Lost Blog

I have only seen the episode once but the first thing that springs to mind when summing up LA X is Wow. Just Wow. I’m sure Darlton have a checklist for the perfect Season opener which they adhere to with each season. A bunch of new questions - check. A bunch of new mysterious characters - check. Confusion, Unpredictability, Crazyness - check, check, check. But I wouldn’t have it any other way - Oh how I’ve missed you, LOST.

Sooo, without further adieu - let’s get to it!

The New Story Arc

Alot of Lost fans had theorized over the many possibilities this season could’ve taken after the H-Bomb blew up. Some where on the Whatever Happened, Happened side, while others maintained a strong belief that everything that had happened in 2004 wouldn’t happen, that Oceanic 815 wouldn’t crash and it would create an Alternate Timeline. From all the theories I’d read about these two scenario’s I don’t recall reading one that said it would intertwine the two.

Even though there seems to be an Alternate Timeline this season, they’ve handled it in a way that Whatever Happened did Happen. It’s the perfect solution to such a complex story. Jack, Kate et al flashed to 2007 on the island and it keeps in sync with Whatever Happened, Happened. If they hadn’t, and the new Alternate Timeline had still played out, it would be impossible for them to have ever been in 1977 to cause The Incident. At least this way, the original timeline is playing out the way it should, and The Incident causes an Alternate Timeline in the process without causing it to be an impossibility… (well, as impossible as anything in LOST).

The “Flash Sideways” - Desmond and Changes

So, with the Alternate Timeline there are some similarities to the original flight, and some real differences. One of the major differences is Desmond being on the plane. Obviously, in the original timeline Desmond arrived on the island in 2001 and spent 3 years of his life pushing the button to save the world until September 22nd 2004 when he failed to push the button in time causing Oceanic 815 to crash. In this timeline, there could be very many reasons why Desmond didn’t end up doing that, but the main reason is probably because The Swan was never built.

We delve further into Desmonds new life and hazard a guess that he did the race around the world and completed it without his island detour, or perhaps he didn’t even meet Penelope who the race around the world was in aid of. Further still, Charles Widmore, Eloise and Father Campbell were great influences in Desmonds life and it was his time spent at the monastry that led him to meet Penelope. If Eloise and Charles didn’t survive the H-Bomb then they wouldn’t have been alive to interfere. Desmond now has free will.

The interesting thing about Desmond in this episode though, was his dissapearing act after Jack had saved Charlie. We all know in the original timeline Desmond had visions of Charlie dieing and attempted to save his life a number of times until he realised that Course Correction was going to kick his ass.

So there was Charlie, at the brink of death, and Jack saves him. Ironically, Charlie tells Jack that he was supposed to die. Obviously, a statement like that was there as a reminder that even though they didn’t crash, Course Correction is still going to find a way to kill Charlie. Perhaps, he was supposed to die in the original crash. The number of times Charlie had come close to dieing even before Desmond started saving him suggests that he was supposed to die in the original crash. Course Correction caught up with him then, and it probably will in this new Alternate Timeline.

Anyway… Desmond. Where did he dissapear to after Jack saved Charlies life? Is it insignificant? Did he just go to the loo? Was he there to see that Charlie dies? In the original timeline he was trying to save Charlies life - in this timeline does he have some foresight or knowledge about events that have happened/should have happened, and is there to see that these things come to fruition? As Daniel Faraday once said, Desmond is special. As Eloise once said, The Island isn’t done with him yet.

There is something going on with him, and I can’t wait to find out what.

I could talk about Desmond all day, but let’s carry with some more ch-ch-changes.

Some other changes in the Alternate Timeline is the fact that Shannon didn’t come back to LA with Boone. The situation as to why Boone was in Australia seems to be similar, but for some reason Shannon decided to stay in Sydney. Perhaps in this Alternate Timeline, Jack decided to save Shannon’s father instead of Sarah when they had that car crash. If Shannon’s father is still alive she probably didn’t have many money worries and an evil Step mother to contend with. She wouldn’t have had to use men to con Boone out of money. She may have had trouble in Sydney, but I doubt the situation was exactly the same, which is probably why she wasn’t on the plane. I wonder if, among the countless other questions that need answering, we’ll find out why she wasn’t on the plane.

This leads us to Jack. Jack seems to recognise Desmond from somewhere but can’t quite place him. Some would say he recognises him from the stadium when they “ran” into each other, but if Jack had decided to save Shannon’s father instead of Sarah, then Jack wouldn’t have been so wound up about “fixing” Sarah and wouldn’t have gone to the stadium to work off the stress. Furthurmore, if Desmond hadn’t met Penelope he wouldn’t have entered the race around the world, therefore his training at the stadium wouldn’t have happened either. Neither of them would have ever met before. So why does Jack seem to recognise him?

There’s more to Jack

Jack seems to have a cut on his neck which coincides with an injury he suffered in The Incident. Is this a sign that the two timelines will eventually become one? Will Jack realise that there’s another timeline and remember everything that has happened? I think that perhaps he will take on a similar role to Locke this season with regards to bringing people back to the island. Last season, Locke attempted to bring everyone back to the island, so this season Jack will. Perhaps Jack is the only one who will remember and so will appear crazy to the likes of Kate and Sawyer, as did Locke to them over the last few seasons. Perhaps, even Locke will find it hard to believe and become a character similar to how Jack was, failing to believe in Destiny.

It’s funny how Jack, in the original timeline, had a hate for Locke, yet in this Alternate Timeline Jack gave Locke his business card and offered to try and fix him. Ok, they’ve only just met and Locke hasn’t given Jack much reason to hate him, but I found it quite nice that without the island, Jack and Locke could perhaps be friends.

I think this also confirms that Locke may just be a special person afterall. I believe this because Jack wanted to help him. It reflects how Ben wanted Jack to want to do surgery on him, but was coerced into doing so. Whereas, with Locke, Jack does want to help him, no questions asked. Locke is indeed more significant than Ben will ever be, and I think Jacks choice to want to fix him, confirms it.

Will he fix Locke? Will Locke come back to the island and take on Flocke? It’s definately a possibility.

Locke and his Walkabout

On the plane, Locke told Boone about the Walkabout he’d been on in Australia. It seemed that Locke wasn’t paralysed, until the plane landed and the air crew arrived with a wheel chair. Did he still get pushed out the window by his father? Or was he telling Boone the truth, and he had an accident in the Walkabout. Given the date of the journey, I think Locke lied to Boone as he pretty much took Oceanic 815 within a few days of him being rejected by the people who run the Walkabout. So why did he lie to Boone? Was it simply because he didn’t want to talk about it?

Jin and Sun

In the original timeline Sun almost left Jin at Sydney Airport because their marriage was on the rocks, but she changed her mind at the last minute as he showed Sun that perhaps there was still a little romance there. Are the circumstances for them being on the plane this time around the same? Jin still seems to be the angry man who tells his wife to button her top up. Did they even tie the knot in this Alternate Timeline? (EDIT: After watching it for a second time it appears that the woman at the airport calls Sun Miss Paik, instead of Ms Kwon. This suggests the Jin and Sun aren’t married in this Alternate Timeline) Does Sun even speak English in this Alternate Timeline? Her interactions with the airport staff seem to suggest that, but perhaps she was lieing so that Jin wouldn’t know that she’d learned how to speak English, much like she did in the original timeline. I think we need more info on these two “lovebirds” before coming to a conclusion on this.

Hurley and his Good Luck

So, Hurley still wins the lottery but instead of finding himself cursed, he now has the best luck in the world. Did he use the same numbers? If, in 1977, The Incident caused the island to sink, then there’d be no transmission of the numbers. This means that crazy Leonard wouldn’t have been repeating those numbers over and over again. In fact, he probably wasn’t in the mental institute in the first place. Who knows, perhaps Hurley wasn’t there either. So which numbers did he use? Would he have used the same numbers? Or did he use different numbers, and because of that ended up with good luck rather than bad luck.

Sawyer the Con Man

I’m pretty sure Sawyer is still the conman we see in the original timeline. His dad killed his mother and himself before 1977 / The Incident, so it seems clear that Sawyer has grown up exactly the same. I’m going to hazard a guess that he’s going to try and con Hurley out of his millions, perhaps with the help of on-the-run Kate? They seemed to have a connection in the airport so perhaps their paths will cross again.

Annnd now for the Original Timeline Events

Where to begin? So many things happened on the island in this episode. Juliet was alive, but then she died. Sayid died but then came back to life. Turns out Flocke is the smoke monster (who saw that one coming? ;) ). Oh, and Sawyer gave Jack a good punch. Again.

Let’s start with Juliet

First of all, she should never have survived that fall. Second of all, she should never have survived being so close to a H-Bomb blast. Nevertheless, she did, and she had some very interesting information to give to Sawyer. Unfortunately she died before getting the chance to tell him what was so important.

Never fear though, as Ghostbusting Miles is on the case and he finds out what it was Juliet had to tell Sawyer. “It worked”. Sawyer may not know what she meant, but I’m pretty sure she knew that there is now an Alternate Timeline. Before dieing in Sawyers arms she seemed to drift a million miles away, saying that she and Sawyer should go grab a coffee sometime. Perhaps, Juliet merged slightly with the Alternate Timeline for a couple of seconds and realised that detonating the H-Bomb had worked. It’ll be interesting to see how everyone reacts when they realise the true meaning of Juliet’s “It worked”.

Jacob… Sayid?

So, Jacob is 100% dead. After “dead Jacob” visited Hurley instructing him what to do they took Sayid to the temple. The people at the temple weren’t very welcoming until Hurley told them that Jacob had sent them. As proof, Hurley gave them the guitar case that Jacob had given him the day before Flight 316. In the guitar case was an Ankh, which inside contained a piece of paper with a list of names on it. More importantly, it was the names of our Losties who had just arrived at the temple. Whats more, apparantly the peice of paper claimed that if they didn’t save Sayid, they will all be in trouble.

I guess the first question should be: How did Jacob know who would be there and that Sayid would be injured? Of course, this isn’t the first time that Jacob has shown that he knows certain things. A prime example would be when Locke fell out of the window: Jacob was sat there seemingly waiting for it to happen. It seems obvious he has knowledge of the future, but how? And if he knew he was going to die, why didn’t he try and stop it from happening? He has always been one for Free Will (he tells Ben he has a choice when deciding whether or not to kill him), so why not use that Free Will to avoid it? Or is it a simple case of Course Correction, and no matter what he does he will always end up dead?

That being said, Sayid was placed in what seems to be a “Healing Pool”. Apparantly the water is always clear, but on this day it wasn’t. Was that because Jacob had died? Anyway, regardless of the state of the water, they placed Sayid in it to try and save him. Unfortunately this didn’t seem to work, and was declared dead. A while later however, Sayid wakes up, much to the shock of Jack, Hurley etc. and to the men at the Temple.

Should this have happened? The men at the Temple seemed shocked as if it shouldn’t have happened, even though they had put him in the pool to save him. Did the peice of paper really say that they needed to save Sayid? Or did it instruct them to make sure he died? This would explain why they placed him in the pool regardless of its state, and that they didn’t let him come up for air when he was struggling. Are they in shock because they will all be in trouble if he’s alive?

Another point to mention is what Miles said when Hurley asked him what’s wrong. At the time Miles was in close proximity with Sayid’s body, and he says “Nothing” as if he’s reading nothing from Sayid. We all know Miles can her the last thoughts of the dead, but when he says “Nothing” he actually looks spooked as if he can’t quite read anything from Sayid.

Is Sayid now Jacob? Or is Sayid the Sayid from the Alternate Timeline? I guess we’ll have to wait and see until the next episode. Although, in true Lost fashion, we may not even see anything of the Temple in the next episode, and they’ll keep us in suspense.

The Whispers

Just before Jack got attacked by the people at the Temple the whispers were heard. I think we can assume that the whispers belong to these people and always have. They seem to appear out of nowhere, and so they can probably dissapear just as quickly.

Flocke is Smokey!

It was the thought of most of us Lost Theorists since the last season and I’m so glad it was confirmed in the first episode of Season Six. Perhaps there won’t be anymore “Smokey is…” theories now ;) So, Flocke (I’m going to keep calling him that for now as his name still hasn’t been revealed) wants the exact opposite of what Locke wanted: he wants to go home.

Is his home the Temple? Or is his home somewhere off island, in alternate universe, on another planet? I guess it’s too early to try and figure this one out.

When Bram and co. went into the Temple, Bram used some ash to protect himself from Smokey. This is the same ash that surround the cabin. The question is: where they trying to keep Smokey trapped in the cabin, or where they trying to protect Jacob by keeping Smokey out?

Richard and his chains

When the people at the Temple set off the signal into the sky, Richard immediately had a look of fear. Yes, he knew that the John Locke inside the statue isn’t the same John Locke he made leader 3 years earlier, but before the signal went off he didn’t know that Jacob was dead. This signal was to signify that Jacob was dead and that they are all now in grave danger. Richard realised who Flocke was and looked terrified. Flocke knocked him out and carried him into the jungle. What are Flocke’s plans for Richard? Does Richard know how to get Flocke home? What did he mean when he told Richard he was glad to see him out of those chains?