LOST: Episodes 6.01 & 6.02 Recap, 'LA X'

Episode Title: "LA X"

Written By: Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse

Story: The aftermath of Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) detonating the hydrogen bomb is revealed, and the results are both expected and entirely unpredictable. By the episode's conclusion, several lives are lost and one is reclaimed. Additionally, the true nature of the doppleganger posing as John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is revealed, addressing one of the single greatest questions that "Lost" has ever proposed — and raising quite a few as a result.

Warning: Massive spoilers for the season premiere lie after the jump. Consider this your last chance to turn back!

Bomboozled: Right out of the gate, "LA X" addressed the greatest cliffhanger from "The Incident" — as many expected, an alternate reality exists where Oceanic Flight 815 never crashed on the Island, but was this change really caused by the hydrogen bomb? Moments after the first flash-sideways, it's clear that Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and the others are not only alive and well on the Island, but they're back in present day 2007. In other words, there are two lateral stories going on at once: the "real" reality and the alternate reality. Did one cause the other? Are they completely separate? The ghost of Juliet informs Miles (Ken Leung) that "it worked," indicating that the dead have some knowledge of the alternate reality, but it's just too early to say for sure at this point.

Alterations: There are some notable differences between the alternate reality and the one we've come to know. Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) is somehow on (then suddenly off) Flight 815; Hurley (Jorge Garcia) describes himself as the luckiest guy in the world; Locke, still paralyzed, apparently went on the walkabout tour, though he could be lying about it; Boone (Ian Somerhalder) never convinced Shannon to come home with him; Cindy (Kimberley Joseph) only gave Jack one liquor bottle instead of two; and, oh yeah, the Island is completely submerged in water. Could every single one of these differences be explained by Juliet detonating the hydrogen bomb? It's always possible, but I'm expecting that there's another explanation waiting in the wings.

Lost Love: Ah, Juliet. We hardly knew ye. Well, we knew ye, but we didn't get to know enough about your secret Others rituals and your knowledge of Richard Alpert's (Nestor Carbonell) back story. It's going to be a difficult road to recovery for James Ford (Josh Holloway), but the road might be even harder for Jack, who has created a mortal enemy out of James thanks to the apparent failure of the hydrogen bomb.

Jacob's Ghost: Good thing Hurley can see ghosts since Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) died "an hour ago." It's very interesting that Jacob has so much investment in both Hurley as a messenger and Sayid (Naveen Andrews) as a... well, something important. It's clear that Jacob has kept tabs on our main characters for quite a while, and even after death, his game against the Man in Black is far from over — and it all ties back to the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.

Temple Tantrum: Jacob's suggestion to bring Sayid to the Temple results in the revelation of a new location we've long heard about but never saw in its full majesty until now. There is a group of other Others living in this establishment equipped with a pool that can heal people, except the death of Jacob has apparently stifled that ability... or has it? Sayid died in the pool then very quickly came back to life. Good thing, too, as Jacob's note stated that without Sayid, everyone is in very big trouble. I can get behind that — after all, who else is going to torture the heck out of the Man in Black?

These new Others are certainly interesting and have some reputable actors backing them up in the form of John Hawkes ("Deadwood," "Eastbound & Down") and Hiroyuki Sanada ("Sunshine," "The Last Samurai"), with the latter of the two delivering one of the best lines of the evening — "I don't like the way English tastes upon my tongue." It's a bit late in the game to introduce new characters without some specific meaning behind them, so here's hoping that we'll get some good answers out of these guys.

The Monster's A Man, Baby: Speaking of answers, the Man in Black is the fake John Locke is the Smoke Monster — or, as I'm going to refer to him, Smocke. This must be such a breath of relief for the writers, who have had this massive gun in the drawer since the Monster's first appearance in the pilot episode. It's even better that the wonderful Terry O'Quinn is getting this meaty new role. His final words on John Locke were heartbreaking, bone-chilling, and illustrative of the cynical moral outlook this man sports. Brilliant work from O'Quinn.

Smoke Signals: Theories that the Man in Black and the Smoke Monster were the same entity date back to "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," the episode in the fifth season that brings John Locke's body back to the Island. Here are just a few of the hints we were given to infer that these characters were the same creature:

- When Ben (Michael Emerson) summons the Monster in "Dead is Dead," the creature is nowhere to be seen — but suddenly, Locke emerges from the jungle, apparently heeding the call.

- Later in that episode, Locke disappears from sight just as the Smoke Monster emerges to confront Ben. The Monster takes on the form of Alex (Tania Raymonde) — the only person that could truly tug on Ben's heartstrings — and commands him to follow John Locke's every bidding or else she'll kill him.

- In "The Incident," Locke is able to convince Ben to kill Jacob, because disobeying this order would essentially dishonor Ben's daughter's wishes.

- On top of that, the fact that the Man in Black shape-shifted to take on Locke's likeness — an ability that the Monster has previously demonstrated — was a strong clue that this man and the creature were one in the same.

The Smoke Monster sensed Locke's weakness from the time he arrived on the Island and consequently exploited John's desperate need to believe in something in order to pull off an ultimate endgame. Smocke is truly the greatest confidence man of them all — he could certainly teach Sawyer a thing or two about long cons.

Quote Of The Evening: "Do you want to know what he was thinking while you choked the life out of him, Benjamin, what the last thought that ran through his head was? 'I don't understand!' Isn't that just the saddest thing you ever heard? But it's fitting in a way. Because when John first came to the Island, he was a very sad man. A victim shouting at the world for being told what he couldn't do, even though they were right. He was weak and pathetic and irreparably broken. But despite all that, there was something admirable about him. He was the only one of them who didn't want to leave, the only one who realized how pitiful the life he left behind actually was." — Smocke's assessment of John Locke.

Where Things Stand: Sayid's miraculous resurrection has caught some worrisome attention from the Others. The Others are understandably terrified at the ascension of Smocke and have bolstered their defenses at the Temple with ash circles, something that the creature can't penetrate. Smocke has killed several men, beaten the tar out of Richard and kidnapped him. He also apparently wants to go "home," wherever that is.

In the alternate reality, Kate and Claire (Emilie de Ravin) are sharing a taxi cab as the former runs from the law. John and Jack, meanwhile, enjoyed a shockingly peaceful face-to-face where the good doctor offered the paralyzed box man a free consultation regarding his broken back. And there is still no sign of what happened to Desmond on the plane.

The Shape of Things To Come: Next week, Sawyer apparently busts free from the Others. Kate goes after him and the two have some choice words. Smocke will also eviscerate a group of Others and floss his teeth with their bones. Just kidding about that last part. But it's probably true.

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