LOST: "Ab Aeterno"

Original Air Date
March 23, 2010

Description
Richard must make a difficult decision.

Notes
(A) So were we just handed the keys to the whole concept of the show during this episode? Or are they just fucking with us? The Island apparently is Hell, the afterlife, the underworld... or at least the cork between the underworld and real world.

The episode was compelling. Finally we get to know Richard. Nestor Carbonell, who has not been given a lot of heavy material to deal with, shined in this Richard-centric episode.

Apparently he is the intermediary of Jacob, or has been for over 100 years. He was brought to the island, like many believed, on the Black Rock. Apparently his boat is what destroyed the Jacob's colossus.

So the question main question for me heading into the finale episodes is who is going to be the candidate that emerges to fill Jacob's void. Also, how is Whitmore going to play into this. What does he want with the island?

In any case, the final struggle seems to have been cast and now it is time to watch the drama unfold. I can't believe we got so many answers in one episode.

LOST: "Recon"

Original Air date
March 16, 2010

Description
John Locke assigns Sawyer a mission.

Notes
(B-) No game-changer moments in this episode. It was decent, but there really is not much to say about this episode, which did nothing to clarify anything and continues on the alt-world without Jacob path.

The only bit of fun was the fact that James was a cop in this episode. That was awesome. I liked that. I would love to watch that spin-off.

I guess the only question that presents itself in this episode is.. who is Sawyer really going to screw over?

LOST: "Dr. Linus"

Original Air Date
March 9, 2010

Description
Ben deals with the consequences of a lie.

Notes
(C) I am not sure why, but I did not care for this episode that much. I have to admit it was compelling in a lot of ways, but it just didn't gel for me in some way.

Perhaps, this is largely because I still don't know what the significance of the sideways timeline is all about. Does that timeline matter at all in the grand scheme? And honestly, I guess the happenings of Dr. Linus, the history teacher just was not that big, I guess. I want Lost to be big and this episode wasn't quite that.

If you watch this episode from a purely acting standpoint, it was amazing. Michael Emerson is continually impressive and this episode was nothing short of it. The scenes between Alana and Ben were great.

I would also like to say welcome back to Charles Whitmore. It is about time. We really need to figure out what his role in this last season is going to be about.

LOST: "Sundown"

Original Air Date

March 2, 2010

Description

Sayid faces a difficult decision; Claire sends a warning to the temple inhabitants.

Notes

(B+) Okay, so alt-Sayid's Nadia is married to his brother and has kids with her. I wonder if he is actually a translator or if he is an assassin in alt-world as well.

In each of us there is a scale, on one end good and the other bad and it leans differently for different people. Apparently Sayid leans bad. This harkens back to when James and the smoke monster entered Jacob's cave. Remember there was that scale, which the smoke monster called "an inside joke."

What is with that baseball that hit the ground in such a dramatic way at the end of the Sayid rumble. Didn't Jack have a baseball that he played around with early in the series? This baseball, however, is Dogen's son's baseball. The son he apparently saved by making a bargain with Jacob, forcing him to come to the island. Dogen

Is it just me or does this sound similar to the story of Jack and his father Christian. Jack is a baseball fan and his father has alcohol issues. Coincidence?

Is it just me or has Claire lost a bit of her accent that was pretty pronounced when the show started. I guess this could happen after three years on the island, but who would she have been talking with that would have helped the accent fade? The smoke monster? Or am I just thinking too hard about this... maybe the actress that plays Claire just lost it a bit.

I am wondering if the alt-timeline is what would have happened to the characters if Jacob wasn't around to mess with them. Remember Jacob had subtly influenced each character's lives previously. There is no indication Jacob exists in alt-timeline world.

So have Dogen (angry temple Asian guy) and Claire met each other before or do they just know of each other. Could she have lived at the temple for a while after she went missing in the jungle. Maybe they did the same tests to her that they did to Sayid and maybe she also failed because her scale was tipped toward evil.

In both the alt-world timeline and the island timeline Sayid is forced to make decisions about the type of man he is. His morals are tested. Is he a good person to defend his family and friends? Is he still a good person if that means using violence and even murdering to do so?

In any case Sayid seems to have accepted that he has a dark passenger inside of him and that his balance is tipped toward evil, perhaps because of his experiences during the war. I was pretty shocked when he drowned Dogen and slit the throat of his assistant.

That was a pretty ominous ending with the smoke monster or not-Locke leading his people away from the temple. Although, I was pretty curious as to why he did not just kill Kate on sight. Does he need her. Will she help him get off the island?

This was a pretty good episode in the sense that it is starting to make some sense. I feel like I am starting to understand what is going on in the grand scheme of things... at least a little bit. The story is focusing although there is so much I still do not understand.

LOST: "Lighthouse"

Original Air Date

February 23, 2010

Description

Hurley tries to persuade Jack to go with him on an unspecified mission.

Notes

(C) It did not seem like much happened in this episode. The Losties just seem to be wandering around in the wilderness without much in particular to do.

A few things of note that I noticed in this episode. The first, most obvious is... alt-Jack has a teenage kid... David. That just brings about so many questions... what the frick... how does this not come up before?

The other thing of note with alt-jack is the scar that he has on his torso... the same scar that Sayid will have after the temple people performed the "test" on him. Remember they used a hot piece of metal to brand him.

We also got some more Claire the crazy lady action. What is she going to do when she finds out that Jin was lying about Kate taking care of Aaron.

In general I was not a very big fan of this episode. There was not much in the way drama or answers.

LOST: "The Substitute"

Original Air Date

February, 16, 2010

Description
Locke goes in search of help to further his cause.

Notes

(B) I feel like the answers are coming, which I am happy about. Still its hard to produce something that makes sense in this writing. Here are some ramblings:

The man in black tries to tempt Richard like he was the devil tempting Eve with fruit from the tree of knowledge. I wouldn't have kept you in the dark like Jacob, he says.

Who was that boy covered in blood -- the vision that the smoke monster saw?

I find it curious that the man in black, the Locke impostor, used the same words Locke has often used. "Don't tell me what I can't do." What is the significance to that. It seems too exact to be a coincidance. As we see in the flash sideways, Locke reminds us that he shouted those same words in Austrailia when they would not let him go on the walkabout.

The sympolism of the scale in the man in black's lair is pretty straight forward. On the scale is a black rock and a white rock. They were balancing each other. However, now that Jacob (the white rock?) is dead, Locke picks it up and tosses it away. "Inside Joke."

What is with the names on the rock that Jacob apparently wrote? "That is why you are all here." What?

Another other popped up in alt-world (flash sideways world) again. Ben is at the school in which Locke is a substitute teacher. What are the others doing in the real world like they have been there for years?

It is odd that the numbers that have been a running mystery throughout the show were with the names on the rocks: Jarah 16, Kwon 42, Shepared 23, Reyes 8, Locke 4, Ford 15.

"Jacob had a thing for numbers."

Also the man in black says Jacob manipulates people when they are vulnerable... or does he challenge them to become better people?

Now the man in black wants to get the hell off the island and he needs James to help him? Where is this going to go.

LOST: "What Kate Does"

Original Air Date
February 9, 2010

Description
Jack must do something that may endanger a friend's life.

Notes
(B-) There were pretty much no answers in this episode, just more questions. That is kind of disappointing as there is a lot that needs to be cleared up and it would be nice to start understanding more instead of getting more confused.

It appears, however, we should soon find out what the infection or illness that has been in the background throughout the show is all about. Apparently Sayid is infected with this darkness.

Claire, who makes an appearance on the island in the last seconds of the episode, is also said to be infected. Hopefully we will figure out what that means in the next episode.

I am glad Claire is back in the picture. Didn't we all miss Claire?

The most jarring thing about this episode was the fact that we see Ethan in the hospital during a flash sideways. I am not sure what that means. Are all the others running around somewhere in the real world too?

I thought the most interesting line of the night was James when talking to Kate about Sayid's return from death.

"Of course he's fine... he's an Iraqi torturer that shoots kids, he deserves another go around."

James said that sarcastically, but could this be lending credence to the idea that the island is a sort of purgatory?

Most of the fun of this episode, entitled "What Kate Does," takes place off the island in the alt-world, alt-timeline, whatever we are calling it these days.

We find out that Kate and Claire become BFF's after Kate carjacks the cab Claire was riding in. What that means in the grand scheme of things I have no idea. Let's get to the answers already.

LOST: "LA X, Part 1"

Original Air Date

February 2, 2010

Description
The aftermath from the detonation of the hydrogen bomb is revealed.

Notes

(A) My theories about Lost revolve around the interplay between reason and faith – epitomized by the characters John Locke and Jack Shepard. John Locke has faith in the island, in his purpose on the island, while Jack Shepard, a doctor, relies on reason and rational decision-making.

It is easy to confuse myself about this idea – I know it is a motif – whether it is the key I don't really know. I could write for hours, going down different paths of thought about this and the different situations in which each character has confirmed or muddied this concept for me. Therefore, I try not to fall head first into the rabbit hole and choose at this point to let it ride for the sake of brevity.

Reason and faith have both had their huge pratfalls. The showcasing of the bomb on the island highlights that reason can lead to illogical ground sometimes. Faith on the other hand is just as dangerous. For example, no one questions the entity that is posing as John Locke. He is sort of a false profit that preys on those who do not question his leadership.

The biggest mystery for me at this point is who is this character... aka the man in black aka the smoke monster. That seems to be the key secret that was teased in the first two episodes of season six. Is it going to take until the final episode to figure out? Is he Esau, the biblical twin brother of Jacob?

As a side note – I am not sure that this means anything or not – according to some research on names Jacob and James come from the same Latin roots (the language that has shown up on the show by the way).

The English names Jacob and James derive from the same source, with James coming from Latin Iacomus, a later variant of Iacobus. Unlike English, many languages do not have separate spellings for the two names. -According to BehindtheName.com

It is also kind of curious that Jacob means “holder of the heel,” as Jacob seems to be living in the heel of that huge Egyptian looking monument (there is also something to be said about Jacob and Egypt if you want to look in your bible.)

But like I said, I am going to try to not fall down the rabbit hole here.

"LA X, Part 1" was quite a dramatic reintroduction to lost. We seem to be seeing the alternative reality of if the plane did not crash on the island in flashes. We started with flashbacks and moved into flash forwards later in the series. Is season six about flash sideways? What I mean in that sense are we just watching an alternate time line unfold. And if that is the case, how is that relevant to the overall plot?

The season-opener made us watch Juliet die all over again. Thanks Lost writers... like we needed to go through that again. Jack and James are looking to rumble, like usual. It occurs to me that they seem to be similar to Jacob and unnamed man in black.

James' philosophies have been elastic. He tends to adopt the philosophy that is most apt to allow him to survive. He seems to be the middle ground and at various points has followed behind the reason of Jack and the faith of John.

LOST: "LA X, Part 2"

Original Air Date
February 2, 2010

Description
The aftermath from the detonation of the hydrogen bomb is revealed.

Notes
(A) The second part of the season-opener was just as good as the first and continued to toy with the identity of the man in black aka the smoke monster. Apparently he is some ominous figure that everybody is concerned about.

This includes another band of temple-living others and yet another plane crash survivor. It was pretty ominous when the man in black aka the John Locke impostor says “I want to go home.” What the hell does that mean? Where is home? Why are you not home currently?

Although I am still kind of unsure what role Miles is suppose to play in the overall arc of the show, his “talking-to-dead-people” skills came in handy during this episode. He was able to lend voice to Juliet from six feet under. “It worked,” she said.

Well thanks for being so specific Juliet... jeez.

I found one line that James uttered early in the episode interesting. “I ain't following nobody Kate,” he said after Kate said that he should follow the rest of the group to the temple as Jacob had told Hugo to go to.

Is James now a nihilist?

Also what is up with Sayid's death? Did he really come back to life or is he Jacob reincarnated. I guess we will have to wait a week to find out.