"The Beginning of the End" (Season 4, Episode 1)

I believe it was Voltaire who said "Sometimes the appetite is more satisfying than the meal." Or was it Dick Van Patten? Whatever, I think I may have been too keyed up for last night's premiere. Don't get me wrong. I liked it. I just wasn't blown away by it. Maybe having watched the replay of the two-hour finale the night before with all its explosions and explosive revelations and quirky commentary (and no, I didn't write the captions as some have asked), this sixty minutes (42 minus the commercials) had a lot to live up to. Also, this episode was obviously laying the groundwork for what's to come in this abbreviated season.

Best Lines

• "Better call the boat. Tell them she's getting a really big bundle of firewood." Ben suggesting to Jack how to adjust his excuse for the missing Naomi.
  

Did You Notice?

• This series knows how to do an opening scene. That pile of mangoes (?) against a blue sky took the viewer right to the island before erupting in a pulpy mess as a car chase exploded across our screen. I thought maybe we were seeing the filming of a scene from Niki's stripper/private investigator series "Expose". Razzle dazzle!
• Hurley's red Camero was the same one featured in the episode with Hurley and his father (played by Cheech Marin).
• The Mystery Car of Death is back! Hurley's car chase ended abruptly when he smashed into the same car that hit Michael, almost backed over Locke, smashed into Kate as she escaped the hospital, and was last seen driving past the flower shop where Anthony Cooper was in the midst of his last scam. Old Mystie gets around.
• There were various styles of mirrors for sale in the parking lost where Hurley's car crashed. Alice in Wonderland reference: looking glasses? Symbolic of mirror universes? None appeared broken so no bad luck. Hmm.
• Who are the Oceanic 6? Six people who made it off the island? We know Jack and Kate did from the finale. We can add Hurley. Who are the remaining three? Could one be the "him" that Kate needed to get back to in the final scene of the finale? And instead of a boyfriend or husband (sorry, Sawyer), could he be a baby? As in baby Aaron? If so, what happened to Claire and how did Kate end up with Aaron?
• Why did Hurley claim he never knew Ana Lucia to Detective Mike?
• In Hurley's vision of Charlie in the interrogation room mirror, written on Charlie's palm is not the phrase "Not Penny's Boat" but "They Need You" as he later tells Hurley on the grounds of the mental hospital.
• I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing Rousseau elbow slam Ben in the face.
• The chalkboard in the mental hospital's rec room featured drawings of a sailboat, a palm tree on an island, and a shark. Had Hurley drawn these? We later see him sketching an Eskimo and an igloo, but no polar bear to be seen.
• Creepy Oceanic Airlines "attorney" Matthew Abaddon's last name is also the name of the chief of the demons in demonology. This should be no surprise if you noticed his hasty exit which looked suspiciously like the smoke monster darkening the door as it fled. And does his question "Are they still alive?" imply that the other survivors are still on the island?
• Did you hear the ghostly whispering as Hurley approached Jacob's cabin? Nothing specific in the close captioning. I'll keep surfing the net to see if some techo wiz transcribes it.
  
• Let's talk about the cabin in the jungle that Hurley came upon. I think it's safe to presume it's the same one that Ben took Locke to when Jacob made his first appearance. The painting of the large dog was in both. There was the wooden table with a lantern and a seemingly empty chair. When Jacob (if that is in fact who Hurley glimpsed) was visible, we saw a long-haired man in a dark suit and - did you notice? - white tennis shoes. The only other person we've seen in this same mismatched wardrobe combination was Jack's father when he first appeared to him on the beach way back in Season One. Go back and check it out. When I first saw Christian Shephard in that episode, I remember thinking why would someone be buried in his best suit but with tennis shoes? I wondered if it was an oversight in the production (who's going to notice what's he wearing on his feet?) or if it was intentional. I predict that before this series is over, we will see Jack's dad at the Australian morgue where his body ended up and someone swiping his expensive shoes and leaving him with these. Also, John Terry who plays Christian was listing in the opening credits as a guest star so I have no doubt it was him. So does this mean Jacob is really Jack's dad? Or is Locke (whose eye I believe surprised Hurley) just hanging out in the jungle with a dead guy? Further evidence is the web episode "So It Begins", which can be found at www.abc.com in the Lost: Missing Pieces section. In this two-minute prequel to the very first episode of the series, Vincent the dog is sniffing his way through the jungle and comes upon the sneaker-clad Christian Shephard. Jack's dad tells Vincent to go find his son and after the dog trots off, Christian states "he has a lot of work ahead of him". The scene cuts to the opening of the pilot episode: a close-up of Jack's eye as he awakens after the plane crash and Vincent coming up to him.
• We assume Charlie is real at first since another mental hospital patient sees him, but Hurley has been known to have imaginary friends (Dave). And how is Charlie both "dead and also here"? Parallel universes?
• Apparently, Jack was not kidding when he said if they found Locke, he would kill him. Good thing for Locke that the gun wasn't loaded.
  
• Team Locke consists of Hurley, Claire, Aaron, Rousseau, Ben, Alex and Karl, and Sawyer among others. Team Jack has Kate, Rose and Bernard, Sayid, Juliet, Sun and Jin, and Desmond.
• Locke seemed very surprised by the sudden downpour. In past episodes, he has relished the rain and, once with Boone, even predicted it. This sudden storm seemed to catch him by surprise. Was the Island upset (crying, if you will) by his choice to break up the survivors?
• Why does Hurley never miss a basket when shooting hoops? And why can't Jack make one?
  
• Obviously, these flash forwards take place before Jack and Kate's in the finale. Jack seems to have his act together and the thought of going back to the island is not even a remote possibility to him.
• If you watched "Eli Stone", the show which followed "Lost", then you may have seen the commercial for Oceanic Airlines. The ad was electronically hijacked by a former employee's transmission stating he found Oceanic Flight 815 and we see the flash of a split screen picture from what appeared to be an automated camera of the crashed airliner apparently in an underwater trench just as Naomi had previously stated last season. (Off topic: If you like "Pushing Daisies", then I highly recommend "Eli Stone". These two shows should air back-to-back because they both have a fanciful, life-affirming theme to them even as they deal with death. Any show where a scene of a child's building blocks spelling out George Michael can give you chills should not be missed.)
  

The Numbers - 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 15 16 23 42 108

• Hurley's chase was covered by Action 8 News.
• Hurley was on the number 10 freeway.
• Detective Mike said it was 5 minutes before Hurley let 10 cruisers chase him down.
• Jack told Kate that 6 hours from now they would be sitting on the boat.
• Hurley was playing Connect 4.
  

Previews - Next week, it looks like we'll see another of the boat people and hopefully learn of their agenda. And will Naomi's sister be on the freighter? Only time will tell. Until then . . .