LOST: “LA X, Part II”

Photo Credit: ABC/ Mario Perez.

Early this morning, I posted Part I of my live blog for last night’s Lost premiere.  If you missed it, you can read that here: LOST: “LA X, Part I”.  Otherwise, read on for my live blog, edited with comments, for the second half of the Lost season six premiere, aired February 2^nd, 2010:

• It is now daylight on the island, and Hurley and company get ready to transport Sayid to the temple, while Sawyer plans to stay behind to bury Juliet.  Kate asks him if he wants her help, and Sawyer replies: “Help Sayid.”  But he does ask Miles to hang back, which reminds me that they are close, as Miles worked as LaFleur’s deputy.   Ah, I kind of miss the 70s.  Kate says that they will leave a trail, so that Sawyer can follow them.  Sawyer: “I ain’t following no one, Kate.”  Classic Sawyer.  He glares at Jack, and carries Juliet’s body off to be buried.
• Back at LAX, Jack is paged, and goes to find an agent.  Unknown airline employee: “Mr Shephard, I am very sorry, but there seems to be a mixup…”  It turns out that his dad’s coffin was never put on the plane.  Unknown airline employee is deeply sorry, but they don’t know when it will arrive, because they don’t know where it is.  Um, wow.  Also, good to know that in this alternate timeline Christian Shephard still died.  I wonder if the circumstances were different though.  Hopefully, we shall see.
• Back on the island, Hurley and company find the hole in the wall, where Montand lost his arm.  They enter, and then proceed down a dark hallway.  Kate finds someone’s bag, in which she locates matches, and she lights a torch.   How convenient.  Also, they find the remains of armless Frenchman, Montand.  Hurley: “This is going to be awesome.”  Oh Hurley, you have no idea.  They all have to watch their step at a certain point, as there is a narrow crossing.  It is all very Indiana Jones.  Kate goes ahead, and Jack loses sight of her and gets worried.  Did she disappear?  All of a sudden Hurley is gone too.  Jack is running around looking for everybody, and can’t find them.  Someone attacks him, and he is dragged by what appears to be Others, dressed as pirates/ Turkish merchants/ hippies.  He is dragged outside, and we see that Jin and Kate and Hurley have also been captured by the Others.  When they look up, they see the temple.
• Meanwhile, at LAX, Kate and U.S. Marshal pass through customs.  “Anything to declare?”  Marshal: “A murderer.”  Ha!  I missed that cranky guy.  Kate says that she has to go to the bathroom.  Inexplicably, the Marshal honors her request.  Apparently the descent into LA turned him into a moron.  He says that she has two minutes, and she goes into a stall and locks the door.  She uses a pen, perhaps stolen from Jack when she ran into him, to try to unlock the handcuffs.  In the process, the spring from the pen drops on the ground.  The Marshal begins to get impatient and asks if she’s done.  Then he sees the spring from the pen on the ground.  Uh oh.  Kate kicks open the door (like Sayid, Kate is also a good kicker), and knocks him out.  She also steals his gun.  Then a couple women come in, and Kate covers by saying that he attacked her.  Quick thinking.  She still has handcuffs on, and is using a shawl or sweater to hide them.  She gets into the elevator, with Sawyer.  He sees the handcuffs, but doesn’t say anything.  Two TSA guys enter, and get a call on their walkie talkies about a code 341.  Sawyer: “Sound serious.  What the hell is a 341?”  They say that it’s confidential.  When the elevator stops, the TSA guys move to exit, but Sawyer pushes them back, and says “Ladies first.”  Kate thanks him.  Sawyer is a lot of things, but I guess he is still a southern gentleman at heart.  Or just someone who finds Kate attractive.  Your call.
• Back on the island, Miles and Sawyer are digging.  It’s sad.  Sawyer says not to call him boss anymore, as Miles is no longer his deputy.  Then, the real reason why Sawyer asks Miles to stay behind is revealed.  Sawyer wants to know what Juliet was going to tell him.  Miles: “Jim, that’s not how it works.”  Sawyer is not deterred: “What does she want to tell me Miles?”  Sawyer is a mess, and angry, and he pushes Miles.  He explains: “I know she’s gone.  I know.  Now tell me.”  Miles says OK.  We see some weird effects, and then somehow Miles seems to have heard Juliet.  Miles says that she wanted to say that it worked.  It worked!  Sawyer is pissed: “What worked?”  He stomps off.  Um, Jack’s plan, dimwit.  Of course, in Sawyer’s defense, none of the Losties predicted that the explosion would create two different timelines.  Shouldn’t Faraday have warned them about this?
• Elsewhere on the island, the Others still have Kate, Jack, Jin, Hurley, and Sayid’s dying body.  The Others wonder who their captives are, and a female voice pipes up to say that she knows who they are.  It’s Cindy!!!  She has hippie-hair.  Also, the leader while Locke and Ben and Richard are away seems to be an asian man with long hair, who seems to be speaking Japanese.  He has a nerdy looking translator, who wears glasses.  The translator translates: “Shoot em.”  Uh oh.  Hurley calls out, “Jacob sent us.”  He repeats himself, and tells them that Jacob said he would help their friend.  The Others want proof.  Hurley: “He gave me that guitar case.”  Ooh, the guitar case has significance!  When they ask Hurley if he looked inside, Hurley hilariously replies, “Maybe.”  He totally did.  They open the case, and inside is a large wooden ankh.  Ankhs symbolize eternal life, and are seen a lot among ancient Egyptian symbols.  That exhausts my knowledge of ankhs.  The Other boss breaks it, and there’s a note inside.  Ooh, sneaky.  He asks the captives what their names are, and they oblige: Hugo Reyes, Jin-Soo Kim, Kate Austen, Jack Shephard, and Sayid Jarrah.  The Others agree to help Sayid.  Hurley wants to know what the paper says.  Translator: “The paper says that if your friend there dies, we’re all in a lot of trouble.”  Intriguing!  Why is Sayid so important?  Theories, anyone?
• Back in LA, Jin looks at the watch, and shows it to the customs agent.  He has a letter that says that it’s a business gift, but the TSA agent asks what business he’s in.  Jin can’t understand English, so he doesn’t understand the question.  Also, Jin is Jin, so he gets angry.  Uh oh.  The TSA agent also discovers that he has lots of cash in his suitcase.  Agent: “Anything over $10,000 must be declared.  You didn’t declare this.”  He does that dumb thing that Americans do when people don’t understand English, and just talks louder and slower.  Um, not gonna do the trick, buddy.  He leads Jin away, and tells the other TSA agent to bring Sun to a waiting area.  This other TSA agent talks to Sun, and asks if she understands her.  She says that if she does, then she needs to speak up now.  Sun: “No … English.”  Is Sun lying, as she did in the other timeline?  Or did she never learn English in this timeline?  I think she’s lying, but the other alternative would also be interesting.
• Back at the temple, the Others see that the water isn’t clear.  It’s actually quite dirty.  Ick.  The glasses-clad translator asks: “What happened?”  The Boss-man cuts himself, and puts his hand in the water.  It doesn’t seem to heal—at least that’s the impression I got.  Uh oh.  This does not bode well for Sayid.  The Others ask who did this to him.  Jack says that it’s his fault—he didn’t do it, but it’s his fault.  Translator: “If we do this, there are risks.  You understand?”  Jack: “Do what you have to do.”  Except he totally doesn’t mean that, as he begins whining and yelling as soon as they begin doing what they “have to do.”  The Boss puts an old-fashioned Days of Our Lives style timer on.  “Like sands through the hour glass, so are the days of your lives.”  The Others put Sayid under the water, and hold him under.  Sayid starts struggling, so clearly the healing is working, but all the Losties freak out.  They really don’t get the whole supernatural aspect of this healing process, and are protesting.  Idiots.  What part of bring-him-to-a-temple-to-heal made them think this would be conventional Western medicine?  Hurley: “You’re not saving him, you’re drowning him.”  Sayid’s body stops moving.  The boss signals for them to bring him up.  After examining Sayid’s body, he says, through his translator: “Your friend is dead.”  Uh oh.  Jack isn’t willing to accept this, and performs CPR.  Kate tells him to stop.  It’s like almost-dead-Charlie in season one, all over again.  Except this time Jack totally gives up, after a few tries.  Kate tells him to stop, over and over again, saying that he’s dead, and not coming back.  [Wrong, Kate.  You totally forgot what show you are on.  For the record, I was convinced that Sayid would pop up, and he totally did.]
• Meanwhile, fugitive Kate is still in the airport.  She is hiding out near baggage claim.  She sees cops, and then watches a woman go through a security door.  She then runs up the escalator, and outside to a cab.  But a jerk says that there’s a line.  And oh, the jerk is  Frogurt.  Sadly, no flaming arrows hit him this time.  Hurley is in the line too, on the phone, and Kate steps in line behind him.  Then, however, she spies the Marshal, who also catches sight of her.  Kate gets into a cab and tells driver to go now.  He says that he already has a passenger, but she puts a gun to his head.  His other passenger?  Claire!!!  She’s back!  She was pregnant, right?  I forgot to notice.
• Back in the temple, everyone is sad.  Cindy and the kids bring them food.  Sawyer and Miles are dragged in.  Miles explains, “They jumped us in the jungle.  We took four of them out, but one of them hit him with a damn rock.”  Glasses asks Hurley to come with them.  Boss man wants to know what Jacob said to him.  Hurley notices that the guy can understand him.  Boss man: “I don’t like the way English tastes in my mouth.”  Ha!  Hurley tells them that Jacob is dead, which freaks them out.  Hurley: “What, you guys didn’t know?”  Oh, Hurley.  The Others are in a panic, and set off a flare.  When asked, Glasses reveals, “This isn’t to keep you in, it’s to keep him out.”  Ooh, it must be to keep the Smoke Monster, aka the-man-in-black, aka Flocke, out.  So all this time, Smokey wasn’t working for the Others, but rather something they were protecting themselves from.  Also, I will remind you about the ash all around Jacob’s cabin, which keeps Smokey out.  Hopefully they have a lot of that lying around.  Also, I wonder if that gate which emitted a high sound, surrounding New Otherton, also keeps Smokey out.  Thoughts?
• Then we cut back to Ben and Flocke/ Smokey/ The Man in Black.  What should I call him, in future recaps?  Right now, I’m just going to go with Flocke, for consistency, but I’d love your suggestions.  Ben asks Flocke what he is.  Flocke: “I’m not a what, Ben, I’m a who.”  Ben: “You’re the monster.”  Flocke: “Let’s not resort to name calling.”  Ha!  The second best line of the episode.  Also, Terry O’Quinn is amazing in this new role.  Amazing.  And did I mention amazing.  Ben: “You couldn’t kill him yourself, so you used me to do it.”  Flocke is not so willing to accept this interpretation, and asks if Ben knows what Locke was thinking when Ben killed him.  He gives the answer, despite Ben’s lack of desire for this info: “I don’t understand.  Isn’t that the saddest thing you ever heard?”  Wow.  It is all in the delivery.  Flocke says that John was sad, weak, pathetic, and irreparably broken.  He’s not wrong, but John was a lot of other things too.  Flocke continues: “But despite all that, there was something admirable.  He was the only one who didn’t want to leave.”  Ben: “What do you want?”  Flocke: “Well, that’s the great irony here, Ben.  I want the one thing that John Locke didn’t.  I want to go home.”  Agh!!!  Another mystery!  Where is home, I wonder.  Any theories?
• Back at the temple, Hurley tells Miles, “If you ever wanna talk …?”  Miles looks funny, but says that it’s nothing.  Was he hearing Sayid?  Or was his expression because he can’t hear Sayid?  Kate attends to Sawyer.  Ahem.  She says that they’re in a temple, and being protected by the Others.  She also notes, “I’m so sorry.”  Jack comes in and sits in a corner to brood.  Kate tells Sawyer, “He’s just trying to help us.”  Sawyer: “I ain’t gonna kill Jack.  He deserves to suffer on this rock like the rest of us.”  Good point.
• Meanwhile, alterna-Jack is at the airport, on the phone, talking to his mom. Locke asks what he lost.  Jack says that he wouldn’t believe him, but Locke insists.  Jack tells him that they lost his father.  Locke gives his condolences.  Jack: “Apparently he’s somewhere in transit, which is their way of saying they have no idea.”  Locke gets all philosophical, as he is wont to do: “They didn’t lose your father, they just lost his body.”  Locke gives a smile.  I’m divided as to how creepy the smile was.  Also, Locke explains that all that was in his suitcase was a bunch of knives.  Before he leaves, Jack asks what happened to him, awkwardly revealing that he’s a spinal surgeon.  Locke says that his condition is irreversible.  Jack says, “Nothing’s irreversible.”  He gives Locke his card, and offers him a consult on the house.  They introduce themselves to each other, and say their goodbyes.  Perhaps the only civil conversation that these two have had on the show.  Fascinating.  Also, what do you guys make of the “Nothing’s irreversible” line?  Locke has always been all about destiny and fate, while Jack has believed in science and free will.  Other things have changed, but so much has stayed the same.
• Back on the island, we see another flare go off.  Richard and company see it, still on the beach.  Then Ben and Flocke come out of the statue.  Richard tells his men not to shoot.  Frank: “I’m seeing it, I’m just not believing it.”  Flocke greets Richard: “Hello Richard, it’s good to see you out of those chains.”  Ooh, chains!  So is this a hint that Richard was on The Black Rock?  Dear Show, please give us a Richard flashback.  Richard: “You?”  Flocke: “Me.”  Inconveniently, no one gives us Flocke’s name.  Sigh.  Then Flocke beats up Richard.  No one does anything to stop him. Flocke tells them that he’s disappointed in all of them, and carries off Richard, over his shoulder.  Everyone just stares.  Why, that man has some mad presence.  No one was about to mess with that situation.  The camera pans to dead Locke, who is still dead.  Will he stay that way?  Will the two timelines reconcile?  Oh, so many questions.
• At the temple, a group of Others come in, including Glasses.  They want to see Jack. Glasses: “You either get up and come with us on your own, ….”  Jack gets violent.  But then Sayid wakes up!!!  Sayid: “What happened?”  That’s what we want to know, Sayid.  The end.

So, what did you all everybody think of this first helping of mind-bendy Lost craziness?  Reactions?  Theories?  Questions?  Comment below.

Related posts:

• LOST: “LA X, Part I”
• LOST: Yeah, it’s really “The End” (Part II)
• LOST: Yeah, it’s really “The End” (Part I)
• LOST: “People trying to kill us again”
• LOST: “That’s One Stubborn Tomato”