Lost season 5 rewatch

With one day to go before the start of season 6 I am glad to say that I have completed my Lost seasons 1-5 rewatch.
Season 5 goes to a whole new level of crazy, with time travel being an important component in both the manner of story telling and to the narrative of the show. Instead of having just flash forwards and flashbacks there are also flashes through time for those who were left behind on the island. Once again I will analyse this season through a series of bullet points and as a whole I would say that this is definitely the most complex of the seasons so far but it also gave answers to some questions pertaining to the origins of some of the elements of the island.

• The first episode chronicled all of the characters, those on the island and the Oceanic 6 (along with Ben) starting where the previous season had left off; Jack at the funeral home with Ben, Sayid breaking Hurley out of the Santa Rosa mental hospital, Sun in London and Kate with Aaron. By including all the characters it meant that we were propelled straight in to the story and meant that even though distance and time separated the characters they were not isolated from the audience.
• The first episode started as previous ones did, not knowing when or where we are or initially who the person is. It turns out to be Dr Pierre Chang who we have only previously seen in the Dharma Initiative videos (a task he is performing in this opener). We also see that he has a baby who it was speculated was Miles and this is who it turned out to be. The record getting stuck in a grove was later used as a metaphor what is happening to those on the island, that it is like a record that is skipping, they are skipping through time.
• The skipping through time allowed for stories to be told that had only been hinted at; seeing the drug plane crashing, the complete statue that is now only a four toed foot and most importantly seeing what happened to Rousseau and her team. This was told with Jin as the witness, he survived the freighter blowing up to be rescued by Rousseau and he was present when she shot her lover and he saw the one   of the team being dragged under the temple, getting his arm pulled off in the process. It is Jin that stops Rousseau from going down in to the temple and saves hers and Alex's life in the process.
• An event that we have seen but that Sawyer was not originally present for was the birth of Aaron, as Locke takes the group away from the light of the hatch they here screaming which turns out to be Claire. Getting to see this again was pretty awesome especially in the context that Sawyer thinks that Kate is dead.
• Other interesting encounters involve a young Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking as well as the never ageing Richard Alpert who we get to see in the 1950s, 1970s and the present.

• There are more family connections and children speaking to their parents without their parents knowing it is them- Faraday speaks to two ages of his mother (in the 50s and 70s) and Miles to his father with the baby version of himself living in the same area ("That douche is my dad" is one of my favourite lines in the season). It could be said that Charlotte had to die from the constant time flashes as the version of herself that lived in Dharmaville was of speaking age and this is why Miles did not have to die. Also Faradays theory suggested that those who had been on the island the longest would feel more severe side effects.

• Seeing Ethan shoot Locke was also an interesting scene, the inclusion of Richard giving Locke instructions as to how to save the island took an interesting turn when we see that it is 'not Locke' that gives Richard these instructions, telling him that he has to die to save the island.
• Off island and in the present we see Ben attempting to gather those who left the island to get back, this mission is one that Locke failed and in 'The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham' we see him going from person to person in a wheelchair getting turned down by them all. This leads to him about to commit suicide which Ben interrupts but he ends up killing him anyway. Though is Locke required to die by another to make the journey back to the island possible. I thought it was so he could be resurrected on the island but as with the reveal at the end of this season this was not the reason.
• Ben intends to deliver on his threat to kill Penny, but ends of shooting Desmond and taking another beating. It is only because Penny and Desmond's child Charlie (yes I awwed when I first heard that they had called him that) that really stopped Ben from pulling the trigger, followed by the beating.
• The result of Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sun, Sayid and Ben taking Ajira flight 316 with Frank Lapidus flying the plane results in some being sent back in time with others staying in the present. Those who end up in the past (Kate, Jack, Hurley and Sayid) turn up in 1977 which is where Sawyer et al have been living since Locke managed to fix the island flashing through time. 
• The 1977 crew are living in Dharmaville and have been for the past three years and it is through this that we get to see more of the Dharma operation including the buliding of several of the hatches. The truce between the hostiles and the Dharma folk is also emphasised, especially when Sayid is mistaken for one of them.
• A young Ben visits Sayid on multiple occasions and when he helps bust him out he thanks Ben by shooting him, thinking that that is why he is there and that if Ben never grows up then this will change everything. This event seems like it is the thing that caused him to actually be the way he is, oh Sayid, thinking he has helped but really is he the cause.

  

• Eloise Hawking shooting her own son Daniel Faraday (RIP Daniel, you were awesome and I hope you will be in the next series) whilst being pregnant with him was also one of the sadder moments, especially as he dies he realises that his mother must have known what was going to happen to him if he did go to the island. His mother must have know his entire life that she was going to kill him which must put a strain on any relationship.
• I enjoyed seeing more of Ben's past regarding Widmore and the moment that he stole Alex from Rousseau which weirdly saved both her life and her mothers. Ethan was his helper who turned out to be the son of Horace Goodspeed one of the heads of the Dharma Initiative on the island, got to love these family connections. It is not just Ben who turns on the Dharma folk. Ben does not look good with his hair in the flashbacks, once again though the kid who plays young Ben really does look like him, kudos to the casting director for the kid who played young Kate in the finale, she really does look like Evangeline Lilly.
• In the finale we get to see Jacob going around and being present in several of the characters lives both in the distant past and the recent past. With Sayid we see the hit and run that kills Nadia that Jacob may or may not have caused, we see Jacob giving the guitar case to Hurley (what is in this?), he touches Locke after he is pushed out of the window by his father, he pays for a lunchbox that Kate has stolen (the same lunchbox that she will bury years later), talks to Jack at the hospital after his first major surgery (that inspires the count to five story), he is at Sun and Jin's wedding, he gives young Sawyer a pen to finish his 'Dear Mr Sawyer' letter and he visits a heavily bandaged Ilana in hospital. What all of this means exactly I don't know but he physically touches them all is some manner, all except Juliet who we see also at a young age being told by her parents that they are getting a divorce. If many of these have already occurred why were they never on Jacobs lists?

• With Jacob being stabbed by Ben at the end provokes the question of what does this mean now regarding the balance of the island between Jacob and the man in black. Michael Emerson said it was great to allow Ben to do something childish and impulsive after all his calculated and manipulative actions- "What about me?"
• The moment in which it is revealed that Locke is in the casket still and that the version that is walking around is not Locke is so great especially when rewatching and knowing that the Locke that comes back to the island is not the Locke the audience knows. This also makes me sad as he never really got to be the man he wanted to be, his life really does seem like one tragedy after another. Also we don't still know much about Illana and her group (except that they tried to recruit Miles away from Widmore) and I'm guessing that this is something that will be expanded next season.

• "It's not the fall that will kill you but the hydrogen bomb" (a facebook status that a friend had after the season finale). The season ends with the attempt to reset history after Faraday hypothesises that people are the variable and so if they set off the hydrogen bomb at the swan station to stop the electromagnetic energy that will eventually crash flight 815 then none of it will ever happen. The bomb is detonated by Juliet who after the most heartbreaking goodbye with Sawyer (a couple I never thought I would be on board with but loved) manages to do the deed. The screen fades to white and we will find out what happens tomorrow...

All photos courtesy of Lost Media