18 episodes to go, and counting.
Episode 1 and 2 - LA X (Parts 1 and 2).
After having Flashbacks and flash forwards and flashes in time, we now have what appears to be Flash-Sideways to an alternative reality, where the island has sunk.
This was what Dr Jack wanted all along, but maybe he never thought further than himself, that he would be the only one affected.
Now this is all based on conjecture at the moment, but if we assume the island sunk in 1977 (when Jack and gang were with the bomb), then 30 years of history will have altered.
The biggest being that the plane won't go off-course and be ripped apart, because the island isn't there any more.
We saw Desmond on the plane, his must be the biggest alteration. If you remember, he was originally stranded on the island when his boat crashed into it. What was he doing in the boat in the first place? He was taking part in a race. Why? To impress Penny's dad.
The same Jim Robinson who (presumably?) died when the island sank.
This gives 2 possibilities.
1: Penny was already conceived, met Desmond and they had no blockage in the way of their relationship.
2: Penny was never born.
Either way, Desmond has been in the "normal" world (ie: Not the island) for the past few years.
Other changes that seem to have occured:
- Hurley is now Lucky and not unlucky.
Once again, we can presume that he was always fated to win the lottery, and this time the numbers he used would have been gained by another means. Because without the island to constantly stream the numbers over the radio waves, his mate couldn't hear them, go mad and end up locked up with Hurley reciting the numbers.
- Shannon decided to stay in Australia.
Originally, Shannon had been an relationship with an abusive man - Bryan - and Boone went to Australia to help her. She went running to him after being attacked, they (Boone and Shannon) ended up having sex, and she returned to LA with him.
I have no idea why this chain of events could be altered...
- Jin and Sun aren't married.
When jin is asked to step into the office at the airport, Sun is addressed as "Ms. Paik". Now it's known that Korean women don't take the surname of their husbands, but Sun has been called "Mrs. Kwon" on several occasions - notably by the doctor she had the affair with.
- Sayid is now Iranian, not Iraqi.
I hope this is just a production error, but Sayid's passport clearly said "Iranian" on it.... I'll find a screenshot in a few mins. I seriously hope this is a production error.
However, it does appear he's still searching for Nadia.
- Locke's walkabout..
This is an interesting one. He describes it for Boone, and almost sounds like he really did it. Hell, he looks happy enough about it, and not the bitter twisted man we saw in the flashbacks.
However, if he did go the walkabout, why is he on the plane?
He was originally on the plane because he was denied the walkabout and caught the first plane home. Had he gone on it, he wouldn't be on the plane. Unless he went a week earlier....?
Also, what was his inspiration for going?
In the original timeline he was pushed into going by Mr. Abaddon, who was working on orders from Jim Robinson. With Jim dead, Abaddon would have no reason to push Locke into going... You get the idea.
There were some interesting nods of the head to previous things:
- Rose telling Jack it'll be alright - the same speech he gave her in the pilot episode.
- Boone saying he would stick with Locke if the plane crashed
- Sawyer looking after Kate, despite not knowing her.
It was also nice to see Artz and Frogurt again.
Artz (the guy who recognised Hurley as owner of the Chicken place) , for those who forgot him was the science teacher from Season 1, who went with the gang to get dynamite from the black rock and famously told everyone that dynamite was totally safe and BANG, leading to one of myall time favourite Hurley quotes: "Dude. You got some Artz on you."
Frogurt (the guy who told Kate there was a cue for the taxis) was first mentioned in the episode when Bernard was making the giant SOS on the beach, and first seen in Season 4. He owned a chain of frozen yogurt stores, hence his nickname. He was the first person killed by the flaming arrows.
So, with the alternative reality out of the way we can now turn our attention to the "normal" timeline.
We pretty much got confirmation that Fake Locke is the Smoke Monster.
We also got confirmation that Hurley really can see and interact with dead people. Up until now all he'd seen could be put down to madness, but with Jacob appearing and telling him things Hurley couldn't possibly know, it's got to be given that Hurley is NOT mad.
Why was Jacob so concerned about Sayid and didn't seem to give a fig about Juliette who was also dying at the time? This has to be because of the temple.
Now the Temple has been mentioned several times before. Jin of course went there in the past with the French team. Also interesting to Mortand's corpse. Mortand was first mentioned during the trek to the Black Rock to get Dynamite, when Rouseau said one of her team had his arm ripped off. We saw it happen in Season 5 as he was dragged off by Smokie.
Juliette also took young Ben there after he had been shot, although Richard said Ben would "lose his innocence and his memory, and forever be one of us."
The people we meet at the temple are of course the rest of The Others. They were sent there by Ben near the end of Season 4. Ben later describes it as "Possibly the safest place on the island."
The healing baths are interesting. The water has changed colour. Could this be due to Jacob's death?
And of course Sayid's death and rebirth... It could be speculated that Jacob is now inside Sayid. However I disagree because Smokie doesn't inhabit the actual bodies of those he's impersonating.
Way back in Season 1, locke mentioned to Walt that he had seen the Monster and said it was beautiful; he describes it as being white, which is a continuation of the Black/White theme from the early days.
Way back in the first episode, Locke starts to explain the rules of Backgammon to Walt. He says "Two players. Two sides. One is light, one is dark" Could it be this is what Jacob and Smokie are doing? Could the white smoke be Jacob in smoke form?
Fake Locke's comments to Richard were interesting too. "Free of the chains". Maybe it indicates that Richard was a slave on the Black Rock ship, or maybe he just meant a metaphorical freeing from the chains of Jacob's rules/orders.
We also know that the two parties (Richard/Ben/Sun etc, and Jack/Sawyer/Kate/etc) are finally all together in the same time and space. The flare fired off at the temple was seen at the beach.
The only people we don't know about now are Rose and Bernard and Vincent.
There is of course the mystery of the 2 dead bodies in the cave (also from Season 1), who were found with one black stone and one white stone.
Jack, at a rough guess, said they were between 40-50 years old. It could be Rose and Bernard, although the date seems off (it would only be 30 years if they died immediatly). I guess we'll wait and see with that one.
Just to add some interesting in-jokes:
On the plane, when Jack asks for a pen... he says he had one but now can't find it (because kate stole it when she bumped into him).
In the pilot episode, Boone is trying to help Jack and getting in the way, so Jack sends him to find a pen to help open the airway of someone. Boone returns later on with a fistful of different pens.
Not that it's that important, just funny
So, 2 episodes down. 16 left to go...
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