"Looks like we made it"

LOST: LA X.What I enjoyed most about the first episode of season 6 was, let's be clear, being able to see my old friends again. Sure we've rewatched all of season 5 and about 20 episodes from the previous seasons, but to see the Oceanic 815 survivors again on new episodes is so much better.

Well, before I say anything else, I should first say SPOILER ALERT. Do not read beyond here any who have not watched LA X yet.

OK so back to the story. It felt especially nostalgic getting to see Claire and Charlie alive again -- hell, we even got to see Arzt and Frogurt! I was actually glad to see Boone again, even if I never really liked him much. It was good to see the homoerotic tension between him and Locke hasn't changed. The one person I was not particularly happy to see, though, was Juliet. I like her character a lot, but I thought she seemed tacked on to this episode as if they wanted to bring her back again just to make people happy. Personally I thought her farewell to Sawyer in the season 5 finale was about as good as they come and having him say goodbye again diminished what I thought was one of the most emotional moments of the series.

So on to a more critical and exploratory aspects of the post. Thinking more about the episode, I was struck by how much it reminded me of season 1. Sure a lot has changed since our early days on the island, but both the 2007 and 2004 (more to come on that) timelines harken back to the beginning and that pivotal moment when the plane crashed that we have returned to multiple times already. Quite literally, the scenes on the airplane remind us of who these characters were at the beginning as we see them in their original clothing and mostly original roles, including those fulfilled by people who have since died or (in the case of Claire) disappeared. Back on the island there seemed to be more of a challenge directly related to the island with the rummaging through the hatch and the exploration of a new area in the Temple, which was itself full of Others as we originally new them -- not dressed in Eddie Bauer-esque apparel. Sawyer has of course grown more complex in the last 5 years, but there was a certain part of his demeanor with a chip on his shoulder that directly reminded me his first-year character. When Jack tries to save Sayid and Kate is trying to tell him to give up, it is almost a direct replica of when he does the same to Charlie.

We kind of discussed this, but I think it bears fleshing out that I think this episode was very much setting the stage for what is to come and, in that spirit, the premier took all of these reminders of season 1 and tweaked them. The airplane is obviously different in that it doesn't crash (note in the title of this post Jack sayd "looks like we made it"), but beyond that the interaction with Charlie, Hurley being lucky, and the decision to neglect making some of the characters -- namely Jack and especially Charlie -- match something as obvious as their earlier hair styles was quite noticeable. That last might not seem like much, but the show is quite diligent about changing the characters' hair lengths and styles at different times in their lives and it seems odd they would simply neglect to do the same for this scene, especially when they did so for Hurley and Sun, who have different lengths on the island scenes. Plus Jack and Locke friends? WTF? Big shocker I read onlin was that they refer to Sun by her maiden name and neither she nor Jin are wearing rings, leading us to believe they are not married. Back on the island Sawyer's attitude is gruff but it comes from grief over a mature relationship instead of his general anger at the world. With Sayid, unlike Charlie, Jack does end up giving up. My guess is what we are being set up for is to question the stability of what we know as the past and become unsure of that history -- as well as the future. The only thing we do know is right now. Except that we don't because we don't know which right now is real. Confused yet?

There are certainly a lot of possibilities as to what is happening with what I think I have heard referred to as the "sideways" timeline, which I guess is what a writing team does when they have already done the past and the future. What does this mean? I'm not sure yet. There is still the chance it could be that this is some sort of scenario that is going to happen but a different event must occur before the true reset happens which will land them on the plane. Although that thought did occur to me, I am already kind of discounting that. There's also the chance that there are two possibilities for the future already occurring and one of them is going to have to destroy or reset itself in order for the other to become the true future or there are serious consequences -- which could be what Juliet meant when she said that it worked. Perhaps whatever happened because of The Incident simply allows the future to progress that will truly eliminate the timeline they are in, leaving the true present and future to be that which is occurring on the plane. The universe as a way of course-correcting, as they say. This could make sense to me as it appears to be continuing with what we discussed last summer already as the emergence of a cosmic battle going on between Jacob and the entity I must continue to call Loophole and under the scenario I outlined above, the two timelines could coincide with each of the two of them. I would not be surprised if as the season progresses, one of the timelines starts to represent predetermination and the other free will -- the topic of the show's first argument between the two.

So on to those guys. The best plotline of the episode (and I imagine it will continue to be for the rest of the season) was the one involving Loophole-as-Locke and Ben. Terry O'Quinn is in top form right now playing this more devious character and watching Ben realize he was the one who got played this time was quite rewarding (side note: I think we are seeing the set up for Ben's ultimate redemption -- albeit only partial one). There's certainly a war brewing on the island between the two main forces and I'll be curious to see on whose side everyone shakes out. One element that did appear to become more clear in this episode was that in this fight, Loophole is not the good guy. Perhaps Jacob is not either, but the entity also known as Smokey (called it!) is certainly not someone we are positioned to see as a hero. My guess is that those subtle differences in the experience are related to this conflict in their own way and hint toward a possible conflict between the ideas of predetermination and free will. The question of how much the actions of the characters are within their control -- how large the fluctuation can be -- is something I think we will be returning to as the season progresses.

Which leads me to my parting shots. I think this episode certainly set a tone well, but much of it I did not find satisfying. Maybe had they given a little more of an indication of why I should care about the two timelines or even allowed me to have a name for Loophole I would be more happy. There's still a long way to go, though, and I've been watching this show way to long to start getting too upset by a lack of clarity or quick answers.

I do know that I have a lot to look forward to this season and there were pieces I found myself getting quite excited about, including the prospect of discovering how Richard Alpert is involved in the larger story and what the issue is with Loophole returning home, which we assume is likely The Temple. In general the latter made me think about the idea of going home as a constant (pun kind of intended) for the show be it wanting to get off the island or finding a way back to the island for Widmore and Charlotte (and Miles?). As I think of a desire to return home as being the ultimate pivot point for all of the conflicts, it begins to allow the divergent lines of the show start to come together.

The only unfortunate part about that last point is that it allows me to see that the show truly is coming together and we are finally heading toward the end. I'm not really looking forward to that.