Lost Chance
In a couple days, new Lost, and there'll be no point in speculation about what turn the season will take. I don't have too much to say, but at this point, I don't see how there won't be some sort of reset. If Jack's plan didn't work, what would be the point of season 5?
But it can't be a total reset. They can't start again. There's too much history. So I believe those whom Jacob touched will retain some sort of consciousness about what went on before. And they will work together. They're coming.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:12 AM
7 Comments:
For the record, I'll repeat my prediction:
History has been changed. Flight 815 never crashed. And yet, at the beginning of season six, the main characters will all be on the island. The viewer will wonder, how did they get there?
This question will be answered in a series of flashbacks, which will reveal the history of the revised universe. These flashbacks will be interwoven with the stories and focus on one character at a time, just as flashbacks & forwards have always been in Lost.
Meanwhile, the main story (the non-flashback parts of each episode) will continue from the end of season five, pretty much as you would expect. The underlying message is that it was Destiny that drew Jack and company to the island, and even though he changed the past, he didn't manage to change his destiny.
Assuming I'm right, there are still some points I am unsure about:
* The Jacob flashbacks at the end of season five: did these occur in the original timeline, or in the revised (no-Oceanic-crash) timeline? They don't fit very well in either.
* Will these "fill in the revised backstory" flashbacks continue through all of S6, or only the first half of it? S5 changed radically at the midpoint, and I think they might do the same with S6: fill in the new backstory in the first eight episodes, and then do something unexpected with flashbacks / flashforwards / etc in the last eight episodes.
* If Oceanic 815 didn't crash, and yet Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sun, etc are all on the island, then is it possible that some who died in the old timeline (Boone, Locke, etc.) are still alive in the new timeline?
* Will there be some characters who possess two sets of memories (the old and the new)? LAGuy suggested that those touched by Jacob would retain both sets. That's possible, but that includes most of the main characters, and I don't see how my flashback scheme would work if they all had two sets of overlapping memories. So if I had to speculate, I'd say that only one or two folks will remember the old timeline: presumably that would have to be Locke (if he's alive) or Richard or Desmond (if he returns to the island) or Faraday (if he's alive); and certainly Faraday's mother.
* Will everyone on the island be in the present day, or will a contingent still be stuck in 1977? I think the former. But if I'm right about the main characters not remembering the original timeline, they probably won't remember 1977 either.
I'm not a fan of this plan, but it's what I'm putting my money on. It seems to be where they were heading at the end of S5. Also, in S4 and S5 the writers showed they were willing to draw not only from hard SF but from space opera and comic-book SF. This method is mostly how DC Comics implemented its massive retcon after 1986: continue the main arc of Batman and (most) other hearoes, while occasionally inserting flasbacks to tell the reader what the revised past is. Sadly, I didn't like it then either, and am dreading it now.
Interesting. It makes sense, and I don't dread it, either.
Even with your plan, Locke is still the biggest question mark.
A couple things:
Richard says he saw them all die. Is he referring to the aftermath of The Incident? (He wasn't there at the end of last season.)
What is the significance of Jacob's touch?
My prediction: diverging timelines. Lost is, season after season, a show based upon the juxtaposition of two related but differing time periods: first flashbacks, then the future, then time travel. The sixth season is going to be about the juxtaposition and tying together of alternate realities, just like the other seasons juxtaposed the past, present and future.
Oh, by "diverging timelines," what I mean is both the alternate timeline of no Oceanic crash and the "real" timeline where they crashed will have focus in equal measure.
What is the significance of Jacob's touch?
If I were watching those Jacob scenes without knowing the futures of the people he touches, I think that I would interpret Jacob's intervention as him "putting them on a path". Indeed, I would expect that they will actually follow those paths.
But Kate's Jacob-inspired "path" is to not become a thief, and Sawyer's "path" is to not spend his life seeking revenge. So I can see a few possibilities:
1. Jacob did try to get them to follow these paths, but he failed. The moral: Even Jacob can't override the destiny of the main characters.
2. In the new timeline, unlike the old one, our heroes did follow these paths. If that's true, then the old and new timelines branched apart when Kate and Sawyer were kids, not when Oceanic 815 passed over the island. (If that's the case, Kate and Sawyer would probably never have gotten on the plane!)
3. Jacob's touch was part of the old timeline. And it's irrelevant to the new timeline. (Dramatically I think that's not a possible solution.)
4. Jacob's touch is part of both the old and new timelines. Whatever it means, it has nothing to do with the retcon.
5. Brand new idea: Maybe there are two changes, which cancel each other out! In 1977, Jack sets off an explosion, which prevents the "incident" in 2004, and Oceanic 815 lands safely in Los Angeles; so the Losties never come to the island. Jacob, who can perceive alternate timelines and/or the future, goes back and magically touches Jack and the others, steering them onto new paths which will lead them to the island in some other way.
If my theory of the retcon is right, then I would lean to #2 or #5. However, there is a big problem: Jacob met with Sayid and Hurley after the Oceanic Six left the island. If the new timeline means that Oceanic never crashed, I don't see how these scenes could possibly have occurred. Yet that would mean that #3 is correct, which I think is impossible for dramatic reasons. Aaargh!
As pure speculation on the producers' intent, we can be pretty sure they knew about Jacob (or something like Jacob) at least some time during the first season, maybe even before the pilot. It may seem a long time for us to get to Jacob, but they had an idea of the ending from the start (as demonstrated by Locke's backgammon lesson). On the other hand, I don't think they had any idea who'd make it to the end. Sure, probably Jack, Kate and Locke, but beyond that, Boone, Shannon, Michael and Charlie had just as good a chance to survive as Sawyer, Hurley and Sayid. (BTW, I don't believe it's ever been explained why he's called Hurley. And he sure doesn't seem like much of a warrior.) Thus, I don't think they were thinking about Jacob's touch until much later. Jacob's touch then became a way to explain why certain Lostaways--in particular most of the originals who survived--are set apart. That probably means they will be the ones who lead us to the finale and solve the problem of the island. We may see others from the originals, but they're not destined to play major roles.
BTW, if the Oceanic flight makes it to LA this time around, with the same passengers, there are certainly winners (aside from the hundreds of background people who won't die in the crash or later). Above all there's Sayid, who'd be bleeding to death in 1977 otherwise. Instead, he's flying to meet his love. On the other hand (assuming everything else is the same), Sawyer doesn't get Juliet and has no self-respect, Jin is still being chased by Sun's dad who's still in charge of things, Kate is in handcuffs and about to answer for serious crimes, and Locke can't walk. Some deal, Jack.
John suggested:
Lost is, season after season, a show based upon the juxtaposition of two related but differing time periods: first flashbacks, then the future, then time travel. The sixth season is going to be about the juxtaposition and tying together of alternate realities, just like the other seasons juxtaposed the past, present and future.
This makes a lot of sense. Dramatically, the biggest mystery is what they will do for flashbacks in S6. My theory and your theory both offer answers to that question. If the past is not changed, I don't know what they will do. Surely they won't just give us more trivial events that happened to our heroes before 2003! And they can't show us what happens after they leave the island a second time... because it seems pretty unlikely that they'll ever leave again.
Of course, they could give us something totally out of left field. The flashbacks could fill in the history of the Others (but were there any Others before the Black Rock arrived in 1845?). Or maybe the flashbacks will show the complete history of Jacob and Esau. I wonder if the two of them played backgammon with the Egyptian gods when they were kids?
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