Lost Rewatch On VhS: LA X, Parts 1 & 2

 

 

VHS Notes: Because the season premiere was in February, most of the movies that were being previewed were not memorable ones: Kevin Smith’s anemic Cop Rock,  the failed actioner From Paris With Love and the dreadful remake The Wolfman. The TV previews are far more interesting as we see ads for the season finale of Shark Tank and the launching of Comedy Wednesday, a powerhouse that kept ABC a force for the 2010s. We see previews for episodes of two classic series Modern Family and The Middle as well as the undervalued Cougar Town and what would be the final season of Ugly Betty. We also see previews of the spring premieres of Flashforward and the remake of V, Shonda Rhimes failure The Deep End (a legal drama) and the Christian Slater procedural The Forgotten. All but V would be gone by the end of the year. There’s also a Grey’s Anatomy preview after Derek Shephard takes over as Chief of Staff. February 2010 was a busy month.

 

Like everyone else who watched Lost over its original run, I had as many theories as the next viewer. Some of them proved eerily accurate, as I assumed as early as 2008 that the body of Christian Shephard had never been found because the island was using it in some way. Some were deeply flawed: at one point I believed that Jack had been brainwashed by the Others. And going into the final season I had a very specific one about what the flash-sideways were, particularly consider when the teaser of the season premiere ended, showing the island at the bottom of the ocean.

My theory ran something along these lines. When Juliet detonated the bomb in 1977, something along the lines of what happened to Desmond in Flashes Before Your Eyes happened, but to the entire island. By detonating the bomb Juliet had blasted everyone from 1977 to the present but she had also destroyed the entire island in 1977. Based on what we had seen in Jacob’s flashbacks in The Incident – and the fact that almost all of those flashbacks had taken place before the action on the island (that’s Lost for you) Jacob had never gotten the chance to visit everyone we’d seen – and logically, no one else who had ever been on the island over the next thirty years.

This logic was based on my original opinion that Jacob’s interventions could all be interpreted as either good or evil. When you add the fact that so much of what we had seen take place on the island always had a level of malevolence – and indeed much of the action in this episode and the ones to come bares this theory out – then the argument becomes without Jacob and by extension the island’s interference, this alternate universe – as suggested by the title of the episode – was one where everyone lived a more peaceful existence.

You get a very clear sense of this in the scenes in the initial flash-sideways, all of which take place as Oceanic 815 makes what is a safe descent into LA and all of the passengers disembark with no incident. I will deal with the critical differences between each character in their individual episodes but it was apparent even in the two episode season premiere that the difference was obvious with practically every single character on the plane.

The entire cast has been known for giving incredible riveting performances throughout the series, all of them showing vast ranges of emotion throughout. But one note none of them have played in five seasons is being…basically happy and at peace. And that contrast is obvious in almost every character we see on Oceanic 815, which wouldn’t make much sense if everything had gone the way Jack thought it would when he went on his mission at the end of last season. Nikki pointed this out in great detail in her episode guide to Follow the Leader in Finding Lost when it came to pointing out just how miserable each character was when they got on the flight originally (and we’re going to get reminded of this from an unlikely source late in the episode.) We remember this very vividly based on everything we saw in the Season 1 finale, which this episode invokes musically near the end of the first half. We know all too well none of the survivors were in a good place emotionally.

So the real shock in the final season premiere is not that the plane doesn’t crash or that we’re seeing so many formerly dead people again, but how upbeat everyone we know is. Jack seems calm and when he’s called into action to save a passenger on the plane, he handles it with far less emotion than we saw him handle things after the original crash. He seems a lot more relaxed even after Charlie sneers at him for saving his life and even when he learns that his father’s coffin didn’t make it to LA, he doesn’t seem as upset as when he put Christian’s body on the plane.

There’s a similar level of relaxation with almost every character. Oh sure, Kate is still in handcuffs, willing to exercise a jailbreak, and hold a taxicab with a pregnant Claire hostage and Charlie is pretty much where he was when we first met him, but they’re the exceptions. Hurley is cheerful and when he says that he’s the luckiest guy alive, he looks content in a way we’ve never seen him. Sawyer has moments of sarcasm but they lack the bitterness we’ve become used to and he seems to enjoy playing around with Kate in her our of need in a way that seems spirited. Jin and Sun seem to be the same as before but Jin doesn’t seem as angry as we know him and Sun doesn’t seem to be as restrained. Then again, she’s called Ms. Paik in this episode, which means that she and Jin aren’t married. Even Boone seems a little happier then he’d been; he certainly doesn’t seem as hung up on Shannon as before.

And Locke? Locke seems cheerful. He clearly didn’t go on the walkabout but he doesn’t seem bitter about denying it. He laughs more than we’ve seen him before and he doesn’t seem as upset about being in a wheelchair. Jack actually sees him in the chair, something he never knew about during their time on the island. And in the final flash-sideways, clearly the most critical one, Jack and Locke are in the lost baggage claim and the two of them talking to each other – civilly with each man listening to the other and each man offering comfort in the way that they can. Jack does seem to take comfort when Locke tells him that “They didn’t lose your father. They only lost his body.” And when Locke tells Jack that his condition is irreversible Jack tells him with similar peace: “Nothing is irreversible.” There is a level of calm for all of the characters – which is in great contrast to what is happening on the island.

The other reason I believed strongly the timeline had split was because the action resumed with the same moments from the ‘Previously on Lost segment” Jack throwing the bomb down the dig site, Dharma hitting the pocket, Juliet being dragged into the chasm, Sawyer screaming as Juliet falls and Juliet detonating the bomb. Except at the end of it, we’re back on the island in 2007. And if anything, things are worse then when they left it.

Sawyer is understandably infuriated when he realizes what has happened and understandably takes his rage on the man whose fault it is – Jack’s. The performances of the entire cast contrast greatly with what we see in the flash-sideways, particularly in the work of Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway. Sawyer is on the verge of taking his wrath out on Jack when they hear the faint cries of Juliet.

The survivors do everything they can to save Juliet, working in unity for one of the last times on Lost. Sawyer is desperate to find the woman he loves and we are witness to what may very well be the most heartbreaking and extended death scene since the episode long-demise of Boone way back in Season 1. Sawyer climbs down into the hole desperate to find Juliet, who regains consciousness just in time to realize that she has failed. James is there to witness the women he loved die in his arms, with a last message that he doesn’t comprehend.

I knew that Juliet’s death was coming, but it broke my heart more than any character since Charlie had died back in Season 3. Much of it was due to my great admiration for Elizabeth Mitchell but it was also because her character, perhaps more than any of the Oceanics, had the saddest history. She had spent her entire tenure on Lost trying to leave the island, and she died on it trying to save the man she loved.

After this unfolds Jack is broken in a way he never has been. With this he finally gives up any claim he had to leading. And now the most unlikely source takes over – though in many ways, he’s always been the most qualified.

We wondered where Hurley was as the shootout at the Swan, and it actually makes sense now: he never left Sayid’s side. Hurley is always loyal to his friends and he doesn’t leave them behind. He wants to help people but he can see things are bad.

 Sayid himself knows it. Jack told Sayid that if what they did worked it would save him and Sayid told him in pure honesty. “Nothing can save me.” He basically tells Hurley the same thing: “Wherever I’m going, it can’t be very pleasant.” Then when he is alone Jacob shows up.

However Hurley sees the dead I think the reason he did was basically for this sole purpose: to see Jacob after he was killed. In death Jacob will become more talkative but not necessarily more informative. He doesn’t answer any of Hurley’s questions but tells him what he needs to do to save Sayid. As we find out very quickly Jacob has left quite a bit out about how that will happen and in hindsight it seems he’s playing on Hugo’s desperation to save his friend to serve the island.

That said he also knows that Hurley is also the only person on the island no one has a problem with and therefore no enemies. So when Hurley tells him that there might be a way to save Sayid, everyone listens to him without blinking. Before they do so, they all strip of their Dharma uniforms which are soaked with blood, removing their links to Dharma (and essentially ending it as part of the story of Lost)

Sawyer stays behind with Miles. It’s worth noting this event has shaken Miles even more than usual. There’s no snark in his scenes with James and he tries to offer compassion. When Sawyer tells him he wants Miles to talk with Juliet, the man who had no problem selling his gift to the highest bidder for two seasons is actually horrified and he  is resistant. It is only out of compassion for his friend that he does so – and the message “It worked” makes no sense. (This thought, for the record, made me think that Juliet had seen the flash-sideways before dying and seemed to prove my theory.)

The one thing that hasn’t changed in thirty years is the Others. Once they get to the Temple the Others abduct them and seem just as happy to shoot them even after Hurley says the magic word: “Jacob” When we finally see inside the guitar case that Jacob seems to have brought one of the lists with him and it gives them all permission to be here, the Others still seem reluctant to share any information.

We don’t know if the spring had it worked normally would have saved Sayid’s life but the Others act with the same coldness to doing so anyway. They have no qualms about drowning Sayid in front of his friends, stop them from helping him, and leave his corpse in front of them for hours without moving it. Then they take Hurley away and demand answers from him, and only start to get upset when he tells them Jacob is dead. Even then, they seem to have no problem hauling Jack off when he isn’t compliant – until they’re distracted when Sayid gets up.

 We will learn very soon how important everyone on the plane is to the island but, if anything, it makes the behavior of the Others more inexplicable. Were they truly unaware of the importance of the members of Oceanic 815 to the well-being of the island? Because they sure as hell acted that way for the first three seasons. Tom’s speech in ‘The Hunting Party’ “this is not your island. This is our island” makes no sense when you consider what we now know about their connection to it. There’s a certain logic as to why they were never allowed to leave but not as to why none of them ever explained anything to them. The only explanation that makes sense, as we’ll find out soon, is that this behavior seems to have seeped down from the top up.

But in a sense, everything that is happening in the episode – the flash-sideways, the death of Juliet, the Temple we’ve heard about since Season 3 but never been to until now, Jacob reappearing, even Sayid’s resurrection – pales to what’s happening on the beach and in Jacob’s former stronghold. Because the biggest revelations of the season premiere are unfolding here matched by two powerhouse performances by the two greatest actors on the show as we’ve never seen them before.

The action resumes moments after Jacob’s death. Ben is utterly distraught. ‘Locke’ is calm and dismissive. He orders Ben to bring Richard out and Ben almost by muscle memory does so.

Chaos is unfolding on the beach. Frank and Sun are trying to figure out what the hells going on. Frank tells Sun what he saw and that “they say they’re the good guys.” Sun raises an eyebrow. “I’m not buying it either.” 

Richard, who seems unnerved for the first time ever, gets to an argument with Ilana about going in to see Jacob. (Jeff Fahey, Nestor Carbonell and Zuleika Robinson have all been promoted to series regular for the final season.) Then Ben comes out and tries to maintain his level of authority when he tells Richard wants to talk to Locke. Then in one of the first great moments of the season, Richard grabs Ben by the scruff of his neck and hauls him to Locke’s corpse. The expression on Michael Emerson’s face in this moment is one of the best reaction he's ever done as he realizes just how badly he’s been manipulated and that his entire life to this point has been a colossal joke.

Ben just sits there for a long moment unable to do more than react. He can’t even answer Richard, who speaks with a gentleness we’ve never heard. (Carbonell will deliver a masterclass in the final season, starting here.) Then Bram grabs Ben and hauls him into Jacob’s quarters.

It’s clear from the moment this starts that the Shadow Seekers are, sadly, as ill-informed as everyone else on the island. Because if they were they would have known that shooting a dead man was not going to end well. And then…

…there had been theories that the Man in Black was the smoke monster, but as Ben himself said in Dead is Dead “its one thing to believe it, it’s another to see it.” So when the smoke monster in a sign of epic destruction casually kills everyone of the Shadow Seekers and manages to snuff out Bram so quickly we barely have time to notice – and then Locke appears next to Ben and says calmly, “I’m sorry you had to see me like that” we are as gob-smacked as Ben is.

The scenes between Emerson and Terry O’Quinn have provided the greatest drama of the entire series and each had already won an Emmy for their work to this point but not even that can prepare you for what we see not only in this scene but much of their work in the final season. Ben, never caught off-guard, always prepared, just stands dumbfounded as UnLocke (the name I coined for him in my first guide to the series which in my opinion is far superior to Smoky) casually moves around the bodies of the men he’s slaughtered, including pulling Bram off a loom. By the time Ben manages to piece together what he’s scene: “You’re the monster” and UnLocke says: “Let’s not resort to names”, we see the pattern that both actors will be taken for all of Season 6.

UnLocke then decides to twist the knife in: “He was very confused when you killed him.” Ben tries to recover: “I hardly believe Jacob was ever confused.” UnLocke cuts him off: “I’m not taking about Jacob. I’m talking about John Locke.”

And now it hits Ben again. He has killed a man and now someone else is wearing his face, someone who doesn’t seem to particularly like the occupant. And then he tells him what Locke’s last thoughts were: “I don’t understand.” And UnLocke chuckles: “Isn’t that the saddest thing you ever heard?”

And it is. It really is. It hurts more to hear UnLocke mock every single moment of Locke’s life and call him admirable only because he was the only one who didn’t want to leave the island because they had nothing to go back to.

 One would do well to remember this moment through much of the action that takes place on the island in the final season. It’s clear that the one thing that the Man in Black wants to do is leave the island and he’s going to spend the season trying to convince all of the people that he considers pathetic and broken to come with him. Nikki Stafford will spend much of the final volume arguing whether we can trust the Man In Black or not and whether he’s as bad as he seems. The parallel will become clear the more we learn about Jacob in the final season and she will eventually conclude that this a grey area.

I think the chose is very close to what the war between Ben and Widmore was: the viewer is being forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. We’ll be learning about the reasons Jacob brought everyone here as the season progresses but what becomes clear very quickly is that he is the only person who knows the rules and everyone else on the island has been following him blindly based on some plan that he has promised he will reveal one day. The Others have been his loyal followers since the series began and its clear the Shadow Seekers were of that same brand, but neither group knew of the others (play on words not intended) existence and both groups had no problem treating the passengers of either plane has pawns in their game without bothering to explain the rules.

If we needed any proof that their concept of what a life on the island requires we get in grand fashion at the Temple. Cindy, who we haven’t seen since she was indoctrinated to the Others back in Season Three, brings Zach and Emma, the two children from the tail section that were abducted way back in Season 2 – out to serve food to the remaining survivors. That’s ‘the better life’ Karl spoke about in ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’: a life in servitude. This is the behavior of a cult except no one even knows what deity they’ve been serving – only now he’s dead.

Richard is clearly the only person who has a clear idea what they’re up against: when UnLocke walks out of the statue, he orders them not to shoot and when Locke says: “It’s good to see you out of those chains,” he knows who he’s talking too. It’s worth noting when UnLocke tells what is left of the Others: “I am very disappointed. In all of you” there is an excellent possibility he is angry at all of the people who have devoted their lives to Jacob. We’ll learn by the end of the season he has good reason to hate him but the thing is, everything we’ve seen Jacob’s followers do to this point in this series (and quite a bit after) has given us every reason for us to share his scorn.

The thing is UnLocke has the exact same contempt for not just them, but everyone who has been brought to the island. He will spend much of the season trying to convince those same passengers to come with him to leave the island. He will promise them their heart’s desires, he will make some of them do horrible things and he will try to do so in the body of the man who during all the time they knew him was the most in favor of staying on the island. None of them are willing to trust him throughout the series but he will spend the season recruiting. Maybe they don’t believe him but many of them will get a look, closer than they ever had, of what will happen if they get in his way.

The image that strikes me the most throughout the finale is one of the great shots in TV history: it is UnLocke with the body of Richard over his shoulder, walking past the body of John Locke without even a look back. John Locke is dead (has been dead, in fact, since ‘Through the Looking Glass’) but he’s far from forgotten. His legacy in the final season will be clear, even without his presence in the flash-sideways. And despite his last words, it’s worth noting when it comes to the island he did understand what it was about – but he took the wrong lesson from it.