NBC’s hit show "LOST" aired the first episode of its sixth and final season Tuesday night. The season began just as mysteriously as the previous five, leaving "LOST" fans perturbed as well as intrigued.

According to Entertainment Weekly, many fans of the show believe that having the first episode air on Groundhog’s Day is no coincidence. "LOST" has always been televised on Wednesdays thus far, and given that season five ended with an inconclusive cliffhanger, there is a possible relationship: a day that signals either a continuation of a dark time or a glimmer of hope, much like a groundhog’s response to seeing its shadow.

As is to be expected from the mind-bending series, the outcome is still unclear, and likely will be until May 23 when the show ends. The episode, entitled "LA X," flips between two scenes. One shows the aftermath of the hydrogen bomb explosion that concluded season five. Juliet and Jacob die and Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Miles make a journey to the temple in a last ditch effort to save Sayid, who is suffering from a bullet wound. In the biggest revelation of the evening, we find out that Locke is really dead (his body is revealed, cold in its coffin) and that the smoke monster has been masquerading as Locke. In Locke’s body, the smoke monster finds the “loophole” that Jacob mentioned to the man in black last season by getting Benjamin Linus to brutally stab Jacob to death. Another scene takes the cast back in time to the Oceanic flight 815 that should have been — the one that travels safely from Sydney to LA. There’s an eerie feeling in the air as Desmond introduces himself to Jack, Hurley tells Sawyer his luck will never run out and Kate escapes from the airport in the same taxi as a very-pregnant Claire.

These two scenes describe the two possible outcomes of the hydrogen explosion: either Daniel Farraday was right and it worked, and erased the past, or it didn’t. Being as these two scenes contradict each other, and have many of the same characters present in both, one implication is that they are coexistent parallel universes. The episode leaves us in two destinations with two versions of every character. Learning of Jacob’s death, the people in the temple with a dead Sayid prepare to defend themselves against the smoke monster when Hurley reveals Jacob’s dead. Much to everyone’s surprise, the last shot we see is a reanimated (by life or by another creature?) Sayid rise from the dead. In the parallel universe, Jack offers his services to a wheelchair-bound Locke, telling him “Nothing’s irreversible.”

In this writer’s opinion, last night’s episode is most accurately described in the last unspoken words of a dying Juliet: “It worked.”

Be sure to tune into “LOST” next Tuesday night at 9pm on NBC.

Brooklynne Peters contributed to this article.

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Brian Francis is a Blast intern

4 Responses

  1. Roberta

    You make two incorrect statements.

    First, you state that “the biggest revelation of the evening” is that we find out that Locke is really dead. There was no revelation here at all. This was first revealed to us in the last episode of Season 5. So, this was not a surprise to anyone at this point.

    Second, you state that the smoke monster is in Locke’s body. It is not. Locke’s body is on the beach – having been unceremonioulsy dumped out of a crate. The smoke monster has taken the form of Locke but is not inhabiting Locke’s body. Lost is all about the details.

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