Some people predicted that this season of Lost would find the characters having reset everything, and landing safely in Los Angeles. Some thought the atom bomb explosion wouldn't work, and they'd be stuck on the island. As it turned out, we got a little bit of both. In the season premiere we found our Losties both stuck on the island, with Juliet trapped under the rubble and Sayid shot in the gut, and landing in Los Angeles, with Charlie arrested for drug possession, Boone chatting idly with Locke on the plane, and Jack still stressing about his father's coffin.
So what will this alternate universe mean? It's unclear right now exactly what the writers have planned for it, and whether all the callbacks to the timeline we know of-- Locke and Boone's conversation, Jack offering to help cure Locke's paralysis, Claire and Kate winding up in a cab together-- will manifest in something meaningful. Fears that the reset would erase everything that came before obviously aren't true, since in one timeline everything is exactly as we left it on the island. But if we're going to pursue all this time in Los Angeles, with the island deep under the sea (an amazing pre-credits shot, by the way), it sure as hell had better pay off. Even a season-long approximation of Desmond's past/future flashes won't actually be satisfying; with the clock running out, everything needs to mean something at this point.
Although from watching tonight's episode, you'd never know the clock was running out at all. Stubbornly and admirably, the writers went about things at their usual pace, cutting between storylines and character moments and teasing out all the scenes with the guy we really wanted to see-- Locke, of course-- so that the rest of it had time to sink in. Juliet died for real and we felt sad; Sayid died, and we didn't really feel sad, because no one stays dead on this island for long. New characters arrived (hello, mysterious Japanese Other!), old characters long-forgotten returned (Cindy, it's finally your turn to be a regular), and the gears started, very very slowly, getting in motion.
Questions Answered
Did the reset work? Yeah, basically-- there's a parallel universe here in which everyone lands safely at LAX. But a few key things are a little different. Did you hear Hurley explain to Sawyer that he's the luckiest guy on earth, that nothing bad ever happens to him? He's still a lottery winner thanks to the numbers, but not cursed. Also, remember that Boone explained to Locke that he didn't succeed in getting his sister, Shannon, to come home. And Desmond was on the plane!The reset didn't just change the events of Oceanic 815-- it changed what brought everyone on the plane. Perhaps the meddling presence of Jacob has something to do with it?
Is Island Locke the Smoke Monster? Oh hell yes. The minute someone else tried to enter the temple chamber, SmokeLocke transformed and rained his mighty wrath upon them, even managing to impale a dude with a rock when he tried to protect himself. When Smokey was finished, Locke reappeared to Ben and said, "I'm sorry you had to see me like that." Then he stepped outside and beat the hell out of Richard Alpert. Even if this version of Locke isn't the man we know, it's nice to see him in charge.
Is Juliet dead? Yes, sadly, though she and Sawyer get a nice goodbye rather than the "I won't let go!" literal cliffhanger of the end of last season. And Juliet even manages to get a message out from beyond the grave-- she dies before she can tell Sawyer herself that the reset worked, but Miles the Ghost Whisperer figures it out. Now let's see if the Lostaways can actually do anything with that information.
What's in Hurley's guitar case? If you tell me you guessed this, I will call you a liar. The remaining Lostaways arrive at the temple the way Jacob told Hurley they must, and as a last-ditch effort to save their lives, Hurley offers them the guitar case, which contains a giant wooden ankh. Which is then broken in half (!!) by the mysterious Japanese leader, to reveal a piece of paper inside that says they have to save Sayid, or else. Given the amount of religious imagery the show has played with over the years, from the four-toed statue to Sayid's outstretched arms as they try to save his life, it's hilarious to see them literally break it in half. Just in case you were worried Lost no longer had a sense of humor.
What happened to Cindy and the kids? You'll be forgiven for forgetting about this mystery, since basically from the moment flight attendant Cindy and two children were stolen away from the Tailies in season two, they've been ignored (brief appearances in New Otherton excepted). But they're all back, hanging with a whole new crowd of Others at the temple, led by a cranky Japanese man and ritualistically protecting themselves from the Smoke Monster. Which leads us to our next section...
New Questions
Who the hell are these new people? Led by a guy who won't speak English because he doesn't like the way it tastes in his mouth, these new Others are a little more helpful than the old-school brand, but also totally mysterious. Richard Alpert clearly knows about them, but they're dressed differently and behaving stranger than the camp-dwelling Others we've come to know. Are they really going to try and introduce a brand new clan of strangers to us this late in the game? It appears so.
Is John Locke gonna be OK? My faith in John Locke has been about as unwavering as his own belief in the island, but I'm starting to wonder. The speech that SmokeLocke gave to Ben, in which he said the last thought John Locke ever had was "I don't understand," was, as SmokeLocke put it, truly heartbreaking. It's perfectly clear that there is a Locke corpse on the beach while the smoke monster gallivants about in Locke form, but I still can't believe that the journey of John "don't tell me what I can't do!" Locke is over. Don't make my faith be in vain.
How will the new timeline affect the old one? This seems like the big one, and one that needs to be answered quickly if they want us to keep watching Kate escape from her federal marshal, Jack try to bury his dad, Charlie dead with his drug problem-- basically everything we've seen these characters go through already. Thus far they show no sign of knowing what happened to them before, but presumably that won't last long. We've known this island to course-correct in the past, and when Desmond tried to change his fate-- when he tried to propose to Penny instead of chickening out-- fate took care of things for him. Jughead may have changed history, but I get the feeling the Island will get its way in the end.
Is Jacob-- or the Smoke Monster-- now inhabiting Sayid? There's no telling, given the crazy Other ritual he went through. But all I'm saying is that when people have risen from the dead in the past-- Christian Shephard, Locke, maybe even Claire-- it's usually at the hands of some other being. Developing...
Where We Go From Here
SmokeLocke vs. Ben. A few seasons ago the writers figured out that Ben and Locke are at their most interesting when fighting with each other, and while we still don't know what's going on with the real Locke, SmokeLocke's confidence and domination of Ben will continue to dominate this storyline. We've never seen Richard Alpert vulnerable for a second, and SmokeLocke dominated him with a few well-placed punches. This guy isn't just stopping at killing Jacob in the trouble he can cause.
Alternate timeline, meet island timeline. I admit, as much as I doubt the narrative importance of more scenes in which Jin bosses around Sun and Sawyer hits on Kate, it's kind of fun to see all our characters back where we first met them. But I expect this episode was just a refresher, a reminder of how much they've changed, before the timelines start coming together. It all has to mean something-- isn't that we've been hoping for Lost since the beginning?
Sawyer goes rogue. He didn't want Kate to help him bury Juliet. He would rather kill Jack, but also wants him to suffer instead. This is a guy who no longer has stake in what anyone else on the island does, and I can see him being more of a problem for the remaining Lostaways than an asset. Will he return to his season one, every-man-for-himself confidence man? Or will grief bring out a Sawyer we've never known before?
