Sawyer Kicks Jack in the Face = Awesome

Swan, Arrow, and Pearl,

Okay, I've calmed down. I've taken a few days, read a handful of articles (including your posts), and eased my anxieties a bit. A bit.

First, I'll take a cue from Swan and talk about how this episode made me feel. This was my original opening sentence... "Mulltiverse? Why did Lost decide to become a crappy DC crisis event!" (I know, could I make nerdier reference?) I hate to be that guy, but my initial reaction to the premier was not a very good one. And it all started with that terrible CG underwater scene. Seriously, did they drag the designers of Jaws 3D out of retirement for that? Also, the idea of alternate realities seems a very risky line to walk particularly when you very closely walked a time travel line the season before. I have four main issues with alternate realities on this show. 1. Warren Ellis is the only writer that has ever pulled off alternate realities well in my opinion. 2. If Arrow's "cat in the box" theory is correct, which makes a lot of sense, that would mean that one of the story lines is completely inconsequential, which would be lame in my opinion. Why do care what happens to someone in a reality that doesn't exist? 3. My other working theory is that they showed us the premier and finale on Tuesday. That after all the business on the Island is settled they do what they thought they did at the end of last season and reset everything. In that case, they're trying to fit two seasons worth of story into this one. 4. And most of all. The one question that everyone had going into Tuesday's premier was "did it work?" And the answer they gave us was "Yes! And, no. But, yes!" I had a professor that told us "90% of writing is about making choices" and it kind of seems like they just refused to make a choice on Tuesday.

Second, it kind of pissed me off that they kept Juliet alive... for five minutes. They've essentially killed her three times now! The first, when she lets go of Sawyer's hand and falls to her death, which was the most heart wrenching scene maybe in the whole series. Then it turns out she survived the fall only to blow herself up, still pretty good 'cause there's a whole sacrificial element to the death. And then, she's still kicking in "island present" time long enough to ask Sawyer on a date... after they've been married for three years. I don't know, you can only pluck my heart strings so many times before I start going out of tune.

Now, since I've been thinking about those two things, I realized that they both happened pretty early in the episode and that probably biased me against the rest of the really cool things that happened. The more I think about it, the more I love the coming war between the Jacobians and Esau. In the NYT article from Wednesday, Mike Hale talks about my favorite line of the episode, "I want to go home." And assumes that if the Island is not Esau's home than perhaps he was imprisoned there and Jacob's purpose on the Island is primarily as Warden. (Here I must acknowledge that I was completely wrong in thinking that Esau and the Smoke Monster were two completely different entities. I am eating a slice of humble pie.) So the rest of this season for the Others and the Survivors and Jacob is finding a way to keep Esau on the Island. Also, when Arrow suggested that Sayid is Jacob now, that was something I hadn't even considered and got me really excited.

When Sawyer kicked Jack in the face... that was awesome. And, if Sawyer hooks up with Kate again I will hate him as much as I love him right now. He better be heartbroken for the rest of the series.

As far as the LAX story goes, I thought (after I got over the shock of hating the idea of it) it was pretty entertaining. It made me really respect the acting job that the cast is doing on this show. Because in this episode all of them are essentially play two almost entirely different characters, except Kate who never seems to grow or change at all. I don't know if I see the exaggerations of character that y'all did, I think it just highlighted how great the character development on this show has been when we were reminded who these people used to be.

Was it still the best thing on television on Tuesday night. Absolutely. But, for the first time ever I am feeling worried about them pulling this off.

-Hydra

P.S. I think that 90% of writing quote might actually be from the movie "Wonder Boys" now that I think about. Also, hyperlinks are super fun.