Lost (BOOM) -There will be discussion of most recently aired episodes-

[Ozymandias]

SEASON 6 HAS STARTED YOU GUYS WHAT'S UP

Revelations!

Resurrections!

Alternate timelines!

John "Smokey" Locke punching Richard Alpert the hell out!

[Liz]

My mind was sufficiently blown.

Well played, writers and producers of Lost. If you fuck this season up I am going to punch you in your faces.

[StaedlerMars]

so far so good. so far. so good.

[Zombiedude]

(Are they still lost on a Island?)

[ashashash]

(Sort of.)

I am so excited for the rest of this season, I never thought I would love Tuesdays so much

[StaedlerMars]

*spoiler* Zombiedude, they are now in two presumably parallel dimensions. Although, I'm not sure about whether they're running parallel to eachother timewise.

[Ozymandias]

No, the alternate timeline is currently in Sept. 22, 2004, the island plotline is in December 2007/January 2008. There may be some wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey concurrency to the events on one vs. the events in the other but that seems silly(yes, I'm aware of the irony of disregarding something in a show that involves an evil ancient Egyptian smoke monster thing as silly) and I won't buy it until they explicitly demonstrate it.

[bryanthelion]

Ok, I'm glad that there is a new discussion about this show.

Is the Japanese leader inside the weird Egyptian tomb the Dharma guy, except with long hair? Or someone completely different?

It's also weird to see the now bad-ass Australian flight attendant do quilted napkin commercials.

[E. Spaceman]

You mean the korean dharma guy?

[KharBevNor]

Wait, they explained the monster?

[Ozymandias]

No.

They've just given it a face and a history. They still haven't explained what or, more importantly according to the episode, who it is.

[Linds]

Well, hello smoke monster dude. Thanks for not killing everyone in the first episode.

Good episode, but still has a resounding WTF as always. Damn you, Lost, and your silly mind tricks.

[TheFuriousWombat]

Rumblings suggest Jacob might be resurrected as Sayid or Sayid is the new Jacob or Jacob's spirit jumped into Sayid's body...or something. Sounds compelling-ish to me. Not sure what I make of pretty much anything else though.

[ashashash]

Jacob as the new Sayid is definitely interesting.  With the people I was hangin' out with the conversation went mostly the other way; we were thinking he is the smoke monster (as in 'Smokey' just becomes whoever has recently died) or he has some relation to it.

[TheFuriousWombat]

So then Smokey can be multiple people at once? Never thought about it that way. Afterall, Smokey is definitely still New Locke. I dunno, I think we're supposed to think Sayid is Smokey/evil, especially since the Japanese dude is trying to kill him and thinks he's infected by evil but I think that we're being misled and he's mistaken.

For whatever it's worth, I thought last night's episode was pretty terrible. It was far too long and wasted a ton of time getting to where it needed to go. Frankly, the producers can't afford to waste time like that. It doesn't help that I despise Kate immensely but even so, at this point I don't give a shit about what's happening in alternate reality. Ethan's a doctor?? No way!!!! Ugh, I dunno, I was just bored a lot during that episode and only felt engaged when stuff was happening in the Temple since it seems by far the most relevant to the actual story of the show.

[tricia kidd]

fuck yeah Claire is the new Crazy Jungle Lady.

this can only go well.

[Linds]

Even if the smoke monster can be multiple people at once, I doubt Sayid is one of them as he's residing in his body whereas there is New Locke and Locke's Dead Body. I think the island "claiming" him is just going to make him like Claire or maybe Richard or maybe he will turn into Jacob.

[tricia kidd]

I think the island "claiming" him is just going to make him like Claire or maybe Richard or maybe he will turn into Jacob.

the Temple people like Jacob and Richard, so i don't think so.

Sayid has the same "infection" (a better translation for the word he used is actually "possessed", and i think it's intentional that john lennon the translator said "infected" instead) that Rousseua's husband and the rest of their crew had.  remember they went into the Temple and when he came out he tried to kill her.

it would somewhat make sense if the Man in Black "claimed" people by corrupting them to help his desire of getting those damn kids off his lawn so he can "go home", but then it would be another level of weirdness that apparently Jacob being alive was keeping the MiB from using something of his.  i'm starting to think that Jacob and MiB were simply the first people (or aliens or gods or whatever) to find the Island so they're no more than a supernatural extension of Charles/Ben.

[look out! Ninjas!]

Maybe the islands effects on Locke and Rose, what with the walking and the no cancer, just extend really far if you're on there for ages? There's something missing in that, but the island seems somewhat sentient so it may just pick and choose.

[Ozymandias]

For whatever it's worth, I thought last night's episode was pretty terrible.

Early screenings of the first 11 episodes definitively called this the worst of the bunch. It only goes uphill from here.

[TheFuriousWombat]

I guess I'm glad that less than 1/3 of the final season ever is any good...

[Ozymandias]

I meant this episode was the worst of the bunch.

Not these 11 episodes.

[TheFuriousWombat]

oooh, that makes more sense actually!

[BeoPuppy]

[...] some wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey [...]

I love you.

[bryanthelion]

You mean the korean dharma guy?

Oh, I thought he was japanese due to all the Japanese stuff in the Dharma camp.

[TheFuriousWombat]

Pretty sure Pierre Chang isn't Korean. He's still not at all the guy from the Temple, considering he's both dead in 2007 when all the Temple stuff is taking place AND he was part of the Dharma Initiative while the Temple guys are clearly Others.

[Ozymandias]

Also, uh. They're obviously not the same person.

[TheFuriousWombat]

Well yeah, there's also that.

[Jeans]

I have a question - have they explained the black smoke creature or the polar bear yet?

[Linds]

Black smoke now looks like John Locke and they haven't explained that at all. People just look at him and go, "It's you!" and he says yes and knocks them out and/or kills them, minus Ben.

[tricia kidd]

a bit more accurately, we know for certain that the Smoke Monster is taking the form of Locke, but piecing that together with last season, we now also know for certain that the Smoke Monster can take many forms, most notably when it appeared to Ben as Alex while "Locke" was, conveniently, "off fetching a rope".

also, the Smoke Monster is the guy sitting with Jacob on the beach.  and he "wants to go home".

so excited for tonight.  it is a Locke-centric episode which apparently shows him as being a substitute teacher in the X timeline.

[Ozymandias]

I have a question - have they explained the black smoke creature or the polar bear yet?

Yes, they have explained the polar bear, though. It's a very mundane explanation: it was one of a few polar bears the utopian researchers were using on the island. It's implied they needed to train them to safely utilize the donkey wheel room underneath the planet which had the unfortunate side effect of teleporting anyone who used it through time and space.

[Linds]

Damn, I was hoping random little boy was actually the polar bear. But the polar bear was only ever a polar bear...

Well it's interesting to see smokey is officially stuck as Locke now. And I'm interested to see by what, "You can't just kill Jacob," really means. Also come onnnnn Sun go to the temple already!

Also also I really like what they're doing in the "what if the plane didn't crash" flashes.

[TheFuriousWombat]

The thing about the "plane didn't crash" stuff is at this point it's all just cute and clever. "Oh look, Rose is a supervisor!" "Haha, Ben is a school teacher!" "oh boy, Ethan works in a hospital." The only problem is...I don't care. At all. It's irrelevant at this point and if it does serve some sort of ultimate purpose, and clearly it must somehow, the writers have given absolutely no indication of what that might be, to the point where right now there's no hook, no grab, nothing that makes me want to watch anything happening off-island.

[Ozymandias]

I agree, but I'm also really enjoying it.

I like that in some other reality, Locke had a happy ending. Yeah, it's sort of pointless but...d'awwww Helen and Locke.

[tricia kidd]

And I'm interested to see by what, "You can't just kill Jacob," really means.

i believe when the creepy little boy said "you can't just kill him" he was referring to Sawyer (and by extension, the other Candidates).

[Linds]

I took it more as a "you can't just kill him and expect it to end there" sort of thing. Like ultimately he will be replaced or come back somehow. Or not expect some kind of repercussion for messing up the balance, which I'm guessing since he tossed that white stone into the sea, which was referring to Jacob being dead.

[StaedlerMars]

So Jacob is not protecting the island from the rest of the world but protecting the rest of the world from what's on the island? And 'john locke' can't get off the island without the protector's permission - which is why he needs Sawyer?

Probably totally off target here, but that's my current guess.

[Ozymandias]

That was my guess too.

[blanktom]

Food for thought - the alternate time-line isn't 'What if Flight 815 never crashed', but more 'What if Jacob hadn't interfered'.

If what Smokey Locke says is true, and Jacob had been there pushing them to the island all along, without that interference their lives could have gone in completely different directions. The most obvious example of this is Locke. Just after the ground broke his fall, Jacob turned up to tell him everything was going to be ok. Subconsciously this may have given Locke the faith he has so fervently stuck with throughout the series, and without it, he turned into a miserable wreck, bottling up his disappointment with how his life turned out. Anyway, I'm rambling and you get the idea. This is my favourite theory so far, especially since the whole rollercoaster time-line the island rides helps explains most counterpoints.

Thoughts?

[tricia kidd]

yes, all signs point to the alternate timeline as being one in which Jacob never existed/never interfered in the real world.

[Ozymandias]

The problem with that theory of course is that they all ended up on the plane anyway.

[tricia kidd]

The problem with that theory of course is that they all ended up on the plane anyway.

that's not really a problem, or a plot hole, it's just convenience.  is it unrealistic that even without Jacob, the same people would end up on the same plane?  yes.  but it's not a problem with the theory, it's just a problem with the writers doing something for dramatic effect.  sure, they could have had the flash-sideways' start without having a sequence of them on the plane, but it would have been substantially less dramatic.

[KvP]

Hey 'mos, here's a blog reviewing the last season, by a dude who'd never seen it before.

[Ozymandias]

No thanks.

I have to deal with that shit on a regular basis from my own friends, I don't need to read some dick who thinks he's cute and clever do the same thing.

HURF DURF HURF DURF I THOUGHT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE STUCK ON AN ISLAND

[StaedlerMars]

yeah pretty much.

[Ozymandias]

Things you may have forgotten:

A) Claire abandoned Aaron. She disappeared into the forest with Christian Shepard(who very likely could've been Esau) and Kate took care of him assuming Claire was gone.

B) Jack didn't get his appendix removed until Season 4, on the Island. Depending on how old Jack is, that means the alternate universe could be changing events before the bomb even went off (though this is unlikely).

My current theory:

The alternate timeline isn't an alternate timeline at all. We're seeing flashbacks to the universe trying to course correct. Just as the universe kept trying to kill Charlie no matter how much Desmond saved him, it's trying to reach the same outcome it would've had if the bomb hadn't been destroyed. Thus, it's trying to create a series of events that results in the 2008 timeline being true. However, since the bomb has such a profound effect on the timeline, the actual events that happen during the course correction are...unpredictable.

[look out! Ninjas!]

That sounds pretty good, actually.

[Ozymandias]

Man.

Michael Emerson is so fantastic.

Just saying.

[look out! Ninjas!]

As far as I can remember, all the best bits of Lost have directly involved either Ben or Desmond.
There is a reason for that.