Lost: Season 6 - Episode One & Two "LA X" Airdate: 2/2/10

It's been a while since I have done this. I feel like I'm a little rusty, but I'm sure it's just like riding a bike and it will all come back to me before I run my ass into the bushes.

Here we are at the final season of LOST. It's been a long time coming, but we will finally get the answers we seek... after we are good and thoroughly confused of course. Had I not been completely confused by the end of this episode, something would have been wrong.

Before I really get going, I just wanted to make sure that every one is clear on the fact that John Locke's body is now inhabited by this guy:



He is known right now as just "the man in black," and he was the one who was sitting on the beach with Jacob at the beginning of last season's finale. This is the reason that we see the evil eyes when he is looking at Richard (who looks confused and extremely scared).



We also now know that this "man in black" is the smoke monster, but we'll get to that later. Let's go back to the beginning of "LAX."

I'm really not sure what we are seeing. On the surface it's a flashback to September 22, 2004 when Oceanic flight 815 was in route from Sydney to Los Angeles, but things are not quite right. Could it be we are seeing glimpse of a parallel existence? Or maybe it's just a dream that would fit into an "It's A (not so) Wonderful Life" scenaro; a "what would happen if Jack's plan worked and the plane never crashed on the island." All the Losties would go back to the life they knew before the island; a pitiful existence in which they hated themselves and wrestled with personal daemons because of the bad life decisions they made. This show, however, is about redemption... or at least being presented the opportunity to change yourself and life, with the choice lying within you.

As we have learned from many movies that explore the "what if's" about time travel, when you try to change what has already happen, there are always consequences. Here are a few that I picked up on during the flight 815 scenes:


Jack's neck is bleeding.


Desmond is on the plane. Why would Desmond be on the plane? Even if they never crashed on the island, Desmond's solo boating race around the world would have happened in 2001, three years before Flight 815 took off from Sydney (according to the lostpedia.org timeline).


Hugo doesn't think he is cursed. As a matter of fact he says "I'm the luckiest guy alive."



Very cool to see Boone again, but where was Shannon, Ana Lucia, Mr. Eko, etc. etc.? I'm sure they are saving those peeps for future episodes as we explore the alternate reality that is Oceanic Flight 815... or as I may start referring to it, Flight 815-B.


Charlie sure was being a prick. "You should have let that happen man. I was supposed to die." Then again, that is how Charlie was before and when he first got to the island. If the plane "never crashed," then he would not have been able to see the error of his ways and correct himself.

I thought the Tim Burton-esque "Beetlejuice" opening with the island underwater was a hokey.


Don't get me wrong, I like Tim Burton's work, but I thought this sequence was a little out of place for the show.




Jumping back to present island time, which I assume is now 2007... but I am not really sure yet. Juliet dies before she can tell Sawyer something important, but Miles, who can talk to the dead, reads Juliet and tells Sawyer that Juliet said, "It worked." What worked? Jack's plan? Or are we going to find out that Juliet had secretly been working on a fertility treatment for herself and that she was pregnant? Thoughts?



Back at the four-toed statue (or what's left of it) where they are arguing over "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" (The answer was "he who will save us all" btw) we discover that the "man in black" is also the smoke monster.



Bram tries to protect himself by drawing a ring around him in the same "ash" (I assume)that was around Jacob's cabin.



But the smoke monster out smarts the protector of Jacob and self-proclaimed "good guy" and throws him through Jacob's tapestry. And impales him on a piece of wood killing Bram, as well as everyone else who was with him, minus Ben. All of this happening under the Statue of Taweret... or what remained of the statue. Taweret was the Egyptian goddess of birth, re-birth, and the northern sky.



Notice that the statue carries an Ankh in both hands. This is an Egyptian hieroglyphic that means "eternal life." (Guess who's been doing a little research?) Jacob gives Hugo an Ankh in the guitar case before he goes back to the island.



This is what saves their butts when they go to the temple... wait... temple?



Holy crap, I remember hearing about a temple, and I thought we saw the temple last season, but what we were seeing was just the entrance to another Other civilization. Before the Losties could get into where the temple was, they had to get by Chester Copperpot...


"Chester Copperpot, Chester Copperpot, Chester Copperpot. Don't you guys see, don't you realize? He was a pro. He never made it this far. Look how far we've come. We've got a chance..." (Sorry... where was I?) Oh yes, The Temple!



... and the note inside the Ankh that saved Jack, Kate, Hugo, Sawyer, Miles, and Sayid's ass. Is it safe to assume the note was Jacob's list with their full names? The question here is why are they all in a lot of trouble if one of the names on the list dies?



Sayid was saved, but it appeared as if the spring water (or water of life) had turned to blood, as did the rivers of Egypt during the 10 plagues of Egypt in which God sends 10 plagues through Moses and Aaron to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelite slaves go in Exodus. Sayid coming back to life was not a big shocker as I figured he would when Miles could not communicate with him.

***Update*** The big question being posed by many right now: is Jacob inhabiting Sayid's body just as "the man in black" has taken on the form of John Locke? The writers say that "something" is inhabiting Sayid's body and that will evolve in the coming episodes. Watch the video I posted from Jimmy Kimmel Live!

I think that covers just about everything, except for Kate's delinquent behavior. There wasn't much to discuss there, except for the fact that she jumps into the cab with Claire at the end.



I will watch it again to make sure I didn't miss anything else of importance. Please feel free to comment and add as always. Just try not to post spoilers.

The next episode airs next Tuesday, February 9th and is titled "What Kate Does."