Get LOST with JOpinionated: January 2023

As you know, we have a rather long hiatus before the final season of Lost. So I was excited to be asked to join Lostpedia, DocArzt and a few other sites to participate in a 7-month long/5 season Lost Rewatch project! I am honored to be one of the official Lost Rewatch bloggers. Personally, I feel that this is quite an ambitious project but one that I am ready and more than willing to participate in. During this time, when life, work or travel interferes with my ability to provide episode analysis, I am thrilled that the above folks will be covering it as well so that those of you who are following along will always have an outlet for discussion.

See further details on Lostpedia. Doc has kindly provided the viewing schedule below. If you've already started re-watching on your own or are unable to watch with the same frequency, feel free to simply read along and leave comments!

June 1-7 1.01 Pilot 1.02 Pilot, Part 2 1.03 Tabula Rasa 1.04 Walkabout June 8-14 1.05 White Rabbit 1.06 House of the Rising Sun 1.07 The Moth 1.08 Confidence Man June 15-21 1.09 Solitary 1.10 Raised by Another 1.11 All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues 1.12 Whatever the Case May Be June 22-28 1.13 Hearts and Minds 1.14 Special 1.15 Homecoming 1.16 Outlaws June 29-July 5 1.17 ...In Translation 1.18 Numbers 1.19 Deus Ex Machina July 6-July 12 1.20 Do No Harm 1.21 The Greater Good 1.22 Born to Run July 13-July 19 1.23 Exodus, Part 1 1.24/1.25 Exodus, Part 2 2.01 Man of Science, Man of Faith 2.02 Adrift July 20-July26 2.03 Orientation 2.04 Everybody Hates Hugo 2.05 ...And Found 2.06 Abandonded July 27-Aug 2 2.07 The Other 48 Days 2.08 Collison 2.09 What Kate Did 2.10 The 23rd Psalm Aug 3-Aug 9 2.11 The Hunting Party 2.12 Fire + Water 2.13 The Long Con 2.14 One of Them Aug 10-Aug 16 2.15 Maternity Leave 2.16 The Whole Truth 2.17 Lockdown 2.18 Dave Aug 17-Aug 23 2.19 S.O.S. 2.20 Two For the Road 2.21 ? Aug 24-Aug 30 2.22 Three Minutes 2.23/2.24 Live Together, Die Alone 3.01 A Tale of Two Cities 3.02 The Glass Ballerina Aug 31-Sept 6 3.03 Further Instructions 3.04 Every Man for Himself 3.05 The Cost of Living 3.06 I Do Sept 7-Sept 13 3.07 Not in Portland 3.08 Flashes Before Your Eyes 3.09 Stranger in a Strange Land 3.10 Tricia Tanaka is Dead Sept 14-Sept 20 3.11 Enter 77 3.12 Par Avion 3.13 The Man from Tallahassee 3.14 Expose Sept 21-Sept 27 3.15 Left Behind 3.16 One of Us 3.17 Catch 22 Sept 28-Oct 4 3.18 D.O.C. 3.19 The Brig 3.20 The Man Behind the Curtain Oct 5-Oct 11 3.21 Greatest Hits 3.22/3.23 Through the Looking Glass 4.01 The Beginning of the End Oct 12-Oct 18 4.02 Confirmed Dead 4.03 The Economist 4.04 Eggtown Oct 19-Oct 25 4.05 The Constant 4.06 The Other Woman 4.07 Ji Yeon Oct 26-Nov 1 4.08 Meet Kevin Johnson 4.09 The Shape of Things to Come 4.10 Something Nice Back Home Nov 2-Nov 8 4.11 Cabin Fever 4.12 There's No Place Like Home, Part 1 4.13 There's No Place Like Home, Part 2 Nov 9-Nov 15 5.01 Because You Left 5.02 The Lie 5.03 Jughead Nov 16-22 Thanksgiving break! Nov 23-Nov 29 5.04 The Little Prince 5.05 This Place is Death Nov 30-Dec 6 5.06 316 5.07 The Life and Death of Jeremy Benthamm 5.08 LaFleur Dec 7-Dec 13 5.09 Namaste 5.10 He's Our You 5.11 Whatever Happened, Happened Dec 14-Dec 20 5.12 Dead is Dead 5.13 Some Like it Hoth 5.14 The Variable Dec 21-Dec 27 Christmas break! Dec 28-Jan 3 5.15 Follow the Leader 5.16/5.17 The Incident

Stay tuned for more details, as we get started next week!

(Thanks to my friend and fellow Lost fan Hillary P for designing a new Rewatch logo!)

Welcome to round two! My Weekly ReWatch Caveat There are 8 other sites participating in this project. In order to provide the most fresh and honest perspective here, I do not read the recaps and anaysis posted on my fellow ReWatch friends' sites until after I post my own. We all have different writing styles and are bound to experience similar epiphanies throughout this process. So if you come across any, please keep in mind that we've all seen these episodes multiple times and have analyzed them under relatively kindred microscopes for five years. Also...I am not perfect, nor is my memory; there are bound to be small mistakes here and there as I revisit and discuss all five seasons. So please excuse any errors in advance. Just a reminder that this is a strictly Spoiler-Free site; I consider casting news to be spoiler information, so please refrain from referring to what you've heard or read if you leave comments. Thank you! Without further ado, let's re-examine episodes 5-8 of Lost, Season 1... Compared to the first few episodes, I did not find as many hidden gems and relevant chunks of dialogue. We've been spoiled by the heightened intensity and pace of Lost since Season 4, and that has never been more obvious as I'm rewatching from the beginning. Relationships & Foreshadowing White Rabbit

Claire bonds with Kate while folding and sorting clothes on the beach. The two would later bond (S4, Eggtown) while hanging laundry in New Otherton, when Claire asks Kate to hold Aaron but Kate admits to not being great with children.

House of the Rising Sun

Regarding Charlie's guitar, Locke tells Charlie that "you'll see it again. Because I have faith." Locke already knew where the guitar case was when they crashed the first time, but we have yet to discover the significance and contents of his guitar case when it returns the second time (with Hurley on Ajira 316). That Jacob was the one who gave Hurley the case makes it all the more intriguing.

When Locke finally decides to show Charlie where his guitar was, he simply said "look up." Shades of the inscription on Eko's Jesus stick that Locke later uses as a virtual compass, "lift up your eyes and look north, John 3:05."

Locke tells Charlie that "this island might just give you what you're looking for, but you have to give the island something." In the future, all Charlie wanted was for Claire and Aaron to get off of the island, and he sacrificed his life because he thought it would result in their rescue. So if Locke's words are true, we just might see mother and child get on that helicopter before the end of S6.

I had to laugh at Michael's exasperated assertion that "time doesn't matter on a damn island." As we later learn, that is far from the truth.

The Moth

Locke explains to Charlie that "butterflies get all the attention, but moths...they spin silk, they're stronger, faster." I instantly recalled the first scene in the S5 finale, where Jacob was spinning thread in the foot of the statue. So would that make Jacob the moth and Mystery Man the butterfly?

Jack dislocates his shoulder and has Charlie put it back in. In S3 (Left Behind), Juliet dislocates her shoulder and has Kate put it back in. Which reminds me...we never found out how the hell Juliet had dislocated her shoulder three times prior to that. That was one talented and mysterious fertility doc.

Confidence Man

After watching Jack calm Shannon down when she's having an asthmatic panic attack, Hurley dubs it a "Jedi moment." Our first hint that the big man is a Star Wars fanboy comes long before S5 (Some Like it Hoth).

We see Sawyer reading the letter that he wrote to the real Sawyer, the very letter that we now know he finished writing using a pen provided by Jacob. He kept that letter for years, and his pursuit of the real Sawyer is the reason that he wound up on Flight 815. This gives credence to the theory that Jacob brought James 'Sawyer' Ford to the island.

Adam & Eve Skeletons

In House of the Rising Sun, Kate discovers a male and female skeleton couple in the cave, whom Locke refers to as "our very own Adam and Eve."

Jack finds a pouch on them containing a black stone and a white stone, and visually I return to the scene in the Pilot with Locke showing the black and white backgammon pieces to Walt. {Add these stones to the black and white theory that permeates the entire series; my count is now two after last week's shoe symbolism}

The popular theory is that Bernard and Rose will wind up as Adam and Eve. Given that Jack's estimate in 2004 was that the skeletons had been there for 40-50 years, and that Rose and Bernard had time shifted back to 1954, I can see why many are on board with that thought. I am still not convinced (unless an alternate reality is introduced in S6), and to me, the stones are not necessarily an indication that the couple would have been interracial. CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD When we get a glimpse of Ghost Christian in his suit and white tennis shoes in White Rabbit, it is only natural to now question WHO he is at that moment.

Mystery Man/NotLocke? Jacob? Smokey? There are arguments in favor of each. JACK I love that White Rabbit begins with Jack making a choice; he chooses to take a beating and fight for his friend in the schoolyard. We've seen him struggle and waver with difficult choices throughout the entire series thus far, from hesitant hero in the Pilot to resolute ringleader in the S5 finale.

In this episode, Jack chooses to save Boone in the ocean rather than the woman who was drowning. We will see very soon in an upcoming flashback that Jack chose to save his future wife Sarah rather than Shannon's father when the two were in a car accident. It is when Jack is unable to 'fix' someone, when fate intervenes and choice/control is removed, that his life begins to unravel. He saved Boone...this time. He will not be able to do so in the near future after Boone's fatal fall in the yellow Beechcraft plane. It is shortly after Jack failed to save the Marshal that he started to follow his ghost father Christian in the jungle.

Consider Christian's relevant and rather cruel advice to his young son during a flashback:

Don't choose, Jack. Don't decide. You don't want to be a hero. You don't try and save everyone. Because when you fail, you just don't have what it takes.

Later, Jack's mom demands that he find his father in Sydney:

I want you to bring him back. Bring your father home, Jack.

Though Jack is talking about Boone here, this statement could just as easily refer to his father (whom he sees standing in the ocean immediately after saying the following):

I thought I could bring him back and still have the time. I was there. I didn't try.

LOCKE In White Rabbit, I had to pause after Locke's prescient statement that "a leader can't lead until he knows where he's going" and reflect back on the last few episodes of S5. Many believe that after Ajira 316 landed on the island, Mystery Man used Locke's deceased shell to gain eventual access to Jacob (thus, the loophole). But Richard Alpert's instincts were correct - Locke was never meant to be the true leader of the island. Even after taking on Locke's form, Mystery Man/NotLocke did not know where to find Jacob; Alpert was the one who led him, Ben and the Others to the foot of the statue. I realize that reconsidering exactly who Locke was in the earlier episodes of the series is a very hotly contested debate right now. Personally, I am leaning toward Locke being Locke up until Ben kills him in S5. That being said, I am now viewing him in a different light as I rewatch S1...

It is not mere coincidence that when the beach contingent ran out of water, Locke voluntered to go into the jungle alone to retrieve some, and the very next time we see him he is saving Jack over the ledge.

Locke had said "I know where to look," referring to both the water and Jack's exact locale. This event is immediately followed by one of the most significant conversations to ever take place on the island:

Locke: I live in the real world. I'm not a big believer in magic. But this place is different. It's special. The others don't want to talk about it because it scares them. But we all know it. We feel it. Is your white rabbit a hallucination? Probably. But what if everything that happened here happened for a reason? What if this person that you're chasing is really here?

Jack: That's impossible. Locke: Even if it is, let's say it's not. Jack: Then what happens when I catch him? Locke: I don't know. But I've looked into the eye of this island, and what I saw was beautiful.

[Considering that Jack said 'when I catch him' and not 'if,' I am hoping that we will be treated to a father and son reunion in the final season.] By the way, it merits discussion that up until he meets Benjamin Linus in S2, Locke walks around that island with an alarming overconfidence, quite sure of himself; there are definite shades of future Mystery Man/NotLocke. As soon as Ben begins to target his weaknesses and push those buttons, Locke acquiesces into an insecure and emotionally unstable man. It seems as if the tables have turned at the end of S5, with Mystery Man/NotLocke in control and Ben in a new and vulnerable position after Jacob dismissed and exposed his value as a pawn. SAWYER Watching the amazing transformation of Sawyer over the course of five seasons, I have a new appreciation for Confidence Man. After reading his letter, Kate tells Sawyer that he wants to be hated by everyone, and is the first to realize that his tough-guy facade is a fraud. This episode is the first that offers us a peek at the softer side of James Ford, as he calls off one of his cons when he sees that the couple he's scamming have a young son.

p.s. I am not a huge fan of Kate, but I will say this...that first kiss that she begrudgingly gave Sawyer in Confidence Man when she thought it would result in him handing over Shannon's inhaler? Way hotter than all of the makeout sessions and sex between any of the characters we've seen since (including the now infamous cage match). That is my $.02 assessment. SUN Even though I have yet to read it, I thought about the title of the book that Jacob was reading in the S5 finale ("Everything That RISES Must Converge") while watching House of the RISING Sun. There is probably not a correlation, but worth a mention anyway. S7? In The Moth, when I saw Charlie's hand emerge out of the dirt, I laughed out loud and thought of Darlton: zombie season?

So there you have it. I appreciate your time and eyes, and look forward to your minds. Bring on the comments, but please be constructive if you have vehement disagreement with anything I've speculated or stated.