So if you've been following my Lost recaps, you'll remember one of my most consistent complaints of the season has been the alternative timeline. Sometimes the flash-sideways episodes feel like old-school season-one flashbacks that tell us more about our characters-- the Jack episode, the Sayid episodes-- and other times they feel like something taken out of a completely different show, used to mark time in a show that definitely does not have more time to waste. Tonight's episode, much as I love Sun and Jin and their eternal love, was one of the latter-- slow and redundant and completely inexplicable given how much territory is left to cover. Sadly the on-island action wasn't much better, going back over all the beats we knew already with a handful of added explanations of why SmokeLocke is doing what he's doing-- with absolutely no indication of what the endgame may be.
Well, we can't win them all. At least a few questions got answered, and tonight Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof tweeted that a week from now, "the conversation is going to change." So maybe my dissatisfaction won't last long.
Questions Answered
Where is Desmond? Behind that locked door on Widmore's sub, pretty much exactly where we expected him to be. Though no amount of predictability could take away the satisfaction of seeing Des and Sayid lock eyes and basically say silently to one another, "Yeah, this situation is crap."
How did Jin wind up in the freezer? The suitcase of cash that got him in trouble at customs last time we saw him was intended for Keamy,-- also pretty much exactly what we expected. The twist, though, is that in this universe Jin and Sun are not yet married, and Mr. Paik doesn't just disapprove of the relationship, he's hired Keamy to kill Jin. Obviously that doesn't pan out thanks to Sayid's ninja skills, and even though Sayid is in cold-blooded killer mode, he doesn't shoot Jin for being a nuisance. But Jin does manage to shoot Sun by accident, so that's something. Oh, and she's pregnant-- whereas the Jin we all know is sterile. Raise those stakes!
Does Keamy have other unlikely buddies in his alternative-universe job? OK, maybe you didn't ask yourself this question, but you may be glad to know that Mikhail-- with both eyes intact!-- is on board too. Until Jin shoots out his eye. OK, that one moment might have made the entire alternative universe plot worth it.
Can Richard recover from his crisis of faith last week? You betcha-- he hasn't lived this long to give up now! After his chat with Hurley and his ghost wife in the jungle, Richard is back in action to tell Ilana what to do and go after SmokeLocke to keep him from getting off the island once and for all. Unfortunately that plan involves destroying the Ajira plane that got them all there. Not clear how that pickle is going to work itself out-- but I bet Widmore can help solve it.
New Questions
Wait, is Sun going to die in the alternative timeline? And if so, how will that affect her on the island? All we've seen in the alternative timeline so far is the way that people act in the same ways we've seen from them, but what would happen if something drastically changed? Maybe that's the conversation changer Damon Lindelof hinted at, and as much as I like Jin and Sun, I wouldn't mind that being the way to shake things up.
Is there a point to Sun losing her ability to speak English? Or are they just setting up some cute role-reversal where Jin must translate for Sun once they finally meet up? Or did someone just see a soap opera while they were writing this episode and say "Hey, we haven't used that yet!"
Does the fact that Jin and Sun aren't married mean Jacob never touched them? Think about it-- when we saw Jacob meet them in the past, it was on their wedding day. None of the other "candidate" alternative timelines have suggested one way or another whether Jacob was now absent in their lives, but that seems like a pretty good explanation for why everyones' lives are slightly different now.
Why is Widmore looking for the island's electromagnetism? I thought we had pretty much moved past that after the whole hydrogen bomb explosion last season. We've already got our hands full with this final battle between Jacob and Smokey-- are we going to add another hatch to the drama too?
Widmore told Jin that everyone he knows will cease to exist if SmokeLocke gets off the island. What? Maybe he just means that they'll all die and chaos reigns, which is basically what Jacob has been saying. But the word choice is intriguing, especially since we have an entire alternate timeline going on at the moment. Developing...
Where We Go From Here
Unite the timelines-- for real this time. Last week's oddball Richard episode helped me forget how impatient I'd grown with the alternative universe story, but now this aggression cannot stand-- we really, really need to know how all this stuff in Los Angeles matters. As I said, I think Sun dying in the alternative timeline might have an impact on the on-island story, and from there the Losties might start having to piece things together, giving them something to do while SmokeLocke, Widmore and GhostJacob duke it out on a grander scale.
Please don't kill Desmond! After all, he was wearing a red shirt when he got dragged out of that submarine, and last time we saw a character return after a looong absence-- poor, poor Michael-- it was only to act as a sacrificial lamb. But if Desmond and Penny's true love can't last, then these writers are true monsters.
Give us a Widmore episode. Because this guy gets more and more interesting the more we see him, and that interest in electromagnetism has got to go somewhere.
