Now that’s how you season premiere.
After a brief recap that started with Jacob and the Man in Black on the beach, segueing to Ben’s stabbing of Jacob at the behest of the Not-Locke and ending with Juliet’s smashing of an H-bomb with a rock, the screen goes white and we see the sight we were all expecting to see: Dr. Jack Shepard looking out the wing-side window of Oceanic Flight 815.
Jack’s master plan was mission: accomplished and the clock was reset once more. This time, the plane starts to shake but it does not go down. The captain comes on over the speaker to say that after a brief bout of turbulence it looks like it’s smooth sailing for 815 all the way to Los Angeles. “Looks like we made it,” Jack observes, looking across the aisle to Rose. “Yes,” she responds. “We did.”
Say what? Do they remember? Was that a wink-wink moment? “Hey, this time we didn’t crash on a crazy island with ghosts, smoke monsters and wacko French people.” But before you can fully read between the lines, the camera zooms out the window and straight down into the ocean below. Under the waves we see the Dharma shark and a sunken village of familiar-looking dorms before we rest on the sight of a certain four-toed statue foot. Sure the castaways got their life back, but they apparently had to kill the island to do it. Cut to title card.
But if the cold open didn’t give you enough to think about during that first commercial break, then you were in luck. We come back and we see Juliet once again pounding on the H-bomb. Boom. Screen goes white and we fade in on Kate, up a tree and hard of hearing. When she comes down she runs into a similarly confused Miles, both are disoriented and don’t know where they are (or is that when?). They look around the immediate area and get their answer as Kate and Miles stand before a great big hole in the middle of the jungle. The remains of the Swan hatch. Faraday’s great, H-bomb detonation plan didn’t work after all. The timeline didn’t change and the castaways were merely blown back to the present.
Huh? That’s right we’ve got two divergent timelines. One where the castaways weren’t cast away, and one where the island saga continues. So in answering last year’s biggest question, what happens after the bomb goes off?, Lost begins it’s last set of 18 episodes with several new queries. Which timeline is real? Are both of them real? Will they, at some point, be rectified with each other?
You’ll have noticed some pointed differences between the events following the original flight of 815, let’s call it Timeline A, and the new rendition of events in “LA X”, let’s call it “Timeline B”. In Timeline B we see a lot of familiar faces, like the long-since dead Boone Carlyle, but in Timeline B his sister Shannon doesn’t return from Sydney with him. Now initially, 
I thought that this was because Shannon’s portrayer, Maggie Grace, couldn’t be wrangled to make a re-appearance on the show, but then the once (and future?) blown-up science teacher Leslie Arzt is heard. He’s teasing Hurley about doing his line from a TV commercial. As it turns out, Hurley is now the owner of Cluckin’ Chicken, the chicken shack he once shucked for before using the cursed numbers to win the lottery. Timeline B Hurley also won the lottery, as he explains to Arzt when he asks how Hurley came to own a major corporation like Cluckin’ Chicken. Sawyer, who’s sitting across the aisle, tells Hurley that he should be careful who he tells he’s a lottery winner, because unscrupulous individuals (a group in which Sawyer could be counted among at this point) might try and take advantage. “Nothing bad ever happens to me,” says the unconcerned Hugo. “I’m the luckiest guy alive.”
Other surprises in Timeline B? Well, there was the time that Jack returns from the bathroom to find Desmond sitting in the empty seat next to him. Apparently, Desmond’s seat mate’s been “snoring since Sydney” and since Jack had the extra space… you know. It took one utterance of the word “Bruthuh” though for Jack to realize something. Have we met before, he asks Desmond. Of course, he has. Desmond was the man Jack met while running at the stadium in the flashback of “Man of Science, Man of Faith.” But in this instance, neither Jack or Desmond make the connection. Did they never meet at the stadium in this Timeline?
The second surprise comes when Jack is summoned to the bathroom to help an ailing passenger, one Charlie Pace. The Drive Shaft bassist is found passed out and not breathing by Jack and Sayid, whose door-kicking-in skills come in very handy during the rescue. Charlie has an obstruction in his throat in the form of his ubiquitous bag of heroin. Charlie soon comes to and asks, “… am I alive?” But which death is he talking about though, his drowning in the Looking Glass Station or his attempt to hide his drugs in his own oesophagus?
By the time that Oceanic 815 lands in Los Angeles at the end of the first hour, any headshaking questions about who remembers what are kind of put aside. This is the way life was “supposed to be.” Everybody disembarks the plane and streams out back into the lives that were interrupted before their island excursion. So now what?
Meanwhile, back in Timeline A, things got really interesting. It seems that Juliet survived the detonation of the bomb too and is trapped at the bottom of the shaft. A frantic rescue leads merely to Juliet passing in Sawyer’s arms. “James,” she says, “kiss me.” And Sawyer dutifully replies “You got it, blondie.” Cue the tears. Juliet says “I have to tell you something… really… really important” and then dies.
Back at the van (which apparently can also time travel) things aren’t looking too much better for Sayid, the bullet in his belly also travelling through time. As Jin gets help, Hurley stands guard over Sayid only to get startled by a nearby rustling in the bushes. Why it’s Jacob looking as calm and collected as ever. Jacob tells Hurley to take Sayid to the temple where he can be healed. The castaways can go too and don’t forget the guitar case. Hurley tells Jacob to scram before Jin gets back. Not to worry, says Jacob, Jin won’t be able to see him. Why not? asks Hurley. “Because I died an hour ago,” says Jacob. “Sorry, dude,” offers Hurley. “That sucks.”
Another cross island excursion ensues, though Sawyer and Miles stay behind to bury Juliet. Miles stays at Sawyers invitation, but the reformed con man’s ulterior motives show when he demands of Miles to use his gifts to get Juliet’s lost last words: “It worked.” But what “worked”? Was Juliet aware of Timeline B at the moment of her death? Is Timeline B the afterlife? Or maybe she was just referring to the ratings success of last fall’s brief run of the V remake (starring Juliet’s portrayer Elizabeth Mitchell).
Meanwhile, Jack, Hurley, Kate and Jin took Sayid to the temple; as Jacob told Hurley, Jin knew the way thanks to his time travel excursion to the temple walls with young Rousseau and her team. There was an interesting development here because for once, Hurley wasn’t the sarcastic comic relief. Weirdly enough, with Jack in self-doubt mode and Sawyer lost in hurt and grief, Hurley was the group’s defacto leader. The man with the plan. And he wore it well adding a nice little dimension to the character. All of Hurley’s weird little eccentricities, like talking to dead people, have become essential tools in getting the castaways to the next level. But in the creepy tunnels under the temple wall, the gang get separated and suddenly mysterious whispers are heard once more. Again, the castaways become captives of The Others.
Enter our two new players. The castaways are brought before Dogen (The Twilight Samurai’s Hiroyuki Sanada) and his mouthpiece/interpreter Lennon (Deadwood’s John Hawkes). Dogen appears to be the temple master and orders the immediate execution of Jack and Co (whose identity as Oceanic survivors is confirmed by Cindy the Stewardess apparently still chilling with The Others). Wait, says Hurley, Jacob sent us and he gave me that guitar case. Finally, the mystery inside the guitar case is revealed as being… a big ass, Egyptian symbol called an ankh. Inside, presumably because we never actually see what’s written on the paper, is a list of the castaways’ names. (Jacob and his lists, am I right?)
The castaways are allowed into the temple and the attempt is made to heal Sayid in the temple’s magic waters. Just one problem, the water is brown rather than its usual clear. Although they’re perplexed, The Others proceed just the same, holding Sayid under the water for the duration of sands through Dogen’s almost comically oversized hourglass. In the end it appears healing Sayid is a fool’s errand. Dogen declares the former Iraqi torturer dead.
Death was a constant companion in “LA X.” Which brings us to the elephant in the room, or the evil dude in the foot statue in this case, the Not-Locke (or FLocke, for Fake-Locke, if you like). Jacob is dead and Ben’s a little flummoxed. “Why didn’t he fight back?” he asks, starring bewildered at the fire. Fuggedaboutit, says Not-Locke, go tell Richard I want a word. Outside the foot, things are a little tense. The dead body of Locke’s been quite the bombshell and when Richard makes Ben confront the fact that the Locke they’ve been following is not Locke, we see something from the bug-eyed mastermind we’ve never really seen before: utter and terrible confusion. Ben’s no longer the most devious and ruthless of the island’s inhabitants, and in a weird reversal he finds himself in John Locke’s shoes, lost in a world he thought he understood better than anyone.
This is where it gets good. Bram and other boys from the “Shadow the Statue” gang have had enough. They insist Ben take them into the foot to make sure Jacob is okay. Once inside, the Not-Locke sits in Jacob’s rocking chair looking perfectly smug. Not-Locke tells them that Jacob is dead and that their service as his bodyguards is no longer required. The guns open fire, but Not-Locke ducks and covers. He seems to have vanished while hiding behind a pillar. And that’s when a certain well-known clanking sound is heard nearby. The smoke monster appears and makes short work of Jacob’s hired guns, even as one them tries to protect himself with a circle of ash. When it’s all over, Ben emerges from hiding and is confronted once again with Not-Locke. “Sorry you had to see me like that,” he says with a particularly menacing grin.
So mystery solved. The smoke monster is Not-Locke who’s really Jacob’s black clad nemesis. But with this being Lost, there is no answer that doesn’t suborn another question. During a heart-to-heart, Not-Locke tells Ben that John Locke’s final thoughts were “I don’t understand.” He said that Locke ”was a victim who shouted at the world for being told what he couldn’t do, even though they were right.” But even though Locke was ”weak” and ”pathetic” and ”irreparably broken”, the Not-Locke said that he admired the man for being the only one of the Oceanic survivors to embrace the potential of the island instead of returning to his “frail, damaged old life.” Which is where he and Locke differ, Not-Locke says coming to the point. ”I want to go home,” he tells Ben. But where’s home and why did he have to kill Jacob to get back there?
Not-Locke and Ben then leave the statue. ”Hello, Richard,” says Not-Locke almost cheerfully. “Nice to see you out of those chains.” Then with a quick hit to the throat, Not-Locke knocks out Richard and picks him up over his shoulder. “I am very disappointed in all of you,” Not-Locke shouts at those gathered before carting Richard off into the jungle somewhere. The chains comment is interesting because it could be taken a couple of ways. It could be figurative, the “chains” being Richard’s ties to Jacob. Some have speculated though that it could be something more literal, that perhaps Richard was a guest of the Black Rock, the slave ship washed ashore on the island a few centuries ago. Either way, Not-Lock’s probably not taking Richard into the jungle for some fresh boar and mangos.
But while all this is happening at the foot, things are even dourer at the temple. Dogen summons Hurley to learn what else Jacob told him, like maybe when the imperious leader was going to grace his flock with his presence. Sorry dude, says Hurley, Jacob’s dead. This sends The Others into a state of read alert. “He” will be coming. I guess we can assume that the “He” is the smokey/Not-Locke/Man-in-Black, but there’s no time for details yet. The Others need a private pow-wow with Jack, who refuses to go anywhere. But before full blown fisticuffs can erupt, Hurley draws everyone’s attention back to Sayid, who with the appearance of man waking up with a hangover asks, “What happened?” Cut to title card.
So in typical Lost fashion, the appearance of answers given is marred by the fact that there are just as many new questions raised. One of the interesting bits of speculation is the status of Sayid, if that is Sayid. Many are wondering if Jacob pulled a Man-in-Black and is now wearing a Sayid suit, but I’m not one of them. While a climactic Not-Locke versus Sacob (Get it? SAyid + Jacob equals Sacob) would be kind of cool, would it not make more sense thematically for the series to have Jacob inhabit Jack? The series has seemed to be leading up to a Jack versus Locke showdown for years, all the way back to the second season premiere. Of course, it was Sayid on the brink of death and not Jack. At least, not yet. (Did I just create a spoiler?)
Plus, we have to factor in the Timeline B. The idea of starting again from scratch after the bomb was always precarious seeing as how you’d have to discount five years of character development, and what’s the point of watching a show for five years if the chalkboard’s just going to be wiped off in the sixth?
So what is the purpose of these “flash-sideways” segments? Well, let’s take a look at what happened once the plane hit the ground. Kate got away from U.S. Marshall Edward Mars pretty fast and ended up taxi-jacking the very car that Claire was riding in. So we have Kate and Claire thrown together again by fate, though we never see if Claire is pregnant or not.
Meanwhile, Jack and Locke seemed destined to meet as both men ended up in the Oceanic offices with a case of missing luggage; for Jack it’s his father’s casket and for Locke it’s his case of knives. Interesting how both men lost the symbolic things that drive them, Jack who’s always trying to outrun his father’s doubting and Locke , who you’ll remember was once chastised as a child by Richard Alpert for choosing the knife over other assorted objects that “belong to him.”
There was a nice bonding moment between the two frenemies as Jack inquires about Locke’s paralyzing condition (Yep, Timeline B Locke still in a wheelchair) out of professional curiosity. The doctor’s have already told him that his condition is irreversible, says a resigned Locke. “Nothing’s irreversible,” says Jack, who gives Locke his card and an invite for a free consultation. A rather bizarre parallel is taking place. Suppose that Jack fixes broken Locke, and suppose that the impromptu team-up of Kate and Claire leads to another delivery situation. Certainly things in this timeline seem weirdly familiar, but how real are they? Is there a clue with the appearance of Desmond? Where did he disappear to after Jack returned to his seat following Charlie’s rescue?
So here we are, the end of the first episode of the final season, after two hours with a couple of big reveals, but still the questions outnumber the answers by a huge margin. But come on, aren’t you hooked again?
Reviewed By Adam A. Donaldson
