Season 6, Episodes 1&2: LA X

I think the whole theme of this episode just proves the theory that everything is a cycle. Everything repeats itself. We have seen this underlying theme in the past seasons of LOST (the french woman's distress call repeating for 16 years...repeating the numbers over and over...the talk between Jacob and the man in black about how "they come, they fight, they leave, and then it all ends the same") - this suggests that the same things keep happening over and over again. It is all just a cycle. The survivors crashed on the island, then six of them were rescued and went home. Then they come back again, but end up in 1977, so they set up an experiment to leave so as to prevent it all from ever happening, but sure enough here they are, still there on the island...) This is just one big cycle where they keep coming to the island, leaving, coming back again, leaving, etc. It is all one big cycle - and as Jacob said, everything that happens before that, it's just progress.

The biggest question going into this episode was whether or not their hydrogen bomb experiment was going to work or not. At first we think it worked, as we see Jack on the plane again, which gets through the rough turbulence and eventually does land in L.A.. We also see underneath the ocean is the foot of the statue, showing us that the island is underwater. So this of course would suggest that when the bomb exploded, it did "erase" the future where they come to the island, the hatch was never built, none of those events ever happen. However, then we see Kate wake up on the island, along with Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, Jin, etc., amongst the remnants of the previously blown-up hatch...which shows that the hatch was in fact built, because now it is a big hole in the ground after Desmond blew it up. This "alternate reality" in which we see them all on the plane - is this in fact an alternate reality or did they truly land safely in L.A.? Miles said that Juliet was going to tell Sawyer that "IT WORKED." I think that it did in fact work - they landed the plane without crashing on the island, but that all the survivors will end up coming into contact with each other (because it is their destiny) and somehow they will end up back on the island again...which is how they are there again now. They are unaware that "it worked" because I don't think that has happened yet so of course they have no memory of ever landing in L.A.

We see in these alternate reality flashbacks each of the survivors on Flight 815 as they are on the plane. Clearly they don't know each other, although we do see that they come into contact with eachother and their lives start to intertwine despite not having crashed on the island (Locke and Boone, Jack and Charlie, Jack and Locke, Kate and Sawyer, etc.) - I think this whole season is going to be "flashbacks" of what happens to them after they land in L.A. from flight 815 (in 2004), the events that bring all of them together and somehow get them to the island again which is where they are again now (present time) at the Temple. The thing is, they don't seem to be aware that the experiment worked...if they did land in L.A. and somehow made it back to the island, they seem to have no memory of that.

There were some differences to the "real" flight 815 though. For example, Charlie passes out in the bathroom trying to swallow his bag of heroin. Of course this never happened before because he was in the bathroom when the plane crashed. Jack saved his life (just like he saved his life on the island when Ethan hung him from the tree). Charlie is upset with him and says he was "supposed to die." We know this was his destiny also from when Desmond tells him that he is supposed to die.

Also different on the plane is that Boone is without Shannon. He tells Locke he went to rescue her from a boyfriend but she did not come back with him. We also see Hurley talking about how lucky he is and that nothing bad ever happens to him. Desmond also comes and sits in Jack's row for a bit...we know obviously that Desmond was not on the original plane because he was on the island in the hatch (so by "erasing" the past, did that also mean that Desmond never went to the island either and somehow he really was on the plane in this "new" reality?) We never saw him after he moved from his seat or while getting off the plane, so I am wondering if he truly was on the plane or if that was all in Jack's head. We also never physically saw Claire on the plane, yet we saw her in the cab leaving the airport. The big question to me, is that in this "alternate reality" since there clearly are some big differences in the survivors lives and the events that happened on the plane, will this effect their futures? We have always heard the line that you can't change your destiny, what's meant to be is what will be. So, with these new things occuring, will that change their lives? For example, now that Kate has escaped, what will become of her? What about Sun and Jin, he was detained at the airport and she is doing nothing to stop them. Jack has an encounter with Locke who opens up his mind about faith and spirituality after they lost his father's body (he's not "lost," Locke tells him) - so will these things in this alternate reality change what was "supposed" to happen? As Jack tells Locke, "nothing is irreversible." This goes against Jack's original beliefs about destiny. It is not until Locke dies that he starts to believe in destiny and that he can't change things. What's meant to be is meant to be. So, Jack is speaking against what he later comes to believe as destiny - that things are NOT irreversible because you can't change what is your destiny.

Now...let's move away from the "alternate reality" timeline and move on to the REALITY of what is happening there on the island. It is now present time and we've discovered that Jacob was just killed by Ben. Of course, it is revealed that fake-Locke is in fact the smoke monster (see I said this last year!) who is able to take over the bodies of the deceased in order to appear to others. He took on the body of Locke after he died and fooled everyone into believing that was really him. He had to do this in order to kill Jacob, because he needed that "loophole" in order to kill him. If you recall in one of the early seasons, Locke came face to face with the black smoke and it saved him. Perhaps this is why it then came to him to use his body - because it trusted him. This is not the first time the black smoke has "used" someone's body to come about in human form. I believe all the times we have seen Christian Shephard, that is also the black smoke. Since the plane crashed on the island with his coffin, the smoke monster took the form of his body. When we saw Christian in Jacob's cabin, that was really the smoke monster. It was the monster who went to Ben in the form of his daughter Alex and told him he had to listen to Locke. And it was the smoke monster who tricked Locke and told him he was going to have to die. This was how he "conned" him into sacrificing his own body for him to take over so he could kill Jacob. Even way back when Ben brought Locke to Jacob's cabin and Locke heard the words "Help Me," that was the smoke monster speaking to him (not Jacob as he thought) - asking him to help him because he needed his body in order to kill Jacob. The smoke monster was asking Locke for help.

Of course in true Lost fashion we have a lot of religious references. Let's start with the black ash that serves as a protectant around Jacob's cabin and around his bodyguards when the smoke monster is trying to kill them. Whatever is inside the black ash, the smoke monster cannot get to. Black ash is symbolic of repentance - it is used during Lent (Ash Wednesday) and is often used to represent the mortality of the body and the immortality of the spirit. This black ash is the only thing that can keep Jacob and his followers "safe" from the evil smoke spirit.

The other huge religious references was that in the death (and resurrection) of Sayid. Jacob comes to Hurley and tells him to bring him to the Temple. The spiritual leaders living there take Sayid's body inside into some sort of a Spring. They mention that the water is not clear (not "pure") and after slicing open his hand and putting it into the water, it does not heal. Almost as if the water is supposed to heal it, they seem surprised that it is not. I am wondering if because Jacob is dead, that is why the water is no longer pure or a "healer." Is the water meant to be like a baptism, a "renewal" of life? I also noticed that when they carried Sayid into the water, his arms were outstretched like Jesus on the cross. Then after he died, he rose again (resurrection). Did Jacob "save" him? Or, what I am thinking, is that Jacob BECAME him. Just like the evil smoke monster "took" Locke's body so he could have human form, I am thinking that Jacob "took" Sayid's body after he died, because he needed a body to come back as. This is the loophole that Jacob and the black smoke needed in order to fight eachother. Will this now be a war between Good and Evil (fake-Locke vs. fake-Sayid)?

I am also very intrigued by "Jacob's List" - we have heard this reference many times in the past, when the Others were "taking" people and always said "so and so is on Jacob's list." Now when Hurley came to the Temple and showed them what was inside the guitar case, they break open the wooden ankh (from the four-toed statue where Jacob lived) and inside was a piece of paper. I have to assume that was Jacob's "list" as he asked them all their names and then immediately went against his original plan of killing them. Why are their names on the list and why is Jacob protecting them? We have seen that Jacob went to visit certain people in the past and we assume that is why they were all "brought" to the island. Why did Jacob bring these special people there and why is he so willing to protect them at all costs?

Finally, when fake-Locke comes out of Jacob's statue and runs into Richard Alpert, he smiles at him and says "nice to see you out of those chains." Ben seems shocked that they have met before (because of course he thought he knew EVERYTHING about the island!) and then fake-Locke knocks Richard out and carries him away after telling the rest of the group that he is disappointed in all of them. I am curious about the reference to chains. My immediate thought was of the chains of St. Peter. (I only remember this because on a trip to Rome in one of the cathedrals I remember seeing the entombment where they keep the chains today.) Apparently St. Peter was imprisoned in Jerusalem. Peter is one of Jesus' apostles, who denied knowing him three times after Jesus' arrest. This is metaphoric to Richard Alpert, who is also an "apostle" of Jacob. Did he "betray" him as well by letting him die? I don't know what the reference to the chains means, but clearly the smoke monster has been "locked" up for a long time, unable to carry out his intentions, now only with Locke's body is he able to do so. Were the tables turned long ago, and Richard was the one locked up? Maybe Richard was Jacob in a previous life (his body) - it seems like "good" (Jacob) and "evil" (black smoke) have just been going through this CYCLE where they try to get eachother, having to use the bodies of those who come to the island. Just like Jacob said in the beginning, about how they always come, they fight, they leave, but it always ends up the same in the end. It is all one big cycle.