I Heart My Shih Tzu

It’s official: LOST is back. Season 5 premiered with a geeky bang, diving in head first with a time-bending, mind-altering two hours that was equal parts head scratcher and jaw dropper. There’s a lot to cover, and even more that’s still a little cloudy. I’ll try to hit the highlights and make sure we’re all on the same page, but forgive me, everything’s still a little fresh.


“TIME TRAVEL. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT?”
Believe it. Our season opener featured Dharma’s multi-aliased Orientation Leader have one of his recording sessions interrupted by an event at the Orchid Station. In a moment of foreshadowing, we see the initial discovery of the “exotic matter” beneath the Orchid that powers the “Time Machine" (which Ben used last year by turning the Frozen Donkey Wheel). And who’s there helping out? Daniel Faraday! How did he get there? That I don’t know. I’m unsure if we’re supposed to believe it was a deviation in his time travel trajectory, but I’m guessing we’ll learn more about this later. And speaking of time travel, let's take a step back.

Professor Faraday
If this whole mind-bending, time-bending, space-altering thing is unsettling or confusing to you, you’re not alone. Luckily, it appears LOST will attempt to hold our hand through the learning curve, with Professor Faraday as our guide and a bunch of castaways who are just as confused as the audience. Here’s what (I think) we know so far:

• Ben’s turning of the wheel has, as Faraday said, “Dislodged us from time.” That’s exactly that: while you and I are tethered to a linear, 24-hour-a-day, 365.25-days-a-year timeline, the Islanders are not.
• The Islanders – their physical selves, their thoughts, emotions, bases of knowledge and any material possessions they had on them when Ben turned the wheel – are sporadically jumping around a linear timeline.They all go at the same time, to the same time. So far.
  
• The presence of the things surrounding the Islanders – their camp, the Swan Station, etc. – is dependent upon the time period. If they’re in 2002, the camp doesn’t exist. Because as Faraday said, “It hasn’t been built yet.” So the people move on the timeline. The things around them stay put.
• And as far as rules go, the biggest one has to do with what you can and can't change while your flying through time. We'll get to that one in a bit.
  

So while the Islanders try to get their bearings, time keeps shifting. At first, they’re at whatever point in time it was when the Nigerian drug plane (carrying Mr. Eko’s brother Yemi) crashed. After that, they move to some point after the plane crash (as evidenced by the Swan Station’s obliterated state). And every time that bright light envelops the scene, it’s another shift in time.

Faraday seems both fulfilled and nervous about this situation. On one hand, he came to the Island to study this very phenomenon. It’s like Alexander Graham Bell finally hearing someone on the other end of the phone. On the other hand, this particular phenomenon imperils everyone on the Island, including himself. And since he’s the smartest man in the room, it’s up to him to save the day. A tall order for a nervous physics nerd. But it appears Faraday already has a plan.

When the Word "Special" is Actually a Compliment
When your mom calls you special, it’s because you eat paste. When Daniel Faraday calls you “special,” it’s because you might the missing link in quantum physics theory. Such is the case for Desmond. Faraday’s panicked meeting with a haz-mat-ready Desmond-from-the-past was outstanding. “You’re special Desmond, you’re uniquely and miraculously special,” Faraday said to Desmond. He told him that his present-day self (the Desmond that’s on the sailboat with Penny) needs to return to Oxford and speak to Daniel’s mother.

Why is Desmond special? Has he always been, or was it his three years of exposure to radiation (in the Swan Station) and/or turning of the fail-safe key that endowed him with some sort of ability to harness, withstand or control time travel? It appears that the Flashes before Desmond's eyes were not incidental, and that his ability to perceive different eras of time - and to have his conscious mind travel through those different eras - might be some sort of missing link for Faraday. Anybody who thought the Desmond/Penny storyline had ended is now officially wrong. Whether they like it or not, they're back in the picture.


Worst. First Day on the Job. Ever.
John Locke and Barack Obama should have a competition to see whose predecessor left him a bigger mess. The Others’ new leader is picking up the pieces from Ben’s wheel-turning escapades. After an encounter with the always creepy Ethan Rom, Locke is visited by Richard, who tells Locke to come find him after the next time shift, warning Locke that the Richard he visits won’t know who the heck he is. Inconveniently, Richard doesn’t explain much. But he does tell him that to save the Island, he must get the Oceanic Six back to the Island. Oh, and if that weren’t enough, Richard goes all Desmond on Locke’s ass with a grim, “You’re gonna have to die, (brutha).”


So why is Faraday telling Desmond to come back? Why is Richard telling Locke to get the Oceanic Six back? I think their rationales might be similar, and here’s my stab at it: the return of the Oceanic Six and/or Desmond would serve as an all-encompassing constant for those on the Island. It would stabilize the timeline. What happens if they don’t stabilize the timeline with a constant? Just ask George Minkowski. Oh wait, he died. Okay, ask Charlotte. Nose bleeds. Headaches. Forgetfulness. Their the first symptoms of the same Time Travelitis that befell those like Minkowski.

Faraday and Richard know that if they don’t find a constant for everyone, they’ll go from unstuck in time to unstuck from sanity. And we’ve seen where that road leads. But would the mere presence of the Oceanic Six and/or Desmond really be the calming force everyone needs? Only time (travel) will tell.


PANTS ON FIRE
See kids? This is why you tell the truth. If you lie, a bug-eyed Island demigod will haunt your existence with damning claims of the irreparable harm your lie has caused and he will manipulate you into returning to the site of your greatest downfall by threatening you with the death of your friends. So, yeah. Tell the truth.

Where We Stand
Lord knows Hurley would like to undo his deception. It really seemed, from last night’s episode, that Hurley’s dementia was a direct result of his guilt. He is haunted by what he’s done, and wants desperately to recalibrate his moral compass.

What we saw of the Oceanic Six last night was the exposition of what now seems an impossible task: getting everyone to agree to go back. Ben and Jack are on the same page, no doubt. And Kate – with the fear of God put into her by some DNA-testing lawyers – may not be far behind. Hurley also may be easy to persuade, provided he can find someone he trusts to push him in the right direction.

But Sun wants to murder Ben. Sayid might, too, after declaring that Ben has what I like to call “The George Costanza Complex”: whatever the man says is right, do the opposite. Clearly, this is going to take some heavy convincing. Good thing Ben’s always got a plan. Right?

Wrong. I think.
A visibly rattled, oddly submissive Ben last night seemed genuinely frustrated. We learned that he’s not working alone. He’s got a network of operatives who have an enormously important vested interest in the Oceanic Six’s return to the Island. There’s the butcher, who frightens me.

And then there was the return of Ms. Hawking, Desmond’s time travel sherpa from Season 3’s “Flashes Before Your Eyes.” It was from Hawking that we learned about the concept of “course correction,” the idea that fate has a roadmap, and while you can alter the streets you take toward the final destination, fate will ensure that you hit certain landmarks along the way and that, ultimately, you’ll arrive at the final destination. Nothing you do can change those roadmaps. Nothing you do can help you avoid them. You can take a side street. But all roads lead to your destiny. And your car is on auto-pilot. Have I driven this analogy into the ground enough? Good. Because it's important. It's precisely the aforementioned "rule" that Faraday laid out for Sawyer, and I have a feeling it's going to be a guiding force from here on out.

How about that creepy science experiment Ms. Hawking was doing? That made Faraday's Mouse in the Maze look like my 5th grade Science Fair project, titled, "How I purchased 10 different-sized styrofoam balls from Hobby Lobby, painted them and called it the solar system." Her experiment seemed to be trying to approximate a location, with her computer screen tracking that gigantic pendulum and triangulating different locations in space (and time?). Obviously, she's looking to locate the Island, and working with Ben to get the Oceanic Six back there.

But more importantly, it seemed Ms. Hawking really threw Ben off his game, much like she did to Desmond once. In that ominous church setting, she gave Ben a 70-hour deadline. When he expressed his doubt about meeting it, she showed zero sympathy. And for the first time in his character arc, Ben wilted. Hawking’s job is to figure out how to find and get back to the Island. If her mad scientist experiments from last night are any indication, she’s going to deliver. But Ben is 1 for 6 on his mission. He’s got work to do.

The Bigger Picture
Let’s remember this: in Flashes Before Your Eyes, the head monk (I’m sure there’s a correct name for that, but it’s 1 am) has a picture of himself with Hawking. Last night gave momentum to the theory that people in the “real world” who are working to guide Desmond, the Oceanic 815 passengers and others toward their destiny.

Ben referred to this return plot as “everything that we’re working for” as if it were some sort of grand conspiracy or at least something with grave consequences. For some reason, I didn’t see this coming. I genuinely thought Ben was working to get the Oceanic Six back to the Island in order to preserve it. But after that sinister, smoky-back-room-meeting with Hawking last night, I’m not so sure. “What happens if I can’t get them all back?” Ben asked. “Then God help us all,” replied Hawking.

There’s something bigger afoot here. I think it goes beyond “winning the war” with Widmore and it goes beyond any personal motivations. Whatever Hawking, Linus, Widmore and others are fighting for is global, historical, permanent and gravely important. And if the beginning of Season 5 is about the Oceanic Six getting back to the Island, the rest of the season might be about why.


Andddddddd Deep Breath
This is a lot to swallow. Time travel, quantum physics, life-or-death decisions, global conspiracies. Season 5 won’t be short on plot development, that’s for sure. While some say LOST risks skewing too far to the “Sci-Fi” side, I say bring it on. Not because I love sci-fi (I don’t really), but because I think these concepts provide a brilliant backdrop for LOST’s true core: the characters. Fate. Free will. Predestination. Redemption. All the show’s best character development devices are going to be put under the microscope. And that makes for a great story.

Namaste.
Charlie