Lost: Season 5 Premiere

In recapping a show like Lost one must have a photographic memory, the ability to keep several story lines straight at once and pick up on small nuances and minor clues. I have none of these special skills. I do however have a Tivo. And this, my lostie friends is how we will be able to discuss Season 5’s premiere. I walked away from the show absolutely dumbfounded. I don’t know if I’m shocked, sad, excited or happy. I’m just dumbfounded. Too many things happened. In one way questions were answered. But at the same time, we’re still just barely scratching the surface of the unfathomable depths of the mysterious Lost. My husband just informed me that if I do a literal recap of the whole show, it will take you longer to read than if you just watched the episode. That may be true. So, I’ll try to be brief and hit the highlights. TRY is the keyword.

Enough talking, let’s get to the recapping, ok? I think it would be easiest to go in actual order of events. But since that is impossible, we’ll just stumble around till we hit it all, ok?

We begin in yes, another time period–the late 70’s/early 80’s when the Dharma Initiative had just come to the Island. Stations were being built and training videos are being filmed. We see the famed Pierre Chang  grumpily beginning a video for the Arrow station (a creepy station set up strictly for defense). He is interrupted by a Work Man who demands that Chang come see the problems they are having at the Orchid Station. And the problems? Melting drills and nosebleeds. Chang tells them to not touch another thing because the energy at the Orchid Station will effectively help them manipulate time. The Work Man is unimpressed and makes a glib comment to another Work Man…but oh, where have we seen him before? Oh yeah, it’s DANIEL FARADAY.

And this my friends, as intended, sets up the entire episode for us.

(a word…I am recapping this as if it’s one full episode, when in fact, it was 2 separate episodes: “Because You Left” and “The Lie”. I don’t think I’m capable of keeping the 2 story lines separate…)

The Island & The Losties

When Ben turned the famed donkey wheel below the Orchid last season, he seems to have sent the Island elsewhere…well, more precisely elseWHEN. Daniel Faraday, our George McFly-wannabe and the only one who remotely knows what’s going on explains that The Island is like a record on a turntable (you remember those?)…normally it would play straight through, but now it’s skipping. Skipping the inhabitants of The Island forward and back through time.

When the bright light hit, the Losties had no idea they had been moved or that The Island seemed to disappear. The only thing they saw was an empty camp…because they were back in time before they had arrived to build it. And as the “skipping” continued, they would see The Island in it’s different times—before and after they affected it. Sawyer is reacting the same way I’m sure we all would if we just saw our friends blown up on a boat and our camp disappear before our eyes. He is on a rampage and wants to get into the past-present hatch to get Desmond so he can do something to save his friends. (I don’t know what exactly…) But Faraday warns the Losties, Sawyer in particular, that even though they are in a different time, they cannot change time, “If it didn’t happen, it can’t happen.” Even if they try, they will fail.

However, when he sees his crush, CS Lewis get a nosebleed (the same nosebleed that all the time travelers had before they die), he tries to change time himself—by knocking on the door of the Hatch and speaking to our poor hatch-bound friend, Desmond. He asks Desmond to visit his mother in Oxford in order to save everyone on The Island.

Desmond wakes up in the future (lovingly snuggled by Penny) and suddenly REMEMBERS this. Daniel DID change the past. Or the future. Or both. He jumps up and begins the trip to Oxford. (This is BIG BIG BIG, folks!!)

While Desmond and Daniel are communicating,  the Losties are contemplating what to do about their camp and John Locke is in the jungle experiencing the same time skip.

Locke had been with his Others as their new leader (remember Ben set him up to be the new Golden Boy of The Island?). When the time switch flipped, John was transported to the new time, but not The Others. He is alone in the jungle until a yellow plane flies overhead and crashes near him. (A yellow plane…drug runners anyone?) He goes to investigate but is interrupted by a bullet to the leg. Ethan, creepy Other who had previously been killed by Charlie, is holding a gun to Locke’s head. Then the second skip happens and it’s night time…and Ethan is gone.

Locke is alone contemplating the time anomaly and clutching his leg when Richard Alpert (aka Sexy Eyes) shows up with a first aid kit and lots of answers. Answers for questions Locke hasn’t even asked. Sexy Eyes explains that this is happening because the Oceanic Six is gone. And if Locke doesn’t get them back, bad things will happen. And in order to get them back, Locke will have to die. (But the way he said it gave me the impression that this might not be a permanent condition.)

Sexy Eyes also gave Locke his compass. The same compass he showed him as a child. (Remember that one?) He says, “I’m not going to recognize you next time. Show me this.” Now this was weird, because I assumed Sexy Eyes could jump time and space at will. I assumed when he visited Locke throughout his life, he was doing it all at once. But this conversation made me think that Locke may have been in some kind of control over the time-skipping. Maybe?

Locke finally makes it back to the Losties and saves Sawyer and Juliet from some Dharma-ites. Placing their time as late-70’s/early Dharma-ish.

The Oceanic Six

Three years ago our new Oceanic Six are deciding whether or not they are going to lie when they get back to the real world. Everyone agrees that it’s in the best interest of those left on The (now missing) Island. Their rationale is that their experience could never be explained AND they are certain Whidmore is out to kill them all. Everyone agrees except for kind-hearted Hurley who does not want to lie. When Sayid refuses to side with Hurley, Hurley tells him he will remember this and one day when Sayid needs his help, “you’re not gettin’ it.”

Jump back to the future…and the men…

Ben and Jack have hijacked Locke’s body and are in a hotel room waiting for Jack to get de-bearded (thank God!) and de-drugged (thanks to Ben dumping the pills down the toilet). Ben runs a few errands…like meeting up with an Other-ton-type person to keep Locke’s body on ice at a butcher shop. (GROSS.) When he returns to Jack, they plan on getting Hurley first and then going after the rest of the Oceanic Six.

However, we know from last season’s finale that Sayid gets to Hurley first and is taking him to a safehouse. Which turns out not to be very safe…Sayid ends up killing three people making Hurley and himself fugitives. But before this happens Sayid tells Hurley that if he ever has the misfortune of running into Ben Linus, to do the very opposite of what he says. (FORESHADOWING!)

Now, in the midst of Sayid’s murder of these three people at the “safe” house, Sayid gets hit by some kind of body numbing dart and Hurley has to drag him to his parent’s house a la Weekend at Bernie’s. They are running from the police because someone snapped a photo of Hurley during this incident and the media assumes crazy Hurley has struck again.

The Jack/Ben pair converges with the Hurley/Sayid pair when Cheech (aka Hurley’s dad) brings Sayid to Jack at the hospital. Jack resuscitates Sayid while Ben arrives at Hurley’s house to convince him to return to The Island. After hurling a pizza pocket at Ben, Hurley makes the biggest mistake (or was it?) of his life by running out into the street and giving himself up to the police that have been staking out his house.

…and the women…

Kate and Aaron are the happy little family (still with Jack’s picture up at their house…weird) until two lawyers approach her demanding a blood sample to prove she and Aaron are related. Kate runs and eventually gets a phone call from Sun who just happens to be 30 minutes away in LA.

Sun had previously been approached (or detained, rather) by Whidmore. He demands to know what their similar interests are. She says absolutely deadpan, “To kill Benjamin Linus.” With no more explanation than that, the next time we see Sun is when she opens her hotel door to Kate. And thus begins one of the weirdest conversations of the night (first being the Sexy Eyes/Locke conversation and tied with every Faraday conversation). Kate spills the beans on the lawyers and Sun asks, “Are you willing to do whatever it takes to protect Aaron?” Kate says, “What kind of person do you think I am?” (What kind of response was that?!) Then Sun goes on to say that she respects Kate’s decision on the freighter that ultimately killed Jin. HUH?

And the freaky final scene…
A hooded woman is writing equations on a blackboard and using an old school green-monitored computer while a giant pendulum is swinging in the background. She exits her bat-cave and Ben is waiting for her upstairs at a church. He admits he’s lost Hurley. She says, “You only have 70 hours.” Ben says (with real fear in his voice), “What if I can’t get them all back?” She replies, “Then God help us all.” ACK. And the woman? Mrs. Hawking…the woman from the antique story who first told Desmond about time-travel AND the same woman who had a picture of Desmond’s monk friend on her desk. Fuh-reaky.

Questions Answered
1. I’m not really sure.

Thoughts & Questions & Theories & Ramblings
1. Daniel Faraday. Has he been on The Island the whole time?! Is he original Dharma? Or was that first scene really just a show of things to come—our Losties stuck in the early Dharma time of The Island. If that IS the case, they may know Ben as a child. Or rather, Ben knows them since he was a child and has been waiting on them. Every strange thing that’s happened on The Island (and every weird weird all-knowing comment from Ben) may be because they’ve effectively already experienced it.

2. Three Years. The Oceanic Six have been gone for THREE YEARS. Did we know that? I can’t remember. What has been going on for THREE YEARS on The Island? Or has it not seemed like three years because time has been skipping? Or has it only been three years in the “real world”? What has Ben been doing for three years? Does he really not know what happened after he left The Island? Was the last time he saw John Locke REALLY at The Orchid?

3. John Locke. He has to DIE to get the Oceanic Six back? Well, we know he accomplishes that. And isn’t that SO like John to be willing to die for The Island? However, I’m thinking he’s not really dead. Just mostly dead. (ha!) Perhaps he died, but because he can control the skipping of The Island, he knows that once the Oceanic Six is back on The Island, it/he will skip time back to when he was alive and because the Oceanic Six will still be on The Island, they won’t skip back to when John was dead. (*whew* Did you catch that?)

4. If The Island is so all-knowing and destiny-fate-ish, how can it just be randomly skipping through time? Maybe it’s “pre-set” to go where and when it needs the Oceanic Six/Losties/Dharma to be?

5. Whidmore is still an enigma to me. I know he wants The Island but good lord, when was he there? Are we going to get a better explanation than, “he wants to exploit it”?

6. Sun. What in the blue blazes is she doing? Is she really trying to kill Ben? That just seems so weird. Or is it more? Does she want to get back at everyone related to The Island? Is she really after Whidmore?

7. Is Mrs. Hawking Daniel’s mom? OMG.

Conclusion.
I have none. Seriously. I am ridiculously happy that Lost is back. I’m even more excited that it SEEMS like we are going to get some questions answered…in fact, that may be what the next two season are. I mean, it’s going to take two seasons to answer the questions we have accumulated in the last four. They can’t possibly give us new questions. That would just be cruel.

The storylines I’m most looking forward to are: Sun (she is stinkin’ stone cold) and the Losties new future/past on The Island. What about you? What was your favorite? What revelations did you have? What big questions? What did I miss (oh, I hate asking that question…)?

I’ll be anxiously awaiting Jughead, next week’s episode over at my daily blog, ohamanda.com. Come visit!