Season Four - The Beginning of the End

Hot damn, LOST is back! I am truly loving life. Welcome back all. Hello to the newcomers. Hope ya stick around for awhile. Season 4 of LOST starts with a bang! We all know about the writers strike and that only 8 of the 16 episodes were filmed. There will be some answers and the story will have a natural arch in these 8 episodes. There will also be mini-cliffhanger. That is going to hurt but at least we will get some answers. Even if the writers came back today, season 4 is over. We can only hope that they come back soon and turn season 5 into a 23 episode season with no repeats. That’s the least they can do for us fans.

I want to thank all that came to the LOST season premiere party. We had a blast playing LOST Scattergories. I will definitely re-design the game for the season finale. Speaking of that…mark your calendars now! It is roughly going to be March 27th or April 3rd depending on how ABC designs the schedule. I hope they are true to the writers who designed it to run uninterrupted, but who knows! I will make sure to keep you updated as things develop. Anyway on with the show! We are going to stick with our normal format – Summary, Connections, Questions, Conclusion.

Summary

Great title. I think that says it all. It is at this point the Losties adventure turns from plane crash and discovering the island to survival and rescue. I thought it was a great episode. It moved slowly and didn’t reveal too much, but it laid the groundwork for this season. I liked the fact that it was Hurley centered since he plays such an integral part of the cast. He sometimes is the unknown quotient. I’m bad at math so if that’s a bad analogy-sorry. When he threw the walkie-talkie in the ocean and marched into the jungle. Bad ass! But it’s also nice when he cannonballed into the ocean. Gotta love Ben. He is my all-time favorite character on a show. Best line:” Jack, with your permission, I’d like to go with John.” Love it! We were introduced to a new character – George Minkoswki from the boat. It’s hard with a show like this because I think I have seen him before. Of course I have in other things. But it’s easy to slip into the – Was he on the show before, was he in someone’s flashback.

There were several key lines this episode:
Naomi – “Tell my sister I love her.” We know there are other sister issues – Jack & Claire and Juliette and her sister which is why she is on the island in the first place. Who is her sister and how does she figure into the bigger picture?

Matthew Abbadon – “Are they still alive?” I am most interested in the “they” part of that. Does he mean Dharma, Widmore, the Losties? Also “still”? Did they lie and say that everyone is dead so they could live uninterrupted on the island? Is Matthew like Richard Alpert – not really a bad guy – but falling for what he thinks is a higher calling?

Hurley – “I’m sorry I went with Locke. I think it want us to go back”. I still think he said “him”, but looking it up it’s “it”. That is such a telling statement, I don’t even know where to start! The surface question is how did he reconnect with Jack once he left with Locke. We can even assume that “it” refers to the island or Jacob. But my question is if they were not meant to leave and he thinks they should go back, why is he sorry that he went with Locke? Wasn’t Locke on the side of staying on the island? What new fresh hell will Locke cause?

Charlie Pace – “They need you Hugo. You know they need you.” First, who is they? Could it just mean everyone or Claire & Aaron? If it means the other Losties, are those who were left in trouble? What do they need from him? Argh!!! So many questions!

Connections

Hurley is driving the same Camero that he was working on with his father when he was little. He hits Guava fruit which is the main fruit they eat on the island. Action 8 news the news crew covering it. The person filming the police capture is Randy Nation (former boss of Hurley at Mr. Cluck’s Chicken Shack and Locke’s manager at the box company that Hurley owns).

Charlie had “They need you” written on his hand when he hit the glass in the police interrogation room.

The chalkboard in the mental institution has a picture of a boat, sun, tree, shark. Not only an indication of the island but also of the mural in the hatch. Also interesting that Hurly is drawing an igloo and an Eskimo. The Eskimo is harpooning fish as was done on the island.

Abbadon is an angel in revelations. He helped God bind Satan back to Hell. While talking to Hurly, they are sitting at a chess table. Abbadon is sitting on the white side, Hurley in the middle, and no one on the other side. Perhaps an indication of their character. Matthew Abbadon is an anagram of "What Bad Boatmen".

When Jack comes to make sure Hurley is not going to tell, Jack is wearing the same tie his father was wearing in the coffin and perhaps in the shack. There is a sculpture behind Abbadon that says HO and there were Ho Ho’s in the convenience store. Jack only gets to H-O in horse. H is the 8th letter of the alphabet and O is the 15th – flight 815.

Questions

The biggest question – who are the Oceanic 6? Does that mean no one, such as Juliette, Ben etc get off the island? How do they become the Oceanic 6 when they are on different teams? Did some get off but are just not famous?

If Naomi was not part of Penny’s search, why did she have a picture of Desmond? If Desmond saw that Charlie talking to Penny and then he wrote that it was not her boat, why did he stay with Jack’s team?

Flashbacks are non-linear and neither are flash forwards. It seems as that this one occurred before the one in the season finale. Jack did look weird with a beard. What happened for him to go from, “We’ll never go back” with Hurley to “We have to go back” with Kate. What demons does he see?

Speaking of that, Charlie is dead. Obviously he may still appear on the show. I forgot that the creators said once a character is dead, they stay dead. But they still can interact with them. Take Echo’s brother. I guess either Charlie is a manifestation of Hurley’s subconscious or Charlie is moving through time like Desmond did. Of course, Desmond was never dead.

Who was that in the cabin? It looked extremely like Christian Shepherd, Jack’s dad. I don’t think the eye (a constant theme) was his or Locke’s. Why was he even near the cabin and why was he chosen to see it?

Conclusion

After re-reading and re-watching it…I just love this show! I am curios how they are going to incorporate the flashback, island and flash forwards. We are not done with flashbacks and this show is going to become a real guessing game for us to decide what is real, imagined, a memory, or premonition. And I like it! I can’t wait for next week. Stay away from those spoilers!!! They are everywhere. Until next week….cya!