It was the major question heading into last night's sixth season premiere of Lost: Would the Jughead detonation be a success, rebooting the show's timeline and sending the castaways safely to Los Angeles?

Right away, viewers got the answer: Yes... and no. Forget flashbacks and flashforwards. We were introduced this week to... flash parallels?!?

How was Jack on a plane... and on the island? Is that Boone, and Charlie... and Claire? How is Locke in a wheelchair... and dead... AND walking around as the human shell of the smoke monster?!?

Indeed, there were numerous questions - and timelines - thrown at fans this week, a majority of which we have no choice but to be patient about. While the dueling realities may make little sense at the moment, it's hard not to have faith that all will be explained.

For now, catch up on a basic recap of "LA X" and try to keep your head on straight as we review the events from the episode below.

WHAT WE LEARNED:

There's a new timeline. Jughead didn't just "work," as Juliet apparently wanted to tell Sawyer before she died, in putting all castaways safely on the plane. It changed their life stores. To wit: Hurley is now the luckiest guy alive; Shannon chose to remain in Australia; Desmond was a passenger on flight 815. No one remembers who anyone else is.

TVF Take: Huh?!? This is some alternative reality, but it's one where fate appears to be bringing certain favorites (Jack and Locke, Claire and Kate) together in some way. There's not much else to take away from this development... yet. We're clearly meant to be confused, and are left pondering the differences between what we just saw on flight 815 versus what we knew about these characters' pre-crash lives prior to this reboot. Where's Libby? Ana Lucia? The most intriguing line from this parallel universe:

Charlie telling Jack he was "supposed to die."

The Man in Black = Smokey. Kudos to the show for revealing one of the most sought after answers in the very first episode. Has there ever been a cooler scene on Lost than when Fake Locke transformed into the monster, wreaked havoc and then appeared again in human form. We're still giddy over Fake Locke's words to Ben: Sorry you had to see me like that.

TVF Take: So The Man in Black can take on the form of Smokey and of dead people. Does this mean he pretended to be Christian every time Jack saw his father on the island? And Alex when she told Ben to follow every word Locke said? We'd have to assume so on both accounts.

There are more Others. We'll be honest: our eyes almost rolled upon being introduced to yet another new group on the island. But it looks like we'll get quick answers about these people (we'll call them The Temple Troupe), as we already know flight attendant Cindy is one of them; they answer to Jacob; their magic water can save lives...

... but at what cost?

Remember when Richard took child Ben to The Temple and warned that he'd never be the same? What does this mean for suddenly-revived Sayid? Nothing good, we're afraid.

Or, as another theory: might Sayid actually be Jacob resurrected? According to Ben, after all, the island does not bring people back to life, which was proven true when we learned Locke has remained dead since being strangled. What better way for Jacob to fight against his long-time nemesis than by also occupying the body of a deceased individual?

Then again, there's an actual dead Locke body, on top of the one The Man on Black is now using. There only seems to be one Sayid. Okay. Our head hurts.

WHAT WE THINK WE LEARNED:

Richard was on the Black Rock. Fake Locke seemed well-acquainted with Richard, even though it had seemingly been a very long time since they met. He referred to Richard's past "in chains," backing up many fans' theories that the never-aging advisor was on that slave ship years and years ago. Fake Locke then knocked Richard out and carried him away... somewhere.

Fake Locke isn't from the island. Or at least not the part of the island where he's resided all this time. In a chilling scene, which almost ought to earn Terry O'Quinn an Emmy Award already and which alternated between sunlight and dark shadows on his face, Fake Locke said he wanted to go home. Where is home? Our guess:

The Temple.

Jughead sunk the island. Again, there's only so much we can extrapolate about the parallel flight 815 timeline right now. But there were two things worth noticing when the camera went underwater: that was a Dharma shark swimming around; and the The Others' village appeared built/intact. This would imply that the island was recently submerged.

Jacob was in charge of the lists. We've been hearing The Others reference "lists" for years; and Ilana said Frank was a "candidate" on the season five finale. Do we have a better idea now of what these lists mean? No. But the inclusion of one in Jacob's guitar case gift to Hurley at least makes it clear he was the one interested in these names.

We'll likely have more thoughts to share on the episode later today including a Round Table discussion on "LA X." For now, we'll take a moment to mourn Juliet and Locke - who are both truly, finally dead - and turn it over to readers: What did you think of the premiere?

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.