Just A Thought.....

I've been carefully thinking about season six, it's premiere and the final episode. Yeah, like you haven't been doing the same, and maybe even more than myself, but I had a weird thought. Just a thought, and I really have nothing to support the following supposition, but I want to get it out here and see what everyone thinks.

By now we all know the title of the premiere episode is LA X. To be honest, I think LOST will resume where we left off with half the survivors in 2007 and the other half in 1977. For a while I had contemplated Jeff Jensen's theory that the plane would land safely, but the survivors will have been imbued with some sort of vague memory (ala Close Encounters of The Third Kind) and be compelled to find their way back to the island. To be honest, I am not liking this theory for the simple reason that our survivors have already been compelled to find the island once before and we don't want to see repetition. The writers of LOST are so creative that I would hope that they could come up with a story that doesn't repeat something we have already seen (unless it is in a flashback or a memory scene).

I adore Jeff Jensen's analysis of LOST and he has, at times, been a great resource. Heck, I have his LOST posts e-mailed to me automatically! I don't do that for very many blogs, so I hope I have shown you how much I like and respect this guy. I just happen to disagree with his speculation on this point.

So, what do I think will happen? I think the season premiere will take up where we left off in the Incident, with Juliet detonating Jug Head and the resulting KABOOM! There will be a RESET of the "Destiny Alarm Clock", but I think we will find our favorite 1977 peeps still in 1977. Seriously, as much as I love Jack (and I really do have faith in his ability to reach his potential), I have serious doubts for the success of his plan. Really, when has anything Jack ever planned actually worked the way HE wanted it to? I've tried to remember if Jack's schemes have ever worked and I can't come up with anything. If any of you can think of anything, please let me know.

Okay, now that I've said that Jack's plan will fail, where does that leave the 2007 survivors? I think we will immediately revisit Bram and Illana unceremoniously dumping the real John Locke's body on the beach, the camera will pan to a stunned Richard and then to a very confused Sun.

The most important role of the season premiere, aside from quenching our unending craving for our addiction, is to remind us where we left off (yeah, like we NEED that), to set the tone for the season and to provide a slight hint of what's to come. I expect LOST to follow this rule. However, since LOST and it's writers have never followed the rules, indeed have created some of their own, I could be so off base that you could look through a telescope and find me sitting on the Moon enjoying a rum and Coke Zero and applying inches of sunblock to my bulky spacesuit.

Only time will tell.

In the mean time, I continue to think LOST everyday. It is my drug and, while my family has NOT yet suffered as a result of my addiction, I am under the continuous watchful eye of my soon-to-be thirteen year old daughter. I think she is looking for signs of withdrawal and has programmed 9-1-1 into the speed dial on the cordless handset to be on the safe side.

She needn't worry. I have returned to my re-watching schedule and will be caught up in no time and ready to post my thoughts in about a week or two. I've modified my posting plans and plan to post thoughts on three or four episodes at a time.

It all depends on how fast I can get the basement cleaned up again after I decided, without any planning ahead, to thoroughly organize my bedroom. I now have pieces of surplus furniture and boxes of I-don't-know-what, carefully placed around the basement to create pathways to the laundry area, to my daughter's bedroom, and to my bedroom (yes, I sleep in the basement because it is so cool in the summer and warm in the winter).

In the meantime, if anyone wants to buy me a copy of the poster pictured above, I'd be greatly appreciative. I might even be able to arrange a trade. Does anyone want some soon to be ripe pears grown in the comfort of my back yard? I can't eat them all.

Follow The Leader (or are you still with me?)

Okay, so earlier I posted my recap of Follow The Leader. It was such a great episode that I felt, in order to do it justice, I needed two posts.

Follow The Leader was about taking charge. Radzinsky took control of Dharma. Eloise took control of her future son's fate. Jack took control of his own fate. Locke is taking steps to ensure his control of the Others.

I have a few questions.

1. Is Locke really supposed to be the leader of the Others, or, through a series of crazy time loops, did he set himself up as the leader? It's a sort of what came first, the chicken or the egg dilemma. For four seasons John has been told that he is special, that his destiny is not as a regional collections officer at some box company. In light of last night's episode where we see the scene of John and Richard at the Beechcraft from a different perspective and learn that John was watching the exchange between himself and Richard's. So, I wonder; would Richard have assisted John at the smuggler's plane if John hadn't taken him there. Would he have told John that he had to die? And did the island tell John to tell Richard to tell flashing John this in the first place?


2. Is Eloise already pregnant with Daniel in 1977? I've searched for Daniel's date of birth but can't seem to find anything stating the date he was born.
   
3. Is Richard as attuned to the needs and wants of the island as we've been lead to believe? Would the island not have told him about Ben's return, especially after judgement day beneath the temple? And didn't they hear the plane crash? I know it didn't break up in mid air, but didn't it make a great big noise hitting the trees? Richard didn't know that Ben was back and he didn't know where John had gone. Did they even bother to look for him after he flashed away?
   
4. Did anyone notice how freaked out Ben and Richard were by the new Locke? Its almost like they have been running the biggest scam on island, like selling candy to school children out of their back packs, and the new principal is about to catch them.
   
5. When is Sun going to realize the John has no intention of even attempting to reunite her with Jin? He keeps giving her platitudes, words that are meant to keep her calm but really don't promise anything. She needs to get ruthless again.
   
6. How does Jack know for certain that his reason is to detonate Jug Head and possibly stop the plane from crashing, thus reversing everything that has happened in the last three years? Yes, I see him making decisions and having faith that they are the right ones! He reminds me of someone standing in line at the convenience store buying everything on the counter just because it's there. They never really planned on buying the Tic Tacs in the special anniversary packaging. I understand why he wants to explode the bomb, I just don't see how it is going to work. Wouldn't the fates of EVERYONE on board that plane need to not be connected to the island? John Locke? Mr. Eko? Daniel? Charlotte? Doesn't he realize that some of the survivors don't want to erase the past?
   
7. What's with Sawyer and Juliet making a deal and leaving their friends behind? What happened to loyalty? What happened to looking after each other?
   
8. What's in Hurley's guitar case? Seriously, it's not a guitar. At least, it better not be. I have a feeling that it carries something that is going to help them return to 2007. Either that or it's the largest collection of Twinkies on the planet. I've never had one of those things and I hear that they'll survive a nuclear explosion and still be edible.
   
9. Where has Sayid been hiding out?
   
10. Did Hurley pack a can opener when he stole the food?

Here's what I'm thinking.

I think that, despite detonating the hydrogen bomb, the accident at the Swan site will still occur. Radzinsky is intent on drilling and even the threat of cataclysmic failure isn't about to stop him. Jack will not be able to stop the incident at the Swan station. I don't know anything about the explosive power of a hydrogen bomb but I'm pretty sure it's mighty destructive. I wonder if it will be strong enough to neutralize the energy that is released when Radzinky begins to drill into the ground. Somehow I doubt it. The universe will make sure it happens and no matter how frequently one goes back in time and changes what has been done leading up to the major event, it will still happen. The outcome will be the same with minor changes along the way.

Quotables!

Ben - His name is Richard Alpert. He's a kind of.....advisor. And he has had the job for a very very long time.

Ben - What John, don't you trust me here with my former people? Afraid I'll stage a coup?

John - I'm not afraid of anything you can do anymore, Ben.

Ben - Well, in that case, I'd love to come along!

Sawyer - Son of a bitch! *after Phil hits Juliet*

Radzinsky - Who the hell is Hugo Reyes?

Phil - He's the fat guy.

Ben - Your timing was impeccable, John. How did you know when to be here?

John - The island told me. Didn't it ever tell you things?

Ben - Uhm, no.

This week I have two favorite quotes.

Richard - Well, you seemed pretty convinced, especially when I said you were gonna die. I;m certainly glad that didn't have to happen.

John - Actually, Richard, it did. *stunned look from Richard*

And

Richard - I'm starting to think that John Locke is gonna be trouble.

Ben - Why do you think I tried to kill him?

I have few thoughts about Jacob. Who he is, where he came from and can he be killed, but that will need to wait until tomorrow. Until then...

Arcticroses

Follow The Leader (Or How Jack Got His Groove Back)

Well, that was interesting. Okay, it was awesome! It was widely rumoured that Follow The Leader was a Richard centric episode and I know a lot of people were eagerly anticipating learning about his backstory. I, too, am a bit disappointed that we didn't learn anything new about Richard. Or did we? I'll get back to that later. First, let's get to what went on, shall we? Follow The Leader didn't have any flashbacks or flashforwards, it just travelled along two parallel lines. One in 1977 and the other in 2007. This episode was about what it means to be in the position to lead and what happens when the masses disagree with you (paging Horace Goodpeed). Also, it's about what happens when one decides to take charge of one's own destiny, grab the proverbial bull by the horns, so to speak.

1977

We pick up where The Variable left off. Daniel has just been shot and killed by his mother, and I am ready to crucify Eloise at the stake for murdering her son. Kate and Jack are about to flee when Charles Widmore comes upon them and captures them, taking them into the Others' camp. We see Eloise flip through Daniel's journal and an odd look crosses her face. Sort of like recognition, maybe? She realizes that Jack and Kate are not Dharma and tells Charles to put them into her tent, where she tells Jack and Kate about her encounter in 1954 with a young man who told her he was from the future and then disappeared before her eyes. She adds that she just shot and killed that same man and that he told her he was her son. With her frame of mind opening wider and wider to understand what just happened, she was ready to believe Jack when he told her that they can undo what just happened. They just need to get to the hydrogen bomb. Oh, is that all? Just follow the simple instructions in the journal and voila, all will be undone! But, Eloise is willing. We don't know it yet, but I'm sure she is pregnant at that time. Eloise decides to take Jack and Kate to the hydrogen bomb. Ooops, one problem. They buried it underground, but Dharma sort of built their town right on top of it!

Jack has found his purpose, and boy oh boy it's a doozie! Kate doesn't understand why Jack would want to erase all that has happened over the past three years. She's convinced that what ever happened happened and nothing is going to change it. When she tries to leave Jack to find the others, Eric the Other aims his rifle at her and is about to shoot her when he himself is shot. Sayid pops up out of the bushes and aims his gun at Richard and Eloise, who readily surrender. As an aside, did anyone else notice that just before she put her hands up she dropped something into her bag? I wonder what it was.

Jack explains to Sayid what the plan for the bomb is, much to Kate's displeasure. She has everything to lose if Daniel's plan works and Oceanic 815 doesn't crash, but lands safely in LA instead. Remember, she was a fugitive on her way home to be prosecuted for a couple of murders. Sayid, on the other hand, has a whole new life to gain if Jack succeeds. He was on his way to LA where he knew his beloved Nadia lived. As a plus, neither Ben nor Charles would be a threat to Nadia's life in the future. Can you imagine how tempting it would be for Sayid if there were even an inkling of a chance that he could have a long life with Nadia.

Richard and Eloise lead them into a pond and through a long underwater tunnel to where they secured Jughead. Of course, no one really knew what to do from there and dear Eloise is going to have to learn to understand her son's journal really quick.

Meanwile, back in Dharma village of the damned Sawyer and Juliet are about to feel the deranged aggressiveness of Radzinsky, and pimple faced Phil (at least it looks like a pimple just beneath his right nostril) looks on in glee. He's gonna get payback, I'm sure. Horace tries to be the leader but ole Stu has staged a coupe of his own and taken charge. Peace loving Horace hasn't got the stomach for what happens next. When Sawyer refuses to talk, Phil takes it out on Juliet.

Of course, while Sawyer is on the receiving end of Stu's fist, Hurley is raiding the Dharma kitchen for food, then sneaks away. He is followed by Dr. Chang, who needs to know the truth. In one of the best scenes of the episode, certainly the funniest, Peirre quizzes Hurley. He was doing pretty good until he couldn't remember who the President of the US was in 1977. Miles and Pierre had a quick bonding moment and then they went their separate ways. Miles, Jin and hurley to the beach, Pierre to evacuate the island.

Dr. Chang rushes to find Horace, and stumbles upon the beat fest, demanding that the island be evacuated now. If they keep drilling at the Swan and even of cataclysmic proportions is going to happen. Radzinsky says it's the drilling will go as planned and tells Pierre that he is in charge now. Sawyer makes a deal. "Well tell you everything you want, just put us on the sub." Or something like that. But not before Radzinsky demands a map to the Hostiles, which Sawyer provides. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm thinking that map is the same as the one Daniel has in the future. Dharma is evacuating the island of all non-essential personnel. Miles, Jin and Hurley watch from the bushes and are surprised to see their friends being led to the sub. When Hurley asks what the plan is to rescue them, Miles tells him there isn't one. Besides, there are thirty guys with guns against two (Hurley doesn't have one).

Sawyer and Juliet board the Galaga. He tells her that they'll be okay. In the real world these guys have no authority. They'll buy Microsoft and bet on the Dallas Cowboys in 1978 and be rich. On the sub they affirm their love for each other. So sweet. Just as the sub is about to be closed a pompous and smug Phil arrives with Kate. She too, is being deported. He took great joy in telling them that she was caught coming into town!

When last we see the Galaga it is diving below the surface heading to parts unknown.

2007

In 2007, we see Richard with the ultimate hobby. Building ships in bottles takes diligence, excellent eyesight and more patience than I could ever muster, not to mention a steady hand. And didn't that ship look like a model of the Black Rock? It did to me. Anyway, he is told that He is back and Richard leaves his tent. He is met by John Locke, boar on his shoulders. John brought dinner, which is an effective way of winning people over.

Richard notices something is different about John and tells him so. John has a purpose, a new reason for being on the island. Something tells me that this new John's purpose may not be a good thing. But, hey, he brought dinner, right? John had brought Sun and Ben as well, and when Ben explains that Richard is an advisor, and has been one for ever and ever amen, Sun approaches him to ask about their 1977 friends. I have to say, I was not believing him when he said that he watched them all die. I called out, NOOOOOOOO and my dogs gave me that "you are disturbing me" look! John assured her that he would find a way to reunite her with Jin. If what Richard said was true, then it will only be in death that Sun sees Jin again.

Locke takes Richard and Ben on an errand. They must move quickly as there isn't much time. I honestly did not expect that that errand was to the Beechcraft where Richard took the bullet out of his leg. I should have seen it though. The signs were there. The Ajira water bottle on the beach, the flashing survivors being shot at. Out of the bushes stumbles flashing Locke and Richard attends to him, telling him that he must get the others to come back and that he'll have to die to do so.

While Richard is busy with flashing Locke, John and Ben have an interesting conversation that made me giggle. But I stopped giggling when John practically accused Ben of never seeing Jacob, and by the look on Ben's face, John's assumption is correct. There's something odd about that, but I can't seem to pin point exactly where my doubt originates. Anyway, we hear a POP and see Richard kneeling over nothing. Richard tells John that flashing John appeared to be convinced of what he had to do, then added that he was glad that John didn't have to die in the end. I loved the look on Richard's face when John told him that he did have to die.

Back at the beach camp John wonders if there are more Others and learns there are more at the Temple. He tells them that for far too long they have been blindly following orders from some unseen omnipotentate and that has to stop. If someone is giving orders, then John, for one, wants to know exactly who is giving them. His people agree and Richard and Ben acquiesce to take them to Jacob. Early in the morning the Others depart on their pilgrimage to find Jacob. Ben tries to distract him by telling him that Richard has some concerns about his leadership. When that doesn't work, he tries to remind him that he promised to reunite Sun with Jin, but to no avail. John doesn't care about reuniting his people. He's going to kill Jacob!

BOMBSHELL!

I'll post more tomorrow after I have watched the episode for the fourth time. We are having some rather severe weather right now that keeps knocking out power. I'm okay on the laptop, but my Internet connection is dicey right now.

Let me know what you think. As always,

I love excellent conversation.

Arcticroses.