Danny Gokey and the Lost Season Finale

I told you that twenty-year old monstrosity of a Terrance Trent Darby song would help seal the deal.

With Danny Gokey gone I'm relieved - the Slapinions household is now done with American Idol for the year, if not longer.

I've felt for weeks that Adam would win the prize in the end (how could he not, with Simon and the producers pimping him at every opportunity, be it on Oprah, in Entertainment Weekly, etc) so I have no complaint about him moving on to the finals.

But Kris???

I like the guy, but he doesn't have the chops to be in the final; an American Idol should not be chosen on the whim of a bunch of 12 year olds with mad text messaging skills. If Kris wins, its no better than Taylor Hicks Pt II, and so . . .gag . . . I have to root for Adam in the finals.

But I'm not going to watch, because either its a done deal or I'm done with the show. Don't believe me? Once Dautrey (sic) was voted off neither Lisa and I watched another episode until this season.


As for Danny, I don't think he'll stay long in pop music. I imagine he'll do a quick strafing run on the top 40 to earn his pension savings, then carve out a long career in Christian Rock.

* * * *


Lost's season finale blew my mind. It was a solid, well thought out show that managed the neat trick of creating more questions while still moving the story arc forward at a brisk pace. For the record: about ten minutes into the episode, I guessed that John's corpse was in the shipping crate and that 'Locke' was an imposter. But don't feel bad if you didn't figure it out.

I am an Evil Genius after all.

Anyhow, I'm a wee bit tired to craft all my thoughts into a coherent package, so let's go with a list of items from my brain.

a. I think we have to concede that 'Adam and Eve', the two aged corpses in
the caves from the first season, are Rose and Bernard - happily together, even
in death.

b. Rose was right; the Losties spend a whole lot time dredging up
drama and trotting around trying to stop it. Of course, without that there would
be no show.

c. Miles' question about the bomb was apt. What if the Losties create the incident by attempting to stop it in the first place? A few points against his POV. One, the incident seemed pretty wickedly bad sans the nuke, although I'll grant you the gunfire may have affected the drill and magnified its effect. Two, even if he's right, big wup. If they set off the bomb and cause the incident they're no worse off than they were, albeit with a few more corpses laying around to clean up. Essentially, it would be status quo.

d. I repeat my earlier claim: Kate is of no use to the plotline anymore. Kill 'er off.

e. Note the New Kids on the Block lunchbox? Rock on Lost universe, rock on!

f. I know the producers have discounted the purgatory/spiritual aspects of the show, but the finale would sure seem to be a return to the idea. Read on below.

g. Jacob is a benign and supernatural force that encourages free will and yet seems to have foreknowledge of what those freely made choices will be. His opponent - fans have already named him 'Esau' after the biblical rivalry between Jacob and his brother - is a being who restricts free choice by manipulating men to do his bidding.

h. I was wrong about Locke creating his own destiny. Locke/Esau made his own destiny, and doomed poor Locke. It was Esau who instructed Richard to prompt the true Locke into his belief that his death was essential, and tricked Richard into believing the same.

i. I don't believe Esau has power outside of the island. He was forced to manipulate events from the island in an effort to bring Locke and the Oceanic Six back to his home turf. Once Locke was dead and the plane on the ground he could assume Locke's form.

j. I believe Esau is, or is connected with, the smoke monster. I think he assumed Christian's form to manipulate Claire and John, and took the shape of Ben's daughter in the temple to force Ben's co-operation. Taken as a whole I think the monster/Esau is incapable of mimicking a living soul, and can only replicate the dead.

k. I buy into the argument that Eko was Esau's first pawn, but that he somehow caught wind of the manipulation and in response was brutally killed by the monster. Note his dying words to John: "You're next."

l. Esau obviously lacked the ability to kill Jacob himself and needed to find a 'loophole' to accomplish the deed. That places Esau as subordinate, if distinct, from Jacob. God/Devil?

m. The breadth of Esau's manipulation, which dates back over a year and suckered in the entire show's cast, is well and truly impressive.

n. With his secret revealed, will Esau be able to talk his way out of danger? Does he need to?

o. Back to the 'core' group - the bomb goes off in the end. Is tragedy averted? The 'no' vote: we wouldn't have much of a show then, correct? The 'yes' vote: Daniel was a pretty sharp tack, and the idea sounds plausible in a goofy Lost-like way. I can't see the point of doing it if its just going to be explained away with a 'huh. We were wrong." in the season opener.

p. Back to Jacob: so was it Esau that was the resident of the cabin? If so, why would Ben take anyone there? Then again, he was surprised when items flew abou,t so maybe he assumed it was just a mock-stage to sucker in the masses. But why bother with the charade?

q. Whoever was in the cabin was a prisoner to some degree, as the ash boundary is a clear line of demarcation. But I assume Esau was free to do his business with the smoke monster, so what gives? At what point in the show was the ash boundary trampled on by a Lostie? That might give us the answer right there.

r. The storyline as a whole: forget what the producers said five years ago, this is reeking of redemption/punishment/spiritual judgement. Call it by whatever name you like, at its heart it appears God and the Devil are battling it out for the possession of a handful of souls.

s. What a great bleepin' series. Man I love Lost!