Lost Season Five Premiere

Well, my fellow Lost-addicts, I hope that you found last night’s episodes as satisfying as I did. If I had any complaint, it is that the emotional weight of the second hour was overwhelmed by the frantic action of the previous hour. But after some reflection, Hurley’s confession to and acceptance by his mother hit home. It was actually very satisfying. Until Hurley ran from Ben into the arms of the police. More on that…

I’m not sure how much recapping I plan to do in this blog. I feel that there are some wonderful sites already that do a fantastic job of recapping. I might at some point, when faced with only one hour of episode recap, but recapping two hours is a little too much at this point. There’s so much I want to think about instead!

Some thoughts on the two hour premiere:

How cool to see Pierre Chang/Marvin Candle in the beginning! I didn’t recognize the song – it turns out that it was a Willie Nelson song, Shotgun Willie. I’ve never heard it before. A lot of bloggers are betting that the baby the Dharma player was caring for is either Sun or Miles. I didn’t think of that. I was so primed to see one of our characters though, that I swore the cameraman was actually Sawyer. So Faraday showing up wasn’t that surprising to me, but was still cool. If anyone can figure out this time business, it is Faraday.

Daniel Faraday actually had a lot of good lines in the first hour – I took notes:
- “We must have been inside the radius” (explaining the Zodiak passengers’ continued presence near the island)
- “The camp isn’t gone. It hasn’t been built yet.”
- “…like a record, skipping…” (kinda like Marvin Candle’s Shotgun Willie!)
- “We’re either in the past or in the future.”
They struck me because he said them so matter-of-factly, like I’d talk about the snow piled up outside my house. Actually, I think I’m far more upset about the snow then Daniel appeared to be about bouncing around time. He only seemed to get emotional when Charlotte’s nose bled.

Daniel seemed to actually take charge, something I hadn’t thought him capable of. I wasn’t quite sure why he dragged Charlotte, Miles, Juliet, and Sawyer to the Dharma station, but it did give him time to explain to a disbelieving Sawyer (and us) what was going on. Do you think Sawyer believed him?

Apparently the Others are not caught in the same “time warp” as the castaways, since John Locke, the new leader of the Others, flashed to a new time alone. Ethan wasn’t very friendly, but Richard Alpert may have saved John’s life. I loved Alpert’s conversation with John. The compass points north. Was I the only one who wondered if the compass was one of the items John was supposed to pick out when he was tested as a child? I checked – in the test, Locke picked the knife instead of the compass. Locke figured out his timeframe from the plane holding Yemi’s body and a whole lot of heroin. I still miss Mr. Eko.

The rules do not apply to Desmond. Daniel tells Sawyer that he can’t change the past, but then realizes that Desmond apparently can because of his unique qualifications. So Desmond must go to Oxford and find Daniel’s mother. I didn’t get this, but a lot of people think that Mrs. Hawking is Daniel’s mother. Desmond- you’ve already met her!

Wow, isn’t Charles Widmore a piece of work? He likes to be in control. Sun tells him that her common interest with Widmore is killing Benjamin Linus. I was really uncomfortable during the scene between Sun and Kate. I don’t believe that Sun means Kate well. How much has Sun changed? And why did she show a picture of an infant? Wouldn’t her daughter be about 2 by now?

I wasn’t sure what to make of Hurley’s anger at Sayid when the later decided it would be better to lie. Hurley said he wouldn’t help Sayid when he needed him, but he didn’t follow through on that threat in last night’s second episode. Maybe Hurley was too scared by Ninja-Sayid. Or perhaps by his feeling of helplessness after Sayid passed out.

Ana Lucia’s stopping Hurley was really exciting. She helped Hurley gather his wits about him, gave him some advice, then added, as though she had almost forgotten, “Oh, yeah, Libby says hi.” I wanted to cheer. More on her message later.

No surprise that Jack shaved. Surprise that Ben threw out Jack’s pills. (Although, as a public service announcement – it’s not good to flush medications in the toilet. Too easily enters the water supply.) What did Ben pull out of the vent? I couldn’t see. My absolute favorite line of the night was actually Jack’s. “He’s dead, isn’t he?” Well, Jack, death may be relative. Ben never did respond.

Second favorite line of the night came from Hurley’s mother, which I can only paraphrase, “There’s a dead Pakistani on my sofa!”

Favorite sight-gag of the night – Hurley throwing the hot pocket Ben when Ben startled him. Of course, he didn’t come close to Ben. Then we had to stare at the grease stain during their confrontation.

I’ll end this post on three notes:

1. Hurley’s scene with his mother, where he tells her the truth, was priceless. First, for Hurley’s description of events. We didn’t really get why the numbers had to be put in every 108 minutes either, Hurley. But how important for Hurley to hear from his mother that she believes him.
2. Hurley ignored Ana Lucia’s advice to avoid the cops, choosing to be arrested rather than trusting Ben. He instead paid attention to Sayid (the guy he wasn’t going to help), who said, “Whatever Ben tells you, do the opposite.” I can’t wait to find out whether Sayid broke with Ben and if so, why. But more importantly, I think Hurley’s decision will prove disastrous.
3. Mrs. Hawking reappears! We’ve seen her before in two Desmond-centric episodes. First, in “Flashes Before Your Eyes”, the episode where we find that Desmond has returned to the past, living with Penny in London, yet with a vague recollection that something was different. He decided to buy Penny a ring. The shopkeeper was Mrs. Hawking. She told Desmond he had to return to the island, and that his attempts to change what will happen in the future will fail, due to the universe’s “course correcting”. We also saw her in a picture with the abbot of Desmond’s abbey in “Catch-22”.

I’m sure I’ll post between now and next Thursday. One question I want to ponder: why do I trust ghosts more than Sayid? And other things that I just can’t it in today!

What did you think?