Except for that time after Sayid shot him and Kate took him to the temple and they made a big deal about how he would never be the same last season.
Ah, that’s right. I forgot about him getting shot as a kid. It seemed like such a red herring when it happened!
Carry on, then!
For what it’s worth, I wonder if the scenes on the plane and in LAX could be the end of the series, while the business on the island scenes will lead up to the first of the plane scenes…where Jack and Rose go through the turbulence. So we are watching the ending scenes of the series and the Island scenes that lead up to them.
Cuse and Lindelof answer some questions about the premiere:
SPOILARZ, obviously:
Spoilers for the premiere only or for upcoming shows? Do we really have to warn about spoilers after the show has aired on the west coast? I figure once the show has aired people should just avoid the thread until they see it.
Some things that are a little vague just from watching are cemented into place. I didn’t notice anything too spoilish. It’s certainly no worse than the official podcast.
Premiere as much as I can see, but they do talk a bit about the over-all arc. I didn’t feel spoiled reading it.
Nevermind all of the other manipulation across multiple seasons required to arrive at these events …
bloo
5290
I don’t think Desmond “vanished” from the plane. Jack just didn’t see him. I think they’re just teasing there.
There were other things that had to happen. Normally Jacob lives in his cabin protected from the man in black by the circle of ash and possibly in non-corporeal form. Jacob had to leave the cabin, either because he was driven out (when his bodyguards found the cabin the ash circle was broken and he hadn’t been there in a long time) or because he had to go to the statue to reclaim his body so he could travel off the Island to get the Oceanic 6 back, or even both. The man in black would have to do a lot of manipulation to get enough of the events in place to get Jacob out of the cabin and in his body and to have someone who would have enough sway over Ben to convince him to kill Jacob.
dtolman
5292
When was this established?
Jacob may have lived there at time - but I was under the impression that the Man in Black was in fact residing there while Ben visited… perhaps the circle of ash was instead keeping him IN.
DrCrypt
5293
This is a fantastic idea – I wish the writers had thought of it! – but I doubt it. The characters don’t know each other. The year is 2004. Several characters who are dead are now alive. It can only happen if the end of season six features another time reset. Maybe it will, but it’s not just a cop-out solution, but a big fuck you to the viewers: hey! you! nothing you watched for six years mattered! Idiots!
That interview that was linked also pretty much empirically denies it. They’re looking at Universe 1 vs. Universe 2 for this season. They say they’re not playing any time tricks. They could be lying, but, you know, why?
That’s the part where not knowing what the prime movers know creates excess confusion.
Which would also entail manipulating Jacob to pursue the return of people who have so far only upset the state of the prison.
They did say that they were done with flashbacks and flashforwards. I guess they’re going to keep doing the flashsideways throughout the season.
Question: has Jacob affected Ben directly at all so far? It could be that Jacob rallied the Scooby Gang to deal with the plan that the Lockeness Monster was attempting to execute. That theory goes out the window if he played any intentional role in shaping Ben, though.
I think it’s pretty obvious that Blackie cannot leave the island and that Jacob and the Templetons are there as his wardens. By the end of last night’s episode it was pretty clear that the key to Blackie getting off the island and going home was not only to kill Jacob, but to inflitrate the temple and do something there as well. We’ve seen Blackie, in smoke monster form, underneath the temple before, but perhaps with Jacob still around Blackie was powerless to infiltrate Hef’s Grotto or wherever it is in the Temple he needs to do his thing to get off the island. When they leartn of Jacobs death, the Templetons freak and start spreading the magic ashes all over the place and shooting off fireworks (presumeably to notify all other Templetons outside the temple that it’s time to haul ass back to home base). In any event, they’ve setup the struggle between the two powers, and shown that the Temple is the focal point now that the statue and Jacob are no longer in the picture.
The two timelines seem to be pretty distinct. In 1977, the Losties blew up the Swan site at the moment the energy pulse was released, sinking the island and killing everyone left on it at that point (hence the underwater shots of the island and Dharmatown preserved as it was in 1977). This means nothing that happened post-1977 to the Losties would have happened the same way. In fact, several people likely ceased to exist, including Miles since his pops was on the island when the bomb went off. This may help explain Miles ability in the current timeline. One would presume Faraday also ceased to exist, as his mom was also on the island at the time I believe (she led them to the bomb). In any event, the new 2004 timeline now appears to be “Island Influence Free since 1977”. Don’t know where they’ll go with it, but one must assume that it has some sort of effect on the conflict between Jacob and Blackie.
Meanwhile, in our 2007 (present day) timeline, we have all hell breaking loose as Blackie smells freedom (or maybe that smell is all those unwashed Losties suddenly back from 1977, seriously take a dip in the magic pool while you’re all just sitting around, please) and the Templetons are preparing for a siege. But why, if setting off the bomb was supposed to be a reboot, are the Losties and everyone else still here? That’s the big question. No real answers were given last night. I like the theories presented above that somehow the 2004 timeline is corrupted and the 2007 Losties need to make things right somehow. I predict making it right will involve both destroying Blackie and either destorying the island or untethering it from our reality altogether.
One thing that really stood out for me last night after watching both the hour-long “catch-up” show and the premiere was that much of the middle of LOST was simply edited out of existence. The catch-up show made ZERO mention of Michael, Walt or the tail section people. The episode iteself also ignored Michael and Walt as well as barely touching on tail section people (Bernard actually ascended from being a tail secton person to being a true LOSTie by virtue of making it back alive from the restroom). It’s like the producers just want you to forget all about that silly detour with those tail section folks. Also conspicuously absent in the episode was Claire, at least right up until the taxi scene. Why make such a fuss about showing everyone on the plane (even Arnst and Frogurt) but skipping over Claire?
edit OK, the stewardess and the kids were tail section people. I assume they got their due because “What happened to the children?” is probably one of the Top 10 LOST Unanswered Questions of all time. I bet we barely see them from here on out.
First you say the middle of LOST was simply edited out of existence with all of the other characters then you backtrack and start talking about these very same characters who actually weren’t edited out (Claire). I didn’t expect to see everyone back, and as you say, the timeline-change could have shifted a lot of people out of that flight. And obviously it shifted one person on the flight (Desmond). You simply can’t have every single character they’ve ever shown on the show all in this episode, it’s simply not expedient.
Oh yeah, and also in the tail section survivors is Jack’s stewardess, who briefly appeared in the tail section arc before getting taken, then Jack sees her again when he’s brought to the other island, and has been subsequently gone till this episode.
— Alan
Michael is already signed on to appear this season, so while he might not have custody of Walt, I think he’ll be appearing. Additionally, I think there’s a leftover scene with Walt that was shot way back in the first seasons that might find its way in. And Libby questions are going to be answered, along with possibly some stuff about Eko, so I don’t think we’ve seen the last bit of tail we’re going to get.
