LOST fans, if you’re not reading Doc Jensen’s column over at EW.com, you don’t know what you’re missing. Click here to read his latest column; there’s six pages, but it’s well worth the read. I’d love to hear what you think about what he has to say here. Is Sawyer really the show’s Oedipus? (I think so.) Will the Jacob-touched castaways retain their memories at the point of their timeline reboots? (Again, I think so.) And if that’s true, will we see a painful moment when off-Island Sawyer finds Juliet, only to discover that she has no memory of him and their on-Island relationship? (That would automatically rank up there among the best scenes in series history.)
Like I said, read Jensen’s column. And let me know what you think.
already & not yet 
Eh, I don’t know about Sawyer being Oedipus, that seems like a big stretch.But I do buy the Juliet being Narcissa from the Odyssey. Especially since the tapestry in Jacob’s room quoted the Odyssey.I also like the idea of Jacob’s touch allowing the Losties to retain their memories even after the timeline is changed. I also agreed with the discussion in Totally Lost that while everything appears to be going according to the Man in Black’s plan, it seems like everything is going according to Jacob’s plan as well (with Christ-like intentions of wanting to be killed). While the Man in Black wanted Locke to leave the island and die so that he could take Locke’s form, Jacob also wanted that to happen so that the Oceanic 6 would come back so that they would change the timeline.I really do believe that something in the timeline was fundamentally changed by Juliet, although I’m not sure exactly what that means. But again, the lingering question that we’ve had is what do we do with the 2007 timeline?
I thought Sawyer as Oedipus was a stretch, too, at first; but why, then, was he missing his shoes? We all know nothing is haphazard about this show…it just makes you wonder. Personally, I love the whole thing about Jacob’s touch giving our castaways the retention of their memories. For our primary characters, the past 5 seasons – seasons rife with redemption, defeat, and incredible personal and collective growth – can’t just be washed away. I refuse to believe the writers have led us down a 5 season rabbit hole to simply obliterate the whole thing. But the only way to do that is to give them the opportunities to write their histories again, albeit this time with the knowledge of their previous Island experiences / redemption encounters. Maybe Kate never robs that bank that led to her best friend being killed. (Why else bring up the whole airplane thing again.) Maybe Jack has a second chance with Sarah where he doesn’t try to “fix” everything, but instead he chooses to be a fully present partner to her. Or maybe he chooses to avoid the heartache completely, hoping to reunite with Kate someday. Maybe Hurley goes through life realizing that he’s not cursed but rather that he has a gift that is intended to bless others. And so it goes…until we reach 2007, where our current castaways (Sun, Lapidus, Ilana) have all been flashed into the ALTERED timeline. In this new altered timeline, our heroes fulfill their destinies by CHOOSING to return to the Island. These previous experiences of their Island lives have helped them become better people off the Island, and yet they all innately know that they share a destiny back on the Island. Maybe that’s where Desmond comes into play again. Remember, he’s been told by Eloise, “The Island isn’t through with you yet.” Perhaps the same can be said now of Jack, Kate, Sawyer and the rest. The Island / Jacob is calling them once more to the Island, this time of their own volition, to fulfill their destiny and…do something significant to save Jacob or Locke or something. Boy, that comment was a lot longer than I intended it to be.
Oooo. I like that idea. But what about all the dead people? Do Boone and Shannon have new lives in this altered timeline?
I think the dead people have new lives in the altered timeline, but no knowledge of their Island experience since they weren’t “touched” by Jacob. Maybe that’s the meaning of “Jacob’s lists”. The ones he touched were the “chosen ones” or whatever, chosen to relive their lives with knowledge of their Island experiences. As such, they become variables in their own life equations with the ability to choose new lives and new paths, etc. But I would imagine that if they were to run into Charlie or Shannon or Eko off the Island, these deceased “non-touched” castaways would have no knowledge of who they were. Kind of like what the Entertainment Weekly guy hypothesized about Sawyer meeting Juliet and her having no recollection of who he was. The more I think about it, this may be my favorite season finale ever simply because it has fired my imagination in so many different ways over what the show may actually mean. Pretty cool that after 103 episodes, this show can still make me do that.