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Mar 8
by Dirk Lawhon
WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for episodes: LA X part 1 & LA X part 2
On Feb. 6, the hit television series “LOST” resurfaced from a painfully extensive hiatus following its Season 5 finale. This season, Season 6, has been confirmed as the final season for the show. Fans, including myself, are sad to see it go but are also very excited to finally receive some answers concerning the island’s deepest mysteries.
At the conclusion of Season 5, audiences were left with a rather huge cliffhanger. Juliet, down but not out, used her last bit of strength to detonate the hydrogen bomb with a conveniently placed rock. When the series’ title appeared in reverse colors at the end of the episode, many viewers speculated that the plan had succeeded. But if there’s one thing that the dedicated fans of “LOST” have learned while following the show, it would be that no one’s assumption of what’s to come is ever truly accurate and it’s better to let the series tell the story itself.
Within the first two minutes of the premiere of Season 6, however, no suspicions were confirmed or denied regarding the outcome of the final seconds of Season 5’s finale episode, leaving viewers frantically theorizing once again.
The episode opened with a close-up on the awakening eye of Kate Austen. She awoke in a tree to a dark sky and her ears ringing with temporary deafness. She’s still wearing the same clothes that she wore in the finale which could mean that the bomb didn’t go off. But wait a second, now. Her ears are ringing and she can’t hear the sound of her own voice? And she’s up in a tree? What does that mean? She looked around and quickly determined that she and the others had been transported back to 2007. So did the bomb go off or not? Other than the temporary deafness and being scattered around the area, our heroes were safe and seemingly unharmed. Confused and angry, they determined that they had been brought back to the present where it seemed that everything was just as they had left it which meant that the bomb had no effect as to altering the future. However, once again viewers are thrown a curve ball.
Let’s examine the title of the episode. It’s called LA X. Notice anything? While, yes, it is the name of a major airport in Los Angeles, there is something else to be noted here. See it yet? There is a space between the letters A and X. This is no typo. As fans have no doubt learned, there is no such thing as a coincidence in “LOST”. The X being separate from the rest of the title refers to a technique commonly employed by comic books with an alternate history/timeline. One such example would be Marvel’s ‘Earth X’. I believe this is an accurate explanation for a strange new occurrence appearing this season.
Back in 1977, Juliet manually detonates the hydrogen bomb by bashing its impact-sensitive head with a conveniently placed rock. Here, the timeline splits and is ripped into two realities. One in which the bomb explodes, destroys the island, and the future is altered, and one in which Juliet, Sawyer, Jack, Kate, Hurley, Miles, and Sayid are all transported back to 2007 with no apparent changes as to the original timeline.
Doing away with the flashbacks and flash-forwards of the previous seasons, the writers present this alternate timeline in a technique they have deemed a flash-sideways. In these flashes we are presented with a completely different reality in which Daniel’s plan actually succeeds and the hydrogen bomb does indeed detonate causing the island to be destroyed in 1977 and Flight 815 never crashes. Instead, they all land in Los Angeles as they had always intended. But other than the obvious difference, there are now a handful of other curious alterations that seem to be a direct result of the destruction of the island in 1977.
Aside from the flashes-sideways, the premiere was riddled with all sorts of revealing information as well as, you guessed it, more questions. In this episode, I found out what was in the guitar case that Hurley has clung to since it was given to him by Jacob, I saw the smoke monster again in all its glory and in a very exciting way which has revealed much about its nature, I saw the Temple that has been spoken of on several occasions but we’ve never actually seen, I heard the strange whispers again in a way that fuels my ongoing theory as to what they are and where they’re coming from, Juliet’s fate was revealed, I saw a hippy named Lennon who is awesome, and I’m beginning to see just how extensive Jacob’s plan really was.
I was thrilled to finally get a look at the mysterious Temple, and was even more excited to discover what was hidden inside it. Sayid, brought to the Temple by Hurley on orders from the apparition of Jacob, was drowned in a spring as part of some sort of ancient process of renewal at the Temple. But after the process was completed, it became apparent that something had gone horribly wrong. Sayid was dead. Despite Jack’s frantic attempts to revive him, it seemed that his friend was gone. Even though Sayid used to be a torturer in the Republican Guard, he was a very kind and caring friend and a great asset to the survivors at desperate times. I was sad to see him go.
Later, when Hurley revealed to the leader of the Temple inhabitants that Jacob had died, the group had delved into a state of panic and began securing the compound. They were told to guard key positions along the walls surrounding the Temple and some of them scattered lines of ash in front of doorways. And from what we’ve seen so far, I think it’s safe to assume that the ash serves as some form of protection from the smoke monster which means that it is coming to the Temple with aggresive intentions.
With the premiere episode now gone and passed, I’m really looking forward to unlocking the island’s best kept secrets and watching Jacob’s master plan unfold in the remaining 17 episodes of one of the greatest stories ever told on television.
Tuesday, September 7