Commentary/Analysis: Lost 6.01-6.02 - "LA X" | Thoughts: I HAS THEM

HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS.

THIS SHOW IS AWESOME.

Commentary 6.01 & 6.02 "LA X" - Have You Ever Had Deja-Vu?



01. I LOVE THE ALTERNATE TIMELINE
Maybe it's because I come from fandom culture and am more open to alt-universe stories (I suspect this might be why I unequivocally love the coma-dream episode of Bones no matter what anyone else says), but give me a good alternate timeline and I am all over that shit. I love seeing what has changed and what hasn't simply by virtue of the island not existing after 1977, and I really love seeing how things would have gone forward if the crash hadn't happened. Every time Locke and Jack shared the screen in the new timeline, I was on the edge of my seat and glued to the tv. I loved the hints of deja-vu Jack seemed to be having right at the point that the crash would have happened - how he was nervous instead of Rose, and how he seemed bewildered as to why. I loved the little things like Jack saving Charlie from suffocating but under different circumstances, the pen thing, Boone saying he'd stick with Locke if the plane crashed (*WIBBLES*), Rose and Bernard saying they missed each other whilst Bernard was in the bathroom as if they were having a little deja-vu themselves, Desmond's mysterious appearance and disappearance... I find it all fascinating.

I know others have complained that things like Shannon choosing to stay in Australia or the flight attendant giving Jack one vodka bottle instead of two "shouldn't" have happened just because the island doesn't exist, but I disagree. I've hung out in enough fictional universes with time travel to know that sometimes the smallest changes can have huge unforeseen effects. Plus, let's not forget that we've seen island forces like Jacob and the Dharma folks intervening in different ways into the lives of the 815 survivors. Perhaps with the island blown up in '77, many if not all of those didn't happen, and maybe that turned out to be a big part of what made them the people they were in the original timeline.

So yeah, I am REALLY LOVING the whole alternate timeline thing. I had seen several people tossing around the idea that they were going to do that, because of set reports that seemed to suggest it, and I was really hoping that was gonna be the case. SO YAY. It will also be fascinating to see how Our Heroes end up tangled in each other's lives without the island to bring them together (inevitability of fate?) and especially fascinating to see how the two timelines come crashing together again - because I can't imagine they'll end the series with two timelines going on.

02. Alternate Timeline Jack
PLEASE GOD LET THIS JACK NEVER EVER GROW A BEARD OF DOOM. Also, alt!Jack just reminds me of all the reasons why Jack has ALWAYS been my favorite character on the series. He's such a Good Man, despite his daddy issues and marriage issues and saviour complex. He always tries to do what he thinks is right, even when it's hard. And I love that about him. I particularly loved the scene with Locke after the coffin and Locke's knives (lol) had gone missing. Loved Locke's spiritual take on how they hadn't lost Jack's father, they'd only lost his body. LOVED it when Jack asked about Locke's paralysis. "Nothing's irreversible," he says firmly, looking ever-so-slightly as if he's talking about something more than just Locke's paralysis. Because maybe some part of him knows that he is.

03. The Jack/Kate Report
Well, in the alternate timeline, we had the Significant Look that passed between them on the plane when she stole his pen (*GRINS*). It's sort of reminiscent of that quote from JJ Abrams about them, where he says "You could put Jack and Kate on a NYC street, and have them pass each other at rush hour on a Wednesday morning, and they would stop and turn, slowing to watch each other go by. They know each other within the context of a universal recognition. They have met before this life and they will meet again in another." I've always loved that quote and this moment to me was totally that kind of moment. I'm sure their paths will cross again in the alt timeline and I'm really really looking forward to it, because it will have angst all its own since she'll actively be on the run.

On-island, things were a bit more frustrating, because Kate is stupid. I do have to give her credit for one thing - just after they jumped back to '07, when she sees Sawyer and Jack unconscious, she goes to Jack, not Sawyer. Of course, once Juliet died, Kate was back to going out of her way to hang on to Sawyer. Which, UGH. For God's sake, the man's one redeeming factor at the moment is that he is genuinely in love with Juliet. WHO IS NOT YOU, KATE. Leave the man alone and let him grieve. Jack needs you, which is kind of too bad for him.

DAMN YOU, JACK AND KATE. WHY MUST YOU MAKE ME LOVE YOU SO? I swear, if this show doesn't end Jack/Kate, I will choke someone, lol.

04. Jin and Sun
I hope that now they're in the same time period on-island they'll get reunited soon. I love them more than I ever thought I would. Meanwhile, it does make me kind of sad to see them in the alternate timeline, back where they were when we started. Especially knowing that Jin had all that cash because he was planning on running away with Sun once he'd delivered the watch and that it's possible Sun could have managed to clear everything up if she'd admitted to speaking English. I JUST WANT THOSE CRAZY KIDS TO WORK THINGS OUT, OKAY? DO YOU HEAR ME, DARLTON?

05. "It worked."
Okay, so is it possible that Juliet, in the moments before her death, was able to see both timelines? Hence the babble about getting coffee? Somehow, she knew that it had worked despite still being on the island. Perhaps because she was right there next to the bomb, she saw both things happen. Maybe because she was so close to the center of everything, she was conscious of the timelines splitting. Except right after she woke up she was saying it didn't work, so maybe it was something she saw when she was dying. IDEK. But for all that it totally sucked watching Juliet die like, FOUR TIMES last night, she continued to be AWESOME to the very last second.

Of course, now that she's gone I'm probably going to go back to completely and utterly loathing Sawyer. Alas.

06. The Temple
It's a ninja and a hippie guru! In a pyramid! With the Cindy the flight attendant and the missing kids! Seriously though when the hippie guru appeared I totally lol'ed. It was awesome. That being said, CRAZY SHIT HAPPENS AT THE TEMPLE. Like Sayid DYING and then COMING BACK TO LIFE A SIGNIFICANT PERIOD OF TIME LATER. Perhaps he is the new Jacob? Or is he going to go a little bit evil/crazypants like Ben? IDEK. LOST YOU ARE INSAAAAAAAANE.

OH SPEAKING OF SAYID DYING. The scene where Jack tries to give him CPR and Kate is all "he's dead, stop it" which was OBVIOUSLY supposed to remind us of the scene in The Moth where Jack refused to stop performing CPR on Charlie even though Kate was sobbing and all indications were that he was dead which KILLS ME EVERY TIME? YEAH, THIS SCENE KILLED ME TOO, FOR PRECISELY THAT REASON. JFC, JACK SHEPHARD, HOW DO YOU BREAK MY HEART SO MUCH?

Meanwhile those Temple people will only remain awesome in my sight as long as the DON'T HURT JACK.

07. Not!Locke/The Man In Black/Smokey v. Jacob
Okay so we now know that the smoke monster IS the Man in Black who IS Not!Locke and who almost definitely WAS Christian Shepherd. The main reason why I'm not too concerned that Sayid is the new Man In Black is that when we saw Not!Christian last season, we never saw him at the same time as we saw Not!Locke. He brought Frank and Sun to Dharmaville and told them to wait for Locke, then left, after which Not!Locke showed up. SO, I don't think MiB/Smokey can impersonate more than one dead person at a time. Since he's currently being Not!Locke, I don't think he could also be being Not!Sayid. Plus, the Temple people were spreading all that ash (LIKE PROTECTION AGAINST DEMONS SALT OR OOPS I SPILLED THE POPCORN SALT?) which will ostensibly keep out MiB/Smokey.

I still think Jacob is the good guy and MiB/Smokey is the bad guy, but of course that could be wrong. Still. At this point I think that's the better bet.

The loophole apparently had to do with someone who was not the MiB making a choice to kill Jacob. Possibly it also had to be someone who was ostensibly Jacob's as opposed to the MiB's, since if it were otherwise you'd think he'd have had minions who'd have done it long ago. But we'd mostly figured that during the hiatus.

Meanwhile, I find myself being actually rather fond of Jacob, so I'm really hoping this isn't the last we'll see of him, including him as played by Mark Pellegrino.

Oh, and MiB/Smokey wants "to go home." UH-OH WHERE IS HOME? AND WHAT KIND OF DAMAGE CAN HE DO THERE?

08. Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling"
Okay so the book that Hurley found on the French guy in the tunnel was Soren Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling." In which Kierkegaard describes several different versions of the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son Issac. There is one version exploring Abraham's faith in the original story, and then four retellings in which he fails the test of faith in some way. IS THIS SOUNDING FAMILIAR TO ANYONE?

In addition to "Fear and Trembling" exploring issues of faith, Kierkegaard in general did a lot of talking about the nature of faith and doubt, arguing that you can't have the former without the latter. SO APPLICABLE.

I flailed.

09. RICHARD ALPERT
So, Richard Alpert has kind of become my second favorite character after Jack. I DON'T EVEN KNOW, YOU GUYS. I just love him. NOT!LOCKE BETTER NOT HURT HIM OR I WILL BE EXTREMELY DISPLEASED. Obviously we can't be precisely sure what that "out of your chains" line from Not!Locke meant. I suspect it is similar to his telling Jacob's "bodyguards" that they were free, although others have speculated that it indicates that Richard had something to do with the Black Rock, which was a slaving vessel.

Meanwhile, did you know that not only does Nestor Carbonell not wear eyeliner as Richard, his lashes are so dark and full that the makeup people actually put a little bit of CONCEALER on his bottom lashes to LIGHTEN THEM. The more you know.

10. Miscellaneous Awesome
- FRANK LAPIDUS CANNOT HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF HOW AWESOME HE IS.
- Bernard/Rose is quite possibly the most adorable ship on the show. I LOVE THEM.
- Loved the sound effects they used when Kate woke up on the island after the blast. Very cool and very effective. +10!
- DOCTOR ARZT! FROGURT aka Flaming Arrow Guy! Loved seeing some of the random people like that.
- When Kate escaped from the marshal in the bathroom and bashed his head against the counter, I think the head wound is in essentially the same place as the one he originally got from the falling carry-on luggage in the pilot. /random awesome
- BOONE YOU ARE BETTER OFF WITHOUT SHANNON, I PROMISE.

Best Quotes
JACK: Looks like we made it.
ROSE: Yeah, we sure did.

BERNARD: I almost died in that bathroom. Now I know how the laundry feels in the dryer.
ROSE: I missed you.
BERNARD: I missed you, too.

BOONE: I wouldn't make it two days without my cell phone.

JACOB: Your friend Jin won't be able to see me.
HURLEY: Why not?
JACOB: Because I died an hour ago.
HURLEY: Sorry dude, that sucks.
JACOB: Thanks.

CUSTOMS: Anything to declare?
MARSHALL: Just a murderer.

GURU: Did you look inside it?
HURLEY: Maybe.

HURLEY: Can unconscious people hold their breath?

NOT!LOCKE: I'm not a what, Ben, I'm a who.
BEN: You're the monster.
NOT!LOCKE: Let's not resort to name-calling.

LOCKE: They didn't lose your father. They just lost his body.

LOCKE: It was nice talking to you. Hope you find your coffin.
JACK: Hope you find your knives.

JACK: Nothing's irreversible.