The final season of “Lost” has been one of the most hyped events of the year, so it was always bound to be a little disappointing, right? Let’s get any criticisms out of the way first, because while the two-hour premiere definitely offered plenty in the way of WTF moments, I couldn’t help but feel a little underwhelmed by it all. Most of that had to do with the alternate reality Jack and Co. have seemingly created by detonating the hydrogen bomb. They don’t know it just yet, but from the few hints that appeared throughout the course of the episode (the shot of the four-toed statue underwater, Jack’s vague memory of Desmond, and Juliet’s beyond the grave message to Sawyer that “it worked”), I don’t think there’s any other explanation. Which makes me wonder, if the plane didn’t crash like it was supposed to, did all the flashbacks that we saw in previous seasons still take place? Because if they did, why wouldn’t Desmond remember Jack?
I’m sure we’ll learn more as the season progresses, with the alternate reality portions (what Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof refer to as flash-sideways) delivering the survivors’ stories as they might have occurred had Oceanic 815 never crashed. Most details have remained the same (Jack’s still transporting his father’s body, Kate is still a fugitive, Hurley is still crazy rich, Locke is still handicapped, Jin’s still an insufferable prick, and Charlie is still an addict), but there were a few differences, like Boone’s failure to convince Shannon to come home with him, or the fact that Desmond is now on the flight. It wasn’t until the plane safely landed when the story really began to get interesting, and though Kate’s escape from the U.S. Marshall was totally expected, I didn’t think we’d see Claire in the backseat of the taxi cab she took hostage. Jin’s run-in with customs was also a nice surprise, particularly because I think Sun is telling the truth about not speaking English. After all, if the Desmond/Jack meeting from Season Two never happened, then maybe Sun never planned on leaving Jin either.
Of everything that went down on the plane and in the airport, however, the meeting between Jack and Locke in the luggage claim office was easily my favorite moment of the night. It’s so fun to watch Terry O’Quinn jump back and forth between playing pure evil (more on that later) and crunching his face into a big ‘ol smile, and along with Michael Emerson, O’Quinn’s best scenes tend to be opposite Matthew Fox. I’m also curious to see where they go with the whole missing body subplot (Christian Shephard’s an integral part of the island storyline, so why wouldn’t he play a part in this one as well?), and more importantly, if Locke decides to pursue Jack’s offer to perform surgery on his spine. The idea that these characters still go on the same journey even though they’re not on the island makes for a fairly cool premise, and one that would be especially fun to explore if the two timelines actually begin to affect one another.
A mirror reality may have been created, but that doesn’t mean the original one still doesn’t exist. That’s surely something not even Faraday could have anticipated, because despite the fact that Juliet detonated the bomb, they’re still stuck on the island… only now they’ve been pushed into the present. Unfortunately, Juliet’s dead (crushed under the wreckage of the Swan) and Sayid is bleeding out from a gunshot wound to the gut. It’s a good thing Hurley can see dead people, then, because Jacob (who really did bite the dust) tells him to go to the temple in order to save Sayid. When they arrive, they meet a new group of Others including a Japanese man (Hiroyuki Sanada) who appears to be their leader, and his translator (“Deadwood” alum John Hawkes), though he doesn’t really need one.
I’m not exactly sure what to make of the wooden ankh found inside Hurley’s guitar case apart from the obvious Egyptian imagery, but it’s pretty clear that the piece of paper hidden inside it contained all of their names. (I wonder if Sun’s name is on that list as well or if that’s the reason she never traveled back in time with them in the first place?) Whatever significance it may have, it’s enough to convince the Others into helping save Sayid. When the rebirth doesn’t work (it could have been the murky water or the fact that they freaking drowned him), only for Sayid to pop back to life moments later, everyone looks positively shocked. Still, the Japanese man seems far more concerned when he learns of Jacob’s death – enough so that he begins barricading the temple to keep “him” out.
And just who is “he”? John Locke, of course. Or, to be more specific, the Man in Black disguised as Locke, here forth known as Evil Locke. And boy is he quickly earning a reputation. Fresh off convincing Ben to kill Jacob, Evil Locke shows his true form when Brahm and his men enter the temple by transforming into the Smoke Monster and beating the holy hell out of them. It’s interesting to note that Brahm created some kind of magical barrier preventing the Smoke Monster from touching him, but it didn’t take long for it to find a way around that. What really made the scene, though, was when Evil Locke apologized to Ben for having to see him in that form.
So, it looks like the Man in Black really is the Smoke Monster, just like I theorized in my blog post last season. But what’s even more interesting is that Richard Alpert not only has a history with him (and involving chains, no less), but that the Man in Black wants to get the hell off the island – or at the very least, go home, wherever that may be. Color me intrigued, because this already has me excited for the rest of the season. In fact, now that I think of it, maybe tonight wasn’t such a letdown after all.
