If you’re a Lostie at all then you’ve been waiting for this event with unbridled anticipation: the 2-hour premiere of the final season of ABC’s LOST. In our own anticipation, Maria and I rewatched both Season 4 and 5 and mentally prepared ourselves for the journey that was to take place last night at 9.
We both knew that the biggest reveal was going to come in the very first seconds of the episode. That last season had ended with the explosion of a hydrogen bomb in an attempt to reset the events of the entire series thus far. We knew that if all went well at the end of Season 5, if the bomb went off (and it looked like it did), then all of the survivors would be back in the air, on their flight bound for Los Angeles Airport (LAX). Even those that died.
The fade in from white, after the obligatory recap, was painfully long, and intentionally so, the producers knew that had us in the palm of their hands, so to speak.
Alternative Timeline
The show does begin on the airplane, and the opening scene with Jack plays out almost exactly as it did in the season premiere. We think, and freak out, and wonder if everything really did get reset—if the last five seasons have been erased and what will that mean and what will happen for the rest of Season 6 and on and on. But things begin to unfold differently.
As we soon realize, when we’re snapped back to the island, our beloved survivors have not escaped the Others and the island but have jumped forward in time to meet up with Fake Locke, Sun, and the other survivors of the second plane crash. Instead of resetting the whole thing, the explosion of the bomb seems to have created alternative, disjointed timelines. The survivors exist, seemingly at the same time, on both the plane, and later in Los Angeles, but also on the island.
As the alternative, what-if-we-didn’t-crash timeline begins to unfold there are noticeable differences in the characters. Locke seems happy, instead of miserable (did he get to go on his walkabout after all?). Jin and Sun seem to be happily in love (but Jin is obviously keeping something from her?). Hurley, probably the most pronounced difference of all, seems to regard his lottery winning and fortune as good luck instead of a curse. I’m probably missing more, but the point is that this alternative timeline isn’t just “what would’ve happened,” but these characters are, somehow, different.
Worth mentioning is that Jack seems to know that something is up: he recognizes Desmond and, besides, what is Desmond doing on the flight to begin with? Could this be a flash-forward to the end of Season 6?
Jacob’s Nemesis
Rewatching Seasons 4 and 5 with the knowledge that Jacob’s nemesis can seemingly inhabit dead bodies is a crazy experience. Maria and I forgot how often characters like John’s dad appear and the implications of the things those characters say and do. Knowing that it was Jacob’s nemesis all along is pretty earth-shattering. Learning that Jacob’s nemesis is also the Smoke Monster, is just insane.
The ash is interesting, especially since it was found around Jacob’s cabin, and the ash circle being broken was how Ilana and her crew knew that something was up. Whether Jacob’s nemesis was being kept in that cabin, or whether Jacob was hiding out in there from him, I’m not sure we know yet. But the whole Smoke Monster revelation is, can I say, dope. Does this mean that all of the times the Smoke Monster appears, it was to do the opposite of Jacob’s will, to try and ruin Jacob’s plans? I’m thinking of when Ben summoned it to defend Dharmaville when Widmore’s mercenaries came to capture him. And didn’t the Smoke Monster kill Mr. Echo?
Maria speculates that, originally, Jacob and his nemesis must’ve worked together, perhaps he really was a temple guardian, or island guardian, as the Smoke Monster. After all, as Maria pointed out to me, Jacob does say they were “old friends”.
Others’ Temple
Perhaps the biggest reveal of all though is the Others’ Temple.
This is just an insane twist in the plot. They aren’t beating around the bush anymore: we’re on some crazy island with clear and active links to an ancient civilization. I’ve been saying forever that it’s Atlantis, but I could still be wrong. It’s something. The Temple is enormous and the Others seem to be a lot more of a religious faction than we’ve previously been shown. There’s a lot of ceremony and ritual, it seems. We’re made privy to a whole other command structure at this Temple with John Lennon and Yoko Ono running the show. I appreciate Yoko’s karate moves mid-way through the episode.
I don’t even know what to make of any of this. The healing fountain (where Ben was brought as a kid?) and the obvious baptism imagery with Sayid. The fortification of the Temple against Jacob’s nemesis—the black smoke was supposed to be a Temple guardian at some point, no? And the fact that Yoko and John ask so off-handedly if Jacob was going to join Hurley and the other survivors at the Temple. So they don’t worship Jacob at this temple, then who is Jacob?
Final Thoughts
A few last things are worth mentioning.
First, Juliet told Sawyer, “It worked.” Does she mean that the bomb went off and the reset worked? That seems to be what she meant, but how would she know and what does that mean? Are the survivors who are on the plane in the real timeline, has it worked, they’ve been saved, and they’re somehow redeemed by their whole experience (even without really remembering it). After all, John is happy, Hurley is lucky, Sun and Jin are in love. But then again, maybe not: Charlie is still an addict (a habit he kicked on the island), Kate is still an outlaw (and making it worse on herself), etc.
Juliet was talking to herself, she seemed somewhere else for a minute, when Sawyer was holding her. Perhaps she was in her alternative timeline for a second and knew it must’ve worked after all.
And, Hurley. I suspect he’s going to become a very important character, as we can already see in these first two episodes. He’s the only survivor who made it back to the real world and was told by Jacob to return to the island. I suspect, and maybe this is very obvious, that Jacob knew he was going to die and needed Hurley back on that island to communicate with him. Hurley is the only person, surprise surprise, that can speak to dead people. Well, Miles can too, actually, but in a different way. Jacob needed Hurley, and Hurley is going to become a very important character. Good, because we love Hurley.
The final season premiere was a doozy, and worth the wait. A two-hour television episode is practically a movie and the production quality of LOST is just phenomenal. It’s going to be hard to find a show to replace it once it’s run it’s course, and hard to wait another week for the next episode.
Thoughts?
Nice connection about the man in black possibly being Jack’s dad on the island! We hadn’t thought of that one
The conflict between Ben and Widmore seems to reflect the conflict between Jacob and his nemesis. It’s not obvious to me which sides they are working for, but it’s clear that at least Ben has been manipulated by Jacob’s nemesis to act against Jacob: When Ben’s late daughter appears in the temple and tells him to obey Locke, it’s actually Jacob’s nemesis…it’s just that it takes a while before the intended Locke to appear.
Also, another mystery surrounds Richard Alpert, the ageless advisor to the Others. When the fake Locke leaves the statue after Jacob has been killed, he beats up Richard after saying that he is free of his chains. Does that mean that Jacob’s immortality magic is gone now too? Can he age, injure and die? The fact that he’s being beaten up suggests that he’s now fully mortal.