The wait is over and it did not disappoint! Themes of free will and choices hitting us over the head in the opening minutes. No, the picture has nothing to do with the episode, and in fact it is from last season. Ten points to anyone who can guess why I’m including it. Diving in NOW:
Everything old is new again
We open up this alternate timeline with Jack on the plane talking to Rose, right where season one began. Just when the plane hits turbulence and we think it’s is going to crash, the turbulence subsides, Bernard returns from the men’s room and we know the timeline has been disrupted. Jack goes into the men’s room, finds his neck bleeding, stupidly shrugs it off meaningless (seriously, doesn’t he know that NOTHING is meaningless?) and returns to his seat. At this point, we can’t be sure if he actually has any memory of the island, but it becomes crystal clear when we see who’s sitting next to him: Not only is it Desmond, but perhaps even more shockingly, Desmond is clean shaven. Now clearly, Des was never on 815 so something is up here. The camera pans outside, and down into the ocean, where it skims over the flor of the ocean and we begin to see some recognizable landmarks. The last shot we see is seaweed is growing on the four-toed foot.
So is the island Atlantis, or has the island sunk because the Lostaways never crashed on the island? All right, I’m not even going to speculate, because my track record sucks, dude.
Later on the plane, Kate and Jack bump into each other, exchange meaningful glances. Sawyer passes Kate, they exchange meaningful glances. We witness the unwelcome return of the annoying Doctor Artz, torturing Hurley about his ownership of Mr. Clucks. I braced myself for the rest of the episode for an unwelcome reprise of Nicki and Paolo, while, sadly, Shannon must have been in the rest room on the whole flight. Hurley tells Artz that he was able to buy Mr. Clucks because he won the lottery. “You shouldn’t tell people that you won the lottery,” Sawyer warns him from across the aisle. “People will take advantage of you.” “No way, Dude, Hurley replies. “Nothing bad ever happens to me. I’m the luckiest guy alive.” It’s hard to tell whether Hurley is being sarcastic here since even before he even got on that plane, he was having bad luck and thinking that the numbers were cursed.
Jin is back to being the domineering jackass.
Locke tells Boone went on the walkabout, which Boone buys, since he doesn’t know that Locke is crippled (and we are none too sure either at this point). When Locke explains how a plane can land safely on calm water, Boone tells Locke that if they crash, Boone’s sticking with him.
Cindy the stewardess pages for a doctor and Jack answers. Someone is in the restroom, has locked themselves in and they aren’t responding. Sayid offers to kick the door in. When they get it open, the first thing we see is the DS drive shaft ring and then we see Charlie, then we see Charlie not breathing. Jack determines that his airway is obstructed and pulls a bag of heroin out of his throat. “Am I alive?” Charlie asks. “Yeah, you’re alive. Charlie.” How does Jack know his name? How much does Jack know and when did he know it? Is he aware that he’s getting an alternate timeline, and if so, how many of the others are aware of it.
As Charlie gets up, he tells Jack, “You shudda let that happen, man. I was supposed to die.”
The plane lands in LA without incident.
LAX
At the airport, Jack gets paged to the courtesy desk. The clerk informs him that there was a mix-up with the cargo that he checked in Sidney. Jack is incredulous. “That Cargo was my father!” The clerk is very sorry, but he coffin was never put on the plane. Jack needs to know when the coffin will arrive, since it is the guest of honor at his father’s funeral in two hours. “We don’t know when it will arrive, because we don’t know where it is,” the clerk tells him. I think it is significant in this scene that neith man calls it “the body,” the cargo is always referred to as “the coffin.”
Meanwhile at customs, Kate is going through the gate with the World’s Most Incompetent Federal Marshal. “Anything to declare?” “Just a murderer,” He quips. Hey, pal, don’t get cocky. It’s only a matter of time before Kate gives you the slip again. Sure enough, Kate makes her play in the ladies room and gets away from the World’s Most Incompetent Federal Marshal AGAIN, by overpowering him. Again. In much the same way she has done, oh I don’t know, like ten or twelve times in the past.
Sun and Jin get detained at customs because of Jin’s poor English. He has a note explaining that the watch is a business gift, but he doesn’t have a note to explain the big bagful of money. As Jin is escorted into the dreaded customs backroom, the other customs agent tells Sun if she understands English and this is all a big misunderstanding, she should speak up now. Sun says,” No English.”
First Dr. Artz, now Frogurt and his hideous teeth are inflicted upon us as he won’t let Kate snag a cab. When the World’s Most Incompetent Federal Marshal spots her, Kate steals a cab that is already occupied by….Claire. It’s about time she showed up. It’s only about an hour and fourty minutes into the season premiere. What we can’t see is whether Claire is pregnant or not. Heck, since Des showed up on the flight, all bets are off.
Jack and Locke meet in the baggage claims area, where Locke’s big suitcase full of knives has also been misplaced by Oceanic Air. Jack tells Locke that the airline lost his father. “They have no idea where he is,” Jack complains. Locke replies, “Well, how could they possibly be expected to know where he is?” Locke asks. Jack recites the fact that they checking him in and should have some kind of tracking mechanism, and Locke smiles and shakes his head. “They didn’t lose your father, they just lost his body.” Jack smiles himself at this and asks Locke how he got into the wheelchair. “My condition is irreversible,” Locke smiles. “I’m a spinal surgeon,” Jack says handing Locke his card. “Nothing is irreversible.”
At the remains of the Swan Hatch
Our first stop on the island is of Kate is up in a tree with hearing damage. It becomes clear pretty soon that the hydrogen bomb worked to at least get them out of the groovy seventies and back into the correct time. Before long, we find all the cast members pretty much as we left them back in 1977. Sayid is still gut shot and his wound is totally grossing Hurley out.
Sawyer starts freaking out on Jack, telling him that his stupid idea to detonate a hydrogen bomb did not work when…..Wait, what’s that?
Juliet?
Is Juliet still alive? Didn’t she sign a contract with the “V” people?
While the gang is frantically digging Juliet out, Jacob walks out of the jungle over by the hippie bus and asks Hurley if he’s got a minute. Hurley panics and remembers Jacob as giving him the ticket to the Agira Air flight and the guitar case. He’s a little freaked out at seeing Jacob. “Jin will be back any minute,” Hurley threatens heim. Jacob says it doesn’t matter. “He won’t be able to see me—I died an hour ago.” “Dude that sucks. Who killed you?” “An friend old friend who got tired of my company.”
Jacob tells Hurley to take Sayid to the Temple and that Jin will know the way to the the hole in the wall where he was with the French team.
Now learning that Juliet is alive, Sawyer tells Kate that if she dies just one more time, Sawyer will kill Jack.
Using the hippie bus to remove the metal debris brought back fond memories of my husband trying to move his broken down 69 Dynahoe backhoe out of our driveway and on to a flatbed truck with his 1980 VW pickup truck. Ahhh, Oaks. Good times. Good times.
But I digress. Sawyer finally gets to Juliet, who is just as broken and bloody as she was when we last saw her. Jules tells Sawyer, “It didn’t work. We’re still here. I hit it. I hit it.” Sawyer can’t believe she hit the bomb. “I wanted to make it so you could go home, so you never came to this damn island.”
Meanwhile, Jack says there is nothing he can do for Sayid. “ There’s something I can do,” Hurley says. “I can take him to the Temple.”
Back in the tunnel, Sawyer is still digging Juliet out. Juliet, knows she is dying and asks Sawyer to kiss her. “I have to tell you something. It’s really, really important.” The Juliet dies. Again. That is just not freaking fair. I guess that V contract is really binding after all.
Sawyer asks Miles to stay stays behind with him to bury Juliet. Kate promises to leave a trail for Sawyer and Sawyer says don’t bother. Sawyer wants Miles to find out what Juliet wanted to say to him since he’s the guy that talks to dead people. Miles does, and says Juliet’s message was, “It worked.”
Temple of Doom
Hurley, Kate, Jack and Jin take Sayiddown through the hole in the wall where the Frenchie lost his arm to the Smoke Monster, only to inevitably get separated, and disoriented, in the creepy Temple Tunnels. Suddenly, after some scuffling, they are inside the wall and it’s like this whole Aztec city complete with members wearing red turbans. It’s a whole jungle city of Others. The Badass Japanese guy and Hippie Throw Back are immediately established as characters who will have speaking parts and significant roles to play this season. They want to know who our guys are. Oh hello, there’s Cindy the stewardess, and she’s gone completely native, with little red rags in her hair. She tells the Others that she knows our gang, “They were on the first plane.”
Hurley tells the Others that Jacob sent them, and when they ask him to prove it, he tells them to look inside the guitar case, where a big cheesy Ankh is in there instead of a guitar. And it only looks cheesy, because it is cheesy: the Japanese badass breaks it easily over his knee and pulls out what we can only assume to be a List, because he takes roll from it and everyone is present. They take Sayid into the Temple to the “spring”, but Hurley says, “Dude, I carried that guitar across the ocean and through time. I think I have a right to know what that says.” Hippie Throw Back tells Hurley that it says that they had better save Sayid. I’m sure that’s not EXACTLY what it said, but I’m guessing that this message was implied in the list, as if to say, hey, these guys are important in the grand scheme of things and it would be really bad if we let one of them die. You know, that kind of thing.
When they arrive at the spring, Hippie Throw Back notes that the water isn’t clear, which is clearly a significant observation. Through HTB, Japanese Badass wants to know how Sayid arrived in his present state. Jack says it is his fault Sayid is shot, but that he didn’t shoot him.. The Others helpfully explain that there are risks to the procedure they are about to perform, and even though they never even go into any detail about what those risks are, Jack says yes when they ask him if he undertsnads this. The Others submerge Sayid in the water and the Japaness Badass turn over an hourglass. Sayid struggles while our gang says that they are killing him. The sands run out, they bring Sayid out, and they call time of death. Which is always Jack’s cue to immediately begin CPR and Kate’s cue to tell Jack to stop it, that he’s gone. It is only a matter of time before Sayid comes back to life now.
Cindy has the kids that were stolen from the tail section back in season two and Zack and Emma have gone completely native, too. Soon thereafter, Miles and Sawyer are dragged in. HTBsummons Hurley for a private consulation with Japanese Badass who Hurley totally calls on this guy being able to understand English. JB replies, “I don’t like the way English tastes on my tongue.” JB and HTB want to know when Jacob is coming. Hurley tells them that that won’t be anytime soon. Jacob is dead.
After the meeting, Hurley kneels down at Sayid and says goodbye but Miles is shaking his head. Meanwhile, Kate is just itching to defend jack, and we’re all at home screaming, Let him be, Kate! But of course, she doesn’t. She tells Sawyer that Jack only wanted to help. “I ain’t gonna kill Jack. He deserves to suffer on this rock just like the rest of us.” Then they want to take Jack back, and of course, he gives them a hard time.
Meanwhile, big preparations are going on out in the Other Temple courtyard. Notably, a few of the Others are spreading out some of that gray ash we’ve seen before surrounding Jacob's cabin. They are not trying to keep anyone in; they are trying to keep HIM out.
Three Toed Statue House of Jacob
And speaking of HIM, back at Jacob’s house, where Jacob is no longer at because he’s out in the jungle asking Hurley for a minute of his time, Not-Locke and Ben are cleaning up. Ben wants to know why Jacob didn’t fight back, and Not-Locke says “He must have known he was beaten. Now go fetch Richard.” The Shadow of the Statue gang (heretofore to be known as the SOTS) is arguing with Richard, and when Ben comes out to fetch Richard he finds everyone freaking out because John Locke’s dead body is lying there on the beach. Ben gets a big “Uh-Oh” look on his face.
Instead of bringing Richard, the SOTS force Ben back in, and Not Locke wants to know where Richard is. “Richard is not coming,” Ben tells him. “Then who’s that behind you?” Surprise, it’s Bram of the SOTS. “Where’s Jacob?” Bram wants to know. “Jacob is dead,” Not Locke tells him. “You SOTS are Jacob’s bodyguards, I assume. Well, good news. You can go home. There’s nothing left for you to protect. You’re free. They start shooting at Not Locke who then disappears. Suddenly the smoke monster appears and starts kicking all of their asses. Bram, one of the quicker thinkers spreads some of that gray ash in a circle around him, but Smokey manages to knock him out of there and impales him with pieces of Jacobs loom. Smokey retreats and soon after Not Locke reenters, apologizing to Ben. “I’m sorry you had to see me that way.”
“What are you?” Ben asks. “Are you the monster?” “Let’s not resort to name calling,” Not Locke says. “You know, he was very confused when you killed him.” Ben scoffs. “I don’t think Jacob was ever confused about anything.” “I’m talking about John Locke,” Not Locke says. “Do you want to know what he was thinking when you wrapped the cord around his neck? ‘I don’t understand.’ Isn’t that just the saddest thing you ever heard? He was a victim. Weak, pathetic and irreparably broken. But he was the only one of them who didn’t want to leave. He was the only one who realized how pitiful the life he left behind was. I want the one thing that John Locke didn’t. I want to go home.”
Then Not Locke and his toady Ben leave the Three toed Statue abode and announce themselves out on the beach. Not Locke approaches Richard and says how nice it is to see him out of chains. Richard now knows who he is: “You!” “Yes me,” Not Locke says, and pummels Richard into unconsciousness, and tells the rest of the gang that he’s very disappointed in them. He loads the unconscious Richard on his back and walks right past out beloved Locke laying dead and exposed on the beach.
Thoughts on this episode
Besides the Juliet death scene, (which ticks me off a little bit because there was no reason that the writers had to rip out hearts out of our chests and hold them bloody and beating in front of us while we suffered through another Juliet death and Sawyer grief. Heart wrenching. ) there were two standout scenes in this episode:
The scene with Locke and Jack at the baggage claim and the scene at the very end with Not Locke and Ben where not Locke is telling Ben how pathetic Locke really was. The character of John Locke is one of the most powerful characters in my television memory: A thoroughly decent and thoughtful man who has been beaten down by people and circumstances his whole entire life, yet he remains strangely optimistic. As I re-watched some of the older episodes from seasons One two Three and Five, it occurred to me that Locke was only special in the eyes of the Others because of the time travel. And that broke my heart as well, because it was only his circumstance that made him chosen, not the inner light of his character.
The scene where Jack and Locke meet for the first time in the alternate timeline is touching on many levels: Locke’s offer of spiritual comfort to the stranger Jack, and Jack’s gracious acceptance of it followed by his offer to fix Locke’s crushed spine. Somehow, I should have seen this coming, but when Jack told Locke, “I’m a spinal surgeon,” something definitely clicked for me: Of course! Jack’s a spinal surgeon and Locke has a crushed spine! Regardless, it was wonderful to see these two adversaries in another timeline where they are actually working to help each other and not compete with each other.
When Not Locke describes Locke’s pathetic life to Ben, again, your heart breaks for the good man that Locke was, who, presumably, is not lying dead, disrespectfully strewn on the beach. That I am fully convinced that Not Locke is not Locke is a testament to the marvelous Terry O’Quinn.
It appears as if Hurley’s character takes on a deeper significance this season as he seems to be the one now that Jacob is appearing to. Similarly, Sayid’s sudden resuscitation may have more to do with Jacob than with anything that spring did to bring him back to life. Sayid may in fact be Jacob, but it’s too soon to make that leap. In fact, forget I made it all. It’s probably wrong.
What's up with Claire on the island? Will she show up, like Cindy, witht he Others? And I think there is real significance to the fact that Jack's dad's body was lost in the alternate timeline as well.
The alternate timeline story was awesome, revisitng some of the cast members we miss like Charlie and Boone (not Artz or Frogurt). It appears that some of the Lostaways back stories have been altered before boarding the plane and seriously, how did Desmond get on there? Looking forward to seeing Shannon, Ana Lucia, Libby, Charlotte, Daniel and more Charlie and Boone in the future. Rumor had it that Eko was such a pain to work with, I think that they will leave him dead, rather than risk having to work with him again.
Next week: who knows? Sayid’s up for a little torture and more island mysteries. It looks like it’s going to be a hell of a ride this season. Hang on tight.
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