LOST: Dissecting "LA X" (6x01/6x02)
"Nothing's irreversible."
So says spinal surgeon Jack Shephard, speaking to crippled tourist John Locke in an LAX waiting room, in what is apparently a parallel dimension -- a dimension in which Desmond Hume suddenly appears and disappears aboard Oceanic 815, which lands safely in Los Angeles. A dimension in which Hugo Reyes is the luckiest guy he knows. A dimension in which Charlie Pace wants to die. And a dimension in which the island sits at the bottom of the ocean.
Did Jughead's detonation cause this alternate timeline? It sure doesn't look like it. The 1977 Losties in the original timeline wake up alive and on the island, albeit in 2007. It would appear that Jughead always was a part of "the incident," and that whatever happened, happened. Though we are seeing the two timelines next to each other, it is possible that they are not concurrent; could the alternate timeline be what happens after whatever conflict awaits them on the island?
But I'm already way, way ahead of myself. The promos for this final season say the time for questions is over, but for every question "LA X" answered, it posed about eleven more. (You know, just how we "Lost" fans like it!)
Smokey and Ben, together again
Not many of us were surprised to learn that Locke's impostor is, in fact, the Smoke Monster, but we were definitely surprised by what he told Ben in the episode's best scene: Smokey (as I will call him from now on, until the show gives him a proper name) just wants to go home. Where that home is is anyone's guess, although the Temple is a good start.
At last, the Temple. We've been hearing about it for a long while, and now we see that it's apparently run by a group of Others who live there and don't venture away from it. (Among them is Cindy the flight attendant, who looks pretty smokin' in her island getup. But I digress.) Having Hugo be the one to lead us to the Temple is strangely satisfying; for a short while, Hurley gets to be the leader, the one who knows more than everyone else. His visit with Jacob was surprisingly funny and refreshingly matter-of-fact.
We are left to assume that the waters in which the dying Sayid was submerged provided the method by which young Benjamin was healed in 1977, but apparently it didn't work this time. The Temple keeper's nameless translator, played by the great character actor John Hawkes, tells Hugo that Jacob's message says that if Sayid dies, "we're all in trouble." I don't think this applies to Sayid specifically, but rather to any of the people whose names appear in the message -- another one of Jacob's many lists, apparently.
But Sayid does die, only to be resurrected in the episode's finale -- but let's all remember what happened the last time we thought someone on "Lost" came back from the dead. Is Sayid really Sayid? Dare I suggest he is now ... Jacob?
Dare I also suggest that Juliet's ghost was not referring to Jughead when she told Miles, "it worked"? Juliet was brought to the island to help solve the Others' infertility problem ... maybe what "worked" will drive Sawyer into an even darker place, putting Jack at further risk. And Jack should be at risk. Time and again, he puts our friends in harm's way. If any character on "Lost" is in more need of redemption than Benjamin, it is Jack.
Which brings us back to that scene at LAX. A relationship that couldn't be fixed before Locke's death in the original timeline may be mended in the alternate one. Can Jack fix Locke's spine, fix their relationship, and fix whatever crazy rift in the space-time continuum that their shenanigans have created?
We'll find out in 14 weeks or so.
• • •
Best performance: Terry O'Quinn, who has clearly become the lead of the show. He gets the privilege of playing two characters in this final season, and each delivered classic scenes in the premiere.
Best scene: I have to go with Smokey's chat with Ben. Smokey cuts to the heart of why I have always sympathized with John Locke: Why would any of these people want to leave the island? This conversation also suggests that perhaps Jacob is the bad guy, which would be an interesting twist indeed.
Best line: "Your friend Jin won't be able to see me ... Because I died about an hour ago." -- Jacob
dung beetles, all of you
People love "Lost" for many reasons. As a cinephile, I love it because it brings feature-quality acting and production to network television. Most of the great actors on the show are doing the best work of their lives, and enjoying it -- this is certainly clear whenever Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn are playing a scene together.
I also love it for daring to do things that commerical television is usually afraid to do. It challenges its audience, not only with a complicated narrative, but with layer upon layer of allegory, symbolism and meaning. It is a very literate, very smart show that just happens to be about things that sound silly: Smoke Monsters, time travel, polar bears in the jungle, "frozen donkey wheels."
Mostly, though, I love "Lost" for the same reason anyone loves their favorite TV show: the characters. Locke, Sawyer and Hugo are as dear to me as Homer, George and Data. Without well-written, well-acted and just plain lovable characters, "Lost" would be the show that its detractors all say it is, one that's more interested in shocking (or even fooling) the audience than in engaging them.
Ultimately, watching and talking about "Lost" makes me feel good, and I don't see why that's anything I should be ashamed of.
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keep telling yourself that. The success rate of shows let alone pilots is so small there is now way any of these ridiculous scenarios will play out into anything cohesive. Although, if you are still watching the show you probably lack an understanding of cohesion. I watched the first 2 or 3 seasons and it just got too ridiculous, too many commercials, and constant plot twists with no clear direction. It's quite clear they are somehow trying to make sense of this and end it with dignity but i think its too far gone. In the spirit of fun I predict they all died in the plane crahs, and hence are "Lost" trying to find thier way or meaing. Some New Age BS
Showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have publicly acknowledged that the show went astray in Season 3, which is why they asked ABC to end the show in 2010, regardless of ratings and popularity. The writers were then stretching out the narrative with pointless flashbacks and obviously unnecessary plot twists.
The writers' strike was one of the best things to happen to "Lost" -- the much-shortened Season 4 had the purpose and structure that much of Season 3 lacked, and reinvigorated interest in the show's plot while enriching the characters. The show now definitely has the direction that it lost about halfway through Season 3. (That being said, most of the show's very best episodes were in Season 3, even if, as a whole, that season disappointed.)
I was as skeptical of "Lost" as anyone just a few years ago; having been burned by the awful later seasons of "The X-Files," I had no interest in watching another sci-fi show that ultimately went nowhere. But when I read that the producers had requested an end-date -- and after I discovered what happened in Season 3's show-defining finale -- I was intrigued, and watched the first 3 seasons on DVD. Watching them all in a row lessened the blow of the slow spots in seasons 2 and 3, for sure; having to wait a week to get no resolution to anything that happened in the previous episode must have been murder. That's not a problem anymore, as the narrative has tightened considerably in these latter seasons.
"Lost" will, ultimately, be one of the most-talked-about shows in TV history, good or bad. And that makes it significant, if not transcendant.
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I'm calling "Smokey" Esau: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esau
Jack always manages to succinctly sum up the theme of each season, doesn't he?
I mostly just felt bad for him, though. The incident had to happen, after all. I'm sure Jin, for one, will be happy to be back to their present (whatever present that may be).