Lost, "LA X"

Believe it or not, but the fateful day has arrived.  Tomorrow is February 2, 2010.  The beginning of the end.  The day we finally discover what the future will be.  That's right.  Tomorrow is....Groundhog Day!!  Wait....what?  Tomorrow is.....huh....OOOOHHHHH!! Riiiiiiight.  Let's start this over.

Believe it or not, but the fateful day has arrived.  Tomorrow is February 2, 2010.  The beginning of the end.  The day that destiny will finally be found.  That's right.  Tomorrow is the season premiere for the final season of Lost! 

I can't begin to express to you how excited I am about this.  I am taking this so seriously that I have remained as spoiler-free as possible.  I haven't even been reading the site I have been writing for (check out TVOvermind.com for all of your TV needs!), as we have a couple sneak peeks and promos with slightly spoilery material on there (but check out the site!  Any spoilery stuff is clearly marked).  Bottom line is, I want to have my mind blown as thoroughly as possible when I watch the show tomorrow night. 

To further prepare myself for the premiere, I embarked on a full series rewatch.  I got through Season 1, and half of Season 2, and realized I was going to run out of time.  So, I jumped to Season 5 with the intent of watching the whole season, save "The Incident."  I was then going to watch the Season 5 finale at 7:30 Tuesday night so it would end right at 9:00pm, premiere time (Each hour of television without commercials is approximately 45 minutes.  The "two hour" Season 5 finale is actually 90 minutes).  Again, outside forces (the Island?!?) conspired against my plan.  I did get through the season, but watched "The Incident" this past Saturday, as I have a follow-up dentist appointment Tuesday night. 

It was so great to watch it all again as it afforded me the opportunity to think about all of the questions left to be answered again, and in light of the Jacob/Easu plot.  Other folks have done very exhaustive lists of questions they want answered, so I thought I would just post some thoughts I had while rewatching Season 5, and what we might see in Lost's final season.  Away we go:

*In "The Lie," Ben tells Jack, as they prepared to return to the Island, "If there's anything you want from this life, get it, because you're not coming back."  At the time, this seemed simply like a statement about the fact that they were going back to the Island, and may not be returning (it was so hard to get off it in the first place).  However, in light of the Jughead plan to blow them into an alternate reality (or at least a reality where Oceanic 815 doesn't crash), I was left wondering whether Ben knew about the events to come.  Did Ben know that the Jughead plan was going to work somehow, even though it hadn't been formualted yet?  His sheer wonderment upon discovery that Kate, Jack, Hurley and Sayid were no longer in 2007 belies any possible knowledge that he had, but as we have seen many times before, Ben never quite lets on what he does or doesn't know.

*"The Little Prince" gave us this quote from Kate, "I have always been with you [Jack]."  Ms Austen has certainly seen her affections shift between Jack and Sawyer, but there was something so genuine in her saying this to the hero doc that I make the Prediction that Kate will end up with (or at least die! loving) Jack.  I'd say this is backed up by the fact Kate saw how much Sawyer loved Juliet as he tried to hold on to her in the season finale.

*What exactly happened to Ben in The Temple?  In "What Happened, Happened," to heal Young Ben, Richard takes him into the Temple and tells Kate and Sawyer that Ben will never be the same, that "his innocence will be gone."  What did that mean?  Was he marked somehow, at that point, to be the future leader of The Others?  Is that what turned him into a homicidal manipulator?  I would like some more info on this.

*In both "Dead is Dead" and "Follow the Leader," Locke/Esau tells Sun that he has ideas on how to get our people back.  Of course, he later says in "The Incident" that he has no intenion of bringing the Lostaways back to present time.  So which is it?  Is Locke/Esau just trying to "manage" Sun so she won't interfere with his plan to kill Jacob, or is there some intent to bring the Oceanic folks back to the present?  The whole Locke/Esau thing was interesting duirng my rewatch because of the dichotomy being displayed in the Locke/Esau character.  I was struck by the number of times the character didn't really seem to know what was going on, or how he came to be back on the Island.  Terry O'Quinn has said that he didn't know he wasn't the true Locke until he read the script for the season finale.  Could he just have been playing his own real sense of bewilderment at how his supposedly murdered alter ego was walking around Hydra Island quite confidently and empowered?  Or did Esau not really anticipate how the "loophole" would work?  Personally, I can't wait to see how this storyline works out.  Of course, one of the main questions heading into Season 6 is whether the real Locke will come back at some point.  I think, unfortunately, the answer came in Season 5, "Dead is dead."

There are a million other questions we all have going into Season 6, and a million ways we want the series to end.  I am really only hoping for the same great entertainment we've received for the last five years.  On my FlashForward posts, I like to make predictions for the series.  I haven't done that for Lost at all, but since every other Lost pundit has done so, I figured I'd give it a shot.  These are broad, wild-eyed, not knowing jack squat, predictions for what will happen by the end of the series finale:

*Oceanic 815 will land in L.A. in September 2004, but those touched by Jacob will remember everything that has happened to them in the "past."

*At the same time, on an alternate plane of reality (no "plane" pun intended), the 2007 events on the Island will continue to unfold.

*The 2004 Lostaways, led by Jack and Locke, will venture to the Lamp Post and Mrs. Hawking to try to merge the timelines in 2007.  Desmond will be the link used to unite the two time periods.  (I never said any of this makes sense!)

*Jack and crew will defeat Esau and the Others on behalf of Jacob.

*Jack will try to make the ultimate sacrifice to save Kate, but will be saved by Sawyer.

*Sawyer will die, on behalf of his friends.

*Jacke, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Sun, Jin, Claire and Aaron will live.  Sawyer and Locke will die.

*Ben, having made some unslefish act, will become the new Jacob.

*Rose and Bernard will be Adam and Eve.

*None of the previosuly dead Oceanic passengers (Charlie, Michael, Libby, Ana Lucia, Eko, Boone, Shannon) will be reborn and alive by the end.

*We will be very, very confused for a good portion of the final season!

I know, not the boldest predictions in the world, but that's what I've got.  I will continue to provide my thoughts on the season's episodes as they are shown to us.  It's actually good that the show got moved to Tuesday because it doesn't interfere with my responsibilities over at TVOvermind.  At TVO, I'm writing recaps and thoughts on Chuck, Modern Family, and FlashForward when it returns.  Please do me a solid and check out TVO -- we've got breaking TV news, recaps, previews, promos and feature articles on everything television.  The site was started by none other than DocArzt himself, and I truly believe it is a great source for all of your TV needs.  Thanks to any regular readers of this blog for putting up with my lack of posting the last couple months.  I could say that I was really busy during the holidays and such, but that would just be an excuse.  So, thanks for sticking with me. Please leave any thoughts, questions or comments below.  HAve a great time watching the final season premiere of Lost!  Until then...

Enjoy.