Wishing I Was At "LAX"

LOSTaways-



The greatest show made by humans is back tonight. The first episode is entitled "LAX" and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it will have to do with the flight of Oceanic 815 from Sydney to Los Angeles.

There's not much I can (or want) to say about what I think will happen tonight, but I wanted to offer up a few reflective thoughts on what we've seen thus far in five seasons, and touch upon a few of the bigger, broader themes/story-lines/mysteries of the show.

My little sisters (Mackenzie and Megan) and I watched a whole mess of LOST over the holiday season, and seeing some of those old episodes from Seasons 1, 2, and 3 reminded me just want an enjoyable ride this show has been. I know many are nervous about how the writers may wrap LOST up at the end of this 6th and final season, but I think it's worth remembering just how much fun it's been already. I have faith things will end well, but Locke had faith that "the island" wouldn't murder him, so...

In Season 1 we saw the story of the survivors of Flight 815, well, surviving. It was focused on the back-stories of the various characters we've come to know and love/hate. One thing that stood out to me from Season 1 was the people the Smoke Monster chose to kill and/or not kill. Throughout the entire show we've seen such characters as the pilot of 815, Mr. Eko, and the soldiers from Widmore's (Not Penny's) boat taken by Smokey.

In Season 1 Locke is confronted early on by Smokey and yet Smokey does nothing. In light of that encounter, Locke says "I've looked in to the heart of this island...and what I saw was beautiful." It is after this encounter that he begins to become the warrior Man-of-Faith that inspired this blogger to start blogging about he and his pants. But at the end of the first season, when the gang is coming back from the Black Rock with dynamite in-tow, Smokey latches on to Locke and tries to bring him down (with Locke asking Jack to "let me go"). My point with all of this is this question: Is Smokey really controlled by anyone, or is it totally random who he goes after?

This then ties in to Season 5 and the conflict between Jacob and the dude who Jacob talks to on the beach in the season finale (I'll continue to call that character "Esau" until I hear otherwise). If Smokey = Esau, which I theorized last spring, then Smokey/Esau had planned and orchestrated so much of what had gone on these past five seasons. So are the people who have been attacked by Smokey really all part of Esau's plans to ultimately use Locke's body (and Ben's stabbing ability) to murder Jacob? Was Locke "the one" Esau wanted all along, or was it supposed to be someone else?

So to put a bow on that line of questioning, I want to know who/what Smokey is...but more importantly, I want to know what his/its motivations were in killing who he/it killed.

Moving on to Season 2, we enter the hatch (The Swan). Here the story shifts from the introduction of the main characters and their survival on the island to the mysteries and purpose of the island. It is a season about "Faith vs. Science" and thus it is really about Locke and Jack and the things they stand for and represent. Locke looses faith when he finds The Pearl station, but has his doubts come crashing down around him when The Swan implodes and Desmond turns the fail-safe key.

The biggest question in my mind from Season 2 is: What did turning the fail-safe key really do? We've never had this fully explained. Is turning the frozen donkey wheel under The Orchid the only way to mess with time? Radzinsky and Dr. Candle both said the power under The Swan was much more powerful than even what was under The Orchid. That's gotta mean something.

Locke losing faith led to Desmond needing to turn the fail-safe key...so was this part of Esau's plan too? Or did Locke end up being the one used by Esau because Jacob was punishing John for "losing faith" in Season 2? Did turning the fail-safe key make Desmond "special", or was he special before ever coming to the island? Lot going on here...

Season 3 was our (partial) answer to "Who the heck are the Others?" We meet Juliet, Ben, and what we thought was Jacob. I think from what we learned in Season 5 it is safe to say that Esau/Smokey was in that cabin and not Jacob (who lives in the bottom of the statue). He was the one who said "Help Me" to Locke. The night Ben took Locke to meet "Jacob", Locke saw that there was a ring of ashes around the cabin, and then in Season 5, Ilana and Lapidus (with Locke's dead body in-tow) see that the ring of ashes has been broken. More on this in Season 5 talk below.

In Season 3 we also get some memorable scenes like Sawyer killing Sawyer (Locke's dad), Naomi falling from the sky, Desmond trying to save Charlie, and Charlie sacrificing his own life to save everyone else. The big question that starts in Season 3 and continues on to the present is this: Are the "Boat People" bad or good? Is Widmore or Ben the "bad" guy? Who is on Jacob's side and who is on Esau/Smokey's side? Which of those two is the "good" guy?

Season 4 is our introduction to those very same Boat People. The mini-war takes place on the island, culminating with Locke being told to "move" the island. But what we learn later in Season 5 is that Locke wasn't supposed to let Ben move the island...he was supposed to move it. Time and again Christian Shepard is the one who speaks "on behalf of Jacob"...but in light of the fact that Locke ends up being used (literally) as the catalyst for Esau murdering Jacob, and Christian was the one who directed Locke to move the island both times, can we safely assume that Esau took the form of Christian Shepard to direct everyone where they needed to go?

But then things get even more complicated because Christian is the one who directed Sun and Lapidus to wait for Locke in Ben's old house in Season 5 (Dead is Dead) when they came to a broken-down Othersville after hitting Ben with a paddle and ditching the survivors of Ajira Flight 316 on the smaller Hydra Station island. So was Esau/Smokey both inhabiting Locke's body back on the smaller island while talking to Sun and Frank, or is Smokey (in the form of Christian) just a lap-dog for Esau?

My head hurts...but in a good way.

Season 5 is the story of Dharma and of getting back to the island. This is the season obviously most fresh in our minds so I won't re-cap much, but I have a few final questions/thoughts that I will close this blog out with:

-Due to some recent insightful text messages with a smart girl I know in Grand Rapids (JEH), the question I have is this: what was it about Locke mentioning Eloise's name that made Ben blow a gasket in Locke's hotel room the night he strangled John? Assuming Eloise is on the "side" of Widmore, you can see why Ben would be pissed that Locke had been in contact both with Charles and now with Eloise. But then Ben works with Eloise to help get them back to the island...what gives? Part of me feels that Ben is really a much bigger tool than we realize even now. Esau used him to stab Jacob at the end of the final episode, but that might be a metaphor for all of the using of Ben people have done this entire time (while he thinks he is in control).

- Where is Desmond, and how do I get him back in my life? We lost sight of him after Jack and the Gang got on Flight 316 and went back to separate island times.

- Is the reason Othersville is so ramshackle in the future when Sun and Lapidus see Christian because Juliet did set off the nuke and the island has been in rubble since that event?

- I think the scenes we saw with Jacob visiting the lives of Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Jack, etc. in the Season 5 finale were the new future. The bomb did go off when Juliet hit it, and now Jacob is having to go and "mark" the people he needs to come back to the island. He touched each of the people he visited. That's gotta mean something.

-Who is Richard, and whose side is he on?

There's so much more to say and hypothesize about, but just enjoy the new episode tonight and look back later this week for a re-cap of "LAX".

Stay out of the deep end.

-John Locke's Pants