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The final season of Lost is now officially underway. And after two (three, if you count ABC’s recap show) hour-long episodes, the show has answered a grand total of zero questions and raised about, oh, one billion more. We saw Jack, Kate, Sawyer and co. wake up, think to themselves “Hey, I’m still alive. Huh,” and realize they’re back in the present day, yet still on the island after what they—and most of the viewers—believed to be an atomic bomb explosion.
The episode opens with the original Oceanic 815 crew back on the very plane that brought them to the island, but something’s different. The plane doesn’t crash. And Desmond’s there—if only briefly. (Which raises question number one: What is Desmond doing on that airplane? He’s supposed to be sailing around the globe.) And though the plane safely reaches its L.A. destination, the characters’ fates have changed. Charlie is arrested upon landing for drug possession. Shannon’s not there; Boone left his sister/lover in Australia. Hurley claims to be the luckiest man alive, when the Hurley we’ve all come to know and love is the world’s unluckiest dude.
Then, flash to life on the island—present day. What we thought was a lethal explosion at the end of season five appears to have been one of those pesky time travel white-outs. Amazingly, after what seemed to be a backbreaking fall and hours of bleeding under the heavy metal rubble, Juliet lives… if only briefly. The final exchange between she and Sawyer raises another burning question: What did she want to tell him that was so important? (OK, we find out later from Miles that Juliet wanted to say “It worked.” But what? What worked, Juliet?).
Meanwhile, poor Sayid is bleeding to death and there’s nothing to be done to save him. That is, until the recently-deceased Jacob instructs Hurley to take Sayid to the temple. Easy enough. Only, there’s an entirely different and unknown group of semi-hostile island dwellers living at the temple. Which raises a whole series of questions including, but not limited to: Who the hell are these temple people and how long have they been there? If the note they received from Jacob told them it would be bad if Sayid died, why did they hold his flailing body under water, filling his lungs with water? Why does the leader refuse to speak English? How did that Oceanic flight attendant end up at the temple?
There were a few moments of relief during the show. Sayid lies dead at the hands of the temple people, but then he’s miraculously alive! Not too shocking though, as we told you earlier, no one’s ever truly dead on that island. We also see Claire sharing a taxi with Kate in L.A., but she’s only there for a brief moment. This opens the wound of an old, ever-present question: Where did Claire wander off to in the jungle? (L.A. Claire and jungle Claire are separate entities… we think. Or is the point of the episode-some space/time continuum thing? Maybe.)
So, yet again we Lost viewers find ourselves in a state of near-complete ignorance as to the state of affairs on the island, pondering the meaning of time and you-can’t-escape-fate declarations. Sawyer tells Kate, “I ain’t gonna kill Jack. He deserves to suffer on this rock just like the rest of us,” and in LAX Jack says Locke, “Nothing’s irreversible.”
Let the confusion begin.
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These episodes had me saying wtf over and over again. However there were a few things that I kind of knew after watching:
Cindy (the flight attendent) was on the island and on the show periodically, ending up with the Others: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Cindy
Though how she finally ended up at the temple is still a mystery to me.
I believe the leader refuses to speak English just because he doesn't want to, or as he says "It leaves a bad taste in my mouth".
I'm just glad we found out what was in the freaking guitar case....well mostly, we still don't know exactly what it said. And I have a whole new batch of questions that I really really hope are answered by the end of the show.
Did you actually watch the premiere in its entirety before writing this piece? We found out what Juliet said. We know why the semi-others leader refuses to speak English. The interpretation of the answers are left for us to ponder. We know by now, after lugging through 5 seasons, to expect certain things to be answered soon enough. Like how the smoke monster is another form of not John Locke, who apparently just wants to go home.
I think the other scenario where everything is going good is either just a parallel universe of how it'd be if they never crashed (hence, 'it worked') or if they actually managed to fix the loophole not John Locke tried to break.
Yeah, I couldn't disagree more with your take and the questions that you have asked that you say weren't answered. I will address these in order:
Sayid: I think it's pretty clear that Jacob wanted Hurley to take Sayid's body to this temple so that he could do the same thing The Man In Black did to Sawyer, take his body and use him as a vessel. That is made pretty clear by the fact that the people at the temple said your friend is dead, however when he arises, Sayid IS still dead, yet Jacob is back.
Temple People: It is clearly said in the episode several times that these are also The Others. This is made clear because Alpert has obviously had interaction with them in the past when young Ben was shot.
Space/time continuum: That is not what this is. There are two separate realities: one where the bomb didn't work and one where the bomb did work. Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have stated that that will be the question of the season is how exactly these two will end up interconnecting. Note the subtle differences between what happens in the "existence where the bomb worked" such as no Michael or Walt, Mr. Eko, and many other people and many small changes that have been made.
But maybe before next Tuesday, you should watch the past season, because it sounds like you're not so much lost as you are uninformed.
Leader Won't Speak English: He said it right in the episode, he doesn't like the way English tastes on his tongue. It's no big mystery, he doesn't like to speak English.
Flight Attendant: As we saw in Season Two (if you've paid attention that long or if you have only watched this episode and reviewed it; i'm not quite sure), the flight attendant was in the tail section of the plane and went with The Others when the tail end crashed. And in case you're curious, so did those kids.
Actually, Desmond was on the island years before Flight 815 crashed, so he wouldn't have been sailing around the globe still at the time of the flight, since the island wasn't there for him to sail to, it being underwater in this reality.
Wow, I have to agree with the other comments. Poorly reviewed, especially from someone who's supposed to be a critic and watching TV for more than the surface level entertainment.
I'm a Lost fan, not a Lost nerd. I don't read any online websites or forums, I haven't even rewatched any of the episodes from previous seasons since they aired. But even then, a lot of the connections the author of this article couldn't make were clear. Maybe Paste should assign another 'critic' before reviewing this show... someone who can think? None of the answers she complains about are too difficult. Especially the remark about why the leader won't speak English... either she missed the point where he explained it (awesome critic! not only not taking notes... not even paying a normal level of attention!) or she simply didn't believe his response. If the latter is the case... why not trust him? I speak Spanish as a second language, and let me tell you it's much easier to understand it than it is to speak it. In any Spanish class at university you'll see the teacher speaking in Spanish while students respond in English... and everyone still understands everything.
Sloppy review.
"It worked." Says Juliet. The BOMB worked, um, duh? Juliet obviously realized somehow, that the alternate reality was created on top of the existing one. Maybe as she was dying her 'spirit' was flipping between the parallel universes? That's just speculation, but it hardly takes a leap to define 'it' as 'the bomb.'
Drowning Sayid? I thought it was just a healing spring that would cure his wounds, hence the frustration when he was not alive when they pulled him out? (Also I like the commenter who theorized that Jacob wants his body.) Either way the were clearly not ignorantly drowning him...
Remember in season 2 when we see the others feet trudging through the jungle, and one of the children drops a teddy bear? Those others were much stealthier in the forest than the others we met at Ben's camp. Those were these ninja/temple guards things.
The other comments broke down most of the other problems in this review.
A lot of the answers this season, it seems, are going to require the viewer to connect the dots. Sounds like it'll be a fun ride to me, and of course they'll make it very clear what's going on by the end.
Another note: String theory, which seems to be whats going on in the show, says that at every point where a decision is made (choose between A or B) two universes are created. In one universe A occured, and in the other B. This is pretty clearly what's going on in the show. In one universe the bomb worked and in one it didn't. And also, as we see with Jack's neck scrape and his father's missing coffin, the universes aren't entirely separate.
I call BS. One of the biggest questions of the show have finally been answered! We now know who/what the hell Smokey is!
Is this a review?