LA X

How cool was that opening sequence? Nothing like a little turbulence to rattle your nerves and then a swooping pan down to the water surface, diving right in to pin point the location of the island. And let's not forget the sorry state it is in, all soggy and wet and covered with sea growth. Did you notice the Dharma logo on the shark swimming past the foot? Clear evidence that the island has been down under for a while. If that's where the island is......

My worst fear was that we would see a total reset of their lives, not an alternate reality or timeline, as it appears as if it may have come to pass. The writers call it Flashsideways, and we are seeing what things may have been had the plane landed.

Or are we?

Like me, you have probably noticed several glaringly obvious differences between the Pilot episode and LA X. And no doubt you may have notices some subtle differences as well. One phrase kept running through my mind as I watched last night.

It is the same, but it's all different.

Check out DarkUFO for a side by side comparison of the Oceanic flights.

I have one question that's nagging the back of my mind.

Were our favourite LOSTIES still anywhere near the hydrogen bomb when it exploded? I've always believed that any force, when met with an equal and opposing force, will have it's power nullified by the opposite power. I'm not sure if that makes sense. Here's a little test for you. Go out and find two semi trucks of equal horsepower, put them bumper to bumper and have them use the same amount of force and try to force the other rig to go backwards. Chances are that the only thing you get is a whole lot of noise from the high rev engines, and black diesel smoke and, unless someone backs off on the gas peal, two trucks with dented front ends. The point is this, neither truck is able push the other backward because the opposing forces of the trucks balance each other out and basically nullify the effect. The same can be said of the electromagnetic burst and the blast of the bomb. So, I'm thinking that they were "flashed" through time just nanoseconds before Jughead blew.

I'm very glad that there wasn't a total reset of time. That would really suck Tarewet's missing toe, in my opinion. I'm intrigued by this sideways reality and can't wait to see where the writers take everyone with it. AND we still get to see what's happening on Mystery Frickin' Island! Damon and Carlton really love us.

Jacob is dead, and now we know why he touched Hurley and convinced him to return to the island. Jacob needed Hurley to see him after he was killed and to deliver the Ankh and Sayid to the temple. I get that. But what I don't get is how Jacob knew to put Jack's, Kate's, Hugo's, Jin's and Sayid's names into the Ankh in the Guitar case. Consider for a moment that the guitar case has been in Hurley's possession since the taxi in LA and has traveled across the world and through time with him.

Juliet is dead as well. There's no denying it. We can cry enough tears to raise the water level of the ocean to sink the island, but it's not going to bring her back. I'm going to miss her almost as much as Sawyer will miss her. She helped him grow into a man and taught him to step up. From her her learned that being sensitive and loving does not minimize what makes him a man. He learned about the real, deep in the heart and feel it in the toes love from her. And, unfortunately, he learned what it is to lose that love. But has he?

Let's think about this for a moment. Just before Juliet died she said two things that caught my attention.

"We'll have coffee sometime...."

"We can go Dutch"

"I have something to to tell you.....it's really, really important"

But that was all she could muster before the end came. And Sawyer did not want to hear it when Miles told him what she'd wanted to tell him. Good thing Miles was there to let us in on that little secret.

When Juliet said that, I immediately thought that, in some way, Jack's efforts had worked. In some way, somehow, the bomb had made enough of an impact to cause small changes and, perhaps, in death, Juliet had never set foot on the island and Sawyer had never crashed. Some where, in that alternate reality they would meet.

Then I got all cynical and thought that Sawyer was conning her.

Some people believe that Sawyer is nicer, not a con man on the second flight, but I think that since his father murdered his mother and then killed himself in 1977, Sawyer's life path had already been set.

I have to say that Hurley's new assertiveness was a breath of fresh air. And we all just knew that he'd looked in the guitar case even before he boarded Ajira 316. And calling out the Asian guy at the temple for being able to understand and speak English was great. Hurley is far more observant than we give him credit for.

Now, I know that I'm probably one of three people on this planet who likes Jack. Sure, he has his faults (like every other character), but I believe he has come a long way while still having miles to go before he finds the peace he is seeking. He hasn't been given much opportunity to grow. Forced into a leadership role that he did not want, Jack stepped up, took responsibility for the choices he made and, in the process, did what he thought everyone wanted him to do.

That's far more than what any other survivor has done. Locke's blinding need to remain on the island lead him to his own destruction and he took many innocent lives with him. But I forgive him, I really do. How can I not feel sorry for a man who was so consumed by what he wasn't that he couldn't see the great man that he already was? The great irony has come to pass, has it not, that Flocke only wants to go home?

And just where is home, I wonder? It is clear that both Jacob and his nemesis have been on the island for a very very long time. But, as I have come to learn, everyone comes from somewhere, and the inhabitants of the island are no different. The Others are all from the four corners of the Earth. Some have been there for eons, some for centuries, some for mere months. Upon seeing the Others who were at the temple it became clear that their group consisted of all ethnicities and cultures.

As an aside, am I the only one who thought the interpreter dude looked suspiciously like John Lennon, only with a bigger nose? Just sayin'.

I don't know about Sun and Jin. They are still apart and I desperately want them to find each other once again. When I saw the customs official pull out all that money, I literally screamed that he was planning hide Sun and himself from her horrid father. I truly hope that was why he had that money. And am I the only one who thinks that Sun, despite knowing English, sort of left her hubby high and dry? And it would be heart breaking, really, considering all that they went through to find each other again.

There isn't much that can be said about Kate, and it saddens me that she appears to have not learned from her past mistakes. But you gotta love the alternate Kate and how she picked Jack's pocket and stole his pen, then tried to use it to open her handcuffs. Remember, she used the key that she took from the unconscious Edward while the plane was going down to remove the original pair. And how Sawyer helped her in a small way, to get away.

I didn't see Claire on the plane, but how interesting that she showed up in the taxi that Kate decides to hijack?

Let's talk about Richard, shall we? We still don't know a thing about him. How he came to the island, where he came from, how long he's been there, why he's never aged. But we got a nice little tidbit just before Flocke (we still don't know his name) carried him off to who-knows-where. Flocke mentioned that the last time he's seen him he was in chains. Me thinks our dear, ever so good looking, man-I-wish-I-had-natural-eyeliner, Richard was either a slave or a prisoner aboard the Black Rock. But that's just my thought.

One last thing. So typical of the airlines. If they don't crash you onto a mysterious island, they go and lose your dead father's coffin and case of 400 knives! It looks like Christian Shephard will arrive in LA via Calcutta, Cairo, Beijing, New York, Belfast and Aames, Iowa.

I could go an forever about what I saw, but I know you have all seen it at least twice or more by now.

QUESTIONS:

If Bram and Ilana KNEW anything about the island, why did Bram NOT know that bullets would have no effect on Flocke? I know he was kind of big and dense, but really? I guess his job ended once John's carefully made up body was delivered to the beach at the foot and they didn't need his brawn anymore.

If Desmond's clothes had been blown off in the Swan implosion, how come Kate, Sawyer, Jack and Miles still had their clothes on after the other implosion?

The Others at the Temple, though members of the Others, they are separate from the other Others. Remember the Economist? I wonder if he is among these other others, who appear to be completely self reliant and have no need for modern conveniences. Although, I would recommend the dual flush toilet to conserve water.

What did Hurley think when he peeked into the guitar case and saw the Ankh?

If there are tunnels under the temple walls, doesn't it stand to reason that there are tunnels running under the temple itself? And if that's the case, do the other others pour ash down little holes to keep Smokey at bay?

Now that he has successfully eliminated pretty well all of the competition (or at least anyone who would want the job), does this make Ben the leader of the others again?

If the spring can heal mortally wounded people, do you think it can heal mortally wounded clothing? Sayid's shirt appears to be healed.

Did Rose and Bernard flash through time with everyone else, or did they stay "stuck in the 70's" with disco and Dharma?

QUOTES:

Hurley: Goodbye, dude. If you ever wanna talk, I'm around.....

Ben: "What are you?

Flocke: "I'm not a what, Ben. I'm a who."

Ben: "You're the monster...."

Flocke: "Let's not resort to name calling."

Jacob, after emerging from the jungle: "Hello Hugo. You got a minute?"

Bernard: "Now I know hot the laundry feels when it's in the dryer"