After a terribly long 9 months Damon and Carlton decided the best way to get our heads back into Lost was to smack them with a steel-cooking utensil. One might say the skipping record player in last night's 2-episode season premiere was a visual representation of what is going on the island. I say the frying pan used by a drugged Sayid to smash the head of an unknown assailant was a tad more accurate.
After last night's "3 hour Lost-a-thon" it's hard for anyone to say Lost is not back with a vengeance. There might have to be a new term created for the "post Lost hangover" aka "my brain just got exploded by last night's episode, and I'm trying to piece back my perceptions of reality." The first of the two new episodes, "Because You Left," had to have been one of the most fast-paced and mind challenging episode of Lost to date. The introduction of our beloved Losties skipping through "time" on the island seems quite removed from where we started as plane crash survivors struggling to live on a deserted island. At the same time though, the instability of the time-space continuum on the island has brought back the same exact feeling we had during season 1: that of people stranded and trying to survive on a island. We forget that in the past 3 seasons, the Losties had developed and acquired very nice luxuries, even beer as Sawyer exclaimed in the episode. Five years into a television series, even one as incredible as Lost, you would not expect it to be able to take such an incredible journey and still be able to bring it back to one of its original themes, "survival." While all this "time warping" is going to be thought of as great science fiction, the thing that sets Lost apart from most other "science fiction" labels is that the science fiction on Lost serves the human drama. That, my friends, is why it is one of the greatest shows on television.
While the first episode smashed our heads with a frying pan, the second episode, titled "The Lie," gave us a bag of ice to nurse our wounds. This was made completely effective by focusing on the lovable Hurley. Jorge Garcia gave yet another Emmy-caliber performance by not only giving us the comic relief we definitely needed, but also by showing compassion, fear, and strength. The reason why people will always love Hurley is that the writers use the character to portray and represent our emotions and the reason why Jorge Garcia deserves an Emmy is he perfectly plays the character. Hurley is our ice pack and without him we would get no relief. By the end of "The Lie," one thing became shockingly clear: our Losties are not in for an easy ride, and neither are we.
Questions for discussion:
The Ring Lady aka Ms. Hawkings is Back!: Is she the leader of the gang trying to get back to the island? She certainly seemed in charge of Ben, if anyone thought that was possible. Is she Faraday's mother? It seemed all too coincidental that Faraday sent Desmond after his mother, and that Ms. Hawkings seems to know what's going on the island.
Who/What is Moving Through Time?: Ok, we know that the Losties (or people that aren't in Alpert's clan) are moving through time on their own journey. The Island is obviously moving as well, since we all saw it "bloop" to who knows where last season. So what's going on? It seems like all levels of messed up.
"The Incident": We have all heard from the Swan Hatch Orientation film that there was an incident on the island, which was the reason why Desmond had to release the Island's exponential amount of energy in small timed releases every 108 minutes. While we don't know exactly if the incident occurred at the Swan Hatch location or the Orchid, it seems obvious now that someone may have drilled too far and released the energy. The question now is if "The Incident" was similar to what is happening now on the Island. Was the Swan Station Dharma's way of fixing it? Or was it was something less severe?
Poor Frogurt: While I was excited to see that they gave Neil "Frogurt" some screen time, I was even more excited to see how they were going to "Arzt" him (see: Season 1 finale if you do not remember) and they did not disappoint. Should I really be laughing that much at someone burning alive? Is there something wrong with me?
John "Christ" Locke?: It almost seems too obvious that Locke is going to pull a resurrection on his return to the island. Now, I have always been a huge Locke fan and supporter, so I am personally ok with him being the island savoir. Are you?
I know there is much more to discuss from just these two episodes, but these are the points I wanted to bring up. So give me your thoughts, theories, and suggestions right here, and lets see if we can help our headaches go away.
If you crave even more Lost Talk check out my podcast, "The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack" or on iTunes.