“We all know what happens to guest stars.”

Posted by Dan March 29th, 2007 at 12:35pm In Lost

I walked into the house at 10:30 last night and my roommate was watching Lost. I glanced to the television and saw a body lying on the beach.

“That’s not who I think it is — is it?”

She replied, “It’s two of who you think it is.”

So, when I began to watch the show from the beginning, I folded my arms — as if I were challenging the producers to make me mourn Nikki and Paolo.

But no one was more surprised than me that I found last night’s episode actually very refreshing and one of the most enjoyable and satisfying of the season so far.

I’d like to hear what the Lost powers-that-be had in mind when they introduced these characters at the beginning of the season. Did they plan on having them just sort of pop in and out, appearing to be useless until they had their one big, showy episode? If so, well played. I’d have liked Nikki and Paolo to have been a bit more conspicuous, but still it was neat to see them digitally inserted into the pilot, mingling with Boone and Shannon, flirting with Arst, only to find out they were up to no good all along.

Their few, seemingly unremarkable, moments were given added significance once you got all the backstory. While we were sitting around, watching Jack and Kate and Sawyer run around, giving each other sexy/angry looks, they had their own world going on the whole time. It was a fun look back at season one (remember how different things were back then?).

Of course, there wasn’t much progress on any of the storylines (aside from Charlie’s confession and Sun — awesomely — giving Sawyer a knuckle sandwich), but I didn’t really mind. I actually liked taking a breather. At the end of the episode, I was digesting everything that was happening — I wasn’t full of the shrugging unfulfillment that I usually am.

What did everybody else think?

Also: next on Lost — girl fight! Woohoo!