Lost season 6 thread

[marwyn]

I don't get why all the fans say that Desmond will have such a huge role in this season. Is it because pretty much everyone loves him, or is there some basis for this? He will probably appear in this season

Heck, he even has his own centric (6.11)

But why do so many people think he's the thing that ties the alt and the real timeline together? He can see the future, doesnt mean he can switch between alternate universes at will.

But then again I was laughing at everyone who thought that Hurley's guitar case had an ankh inside, too. :/

This episode was even crazier than the Incident. One of the best parts was when Flocke talked about Locke. Terry O'Quinn's better than ever.

I'm not sure if I liked the chinese dude, and the Temple scenes were great but weird.. I never pictured the others like this. They seemed like some kind of weird religious sect. But I'm curious to see how it will play out. And what made Cindy want to join the Others? When she sees the Losties she's not even glad to see them. The way she talks about "the first plane, the one I was on" suggests she's completely gone over to the Others. I'm curious as to why. And also why the Others recruited some tailies but harassed the rest of the 815 survivors..

I have a feeling that Sawyer's going over to the dark side, since he's so angry at Jack at the moment, and I dont think that'll be going away soon.

Also awesome to see a different side of Hurley. For once he's not used just for comic relief, but he was actually playing leader, sort of.

Alt was also very good, but I'll echo what most people said about it: i wonder if it's going anywhere. Will it have any connection with the main story, or will it stay completely separate?

[Kalbear]

Probably they think Desmond will have a big part because he's been intimated from the get-go that he's very special and crucial, and of all the various twists and turns the island has gone through he's been the one that was most attuned to it; he was part of the hatch when the power was still contained, then he gained the unstuck through time ability and could see future realities, then he could travel back and forth through time, then he could apparently communicate successfully through time.

And now he appears to be able to travel to other timelines.

No one else has the plot-based mechanics like he does (though Sayid might be close now). So it stands to reason that he'll play a fairly big role in th ending.

As to this show - it still pisses me off how much they fucked with Locke and ultimately made him a weak, lame guy - and retconned it so that this was a central part of his character. I realize that this was all manipulation via smoky, but it makes the underlying eps with him much much weaker (or at least him being so weak). It was vaguely nice to see him as a confident, 'real' Locke. But it was also pretty lame.

Very tired of the alternate timeline. Here's a way to fuck dramatic tension right in the ear: let's deal with Sayid's death and Juliet's death, and then cut to Kate going to the bathroom. Excellent plan. I care about as much for the alternate timeline as I did the flashbacks; most of the time they're irrelevant. And right now they basically look like a bunch of fanwanky wink, wink things saying 'ooh, see, if the island's gone then no one repeats the numbers and all is good with Hurley!' and "boone failed like you saw in his flashback, except not". Meh. They did a much better job last season with the separate groups and storylines. Or the season before with the 'is this in the past or the future' flashbacks.

The temple stuff and the smoke monster...I'm glad they finally told us straight out that it was him. Here's what I don't get - why is Ben able to call the smoke monster to come kill the mercs? They heavily implied that the Others in general had some power or control over it, yet here they seem to simply fear it entirely. My theory is that smokey had two components: a superconscious and a monster part. The monster part just read minds and made bad decisions, but couldn't really be a 'brain' until it got out of that cabin (what was saying 'help me'). But..who knows, right?

Any ideas on what Christian Shepherd is? Or why Claire got all cult hippie and walkabout?

[RaceBannon42]

Actually it was a long time before going to Australia. It was right after Jack had operated on his wife-to-be (unsuccessfully, as he thought).

pri⋅or  /ˈpraɪər/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [prahy-er] –adjective 1. preceding in time or in order; earlier or former; previous: A prior agreement prevents me from accepting this.

[Slurktan]

Race and Jon AS,

Desmond meeting Jack in the stadium would not have happened in the alternate timeline, at least not without some other interference. Desmond meets Jack in the stadium because he is training to do his race around the world to prove that he loves Penny and to win Charles Widmore's race. In the alternate timeline Charles Widmore would have died on the island in 1977 and so would not have gotten exiled off the island to run a giant company which would later decide to create a sailing race around the world. So Desmond would have nothing to train for and presumably have no reason to be in LA.

kalbear,

As to this show - it still pisses me off how much they fucked with Locke and ultimately made him a weak, lame guy - and retconned it so that this was a central part of his character. I realize that this was all manipulation via smoky, but it makes the underlying eps with him much much weaker (or at least him being so weak). It was vaguely nice to see him as a confident, 'real' Locke. But it was also pretty lame.

When did they ever show Locke not being a weak, lame guy? Even in his "power episodes" of season 1 he is still shown repeatedly to be a failure with severe crippling mental issues.

[Tb0ne]

I might be alone here but I do not think this alternate timeline is going to have the happier ending. After seeing the island underwater it seems to suggest that it is going to be used to show what the stakes are in the coming conflict for control of the future of the island (i.e. what the island actually means and why it being underwater is a bad beyond the fact that hundreds/thousands of people would have died when it sank).

[Jon AS]

pri⋅or  /ˈpraɪər/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [prahy-er] –adjective 1. preceding in time or in order; earlier or former; previous: A prior agreement prevents me from accepting this.

Yes, but your way of putting it made it sound as if they ran into each other a few days before Jack headed to Australia.:P

Race and Jon AS,

Desmond meeting Jack in the stadium would not have happened in the alternate timeline, at least not without some other interference. Desmond meets Jack in the stadium because he is training to do his race around the world to prove that he loves Penny and to win Charles Widmore's race.

Argh. Okay, this brings up the question of Penny's age. Was she born prior to 1977?

[Imagica]

I think so. And it's not like it would matter, seeing as

Ben, for example, is alive and well in alternative universe (and possibly, other inhabitants of the island too)

[Kalbear]

When did they ever show Locke not being a weak, lame guy? Even in his "power episodes" of season 1 he is still shown repeatedly to be a failure with severe crippling mental issues.

Much of Season 3 was getting Locke back to being a badass who was confident that he had some purpose to fulfill. His first focus ep was entirely about that, for example. Season 3 was all about bad-ass Locke; he cons Ben, cons Sawyer, convinces the Others that he's the right dude, talks to Jacob, gets betrayed by Ben and says fuck it despite having, ya know, a hole through his stomach, fights the Others and kills Naomi. S4 starts out even moreso in that vein; he's right about the mercs, fights them well, organizes the Others, and does some awesome time traveling stuff.

I think they've played back and forth with him being alternatingly awesome and sniveling. But he's quite often been a bad ass leader, confident in his abilities and his beliefs.

[CloudFlare]

Any ideas on what Christian Shepherd is? Or why Claire got all cult hippie and walkabout?

When did Claire go all cult hippy? Are you thinking of Cindy?

I think Christian Sheppard as 'Jacob' was just a body for Smoky to act with. It's strange that the smoke part of the monster was on the outside of the ash, yet somehow Christian's body was being animated.

I'd like to see if the New Jacob's List is reconciled with the Old Jacob's List. They're pretty close. Maybe Ben will explain that he lft people off it.

[Kalbear]

Claire went all hippy when she was looking completely drugged out while hanging out with Christian (and not shouting about MAI BABY WHERE'S MAI BABY) over and over. Locke ran into her first, and then Sun ran into her later...maybe.

[Ran]

It seems very likely that when Sun ran into Claire with "Christian", that that manifestation of Christian was Smokey -- SmokeyLocke ran off for awhile, and we know that's his MO when he's changing into Smokey form or taking another shape (see: "Alex" with Ben).

So ... some have put forward that Claire's dead and they're seeing a manifestation, or it could be that Smokey has done something to her to have her help him out in some fashion. She may not realize what's what.

[Kalbear]

So why has he consistently taken Jack's dad's form?

Why talk to the dog in that pre-vignette bit a while back? Couldn't he just go wake up Jack his own damn self? And does Vincent care that Jack's dad is telling him to get to work? Just seems odd.

[DanteGabriel]

So why has he consistently taken Jack's dad's form?

Maybe cause he had the corpse handy?

[Ran]

It's possible that some of the Christian-apparations are not Smokey/Man in Black/whatever you want to call him (the _other_ dude from Deadwood), but actually "the island" or even actually Christian's ghost/spirit/whatever. Why any of these would use Vincent to wake Jack up rather than doing it themselves is a question that can't be answered.

As to why the Christian form, I would guess that it's because of the fact that Smokey only seems to take the forms of the dead. Christian was the only dead person on the island directly related to one of the survivors (two of the survivors, in fact), IIRC, and so would doubtless have rather more sway than just taking on the body of a totally random dude. Why continue to show up as Christian? Jack was clearly a leader of the survivors pretty early on, so why not?

[Demonblade]

Locke went all 'badass' because he thought he was special, which he has believed all his life but that turned out to not be true. In Season 3 with 'bad-ass Locke', Kalbear predictably forgets that Locke did everything because he believed that he was told to, by Jacob, or Ben through Jacob or to put it more broadly, 'the island'. A recurring theme of Locke was that he was an easily-manipulated pawn. He was led on his time-traveling mission through deceit, and through his time-travels he manages to run into Richard making him believe that Locke was special, so I don't think that anything Locke did was against that notion. To me, he's always been a disaster, and I knew when Locke was set up as the 'leader' that something was amiss because how could such a weak and naive person be the leader? I like that it turns out that he was never intended to be the leader in the first place, as it was all a ploy for MiB to gain his freedom and to kill Jacob.

[Trebla]

This is what is botheing me most about last night's revelations: Christian Shepherd. All of the other Smokey Manifestations have either been malevolent (Eko's brother, the killer spiders) or at least mean-spirited like Hurley's imaginary friend.

Christian has been different. He helped Jack find the water in the cave. He guided Locke into moving the island. He told Sun she needed to find Jin. None of that fits with Smokey's motives of removing people from the island and killing Jacob.

All that fits is that he would need Locke off the island so Ben could kill him. But alot of the rest doesn't really fit.

[Demonblade]

This is what is botheing me most about last night's revelations: Christian Shepherd. All of the other Smokey Manifestations have either been malevolent (Eko's brother, the killer spiders) or at least mean-spirited like Hurley's imaginary friend.

Christian has been different. He helped Jack find the water in the cave. He guided Locke into moving the island. He told Sun she needed to find Jin. None of that fits with Smokey's motives of removing people from the island and killing Jacob.

All that fits is that he would need Locke off the island so Ben could kill him. But alot of the rest doesn't really fit.

Maybe there's two smokeys. :leaving:

[Ran]

We could have the island and Smokey both using Christian, maybe. That said, if Christian was Smokey all along, maybe one can piece together that it was all part of a ... well, a long con, as Sawyer called it, to put everything to where it is now.

[Kalbear]

Maybe cause he had the corpse handy?

So why would he manifest as a black stallion? Just...odd. But I think that's simply inconsistent writing more than anything else.

As to Locke - I agree, Demon - that's how he's seemed to be for a lot, especially recently: as an easily manipulated pawn. Ben showed this in S2, the smoke monster shows this now. In between that was a man who was happily led by conviction and faith, and while he was a pawn he was an exceptionally charismatic and strong one from time to time provided he had those convictions. Remember how it was between Locke and Jack - and how many times Jack was wrong and Locke was right? There was something there, something reasonable.

And it seems removed, and I miss it.

[Ran]

Did he manifest as the stallion? We don't know that. Could be the island, rather than Smokey. My own view has been that ever since we came across the Flame station and the fact that Radzinsky had horses there, that the horse had escaped from its pen there.