I've been re-watching the entire show to get ready for the final season, and I'll be giving a mini-review of each:
Notable new characters (on-screen appearances only): Juliet (3x1), Karl (3x1), Colleen (3x2), Nikki (3x3), Paulo (3x3), Richard Alpert (3x7), Eloise Hawking (3x8), Mikhail (3x11), Naomi (3x17), Emily Linus, Roger Linus, Annie, Horace Goodspeed, and other members of the DHARMA Initiative (3x20), Bonnie (3x21), Greta (3x21)
Notable births: Ben (in flashback, obviously) (3x20)
Notable deaths: Colleen (3x4), Eko (3x5), Pickett (3x7), Ms. Klugh (3x11), Nikki (3x14), Paulo (3x14), Anthony Cooper (3x18), Horace Goodspeed (3x20), Emily Linus (3x20), Roger Linus (3x20), Bonnie (3x22), Charlie (3x22), Greta (3x22), Mikhail (3x22), Tom (3x22)
First centric episode: Juliet (3x7), Nikki/Paulo (3x14), Ben (3x20)
Multiple centric episodes: Jack (3), Locke (3), Desmond (2), Kate (2), Sun (2)
DHARMA station interiors first seen: Hydra (3x1), Flame (3x11), Looking Glass (3x21)
Monster appearances: 3x5, 3x14 (it's most subtle confirmed appearance), 3x15
Name-dropped titles (not necessarily comprehensive, but obviously memorable): Every Man For Himself, I Do, Not in Portland, Enter 77, Expose, Left Behind, One of Us, D.O.C., The Brig, The Man Behind the Curtain, Greatest Hits
Best episode: 3x22 "Through the Looking Glass". Forget the flashforward twist, this was an epic episode. As I watched it, I knew there was something off about Jack's flashes, but I couldn't quite place my finger on it until the very last one, when I saw the maps strewn all over his floor. But even before that light went off over my head, I thought I was watching the greatest LOST episode there ever was.
Second-best episode: 3x20 "The Man Behind the Curtain". Ben loses his grip on the Others as Locke returns with Cooper's body, beating Mikhail as Richard and Tom defy Ben and watch, and Alex gives Locke a gun as he ventures out into the jungle with her father. We see Ben's backstory, from his mother's death in childbith to his awful dad, his meeting with Richard Alpert in the jungle, and the purge. Tension is high among the Lostaways as Sawyer and Sayid lead the anti-Juliet faction, but Jack and Juliet reveal that they are working together on a plan to defeat the Others. Ben takes Locke to the DHARMA mass grave and shoots him.
Good episode, right? Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Ben and Locke visit Black Robe (at least IMO), a prisoner in a cabin that Ben pretends is Jacob's. It's impossible to tell what Ben actually knows about the man he is going to visit and how much of it is a show for Locke. But the man that Jacob portrays--hating technology, angry at being visited by his people--doesn't mesh with the man we saw in 5x16, who seemed genuinely interested in the lives of Locke, Jin, Sun, Kate, Jack, Hurley, and Sawyer (Sayid has a legitimate beef).
Third-best episode: 3x13 "The Man From Tallahassee". We learn how Locke was paralyzed, Locke blows up the sub, Kate and Jack have a heartfelt would-be farewell, Richard Alpert appears on the Island for the first time, and Anthony Cooper comes out of Ben's "magic box" (which Locke hilariously is still asking about at the end of season four).
Overlooked episode: There are many other great Season Three episodes besides the ones listed above--"Not in Portland", "Flashes Before Your Eyes", "Enter 77", "One of Us", and "Greatest Hits" come to mind. But I think most of those are given a lot of respect by fans. So for an overlooked episode, I'll turn to 3x12 "Par Avion".
The A-story of Claire trying to capture a migratory bird and attach a note to it is not great, but everything else is good. Her flashback confirms that Christian is her father; Mikhail demonstrates that the Others have knowledge about all the survivors and describes Jacob (not by name) as a "great, magnificent man"; the sonic fence is discovered and Mikhail appears to die when Locke pushes him across; Locke's agenda of wanting to blow up everything that could be used to leave the Island is strongly hinted at; and the last scene is great, as Jack plays catch with Tom, shocking Kate.
Best episode ending: 3x22 "Through the Looking Glass"--the final scene that changes the show forever (see secret scene).
3x2 "The Glass Ballerina" features Ben introducing himself as truthfully as he can manage (although even then he lies that he was born on the Island), right before he shows Jack a videotape of the Red Sox winning the World Series, proving that the Others have contact with the outside world. As a baseball nut before a LOST nut, it's a great scene.
3x12 and 3x13, discussed above, are both great. 3x18 "D.O.C." ends with Naomi telling Hurley that Oceanic 815 was found, with all passengers aboard, on the bottom of the ocean. 3x21 has Charlie, expecting to drown, submerging in the Looking Glass--only to be met by two gun-wielding Others.
Creepiest episode: 3x3 "Further Instructions" features Locke's sweat lodge vision of Boone, as well as the rescue of Eko from the polar bear cave and his subsequent delirious, likely Island-induced message to John that "you are a hunter".
There are other candidates, though: Eko's death in 3x5 "The Cost of Living", as well as the first time we actually see the Monster perform its killing (the pilot was killed off-screen), along with the Monster taking the form of Yemi make that episode very creepy in its own right.
Best flashback: By season three, conventional flashbacks for long-time main characters were played out, leading to things like "how Jack got one of his tattoos". The best flashbacks of season three are those that either occur on-Island, those that deal with new characters, or those that change the rules. There are six outstanding such episodes:
1) Juliet's flashbacks in 3x7 "Not in Portland" and 3x16 "One of Us"
2) Desmond's time-travel odyssey in 3x8 "Flashes Before Your Eyes"--there's no other episode of the show that's so much better in retrospect
3) Locke's on-Island flashback in 3x19 "The Brig"
4) Ben's flashback in 3x20 "The Man Behind the Curtain"
5) Jack's flashforward in 3x22 "Through the Looking Glass"
Forced to pick the best, I'd go with Ben, but they are all excellent. Limiting it to other flashbacks, I'd have to go with Locke in 3x13 "The Man From Tallahassee", as we finally get to see how he was paralyzed.
Most important mythological development: Forced to pick a single development, it is the introduction of Jacob, although we really don't learn that much about him until 5x16. Season Three is really about the Others, and we do learn a great deal about them--their fertility problems, where they live, the Purge, their relationship with the DHARMA Initiative, their social structure, and the like.
The Others' sub and Hydra island are both introduced in 3x4. Jacob is first mentioned in 3x6 ("Jacob's list"), with "God loves as you as He loved Jacob" appearing in the Room 23 brainwashing video in 3x7. 3x8 puts time travel out in the open for the first time. 3x16 is the first clear confirmation that pregnant women die on the Island, and it is also the first time that Ben invokes the name of Jacob. 3x20 is loaded with mythology (see above). In 3x22, Juliet tells Sawyer that the Others project on Hydra island was a runway, and Ben tells Richard to take the remainder of the Others to the Temple, the first mention of that location.
Most important scene of the season: Ben and Locke visit Jacob's cabin, which now seems to be inhabited by Black Robe.
Best scene of the season: I'm drawing a distinction between most important (the one that tells us the most about the larger story) and best, which is one that is great to watch.
Outside of the Pilot, the best season opening scene is the introduction of Juliet in 3x1 "A Tale of Two Cities", along with the gradual reveal that the Others actually lead suburban style lives, complete with book clubs and plumbing. This scene mirrors the opening of Season Two by introducing us to a new character while shocking us at the location we are seeing. Desmond listened to a record and Juliet to a CD, each by female artists, leading me to believe that the opening of Season Four would be someone on the freighter listening to "The Age of Aquarius" or some other appropriately odd song on their MP3 player.
Juliet's "Subterranean Homesick Blues"-esque appeal to Jack in 3x5 is a great scene as well.
Feel-good moment of the season: Jack makes the call to the freighter. Sure, the happiness is shattered in the flashforward seen that immediately follows, but after three seasons of striving for this, the very idea that rescue is imminent and the terrific score tug at the heartstrings.
TIVO moment: the pullback to reveal the Others' village and its position on the Island
Line of the season: Ben to Locke in "The Man From Tallahassee?": "Unfortunately, John, we don't have a code for 'there's a man in the closet with a gun to my daughter's head'...although obviously we should."
I also love it when Richard Alpert tells Locke in 3x19 "No matter how much time you spend on the Island, you never get tired of this view." In the next episode, we see that the time experienced on the Island by Richard may be a lot longer than we could have guessed.
In 3x21, Jack finally fills the rest of the group in on the plan that he, Juliet, and Rousseau have hatched. First, I love the fact that he takes only the important people into the jungle to demonstrate--but not just the A-Team--people like Claire and Sun are there. Second, I love his maniacal declaration that "We're gonna blow 'em [the Others] all to hell."
Secret scene: "The [rattle]snake in the mailbox" is the best secret scene, one of the most bold plot twists in television history. Many people always believed that getting off the Island was the endgame of the show, but in that one moment, that belief was turned on its head.
I remember reading online discussions in the immediate aftermath of the finale, and some people really were having a hard time coming to grips with what they saw. Some were trying to figure out if it was perhaps just a possible future (which resonates a little more in light of the conclusion to Season Five, wouldn't you say), or operating on the premise that what we saw was the very end of the story. The scene was nothing short of brilliant. It also introduces the question of who Kate needs to get back to (many guessed Sawyer, but of course it turns out to be Aaron) and the fact that those who returned to civilization were lying in some way.
Character of the season (each character can only be picked once): Ben and Juliet. It's a cheat to list two characters, but they both deserve it, as they did the unthinkable: humanizing the Others and making the audience (gasp) like at least one of them. Ben shouldn't get any sympathy points from anyone, at least until Alex's death in Season Four, but even if you rightfully hate him, he is the driving force behind the season, and it is fun to see him gradually slide from seeming omniscience to a bloodied, beaten prisoner. Juliet is a fascinating character; as Jack says, she wants to get off the Island more than anything else in the world, but she'll go to just about any length to get it (in the next two seasons, at least). In that sense she, and not Eko, is the anti-Locke.
Bunny sightings: 3x4, 3x20
Other observations on the season:
* Elizabeth Mitchell is adorable on the audio commentary for 3x1. I wish they would have let her use that voice in the show, although I suppose it would have made Juliet seem too girly.
* It's always better to be the prisoner on LOST than it is to be the captor. Just as Ben did, Jack (and to a lesser extent Sawyer and Kate) is able to gather intelligence, play the Others against each other, and eventually win an unanimous decision over his former captors.
* I wouldn't call 3x14 "Expose" a great episode or one of my favorites, but it has its charms. There are bad things about the episode: it interrupts a tremendous run of great episodes that otherwise would have run unbroken from 3x11 to 4x3, and the ret-conning is excessive (Nikki and Paulo were apparently as prolific of explorers as Locke). However, I'm a sucker for meta stuff, and this episode is chock full of it. LOST is a great show, a serious show, but it's possible that under different writers and producers it could take itself too seriously. This episode is the best example of not doing that, and being able to laugh at yourself and your fans.
* Everyone noticed in 3x17 that there was a picture on the head monk's desk of him and Eloise. But knowing what we know now about the relationship between Charles and Eloise, I think it's fair to speculate that the two of them pulled the strings to get Desmond into that monastery. The only question is how they knew that Penny would fall for Desmond, although I suppose if they were going off Faraday's journal, they may have known about the Desmond/Penny coupling.
* In a couple late-season episodes, the writers push the theory that they're all dead, specifically through Naomi relating that the plane was found and Anthony Cooper telling anyone who'll listen that they're in hell. In Season Two, the writers pushed the "It's all a dream" theory, specifically through Hurley's sighting of Dave in 2x18. Intention thematic misdirection is fun.
* Fans love to hate Jack, and rip him for strategic failures, but the simple fact of the matter is that he kicked the Others butts in Season Three. He engineers, then sacrifices himself to achieve, the escape of Kate and Sawyer. Then he saves Juliet, earns the two of them a trip off the Island, and finally defeats the Others as a serious existential threat to the Lostaways. And while the rescue that came was not what it seemed, there was no Lostaway other than Locke that disagreed with his plan, with many putting their own lives at risk to contact the freighter.
* In an ongoing attempt to classify Island phenomenon between those created by Jacob and those created by Black Robe (this assumes of course that those are the only to forces at play and that all of the weirdness is a product of one of them--certainly debatable, quite possibly wrong, but at least a useful way to frame the discussion):
1. Locke's sweat lodge vision of Boone, and Eko's delirious message "you are a hunter" in 3x3 "Further Instructions". I believe that these are the work of Black Robe, as they reignite Locke's paganistic Island faith. One can argue that this faith works to Jacob's advantage as well, but I think the end result of Locke as an agent/incarnation of Black Robe himself is a strong argument that a lot of what happens from this point forward is designed to lead to that result. Saving Eko is ultimately meaningless, as he dies two episodes later, but Eko's death leads to Locke finding his way...to bad things.
2. Desmond's flashes--This is a big one to bite off, so it's worth listing each flash individually:
a) Locke's speech about getting back his people (3x3)
b) Charlie's electrocution (prompting Desmond to build a lightning rod) (3x4)
c) Charlie drowning trying to save Claire (3x8)
d) Charlie crushed against rocks trying to capture a migrating bird for Claire (3x12)
e) Charlie hit in the throat by an arrow from one of Rousseau's traps (3x17)
f) Charlie drowns after turning off the switch, leading to Claire and Aaron leaving the Island on a helicopter (3x21)
Let's assume for the sake of argument that Desmond is completely truthful about all of his visions (after all, the 3x17 flash is the only one the audience gets to see as Desmond saw it, so it's possible that he lied about parts of others). Let's also assume that all of the visions are produced by the same entity, rather than some being from Jacob and others from Black Robe.
Given those constraints, I believe that the visions are the product of Black Robe, as only Aaron winds up leaving the Island. The end result also allows the Freighter folk to come to the Island, endangering the lives of Jacob's chosen people and setting into play events that lead to both Claire and Aaron being separated (something that apparently has been a goal of Black Robe for some time) and the Island being moved, leading to Black Robe taking control of Locke's body.
A great contrast can be drawn between Locke's response to his vision in 1x19 and Desmond's response to his flash in 3x17. In both cases, each believes that they will get the one thing in the world they most desire (for Locke, getting into the Hatch; for Desmond, reuniting with Penny). But Desmond ultimately decides to save Charlie at what he believes is the cost of changing the future (who knows whether he was right or not; I suppose a certain brand of quantum physics can explain how Penny and not Naomi could have been the parachuter), while Locke allows Boone to be sacrificed, going so far as to say the island "demanded" it.
3. Eko's dreams and the manifestation of Yemi in 3x5 "The Cost of Living". I strongly believe that the Monster and Black Robe are connected, and so I'm as confident chalking this one up to Black Robe as I am about any such phenomenon.
4. Young Ben's visions of his mother--I go with Black Robe all the way, as part of his elaborate long con to trick the Hostiles into believing that Ben and Locke were special and maneuvering them into leadership roles.
5. Walt appearing to Locke as he lies in the DHARMA mass grave--If I have my agendas straight, it has to be Black Robe.
