HELL YEAH! “Lost” is back! My full write-up is after the break.
Quotes of the week:
- Man in Black (Locke) to Ben: “Sorry you had to see me like that.”
- Jack to Locke: “Nothing’s irreversible.”
Mini Recap:
The episode focuses on two separate timelines. One in which the crash of Flight 815 never happened and another where the Losties managed to time travel from the 70′s to the present.
Overall Thoughts:
I’m torn. As a season opener it really wasn’t that big of an episode. There are always talks of “Game Changers” but at this point I found the whole second “what if” timeline or whatever we are calling it more annoying than exciting. That being said, I LOVED finally seeing the temple and getting hints of what’s to come. It seems to me that war is brewing and when it hits it’s going to be badass.
Time Lines:
What we are watching is the end of “Lost.” Sometime later this season The Losties manage to do what they failed to do in the season finale: They reverse the plane crash so it never happens. So this alternate timeline where the plane never crashed is what happens to the characters after they undo everything. The largest hint to this is the cut on Jack’s neck at the start of the episode. There is not hint or clue where it came from which suggests that it simply hasn’t happened yet.
The Alternate Timeline:
Whether the alternate timeline is a flash forward to the future or whatever, one thing that seems clear is that it already mirrors what happened. The US Marshall got hit in the head in the exact same place he did in the pilot. Then Jack restarted Charlie’s heart like he did in the pilot. So my guess is that as we move forward there will be more fate/destiny like incidents.
One of the biggest things that jumped out about the new timeline is Jack’s missing father. It’s long been speculated that one of the reasons Flight 815 was able to get to the island is because of the Jack’s dad, just like Flight 316 was able to get there because of the dead Locke. So what if the WHOLE reason this timeline is different is because Jack’s father was never on the plane?
Smoke Monster:
As we all suspected, The Man in Black is the Smoke Monster and he has taken on the form of Locke. I have to say the whole fight scene was pretty badass. Specially the part where the guy drew a circle of ash and thought he was safe, but then BAM! Smokey knocks the ceiling down on him. Freaking awesome!
The real issue with the Smoke Monster is that we finally have a hint of what he wants. He wants to go home. This begs the question, where is home? The most obvious answer is The Temple since it seems like The Others are stationed there protecting it, but I think that’s a cop-out. The MiB and Jacob have been playing a game for centuries. As of now we really don’t know which is actually the “good guy” and which is the “bad guy.” But since the two of them have been going at it for so long, I’m guessing home is something much more complex than The Temple. Maybe MiB is a time traveler and home is a different time? Who knows, but wherever “home” is I have a feeling that MiB getting there will in some way or another be bad for our Losties.
The Real Locke:
I’m calling it now. The real Locke is bound to return in the present. Here are just some of the things that hinted to it:
- There were several transitions in the episode that cut from Locke’s body to Sayid’s body. This of course ended with Sayid being resurrected foreshadowing that the same would happen to Locke.
- The Man in Black spends a large chunk of dialog talking trash about Locke. From a writing standpoint the dialog was a waste of time… unless it’s a set-up. If Locke is resurrected and comes back fighting then the dialog becomes bittersweet in a very good way.
- In the alternate timeline, Locke gives a speech about how just because a body is gone it doesn’t mean that the spirit is.
Sayid:
So there are three possibilities for Sayid’s resurrection.
- Sayid is Sayid and back from the dead.
- Sayid is dead and Jacob has taken over his body.
- Sayid is dead and the real Locke has taken over his body.
If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on theory three.
The Rules of Time Travel:
Before ending, I want to re-visit the rules of time travel. The rules are simple. You can’t change the past. The only exception to this is Desmond because he was inside the hatch when it exploded and got bathed in electromagnetic energy. We then saw Desmond change things when he kept saving Charlie’s life several seasons ago.
The interesting thing to note now is that if Desmond became an uber time-traveler who can exist outside the timeline and change things then there is a damn good chance that all our main Losties are now the same way. They were there during The Incident. They were all bathed in electromagnetic energy. So my guess is that now since they too can change the future/past they will do something later in the season that will undo everything (my guess is pull Jack’s dead father from Flight 815). This will, as I suggested above, result in a re-setting of the timeline.
Other Odds and Ends:
You know it. I know it… Desmond was doing something sneaky on the plane, most likely time-traveling!
The smoke monster mentions Richard being in chains. Is this a reference to The Black Rock? Was Richard a slave?
Where did Jack’s cut come from? Will we see this happen later in the season (I’m 100% sure we will)?
The real Locke was in the box.
That was an ankh in the guitar case.
The MiB cut a piece of Jacob’s tapestry.
The return of the Dharma shark!
FINALLY! We got to see The Temple.
Yes that was so a Lazarus pit in The Temple.
Did you notice Greg Grunberg’s quick voice-over cameo as the pilot of Flight 815?
THANK YOU! Your write-ups always help the episodes make more sense. I’m sooooo happy you decided to do them again this season.
Ohhhh Sayid is possessed by the real Locke? I really like that idea. It makes more sense than him being taken over by Jacob.
No mention of Juliet?!
Besides that your post-takes on Lost are the best!
I took some really cool bloody screen captures of Juliet, but when I was writing up the episode I had nothing to say. It was nice she had a small cameo, but I had come to terms with her death last spring. The only important thing she did in the premiere was pass the message through Miles and I did mention that.
Did anyone else notice when Jack, Kate, Hurley, Jin et al reached the temple and were confronted by the “other others” the flight attendant in that group said they were on “the first plane.”
What about Juliet mentioning going “dutch.” When you go dutch you split a bill. I think her saying that was her meaning they split time and that’s why we have two worlds.
I found it interesting that Jack was now in seat 24 on the plane. In the pilot, he was in 23. It seems the destruction of the island had a profound impact on the numbers and their meaning.
As we look back on the pivotal moments of Lost, there is one constant that continues to aid our friends – the VAN! And it helped again last night as I expected.
Think about this….where have we seen the Van..
- Helped kill Ben’s Dad to protect more people from being shot/abused
- Gave Hurley confidence by letting him ‘seemingly’ fix it and hope by starting again after many years.
- Showed up at a crucial point to kill the others at the beach site right before they were going to shoot Bernard
- End of season 5 – saving Jack and Sayid from the others in addition to popping in at the right moment to help Jack in the shootout.
It comes in at these moments because these events need to happen and the Van knows it.
I believe that what we are seeing in the flash sideways / alternate universe in season 6 is in fact an epilogue to the series finale. Juliet causing the bomb to go off didn’t make this happen. The only thing that happened by Juliet making the bomb go off is that it put them in present time. I don’t think we will find out any definite reasons for this and it will remain one of the mysteries of the show. I believe that showing this alternate timeline in sequence with the bomb going off was done to confuse us a little, but also because there is probably a whole season-worth of storyline that will happen to our beloved characters in this destiny-free resolution
So after watching the episode last night, I am more convinced than ever that there must be 2 smoke monsters. Possibly that Jacob and MIB were both able to turn into a smoke monster, but I think more likely is there is just someone on Jacob’s side that can be a smoke monster.
Somehow the survivors in the alternate timeline will have their memory sparked and it will be made clear that they need to merge the two timelines, maybe just for the sake of merging them. But I think that they need to merge them to get the real Locke back.
When Jack operates on Locke, if he fixes him, the real Locke will come back to life on the island, and that, we will learn, was the purpose of the alternate timeline. To bring Locke back.
The theory I present is simple. We know there is a division between MIB and Jacob, and that Locke’s body was inhabited by MIB. I think from the very beginning of the series Jack was inhabited by Jacob. It presents the exact scenario MIB and Jacob had– they could not kill each other and they were philosophically divided. And it all goes back to the stupid scene in the premier when Jack tells Kate that he avoided the smoke monster by jumping into the bushes. From everything we know about the monster, that does not sound like him.
Think about when Jack pulled the trigger on Locke in Season 4 premiere – Locke didn’t die.
Think about when Locke pulled a gun on Jack in Season 3 final – Jack didn’t die.
They cannot kill each other – just like MIB and Jacob.
The parallels are uncanny and my hunch is that this will come to light.
Most people think that the losties destiny/purpose or whatever you want to call it is to be a part of the game between M.I.B. and Jacob and to help one of them prove their point.I dont think this is actually their “destiny”.Yes,it may be true that they’re a part of the arguement.But,I think that their destiny is much more vital than just to prove a point or win an arguement.So if their destiny is not about an arguement, what is it you might ask?I think that the losties are somehow destined to prevent the end of the world somehow.
Love all the pics!