LOST: Changes

Because this is LOST's final season, I may try to do one post for each episode. Whether I follow through on this will depend on whether I think each episode fully merits its own post and when I can get access to the episodes. I forget whether or not I've said that I have a class the runs through the first half of the episodes' run time. I wanted to get to this sooner, but life is hectic. Anyway, like I predicted, the scenes of the alterna-verse take the place of flashbacks/forwards (the producers refer to them as "flash-sideways," so I will as well until I get tired of that word). The teaser segment this week shows Flight 815 successfully getting through turbulence. But this is just one of many changes to the timeline in this alternate reality. We also learn in the opening segment that Desmond never crashed his sailboat onto the Island when we see him ON THE PLANE. Also, the Island is underwater.

After the first commercial break, things pick up on the Island, with the characters who were at the Swan site in 1977 back in the present (2007). The characters try to reorient themselves (also, Sawyer kicks Jack in the head (!) and yells at him for being "wrong"). Juliet survived being at ground zero and called for help, but died shortly after Sawyer was able to dig her out and give one final goodbye. Throughout this, Jack sat dejectedly off to the side, realizing that his plan to avoid all the pain and suffering caused by coming to the Island simply resulted in the death of Juliet and the very likely death of Sayid, who obviously did not have long for the world. But when all seemed lost for Sayid, Jacob's ghost appeared to Hurley (are what Hurley sees "ghosts"?) and told him to bring Sayid to the Temple.

At the statue, Titus-in-Locke's-body continued to rock as he explained some of his plans to Ben, including his master plan of "going home." He also explicitly revealed himself as the Monster (let's not resort to name-calling) when he took out Bram and a bunch of the Shadow of the Statue guys (so is Illana the only one left?) in front of Ben. In another great instance of one character man-handling another, Richard threw Ben around and showed him Locke's body when Ben lied about the situation inside Jacob's home. When Titus-Locke emerged, he expressed his "disappointment" with Richard and the Others, knocked Richard out, and started a trek toward the Temple. But first, he said something to Richard that lent credence to one of my friend's theories: My friend stated that he believed that Widmore was a crew member aboard the Black Rock, while Richard was one of the slaves in transit. Titus-Locke commented that it was good to see Richard out of his chains...

At the Temple, the characters encountered various Others, including flight attendant Cindy as well as Zack and Emma. They also met Dogen and Lennon, who seem to be the Others in charge of the Temple. Using a strange spring inside the Temple (whose water had mysteriously changed from clear to murky), the Others were (eventually) able to revive Sayid. The question is, did they revive Sayid, or did the reincarnate Jacob in Sayid's body? I immediately thought the latter, but an interview with Lindelof and Cuse gives evidence for the former. They pointed out that the spring is what allowed the Others to revive young Ben in Season 5. On the other hand, they said that Ben wouldn't be the same. On that note, I'd like to point out how upset with myself I was that I did not make the connection between the spring and young Ben's revival. The producers have said that many answers will have to be inferred, including why Sun did not end up in 1977; they will give us the means to figure things out, but we have to connect the dots ourselves. We also learned two other things about Jacob and Titus this episode: The ash surrounding Jacob's cabin creates a barrier that is impenetrable by Titus (which is why Illana was so concerned when they noticed the circle of ash was broken). In addition, it appears that the ankh is one of Jacob's symbols. To have Jacob represent life and Titus death is a bit simplistic, but that may provide a starting point through which to view their alignments.

Finally, the flash-sideways. Like I said at the end of last season, the plane crash had an aggregate positive effect on the characters. We already see that Charlie is much worse off for not crashing, while Kate continues to make life hard for those she encounters. After getting off the plane, she was able to escape from Marshal Mars and ended up commandeering a taxi containing Claire. But even more strange is the fact that there are differences between the alterna-verse and original timeline that are not a result of the plane not crashing. Shannon was not on 815 in this reality, leading to Boone sitting near Locke in coach, instead of in business class. Hurley sees himself as the luckiest person alive. And check out this rather large difference that occurred years before 815 took off:



My theory on the flash-sideways is that Titus can see both realities and will be able to merge the consciousnesses of the characters with their alternate selves. He will try to explain that their actions were short-sighted and self-centered because they thought that by changing the past, they would be the only ones affected. Why he wants to show them this, I'm not sure yet.

As I said, I will try to do a post for each episode, but in between, assuming I have time, I will continue the stuff about Rome and The Wire.

Up next: All roads...