Oh, LOST.
I don’t know what it is, but this show never fails to entertain me. Maybe it’s the characters. Maybe it’s Michael Giacchino’s score. Maybe it’s the polar bears, the hatches, the smoke monster, or the time-traveling. Needless to say, as I sat down to watch this final season’s premiere, this eighteenth-to-last episode of LOST, I felt sad and thrilled at the same time.
Though I’d like to say the season started off with a bang, the two-hour premiere actually more or less took me on a very bumpy and confusing roller coaster ride.
We saw Boone and Charlie again, but said goodbye to Juliet. We found out what the Smoke Monster is, but were promptly introduced to a new group of Others at the Temple. And most importantly, Faraday’s theory worked, but created two alternate timelines, resulting in, well, “flash-sideways.”
Confused? Here’s the long story short:
Juliet detonated the bomb, creating two alternate timelines, one with the plane crashing onto the island, one with the plane arriving safely at LAX.
On the Island Timeline:
Juliet dies (R.I.P.), Sawyer gets upset, then tries to beat up Jack in anger. Sayid is dying, Hurley sees a vision of Jacob telling him to bring Sayid to the Temple, does so, and meets a new group of Others. Oh, and Sayid miraculously lives. Hooray!
At the statue, Fake Locke (“Flocke”) orders Ben to fetch Richard. Ben tries to, fails, and brings back Jacob’s bodyguards. Flocke turns into the smoke monster (!!!) and kills them. Flocke comes out, beats up Richard and tells everyone he’s disappointed in them.
On the LAX Timeline:
The plane makes it to LAX. Things are different. Hurley is lucky, Jack is nervous, Charlie is suicidal, Jin and Sun are in trouble, Locke went on a walkabout, Desmond is on the plane and Shannon is not. Kate escapes from Edward Mars in a taxi with Claire in it and Christian Shephard’s body is missing.
Wow, no wonder my head hurts after these two hours.
The Awesome:
- Seeing much of the original cast back on Oceanic 815, especially Boone and Charlie.
- Finding out that the Smoke Monster is the Man in Black/Jacob’s Nemesis/Flocke.
- Kate running to Jack first when she found Sawyer and him hurt. Sorry, just the Jack/Kate fan in me pointing that out.
The Confusing:
- Sayid is alive after having drowned inside the temple. How?
- In the LAX Timeline, the Island is underwater. Wait, what?
- Where is Jacob’s Nemesis/Locke taking Richard and why is he disappointed in everybody?
- Desmond is on Flight 815 in the LAX Timeline. Why?
- Jack checks out a mark on his neck. Significance?
- Why does the black powder keep the Smoke Monster away?
- Where is Christian Shephard? And Locke’s suitcase full of knives?
- The entire double-timeline thing. Flash-forwards were mindboggling enough, but flash-sideways?
- The characters in the LAX Timeline are all over the place. I wonder how the show’s going to bring them all back together. Or will it?
Clearly, it was densely-packed premiere. There are tons of new questions, but this will definitely make for an intriguing final season. Until next week, Losties!