lost starts in Feb.

[Pobman]

Lost starts on Friday for us in the UK. So it looks like I only have to avoid this thread for a couple of days each week for fear of spoilers before being able to discuss what will (hopefully) be an awesome season of TV with you guys.

 

[GKarsEye]

As usual I don't remember diddly squat and no I'm not gonna watch the various catch-up shows so I'm hoping I'll be able to follow along.

 

[Recoil]

Same.

Hopefully I can recall information as it becomes relevant, but I don't have this show memorized or know all the details at this point.

Interestingly enough, I am curious to see if after this season ends if I find the ending as complete --- doing a good job at tying up all old plot threads --- that I may want to rewatch it to see how things were formed in the beginning.

I don't think it will be as tightly done as a B5 per say, which to me still has a ton of rewatch value even though I know every episode almost by heart at this point, but I am curious to see how well they pull this together and how good the end of the story is.

 

[GKarsEye]

Same.

Hopefully I can recall information as it becomes relevant, but I don't have this show memorized or know all the details at this point.

Interestingly enough, I am curious to see if after this season ends if I find the ending as complete --- doing a good job at tying up all old plot threads --- that I may want to rewatch it to see how things were formed in the beginning.

I don't think it will be as tightly done as a B5 per say, which to me still has a ton of rewatch value even though I know every episode almost by heart at this point, but I am curious to see how well they pull this together and how good the end of the story is.

Well you can't even compare to B5 'cause as we all know the major plot points of B5 was planned from the get-go and Lost was not. More reasonable comparisons are to things like Battlestar, Sopranos, etc- shows with arcs that weren't planned beyond a season or two.

What worries me as that while I may have enjoyed specific episodes or seasons of those series, I was never satisfied with how they ended. The only series that was planned a season at at time that ended in a satisfying way is The Wire, but I'm one of those annoying hardcore Wire fanboys.

I don't have very high expectations for Lost's ending, I'm just hoping it won't feel like a total gip like Battlestar or something.

 

[Kara Baxter]

Who's comparing Lost to B5?

YOU WILL GO TO HELL FORSURE!

abomination! :wtf:

 

[GKarsEye]

Awesome premier.

Despite saying I wouldn't watch any pre-game, my DVR recorded the 1hr long catch-up show they aired before that as part of its series recording and I'm glad I watched it, simply because it highlighted how the Locke that brought Ben in to kill Jacob was not Locke at all, but clearly Jacob's enemy, looking for a loophole in their "rules." He is, as many suspected but they reveal in the premiere, the smoke monster.

Of course that leads to the question of how the smoke monster came to be under Ben's bidding in the first place.

The premiere operates under the premise that Faraday's theory was essentially correct- Juliet setting off the nuke prevented the plane from ever landing. And so we get to see what goes down on Oceanic 815 as it gets to LAX and we get some old characters in the process- Boone chats it up with Locke, Charlies sort of attempts suicide but Jack saves him, Kate escapes, flirts with Sawyer, and hijacks a cab with Claire in it. And probably most importantly, Christian's corpse goes missing.

Yet meanwhile our heroes are still on the island, mucking about with some new Others (including Jack's stewardess from the flight) and some ninja warlord type and Sol Star from Deadwood. Another plane crashed? And that base thing that the bomb was supposed to have prevented building was built anyway. So.... what... there are two versions of everybody now?

In all this mishigas Sayid dies but... resurrected right before the end credits. My guess is that this won't be Sayid, but Jacob taking his form or body, as Jacob's enemy did with Locke (though not in the exact same way since Locke's real body is still dead).

Locke is dead. Juliet is dead. If my guess is correct, Sayid is dead. Hell of a way to start a final season.

 

[Kara Baxter]

oh i didn't think about Jacob being Sayid.

wow.

 

[Belbo]

He is, as many suspected but they reveal in the premiere, the smoke monster.

More than that, we get (almost) final confirmation of what we'd always suspected; Smokey doesn't just mimic the physical forms of the various corpses, he also seems to be able to assimilate their memories too, rather than just extrapolate them from reading the mind of the person being visited. There's no other way he could have known what Locke was thinking as he dangled from the rope, although I suppose he could still be lying based on what Ben remembers of Locke's personality ....

Of course that leads to the question of how the smoke monster came to be under Ben's bidding in the first place.

Not to mention why it suddenly decided to kill Mr Eko. That one's been nagging me for a long time now ....:wtf:

The premiere operates under the premise that Faraday's theory was essentially correct- Juliet setting off the nuke prevented the plane from ever landing. And so we get to see what goes down on Oceanic 815 as it gets to LAX and we get some old characters in the process- Boone chats it up with Locke, Charlies sort of attempts suicide but Jack saves him, Kate escapes, flirts with Sawyer, and hijacks a cab with Claire in it.

Or does it? The actual point of divergence seems to be further back for most of the characters - even assuming Shannon's absence was forced on them by the actress, several of the others seem to have subtly different backstories; Locke is serene, Hurley feels lucky etc (and is Claire pregnant or not?). Come to think of it, if the Swan was blown up in 1977, how did Hurley even get the magic lottery numbers?

Then there's Desmond wandering in and out. Are we maybe seeing a sort of "Last Temptation of Dessie" scenario, where he's shown glimpses of what might have happened if he hadn't gone chasing after Kelvin back in 2004?

And probably most importantly, Christian's corpse goes missing.

Must refrain from Hawk the Slayer jokes ..... must refrain .... :devil:

Yet meanwhile our heroes are still on the island, mucking about with some new Others (including Jack's stewardess from the flight) and some ninja warlord type and Sol Star from Deadwood.

Who's apparently called "Lennon" according to the official synopsis (and of course gets ordered around by the pretentious Japanese dude). Ouch - that makes last season's "Stu Radzinsky" seem subtle.

And that base thing that the bomb was supposed to have prevented building was built anyway.

Which is why I'm more inclined to favour the Desmond explanation at this point. As Eloise said, him pushing the button is the only truly great thing he'll ever do ...

In all this mishigas Sayid dies but... resurrected right before the end credits. My guess is that this won't be Sayid, but Jacob taking his form or body, as Jacob's enemy did with Locke (though not in the exact same way since Locke's real body is still dead).

And maybe as someone/thing did with young Ben when he was reanimated back in the 1970s. It would certainly explain why he doesn't remember Sayid when they meet again, not to mention his dramatic personality shift.

Hell of a way to start a final season.

No kidding. We're in the presence of greatness here, even if only the Network TV version of it.

 

[GKarsEye]

Well I think we kind of have to accept that the nuke "worked," just because it's Juliet's dying thought. This is where I'm using "narrative logic," as in "why would the writers do that otherwise," not normal logic.

The trick is- how exactly did it work? What are the repercussions?

True identity of leader of new Others:

 

[Belbo]

Darlton give an interview to EW.com regarding the nature of the parallelism in play

‘Lost’ producers explain confusing premiere

Lindelof: Should you infer that the detonation of Jughead is what sunk the island? Who knows? But there’s the Foot. What do you get when you see that shot? It looks like New Otherton got built. These little clues [might help you] extrapolate when the Island may have sunk. Start to think about it. A couple of episodes down the road, some of the characters might even discuss it. We will say this: season 6 is not about time travel. It’s about the implications, the aftermath, and the causality of trying to change the past.

Now there's a challenge!

 

[GKarsEye]

What are Jacob and his rival?

All we kind of know is that they are ancient, they are powerful, and that they are involved in some epic battle that involves philosophical differences. But what are they actually?

So many possibilities, most of which would end up looking stupid, which worries me. Aliens? Monsters? Ugh.

I am reading Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" right now, so I'm certainly biased, but seems like the only potentially satisfying explanation will be that they are gods. That would also give the Egyptian symbolism some sense.

 

[GKarsEye]

Interview with producers:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/02/02/lost-premiere-damon-carlton/


Best parts are how they point out that the differences on the plane have to do with how their attempt to change history effects stuff they never thought about. So even if some of that has to do with real-life practical stuff (getting Boone but not Sharon), it's explained in-story (how very JMS).

Other highlight is a youtube link to a video show at Comic-Con of a faux-America's Most Wanted (with the real host) talking about Kate having attempted to kill her step-father but actually killing an innocent coworker of his.

There's a whole alternate history here caused by the bomb here.