since this was the first episode to really focus on the Swan's countdown clock, this is where I'll assign the major bonus points for terrific CGI work. I didn't even realize it was a CGI composition until long after Season 2.
I thought Stephen Williams' work was pretty solid here, especially with the Swan reveals (i.e. Kate flicking a switch to illumninate the glorious pantry). Another directorial victory came with Sawyer's attempts to swim across the raft pieces. The underwater shots were very effective in building tension, particularly after it was established that a shark was in the midst.
Speaking of the shark (you knew this was coming), I've got to deduct points for the DHARMA logo on its tail. According to LOST lore it wasn't supposed to be so visually obvious after post-production, but suffice to say it's about as clear as a neon sign on Blu-Ray.
The downside of a "bottle" episode (and again, I can't really say this episode completely qualifies as such) is that it doesn't lend itself to constant rewatches. The dialogue between Michael and Sawyer isn't compelling enough to make those scenes hold up through repetition.
Luckily there's enough drama going on in the Swan to offset slower aspects of the story. The countdown clock is featured plenty of times throughout the season but for me it never gets old. After all, when it comes to the Swan and pushing the button, mindless repetition is sort of the point.
Locke pushing the button is of critical importance to the overall series. It firmly establishes the button-pushing metaphor and its relation to one's journey through faith.
It's a bit unfortunate that Man of Science, Man of Faith was structured the way it was, because I think Adrift suffered a bit from the fallout. The audience was still very much in "show me what's in the !@%*!# hatch" mode, so there was likely a temptation to view Michael's centric as a diversion from what they were more interested in at that moment.
To be clear, I'm glad the writers didn't give into that temptation and abandon flashbacks for either MOSMOF or Adrift. Even if I was more hungry for Hatch revelations than Michael's back story the first time around, on subsequent rewatches I've enjoyed the flashbacks more.
Adrift is fine on its own merits, but I think Season 2 needed a few episodes before it got full traction in Orientation.
