Lets Get Coffee, We Can Go Dutch (in Our Flash-Sideways)

(Don't read below until you have watched the Lost Season Six
premiere! Written and published on February 3, 2010.)

When Juliet uttered the words "lets get coffee, we can go
dutch," to Sawyer, it was her way of telling him it worked,
before telling him it worked via Miles. How did she know it
worked? Perhaps as she was dying she could see or got a sense
of both worlds.

I like the idea of Juliet and Sawyer having coffee in a
Flash-Sideways once Sawyer gets out of LA X. Maybe together,
they'll plot how to con Hurley's lottery money away from him.
I do think though that Juliet being in the Flash-Sideways
world is wishful thinking because Miles heard her and not
Sayid - and he hears dead people. Also, everyone else was
thrown away from the bomb while Juliet was in the same
position, probably experiencing a lot of internal injuries
from the initial fall.That happened prior to the bomb just
like Sayid's injury and therefore she was probably gonna
die if the bomb went off or not.

Therefore it is probably wishful thinking (and a Jennie Wood
ending) that we see Sawyer come across Juliet in the
Flash-Sideways world. At least that's what I have to
tell myself, because I can't get my hopes up. Darlton
has confirmed her as dead, as in Dead is Dead.

Speaking of dead, Red Shirt alert:
Hurley is wearing a red shirt. Last season Juliet wore
the red shirt.In Star Trek terms, red shirt = death.
In Lost terms, it could = death.

My favorite reveal of last night was having it confirmed
(as much as something on Lost is confirmed) that Richard
Alpert was on the Black Rock. This happened when the
Man In Black as FLOCK (Fake John Locke) said it had been
a while and the last time they saw each other, Richard
was in chains. We've long suspected that Richard was on
the Black Rock from shots of him building a miniature
Black Rock, etc, but last night it was confirmed.
Richard was either a slave or a criminal
on the ship. Can't wait for THAT back story.

Speaking of the Black Rock, the book in the cave appears
to be Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling. It was published
in 1842, two years before the Black Rock set sail from
England. It was published under a fake author name,
John the Silent. (As in our John who really is
silent/ dead now.) Fear and Trembling features
alternate retellings of the same story which is what
we now have in season six. Nice.

We learned what was in the guitar case - a giant ankh
- featuring another one of Jacob's infamous lists / notes.


We learned that the Man In Black / Flock is the smoke
monster.I loved how Ben flopped on the ground when he
saw Smokey. Also, the very firstshot of Ben and Flock
reminded me of Macbeth. Ben standing there, blood on his
hands, having just killed Jacob for Fake John Locke
(like Macbeth does for Lady M). I want to see a summer
stock production of Macbeth starring Ben and Fake John
Locke.

Now what has happened to Sayid? I think Jacob using him
as a vessel is a good guess, but that seems a little too
obvious to me. The Man In Black using Sayid as his new
vessel I like even better. The Man In Black is trying
to get home, wants to get inside the temple. Did he
just achieve this as Sayid?

But then my mind goes back to when Kate and Sawyer
brought little Ben to the temple. Before Richard took
little Ben into the temple to be healed, he said
that Ben would never be the same, that Ben would
lose his innocence and he would not remember what
happened to him. I think this is what happened to
Sayid. He looked dumbfounded when he woke up. I
think if Jacob or MIB were using him as a vessel,
they'd wake up pretending to be him and know what
is going on.I think Sayid has been healed by the
temple like little Ben.

Sayid's words before he lost consciousness were:
"When I die, what's going to happen to me? I've
tortured...murdered. Where I'm going is not going
to be very pleasant." Then he's taken to the Temple,
at Jacob's request. That reminds me of another
ancient temple - Solomon's - that contained a
ritual bath, supplied by flowing waters from a
spring. Solomon's Temple also housed the Well of Souls,
where the souls of the dead gather to wait for
final judgment. It's also a place where the voices
(whispers like our Losties have heard on the island)
of the dead could be heard. Perhaps Jacob wanted to
make sure Sayid's soul was deposited in its proper
place. Perhaps before he took Sayid's body as a vessel.
Perhaps the MIB beat Jacob to it. But more likely
Jacob knew that, like little Ben, the temple would
heal Sayid. And it did.

Also, I love that little Ben was healed in the
temple from a gunshot wound by Sayid and now
Sayid is healed in the temple from a gunshot
wound by Roger, Ben's father. Is Sayid the new
Ben just as Claire will be the island's new
Rousseau - crazed mother running around the island,
separated from her baby?!

Along those lines of parallel stories, Kate went
back to the island to find Claire and ends up in
the Flash-Sideways sitting next to Claire in the
getaway cab. Claire will be very pregnant - will
Kate help deliver Aaron again? Jack went back to
the island on behalf of Locke, and ends up getting
consoled by him at LA X. Will Jack help
Locke walk again? This is Jack so he'll at least
try to.

Locke telling Jack that Oceanic didn't lose
Christian, they just lost his body may be
the theme for the whole season, implying that
bodies don't matter. That and Jack's
last line in that scene - nothing is irreversible.
(Although my favorite line of the night
is probably Boone asking Locke: Are you pulling
my leg?)

This time on flight 815, Hurley was lucky, Sawyer
was polite, Jack was nervous, Rose was not, Boone
didn't 'save' Shannon from a bad choice thus freeing
himself from her. Rose and Bernard were happy.
Meanwhile, Jin was back to being the
overbearing husband, Sun looked like she wanted
to escape from him, Kate was still under arrest
and Charlie was still an addict.

Jack had one liquor bottle, not two and he spilled
a little. Jack's hair is longer than in the pilot
episode and we see him in the mirror looking at himself,
looking at himself getting older perhaps? Does that
mean that the Flash-Sideways and our bomb survivors
are both in the same time now? 2007? How can that
be with the island UNDERWATER? And how did that happen?
The bomb?!

We saw Desmond on the flight and then he disappeared.
Is he still time flashing? He appeared to be too calm
for that. He was wearing a wedding band so my guess is
that Flash-Sideways Desmond did marry Penny and is
working for Charles Widmore.

We finally saw what happened to Cindy (flight attendant),
and the kids, Zack and Emma from the plane. And we
finally saw the temple. Of course, with Lost,
answers bring new questions, starting with: Why
was Jack bleeding on the plane? And for next week:
How will 'What Kate Does' differ from the season
two episode / flashback 'What Kate Did?'

- J