Lost Premiere: How's That Flash-Sideways Deal Working Out For Our Favorite Castaways?
Jack Shephard
2004: Makes it from Sydney to Los Angeles without any time-traveling, reality-splintering detours. Saves Charlie from dying during flight 815. Loses father's body in a hilarious luggage mix-up, and due to some wildly optimistic funeral scheduling that allowed a mere two hours between baggage claim and open-casket viewing, ruins his dad's memorial. Thinks he can probably fix Locke's spine, because he pulled the same trick a few seasons back and got a hot wife out of it. (Does he secretly want to marry the wise man in the wheelchair because he's still smarting about Julie Bowen leaving him? Hmm.)
2007: Tragically unaware that detonating Jughead "worked" for everybody in 2004, has become the fall-guy for the apparent failure of Faraday's so-crazy-this-just-might-work scheme. Discovering that every time he barrels forward in his default leadership role, bad things seem to happen, like friends dying. (Sorry, Juliet and Sayid!)
Advantage: 2004. He hasn't killed anyone there yet, except for his father, sort of.
Ben Linus
2004: Probably dead, having been incinerated when the bomb went off in 1977.
2007: A mixed bag: Sure, he got to stab Jacob in the heart a couple of times, and murdering people who've either emotionally damaged him or threatened his power has always been a turn-on. But finding out you're the pawn not only of the godlike mystery-man you've dedicated your entire life to, but of another godlike mystery-man with whom your original godlike mystery-man seems to have been locked in combat for centuries, is a real mind-f*ck.
Advantage: 2007. Ben will find a way to turn the situation to his advantage. Probably by beating Richard to death with his shoe.
Kate Austen
2004: Still a fugitive, even in this reset timeline, having slipped away from a federal marshall too dumb to realize that maybe he shouldn't stand so close to a bathroom stall door while his captive is obviously trying to escape from her handcuffs.
2007: Stuck in a reality where her on-again, off-again boyfriend's "failed" plan killed not only her chief romantic rival, but a guy she was planning on sleeping with eventually. (Hey, there's a very limited dating pool on the island.)
Advantage: 2007. Being on the lam is overrated. And in '07, maybe she'll still get a shot with Reincarnated Sayid, which will drive Jack and Sawyer insane with envy.
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Comments
Fan-bloody-tastic.
This is awesome. And interestingly, "Agog Mob of Others" was the name of my band in college.* Great post.
* in one of my alternate realities
for the record (haven't you guys ever heard of Lostpedia.com) sun was pregs in 2004, had the baby and Ji Yeon is now 2 years old. which is why Sun commented on the potential playdate with Aaron.
Wait, was that a joke, about 2007 Sun and Jin? She had her baby on the mainland after she escaped, they haven't seen each other in three years? Guess some could consider that happily married?
Great comparisons. Looks like 2004 was better for most of them, especially the English language. 🙂
Yet, don't you remember 2-3 years passed between when pregnant Sun left the island and when she returned on flight 316? Her daughter was left in Korea (presumably).
I thought Sun had her baby off the island and is not pregnaut in 2007. Also, I think Jack's father's coffin was lost in transit by the Island, meaning Jack's Father's spirit is destined to become part of the island even submerged.
Loved this:
The English Language
2004: Everyone seems pretty happy with it.
2007: Angry Temple Keeper “doesn’t like the taste of it on his tongue.”
Advantage: 2004!
Is it to be assumed that the temple dwelling others consist, at least in part, of all of the survivors of the crash that were kidnapped in the very beginning? Was Walk kidnapped by a different group of others? Were Michael & Walt the only two original survivors not shown on the parallel 2004 plane?
I just answered, somewhat, my own question...Boone's sister was also not on the parallel plane.
I would say it was more of a "man in a Locke suit" rather than him actually being in Locke.
Also no Ana Lucia, Eko or Libby in the alterna-flashes. And I can't really imagine why Shannon wouldn't have come back with Boone b/c of the island bomb.
Who is the "Man in Black"?
Haha, nice kicker at the end.
No one seems to have pointed this out yet, but Sun and Jin seem to not only be unhappy, but unmarried in 2004. (No wedding rings, and the guard at security addresses her as "Miss Paik.")
If Jacob, Richard, and Ben all died in the 1977 blast, then they wouldn't have been around to manipulate everybody else's realities to get them to the island in no-crash 2004. Only the puppet strings Jacob pulled before 1977 would still be in effect - Sawyer's folks' murder-suicide; Kate smirkingly taught "not" to steal; Jack's illegitimate half-sister sleeping out her daddy issues Down Under; his drunk, hypercompetitive surgeon-dad raising him to follow in his footsteps before wandering off to die on a daughter-seeking bender; all the generational conflict among the powerful Widmore, Faraday, and Paak families. Maybe that explains why some of the crew ends up on the plane in alternate 2004 and some don't.