Alternative title: WHEN am I?That line from Locke was clearly THE soundbite for the 2-hour premiere in my mind - an absolutely fantastic summation. As per the last two-three years we've been doing episode reviews, Season 5 episode reviews will consist of either me or another Lostpedia Administrator blogger going over the eps and highlighting key 'points of interest' that fuel the mythology and our general theorizing.
So to start off, the general theme for the episode other than time seemed to really be about everything making sense. It seemed like, now that time is shifting all over, the holes and the mysteries we have of the Lost world are being filled as we go. The start itself was full of these - learning a little more about Pierre Chang and the Arrow station's purpose, seeing the Nigerian plane crash, Faraday in the past (linking to the Comic Con 2008 video). I have to say, the rumors of time travel before the season began scared me, but having seen the episodes, I'm starting to be converted as it seems to just work really well. Perhaps considering Lost is built on flashes of time, the idea of 'real-time' shifting just fits in with the narrative so fans can accept it. Guessing WHEN the scenes are taking place, I actually really enjoyed, and it seemed to be like the opening scene to a new season every 10 minutes (where there's always a play - Desmond in a hatch S2, Barracks house S3, etc). The opening of this Season was generally quite amusing, with Chang warning of the catastrophe that'd occur if someone went into that energy room.... oopps...
The time travel timeline was very intricate, and it was also nice for the Oceanic 6 to be given a timeframe - three years in the future from when the wheel was turned. It was nice to watch the O6, but I felt there was little 'what the hell' moments for them (apart from the final scene with Ms. Hawking). In contrast, on-island there was a host of peculiar happenings from the time distortion. First, FROGURT makes his debut (bar mobisode), albeit shortlived - we couldn't have had him all S5 though, right? His character is a little irritating. Furthermore, we've got flame arrow throwing freaks - probably the Hostiles/Others, considering DHARMA are a bit more gung-ho with their weapons (just not the name of their stations). It made me think though - how far back did they go when they're getting shot at with arrows... this didn't last long however with DHARMA folk (I assume DHARMA folk...) attacking Sawyer and Juliet. Guessing they thought they were Others. Also - deja vu with Sawyer stepping on a splinter... any significance to that you reckon, Losties?
For a final section - picking up the pieces of the O6 events. Firstly, it was nice to see Ana-Lucia... glad it wasn't really her though, cause if time was moving weird for Hurley too, it would have been too much to handle. It was enjoyable though to have so many guessing games of who the person was. Pierre Chang, Ana-Lucia, Ms Hawking... all great moments of tension. Furthermore, was that Carlton Cuse I heard introducing an episode of "Expose"?
So that's it, minus the enlightened Hurley's mom, who now has won me over - believing her son out of sheer love instead of nagging him like she usually does. Typical parenting I guess. All in all though, a great opening - and I think hats off to the writers for introducing the notion of time travel and yet at the same time, doing so in a smooth way that didn't alienate fans. Only on Lost....
