Last night’s LOST was an absolute mind trip and I loved it. For the purposes of time—it’s tight this week—I’d like to completely skip the recap aspect of my review and get right down to the cold hard theory.
My thesis: The flash-sideways timeline occurs between the time that Juliet sets off the hydrogen bomb, and the survivors wake up, on the island, in the present day (2007) timeline.
Tonight’s episode is going to be about Desmond. We know this from the bagpipes in the preview and can surmise it from the fact that Desmond arrived on the island as the “package” last episode.
I thought, first of all, that Desmond was going to be an important chess piece in a game that Charles Widmore was about to play with Jacob’s Nemesis. Remember, to leave the island the Man-in-Black needs all of Jacob’s candidates to go with him. Or, possibly, he needs them dead. Desmond is a candidate. But, there’s more to it than this, I think.
Remember, Desmond recognized Jack on the flash-sideways Oceanic flight. That means that Desmond has some kind of memory of knowing Jack previously. That means that perhaps Desmond is aware of the real timeline going on simultaneously. Why? Because Desmond has had flashes like this before and perhaps he’ll recognize this flash-sideways for what it is.
The previews for this week’s episode have talked about a “path” being found. Putting two and two together, in an episode about Desmond perhaps the path that’s found is a result of Desmond doing, or remembering, or realizing something. If he figures out what the flash-sideways is all about and if he somehow figures out how to right it all, then there’s our path. Poof.
The writers did say that sometime, about half-way through this season, the two timelines would merge about become one. Could we perhaps see that tonight? And does Desmond have something to do with it. I think quite possibly, yes.
Not only is Desmond important to Widmore as a bargaining piece, and something to prevent the Smoke Monster from leaving the island, but perhaps Widmore also knows what’s going on with the two timelines and needs Desmond to make things right. Then again, perhaps I’m completely off-base, but that’s half the fun of LOST: making these wild predictions.
The path, of course, could be something entirely different but at this point in the season, given what we know about the two timelines merging, I’d venture that this is what we’re up for.
If last week’s Richard-centric flashback episode was a different kind of LOST, and it was, then this week’s “The Package” was a lot of the same old, same old. But for a show that, by last estimate, was drawing over 10 million viewers per episode, the same old is clearly working well.
This week’s episode moved along the Jacob/Man-in-Black plot quite speedily while still, in true LOST fashion, revealing only scant details surrounding the billion other questions that fans have.
This week’s episode of LOST, “Ab Aeterno,” was what I imagine LOST fans everywhere have been waiting for this season. Answers. Ab Aeterno, which is Latin for “since the beginning,” was an almost full-length flashback episode telling the story of Richard Alpert, the never-aging adviser to the Others. Unique, in that it was almost an entire episode devoted to a flashback, it also significantly advanced the Jacob/Nemesis plot and answers scores upon scores of questions. Let’s do this…
Tonight’s episode of LOST is about Richard, one of the great mysteries of the island. Ironically, it feels like it’s been ages since we first met Richard. Back then we didn’t really understand much about him. He was an advisor to Ben, the leader of the Others, and seemed to wield significant power in his own right, but we didn’t know much more than that. Since then, we’ve learned a lot.
I’m going to go ahead and skip the recap elements of this week’s review and get straight to the analysis, there’s a lot to go over. As always, I’ll bury any spoilers after the break.
OK, so I’m seriously still reeling. Last night’s episode of LOST was simply the best this season. As Maria suspects, it’s only going to get better from here on in. Let’s debrief.
This week’s episode, titled “Dr. Linus” unsurprisingly followed Ben Linus through both the present timeline and the alternate one. In the alternate timeline, we learned previously, he’s working as a high school history teacher. In the present timeline he’s, well, himself. But despite being, literally, worlds apart, these two Bens are forced to make very important choices. Crucial choices.
