| LOST Season 4 Premiere: The Beginning of the End |
| Friday, 01 February 2008 | |
 In the season premiere of Lost, the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 find themselves divided when it's revealed that the Boaties are not who they say they are. Naomi gets some more screen time, Hurley gets some bad news, Jack gets a little payback, and Locke gets away. Lost is that spectacular drunk... hide the good furniture. The hour-long adrenaline high that was the season four premiere had me cheering from start to stop: from Hurley's brush with the law, to the showdown between Jack and Locke, to the return of a familiar face... this is Lost at it's best. Entertaining, discussion-provoking, mind-blowing. Saddle up, boys and girls: we're in for a hell of a trip.  Where's a Waylon Jennings narration when you need one? On the run from the police in a brand new flash-forward, Hurley leads them on a freeway chase which ends abruptly when Hurley crashes into a used car lot. The police corner him, but he tries to make a run for it anyway. They take him down and lock him up, while Hurley yells "Don't you know who I am? I'm one of the Oceanic Six!" And boom. There it is. Only six Losties make it off the island, and upon returning to the "real world" (if you've read my theory you know why I put quotation marks around that) they're labeled by the media as the "Oceanic Six". Answers some questions... asks a whole hell of a lot more. And as we learn throughout the rest of the episode, there is a serious, serious mystery hiding behind their return. The police take Hurley to a holding cell, where he's interrogated by an officer who (surprise, surprise) knew Anna Lucia. He asks Hurley if he knew her, and Hurley lies and says he didn't. But... there was a subtle clue in there if you didn't catch it. The officer asks Hurley if he might have met her onboard, or before the flight took off. Not anything else. Nothing about whether she survived the crash. Why is that important? Keep reading, and I'll explain it all at the end. Continuing on, it turns out that Hurley had been in a convenience store, saw something that totally freaked him out, and he ran. And judging by his earlier failed reenactment of Bullit, Hurley just kept on a-runnin'. The officer tells him to think about cooperating, and exits the room, leaving Hurley alone to stare at the two way mirror. Hurley suddenly sees a vision of Charlie swimming towards him and the mirror breaks. Water begins pouring into the room, and Hurley freaks out. The officer bursts into the room and threatens to throw Hurley in the looney bin... of course Hurley accepts. Sure, who wouldn't want to bounce around in a rubber room all day?  'Dude, you've got some red on you.' Ben begs Rousseau to take Alex and run away before the Boaties arrive and kill them all. He pleads with her to take his daughter and run. Rousseau cracks him one on the jaw in response. "She's not your daughter", she hisses at him. Niiice. Hurley and Bernard stare out at the ocean and Hurley confesses that by now all his cursed lotto money is probably gone and when he gets home he'll finally be free. He celebrates, but his glee is shortlived, as Desmond returns with the horrible news that Charlie is dead. He tells the rest of the Beach team about Charlie's final message ("Not Penny's boat"). They fight over whether or not to warn Jack, and Hurley, obviously moved by his friends death, takes a stand and pulls the team together. They lock and load, and head into the jungle. Back at the radio tower, the Boaties tell Jack that they can't find them because they've lost the tracking signal. Jack asks how to fix it, but the voice on the other end insists on talking to Naomi. Jack tries to cover (which is probably better than "oh yeah, one of us totally killed her by stabbing her in the back. So how's about that rescue?") but when he turns around, Naomi's body is gone. Rousseau finds a trail of blood and Jack decides to go after her. Kate also finds a trail, but Jack thinks she's wrong and takes Ben and Rousseau off on the other trail. Kate, being the stone cold foxy badass that she is, hugs Jack (stealing the satellite phone in the process), and goes off after Naomi herself. Back (or is it forward?) in the insane asylum, a man calling himself "Matthew Abaddon" (which is literally dripping with hidden meaning - see HERE )visits Hurley, claiming to be an attorney for Oceanic Airlines. He offers Hurley nicer accomodations, but Hurley gets suspicious and asks to see some ID. When "Matthew" can't produce any, Hurley knows something is up. Fake-Matthew asks, "Are they still alive?" and Hurley flips out. In the resulting chaos, fake-Matthew slips away.  Artist's Representation Back in the past...or is it the present? Damn you, Lost, you've mucked up my linearality! Anyway, back on the island, Hugo is hurting. Sawyer however, is surprisingly kind and even asks if Hurley wants to talk about it. Yeah, you read that right: Sawyer is being sensitive. That's like if Oprah Winfry killed a grizzly with her bare hands (shown at left). Something just seems so... wrong about it. Hurley falls back behind the rest of the group and somehow ends up smack dab in front of Jacob's shack, weird creepy whispering and all. Hurley edges closer to the shack and peers in. He sees Jacob in his chair, rocking back and forth like Willy Nelson at 4:19 (I have no idea what that even means), when suddenly someone steps from the shadows and looks right back at Hurley. Hurley falls back and runs away. When he turns to look back, the shack is gone. Hurley turns back again, and now it's in front of him. Hurley closes his eyes... "there's nothing there, there's nothing there" and stumbles backwards. When he looks up, Locke is standing over him. Jack, Rousseau, and Ben discover that they did indeed take the wrong trail when it leads them to a dead end. Ben tells Jack about Kate taking the phone, and they turn around to find her. Kate, meanwhile, finds Naomie. Or rather, Naomie, still wounded from the lil' stabby-stabby incident with Locke, leaps out of a tree and ambushes Kate. Kate tries to convince Naomi that Locke acted alone and that she could still trust them. Naomi takes the phone, fixes the tracking signal so that the Boaties can find them, and then promptly keels over like a good little useless plot device should. So long, Naomi! On the other side of the island, Locke and Hurley both know that Naomi was lying, and Locke hopes that Jack will listen to his side of the argument if the Beach team backs him up. Locke convinces Hurley that if they don't warn the others that the Boaties are not who they say they are, then Charlie died for nothing. The rest of the Losties arrive and there's a big reunion. Unfortunately, Hurley breaks down and breaks the news to Claire about Charlie's untimely demise.  'No...More... Drive Shaft... songs... ears bleeding...' Locke sees Rousseau and Ben return, but wonders where Jack is. He gets his answer in the form of a right hook straight to his jaw, care of ol' Jacko himself. Locke goes for his gun, but Jack wrestles it aways from him and points it at Locke. Locke tries to call Jack's bluff by saying "You won't shoot me". Jack pulls the trigger anyway (earning Badass-of-the-Night in the process). Click... nothing. The gun wasn't even loaded, which means Locke had been bluffing earlier (when he threatened to shoot Jack if he made the call). Jack takes out his frustration by beating on Locke a bit more. Go Jack! Locke defends himself and with Hurley's help, tells the Losties about Charlie's message. He warns them that the Boaties aren't who they say and that the only way to be safe is to escape back to the abandoned (but secure) Dharma barracks and hide out. "If you want to live, you need to come with me", he says. The crowd is undecided until Hurley backs him up on Charlie's behalf. Hurley turns against Jack and joins Locke. The survivors are divided. Some stay with Jack to be rescued, some leave with Locke to hide. Sawyer goes with Locke to hide out, furthering his growing rift with Kate.  Guns don't kill people, spinal surgeons with guns kill people. Flash-forward: Still at the asylum, Hurley receives a visit from a clean-shaven, non-pill-popping, and quite un-rock-and-roll Jack. He says he's back doing surgery and (haha) "thinking about growing a beard". They chat for a little while before Hurley gets to the point and asks Jack if he only came to see if Hurley was going to tell. Wait... what? Going to tell what? What's the big secret they're hiding? Hurley apologizes for siding with Locke, and tries to warn Jack: "It wants us to go back, and it's going to do everything it can..." but Jack walks out. Wait..."It"? (okay, okay, no Stephen King jokes here, I promise.) Back on the island, Kate and Jack ponder over Charlies death at the cockpit wreckage. Kate remarks that the thunder is getting louder, when Jack realizes that what they think is thunder is actually the sound of a helicopter nearby. They follow the sound to the helicopter, which is still overhead. They find the pilot, who parachuted down, nearby. The final words of the episode are from the pilot, the man who has been speaking to Jack over the satellite phone this whole time: "Are you Jack?" (cut to black, cue "Lost sound") Just... wow. I had a lot of hype built up in my head over the last several months about the premiere, and I have to say that it has fully exceeded all of them. Fans concerned about another lackluster start need not be worried. This is Lost baby, and if this episode is any indication: this will be a season to remember. But what does it all mean? What's the secret they're hiding? Why was the officers comment important?
Sorry, this part is for members only and may contain spoilers. If you'd like to read it, please LOG IN or REGISTER. So there it is: the grand kick-off for yet another incredible season of Lost. Join us next week when we find out why the Boaties are really there (yeah right, like they'll just tell us right off the bat) and learn more about what really happened to the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. Are they still alive? Are they still alive? Post a comment below and take a guess! Comments (17)
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