Episode 6:01 and 6:02 LA X

Fellow Losties!

Season 6 started with a bang last night, and we absolutely got some answers to some of the most central 42 questions. I'll jump right in and I'll recap each question before discussing the answers. I'll go in numeric order.

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE EPISODE! I'd hate to ruin it for someone!

2. Claire Littleton – Our favorite island mother has been missing since Season 4, Episode 10 (Something Nice Back Home). We know she saw her father, Christian Shephard, leaves Aaron behind, and wanders off in the jungle night with her dead dad but we don’t know why! What happened to Claire that could take her from doting mother to jungle wander? Why did she leave Aaron behind? We see her in Season 4, Episode 11 (Cabin Fever) seemingly relaxed and Aaron-free sitting in Jacob’s cabin with Christian, but again we receive no explanation of why she’s left her child behind. Let’s hope Season 6 gives us some Claire related clarity!

So we don't have answers, exactly, to where Claire has been, or what happened to her. But we did get to see her beautiful face last night, even if it was for a brief minute. (Brett, I bet you were very excited). Can you all hardly believe it's been 17 episodes since Claire last appeared? Last night gave me faith that there will be many more Claire moments to come this season.

3. Smokey – Another question that has plagued loyal viewers from the very first episode. What the heck is the black smoke monster!? Is it a security system? Is it a sort of attack dog? Whatever it is, Smokey has the ability to ‘judge’ people (Ben, Eko) , seems to live in The Temple, and can be deployed by draining a puddle of water under Ben’s old house in New Otherton. We also know it the smoke monster has been on the island for a very long time, as the Egyptian hieroglyphics on the wall of the room below The Temple depict. But the exact purpose and origin of Smokey still remain one of Lost’s greatest mysteries.

AND

6. Man In Black (Jacob’s Nemesis) – Since Walt and Locke played backgammon in the pilot episode; fans have known that black and white hold symbolic significance in the world of LOST. So when Jacob’s nemesis shows up on the beach wearing black while Jacob is wearing white, we knew that the scene was significant. But who, exactly is the man in black, why does he want to kill Jacob? How did he get to the island? Is he really bad, as his black shirt leads us to believe? How does he have the ability to become ‘Flocke’? Also, is there a biblical connection to the story of Jacob and Esau, in which two brothers fight for ‘birthright’ to rule over their father’s wealth and authority? Seems awful likely to this humble fan.

HOLY FREAKING CRAP. Hands down the best part of last night's episode in my opinion. Smokey is the Man in Black. While I felt great relief to have this little piece of knowledge, I'm still confused about a few things. What's up with the ash? Why does that keep Smokey out? I'm also still stuck on the good v. bad debate. I'm just not sure which the man in black is. Also, one of the strangest moments of the episode was when he talked about wanting to go home. Where's home? How longs he been on the island? I guess when LOST closes one door, fifty more question windows open!

4. Flocke – As we know from Season 5, Episode 16 (The Incident) the Locke that returns to the island, is not the Locke that left the island. Commonly referred to as “Flocke” (fake + Locke = Flocke), he convinces Ben to kill Jacob, but not before Jacob recognizes Flocke as his nemesis. Who is this Flocke and how did he shift shape to look like John Locke? We know he doesn’t just take over Locke’s body, as Illana’s crew is hauling the body all over the island in search of Richard Alpert, so how exactly does he become John Locke? And does Jacob’s nemesis choose John Locke anyway? For how long has he been John Locke? Many fans postulate that Locke’s been Flocke since Ben shot him in Season 3, Episode 22 (Through the Looking Glass) , but we still don’t know for certain! Surely Flocke related mysteries will be resolved in Season 6.

Small answers, but still answers. We know a bit more about why the Man In Black choose John Locke. Locke was chosen due to his faith in the island and his ability to admit that life off the island wasn't so grand after all. I guess Locke's special relationship with the island really, I don't know, paid off?

7. Richard Alpert – If you have a pulse and are a fan of LOST, you’ve got to be wondering what the heck is going on with Richard Alpert (and I’m not talking about his guyliner)! He claims that Jacob gave him the ability to never age (can I get that in a bottle?), but we’re still not sure why. What brought Richard to the island? Why did Jacob select him to be his ‘advisor’? Does he have a relationship with Jacob’s nemesis? How old is this guy? One of my burning Richard-related questions comes from Season 3, Episode 20 (The Man Behind the Curtain). Richard meets young-Ben in the jungle, and this is the only time Richard’s appearance is different. His hair is long, his clothes are disheveled – what’s up with this? Why isn’t he clean cut Richard we’ve seen ever since? Weird. Let’s hope for some Alpert back story in Season 6.

Dude was in chains at some point. Strange. Was he a prisoner on the Black Rock? Just a guess.

25. Who does Illana work for? – Illana (no last name) crashes on the island in 2007 after escorting Sayid on Ajira 316. Once the plane has crashed she and a few other survivors (including Bram) stuff John Locke’s corpse into a giant metal box and begin wandering around the island to find Jacob’s cabin. When they find Jacob’s cabin deserted, Illana takes the group to the ‘shadow of the statue’ where she shows John Locke’s body to Richard Alpert. We’ve seen both Illana and Bram before, off the island. Illana is visited by Jacob in Season 5, Episode 16 (The Incident) where she says she will ‘help him’. Bram throws Miles into a van in Season 5, Episode 13 (Some Like it Hoth) and tells him not to work for Widmore. So how are they connected to Jacob and the island? How does Illana know her way around the island enough to find Jacob’s cabin and the statue? Who do they work for, who are the “good guys”?

I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the answer "They're Jacob's bodyguards". Why the heck would Jacob need to travel to Russia to find a woman in a hospital bed burned to hell to ask her to be his bodyguard. I hope there's more to this story, because right now, I'm not buying it.

27. What happens in the temple? - In Season 5, Episode 11 (Whatever Happened, Happened) Richard Alpert takes a dying young Ben Linus into The Temple to be healed. Richard tells Kate that Ben will lose his innocents and will always be “one of them”. The Temple also appears to be the home of the smoke monster. There are extensive walls built around The Temple to protect it and tunnels underground leading to it. So who build The Temple and what is it used for? What happens inside The Temple that caused young Ben to become the Ben we know today?

Again, another question we got some serious answers for. Apparently there is a spring with water that saves your life. Those familiar with the temple seemed surprised that the water was not clear (Was the water mucky because Jacob died? I think so.) Now, who the heck were those people, including the Japanese man, whose name is Dogen. According to LOSTPEDIA.com, Dogen was a Buddhist philosopher who was the head of a monastery named 'Eihei-ji' which means 'temple of eternal peace. Okay, I guess that makes sense. I'll be honest, I found these new "Others" to be pretty darn confusing. I hope we learn more about them soon.

28. Did Jack’s plan to blow up the electromagnetic pocket with the hydrogen bomb work or did the Losties cause the incident they were trying to prevent? – Definitely the central question leading into the Season 6 premiere, hopefully we’ll all soon know if detonating a hydrogen bomb atop a pocket of electromagnetic pocket helped save our Losties from ever crashing on the island. If it worked, what will we find out about the lives of our favorite characters minus the involuntary island vacation? If it didn’t work, will the blast have been enough to kill those in the area when the detonation happened? What will it all mean for the future of LOST?

Something tells me we're not going to answer this question any time soon. Which reality is actually real? We're going to be debating that all season. According to Juilet "It worked." We'll just have to wait and see.

29. Why did the Others choose Cindy and the children? – Cindy was a flight attendant on Oceanic 815 and a survivor of the crash with the other Tailies. She went missing when the Tailies were journeying to the beach camp along with Zach and Emma. We later learn that they’ve been living with the Others and Cindy and Emma come to talk to Jack when he’s captured at the Hydra station in Season 3, Episode 9 (Stranger in a Strange Land). Jack asks Cindy why she’s with the Others. She tells him that they are there “to watch”. So why Cindy, Emma, and Zach out of all of the survivors? What’s Cindy’s connection to the Others and did it exist before the crash?

No answers, but there they were after 3 whole seasons! When I wrote these questions, I thought an answer to this one was a long shot, but I think we may get an answer to this one after all.

36. What the heck was the loophole? – The opening scene of Season 5, Episode 16 (The Incident) shows Jacob and the man in black sitting on the beach. The man in black asks Jacob, “Do you have any idea how badly I want to kill you right now?”. Jacob responds that he does and the man in black says that one day he will find “a loophole”. Later in the episode, when Flocke meets Jacob in the statue Jacob says “Well, I guess I found your loophole”. So what is the loophole and why did it take so long to find this loophole? Could the loophole only involve John Locke or does it include any dead body?

I can't say for sure, but I think the loophole question was answered. It seems that the loophole was simply convincing someone else to kill Jacob, since the rules dictate the Man in Black could not kill him by himself. I wonder why it took so long to find someone to kill Jacob. Maybe there is more to this question than we know right now.

That's all the answers I have for this episode. All in all, I thought it was pretty FREAKING fabulous. I loved the interactions between the characters on the airplane, it was such a cool treat to see them interact in ways that they never would have on the island. I got a huge kick out of Frogurt sleeping next to Locke, but I missed Shannon, Michael, and Walt. Seeing Desmond made my night, along with a happy Rose and Bernard. I almost cried twice, once when Hurley said he was lucky and once when Jack offered to fix John Locke. I did not, however, shed a tear over Juliet. Now my husband can stop talking about her boobs.

I'm relieved they didn't kill off Sayid, but I'm worried about island Hurley. He was wearing a RED SHIRT.

The next episode is called (highlight to read, this is spoiler proof) "What Kate Does", so it sounds like we'll be learning a lot more about Kate's hijacked taxi cab ride, which hopefully also includes more Claire information.
I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts on the episode. Any answers I missed? New questions you'd like answered? Funny moments, or let-downs? Please post your comments below!

Till next week,

Namaste.