Just a quick note about tonight's Sawyer-centric episode-we saw at the end of last week's episode, the imminent return to the island of Widmore, who was the head of The Others prior to Ben, who replaced him and drove him from the island. As we have seen, there are two alternate time-lines going on. One of these involves what is going on, on the island, as it involves the lives of the main characters as we generally know them. The other, "sideways time", deals with what would have happened if the survivors' plane had never crashed on the island, and they went on living their lives per usual, free not only of the island, but free from the influence and lifelong interference of the mysterious Jacob.
However, it's important to remember, these time lines are all going on in the same earth universe. It is not two different world's coexisting side by side in two different dimensions, or "alternate universes". Now, in the current Fox series, Fringe, that is exactly the case. In that series, there are two different alternate universes on two different earth dimensions, or two different planes of existence, if you will. They are very much the same in almost every way, but they are also very different, due to different choices and events that have occurred, which has contributed to subtle and not too subtle differences in the two dimensions, the two alternate realities.
Again, it's important to stress that the situation in Lost is different from that of Fringe. In Lost, we are dealing not with two alternate realities, in two different dimensiona. We are dealing with a wrinkle in time that has created two alternate time lines, but each one coexisting in the same dimension-the exact same time-line. This is due to Juliette's successful explosion of "Jughead", a nuclear bomb which at least temporarily sunk the island, apparently after the survivors were sent off to another time, thus saving their lives. Of course, they are not aware that Jughead actually was detonated. The whole point of this was to prevent the electromagnetic discharge which caused the survivors plane to crash. Which, this was possible due to the fact the survivors, or "Losties", had been sent back to that time (when they first arrived) by the same electromagnetic energy.
Which brings me back to Widmore. When he finally meets one, or some, or all, of the Losties, will he even know who they are? Will he remember them? In other words, which of the two concurrently existing time lines is he now a part of? Is he a part of the time line of the current Lost survivors? Or is he instead now a part of, and been influenced by, the new time line created by the explosion of Jughead?
I guess we'll know the answer to that when he sees one of more of the Survivors and says, "who the hell are you people"-or something to that effect.
Update-Well. so much for that. Maybe I should have wrote tonight's episode, which was in some ways the worse one so far this season. Sawyer, a cop? Really? So why would he have helped Kate get away from the cops in the season premiere. You know, sometimes when you write a surprise element, just for the sake of surprise, you need to cover your bases.
Still, there were some good elements in tonight's show. Sayid just sitting there looking forlorn and resigned while the crazed Claire had a knife at Kate's throat, until she was saved by Smokey Locke-who a little later almost chokes up while explaining to Kate how his mother was as crazy as Claire and how that was the cause of so many of his own problems. In sideways time, it was seeing Sawyer (though here he doesn't use that name) still after the man who caused the murder-suicide of his parents (who, remember, in sideways time has a good relationship with the real sideways time John Locke, though we are still in the dark as to how this Locke version is in a wheelchair).
Otherwise, not much going on of note. Miles, who is Ford's partner in sideways time, is even more annoying than on the island. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't consider it a big favor to be fixed up with somebody that wants to hop into the sack the first night I meet her. From friends like that, I need no favors. Then he declares their partnership over because he lied about a round trip to Sydney? I would say good riddance, but again, that's just me. Other than the Sawyer folder, and the bump into sideways Kate at the end, most boring sideways storyline of the season. Of course, I had high expectations.
The island wasn't much better, other than those parts I already mentioned. The confrontation on Hydra Island and the lead-up to the "deal" with Widmore was pretty much standard. Evidently, nothing's changed for Widmore, as he referred to John Locke as being dead. From that, it would stand to reason that it is the same old Widmore, with the same past history. Of course, it could still very well be that his story could be the one that eventually intersects the two parallel story lines, seeing as how he is the only one going freely back and forth, to and from island.
Next week-we learn the history of Richard Alpert. A few points here. Alpert was probably blessed by Jacob with immortality in order to avoid his message being diluted through the years, a distinct possibility if he is unable to communicate directly with average persons on a consistent basis. Also, it would stand to reason that, if Alpert is one of a very few people blessed with the ability to communicate, and to see, Jacob, then the young child we saw in episode four could not have been Jacob, seeing as Alpert couldn't see him, yet Sawyer could. I'll probably end up being wrong about that too.
ONE MORE POINT-This was some really shabby writing, when you stop to think about it. Why was Jodi Lynn O'Keefe's character arrested at the beginning of the sideways time segment? No clear-cut answer there. Why was she even being investigated? Ditto. Did Ford and Miles go to all that trouble to set up a sting to catch her pulling a gun on somebody? To charge her with falsely accusing them of trying to conduct a scam, even though that was precisely what they were doing? Was she wanted for extortion, robbery, or anything at all? And if so, what exactly did she do in this segment that provided them the evidence they needed to arrest her? Just doesn't make sense. Hopefully, whoever wrote this turd of an episode was either having an uncommonly bad day, or this is the last episode they'll be involved with.
