***FAIR WARNING*** This write-up contains spoilers of last night’s LOST season six premiere as well as random plot points that are found in many of the preceding seasons. Read on only if you have seen all of the previous seasons as well as last night’s episode in its entirety.

“I’m sorry you had to see me like that.”

Read on…

Last year I was completely out of the loop when it came to following LOST season five in real time. I basically stopped watching the show in season two for a multitude of reasons: Ana Lucia, ABC’s wavering commitment to a consistent schedule, and the slight dip in the writer’s ability to maintain the pace of the story arc in an effort to extend the series for as long as possible.

Once the announcement was made to end the show at the end of season six so they could creatively resolve the story, I was in! In early January I finished my LOST seasons one through five catch up and last night I was able to join the many hordes of LOST fans (12.1 million) as the final chapter began to unfold.

I’ve purposely not read any summary articles yet so as to keep my opinion fairly untainted. The water cooler chatter has been ridiculous however…

My thoughts:

What of Michael?
Last night’s Michael Emerson narrated LOST recap episode was fantastic. Having seen the previous seasons in their entirety so recently, I didn’t need the refresher but it was the best lead in to the premiere you could get. Plus, hearing Emerson talk about Ben Linus in the third person was great. All this being said, where was Michael? Where was Walt? Even Vincent was completely left out of the summary. Why? We’ve heard the Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse discuss Walt and their reasons for discontinuing the character’s storyline (mainly due to the fact that actor Michael David Kelley went through his inevitable adolescent growth spurt and thus would be out of place in the show’s continuity) but this still doesn’t explain why they chose to wipe them out of the recap altogether. Walt seemed to have a connection to the island and The Others took him for a still unknown reason. Michael has also played a mysterious role in the show in that after leaving the island with his son, Michael was drawn back into the fold because the island wasn’t finished with him and that the island won’t allow him to die. Then the tanker explodes and literally all traces of Michael cease to exist.

Walt has been written out. Fair enough. Plus, his storyline can be concluded very easily now that we’ve seen the temple and we’ve met once again the two children that were taken by the others (a la Walt) from the tail section of the plane. It’s comforting knowing that we’ll be seeing some resolution to this. As for Michael, and this was actually a point brought up during some of the early morning water cooler chatter around here (and thus not my own), what if the island needed to ensure that Aaron escaped via the helicopter and so Michael’s role was that of protector? He couldn’t die until Aaron was safely away. He was after all able to keep the bomb from detonating until the helicopter carrying the Oceanic Six took off from the tanker… I’m hoping this gets some kind of closure one way or another.

What of the numbers?
We saw the numbers a few times during the recap but why was there no direct mention of them having some sort of significance? I’m going to logically assume that the summary hour was to be used to get new viewers up to speed so it might be very telling that they were not mentioned outright. If they never get mentioned again, I’m simply chalking them up to Hurley’s connection to the island and how lots of things having to do with the island are connected.

What of the hydrogen bomb?
On to the most frustrating things I think the creative team could have done away with was the repetition of the hydrogen bomb detonation scene. Between the final moments of the recap episode and the couple of times it was repeated in the opening 15 minutes of the season premiere, it must’ve played at least three times. We know what happened. I’ll give them one thing though: the Sawyer/Juliet farewell before she falls down the hatch is probably THE best and most dramatic moment thus far of the entire season. The fact that this scene contains Sawyer only reinforces how fantastic Josh Holloway’s portrayal of the character actually is and why he has become one of the series linchpins.

What of the timeline?
Before Juliet dies she tells Sawyer that she needs to tell him something important. She doesn’t get a chance. Sawyer then has Miles do his ‘speak with dead people thing’ to find out what Juliet was going to say. Miles tells Sawyer that she wanted him to know that the bomb detonation worked. But did it?

In my mind, there is one of two timelines at play. The first possibility is that Miles lied to Sawyer about what Juliet said and the bomb didn’t work. In this case we might be seeing a linear flashforward that follows immediately after the events of the island. The second possibility is that Miles was telling the truth and that the bomb detonation worked. Where in this version might now be seeing two versions of reality. My guess is that either way, by the end of this season, we’ll be seeing the entire cast of LOST die.

I’ll begin with my first scenario: It’s completely plausible that Miles lied to Sawyer and the detonation didn’t really work but did supplant the group from 1977 to present time. Why? Because it’s LOST. But also because he knows that if Juliet died and the plan didn’t work, Sawyer would be cruising for Jack. Hard. It wouldn’t surprise me if Miles lied to ensure that the boat isn’t rocked too hard.

When we first see Jack and the rest of Oceanic 815, things appear to be normal – they are in the air and live through the turbulence. There are a few things that seem out of place but for the most part it looks like by detonating the hydrogen bomb, the team of castaways were able to reset and end up on the plane. If this were the case however, how the hell do we explain the sunken island??? One explanation: Whatever happens on the island, might it be possible that Jack and company will need to reset the island by destroying it and thereby causing it to sink? (if the island can move through time, the island can sink…..) If this does happen, the writers will be able to give us the devastating, and fan infuriating, mass death scene before skipping back to the first few moments on the new Oceanic 815 in the last few minutes of the finale. In this scenario, we know that the characters will actually be wrapped up off island and that from episode one of the final season, the creative team is giving us a look into what their lives will be like. I’m guessing that we will see them bump into each other time and time again…

If I can jump back to the differences on Oceanic 815 for a second: Desmond is on the plane. How is this possible in a linear timeline? If the island doesn’t exist, after he was done with his trip around the world, maybe he’s simply flying to LA. Jack met Desmond in the past as they were working out in a stadium so it’s completely logical that Jack would partially recognize him. Hurley mentions he’s the luckiest guy in the world. True. He is lucky. It’s everyone around him that is unlucky. Boone is sitting by himself on the plane and says that his sister chose the boyfriend as opposed to going back to LA with him. Shannon would most probably fly first class and why wouldn’t Boone lie to Locke. He doesn’t know him. Plus it’s easier to say to a stranger that your sister chose the other guy than it is to say that your sister by marriage doesn’t reciprocate your romantic feelings and was pulled kicking and screaming onto a plane to LA.

I realize that some of this is a stretch…so on to the second scenario:

The second scenario: Miles is able to hear Juliet from beyond the grave say that detonating the bomb worked. Great. They are off the island. But they aren’t. Two realities. I don’t know where the creative team will go with this but I’m guessing that one of the realities will cease to exist and will culminate with each of the cast members dying in one way or another. They’ll either destroy the island and cease to exist in that timeline or they will somehow each get killed in the LA timeline and somehow continue living on the island…or getting off again….

What of your thoughts?
It hurts my brain too much to think about this. Plus my lunch break is pretty much over so with that, I’ll open things up to discussion: What the eff do you think is going on? I purposely left much of the mythology about Jacob out of this discussion since it is a loaded topic that would eat away at my entire day. Until next time…

Here is some additional and probably more thorough reading and analysis:

The Onion’s AV Club

EW’s PopWatch

Film School Rejects

Variety

Leave your comments below!

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