LOST: 5.1 "Because You Left"

I'm really excited to have LOST back. Here are my random thoughts about the two hour premiere extravaganza, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

THE OPENING: Well, finally we have Dr. Marvin Candle/Edgar Halliwax/Mark Wickmund in the flesh and not in a Dharma video. And apparently his name is also Pierre Chang, which is fine except it has nothing to do with candles. Obviously we're in the past here, so some folks are speculating that Chang's baby will grow up to be Miles, which is an interesting thought, even if it is racial profiling. So then Chang goes to the Orchid and discovers the "Frozen Donkey Wheel" and apparently the time travel booth is about to be built. Then we see Daniel Faraday in disguise. Super LOST nerds will remember a video starring Chang that was shown at ComicCon 2008 in which he tried to film a message to send to the future so that the Dharma Initiative would start back up. A voice in the background told him "This is useless". Fan speculation claimed it sounded like Daniel Faraday's voice, and apparently now we know this is very possible. All very cool. Here's the video I'm talking about. It's worth watching, I think.



THE FLASHING LIGHT: Okay, so I love the new premise that Sawyer and Juliet and the crew are jumping around in time on the island. This opens the door for us to get to learn all about the island's history, like how the Black Rock ship ended up there, who was on it (my prediction? Charles Widmore, then named Alvar Hanso), we'll get to see who built the four-toed statue, and obviously now we know that the two skeletons the Losties found in the cave back in season one can be any two of the Losties.

THE NEW BADGUYS: So flaming arrows from nowhere was surprising and cool. My guess for who the new folks are is that they are somehow Rousseau's crew from long ago, who she claimed got the "sickness" and went crazy. Are they traveling in time too?

DANIEL FARADAY: Faraday is my new favorite character on Lost. Very odd and cool. In this episode, he told Sawyer that he studied the subject of time travel "all his adult life" and wrote everything in his notebook. I think there's more to this statement. I think at some point we'll see an older version of Daniel travel back in time to give a younger version of Daniel his collected notes on the island. That would explain why Daniel has to check his notes so often, because they're not memories. Also cool that Desmond is somehow outside the stream of time. Now Desmond is on a quest to meet Daniel's mother. Will that turn out to be Ms. Hawking, the hooded older lady?

HURLEY: Rules. I love that someone finally didn't listen to Ben. Clearly, that dude is up to no good.

FROGURT: Neil finally got on the actual show, instead of just being talked about. He was the star of this Lost "mobisode".

KATE'S LAWSUIT: Kate is my least favorite Lost character now. She just annoys me. But, the lawsuit angle is interesting, especially when the writers made it look like for a second or two that it was Sun that did it. My vote is that Ben did it, though. Jack had just told Ben "Good luck with that" when Ben said they needed to get Kate, so it makes sense that Ben would realize that if he threatened her relationship with Aaron that she would turn to Ben for help. One thing that really confuses me is the dream Kate had last season where Claire appeared in Aaron's room and told Kate NOT to bring Aaron back to the island. So does that mean Jacob doesn't want him back, since we last saw Claire with Jacob? But Ben sounds like he's expecting to bring them all back, so that makes me think that Ben is up to something that the island doesn't want to happen.

SAWYER'S SHIRT: My wife pointed out that in Lost, you only lose your shirt or take a bath in the ocean if you're really sexy and in shape. Hurley never loses his shirt.

Cool episode, can't wait for next week's, which for some reason is entitled "Jarhead". I can't think of anybody who had been in the Marines, so maybe that refers to something else.