Lost: Season Premiere

BY BILLIE DOUX

Ben: “You’re the monster.”
Locke: “Let’s not resort to name calling.”

Two timelines, no waiting. This episode was so wild and crazy that I was almost thankful for the commercials so that my brain could at least try to keep up. I said, almost.

Island Stuff

At first I thought Jack was dreaming. And then I thought of multiverses, a theory that has always felt like bull to me. But I finally decided that the Island stuff is real, because it’s a continuation of the story we’ve been hooked on for the past five years. And the 815-never-crashed alternate timeline is… well, I haven’t figured that out yet. In “The Incident,” Jacob said, “It only ends once.” This will all end. There will be a final battle, with our Losties versus the Nemesis, whom I think I should call the Man in Black now. Dan thinks that once the Island stuff is resolved, the timelines will converge and the Losties will get their lives back. Interesting theory.

The bomb going off clearly tossed the Losties back to 2007, since the debris was from the hatch explosion that Locke caused at the end of season two and Juliet was near the surface. The first thing Juliet said was, “It didn’t work.” After she died, Miles said that she said, “It worked.” So which was it? Did Juliet change her mind in the afterlife? When Miles was “reading” the dead Juliet, we could hear Monster-related sounds, which just freaked me out a bit.

Dead is dead, but Sayid isn’t dead. I thought it was touching that Sayid was convinced he was going to Hell, and resigned to it. What is he now? Will he turn evil, like I assume Ben did after his childhood encounter with the spring in the Temple? Or did Jacob take over Sayid’s dead body, like the Man in Black took Locke’s? Did the Man in Black choose Locke as his vessel because Locke was the first one Jacob touched that died?

Why did the Man in Black kill everyone under the Foot but Ben? Maybe he wants to use him again for something… or maybe Ben is protected because he was once healed by the spring? I wonder which side Ben will end up on? Wouldn’t it be cool if Ben became one of the good guys?

“815 never crashed” Stuff

There was something about the 815 story that felt like the sympathetic magic they used to recreate the crash on flight 316. Like Charlie nearly dying, like he did on the Island, and Jack bringing him back *again*. Like the pen Jack asked for, which was what Boone did on the beach. (Kate lifted the pen to pick the lock on her handcuffs.) The marshal was bonked on the head again. I was particularly intrigued by the inexplicable disappearance of Christian’s coffin and Locke’s suitcase full of knives.

It was so much fun to see the cast back on the plane, but different; it was the gift that kept on giving. Bernard making it back to his seat. Doc Arzt asking Hurley how he got rich, and Sawyer trying to protect Hurley (or thinking about conning him). Boone and Locke connecting, just the way they did on the Island. Jack and Sawyer both attracted to Kate. And how about Jack and Locke connecting over their “lost luggage”? I can’t believe I never put Jack (spinal surgeon) and Locke (paraplegic) together in my head before. Jack is going to heal Locke, isn’t he? How logical.

What was with Desmond? It didn’t feel like he was real. Of course, we all know Desmond wasn’t on 815, but it wasn’t just that. Hurley as the luckiest guy in the world was really interesting, too; it certainly implied that the numbers were indeed cursed. And why was there blood on Jack’s neck?

The creepiest thing was that shot of the Island underwater. Is that going to be the end of the series, with the Man in Black defeated, the Island gone like Atlantis, and everyone going back to their lives?

Yes, I’m confused, but I’m used to being confused by Lost. It feels like we’re going to find out what’s going on, though, and it will all be resolved and it will even make sense. It just occurred to me that I’ve never even thought about how I want this series to end. It’s weird that I don’t know what I want. Other than to get the answers to absolutely freaking everything, of course.

Since we’re supposed to get all the answers this season… voila! A new section!

What have we learned?

– The Man in Black, who is using a simulacrum of Locke’s body, is also the Smoke Monster. And he seems to be invulnerable, if you go by the smushed bullet we saw.

– The gray ash stuff protects you from the Man in Black. Which explains why it surrounded the cabin, and why they were pouring it around the Temple.

– Ilana, Bram and friends were Jacob’s bodyguards. Heck of a job, Brownie.

– Jacob’s ghost wasn’t like the Walking Dead; he was still Jacob. And only Hurley could see him. I thought that was interesting.

Who brings a book into a cave?

– On the plane, Rose was reading the Weekly Woodman. Weekly Woodman??? On the back cover was an obvious tribute to The X-Files: a flying saucer, “The Truth is out there,” and an ad for Morley cigarettes. I hope that doesn’t mean that the answers to everything are going to be a mish-mosh conglomeration made up after the fact. Maybe it was just subliminal reassurance that we’ll eventually get the answers.

– Desmond was reading Salmon Rushdie. Didn’t catch the title. If you know, please post a comment! Yes, I could go search for other reviews, but I never do that.

– The book that fell out of Montand’s pack was a French translation of Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Trembling) It was originally published under the name “John the Silent”, and wow, what a great Lost reference considering John is now dead. And it’s a philosophical work centered around the sacrifice of Isaac as a test of faith in God. Jeez Louise. Lost is back.

Character bits:

– Juliet’s death in this episode didn’t upset me as much as what I *thought* was her death in “The Incident.” Maybe the “815-never-crashed” stuff made it feel unreal.

– Juliet said she wanted to save Sawyer from the Island. She was wrong, though. The Island made Sawyer the good person she fell in love with.

– In love triangle news (guess it’s a triangle again with Juliet gone), Jack and Sawyer were both lying there unconscious, and Kate immediately went to Jack. Sawyer said he’d kill Jack, but later told Kate he wouldn’t. I don’t know… Sawyer kept his word twice about killing people, didn’t he? (Cooper and Tom.)

– The Man in Black said that Locke’s final thought at the moment of his death was, “I don’t understand,” and that he was the only one of the Losties who knew how pathetic his life was. That’s truly sad. I hope Locke gets another chance.

– We heard Greg Grunberg’s voice as Captain Norris, but didn’t see him.

– In the alt timeline, Shannon didn’t leave Australia with Boone.

– Charlie was arrested and left with his guitar case.

– Did Sun plant the money in Jin’s suitcase so that he would get arrested? And did Sun ever learn to speak English, or was she lying about it?

– Cindy the flight attendant is apparently some kind of high priestess now.

– We only caught a glimpse of Claire in the cab Kate hijacked at LAX, and only a head shot. Was she pregnant?

– Who was the Temple leader, the guy who knew English but wouldn’t speak it? What language was he speaking? And who was his buddy with the glasses (who was played by yet another Deadwood actor)? Names would be nice.

Bits and pieces:

– The Island scenes began with a close-up of Kate’s right eye. Kate has never gotten an eye scene before. http://www.billiedoux.com/losteyes.html

– Jeremy Davies and Elizabeth Mitchell (*sob*) are out of the cast, and Nestor Carbonell, Emilie de Ravin, Jeff Fahey and Zuleikha Robinson are in. I assume Elizabeth Mitchell would have survived the blast and stayed in the cast if she hadn’t gotten the lead in V, because the producers of this show are not fools.

– The Dharma van came along to 2007 with the Losties, possibly because they were touching it. And they managed to retain their clothes. (I’m fondly remembering Desmond wandering around naked after the Hatch explosion.)

– Great payoff for the guitar case. Loved the huge ankh and the message inside of it.

– The healing spring still worked on Sayid, but it apparently changed color when Jacob died.

– St. Sebastian Hospital is located at 8444 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, 90025. 310 area code, although I could swear it used to be 323.

– This week’s Most Obvious Symbolism may have been Charlie choking on his drugs. There are other candidates, though.

– Red seems to be the fashion statement of choice at the Temple. Interesting that Hurley was already wearing red under his Dharma coveralls.

– There was no effort to recreate hairstyles from the pilot, and I’m certain some of the clothes were different. Why not, considering it was a different timeline.

Quotes:

Bernard: “Remind me to hold it next time, will you?” Seeing Bernard actually come back from the bathroom was a little thing, but such fun.

Sawyer: “What do you say, Doc? Got another great idea to save Sayid? Maybe there’s another nuke laying around.”

Boone (to Locke): “This thing goes down, I’m sticking with you.”

Juliet: “We could get coffee some time. We could go Dutch.” Okay, that’s what I want in the final episode: Sawyer and Juliet meeting for the first time and going for coffee.

Juliet: “Kiss me.”
Sawyer: “You got it, Blondie.”
I think that was the only nickname in this episode.

Charlie: “I was supposed to die.”
How incredibly creepy.

Sawyer: “What’s a 341?”
TSA agent: “That’s confidential, sir.”
Sawyer: “Well, if it’s confidential, how the hell am I supposed to know if I see one?”
That was fun, since Sawyer was very aware that he was standing in front of the 341.

Sawyer: “We got caught by the others again?”
Kate: “Yeah. Only this time they’re protecting us.”

Locke: “Hope you find that coffin.”
Jack: “Hope you find your knives.”

Locke: “Hello, Richard. It’s good to see you out of those chains.” Was Richard a slave on the Black Rock?

I’m not exactly sure what happened, but it was awesome. Four out of four polar bears,

Billie