Because You Left/The Lie

Lost season 5 kicked off with the first two episodes, "Because You Left" and "The Lie," and did these episodes ever deliver! For two hours straight, Lost was in full-speed, blow your mind mode. Here are my thoughts on the start of season 5:

Opening Scene/Marvin Candle

So season 5 starts off with a similar montage as season 2, but this time instead of Desmond, we get Dr. Marvin Candle/ Mark Wickmund/Edgar Halliwax, or better yet Pierre Chang. He’s living with his family (including an infant) on the island. The baby is an important element. Was it born on the island? This could become a vital piece of information to discover when/how the infertility issue started. And don't overlook the fact that the record started skipping, that comes into play later on the show.

Chang is part of the Dharma Initiative and goes in to film one of the orientation videos, but he gets interrupted by a worker from The Orchid.

Apparently, they are drilling in the area of the donkey wheel, and they hit some energy that melted their drill. Chang realizes what’s behind the rock and tells them to stop the drilling, stop the oil … stop the drilling, stop the oil. Wait, that was actually an episode of Saved by the Bell. Anyway, they stop drilling and Chang tells them that they are working with that energy to study time travel. Whoa! Then it gets even crazier as one of our favorite freighter folk, Daniel Faraday is posing as a Dharma worker.

Let the season 5 craziness begin. Based on what we see later in the premiere, we aren’t sure how this scene fits in with the rest of the show. The rest of season 5 may work toward how Faraday got to this moment, and this may be the key to them getting unstuck in time.
So what happened to the island after it was moved?

What was that I said about getting unstuck in time?

Well, after the island was moved, it started skipping around through time, going anywhere in the past, present or future. One minute the camp is there, the next, it’s gone. One minute the Swan Hatch is a creator the next, it’s in tact. The explanation, it hasn’t been built yet. WOW.

This is going to be a confusing plot element to follow and hopefully, it gets explained further. I have many questions about the time jumping.

Daniel said that no matter how hard they try they can’t alter the future. What was supposed to happen will happen no matter what (Remember the course correcting speech from “Flashes Before Your Eyes”). Sawyer tries to go in the Swan hatch, but Daniel said no one will answer the door because that event never happened … yet a few moments later, he knocks and has a conversation with Desmond, which present day Desmond later remembers. So was Desmond being entirely truthful with Sawyer or was he worried that Sawyer would do something that would negatively alter the future. Daniel tells Desmond that he can save them all, and that he has to go find his mom at Oxford.

Then there’s the demise of Neil, aka Frogurt. He has been a background character on the show and was featured in one of the mobisodes from last year. He has some screen time in season 5, complains a bit, argues with Rose and gets a flaming arrow through the chest. My question is, how can these people die in the past? Will this alter their futureselves? Looking at time as a straight stream, were they always meant to go to the past and die? Was that their “future” no matter what they did? My head hurts.

That brings me to our man Jeremy Bentham, I mean John Locke. He was standing around as the new leader of the Others when the island was moved and boom, he’s all alone in the raining jungle. He sees the Nigerian drug plane, runs into Ethan (who has no idea who he is) and shoots him in the leg, meets up with Richard Alpert (who seems to know what’s going on) and is gives him a compass because Locke won’t know him the next time he sees him.

So the next time Locke and Richard meet up, it will be before they met on the island … remember Richard met Locke when he was a boy off the island. Oh yeah, and one of the items that Richard had Locke choose from at that time was a compass. How will these meetings all tie together? And if Richard has been checking in on Locke his whole life, then how far back will their next meeting take place in time?

These time jumps are confusing but fun. It’s weird that the island is moving all through time or is it our survivors moving? Remember, Ethan isn’t jumping around, neither is Richard or the people who tried to cut off Juliette’s hands (who were those guys anyway? Good thing Locke remembered his knife throwing skills and saved the day).

The only ones being affected are the beach camp group, Sawyer, Juliette, Daniel and the raft group and Locke. So with everything else on the island seeming to remain the same, except where it is in time, could the survivors run into their past selves? Say the island stops on the day of the crash or soon after, will the see themselves on the beach? Could this be the source of the whispers? Is it their future selves sitting back and watching their past selves? Am I even making any sense?

Charlotte’s nosebleeds and headaches … The Sickness

We’ve seen some issues with jumping around in time before on the island. Desmond felt them, and Minkowski ended up dying from it. Now we seek Charlotte experiencing signs of this sickness, or is it THE SICKNESS? Daniel obviously knows what’s happening to her. Desmond needed a constant to avoid being killed by it, so who will be Charlotte’s constant? Does Daniel even know how to save her? Will he tell her what’s happening to her?

The Oceanic 6

Off the island, in more present day, Ben and Jack are formulating a plan to get back to the island. So far they have Locke’s body and need to get Hurley, Sayid, Kate, Aaron and Sun to come back with them. Sayid sprung Hurley out of the mental institute, but someone is after them. After some Jason Bourne type moves, Hurley and Sayid are on the run. Sayid is unconscious and Hurley becomes America’s Most Wanted. Eventually, Sayid is taken to Jack, who revives him. Ben confronts Hurley and heeding Sayid’s advice, he does the opposite of what Ben asks and turns himself into the police.

Kate and Aaron are on the run after lawyers of an unknown client (Charles Whidmore?) want a blood sample to prove that Aaron’s not Kate’s son. Speaking of Sun, we aren’t sure what to think of her yet. She meets up with Whidmore once again and shares with him their common interest, killing Ben. I doubt Sun will be easy to convince to go back to the island now. It’s even harder to read her based on her conversation with Kate, where she basically blames Kate for Jin’s death, then tells her, I don’t blame you. Whose side is Sun really on?

The Lie

Not only do we have the island jumping around time on the island and the “flashforward” future of the Oceanic 6, we also get the classic TV element of “3 Years Earlier” to show events in the past. It’s during this “3 Years Earlier” segment that we see the Oceanic 6 reasoning out why they have to lie. Hurley is strongly against lying, but no one will back him up, not even Sayid. They decide that lying is the best option, and Hurley regrets it ever since. He eventually tells his mom the truth and the entire plot of Lost is summed up in about 2 minutes. What a crazy, unbelievable story it is too? Hurley’s mom says she believes him, but I have my doubts.

Ana Lucia

With Sayid unconscious, Hurley is freaking out and doesn’t know what to do. He even gets pulled over by the cops. Oh no, busted … actually, the cop turns out to be none other than season 2’s most hated character, Ana Lucia, who tells Hurley basically get his stuff together and get busy. Oh yeah, she also tells him not to get arrested. Uh oh.

And Libby says hi.

I get by with a little help from my friends

Off the island, Ben is back in his element of being the leader. He’s got Jack cleaned up and is working on a plan to get back to the island. But he’s not alone in his efforts. Just like Ben having a man on the boat, he has someone working for him at … the butcher shop? He leaves Locke’s body with one of his Others? at the butcher shop, while he and Jack rally the Oceanic 6.

Later in the episode we are revisited by another character from Lost seasons past, Ms. Hawking. You remember her from “Flashes before Your Eyes” right? After checking out the message boards last night, I can’t believe so many people were asking who the old lady Ben met was. Many thought Ben called her Annie Locke, when he actually asked her, any luck? As in any luck finding the island?

It looks like she did find it after working some Daniel Faraday-like equations and imputing information in a Dharma-like computer, but Ben only has 70 hours to get there. Not good considering Hurley just got put in jail for killing 4, no 3, however many people. On top of that, he almost got hit in the face with a hot pocket. Not one of Ben’s better days, to say the least.

Other thoughts

Wow, how do we digest all of that information? I touched on the highpoints of what I remember from the premiere, but I’m sure there’s a ton of stuff that I overlooked. Many fans are already speculated on who Faraday’s mom will be, with Ms. Hawking being the leader in the clubhouse. The way the episode was put together sort of insinuated that.

The way the island is jumping around reminds me of Jacob’s cabin jumping around. I think there’s a lot more to the relationship among the island, the cabin and time. Maybe now that the entire island is moving, the cabin will stay in one spot.

Ben is still up to his old antics. We aren’t sure who’s being played in his game. He left the island and put Locke in charge of the Others, but he still has a group of people working with him off the island. Are these people (including Ms. Hawking) part of the Others or a different group? Did they live on the island at one time?

One more thing on Ms. Hawking. She seemed to be in the basement of a church. Ben was upstairs lighting candles when she appeared. Remember the photo of her and Brother Campbell, the monk, in “Catch 22”? Not sure what it means, but here's the photo.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with one last question to ponder: Is Locke dead? Richard tells him on the island that he’ll have to die and it sure looks like he’s dead in the present day. But Jack asks Ben if he’s dead and Ben avoids responding.

Next on Lost: Jughead

*Photos from Lost-Media.com