IF I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW

Because there’s no new Lost tonight (and since I’m one of those guys who’s more absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder than one of those out-of-sight-out-of-mind chuckleheads), I’d figure I’d watch the two-hour pilot and look for stuff that seemed simple or out of place at the time but is completely LOST-tastic now that we’re here at the end.

Also, if I don’t do this, Samantha Olsson Shear (Congratulations to you and Mike!) won’t have anything to read tomorrow at lunch.

1. PREVIOUSLY, ON LOST:: The first time we see the smoke monster (although the audience is completely unaware of the nature of the threat; it’s just rumbling groans, clanking chains and waving trees at this point); and we’re only halfway through the first hour of the pilot… the very first reaction shot to the ominous sound-and-fury goes to… Locke.

2. I GOT THE PISTOLS SO I GET THE PESOS: When Kate is looting the shoes from a dead body… the music is mournful and wistful and Kate is almost reverentially untying them. No cowboy “I need these more than you’re gonna” -type storytelling here. These folks are all civilized people coming from Sydney to LA, not apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic wasteland characters in need of shoes. It’s quite sweet, really, and pretty amazing since Evangeline Lilly isn’t an accomplished actress at this point. But as Kate eases ’em off, she looks up to see she’s being watched by… Locke. Who grins at her to reveal an orange peel mouth. Something a kid would do. A kid… if not an innocent, then, at least someone who is not aware of social mores. In context (and without) that is one creepy-ass thing to see. Almost as if Locke is aware of something the rest of ’em aren’t. Can it be possible the smoke monster is already driving the Locke bus? If not overtly then perhaps passively? That might go a ways to explain how he’s suddenly able to walk and not much fazed by being able to do so.

3. CHAIN OF FOOLS: Hey, speaking of the smoke monster… the second time the audience sees the monster, during the first rain at the crash site, the trees sway and the roar is heard and then… we cut to… Locke, embracing the rain. It’s almost like they were trying to tell us something, straight away. He still hasn’t spoken a line of dialogue yet, and I’m kind of curious as to the first words Locke says. Throwaway plot stuff that hints a little like Threepio’s “There’s no escape for the Princess this time.”? Or more like “The poison is still fresh; three days.”?

4. DAYLIGHT COME AND ME WANNA GO HOME: I don’t know if I’m just attuned to it now because Season Six has been all about reflections and mirrors both literal and metaphorical, but the first time we see Greg Grunberg’s doomed pilot of Oceanic 815, it’s as a reflection in a puddle. Kate and Jack look down, and then see him in the cockpit as they look up.

5. YOU CAME AND YOU GAVE WITHOUT TAKING: Another interesting “reflection” thing to me is that Stewardess Cindy plays such a big role in the pilot, disappears for most of the show, and then reappears in the last season. Cindy is featured in the first two flashbacks of the show; first Jack’s nervous gimme-some-more-vodka scene and then the flashback that reveals what happens with Charlie in the bathroom. Oddly, while I like Kate and Juliet and Penny and Ilana much better with their Island gear on, rain-drenched and gun-toting, I think Stewardess Cindy looks much better with a shower and a crisp uniform. Some people are just their jobs, I guess. Is Cindy the steward of the Others’ kids, in more ways than one? I hope they answer that one.

6. I SEE YOU’RE MAD AT THE FACT THAT MY POCKETS STAY FAT: When Shannon is sun-bathing, she nonchalantly says: “You’re wasting your time; they’re coming.” Of course the audience thinks she’s talking an impending rescue, but it’s hard not to think of Jacob’s last words, here. Other last words that alternately inspire and confuse me: Lyndon Johnson, after drinking a big glass of cold milk: “Mmmmm; that was good.” and our next door neighbor Mr. Melen, after his last heart attack: “Warn the people!” One’s a better set of last words than the other, should you ask me. But “They’re coming” is also hard to beat.

7. CLOSER, LET ME WHISPER IN YOUR EAR: Holy crap, do you know what Locke’s first spoken words of dialogue are in this show? “Walt? Do you want to know a secret?” It’s the bit where he explains backgammon to Walt, but it plays like he’s talking about something else, even when you watch it for the first time. “Two sides, light and dark.” I’m telling you, everyone who says the producers didn’t have at least a signpost idea set up of where they wanted this show to go are dead wrong, because it’s all there, right at the beginning.

Finally, most people reading this know I also collect replica and screen-used movie props. I concentrate on spacesuits, mostly, but I have some cool helmets and guns and miscellaneous bits from other shows. I even have some blank rifle cartridges from Brother’s War where my good buddy Jared Guenther worked FX and make-up. But it’s a good thing Lost hasn’t featured a scene with Sawyer or Penny in a spacesuit, because Profiles in History has released a preview of some key Lost props they’re auctioning off. Click the link to see some cool artifacts from the production. Me, those Dharma beer cans look real tempting. And come on; Locke’s hero backgammon set? That’s going to go for coin.