LOST The Package

Apologies for last weeks anger. Lost is FINALLY on track. The Package was the best episode this season, offering much more progression than any of the previous episodes. The writers have also shown us that they didn't forget about our previous 6 seasons. Seeing DHARMA room 23 (the subliminal message test room) and Desmond was very nostalgic, as was Jacks speech to Sun in the garden she planted 5 years ago. Things are finally coming together.

Who would have thought the Richard episode would be disappointing and a Sun and Jin episode so compelling?

Let's get down to business. Last week I had plenty of complaints and am still disappointed with the turnout on some of those issues. The writers have now stated that the storm that brought Richards ship in was just "later that day." This is an error on their part for this reason: When their boat is just offshore and it is sunny, they would have seen the statue and the island clearly. When they crash at night the men in the boat shout that they see land and that it is "guarded by the devil."(ie the statue) They would have seen the statue and a giant island sitting just off shore earlier that day. It doesn't effect the plot but the writers need to be more careful next time! We care about these things.

So what happened in "The Package?"

Desmond is back! Finally. It looks as if he didn't come willingly. (Refer to sneak peak # 2 below.)

Widmore is playing against smokey's team.

Jin saw his daughter Ji Yeon for the first time on Suns camera.

Mikhail lost an eye in the flash sideways. Looks like he was never meant to have that eye in any life.

We also see a number of references to "old" events including room 23, Shannon's inhaler, and discussion of electromagnetism and its effects on Locke, reminding us that the writers didn't just forget everything they've told us.

Still want to see our blonde friend again, and would like to see origins of the wheel. No word on "Wallace" either. Maybe these things are being saved for the end, along with the secrets of the statue, temple, etc.

SPOILER ALERT: Looks like we will see Libby and Michael next week! Thank you to the cast list on imdb.com

Next weeks episode is entitled "Happily Ever After." The promo gives us nothing new but is quite moving. I've included it and 2 sneak peeks below.

Ab Aeterno

Tonights episode was called Ab Aeterno. A recap of all the commercials might be more fitting seeing as they had a longer air time than the actual show. This is really bothering me with only 7 episodes left. If they are going to have this many ads we need WAY more information than they are giving us. We found out nothing new until there were only 10 minutes left in the show. "The time is now" my ass...

Seeing as they are clearly not going to answer most of our questions unrelated to Jacob and the Smoke, we might as well focus on these issues. So tonight we are told that the island is sort of a giant cork keeping evil from entering and spreading into the world. Hell was referenced an awful lot considering the writers say it is not biblical.

Besides this, we now know Jacob and the Smoke are in some kind of disagreement over whether or not there is good in people. Jacob believes that people can understand right and wrong without his guidance, where the smoke monster believes people will choose evil over good. Jacob brings people to the island to prove him wrong... and has ended up killing all but a few that he has brought. So who is good and who is evil? Jacob's decisions have gotten tons of people killed, and we've seen many people die at the clutches of the smoke. Neither seems very good.

One thing that does seem to make sense is why Jacob let Ben kill him. He said in this episode he can't interfere with people's sins. He would have been interfering had he gone all kung fu on Ben like he did Richard in tonights episode. Jacob wants people to "help themselves" and choose the "right" path on their own, thereby proving smokey wrong.

What does this all mean in a larger context? It is clear that Jacob and the Smoke are not the highest powers, but we can assume that little blonde boy may be. Unfortunately they would rather show us commercials than any info on this. I'd like to think the Smoke somehow escaped from Hell but the island is acting as some sort of purgatory with Jacobs powers keeping him out of the real world... or maybe until he proves to Jacob there is good in him.

Final note. There is a major inconsistency in the show, but the writers couldn't have screwed up this bad, could they?
When Jacob and Smokey are sitting on the beach in the season 5 finale, the Black Rock is drifting slowly in the ocean and it is a sunny day. In tonights episode we see it crash on the island at night during a thunderstorm, smashing the statue. This one completely escapes me. I hope this is intentional or I think all Lost fans will be very angry with the lack of attention paid by the writers.

Hopefully next weeks episode gives us something worthwhile instead of trying to please "new" viewers that haven't invested 6 years of attention into the show. Suddenly ignoring all the details in a show which has survived on continuity and thick plot construction just to gain new viewers is bull shit. I hope that ABC realizes what they are doing.

No trailer or sneak peeks yet, but it's probably better that they don't bring our hopes up just to let us down.