Lost- Flashing Sideways

What did I bring to the table for last night's final season premier of Lost? I heck of a lot of expectations. Was I in any way disappointed in the beginning of the end of my favorite television show? Not at all. In this two hour premier Lindelof and Cuse gave us some answers, some more questions, plenty of dramatic moments and a whole bunch of excitement.

During the first three seasons of Lost, flashbacks were used to allow the audience to learn more about who each and every one of these characters were and what they were all about. In the season three finale flash-forwards are installed to 1) excite the viewers immensely with something shiny and new and 2) give us another side of the stories to all of these characters.

In tonight's season six premier we joyously welcome what we are calling the first flash-sideways. The episode begins with Jack on Oceanic Flight 815 just as he was during the pilot of the series.* He's getting plastered and telling good old Rose not to worry about the turbulence (re-watching the pilot a couple weeks ago did enhance my viewing pleasure of this episode). Then the moment when the plane is supposed to be ripped in half doesn't happen.

*Although not entirely the same, because none of the characters have the same haircuts that they did back in 2004. Especially Charlie, who sported the long floppy hair back in season one and now has virtually a buzz cut when the cops take him away for eating his bag of heroin.

I have yet to read/hear anyone else's thoughts on the flash-sides but I figure it can be one of two things. Either this is a flash of what could've/would've been if the bomb had in fact wiped the slate clean, or it is a flash of a parallel universe in which the bomb did in fact work (This gathered from the fact that Juliet tells Sawyer "It worked" through Myles, while dead and buried underground).

Meanwhile, there was plenty going on back on the island. I'm not even going to try an get into everything that happened with the main crew. But quickly, we see that the hydrogen bomb went off in 1977 and the group traveled through time back to 2007? So the bomb didn't kill any of the people around it (even Juliet who was lying right next to it) but instead sent them through time and kept them exactly the way they were right when the bomb went off. Juliet and Sayid, who were about to die at that moment, are still alive when we get to '07. I guess we'll just go with it.

The most intriguing part of the premier, and I'm assuming the entirety of the final season, is the whole Jacob/Man In Black plot (Although I love the name Nemesis, it seems everyone is calling him the Main In Black). We already knew that Fake John Locke was the Man In Black and was also the Smoke Monster, but that didn't deter the fact that when Locke turned into the Smoke Monster, wreaked havoc on the French troupe, and then quickly turned back into Lock was absolutely fantastic! To not only get a grasp on what this Smoke is, but to see it in action, with a thought process, is awesome. As the Man In Black as Fake Locke explains to Benjamin Linus, "I'm not a what Ben, I'm a who," I almost got chills.

Before the Man In Black destroyed the French Troupe, he wanted to speak with my man Richard Alpert. After he was finished with the Frenchies, he came out and got to speak to Richard.

Man In Black- "Hello Richard. It's good to see you out of those chains."
Richard- "You?"
Man In Black- "Me...I'm very disappointed. In all of you."

1) Great television. 2) So Richard was captured by Man In Black? A prisoner of sorts? Am I reading that interaction right?

As we get back to the main group, and the mission to save Juliet fails, it is now time to try and save Sayid. Now that Jacob has been killed by Ben at the end of the last episode, the Man In White can speak to Hurley as a ghost. Because of Hurley's special power, he learns that he must take Sayid to the Temple in order to save him. Once the crew gets there, what?!? This place has been there the entire time?!? I gigantic temple like this? Interesting. So the people there, presumably working for Jacob, attempt to save Sayid by drowning him in some sacred water. At first it doesn't seem to work and Jack, Kate, Hurley, etc. seem to lose faith in everything, but the episode ends with Sayid waking from his death.

And finally we get to see everyone in their parallel universe getting off the plane at LAX. The whole atmosphere just seems really sad. Not only that these people are living troubled or sad lives, but because these parallel Jacks, Sawyers and Lockes will never get to experience all the hardships and triumphs that occurred on the island.

Other Thoughts

• I was wondering how Desmond's story would change if the bomb never went off and our answer is that he ends up on the same Oceanic Flight as the rest of these losers. Interesting.
• In what may be an alternate universe because of the bomb, the island is underwater?
• I loved the dynamic of Ben thinking he was talking to Locke when we knew he was talking to the Man In Black the whole time. I just wish that little bit of dramatic irony could've lasted a bit longer.
• The hippie with glasses in the Temple is Keanu Reeves gambling buddy in Hard Ball.
• The Man In Black spoke about Locke with such respect. Speaking about how Locke was the only one who realized that crashing on this island was a good thing. How Locke was the only one who could see that they all left their pitiful lives behind them when the landed here. My beef? Didn't Sawyer realize the same thing and decide to jump off the rescue chopper?
• Sawyer- "We got caught by The Others again."