Lost Season 4 Premiere Bulletpoints

This not a full recap like our Season 3 finale piece, but just some collected moments from the episode, unedited and jotted down in real time. –Ed.

–Hurley makes it off the island, into the flash-forward reality, and is living (where else) in Los Angeles. He has not lost much, if any, weight since returning from the island.

–Hurley has a vision of Charlie while in a police interrogation room. Without going into all the details, Charlie’s hand has written on it, “They Need You.” This is a particularly problematic vision as it contains imagery that Hurley did not personally witness and (I think) marks the first vision where the action is pure fantasy and physically impossible to stage. (As opposed to merely planting a horse on the island or the appearance of someone resembling a dead loved one.) More on this below.

–Jack is drinking, but, hey, who doesn’t start the day off with a screwdriver or two? On the plus side, he has upgraded from Dharma brand vodka though. He does not have the bushman beard of the Season 3 finale yet, so that suggests this flash-forward predates the season 3 flash-forward. So this flash-forward would in fact be a flash-back if we were in the previous flash-forward timeline. Got that?

–Apparently, six of the castaways will make it off the island, attain a certain amount of fame and become popularly known as the “Oceanic 6.” We’ve seen Jack, Kate, Hurley off the island in the flash-forward, and, assuming the person in the coffin in the Season 3 cliffhanger is a castaway, then there are only two unnamed castaways will make it off the island. I’m guessing it won’t be Rose and Bernard. Poor Rose and Bernard.

–Jack would have killed Locke when he fired Locke’s own (unloaded) gun at him. While the motivation to do so is ample, my take is that trigger pull marks a turning point in Jack.

–Lance Reddick of The Wire shows up at Hurley’s mental ward claiming to be an Oceanic representative to check on Hurley’s secret-keeping status. (Insert Lance Reddick into the lineup of any show and he only makes that show better. Seriously—I am considering a Cadillac based on his ad spots alone.)

–The deceased Charlie “visits” Hurley at his hospital. Charlie says, “I’m am dead, but I’m also here.” A loaded line if ever there was, in a show full of loaded lines. Ultimately, Hurley is able to make Charlie disappear when he convinces himself that he’s not there. (I fear the producers have painted themselves in a corner with these recurring visitations/imaginings of dead people and various animals and the ultimate explanation of this point is going to be deeply unsatisfying when the story is wrapped up. More on this problem later.)

–Jack visits Hurley in the hospital. They play a game of horse. Hurley smells a rat and knows Jack is there to make sure he is not going to crack and reveal their shared secret. This is a pointed contrast to the Jack of the Season 3 finale, wherein he sobs to Kate, “I’m sick of lying.” At this point, speculation is pointing to an agreement that brought the “Oceanic 6” from the island, wherein they could not talk about the nature of (their time on) the island. The looming key reveal of course is that there was no plane crash, but that they have an agreement to act as if there was a crash publicly upon returning. A more subtle point here is that they can remember their time on the island as “real” upon returning, so that would seem to eliminate some of the more abstract, sci-fi rooted theories on the plot (alternate realities, mind control, vivid dreams, virtual purgatory [though that was ruled out by producers at the outset] etc.).

–Back in the island timeline, the mysterious “Jacob” figure in that darkened shack reappears and this time can be made out–just barely so–as… Jack’s father…?