Water Cooler Talking Points - Lost

(As this is pretty much the only show I watch in something approximating real time, I figured it was time to bring back the Water Cooler Talking Points, five items that will give you a rhetorical foothold in an office conversation about the show.)

During the show tonight, the unLocke remarked to Ben that the last thing that went through actual Locke's mind was that he didn't understand what was going on. With that fitting metaphor for the Lost viewing audience out of the way, here's the skinny on what went down.

1. The bomb worked. Last season ended with Juliet detonating the h-bomb, a scene repeated to start this season. The explosion fades into Jack on the Oceanic flight, and while he looks a little confused at first he snaps back into passenger mode after some turbulence doesn't result in the plane going down (we also get a graphic depicting the island - including the DHARMA huts - completely underwater, apparently for some time). Over the course of the first hour we see Rose and Bernard, Sawyer, Kate, Charlie, Hurley, Sun, Jin, Boone and Locke. And Desmond, who wasn't originally on the flight. There are a few other differences - Charlie tries to kill himself in the lavatory, and Hurley now considers himself lucky as he's still won the lottery and successfully bought his chicken franchise. At the end of the hour, the plane lands in LA without incident.

2. The bomb worked? The second scene of the episode is the explosion, which now fades into Kate coming to in a tree... within sight of the post-failsafe Swan crater. Most everyone is accounted for, lastly Juliet, who is buried under a bunch of metal in the middle of the crater. Sawyer gets to her, but she dies before she can tell him something important. Sawyer recruits Miles to help bury her, and uses his talking to the dead mojo to find out she was going to tell him the bomb worked. Which, after a fashion, it did, as this group is back in the present that has the undead Locke and company over by the statue. Speaking of Locke...

3. Locke=smoke monster? After talking about Jacob's death, the unLocke sends Ben out to get Richard. Some of the other Agira passengers (who are apparently Jacob's bodyguards - and well done there) enter the statue and shoot at unLocke. Followed shortly by an appearance by the smoke monster, who kills all of them (including a guy who got in some sort of protective circle of ash or sand; the monster figured out a way to knock him out of the circle without entering it). Locke later apologizes to Ben for having to see him like that, suggesting that the smoke monster is what is also possessing the unLocke.

4.Going to the temple and we're gonna get cured. Back at the Swan hole, Hurley is with Sayid, who is bleeding badly. While he's alone with Sayid, Jacob appears to Hurley and says that he needs get Jin to take him to the hole in the wall of the temple. He does (along with most of the others), and once they enter they get jumped for their trouble. They're led to a temple, where the powers that be decide to shoot them - until Hurley says that Jacob sent them and that they need to save Sayid. A message inside a huge ankh suggests the same thing, and they take Sayid to a spring. One which no longer runs clear. Sayid is held in the spring - more correctly under the water of the spring - and he dies.

5 Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles. Kate manages to knock out her escort in the only deserted bathroom in LAX, and escapes with some help from Sawyer and from the escort's gun, which she uses to hijack a taxi and its passenger, the very pregnant Claire. Jack, meanwhile, has learned that his dad's coffin has gone missing, and the airline has no idea where it is. At this point he meets Locke, who had his case of knives go missing. A brief chat leads Jack to offer a free consult to Locke, with the goal of proving that his irreperable spinal injury can in fact be fixed.

6. There's gonna be a shoot out. Back at the temple, Hurley talks to the powers that be (a guy who speaks Japanese and his hippie sidekick) about Jacob, and mentions that his visit was portmortem. This freaks the powers out something fierce, and they begin to barricade the temple and spread ash/sand around, all aimed at keeping "them" out. They set off a rocket, apparently to warn fellow templars about the danger. The signal surprises Richard, as does the unLocke, who has come outside and greets Richard by (a) saying he's happy to see Richard out of chains, and (b) beating the tar out of him. The unLocke expresses his disappointment at the crowd and then picks Richard up and starts walking (we assume to the temple). The last scene is back at the temple, where the hippie seeks a private audience with Jack. Jack declines, and the hippe starts to make a deal out of it until Hurley interrupts. It seems that Sayid is not quite dead yet. He sits up and wonders aloud what happened. As do all of us watching.

The Beginning of the End

Unless you've been living in a hole (or don't watch ABC), you know that tonight kicks off the final season of Lost. There's a level of fan excitement about this that's unusual, I think. Most fans would prefer that their favorite shows go on forever.

The difference with Lost, I think, lies in the questions. There's a desire to learn the reason behind every little secret, and the only way that will come close to happening is to have the show end. We should be happy that they're doing this in a thoughtful way and not running the risk of another Alias, where it seemed like things were slapped together solely to get the show to a conclusion.

Even so, I think there may be a little too much expected from tonight's episodes. My simple warning is that the folks behind the show have spent five years piling on questions while only providing a handful of answers. They have the entire season to even accounts, and it's safe to say that they'll use every single second to do so in a way that's organic. Not that the books will balance by the end; the folks behind the show have been very clear that there will be some questions left unanswered. Your call as to whether its out of deference to the story or because some of the questions are just too hard to answer in a way that's consistent with the rest of the show.

Not that there aren't other attractions to this season. We're going to get to see some of our favorite characters from the past (I'm hoping for some significant screen time for Mr. Eko), and there's been talk about a new narrative structure for this season, which given the way time is used on this show may mean anything.

In the end, I guess I'd say try not to get irritated if they don't throw out a bunch of answers tonight. Instead, savor the anticipation of each new episode while you can.