SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't yet seen this episode of Lost, you should avoid reading this article and the user comments, as they will discuss events that happened during the episode.
Season 6, Episode 6: "Sundown"
Much has been made about how the episodes in Lost's final season have been mirroring those in season one. Since the first season's sixth hour centered on Sun, and the name of last night's episode was "Sundown," we were naturally treated to an episode about ... Sayid.
Not that there was anything wrong with that. "Sundown" proved to be one of the most action-filled episodes of the season so far, with a conclusion that seemed to establish the roster for the bad guys' team. Or is that the good guys' team? It's so hard to keep those straight. (We're still pulling for Team Coco.)
Where do the critics and recappers stand on this episode? We have their responses below.
| Score | Publication | Reviewer |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | Television Without Pity | Cindy McLennan |
| [Full recap forthcoming; Grade: A+] | ||
| 100 | TV Overmind | Sam McPherson |
| It was the best episode of the season. | ||
| 94 | TV Fanatic | M.L. House |
| [An] incredible hour. | ||
| 90 | Chicago Tribune | Maureen Ryan |
| What an excellent episode. We got some interesting forward movement on the island, not to mention some wonderfully creepy atmospheric moments on and off the island. ... We had Sideways and island timelines that were linked thematically and emotionally and thus quite a bit more interesting in tandem than some other Sideways trips. Plus we had Sayid Jarrah, ultimate badass fighter, doing some ultimate badass fighting. With a ninja. | ||
| 90 | Entertainment Weekly | Jeff Jensen |
| "Sundown" was a bloody good show, and it’s currently trying very hard to stab “The Substitute” in its big old heart and supplant it as my fave episode of the season so far. [Read Jensen's full recap here] | ||
| 90 | Los Angeles Times | Todd VanDerWerff |
| I don't know that "Sundown" is a perfect episode, but I love the way it raises big questions while still providing an awesome action payoff. It's an episode of "Lost" that many others could aspire to. | ||
| 86 | IGN | Chris Carabott |
| Sayid's flash-sideways were nowhere near as entertaining as what we have seen the past couple of weeks. | ||
| 83 | The Onion A.V. Club | Noel Murray |
| Like “What Kate Does” a few weeks back, I thought “Sundown” was pretty shaky at times, though it ended so strongly—and offered so much to ponder along the way— that I didn’t mind that it was light on incident and heavy on Temple moping. [Grade: B+] | ||
| 80 | HitFix | Monkeys As Critics |
| I'm amazed at how people are upset at "all the new characters" this season, since the show demonstrated clearly this week that those new characters are expendable. This show is still about the Oceanic 815 survivors and the reasons they're on the Island, and the choices they've made in their lives. It's just that the game isn't what we originally thought it was. | ||
| 80 | What's Alan Watching? | Alan Sepinwall |
| Whatever the flash-sideways mean, they definitely work better when built around the show's stronger characters/actors - Locke two weeks ago, or Sayid tonight. Again, I'm not demanding answers so much as I am entertainment, and watching Sayid kick ass in two timelines, even as both versions recognized that they're doomed to be killers, was damned entertaining. | ||
| 70 | Cultural Learnings | Myles McNutt |
| “Sundown” is not the best episode of this short season, nor is it a particularly pleasant one: it is an episode filled with darkness, showing characters taking actions and getting into situations from which there is no real escape. However, it’s a nice bit of analysis of the determinism that dominates this universe, and with a strong performance from Naveen Andrews the episode is able to entertain even if we are none too happy with its outcomes. | ||
| 70 | St. Petersburg Times | Eric Deggans |
| While this was yet another episode which felt like an elaborate set up for larger action to come, it was redeemed by its focus on Sayid, one of the show's most compelling and under-used characters. | ||
| 70 | Time | John Cloud |
| I don't think so much was revealed ... but “Sundown” did represent a big break from the windy, mysterious, season-one-like pacing of the previous hours of this season. | ||
| 40 | Zap2It | Ryan McGee |
| These things are all relative, but I found this episode to be the worst of the season. (Yes, before you ask: even worse than "What Kate Does," which honestly is a much better episode that people give it credit for.) While it had some of the show's best action in a while, it lacked an interesting sideways flash and hinged its on-Island action upon a late twist that only happened...well, because the episode needed a slam-bang finale. Was it unwatchable? Certainly not, but I rarely felt compelled by what I saw onscreen. | ||
What did you think?
Did you enjoy this episode of Lost? Let us know in the comments section below. As a courtesy to other users, please do not include spoilers of any kind in your posts, although you are welcome to discuss all events shown in this particular episode of the show.
