Lost - LA X (6x01/6x02)

Six months after I wrapped up my viewing of the entire Lost series to date, it’s time to check out the Lost season premiere, the first Lost episode I’ve watched as it aired since the first season finale. LA X is a strong episode in a lot of ways, but features a central narrative conceit that seems expressly designed to bring back everything I dislike about the show, creating for a fractured viewing experience that jumps between some really great stuff and some plot developments that even if they lead to good stuff later are just stagnant and tired here in the present.

Let me start with the bad, namely the alternate universe conceit, and how it was used here. In many ways, the low point of the series for me is the feels like fifteen minute slow motion shot in ‘Exodus’ showing everybody getting on the plane. There, it was frustrating to spend so much time on this while the plot points on the island moved forward at glacial pace. Here, we get a reprisal of that moment, this time with people actually getting off the plane, plus a bunch of other bad season one rehash stories.

I think the greatest misconception the Lost creators have, based on interviews I’m reading, is that season one is still peoples’ favorite. Season one is okay, but nothing compared to the best moments of seasons two or three, and nowhere near the heights the show hit in years four and five. And yet, the central purpose of this alternate universe thing seems to be to let us relive classic terrible stories like Kate on the run from the law or Jack feeling guilty about not fixing people.

Other than the Locke/Jack scene at the end of the episode and the surprise appearance of Desmond, every scene in the alternate universe felt like an attempt to “give the fans” something they, or at least I, don’t even want. Most of the series’ great characters were additions to the cast in the later years, the people whose personalities weren’t fit into neat boxes to accommodate flashbacks, and who don’t feel exhausted from overexplanation of their pasts. And, even originals who are still interesting, like Sawyer and Jin, are totally removed from the people they were in those early days.

Trying to relive the “glory” of season one is like Radiohead dropping OK Computer or Kid A then coming out and saying that they really want to get back to what they were doing with Pablo Honey. Those episodes don’t compare to the complexity or ambition of season five, and I’m baffled at this point as to why they chose to do this conceit.

Now, it may have a larger point in the overall narrative. I’m guessing that they’re going to somehow pull the real Locke out of the alt universe, perhaps after Jack heals him, and then real Locke will do battle with fake Locke. And, that’s a potentially good storyline, but I just don’t have that much interest in the series of disconnected stories that will likely lead there. Every story has to work both in a larger context and in the moment, this might work in the larger context, but in this episode at least, it didn’t work at all in the moment. The potential interesting stories are in finding out why the island is flooded and seeing what Juliet or Ben are up to, but I’m not sure that’s worth the terrible story that’s sure to come in “What Kate Does” next week.

I don’t know why the show continually looks backward when the stories are so much more interesting in the present. The reason seasons four and five were so great is that finally every part of the episode was worth watching and we didn’t have the frustrating bifurcated structure. Now, that structural annoyance is back and I find myself wanting to get out of the alt-verse and back to the present day of the islanders.

And things are much better there. Over with fake Locke, we get confirmation that fake Locke is the smoke monster, and see another demonstration of his powers. This makes a lot of sense, and goes a good ways towards tying the whole series together. Jacob and this guy (who really needs a name) are locked in an eternal battle to see if the people who land on the island can do good or if they’ll succumb to the fear manifested by the smoke monster.

The smoke monster has been shown as being able to manifest as dead people, so the question is raised whether the Jacob that Hurley sees is actually Jacob or if he’s the Fake Locke manipulating Hurley to go to the temple. The show implies that it’s the real Jacob, but it’s possible that it could be manipulation, along the lines of Ben seeing his daughter.

Everything on that side of the story was very exciting, and it looks like all our characters will finally be getting reunited soon, now that they’re back in the same time and place. The big question coming out of this is where is Fake Locke’s home. I’ve got no idea on that one, but it’s conceivable it could involve something in the alternate universe.

The question remains what was it that split the timeline. In the main timeline, it’s clear that the bomb exploding was what came to be called the incident by the Dharma people. It’s notable that when Desmond triggered the destruction of the hatch, we saw a similar white flash like in the other time jumps. Is it possible that there was a time jump there? I doubt the show would revisit that moment, but it was invoked here in the destroyed hatch site.

I’m not sure why, from a dramatic point of view, they chose to have Juliet survive. I loved that final scene with Sawyer, and I can see that she was needed to tell them that the alt-verse exists, but emotionally their farewell in “The Incident” was so raw, this scene, great as it was, can’t compare. I did love Sawyer burying Juliet on his own and forcing Miles to read her.

But, bringing Juliet back also reinforced one of my major issues with the show at this point, which is the renewed centrality of Jack and Kate to the narrative. I liked the 70s Dharma stuff so much, and I feel like bringing Jack and Kate in to screw things up there cemented the loathsomeness of the characters that had always been there. We’ve got Jack and Kates making dull storylines in two universes, and the show still seems to hold them up as heroes and sympathetic. The way things have gone, Sawyer has every right to be furious at Jack, and I think those two characters are so toxic at this point, I have no sympathy left for them at all.

It’s also notable that in that side of the story, almost all of the new characters are gone, and we’re back to the old, less interesting dynamic. It’s great to have Miles there, but it seems like they’re getting back to the old group of characters, and I’m not sure where he’s going to fit in.

But, that said, there was a lot of stuff that I did love in the premiere. A lot of the Sawyer stuff was great, all the Locke/Ben stuff, and also the nature of the temple was awesome. Seeing Cindy the flight attendant was a great surprise, and I loved the Apocalypse Now end of the road feel of their settlement. It felt like this might be where some of the surviving Dharma people went, or perhaps all these people are near immortal, like Richard. I loved that environment, and am eager to see more of it, and I love that the show is still presenting new characters and ideas and worlds at this point in its run.

Thinking more about the alternate reality device, it seems designed to prove what Fake Locke says to Ben, that everyone who came to the island wanted to leave, but they’re really better because of it. The plane crash was a new start for people trapped in lives they almost uniformly hated, and that always seemed to be the fundamental flaw of Jack’s plan. Why would Kate agree to go along with it when it meant she winds up back in custody? Why would anyone agree to wipe away the last five years of their life? I’m guessing the realization of the island’s importance in their lives and the fact that it was a curse not a blessing will be key to the finale, and ultimately be the purpose of the alt-verse storyline.

So, there’s a lot to like, but also some potential issues. The show is drifting from the things that I loved so much in season five, and does feel more like season one. But, why you would want to go back to the worst season, I don’t know! Maybe I’m alone in this, but if Jack and Kate died and we never saw the alt-verse, and just proceeded with the island stuff and spent some episodes with those temple folk, I’d be happy.

Lost, much like Locke, has a good self and a bad self. Will the bad self, the one centered around pop-psychology backstories and beaten to death character arcs for Jack and Kate triumph? Or will it be the good Lost, with interesting characters like Sawyer and Ben and crazy ideas and wildly ambitious conflicts be the winner? We’ll have to watch on and see.