LOST: “LA X” (Season 6 premier)
Well, anyone who thought the final season would be less confusing than the last was in for a shock this evening.
Discussion and spoilers from the final season premier below.
Links and miscellanea
- This video is really impressive. It’s a retelling of the crash of 815, with clips from several episodes edited together so that the crash is viewed in real time.
- Evangeline Lily has put herself up for auction on eBay.
- Here’s a timely Lost parody song by the Fine Brothers:
- These very cool Lost posters make me wish that I had talent in the graphic arts.
- The LA Times has a feature about Lost fans who traveled to Hawaii to attend the Season 6 premier over the weekend on Waikiki beach.
- Jeff “Doc” Jensen at Entertainment Weekly says that this scene from the season 1 pilot is worth revisiting in light of the way the show has developed.
- Many Lost fans (including myself) managed to avoid watching the leaked first episode before it aired.
- Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly are saying that after Lost, they won’t do television again. Josh Halloway says he “plans to pursue film work.”
- Here’s yet another article discussing the religious themes in Lost.
Winning bidders will get lunch in Honolulu, Vancouver or Los Angeles and proceeds go to the Go Campaign, a non-profit that helps fund development projects in the third-world. (Link via Jorge Garcia’s blog, Dispatches From the Island, so you know the auction’s legit.)
Observations and speculations
- So what we now have is a crisis on infinite earths scenario. Or at least two worlds. Its an alternate realities situation. And while that sort of thing usually doesn’t appeal to me, I’m not all that crazy about time travel story lines either, and last season seemed to work out okay.
- In one reality (let’s call it “LA X,” just like the episode title), everything is right were it was before Oceanic flight 815 broke apart over the South Pacific: Locke is still in his wheelchair, Kate is a fugitive, Charlie a junkie, Rose and Bernard a happily married couple, and Jack a conflicted son hoping to bury his father. Except, something happened to his father’s corpse en route.
- In the other reality, the lostaways who were in DHARMA ’77 have been catapulted forward to the time just after Jacob was killed.
- So who did we not see on the plane?: Michael and Walt (perhaps for obvious reasons–after all, we can’t have Young Walt back again); Shannon (
although we do see her later in a taxi at LAX< so maybe she was on it after allUPDATE: As pointed out in the comments, that was Claire, not Shannon. In the island timeline, Claire is likely dead.); and the Tailies (though, of course, they weren’t in the first season either, so they didn’t appear in any of these scenes). No Nikki and Paolo either. That might have been kind of awesome. - Who is on the plane who really shouldn’t be there? Desmond. Huh. Remember that Jack and Desmond had met once prior to that time, at a sports stadium (was it the Rose Bowl?), so no alternate-dimension deja vu is needed for Jack to think Desmond looks familiar.
- Rose is reading a magazine named “Weekly Woodsman.” I don’t remember that.
- Sitting next to Locke on the plane is Frogurt.
- LA X Jack seems to think that there’s some sort of significance to the small bloodied spot on his neck, and I agree with him. No idea what it is, thogh.
- When Jack meets Desmond on the plane, the book Desmond is reading is Salmon Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
- Was Desmond really on the plane? If so, that could mean that Operation Jughead reset not just the Oceanic 815′s timeline, but also Desmond’s. (If not, I guess it means Jack is delusional.)
- In the LA X universe, the barracks (aka DHARMAville) are at the bottom of the ocean, like an Atlantis bungalow village. And if you looked very closely, you would have noticed a cameo reappearance of our DHARMA shark swimming near the ruins of the three-toed statue.
- The Island universe begins with the extreme eye close-up of Kate, up in a tree.
- It’s kind of comforting—nostalgic, even—to see Sawyer and Jack as enemies again.
- Another great cameo was seeing Artz again. Immediately following his appearance, Hurley tells Sawyer, “Nothing bad ever happens to me. I’m the luckiest guy alive.” From this, we might infer that the LA X time line does more than just put things the way they were before the crash, as it also seems to have removed Hurley’s curse.
- Sun and Jin appear to be back to the same dysfunction that they had before the crash.
- Locke seems to have lied to Boone about going on his walkabout.
- I liked Lapidus’ line about the Jacob squad: “They say they’re the good guys. I’m not buying it either.”
- When Jacob appears to Hurley, he’s wearing a white shirt, as he was (if I recall correctly) in every scene. The other guy (who some call Esau) is always wearing black.
- Jacob knows that Hurley can see dead people. Unlike what Miles does, he can actually have conversations and walk with them. That seems to confirm that Hurley’s visions are not merely delusions.
- Jacob’s explanation of his death was interesting: “I was killed by an old friend who grew tired of my company.”
- Classic Sayid moment: “Can I be of assistance? Excuse me.” *busts down the restroom door*
- Of course, when I saw Charlie, I assumed that he had OD’d on his heroin stash, but he appears to have attempted suicide by choking. Seems like an overdose would be more pleasant.
- Before Juliet dies, she tries to tell Sawyer, “It worked.” How does she know? Just seconds before that, she was saying “It didn’t work.” Very strange.
- Now we know the nature of the Man in Black. He is the Smoke Monster, and he can, as we surmised, take the form of those who have died on the island (or presumably, those of corpses who are present on the island—think Yemi and Christian Sheppard). What’s more, when he does so he can understand the thoughts of those whose bodies he assumes, just as he knows John Locke’s final thoughts when Ben strangled him.
- Bram was carrying around with him his own personal satchel of ash, which he uses to make a circle of protection around himself. Yet another question answered: the ash around Jacob’s shack was there to protect him from his nemesis, the Smoke Monster.
- The voice overs of the pilot’s voice in this episode appear to have been recorded by Greg Grunberg, who played the pilot in Pilot. Grunberg is a childhood friend of JJ Abrams.
- What was with the big bearded hippy on the plane with the hat pulled down over his face? That was strange.
- Sayid is wearing Horace’s jumpsuit. I either didn’t know that, or had forgotten it.
- The book that Montand, the corpse seen near the entrance to the Temple, had in his pack is Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, in French (“Crainte et Tremblement”). The book is Kierkegaard’s meditation on Abraham’s commandment from God to sacrifice Isaac, and the ultimate concept of faith.
- Just before Jack is ambushed by some Temple-dwelling Others, we hear whispers and see a dark figure in the background. Suddenly, these Others seem more like the Others from Season 1, mysterious and powerful, with ancient dress and eschewing modern technology. And they are barefoot. Very different from the Others in Season 2 and 3. I wonder if there was a conscious decision to return to a more primitive existence. Or maybe it’s a Temple thing.
- Fugitive Kate is a bad ass. It’s nice to have her back. Notice that the Marshall has with him the Haliburton case that figured centrally in a certain episode in Season 1.
- At last, we have a Japanese character, so I can show of my Japanese language skills. Unfortunately, most of what he says is basically the same as the translation in the dialogue. At one point, he says (referring to Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid) “It would have been better if they hadn’t come here. We can’t excuse them from having seen this place. Shoot them.” Later, he asks Hurley if he met Jacob, and to prove it. Then he calls Hurley a liar and again tells the Others to shoot them. When the translating Other asks Japanese Other what happened to the water at the spring, he replies, “I don’t know what happened.” Incidentally, the form of Japanese that he speaks, while not exactly rude, shows that he considers himself to be superior to those he’s speaking to—he’s speaking down to them and not being polite in his manner of addressing them.
- Cindy, the flight attendant, seems to have adapted well ot life with the Others.
- When the Japanese Other breaks the ankh? That was cool. We got an answer to the question, “What’s in the guitar case?” The ankh itself was a classic MacGuffin—it was what was in the case, but it was not itself important.
- Sun chooses not to reveal that she can speak English. At this point, in the LA X universe, she has not decided to stay with Jin.
- Jack gives up on the CPR for Sayid awfully quickly. You would think that someone who was drowned for only a few seconds could be revived through CPR.
- The Others in the Temple clearly know that the ash will protect them from the Smoke Monster. But I wonder if Ben knew that. Remember, Ben himself summoned the Smoke Monster to get away from the mercenaries. Now it seems like Ben didn’t know much about Smokie at all.
- The way that the scene between Ben and Esau at the end was very well done. Watch Esau/Locke’s speech when he is sitting down and how the mood changes when he sits forward into the light, then sits back into the shadow.
- Esau tells Ben, “I want to go home.” We have no way to interpret this statement yet. Where does he come from? What does going home even mean for him?
- Do we think that Locke’s knives and Christian’s body ended up in the same place?
- Jack tells Locke, “Nothing is irreversable,” which can’t be a purely medical statement.
- Esau tells Richard, “It’s good to see you out of those chains.” From his perspective, everyone was being held captive by Jacob, and now they are free. Others don’t seem to agree with him on this view. Maybe that’s what he means when he says he is “very disappointed in all of you.”
- At the end of the episode, Sayid returns to life. At least, we might assume that it’s Sayid and that the Smoke Monster hasn’t infiltrated the Temple already.
It’s good to have Lost back. Answers are coming, even though (naturally) more questions are still being raised.
What do y’all think? Good episode? Are we keeping up with everything? How will this dual reality play out? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Posted on February 3, 2010, in Pop Culture. Bookmark the permalink. 80 Comments.
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Two things real quick. One it was Claire in the cab Kate hijacked not Shannon. Two I think when Esau said to Richard “it’s good to see you not in chains” he might have been referring to the fact that Richard came to the Island on the slave ship The Black Rock.
Great start to the new season! Can’t wait for next week.
Rose beat me to it.
What I wonder is what number Hurley played to win the lotto? If the Swan station blew up (and that’s why Desmond wasn’t stuck on the island pressing the button) would Hurley’s friend still hear those numbers being broadcast?
Yes, Shannon was not shown, hopefully it isn’t an issue with the actress, because that would stink to have to ignore that issue.
I still have to think about what I saw tonight, but it didn’t blow me away. Also, I did not get my one wish which was to avoid adding even more characters…
I loved the episode. There were many key moments. We finally know who/what the smoke monster was. The conversation between Nemesis and Ben was fantastic because it shed much light on the whole point of the Oceanic group coming to the island.
I’m with Rose about Richard. I don’t think Nemesis (Esau) had communicated with Richard since the Black Rock.
I think that was just simply a matter of time on the show and not related to what he would have done otherwise.
I also think Sayid is still Sayid and not Nemesis or Jacob. If Nemesis takes the shape of the dead, he is not doing it in the body of the dead, but rather he himself (being smoke) transforms in the shape of the dead.
Hurley’s friend he got the numbers from heard it at listening post while he was in the army. Judgeing from the guy’s age, I would guess he was in the army before 1977
Loved it!
… even though it appears I’ve been completely wrong in thinking all of Hurley’s dead people were in his head. But otherwise everything is making sense to me so far.
For LAX time, a couple of things struck me – several of the characters were unaffected by the change in island history, notably Rose/Bernard, Sun/Jin, Locke, Sawyer and Charlie (several of which were touched by Jacob prior to this date, unless he went back in time).
Two lives were affected – Desmond was not drawn to the island, and was in Australia for another reason. And yes I agree Jack recognized him from the stadium and nothing else. And Hurley did not go to Australia seeking the numbers, but rather on business for his chicken company.
But Boone’s life was slightly different in that he didn’t persuade Shannon to come back with him (maybe the actress wasn’t available, but still).
Jack’s father’s body didn’t get on the plane – but then again are we sure he made it in the first place, because all we saw was an empty coffin? I do still think Nemesis has been Casual Christian the whole time, but that Suited Christian is in Jack’s head.
Locke either went on the walkabout or lied about it – which is it?
And what does it all mean? At first when Kate found Jack passed out in the brush, I thought the scene might have been Jack dreaming of his plan working. Then as things went on, I started to think that maybe LAX is just an exercise to show us what all of them were facing had the 2004 crash never happened ….
…. which in essence isn’t that different than where they are now in their lives, psychologically. Thin, I know, so I might be on the wrong track.
As for the Temple people – I wonder if they’ve been there the whole time – remember that Ben sent Alex and some of his Others there at one point for safety, so maybe the Temple people are a branch of Others with special duties. They protect the island spiritually, while Ben was handling the more modern technological side of security (communications stations, fending off attackers, recruitment, solving the baby issue, etc).
THANKS GREG FOR THE JAPANESE TRANSLATIONS!!
I was a bit bothered by two things: how everyone pitched in to dig out Juliet, but no one went to help Sayid; and Kate’s lack of interest in the metal case, in stark contrast to what she apparently went through to get the toy plane from a bank vault and then recover it after the crash.
I still get bothered by stupid things the characters do, but maybe it’s just because of time constraints. For instance, when they’re taking Sayid to the spring, the Japanese other says “There are risks” and Jack replies “Okay, do it.”
Really? Okay? Not even “by the way, what is the risk?”
The risk? The whole universe exploding. Well, okay, worth trying. I mean if the risk is that Sayid dies, well he was dieing anyways.
Another question, in LA X does Rose still have cancer?
I did love how they did the reveal of NotLocke being Smokie. Going to watch the final scene with Ben again.
I remember when Richard agreed to take young Ben to the Temple to be healed, he also said there are risks.
I wonder if that risk is immortality – remember how Richard told NotLocke that “Jacob made me like this”?
That would imply that Ben and Sayid are now immortal and will not age further, and that perhaps as some penance for their sins, they must now serve the island, and cannot leave?
I wonder if that’s what Jacob did to Nemesis too – at some point he came to the island, and Jacob trapped him there, but instead of taking on an immortal form like Richard, he has been forced to take the form of the dead (Locke, Christian, Alex perhaps in Ben’s vision).
So, will Ben and Sayid go the way or Richard, or the way of Nemesis?
I like how Ben was so adept at lying when he told Ilana (“And who are you?”) that “Jacob’s fine.” It will be interesting to see how Ben reacts to this situation. But then, it always is.
I think Ben was sufficiently horrified by the whole thing that he also realizes that as Jacob’s murderer, he’s now a marked man on that island.
Yes, I heard the producers say that Maggie Grace (Shannon) didn’t want to come back, so even though she was originally supposed to, they had to rewrite their intentions.
My husband and I are convinced that the two timelines are the result of quantum superposition. They are both happening and are both real because there is no observer to determine the issue one way or the other. (i.e. Schrodinger’s cat is still in the box and is both alive and dead at this moment.)
What I wondered was a) in this case, who will the Observer be? and b) obviously, at some point one of the two timelines will collapse. It will probably the new LAX one, just because everybody is going to be really, REALLY mad if we invested 5 seasons in an irrelevant timeline. But in that case, how will the Losties ever get back to the Island when the Island is underwater and inhabitable?
Also, that kiss between blood-drenched Juliet and Sawyer was the most yucky action since the cage sex in season 2.
If we assume that Nemesis has been taking Christian’s form all along, then that would lead me to believe that Claire is not dead, as we saw her in Jacob’s shack WITH Christian, unless he can manipulate the forms of two dead people simultaneously. So its possible in her fragile state she has just been following the image of her father blindly, not realizing who it really is.
I believe Claire is alive as well.
Plus there was the ash ring around Clair and Christian…
Best thing about this episode – the moment that Ben realized that he had been manipulated to kill Jacob the same exact way that Ben had manipulated other people into killing.
Poetic Justice, it’s not just for breakfast anymore
Desmond eh?
Do you think anyone else seen him on the plane, or did he only appear to Jack? Rose said they were asleep when he was apparently there and seen nothing, did any of the rest notice him?
Remember what Eloise told him “The rules don’t apply to you”. Perhaps he’s on a new mission. Not through time, through alternative realities???
Also, anyone else heard the theory that the Black Rock wasn’t a slaver, but could have been transporting convicts from Portsmouth to Australia? The dates and route check out..
Actually, they showed the ash ring around the cabin as broken, when it was visited by Illana and her team. It’s clear now that Nemesis had been using the cabin. Could Nemesis have been the one who said “help me” to Locke when Ben took him there to meet Jacob?
Kevner, I think that we were meant to wonder if Jack had some shadow of a memory (I was reminded of 1977′s Heaven Can Wait, when Warren Beatty’s character in a new body recognizes Julie Christie).
Many fans likely didn’t remember the stadium encounter at first, and even for those who thought of it immediately, it cast a bit of doubt.
In the end, I think he was there to make the point that in that reality, the island was gone, Desmond was never there, etc. Plus it’s throwing a bone to the many Desmond fans out there I think.
And yes, the Black Rock as a prison ship makes a lot of sense – with Richard arriving on the island as a prisoner, when Nemesis encountered him, and being rescued by Jacob (and taken to the Temple and immortalized?).
Note that the future isn’t just what would happen if the plane didn’t crash but apparently what would happen if the island had sunk. That’s probably why there were bigger changes than just Hurley getting on the plane.
Good point Mudhead. I’d forgot about that.
The big question…STILL…is whether Rose and Bernard time traveled to the future along with the other surviving losties.
BTW – while Juliette wasn’t my favorite character in the least, I was sad she died. (Although it was foreshadowed in the conclusion) I bet she pops up once or twice though. Of course her starring on V was an other clue…
Great recap. It’s so good to have Lost back.
So, they are parallel stories, but at different points in time, right? The LAX timeline takes place in 2004 and the island timeline in 2007?
Michelle (#23):
That would have to be the case, yes.
Clark (#22): “The big question…STILL…is whether Rose and Bernard time traveled to the future along with the other surviving losties.”
I’m pretty sure this was resolved last season when the DHARMA ’77 Losties found Rose and Bernard living in a hut in the jungle.
On magic circles, see here.
Rose and Bernard traveled back along with Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Miles, so I think it makes sense that they also got bumped back to 2007, and like the others, ended up in the same spot, their beach house.
Cindy and the kids are a bit of an enigma, because they were from Oceanic, but at the same time she seems to have become a full Other at some point, so was likely protected at the Temple and never time traveled at all (none of the Others apparently did, including Ben, who was absent for all the time traveling).
When Juliet was all (gasp) “I have to tell you something really important–”(gasp, croak, she dies).
I was like that is one of the dumbest, most cliche scenes in Lost history. If they hadn’t used Miles to reveal what she was going to say in the next act it would have been unforgivable.
I always thought that Backgammon scene was purposeful. We finally have enough to see it come to fruition.
I’ll be interested to see what they do with Charlotte and Faraday in LA X.
Apparently even Richard didn’t know he was involved in a cosmic game of backgammon, which makes me wonder just what the Others think they are doing all day as they wander the island.
Juliet telling Sawyer (via Miles) that “it worked” makes much more sense when paired with her (previously) nonsensical request that they “get some coffee…we can go dutch.” I think that Juliet, in her dying throes, somehow momentarily switched consciousness with her “LA X” self, and lived through/remembered a moment where she and Sawyer met/reconnected in that timeline (not unlike how Desmond’s consciousness jumped back and forth from 2004 to 1997 in “The Constant”). Thus, she realized that Jack’s plan worked (in a way), though her primary timeline-self didn’t live long enough to enjoy (or explain) it…
One more to add to that theory: Juliet experienced the time-shift back to 2007 at the epic-enter of the hatch ex(im)plosion–the same place where Desmond turned the fail-safe key (and jump-started his time-flashes).
I like the theory, Squals. To me that would make me have more faith in the writers. It seemed dramatically pointless to bring Juliet back just to have her die again.
One thing I think you may not have noticed: It appears Sun and Jin are NOT married. So Sun may actually not speak English.
When Jin is looking at the watch, we see that his hands are sans wedding ring. When Sun is clutching her passport as the customs agent roots through the luggage, her fingers are also ringless. So they are not even engaged?
Also the female customs officers addresses her as Ms. Paik.
JPG
Wow, Squals and JPG. Good stuff.
I had a lot of fun, and several WHAT? moments, which was all I wanted. This is going to good.
Jacob’s pot guy:
as for your latter assertion, in korea, wives usually still use their maiden names.
Great recap and thanks for the links!
I agree that it’s likely having met Desmond in that stadium that makes Desmond look familiar to Jack, especially because Jack does the double take after Desmond says “brotha.” Maybe Desmond was able to complete the race around the world and that’s how he ended up in Sydney.
I wonder why Boone wasn’t in first class. I guess it was so he could have a conversation with Locke. I agree that Locke must have lied about having gone on the walk-about.
Oh, Arzt! I didn’t even recognize him. I was like, “Who is this annoying dude?” As for Frogurt, though, I totally recognized that annoying dude. He really wasn’t all that annoying in LA X times, though, except he did get yelly about the line for cabs.
That was so bad-ass when Sayid kicked in the door. After politely saying, “Excuse me.”.
I do think that was Greg Grunberg’s voice! That was exciting.
LA X people don’t care nearly as much about “stuff” as I would think they would. Kate leaves the case behind without a second glance. Locke seems mildly inconvenienced but not at all angry about his lost knives.
So I guess the “Fade to white” at the end of season 5 was another time-travel flash. Do you guys remember them experiencing ringing in the ears before? Jin told Hurley they did, but all I remember is white light and headaches (and nosebleeds, natch).
Very cool connection between Juliet and Desmond being in the same location for similar events, Squals.
We did see Sayid grab Horace’s jumpsuit off a coat tree in the finale (but so much stuff happened!).
I think at the end Sayid is Sayid (but then I was convinced Locke was Locke for the second half of last season, so what do I know). And I think Claire’s still alive on the Island.
I was wrong about one thing. Boone and Shannon weren’t in first class (there was a whole thing where Shannon was mad Boone couldn’t get their seats upgraded), but I think they were in business class. You can see Charlie climb over them in that cool “Flight 815″ video BTD Greg linked to first in the post, and their seats are nicer than the ones Boone, Frogurt, and Locke are in in LA X.
Also, I wonder, how is it possible that Jacob’s body could burn up so fast? Is it a magic fire, or is it because Jacob is different, or what?
Heather,
If I recall correctly, I think John Locke also sat in first class. Anyone wanna look back at previous flight scenes?
I also thought Locke was in business class with Jack and Boone.
Can anyone confirm the lack of wedding rings on Jin and Sun? Because I can’t imagine they would be traveling together and him ordering her around (ie telling her to do up her button, which he originally says on the beach) if they were not married.
I’m sorry, but I can’t look at the guy playing Jacob without remembering his part in The Big Lebowski. Which kinda ruins the whole solemnity of the character thing.
Heather P. (#37): “Also, I wonder, how is it possible that Jacob’s body could burn up so fast? Is it a magic fire, or is it because Jacob is different, or what?”
I was wondering that too. Maybe Jacob is a jedi and pulled an Obi-Wan.
In that same Flight 815 video at the top, it looks like Locke is in the same place relative to Jack–that is, one row behind him, and across the aisle.
There’s a list of known seat numbers at lostpedia.
I remember him as Dexter’s wife’s junkie abusive ex-husband.
He was also the head of a motorcycle gang on The Mentalist.
Whoa. That guy gets around.
I watched Lost for the first time this week. The plot appears intriguing, but that smoke monster thingy is flat stupid (almost made me laugh out loud) and a lot of the dialogue is just plain bad. How many times is it necessary for that Sawyer guy to say he’s going to kill Jack? Plus, it really doesn’t seem like it was Jack’s fault, so what’s the deal with that, is Sawyer just an asshole?
I was going to rent the DVDs and try to catch up, now I think I have better things to do.
With all due respect, MCQ, this is a little bit like saying that you walked past a concert hall where an orchestra was playing something from the first stanzas of the 14th hour of the Ring Cycle, and decided that Wagner’s melodies are kind of weak. Or that you read something on page 1052 of War in Peace and weren’t that impressed by this Tolstoy character.
What Greg said. MCQ, just to be clear, the first episode of Lost you ever saw was the premiere of its final season??
Yeah. Guess I’m late to the party. What’d I miss?
Greg, are you really comparing Lost to the Ring Cycle and War and Peace? I can understand liking it as a TV show, but even though I haven’t seen it before I think I’m safe in assuming it’s not quite in the same category as those works.
Okay, fine. Insert your own artistic-work-that’s-really-long into the analogy.
I think Lost is the best TV show ever made. I think this is debatable, but have that conversation without discussing Lost would be absurd.
Kind of like dismissing it after watching part of episode 104 or 105.
Greg, I watched all of both episodes. I’m willing to believe that my bad imressions were mostly due to not knowing anything that came before, but I still think that smoke monster is stupid.
I wish the smoke monster would throttle MCQ and bang his head against a pillar.
If you’re going to bad mouth Lost do it on some other thread, not one that’s clearly for diehard fans.
Think about it. It’s bad form.
Oooohhh, it’s just for the fans. Ok, sorry.
[tiptoes out, turns off the light]
MCQ,
That smoke monster has a particular history in Lost. Don’t diss on the creators for not having the Avatar budget to create a more artsy smoke monster. Its appearance in this episode answered a heck of a lot of questions people have been having since season 1.
Leave the light on, there are still people in here. (The ones with the artistic aptitude to appreciate Wagner and Tolstoy.)
MCQ – as others said this is not the episode to start with. (I found the underwater island to be much more problematic effectswise, btw) Coming in at this point is like walking into Raiders of the Lost Ark during the face melting scene and deciding the movie is dumb and walking out to tell everyone how dumb it is.
BTD Greg – about Jacob’s body. I wondered about that too. I wonder if it is significant or just a requirement so as to not be too graphically violent on TV.
BTW – the hippy in the temple was bugging me until I realized he was the Jewish merchant in Deadwood.
Yes, but they travel to the present with Jack and company…
Clearly they are going to be in the show, judging by the airplane.
Did we ever figure out who was shooting all those flaming arrows, by the way?
Now there’s a comparison I can get behind.
In the alt. timeline, Did Hurley win the lottery with a different set of numbers?
Considering there was no island, thus no distress signal, he could not have known about the numbers, right?
I’m probably missing something.
Ken, I’m thinking he either won the lottery with different numbers, or used the same ones randomly, but either way, without any connection to the island, and thus they were not cursed = no bad luck.
On another note, what does everyone think of Nemesis saying to Richard, “good to see you out of those chains”? There’s quite a heated debated on one of the forums so I’m interested in what everyone here thinks.
Jenny, I’m with Rose in comment #1. Given that Smokey’s statement was the clue that told Richard who “Locke” really was, I took it as a reference to a past event in which Richard was in actual chains for some reason (Black Rock being the obvious possibility).
Here is a good side by side of episode 1 and the last one
at first I was really satisfied that they came out with Not Locke as Smokey.
But, the more I think about it, the more questions it raises:
– did Ben ever really control Smokey (it sure seemed like it from seasons 1-3)?
– Can Smokey be controlled? Or, was it part of the manipulation?
– What did Locke see in Season 1 when he was confronted by Smokey? He tells Jack that he looked into the eye of the island and said it was “beautiful.”
– Why did Smokey kill who he killed? I used to think that smokey was the judge of past misdeeds…now I am not so sure.
– WHY THE FRAKKING MECHANICAL ROLLER COASTER SOUNDS WHEN IT IS CRANKING UP?
– did Ben ever really control Smokey (it sure seemed like it from seasons 1-3)?
I’m thinking not. Wasn’t there a moment last season when Ben tried to call the monster and it didn’t come? I think it was when he wanted to be judged.
From The Onion, a video about why Lost fans will be more annoying than ever:
Final Season Of ‘Lost’ Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever
BTD Greg, re: #40 Making Hurley the Luke of the Island? He would love that.
“If you haven’t watched Lost yet, you’ll regret ever talking to anyone who did.”
Nailed it.
Clearly the most important question that no one has asked yet is are Desmond and Penny reunited in the alternate time line? My love of the show hangs on this!
MCQ, exactly. And I love this throw-away gag, a chyron at one point on the screen: “Experts warn it could be years before ‘Lost’ fans are safe to converse with.”
Regarding Hurley: he could be lying about the lottery thing. I don’t think it is possible for him to have heard the #s.
BUT, I still am convinced that the voice you hear reading the #s in season 5 is Hurley, so I expecting to have that explained.
Next week is reportedly Hurleycentric so I guess we’ll see.
I thought next week’s episode was entitled, “what Kate Does,” which makes it sound Kate-centric….
hello guys, thanks all for your comments.
I have a question about this episode no one seems to rise: where’s Faraday??? We can see him just before the bomb explosion but nothing about him after, he doesn’t wake up with Miles, Hurley, Kate etc.
Does anyone have a clue about where he might be? Did I miss something?
Meems, I must have seen the title of a later one.
Faraday was shot and killed by his mom before they got the nuke. But I’m intrigued by the alternate timeline and Faraday. I bet Ben will appear too.
One of the episodes is titled, Dr. Linus. Methinks that Ben will be around…don’t know in what capacity.
My theory is that Sayid came back to life by bringing his consciousness from the other reality. Any takers?
Cool theory. I like it.
I think there will definitely *something* strange about Sayid.
I think there’s some way in which the alternate realities are dependent on each other. Not sure how, exactly, but I think they are interconnected.
Jeff, I like that theory. It’s possible. Of course, we don’t know enough about The Spring to divine what normally happens. But, Hippie translator seemed quite surprised to see Sayid rising up.
I hope that we get some insight this week as to what the X reality has in store for our Losties. Did the bomb in ’77 have any impact on their lives as we know them? Is Sawyer a con man? kate is still a murderer, but who did she kill? Are Jin and Sun married with marital problems (from my take on the episode, I think that Jin is her “escort” and that they are not married)?
Of course, if there is an alternate timeline now, is that why Jacob had to go and touch the Losties to get them BACK on track, or had the bomb not happened yet?!?! 1.21 gigawatts! Doc, my head hurts!
But, this can’t go on for too long — we need resolution!
I’m with those who theorize that the alternate-timeline Losties have retained some memories of their Island experiences, if only on a subconscious level. While Jack’s recognition of Desmond was partly intended to confuse us — was it a memory of Desmond from the Island, or a memory of meeting him in the stadium? — Jack’s general disquiet throughout the alternate timeline scenes suggests something more. That scene with him staring in the mirror (looking for his alternate self?) and noticing the cut on his neck was particularly interesting in light of this. I’m interested in what that cut turns out to mean.
We also have Boone telling Locke that if the plan went down, he’s sticking close to Locke. Another vague memory of the plan actually crashing, and Boon actually following Locke around? Also, after Charlie was saved from chocking by Jack, he told him “I’m supposed to be dead.”
Generally, the interactions of all of the Losties with each other (Boone/Locke, Jack/Locke, Sawyer with Hurley and later Kate, etc.) seemed to me to be tinges with vague recognition. They all seemed to be much more at ease with each other in their interaction than can be expected from perfect strangers meeting for the first time.
Now that the plane passengers have scattered from the airport, I suspect they will continue to bump into one another in unexpected ways that will continue to jog these unconscious memories.
Late to the conversation here, but I just wanted to throw in that I was noticing the minor differences between LAX reality after the 1977 bomb versus the 2004 of Season 1. With time travel, the writers can take a lot of liberties because the actions taken after the time travel to 1977 will have effects in the resulting future. Obviously, the bomb preventing 815 from going down is the biggest. But they did all sorts of other little things that would make other smaller differences. It’s rather convenient, and I don’t intend that cynically or as some sort of value judgment. It just is.
I think somehow the two realities we’re seeing in Season 6 (not the old 2004 of Season 1)will merge, but I have no idea how, other than that I think Faraday will be involved.
On thinking about it more, the old 2004 of Season 1 is the past of people still on the island in 2007, so I guess the Season 1 2004 will be in any merger, if there is one.