4x01, "The Beginning of the End"

Watched tonight's premiere at the site of the NYC Lost Meet-up, Professor Thom's near Union Square. It was a mistake. The group was only supposed to be about fifty people but it was clearly double that over the two floors, maybe even much more. Seating was limited so lots of people were left standing, including a few who kept getting in the way of the people seated, like myself. LOST is definitely something to be enjoyed as a group, but it felt like woodstock in there. Anyways...

WHERE TO BEGIN?

Overall, a great, great episode. It felt like vintage first season LOST with non-stop action, great character conflicts and just bizarre moment and after bizarre moment. With the cemented 48 episode structure, Damon and Carlton could speed the story along, abandoning what they'd done in the beginnings of Season 2 and 3: splitting the group up and covering the smaller groups piece meal until an eventual reunion. The real purpose was to drag the story out since there was never enough to cover a twenty-two episode season. But here the residual threads from the Season Finale were dealt with immediately. Yet the deck was immediately reshuffled and the cards re-dealt: the show's now about Locke vs Jack but with the stakes the highest they could be.

*The future is becoming clearer and clearer: The survivors of Oceanic 815 are apparently known as the Oceanic 6. We can count Kate, Jack and Hurley among that group. Unfortunately a poorly concealed spoiler on the Fuselage led me to find out who the remaining three are but I can hold my tongue on that. It's unclear exactly what the Oceanic 6 are famous for: Just surviving, period? And if so did they tell anyone they were saved from a mysterious Island where inexplicable random shit kept happening? What does the rest of the world know about the other Losties? Or does the rest of the world think the only survivors were the O6? And what is it that the Six seem so desperate to conceal? Matthew Abbadon, played by the great Lance Reddick, asked if "they" are still alive. Could this mean everyone left behind could be dead or of unknown status? How could the O6 leave the Island in such a state, with their friends dead or dying?

*I have a feeling Abbadon will be making his way to the rest of the O6. Already chatter on The Fuselage links his name to the devil. Might someone be making a deal with devil, if he or she hasn't made one already? And whose side is he on? Obviously not Oceanic's since he didn't produce a business card.

*And I can't believe Jack would've killed Locke so coldly. Such an incredible moment, but one where I had to mourn the death of a Jack I could sympathize with.

Easter Eggs:

*Yes, that was Christian in Jacob's rocking chair. Does that mean Christian is Jacob? Not necessarily... in the last LOST Missing Piece, I think the Monster took on the form of Christian, so The Monster could be Jacob.

*The consensus seems to be that was Locke's eyeball in the window, but I dunno.

*Charlie had "They need you" written on his hand in Hurley's vision.

*And I really don't know where to begin with Hurley's chat with, uh, "Dead, But Here Charlie". My guess: if the Monster was Yemi and probably Dave and Christian, I believe it's Charlie, too. How it got off the Island is a big question though. If it's not the monster, there's something else very, very weird going on. Could it be that the wackiness of the Island isn't necessarily confined to the Island, but maybe has more to do with the characters themselves? I dunno.