Lost, "LA X" Part I: wherein Lost gets found for one last go round

So, I haven't thought much about Lost since the end of the last season, oh so long ago it seems. And I didn't bother watching the hourlong recap episode that preceeded the fifth and final season premiere because... who wants to deal with that, right?

Therefore, watching the "previously on Lost" opening segment caused my brain to nearly melt as I tried to piece together all of the strands. From the jump, I was like:

That weird / creepy dude Jacob is some kind of Satan / God figure (or something completely not like a Satan / God figure)

Locke and Ben are caught up in some kind of a power struggle as the mortal (or not, in Locke's case?) connection to the island (or not) 

And oh yeah, the plot to blow up the island (or stop the island from blowing up?) so that maybe everything we've seen exists in alternate reality that would get wiped away (or not)!

Sayid got shot

Juliet falls in the well (okay, that actually seems to have happened)

And we go to white.

Welcome to Lost.

"LA X" Part I, the season premiere, opens with Jack on a plane. Jack looks good -- not dishevelled, alcoholic, tortured Jack, and not quite Doctor Hero from the early seasons -- but good. Was the whole damned show a dream?

The plane starts shaking. (Note to self: never EVER watch Lost within 21 days of getting into a aircraft.)

The shaking stops. And the kindly African American lady from the island tells Jack, "it's okay, you can let go now."

(Let go of what... his hold on this mortal plane? Get it?).

That's when you know this is Lost, baby, and the final season is going to be one hell of a deliciously mind bendingly bumpy fun/death ride.

Jack soon asks Desmond, "Do I know you from somewhere?" Then we pan to a diving show beneath the deep blue sea to the statue of the foot, now deep below the ocean.

And we're off to the races. Well, we revisit the bomb exploding and the cut to white, and then we see Kate in a tree. Not K-I-S-S-I-N-G though (unfortunately). She finds a similarly dazed Miles, and we learn that "we're back." So, back to more time travel it would seem. And Jack and Sawyer going at it. Some things never seem to change.

As events unfold, we get the picture early on that we're seeing what appears to be alternate realities playing out on parallel tracks, "flash sideways" to the flashbacks and flash forwards of previous seasons.

Mystery lingers around both of course, but the idea seems to be that the characters we've come to know and love are trying to set things "right," which could have the implication of leaving us with the "orignial" timeline. But would the characters seem to have some vague remembrance of each other in that case? Just another question in the Lost question quilt.

There's so much else going on in these first two installments that I'll simply attempt to break out some of the more noteworthy or interesting happenstances:

You gotta love Hurley. "I'm the luckiest dude alive." If being lucky means hanging out with Jacob... count me out.

Boone returns! Albeit in flash sideways retro form, but still. Boone!

One of the coolest developments in these latter seasons is seeing Ben unruffled and out of his element.
Locke wants Ben to go get Richard so that they can have a chat. Okay, no biggie. Except Locke is actually out on the beach. And not all that alive. Surprise!

You gotta love Hurley Part II. On learning that Jacob had died an hour ago. "Aw, that sucks dude."

And Charlie's back too! Sure, he's kind of half dead from ODing on heroin. But still, Charlie!

Question: How does an atom bomb *sort of* go off and *sort of* injure people while hurtling them through time (somehow)? I realize I may not get full satisfaction here.

Hello smoke monster, my old friend. Pretty cool how you tricked that one dude into stepping outside of his bizarre "circle defense" before devouring him. And...

Locke now = Jacob's "companion" = smoke monster? Trippy...

Oh come on, what does Juliette have to tell Sawyer that is so danged important?

Locke to Jack: "You did this." Uh oh.

Pretty cool to see everyone getting off the Oceanic flight at LAX "as though."

Here's the episode from Hulu, available in its entirety for the time being (as is the entire Lost run up until present, so dig in now Losties!):

There's so so much to speculate on during this final season (and likely long after the end). Here's but a sampling from "LA X" Part I:

What's Alan Watching?: Whatever he/it is, Terry O'Quinn is clearly relishing the chance to play this new, mysterious, dangerous character, and Non-Locke's powers and knowledge of people like Ben and Richard (whom he last saw when Richard was "in chains") creates an unsettling dynamic among these characters who are so used to being in charge.

TV Squad: Of course, the question at this point is which side of the story is real?

ScreenCrave: After all the waiting only two of my many questions were answered and they were regarding Locke’s true identity and Juliet’s fate.