LA X (601 & 602)

k. so. WTF in the first place. now we have to deal with flash-sideways? really? it was bad enough trying to figure out whether it was a forward or backward.

since we're on that subject...lets deal with that first. what did charlie mean "i was supposed to die"? very mucn a reference to hawking's whole "destiny self-corrects" idea, but since he didn't die on the plane, will we see him die in that reality down the road?

also, desmond...wtf?!? i've been mulling this one over now for a few days. at first i thought it could have been him flashing again since they never showed up & faraday never helped him get his anchor, but then i remembered that the island was on the bottom of the ocean so i figured even if desmond had ever made it to the island, he wasn't alive to be flashing any more. then i read some peoples' idea that since he never ended up on the island, he theoretically could have been on the oceanic 815 flight. i just don't think so. seems like too much of a cop-out. besides...where did he go then? no, desmond wasn't on that plane save that short convo with jack. yes, jack had a moment of recollection when desmond used "see you in another life, brother", but it could just have been because THEY HAD MET BEFORE. remember a little incident in an empty stadium with a sprained ankle? jack had the same look when they first met desmond down in the hatch and he called jack "brother". now, maybe that's over-simplifying it and it would be nice if jack had some sort of frequency-esque thing going on in his brain, but it doesn't seem like it...at least not yet.

another "huh?" ::grabs hair and pulls it out:: moment was hurley feeling like the luckiest man on earth and boone being there without shannon. hurley's bad luck started before he had ever learned about the numbers. it started with that dock collapsing. ps...how did he win the lotto? did the dock still collapse and did he still commit himself where he learned about the numbers? that in itself kinda begs the question when exactly did the island sink? if it sank because of the nuclear warhead in 1977, then i guess toomey and simms would have heard the numbers back in the day. also (tangent) what does this mean about ben and richard and all the others and the dharma people and...JACOB? when was it that jacob visited each of the survivors? did he visit any of them after 1977? did he survive the blast? did he survive the island sinking? (double tangent) is he now, much like obi wan, more powerful than [smoky] can ever imagine? anyway...more on jacob later. back to hurley. so, if hurley did commit himself to the asylum where he heard the numbers, then it probably was still because of his guilt over the dock collapsing in which case, why does he feel like the luckiest man alive? they came up with a reason for him to be in australia besides trying to find toomey, but only so they could get away with him saying how lucky he is.

boone's lack of shannon on the other hand seems to only be a writers excuse for a lack of actress. it also made it easier to let boone and locke have a connection.

on a short side note, i'm sad for bernard and rose since she probably still has cancer.

moving along, it was a very interesting conversation between jack and locke in the customer service area for oceanic. "nothing is irreversable." what does that mean, jack? and locke saying "no one knows where your father is, they just lost his body"...real deep and philosophical, john. the last place we saw christian was with claire on the island, so i suppose, in the sense that no one knows where the island is, no one does know where christian is. although, since the island is deep under the south pacific, would he have gone there? doubtful.

it all goes back-ish to jacob. who is he? where is he now that the island is gone, or at least uninhabitable? also, how come jacob could leave the island, but smoky never could? he says, when he's talking with ben, that the difference (he might even call it the irony) is that he's "inhabiting" or posing as or whatever as john and john was the only on who didn't want to leave the island and that is the only thing that smoky does want. also...what's all this business about "jacob's body guards"? are they part of a group who's sister cell in egypt is charged with keeping people from waking imhotep? and who is that asian guy who's too cool for english? why did jacob add them to the list just now even though he had contacted all of them long ago? that brings up the point that the list is real and jacob did really give ben names; he wasn't just wielding the name jacob to do whatever he wanted. and in that case, how was the list delivered to ben? did he take dictation for jacob? did he just get pre-written lists?

remember when richard went to see a very young john? one of the items was a book of law...now what laws those were has been debated. some have suggested that they were the laws of time travel, others that they were "the laws" in a much more biblical sense, or that it just represented order apart from science. now some pieces have clicked for me and i believe that those laws are the same rules that ben mentions to widmore after keamy kills alex which are the same rules that prevent smoky from outright killing jacob. there's probably something along the lines of "no killing" either "innocents" or "unless first attacked" or something like that. or maybe it's like in the matrix where if everyone is agent smith and there's no neo then the force is out of balance or some such...maybe you just can't harm your own counterpart or his family, though i don't know who would be the good guy between ben and widmore.

speaking of good guy, i thought they made it plenty clear about how important sayid was without having him in the crucifix pose when they pulled him out of the pool. also...perhaps his body is now posessed by recently deceaced jacob (it would be cool, though i would miss sayid), but don't go assuming that just because smoky took on the form of john, that now jacob is going to take over sayid's actual body. that's an absurd jump in logic. who knows where that's going...especially with introducing a slew of new characters, including weird asian and hippie translator.

there has been some pondering what juliet ment when she wanted to tell sawyer "it worked." i believe quite clearly, she meant causing the explosion worked just the way they wanted it to. during her semi-concious babblings about getting coffee and going dutch, she must have been slipping between realities...probably...i think...at least it makes the most sense to me at the moment.

that's about all i can think of for right now. please leave comments, questions, other theories, anything. i'd love to hear from you.