LOST: LA X, parts one & two

Wow. Eight months was a long time to wait for new Lost, but it was totally worth it. We've got two timelines now, which could get confusing, but that's a part of Lost. At first, I kinda felt the writers and producers were cheating with two timelines. Is this their way of trying to satisfy everyone? A way of getting to tell both stories? I decided not to question it though because the writers are always going somewhere with the story and it's almost always somewhere good. I just have to sit back and go along for the ride. Plus I have read interviews with Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse (executive producer people) that say the two separate timelines will make sense eventually. I'm so excited that it's the last season because we'll finally get tons of answers. I am also really sad though because what will I obsess over once Lost is over?

In the rebooted timeline, the plane does not crash. I wonder if Jack has some awareness of what happened. He seemed to have a strong sense of deja vu the whole plane ride. It was really cool to see the 815 flight again but changed. Jack only got one bottle of booze, Rose was reassuring Jack instead of the other way around, Shannon was a no show on the plane, Charlie didn't run past Jack, Desmond showed up to sit next to Jack. It was all pretty crazy. The castaways seem to have a familiarity with each other - Sawyer watching out for Hurley, Sawyer helping Kate out in the elevator, Boone and Locke bonding. I was pro timeline reboot the whole time we were waiting for Lost to come back. But then when the plane landed and everyone got off and no one got to know each other and Locke was still in the wheelchair, I started crying. I know, I'm such a dork!

I love, love, loved the scene with Locke and Jack in the airport. It was nice to see them not fighting for once and for them to sort of comfort each other. Will Jack fix Locke? What is the significance of Locke losing his knives? Did they both lose things they will need on the island? Because I am sure they will end up back there eventually. I mean this timeline is 2004 and the island time is 2007. I firmly believe that a major part of season 6 and of Jack's entire storyline is that he needs to find Christian's body and bury it.

I've got a few major questions about the time reboot. Was Charlie meant to die in this timeline? I've been saying for awhile now that Charlie was supposed to die the day the plane crashed. If you go back and watch the pilot episode (or any number of season one episodes), it shows several times where Charlie almost dies. I think that's pretty significant. What the heck was Desmond doing on the plane?! Was he there to "course correct" and make sure Charlie died? Then when he was reading, I was afraid he was reading Our Mutual Friend (the last book he wants to read before he dies.) He wasn't though. Since Des didn't recognize Jack, does that mean the entire time before the crash has changed too? Because Desmond and Jack originally met in 2001 at that stadium. It makes sense for Desmond to have never gone to the island though because the island is now underwater, so he never crashed on it or ended up in the hatch pushing the button, brother. This whole shift with the plane not crashing makes me wonder what else has changed in the castaways lives. Can Sun really not speak English? Or is she just pretending so Jin doesn't know? I miss happy Sun and Jin, so it was sad to see them unhappy on the plane. Where was my boyfriend Mr. Eko on the plane? Does Christian's body still end up on the island? Is that why he's missing? And what was up with the island being underwater?? I guess the bomb going off messed up a lot of the island history. Did you see the Dharma shark swim by down there? I love the little details on this show.

Now in this timeline, the bomb going off did not send the Losties off the island. The castaways still crashed, still found the hatch, still stopped pushing the button and still blew the Swan hatch up. Juliet dies in Sawyer's arm (yay! I've never liked her!), ninja Sayid is dying and Hurley gets a visit from dead Jacob. The gang heads to the Temple to save Sayid. This whole Temple people thing is kinda crazy. Who is this Japanese guy in charge? What's up with that water? Did the water turn muddy looking because Jacob is dead now? It was terrible to watch them keep Sayid under water until he drowned. Interesting fact: I read online that someone timed the big sand timer and Sayid was under water for 1 minute 8 seconds. CRAZY!! I know that we got to see what was in Hurley's guitar case. What did the list of names in the ankh mean? Were they people who aren't supposed to die because they still have work to do on the island? Is that what the Others and their lists have been about this whole time? It was really cool to see Hurley be in charge for once. Jack was just going along with the plan instead of trying to be in charge. Thank goodness Sayid woke up and came back to life. I knew ninjas couldn't die! But will Sayid be the same? Or will he be changed like Ben was? I am sure this is how the Others saved Ben when Sayid shot him back in 1977.

The reveal that FLocke (fake Locke) was the smoke monster was pretty damn awesome. What a cool scene! Here's why the show amazes me - last season when FLocke and Ben return to the island, the smoke monster and FLocke were never in the same place at the same time. When Ben went down into the Temple to be judged, Locke disappeared. That was because he was busy being old Smokey and turning into Alex so Ben would do whatever FLocke says. One of my Lost theories is that the show has shown us everything we need to know to figure out what everything is about. We just have to know where to look. (One example - Way back in season 2 when Sun loses her wedding ring while burying the message bottle, the episode BEFORE it showed her digging the hole and one minute she had her wedding ring on and in the next it was gone. So we had already seen her lose the ring. That kinda of stuff with the show amazes me!) The scene when FLocke talks about Ben killing John was so sad. Poor John's last thought was "I don't understand." My poor John Locke.. His story is so sad most of the time. The evil FLocke/Smoke Monster wants to go home. Is his home the Temple? That would make sense because Montand (the guy on Rousseau's team who got his arm ripped off) was killed he was pulled down under the Temple by Smokey. That's the body Hurley and Kate checked out when they got down into the Temple. I can't wait to find out the whole history between Jack and the Man in Black. I'm sure it's gonna be crazy stuff.

Will Sun & Jin finally have an awesome reunion now that they are back in the same timeline? Was that really Jacob or was it the Man in Black/Smokey/FLocke? I wonder if MIB has been manipulating Locke the entire time he has been on the island? Did he show up as Walt? As Christian? Has poor John been his pawn from the get go so that MIB could manipulate his loophole to kill Jacob? Long cons have been a reoccurring theme on Lose. Is this the ultimate long con - getting Locke to die so MIB could use his body? Who are these people at the Temple? Are these the original Others? The part when FLocke tells Richard it's good to see him out of chains, I think that confirms Richard was brought over on the Black Rock slave ship. Is FLocke taking knocked out Richard to the Temple? Will he use Alpert to gain entrance to the Temple? And oh yeah, is Daniel Faraday gone for good??? :(

A few predictions - As much as I do not want Sawyer to end up with Juliet, I am sure we'll see an off-island conversation between them involving coffee and going Dutch. I think she was flashing as she died and that's how Juliet know "the incident" worked. I think the Others who were trying to take Jack to talk to Christian when Sayid sat up all alive and stuff.

Next week's episode is called "What Kate Does." So it will be Kate-centric and I'm sure it'll be here on the run... again. Will the sideways flashbacks (Damon and Carlton's name for them) line up thematically with the island story like it always has before? I sure hope so. I know I left a lot out, but there was so much to cover. I could have this blog going on for days. I am so pumped about season 6. Viva la Lost!!