LOST and the Dual Timelines (Nothing Is Irreversible)

As excited and anxious as I was to view the premiere episode of the final season, I also had quite a bit of trepidation because I didn’t want to set myself up for disappointment. Now that I’ve seen “LA X”, I understand why I was concerned. Don’t get me wrong. I thought it was solid, but it was extremely confusing…even for me. I say that because I consider myself to be quite a student of the LOST universe and I had a tough time keeping up with the twists and multitude of new information.

Let’s start with the most obvious twist…the dual timelines. Everyone had different theories as to what would happen as a result of detonating the hydrogen bomb. Most people said that they would either change the future and land safely in Los Angeles or that they would time travel to present island-time. However, I don’t recall anyone theorizing that they would show two different timelines. Not sure how I feel about this quite yet.

On to number two…we can finally say without a doubt that Jacob’s Nemesis is in fact the smoke monster and has appeared as many other “characters” throughout the first five seasons of the show. I (and many others) started to think that the smoke monster could take on the appearance of dead people ever since Mr. Eko’s brother Yemi appeared to him back in season three. You’ll remember that it was only seconds later that Mr. Eko was thrashed to death by the smoke monster. Fans immediately started speculating that perhaps the smoke monster had also appeared as Christian Shephard and subsequently as Ben’s mother, and even as Alex (to Ben).

It wasn’t until the season five finale when we met Jacob’s Nemesis (in 1845 – the year of the Black Rock) that we started to realize that perhaps he had taken on the form of John Locke as well. There was the scene where Ben called the smoke monster from Dharmaville and was waiting for it to come, but Locke appeared instead. Then there was the scene where Ben and Locke were crawling through the tunnels under the outer area of the temple…Ben fell through the ground and Locke supposedly went to get rope. Locke (who isn’t really Locke) appeared to Ben as Smokey and then as Ben’s daughter, Alex, in order to threaten Ben and scare him/manipulate him into doing whatever he wanted him to do, which ultimately was to kill Jacob. For some reason, he could not kill Jacob himself, but Ben was his loophole.

The fake Locke (Jacob’s Nemesis) has been manipulating the characters ever since they arrived on the island and even revealed how he “looked inside” Locke when he first arrived to discover what kind of person he truly was. He is the ultimate con man and has displayed little to no faith in humanity. The real battle between good and evil has just begun and I believe it’s up to our LOST heroes to band together and prove that humanity and free will is something worth fighting for.

That’s not going to be easy. Our characters have learned a great deal about themselves over five seasons and most have redeemed themselves in some way or another, but with Juliet’s death you can see some people slipping back into their old mindsets. Not that I can blame Sawyer for being upset, but he spent 20 years trying to avenge the death of his parents and, in the long run, killing the real Sawyer did not make him feel any better. Blaming Jack and hating him for everything that happened could be his downfall. It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds.

I love Hurley taking charge and it’s pretty obvious that the temple will play a major role in this finale season. I think we can assume that the note in the Ankh from the guitar case was a list of names that Jacob put on a list and the names included Jack, Hugo, Kate, Sayid, Miles, James (Sawyer) Ford, and Jin (maybe others).

Juliet’s final important words as spoken by Miles after she was dead were, “It worked.” What worked? I think we can assume the “reset”, but how are the people living the island timeline supposed to know and/or believe that?

The ash we briefly saw surrounding Jacob’s cabin in Season 3, in the Season 5 finale, and now again in the premiere is definitely something useful against the “Nemesis”. I wish someone would give him a name so he’s easier to identify, but Nemesis will have to do for now. Anyway, the fact that “The Others” outlined the temple with ash to protect them was a good move after the way Smokey killed Bram and the others in Tawaret’s foot.

Sayid is dead. Wait…he’s not dead. The water in the temple’s “healing pool” wasn’t clear anymore so I don’t think that saved him. Who knows? This one was a severe mind fuck for me, but I’m glad he’s alive.

Great to see Cindy Chandler (the Oceanic stewardess) and Zach and Emma (the kids from the tail section) alive and well, but why can’t the Mr. Myagi looking dude and the other “Others” fill us in on what the heck is going on? It should be pretty damn obvious that Hurley and crew are “good” based on the message that Hurley delivered. That was the most frustrating thing about tonight for me. Share information people!

What did the Nemesis mean when he said he wanted to go home? Is his home the temple or is it off the island? And why did he have to kick Richard Alpert’s ass after saying it was nice to see him out of his chains? I need answers.

Notes from Onboard Oceanic Flight 815 and in LAX

For the most part, the characters seem to have retained their same back stories, but there are some slight and BIG differences too:

– Charlie trying to kill himself was a twist, but loved it when he said, “I was supposed to die.”

– Hurley is apparently the “luckiest guy in the world.” That’s actually a HUGE discrepancy from what he believed before.

– Shannon wasn’t on board, but Boone was. Interesting.

– Jack didn’t joke with Cindy that she was breaking FDA regulations when she handed him the additional alcohol. It could have still happened and was just edited differently. What’s the deal with Jack’s neck bleeding?

– Desmond being on the plane was the biggest on plane WTF moment for me.

– Love the way they inserted Arzt and Neil Frogurt into the action and how they used Greg Grunberg’s voice for the original character he played in the pilot back in 1994 (Captain Seth Norris), who was eaten by the monster.

– Claire must have been on the flight because there she was in the cab that Kate commandeered after escaping. You’d think the Marshall would have gotten smart by now. I wonder if Claire is pregnant. She must be, but why would the psychic still have sent her on the plane if it was NOT going to crash.

– Jin is in trouble (with the money) and back to his pre-crash douche-bag ways with Sun.

– No sign of Michael and Walt though it’d be tough to show Walt now since he’s 17 years old in real life. No Mr. Eko, Libby or Ana Lucia either.

– Locke is still crippled and Christian Shephard is still dead, so that didn’t change.

The conversation between Locke and Jack in the lost “baggage” area was surreal. As “pathetic” as Locke’s life has been portrayed and said to be by the “Nemesis”, he still displayed the gentle qualities of the spiritual man we all grew to love back in Season One.

Assuming they keep both timelines going for a while, it’d be cool to see if Jack “fixes” Locke’s paralysis. After all, “nothing is irreversible.”

Next week: “What Kate Does”

LOST Comic-Con 2009 Spoilers?

Honestly, I don’t know if these are spoilers or not. I’ve learned from listening to the official LOST podcasts and from other Comic-Cons that a lot of what the Executive Producers share with the fans is said tongue in cheek. Therefore, the following information, which I’ve accumulated from watching online clips from this year’s Comic-Con, should be taken with a grain of salt.

• Dominic Monaghan (Charlie) – Appeared on stage at the very end of the panel discussion and something interesting was written in the palm of his hand, “Am I Alive?”
• Jacob – Has never appeared as anyone else on the show.
• Richard Alpert – We will learn his back story and the actor who plays him, Nestor Carbonell, is signed on as a series regular for the first time. Popular theories have him as a member of the crew on The Black Rock or some significant connection to Egyptian history.
• Periodic Rations Drop – Apparently the food drop that occurred in Season Two during the hatch Lock Down will be explained.
• Libby Has a Last Name – During an “In Memoriam” video clip at the end of the discussion panel, Libby was shown and her full name appeared for the first time – Elizabeth “Libby” Smith.
• Is Locke Dead – He did NOT appear in the “In Memoriam” video clip.
• Juliet and Jughead – Did the detonation reset the future or does whatever happened, still happen? This is the most speculated question and the video clips they shared seem to indicate that there is some sort of a reset, but as I mentioned, take these with a grain of salt…

Mr. Cluck’s Chicken Ad and Oceanic Airlines 2009 Ad: Hurley speaks about a dream he had while on a recent trip to the outback (as if nothing happened). This is followed by the Oceanic Ad which claims, “In the air since 1979. 30 years with a perfect safety record.” Um? What about the crash of Flight 815 on 9/22/2004? Love their tagline – “Our Skies Lead To Your Destiny”

Kate’s Americas Most Wanted Video: According to the video clip, she’s still “at large” and she killed her step-father’s apprentice in his office building, NOT her step-father at home. That happened well before the crash of Flight 815, which would lead us to believe that the future was altered even before 9/22/2004.

The Official LOST Final Season Banner: This might be the most debated piece of information shared at Comic-Con. It was the typical LOST banner containing the major characters standing in serious poses, BUT each character was slowly revealed one-by-one.

The images I have seen are all blurry and very difficult to make out, but most speculate that the following characters are shown… Faraday, Boone, Miles, Charlie, Ana Lucia, Charlotte, Shannon, Desmond, Mr. Eko, Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Ben, Sayid, Libby, Sun, Jin, Juliet, Hurley, Claire (holding Aaron), ???, ???, Richard, Bernard, Rose, and Locke in the middle with his back to us and looking over his shoulder. You’ll notice the two question marks. Most people feel that they are two of the following people…Frank Lapidus, Michael, Walt, and Christian.

What does this mean? It could mean that they are all back or it could just mean they are giving a shout out to all six seasons. If it’s the latter, then why leave out two of the last four I mentioned? If they are all back, then it could mean a reset, but it could also mean a lot of interaction with dead people and possibly an explanation of the mysterious whispers. You can see a blown up version of the image here: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RrObyQ3XzcY/Sm2V79m0SAI/AAAAAAAAvhA/XJdf8dLIlY4/s1600-h/LostS6.jpg

Finally, unrelated to Comic-Con, I came across some “preparation” videos for the final season on You Tube. There are four so far and I think they are very well done. Here are the links:

1. Origins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVMZGYJFpxE

2. Happy Moments : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SakJhULklv8

3. The Numbers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxHO_24ly50

4. The Others: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgt1OpPDRYE

Until next time…Namaste!

The Official LOST Final Season Banner: This might be the most debated piece of information shared at Comic-Con. It was the typical LOST banner containing the major characters standing in serious poses, BUT each character was slowly revealed one-by-one.

The images I have seen are all blurry and very difficult to make out, but a source for the “DarkUFO” site said an ABC source confirmed these characters from left to right…Faraday, Boone, Miles, Michael, Ana Lucia, Charlotte, Shannon, Desmond, Eko, Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Locke (in the middle with his back to us and looking over his shoulder), Ben, Sayid, Libby, Sun, Jin, Claire, Hurley, Juliet, Charlie, Frank, Richard, Bernard and Rose. Notables left out include Penny, Walt, Jacob, Esau (MIB) and Christian.

What does this mean? It could mean that they are all back or it could just mean they are giving a shout out to all six seasons. If they are all back, then it could mean a reset, but it could also mean a lot of interaction with dead people and possibly an explanation of the mysterious whispers. You can see a blown up version of the image here:

Finally, unrelated to Comic-Con, I came across some “preparation” videos created by campetin for the final season on You Tube. There are four so far and I think they are very well done. Here are the links:

1. Origins
2. Happy Moments
3. The Numbers
4. The Others

Until next time…Namaste!

Statue is DEFINITELY Tawaret

Official ABC recap confirms that it is indeed Tawaret… http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=recap#t=162212&d=201648.

This should finally end the debate once and for all.

You can also Click Here to read my thoughts about Tawaret.

Destiny Found

I often hear people talk about how they’d do something differently if given the opportunity to change their past. Most times they say this out of a desire to avoid some negative experience that they’ve had to endure that they wish they could have avoided.

The problem is that without having that “negative” experience, people would never have the chance to realize what they want and don’t want in their lives.

Perhaps John Locke said it best in the Season Five episode ‘The Little Prince’, when he simply told Sawyer, “I needed that pain to get to where I am now.” He said this when Sawyer asked him why he didn’t try to go see himself in the past to “save himself a world of pain”.

For this reason, more than any other, I really don’t believe the LOST gang will end up in LAX without any memory of the things that have happened to them. They needed to experience everything we’ve seen in the first five seasons to become who they are today and to have that wiped clean would be somewhat of a cop-out in my opinion. Of course, this is LOST so perhaps they’d find some way to make it work for me.

It is more likely that they all jumped to 2007 and that either the bomb detonated or the white light we saw was just a flash. If the bomb exploded, fans will undoubtedly question how it’s possible that anyone on the island in 1977 could have survived.

Since I’m not a nuclear physicist nor an expert on super charged electro-magnetic pockets of energy buried beneath moveable islands, I’m not even going to try to come up with an answer. I trust in the fact that while this show is based on real human emotions, it is also a science fiction series and we have to watch with some degree of suspended disbelief…or is that suspended belief?

We won’t know what happened for sure until season six begins in January of 2010, but we do know that the tagline for the final season of LOST is ‘Destiny Found’.

I’m sure we’ll get lots of answers and that a few answers will still be left out there for us to conclude on our own, but I trust we’ll get to find out pretty quickly in season six if the following statements are true or false:

“Whatever happened…happened.” – Faraday
“What’s done is done.” – Sawyer
“Maybe we were never meant to be.” – Juliet
“If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.” – Jack

Personally, I think Miles had it right when he said that maybe the best thing they could do was absolutely nothing and that their attempts to change the past are actually what caused “The Incident” all along. I do not believe that Richard Alpert actually watched them all die in 1977. I believe that he assumed they all died because of their proximity to The Swan at the time of “The Incident”.

So much has been written about the finale already, so instead of recapping and repeating things you may have already read about, I’m going to do what I did at the end of Season Three and try to provide a character-by-character status update.

Jack: His beliefs are still a little misguided, but at least he finally believes in more than just science. The fact that he wants to wipe out everything that has happened to them (FIX THINGS) shows that he doesn’t understand what the experience has given him. Despite that, he still utters the phrase, “If it’s meant to be, it’ll be” in reference to the possibility of being together with Kate if he erases the fact that they met as a result of the crash. In terms of his personal development, he is almost there.

Locke: I don’t know how I feel yet about the fact that he is really dead. It makes much more sense than resurrecting, but it’s still kind of sad. It would seem that he really was a pawn in some kind of game between Jacob and his nemesis.

Sawyer: I personally love where they’ve taken his character. He has truly found happiness with Juliet and now that may have been stripped away from him. The approach he took to sit down with Jack and try to talk things through showed tremendous growth for both of them and it’s something I waited for a long time. The fact that he shared the story of how his parent’s died with Jack to try and put things in perspective for him, showed he really did care. The fact that they got into a fight afterwards doesn’t bother me at all because it was LONG overdue and I’d argue that it has made them even closer. However, now that Juliet is probably dead, he may have those same vengeful feelings he had when his parent’s dies.

Sayid: Shot by Roger Linus, he may likely die. I’m not sure where else they can take his character, but I’m also not loving where he has ended up. Was his destiny to prep the bomb for detonation on impact? He has lost Nadia, Shannon, and then Nadia again (in a scene that rivaled the death of Juliet’s ex-husband). He cannot catch a break and seemingly has nothing left to live for.

Kate: As much as I dislike her character overall, she has definitely made great leaps in terms of changing the way she thinks and acts. I just want to smack her every time she is around Sawyer though, especially when he is with Juliet. Make up your freaking mind already Freckles! Frankly, they could both do better and have with Juliet.

Juliet: Okay, if she detonated the bomb, which I believe didn’t initially explode because it fell into a mud puddle caused by the water used to cool the drill head, then I believe that one of two things have occurred. If it exploded, she’s dead and if she flashed to 2007, she’s dead because she’ll likely be buried beneath concrete used to seal up the opening in the pocket of electro-magnetic energy Radzinsky and crew tapped into. Great scene with Sawyer when she fell and my explanation for her surviving the fall is akin to the bomb itself…she landed in a bunch of mud. Also, let’s not forget that Locke survived and eight story “fall” from an office building.

Hurley: We now know why he came back to the island. He feels like he’s been cursed even before he came to the island because of the numbers. It took a complete stranger (Jacob) to convince him that he’s looking at it the wrong way and that he is actually very special. He has a gift and he is now determined to find a way to use his gift to help others. What in the guitar case? Everyone keeps asking that question, but maybe the answer is simple and it’s actually a freaking guitar!

Miles: It was nice that he was able to learn why his father (Pierre Chang) sent baby Miles and his mother away from the island. I also thought it was great that he helped save his father when his arm was pinned during “The Incident”. Is it possible that his arm was spared as a result of Miles helping him and that he won’t need a prosthetic? I’m not sure where else his story will go now, but I’d like to see him work with Hurley some more.

Jin/Sun (Ji Yeon): They’ve been apart for three years now. If you need a reminder of just how far this couple has changed, go back and re-watch season one. I still don’t completely understand why Sun would leave Ji Yeon knowing that she may never return, but I know I’m looking forward to their reunion. Yes, I believe there WILL be one. Sun played a pretty minor part in the finale, but I am so glad that someone found the ring that Charlie left for turnip head (Aaron). It really bothered me that they never showed Claire finding it.

Rose/Bernard: I’m still LMAO at their welcome back scene. Rose delivered some of the best lines of the finale and Bernard’s savage look was classic. I’d still bet that they will somehow end up as the Adam/Eve skeletons in the caves, but I also think their basic storyline may be over. How much do you think Juliet wanted to just stay with them? It looked like it almost hurt her to walk away from them.

Ben: Oh how the mighty hath fallen! The “what about me” speech he delivered to Jacob was so childlike and primal, that it may have been the most truthful revelation of emotion we’ve seen from his character. Like Locke, it’d be a shame if he is nothing more than a pawn in a game between Jacob and his nemesis.

Jacob: “Anything that happens before that is just progress.” What is he trying to prove to his nemesis? Is it that he believes humanity is basically good? He seems to have somehow drawn everyone to the island, including the crew of the Black Rock, by visiting them off island and touching them both literally and figuratively. See more on my analysis of Jacob and his nemesis in the last blog post (http://tinyurl.com/r53fl9).

Jacob’s Nemesis (also possibly The Smoke Monster and others): “They come, fight, destroy, it always ends the same.” He seems to have no faith in humanity and may very well be the puppet master behind the fate of some of our favorite characters. Is it just because he wants to keep proving Jacob wrong or simply because he wanted to find the loophole necessary to kill Jacob? He appears to have succeeded by visually appearing as Locke (as well as others) and by playing with Ben’s emotions. Could he have also been Christian Shepherd, Yemi, Alex, etc.?

Richard Alpert: We discovered that he never seems to age as a result of something Jacob has done to him. I would still love to see an origins story for Richard and think it’d be a great way to start the final season.

Ilana (and Bram): So are they good or bad? They don’t work for Widmore and it seems that Jacob and Ilana have a “past” of some sort. What was up with her face in the flash back where he elicited her assistance? From the way it looks right now, it seems that Ben was definitely not responsible for hiring her to get Sayid to go back to the island. We know very little about Bram and he doesn’t seem all that interesting to me anyway.

Claire (Aaron): When the heck are we going to see her again and more importantly, when is she going to get on the helicopter as Desmond foresaw in season three? C’mon already! Charlie died because he believed that Claire and Aaron would be rescued if he sacrificed himself.

Dr. Pierre Chang: He seems like a pretty decent guy…very uptight, but mostly just misunderstood. Assuming, everything happened as it was always supposed to happen, I don’t think we’ll see much more of his story. The blanks have pretty much been filled in for us with the DHARMA Initiative and as soon as we find out what exactly happened when we saw the flash, I think we’ll have a clue as to how everything else will play out. Of course, if the future has changed, we may have a lot more to see of Dr. Chang.

Stuart Radzinsky: Again, assuming that everything happened as it was always supposed to happen, Stuart is destined to complete The Swan Station and eventually blow his brains out on its ceiling. Farewell, you psychopath!

Desmond/Penny (Charlie Hume): I missed them in the finale and I’m wondering what’s next for my favorite LOST couple and their son? I am certain that their story is not over.

Walt: Is his story really over? The executive producers seem to have brushed him off with the meeting he had with Locke, but they still had him mention the dreams he had of the Ajira folks trying to kill Locke, so who knows!

Charles Widmore: Is he good or bad? I know I haven’t liked him since the MacCutcheon incident with Desmond, but who knows what his real intentions are?

Eloise Hawking: She easily wins the most screwed up mom of all time award! I’m concluding this blog with her to repeat the line she said to Penny, “For the first time in a long time, I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

Jacob versus Esau

There is obviously so much to talk about with regards to this incredible season finale, but I’m only going to address the story of Jacob in this blog post. Stay tuned for other posts in the days to come. Thanks to my friends Pedro and Bridget, as well as Lostpedia and Wikipedia, for a lot of the information contained below.

When we first see Jacob, he appears in the base of the statue and is combing strands of silk (perhaps the strands of fate) and writing on a piece of tapestry. It turns out that the ancient Greek writing on the tapestry translates to, “May the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires” and “May the gods give you happiness”.

Shortly after, we see Jacob cooking a red herring on a black rock as another unknown man, we’ll call him Esau, approaches him on the beach. We can presume that the year is around 1845, since that is the year when the Black Rock set out on what was to be its final voyage. I’m assuming, of course, that the ship we see Jacob and Esau looking at from the beach is in fact the Black Rock. Before this scene, I had always imagined the island suddenly appearing beneath the Black Rock during one of its “moves”, which would explain how the ship came to be wrecked in the middle of the island’s dark territory.

The discussion between Jacob and the man I’m calling Esau is very interesting and the most significant part would seem to be when Esau asks Jacob if he realizes how much he wants to kill him. Jacob replies that he knows and Esau vows to find a loophole…a way to make it happen.

So, why am I calling the unknown man Esau?

According to the bible, Jacob, son of Isaac, was the twin brother of Esau, who was born only minutes before him. As the oldest son, Esau was given a certain birthright that Jacob tricked him out of when the two boys were about 15 years old. Esau vowed to kill Jacob as a result. However, their father Isaac made Esau promise to never kill Jacob from his death bed. As time went on, Esau found a loophole to the promise he made to their father. He tried to trick Jacob’s own children into wanting to kill their father. It should be noted that Jacob had a total of 12 children, the youngest of which was named Benjamin. Another interesting note is that Benjamin’s mother died at childbirth.

By the way, I first theorized about Jacob, Esau, and Benjamin back in December of 2006 (BLOG LINK).

So, in case you haven’t put the pieces together yourself, I’m now theorizing that the unknown man is Jacob’s older brother (perhaps named Esau) who found a way to kill Jacob via a loophole in a promise he made to his father (maybe the island). By mysteriously disguising himself in the form of the late John Locke (and probably others), Esau was able to play on the emotions of Benjamin Linus, a loyal follower of Jacob akin to one of his children, and trick him into killing Jacob. Keep in mind that Benjamin’s mother also died at childbirth and he has had experience with killing people, even his real father, Roger.

Back to the bible, Jacob’s children eventually avenged their father’s death and it would seem that by using Ilana, Bram, and the other Ajira folks to carry Locke’s body in the Ajira storage container to show Richard Alpert and the other followers of Jacob (his children), Jacob has set things up to cause some real problems for Esau next season.

It was also pointed out to me that there may be some significance to burning Jacob’s body at the end. It turns out that the only true way to kill an Egyptian is by fire. Just killing them isn’t enough because they’ll have an afterlife, but if you destroy the body by fire, you also destroy the soul.

So…what lies in the shadow of the statue? The response Richard gave Ilana was in Latin (“Ile qui nos omnes servabit”) and translates to, “He who will save us all”.

Last thought…I have already detailed my thoughts about which Egyptian goddess the statue represents (BLOG LINK). I personally now think that it is clearly Tawaret, but there still seems to be some debate amongst various LOST fans out there. I have no doubt that other Egyptian gods and goddesses may also be referenced in the show, but stand by the opinion that the statue is Tawaret.

As I mentioned, stay tuned for more blog posts regarding the finale. After all, the H-bomb detonation may have really changed everything we think we now know.