Has the End "begun" yet?

Castaways and countrymen, lend me your satellite phones,


I've been reminding people that during the time period of LOST's painfully long hiatus, there were children concieved, carried to term, and now are a part of the living, breathing, human race. That chick from the Cheesy Gordita Cruch ads for Taco Bell probably popped her little bugger out by now too. We've missed our favorite island dwellers these past nine months like the ex-mistress of Senator Ted Kennedy misses her life....too soon?


Can I say just how disappointed I was at first when I realized Hurley would be the focus of the premiere's flash-forwarding tale? And then can I say how I completely underestimated the writers and Hurley himself for being able to pull off a story about Hugo that didn't make me want to run him over with a VW bus? In fact, last night's opener, and I'm not just saying this 'cause its been so long, was amazing and near-perfect.


Hurley is one of the Oceanic 6, as he screamed after that ridiculous attempt to waddle away from the po-po's chasing him on his magic-carpet joy ride in the car he and his daddy were supposed to build together. (P.s. How early is too early, Jack? Screwdrivers before The View is when you know there's a problem buddy.) This "Six" pack of people we know gets off the island already includes Jack, Kate, "he" (as in when Kate says in last season's finale: "He'll be waiting for me"), and Hurley. I believe the other three are Sawyer, Claire, and Aaron. Desmond said if Charlie died the way he was suppose to, as he did last season, then Claire and her baby (say it with that annoyingly fake Australian accent) would be in a helicopter off the island.


Hurley meets the cop who worked with the insufferable Anna Lucia back in LA, and the conversation he and Hugo have is important. I say that in light of a few things. First, last season Jack told Kate that he was sick of "living a lie". Second, last night Jack came to see Hurley later to make sure he wouldnt "tell anyone anything". Third, we know that people were left behind on the island and the creepy black dude (no, not Barack Obama on Thursday night's Democratic debate) named Matthew Abbaddon (''abaddon'' being a Hebrew ''place of destruction,'' or hell, according to Wikipedia) comes to Hurley to ask him if there were still people on the island. I think that Abbaddon is one of the "boat" people Naomi is with. The reason that Hurley's convo with the cop is important is because the cop makes a point to say "Maybe you met Anna Lucia, you know, before you got on the plan" which can easily be taken to infer that when the Oceanic Six got home, they told everyone that everyone else died, and died in the crash. For whatever reason, Jack and the other five who made it back did not want anyone to know what choice they had to make to get home.


Side note: In the parking lot where Hurley gets cuffed, the man filming the arrest on his camcorder was none other than his former boss at Cluck's Chicken, Randy. It also so happens that Randy was Locke's mean boss at the box company (which Hurley owned via his lottery winnings). This guy must be working either with the Others or the Boat People.


Back on the island, Hurley's cannon-ball running days are cut short at the news of Charlie's , and the group on the beach decides to go find the group at the radio tower to warn them that "Not Penny's Boat" means something bad. As they travel toward the Jack-led group, Hurley gets separated from the pack and is led to Jacob's cabin. I dont know if anyone else got the same feeling I did, but it appeared that Hurley was intentionally led to the cabin, he didnt just stumble upon it. Inside the cabin sat none other than Christian Shepard (did I call that or what last year?) and suddenly a face and eyeball appears in the window Hurley was peering through. That face seemed to me to be Locke's, but with hair. The theory that it was Locke is then reaffirmed in my mind by the fact that he was suddenly standing over Hurley after the big guy took a tumble from all the Jacob's cabin fever.



The two of them set off resolute in their efforts to convince the rest of the castaways to not go with Jack to the boat. Meanwhile, Naomi misrepresents her trail and jumps from a tree on to Kate. It is hard to decipher if the reason Naomi lied to her boat mates about being stabbed in the back by her new island friends was because she really wanted to get these people resuced or because her mission (whatever that may be) is more important than even her life. These boat people are apparently not sent by Penny, but seem to know everything about her and Desmond and her search for him (including those dudes in the ice-capped mountains monitoring magnetic waves for Penny at the end of season 2).


So the group splits yet again between those in Locke's camp and those in Jack's (Man of Science, Man of Faith).

Hurley's visited in the loony bin by Charlie who knows that he is , but is also able to slap Hugo (which doesn't mean much because Hugo's old pal Dave from season two seemed very real as well). He reminds Hugo of the fact that he must go back to the island and that "they" need him. During their game of HORSE, Jack says they will never go back and Hurley apologizes for siding with Locke back on the island. For Jack, something changed between the time we saw him in that gym and when he and Kate met at the airport last season and Jack was the one saying they had to go back. Did Jack's conversion have something to do with the sparsely attended funeral service and small-sized casket from last season?

There's more to discuss, but if you are interested in further dissection of this week's episode, click here.



Few theories, thoughts, etc.:


-Locke and Jacob are now buddies and Jacob is communicating with Locke to keep people on the island and away from the Boat People. Locke still has good intentions, but is in it for himself and may even take over Ben's role of the leader who doesn't want anyone else to leave.

-Hurley is obviously more important than we thought previously. He was one of the four the Others took at the end of season 2, and the bird they saw in the jungle in that same episode yelled his name when it swooped down. I think Hurley may be "special" too and that is why Jacob "led" Hurley to his cabin last night. I feel more coming on the relationship between Hurley and Libby (who, if you care to remember, was in the same loony bin as Hurley back in his "dave" days).




I've got more to say, but would like to hear some of your thoughts and theories as well. The good thing about starting this LOST blog is now you can all participate and post your feeback by clicking "Comments" below here.


I'm glad its back and I'm glad so many new LOSTaways are in our midst this year.



All roads lead here,
John Locke's Pants