X Marks The Spot

It's started. The final season. So let's talk a bit about the Lost opener "LA X." First, the title. LAX is our airport, so why the space between the letters? Is it because this is the tenth time they've been to LA? Or because we're at the tenth level in the City of Angeles? Or that they're all meeting at the same spot in LA? Or because their timeline in LA needs to be crossed out? Or is it a typo?

But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

First, even before I watched the show, I don't like Tuesdays. Any new Lost is fine, but when it was on Wednesday, it was like a present you got for making to humpday. (Though, considering the plotline, debuting on Groundhog Day worked quite well.)

We start with the first scene the show ever had. Jack is on the plane talking to Rose, and getting more alcohol from Cindy the flight attendant. But things are a bit different. They look a bit different. Cindy gives him less alcohol than before. And this time Jack is the one who's nervous, and Rose tries to calm him. Does Jack know something about this flight?

Then we get turbulence, but they get through it. And Bernard returns. They've reset, just like Jack planned. So the plan worked. Or did it? (There are a lot of lines and reactions that are interesting just because we know how different things were in the original timeline.)



One thing that's different is Jack has a bloodstain on his neck. What does that mean? Some intimation that there's more going on than he recognizes? He returns to his seat and runs into Desmond. Is this because Desmond is "special" and so can be anywhere? Or did the reset simply put him on a new path where he can't get stuck on the island, and he's now flying back to LA from Sydney. (We don't know if he's married to Penny. Hey, maybe he refused the sailboat and married Libby). Jack looks at him oddly. At first I wondered if it's because he retained some of his old timeline consciousness, but I think it's that, just as before in the Hatch, when he sees Desmond, he knows they met years before.

Then we look out the window and get the other big news: The island is underwater. Dharmaville. Dharma sharks. The Statue. Everything. So Jack's new Incident wreaked havoc. I'm guessing what he did right then sunk the whole island, though it's possible it's due to what happened later. (As usual, Lost asks more questions than it answers. This can't go on forever, can it?)

But a whole reset, with the gang not conscious of the past--there's no way that's all. That's not a show. We can't leave Ben and Evilocke and dead Jacob and Ilana and the rest back in 2007 reset out of existence. So we start again, at the Incident. After Juliet explodes the bomb, we've had another time shift, and all the Losties (including Juliet and Miles) but not the Dharma people have been shot to 2007, an hour after Jacob was killed. Was this what Jacob was referring to when he said "they're coming"?

As in previous time shifts, they're in the same shape as they were before. (And the van makes the trip because Jin and Hurley are touching it) Being in the same shape isn't great for Sayid, who's bleeding to death (and has been bleeding to death since Jack and James decided to have a five minute tete-a-tete), and Juliet, who fell down a shaft. And we're not seeing the aftermath of the bomb going off. Instead we're in the timeline where they blew up the Hatch a few years back.

The gang, not aware of the alternate timeline, feels they blew it--Jack and Faraday's plan didn't work. (Though you think at least they'd recognize getting blown back to their present represents some sort of progress. It's worth it for phone technology alone.) Sawyer is the most annnoyed, since (against his wishes) the "failure" of the plan means he's lost Juliet. Looks like he's gonna cause trouble. I didn't like this plot development. We're in the final chapter. They can have arguments, but setting up the Losties against each other seems like bickering when they're involved in a bigger war.

Back on the airplane, Kate and Jack meet. It's the first of many meetings of those Jacob touched, but no recogntion. The touch has to matter sooner or later. Guess it'll be later.

Some lives have hardly changed. Kate is still being taken home in handcuffs--we assume it's for the same crime (despite Jacob's warning when she was a girl to keep her nose clean). But Hugo is Mr. Lucky. He still won the lottery (though we don't know with what numbers--in fact, with the island under water, he would have needed a different way to come up with those numbers), and since then everything he touches turns to gold. He seems to have been in Sydney to set up more Mr. Cluck's. (Arzt recognizes him. Always fun to see Arzt.) Meanwhile, Sawyer is returning home. We're not sure if he just killed someone, but he's still the old con man. For that matter, as we'll see, Jin and Sun are still a couple that aren't as close as they got to be on the island. He's a surly guy delivering a watch (has he still been warned not to screw around in the Sydney airport?) while Sun still pretends--even when it costs them--she doesn't know English.



A few sidenotes here. First, congratulations to readers John and Lawrence King who essentially saw this split. No more flashbacks, no more flashforwards. Instead, it looks like they'll cut back and forth between the Island in the present (2007) while the war begins, versus the reset present in 2004, starting with the Oceanic landing in LA. Not that he was alone in seeing this. Everyone sort of knew there had to be a reset. Furthemore, the title, "LA X" sort of gave it away. And, as I note above, there's no way this could be the whole story, leaving the island completely off the show. Fans would revolt.

My other note is about leaving the island. Some complained seasons 4 and 5 spent too much time away (though that's what flashbacks did before then). My attitude is even if the main story is on the island, as long as they've got interesting characters moving the story forward, I don't care where it takes place. And now they've got the most interesting characters of all. The first season of Lost was wonderful for several reasons, but above all beause it introduced a lot of interesting, flawed characters, still exploring each other as well as themselves. In later seasons, they got involved in the machinations of a huger plot, and the pleasures of the characters straight up were fewer. (That's how it generally works--once you've created the characters, you use them to move the plot foward, knowing what they can do. You don't reinvent them). So it's fun to see Sawyer (who's changed the most) be his old devil-may-care, cynical con man. It's great to see the older, seemingly wiser (and less driven, and maybe confused inside--more on that later) Locke. (Locke in the first season was the coolest character ever. Of course, it took the island to let the full man come out. Which is why he was Chosen.) Others, like Sayid and Sun and Jin haven't shown much yet. But above all, having the slate wiped clean reminds you of how fun and interesting Jack and Kate are. Jack is troubled, but he's basically a decent, talented guy trying to do his best, not some guy always wondering about his place and shouting at Locke and insisting on taking command. Even better, we get the bad girl Kate. You remember why she was so attractive to begin with. After a while, you felt enough is enough with her back and forth between Jack and Sawyer, busting up their relationships with Juliet. Instead, here we have the Ur-Kate, beautiful, resourceful and dangerous. And down deep, basically decent (probably).

Okay, back on the island. Jin runs from the van to the hatch. He tells the gang Sayid needs help. Then they hear Juliet, underneath all that metal. They forget all about saving Sayid and start to dig her out. Back at the van, Hurley sees Sayid dying and who should drop by but the freshly killed Jacob. Turns out Hurley's talent for seeing dead people, which Jacob spotted, comes in very handy. (I still think it may be that Hurley can recognize people alive in the other timeline, though we'll see. The show offers no clues in this direction, but my guess is the alternate timeline is Jacob's plan to save himself and maybe protect against Blackie. Furthermore, I think dead is dead, no coming back. True, Jacob died without a fuss, like a Jedi, but he has a plan, like a Cylon.) Jacob has the advice that can save Sayid--take him to the Temple (natch). The Temple can bring anyone back to life as long as they're not too dead (or am I confusing this with Avatar?).

Now we're back on the plane, following Sun and Jin. They were the most foreign characters at the beginning of the show, and not because they spoke Korean. And they're that way again. Meanwhile, who is Locke talking to? His old pal, Boone. (Boone, the guy who can survive a 35,000 foot fall in a plane but not a 30 foot drop). Boone tried to bring his sister back but in this timeline failed. This could have significance, or it could be that Maggie Grace, who played Shannon, wasn't available. Locke describes his successful walkabout. In this timeline, did Locke not become paralyzed? Sorry, he's lying--trying to put the best face on things. Or did he have that walkabout even while paralyzed this time around? Meanwhile, Boone jokes about Locke's survival skills--if the plane goes down, he's sticking with Locke.

On the island, the moment we've been waiting for--the aftermath of Jacob's death in the Big Foot. There's Evilocke, who will now be known as the Man In Black, or MIB. He explains to Ben what just happened. Ben is shaken. Can't understand how Jacob didn't fight back. This new Ben, who started a few episodes back last year, is interesting. For so long, Ben was the one in charge, in control, always a few steps ahead, behind the scenes pulling the strings. Now he's scared and realizes he's up against forces far greater than he can deal with. As we pull back and see a much bigger landscape, Ben appears much smaller (but just as interesting as ever).

MIB wants to talk to Richard and sends Ben out. Meanwhile, outside the statue everyone is pretty confused, just having seen dead Locke. Ilana (a new regular) and her gang confer with Richard, and no one is happy. Who is in charge here? Ben comes out and starts lying as usual, but it doesn't play any more. Richard, who's been his own man but never the leader, gets a bit rough with Ben, and shows him Locke's corpse. Ben's already had a tough day, but he didn't see this coming.

Back at the hatch, Sawyer uncovers Juliet. She's alive! Wonderful. Which is why it's such a cheat to have kill her again. We had this scene last year. The only excuse to let her live a few more seconds is so she can say a few things. (Though why Hurley doesn't suggest they bring her back to the Temple I'm not sure.) By the way, when Hurley tells Jin to bring them to the place where the French dude lost his arm (as Jacob told him to do), Jin just accepts it. Isn't he asking himself "I didn't tell anyone that story--and if I did, when did Hurley find out?"

Jack on the plane (with a little help from Sayid) saves Charlie, who's passed out in the bathroom. (This is post 9/11--don't they have procedures for people who won't get out of the bathroom?) Jack digs out a small bag of heroin from his Charlie's windpipe. Jack saving Charlie is a reflex, like Ben killing Locke. Charlie's not doing well in the reset (not that he did that well in the old timeline, though he did redeem himself). That's the way it goes in a reset. Win some, lose some.

Anyway, Juliet, who's probably dying of internal injuries due to her fall, sees she and Sawyer are still on the island. She cries. She did it not to save herself, but to get Sawyer back home.

MIB wants to talk to Richard, but Jacob's protectors follow Ben back in instead. Bad mistake. "Locke" tells them Jacob is dead and they start shooting at him. He turns into the Smoke Monster and bashes them all to death. While Ben cowers, Bram goes bam. For the 1% of fans who weren't sure, this settled the issue that MIB is the Monster. We also see that putting ash around you protects you from the monster (somewhat), as many fans had guessed from earlier scenes around Jacob's cabin. MIB tells Ben I'm sorry you had to see me like that. So MIB has a sense of humor, and a sense of propriety.

Juliet is still alive, by the way, and in Sawyer's arms. She tells him "we should get coffee some time...we can go Dutch." Normally you'd figure she's not all there, in her death throes. But this is Lost, and we've seen these symptoms before. It sounds like her consciousness is flashing back and forth between the two timelines. She wants to tell James something, but expires before she can. So there's no hope, because after someone dies, there's no way to communicate with them any more. Oh wait....Sure enough, in a later scene, Sawyer and Miles bury her, and Sawyer forces him to say what she was thinking. And it's this: "It worked." Finally, our first indication (as I read it) there'll be some back and forth between the alternate realities. Sawyer might not get it yet, but they've got to figure it out sooner or later. I would guess the two timelines are going to interact, play into each other, and, ultimately, dissolve into one?

Back on the plane, Charlie is not grateful Jack saved his life. I can see why not. His life is a mess, and now he's going to be yet another passenger led off in handcuffs. We also see Sayid is about to meet Nadia. I hope at least he's grateful.

The plane lands, Charlie is led off. Kate is led off. Everyone gets off. And who sticks around? Locke. Yep, he needs the wheelchair. At least Boone'll never know. (By the way, we don't see Michael. Is there a reason for this? is it a plot thing, or is it that they can't show a young Waaaalt?)

Jack gets some bads news. His dad's coffin has been lost. And the funeral's in two hours. Is that a coincidence, or does someone still have plans for his dad's corpse?

Back on the island, we're finally gonna see the Temple! It's like meeting the Wizard Of Oz. They go in through the hole where the monsters lives. But the gang (Jack, Kate, Jin, Hurley and Sayid) are snatched away, one by one. By whom? By the Others who live on the Temple grounds. Every time we run into a new set of Others, we're never sure what to expect. This is a weird group. They seem to be hippies, like leftovers from the Dharma Initiative, but they're also a nasty, grumpy bunch, who'd just as soon shoot you as look at you. Are these people the spawn of Radzinksy?

The Temple is a pretty, old-style structure--it looks as good as the post cards--and the Losties are brought at gunpoint to a lagoon in front.

(At this point, ABC showed a commercial for V. Is this where Juliet's consciousness is flashing to?)

Bad girl Kate needs to go the bathroom. It's a ruse, since she stole a pen and hopes to get out of her constraints (didn't Anthony Hopkins do that?). The federal agent lets her go in a stall but gets suspicious. She kicks out the door and knocks him unconscious (which might seem cruel, but it's quite a bit better than how he ended up when the flight crashed). She leaves the bathroom--but not before grabbing his gun--and has to get out of LAX before the authorities figure out what happened. She gets on an elevator with Sawyer (too lazy to take the escalator to baggage?) who recognizes a fellow passenger, not to mention a fellow criminal and hottie.

Cindy, now in thrall to the Temple, recognizes the Oceanic passengers. The Japanese leader, Dogen, and his translator, Lennon (!), aren't pleased. (I looked up the names. Not sure if they were used in the show.) The order is given to shoot until Hurley uses the magic words (like Locke used in the 50s) "Jacob sent us." Do he have proof? Hurley has them open the guitar case. (Ahh, answers!) It's unclear if Hurley's opened it already or not (though he'd have had to, wouldn't he?). There's a giant fortune cookie ankh inside. The leader cracks it open and reads the message. It's another one of Jacob's lists--these people better be protected, it says, in essence. (Does the list include Sawyer too? And Miles?) So they carry in Sayid to give him the full Temple spa treatment.

Back at LAX, Jin has the fancy watch, not to mention tens of thousands of dollars, which he hasn't declared. Too bad he can't speak English. Too bad his wife can't (she claims), or the misunderstanding could be cleared up. The couple is taken off for a conversation with the authorities. I guess they'll need a translator to get past this. And Jin better learn English fast if he wants to make it in the U.S.

Sayid is brought through a courtyard into a large bath. The water isn't clear. Have they been giving a bunch of other people the Temple-cleansing treatment? The leader cuts himself and puts his wound in the water. That will clean things up? Looks more like he's checking the potency of the curative powers. Then they warn the Losties the cure has risks. All doctors have to give this warning to avoid liability.

The submerge Sayid, like a baptism. He starts thrashing around. Looks cured to me. But he's got to stay under until the sand in a glass runs out. It's long enough so that he stops thrashing. Good work. He looks dead. Jack (the reflex kicks in) tries to get him going again, and Kate (she's done it before) tells him to give up. He's dead, Jack.

Back at the airport, Kate has made it to baggage claim (as has Sayid and Arzt). She escapes to the curb through a "No Entry" door. She jumps the line for cabs and who chews her out? Frogurt! He's grumpy in any timeline. She goes to the back of the line behind Hurley. (He's super rich, but he flies coach and gets in line for cabs. A man of the people.) While she's waiting, she's spotted by the fed, who's back on his feet. He gives chase and she jumps in a cab and points a gun at the driver's head. Turns out she's sharing the ride with Claire. Aaron has two mommies.)

Back at the temple Cindy, ever the flight attendant, serves the Losties food. Kids help her. They followed her to Hydra Island, so why not? We also now know where the kids on the island go, but this isn't that big a surprise. Sawyer and Miles have been captured and are dragged in. The second-in-command has Hurley come to meet the leader. Hurley quickly figures out the guy can speak English. (It took Michael half a season to figure out Sun could.) I'm wondering why they don't speak Latin like civilized people? Anyway, they want info and Hurley lets slip Jacob is dead. What, you didn't know? This sets them off on a flurry of activity. I figured since they do everything for Jacob, this would be time for mourning, but it seems to be a bigger deal that without Jacob they can't protect themselves from his nemesis. (Did they worship Jacob, or did they just understand how much they needed him?) They start pouring the ash and set off fireworks to inform all others on the island (though the other Others already know).

Back in the Foot, Ben and MIB thrash things out. Ben calls him the Monster. The Monster is good enough to laugh off this faux pas, merely saying "let's not resort to name-calling." He also admits I'm not a what, I'm a who. So that's something. Ben now knows he's been used, and MIB couldn't have killed Jacob himself. (I think this dialogue is to help slower viewers catch up).

MIB notes Ben did what he wanted to do, it was his choice. Not unlike Christian telling John he could help him get up to spin the donkey wheel. Do both Jacob and MIB require free will? Then the Monster steers the conversation to Ben killing Locke. MIB (played quite well by Terry O'Quinn, who's essentially doing two different roles) tells Ben what John was thinking at the last second: "I don't understand!"

Let's talk about this. Locke was always an odd mix. He often seemed the most together, but he was a guy who suffered a lot, and raged at the world, and finally thought he found something to believe in on the island. Why not? Here he was in charge, here he was respected, here he could use his knives. Above all, here he was healed. But was he just a pawn, being fooled by MIB, or does he yet have a deeper purpose? (I'm betting on the latter.)

More important, how does MIB know what Locke was thinking? He can't seem to get off the island. How does he even know the Ben killed Locke? This implies when MIB takes over a body, he shares their brain with them, and is aware of their past thoughts. When he was Christian (at least I think he was), he said Say hello to my son. Or was that the clever MIB, manipulating both Locke and Jack to get the desired result. When he was Alex, he knew how to get to his Ben. But above all, he's spent an awful lot of time as Locke, and looks like he'll continue in this body. And a lot of his dialogue after the Ajira flight landed felt like it was at least in part Locke talking. BTW, the first time we saw MIB, meeting Jacob--was that just another body of a passerby that he was able to duplicate?

MIB goes on more about Locke's life. He's a little tough on Locke, though not totally unfair about his weaknesses. And he sees Locke was the only one who didn't want to leave the island (because his previous life was pointless). This makes me wonder--is this why he killed others after he judged them? He looked into Ecko and saw the guy wasn't apologetic for his former life. So he killed him, because he couldn't use him. All those deaths caused by the smoke monster--some, like against the freighter folk, were just to protect the island in general. (Assuming the Smoke Monster is always MIB. Maybe when Ben summons him, he's doing Jacob's work.) But a lot seemed to be judging people in particular. And so they were killed if they got in the way of his long-range plan to figure out a loophole and kill Jacob. (And Jacob, a chess player, was perhaps several steps ahead of him, touching some of the Losties and setting up a scenario where an alternate reality comes into play and saves him and everyone else.)

Then the biggest bit of information perhaps in the whole two hours. MIB wants the opposite of what John Locke wants. He wants "to go home." So does this mean he can't get off the island and go back to the days when he roamed the Earth? Who could have foreseen that? Me, for one. Last June, I called it--I said he was a prisoner on the island, and Jacob helped keep him there. (So why bring people to the island? Won't MIB just corrupt them? Maybe, but maybe Jacob can work it so that they finally end the threat of MIB as well. Jacob has some endpoint in mind, even if it's being thwarted by MIB.)

Back at the Temple, Sayid is dead. I find this hard to believe. They'll kill people, and the actor will still have a role back at LAX. But Sayid is too important a player (and one of those helpers Jacob needs) that they can't off him here, can they? Miles is also suspicious, since he's not hearing any dead chatter.

Jack is waiting in a room at the airport to deal with the lost body. He runs into Locke, who's lost his case of knives. How will he kill the wild boar of Torrance now? This is the sweet, wise, calm (but, according to MIB, confused) Locke of old. They talk about their plights. Locke dispenses folksy wisdom as he hasn't done since he got caught in the plot mechanisms of Season 2. Jack asks about his injury. Locke says it's irreversible, but Jack offers a free consult. Hey, unless the box factory has great benefits, take advantage of it, John.

It's daytime outside the Foot and MIB comes out to meet Richard, who really shouldn't have kept him waiting. Lapidus and Sun are still shocked at a living Locke. Then MIB has another one of those great lines--he tells Richard it's good to see him out of those chains. I assume this means he was locked up on the Black Rock 150 years ago. Now Richard knows who he's dealing with. So Richard not only knows Jacob, he knows MIB. MIB thereupon knocks Richard out and tells everyone how disappointed he is in all of them (a feat of strength and then disappointment--MIB celebrates Festivus). Even Ilana has figured out by now you don't shoot at this guy. There's a nice continuous shot of "Locke" walking past Locke.

Now the annoying Temple people want to talk to Jack privately. You may be on Jacob's list, but that doesn't give you any special privileges. Jack refuses and it looks like a fight will start until Sayid wakes up and asks what happened

We don't know about the treatment, so maybe it just took longer to work on Sayid. Or maybe Sayid from the alternate universe popped in. Or maybe it's the spirit of Jacob (who was quite insistent Sayid be saved). Or maybe it's something else. We don't know because that's the end of the show.

LOST

I thought it was a fine episode (but then, Lost rarely lets me down). I'd forgotten how quickly the show goes by--even at two hours I wanted it to be longer. (I also forgot, after watching it on DVD, what it's like to sit through commercials.)

What struck me about the episode is it reminded me of Lost's strengths. As central as the plot is, and there were some cool twists here, it still a show about character. There was some action, but not that much. My main impression was this was a quiet episode (after a very loud finale to Season 5). The biggest scenes were often two or three people just talking to each other. But if you care about what they're saying, that's better than the biggest fight.

So we've got the basic structure for the season--two alternate timelines. For at least a while, I guess we'll be cutting back and forth. We also got some answers--the Temple, the guitar case, what happened to the Losties, etc. But the bigger questions are still unresolved. However, it does seem like the battle royale on the island, with MIB set loose, is beginning. It's far from clear what role the Losties will play. For that matter, I'm not sure what side, if any, Ben and Widmore take. It was their battle for most of the series, but now they're a small part of something much bigger.

Meanwhile back at LAX, we can't simply have those touched by Jacob go about their business. They've got to realize something is going on. They've got to get together and do something. They can only do so much in their timeline, where the island is underwater. So I guess they've got to affect the other timeline. And when they do, the final battle will take place.