LAX (S6, ep. 1)

“He looked into the water and saw that it was made up of a thousand thousand thousand and one different currents, each one a different color, weaving in and out of one another like a liquid tapestry of breathtaking complexity; and Iff explained that these were the Streams of Story, that each coloured strand represented and contained a single tale….The Ocean of the Streams of Story was in fact the biggest library in the universe. And because the stories were held here in fluid form they retained the ability to change, to become new versions of themselves, to join up with other stories and so become yet other stories….It was not dead, but alive.” – Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Jack: “Looks like we made it.”

I think the word we’re looking for is “wow.”

I watched the premiere with friends, and while we all agreed that the episode started out feeling as though it was searching for the next gear so to speak, by its second hour it was hurtling along on rails.

Writing a recap column for this is actually intimidating. Where to start? How much to analyze? I set a two hour time-limit and went to work, covering what I think is interesting in brief bullet points. I’m sure I’ve missed a lot. I encourage you to point that out in the comments. It’s simply not possible for me to go into as much detail as I’d like and still have this up for you to read anytime soon. Apologies for the length in advance. Despite the time limit, I still managed to make this too long. It’s been split by page breaks to make things easier on you. From now on, expect these on Thursday. I’ll need the breathing room.

All screencaps come from losteastereggs – my thanks to them for their work. 

Thoughts:

• I’d guessed that as a result of the Jughead detonation, Jack and Co. would either return to the original Oceanic flight, or return to the Island’s “present,” alongside previously-deceased castmembers. Looks like those of us who did so were half-right.

• As of the premiere we have no idea whether the “off-Island” events constitute a parallel universe, a parallel timeline, the ‘true’ timeline, or the dream of an autistic child named Tommy Westphall. That being the case, I’m reluctant to label the off-Island events we see as an “alternate” universe. For the sake of keeping myself sane I’m going to be referring to the two “universes” we see tonight as “off-Island” and “on-Island.”

Off-Island, Jack’s back on the original Oceanic 815 flight, and the flight does not crash. Even prior to the turbulence that the airplane successfully passes through there is concrete evidence that the off-Island universe is different from the one we’re familiar with from the Season 1 pilot. Jack’s got long hair, for one, and not the buzz-cut he was sporting when the plane originally went down. He spills the drink he’s attempting to make at the first sign of turbulence, which doesn’t happen in the Season 1 premiere. Jack and Rose’s roles on the plane have reversed – on the ‘original’ flight, Jack comforted Rose. Here, Rose comforts Jack. Their dialogue is more-or-less the same, but their behavior has changed.

This recalls instances we’ve already seen during the series where small details have been intentionally altered from scene to scene, or from episode to episode (think of the picture frames that Miles passes on his way up to deal with a ‘ghost’ in his first appearance on the show, or the way that Sayid’s threat in Season 5 changes between episodes). If Lost’s ultimate contention is that parallel universes do exist, then the writers have written themselves an enormous and clever “get out of jail free” card for continuity issues and bloopers on the show. It’s not a mistake, its evidence of a parallel universe!

• It’s more than possible that I’m reading too much into things (it wouldn’t be the first time), but it seems to me that Jack seems to have some kind of un/subconscious awareness that something is wrong/different/puzzling about the off-Island universe. In my Rewatch column for The Constant, I suggested that if the Jughead reboot were successful, the combination of electromagnetism and radiation would serve to hurl the castaways’ consciousnesses ‘back’ through time, giving them a kind of ‘déjà vu/past life’ instinctual knowledge of everything  that had happened to them. As far as I can tell, that theory is still potentially in play, but in this “off-Island universe.”

Rose: “You can let go now. It’s okay – you can let go.”

• Rose’s words here echo Christian’s – “let it go, Jack.”

• Jack steps into the airplane bathroom for a moment and spends a few seconds checking himself out in a mirror. I’ve spent a good amount of time in the Rewatch columns talking about the concept of “mirroring,” and how this show’s characters, events, dialogue and themes tend to reflect, or ‘mirror’ each other. Jack’s moment of reflection here could be seen to literalize that concept. There’s a lot of mirroring going on in this episode, and I’ll point some of this stuff out as we go.

• Is that a cut we see under Jack’s shirt collar? Blood? That’s odd, to say the least. It’s clearly significant, but it’s unclear as to how or why.

Jack: “Do I know you from somewhere?”

• Desmond! Everyone’s favorite Mutual Friend is, for some reason, on the Oceanic 815 flight in the “off-Island” universe. Jack’s question again suggests that he has some un-subconscious memory of Des. Why’s the Scot there? There are a few possibilities off the top of my head (and again, please add your own theories in the comments section!):

1) Desmond never crashed on the Island in the “off-Island” universe, and as a result, somehow ends up on the Oceanic flight. If the jughead detonation worked (and it’s still up in the air, which is maddening, but very par-for-the-course with this show), the effects of that ‘reboot’ would be vast and far-reaching. Changing a moment in time as key as ‘The Incident’ wouldn’t just prevent the Oceanic flight from crashing, it would also potentially alter aspects of the castaways’ lives prior to the crash.

In the ‘off-Island’ universe, the Island is an apparent non-factor (we’ll talk about this in just a moment). Without the Island, Desmond never becomes shipwrecked. Without the Island, Widmore and Hawking have no reason to involve Desmond in their plans. Those plans directly resulted in Desmond attempting to sail around the world, which lead to his crashing on the Island. For all we know, in this off-Island universe, Penny Widmore doesn’t even exist.

And this would explain why Jack and Desmond don’t appear to recognize each other, since their meeting at the stadium in Season 2 came about due to Desmond training for his around-the-world race.

2) Desmond, who Daniel claimed was “uniquely and miraculously special,” is on that flight for an as-yet-undisclosed reason – possibly in service of Jacob, the Island, or some time-mending mission.

• The title of the book Desmond is reading on the flight is “Haroun and the Sea of Stories,” by Salman Rushdie. Here’s what I can tell you about “Haroun” and its potential relevance to Lost:

The book was written for Rushdie’s son, who told his father that he should write something for children to read (continuing Lost’s established habit of including children’s books as thematic keystones to the mythology of the show). It concerns a professional storyteller and his son, who travel to a land “where all stories are born.” It’s been my theory from the beginning that Lost’s Island is just such a place. I believe that within the fictional world of Lost, the Island is meant to be responsible for many of the myths and legends we tell here in the ‘real world’ – the Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis, Narnia, Neverland, Eden, Underworld, Shambala….on a thematic level, the Island is the ‘birthplace’ for all of these stories and many more, either directly or indirectly.

During the events of “Haroun,” the main characters foil an attempt to taint or pollute “the oceans of the stream of story,” a place described in the quote that heads this column, where all stories originate from, where they combine and form new stories – a place very much like the Island. Rushdie’s description of a shifting, multi-colored tapestry recalls the tapestry that we saw Jacob literally and figuratively weaving in the Season 5 finale, and the Ocean itself also resembles “streams of time,” intricate and overlapping.

• Lost’s tradition of truly terrible CGI continues! We fly from Jack’s window on the Oceanic flight, down through the clouds and into the water directly below, passing a school of fish and racing along the ocean floor. As we move, we see the Dharma pylons, the Dharma barracks, the swingset where Daniel met a young Charlotte and Ben pushed his young daughter, a Dharma shark that’s been labeled on the side of its tail (is this the same shark we saw in Season 2?), and finally, the statue’s foot. The Island is underwater, and from what we’ve seen, it’s sunk within the past 30-40 years.

Putting aside the fact that the majority of this looks like a second-rate cut-scene from a video game (I mean, jesus), this is enormously cool stuff. You can argue, probably pretty persuasively, that introducing this much new mystery to the narrative at this point is a bad idea, given how many questions still need to be answered. But judging from the rest of this episode, answering questions isn’t going to be a problem.

• The Island’s submersion immediately recalls Atlantis, Plato’s fictional and fabled “lost continent.” Why is the Island underwater? Did the detonation of jughead sink it? Dharma was in existence when the Island went under, so the timeline arguably matches up. Somehow, I doubt it’s that ‘simple.’ I’ve got a suggestion about this below.

• In a double-mirror of Season 1, Kate finds herself up in a tree in the on-Island universe, where it appears as if the detonation did NOT work. It’s a double-mirror because (a) Kate loves her trees, and spends a fair amount of time in Season One clambering around in them, and (b) because the body of the Oceanic pilot, Seth Norris, was discovered up in a tree at the end of Season One’s first episode.

• In the aftermath of the detonation, Kate’s hearing is blown out, and she’s disoriented. I thought something had gone wrong with the sound on my television last night, and actually got tense over it. I am a nerd.

• Miles will comment later in the episode that these are the same symptoms from the “flashes,” indicating that the detonation jumped them forward in time (and potentially “split” them, the way that atom bombs split atoms). However, it’s also worth noting that the effects are similar to what we saw Locke experience after the Hatch implosion. Everyone here gets to keep their voice, though.

• Kate and Miles discover that the Swan Hatch has been built, and that it’s now destroyed. They’ve “leapt” forward past the point in time where Desmond turned the failsafe key, again reaffirming that the detonation did not seem to work. Those tunnels leading away from the Swan are unfamiliar to me. I assume they lead off to the various areas we saw in Season 2?

Sawyer: “It’s your fault, you son of a bitch!”

•  Sawyer’s journey on this show goes from inspiring to ominous during the course of this episode. We’ve watched James Ford/Sawyer/Jim LaFleur evolve from selfish, misguided and solitary to selfless, centered, and open. The death of Juliet and the failure of Jack’s “divine” plan seems to have sent him (pretty justifiably, unfortunately) over the edge. He and Jack have always had a complicated, contentious relationship, but something seems to shift inside of Sawyer here, and it doesn’t bode well for his future.

• Off-Island, Kate is still very much a fugitive, and we get to spend a little more time in the company of Marshall Edward Mars, who I always enjoyed seeing on the show. There’s another moment of potential recognition between them, but it seems as though Kate was just looking for a good lock-picking tool. That kind of sums up Kate’s relationship to Jack in a nutshell, actually.

• We see that Sawyer is also on the off-Island Oceanic flight, and that he’s also sporting his current do, not his original, shorter cut. Maybe this is supposed to have meaning, but it seems to me that Lost may have simply wanted to steer clear of bad wigs.

• Hurley is also on the off-Island flight, and his life appears to be significantly altered. Does the sinking of the Island mean that Hurley will never hear Leonard reciting The Numbers? Hurley still wins the Lotto, Numbers or no Numbers, suggesting that certain events will always occur, and that The Numbers may have changed what was “supposed” to happen.

• Arzt! His first appearance here serves mostly to dump some overly-jolly exposition in our laps, and it’s the first moment of the episode that feels “false” to me. While I’m happy to see Arzt back, the actor playing him hams it up too much for my tastes. Your mileage may vary.

• Ironically, Hurley calls himself “the luckiest guy alive.” Was it the presence of The Numbers that altered Hurley’s luck for the worse? Was it the involvement of The Island? Will Sawyer pull a con on good ol’ Hugo?

• Hurley’s massive headphones reappear here for the first time in forever. Does this mean we’ll be seeing some montages set to tasteful, acoustic music? Spare us, Lost!

• The sound signifying the change between off-Island and on-Island events is different than the sound used for the flashbacks.

Sawyer: “You think if an atom bomb went off we’d still be standing here?”

• Good point, Sawyer. All evidence points to the castaways moving forward in time, which would have taken them away from the explosion.

• It’s still weird to hear Jin talking in smooth, complete English sentences.

Sayid: “When I die…what do you think will happen to me?”
Hurley: “Just try not to talk, dude..”
Sayid: “I’ve tortured more people than I can remember. I’ve murdered. Wherever I’m going, it can’t be very pleasant.”

• Watching Sayid die, convinced of his own damnation, is emotional stuff. And his plight is a direct mirror of young Ben’s plight in Season 5, lending serious dramatic irony to the proceedings. Like Ben, Sayid has been gutshot. Ben was shot by Sayid, and fittingly, Sayid was shot by Ben’s father. Like Ben, Sayid is beyond medical help. And like Ben, he’s about to receive a very strange and potentially ominous gift.

• Philosophically, Sayid’s questions here are the very questions that, depending on your point of view, lead humanity to either explore the idea of an afterlife, or to invent it. I’ve suggested that, while the Island may not literally be purgatory, it can function that way metaphorically – more specifically, I believe that the writers in part intend the Island to have formed the basis of belief in the concept of “underworld,” a pre-Christian notion of the afterlife.

Hurley: “I’ve got a gun! And I know how to shoot it!”

• Hilarious.

Jacob: “Hello, Hugo. You got a minute?”

• Jacob appears to Hurley as a ‘ghost,’ which is all kinds of brilliant. It helps confirm that Jacob wanted Hurley back on the Island so that Jacob could communicate his wishes after his death. It might also help to confirm a theory I’ve been harboring: that the Island “stores” the souls/energy of the dead in some way.

Jacob appears to be genuine here – not a manifestation of the Man in Black (who’s shown concurrently with these events). If that’s the case, it indicates that some of the ‘ghosts’ that we’ve seen on the Island may have been autonomous – not manifestations of the Man in Black at all. What does this say about the ‘ghost’ of Christian?

• Back in the off-Island ‘universe,’ Sun and Jin are shown to have ‘regressed’ back to their pre-crash terrible marriage, which is sort of heartbreaking. If the point of these off-Island glimpses is to reinforce the fact that things wouldn’t be ‘better’ with a reset, so far its working.

• Interestingly, Jin’s hair HAS changed off-Island. Huh.

Boone: “If this thing goes down? I’m sticking with you.”

• Our favorite total incompetent returns to the show in style, and I’m surprisingly happy to see him. In this off-Island version of events, Boone’s trip to retrieve Shannon from Australia was unsuccessful, and he’s traveling alone, seated in the same row as John Locke. That’s appropriate, since Boone was essentially Locke’s ‘acolyte’ during his time on the show. In another echo, Boone’s just as admiring of Locke here as he was during the first season. Their “are you pulling my leg” exchange is gold.

• Hey, Frogurt! Great sleep-mask, there, buddy.

• Terry O’Quinn was wonderful as John Locke, Island-prophet. He’s even better as the Man in Black/Anti-Locke. O’Quinn gets the opportunity to flex an entirely new set of acting muscles as his character’s con is revealed here, and it’s a fantastic performance.

• The camera lingers over Anti-Locke as he cleans Jacob’s blood from his knife. Is there a reason that he first wipes it on his pants, and then cuts a swatch of rug free to clean the rest? Is he just really tidy?

• Why didn’t Jacob fight back, as Ben asks? If folks are right, it’s because he sacrificed himself, ala Christ, Ra, Aslan, and countless other “dying god” archetypes. His appearance to Hurley seems to confirm this. As with Sawyer, something appears to be shifting in Ben Linus. Will the lemur-eyed leader of the Others walk a path of redemption this season? If he does, it’ll be a complicated one. I suspect that Ben, like Caliban or Gollum, will be a tragic ‘hero’ at best when all is said and done. When Richard asks him what happened in Jacob’s foot-house, he tells Richard to “go inside and find out,” indicating that the character is as twisted as ever.

• Locke orders Ben to bring Richard to him, alone. As we’ll see by the episode’s end, Locke needs Richard – for what, we don’t know. And speaking of Richard, why doesn’t he go storming into Jacob’s foot-house as soon as he sees Locke’s body?

• There’s a terrific sense of legitimate confusion on the beach. Sun and Frank have NO idea what’s going on, and Frank’s distrustful of everyone. Ilana and Bram are apparently trying to enter Jacob’s chamber, and from what I can make out of his conversation with Ilana and Bram, he seems to be keeping them from running in to protect Jacob. What up with that (cue man-in-tracksuit)? I’ve suggested in the past that Richard is maintaining some kind of security protocol when it comes to the rules for seeing Jacob, and that sense is stronger than ever here.

• This is the first time that Ben sees Locke’s dead body, and he’s legitimately shocked. Ben’s been behind the eight-ball since his re-arrival, lead by the nose via Anti-Locke’s prompting. He’s still a conniving weasel, obeying Anti-Locke’s instructions and lying about Jacob.

Hurley: “How’d you die?”
Jacob: “I was killed by an old friend who grew tired of my company.”

• One of the answers I’m most looking forward to learning this season involves the relationship between Jacob and the Man in Black. Were they actually friends? Were they the Jack and Sawyer, Jack and Locke, or Locke and Ben of their time?

• Jacob looks troubled by the sight of shot Sayid (alliteration!). Was this unexpected? Or is he contemplating the magnitude of what needs to be done?

• Jacob tells Hurley to take Sayid to the Temple, and that Jin will know where to go – to “the hole in the wall where he was with the French team,” and letting us know that Jacob’s been keeping track of the castaways on their time-trips, just as the Man in Black was. He tells Hurley that his group will be safe there – something we’ve heard before. When the mercenaries attack the Island, Ben sends Alex and Rousseau to the Temple, calling it “a sanctuary,” and raising the question of why Ben, Richard and the Others live in tents at various places on the Island when there’s a giant motherfunkin’ Temple populated with a bunch of new Others.

• Why does Jacob instruct them to use the tunnels, when we saw Richard use a door when he carried Ben? No clue.

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