It has been over eight months since we last visited the mysterious island of Lost, and its two-hour, two-part return episode, “LA X,” is decent. For most other shows "decent" would be a compliment, but for Lost it’s discouraging. While I did not expect it to come out of the gate answering all of the show’s mysteries, I did hope for a lot more to be uncovered in two hours. Instead, we’re given two episodes that introduce an entirely new narrative that vaguely answers a few lingering queries about the show, and, in true Lost fashion, creates a whole new slew of mysteries. This would have been a fantastic episode had it been shown during the show’s fourth or fifth season, but for its final season, I wanted more reassurance that the show will wrap up all the narrative paths it has started along the way.

The episode’s beginning, showing the familiar flight of Oceanic 815, dashes any such hopes almost instantly as it presents an alternate reality in which the plane does not crash. This device is at first intriguing, especially considering the subtle nuances that begin to unravel and mirror the events of the previous season. Desmond is, for some reason, onboard the alternate 815 flight, sleeping next to Jack, and he suddenly disappears — a possible homage to his time traveling in season 4’s episode “The Constant.” Charlie, who was killed in season 3’s “The Looking Glass,” nearly dies on this alternate flight but is saved by Jack. The former’s line, “I should have died,” comes across as ominous, but what does it mean?

That was the problem I had with the alternate reality timeline that takes up much of this two-hour episode: I have no idea what it means. I could not see where it fits in the grand scheme of bringing Lost to a close. If this is an alternate reality in which all the events of the show happen differently, how could it possibly answer questions pertaining to the island, which the characters now have never been to? I’m sure Lost’s writers and producers have an end to justify their means, but for someone waiting eight long months to get some sort of clue that the show will be coming to a satisfying conclusion, I can’t say the alternate reality timeline really strikes me as something to be excited about. Desmond wasn’t even on the original 815 flight, so why is he on the alternate one? Where are Claire, Michael, Walt, Ana-Lucia, and Eko (to name a few) on this alternate flight? Considering all of those characters have either died or gone missing on the show, their absence might be a clue, but if that’s the case, how do we explain the presence of Boone (who died in the first season) sitting on the plane perfectly healthy and striking up a conversation with Locke?

This alternate reality is shared throughout the episode with another timeline, which has its own set of questions in need of answering. In it, the survivors once stuck in the 1970s (many of whom are shown on the plane in the alternate reality) are transported back to the present due to the nuclear bomb denotation. Jacob’s return as an apparition that speaks to Hurley was a nice addition and provided Hurley the opportunity to take temporary lead of the survivors as they attempt to revive a dying Sayid. Hurley still provides a few comedic moments (such as his statement,
“Dude, that sucks,” when he finds out that Jacob’s dead), but watching him explain to temple-dwellers what’s going on is rewarding to anyone who has hoped that one day his speaking-to-dead-people act would come in handy.

Ben and Locke were relegated to only a handful of scenes in “LA X,” and this was another disappointing aspect of the episode because the two actors, Michael Emerson and Terry O’Quinn, have been playing off each other so well these last few years. Their interactions last season were some of the best character moments in the show, and their brief time together in this episode was nothing less than stellar. I’m interested to see how their destinies play out, particularly after tonight when it seemed as though Ben was beginning to gain a marginal degree of sympathy for John Locke (the real one, that is). Perhaps he is finally coming to terms with how pivotal a role Locke has played in his life on the island. For as much as the two have argued throughout the seasons, Ben and Locke are a lot alike and this season seems poised for a Ben-Locke team-up.

As for the questions that were answered in tonight’s episodes, we found out that the Man in Black is in fact the Smoke Monster. Unfortunately, this has been suspected since the season finale last May, so it comes as little surprise to anyone who is a regular follower of Lost theory websites and message boards. One of the better reveals is finding out what’s in Charlie’s guitar case that Jacob gave Hurley. It’s just too bad that it’s not a full reveal because we don’t know exactly what’s on the piece of paper. I personally suspect Sayid’s name is not the only one listed on it. Finally, toward the end of the episode, the comment that the Man in Black (can the writers give him a name already?) makes to Richard about not seeing him “in chains” suggests another widely suggested theory that Richard was on the Black Rock that crashed into the island. But his being in chains also suggests that he is a slave, upping the necessity for the Richard-centric episode everyone is craving.

I have a suspicion that eons from now, when the world has ended, the meaning of life will have been revealed to our spiritual bodies, but we still won’t know just what in the world Lost was all about. I’m not the kind of viewer that wants all the mysteries explained and spelled out; in fact, I would absolutely love it if the show ended vaguely and forced to audience to infer its meaning. However, I do want to know that the show is headed in some sort of conclusive direction, and tonight’s episode just doesn’t scream “beginning of the end” to me. It seems like a new beginning in a new narrative that’s bringing more questions to an already full table.