Lost Season 6: LA X (Episode 1 & 2)

**spoilers begin immediately**

Losties. Oh, my losties. We have been apart for eight months! Eight long months! I’ve missed you! And I’ve missed the brain melt I get every week when watching Lost.

And now, just when I thought I understood time travel and resurrections and smoke monsters, I am confronted with a new LOST mystery: TWO REALITIES. Oh, when will it end? (I know, this season. Don’t remind me.)

Let’s get to it. We’ll begin *sob* with the last few seconds of Season 5’s finale where Juliet is smashing the bomb with a rock. Then the famed white screen o’lost appears and we are apparently in…

PRESENT DAY LOS ANGELES

JACK is staring out the window at a white cloud and is transfixed. He comes out of his daydreaming and looks around. He’s on a plane. A familiar looking stewardess walks down the aisle and offers him a drink on the house. Jack looks across the aisle to see ROSE. They feel a little turbulence and begin to talk about planes and how  they like to stay in the air. The turbulence increases and then…nothing. The pilot corrects his course and they are fine.

And at this point my heart is sinking. It worked. They did it. The Island never happened. And now we get to see what WOULD have happened (what DID happen?) to our beloved Losties.

Jack then gets up to go to the restroom. Checks a random bleeding sore on his neck and then walks back to his seat to see DESMOND. (whaaa? whoooo?) Jack racks his brain because he thinks they know each other. But nothing. The camera pans out the window, into the ocean, past a very cartoonish looking shark and straight to the submerged ruins of The Island and the Dharma Initiative.

Now I am sobbing.

Apparently, Jack has to go to the bathroom again because he meets our favorite US Marshall guarding who other than KATE who is just coming out of the lavatory. They exchange pleasantries and Kate is rushed to her seat to eat the lasagna without a knife and fork because of course, she is handcuffed.

Just then a very scruffy (but still wonderful) SAWYER walks by and bumps into the US Marshall. He sizes Kate up and walks back to his seat which just happens to be across the aisle from HURLEY. Hurley is being stalked by Leslie ARTZ our favorite brain splatter. Hurley tells Artz he bought Mr. Cluck because he won the lottery. Artz moves on and Sawyer suggests to Hurley that he shouldn’t tell anyone he won the lottery–because someone might take advantage of him. (FORESHADOWING?) Hurley rebuffs him and says, “That would never happen. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”

Soon, our favorite flight attendant asks if there is a doctor in the house. REALLY? So, Dr. Jack (king of all) hits his call button and is led to the bathroom (yet again) where a man is locked inside. SAYID appears to help and kicks down the door (bad to the bone) to reveal an unconscious CHARLIE.  The Doc begins CPR and soon fishes a bag of drugs out of Charlie’s mouth.

Charlie is ticked at Jack and says, “You shouldn’t have done that! I was supposed to die!” (Maybe he was right?!)

The adventure is over, but we still have several more passengers to meet…

BOONE and LOCKE discuss their adventures in Sydney. Boone says he tried to rescue his sister from a bad relationship—but she didn’t want out. Locke tells about his roundabout. Boone is totally impressed and says, “If we crash, I’m stickin’ with you.”

SUN admires Rose and BERNARD‘s loving banter while JIN grunts and tells her to button her sweater.

SAYID opens his passport and looks at his picture of Nadia.

The plane successfully lands in LA and our friends (who are now people who merely shared a plane) disembark—Charlie with the police, Kate with her Marshall and Locke in a wheelchair.

I am now in the depths of despair realizing that Juliet is dead (or perhaps alive somewhere far far away from Sawyer), Aaron is going to be given to a couple in LA, Jack is going to die of liver poisoning and Locke (oh, Locke) is going to kill himself (yes, I realize the irony). However our time in LAX is not over…

Kate and the US Marshall continue through the airport until Kate requests a visit to the little girl’s room. Strangely, there is no one in the bathroom (I wish that would happen!) and she manically uses a pen to undo her handcuffs. She knocks the US Marshall out and flees into the swarm of people and onto an elevator with Sawyer. He sees Kate’s handcuffs and gives her a little headstart by blocking the police when the door opens.

Kate jumps into a cab (after an encounter with NEIL “FROGURT” and Hurley) and pulls a gun on the driver…while a pregnant CLAIRE sits beside her. (Wait! Was she pregnant? Did we actually see her preggo belly?)

Jack is not having as exciting of a time…he is called to Guest Services because they have lost Christian Shepard. (Hmmm.) As Jack waits, Locke appears looking for his bag (which is strangely filled with knives). They have a very loaded conversation about life and death.

Meanwhile, Jin is taken into custody for carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in his suitcase. Sun looks as her husband is led away, still pretending to know “no english”.

And that  my friends is the WORST possible situation I can think of. My new theory is this “flash-sideways” will continue to our season finale. We will see where our Losites will end up without The Island. And how their lives are better or worse for it. They will, of course, interact as we have already seen. But do I really want to see Sawyer con Hurley? Sun leave Jin? Kate hurt Claire and Aaron? Jack heal Locke? (well, that might be good…) And what about everyone else? Ana Lucia? Eko? Juliet? Desmond and Penny? BEN?

But don’t worry gentle Losties. We have yet to discover the alternate reality of the Losties on…

THE ISLAND

We begin with Kate’s closed eye and very long lashes (seriously! wow, I need that mascara!). She wakes up in a tree and drops to the ground to discover Miles (still in his Dharma jumpsuit!). They find Jack and Sawyer still unconscious beside the exploded Swan station (the Hatch) and realize they are back on the Island in “present day” (does this mean no more time travel?!)

Sawyer (oh, my Sawyer!) realizes Jack’s grand plan to reboot time has NOT worked and that Juliet is dead for nothing. He turns into a crazed animal and jumps on Jack. (This was lovely.) Suddenly, Kate hears something. And they realize that Juliet is under the rubble of the Swan!

They dig her out (by using Dharma’s VW bus…really?) and we encounter the second most heart-felt scene between Juliet and Sawyer (the first, of course, was when she was falling and he yells, “Don’t you leave me!” to which she responds, “I love you James. I love you so much!” *sob*). She tells Sawyer she smashed the bomb so he would never have come to The Island. She then says, “James, I have to tell you something very important…”

And dies.

DIES. HOW DARE THEY? I already… I mean, Sawyer already mourned her death. Then they give us Sawyer a beautiful minute to reunite and now she’s DEAD. DEAD. Well, at least I can console myself with the fact that Jack is a walking dead man.

Meanwhile Hurley is guarding a bleeding (and now unconscious) Sayid. Suddenly he hears a noise and who appears? Jacob, of course. Only this time its dead-Jacob. (How could I have NOT seen that coming?) He instructs Hurley to bring Sayid to the temple so Sayid can be healed.

Remarkably, the rest of the Losties agree and Jin leads the way (remember, he’s the only one that’s seen it…with Rouseau in the 80’s). When they get to the hole in the wall (ha!) Sawyer departs and buries Juliet. He asks Miles to stay. And then demands that Miles tell him what Juliet wanted to tell him before she died.

And Miles does. She wanted to tell him, “It worked.”

WHAAAAAAT? I do not like this. We will be discussing this more.

Soon, our Losties (sans Sawyer & Miles) find themselves in the same cavern where Ben experienced the Smoke Monster. And are suddenly attacked themselves but not by Smokey. Nope. By real people. Dressed like THE OTHERS. Are you kidding me? There are MORE Others? Sheesh.

These additional Others lead our Losties to the real Temple (which apparently we’ve never seen. I thought Ben’s encounter with Smoke WAS the Temple. I had forgotten Ben told us this was the wall to protect the Temple.) and a whole slew of Others (including our missing kids from the plane AND flight attendant Cindy!) pour out and approach the Losties.

The leader of the Temple-Others (Dogan, a Japanese warrior who refuses to speak English) asks who they are and why they are there. Hurley insists that Jacob sent him and shows him the guitar case. Which in fact is housing a huge wooden ankh. Dogan breaks the ankh and pulls out a piece of paper. Which I think was another list. *sigh*

Dogan instructs the Others to immerse Sayid into the bubbling springs (which apparently is healing waters but seemed to be a little contaminated at the time). They hold him under until he regains consciousness and THEN DROWNS.

Lovely.

Soon, Sawyer and Miles are also dragged into the temple. And now they are all sitting around the spring dejectedly wondering waht is going to happen to them. Finally Hurley tells Dagon and his Lennon-lookin’ right hand man that Jacob is dead. This news sets off the alarm and the Others go into high gear pouring ash around the temple and reinforcing the walls.

They are protecting themselves. From Smokey.

In the midst of all this. Suddenly, our dead Sayid sits up and says “What happened?”

And as horrible as this situation seems–it makes me deliciously happy.

But guess what? We haven’t even hit upon our OTHER LOSTIES and our OTHER OTHERS. Let’s mosey on over to…

THE STATUE

Ben has just killed Jacob. Jacob’s arch nemesis encased in John Locke’s body instructs Ben to bring Richard inside. Ben approaches The Others and The Other Losties to deliver his message. They are visibly shaken because of course, they have just found the real Locke’s body. This in turn freaks out Ben. (Don’t you love a freaked-out Ben?)

Our new Others (Iliana and the other folks who were toting Locke’s body) storm the Statue with guns blazing. They try to kill this fake Locke but he immediately disappears and we hear scary Smoke Monster noises and Smokey himself appears to kill them all. Which was frightening.

Ben watches the whole thing horrified. He turns to leave but hears footsteps behind him. Ben turns to see the not-really-Locke who says, “I’m sorry you had to see me like that.”

OOOOOOH! OOOOOOH! The Freaky Island Guy/Man In Black is the SMOKE MONSTER! We should have known! Awesome.

Ben and corporeal-Smokey have a conversation about the Losties, about Locke and Jacob. The New-Locke ends with his reasoning for doing everything, “I want to go home.” (Whoa. More on this.)

And it all ends with an angry Fake-Locke parading down the beach to meet Richard (dear Sexy Eyes). Bad Locke says, “So nice to see you without chains.” To which Richard responds, “You?” To which Horrible-Arch-Nemesis responds by killing (or at least mortally wounding) Richard. He throws him over his shoulder and stomps away.

And that my friends is THE END.

Stuff To Talk About

1. The Flash-Sideways. Do you hate this? Alternate realities? I don’t hate it–it’s an amazing story telling device. I hate it because now I’m going to have to go all season thinking this terrible NON-Island life has happened to our Losties. That the whole first 5 seasons never happened simply because Jack didn’t want it to. I read somewhere else that “X” is a sci-fi term for “alternate reality”…which means according to our episode title “LA X”, the LA time line is an alternate reality. Does that mean equal to? Or just possible? Will one reality swallow up another? Or will this end as a choose-your-own-adventure?

2. Allusions. All the allusions during the LA scene—Locke and Jack’s conversation about life, death and things being irreversible, Boone and Locke’s conversation and Charlie’s quip about death. What does this mean? Is Lost just being mean to us? Or are they showing an inter-connectedness and destiny regardless of the crash?

3. Desmond. Having Desmond on the plane was strange. It’s the whole butterfly effect, I guess. When The Island blew, it changed the entire world. Desmond never went to The Island and for some reason was on Flight 851. This is true for the rest of the Losties not on the plane (Ana Lucia, Eko, etc.). Is there going to be more on them? But why did Jack seem to know Desmond? Back to question 2: is there an inter-connectedness and destiny regardless of the crash?

4. IT WORKED. Why did Juliet say this? When she woke up, she didn’t think it worked, did she? And how would she know? Or was it only after she was dead she realized it worked? I can’t remember how Miles gift works. Does he talk to spirits? Or does he just know what the dead person knew? If “it worked” then why are there TWO realities?

5. The Temple Others. I just did not even think about The Temple. And the fact that there might be Other Others there. I can’t believe these people have been on The Island this whole time and have never been mentioned or involved in any situation. But I like. I like these people. They are pro-Island. (Hmmm. That might make a good t-shirt.)

5. Jacob’s Arch Nemesis. What is his name? Bad-Locke? Not Really Locke? Fake Locke? Flocke? Esau? Man in Black? Freaky Island Guy? FIG? Which do you prefer?

My Random Theory

I stick with my assertation that Jacob and his Nemesis are Roman-like gods who have been banished to The Island as a punishment. They must live on The Island and follow certain rules. Rules that prohibit them from killing each other mano y mano. BUT they can apparently reek havok on any and all others—including drawing people from all over the world to themselves. A supernatural chessgame, if you will.

Nemesis uses these years to find the loophole that willlet him kill Jacob. He must use another person. So, he chooses Locke. Possibly because Jacob was pulling him here OR Jacob pulled them here because his Nemesis had chosen him. (This works well with Richard’s early interaction with Locke. He was checking him out for Jacob.)

Now that Jacob’s body is dead, he needed a corporeal being to inhabit. He has to fight for…The Island? For The Others? For himself? So, he manipulates Hurley to bring Sayid’s body to the Temple. And now Sayid is Jacob in the same way that Nemesis is John Locke. The only problem with this is—where is Sayid’s other body?

So, remember how the movie Men in Black ended with aliens playing marbles with our galaxy? I think Lost will end with two baby gods (Jacob & Nemesis) playing chess with our Losties. Blech.

Conclusion
I loved it. Are you kidding me? I have been mourning Lost for eight months! But honestly? I’m sad. I’m so sad that this is our new reality and that we only have one season to see what happens. Our last five seasons seem to be wiped away and it will all come down to this new “LA X” like a baseball game comes down to one pitch.

What did you think? Are you happy? Sad? Confused? Talk to me. I know I missed some stuff.

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