LOST (don't read if you didn't watch)

S6E16 - The End

2010-09-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

Greetings from oblivion!!

For those of you who don't know the details... I won't bore you with them, but sufficed to say I am currently voluntarily unemployed and pursuing a career as a full-time author. This in part explains the lack of a finale recap and for that I hope you can forgive me.

While we are on the subject, I wanted to do the finale recap in a Q&A style. Giving you A's to all of your unanswered Q's. After experiencing the finale, I can safely say that the answer to almost all of them is, "It doesn't matter because it had nothing to do with the REAL purpose of the island." Having said that, I actually enjoyed the final episode and thought it brought excellent closure for the characters if not the near-impossible "Answer to Everything." On a philosophical level, I think any lingering questions are perhaps more intriguing than the answers themselves. For an exhaustive list, check this out: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Unanswered_questions

So in short, I choose to abstain from attempting a finale recap. In part because of the near perfection of the episode itself and in larger part due to being an aforementioned unemployed full-time author. Cop out? Perhaps. I shall leave that as my own little mystery for you to solve. In the meantime, the list of LOST life lessons that I compiled thanks to many of your contributions was completed a while ago, but unfortunately saved to my work PC just before my self-liberation from the workforce. However, after unflagging persistence I have managed to cut through the mass of corporate red tape and am able to present it to you now:

* * *

Everything I Need To Know… I Learned From LOST

In order to receive a direct answer, you must first ask a direct question.
Who needs biological children when you can create fake animal-skull babies of your own?
We either live together or die alone.
Never attempt to handle dynamite found on a 200-year-old shipwrecked vessel. You’ll likely end up in 100 tiny pieces.
Don’t take any “medicine” offered by your kidnappers.
You may think that cute brunette with the penchant for melodrama will one day wake up, get a clue and forget the doctor. But she won't. Get over it. Go after the sassy latin-speaking blonde instead.
It only ends once. Anything before that is just progress.
Don’t tell me what I can’t do.
You can make an entire music career from one catchy line and a bunch of funny accents.
Go easy on your deadbeat dad, because you never know if one day you may get teleported back in time and find out he wasn't such a bad guy after all.
If you happen to see a TV news crew at a fried chicken restaurant, eat elsewhere.
Smoke monsters cannot fly over water. Duh…
Don't stand too close to people who suddenly have prominent roles, despite the fact you've never heard of them before this week.
Whatever happened, happened… sort of.
Even if you were given an alternate reality, you’d still be stuck with the same people.
There’s always something inside the Virgin Mary that shouldn’t be.
Always pack an extra pair of underwear in case you spontaneously time travel only to be left naked in the jungle a few hours later.
Evidently, you can anger land masses.
Never lie to a samurai.
If you’re going to stab someone, make sure they don’t speak to you first.
Always bring a towel along on jungle expeditions. You never know when you might get a little Arzt on you.
Everyone’s got daddy issues.
Time travel sucks.

* * *

Thank you all for taking this little journey with me. And if you'd like to follow me on my new travels as an author (riddled with its own share of overanalysis of the unknown) friend me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter @HayFiction. Website coming soon! Dude... I'm so "e" it's ridiculous.

S6E15 - What They Died For

2010-05-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

This episode answers the question, "What they died for." The "they" meaning not just Jin and Sun, or even Sayid, but anyone who was "called" to the island. Based on the title, and the fact that this episode is only one off from what will hopefully be a fond farewell to the series... an obituary seems only appropriate.

Name: John Locke (aka Jeremy Bentham)
Born: 1956 - teenage mother and con artist father
Died: 2007 - suicide (upon first inspection)
Lifetime Achievements: hunting boar, pushing a button, pushing a wheel that got stuck, blowing up a submarine (once as himself and again as a smoke monster)

Of course the John we know and love (or at least respected for about four seasons until he became whiny and so easily lead astray by Ben) is long gone, but alt-John is still around. After alt-Ben got the alt-crap beat out of hit by alt-Desmond, he too had a vision of his island self.

Okay, I get the rule if your island self dies you can "see" or even if you come into close contact with someone who "wasn't meant to be" like Hurley/Libby, then you "see." I can even handle a near-death experience being the gimmick to make you "see" but now all it takes is just getting knocked around? Alt-lame. Come on. The next thing you know Desmond will just run around stepping on people's toes.

Anyway, from the looks of things, alt-Ben's got a potential alt-love connection with alt-Rousseau who will be sure to not put in as many alt-onions in his alt-dinner next time... if you know what I'm alt-saying. Good for them. Anyway, point being that he tells alt-Locke what alt-Desmond said about letting go and alt-Locke takes it as a sign to finally agree to let alt-Jack help him.

By the way, remind me not to send my daughters to the school where alt-Ben and alt-Locke teach. Worst security ever...

Name: Charles Widmore
Born: 1937
Died: 2007 - shot three times in the gut
Lifetime Achievements: leading a group of people with no clear purpose, building a vast-yet-vague business enterprise, finding an unfindable island (twice)

You know what I totally didn't get about this episode? Ben's sudden switch of allegiance. At first he just seemed resigned to his fate. He was all, "Okay, Widmore beat me to the punch on the C4 idea, which didn't work anyway and hey listen, here he comes to kill us." So he walks outside and calmly sits as if accepting his fate. But then when Flocke doesn't want to kill him, but in fact wants Ben to kill some folks FOR him, Ben just goes along with it? What? So is he just glad he's not dead so going along with whatever is asked of him? I don't get it and that's a total 180 from the "redemption" that he apparently had when deciding to side with Ilana and the candidates way back when. I hope he's just going along as a con.

Anyway, he kills Widmore--who was in the process of whispering sweet nothings in Flocke's ear in exchange for his daughter's life--claiming he "doesn't get to save his daughter." Geez, bitter much? Long story short, what happened to Ben's statement about not being able to kill Widmore because it was against the rules back in season 4? I mean, that's why he threatened to kill Penny in the first place, because he blamed Widmore for Alex's death and couldn't kill him so went after his own daughter instead. I have a feeling that won't be explained and that irks me. The whole who can kill who thing and why irks me.

The big reveal in the end is Widmore's admission that Desmond was a fail safe in case all the candidates died; somehow related to his immunity to high doses of electromagnetism. While dangerous to Flocke in some way, this also apparently equates to being able to destroy the island so it looks like the island timeline's main showdown will be Jack and Flocke both hunting for Desmond.

Name: Zoe ?
Born: 1970ish
Died: 2007 - throat slit by smoke monster in corporeal form
Lifetime Achievements: masters degree in geophysics, successfully kidnapped a Korean

While Zoe is definitely dead, you know who I'm not so sure about? Richard. What do you think? Looks like he kind of just got tossed really hard into the jungle. Oh, and you know who I totally left out of the recap before last whose fate I'm also unsure of...?

Name: Frank Lapidus
Born: 1960ish
Died: ? - possibly drowned after submarine explosion
Lifetime Achievements: binge drinking, sobering up, semi-successfully landing an airplane after partial loss to engine power

I'm assuming he's dead. I mean, he was blown backwards by the submarine bulkhead just before the water came in so I think he joined Jin and Sun in their fate. Speaking of which...

Name: Jin Kwon
Born: 1974 - son of a fisherman and hooker with a heart of gold (minus the gold)
Died: 2004 - supposed freighter explosion AND 2007 - drowned out of sheer stubbornness (or extreme devotion)
Lifetime Achievements: built a raft, drowned voluntarily

Name: Sun Kwon
Born: 1980 - daughter of a Korean mobster for all intents and purposes
Died: 2007 - drowned in a submarine with her husband
Lifetime Achievements: hostile corporate takeover of family business, abandoning only child to pursue hopeless mission

Don't get me wrong, that scene was tragic, but being a parent... I would have spent at least some of my last few moments giving my spouse the third degree for basically choosing to orphan our child. Tough call and everything, but come on dude. Anyway, while we're tallying up submarine fatalities, I might as well include...

Name: Sayid Jarrah
Born: 1967
Died: 2007 - ran with a timebomb as opposed to throwing it very very far away
Lifetime Achievements: blue ribbon in torture school, fell for a shallow white girl, became kind of evil, sacrificed himself in order to protect his friends

This brings me back to the alternate timeline where Desmond voluntarily turns himself in. At first, I thought it was a ruse to get close to Sawyer, but then we see his cellmates Kate and Sayid. He stages a prison break with the help of Hurley and a paid off Ana Lucia and splits up into teams, presumably in a final push to get all the LOSTies back together.

It definitely seems like there's some concert going on that will draw a number of them. Apparently it is a benefit for Pierre Chang's (Miles' dad) museum opening. Jack's son will be playing piano, so there's Jack. Maybe Claire will come along (with her comically-far-too-easy-to-maneuver-pregnancy-suit, I mean seriously Emilie de Ravin... have you actually seen a pregnant woman before portraying one on TV?). As you recall, alt-Daniel is a musician so he could be in attendance as well, thus also roping in Eloise and Widmore. Desmond already bought an outfit for Kate, saying they were going, and I'm assuming Hurley and Sayid will be in charge of rounding up any stragglers like Jin, Sun, Locke, maybe Ben. I also have a theory about Juliet, but I don't want to ruin any surprises. Anyway, it will be interesting how they all get together which apparently is what part of Sunday's finale will reveal.

Name: Jacob
Born: ??? - classical Roman era
Died: 2007 - stabbed by a disillusioned ex-employee
Lifetime Achievements: Guiness Book record holder for most consecutive days of wearing white, creating an evil smoke monster

We already knew the "reason" for the candidates as replacement guardians of the light from last week's episode. And yes, Jack is the chosen one... or the volunteer at least. But I guess two other biggish questions from this season got it's answer in Jacob's fireside chat. Question: How were the candidates chosen? Answer: Jacob just looked for lonely people whose lives sucked. Question: Why was Kate scratched off the list. Answer: Because she became a surrogate mother therefore not quite so lonely or sucky, but it was just a piece of chalk in a cave and if she still wanted the job she could have had it.

The only problem I have with this is Jin and Sun. Granted their marriage was on the skids before they came to the island, but surely after Sun escaped and had Ji Yeon she should have been crossed off. But of course in that case maybe the Kwon in question was Jin just because he presumably could never leave to be with her again so was just the lonely woe-is-me type Jacob was looking for? I dunno. Whatever, though, they're definitely crossed off now.

***

That's it. I wanted to say more... maybe include some notable obituaries of characters from the past such as Charlie, Rousseau, or Juliet. But alas, I find my creative energies dwindling as the finale draws closer. Perhaps it is for the best.

The Questions and Answers revealed in Jacob's final moments will serve as my inspiration for the finale's recap, but I need your help. This show is--if nothing--a Pandora's box of mysteries. Many questions have been raised, though it seems the answer ratio has been lacking. I suppose the finale will fill some of these gaps, but I'm not so optimistic as to think it will answer everything.

So, in an ambitious effort to potentially divert catastrophe, I will attempt to answer all of your questions. Whether big or small; something that's been itching you since season one or a story hole you need plugged from last night's episode; anything from "Why was Libby in the mental institution?" to "What did the incident have to do with babies and their mothers dying in the third trimester?"; doesn't matter, just shoot me an e-mail and I'll include it and the answer (or at least a plausible one) in my last recap.

Bold claim? Yes. But by golly I'm going to salvage this sinking ship. I just hope that it won't require as much bailing out as I anticipate.

S6E14 - Across the Sea

2010-05-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

This episode filled in some blanks on Jacob and his brother's backstory. Guess what else does that... Mad Libs! Print and enjoy.

WORD LIST:
(noun)
(adjective)
(body part)
(verb end w/ ‘s’)
(adjective)
(generic place)
(plural noun)
(color)
(color)
(verb end w/ ‘s’)
(adjective)
(noun)
(verb)
(verb)
(adjective)
(animal)
(plural noun)
(adjective)
(verb)
(color)
(noun)
(game)
(plural noun)
(adjective)
(body part)
(verb)
(number)
(adjective)
(adjective)
(adverb)
(noun)
(verb end w/ ‘s’)
(verb end w/ ‘s’)
(noun)
(verb w/ ‘ing’)
(fluid)
(nonsense phrase)
(adjective)
(body part)
(noun)
(verb)
(body part)
(noun)
(adjective)
(color)
(noun)
(noun)
(adjective)
(phrase)

RECAP:
Episode Title: “Across the (noun)”

A woman washes ashore. She is obviously (adjective) based on the size of her (body part) and the way she holds it. She (verb end w/ ‘s’) in a nearby stream when a (adjective) woman finds her and assists her to the nearby (generic place) where she lives. Soon she went into labor and gave birth to twin (plural noun). After swaddling one in (color) and the other in (color), the island woman (verb end w/ ‘s’) their mother.

Years later, the boy with (adjective) clothes finds a (noun) washed up on the beach. He asks his brother, Jacob, if he wants to (verb), but makes him swear not to tell their mother. Jacob agrees, but tells her anyway. When she confronts the boy, she tells him that Jacob confessed, claiming he doesn’t know how to (verb). He wonders where he came from, but his mother claims the island is all there is, adding that being (adjective) is something he’ll never have to worry about.

Later on, the brothers are hunting a (animal) when they encounter a group of (plural noun). They run home to tell their mother and she warns them to stay away because all (same plural noun as last) are (adjective), but she assures them she has made it so the two brothers cannot (verb) each other. After some prompting, she finally leads them to a clearing and shows them a (color) (noun) claiming one of them must protect it.

Some time after, the boys are playing (game) on the beach when a woman appears to the nameless brother. She leads him to a place where a small group of (plural noun) live, claiming they are his people and that she is their (adjective) mother. The brother runs home to tell Jacob the truth, but Jacob doesn’t believe him and punches him in the (body part). Their mother breaks up the fight, telling the brother he’ll never be able to (verb). He says it isn’t true and one day he’ll prove it.

As an adult, Jacob goes to visit his brother where he has been living among his people for (number) years. The brother admits that while insane, their mother was right about people being (adjective) and (adjective). Jacob questions why he’s remained so long and the brother explains that his people have found places on the island where metal behaves (adverb) and that he plans to use it to (same verb as last). Jacob informs his mother of the plan and she visits the brother who shows her a (noun) that they will use to harness the power of the island. She promptly (verb end w/ ‘s’) him then (verb end w/ ‘s’) the village.

Afterwards, the mother wakes up Jacob and leads him to the (noun), claiming it’s his time to protect it while warning that he must never use it because it would be worse than (verb w/ ‘ing’). She then pours him a cup of (fluid), chanting “(nonsense phrase)” and tells him to drink. Once he does, she says they are both (adjective).

Upon discovering the wrecked village, Jacob’s brother returns home and stabs his mother in the (body part) with a (noun). Jacob enters and they begin to (verb). Jacob overpowers his brother and drags him to the (body part) of the island where he pushes him into a (noun). After a moment there is a (adjective) noise and a (color) (noun) monster emerges. Jacob discovers his brother’s (noun) lying on the riverbank and—feeling (adjective) about what he has done—takes it home to bury next to his mother’s. His last words to them both are, “(phrase)”.

S6E13 - The Candidate

2010-05-05T19:21:00.000-07:00

Today is Cinco de Mayo… need I say more?

Beverage Cross-Reference:
Jack – Jack
Hurley – Tequila
Kate – White Whine… uh Wine
Sawyer – Beer
Jin – Gin
Sun – Orange Juice (or Sunny Delight)
Sayid – Vodka
Locke – Light Rum
Flocke – Dark Rum
Claire – Jagermeister
Desmond – Scotch
Aaron – Apple Juice

Drink Menu:
The Post-Op
1 bottle of Light Rum
4 oz. Jack
***Run bottle of rum over with a car. Soak up rum with medical sponge and squeeze back into mended bottle along with Jack.***

On the Island, Jack continues taking the leadership backseat and seems reluctant to get all let-me-fix-it on everybody. However, alternate Jack hasn’t learned that lesson yet and is determined to fix Locke. Not only does he stalk his dentist (Bernard, who seems all creepy zen-like about being on the same flight), but he goes as far as tracking down his dad at a retirement home. Granted he didn’t know at the time whom Anthony Cooper was nor his condition, but still… let it go, dude. Anyway, before leaving the hospital Locke spills the beans about the alternate-life version of his accident and how basically, remaining paralyzed is his way of self-punishment. And that’s just the tip of the tragedy iceberg for this episode.

Hydra Island Special
1 oz. of Jack
2 oz. Vodka
2 oz. Dark Rum
***Pour Jack into a row boat. Add Vodka and Dark Rum. Mix with paddles.***

Jack maintains his reluctance to leave the island, but Flocke convinces him to help his friends like the true master manipulator we now know he is.

The Bear Biscuit
Beer
White Wine
Tequila
Gin
Sunny D
***Lock one bottle of each ingredient in a cage. Now lock yourself in the cage. Enjoy each separately until released.***

Why, why, why do people continuously try to shoot Flocke? For real. Anyway, Widmore says he’s locking them up for their own good, but Flocke makes short work of the guards. Oh and what good is a sonic fence if you put the power switch for it on the side your enemy is on? Sheesh.

C4 (shooter)
Dark Rum
***Place rum in a shot glass and light on fire.***

So Flocke makes it to the plane only to find it rigged with explosives. At first I thought it was the work of Richard, Miles, and Ben, but I doubt they could have gotten their hands on C4 plus Widmore’s men were guarding it. The thing I don’t understand is that if Widmore knows what Flocke is trying to do—and therefore really does want to protect the candidates—why would he try to blow up the plane? That would essentially have given Flocke exactly what he wanted. Anyway, this also made me wonder where the heck Richard, Miles, and Ben are now. Still formulating plan B, I assume. It will be interesting to see what they’ve been up to.

The Half-Sister
4 oz. Jack
4 oz. Jagermeister
***Invite your half-sister over to your house. Pour ingredients into a glass, but DO NOT mix. Enjoy.***

I wonder what the music box Christian willed to Claire is about. I don’t think that’s something we know from “reality A” so I guess we’ll see its significance soon. It just seemed too intentional to not mean anything. Unless it was just a plot device in order to allow Jack the opportunity to invite her to stay with him. Half-siblings aside… kind of weird. But you know Claire; willing to carpool with wanted felons and take legal counsel from stalkers. If anything, agreeing to bunk with a half-brother she just met is one of her better ideas.

Anti-Jagerbomb (shooter)
Beer
Tequila
Gin
Orange Juice
Vodka
White Wine
Jack
Dark Rum
Jagermeister
***Pour the first five ingredients into a pint glass. Shoot the White Wine with a chaser of Jack. Omit the last two ingredients completely.***

At first I just thought something would happen to prevent them from getting on the sub, just like they failed to get on the plane, but Flocke’s plan was far more devious than that. What a nail-biter. While it was upsetting that Sayid did what he did, it was almost necessary in order to redeem his character considering how far he’s drifted this season. In his last words, he gave Jack a recipe for…

The 12-Step Program
1 Bottle of Scotch
***Abandon a bottle of Scotch at the bottom of a well. Do not take a shot.***

So Sayid didn’t kill Desmond after all. We all suspected as much. He tells Jack where to find Desmond, saying he might need him, but the interesting tidbit was at the end when Jack asked why Sayid was telling him this to which he answers, “Because it’s going to be you.” Granted, it’s looking like that more and more, but still… did Sayid know something we don’t?

Classic Gin & Juice
1 part Gin
1 part Orange Juice
***Use submarine as shaker. Mix, but do not pour into separate container.***

And the death toll rises yet again. I guess there’s no reason to get too worked up. After all, there are only two more episodes left until the finale and we still have alternate Jin and Sun to root for, but still… things got a little dusty in the living room (if you know what I’m saying) when I watched their final moments. Just like Charlie started having visions of the Island while on the plane, perhaps Sayid, Jin and Sun will be “open” to such things now that they’re dead too. If the last candidate (Jack or otherwise) winds up saving everyone, that’s fine, but I still want to see everyone band together against Flocke, maybe even against Jacob. If I were them, I’d be tired of all the constant manipulation.

The Candidate
4 oz. Light Rum
8 oz. Tequila
15 oz. Beer
16 oz. Vodka
23 oz. Jack
42 oz. Gin or Orange Juice
***Before mixing, strangle the rum, blow up the Vodka, and submerge the Gin and Orange Juice in water.***

So the candidate list dwindles down to three: Jack, Sawyer, and Hurley. Hopefully not everyone will have to die before it’s down to one. I don’t think I can take Hurley biting the big one, especially. In the meantime, I’m wondering how everyone’s alternate lives will factor in. Surely they won’t just all die on the island and have a happily-ever-after in the alternate, right? That would be a total let down.

The Oceanic Six (aka Lost Island Iced Tea)
1 oz. Jack
1 oz. Tequila
1 oz. Vodka
1 oz. Sunny D
1 oz. White Wine
Add splash of Apple Juice

Not much to do with this episode… I just thought these made for nice drink names.

Cheers.

Everything I Need to Know... I Learned from LOST

2010-04-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

Maybe some of you saw it coming based on last week’s post-show preview so knew going into last night that you would not be treated to a new episode. But if you were like me, you did NOT notice and therefore got a kicked-in-the-gut feeling once you realized it was a replay. Anyway, I thought I would attempt to fill this temporary LOST-shaped hole in your life with the following public service announcement.

As you know, the end draws nigh. There are only three new episodes left until the 2-hour finale. While I’ve enjoyed recapping this last half of the show’s existence, I must admit it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun without your colorful commentary and insightful contributions serving as mile markers along the way. Many of my revelations and ideas are in no small way indebted to you… the readership.

For this reason, I wanted to create something together—a little “community project” if you will—that combines the collective wisdom that LOST has imparted over the years. And so, dear reader, may I now extend the writer’s cap to you in a collaborative effort entitled:

“EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW… I LEARNED FROM LOST”

At first I was thinking a Letterman-esque Top 10 or 20, but I thought surely we could come up with more than that. So in these last few series-closing weeks, send me your ideas (funny, deep, or Chicken-Soup-for-the-Soul-inspiring) and I’ll compile them into a comprehensive list and distribute after the finale. Something for you to keep, print out poster-size, and hang over your bed as a reminder of the important life lessons that LOST has to offer.

If I may start us off…

Who needs biological children when you can create fake animal-skull babies of your own?

S6E12 - The Last Recruit

2010-04-21T07:45:00.000-07:00

I've wanted to do this recap theme for a while, but no episode seemed momentous enough… that is until last night’s episode came along. Not that there were any huge revelations falling from the sky, but just focusing a little bit on everyone like they did gave me a high-speed-buckle-your-seat-belt-and-grip-the-arms-of-the-sofa feeling. Anyway, without further adieu, may I present…

(NOT-SO-FUNNY) LOST JOKES

Hugo, Sun, Frank, and Jack walk into a bar. The bartender (played by Flocke) says, “What’ll ya have?” Jack orders a water. The bartender leaves and returns a few minutes later, handing him a backpack. “What’s this for?” Jack asks. The bartender smiles then turns into Jack’s dead father and says, “If you need water, I figure I’d lead you to it.”

So, Flocke admits that he “posed” as Christian when the plane first crashed in order to lead Jack to water so the LOSTies could survive. If true, that’s one point in Flocke’s recently suffering benevolent column. Though Jack seemed to be waiver on whether or not to join Camp Flocke, Claire seemed to think the decision was made as soon as he spoke to him. Another interesting reference to that whole, “Kill him before he speaks to you” thing, don’t you think? I especially thought it was interesting in the beginning when Sun seemed to recognize (and fear) Locke as they were both being rushed into the hospital. Further evidence of alternate lives merging?

“Knock-knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Flocke.”“Flocke who?”
“Flock to me, all ye who want to escape.”

Flocke had his fair share of nice and naughty this episode. On one hand, he ordered Desmond’s murder. On the other hand, he saved Jack at the end. But if it’s true that Desmond is a threat to him and that he needs Jack (and the other candidates) in order to leave, it’s all ultimately about serving his own selfish needs. And what about that air strike that Zoe threatened him with? Duh, bullets bounce off him and knifes have no effect. What’s an oversized grenade supposed to do? Seems like that was more of a threat to his followers than to him.

A cop catches an attractive female criminal whom he attempts to flirt with. “Is your mom a criminal too?” he asks. The criminal says, “No, why?” “Because she stole the stars and put them in your eyes.” The criminal thinks about this for a moment then asks, “Are you huge fan of marsupials?” The cop says, “No, why?” “Just curious why you went to Australia.” Any further flirtatious dialogue ground to a halt.

Sawyer interrogates/flirts with Kate… interroflirts?... no wait, inflirtogates. Nice. Anyway, Miles pulls him away to show footage of Sayid fleeing the scene of a triple homicide. I’m digging how people are starting to intersect more and more in the alternate life. Especially when you consider Desmond’s new role… makes you wonder if something major is going to get them ALL together soon. Speaking of which…

How many lawyers does it take to find your long lost half-sister?
Zero.
Desmond will just do it for you.

Let’s see, in this episode, alone, we’ve got a Kate/Sawyer, Sawyer/Sayid, Jack/Claire, and Jack/Locke intersection. Not to mention a nice touch with Ilana as the lawyer.

An Iraqi finds a leprechaun trapped in the bottom of a well. The leprechaun says, “Hey, brotha. If you let me out, I’ll grant you three wishes.” The Iraqi says, “I wish my dead wife were alive again.” The leprechaun says, “I’m sorry, brotha, but I can’t bring the dead back. What’s your next wish?” The Iraqi says, “I wish I had a gun.” The leprechaun says, “That’s easy,” and a gun appears in the Iraqi’s hand. “What’s your last wish?” The Iraqi points the gun at the leprechaun and says, “I wish you farewell.”

While I doubt Sayid killed Desmond, it also seems doubtful that a guilt-trip would be enough to persuade Sayid to spare his life. He definitely didn’t look like he was on his way to rejoin the group when Locke found him. I’ll bet he set him free or at least was on his way to find a vine to dangle down the well or something. Either way, even if he is dead, we still have alternate Desmond working his matchmaking magic.

You might be a redneck if…
you wear a rifle when you go swimming instead of a bathing suit.

Was I the only one bothered when Sawyer went for a dip in the ocean with his gun? Granted, I’m no expert on firearms, but I’d at least be mildly concerned about wetting a weapon that essentially relies on making fire in order to ignite a dry powder.

How many people does it take to escape from a mysterious island?
Seven.
Two to steal a boat. Four to sneak away. And one to pull a gun on everyone until she can be convinced to tag along.

I’m glad Kate stood up for Claire and insisted that she be included. Her little speech was icing on her character-redeeming-flavored cake, though I must say she’s slid so low in my opinion, I now find her merely tolerable at best. But hey, that’s an improvement.

What do you call a dumb blonde with 2 brain cells?
Pregnant.

Is it me, or did Claire give in waaaaay too easily to suspiciously free legal counsel from a man that from all appearances is stalking her? Geez… factor that in with her accepting a ride from Kate, the woman that hijacked her taxi, and you’ve got one fairly dumb blonde on your hands (no offense to all of you smart blondes out there). By the way, did anyone else laugh out loud when Hurley gave her a hug and said, “Wow, Claire… you look uh… great!” – not to mention the line where Sawyer said Frank looks like he “walked off the set of a Bert Reynolds movie.” Classic.

What did the Korean man say to his Korean girlfriend who got shot and almost lost their lovechild?
I don’t know… I don’t speak Korean.
What did the Korean man say to his Korean wife after learning English and being separated for three years?
“We’ll never be apart.”

Well, it seems that alternate Ji Yeon is alive and kicking (literally). And, wait for it… island Jin and Sun are back together. FINALLY! I was kind of hoping they’d reunite in an episode of their own. You know… give the reunion a little more oomph. Either way, hope their celebration isn’t cut off too abruptly now that Widmore decided to renig on his “deal” with Sawyer.

Why did the ex-con cross the ocean?
To get to the other side!
Why did the doctor cross the ocean?
Because he had nothing better to do!

That is until he decided his destiny was back on the island. Very interesting that Jack is “officially” with Flocke now.

All together, I thought this was a great episode. Even though the only answer worth anything was that Smokie was the one that posed as Christian back in Season 1, the episode seemed to still cover a lot of ground and set things up for the final four (three?) episodes. What were your thoughts?

S6E11 - Everybody Loves Hugo

2010-04-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

While tomorrow marks the 2009 tax year deadline, I would like to focus on a far better date. One that is less stressful and exponentially more awesome. Today. Also known as… my birthday! I know what you’re probably thinking… crap, I didn’t buy him anything! Well never fear, because the LOSTies came bearing gifts.

PARTGOER: Dr. Chang
GIFT: Door stop in the shape of a dinosaur
REACTION: “You shouldn’t have... seriously.”

So Dr. Chang presents a man-of-the-year trophy to Hugo for opening a paleontology wing of whatever organization Chang now works for. While it was mildly interesting to see this alternate match up, I wonder if Chang should remember Hugo from the island. In one respect, Hurley was there with Chang before the bomb blew up, so theoretically while the bomb should have altered Hugo’s life, it would have only done so from 1977 and after. Chang, though, would have remembered Hurley. Then again, if alternate Hurley never went to the island therefore never time-traveled to the past, by blowing up the bomb, he essentially erased himself from Chang’s past. I think I’m getting a headache.

PARTYGOER: Libby
GIFT: A picture of us holding hands made out of elbow macaroni glued onto red construction paper
REACTION: “Oh, so they offer art classes at the uh… institution? That’s nice.”

Libby ambushes Hugo at the Mexican restaurant claiming they know each other. Despite not remembering, he seems more than interested, though is somewhat deflated when she rides off in the crazy van. In the end, she one-ups her pasta-based artwork with a reality-merging kiss. So far, it seems there are two established ways of seeing your alternate life. You must either come into contact with someone you loved (that you should not have otherwise met) or you must have a near-death experience. This theory makes me wonder if that is what Desmond intended to do in the end when he ran over Locke. After all, there isn’t a significant other from the island that can jog Locke’s memory so the only other option would be to bring him within an inch of death like Charlie experienced on the plane.

PARTYGOER: Ilana
GIFT: A backpack full of unstable dynamite
REACTION: “Maybe you should leave that outside…”

Wow. Didn’t see that coming. Kind of funny, though. I think Ben expressed it best when he pointed out how odd it was that Ilana was hand-picked by Jacob, himself, to protect the candidates and when it came down to it, she blew up only a day or two after telling them who/what they were. As if the island was done with her. Again, this points to there being something bigger in play than just Jacob or Flocke. This is underscored later on when we see another mystery kid taunting Flocke, presumably reminding him of what he can and cannot do.

PARTYGOER: Flocke
GIFT: A stick carved in the shape of… a stick.
REACTION: “How did you know I collected these?”

The natives are restless back at Flocke’s camp. Well, Sawyer at least who feels like they’re all sitting around doing nothing. Flocke says he’s waiting for the remaining candidates to come and Kate expresses her doubts. Meanwhile, Sayid shows up and leads Flocke to none other than Desmond. We know in the end, Hurley, Jack, and Sun did eventually come as he predicted so it makes me wonder how much Flocke already knew. Or if Flocke can manipulate or control the “trapped souls” like Michael and make them carry out his nefarious schemes.

PARTYGOER: Hugo
GIFT: Family-sized bucket of chicken and a check for $100,000
REACTION: “Awesome! Come on in.”

Seriously, if you want to win me over… show up at my house with a bucket of chicken. Either that or a hundred-grand. Hurley has a “chance encounter” with Desmond at Mr. Cluck’s and Desmond encourages him to pursue Libby. I suspect we’ll see more of Desmond carrying out his “alternate life interventions” for the remainder of the series. Hugo takes him up on the advice and bribes Libby’s psychiatrist to allow a meeting during which he asks her out on a date. Meanwhile on the island, Hurley decides he knows what’s best for the group and tries protecting them (and supposedly others) by blowing up the remainder of the dynamite. It seems that Jacob’s instructions about Richard knowing the next move is in conflict with what Hurley thinks. I wonder who’s correct? My money’s on Hurley.

PARTYGOER: Desmond
GIFT: Mellow dialogue
REACTION: “Yeah man… it’s like the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And like… smoke monsters.”

Very interesting interaction between Desmond and Flocke. Flocke suggests that the island “has it in” for him and Desmond counters with the likelihood that it has it in for ALL of them. Flocke agrees, but ultimately seems bothered by the fact that Desmond wasn’t afraid of him. Again, Desmond was in a very zen place. Kind of like the antithesis of how Sayid is acting now that I think about it. Another “ghost kid” pops up (different from the one that Flocke first encountered with Sawyer, I believe) and Flocke tells Desmond to ignore him. Again, I wonder if these manifestations are the island, itself, or at least some greater power. In the end, Flocke pushes Desmond into a well (perhaps one of the many electromagnetic pockets on the island) and while I doubt he’s dead, he’s out of the way for the time being.

PARTYGOER: Michael
GIFT: Revelation about what the whispers are
REACTION: “Oh… okay.”

Not that I thought “the whispers” were the answer to everything, but the revelation of them being “stuck souls” seemed somewhat anticlimactic. Michael indicated the souls were stuck because of “what they did” but I feel that goes against other ghosts or spirits we’ve seen throughout the series. Anyway, it seems Hurley is the new leader for now, at least when it comes to the other candidates plus Frank. Interesting that Jack decided to give up his default leadership role. I wonder if he still feels good about that decision after coming face to face with Flocke in the end. The expression on his face seemed to indicate he was beginning to have his own share of doubts. Meanwhile Richard, Ben, and Miles are off to execute “plan A.”

***

That’s all for now. The biggest thing I took away from this episode was the potential methodology of opening everyone’s eyes to their alternate lives. Charlie almost died. Desmond almost drowned, got exposed to heavy doses of electromagnetic energy (not recommended for anyone else), and came into contact with Penny who he would not have otherwise met. Hurley kissed Libby, who he also “shouldn’t have met” in the alternate reality. As for everyone else, I wonder what it will take to get them to “see.” For Locke, I imagine getting run over will did the trick. For Jack, maybe coming into contact with Kate. The reverse goes for Kate. For Sawyer, he’ll have to find Juliet. For Jin and Sun, I imagine it might have something to do with the birth of Ji Yeon (who exists in reality A, but might die in reality B considering Sun’s gunshot wound). For Sayid, I’m not sure. He’s already come into contact with Nadia, but then again she was already part of his life in both realities. If it must be someone who “wasn’t mean to be” then I imagine he’ll have to encounter Shannon in the alternate reality since he was starting to have feelings for her just before getting shot on the island. And finally for Ben… well, I’m not so sure he’s part of the bigger plan. Anyway, that’s my crazy theory for the week. What are yours?

S6E10 - Happily Ever After

2010-04-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

Maybe it’s the nice weather we’re having or the fact that I’m going to a Braves/Cubs game tonight, but I’m in the mood to recap using baseball terminology.

At Bat this episode… Desmond!

Desmond wakes up, thinking he’s still in the hospital, but Widmore throws him a curve ball, saying he’s back on the island. He says, “The island isn’t done with you yet.” Well lah-dee-freakin-dah. I guess the island is used to getting what it wants. I think it’s interesting throughout the show they’ve referred to what Jacob wants and what the island wants, but I wonder if those two things are interchangeable? I believe it’s been said here before, but it seems there is a higher power at work. Higher than Jacob or Flocke. Obviously they are bound by rules so there must be a rule-maker, right? Perhaps that ghost kid that appeared to Flocke? Anyway, just thinking out loud.

Jin wants to know what’s going on and Widmore says it would be easier to show him and orders “the test” to start immediately. After a few mechanical glitches, an extra goes down to check the “electromagnetic shack” as soon as someone turns the machine on. Three strikes and he’s out. Needless to say, Desmond doesn’t look too stoked to play along. After strapping Desmond in the chair, Widmore says after it’s all done he’ll have to make a sacrifice bunt for the home team. Soon after, he reveals to Jin that he wants to see if Desmond can survive (another) catastrophic electromagnetic event. He flips the switch as Desmond is bathed in light, then flash…

Desmond has landed at LAX and shares an exchange with Claire, asking if it’s a boy or girl in her dugout. He offers her a ride, but she politely declines. And speaking of rides, his limo driver is none other than George Minkowski, the communication specialist from the freighter that died of a brain aneurism just before Desmond made a life-saving phone call to his stabilizing constant, Penny. He drives Desmond to the office where we experience a significant change up in the form of a hug from his boss, Widmore. They even share a glass of his 60 year-old scotch that in Desmond’s first flashback, Widmore said he wasn’t good enough to have.

Widmore tasks Desmond with babysitting none other than Charlie and after Desmond picks him up from the station, Charlie tries to orchestrate his own hit and run. After his confession in the bar, perhaps it’s not too surprising that Charlie cares so little about “this” life. He thinks there’s a hot blonde waiting for him in the afterlife. I guess that’s just a bleed over memory of the reality we know, because technically he’s dead. Charlie redoubles his efforts when he grabs the wheel of the car and attempts to hit a foul ball into the waterfront. Fortunately, Desmond saves him, but not before getting flashes of “Not Penny’s Boat” from the reality “A.”

At the hospital, Desmond’s put in an MRI. I thought this would jog him back to the island, but instead he gets thrown a fast ball of “alternate” memories. Mostly about Penny. He freaks and encounters Jack while searching for Charlie, who soon runs by in a flattering hospital gown. Desmond confronts him about Penny and Charlie realizes he hit a home run in his attempt to “show” Desmond his alternate life.

Widmore scolds Desmond for being in a slump and sends him to apologize to Mrs. Widmore (ie. Eloise Hawking). Even though it’s the bottom of the ninth, she doesn’t seem to mind Charlie’s last minute disappearance. In fact, she seems too cool with it. When Desmond overhears Penny’s name on the guest list and demands to see it, that’s when things start to get freaky. Eloise shoos her servants and says someone has “affected the way he sees things,” and that’s a problem. She tells him to stop looking for whatever he’s looking for and goes on to say she doesn’t know why he’s looking for anything considering the perfect game he’s got going. Finally, when he insists on seeing the list she says he’s “not ready for the list.” WHAT THE FO? Just like in Desmond’s first flashback years ago, Eloise shows up and seems to know WAY more than she should to the point of reprimanding him for trying to change his fate. What gives? To my knowledge, he’s the only one who can time travel or go between realities, though Charlie and Daniel are starting to get glimpses. At any rate, instead of a glimpse, she seemed to have the full picture. Very interesting…

Daniel invites Desmond for a seventh inning stretch after overhearing the conversation with his mother and explains that a case of love at first sight has opened his eyes to an alternate reality. You can write all the equations you want, dude, but that seems just a touch cheeseball. At any rate, I think it’s interesting that the two people (besides Desmond who is “special”) that have had “visions” of reality “A” are both dead. Maybe being dead in one or the other allows you to see what’s going on in the counterpart. Anyway, Desmond asks what it has to do with him and Daniel says he must have felt it too if he’s asking about Penny. Apparently he’s aware that Penny is his half-sister in this reality and sends Desmond off like a stalker to meet her. She’s at the same stadium Desmond was when he met Jack and she’s also running the steps. He sees her and is instantly choked up. They shake hands, he faints, and…

Wakes up back on the island. The bases are loaded and Widmore tries to explain why he did what he did, but Desmond is in the zone, saying whatever important thing he’s there to do, he’s ready to start. Zoe leads him away, questioning why he’s suddenly so cooperative just as Sayid pops up and kills one of the security team members and tells Zoe to run. He explains to Desmond that these are bad people and he needs to come with him to which Desmond replies, “Of course, lead the way.” Talk about a change in perspective. Any ideas what’s going on with him? I mean, it’s great that he caught a glimpse of his what-if life with Penny, but he STILL has a life (and son) with her in this one so I’m not sure why he’s all eager to help Widmore. And if he is ready to help, why the nonchalance about switching teams?

In the closer, we’re treated to one final flash where Desmond comes to and asks Penny out for coffee (who doesn’t seem to be weirded out that he knew her name and where she’d be). He goes back to the limo and asks George for the Oceanic 815 manifest, claiming that he wants to “show them something.” This part was also a little strange to me. I guess Desmond’s new mission in the flashsideways is to wake everyone up to the realization of their alternate lives, just as Charlie “showed him” his own?

All in all a very interesting episode. I can’t even wrap my head around some of the thoughts I had, especially in regards to the conversation with Eloise. What are your theories?

On Deck for next week looks like Hurley!

S6E9 - The Package

2010-03-30T23:50:00.000-07:00

Has anyone ever watched the movie "Lost in Translation"? It was a big deal a few years back, but I found it kind of... meh. At any rate, that theme seems to work for this episode on a number of levels. So may I present...

LOST (in translation)*
*sponsored by Google Translate (http://translate.google.com.au)

The following represents useful phrases (presented phonetically) for any Korean travelers planning a trip to their local mysterious island or alternate timeline.

jebal nal gakkaun byeong-won-e jigjeob.
Please direct me to the nearest hospital.

Flocke advises Jin to let his leg wound "air out" while revealing that he needs all of the remaining candidates to leave the island with him. It's evident he can't just outright kill them (like he couldn't outright kill Jacob) so I guess this yet another aspect to the mysterious "rules" that govern them.

naega nae don dollyeodo doelkkayo?
May I have my money back?

So, was Jin not aware of the money cap or is he just a bad smuggler? I smuggled souvenirs made from alpaca wool through customs once. Granted, not the same as twenty-five grand, but I'm just sayin'...

i yeojaga nae anaegadoeji anhseubnida.
This woman is not my wife.

I'm not sure if this was something revealed in the brief clip we saw of them being held up at customs in the season premiere, but this episode confirms alternate Jin and Sun are unmarried and under the covers undercover.

naega dateue uihae salhaedanghaessseubnida.
I have been shot by a dart.

Jin gets fed up with playing wait-and-see and decides to take matters into his own hands and--OOPS!... kidnapped by the others... uh, that is... Widmore's others.

nae tomato sigmul-i jug-eoss-eoyo.
My tomato plants are dead.

For some reason I like it when Sun gets all fired-up. Like her hubby, she's also tired of waiting around and stabbed that table in frustration before fleeing to the sanctuary of her old garden. Jack tries to cheer her up (I guess) with his story about the lighthouse, but she ain't havin' it.

chicka hwal wau wau.
Bow chicka wow wow.

So instead of making good on his missed restaurant meeting, Jin decides to stay behind for a little sump'n sump'n. You know it's love when you can take a borderline male chauvinist comments and turn it into a strip tease.

josimhae teuli!
Watch out for that tree!

Flocke offers to reunite Sun with her husband, but she doesn't trust him and high tails it outta there and knocks herself unconscious. Yeah, good call trying to outrun the super-fast evil smoke monster.

banghaehaji masibsio.
Do not disturb.

I know Keamy's a pushy bad guy and Sun is nice (when she's not stabbing innocent tables), but she could have at least offered a token "Don't come in."

anio yeong-eo.
No English.

So, Sun bumps her head and can't speak English anymore, oh wait... but conveniently understands it? Jack can call it aphasia or diaper rash for all I care... I'm just wondering what the point is. I don't think Sun speaks English in the flashsideways so could it be another example of the two realities "merging" just like Jack's appendectomy that he had on the island, but couldn't remember in the alternate timeline? Interesting.

dodaeche naega eodiibnikka?
Where the hell am I?

Jin wakes up in that weird video room that they stuck Alex's boyfriend in a few seasons back. Remember that? That was messed up. Zoe (the intrepid Geophysicist) calls it Room 23 and says it's where Dharma was doing some subliminal experimentation. So I guess Ben's group of others just recycled it as a good old-fashioned torture room? Doesn't sound very Jacob-sanctioned, now does it?

dangsin-i moglog-e eobs-eo.
You're not on the list.

Claire asks Flocke if she's on the list. He says no, but assures her he'll still get her off the island. When she asks about Kate he says he needs her too, but after she's done helping him convince the other three candidates to join them, "Whatever happens, happens." To me, this is the first Evil red flag the Man In Black has raised... well, if you don't count mass murder. But if you think about it, so far he's been (seemingly) straight forward with everyone, which is more than I can say for Jacob. The truth can be very seductive. I think that's what makes him such a compelling bad guy. He just tells you everything... minus the part where if you follow him you'll release hell on earth.

dambae goemul chinhwajeog-inga?
Is the smoke monster friendly?

Sawyer: "Why are you taking the boat? Can't you just turn into smoke and fly over there?"
Flocke: "If I could, why would I still be on the island?"
Sawyer: "You're right. That would just be ridiculous."

Ha! Priceless Sawyer comment. And nice to know the writers aren't above poking fun at themselves, because seriously... it is a little ridiculous.

hyeongeum jigeubgi
ATM

Sun tells Keamy (via their translator) that she can pay him the money with funds from her personal bank account. While I was watching I kept thinking the translator was someone we knew and I just realized who it was... Mikhail (aka Eye Patch Guy!)

meolli cheoltab-eseo tteol-eojyeo.
Step away from the pylon.

Flocke pays Widmore a visit and Widmore says besides not being John Locke, the only thing he knows about him is from myth. I'm too lazy and not quite geeky enough to pour through ancient mythologies, but I'm guessing he's supposed to be somebody from back when Hercules was in high school.

bihaeng-gie pogtan-iya.
There's a bomb on the plane.

Richard suggests blowing up the plane to prevent Flocke from leaving the island (that's the brilliant plan?), but Sun gives him a Korean tongue-lashing that he won't soon forget.

jeoldaelo boseuui ttal jago.
Never sleep with the boss's daughter.

Sun discovers her bank account has been closed while Keamy reveals that the money Jin was to deliver was the bounty on his own head. What? Not enough hit men in Korea? Not to question Mr. Paik's brilliant criminal mind, but doesn't this plan seem a little complicated?

gwihaui paekijileul boyeo jwoyo.
Show me your package.

Widmore shows Jin a few digital photos of little Ji Yeon and says that she along with everyone else will "cease to be" if Flocke is allowed to escape. Then he offers to show Jin the package claiming it's not a what, but a who. Anyway, I thought the term "cease to be" was an interesting one. It sounds less like hell and more like this time line will end if he's allowed to escape. And this leads me to an interesting revelation. After Jacob told Richard that the island was a "cork" keeping evil in a bottle, then the alternate timeline is theoretically evil uncorked! Since the island is essentially gone in the flashsideways, that must mean we're looking at evil "unleashed" on the world. I must say, minus Sun's unfortunate gunshot wound at the end, everyone is having a pretty awesome time in "hell" so far.

naega deogteu teipeuui mas-eul silh-eo.
I hate the taste of duct tape.

Sayid gives Jin a utility knife and he frees himself in time to take out Mikhail, but unfortunately Sun (and mayhap alternate Ji Yeon) is caught in the crossfire.

nal mid-eo, nan uisa yeyo.
Trust me, I'm a doctor.

Sun appologizes to Jack and he promises her that he'll do everything he can to reunite her with Jin and get them off the island. Interesting note, he specially said, "get you off the island," not "us." He seemed to purposefully leave himself out of that sentence as if he's already planning on staying behind.

nan bimil-eul joh-ahaji anh-a.
I don't like secrets.

This is what Flocke said to Sawyer about what was on the sub and in the end it is revealed. Desmond! $5 to everyone that called that. Is this number 108 (Wallace) that Jacob was referring to? And how/why is he Widmore's "secret weapon"? He's been told by a few folks that he's special and "the rules" don't apply to him. I've always assumed that was the time travelling rules, but who knows? Maybe he can also nosebleed his way between the alternate realities. A "loophole" for the good guys just like smokie's "loophole" to kill Jacob?

Anyway, that's all she wrote. What did you think?

S6E8 - Ab Aeterno

2010-03-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

So, Richard’s past is revealed along with a few other tidbits. I must say, his story was had it all: love, murder, slavery, shipwrecks, treachery, tragedy, and even “the devil.” It seems like an epic or perhaps… a musical.

ACT 1
[Curtains open to reveal RICARDOS standing over the bed of his beloved ISABELLA.]

“Close Your Eyes”
RICARDOS: “My love, my life! You must hold on. I can save you by the end of this song. Together we can defeat this beast. I’ll get a doctor—”
ISABELLA: “I need a priest.”
RICARDOS: “No, stay strong! Speak not that way. The journey is but half a day.”
ISABELLA: “We’ll always be together, just close your eyes.”
RICARDOS: “I’ll make it through this weather, don’t close your eyes.”
[RICARDOS rides a stick horse to stage left where a DOCTOR is eating his dinner.]
RICARDOS: “Pardon the intrusion, but this is killing me. My wife, she coughs up blood.”
DOCTOR: “Sounds like TB.”
RICARDOS: “Good sir, I beg please save her. Is there any way?”
DOCTOR: “Medicine, I have. But you must pay.”
RICARDOS: “This is everything I own.”
DOCTOR: “It’s not enough, so leave.”
RICARDOS: “Sir, I beg your mercy. Please!”
DOCTOR: “Go home now to grieve.”
[The DOCTOR and RICARDOS stage fight until the DOCTOR dies from a fatal head bump.]
[RICARDOS takes the medicine and rides a stick horse to stage right.]
RICARDOS: “I’ll make it through this weather, don’t close your eyes.”
ISABELLA: “We’ll always be together, just close your eyes.”
[RICARDOS arrives too late and there is much weeping as the lights dim.]

[Lights come up to reveal RICARDOS in a prison cell.]

“Forgiven”
PRIEST: “I bring you food. And a last chance to repent.”
RICARDOS: “Father, I killed a man. But it was an accident.”
PRIEST: “This sin has stained your soul. It cannot be forgiven.”
RICARDOS: “Is there time for penance?”
PRIEST: “No, for soon you won’t be livin.”
[Guards remove RICARDOS from the cell and he is escorted to the gallows.]
WHITFIELD: “Is this the man you spoke of? His teeth, they look quite nice.”
PRIEST: “Yes, and he speaks English too. Now let us talk of price.”
RICARDOS: “To sell a man into slavery? It cannot be forgiven!”
PRIEST: “Considering the alternative, it’s ‘Thanks’ you should be givin.”

[A chorus line of slaves walk onstage and RICARDOS is chained to the floor with them.]

“The New World”
SLAVES: “The New World. A true world. A red, white, and blue world.”
RICARDOS: “The Old World. A cold world. Your wife dies then your sold world.”
[Long cardboard cutouts of waves slide back and forth across stage front.]
SLAVES: “The tale you tell is older than old. A tragic life, not much to behold. Why not join our happier view, of a world both bright and new?”
RICARDOS: “While your optimism keeps me level, on the horizon I see the devil. So hold on tight as we are all hurled, towards our fates on this new world.”
[Waves become violent, lights begin to flicker, and the cutout of an island with a palm tree rolls behind them.]
SLAVES: “A new world? We’re screwed world. We bid you fond adieu, world!”
RICARDOS: “The Old World. A cold world. Your life dies then your sold world.”

[Curtains close. End of ACT 1.]

INTERMISSION
Not much to report in Act 1, besides the campfire powwow in the very beginning. Apparently Jacob tasked Ilana to protect the remaining six (now five) candidates. I’d still like to know what happened to land her in the hospital, but perhaps another time. The bigger reveal is that Richard is the one who knows what to do next.

ACT 2
[Curtains open to reveal RICARDOS and the SLAVES lying chained on the floor.]

“The Devil Awaits”
SLAVES: “God has saved us! Sing and rejoice!”
RICARDOS: “Wait! Above us, I hear a voice.”
WHITFIELD: “We’ve crashed.”
SLAVES: “No duh.”
WHITFIELD: “We’re on our own.”
SLAVES: “Every man is an island.”
RICARDOS: “Every man is alone.”
WHITFIELD: “Our precious resources cannot go to waste. Prepare your souls, men… the Devil awaits.”
[WHITFIELD runs through SLAVES with his sword until only RICARDOS remains.]
RICARDOS: “Why do you do this? Please, set me free!”
WHITFIELD: “And if I did? Then what about me? In a matter of time, you’d hunt me down.”
RICARDOS: “Wait! Above us, I hear a sound.”
WHITFIELD: “Don’t try to distract me. You must die with haste.”
RICARDOS: “Prepare your soul, sir… the Devil awaits.”
[WHITFIELD is enveloped by a fog machine and is lifted offstage.]
ISABELLA: “Ricardos, my love!”
RICARDOS: “You have returned!”
ISABELLA: “But hurry we must or soon we’ll be burned.”
RICARDOS: “What’s this you speak of?”
ISABELLA: “The Devil. He’s here!”
RICARDOS: “Run then, and leave me!”
ISABELLA: “I cannot my dear!”
RICARDOS: “Please do not argue, he’ll surely give chase.”
ISABELLA: “Prepare your soul, love… the Devil awaits.”
[ISABELLA runs off stage right and screams. MAN_IN_BLACK enters stage right.]
MAN_IN_BLACK: “I brought you some water.”
RICARDOS: “You’ve saved my life!”
MAN_IN_BLACK: “I’m sorry to say not the same for your wife.”
RICARDOS: “She said we’re in hell. Can this be real?”
MAN_IN_BLACK: “Yes.”
RICARDOS: “But how?”
MAN_IN_BLACK: “First, let’s make a deal. This knife will kill Him if you stab in the right place. Prepare your soul, Richard… the Devil awaits.”
[MAN_IN_BLACK sets RICARDOS free and they exit stage right.]

[RICARDOS enters from stage left. A large stone foot has been rolled onstage. JACOB sits alone on the big toe.]

“Jacob’s Song”
JACOB: “How sad that Jacob’s life is like this sea storm ruined shore.”
RICARDOS: “Be this beast or man who speaks in silly metaphors?”
JACOB: “Stop! Who goes there, Jacob asks?”
RICARDOS: “Speak not, you Prince of Hell!”
JACOB: “Is that what someone told you? For Jacob knows that liar well.”
[JACOB and RICARDOS struggle and JACOB beats him soundly.]
RICARDOS: “Who are you then?”
JACOB: “I’m Jacob, my friend. How ‘bout some wine and pork?”
RICARDOS: “Explain and don’t dawdle.”
JACOB: “Evil’s like this bottle, and the island is like a cork.”
RICARDOS: “I wish you’d speak straight, it’s getting quite late and your metaphors make me sob.”
JACOB: “Jacob grows tired and is looking to hire and wonders if you need a job.”

[Lights dim and come up to reveal RICARDOS with a haircut and a nicer shirt, kneeling alone.]

“Close Your Eyes (refrain)”
RICARDOS: “I quit! I quit! I hate this work. I’m tired of being Jacob’s clerk. For countless years I’ve done as he’s said and now my boss, he’s dead! He’s dead!”
[HURLEY and ISABELLA enter from stage left.]
HURLEY: “Dude, don’t quit. You know the plan.”
RICARDOS: “I’d rather go work for the other man.”
HURLEY: “She wants to know why you buried her cross.”
RICARDOS: “What do you know of my long ago loss?”
HURLEY: “She sent me to find you so I can translate, that she thinks your English accent is great.”
RICARDOS: “Is it true? Can it be? I’m tired of lies.”
HURLEY: “She said you’ve suffered enough, just close your eyes.”
[RICARDOS weeps and puts her crucifix back around his neck.]
HURLEY: “Oh, and she says if you don’t stop the man in black from leaving the island then we’re all going to hell.”

[Curtains close. End of ACT 2.]

Well, that’s it. A decent story filling in a few things we already suspected. The most interesting part of the second half is Jacob’s explanation about bringing people to the island. The man in black thinks man in sinful by nature and Jacob brings them there to prove he’s wrong. Of course, everyone Jacob’s brought there is now dead so I’m not sure how successful he’s been at proving his point. Jacob cannot bring his wife back, or forgive him of his sins, but he can conveniently grant him immortality. Weird, but I’ll go with it. Also, Jacob is reluctant to hand-hold everyone he brings to the island and wants them to “do good” all on their own so appoints Richard as his liaison, which we kind of already knew was his job. So what does that leave us with? Just the solidification of the knowledge that anyone ever coming to the island has been brought there by Jacob. Also, they are all part of an elaborate demonstration that humanity is, by nature, good (or can at least overcome it’s not-so-good nature). His appointment of Richard as his “mouth piece” is strongly symbolic of Christianity’s Holy Trinity. Jacob = God the Father, Richard = Conscience / The Holy Spirit, and that just leaves Jesus, the Son. I guess that would be whichever of the candidates is “the one.”

Anyway, I’ll leave the theological debates up to you. The metaphor was just too strong to ignore. All and all a decent episode, I think.

S6E7 - Recon

2010-03-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

While we are temptingly close to St. Patrick's Day, I don't feel like reheating last year's recap leftovers. However, I'm not beyond some bawdy poetry from the motherland... the limerick. Be forewarned, as is typical with limericks, some of these may delve into a PG-13 rating. (That's as far as I can go and still get past your spam blockers...)

There once was a man named James
Who loved to play con artist games.
"I'm running late, honey--
--Oops, look at my money!"
But this time things weren't quite the same.

A nice twist in the opener. Sawyer running his old con, except this time he's on the side of the law. Once again, there is a significant difference in a character's flashsideways. He claimed that at one point in his life he could have either been a criminal or a cop, and he chose cop. The only time we've seen Jacob interact with little James was when he offered him a pen after his mother's funeral (presumably the infamous pen he used to write his "revenge letter" to the real Sawyer), but surely THAT is not the turning point he was talking about. Without a writing utensil, would he have not written that letter, so it wouldn't have later acted as a "straw that broke the camel's back" in making said cop/criminal decision? Or has Jacob influenced everyone (candidates and non-candidates alike) in ways we have yet to see? Whatever... that's all conjecture. I think the interesting point here is that while his life has taken a different path, part of his soul remains the same (the dark part that wants to avenge his parents).

There once was a man named Locke
Who permanently punched the clock.
And I tell you know joke
When I say he's now smoke,
Who just wants to get off this darn rock.

So Flocke comes clean with Sawyer about being the smoke monster. I'm sorry, buy why is no one freaked out about that? Anyway, he says it's kill or be killed which is why he dispatched everyone at the temple that opposed him. Beg your pardon, but you've had bullets bounce off you plus Sayid freakin' stabbed you in the chest and you didn't die, and now you're trying to say that you would be in danger if you had let those people live??? Riiiight...

There once was a guy named Miles Straum
Whose abilities were totally the bomb.
The recently dead
Could speak in his head.
But in reality B, they're all gone.

Of course we didn't get his perspective, but Miles seemed pretty... normal in his flashsideways. Of course maybe he still had his abilities and similar to Sawyer was at one point faced with the decision to either use it for the greater good or personal gain. Anyway, an interesting parallel partnership and fitting since they worked Dharma security together. Miles seems a touch more standup in his what-if life. Actually, it seems like everyone's what-ifs are kind of for the better so far. Sawyer has a legit job in law enforcement. Jack has a son. Locke has Helen (and a potentially functional relationship with his father). Sayid has Nadia (sort of... at least she's not dead). Though we've seen him only indirectly, Hurley seems fairly happy. And though Jin doesn't look so great the last we saw him, I wouldn't be surprised if things get better for him in the alternate reality as well. Anyway, just an observation... My theory: EVERYONE DIES in the end and they get to merge with their better-off what-ifs as a pseudo-afterlife.

There once was a woman named Charlotte
Who's hair was the color of scarlet.
She dug through a drawer
Then got tossed like a whore,
Which you deserve when you dress like a harlot.

I was thinking maybe, Miles's "friend" was going to be Juliet (I'm still waiting for her to pop up, but it probably won't be until the end of the season). But I guess it makes a certain sense (or at least "fits") that it was Charlotte since she and him and Faraday were all freighter mates.

There once was a woman named Claire.
And I strongly advise you beware:
If she's holding a knife
Better pray for your life,
'Cause her sanity's up in the air.

Yeah, definitely crazy. Holding hands with Kate one minute, a knife to her throat the next. I was kind of surprised by Flocke's reaction--smack!--especially considering his seeming displeasure with Kate tagging along, but he seems to be quite the benevolent leader. His heart-to-heart with Kate was quite revealing. We already know he was a "real man" at one point, but he speaks of having a disturbed mother and compares his trauma to what Aaron might have to face. Is he trying to play Kate and Claire against each other? Well, if that's his plan, it's stalled for now as Claire tearfully apologizes to Kate towards the end. Sorry, Claire, but if it's all the same to you, I won't be voluntarily accepting any "hugs" from you for a while.

There once was a man named Sayid
Who's a bit of a trick to read.
He wants back the life
Of his lovely late wife.
And now he seems evil, indeed.

And what was up with that? He seemed chillingly nonresponsive to Claire's attempt on Kate's life. I know he's kind of "gone over" if you will, but I was thinking it was just for the promise of seeing Nadia again (while still caring about his friends). Hmmm... not so much.

There once was a woman named Zoe
Who wanted to go for a row-y,
But there went the fun
When Ford pulled a gun
And now she ain't gonna go-y.

(Hey... YOU try making it work.) Anyway, I was suspicious of her from the get go. I'm assuming the dead bodies were other Ajira survivors, but I'm wondering whodunit. I'm assuming it was Flocke, but maybe not. Ilana had some of her crew with her on the flight, but I thought they all went over to the main island. If there was anyone left on "Hydra Island" it would have been just regular Ajira survivors, right? And why would anyone want to kill them? Maybe they just died naturally. I don't know if that's important or not, but it leads in to my next, bigger question.

There once was a man named Widmore
Who showed up in a sub close to shore.
He's got a few hatches
Locked up with latches
And I bet they have to do with "the war."

And that big question is... Who's side is who on? If Widmore wants Flocke dead, that would insinuate that he's on Jacob's side. He was at odds with Ben in the past and Ben even killed Jacob at one point, but it would seem that Ben at least temporarily is on team Jacob as well. Ilana seems to be all that remains of her pro-Jacob crew and Richard is on Jacob's side, though perhaps unsteadily so. Anyway, it's just adding up to everyone against Flocke and his ragtag band of followers. It's interesting that Widmore denied responsibility for the freighter. More accurately, he denied trying to "kill everyone," claiming how little Sawyer understands. To assume there are weapons in that locked area is too easy. If it is a weapon, I'm assuming it's something that can kill Flocke. My bet is it's Wallace!!

There once was a chick named Kate
Who everyone wanted to date,
But I really don't get
Why they think she's the @#$%.
Compared to some, she's just not that great.

Not to be a Kate-hater, but what's her purpose now? She found Claire who is clearly wackadoo. Good job. Now what? Did she think rescuing Claire from an island so difficult to find that you have to orchestrate a plane crash to get on or bend the space-time contiuum to get off would be as easy as picking up a friend on your way to a Sunday matinee? Good job leaving Aaron with Grandma Littleton, now he has zero mommies. Even though Flocke may be trying to sew seeds of doubt with Kate, he was totally right. Claire is a nutcase and even if she were reunited with her son, it might be too late for her sanity. Anyway, in the end she asks Sawyer why he's running errands for "Locke" and he basically says he's playing both sides and plans to steal the sub while everyone is distracted. Great idea... now all you need is to steal a submarine pilot while you're at it.

***

All in all, a pretty good episode. WAY better than last week's. And speaking of which, did you catch the preview for next week? A Richard episode! I'm not holding my breath, though. He had his own episode last year and it told us diddly squat. But seriously, if he's not a prime vehicle to fill in some major questions/mysteries/gaps, I don't know who is.

Any new ideas based on what came up in this week's episode?

S6E6 - Dr. Linus

2010-03-10T00:28:00.000-08:00

Okay. Is it just me or was this episode a little... underwhelming? I mean, we got a couple of answers, but I guess I was expecting more from a Benjamin Linus episode. Or shall I say...

DOCTOR LINUS

DEGREE: European History

SCHOOL: University of Boooooring

STRENGTH: Caring for others

WEAKNESS: Blackmail

Seriously. Ben's flashsideways had after-school special written all over it. He's the only one who truly cares about the students. He's pigeon-holed by the evil principal. He hatches a plan to become the new principal then changes his mind when he realizes it may hurt one student's bright future. Yawn fest. The student was Alex, but by now we're used to significant people from the "main" reality popping up in each other's what-ifs. Looks like instead of being stranded on the island during her science expedition, Rousseau wound up living in the good ol' U S of A and is working two jobs just to keep a roof over her daughter's head. (I wonder if she had to wind up shooting her baby daddy, just like in reality A?) Anyway, all I can say is, she must have been a pretty crappy scientist if she has to pull two paychecks to make ends meet.

I suppose the point of the flashsideways was to parallel his life on the island and to make up for her inadvertent sacrifice by sacrificing himself (sort of). While touching, I feel like we could have gotten a little more meat to go with that one scrawny side dish. The only thing worthwhile was his dad's lamentation about leaving the island, a half-explanation of how Ben is still alive. Again though, I wonder if that was before or after the bomb? You would think that any alterations to the timeline began once the bomb was detonated and rippled outwards after that, but I'm just going to chalk this up to timetravelsucks and move on. Nice to see that yet another father/son relationship (Locke's too?) is better off with the island at the bottom of the ocean. And by better off, I mean Ben hasn't trapped him in a van filled with deadly gas yet. As a matter of fact, I just realized he is keeping him alive through the use of a gas in reality B (nice touch, writers).

(Sidenote: What is the modern day equivalent of an "after-school special" anyway? Is that what the ABC Family channel is for or maybe one out of any four movies featured on Lifetime?)

DOCTOR ARZT

DEGREE: Science Education
SCHOOL: ITT Tech
STRENGTH: Not blowing up
WEAKNESS: Shady parking spaces

Speaking of other characters... with only 9 episodes left, it seems like it's just enough time to feature everyone twice. Let's see... we've already had Jack, Locke, Kate, and Sayid. We had the one in the beginning with everyone then this Ben one (whose story doesn't seem to extend in interest beyond the end of this episode) bringing us to episode 6. So we've got Hurley and Jin/Sun left. Once they've been featured (presumably episode 7 and 8), everyone (minus Ben) has a chance to have one more episode about them until the finale. Sorry, this is me just thinking out loud. I seriously have little to say about this episode.

DOCTOR SCHOLLS

DEGREE: Advanced Foot Technology
SCHOOL: University of KickingAssAndTakingNames
STRENGTH: Arch support
WEAKNESS: Unexplainable odors

Ilana and her crew decided to "get back to the basics" and go for a long walk on the beach. Literally. Let's see, from this bit of the show we've got Miles telling Ben that Jacob "hoped he was wrong" about him just before he plunged the knife into his heart. Hmmm... so I still wonder if Jacob dying was all part of his "bigger plan." I mean, you've gotta think he saw it coming to some degree if he's gone through the trouble of finding his replacement, right? Of course Ilana's none too happy about learning of Ben's involvement claiming Jacob was the closest thing to a father she had. We're going to almost have to see an Ilana flashback at some point, right? Remember last season when Jacob approached her in a clinic while she was recovering from who-knows-what all wrapped up in bandages and he asked her for help? That seemed too significant to just let go. Maybe we'll get another Jacob episode to fill in the gaps... fingers crossed. Anyway, Fake Locke offers Ben escape from Ilana, but oddly not escape from the island. Apparently once Fake Locke leaves, someone still needs to remain "in charge" of the island. How's that for a new twist? I'm assuming he's not referring to the candidates since Ben is not one. Anyway, Fake Locke has been exhibiting a let's-blow-this-popsicle-stand mentality, so the fact that he even cares about what happens after he leaves is surprising. Of course that is assuming he was telling the truth and not just sweet talking Ben. Part of me thinks he was blowing smoke (no pun intended) up his butt, but it's hard not to believe the one person offering relatively straight answers.

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO

DEGREE: Internal Medicine
SCHOOL: School of Hard Knocks
STRENGTH: Poetry
WEAKNESS: The ladies

If you like love triangles, this book/film is a classic. The story of a love-torn man set against the backdrop of war-torn Russia. I, for one, am glad that the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle is on the back burner this season. I'll allow perhaps two minutes of dialogue to wrap up whatever angst they need to wrap up and be done with it. I never fully bought into Jack/Kate and I totally prefer Sawyer/Juliet. What? How does that relate to this episode? Good question.

DOCTOR KEVORKIAN
DEGREE: Pathology
SCHOOL: University of Michigan Medical School
STRENGTHS: Oil painting, Jazz music
WEAKNESS: "Early Mortality Assistance"

So, one of maybe two big reveals for me was Richard's explanation of Jacob's "gift". Apparently he does not age because he was touched by Jacob. Now that seems pretty interesting, especially given that we saw Jacob touch his candidates a few episodes ago, though I can't recall if he touched little Kate or not in last season's finale. Either way, apparently this doesn't grant immortality since Richard can die, he just can't do it himself. Gee thanks, Jacob, but what good is immortality if ANYONE CAN KILL ME, BUT ME? Another thing I found pretty telling was his reaction when he entered the Black Rock and his answer when Jack asked if he'd been there before. I think it's a fairly safe assumption that he was part of the original crew (or perhaps a slave) on the ship when it first came ashore.

DOCTOR MOREAU

DEGREE: Veterinarian
SCHOOL: Cayman Island Medical
STRENGTH: Vivisection
WEAKNESS: Animal-hybrid revolts

If you like shipwrecks on islands where all sorts of mysterious experiments are taking place, this book/film is a classic. What? Oh yeah... the recap.

DOCTOR SHEPARD

DEGREE: Spinal Surgery
SCHOOL: Reluctant Leader Institute
STRENGTH: Obsession with fixing things
WEAKNESS: Obsession with fixing things

Very interesting change of heart for Jack, though I guess it's less of a change of heart and more of a culmination of the last season and a half. He had one leg on the destiny wagon last season, trying to convince everyone that they needed to return to the island, but his little speech to Richard and trick with the dynamite seemed to seal the deal. He's been hitting the Destiny Juice hard since the Lighthouse and there's no turning back for him now. With Jack/Hurley/Richard popping up at the end, looks like we're seeing the beginnings of a mini-reunion at the beach. Sorry Richard and Ben... no hugs for you. The last and maybe biggest reveal of the episode is at the very end. Widmore has found the island and apparently has a plan to do... something. Any ideas? Oh, and is it just me or is this season just a lot of walking and talking with the "good stuff" packed into the last two minutes?

DOCTOR WHO
DEGREE: Sonic Screwdriver Operations
SCHOOL: Time Lord University
STRENGTHS: Two hearts, Twelve lives
WEAKNESS: Human sentimentality

If you like time travel... okay okay...

Again, between Jacob's manipulations and Fake Locke's promise-you-the-world attitude, I'm thinking they're both bad news at the end of the day. My hope is the LOSTies get fed up on both ends and join forces, maybe have a peaceful protest back at the beach. Hmm... protest posters... if next week's episode is as blah as this one, I think that would be quite a fitting recap theme. Until then...

S6E5 - Sundown

2010-03-03T07:44:00.000-08:00

Awesome episode (says me). A little birdy (that I'm married to) brought to my attention that the first week of March is National Letter of Appreciation Week. If that doesn't scream recap theme, I don't know what does.

“Dear Uncle Sayid,
Thanks a lot for the cool boomerangs from Australia. They're so much fun! We really like having you around. Mommy does too--like times a hundred! Daddy, uh... not so much. Anyway, wish you could stick around. Of course we also wish you were our real dad, but you know... that's life.
Love Zack and Emma”

So, in Sayid's what-if, he pushed the love of his life into the arms of his brother because he thought he didn't deserve her? Again, another fairly significant discrepancy between the two time lines. More evidence of Jacob's influence? Anyway, despite her lack of single status, one thing is constant between the two realities and that is his love for her. Awwww... she's his "constant". Remember how Desmond was supposed to be Farraday's "constant"? Yeah... that didn't work out so well for ol' Daniel now did it?

“Hey Baseball,
Thanks for falling on the floor. If you hadn't, I'm pretty sure Dogen would have cut my throat. Anyway, I guess I owe you one, so... if you ever need your life saved or something... call me.
Sincerely,
Sayid Jarra”

Okay, may I start by saying that was a pretty sweet fight scene between Dogen and Sayid? Island-influenced Kung Fu meets Iraqi-style Kickboxing. While it's nice that Dogen got all sentimental and decided not to kill Sayid, it's strange that he didn't, especially since it's clear he thought he should die. Guess his conscience got the better of him? Hmm... bet he wishes he could take THAT decision back.

“Dear Claire,
I just wanted to give you a heartfelt thanks for delivering my message to the others. You know how I am with crowds. But just so you know, I might be sending a back up messenger in case things go south for you. You know, like if they throw you in a hole or something.
Your Friend,
Fake Locke”

I'm a little confused on one thing. We know the smoke monster can't enter those circles of ash. We've seen him/it stop short of them plenty of times before. He even did so at the temple while giving Claire her instructions. And yet Dogen's translator tells Sayid that Dogen was the one that had been preventing Fake Locke from coming and now that he was dead, Fake Locke could enter. So what? It was this one random dude being alive that prevented Fake Locke from entering the ash circles and not the ashes itself? I mean, not to get hung up on the details, but doesn't that seem like an overly complicated security system? That's like ADT Home Security giving you a bag of magic baby powder to spread around your house and all of your valuables claiming it will keep away thieves, but only if Marcus Sanchez—a toaster repairman from Sacramento, California—doesn't accidentally electrocute himself during the term of your contract.

“Sayid,
I know we've had our rough patches what with me torturing you, trying to poison you, then going all karate on you and almost slitting your throat. Oh, and of course there's that thing where I think you're evil. But hey, I've got an idea. If you want to show that there’s still goodness in your heart, why don't you prove it by murdering someone for me? Thanks!
Dogen”

The interesting thing was that Dogen specifically said that if "the enemy" talked to him, it would be too late. Sure enough, Fake Locke said, "Hello, Sayid" just before he was stabbed. I wonder if that's why he didn't die? Of course if it were that easy, surely someone would have done something about him long ago. It's probably exactly what Fake Locke said, Dogen couldn't bring himself to kill Sayid so he just sent him on a suicide mission, knowing the knife would be ineffective. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting thing to point out.

“Dearest Sayid,
Thank you so much for watching the kids AND for gluing the vase back together! Say, while you're at it, how about trying to glue my failing marriage back together, or better yet explain why you and I aren't the ones doing the horizontal mambo. Just curious...
Yours Forever,
Nadia”

Poor Sayid. Can’t catch a break in either reality. Hey, did you notice the brief shot of Jack at the hospital? It's like hunting Easter eggs.

“Dear Sayid,
No worries about trying to kill me. "No harm. No foul." is what I say. Anyway, if you want to make it up to me, I've written out some instructions on the back. Thanks, you're the best!
Your New Friend,
Fake Locke”

So Sayid passes on the warning to everyone at the temple then has a heart-to-heart with Dogen just before murdering him. Interesting final conversation. Jacob claimed he would save his son's life (bring him back from the dead, actually) if Dogen came to the island. Fake Locke made a similar promise to Sayid (about Nadia). And if you recall, Ben promised to cure Juliet's sister who had cancer (which is odd now that we know he didn’t work as closely with Jacob as we thought back then). I wonder if Jacob/Fake Locke truly have miraculous healing powers or is it all just smoke an mirrors? Instead of true healing, what if they can only “take” someone out of the alternate timeline and into the main one? Nadia’s dead? No problem! Just yank her from reality “B” where she’s married to your douchebag brother. Dead son? Got you covered! He’s more into piano than baseball in the alternate reality, but you know… beggars can’t be choosers. Anyway, I'm to the point where I don't think there even IS a good side anymore. Everybody's manipulating everybody to serve their own selfish agenda (or so it seems).

“Kate,
Thanks for raising Aaron for me. NOT! Ha Ha... Seriously, though. I think I might still kill you, but we can chat about that later.
P.S. He's coming and you can't stop him!
Claire”

Yikes. The future ain't so bright for those two.

“Dear Random Iraqi Guy I Just Met,
Oh man, I thought I'd NEVER be rescued! You won't believe how I got here. It's quite a tale if you have a minute. I tell you what, why don't we swap stories over a beer or two? I'm not much of a drinker, but anything's gotta be better than the taste of duct tape. Thanks a ton!
Sincerely,
Jin Kwon”

First off, $5 to my wife for calling Jin as the one locked up in the meat locker. It was awesome to see Keamy again (Widmore's militia leader from the freighter in reality "A"); he makes a good bad guy. Of course it wasn't for long. (Sidenote: Does anyone else think that actor looks exactly like Ed Robertson from Barenaked Ladies?) Anyway, as soon as Sayid sat down, I knew everyone was toast. I can't wait to see how Jin winds up there. Of course we know that Sun's father had him running some pretty shady deals in the US, so it's certainly not a stretch that he would be involved with some less-than-reputable people, but I'm still looking forward to how he gets from point A (LAX) to point B (tied up in a meat locker), if you dig.

“Dear Claire,
Thanks for sharing your hole! Your “friend” seems a little rough around the edges, but I'm sure we'll all learn to get along. Fingers crossed!
Your Friend (I Hope!),
Kate”

Again, yikes. It's interesting how Kate actually wound up with Fake Locke's new group by default. At least it seemed she was going with them there at the end. And is it just me, or is it weird how almost everyone in the temple so easily migrated to Fake Locke? Fake Locke made it seem like they were all trapped there and just stayed at the temple for lack of anything better to do. Well, that and also protection from him. And so now that Jacob is gone, they're not trapped anymore and he's suddenly not such a bad guy? That makes 0.00 sense to me. Anyway, while his motives (or the motives of the others for following him) are a little ambiguous, one thing is for certain... he did NOT seem too stoked about Kate tagging along. I'm only assuming she's sticking around to stay close to Claire, unaware of what a bad idea that might be. But geez, she must be really committed considering that she just witnessed the destruction of the temple and mass murder of a good chunk of its inhabitants. She knew the smoke monster was involved, and while she might not realize that Fake Locke = The Smoke Monster, she at least knows that he and Sayid were behind it to some degree considering they're the ones that walked out alive. And not to mention that Locke is supposed to be dead. That didn't even seem to phase her! I tell you what. That would phase me plenty and I'd high-tail it out of there in a heartbeat... sorry Claire.

“Ilana,
Thanks for saving my hide. Man, you just burst in, guns drawn, ready for action. Wanna go out or somethin'?
Miles”

I totally forgot that Ilana & company had been headed for the temple until they popped up at the end. The last words between Ben and Sayid were chilling. "Come with us, there's still time," to which Sayid replied, "Not for me." That's kind of what sealed the evil-deal for Sayid in my mind. Of course Sayid has his motivations (Nadia) and even Claire has hers (Aaron), so neither of them seem particularly "evil" if you study them on that level, but of course that's removing their actions from the equation. I guess if evil were so black and white then it would be a lot easier to identify in the real world (like if pedophiles were legally required to wear T-shirts identifying them as such), but alas, I'm slipping into sermon territory and that is not my domain. Mine is to make you laugh much and think some (we're talkin' maybe 60/40). And to that extent I hope I was successful.

Until next week, I'll leave you with my last thought as the episode closed. Is it me or is everyone super spread out now?

Sawyer - Jacob's cave (the last we saw)
Jin - Claire's hut (the last we saw)
Jack/Hurley - Kicking it at the lighthouse (the last we saw)
Ben/Sun/Frank/Ilana/Miles - Escaping the temple together
Sayid/Claire/Kate(maybe) - Following Fake Locke

I wonder who/how people will group back up?

S6E4 - The Lighthouse

2010-02-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

You know, as long as I’ve been recapping, I don’t think I’ve ever done one in honor of the numbers themselves. This season, and in this episode especially, we’re learning a little bit more about the numbers and what they might mean.

4 – Locke
Okay, so Locke doesn’t show up until the very end and it’s actually Fake Locke on top of that, but whoa did it clarify some things for me. First off, Claire is in fact a bit off her rocker. Too bad. I was really hoping the others were wrong and she’d just “gone all Rousseau” after three years of living on her own, but alas, she’s a full-fledged citizen of Crazy Town, population 3. That includes Claire, her “dad”, and her “friend”. I once thought that the Man In Black/Smoke Monster might have posed as her dad to trick her into joining the others or whatever. Now, I’m not so sure. She seemed to refer to them as two distinct people. And also, I remember now that last year, Christian appeared to Sun in one of the wrecked Dharma shacks. That was at the same time that (who we know now as) Fake Locke was kicking it with Ben. We also know based on Ilana’s comment about Jacob’s enemy that he is “stuck” now that he’s assumed Locke’s image, so that seems to indicate Fake Locke and Ghost Christian are not one and the same.

8 – Reyes
Of course this goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Any Hurley-heavy episode (no pun or offense intended) is hilarious, and this one did not disappoint. First, his excuse for roaming around the temple was great. “You know, I’m a fan of temples, history, Indiana Jones stuff.” Then he accuses Jacob of making him “lie to a samurai.” His attempt to get Jack to come with him was also quite amusing. “Act cool, wait ten seconds, then follow me.” Not to mention him walking through the jungle, trying to discreetly read his arm the entire trip. One thing I found interesting was his insistence that Kate couldn’t come. “She’s not invited,” he said. I wonder if he said that just because Jacob only mentioned bringing Jack along, or if Jacob specifically said they’d meet, but she couldn’t come with them. Again, that brings up the question of why didn’t Kate make the candidate list? Surely there’s a reason besides the fact the writers only had six numbers to choose from. Afterwards was another hilarious Hurley comment, “Sorry for wrecking your game with Kate.” Fast forward to the end after Jack smashes the lighthouse mirrors and Jacob confesses to Hurley that he had to get them as far away from the temple as he could because “someone bad” is coming to the temple. Ooooooooh!

15 – Ford
No Sawyer in this episode, but I do kind of wonder where he is. Last time we saw him he was hanging with Fake Locke so what gives? Is he waiting just outside of Claire’s makeshift hut? Or did Fake Locke leave him in that cave, claiming he had to run a quick errand, then went all smokey and traveled halfway across the island at the speed of evil? Whatever, just curious.

16 – Jarrah
Sayid was in this episode, but only briefly when he wondered allowed to Jack why everyone was watching him. Jack kind of puts it out there that they think he’s infected, though he fails to mention it’s an “evil” infection. Needless to say, now that we know a bit more of what’s happened to Claire, I’m a little worried for our favorite ex-torture specialist.

23 – Shephard
So, in the alternate timeline, Jack’s a dad! Again, you’ve gotta wonder how an island blowing up when you weren’t even in your tweens yet (I’ll spare you the time-travel math lesson) could alter your life so much that you wind up fathering a child. This is similar to Locke’s alternate life where he’s still with Helen and presumably has an okay relationship with his dad. Will these altered courses in life be explained? It seems too complicated to show flashbacks of their flashsideways, but surely we’ll get something, even if it’s just Eloise Hawking drawing something on a chalkboard. I also wonder if Jack’s baby momma is Sarah, his ex-wife from the reality we know. They seemed to purposefully leave that a mystery and maybe it’s no big secret, but still curious. Wouldn’t it be crazy if it was Ana Lucia or Libby something? Anyway, he actually seems to be a decent father who just wants to be a part of his son’s life. Definitely not overbearing like his own father was when he was young. A touching alternative life which so far seems to be going pretty well compared to reality “A”. The two significant things from his what-if were the discovery of his half-sister Claire, which could potentially put them in contact on a future flashsideways, and the chance meeting with none other than Dogen (the temple leader dude).

42 – Kwon
Man is Jin over his head. I was hopeful about Claire at first. She helped him out of the trap and was clearly distrustful of the others, can’t blame her there. He passes out and wakes up in her shanty where he discovers she’s been rocking pieced-together animal remains in an old cradle. If that doesn’t poor about a gallon of ick juice on what was otherwise a potentially friendly reunion, I don’t know what would. He wisely lays back down when she returns with the other named Justin who tries to convince Jin that they both need to escape. Jin doesn’t trust him and again, can’t blame him, but you can tell he’s already doubting the sanity of his old friend. Claire obviously thinks the others took her baby and even though Jin tells “the truth”, she still winds up giving Justin the axe, literally. Of course then Jin backpedals and says he was lying to try to save the man’s life and that yes, the others do in fact have Aaron and he would take her to the temple where they are keeping him. I didn’t quite get why he lied about lying. Did he think she’d kill him too if she knew the truth? Maybe. And especially after she said point blank that she’d kill Kate if that were true. Of course I would have pointed out to Claire that she was the one who up and abandoned Aaron so someone had to take care of him… but maybe after three years of wilderness survival with no one but two kind-of-dead people to keep her company and not to mention after she just sharpened her axe and murdered someone in cold blood… maybe that’s not the best time to remind her of that.

108 – ?
The final big reveal is in the lighthouse, itself. Jacob says it needs to be oriented to 108 degrees in order to help someone find the island. And once we get there, we see that there are names associated with every degree. My first question would be, does that mean there was at some point 360 potential candidates? And the immediate second question, who is 108? Of course, it could have all been an elaborate ruse to show Jack that he and his friends were being observed for a long time. Jacob indicated as much. But there is obviously a person (or persons?) associated with that number. Two interesting notes. First off, 108 is all of the candidate numbers added together. Also, it is the exact minute-intervals that Desmond had to push the button while in the hatch. So, my two theories are that either all candidates from the alternate reality need to find the island (thus 108 would represent them all)… or that 108 represents Desmond, who surely we have not seen the last of. If anything, he would want to find the island (Ben, specifically) to avenge the attempted murder of his baby momma. Busted mirrors or not, if I were Jack or Hurley, the first thing I would have done once I realized people’s names were etched on the degree markers would be to see who was written next to 108. Come on people, you’re killing me…

Thoughts? Theories?

S6E3 - The Substitute

2010-02-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

As you know, I try to keep my recap themes fresh from week to week and season to season, with one exception.

So, it is with great enthusiasm and sadness (enthusiadness?) that I present the last ever set of...

***LOST VALENTINES***

From: Randy Nations
Card: Cartoon teddy bear in a business suit wearing a very unconvincing toupee.
Outside: “I’ve just got one thing to say to you this Valentines Day.”
Inside: “You’re FIRED!” [on the bottom is a logo for The Apprentice – Tropical Island Edition.]
To: John Locke

So we discover that Locke was in fact lying about going on the walkabout, so that has not changed in the alternate timeline. But it looks like at least one major thing did… Helen! More on that later.

From: Fake Locke
Card: Just a folded up piece of notebook paper.
Outside: “Sorry I killed your boyfriend, but you could do SO much better.”
Inside: “Want to go out sometime? Check box: YES or NO.”
To: Richard

So, Fake Locke (as I will call him in this episode) tries to convince Richard to come with him, perhaps even join forces. Richard asks why he chose to look like Locke and Fake Locke says it gave him access to Jacob since Locke was a candidate. Richard doesn’t seem to know what that means. Fake Locke feigns surprise and tells him that if they were “together” he would have treated him with respect. At any rate, his attempt to kindle a bromance falls on its face when Richard refuses to come along. If you recall, in one of the final episodes from last season, Ilana and her team knocked out Frank the pilot and she was overheard wondering if Frank was a candidate. Of course we didn’t know what that meant at the time, and only have a vague idea now. My question, though, is how does Ilana know about that whole business, while Richard doesn’t? After all, they both “work” for Jacob. Anyway, seems like Richard doesn’t know as much about what’s going on as I thought he did. Good gravy, does ANYONE?

From: Ilana
Card: White card with colorful flowers.
Outside: “What we had was special.”
Inside: “I’ll miss you.” [Handwritten beneath – “Couldn’t afford an urn… hope you don’t mind a drawstring bag! XOXO”]
To: Jacob

Okay, so a sad Valentines card, there. I thought her decision to save the ashes was interesting only because ashes seem to have some significance. It’s what everyone uses to keep the smoke monster at bay. I’m sure we’ll see that resurface. Anyway, for the time being looks like Ilana, Ben, Sun, and Frank are off to the Temple.

From: Fake Locke
Card: A picture of two half-gone wine glasses and a mess of discarded clothes.
Outside: “I’ve got all the answers, baby.”
Inside: “Now put on your pants and come with me.”
To: James Ford

Sawyer’s reaction to dead Locke was pretty humorous. You can tell he’s really close to hitting rock bottom. Unfortunately that puts him in a prime place to be manipulated. Richard pops out of the woods just long enough to warn Sawyer about Fake Locke, but Sawyer wants answers. Don’t we all…

From: Hugo Reyes, CEO
Card: Cartoon teddy bear working in a cubicle.
Outside: “Office romances are never a good idea.”
Inside: [Teddy bear sadly packing up personal effects.] “Good thing you don’t work for my company anymore.”
To: John Locke

So, Hurley hooks Locke up with the number to his temp agency. I heart Hurley. And it turns out that the supervisor of that company is someone else I heart.

From: Rose
Card: A hand-painted watercolor scene depicting the beach at sunset.
Outside: “A Valentines Day Haiku”
Inside: “I see your wheelchair. / I’ve got terminal cancer. / That’s called, perspective.”
To: John Locke

Rose rocks. You just gotta love her no nonsense view on life.

From: Ghost Boy
Card: Picture of jungle with no one there, but you can spin a little wheel on the outside edge to reveal a creepy little boy.
Outside: “Just popping in to wish you a Happy Valentines Day!”
Inside: [Handwritten inside] “P.S. You can’t kill him.”
To: Fake Locke

Well THAT was weird. Was that Jacob, perhaps? I also wonder if it was significant that Richard couldn’t see the boy, but Sawyer could. I’m assuming the boy meant that Fake Locke couldn’t kill Sawyer. It actually doesn’t seem like he wants to, though, especially after his efforts to save his life on the ladder. Of course who knows what it will require for Fake Locke and Sawyer to “leave” together so he made need him alive at least for now. That whole business is unsettling. Also, Fake Locke suggests that he once was a man until he became “trapped” on the island. All interesting history that we’ll surely learn more about as the season plows on.

From: Benjamin Linus
Card: Picture of a gravestone with a bouquet of roses nearby.
Outside: “You were a believer, a man of faith. And a much better man than I will ever be.”
Inside: “Sorry I murdered you.”
To: John Locke

Awkward… well, as far as eulogies go. It was, however, one of those rare moments that I think Ben was actually telling the truth.

From: Helen
Card: Pink construction paper with red and white cutout hearts.
Outside: “All this time, I wasn’t waiting on a miracle.”
Inside: “I was waiting on you.”
To: John Locke

Well, that was a sweet sentiment. But this brings up what I had mentioned earlier; Helen is with Locke in this timeline. I believe in the reality we know, she ditched him quite some time ago after it was evident he was overly-obsessed with his father. In the alternate reality, she is not only still around, she went so far as to suggest they should just invite her parents and his dad to attend their wedding. Locke didn’t even seem to flinch at the idea, making me think his relationship with good ol’ pops is WAY different in this reality. Don’t see how bombing the island could fix THAT mess, but maybe we’ll see. And while we’re on it, there’s one bigger discrepancy that I really can’t explain…

From: Benjamin Linus
Card: Red apple with green cartoon worm popping out of a hole.
Outside: “An apple for teacher on Valentines Day?”
Inside: [Worm crawling up the side of a white teacup.] “Or how about just a cup of Earl Gray?”
To: John Locke

Okay, so I’m a little confused on how Ben can be alive and well in the alternate timeline. As far as we know, Ben never escaped from the island during the Dharma evacuation. We have seen clips from his life after he was healed at the temple and it seems he split his time between running with the others and pretending to still side with the Dharma folks. So, to me that means that he had to be on the island when the bomb went off and as we know, in the alternate timeline, the island is at the bottom of the ocean. Am I wrong here? Shouldn’t alternate-Ben be dead? Of course who knows, maybe the bomb detonation didn’t sink the island right away. Maybe it just caused a giganto hole that slowly filled with water from the bottom up like some cartoon catastrophe, giving the inhabitants time to escape. I don’t know, seems like a stretch. Hopefully the writers didn’t miss such a big plot hole. On the upside, it is cool to see Ben’s what-if life.

From: Jacob
Card: 50 generic cards depicting various Disney characters, bought in bulk at Costco.
Outside: “You’re the only one for me.”
Inside: “Whoever you might be.”
To: Everybody

Looks like Jacob is willing to give a Valentines to whoever will take one, not to mention his post as guardian of the island as well. Apparently one aspect of Jacob’s incessant list-making is to find his “replacement.” (Sidebar, is there some official mental condition ascribed to people hung up on making lists or is it just lumped under obsessive compulsive disorder?) Anyway, there were a lot of potential folks to begin with, but apparently only six remaining candidates. Oh, scratch that. Five. Sorry, Locke. One interesting thing is either Jin or Sun isn’t on the list. Nor is Kate or Claire. Also, the numbers make a surprising appearance, but I wonder how much of that is for us to say, “Ooooh, the numbers…” as opposed to them having an actual meaning.

Fake Locke suggests that everything Jacob has ever done has been in order to draw people (these “candidates”) to the island. Seeing that series of interactions again edited back-to-back like that did kind of suggest an eerie sense of manipulation. I want to say that Fake Locke is the “bad guy,” but wouldn’t put it past the show to have some crazy twist where Jacob is the evil one in the end.

So, any ideas of what’s going on? This episode seemed to lend itself to plenty o’ theory swapping.

4 - Locke
8 - Reyes
15 - Ford
16 - Jarrah
23 - Shephard
42 - Kwon

S6E2 - What Kate Does

2010-02-10T15:32:00.000-08:00

Let’s get right to it. We are only a few days removed from Super Bowl XLIV and the (dare I say) underdog victory of the Saints over the Colts so I shall recap in stereotypical football commentator style.

COIN TOSS
REF: “Heads is the LOSTies. Tails is The Others. And the toss is—oops. Looks like it landed in that bubbling spring of murky water in the center of the temple that perhaps infected Sayid with Evil. Anyone want to go in and fetch it… anyone…?”
BOB: “The LOSTies barely squeaked into this game and are clearly looking like the underdogs. Apparently, the opposing team took them hostage just before the National Anthem and dragged them to the field at gunpoint. This team of survivors also has to account for a serious injury of one of their star wide receivers, Sayid Jarrah.”
BILL: “Serious injury, Bob? The man was shot and later confirmed as dead.”
BOB: “True, a testament to his fighting spirit. And it appears to have really unsettled The Others. Looks like we’re going to have quite a game on our hands this evening.”
BILL: “I think it unsettled everyone, Bob.”

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KICK OFF
BOB: “LOSTies win first pick after a round of rock/paper/scissors. They choose to receive, but it looks like they’re down two players early on. Jarrah has been tackled by The Others and it appears that James Ford has walked off the playing field.”
BILL: “And the losses keep coming, Bob. Kate Austen from Special Teams says she can track Ford and linebacker Jin Kwon volunteers to leave as well.”
BOB: “I have to say this is a devastating blow to the LOSTies this early on. Is there even a team left?”
BILL: “Well, let’s see, we’ve still got star quarterback and 5-time MVP Jack Shepherd. The well-loved defensive tackle Hurley “Hugo” Reyes and second string Miles Straume. Can this motley crew hold their team together? Stay tuned.”

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(verse 1)
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(chorus 1)
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FIRST QUARTER
BOB: “And we’re back. Jarrah appears to be still in the game, but The Others are really putting the pressure on his recent injury.”
BILL: “Recent death, Bob.”
BOB: “Right, right. Looks like they are applying some type of torturing devices. Ouch! Is that in even legal?”
BILL: “Seems ironic given Jarrah’s past.”
REF: “Penalty. Offense. Application of torture. Five yard penalty.”
BOB: “No, the refs did not approve of that torturing move at all, but The Others are still within field goal range.”
BILL: “Looks like they’re going for it, Bob. LOSTies – 0. Others – 3.”

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[shot of two men sitting next to each other on a park bench]
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SECOND QUARTER
BOB: “And we’re back in the second quarter with Kate Austen on the offensive.”
BILL: “Yes, she’s under heavy cover by two members of The Others defensive team, but she manages a fake that leaves them both incapacitated.”
BOB: “What’s with these traps on the playing field, Bill?”
BILL: “Well, Bob. I’m inclined to agree it’s a remnant of Rousseau’s heyday, but The Others seem to have their own theories.”
BOB: “Intriguing. More on that later, I assume. Looks like Kate and Jin’s escape scored them a touchdown, but Jin seems to have his own agenda.”
BILL: “Right, you are Bob. Loss of the extra point. LOSTies – 6. Others – 3.”

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HALF TIME SHOW
“The Who” – Performing Who Are You? in the Temple courtyard.
[all lyrics are the same as original with the exception of the chorus, which has been altered as follows:]

Whoooo are you smoke monster guy?
Who, who, who, who?
Whoooo are you smoke monster guy?
Who, who, who, who?

[many of The Others tap their feet and wave torches overhead, while their leader looks on in mild disapproval.]

THIRD QUARTER
BOB: “Well, Bill. The third quarter is off to a great start. Looks like Austen has successfully tracked Ford back to his once-home with last season’s all-star Juliet Burke.”
BILL: “Yes and what a shame her departure was, Bob. We can only hope to see more of her in the alternate timeline.”
BOB: “Alternate what?”
BILL: [looking exasperated] “Nevermind.”
BOB: “Well, a touching exchange between the two, but Austen just doesn’t seem to be able to convince Ford of joining forces.”
BILL: “Yes, a clear setback for the LOSTies here in the second half. Back at the temple now where quarterback Jack Shepherd goes for a long pass that’s intercepted by Asian wide receiver, Dogen.”
BOB: “What a turn around. We don’t know much about this Dogen character except that he also appears to be team captain of The Others.”
BILL: “Well, at least this group of them.”
BOB: “True. I wonder how this faction of The Others relates to kicker Richard Alpert under direction of the recently-deceased Special Teams coach Jacob?”
BILL: “No clue, Bob.”
BOB: “Oh, looks like another flag on the play.”
REF: “Penalty. Offense. Use of poison. LOSTies, automatic first down.”
BILL: “Whoa, poisoning the ball? That just seems low.”
BOB: “Not much time on the clock, Bill. LOSTies go for a field goal at the end of the third. LOSTies – 9. Others – 3.”

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FOURTH QUARTER
BOB: “The LOSTies advanced their lead at the end of the third, but it’s still anybody’s game.”
BILL: “That’s right, Bob. Only time for one final play from both sides here at the end.”
BOB: “Looks like it’s all going to come down to a face off between Jin Kwon and the two tight ends from The Others he’d managed to shake off earlier.”
BILL: “Whoa, gun on the field and The Others score a touchdown, tying up this game.”
BOB: “And what’s that? Did that guy from The Others say something about Jin potentially being ‘one of them?’ I think we’re going to need a big explanation on that one, Bill.”
BILL: “In due time, Bob… in due time.”
BOB: “The Others go for the extra point by shooting Kwon at point blank range and—OH! Unbelievable, Claire Littleton rushes from the sidelines and kills both members of the opposing team leaving it a tied game here at the end. LOSTies – 9. Others – 9.”

OVERTIME
So. Who wins in overtime? That’s anybody’s guess. To me, the two biggest questions came right there at the end. What did that “other” mean when he hesitated in killing Jin, saying he might be “one of them?”

Maybe there’s yet another Jacob list in circulation that details who needs to be protected and who is dispensable. Perhaps it even has something to do with the alternate timeline and what happens to them there, but it’s all too vague at this point to start any theories. The other interesting question is what really happened to Claire? The assumption was she joined The Others at the end of season 4, but then again we only saw her with Christian. And, as we know, the smoke monster (anti-Jacob) can take on the form of dead people, so maybe it was smokie tricking her all along. It will be interesting to see what her story is and if she has indeed gone over to “the dark side.” And of course, the side question here is what are the implications for Sayid?

Good stuff. Comments?

S6E1 - LA X

2010-02-02T21:36:00.000-08:00

Before I get into the recap, let me start by addressing last year's big cliff hanger. Of course I am referring to the birth of my second child, which turned out to be... a girl! For those of you way into statistics, that brings the Hay household boy/girl ratio to a lopsided 1:3.

Though I was contemplating a labor and delivery themed recap in honor of my eight-month-old that missed last year's finale by only a few days, I would be remiss to ignore the very special day that is February 2nd...

GROUNDHOG DAY!

So, let us review this episode in terms of who did and did not "see their shadow" and what exactly that entails.

For starters, $5 to myself for coining the term "flashsideways" which is what I will heretofore refer to the final season's presumably permanent mode of storytelling. Can't wait to see if everyone's "alternate" life winds up as crappy as I anticipate.

First up, Desmond. I think he must have seen his shadow because later on in the episode he's nowhere to be found. That was the most intriguing whaaa? of the intro. At first I thought that wasn't possible, but then I realized Desmond got stranded on the island just like the Oceanic survivors did, so if the island "sunk to the bottom of the ocean" after the bomb detonated then he'd have a different life just like everyone else. That new life obviously lead him to board flight 815 at some point. I'm interested to see how that happened and I bet we'll find out soon enough.

Next is Jack who also saw his shadow because his life just kind of sucked no matter what reality he was in. On island, he thought the bomb attempt had failed and soon enough takes on the blame for Juliet's death. In his flashsideways, the airport lost his father's body. Rough. Question though, didn't he find his father's coffin in season 1? If so, that would insinuate that it had, indeed, been loaded on the plane. Of course his father's body wasn't in that coffin so who knows.

And before we get too far away from Jack's guilt, let's go ahead and talk about Juliet. I'm guessing death is about as bad of a groundhog omen you can get. Double rough. I was really thinking she'd make it. I mean, you don't almost kill someone off just to say, hey she's alive, and then really kill her. Right? But alas, they did. Unless... "It worked." What if her spirit on the island was aware that they successfully created an alternate timeline (because once you die, you totally get to know rad things like that). That's what her enigmatic message to Miles could have meant. Prediction: The LOSTies will somehow figure out the alternate reality exists and Sawyer will try to bring her back/over/across/sideways/whatever.

Let's move on to Hurley who clearly did not see his shadow. On the island, he lead the way in saving Sayid (more on that later) and in his flashsideways he still thinks he's the luckiest guy on earth. Lots of good Hurley quotes this episode. The best was when Jacob said he died an hour prior. "Dude, that sucks." Interesting that Sawyer made note of Hurley's lottery winnings. In his flashsideways, Sawyer's still the conman that crashed on the island so is not above trying to grift money from strangers.

And with that, let's talk Sawyer. The reviews here are mixed. On island, I think he totally saw his shadow because he went to a pretty dark place after Juliet's death. However, in his flashsideways, things are looking up (at least for now). He's a free man, though I suspect him killing that guy in Sydney (remember that?) whom he thought was the "original" Sawyer will eventually catch up with him.

Boone. I think it's safe to say he did not see his shadow. I doubt they'll follow him for the whole season, but living and pursuing a weird relationship with your stepsister beats dying from severe blood loss due to a broken leg any day. I especially liked his comment that if the plane crashed, he'd stick with Locke. You did, actually. And it got you killed.

And speaking of Locke, he's another mixed bag scenario. On island he's dead, his likeness stolen by Anti-Jacob or "Smokie" or whatever you want to call the dark force on the island. Big time shadow there. In his flashsideways he's still in a wheelchair (little shadow), but he's still alive (no shadow). Let's see, so that's one big shadow and a half mixed with a glimmer of hope. Sounds pretty bleak even in groundhog terminology. I wonder where his "alternate" life will take him? Very interesting how he's now potentially tied to Jack. Spinal surgery, anyone? Actually, it's interesting how they ALL seem to be tied together even if the crash had not occurred.

For instance, Jack and Charlie. Charlie did not get to see his shadow in his alternate reality, though from his comment to Jack, he was hoping to. I don't recall him being suicidal, but it doesn't surprise me after the confrontation with his brother which he had just come from. I wonder if they'll explore his alternate storyline any further this season. Though it would be interesting, I think it's enough to say that on the island he died a hero and if not for the crash he would have just been a doomed druggie.

Another potential alternate intertwine is Kate and Claire. Though we've only seen the beginning, I bet there's plenty more to show after Kate hijacks the cab Claire was in. I think Kate definitely saw her shadow both on and "off" the island. In her flashsideways she's still a wanted criminal so pretty crappy for now. Things aren't looking too good on the island either as she was kidnapped by the others and almost killed just before a last minute save from (presumably) yet another of Jacob's famous "lists." Remember that from the earlier seasons? Ben and the others were always consumed by Jacob's mysterious lists of names. Now things are getting (dare I say) a tad bit clearer. Jacob obviously has a foreknowledge of these people as was evidenced by last year's season finale when he popped up throughout their childhood and adult lives.

As for Claire, it's too soon to tell one way or the other. We haven't seen her on the island yet (though I suspect she's either hanging out at the temple or was somehow duped by Anti-Jacob). And in the flashsideways, we're just seeing the beginning of her what-if story, though I'm very curious to see what happens when she realizes there's no one in LA waiting to take her baby. If you recall, it was insinuated that the psychic made up the story about the adoption in order to ensure she'd be on the plane and thus raise the child on her own as he said she must.

Other people with a rude awakening when they arrived in LA were Jin and Sun. Especially Jin who surely wanted to duck back into his groundhog hidey-hole when the customs agent found his stash of money. Granted Jin was on shady "business" for Sun's father, but if you recall he actually hoped to start a new life in the US unbeknownst to his wife. That was what the cash was for and of course his constant reprimands to Sun about keeping buttoned-up and close to him was because of the man that approached him before the plane took off in Sydney who said point blank that Sun's father knew of Jin's "plan" and had people that would be watching him. I think that was revealed in season 2 or late season 1. Anyway, more on that what-if story line coming soon I'm sure.

Sayid was dangerously close to seeing his shadow on the island, but was revived at the last minute. I'm a little nervous about all that. Remember after Sayid shot little Ben and Richard warned that after being healed in the temple he would never be the same? Presumably it "turned" Ben into an other (whatever the heck that means these days). Now, ironically, Sayid is saved in the same manner. Does that mean he'll start sipping the other's Kool-Aid sometime soon?

And of course this leads me to Ben who caught a glimpse of his shadow, but didn't flinch, like the true bug-eyed groundhog that he is. He knows he was duped by Anti-Jacob, but he seems to still be trying to figure out what it all means. As we all are, Ben... as we all are. I don't know if we'll ever get to see him in a flashsideways since he was on the island as a lad at the time the bomb would have detonated so presumably his alternate life is being a corpse at the bottom of the ocean.

* * *

I think that covers it. I'm really digging this last season's mode of story telling and surely it will stick around for the remainder of the season. They've just shown the tip of the what-if icebergs and I'm ready to see what lies beneath. I stick with my original theory that we'll see how some (if not all) of their lives are worse off had they not crashed. So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying how some are already closely tied together even in their what-if lives.

Flashsideways Predictions:

Jack performs an unsuccessful surgery on Locke and sprials into a drunken downslide.
Locke commits suicide again* after the failed surgery (though I hope they redeem his character at least in reality "B" because he did kind of chump-out in reality "A").
Sawyer tries to con Hurley out of money and winds up in jail for the death of that dude he shot in Sydney.
Hurley winds up broke and crazy again.
Jin is arrested while Sun files for divorce and returns home in shame.
Kate and Claire team up, Thelma and Louise style (minus the double suicide ending).
Sayid finds Nadia, marries her, and opens a mom & pop ice cream parlor. (Hey, it can't be ALL doom and gloom had the plane not crashed... right?)

But enough about me, what about you?

*NOTE: This would be especially fitting as it would be the third time that we learn of Locke's death.

S5E16/17 - The Incident

2009-05-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

First, I'd like to thank my unborn child for remaining unborn and making this recap possible.

Okay, so where to begin? I suppose when it doubt, begin in the beginning.

(LOST 5: 1-5)
IN THE BEGINNING... there was Jacob. And some dude sat with Jacob.
The dude obviously hated Jacob and wanted to kill him, but couldn't for some reason.
And Jacob said, "Let's have some fish," and there was fish.
Jacob cut the fish and saw it was good, and he separated the light meat from the dark meat.
And the Black Rock moved upon the face of the waters.

Jacob's conversation with his... er.... "nemesis" was the most revealing yet confusing. Anti-Jacob wants to kill Jacob, but can't. Anti-Jacob suggests Jacob brought the Black Rock to the island, adding that no matter who comes the same thing happens over and over, but he will find a loophole so he can kill Jacob.

Dare I even speculate what all this means? I will only say that their relationship seems akin to Ben and Widmore where the two men detest each other, yet Ben himself commented how he could not kill Widmore because that was "against the rules."

(LOST 5: 6-8)
AND KATE SAID, "Let there be an expanse of water to separate the LOSTies from the LOSTies."
So Kate hopped the sub and convinced Juliet to move from the waters below to the island above. And Sawyer protested, but Juliet insisted. And it was so.
Kate called it, "Saving innocent people," and Sawyer called it, "Acting a fool."

So, Kate pseudo-convinces Sawyer and Juliet to tag along back to the island to prevent Jack from detonating the bomb. Good luck with that.

In the meantime, Jacob visits little Katie in the past and pays for a lunchbox she stole, telling her not to steal again. Not only that, but throughout the episode, Jacob pops up in all of the LOSTies lives in a very benevolent-but-non-intrusive kind of way. Gives Sawyer condolences and a pen. Asks Sayid for directions, allowing/observing Nadia get hit by a car. Revives Locke after his eight-story fall and tells him everything is going to be okay. Gives Jack a candy bar. Offers Hurley a cab ride, a guitar, and a sympathetic ear. Asks Ilana to help him while she's recuperating in the hospital (more on that next season, I assume?)

(LOST 5: 9-13)
AND ILANA SAID, "Let me and my shadow gang gather in one place." And it was so.
And Ilana called Frank a "candidate." And Frank wondered if it was good.
Then Ilana said, "Let us visit Jacob in his shack," but the shack was empty so she said, "Burn it." And they did burn it.
And they traveled to the statue. And Ilana asked Richard, who is called Ricardos, "What lies in the shadow of the statue?"
And he answered in Latin. And his answer was good.

I found two varying translations of his answer, one was, "He who will save us all," and another was, "That which must be protected." Regardless of the translation, I think a better answer would have been, "Fruit of the loom." Seriously, what an odd hobby for Jacob to pass the time. Tapestry making.

(LOST 5: 14-19)
AND JACK SAID, "Let us take the bomb to the Swan station that we might detonate it and erase our experience of the past seasons and days and years."
And Sayid became an expert physicist in only a few short minutes thanks to Faraday's journal titled: Nuclear Engineering For Dummies.
And lo did Richard make a hole in the wall, which lead to Dharmaville.
And Sayid said, "Let us hide in plain sight." So they donned Dharma uniforms and tried to sneak away.
But they were discovered. A shootout commenced and Jack killed many.
Though a mortal wound did Sayid suffer.

Or did he? It was looking pretty bleak for Sayid by the end of the episode, but who knows what repercussions the bomb will have on them. I'm specifically hoping it is able to save Juliet. Seriously, that was painful to watch. Physical and emotional. Her parting with Sawyer was tender and tragic and then, severely wounded, she still has the energy to bash the bomb over and over with a rock, pleading for it to detonate.

My theory is that they CANNOT prevent their past (the future) from happening. The Whatever Happened Happened rule is intact. So if by some action on their part, they alter something, they will essentially be "thrown out" of the past because a new time line cannot be created. I'm just grasping at straws, really, but I desperately want the last season to be set in the present and for everyone to be reunited.

Sidenote, did anyone notice that Dr. Chang's hand was crushed? Remember in the Dharma training videos how Dr. Chang has a prosthetic hand and refers to himself as Marvin Candle? Well, I can't account for the name-change, but looks like we discovered how he lost his hand!

(LOST 5: 20-23)
AND LOCKE SAID UNTO BEN, "Kill Jacob."
And Ben said, "Whaaa?"
So it came to pass that Locke planted seeds of anger in Ben's head. And the seeds fell on fertile ground.
And Jacob said unto Ben, "You have a choice." And lo did Ben make his choice and take Jacob's life.

Jacob seems very... I don't know... almost God-like or perhaps angelic is a better term. It's just the whole benevolent bystander thing. Like he isn't allowed to be directly involved with the LOSTies (either by causing or preventing bad things in their past), but he seems genuinely sympathetic and not to mention gave Hurley and Ben a big speech about free will. I don't know... just an observation.

(LOST 5: 24-26)
AND SAWYER ASKED, "What is this place we have come to?" And Vincent answered, "RUFF!"
So it came to pass that we saw the fate of Rose and Bernard, retired to a love shack for the past three years.
And they ruled over the fish of the sea and birds of the air, over the livestock, and over a leftover can of Dharma food here and there.

Yay Rose and Bernard! With all of their talk about being together was all that mattered, I wonder if their bodies are the ones that Jack discovered in the cave in Season One. Though them joining forces with or being brainwashed by the Others would have been a crazy twist, I'm happy that they're happy. Rose rules.

(LOST 5: 27-31)
SO IT CAME TO PASS that Ilana opened the crate in the presence of Richard and lo did it contain the dead body of John Locke.
So Anti-Jacob created himself in Locke's own image, in the image of Locke he created himself to decieve all.
And Jacob said unto Anti-Jacob, "So I guess you found your loophole." And lo was his final words, "They're coming."
Anti-Jacob rolled Jacob into the fire and saw all that he wrought, and it was very good.
And they all rested... until season six.

So the big reveal. LOCKE IS STILL DEAD! Funny how a dead person remaining dead is a surprise twist. Apparently Anti-Jacob has disguised himself as Locke somehow, just like the island is able to assume the form of any dead person. Which brings up the question, is that what all of the "hallucinations" of people have been up to this point? Anti-Jacob trying to trick them? Can Jacob perform this "trick" as well? There are far too many examples to list where a dead person or Walt has appeared to people so it's difficult to sort them all out and the potential motivations behind them. But the short story seems to be that EVERYONE has been a pawn in this cat and mouse game between Jacob and his nemesis. The details of which, I'm assuming we'll discover next year.

Will Sayid die?
Will Juliet die?
Will the bomb somehow bring the LOSTies back to the present?
Who is Anti-Jacob?
Who are the Shadow people?
How does Widmore factor in to any of this?

Plenty of other questions, but those are the biggest I have after the finale.

Thoughts? Observations?

Season Six can't come soon enough.

S5E15 - Follow The Leader

2009-05-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well, gee. This episode didn’t do much for me. Perhaps because there was such great potential with the promise of a Richard flashback, and we didn’t learn jack squat from him.

Since Jack seems to be back on his “fixing” things kick, he’s bound and determined to carry out Faraday’s plan. To do that, he may have to wade through some of the recently deceased’s physics journal. Not exactly a light read. So, in an effort to help Jack, I will distill this episode into a collection of simple equations.

(Daniel / Richard) = (Eloise – Daniel) = Bummer
That’s right Ellie, you kilt yo baby.

(Jack + Kate) = (Eloise / Widmore) = Drama
Ellie and Charles don’t agree on what to do with Jack and Kate. The one thing I don’t know is whether or not Ellie has given birth to Daniel yet in 1977. If not, I guess she will soon enough.

(Jack + Eloise) = (Jack / Kate) = Squabble
Once Jack convinces Ellie to lead them to the bomb, Kate is dead set against it. Can’t say that I blame her. I mean seriously, what does he think will happen when he does that? And what’s supposed to happen to them if he is successful in preventing their plane crash? Arghh—TIME TRAVEL! Must you suck so?

(Radzinsky + Phil) / Sawyer = Beat Down
Meanwhile in the present, Sawyer finally offers to tell the Dharma folks what they want to know about the Others if he and Juliet are allowed to leave on the sub.

The Others * (Locke + Ben + Sun) = Boar
Always nice for the new president to treat everyone to dinner after a corporate take over. Richard is surprised to see Locke after his three-year absence. There doesn’t seem to be a new leader so I suppose either Jacob or the Island never called for a replacement. It begs the question of exactly what they’ve been doing since Locke disappeared. Seems to me like they’ve just been waiting around for him to return, so why should Richard be surprised?

(Locke + Richard + Ben) = The Three Stooges
I kept wondering aloud how Locke knew this was the time he jumped to when he was shot and Richard saved him. His answer? The Island told him. Well great news. But then (and I’m speaking directly to Locke when I ask this), why doesn’t the Island tell you where Jacob is so you can go find him, yourself? Seems like the Island isn’t always on the up and up with you. Lovers quarrel? It must be awkward trying to rebuild your relationship after three years of being apart. I think you guys should take it slow in the beginning rather than trying to pick up where you left off. I mean, you did die and come back to life. You’re a different person now and quite frankly, maybe the Island has moved on and gotten to know other Islands while you were gone. You can’t expect it to wait on you forever, you know.

(Jin + Miles + Hurley) / Chang = Comedy
Pretty funny when Chang confronts them about being from the future and Hurley fails miserably. Miles observes Chang ordering his wife off the island and realizes it was the only way he could make her leave. So, Chang isn’t a d-bag after all.

((Jack + Kate) + (Eloise + Richard + Other Dude)) / Sayid = (Jack – Kate) + ((Eloise / Richard) – Other Dude) = Sayonara Kate = RIP Other Dude
Richard is none too happy that Ellie is going along with Jack’s crazy idea, especially after Sayid kills one of their own. Sayid is all in for fixing the past/future while Kate has had enough.

((Jack + Sayid) + (Eloise + Richard)) * Bomb = ??
I believe Ellie summed it up best when they finally made it to the bomb. “Now what?” If the Whatever Happened Happened principle still holds true, Jack won’t be successful. And I hope he isn’t, for my sanity’s sake.

(Locke + The Others) = (Locke / Jacob) = Fieldtrip
So Locke rallies the troupes, so to speak, and says they’re all going to visit the mysterious Jacob to get some answers. Meanwhile, Sun asks if Jacob can tell them how to bring everyone back to the present and he says yes. Then, come to find out he has no intention of being reunited with the LOSTies and in fact plans on killing Jacob. Well now… Don’t get me wrong, I’m digging Locke’s rediscovered backbone, however, he seems to be playing an awful lot of Ben-like games now that he’s “in direct contact” with the Island.

Next week is the finale and it promises to be good if we discover nothing more than who/what Jacob is.

S5E14 - The Variable

2009-04-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

While May 10th marks Mother’s Day this year, this episode begs to celebrate it a touch early. That, plus our second child is due the day after Mother’s Day with the finale coming two days after that and quite frankly, I’m thinking number two will be making its appearance before this season is over and I can’t have such a good theme go to waste…

FINALLY! Someone on this show with mommy issues instead of daddy issues. And boy howdy does he have a bad case.

Exhibit A:
ELOISE: “Hi Danny, it looks like you’re really enjoying the piano.”
DANIEL: “Oh yes, Mother, it’s ever so fun.”
ELOISE: “Well STOP IT!”
DANIEL: “But Mother…”
ELOISE: “No! Go do some math problems.”

Doesn’t Eloise know that math and music are closely related? Geez, give the kid a break. To her “credit” you can see the pain in her eyes. Who knows, he could have been a world renowned concert pianist or at the very least a popular wedding singer on the weekends. Alas, we’ll never know.

Meanwhile on the island, crazy Faraday tries to warn Chang that they’re all gonna blow sky-high in 6 hours. Oh, and admits he’s from the future and introduces him to his son. Smooth move, dimwit.

Exhibit B:
ELOISE: “About time you graduated.”
DANIEL: “Mom, this is Theresa.”
ELOISE: “Yeah yeah… let’s eat lunch.”
DANIEL: “Table for three?”
ELOISE: “Fat chance. The hussy stays behind.”

So, we see Daniel’s assistant, Theresa, in a non-coma state. Since Eloise has been known to time travel herself (as evidenced from her warning to Desmond back in season 3) perhaps she knew of Theresa’s fate so was trying to do Daniel a favor to spare him the pain of the accident that would put her in a vegetative state and make him an official denizen of Crazytown. Either that, or she was just being a B!TCH.

Exhibit C:
ELOISE: “No matter what, remember I will always love you.”

The inscription she wrote in his journal was poignant considering she knew she was/would be responsible for his death. She must have run out of ink before she could add: “P.S. For instance, like if I shoot you or something.”

Meanwhile, Sawyer introduces Jack to the bound and gagged Phil, “Jack, Phil. Phil, Jack” then has a group meeting with the other LOSTies to decide what to do next. A) Leave on the sub? B) Start over at the beach? Faraday comes in and offers a third option. C) Help me find my mommy?

Exhibit D:
ELOISE: “Hey, I know I’ve pushed and pushed you for years into this career path that is ultimately responsible for making you crazy, and I’ve been thinking recently, why stop there?”
DANIEL: “What? Huh? I’m crazy.”
ELOISE: “Yes, Dear, we’ve covered that. Completely my fault. So, you should take your dad—uh—Mr. Widmore up on his offer.”
DANIEL: “Will it make you proud?”
ELOISE: “Sure. Why not?”

You could almost believe she wanted him to go to the island so that he would be healed. Alas… not so much.

Meanwhile Jack and Kate manage to survive a gunfight and smuggle Faraday out to the others only to discover his plan is to blow up the Swan station with the H-Bomb he asked them to bury. So, what? Faraday is off his Whatever Happened Happened kick? There would be some serious Back-To-The-Future-Disappearing-Marty-McFly action going on if he, or anyone for that matter, were to prevent the hatch from being built. If the “energy” is eliminated, then there is no button to push, then Oceanic 316 lands safely in Los Angeles, then none of them would ever be on the island, meaning they wouldn’t be there “now”. I like my TV and all, but I have no problems throwing a brick at it if they cause a paradox. Oh geez, what if that’s what “the incident” is that messes up the island baby-wise?

Exhibit E:
ELOISE: “What up, Charles?”
CHARLES: “Nothin’. Just chillin’ like a villain. Checkin’ on my son-in-law.”
ELOISE: “He’s fine. Can’t say the same for your biological son, though.”
CHARLES: “Yeah, bummer about that.”
ELOISE: “I know. They grow up so fast.”
CHARLES: “Don’t they?”
ELOISE: “Then they travel back in time.”
CHARLES: “Yeah.”
ELOISE: “Then you shoot them.”
CHARLES: “Kids, right? God love ‘em.”

Okay, so maybe MAYBE Eloise was a little more conflicted about sending Daniel back than that. But still… SHE SENT HIM BACK! Knowing what she knows it begs the question... did him being killed serve some higher purpose or did she just believe “it was his destiny”? At the very least, Daniel deserves a refund on all the Mother’s Day Hallmark cards he wasted on that woman. And of course there is the big reveal that Widmore is Daniel’s father (called it!). Of course we still don’t know who Penny’s mother is, but I’m assuming not Eloise since Ben accused Charles of having a child with an off-islander a few episodes ago. Who knows when anything happened, though, with the gaps in flashbacks. I’m sure the holes will be filled soon enough.

All and all an okay episode. Sad that Daniel is no longer with us, though.

DANIEL FARADAY
R.I.P.
Born 1978
Died 1977
“Time Travel Sucks”

S5E13 - Some Like It Hoth

2009-04-16T07:44:00.000-07:00

Well, tax season has come and gone (unless you're filing for an extension and seriously... who does that?) So, let's all breathe a collective sigh of relief as we wait for our check or auto-deposit to roll in (or shed a collective tear if you owe). This is the first year my wife and I have EVER owed and frankly, I don't want to talk about it.

What I do want to talk about is LOST. And a tax theme seems as good as any...

W-2
Talk about someone avoiding the IRS. I wonder exactly what Miles would enter as his occupation and primary form of income: "Spiritual Communication Liaison." The work seems to be sporadic, but pays well.

In the opening we see Miles' mother and it is confirmed that "Mr. Chang" is not in the picture. Ahhh... sweet sweet workahol. I wonder if that's why Mrs. Chang ultimately decided to move away, Pierre Chang (aka Marvin Candle) was too dedicated to his work and not his family. Or was it something more sinister? Either way, I thought it was funny how Hurley mentioned the whole Marvin Candle thing (what Chang calls himself in the Dharma orientation videos). I wonder if that will ever be explained or if it's just some silly mini-mystery we'll never know. I say as long as Hurley is the one poking fun at it, I could care less.

1099-MISC
He'll have to claim Widmore's offer of $1.6 million under miscellaneous income. And what a fat paycheck it is. Definitely enough to make him rethink "tracking down a serial killer" after Naomi explained why Widmore wants him. He and Hurley had such great lines in this episode. One of my favorites being early on when Miles tries to explain to Radzinsky why he's there rather than LaFleur. "Uh, I'm in the circle of trust." Not to mention Hurley trying to convince Miles and Chang to get together for beers.

If Miles and Hurley have a LOST spinoff, I'd watch it. I imagine it as a kind of "Lavern And Shirley" meets "The Odd Couple" meets "The Ghost Whisperer" (I'm talking TV goldmine here, people).

1099-G
You have to claim unemployment compensation on your 1099-G and Kate and Sawyer may well be on their way to just that. They've dug themselves into quite a hole, Sawyer especially after knocking out short security dude. What I also liked about that whole sideplot was Jack smoothing things over with Roger, giving Sawyer the heads up, and leaving it at that. Man, you can really tell he's loving not being "the leader" anymore. Just kind of coasting. Like he made it to the island and now he's in vacation mode. It won't be long until we see him lounging in the quad on a hammock sporting a pair of shades and a sunscreened nose. Heck, maybe he'll even rally together a game of volleyball, Dharma vs Hostiles, across the sonic fence.

1099-DIV
Ah, dividend income. Of course no one is playing the stock market in this episode, though Hurley is certainly hoping to cash in on his knowledge of the future in a pretty hilarious way. A revamped version of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. In yet more hilarious Hurley/Miles banter, Hurley reveals that he talks to dead people too, but when Miles says, "It doesn't work that way," Hurley says, "You're just jealous that my super power is better than yours." Good stuff.

1099-S
Though nobody sold their home in this episode, they were certainly building one, though they likely did not expect it to be used as a permanent residence. That's right, the hatch. With time travel, the possibilities of changing your future are limitless. In this episode alone, Miles could have offed himself as a baby at any point, though of course according to Daniel, that's impossible. I like how Hurley encourages Miles, "Don't you want to hold the mini-you or change your own diaper?" Ha!

Anyway, what Hurley said about the hatch strikes another chord. It's what caused the original Oceanic flight to crash. He could prevent himself from ever coming to the island to begin with by sabotaging construction of the hatch. Of course, once again, Whatever Happened Happened so we know he "can't" do that, but still the temptation must be pretty strong. Sidebar, I'm still looking forward to a Hurley episode and his reasons for returning.

1099-INT
Income from interest. I've got your interest right here. Interest in what Faraday has been up to for the past three years. Even though my initial thought that he defected to the others looks to be incorrect based on him popping out of the sub at the end in full Dharma drag, I'm guessing we'll get to see the details in the next episode!

My other big interest is the folks that grabbed Miles after he accepted Widmore's offer. They asked if he wanted to know "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" Can't help but see the big tie in to what Ilana said in the last episode. Sumpin's goin' on to say da least. At first, I thought maybe Widmore had somehow smuggled Ilana on board Ajira and that's how she knew about the weapons trunk and was so organized or whatever, but these people were clearly not with Widmore and once again mentioned "the war" that's coming. I got a total creepy cult vibe from the dialogue in that scene, too. Anyway, interesting development there.

CHARITABLE DEDUCTIONS
One donation Miles made was towards the end when he gave that random dad his money back. So Miles has a soft spot after all. Well, soft but with an edge. "If you wanted your son to know you loved him, you should have told him while he was alive." Ouch. Daddy issues, anyone? Actually, can you think of ANY character in this show that doesn't have issues with their father?

Jack's Dad? Alcoholic/Adulterer/Dead-ish.
Claire's Dad? (see above).
Jin's Dad? A common fisherman who he has disowned out of shame.
Sun's Dad? A mobster for all intents and purposes.
Kate's Dad? Abuser/Potential molester/Killed by Kate, herself.
Sawyer's Dad? Killed Sawyer's mom when he discovered she'd been seduced and swindled by another man/Killed himself.
Locke's Dad? Con artist/Attempted to kill Locke/Killed by Sawyer thanks to manipulation from Locke, himself.
Ben's Dad? Drunk/Abusive/Gassed to death by Ben, himself.
Sayid's Dad? Forced his kids to kill chickens, which actually constitutes the most functional father-child relationship I can think of, though Sayid wound up torturing people for a living so you gotta wonder...

YOUR FEDERAL RETURN
(-$1,491)

ABILITY TO TALK TO DEAD PEOPLE
($1,000 – $1,600,000) a pop

TIME BONDING WITH YOUR DEAD FATHER IN THE PAST
(Priceless)

After all of this I'm left with one question... what would Miles and Hurley's spinoff be called?

S5E12 - Dead Is Dead

2009-04-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

Easter is this weekend and goes right along with this episode seeing as there's enough talk of resurrection to fill an entire Sunday sermon. However, I touched on that for my Lent-themed recap so I'm going a different direction for this one...

Easter Eggs! Step aside, Jesus, here comes commercialism!

So, what did the main characters in this episode get in their Easter baskets this year?

Little Ben
*New lease on life*
From: Richard
He gets a brief how-do-you-do from leader Widmore after he wakes up. Not much in way of a welcoming committee considering Widmore would have let him die, but he seems to have changed his mind when Richard reminds him of what Jacob/the Island wants.

Medium Ben
*Brand new baby*
From: Danielle
Interesting twist on how Alex was taken. Turns out he was sent to kill Danielle instead. And he had sympathy for her! Definitely a new, moral, side of Ben we've never seen. I also found it interesting that he warned her to run away from the whispers. Again, he knows a lot about what's happening on the island, but we don't get to see. Let us in, Ben. Let us in. By the way, they did a pretty good job of making him look younger, don’t you think? You'd almost think his voice was cracking. Oh, and was that Ethan with him? Interesting considering Ben's involvement with the others was kind of an accident to begin with.

Big Ben
*Small shotgun*
From: Caesar
Whoa, didn't see that coming. And here I was thinking Caesar was going to be a new, albeit minor, character. Not so much.

*Special hug*
From: Alex
Well, the monster didn't kill him, but it did deliver an ominous message in the end as Alex. "I know you're planning on killing Locke (again). And if you do, I will hunt you down and destroy you." Alrighty... clear enough. On top of that, she demands that he swears allegiance to Locke. Shazam!

Locke
*New pair of balls*
From: The Island
Not to be crude, but I think we can all agree that Locke spent a lot of Season One being a badass and Season Two through Four whining about answers and following Ben like a lost puppy. Have you ever seen the movie "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"? Me either... but I imagine if Stella was a white man in her late 50s on a crazy island, the movie would go a little something like last night's episode.

Sun
*Hope*
From: Christian
Though unfortunately, said "hope" is packaged in the form of a dead man. I wonder what she and Frank initially thought when Christian told them to sit tight and wait for John? Apparently they didn't have too much of a problem with it seeing as they were settling in for the long haul. One unspoken awkward moment for me was when John said to her how him being alive again was strange for him too, then added, "But don't worry, because I assure you I'm the same man you've always known." I'm sure she was thinking, "That's actually the part that worries me."

*A little truth*
From: Ben
The one true thing I think Ben said in the entire episode was in his brief conversation with Sun. "I've seen the island do a lot of miraculous things, but nothing like this. The fact that John Locke is alive and walking around scares the living hell out of me."

Frank
*A statue*
From: Ilana
So he can find out what exactly lies in its shadow. SERIOUSLY. What the hell was that about? He leaves for one day, maybe two, and suddenly the Ajira survivors are organized, armed, have secret pass phrases, are going places, and taking hostages...? What?

Widmore
*A one way ticket off the Island*
From: Ben
A lot of subtle reveals in their conversation. Once again, there is mention of "breaking the rules." One of which is frequently leaving the island, and another is having a child with an off-islander. To the first I will say this. We know from either Season 3 or 4 that Ben was going off the island quite regularly judging from his secret stash of fake passports and foreign currency. If that's a no-no, then Ben supposedly broke that rule plenty of times once he was in charge. Second, the fact that Charles had a child with someone other than an other seems to blow my theory that he shacked up with Ellie. I wonder if the same thing happened to her. She got knocked up by some off-islander and had Daniel, only to be banished, herself.

The more we learn of the others, the more they just seem like a kooky cult. They have say in who you can and can't be involved with (last night with Widmore), they collect dead bodies (Amy's first husband), they hang out in a super secret temple (with some other super secret temple buried beneath it), they participate in public trials and brand people (remember what they did to Juliet?), they answer to a chosen leader (who answers to Richard (who answers to Jacob (who answers to the Island))). Shall I go on?

Kooky.

Anyway, good episode. Looks like we might get an unexpected Miles episode next? That could be interesting.

S5E11 - Whatever Happened Happened

2009-04-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

It’s a very special April Fools Day episode of LOST.

Young Ben is dead! Behold, the paradox is upon us!
APRIL FOOLS!
Ben isn’t dead. He can’t be. We know this. Though he isn’t exactly doing cartwheels either.

The confusion and potential pitfalls of time travel couldn’t have been better exemplified in the conversation between Miles and Hurley. I actually get everything that Miles was saying, as headachey as it all is. This is Ben’s past so he CAN’T die because we know he’s alive as an adult, but everyone else is experiencing it as their present so they can kick the bucket, no problem. The one thing Hurley did address that is a problem though, why doesn’t adult Ben remember meeting these people? Though kind of hokey, Richard actually hints at a potential explanation. More on that later.

Sawyer asked Kate to pull his finger before jumping out of the helicopter.
APRIL FOOLS!
He asked her to check up on his daughter Clementine once she was rescued. Yeah, we kind of all knew that, right?

No offense if you or someone you love is named Clementine, but geez… why would a parent do that to their child? The thing they left out, which I thought was a pretty significant realization, was Kate’s reaction once she found out that she had known Cassidy briefly before coming to the island. No big deal, but you’d think she’d at least be like, “Wow, small world” or something. Anyway, Cassidy smells her lie about being Aaron’s mom a mile away. I guess one develops a refined BS detector after shacking up with a con only to become one yourself.

All is well in Dharmaville and no one suspects any treason.
APRIL FOOLS!
There’s plenty of suspicion to go around, starting with all the new people.

Horace immediately jumps on the idea that busting out Sayid was an inside job. This is only supported by the open jail cell and “janitor keys” left behind. Sawyer immediately tells Miles to round up Jack, Kate, and Hurley to keep on eye on them.

Juliet is here to save the day!
APRIL FOOLS!
There’s a big difference between delivering a baby and suturing a bullet wound.

Juliet tells Sawyer she can’t fix it, only a real surgeon can. If only we knew one…

Jack is a lowly janitor.
APRIL FOOLS!
He’s a spinal surgeon.

We all know this, but no one else does. Talk about blowing your cover. There’s another good reason to not volunteer to save wee-Ben. Anyway, Jack is very on board with the whatever happened happened idea so believes Ben won’t/can’t die or just doesn’t care. That’s cold Jack. Cold. Kate decides she can’t just sit by and do nothing so volunteers to donate her blood.

SIDEBAR: I’ve tried to donate blood twice and nearly passed out twice. I have no problem with needles, but what I do have is veins the size of Texas and the ability to bleed out at twice the rate of a normal human being. A bit of a shock to the body to say the least.

The blood donation worked. Ben is stabilized. He grows up to be a very well-adjusted adult and everyone lives happily ever after.
APRIL FOOLS!
Only the others can save him. BUT AT WHAT PRICE?

Kate suggests that the others may be able to help. Juliet offers to come, but Kate says no, she’s got her life with Sawyer, blah, blah, blah. Actually, I thought this was very grown-up of her and I’m glad that they’re making her into something other than “the other woman.” She genuinely seems to wish them well and just wants to do what’s right.

Aaron was kidnapped in the grocery store.
APRIL FOOLS!
Kate’s just an inattentive mom.

Knock on wood. Don’t want to jinx myself, there. I can totally see my daughter haulin’ off in public one day and I have to make the walk of shame to the front after they announce the “lost child” over the intercom. Whatever happened to those elastic toddler leashes? They never really caught on, did they? That and Bird Flu. No one talks about that anymore either, but I’m sure it’s still around.

Sawyer rushed to help Kate because he’s still in love with her.
APRIL FOOLS!
He did it for Juliet.

Again, I’m happy to see the clean break with the Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet love rectangle. Sawyer says he’s done a lot of growing up in the last three years and it shows. I really hope they keep him paired up with Juliet. They seem good together, though I’d still like to see how their initial three more weeks turned into three years.

“What’s up, Claire’s mom? Meet my son, Aaron.”
APRIL FOOLS!
“He’s your grandson.”

So we finally find out Kate’s real motivation for going back to the island and I must say, I’m impressed. Though I assumed it was because someone took Aaron and threatened horrible things unless she went back, it turns out to be a much more mature and altruistic reason. She has finally come to realize some of her motivation for claiming Aaron as her own was selfish and now she is determined to go back and find out what happened to Claire, his real mother. If I’m not careful, I might actually start to like Kate this season.

Richard agrees to heal Ben, free of charge.
APRIL FOOLS!
It will cost him HIS INNOCENCE. Mwa-hah-haaaah…

So, not only will he lose his innocence (which would certainly explain a lot of his actions as an adult), but Richard also mentioned he would lose all memory of this happening. I wonder if this is the reason why he doesn’t seem to remember the LOSTies as an adult. The temple’s “healing process” works some major voodoo on you, not only in a brainwashing sense, but also in the amnesia department. Like I said, a little hokey, but at least it may explain his lack of recollection.

The one other interesting thing that Richard said was in his interaction with one of the others who asked if he should consult with Ellie or Charles, to which he replied, “I don’t answer to either of them.” Apparently Charles is now leader of the others in 1977. It’s been about 20ish years since we saw him as a sixteen year old in the 1950s so that’s feasible. Also, if you remember, Ellie was the girl that took Faraday to defuse the bomb. So maybe Charles and Ellie are co-captains of the others crew. Perhaps more than just partners? What do we know of Penny’s mom? Nothing that I can recall. My prediction is that Ellie is Penny’s mom and something tragic happens to her later. Anyway, Richard’s comment that he doesn’t answer to them reinforces the weird hierarchy that we’ve known of all along. There are “the others”, but then there is Richard who seems to be among them, but not of them. Again, I’m sure the whole Jacob/Christian/Richard/(Charles/Ben/Locke) leadership hierarchy will be fleshed out at some point. For now, we’ll chalk that up on the to-be-answered side.

Adult Ben killed Locke.
APRIL FOOLS!
Locke is alive and well. Look out, Ben.

I liked the end. Definitely sets up a potential Ben-centric episode next. And if his expression was any indication, he did NOT expect Locke to be magically healed by the island. That and he probably crapped himself.

S5E10 - He's Our You

2009-03-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Don't drive too fast or you'll miss the sign. What sign, you ask? The sign that says:

"Welcome to Paradox Town"
Population: 0
Main Export: Craziness
Town Motto: "Whatever Happened Schmappened"
Sister City: Dharmaville

Egads! Definitely didn't see that coming. I knew that Sayid wasn't going to take Ben with him, simply because we know from Season 3 that Ben is supposed to remain with the Dharma Initiative well into his young adult life when he allows the Hostiles to infiltrate the barracks while he carts his dad up to a secluded part of the jungle and gasses him too.

The obvious question of course, does all of that still "happen" if young Ben truly is dead? Unless they're going to toss Faraday's blathering about the rules out the window, then young Ben's body is going to have to be discovered and resuscitated by the Dharma folks or the Island, itself, will have to "bring him back" just like it did Locke and presumably Jack's dad.

Whatever happened happened... unless you're Desmond because a different set of rules apply to him... oh yeah, and if you want to kill someone who is supposed to be alive in the future, then a third set of rules factor in... or if you wanted to travel to the day you were born and shoot yourself between the eyes, just for kicks, we've got you covered because then there's a FOURTH set of rules that absolutely CANNOT be broken... we're serious... unless you buy us a pizza... then we'll let you assassinate just about anybody you want.

What I'm really hoping is that young Ben will either naturally or miraculously survive the gunshot, because if he doesn't, in the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo, "You have some splain'in to do, Lucy."

Sorry for the long intro before the recap, but I just had to get that off my chest. I'll try to keep the rest short and sweet. Like the Sweet 16 of March Madness... (how's THAT for a transition?):

Here are the brackets.

ROUND 1:
Sawyer vs Sayid
This round goes to Sayid, hands down. He's not interested in the trumped up story that Sawyer has to offer and he ain't budgin'.

Adult Ben vs Widmore
Ben wins this one. Presumably the Russian was the last of Widmore's people that he wanted Sayid to kill and he's done with him, just like that.

Kate vs Jack
Jack knew about Sawyer and Juliet's relationship, but didn't share it with Kate. Big deal. She's supposedly over him anyway, right? Jack wins by unfair advantage.

ROUND 2:
Hurley vs Jack
But then Jack is immediately wiped out by Hurley in round two with Hurley's hilarious comment "They live together like not as roommates," followed by "I could totally see that coming."

Roger Linus (Ben's Dad) vs Sayid
I have to give this one to Sayid.
Roger: "You guys are supposed to be kings of the jungle and you got caught by these Dharma idiots?"
Sayid: "Yet you're the one mopping their floors."
BOOYAH!

Roger vs Young Ben
Roger then turns his anger towards an easier target, his own son. Victory for Roger, but a hollow one. I forgot how much Ben hated him.

ROUND 3:
Adult Ben vs Sayid
Ben tracks Sayid down and tries to convince him that Locke was murdered by Widmore's people in "retribution" for their past actions and that Hurley may be next if he does not "intervene." Sayid won't take the bait, but as we know he does actually bust Hurley out of the psych ward shortly after this, so we'll call it a draw.

Sawyer vs Sayid
Round three rematch between Sawyer and Sayid goes to Sawyer, but only because he was armed with a taser.

Oldham (Dharma torture guy) vs Sayid
Sayid finally eeks out a win this round. However, only on a technicality. For all intents and purposes, Oldham got the information he needed, it was just too crazy to be believed.

ROUND 4:
Kate vs Juliet
Not nearly the cat fight that the deviously edited preview had me believe. Strained civility, more like. Juliet is friendly, but still able to work the phrase "stay away" into conversation to make her point. Clever girl. Juliet wins. (Note: Juliet not only wins the conversation, but would have also won had it been a wrestling match, a spelling bee, or a best-hair competition.)

Everyone vs Sawyer
Sorry, Sawyer. You were outvoted. Sayid's goin' down.

Sayid vs Ilana
Sorry, Sayid. You were outsmarted. Nice boots, Ilana.

ROUND 5:
Sawyer vs Sayid
Final showdown between the two goes to Sayid who turns down Sawyer's offer of escape, saying he's there for a reason.

Sawyer vs Kate
Sawyer asks Kate about her own reasons for returning, but mum's the word. You win for now, Kate, but I'm sure we'll see your reasons soon enough, just as we saw Sayid's.

Sayid vs Jin
I wonder if Jin was really going to warn Sawyer over the radio or not. Either way, Sayid wins again.

FINAL ROUND:
Sayid vs Young Ben
We all know the outcome of this. Young Ben loses after a potentially fatal gunshot wound to the chest... or does he? For now, we are unsure of his fate. If he survives, the victory goes to him and Sayid loses. If he dies, EVERYONE loses because that, my friends, is a paradox. And when it comes to F-ing with time like that... nobody is a winner.

S5E9 - Namaste

2009-03-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Belated St. Patrick’s Day…

If four-leaf clovers were turned into a rating system against which to measure episodes, I’d give this one two leaves. I don’t know, just kind of ho-hum, don’t you think?

Unfortunately, the only Irish-American actor in the cast, Terry O’Quinn (born Terrance Quinn), is not featured in this episode so I will have to assign an Irish alter-ego for the other characters…

Jack McShephard
If the island has a “reason” why everyone had to return, it has yet to show its hand. I feel like Jack, Kate, and Hurley were just dumped in the past and there’s a sense of, “Okay, now what?” Jack, of course, hopped on board the destiny train presumably to “protect” everyone, so must feel pretty out of sorts now that he’s back to see that everyone’s fine and dandy. Oh, and he’s now a janitor with a degree in spinal surgery. That probably sucks too.

Caitlin Austen
I thought for a moment that Juliet intentionally left Kate off the sub’s manifest. Who knows, she could have seriously considered it. Definitely potential for tension there. Kate must feel out of sorts too, but it seems like her main focus is to get Aaron back (if, presumably, that is why she decided to return).

Hugo “O’Hurley” Reyes
Same thing with Hurley. I feel like he and Kate, especially, are in a holding pattern motivation-wise until we find out why they decided to come back.

James Ford
(known to some LOSTies as “Sawyer”)
(known to the Dharma Initiative as “LaFleur”)
(known to his Irish mother as “Jimmy Flanagan”)
Sawyer had to think quick on his feet to slip his three friends in unnoticed. I thought it was especially harsh what he said to Jack about how when Jack was in charge a lot of people died. Anyway, I don’t blame Jack for showing up at his house with questions. Traveling back in time and living with the Dharma Initiative for three years definitely warrants at least a catch up chat. One of the most interesting things he mentioned in this episode was how Faraday was no longer with them. I’m looking forward to seeing what happened to him.

Sayid Fitzpatrick Jarrah
Unfortunately, Sawyer’s quick thinking couldn’t quite save Sayid, though he’s at least safe for now. I’m also assuming Sayid has figured out by now that they’re in the past, especially after meeting young Ben, which was perhaps the only surprise of the episode and one I kind of figured would come at some point anyway considering Ben grew up during the Dharma Initiative. Of course, the time travel again bothers me because surely Ben is old enough at that point to remember these people that he’s meeting. Then again Ben is very mysterious and deceptive so it wouldn’t surprise me if he has always remembered Sayid or any of the other LOSTies and has known all along that they were “destined” to be in his past/future.

Sun McKwon
So, it is confirmed that the rest of the plane survivors are indeed in “the present.” Which begs the question of why did only certain people go back in time, but for now I’ll chalk that up to the “unpredictability” that Eloise warned them of. Very funny when Sun finally knocked out Ben, which we knew would happen since we saw Locke discover him mixed in with all the other hurt or unconscious crash survivors. Good for her for not trusting him. But just what exactly is she supposed to do now? The picture Christian showed her bugs me. If I understand how time travel “works,” that picture should have been there since the 70s, therefore when some of the LOSTies followed Locke to live in the abandoned Dharma barracks, there were plenty of opportunities for someone to have seen it. Are we just to believe that no one happened to notice a picture with Jack, Kate, and Hurley hanging on a wall dated 1977? Sheesh. Anyway, I suppose Christian will help her travel through time to rejoin everyone? Double sheesh.

Not much else to say. Wasn’t wild about the episode to tell you the truth. Just sets up an awful lot of tension for Jack/Sawyer, Kate/Juliet, Sayid/Dharma and not to mention sets up whatever crazy stuff Sun/Frank will have to do to “go back” if that’s what they need to do.

Ho-hum.

S5E8 - LaFleur

2009-03-05T11:19:00.000-08:00

There seemed to be a lot of good news/bad news in this episode so I shall recap in kind.

Good News:
Congrats, Losties… NO MORE TIME TRAVEL! Woohoo!
Bad News:
You’re stuck in the 1970s. Here’s your complimentary Steely Dan cassette tape. Enjoy.

Even though I am happy to report that Locke’s efforts unstuck the analogous “record of time”, the result is not much better as it pertains to potential problems. The Losties are now stuck in the past, meaning they could set off a chain of events that unwittingly alter their own histories. But, Daniel puts an overly simple spin on it saying, “Whatever happened, happened” meaning there’s nothing they can do to create a paradox because “time won’t allow it.” I’m saving myself the headache and just swallowing that whole.

Good News:
It’s a lovely day for a picnic.
Bad News:
It’s also a lovely day to shoot you and your husband.

Seriously, what’s up with that? So much for whatever “truce” agreement the others (aka Richard’s people) and the Dharma Initiative had. It seems to me that Richard’s men are the one’s that broke the truce. They shot chica’s husband and looked ready to do her the same. How is it that Richard’s people need “justice” when their men were the ones in the wrong? And, how is that taking her husband’s dead body makes them even?

Good News:
You’re sonic fence is great for keeping out unwanted people and critters.
Bad News:
It doesn’t work on zombies.

I’m not too far from kidding when I ask… Is Richard and Friends all zombies? Is that why the fence “doesn’t work” on them? Is that why he’s permanently young? Is that why they think it’s cool to collect dead bodies… to grow their zombie numbers? I mean, it’s not like death is permanent on the island anyway (ie.. Christian and Locke). Also, if the fence doesn’t work on them, then why did Richard have to “convince” young Ben back in the day to deactivate the fence so his people could come in and kill everyone? Did they up the ampage and that’s what did it? Oh yeah, AND if Richard and Friends truly are the “natives” then are they the ones responsible for building that gigantic four-toed statue (first seen at the end of Season Two and last seen last night). Anyway… WEIRD.

Good News:
Horace the security guy let us stay for two weeks to find our people.
Bad News:
Horace the security guy let us stay for three years to find our people.

Talk about commitment. Needless to say, I’m curious about how two weeks turned into three years. I mean, I understand that the O6 – Aaron + Locke + Ben just hadn’t showed up yet so they kept at it, but you’d think eventually they’d say, “Well, we tried,” and move on. I feel like there’s a lot of new potential flashback material in these past 3 years. Off the top of my head is Daniel’s to-be warning to little Charlotte about the island. It happened according to Charlotte and in Daniel’s own words, “What happened, happened,” so he obviously will warn her and the mother despite his weak mumbling at the beginning of this episode to the contrary.

Good News:
You’re a daddy.
Bad News:
You missed it.

This is the verbatim good news/bad news that Sawyer gave Horace. Again, I hope we get to see peeks into how everyone’s “relationship” with the Dharma Initiative developed over the past three years. Apparently Sawyer (aka Jim LaFleur, which I found hilarious), Miles, and Jin (speaking fluent English these days) work security detail. Daniel (who wasn’t around much this episode) apparently works construction and perhaps with the science team according to the brief clip of him we saw in the Orchid Station at the beginning of the season. And Juliet becomes a… wait for it… mechanic (a surprisingly far cry from my midwife idea).

Speaking of which, apparently whatever happened (or in this case will happen) to cause the pregnancy issues, hasn’t happened yet. The obvious question, just what will happen to cause that issue? Here’s an idea… HOW ABOUT THAT NUCLEAR BOMB YOU NUMBSKULLS BURIED? Radiation poisoning, anyone? Unfortunately, I bet it will have something to do with time travel. Maybe Daniel will do something funky at the Orchid Station to catapult the Losties back to the “present” when the Ajira flight landed and it lays a permanent pregger-voodoo on everyone in the past. Kind of like a benign version of the time sickness, except deadly to embryos.

Good News:
Jin found Jack and Hurley!
Bad News:
He also found Kate.

I guess we’ll find out if 3 years really is long enough to get over someone or not. Poor Juliet. She dug on Jack then backed off because she figured he liked Kate, then she off and develops a seemingly stable long-term relationship with Sawyer who—oops!—also maybe still digs on Kate. I mean, Kate’s easy on the eyes, but come on… looks AND personality…? Juliet, hands down.

Good News:
Eloise is a wiz at math…
Bad News:
Give or take 30 years…

I’m guessing that in the prior episode when Ilana and Caesar referred to the passengers like Hurley “disappearing” it was because they went back in time while everyone else on Ajira landed in “the present.” Fine. But why didn’t that happen to Locke, Ben, Frank, and maybe Sun? Can the island “choose” where/when people go based on what it wants? Lame-O. Even a watered-down Faraday analogy would be better than that. I hope we get one. Oh wait, maybe this was the “unpredictable” factor that Eloise warned would happen if ALL of them didn’t return. Aaron didn’t come with, nor did Walt or Desmond if they’re included in the mix. Perhaps them not being on the plane made the return go a little wonky and some folks wound up in the past instead of the present. Whatever. Even though time travel has stopped, its suckiness lingers on.

S5E7 - The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham

2009-02-26T13:03:00.000-08:00

Ash Wednesday was yesterday, which marks the beginning of the 40 days of Lent, culminating on Easter Sunday. Rather than spending half of my recap offering a watered-down version of what that means, I’ll link you over to a more authoritative version for those of you not in the know: Lent (Wikipedia). Sufficed to say, it is in some ways about sacrifice and when coupled with the underlying Easter theme of new life and resurrection… well, you’ve got more religious symbolism than you can shake a stick at and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I overlooked such an obvious parallel between last night’s episode.

RESURRECTION
Locke’s alive! Confused, but alive. He’s special too, oh man is he special. Probably freakin’ tired of people telling him just how special he is.

ASHES
There was definitely a few ashes from the charred bits of the Ajira flight wreckage, though I must say, Frank the Pilot did a much better job of landing it all in one piece than the pilot of Oceanic 815. After last week’s episode, I wasn’t even sure that anyone except the O6 would be on the island, though I had a feeling that the man who we now know as Ceasar and Sayid’s marshal who we now know as Ilana would be around just because they had more than a good share of face time. Turns out the ENTIRE plane crash landed on the island! The twist…? The O6 apparently disappeared. Well, Jack, Kate, and Hurley, at least. The big question is, did Sayid or Sun disappear too? I think Ilana told John that the pilot and “some woman” took one of the boats. You would think Frank would most likely run off with Sun since they know more about what’s going on, but if that’s true, then the obvious question is why did they not “disappear” along with Jack, Kate, and Hurley? I won’t get too hung up on that just because it’s such an obvious question, I feel confident it will be answered (even though it may be a weak weirdo fantasy time-travel type of answer).

I liked the opening scene where Ceasar is rummaging through the presumed Dharma station they landed near. Does he know about the island and that is why he knew to arm himself with that shotgun he found? Or is he just trying to figure out wtf’s going on like any normal person would? And by “normal person,” I’m not including anyone from the original Oceanic flight 815, because Lord knows they next-to-never ask one single straight forward or obvious question. Or when they do, seem satisfied with vague crap answers.

ALMSGIVING
Widmore was doing more than his fair share of almsgiving in this episode. He seems ready to give every penny he can to the needy John Locke (aka Jeremy Bentham) in order to help him get back to the island and “protect it.” Big reveals… Widmore used to be the leader of the others! Ben ousted him! And apparently, there’s a war coming (also known as Season Six). Widmore hooks Locke up with the mouthy Abaddon as a driver who we’ve seen before. Apparently his job is to “get people where they need to go.” How’s that for a vague job description? Interesting, though, that he had a hand in John going on the walkabout, so I wonder if he had a hand in orchestrating anyone else being on that flight? Presumably one can calculate when/where a window to the island will open so all you have to do is make sure whoever you want stranded is on a specific flight. Remember the psychic in season one that told Claire she HAD to be on that flight? At first we thought it was because he wanted to make sure only she would raise Aaron since he was convinced she had to be the one. Well, in season 3 we found out via Mr. Eko’s flashback that the man was a fake so it’s not impossible that Abaddon approached him and paid or pressured him into convincing Claire to get on that flight. Anyway, the big question here: Do we believe/trust Widmore?

PENANCE
First up, Locke visits Sayid who is doing some humanitarian work in Santo Damingo. We still haven’t seen exactly why Sayid broke off with Ben and we may yet in future flashbacks, but it could just be that Sayid grew tired of simply killing people without good evidence as to why. Anyway, Sayid gives Locke a big fat “not interested” on his island invite. Can you blame him? Actually, can you blame any of them? Locke – 0/1.

Next up, he visits tall Walt who seems strangely casual for not having seen his father in three years. Was he going to invite Walt along then changed his mind or did he truly just want to check in on him? Is Walt supposed to go back too? Or Aaron or Desmond for that matter? Either way, the score is now: Locke – 0/2.

FASTING
Please don’t think me prejudiced when I say Hurley could benefit from a week or two of fasting. Seriously, that red robe—his permanent attire-of-choice while in the mental institution—not his most flattering outfit. It was pretty funny how he was okay with Locke being a hallucination then freaked out when he found out he was real. Hell no, he won’t go. Locke – 0/3.

PRAYER
As in, he didn’t have a prayer when it came to convincing Kate to tag along. She grills him about having never loved anyone which is why it was so easy for him to stay on the island. He says he did love someone, but was too angry and obsessed (with his father) for it to work out to which Kate replies in sad sarcasm, “Look how far you’ve come.” ZING! I’m surprised Locke didn’t drop dead right then after being cut by such an acute observation. Locke – 0/4.

Locke has Abaddon track down his old flame who passed away a few short years ago. At first, I thought maybe it was an elaborate hoax to convince him not to pursue her and potentially have a reason to not go back, but when Abaddon was shot, I began to think Widmore has been telling the truth the whole time. More on that later. Anyway, after wrecking in a mad dash to get away, Locke wakes up in a hospital with Jack by his side. Mention of Jack’s father gives him pause, though it melts into righteous anger. Locke – 0/5. (Though a little bit of conviction must have eeked through as we know Jack eventually changed his mind) Locke – 0.5/4.5.

SACRIFICE
Thinking he has completely failed, a dejected Locke is ready for the ultimate sacrifice, though it seemed more fueled by failure and depression rather than the idea that what he was doing might actually lead everyone back to the island. I think he was just done with it all. And who can blame him? In comes Ben at the last minute, spouting off yet again how special he is and how HE’S the one that’s been protecting everyone, and by this point you just don’t know who to trust. However, once Locke mistakenly gives up the name of Eloise Hawking, all go-team support flies out the window as Ben strangles him to death. Whoa. Didn’t see that coming. I’m assuming Ben also didn’t anticipate needing to bring his body along at that point nor did he dream it possible that Locke would be resurrected. Talk about an awkward reunion they’re about to have.

I think it’s safe to say at this point that the preverbal line in the sand has been drawn. Widmore / Ben. Well, that line’s been clearly drawn for a while now I guess, but it’s becoming more and more evident which side is the “good” side. I’m not ruling out there being some reasonable explanation why Ben has done what he’s done, but I’ve given up hope that he, himself, is acting out of unselfish motivations. It’s all about Ben getting what he wants and stopping at nothing to achieve it.

EASTER EGGS
I’m looking forward to discovering the hidden nuggets from the past of our new castaways. It seems for now, though, only Caesar and Ilana are the main ones (just like the main cast have always been a “stand-in” for the twenty or so other survivors that are roughing it out there somewhere.) Rose and Bernard must be confused as all get out without Daniel Faraday around to explain things.

S5E6 - 316

2009-02-19T12:26:00.000-08:00

ON SECOND THOUGHT… DON’T SHOW ME THE MONEY
I want to start by saying I loved this episode, but it’s hard to say why. If you think about it, not that much happened. They all boarded a plane and woke up on the island. Done. Maybe it was what they DIDN’T show us that hooked me. First and foremost, the lack of time travel. Outside of a skosh there at the end, everything happened in real time. No skipping about. No bright flashes of light. No potential paradoxes. Just good old linear story-telling. Second, it was the missing details of everyone’s last day off the island that make you really wonder what happened to change their minds or force them on that flight. Anyway, on with the recap.

SHOUT OUT TO SEASON ONE
I really liked how the opening was a throw back to the pilot episode. Jack wakes up in the jungle in his suit, hears a commotion and runs blindly through the jungle. At first, I thought it was yet another classic LOST fake out where you think they’re on the island, but they’re not. But you know what happens when you make assumptions, right? Anyway, turns out Jack, Hurley, and Kate at least made it back. Cool beans.

THE LAMPPOST
46 hours earlier we are back at the church which turns out to be an off-island Dharma station used to track the island’s whereabouts… or shall I say whenabouts? Ha! Just a little time travel humor there. Eloise Hawking makes her spiel about how the lamppost works and how they need to recreate the crash as accurately as possible… yada yada yada. Best line of the night is when Ben claims he didn’t know the Lamppost existed and Jack asks Eloise if he’s telling the truth to which she replies, “Probably not.” I always chuckle when people slam Ben’s moral compass.

“THE ISLAND’S NOT DONE WITH YOU YET”
Talk about an ominous warning. Eloise tells Desmond his part in all this isn’t over, but he thinks otherwise. We’ll see about that, Dessy. And was it just me, or were you also waiting for him to get knocked out by that big pendulum?

DEARLY DEPARTED
Eloise has a one-on-one with Jack and drops two bombs. First up, she delivers Locke’s suicide note. This is our first clue into his death. Interesting. Second, she explains that part of the return is recreating the original crash as closely as possible, right down to the transportation of a dead body. Locke is essentially a substitute for Jack’s dead father and he must give Locke something of his dad’s. In a rare LOST moment, Jack asks the obvious question and says what the viewers are likely saying to their TV screens. “Why? That doesn’t make any sense.” But Eloise (likely speaking on behalf of the writers of the show) says, “It’s not about whether or not it makes sense, it’s whether or not you believe it will work.” TRANSLATION: “Hey, America, stop whining about how weird this show is getting and just enjoy the ride.”

JESUS AND PALS
Ben gives Jack a mini-sermon about Thomas the Apostle. Perhaps foreshadowing Locke’s resurrection in the upcoming episode? At any rate, Sun left with no explanation and Ben says he made a promise to an old friend and has some loose ends to tie up. Also, he seems pretty pissy about not being able to sit on his little pow-wow with Eloise. Sheesh… what a crybaby he’s become in the past two episodes.

GRANDPA SHEPHARD
Jack gets phoned that his grandpa has tried to escape from his retirement home. The man looks great for whatever age he’s supposed to be. Anyway, he conveniently has a pair of Christian’s shoes.

WTF?
Jack returns home only to find Kate in his bedroom. To me, the greatest mini-mystery they set up in this episode was Kate’s change of heart. What convinced Kate she needed to go back after being so adamant to the contrary? What happened to Aaron? It had to have been drastic for her to make Jack promise to never ask her about it. Wow.

NICE SHOES
Jack and Kate have a little “morning after” OJ. Kate notices his dad’s shoes and recommends a pair of hiking boots instead. Their conversation is interrupted by a phone call from Ben. He is at a pay phone at a marina and looking pretty bloody and distraught. Says he’s run into a little snag and needs Jack to pick up Locke’s body. Jack goes to the butcher shop where Locke is being held and switches out his shoes for his dad’s commenting the whole time how crazy it is. I couldn’t agree more. Here’s the part that I didn’t catch last night, but watching this section I missed really drove it home. Do we think that Ben’s “loose end” was to kill Penny? That certainly qualifies as a promise he made to an old friend, and by “promise” I mean “threat” and by “friend” I mean “mortal enemy.” I bet Desmond is the one that beat the crap out of him. Revenge is something that definitely would motivate Desmond to return to the island, though he swore he was done with it. Geez, Ben, that’s just… wrong! Hopefully that’s not what happened, but for now it fits the best.

ISLAND OR BUST
So, we finally see the airline that was mentioned a few episodes ago when Juliet saw the Ajira water bottle in that abandoned kayak. I’m still looking forward to that scene being replayed later on from the perspective of whoever was chasing and shooting at them. Anyway, Kate walks in as Jack is checking in Locke’s body. He runs into Sun, who says if there’s any possible way to see Jin again she has to try. About that time Sayid is escorted through security in handcuffs (a parallel to the original crash when Kate was the one in handcuffs.) Finally at the gate we see Hurley, who has bought up as many of the seats as he could in fear of what might happen to the other passengers. At the last minute, Ben rushes in, almost missing the flight (yet another shout out to the original Oceanic flight where Hurley was the one that nearly missed the plane).

“WE’RE NOT GOING TO GUAM, ARE WE?”
After the plane takes off, Jack goes to sit with Kate saying how crazy it is that they’re all “back together.” She makes the heavy comment, “Just because we’re on the same plane, doesn’t mean we’re ‘together.’” Ouch. The pilot makes an announcement and it is none other than Frank Lapidus, chopper pilot from the original freighter folks. Once he sees Jack and the others he makes the second best comment of the episode. No, Frank, you ain’t going to Guam.

“I WISH YOU HAD BELIEVED ME.”
Ben claims he didn’t know Locke committed suicide. I don’t think I’m alone when I say I don’t believe a single word out of Ben’s mouth these days. He let’s Jack read Locke’s suicide note in privacy. It’s both succinct and sad. Can’t wait for next week where it looks like we’ll get to see what really went down after he left the island.

DON’T COME A KNOCKIN’ IF THE PLANE’S A ROCKIN’
They hit some turbulence and pretty soon there’s that all-too-familiar flash of light and they wake up on the island. Or at least Jack, Kate, and Hurley for now. Surely Ben, Locke, and Sun made it back as well so we’ll see what’s up with them soon. For some reason, I had it in my mind that the O6 wouldn’t get back to the island until the end of this season. So, much to my surprise, they’re back with still half of the season left to play out. Also, I’m guessing Frank is probably along for the ride, not to mention the lady marshal accompanying Sayid plus that one guy that gave his condolences to Jack at the airport that they made a point to show over and over. Just like the freighter folks from last season, it’s always nice to introduce a few fresh faces and potential storylines. Not that we need more mysteries and backgrounds to dig through, but with only a season and a half left, it seems their introduction might be key to tying together some of the unresolved mysteries still out there.

WORKIN’ 9 TO 5
Jack, Kate, and Hurley find each other and guess who finds them…? Jin! Driving a beetle bus and sporting a Dharma jumpsuit no less. We know at some point that Daniel winds up in the Dharma timeline, helping build the orchid. Looks like Jin came along too and is working security detail. It will be funny if we later see Juliet working as a midwife and Sawyer scrubbing pots in the kitchen. Looks like the LOSTies left behind were stranded in the past for a bit and had to settle in for the long haul. I wonder how long they’ve been “waiting” for the O6 to get back? I wonder if they’ll have flashbacks to fill in the gaps between when Locke left and when the O6 returned. Interesting set up for the rest of the season.

Like I said before, the greatest part of this episode was the mini-mysteries behind everyone’s last day before returning to the island not to mention what Daniel, Jin, Sawyer, and Juliet have been up to. Things that obvious will surely be revealed and I’m beside myself with curiosity.

S5E5 - This Place Is Death

2009-02-12T06:04:00.000-08:00

That's right kids, it's that time of the year again. So grab your spouse/partner/significant other/self and settle in for a very special edition of...

***LOST VALENTINES***

To: Robert
Card: Bright yellow card depicting a cartoon teddy bear.
Outside: "I've noticed something different about you lately. Have you been working out?" (pic of teddy bear flexing muscles) "Get a haircut?" (pic of teddy bear sporting a buzz cut) "Lose some weight?" (pic of skinny teddy bear) "Get possessed by an enigmatic creature comprised of some freakish semi-solid smoke-like substance?" (pic of teddy bear w/ horrified expression being dragged along the jungle floor)
Inside: "Either way... I'm going to shoot you." (pic of two teddy bears pointing rifles at one another)
From: Danielle

Wow. Well there goes the time sickness theory. I guess it makes sense that it was something else wrong with Rousseau's team because the time sickness seems to only cause forgetfulness on the light side, make your nose bleed on the medium side, and death on the heavy side. Apparently whatever effected her team "changed" them somehow. I'm assuming it made them "bad people," which is obviously the case if Robert was willing to kill his own wife and child at the end. And what's up with what he said? It's just a security system guarding the temple. Yeah, the First United Temple Of Make-You-Crazy.

Anyway, I'm happy we got to see this unanswered piece of Rousseau's background, though in typical LOST fashion it brings up more questions. I'm still mildly curious about how the others managed to kidnap baby Alex, but as far as I'm concerned Danielle Rousseau may now rest in peace.

To: The Island
Card: No card. Just the same message carved in trees, spelled out with rocks, and drawn on the beach, over and over...
Message: "I want to have your baby."
From: Locke

Here's my crazy theory. Remember way back when in season 1 when Locke actually saw the smoke monster for the first time? He told Jack he saw the "eye of the island and it was beautiful." Maybe that's brainwash talk for "The island told me to keep you here against your will and kill everyone else." Think about it, he was mildly crushing on the island before that encounter. And who could blame him, it healed his legs. But let's assess his behavior ever since then. In season 3, alone, he blew up the com station to allow outside communication, blew up the submarine that would have allowed Jack and Juliet to leave, and knifed Naomi in the back. And I have a feeling even though he's "friends" with his fellow LOSTies, he wouldn't be too hard pressed to kill any of them if they got in the way of whatever he believed to be his destiny.

What if that's what the "true" others are as well? People who've been exposed to the smoke monster or gone to this crazy temple? Remember that stewardess, Cindy, that randomly popped up on the prison island they took Jack, Kate, and Sawyer to at the beginning of season 3? She along with the kids were all going to watch Juliet's trial. She seemed to be sipping the Kool-Aid hard core... smoke-flavored Kool-Aid. It doesn't explain everything, I know, but it certainly would shed light on why some people (Richard, John, Ben) are so die-hard.

Okay, thanks for entertaining my whacked out ideas.

To: Daniel
Card: Black with white lettering.
Outside: "This place is death."
Inside: "Seriously."
From: Charlotte

Alright, so Charlotte was not my favorite character. Still, it was kind of sad to see her final moments. It was confirmed that Charlotte did, in fact, grow up on the island. Her mother was with the Dharma Initiative, but moved away. I wonder if along with creeping out little Charlotte, Future-Daniel also scares the crap out of Charlotte's mom which is why the woman decided to leave. We know that Daniel (will be) among the Dharma folks at some point in episodes-to-come since we saw him hanging out in the Orchid station of the past in this season's premiere. Her warning to Jin and the gang to not bring Sun back was creepy. As always, there are conflicting messages and you don't know who to believe. Ben/Richard/Christian say they all need to come back, Charlotte on her death bed says they shouldn't. I have the uneasy feeling that Charlotte is spot on.

To: Jack and Sun
Card: Homemade card made from colorful scraps of construction paper.
Outside: "I tried to think of the perfect gift for you this Valentine's..."
Inside: "And if you had ANY idea of how much effort I put into MAKING this $%#@! card you'd be ON YOUR KNEES kissing my feet."
From: Ben

Is it just me or was Ben being super pissy in the van? I guess if I blindly thought I was doing the right thing and going through who knows what to keep people safe, I'd be upset too if everyone wanted to kill me for it, but come on dude... chill. And I think he's way out of line to say how hard he's been working to keep all of their friend's safe. As if he even cares. He wants to get back to the island and just happens to need them in order to do it, is all.

To: Ben
Card: A simple rectangular card. About 3in x 7in. You know... the kind you typically get from your grandparents just before graduation and you're all like, "Sweet, they sent cash."
Outside: Pink with a red heart.
Inside: Hand written... "Sorry we can't be with you for Valentine's. Here's $20 for gas money or whatever. Best of luck."
From: Kate, Aaron, Sayid, and Hurley

So, Ben only has one-third of the Oceanic Six. The Oceanic Two. Just doesn't have the same ring to it, doest it? I wonder if Desmond is supposed to go as well. I never got the impression that he was supposed to go back too, but there he is with them all nonetheless. Ironically, Daniel asked Desmond to find his mom to help and that's what Ben's already doing. Seems like an elaborate plot device just to keep Desmond around. Whatever, though, I like ol' Dessy. It would just suck if he blips off to the island without Penny and little Charlie. I don't see that happening, though. At least not voluntarily.

To: Sun
Card: Plain white paper with crayon frowny face
Outside: "I miss you mommy."
Inside: Crudely drawn broken heart. "Please don't go."
From: Ji Yeon

Okay, so this is a sad Valentine, but seriously... it looks like Sun has all but packed her bags. Of course she still has a chance to back out of whatever they have to do to get back to the island in the next episode. I'm sure she wants to be reunited with Jin somethin' crazy, but geez lady, you've got a daughter to think about. I suppose she's under the naive impression that she can just waltz back to the island and pick up Jin on her way back to Korea. Yeah, right. Somehow I doubt getting back to the island will be as easy as running an errand, like the space-time equivalent of swinging by the grocery store for a jug of milk on your way home from work.

To: The Island
Card: Hastily folded piece of scrap paper handed to Christian Shepard seconds before moving the island yet again.
Outside: "Oh man, I'm so bad with these things. I'll just come out and say it. I'm leaving. I don't know for how long. It may sound cliche, but it's true when I tell you that it's not you... it's me. I truly want us to be together again. ALL of us. I'll be back as soon as I can. Dead or alive. I love you."
Inside: "P.S. I'm serious about wanting to have your baby. I'm so totally gaga for you. I would bear your children in a heartbeat if I were a woman, and it were possible to copulate with an inanimate land mass, and also if conceiving a child while on you wouldn't kill me by the third trimester."
From: Locke

So once again "the Island" speaks to Locke via Jack's dead father. It's funny how we're all so totally beyond this being strange. Anyway, Christian said the funniest thing of the episode and perhaps the truest thing since the very first season. "And since when has listening to Ben done you any good?" Bam! On a sidenote, I thought it was interesting he said he couldn't help Locke to the wheel. I guess that would make sense if he's for-real dead so is in fact a ghost. I'm not going there, though. It's difficult enough to swallow all the time travel stuff so I can't deal with ghosts. Not this season at least. Maybe next year I'll have to change the name of my blog from
http://timetravelsucks.blogspot.com/ to http://ihateghosts.blogspot.com/.

Apparently the Orchid's wheel had slipped off its axis, which may explain the time jumping. Locke just needed to give it a little nudge and voila, island moved and (presumably) time skipping halted. However, I have a bad feeling they're not out of the woods just yet. We don't know for sure where they are in time, but we do at least know they will be back in the Dharma's timeline at some point and eventually will make it back to their own (we assume), so the assumption is this temporal merry-go-round gone wrong has yet to be righted. Of course as we all know, the side effect of moving the island is leaving and never coming back. But then again that's only partially true. Apparently Mama Faraday (aka Elouise Hawking) is about to lay down some heavy physics mojo and get at least some of the gang back in the next episode or two. Will it be that easy? Somehow, I think not.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to either the next episode or the next next episode where I bet we'll see all of Locke's post-island interactions with the O6 plus Ben plus Walt.

Happy V-Day to everyone. Your card is in the mail.

S5E4 - The Little Prince

2009-02-05T12:00:00.000-08:00

LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES…
You never know what you’re going to get. Like a coconut chew, or a pecan cluster, or a Beretta 9mm semi-automatic. I’m not sure where Sun ordered that, but one thing’s for sure, it ain’t your grandma’s Whitman's sampler. Sufficed to say, she’s about to have a big throw down with Ben in the next episode.

DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID
So Sun lends Kate a sharp looking lady suit and convinces her to have a sit down with the lawyer to see if she can have a face to face with his mystery client in exchange for a blood sample. The answser: No.

ORCHID BOUND
Locke tells Sawyer that the Orchid is where all of this started so the Orchid is where it will end. Not to mention he needs to get there so that he, too, can get off the island, convince the O6 to return, then die (for whatever reason). I wonder if Locke turning the Orchid wheel is what will finally put a stop to the time jumping since it’s what started it. Seems too easy. With everything else we learn in this episode concerning Ben, I wonder if Locke’s death is just an elaborate ruse to make it seem like people are out to hunt down the O6 when really it’s just Ben pulling people’s strings and trying to scare them into going back to the island. More support on this theory to come…

DON’T FORGET YOUR MEDS
Meanwhile some dude tries to tag Sayid with yet more horse tranquilizers, but fails miserably. In his pocket, the address of one Kate Austen. A worried Jack calls to meet with her. Okay, so knowing what we know about the lawyer’s “true” client, this is REALLY suspicious to me. Ben would do whatever he can to get the O6 back to the island, even if it means threatening them. The first set of folks that tracked Sayid and Hurley back to the “safe house” had tranquilizers too. Obviously, whoever sent them doesn’t want them dead. I’m sure Ben would be fine if he could just tranq everyone and haul their bodies back to the island on his own. Seems a little heavy-handed and obvious, but the only other person who could potentially be “after” them is Widmore and he seems more interested in getting Ben than them.

“REALLY BAD JET LAG”
That’s definitely going around this episode. We finally find out why the “time sickness” is only affecting Charlotte. The answer is, it’s not! It’s affecting everyone, depending on their length of exposure to the island. This piggy backs on what Charlotte said at the end of last season about looking for the place of her birth. She’s definitely spent some time here in the past. Later on we see Miles sporting a blood mustache of his own and Daniel asks him if he’s sure he’s never been on the island before. This lends heavy credence to the Miles-is-Marvin-Candles-baby theory. NEAT. I wonder if Dr. C ever got off the island at some point or if he’s buried along with his fellow Dharma buddies in that mass grave? Obviously his son made it off. Sure enough, third place for the Longest Exposure To The Island Award goes to Juliet, since her time as an “other” was at least a couple of years if I remember correctly. Next up, Sawyer and Locke, then only Daniel can save them all.

STALKER
So Jack meets Kate, they make a little small talk about his facial hair and then follow the lawyer to meet with his “client.” It turns out to be none other than Claire’s mother! That makes sense, right?

PSYCH!
No, not Claire’s mother. Apparently she’s there to collect her settlement from a lawsuit against Oceanic Airlines and has no clue that her grandson may still be alive.

AND THE CLIENT IS…
Ben. Of course. I’m giving myself $5 for an early prediction on that one. The thing is he seemed pretty straight forward when Kate finally called him out on that in the end. It’s certainly un-Ben-like to come clean so easily. I think he still has something up his sleeve. Also, apparently from his clandestine meeting with the lawyer in the parking lot, we are to believe that Hugo will be getting out of jail the next morning.

BOSOM BUDDIES?
Here’s my beef with all this. Sayid is adamant… ADAMANT… that Hurley not trust Ben and do the opposite of whatever he says. Obviously Sayid and Ben had a falling out between when we last saw him knocking folks off Ben’s list and the present day. Yet we are to believe that Ben claims to want to get Hurley safely out of jail and Sayid is just going to accept that and chauffer him around? Perhaps Sayid thinks the best way to protect Hurley is to watch Ben’s every move, but he seemed way too chummy for someone who distrusts the man as much as he claims. Surely we’ll see why Sayid hate’s him (again) soon.

“TIME TRAVEL IS A BITCH”
Too true… I couldn’t have said it better, myself, Sawyer. That was freakin’ hilarious. That and when they discovered the kayak washed up at their “old” campsite he said, “Who are these people? Other others?” I actually find that particular blip through time very interesting. We know that whenever they were, it was after the LOSTies set up camp, but it seems it was at some point “in the future” because no other boat washed ashore that we know of. So it was kind of an event that has yet to happen. Juliet said the logo on the water bottle left in the boat was from “Ajira Airlines.” Perhaps yet another plane crash that happens in the future? Was that who was chasing them in the other boat and shooting… survivors from another plane crash? Surely we’ll see who it was sometime down the line.

HEART TO HEART
Locke grills Sawyer on who he saw during their most recent time blip and he gets stonewalled. Later, when paddling the kayak, he admits to Juliet that he saw Kate. After dodging bullets and blipping away again, Juliet asks him why he didn’t speak to her and he says, “What’s done is done.” You can tell he’s heartbroken. All this is good therapy for the inevitable relationship he and Juliet will have. I can see it coming like a freight train.

THE KOREAN VERSION OF MICHAEL PHELPS
A life raft of Frenchies washes ashore, but just before they do they recover the body of none other than Jin Kwon, passed out on a rocky outcropping. Though I never bought in to his death, it was still a pleasant surprise to see him safe and sound-ish. One thing, though, just how far out did the effects of the island’s “move” reach? We know that the freighter disappeared because it was no longer there after the first flash of light. This means Jin had to have jumped clear and started swimming like a mad man in order to get close enough to be carried along. Whatever, though. He made it. Good enough for me.

DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
Ahhh... time travel. You offer great things, such as the possibility to learn more of Rousseau’s backstory, yet I inherently hate you for it because you have to throw Jin in the mix, making it obvious that Rousseau should have remembered him sixteen years “later” when she meets him after his crash landing on the island. The only way I can see them explaining that away is that she essentially goes crazy after having to kill her team members (something I’m morbidly curious to see) then never having human contact outside of her kidnapped baby for over a decade and a half. That surely does a number on your mind.

To be fair, sixteen years ago I was a sophomore in high school so I’m not sure I would recognize one person that I had a chance encounter with either. Then again, I didn’t shipwreck onto a tropical island and find a near-dead Korean that had washed ashore. I don’t feel like I’m going out on a limb when I say that would be a memorable moment for anyone.

If I remember her story right, Rousseau explained all of the other members of her team “got sick” and she had to kill them. I could be remembering the she-killed-them part wrong and perhaps they just died of the sickness on their own. It seems likely that “the sickness” is the time sickness going around, but the French people aren’t jumping around in time, at least not yet. Curious…

Anyway, I’m just happy that we potentially get to see what really happened with her and her crew. Outside of Jin being confirmed alive, it was the best news of the episode.

S5E3 - Jughead

2009-01-29T10:37:00.000-08:00

Not a bad episode. A few surprises and one unexpected answer to a question I didn’t even know I had. Though, of course, in typical LOST fashion it leads to more questions.

A jumbo sized H-bomb seemed to be the centerpiece of this episode so I shall recap the notable events countdown style:

10…

Ten people were “featured” in this episode. Daniel, Charlotte, Miles, Sawyer, Juliet, Locke, Desmond, Penny, Richard, and Widmore. (Sorry Oceanic Six plus Ben)

9…

They say a cat has nine lives. If that’s the case, it’s time to paint some whiskers on Richard Alpert because he’s been alive for who knows how long. I believe it was last season when we saw him attend the birth of John Locke and later on visit him as a young lad. The season before I believe featured young Ben in the Dharma camp visited by a same-looking Richard as well. My first theory was he is eternally young (or at least a very slow ager) due to some mystical effect of the island. But then of course they introduce time travel as if it’s as common as catching a cold and my thoughts went there. But last night when Locke asked, “Just how old is Richard, anyway?” Juliet answered, “Very old,” so that kind of puts me back on the fountain-of-youth train again. Not exactly an important point, but now it’s at least confirmed. That man is ancient.

8…

Also, is it just me, or is he sporting a heavy dose of “guy-liner” with a dash of “man-scara” for the eyelashes? He’s probably 88-years-old and just has a wicked awesome makeup crew. Maybe that’s who the “others” really are, Richard Alpert’s cosmetic team/security detail.

7…

Seven is the size of the leadership hat that Daniel reluctantly dons. Seriously, did you know that hat size is determined by your head circumference in inches measured ½ inch above your ears then divided by pi? Come on, admit it… you know you’re going to measure your head after you finish reading this.

Anyway, that leadership hat fits ol’ Danny quite nicely. He bluffs his way into Richard’s good graces and even claims his love for frigid, bloody-nosed Charlotte just before rushing off to defuse a bomb. I wonder, does the “time sickness” only affect certain people? Why her?

On the opposite side of the dashing hero coin is one Ms. Theresa Spencer, whom Desmond finds laid up in bed locked in a permanent state of brain time travel. Not cool, D-man… not cool.

6…

Big flash of light at the end and we’re somewhen else. The six non-others: Daniel, Charlotte, Miles, Sawyer, Juliet, and Locke are left standing in an open field, the make-shift military camp gone. Does anyone else think it’s funny that these six are supposed to be representative of at least twenty-ish other survivors like Rose and Bernard who are hanging out who knows where? I mean, I know it would cost a lot of money—plus get way crowded—to pay over two dozen actors to be in every shot, but it seems the only use for extras these days is to get killed. Sorry Frogurt. Sorry those two dudes that walked over the land mine tripwire. Miles did try to warn you.

5…

Five stands for fifty. “Fifty years from now, this island is still here and we’re all fine.” Okay, so that was crazy for Daniel to think the “other” chick would buy his logic, but either way, I’m a little disappointed in his recommended solution. BURY IT? I mean, you know the island is still around in 50 years, but who’s to say it isn’t leaking crazy amounts of radiation? And who’s to say that it won’t blow up in 50 years and two days? You’re a physicist for God’s sake… can’t you come up with a better idea than that? Anyway, I’m assuming that after the LOSTies all blipped off in time, it convinced Richard and gang that they were telling the truth so I bet they made like a bunny and hopped to it on burying that thing.

I don’t know why it struck me as so funny, but the best line of the night was when Sawyer “saved” Daniel and the girl asked, “Is he from the future, too?” and Sawyer said, “Ah man, you TOLD her?”

4…

Miles “senses” a freshly dug grave of four U.S. soldiers as he, Daniel, and Charlotte are marched back to the others camp. According to Richard, the US Army set up shop, Richard and his crew swooped in, asked them politely to leave, then killed them afterwards when they refused. This is very similar to what they do about a decade or so later when Dharma sets up their barracks and experiments. Infiltrate the camp, get Ben on their side, and then gas them to death. Geez, someone’s awfully territorial.

3…

Desmond plus Penny plus baby make three. Looks like they got down to business soon after their reunion because little “Charlie” looked to be maybe 2-ish. I assume he was named after the ex-rock star we all know and loved rather than his grandpa Charles.

It was touching how Desmond was willing to give up on finding Daniel’s mother so he could be free of the island for good and be with his family. Even more touching was Penny realizing he wouldn’t just “forget about it” and wanting to support him regardless. Lots of touching going on.

I’d say the Los Angeles address Widmore gave is further confirmation that the lady in the chapel speaking with Ben was, in fact, Mama Faraday.

2…

Two “military” people are captured and thanks to Juliet’s mad Latin skills, she confirms they are in fact, others. It’s interesting to me how the others seem to just scavenge and adapt to whatever comes their way. Everyone last night was wearing uniforms, carrying guns, and living in the abandoned army camp. Later when they push out Dharma, they start wearing nicer clothes and live in the barracks. Who knows what their living situation was before the army came. Many carried a bow and arrow when they captured D/C/M so one would think they were a little more savage until technology landed in their lap.

It’s fairly apparent that the others are the “hostiles” or “original inhabitants” that Marvin Candle has repeatedly referenced. However, my crazy theory is that Richard is one of the few “true” others. Everyone else just kind of seems along for the ride, as if maybe he recruited them at some point. Even Ben is a transplant, having come from off the island originally. And we know that he “recruited” a lot of people, such as Juliet, to join them albeit under shady pretenses.

I’m interested to know exactly how the leadership hierarchy of the island works. You’ve got Jacob, a ghost for all intents and purposes, presumably on top. Then you have Richard who seems to have some kind of contact or connection to Jacob, kind of like a VP. But instead of being the living-breathing representative of the island, he acts as a pseudo-liaison between Jacob and the “leader” who is selected through some bizarre process and doesn’t even need to be from the island. It’s more like the island chooses the leader and Richard just does the leg work. Makes about as much sense as the Electoral College.

1…

This brings me to the one question that was answered that I didn’t know I had. Charles Widmore was an other! To me, that was the biggest what-the-fo of the episode. I had always assumed that Widmore was just some rich dude that liked to fund experiments such as those orchestrated by the Dharma initiative and was super-pissed that Ben allowed them to be killed by the others, thus causing their mutual hate. But now that relationship is more complicated in my mind. If Widmore was an other, then perhaps he still was after Dharma was set up and then after Ben allowed the others to gas them all, Ben took over as leader of the others and thus was Widmore’s boss, so to speak.

0

KABOOM!! Any bets on if we’ll see that H-bomb again? My bet is it will show up next season, in a bad way. In an oh-crap-why-did-we-agree-to-bury-a-nuclear-warhead-in-our-backyard way.

S5E1 / S5E2 - Because You Left / The Lie

2009-01-22T10:57:00.000-08:00

Let me begin by saying…

I… HATE… TIME TRAVEL…

My naïve hope was that it was all done with last season, but I knew better even as I wished it. Anyway, since apparently it will be sticking around for this season (and let’s just go ahead and accept for the rest of the series), I will make my peace now and not spend a quarter of every recap whining. However, you can expect lots of thinly-veiled sarcasm.

Now. On with the recap.

This being the inaugural episode of the season, I find the parallel between our 44th president’s inauguration too tempting to pass up.

LOST

SEASON 5 (PREMIER)

INAUGURAL PROGRAM OF EVENTS:

OPENING CEREMONIES:
Willie Nelson performs “Shotgun Willie”

That is the name of the song playing on the record Dr. Marvin Candle put on as he went about his morning routine with the baby. Later, his training video is cut short by news of the problem at the Orchid Station. The big reveal here is that Daniel Faraday is hanging out in the past, apparently very interested in the “power source” they almost drilled into. My guess is that with the island now time-hopping all willy-nilly, Daniel has to harness that power source (the same that Ben used to move the island to begin with) in order to get it to stop. I expect we’ll be seeing how he gets to that point sometime this season.

That aside, one interesting thing I just remembered is that Dr. Candle was making a training video for the Arrow Station said to provide defensive strategies against “the Hostiles” which we’ve heard Dharma folks refer to in the past as the island’s “original inhabitants.” We see later that the survivors are bombarded with flaming arrows during one of their hops through time. Coincidence? Doubtful.

INVOCATION:
“Please don’t let time travel taint this season with its dark shadow of suckiness. Amen.”

OATH OF VICE-PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE:
“I, Benjamin Linus, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend The Island against all enemies, foreign and domestic—”

Which, in his new off-island capacity, is to gather the Oceanic Six plus one dead-ish Jeremy Bentham and get back to the island or else everyone left behind will die. By my calculations, between the siege on the old barracks when the freighter militia group was trying to flush out Ben, the freighter explosion, and the flaming arrow trap from last night… there might not be many people left to die by the time the O6 get back.

“—that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion—”

Yeah, right. Ben is King of evasiveness. Did anyone catch when Ben told Jack he needed to store Locke’s body “somewhere safe,” Jack asked was he really dead and Ben kind of didn’t answer. That begs the question, is Locke really dead? But that’s too much to contemplate at this point. I also don’t believe him when he claimed that the last time he saw Locke was at the Orchid Station and I believe he knows more about what happened to everyone after the Oceanic 6 left, but he’s not letting on.

“—and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me Jacob.”

I’m also curious about the apparent falling out between he and Sayid. At the end of last season when Sayid busted Hurley out of the asylum, my assumption was it was under the direction of Ben in order to get the gang all back together so to speak, but it was clear from last night’s episode that Sayid no longer trusted him. Not that I blame him.

INTERMISSION:
The lighter points of the night for me were all-things Hurley. Lots of good comic relief. I especially liked when he tried to explain to his mother what “really” happened on the island after they crashed. When season 1-4 are strung together in a run-on sentence like that, it really does sound crazy, and surely the writers are poking fun at themselves too. I can appreciate that. One of the best twists was when he decided to turn himself in to the police. It will essentially take a prison break to get him to the island now. NEAT.

Other minor points of interest include the mysterious lawyer visit to Kate’s house. I wonder if the maternity test is a plot by Ben to scare Kate into going on the run, and thus, becoming more willing to flee to the island.

Also, the interaction between Sun and Widmore. Just confirmation of who she meant by “common interest” and—yep—she wants Ben dead. Of course I’m not so convinced that Widmore actually wants Ben dead. I think it’s more complicated than that. This goes back to their strange interaction when Ben visited Widmore in his penthouse last season and said, “You changed the rules” in reference Alex’s death, then stated he was going after Penny. Anyway, I wasn’t so convinced by Sun’s “I forgive you” to Kate either.

And let’s not forget. Frogurt. Just about the best Sawyer nickname ever.

OATH OF PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE:
“I, John Locke, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of Leader of The Others, and—(blinding white light)—hey, where’d everybody go?”

That’s right kids, hold on to your hats because we’ve been “dislodged” from time. Bummer. That happened to me last Tuesday and I tell you what, no fun. Now I won’t get into the potential paradoxes of time travel because of our aforementioned uneasy truce, however, I will ask the question of why did the others not get “jumped” to whenever everybody else went? Now, my theory (since apparently any Joe Schmoe can make up “rules” about time travel) is that the others have all jumped through time in the past, therefore are not “in line” with everyone else. We know at least that Richard Alpart has likely been dipping his toe in the time travel pool, which could explain his apparent un-aging-ness. So, maybe time travel affects people of the same “point” in time. Since all of the survivors are at the same point in “real” time, they all got swept up together, whereas the others are at some other point in time. (Do you see? Do you see why this stuff is ridiculous?) Perhaps the others eat a high-fiber diet, which is the trick to remaining temporally stable in case you don’t have the benefit of a “constant” like Desmond is for Daniel.

“—and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend The Island because it healed my legs and let me seek vengeance on my dead beat dad.”

Apparently it will be a little while longer until Daniel figures out how to stabilize the island because Locke will be visiting Richard sometime in the past. Speaking of stabilizing the island, for those of you that need a memory jog, the woman at the very end of the episode that was doing the calculations and speaking to Ben in the church about how he had 70 hours, that was the same woman in the jewelry store in Desmond’s very first flashback when he decided to propose to Penny. She basically told him he couldn’t change the past so wasn’t going to really do it. At first, my thought was she was some crazy figment of his imagination or side-effect of his mental time travel or whatever, but apparently she’s a for-real lady that went back in time specifically to warn him not to change his own past, not that you can anyway according to Daniel, but I digress. $10 says she’s also Daniel’s mother who he told Desmond to find at Oxford.

21 GUN SALUTE:
Guns, indeed. Is it just me or did Hurley do just about everything short of setting up a Glamour Shots session posed up on the balcony with that gun? Geez, dude.

Other guns included Locke getting shot in the leg by Ethan. As to whether or not Ethan “remembered” Locke “after” that encounter when he “first” meets him “later” on “after” the Oceanic crash, who’s to say. That’s getting into what I promised I wouldn’t whine about, but I would like to point out that last sentence wouldn’t have needed so many dam(n) quotes if it weren’t for time travel. Of course Richard comes to the rescue on his next jump with a disconcerting briefing of, “Hey. You’re jumping through time. Give me this compass the next time you see me. Oh yeah, and FYI you’re gonna have to die soon-ish. See ya.”

Finally, there were the guns pulled on Locke and Juliet just before they threatened to cut off her arms, but Locke saved the day. I guess that means he’ll be hanging out with his old pals until he can once again be reunited with the others. What a sucky first day at the office. You officially meet your staff for the first time only to be swallowed by a worm hole to the past. I hate it when that happens.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
We’ve inherited quite a mess. And I’m not talking about the economy. The hope that we cling to is that all questions will receive their answers, in due time. Of course now even the phrase “in due time” becomes dubious as we’re yo-yoed across the space-time continuum, but nevertheless we maintain a trust that our patience and loyalty will bear fruit. As I mentioned in my last e-mail, I’ve read of a few potential plot points from seasons past that they hope to fill us in on this season or next. How did Libby wind up in a mental institution? What really happened with Danielle Rousseau’s crew of scientists? And what about the “real” Henry Gale (the hot-air balloon guy that Ben posed as), remember him? To me, that is what these last two seasons will be about, getting the Oceanic Six back and bringing all the questions to a satisfying close. Two more years… two more years…

POETRY READING:
Roses are read.
Violets are blue.
Where the hell did Miles get that dead bore?
I don’t know, do you?

That was way too weird and random to just let go. My suspicion is that he went into the jungle to commune with some dead people, as that is his talent, and they directed him to where the nearest food supply was, if that’s how that works. Who knows, but surely that will be addressed. Crazy.

BENEDICTION:
“Oh, Lord, please help the writers make it through to the end with sufficient answers to all lingering questions, without making me want to do bodily harm to them. Amen.”

INAUGURAL BALLS:
Ha! Ha ha! Balls…

S4E13 - There's No Place Like Home (Part 2)

2008-06-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

Alas, the summer is officially here and with it, season finales and graduations. It could be said that the Oceanic Six (plus a few others) had a graduation of sorts. Seniors leaving their surreal bubble and moving off to the “real world.” Of course graduation means one thing…

YEAR BOOKS!

LOST Island High – Class of 2004/2005-ish
School Mascot – The Smoke Monsters
School Colors – Ocean Blue, Beach White, and Jungle Green

***[Jack Shepherd]: Plans after graduation – Grow a beard.***

“You can’t leave Jack. You’ll regret it. You know you will.” – John (aka Jeremy Bentham)

And it seems like John’s premonition proves correct. Jack and Hurley’s post-island life takes a turn for the worst, we know. Also, according to John, things go south after the island moves and he blames it on Jack’s leaving. It does make sense that John was the man in the coffin. To me, few people’s death would have elicited such an ambivalent response from Kate. Ben, John, and maybe Michael. Of course Michael got his permission slip to move on (signed by Jacob, delivered by Christian) when the freighter blew. However, seeing John dead was still a surprise simply because of where things were left with him. He totally seemed to be moving into a new leadership role and seemed very content to stay put. Will he have reason to leave the island on occasion, like Ben did and a scattering of others like Tom? Or is he forced to “move” the island, just like Ben had to, so will be officially kicked out at some point?

“Stay sweet!” – Charlotte Lewis

***[Katherine "Kate" Austen]: Plans after graduation – Raise other people’s babies.***

“We’ve had quite a year, huh? I can’t believe you stole Jack from me… JK! You two are cute together. Invite me to the wedding. Ha! BTW, remember that time you helped me perform his appendectomy? Good times! Stay out of trouble! J” – Juliet

Did anybody notice a little moment of chemistry between Juliet and Daniel? Totally a weird match, I know, but there it was. She was all like, “Thank you so much for helping us,” and he said sure and walked off, but totally gave her the over-the-shoulder-look-back. Good for him, he could do better than Charlotte, but Juliet might be a bit out of his league. Sorry, Dan, just my opinion.

“You know I’m not good with this mushy stuff. Don’t forget to do that thing I asked you to do. Yours.” – James (aka Sawyer)

I suppose we’ll see her fulfill that promise to him—whatever it was—sometime next season or the last. Once again, the only off island business he seems to have is with his ex-con girlfriend and their baby girl.

“Stay sweet!” – Charlotte Lewis

***[Hugo “Hurley” Reyes]: Plans after graduation – Go crazy…***

“Take us with you!” – Charlie and Mr. Eko

And who knows what other dead people Hurley is having visions of, poor guy… I totally forgot until just now what was going on with him and Sayid in their flash forward. It seems that Sayid is breaking him out of the mental ward, perhaps as part of Ben’s plan to get them all back together so they can return to the island?

“Stay sweet!” – Charlotte Lewis

***[Sun-Hwa Kwon]: Plans after graduation – Grow a pair. / Avenge husband’s death.***

“Can’t wait to get off this rock and go on the freighter cruise together. Senior trip!” – Jin

While I’m not 100% convinced that Jin is dead, it really did look like bad news bears for him. Let’s say that even if he managed to jump off at the last minute, he certainly didn’t have enough time to swim to the island before it went ghooozjh (that’s my sound effect for disappearing islands). This also makes me wonder about Daniel and the small boat of survivors that were on their way back to the island to escape the immanent explosion. To our knowledge, they were far enough away to be safe, but we never saw them get to shore. I’m sure we’ll see what happens to him (all of the others in his boat were “extras”) next season. He seems to have a good bit of story potential left.

Speaking of freighter people and story potential, they definitely ratcheted up my interest in Charlotte approximately one notch. From her comment to Daniel, it seems like she’s searching for the “place she was born.” Very interesting implications if that’s supposed to be the island, what with the baby complications and all.

“Good for you for sticking out your last few months here even though you got knocked up. Heard you’re going on the Senior trip. Me too! Last time I was on a cruise, though, I got food poisoning. Shellfish. Yuck! Hopefully nothing bad will happen on the freighter. Cross your fingers!” – Michael

Sun had the most interesting flash forward, to me. We see her in a very different light than we have in the past. Very corporate-femme-fatale. Nice. Her interaction with Widmore was intriguing. He seems to know her father very well and she seems to have done her homework too. Is she setting him up, perhaps? Or does she hold Ben indirectly responsible for her husband’s death? That is assuming that Ben is the one she was alluding to when she said, “You know we weren’t the only ones to make it off the island…” Then again, when Jack was speaking to Ben at the funeral home, he made it seem like Sun held him (Jack) responsible for Jin’s death. Not too far of a stretch since he was the one so adamant about not going back to the freighter after the chopper took off. Anyway, so who knows who she’s really mad at, but the thought of her going over to Widmore’s side to somehow avenge Jin’s death is an interesting twist.

“Stay sweet!” – Charlotte Lewis

***[Sayid Jarrah]: Plans after graduation – Killing spree.***

“Hey, dude. You should totally come visit me sometime after we get outta here. Have a great summer!” – Hurley

Lucky for Hurley, Sayid always visits his friends while packing heat. If that break out really was part of Ben’s bigger plan to return to the island (we all know he always has a plan), then it seems like the most difficult people to convince would be Kate and potentially Sun. Of course Hurley seemed very reluctant as well, so next season will be very interesting how they all come to accept the fact they need to go back, that is assuming they do. Kate, obviously has the difficulty of being on probation for 10 years. She can’t leave the state as part of her sentencing. Sun very well could be working for Widmore, so that’s an obvious hurdle, although if Widmore is still trying to find the island she may agree to go along while acting as a double agent. Interesting.

“Stay sweet!” – Charlotte Lewis

***[Desmond Hume]: Plans after graduation – Hook up with high school sweetheart.***

“See you in another life, brother.” – Jack

One thing that wasn’t cleared up for me was the whole, 8/6 survivors thing. The 8 totally made sense at first because the people who got rescued were the Oceanic Six plus Desmond and Frank the pilot. But only the Oceanic Six made it to shore on Amibia or wherever that was, so I don’t get why they even needed to bother lying about 2 other bodies when there were no bodies with them when they made it to civilization. Plot hole, anyone? Maybe I missed something.

Anyway, I’m psyched about Desmond making it off, but I don’t think we’re done with his story by a long shot. Especially if Ben plans on making good on his threat to Widmore about killing Penny, it totally makes sense that Desmond would have to be her protector. More to come on that, I’m sure.

“Stay sweet!” – Charlotte Lewis

***[Benjamin “Ben” Linus]: Plans after graduation – Immediately start planning 5 year reunion.***

“Sorry to see you go. Hear you’re going somewhere cold. Have the best summer ever!” – John (aka Jeremy Bentham)

That whole moving the island thing was interesting. Nice visual effect too. At first I thought Ben could just jump through space and time all willy-nilly, but it seems that maybe he’s just gotten off by “regular” means in the past but when he moved the island, he was subject to a “random” jump. As we know, he jumped a bit into the future, after the Oceanic Six returned. The impression is he was permanently ousted from the island at that point so maybe that’s the only bit of time/space travel he’s ever really done and that’s all he’ll be doing. Fine by me.

However, I don’t think the writers are completely done with time travel. Daniel, especially, seems a likely candidate.

“Stay sweet!” – Charlotte Lewis

*** CLASS SUPERLATIVES ***
Cutest Guy – James “Sawyer” Ford
Cutest Girl – Kate Austen
Most Likely To Succeed – Jack Shepherd
Best Hair – Juliet Burke
Nerdiest – Daniel Farraday
Best Couple – Sun / Jin Kwon
Creepiest Eyes – Benjamin Linus
Best Sense of Humor – Hugo Reyes
Most Likely To Blow Up Your Submarine – John Locke

The ballots aren’t all counted so feel free to send in additional comments or nominate these or other survivors for class superlatives.

Until next season, kids…

S4E12 - There's No Place Like Home (Part 1)

2008-05-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

I feel like a lot happened in this episode, but when I sit down and really think about it, the flurry of activity is a bit of an illusion. In reality, it’s just that the entire cast got to do a little bit of something. Maybe the recap would be easier to manage one character at a time. I’ll try alphabetical order, so as not to appear biased.

Aaron – Is treated to a game of hot potato where he essentially plays the role of “the potato.” Claire abandoned him. Sawyer passed him off to Kate. Kate passed him off to Sun. Dude’s gotta be hungry and to my knowledge there wasn’t any “Dharma pureed peas” on the last rations drop.

Alex – Still dead (shot by Militia dude).

Ana-Lucia – Still dead (shot by Michael).

Arzt, Dr. – Still dead (blown up).

Ben – Leads Locke to the Orchid station in order to “move” the island. Communicates with his people in secret code along the way. Offers himself up to the militia dude as a distraction. Always has a plan, like a shady little bug-eyed boyscout.

Boone – Still dead (fatal leg wound).

Charlie – Still dead (drowned).

Charlotte – Just kind of sits around. Maybe she helps organize the beach evacuation, I’m not sure. Great catch you got there, Daniel.

Christian (Shephard) – Dead-ish. Not present in this episode. Likely kicking back a few brewskies with his estranged love-child.

Claire – Brainwashed? Not present in this episode. Likely kicking back a few brewskies with her estranged and dead-ish father.

Daniel (Faraday) – Organizes the beach evacuation and starts boating survivors to the freighter, six at a time. Too bad it’s full of explosives.

Danielle (Rousseau) – Still dead (shot by Widmore’s militia… hopefully her backstory was not buried with her).

Desmond – Tries to help fix the freighter engines. Goes off to discover what is “blocking” the radar. Finds a cargo-load of C4, ready to blow. Uh-oh.

Eko – Still dead (killed by smoke monster).

Frank – Handcuffed to the chopper. Tells Jack and Sawyer about the militia dude’s plan to kill everyone on the island (aka… “plan B”).

Hugo/Hurley – Follows Ben to the Orchid. In the future: Has a panic attack at his birthday party. Darn those numbers.

Jack – Is convinced Desmond and Sayid are on the chopper and want him to follow. Not so much. Finds Frank and learns of “plan B.” In the future: Delivers a eulogy for his dead-ish father. Discovers he’s Claire’s half-brother and Aaron’s half-uncle. Looks like he has a headache.

Jacob – Not present in this episode. Likely went on vacation. Asked Christian to cabin-sit while he was away. Left him a thank you note and $20 for a beer run.

Jin – Gets rescued only to discover the freighter is rigged with explosives. Warns Sun to move to the far side of the ship as if that will help.

Kate – Follows Jack. Reluctantly takes Aaron and drops him on Sun like a bad habit. Follows Sayid. Gets ambushed by the others. In the future: Sits through an awkward press conference filled with lies. LIES!

Libby – Still dead (accidentally shot by Michael).

Locke – Follows Ben to the Orchid. Looks like a deer in head lights as he receives instructions on how to get into the Orchid station.

Michael – Shares an awkward moment with Jin and Sun. Swears he isn’t “working for Ben.”

Miles – Just wandering through the jungle with Sawyer. Has guns pulled on him, yet again. Poor little weasel.

Naomi – Still dead (knife thrown in the back by Locke).

Nikki – Still dead (bit by a spider then buried alive).

Paulo – Still dead (bit by a spider then buried alive).

Penny – Not present in this episode, but probably waiting by the phone.

Sawyer – Passes Aaron off to Kate in order to help Jack. Is concerned that Hugo’s in danger. Awwww…

Sayid – Lands on the island only to find Jack has run off looking for him. Heads off with Kate to find him. Gets ambushed by the others. Too bad they don’t have cell phones. Seems that would have cleared up a lot of the whos-looking-for-who confusion. In the future: Reunited with Nadia. Enjoy it while it lasts, friend.

Shannon – Still dead (accidentally shot by Ana-Lucia).

Sun – Is in charge of Aaron for the time being. Winds up on a freighter ready to go kablooie. In the future: Buys up shares of her father’s company showing some of her late(?) husband’s badassiness.

Vincent – MIA (where has he been, anyway?).

This episode provided an interesting set up for the finale. Particularly due to “where” everyone was by the end. We know, of course, that the Six get off. We even heard a little bit of the “story” of how they were picked up during that press conference. However, as of “now”, Sun and Aaron are on the freighter, Kate and Sayid are presumably being held prisoner, Jack is at the chopper with Frank, and Hurley is hiding just outside of the Orchid station. It will be interesting to see how they all “find” one another and make it off together.

Two comments in particular I found interesting were Sun’s. First, in the beginning when she said, “We ARE in shock, Jack.” Of course they are, and I’m sure it is in part due to their regret of leaving other people behind, but it seemed like more than that. Also, her comment to her father when she said, “I hold two people responsible for my husband’s death. You’re one of them.” So will Jin really die, then? Hmm… Seems like if she was just saying that to keep up the lie of how the Six were the only survivors, she wouldn’t bother to mention that there was some other person she also holds responsible for Jin’s death.

I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.

Season finale airs next week, May 29th, 9pm-11pm.

S4E11 - Cabin Fever

2008-05-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

I know I can get long-winded so I’ve broken my recap into three summary-level options. For those with the time and like to overanalyze like me, please see the long recap. For those who just want the highlights, refer to the medium. Finally, for anyone that just needs a quick fix, scroll to the very bottom.

***LONG RECAP***
So, Locke was born 3 months early. It seems there are many “miracles” in John’s life. I can’t remember if it was the first or second season, but I do remember his mom popped in for a surprise visit while he was working in that department store and told him about his dad. The weird thing is, I always thought his dad, being the con that he is, was conning Locke’s mom at the time he knocked her up, but seeing how young she was, I don’t see what his angle would have been. Didn’t Locke’s “grandmother” tell her daughter that so-and-so was twice her age? If Locke’s mom was around 16, then that would make Locke’s dad 32 years older than him. He didn’t seem THAT much older, but whatever, I won’t get too bogged down with that.

Anyway, the biggest what!? in the next two flashbacks was a visit from the island’s very own Richard. I remember thinking it was strange that Richard didn’t seem to age from when Ben originally met him on the island when he was young, but I thought MAYBE they just did a bad job in making him look older, but then again, they did such a good job with Ben’s dad. Well, this is certainly confirmation that Richard is not aging, at least not at a perceptible rate. It also occurs to me if “time-travel” is an option, then he may just be popping around time. His test with young Locke was very interesting. I wonder if any of those items were things that he comes across later on as a kid, or if we will see him with one of these items later on while on the island? It seems like Richard is trying to discover “gifted” children similar to how they wanted to study Walt.

His next flashback was interesting because of the “summer camp” he was invited to. It was hosted by Mittelos labs. I believe that is the same company that Richard was “recruiting” for when he first met with Juliet, so obviously it is a front for island inhabitant candidates.

This brings us to his last flashback and to me, the most intriguing. Another person is now interested in Locke’s miraculous recovery. This time it is the tall black guy, who pretended to be a rep from Oceanic when speaking to Hurley and then later pops up as Naomi’s contact when putting together the freighter expedition for Widmore. At first I thought it was crazy how he, too, didn’t seem to age, but then again, Locke’s accident wasn’t too long before the plane crash so I don’t find it as suspicious as Richard popping up in 1960. However, it did solidify something in my mind, which is how that dude is obviously working for Widmore.

It’s almost like Richard and the black guy (I just read somewhere that his name is Matthew) represent the two sides in some way. You’ve got Richard on Team Island, and Matthew on Team Widmore. If Richard isn’t time traveling and is just preternaturally young, then obviously he’s been working “for the island” in some way shape or form even before Ben came onto the scene.

That wouldn’t surprise me from Ben’s comments to Locke during this episode. I got the impression that the island can “choose” someone, then just as easily “unchoose” them. Perhaps there was some leader of the others/hostiles or whatever you want to call them, even before Ben. His comment about how the island gave him spinal cancer while it healed Locke ties in to Rose’s comments about how it healed her, yet gave Jack an appendicitis. I’m not going to even try to understand the pecking order behind who gets healed and who doesn’t, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Anyway, Locke has a vision of Horrace (same guy that convinced Ben’s dad to come work with Dharma, I think) chopping down trees to build what will be Jacob’s cabin. I don’t know if it was supposed to be spooky because he was “dead”, but the nosebleed he had stood out to me because of the significance it has with time travel on the island. You know, everyone that’s about to die because of too much time travel has a brain aneurism. It turns out it’s a dream (so at least he’s not seeing ghosts), but then again how do we explain who he saw in Jacob’s cabin?

Remember when I said how freaky it would be if the next time we saw Claire she was watching the brain wash video with the others somewhere? Well, strike that, because it was even freakier to see her chilling out with her dead father and a knowing smile on her face. And what’s up with Christian’s advice to Locke about how to save the island? Move it? What’s he going to do, convince all the remaining survivors to gather on the beach and push?

In the meantime, the chopper has arrived back at the freighter and the militia-guy is ready to go all commando. We see how Sayiid escapes in order to get back and rescue his friends (and also potentially why only six can be saved because of the boat’s max capacity). We see why the doctor gets a close shave and also witness the captain getting shot. It seems the only people left on the boat now are Desmond and Michael. Maybe a few extra militia people, but most of them seemed to have left on the chopper.

Looks like Jack and friends may be following the chopper thanks to the tracking sat phone that Frank dropped, Sayiid is on his way to the rescue, Locke is going to come up with some bizarre way to “hide” the island by moving it, and it appears that in the next episode we’ll even see a bit of the Oceanic Six’s homecoming. It really feels this mini-season is wrapping up nicely, though I would say that the new emphasis on time travel has left a sour taste in my mouth.

***MEDIUM RECAP***
Locke was a miracle baby. Thank you, March of Dimes!
Richard is either a time-traveller or crazy old.
The head militia-dude is one mean hombre. No secret, there.
Locke is special, sort of.
Mittelos summer camp is fun… if you like being brain washed and held captive.
Matthew isn’t “just an orderly.” Not by a long shot.
Claire plays beer pong with her dead father in Jacob’s cabin.
Locke plans to tie a rope around the island and pull hard.

***SHORT RECAP***
Huh?

S4E10 - Something Nice Back Home

2008-05-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like AMOROUS MULTIPLUS finally reared its ugly head in this episode, though it was handled well without having to resort to a cat fight. Of course if you recall, Kate and Juliet already had their knock-down-drag-out in the episode where Juliet was ostracized from the others and the two love-torn ladies woke up in the jungle handcuffed to one another.

Since the revelation of the Oceanic Six, I’ve wondered if Juliet ever winds up making it off the island. Like Desmond, she wouldn’t be considered part of the group of crash survivors so wouldn’t be as “newsworthy”. However, we do know she has major motivation (her sister) to leave.

Anyway, it looks like whatever potential there was to be between Jack and Juliet (aka Jackiet/Juliack) is not in the cards as he winds up with Kate in the future (Jacate/Katack). We kind of already knew he was interested based on their conversation in Kate’s flashforward after the trial, but it looks like he finally gets over his aversion to Aaron and asks her out for that “cup of coffee”… and then some.

But alas, it seems even Katack is not meant to be, thanks in part to Jack’s disturbing visions of his dead father and drinking/jealousy issues. The two most interesting comments to me were in their argument towards the end. “Sawyer made his choice” is the follow up indicator that I was looking for to prove at least some of the survivors that don’t get off the island weren’t dead, but rather stayed behind for a reason. I thought as much already, but the only clue we’d been given so far was the conversation between Hurley (crazy) and Charlie (dead), so you gotta kind of question the source. I wonder what Kate’s promise to Sawyer was? Seeing as he’s had his revenge on the “original“ Sawyer, the only remaining tie to the outside world I can think of is his ex-con girlfriend’s daughter. Perhaps it has something to do with her. Anyway, the other interesting comment was Jack arguing how Kate wasn’t even related to Aaron. Not to get too analytical, but the word choice and the way he delivered the line really made me think that he knows he is Aaron’s uncle at that point. I’m sure we’ll see how he finds out in an upcoming flashforward.

Which of course brings us to Aaron’s mama. I didn’t necessarily believe Claire would be killed (though it would surely explain why they would decide to take Aaron with them), but I also never thought she would just up and disappear into the jungle. Very interesting. I wonder if she’s off getting converted into an island-addict a la Locke while everyone thinks she’s gone for good or dead. Wouldn’t it be freaky if the next time we saw her she was watching a brainwashing video while shacking up at the “Temple” hatch where all the others are apparently hiding now?

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot Charlie’s message to Jack via Hurley, “You’re not supposed to raise him.” For those of you that don’t remember, that is a throw back to season 1, I believe, where the psychic that Claire went to see was adamant that she HAD to be the one to raise her baby and no one else could. Presumably, that is why he tricked her into getting on the plane (under the guise of traveling to the US to give the baby up for adoption), because he knew it would crash and she would be forced to take care of Aaron on her own. Hopefully she’s still alive and well somewhere on the island when/if Aaron returns, otherwise he might turn into some sort of devil-child. Who knows?

One of the highlights of the episode for me was Jin’s exchange with Charlotte. It reminded me of how much of a bada$$ he can be.

I thought it was a pretty good episode, myself, but I’m concerned about the previews for this week. While “time travel” is my public enemy number one, number two would have to be “interacting with dead people.” Not sure if you caught the clip, but it appears that Locke has a nice chat with Jacob who claims to have been dead for a little over a decade. …heavy sigh… Why can’t I just accept that this is a science fiction show and not a documentary on PBS? It would make it a lot easier to swallow at times.

S4E9 - The Shape Of Things To Come

2008-04-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the recap delay. Everyone in our household is under the weather. I’ve got some allergy shenanigans going on, Courtney has a cold, and we just found out that our daughter Andra has an ear infection.

Speaking of illnesses, what’s up with Jack? (How about that for a transition?) They kind of glossed over that a bit, but it looks like it may become more serious in the next episode. Of course we know he lives, but is that why he’s one of the ones that gets off the island, because he’s in need of serious medical attention?

COMPULSORY LEADERIDUS
[Description: Often surfaces when someone is forced into a leadership role, especially when survival hangs in the balance. This condition is exacerbated by involvement in more than one romantic relationship (see also AMOROUS MULTIPLUS).]
[Symptoms: irritable bowels, severe stomach cramps, permanent five o’clock shadow]
[Cure: stop trying to fix things]

It makes me wonder, once again, what will happen to those who don’t get off the island. Do they elect (or are they forced) to stay behind for some unknown reason? Or do they all get wiped out? A few “extras” certainly bit the bullet when Widmore’s militia came into Locke’s camp, guns blazing, so it very well may be that the Oceanic Six really ARE the only ones to survive. They certainly did a fake-out with Claire. However, I always go back to Charlie’s ghost and his comments to Hurley in the flash forward when he says, “They need your help.” I gotta believe that some folks are still alive, but have to stay behind. Locke, for instance, has plenty of motivation what with his serious case of…

LOST ISLAND FEVER
[Description: Specific to an uncharted island in the South Pacific, this disease makes many who come into contact with said island become unhealthily attached to the point where they are willing to remain at all costs.]
[Symptoms: hallucinations, aimless wandering, killing strangers]
[Cure: no known cure, though blowing up a submarine can temporarily suppress symptoms]

I guess Widmore’s militia blows my theory that Ben purposefully led his daughter’s entourage into an ambush. Good for him. However, I’m still bummed that Danielle didn’t pop out of the jungle at the last minute and shoot the militia leader before he plugged Alex. I guess I need to accept she’s gone. I almost felt bad for Ben, but then again he’s still a total weasel, even in trying to call the leader’s bluff. This brings us to his part in this episode, which fills in the gap of how Sayiid came into his employment. What it also does, as is typical for the show, is bring up more questions.

DISPROPORTIONATE INQUIRIUS EXPONITA
[Description: Answering a question with more than one new question.]
[Symptoms: pulling out chunks of hair, yelling at your TV, repetition of the phrase “Huh?”]
[Cure: series finale (we hope)]

Did he “teleport” into the desert in the beginning? I’m sure we’ll see how he gets that nasty cut on his arm in the “future.” Did he “call” the smoke monster? What was the deal with the “rules” he kept mentioning? I’m sure they have something to do with his comment to Widmore in the end when he said, “I can’t kill you, you know that.” Does this have something to do with time travel? Maybe Widmore does something in the future/past so that if Ben kills him it will undo some important something or other before/later? And what’s the deal with the doctor’s dead body? I had to think if we’d seen him die yet and I guess we haven’t, we only saw Regina jump overboard. Anyway, looks like something that will happen in the “future” on the freighter and he washes ashore in the “past.” Ugh, I wish that everyone involved in time travel would just have a brain aneurism and get it over with.

TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENTITUS
[Description: A result of exposure to high doses of radiation in combination with proximity to an uncharted island in the South Pacific (see also LOST ISLAND FEVER).]
[Symptoms: confusion, vivid flashbacks, nosebleeds]
[Cure: phone call to an old flame]

I suspect Desmond won’t take too kindly to Ben’s plan for revenge on Widmore. I wonder if the D-meister will also get off the island. Entirely possible since he would not be included in the Oceanic Six simply due to the fact he wasn’t on the flight. If so, that will pose an interesting new role for him as Penny’s protector. Perhaps Widmore would even be down with the idea despite his obvious dislike for him.

Other illnesses known to the island, but asymptomatic in this episode:

OBVIOUS INQUIRIUS MYOPIA
[Description: Being so immersed in a traumatizing situation that you fail to ask important questions.]
[Symptoms: ignoring or accepting the extraordinary with little to no need for explanation]
[Cure: asking direct questions such as Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?]

AMOROUS MULTIPLUS (aka Love Triangle, Quadrangle, Pentangle, Hexangle, etc..)
[Description: Condition where attractive people in isolation or captivity simultaneously become romantically involved due to limited options.]
[Symptoms: accelerated heart rate, profuse sweating, excessive blushing, cat fights (in extreme cases)]
[Cure: monogamous relationships, keeping your pants on]

S4E8 - Meet Kevin Johnson

2008-03-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

So, Michael goes through all of that mess, killing Ana Lucia and Libby, freeing Ben, leading Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Hurley into an ambush, getting off the island safely with his son, but then feels guilty about what he did (and rightly so), but is going to essentially throw all of that away by trying to kill himself. What an idiot. I don’t know why the island would even bother to keep him alive.

Want to know what his note to Walt said?
“Dear Walt, Sorry I’m such a lame-wad. Love, Dad.”

Granted, life on the lam probably isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, just ask Kate, but even SHE knows the value of life (even if it’s just the value of staying alive for someone of whom you are a pseudo-parent). You don’t see her getting off the island and finally being free of the charges against her only to go home and pin a note to her shirt addressed to Aaron saying she’s guilty she left everyone on the island behind in order to save her own sorry butt so she thinks it’s best to just sign off early and leave him to fend for himself, parentless. Nope. She’s all like, “Cool, I’m not a wanted felon anymore, now I get to stay home and play mom.”

Perhaps I’m being unfair as Kate likely doesn’t kill anyone in order to save herself, but then again, there is definitely the impression that they leave folks behind (presumably “alive”) to their own fates for whatever reason. The preview for the rest of the season even suggested that we’ll see how the Oceanic Six escape, though I wasn’t expecting that reveal so soon. Makes you wonder what the last two seasons will look like.

Anyway, there didn’t seem to be that much surprise in Michael’s flashback. It did fill in the expected gap of how he came to be on the freighter, but I don’t feel there was anything too shocking or new in that. We did see Tom off the island, which was mildly interesting, but not much else. It was curious to hear Tom’s side of the story, about how Widmore was the one that staged the wreckage. At this point, I’m not sure which side to believe, but if anything, Ben has earned more doubt points than anyone else on the show.

And speaking of which, that brings us to the death(s) at the end of the episode, which is what I had the most problem with. As for Carl, whatever… you could totally see Ben’s wheels turning when he saw how “familiar” he was being with Alex. I don’t doubt that Ben cares for his fake-daughter in a way and I can understand his concern about her having any kind of close relationship, especially when the promise of her getting pregnant on the island means certain death, but for all of his talk with Michael about not wanting to harm any “innocent people”, I TOTALLY think he lead Alex, Carl, and Danielle into a trap. Now that he’s free, he could have easily radioed ahead to his people at the Temple and said, “Hey guys, hope things are okay without me. FYI, I’m sending my daughter your way so if you could just knock off her boyfriend and mom when you see them, that would be great. Later, gator!” Now I’m not positive if that’s what the deal was, but it does seem super convenient, don’t you think? I can’t think of who else could be responsible, anyway. All of the freighter folks are accounted for, except for the chopper pilot that went on a “secret mission”, but that doesn’t seem to be his style.

Anyway, my biggest complaint was Danielle being shot. Of course we’re not positive she’s dead, but she certainly looked it. I feel like there was SO much flashback potential with her. Think about it, we would get to see how her research vessel came to crash or get stranded there, we’d see how the others managed to take Alex in the first place, and the biggest mystery in her past was the “sickness” that she said effected the entire science team she was with. I think she even suggested that she had to kill them all or something. If we don’t get to see that, I will be hugely disappointed. Not that she can’t work into someone else’s flashback somehow, but even so, her death didn’t honor how cool her character was (or could have been if they had bothered to develop her).

One thing I will say, Danielle and Ben were having a fierce staring contest right before they made the decision to leave for the Temple. I can’t remember the timing of her pregnancy or if they even explained that—you would think that if she met Ben and did the hoky-poky while on the island then she would have died like all the other pregnant women—but I wouldn’t be too surprised if they work out some way for Ben to be Alex’s real father somehow. Maybe not, because I think I remember Danielle alluded to the fact that she had to kill Alex’s “father” due to the sickness. Alas, we may never know. Arggghhh.

No more episodes until late April. Maybe that’s good. I feel like I need a mental break.

Later, gator.

S4E7 - Ji Yeon

2008-03-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

$5 to everyone that called Michael as the mole. Unfortunately, that’s a lot of money to hand out. Don’t get me wrong, I think having Michael back in the picture is an interesting twist, but it’s a little of a let down at how predictable it was. If I were one of the writers, I would have had him in the episode, but it would have been as Sun’s new husband. Who could forget the pseudo-chemistry they had in Season 1? Anyway, the real interest in having Michael back is to see everyone’s reaction to him after what he did. I guess we’ll get to see a bit of that even though he’s on the freighter and not truly off the island. I’m still interested to see his backstory as I’m sure we’ll get a flashback to what the “real” deal between him and Ben was and what got him from then to now. I just wonder if “Tall Walt” is hanging out on the boat or if he’s safe and sound somewhere else. To me, the biggest revelation on the freighter was the Captain’s comment about the staged wreckage. We all knew it was staged, but I for one, thought the Dharma initiative or Widmore or whatever/whoever you want to call the outside forces, were responsible, wanting the island all to themselves. However, if we are to believe him, the Captain indicated that Ben was the one responsible. It makes sense after I thought about it. Ben certainly has the resources to pull it off and the motivation to remain undiscovered.

Anyway, though Michael was a fairly easy call, the episode did not disappoint on other twists. I had a suspicion that all was not as it appeared with the flash forward. At first I thought I was wrong about counting Aaron as one of the Oceanic Six since Sun AND Jin would make it seven. But then, when I started thinking of everyone else’s flash forwards, I thought how everyone so far (except Kate who managed to escape her fate, but I’m not counting her out) has a really crappy life post-rescue, so I was thinking Sun and Jin were divorced. What really happened was even more surprising/confusing. Once I realized Jin and Sun were not “together” I thought maybe Jin was working for Ben post-island just like Sayid. This ties in perfectly with his reconciliatory comment to Sun when he said, “I will do anything I can to protect my wife and child,” or some such thing like that. It also makes sense that with Ben’s apparent resources, he could get Jin off the island without anyone knowing. However, if all that is true, then why was he so smiley about being newly married? When Jin and Hurley went to visit his grave, I thought maybe she was just faking it to save face, but it was pretty obvious that she truly believed he was dead. This brings up an interesting possibility, that other folks may make it off the island, but fly under the radar somehow for some reason and are not counted as part of the Oceanic Six.

So, in true LOST-fashion, by the end of the episode we are left with new questions.

Is/Was Jin part of the Oceanic Six?
Why did he fake his death?
Is he working for Ben like Sayid?
When Hurley found out no one else (I’m assuming of the survivors) were coming to see Sun’s baby, he said, “Good.” Why?
Did anyone else make it off the island incognito without being counted as one of the “six”?
What was up with that Regina lady? Just a bad case of “cabin fever” or something else?
What was up with the cut/bite mark(?) on the doctor’s face?
Where’s Walt? Will he be six foot three and sporting a beard the next time we see him?
And, in case you caught the preview, who will die in the next episode?

My money is on Michael to kick the bucket, but only because I think the episode will center on him and he’ll probably do something heroic or resolve some issues he has from the past, which of course on this show means he’s toast.

***UPDATE***

Okay, so someone brought to my attention that in actuality all of Sun’s flashes were forward and all of Jin’s were backward to when he and Sun were newly married…?

Am I the only one that didn’t get that?

I suppose that makes a lot of sense because I couldn’t fathom how/why Jin would get off the island undercover and why he would fake his death. Was Paik Automotive the company that Sun’s father owned? I don’t remember that being the name of it, but I guess it’s true. We just tagged along while he ran an errand for his “new” father-in-law in the past while his “widow” in the future birthed his child.

If that’s the case, then we know at some point Jin for-real-dies, either on the island or off if they’re counting him as part of the Oceanic Six or not. Maybe he’s the one that dies next week, though it seems too soon to reveal that he WILL die and then BAM he kicks it in the next episode.

Whatever, at this point, I’m too confused to think any more.

How awesome would it be, though, if my original assumption was true? Makes you wonder what kind of shenanigans will occur in the future for him to have such a falling out with Sun that he fakes his own death and remarries. But alas, he’s just plain (soon-to-be) dead.

If one more cooky or confusing thing with “time” happens this season, I may be liable to hunt down J.J. Abrams and punch him in the face.

S4E6 - The Other Woman

2008-03-10T14:20:00.000-07:00

TRAMP
So, Juliet is a homewrecker. Okay.

PSYCH
I enjoyed the typical fake out in the beginning when you think they’re in one place, but they’re really somewhere else. The therapy session made you think Juliet was adjusting to the “celebrity” of being off the island, but really if you think about it, she wouldn’t be big news. She wasn’t on the flight so it’s not like she survived a plane crash and was thought dead. She’s just some chick that made a really poor career change.

“YOU’RE MINE”
And that whole stuff between her and Ben was a little much. I mean, I always got the impression that Ben had a little crush on her and I suppose this is confirmation, but for him to yell “You’re mine” towards the end seemed a bit un-Ben-like to me. The interesting thing that was mentioned almost in passing was the bitchy therapist, Harper, saying that of course Ben likes Juliet because she looks “just like her.” Hmm… I remember some little girl that he made friends with when he was young on the island, but once we was grown up and gassed everyone, you never saw her again. Could it be that she was killed as a result of his betrayal and he’s obsessed with Juliet because she looks like her?

LOVE HEPTAGON?
I feel like this is what the whiteboard looks like after soap opera planning meetings.

Kate <-> Jack
/................\
......... Sawyer ...... Juliet <- Ben

................... /

Harper -> Goodwin

POOR GOODWIN
Juliet’s motivation for wanting Ben dead (as was obvious from her attempt to convince Jack to let him die on the operating table last season) is a lot more clear now.

WHISPERS
You know, I was thinking the other day about all of the loose ends left to tie up and the whole whispers thing came to mind. No one was there, whisper whisper, bitchy therapist pops up (and Jack sees her too), she chit chats Juliet, whisper whisper, she’s gone. So what… it’s a form of travel? The others can hop aboard the Whisper Express and scoot around the island at the speed of sound? I believe Sayid was the first to hear them, though no one from his past popped out of the jungle immediately afterwards. Anyway, not sure what’s up with that.

LOCKE-NESS
I used to like Locke… well, mostly in the first season. But he’s really gone off the deep end and now he just kind of seems aimless and crazy. I always wish he would do something cool when confronting Ben (like shove a grenade in his mouth like he did with Miles) or be wily enough to outsmart him just once, but Ben always seems to have the upper hand. No surprise because Ben is an awesome manipulator, but either way, it just makes Locke look more and more pathetic and that’s no fun to watch.

DADDY WARBUCKS
So, if you didn’t know, the Widmore guy on the video that Ben showed Locke is Penny’s dad. That definitely confirms his suspected interest in the island, though I’m still not sure if he’s the one that also funded (or is funding) the Dharma Initiative. Either way, that seems like the biggest new piece of the puzzle. The interesting thing to me is that Desmond reached the island supposedly “by accident” when his estranged-pseudo-father-in-law has been looking for it presumably for years.

GASSY
I thought the others (back when they were referred to as “the hostiles”) had gassed the Dharma folks with canisters thanks to Ben’s assistance. I could be wrong. Maybe Ben just gave “the hostiles” (who we really only know to be that Richard guy that doesn’t seem to age) access to the Tempest and they flipped the switch to release enough gas to wipe everyone out. I wouldn’t put it passed Ben to do something like that again if he wants to keep the island a secret so badly.

That’s about it…
BEN IS SWEET ON JULIET
BEN LIKES TO PLAY WITH DEADLY CHEMICALS
BEN’S AFFECTIONS SHOULD NOT BE SPURNED

The end.

By the way, my guess is that they DID count Aaron as one of the Oceanic Six because the preview for this week mentioned we would learn the last member. I debated back and forth if they counted Kate a few weeks ago because technically we already knew her. Anyway, so that means it is:
Jack
Hurley
Sayid
Kate
Aaron
and…?

My guess is Sun just because it looked like Juliet was driving home the point that she needed to get off the island pronto before she and the baby died. I guess we also find out who Ben’s man on the boat is.

S4E5 - The Constant

2008-02-29T11:45:00.000-08:00

Rather than digging for my last recap and hitting the reply all button, I’ve now created an Outlook distribution group. My first ever. How exciting.

As a matter of fact, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the most exciting thing going on right now, this is how it ranked:

10 – Closing on the sale of my old townhouse today
9 – Plans to eat at Ted’s Montana grill for lunch
8 –
7 – I’m taking the rest of the day off after I hit SEND on this e-mail
6 – Creating on Outlook distribution list <--
5 –
4 – I ate too many donuts at our staff meeting this morning
3 –
2 – Last night’s episode of LOST
1 –

Perhaps some will disagree with my ranking of last night’s episode, but really, mental time travel? Come on.

I only have a few things to say, really.

First of all, it looks like Desmond is “living” in his flashbacks similar to how he did during his flashback once he blew up the hatch. Except this time, there was no mysterious jewelry store owner that knew him and tried to convince him not to change his past. Remember that? Oh MAN, time travel is so lame. I only say this because I’m REALLY trying to view this show in a “real world” scenario. The producers have always claimed that everything happening on the island can be explained by science. However, if you watch the sci-fi channel to get your news, then maybe your perception of what science can achieve is a bit skewed.

So, I’m calling what they’re portraying on the show as “junk science” and according to “junk scientists” exposure to high doses of radiation (in Desmond’s case, electromagnetism when he blew the lid of the hatch) + the weird effects of the island (a la The Bermuda Triangle) = time travel in your mind (or what some people like to call, remembering shit). Looks like bad news for Daniel since his little radiation apron didn’t come with a helmet option. It will be interesting if Daniel also suffers from this time travel effect. My theory is that he will at one point, which is what may contribute to his unstable mannerisms. Remember when he saw the footage of the wreckage on the TV in his brief flashback and he cried and couldn’t explain why? Maybe it was because at that point he had already bounced back from the future and knew everyone’s true ultimate fate, but he was so wonked out from mental time travel he couldn’t grasp what was going on. Just a thought, brought to you by “junk science.”

Hopefully these Desmond shenanigans are done now that he’s had a heart felt phone call with his “constant.” Don’t get me wrong. I love Desmond’s character, just not what the writer’s have done with him. Anyway, if we are to accept the junk science of time travel, then I suppose we have to accept this notion that there must be a constant in your present and past/future to keep you anchored or you’ll have a brain aneurism. Fine. I accept that. However, by Daniel’s own explanation, it had to be something you REALLY cared about. Maybe even a person. So, if we are to accept that as well, then why the flip would Desmond be Daniel’s constant if something were to happen as he found scribbled in his journal at the end? Granted, Daniel at least knows that Desmond is one person that factors into his past and present so it’s a good call, but still, I don’t see them exchanging tearful “I love you”s over the sat phone anytime soon.

A few other things. It looks like Minowski may not have been Ben’s inside man as I first suspected. I only originally thought that because Frank was cautious of Daniel talking to him as if he suspected something. However, maybe he was cautious of Minowski because he was already starting to crack up at the time. Anyway, judging from the door being left open and the sabotaged communication equipment, it looks like Ben’s mole is alive and well. There didn’t seem to be too many others on the boat. The captain, who we only caught a glimpse of, the two dudes that initially met them when they boarded, and the doctor. Maybe there’s more of course, but it wasn’t that huge of a ship, really.

Also, I’m not sure if anyone caught it, but Penny’s dad was bidding on a logbook from the “Black Rock” ship that is the one crashed in the middle of the island. The really interesting this was that the auctioneer said the original owners was the Hanso family, and if you recall, the Hanso foundation was mentioned in the Orientation video that Locke and Eko spliced together and is the company that funded the Dharma Initiative. Man, I’m such a geek.

Anyway, in short…
THE ISLAND IS IN THE MIDDLE OF SOME SILLY TIME BUBBLE.
BLEEDING FROM THE NOSE IS NOT COOL.
PENNY IS STILL SWEET ON DESMOND, EVEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS.

The End.

S4E4 - Eggtown

2008-02-22T11:32:00.000-08:00

Man, oh man. It’s amazing what a nice twist can do for an otherwise average episode. I feel like the Aaron reveal was so monumental, we should start with it and work our way backwards… kind of like eating your dessert first.

FLASHBACK COUNTDOWN:

So, I was maybe half right with the whole “I need to get back to him” comment Kate made to Jack at the end of last season. She did mean a baby, but not her own! Now I’m still wondering if Desmond’s flash of Claire getting into a helicopter will still happen. There’s obviously so much that has yet to happen, she could very well hop on a chopper and still not make it. If the preview from next week is any indication, it’s apparently a fairly treacherous ride back. So a few possibilities here…

1) Claire dies before being rescued and Kate decides to take the baby. Perhaps as Claire’s final request?
2) Claire decides to remain on the island for some reason. This is an interesting possibility because then the obvious question would be why would she decide to remain and give up Aaron. Or if she didn’t give him up willingly, why would Kate feel so strongly about taking him away?
3) Claire does make it off and is one of the Oceanic Six, but something happens to her afterwards and Kate raises Aaron as her own.

One good point Courtney made last night was that if Kate already claims Aaron as her child once they are all rescued, it would be easy for anyone to do the math and figure that she would have had to have been pregnant pre-flight, which would be fairly easy to confirm she was not considering how closely she was tracked by the Feds. Maybe this is why she was so adamant about not letting her mom visit as well as not bringing him to the trial, she doesn’t want him in the public eye because people might start asking questions.

Taking one step backwards, the brief conversation between Kate and Jack after the trial REALLY had me thinking that the baby was his and the reason he didn’t want to see it was because he just didn’t want to be involved with the parenting. It certainly would have fit with her comment to him, which I have taken the liberty to insert my assumed subtext:

“I understand why you don’t want to see him (because you’re a dead beat dad), but until you do (take responsibility for your child) there can be no ‘you and I going for coffee.’ (because you can’t have your cake and eat it too.)”

I thought THIS was going to be the twist. That Jack is the future father of Kate’s baby. Of course then she drops the Aaron bomb and bam, that theory is shot. But then what are we to think of this dialogue between them? Was it just a trick to get us to think that Jack and Kate eventually hook up only to sucker punch us in the end? I would think not. So this leaves us with the obvious question of why would Jack be SO hesitant about seeing Aaron?

As far as her sentencing goes, ten years probation without leaving the state, I think it will be an interesting obstacle in the future because I’m pretty convinced that at some point they will all believe they have to go back to the island.

Continuing our countdown, to me, Jack’s testimony was the next biggest surprise because of one comment and I may need a little help with it. He said there were eight survivors of the crash, right? But then went on to say that Kate saved him, but couldn’t save the other two. I wonder if that has any significance or if that’s just part of the story they all agreed to tell. I just don’t know why you would bother to say there were eight survivors if two of them drowned right after.

ISLAND COUNTDOWN:

Island-wise I feel like there were only two things worth noting, maybe three. The first being Miles’s attempt at blackmail. Even Ben seemed offended and you would imagine he’d jump at any chance to not be found or at least left alone. It seems Miles enjoys squeezing money out of folks, both living and dead. The most interesting piece was Miles’s claim to know who Ben was and “what he could do.” Obviously he was some financial power based on that desk stash of cash, but what else is he keeping up his sleeves?

The second noteworthy snippet was the emergency line conversation with Regina. First of all, the fact that there was an emergency line that was perfectly functional and the freighter folk didn’t bother to tell them seems odd. And secondly, the fact that the chopper hadn’t arrived yet is suspect. We know that Sayid, at least, survives so either there was a problem with the chopper and it has to crash land (on the “Alcatraz” island from the beginning of last season maybe?) or this is just a side effect of the time distortion?

And the last thing, weird, but still noteworthy, was Dan and Charlotte’s little “exercise” just before Jack confronted them about the sat phone. I have a feeling that Dan is a little unstable so maybe he’s off his meds or something and Charlotte is just helping him keep it together mentally. That seems reasonable. Any other theory about why it would be difficult to memorize three playing cards is beyond me. No one else seems to suffer from memory loss.

That’s about it. I thought we were supposed to discover another member of the Oceanic Six, but it was just Kate who we already knew survived, unless they’re counting Aaron, but I doubt it.

Biggest mystery of the episode... WHY IS IT TITLED "EGGTOWN?"

Comments? Theories?

S4E3 - The Economist

2008-02-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

Wow.

A very special Valentine’s Day episode I would say. I shall recap in honor of the holiday.

***LOST VALENTINES***

To: Naomi
Card: White construction paper with a lot of neon marker colors squiggled all around the border.
Outside: “I’ll always be with you”
Inside: One of those old school “slap bracelets” from the 80s. “I’m getting one of these made for you in metal real soon!”
From: RG

Interesting bracelet. I don’t believe we know anyone with the initials RG… yet. However, I think the most interesting thing about it was the fact that Elsa (that blond chick that Sayiid offed in his flash forward) was wearing one too.

To: Mr. Avellino
Card: Green card depicting a lavish golf course.
Outside: “Hope you get a hole-in-one for Valentines!”
Inside: “And by that I mean a hole somewhere in the vicinity of a vital organ.”
From: Sayid

Well, I had a feeling Sayid would be one of the Oceanic Six, but mainly because his pseudo-girlfriend that he let escape way back when is too much of a good reunion storyline to not develop. However, his “future” was definitely a surprise. More on that later…

To: Naomi
Card: Just regular notebook paper folded a bunch of times.
Outside: “I dig your accent and I think you’re hot.”
Inside: “Wanna go out or something once we finish our mission? Check box YES or NO.”
From: Miles

Apparently Miles doesn’t care much about Charlotte and only cared about Naomi on a superficial level. However, he seemed super interested about Locke and how he wound up dividing the group. Was this just forced dialogue to lead to Sayid’s snappy “I haven’t decided yet” comment on whether the freighter folks were good or bad? If not, it really begs the question of why Miles is so interested in their group dynamic. Whatever… I bet he’s there to try to “talk” to all of the dead Dharma folks in that mass grave in order to get the missing pieces of their research.

To: Dan
Card: No card, just a big tube.
Outside: Steel durable enough to withstand being shot from a freighter.
Inside: A portable clock/timer for people who hate watches. Also great for baking or performing physics experiments.
From: Regina

If I remember correctly, the timer he had with him showed maybe 3:15ish and the one in the tube read 2:45ish. So, something funky with time is happening on the island? Okay. His comment to Frank at the end about making sure he takes the same bearings when flying out as they did coming in mirrors Ben’s comments to Michael when he gave him the boat at the end of season 2 and said to make sure he stays on those coordinates or else he wouldn’t be able to leave. Interesting, but it doesn’t tell us much besides “there is a lot of crazy shitake going on with this island.” Not exactly news.

To: Ben
Card: Oversized manila envelope
Outside: Unmarked.
Inside: Wads and wads of foreign currency and fake passports.
From: Self

What the…? So does ol’ Benny boy travel incognito? We knew from last season when he showed Juliet the footage of her healthy sister that he has a little influence with the outside world, and more so now that we know he has a plant on the freighter, but maybe he’s a lot less “confined” to the island than we think. Hmm…

To: Kate
Card: Plain white paper folded in half with a drawing of one of the Dharma barracks.
Outside: “Let’s play house together…”
Inside: “Until the electricity goes out or we starve, whichever comes first.”
From: Sawyer

I wonder if she really voluntarily stayed with the Locke camp. Sawyer did make an interesting point, though. What does she have to get back to? They’re just two criminal peas in a pod. Interesting, though, because we know she does get off. I wonder, though, if Sawyer will too. He seems like an obvious guess of the “he” that she told Jack she needed to get back to at the end of last season. My theory is that she gets pregnant while on the island with Sawyer Jr., but is afraid he will die like all of the other island-conceived kiddies, so she decides to leave and Sawyer decides to stay or is killed or something tragic. Or even better, he’s killed in the process of helping her get rescued. Not that I want him to die, but you know, it seems like it would be good closure for his character… self-sacrifice for his baby momma.

To: Sayid / Elsa
Card: Pink with red and white cut out hearts.
Outside: “We’ve certainly had a whirlwind romance this past month.”
Inside: “Too bad I have to shoot you.”
From: Elsa / Sayid**

**They laugh at how funny it was they bought each other the same card until an awkward silence falls between them.

Wow. You know I had a tiny suspicion that she wasn’t being totally up front at one point, but it still surprised me when she pulled the gun. It did seem he really cared about her, though. Either way, if she had a similar bracelet as Naomi, what does that mean? Perhaps Elsa’s “employer” is the mysterious RG? However, “I’ll always be with you” seems a bit odd of an inscription from your boss…

To: Sayid
Card: Red construction paper with the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 written in black sharpie along the border.
Outside: “I (heart) lists almost as much as I (heart) you!”
Inside: Long list of names scribbled on a napkin. “Speaking of which… I’ve added to the list of people I want you to kill. Have a great Valentines!”
From: Ben

Double wow. I guess when Sayid mentioned the list to Elsa just before she shot him, that should have been the clue, but I was still pretty surprised that Ben is his employer. The interesting thing to me was that Ben said, “You know what happened last time when you thought with your heart instead of your gun,” or something like that. That leads me to believe that Sayid WILL have the touching reunion with the woman from his past, but then she is killed by whatever forces Ben is supposedly against. That’s the only way I can see Sayid deciding to work for him.

Crazy, crazy, stuff. A really good episode I would say. Brian, I totally forgot about Claire getting on a helicopter was part of Desmond’s “flash” when he was talking to Charlie last season, so I think I’ll put her on my list of one of the two remaining Oceanic Six.

Comments? Did I miss anything? Any other guesses of who comprises the final third of the Oceanic Sextuple?

S4E2 - Confirmed Dead

2008-02-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

Well, well… it looks like a few new characters to focus on. Always a nice treat to keep things fresh.

Let’s see… we’ve got:

Daniel – The nutty physicist
TURN ONs: Inexplicable crying
What was that about, anyway? What a strange reaction to a news report. I wonder if he’s supposed to be a bit unstable. He really did seem to have a super scattered personality. Also, did anyone notice if the lady that was in the room with him when he was watching the news called him by a different name? I may be making that up.

TURN OFFs: Packing
“Uh, I wasn’t in charge of packing,” he fumbled, after Kate and Jack opened the metal trunk that had fallen from the chopper. And did you notice what was in there? Gasmasks and bags to store hazardous material. Definitely not your average search and rescue gear.

Miles – The skeptical ghost hunter
TURN ONs: Talking to and extorting money from dead people
Seriously? Is this going to be an ongoing theme for the rest of the show? People who aren’t there, but maybe kind of are there? I hope he parachuted down with his Dirt Devil, finds an outlet in Jacob’s shack, and sucks him into oblivion a la Ghost Busters.

TURN OFFs: Mean people
Not much love for the LOSTies, but I guess it’s to be expected after Naomi’s veiled warning. I think everyone should come up with and share an emergency code word or phrase with their friends. Mine will be “GLADIOLA”… or if things get really hairy I’ll say… “THER’S TOO MUCH ASBESTOS IN THE ATTIC.”

Charlotte – The deceptive anthropologist
TURN ONs: Digging up fossils, Hanging upside down
I wonder how long she was hanging there since Daniel clearly parachuted while it was still dark. The Dharma logo she found had a picture of a mythical hydra. I think I remember someone referring to a station named Hydra on the island, maybe something to do with animal research? Who knows. The interesting thing, though, is that she didn’t seem to have a what-the-hell-is-this-doing-here expression. It was more like a sweet-this-is-what-I-was-looking-for expression. I wonder if she already new about (or was already hired by) Dharma at that point.

TURN OFFs: Getting shot in the chest
Who can blame her, really? Perhaps because of Naomi’s warning, but especially judging from the guns and gasmasks, they clearly weren’t expecting a welcoming parade.

Frank – The loose cannon pilot
TURN ONs: Flying, Drinking
At least he was a drunk according to Naomi. Interesting interaction between her and the “fake Oceanic lawyer” guy. Once again, I think he’s tied to Dharma somehow. Especially once Miles flipped out and grilled Juliet on Ben’s whereabouts. Considering that Ben pretty much sold out everyone in the “original” Dharma initiative who now lay in that mass grave that Locke found himself in, I’d say they definitely have a score to settle with him. And just how difficult did they think it would be to extract him that they would need such an assortment of “specialists” to do the job? We know this is more than just a flight 815 rescue, but I think it’s more than just a Ben kidnapping as well.

TURN OFFs: Flying WHILE drinking
Maybe that’s why he “should have been the one piloting that plane,” but wasn’t. A little juice on the job, you know? And of course that’s why he feels guilty so gets roped into this mission, being told the intent is to find the “real” crash site…?

That’s one thing I don’t get—well, one of the many things. I’m going on the assumption that the discovery of the wreckage and those people’s reaction in the very beginning were real. However, was the wreckage, itself, real or was it staged? I guess it had to have been staged, right? We know the plane broke off in two pieces and is on the island, well, most of it. And even Frank, himself, swore that the footage of the pilot wasn’t really him. So the question is who would go to such lengths to stage that?

My theory is that the Dharma initiative is still alive and well on the mainland and they staged this fake wreckage so that the search would be called off and no one would discover the island. This brings up another point of clarification. How many days have they been on the island now? I’d say only three months or so. This would mean all of the flashbacks of the freighter people that we saw were probably not that long ago, since they all saw some report of the wreck discovery. I also wonder if this means that we will get more flashbacks to fill in the gaps of these new characters while continuing to get flash forwards from the “Oceanic Six.” That would definitely help broaden the potential character development rather than cycling between only six folks.

Any bets on who the other 3 of the 6 are? One of my bets is on Sayiid.

Gladiola…

S4E1 - Beginning Of The End

2008-02-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

So another season of LOST is upon us. It’s been so long, I may have lost my recap skills. I feel there were a number of “red flag” details that I was afraid I’d forget. If I have to start watching with a pen and paper handy, shoot me. Anyway, here goes…

Red Flag Numero Uno:
We are treated to a Hurley flash forward and he yells about being one of the “Oceanic Six” (is that like a supped-up version of the “Fantastic Four”… or perhaps a lackluster version of “Ocean’s Twelve”?) Anyway, I guess the assumption here is that only 6 of the original survivors actually make it off the island. We know Jack and Kate from Jack’s flash forward last season, and now Hurley. In last year’s finale Kate had mentioned a “him” to Jack when she said she had to get back to someone. The temptation is to think that’s Sawyer, but really it could be anyone. It could even be her unborn son… ***insert dramatic soap opera music***. The only thing I wonder, though, is if there truly are only 6 people that make it off the island, and the show continues with the flash forwarding for the rest of the series (there would be a nice symmetry to that, first 3 years in the past, last 3 years in the future) then will we be limited to flash forwards of Jack, Kate, Hurley, and 3 other folks?

Red Flag 2:
The “Oceanic Legal Rep” forgot his business card at home. How convenient. My theory is that he must represent the Dharma Initiative (even though it was essentially defunct on the island doesn’t mean there aren’t people still funding or behind the research off the island) or at least SOME interested party that knows about the island’s secret, whatever the hell that is, and still has a vested interest. The flag is especially waved when he leans in and asks, “Are they still alive?” or something to that effect. This maybe ties in with two other conversations in the episode, which I shall flag now.

Red Flag C:
Hurley see’s Charlie’s ghost. So it’s pretty confirmed that Charlie is dead. I know some folks may have questioned that, but I’m thinking he’s kaput. Anyway, he apparently is trying to convince Hurley that “they need your help.” I can only assume the “they” is the “they” that the fake legal rep dude was referring to. By the way, Charlie looked way more hip dead than he ever did when he was a living breathing rock star.

Red Flag the fourth:
Jack stops by for a friendly game of HORSE. While I feel Jack was genuinely concerned for his friend, apparently there may have been an ulterior motive for the visit. “You want to make sure I didn’t tell anybody?” Hugo asks. Hmm… I’m assuming this is also in reference to the “they” who apparently are still alive and perhaps in trouble.

So what does it all mean? Of course, we have no clue. Even though we believe only six get off the island, it’s not to say everyone else is dead. Many may have chosen to stay voluntarily, Locke and Rose/Bernard for example. Of course then the question is, why lie about it? This likely plays into the bigger “secret” of the island. Anyway, the writer’s are definitely playing up the fact that even when they get off the island, they’ll have to go back. It’s already interesting to see Jack so against it in what is presumably the “earlier” version of the future versus where we saw him in the season finale last year when he is convinced they made a mistake by leaving. I wonder if Kate and the “other three” survivors will come to feel that way as well.

(smaller flags, not necessarily red, but fun to note)
Black and Blue Flag:
Danielle gives Ben a big rifle butt against the head when he says, “Get my daughter as far away from here as possible.” Boo-yah, Ben! She ain’t yo baby!

Random Flag:
The investigator questioning Hurley was Ana Lucia’s ex-partner. I wonder how many “future connections” people will have with each other?

Warm Fuzzy Flag:
Sawyer’s attempt to comfort Hurley was pretty touching.

Bizarro Flag:
Hurley sees Jacob’s shack in the jungle, multiple times. Was that Locke’s head that popped up in the window? That Jacob stuff is still weird to me.

I’ve heard they have 8 episodes “in the can” which represents half of the anticipated season’s length. Hopefully the strike will come to an end in time for them to write/film/produce the remaining 8.