LOST: Episodes 6.1 and 6.2

LA X 1 and LA X 2

"Nothing is irreversible."

Wow, what a return! I was on the edge of my seat, sometimes with my jaw hanging down, for almost the entire 2 hours (except for the Kate stuff - everyone but her seemed different in the reset timeline/reality *yawn*).

The story picked up immediately where it left off last season, showing us what seem to be 2 timelines that resulted from the detonation of the bomb:

1. Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Miles and Sawyer are still on the island, but now appear to be in the same 2007 timeline as the Locke/Ben/Sun/Jacob drama; and

2. A 2004 timeline where Oceanic 815 does not crash and makes it successfully to LAX, albeit with some notable differences.

There are a number of theories floating around the internet as to what the 2004 timeline is - an alternate timeline? and alternate reality? a parallel universe?- and while I've never been big on theorizing in my recaps, there is one that I favor: In the comments of Alan Sepinwall's fantastic review, someone recalled Daniel Faraday's description of the "movement" of time: It's like a stream. If you throw a rock in the stream that's big enough, it will alter the direction, or course, of the water. If the rock is not large enough, the water will divide to go around it, creating two streams that will eventually meet up on the other side of the rock. This season, we have a new storytelling structure. Instead of flashbacks, flash forwards or time-jumping, it appears the story will move laterally between the two timelines, and I bet they will somehow converge by the end of the season.

But that's all speculation, and while it can be fun, it can also hurt my brain, so that's enough of that.

Watching the 2004 parts of the story, I felt like I was playing one of those picture games where I had to pick out all of the things that were wrong, or out of place. Not that I'm complaining, but what was Desmond doing on the plane, and only for a short while at that? Where did he go? Was he time flashing again? Why wasn't Shannon on the plane in this timeline? What was the blood on Jack's neck? He knew there was something "off" when he looked at himself in the mirror, don't you think? Having seen the pilot episode recently, it was very noticeable to me that that they didn't make any attempt to mimic everyone's hair from the pilot. Jack and Sawyer both had much shorter hair in the pilot, Charlie's was much shorter in the LA X version of the flight, and I think even Rose's hair was different. Hurley was happy and lucky, and Sawyer didn't seem troubled by having just murdered the wrong man. Something's off. It's almost like bits and pieces of the original, 2007 island timeline are seeping into the 2004 timeline, e.g. the abrasion on Jack's neck, or when Charlie tells Jack that he was supposed to die.

Everyone makes it to Los Angeles, although not without confronting some obstacles after getting off the plane:

Jack: His father's body has been misplaced
Locke: His suitcase with knives is missing
Charlie: In police custody after getting caught with heroin on the plane
Jin and Sun: Jin is taken by security and Sun does nothing to help him
Kate: Escapes and jumps into a cab with Claire, who I can only assume is pregnant

I'm interested in seeing what's going to happen, including how much this timeline might be affected by the events of the original island timeline.

On the Island, we get to see poor Juliet die. Again. Like it wasn't sad enough the first time. Before she dies, however, she does something odd: She asks Sawyer out for coffee. Could that be a bit of the new 2004 timeline seeping into this one? Through Miles we learn that the important thing she wanted to tell Sawyer was that "it worked". Not very well, from what I can tell. Sawyer is so heart-broken over Juliet's death that I will find it very hard to accept if they try to put him and Kate together at this point.

Seeing the Temple felt a little underwhelming to me. Not sure what I expected, maybe something that felt a little more "magical" or mystical. Do you think the water in the healing pool was not clear because Jacob was dead? Oh, and who else was wicked psyched when Sayid rose from the dead?! My first thought, however, was that Jacob was taking Sayid's form now, just as Esau, or the man in black, did with John Locke.

And speaking of John Locke, whoa! After rewatching The Incident, I was convinced that the Smoke Monster, Esau and the risen John Locke were one and the same, and I was very pleased last night to see that I was on the right track. While I'm very happy that we're going to have lots of Terry O'Quinn acting his heart out this season, I would still like to see some kind of redemption/vindication for the real John Locke before the show ends. And for Ben, too. He was ill-used by the Island powers-that-be and I kind of feel sorry for him now.

I'm going to have to wrap this up now. I know there's a lot more to talk about, but I'm not feeling all that well with this head cold, so I'm turning it over to you guys to continue the discussion. What did you think??

Oh, wait a minute, I almost forgot. Look who's back!