Yes, we got caught up with everyone, and I do mean everyone: the Oceanic 6, the Losties back on the island, the freighter folk, the Others and even the Dharma Initiative circa 1970s. But I felt like everything we saw were things we’d find out more about in future episodes. In some ways that makes sense since the season premiere is the opening for an entire season to come, but by the end of the night I just felt unfulfilled. Evidently so did a lot of other fans according to this Los Angeles Times article that analyzed Lost’s ratings on Wednesday and found that not only did Lost return “to its lowest season-premiere numbers ever,” but “the premiere lost viewers every half-hour it was on.” (link) Now that is some really bad news for a show entering its fifth season.
I think part of the problem with this week’s episodes is that they were so heavily focused on the sci-fi aspect of Lost’s mythology. Obviously Lost has always had a sci-fi tent to it with a deadly smoke monster, ageless Others and at the center of the show a mysterious and magical island, but this week was different. The time traveling seemed to have taken Lost to the next sci-fi level, and even for a big sci-fi fan like myself it didn’t all make sense. The biggest question I have is why are the Losties affected by the time travel while others on the island are not.
It seems like the writers of Lost make up these rules but pick and choose when they want to break them. Like why does the time travel not affect the Others but it does affect Juliet, a former Other? Also, it’s obviously affecting the Losties on the beach, so is it also affecting the other passengers of Flight 815 who now live with the Others (like Cindy the flight attendant and Emma and Zack, the kids from the tail end of the plane)? Then we get the horribly hoaky explanation from Daniel Faraday that everything with them like their clothing, backpacks and the motorboat are being transported through time with them, but the Losties’ camp and their other supplies are not. Now how does that make any sense at all?!?Oh yeah, and can you believe they’ve brought back Ana Lucia for the second time? I’d take a Libby appearance over Ana Lucia any day! Speaking of dead former cast members, I was really hoping to have a Nikki cameo when Hurley’s dad sat down to start watching a repeat of Expose.
There were some things I did like about the episode though. Like how quickly the show is killing off every survivor of Flight 815 who is not a main character. After this week’s attack of flying flaming arrows is there even anyone left at this point? It was also nice to see Ben’s network of Others working together in the present time to find the island. But, was anyone else not surprised to see Desmond’s friend from the clock shop show up working with Ben?
Some other little interesting tidbits we learned this week include Marvin Candle a.k.a. Mark Wickmund a.ka. Edgar Halliwax’s real name (it’s Dr. Pierre Chang), that Frank Lapidus will show up in Season 5 (for at least one scene so far!), and that Desmond really is Lost’s constant. Here’s hoping we find out more lingering questions (like why does Richard Alpert never age and how does he know Locke needs to die to bring back the Oceanic 6 and save the island) in the coming weeks.