Lost: Meet Kevin Johnson (Season 4, Episode 8)

This was the last pre-writer's strike episode and serves as a mini-cliffhanger for the season.

It was a solid, straight-forward action episode without a lot of hidden meanings, unless I was too dense to pick up on them.

The show chronicled some of Michael's post-isle life, which in this case goes from the day he left the island after betraying his friends to his arrival on the freighter in late December, a period of perhaps 30 days.

(btw, just in case I've never mentioned it. The show is set in the South Pacific. It is 'now' approaching Christmas 2004. . . will the Tsunami play a role in the show?)

He is distraught with guilt over his murder of Ana-Lucia and Libby, and separated from Walt after the disclosure of his actions drove the boy away

.

Walt now lives with his Grandma, who mentions that Michael and Walt now live under assumed names without mentioning the crash.

Because of this stress he tries time and again to kill himself, failing every time.

Enter Tom, aka Mr. Friendly, aka, my favorite Other, who tells him that the Others have been monitoring the pair and that he will always fail to commit suicide because the island won't let him.

Since Tom seems to be telling the truth, it appears the island is sentient and has the power to stretch its reach across an ocean.

Later, Michael meets with Tom at the Hotel Earle (the name for the manifestation of hell in Barton Fink) where he convinces him to board the freighter under an assumed name - and kill everyone on board.

Two things here:

1. Tom is 'outed' as homosexual, something he hinted at when he rebuked Kate a season or two ago

2. Tom presents 'evidence' that Widmore staged the 815 crash site. Whether he's being honest or not, and I vote 'no', this fills in some holes in the story - like where the bodies came from. Note also that the quiz show answer, right before the 'special report' about 815, was 'Kurt Vonnegut' - a reference to Slaughterhouse Five perhaps?

So Michael, now known as Kevin Johnson, boards the ship. Despite initial misgivings after getting to know the crew he goes ahead with the plan to blow up the vessel. When the counter reaches zero on the explosives a simple flag pops up with a note saying 'not yet'.

He is later contacted by Ben via radio and agrees to do his bidding and become 'one of the good guys'.

Thus, we learn who destroyed the radio room and compiled the info on board; we also 'learn' that Ben uses the lists to determine who are the 'innocents'.

Sayid, learning of Michael's new allegiance, turns him in to the ships captain as a traitor. I suppose we're supposed to smirk at Sayid's stance, given that he's later to become Ben's pawn, but what stuck in my mind was the captain's reaction. Ten to one he's in on the deal.

On the island Locke makes a feeble attempt to appear like a decisive leader, and Ben convinces Alexandra, Karl, and Rousseau to make a run for the 'temple sanctuary'.

Apparently it was a trap, and Ben willingly fed his daughter to the beast. Karl is shot dead, Rousseau is also shot (although we see no blood, so we don't even know it was a bullet that knocked her out, or that she is, in fact, dead). Alex makes an attempt to surrender, although we don't learn if it was successful or not.

So much for Ben being such a good Dad. I guess Alex was no longer an 'innocent', huh?

A good episode, but nothing overly stellar.

 I look forward to the new episodes in late April. Thursday's are gonna be mighty boring without Lost to look forward to.

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Lost: Ji Yeon (Season 4, Episode 7) Spoiler Alert!

Right up until around 8:55 central time, I'd have started this post with a complaint about how my parent's dropped off my kids in the middle of the show, causing me to miss a chunk of my self-described 'sacred hour'.

Instead, I can only open with 'Wow'.

For the first time in a very long time, Lost floored me. I have been surprised before, and shocked, and in awe of the writers ability to spin a tale, but never at the same time. Not until tonight.

Throughout the episode we witness a 'flash forward' to Sun giving birth to her child in Korea. It is very clearly the future, as a nurse identifies her as a member of the 'Oceanic Six'. Throughout the labor she calls for her husband In , but he is encountering a series of mishaps. He purchases a panda bear toy on his way to the hospital, but it vanishes in a taxi just as he drops his cell phone and has it broken by a passing motorist. He wishes to purchase another but it is on hold for someone else.

It seems he will never get to the hospital in time.

Meanwhile back on the island Sun is convinced the newcomers are up to no good and wants to join Locke's camp. In a scorched earth bid to stop her and improve Sun's chances to leave the island, Juliet tells Jin about Sun's affair.

He is angry and hurt. Still not speaking to her, he  ventures offshore with Bernard to go fishing.

Sensing the pair are fighting Bernard gives one of the wisest and most memorable monologues I've seen on the show. [Once a transcript appears online I'll try to come back and post the actual dialogue.]

He speaks of the difficulties of marriage, and about how, in opposition to her own health, Rose has chosen to stay with Jack's group. Why? Jin asks. Why not join Locke and stay on the island that has cured her of her cancer?

"It was the right thing to do", Bernard says. "Locke is a murderer." He then describes his own philosophy of karma. "if you do bad things, bad things happen to you" he says. Unaware of Jin's past he labels them both good guys.

Later, in a beautifully written moment, Jin reconciles with Sun. He demands no apology or explanation from her for the affair. He says that before the island he was a different man, a bad man who withheld his own affections and pushed her to her actions. What she did, he explained, she did to that man, not the Jin before her at that moment. He asks only if the baby is his, although by that point the viewer (and Sun) knows that he will stay regardless of the answer. She tearfully replies that it is. 

UPDATE: Transcript

(On the beach, Sun is in her tent, Jin comes in with food) <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

JIN: I made... dinner.

SUN: (in Korean) I thought you had left me. Will you let me try to explain?

JIN: (in Korean) It won't matter.

SUN: (in Korean) Just listen, maybe--

JIN: (in Korean) I know why you did it. I know the man... I used to be. Before this island, I withheld my affections... And I know... that whatever you did... you did it to that man. His actions caused this. So I forgive you.

In the future, Sun gives birth to a baby girl, as Jin predicted. It appears he will arrive only a moment too late, but the audience learns he is not on his way to Sun; his journey is a flashback to a time before the island, when he was still a member of the Korean mafia and running an errand on their behalf.

THEN Just as the episode concludes, Sun, her daughter, and a visiting Hurley visit a centograph (tombstone over an empty grave).

It is Jin; he is dead, and Sun tearfully ''introduces' him to his daughter Ji Yeon.

* * *

I bought the Jin storyline completely. It was seamlessly integrated with Sun's labor and the romantic reconciliation on the island. Moreover, the buildup was such that the viewer has no choice but to be filled with regret and horror for the loss of this man.

I do not look forward to the episode where we watch Jin's fate.

There were some clues that things were fishy, and I caught them prior to the revelation but misinterpreted them.

1. The shop owner identified it as the year of the Dragon. I recognized this as a means of identifying the year in the future. In truth, the year of the Dragon had to be either 2000 or 2012.

2. The cell phone looked awfully old for a current model.

3. Jin reacted with menace to both the shopkeeper and with threats of violence to the cabdriver, ala his old self.

Going back to the post-isle 'present' note that the monument carried the date of the crash. In their story, Jin must have 'died' aboard the plane The possibility exists that he is still alive on the isle, but it is unlikely the spiritual visit with the baby would have taken place if that were true.

 * * * *

In other plot areas of the episode, the not so secret surprise return was Michael, now calling himself Kevin. Desmond, Sayid, and Michael all kept up the pretense of his alias for the moment.

I have no idea why the woman committed suicide, why the captain is not to be trusted, who's blood was on the wall, and what happened to the kitchen aboard the ship.

I didn't really care tonight.

I returned from shooing the kids upstairs to overhear the tale of the 815 crash site being a completely staged setting, allegedly orchestrated by Ben.

Who is that freak?????

Note Juliet's line from last week, which I caught on the replay tonight: "they're here to wage war against Ben. And Ben will win Jack."

Next week, for the final pre-strike episode: one cast member will die.

 

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Lost: The Other Woman (season 4, episode 6)

Full disclosure: my cable box went cukoo at 8:56 central time, meaning I missed most of this episode's last few minutes. It returned to normalcy in time for me to see Ben walking free among the Losties, but I have no idea what I missed.

 

Recently, in the wake of the writer's strike, it was revealed that the rest of the season will now be trimmed to only an additional five episodes. Even so it will end with the same finale; in other words, the story line will be condensed this season and some stories bumped to future seasons.

 

For those who complained online that they couldn't imagine how any episode could be shuffled to another year without damaging the show as a whole, take a look at this one. A good story, full of action with some interesting fleshing out of the Juliet character: but all in all a tale that could have been told last season, or this one, or one two years down the road.

 

Essentially the plot and backstory boil down to a sentence each: Juliet and Jack pursue the two freighter personnel to stop them from releasing poison gas on the island. In the backstory Juliet's affair with Goodwin leads Ben to send him to his death (ala David's actions in the Bible).

 

What do we learn? What questions are raised/answered?

 

Well, Locke again demonstrates his inability to lead and his predisposition to being suckered in by a con man.  Be it his father, the undercover cop, or Ben, time and time again he goes against all logic and listens to the wrong guy. Why oh why take Ben's word on anything? Why release him to the community? Why take his bait and even talk to the guy?

 

[oh, and uh, if you're worried about rebellion: don't release a hated evil-doer into a community skeptical of your leadership. The word I'm looking for John, is Duh.]

 

Via the backstory and his manipulation of Locke we get yet another lesson on how devious Ben is - "I've always got a plan John". This guy is turning into the Superman of bad guys, and no one's found his Kryptonite quite yet. One word of warning: I'd tone down his all-powerful evil powers, or he'll be so over the top he'll become a farce.

 

Do I buy his spiel about Charles Widmore as the big bad villain of the piece? No, not really. Too obvious for a true Lost revelation, although some facts certainly fit. Wait and see, as always.  

 

Juliet continues to perplex me. There's real meat to her character but, perhaps because of the actress, she just seems so ho-hum to me. Between her and Kate I'd probably go with her (more brains, good job, no known felony record and all) but as it's being played I can see why Jack still carries a torch for Kate off-isle.

 

[nice setup at the episode's start, prepping the audience to assume Juliet was off-isle and one of the 'rescued'. Well played, sirs, well played]

 

[I also love the exchange between her and Jack. To paraphrase: "it's very tiring being a Other Jack" and "Don't you have any secrets you don't want everyone to know?" Jack responds: "Sure. You read them all in my file". Touche!]

 

Juliet is the 'other woman' of the title, first in Harper-Goodwin's marriage (Harper-Goodwin indeed - it sounds like a publishing group) then, in a fashion, between Jack and Kate.

 

 

Near the start of the show the 'whispers' start and Harper

 

 

appears to instruct Juliet to stop Dan and Lewis from going to the Tempest power station.

 

 

Some points here:

 

1. The Tempest is a play about a sorcerer that manipulates survivors of a shipwreck.
2. In retrospect, Harpers instructions very nearly put the lives of the entire island at risk and in the hands of Ben. When combined with the whispers, does this mean that Harper was a manifestation of the Monster? I think so. After all, killing all the survivors 'protects' the island.
3. What's the point of having mass quantities of poison gas lying around in a power station? What kind of Nazi stuff is going on there anyway?

 

I wonder about Ben's "[the rabbit] didn't have a number on it, did it?" comment. Were the rabbits mutated as part of an experiment or was he just being a wisenheimer? Ah, who cares I guess. Small potatoes when you want to gas a whole community and dispatch others to their death for banging a girl you have a crush on.

 

[Oh, and for the record, I think he sent Goodwin out to put him in harm's way, but I don't think there's anyway he could have predicted he'd meet his death on the assignment.]

 

That's just about it I think. No numbers that I caught, no great hidden meanings that I managed to catch. Of course, there are those missing three minutes . .

 

Oh, and uh, that man of Ben's on the boat, the 'face you thought you'd never see again' . ..c'mon folks, it's Michael, don't you think?

 

Til next week Lost fans!

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Lost: The Constant . . . Season 4, Episdode 5

If you weren't a fan of Lost before this episode, well, you're probably still not a fan now.

 

Not that it wasn’t a fine episode, but it wasn’t the best way to introduce the series to a new viewer, especially if the newbie had an aversion to science-fiction. Without question "The Constant" was the most Star Trek-yof any episode I've seen to date.

 

The events on the island are so secondary as to be extraneous, and largely act as a plot device for the off-shore action. So with your kind permission, I think we'll start on the freighter.

 

While en route to the ship Desmond experiences a dramatic out of body experience. For the rest of the episode his consciousness is bounced back and forth between 1996 and 2004; keep in mind that at no point is the ‘Desmond’ we know present except at the start and end of the show. From the moment the trouble starts his body is inhabited by the 1996 version of himself.

 

 

 

There are a dozen different time travel stories that have used a similar idea, so it’s certainly not very original: Somewhere in Time, Slaughterhouse Five, Quantum Leap, 12 Monkeys, etc. I think it was crafted well and did what it needed to do, but really, why bother? I have to assume, based almost soley on the note in Daniel’s journal at the end, that the time-travel issue will arise again, perhaps as a major plot point.

 

 

 

If it doesn’t, then the whole episode was really just filler.

 

Not that we didn’t learn some things. There is a legitimate time discrepancy between the island and the ‘world’. Daniel acknowledged it, Sayid mentioned they left at dusk for a 20 minute flight and arrived at midday, and there was of course the whole rocket experiment in a previous episode.

 

{anyone else find the Oxford bit a straight rip-off of the Back to The Future scenes where Marty convinces the 1955 Doc Brown he's legit?}

 

 

 

But how much of a variance is there? The freighter is shown to exist on Christmas Eve of 2004, yet the Losties on the island are somewhere near their 100th day (I forget the exact number) so they too are nearing Christmas. What gives? Is this just a continuity error or is the time variance nothing more than a perception issue, rather than a real time lag? If the latter, how the hell does that make sense?

 

Minkowski was kind of a wasted character, no? He’s introduced as the voice on the radio early in the season, presumably for no other reason than to validate Desmond’s experiences here, then drops dead. Whatever.

 

 

 

Why would ‘Ben’s man’ on the boat both release the hostages and destroy the radio room? With Sayid and Desmond looking for a way off the island, wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep them locked up?

 

[Love Sayid’s ‘give me a minute’ when asked if he could repair the mangled radio room. And could someone please tell me where the heck Penny was on Christmas Eve? I get the whole dramatic endless ringing of the phone, but if you’ve been expecting a call on that date for 8 years wouldn’tyou take the dang phone with you wherever you went, even to the loo?]

 

 

 

Penny might have waited eight years for the call, but she’s seen him in the years between ’96-’04, at the very least at the track stadium, no?

Note that at the auction, when the log of the Black Rock was sold, they gave the sailing date as March 22nd 1845. Dynamite, of which there was plenty in her hold, wasn’t invented until 1866. 

Could a blatant error like that be intentional? And the seller was Tovard Hanso, presumably of the Hanso foundation, an (evil?) organization that’s popped up before in the Lost mythology.

 

Anyone else catch the Charles Dicken’s item up for sale after that? A pretty non-subtle nod to Desmond’s obsession, I thought. And note that Keamy, the guy on the freighter, states that they are in the Pacific, laying waste to some thought I saw online that they might be in the Indian Ocean.

 

One thing that really irked me throughout the episode was the use of The Numbers. They seemed to be popping up everywhere, as if the writers were beating us over the head with them. Desmond told Daniel to set the machine for 2.342. The auction lot was number 2342. Penny’s address was 423, etc. I’m sure were more that I’m forgetting,(Or at least I hope so, lest this be a b.s. paragraph) 

 

In the end, I loved the Penelope-Desmond phone call that served as the climax of the episode. At it’s heart Lost is about two things: mystery, and love, albeit not very trouble-free love.

 

Doubt the last part? Think I’m a melodramatic fool?  Ok then – love of family (Kate/her Mom – Jack/His Dad – Charlie/his brother – Locke/his Dad - Walt/Michael - Shannon/Boone). Romantic love (Sayid/Shannon – Kate/Jack/Sawyer – Sun/Jin – Desmond/Penny – Hurley and his crazy, now deceased gal).

 

So the ending was romantic, and sweet, and over the top in its foolish idealistic notion of love reunited, but you know what?

 

I had a wee bit of a tear in me eye watching it, so I’m not about to complain.

 

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Lost: Eggtown Season 4, Episode 4

*** Spoilers Ahead * *  *

Ok, there wasn't a darn thing wrong with this episode, but it was still a downer for me. Why? Because everything that was revealed, save some incidental trivia, I saw coming from the start.

I can do that with most movies and TV episodes, just turn to Lisa 10 minutes into it and say "You know Lex is really his long lost twin brother from Bulgaria, right?"

But with Lost that usually goes out the window. There's too many plot threads, too many characters, too many sleight of hand twists for me to see the road ahead.

 Except tonight.

It's established that Kate has a son. There's incidental hints on the island that she's pregnant, but it has the aura of white noise to distract the viewer. In the flashforwards you hear about her son, you discuss her son, you see how important he is to Kate, BUT . .

But the show never a) never shows him during these scenes, setting up his 'reveal' to be a shock to the viewer. Ok, well, that could mean anything. Maybe he's a Ben look-a-like, maybe he's deformed because of the islands effect on pregnancy, who knows. But then b) they never, not once, refer to him by name.

To me that was the clincher. Why not name the kid? There were other possibilities, but in my head I saw it like the star over Bethlehem: the only Caucasian child we are aware of it Aaron; therefore the writers are trying their best to disguise his identity until the end of the episode.

And at that very momentI said "Dang, I wish I was blogging live about this. No one is going to believe me afterwards."

And lo and behold, it's Aaron.

So what did we learn tonight, other than that I'm a doggone psychic?

* First, we learn that Kate successfully, miraculously really, officially escapes her criminal past after the island. We can assume that the person she had to get back to in the season 3 finale was Aaron. We know that this particular flash-forward can take place no later than, say, 2010, judging by Aaron's age.

That last point is more meaningful than you'd think. Aaron is all of perhaps three months old in the 'current' Losties timeline. I don't think it took 5 years for the criminal justice system to try Kate's case. So where did the other 4 years or so go? Could it be their rescue really isn't at hand?

UPDATE: As you can tell from the picture I misjudged his age on first viewing. He's three, maybe four at most, so it could conceivably be 2008 in the timeline.

* Jack is still in love with Kate in future/present, and she appears more than willing to reciprocate, so we can tentatively presume Sawyer and Juliet are no longer players in the game.

* What is Jack's problem with Aaron? Does he feel guilt over an (as yet unrevealed) loss of Claire, does he resent Aaron for a costly decision his existence forced on Jack, or is Aaron truly an agent of doom, as the psychic appeared to forecast before the flight, and Jack is uneasy around him?

* We learn that in the 'official' version of the crash Kate is a hero, saving the group from starvation and danger. That means that  everyone among the Six was willing to recite the lie, giving credit to the idea that the Six doesn't include anyone at odds with Kate (as John is at the moment).

* The story also mentions that eight folks survived the crash but that two later perished. What's the rationale for including two fatalities after the fact? Was some evidence left behind of two survivors (Michael and Walt?) that couldn't be explained away except by including their (temporary) survival in the tale?

* On the island Johnis still playing Colonel Kurtz and without outside direction from 'the island' he's falling apart. The whole slamming doors/throwing trays bit gets a bit old, dontcha think John? And the grenade in the mouth? Cukoo.

* As for Ben, well, he's still hard at work manipulating the world (wouldn't that tire a fella out after a few decades?) and if we are to believe Miles, he's wealthy, powerful, and at odds with someone of equal? wealth and power who wants him dead.

I like Ben tho', he's grown on me.

* In other news the Kate/Sawyer bed me/wed me saga continues.

 

Strong hints of a Kate pregnancy. As I stated earlier I dismissed them as white noise, and Kate herself says sot in the episode, but I don't quite believe her. I think her desire to escape the island at all costs, despite her status as a fugitive, is because she fears the islands well known affect on fetuses.

So in that plotline, she would eventually have to lose her own baby and be granted/take guardianship over Aaron as her own.

We'll see.

Trivia:

 -Loved Hurley's "you just scooby-dooed me didn't' you?" line

 -I noticed the episode began with a closeup of Locke's eye, a typical Lost beginning, but it was an awfully quick shot.

- The book Locke gave Ben was by Phillip K. Dick, but I didn't catch the title, I just recognized the cover style. Significance?

- I didn't notice the title or author of Sawyer's reading material. Again, significance?

As usual, a great way to spend an hour in the evening.

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Lost: The Economist Season 4, episode 3

LOST SPOILER ALERT . . . . . . . .

I enjoyed tonight's episode but it didn't grab me by the throat like 'Confirmed Dead'. Still, a lot of questions answered, and naturally, a lot more questions created.

We now know Sayid is one of the Oceanic Six, joining Jack, Hurley, and Kate (whose status seems to have been confirmed in the previews for episode 4; there had been some question about how she could be part of the official 6 [and free] since she was a fugitive).

Of course, unlike the rest Sayid is now a hitman ('headhunter' indeed) and I have to say the opening scene where he kills Mr. Avellino on the golf course was a genuine shock to me.

For a man whose life seems to be one long attempt to reconcile his violent lifestyle with his loving nature he's sure doing a shit job of it, even after being rescued from the island.

He soon sets up house in Berlin  with Elsa, a hot young woman who's employed by a mysterious 'Economist'.

 

At random but infrequent times she will be paged by her boss and go to meet him. Sayid attaches himself to her romantically in anticipation of finding this Economist and (presumably) killing him.  

In the end it turns out Elsa was herself a mole, assigned to draw out Sayid's employer. Despite wounding him Sayid manages to kill her, then sheds genuine tears for her death. Memories of Shannon's death? Perhaps.

Again, if the contradictions in his heart are so great, do something about it man.

Let me choose this time to throw out a prediction: the mysterious 'economist', this character worthy of the episode title and enemy of Sayid, is Locke. Go wikipedia the historical John Locke and note his work in the field of economics. In my mind, it's a disappointingly shallow nome de plume.

Back on the island we have limited action overall (the focus of the episode is clearly off-island) but a whole lot is revealed in small doses.

Dan, the physicist who commented on the odd way the light scattered on the island, runs an experiment that smacks of Einstein the dog's trip in Back to the Future. Like that trip, this one is meant soley to introduce an important concept to the viewer: the time difference between the arrival of the 'package' and the movement of time on the island is 31 minutes.

   

I'm thinking light-movement-time distortion equals something related to the time travel created by traveling near the speed of light. Time moves normally for folks on the ground, but for you in the craft only a moment flies by. Tie that in with Dan's insistence that the pilot stick to the EXACT bearing, and that bearing only . . How this all fits into the island . . ya got me sister.

Re: Locke's little group.

Jacob seems to have abandoned Locke, leaving him to his own quarrelsome devices. Hurley sure played his role as Judas to a T, and as a result we did learn a few things:

* Sawyer doesn't want to leave the island, and he is serious about making a life with Kate. I don't think Jack is consciously pushing her to Sawyer, but his pragmatic observations (i.e. Locke won't kill her because Sawyer won't let him) are helping thejobalong.

* Ben has routinely left the island, as evidenced by his many passports. Hence, the photo in the last episode is explained.

Confession: I really wasn't too surprised that Ben was Sayid's mysterious employer. All that talk about 'lists' gave it away. But who are the folks on the hit list? They are aware of their guilt/presumed guilt, if the look of fear on Mr. Avellino's face is any indication.

Who's the mysterious RG on Naomi's bracelet? And why is Elsa wearing a similar band? Did Sayid take it from the corpse and give it to Elsa?

Why do the boat people have Penny's photo?

And I'm sure it's just slipped my mind, but what happened to all the other 'Others'?

Ok, 5 more episodes left in the pre-writer's strike queue, and I've heard 5 more if they can get the cast and crew together in time to salvage some more of this season.

What's your take on the episode?

 

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Lost: 'The Beginning of The End'

Truthfully, I wasn’t really feeling the season premiere of Lost.

Ok, sure, part of it was the terror that was the combined might of my children. And some can be chalked up to the disappointment of being greeted with a paltry one-hour season opener.

But really, there was no ‘oomph’ to the episode. No startling revelations or explanations (as if!). No sense of the drama of where the season 3 finale left off. No romantic news, no new characters, no new nothin'.

All of it a bit ‘blah’ really.

Here’s what we did learn:

At least six, but probably only six, survivors returned to the world. Among these ‘Oceanic Six’ are Hurley, Kate, and Jack. We can presume the coffin from the season finale contained another of the six, but that is just conjecture.

We’re made to think that the six returned only after forging a less than noble deal to keep their mouth shut about the island. We’re also led to believe that the rest of flight 815’s survivors remain, alive, on the island, held there at least in part by the complicit silence of the Six.

We know that neither Jack nor Hurley are comfortable with the deal they’ve made. Jack, however, seems to have choked down many of his demons and recovered a ‘normal’ life, albeit with a current of regret and pain running beneath the surface. Kate does not seem to share many of these misgivings, at least from what we’ve seen.

Hurley’s prediction about his money would seem to be incorrect, based soley on the car he was driving.

Hurley’s denial of Ana Lucia would indicate that the Six claim that no one but them survived the initial crash . . Or he just didn’t feel like talking : )

Much of the episode must be interpreted in light of Hurley’s illness. Is he crazy and imagining things, or are these people real? Or is it a combination of the two?

Presuming he is real, the mysterious visitor to the mental hospital would indicate that dark forces are still searching for both the island and the survivors. Whoare these people and what do they want? They can’t be the people who forged the ‘deal’, so who in fact did ‘rescue’ the Six?

By the way, that characters’ name, Matthew Abbadon, means roughly ‘place of the dead’ in Hebrew, presuming a reference on the web is correct. UPDATE: I guess that's wrong. Abbadon is an angel in Revelations who guards the place of the dead (hell).

Was Charley a real ghost or an imagined phantom? Either way he represents Hurley’s regret and his concern for the survivors so it really doesn’t matter. And they did surprise me with that one. I thought Hurley ran from the ’numbers’, not a person.

I vote that he’s a hallucination. No, make that a ghost - er, I can’t make up my mind quite yet.

Some questions I have:

“Not Penny’s Boat”. Maybe I’m misremembering the finale, but aren’t the Losties reading a whole lot into the scribbled words of a dying man?

The man in the chair in Jacob’s cabin looked an awful lot like Christian Sheppard, Jack’s Dad, didn’t it?

I didn’t dig Jack pulling the trigger on John, even if John deserved it. Jack is the moral compass of the show, and I don’t want to see him deviate from that.

If you’re hiding from a sophisticated boat-plane-skydiving-satellite phone yielding bad guys, why choose to hide in a man-made, in-the-open barracks John? Why not head for the caves from Season One?

Who left the second blood trail?

Hurley regrets going with John. That doesn’t bode well for Locke’s group, does it? Or is he simply just apologizing for not supporting Jack?

Well, fiddle-de-dee. Going into this I never would have thought that much of the episode sunk in. Huh.

You can bet I’ll be back for more next week.

* * * *

Update: Here's some interesting tidbits about the episode that were posted on Lostpedia this morning.

While playing horse with Hurley, Jack gets the letters "H" and "O". "H" is the 8th letter of the alphabet and "O" is the 15th - 815 (the flight number)

• Behind Hurley as he’s freaking out over Abbadon there’s a small sculpture of the letters ‘HO’ on a shelf.
• Hurley mentions Charlie’s ghost showing up in the convenience store right next to the “Ho Ho’s”.

Tags: Lost, blogplugs

aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_1

Lost: The Man Behind the Curtain

A hell of an episode, start to finish. Heck, I even liked Locke now and then!

So Ben is a disturbed killer who murdered his own father and played a role in slaying his people, the members of the Dharma project - an event called the  'Purge'. The Others are really the "Hostiles" and may or may not be both immortal and descended from the Black Rock.

Jacob is real, but invisible to all but Locke and Ben - or can Ben not seem him either? That would explain the anger that led to his 'murder' of Locke, since it would seem Locke is the one destined for Other greatness, not Ben.

Jack is still on the right team, and still in command of the Losties. Good for him, and the show.

I really enjoyed the episode, and I'm pleased to hear the show is renewed through 2010.

On the other hand I have ignored the final season of the Sopranos. I'll probably watch it, but right now the idea of sitting  in front of the tv for it just makes me ill - and I don't know why.

 

 

Tags: Lost, Sopranos

Weight Loss, Lost, Misc. Junk and Baseball

So I now weigh 5 pounds MORE than I did 50 weeks ago when I started Weight Watchers.

On the plus side (no pun intended) the 6th of May will mark 6 months without so much as a drag of a cigarette.

I suppose it's time to 'recommit'. I need to stop using the smoking as a (legitimate) reason to stuff my face and get back on the program.

Oh, man will that suck for awhile.

* * * * *
Lost is back on track, and answering questions at a startling rate. Now granted, some of these 'answers' have long been deduced by diehard fans (Locke's Dad is the 'real' Sawyer? Oh my, didn't see THAT coming) but its still great to see the confirmation.

So is there new life - again, no pun intended - in my theory that the characters are dead and in purgatory?

Probably not - the 'crash' scene was probably a ruse to divert attention from the true site, and all these 'you're dead' lines will wind up being so many red herrings.

My theories:

1. Kate is pregnant by Sawyer.

2. Cooper is either a) a manifestation of the island and not real  b)soon to be resurrected by the isle and/or c) both

3. Jack and Juliet are in cahoots in an end-around against Ben and his plan.  Possibly a wheels-within-wheels plan between Ben and Juliet in there too - we'll see.

4. Naomi is another Henry Gale, an inflitrator for the Others.

I'm enjoying the season and can't wait for the finale.

* * * *

The Yankees are looking mighty pathetic so far this year. It's too early to say adios to the season, but they need to turn it on.

On the flip side the Brewers are rocking the National League Central. I guess every 25 years - 1957, 1982, today - the city manages to produce a winner.

I hope :)

* * *

I am deeply disappointed with my home office. It is everything I thought it would be, but I feel disconnected from the family when I use it. I'm used to having the computer in the living room with the TV; now it's in a seperate room all by it's lonesome.

That'll take some getting used to.

Tags: Weight Watchers, Lost, Yankees, Brewers

Lost "Stranger in a Strange Land"

Ratings be damned, I think the first few episodes of the "2nd half" of the season have been superb. That being said, my wife has dropped out of this house's Lost fan club because of the same complaints you hear in the press: the storyline has become too convoluted.

Well, I disagree.

But . .

Tonight's episode SUCKED. I'm bitter as all he** that ABC spent the week promoting this as the week we get 'answers'.

Answers to what?

That the Others didn't kill the captives outright?. Uh, I never thought they did. Why bother going to the trouble of kidnapping them if you're only going to kill them?

Other than that slim revelation,  I can't think of a single question, big or small, that the episode answered.

Oh, my bad. It told us how Jack got his tattoo.

Whoopee.

Be careful Lost. It isn't the episode so much as the false promo, but with me you're on shaky ground, thin ice, ready to jump the shark, etc.  

Pick your cliche - they all apply.

Tags: Lost

Lost's 1/2 Season Finale and Misc Rants

T-Minus 5 hours until the family departs on vacation.

Not much to say about this episode of Lost. I thought it was disapointing, and certainly didn't end on a very powerful cliffhanger.

Whoo-hoo, Jack is holding Ben hostage to give Kate and Sawyer a chance to escape (to where, oh suicidal self-sacrificing Jack?). Yawn.

And I could care less about Kate going all Anna-Lucia on Sawyer. So be it - the crooked bums deserve one another. The more I see of Kate's past, the less I give a rat's a** about her.

Speaking of crooked bums, I've noticed a lot of Democrats serving crow online about the 'thumping' the GOP took Tuesday.

So be it - it was a wupping - and I accept it graciously. Let the liberals gloat, it doesn't change my opinion of them for the worse - really, how could it?  j/k :)

I'm old enough to know everything changes, everything goes round and round. I remember '92, when I thought the world was going to end, '94 when I thought Santa Claus was real, '96 when I was getting married and could have cared less,'00 when I fought tooth and nail for those bitter 36 days, and '04 when I correctly disagreed with the polls and predicted an easy win.

It isn't the end of the world, and I'll get to do the 'happy happy dance' some election night soon enough.

And as in every defeat, in Tuesday's results are the seeds of future victory. There are now ample roads to critique/attack/stymie the oppositon. It's much easier to snipe from the sidelines than actually be the quarterback, and in the Clinton years the GOP learned to be very good (too good, honestly) at doing just that.

Oh, re: Rumsfield. I'm pragmatic enough where I would have chucked him months ago to appease the unwashed masses, but I don't see this changing much in Iraq, despite the joy its brought about in some quarters.

We'll see.

 

Lost Season 3 Episode 5: The Cost of Living

I was going to post about last weeks episode but didn't, for two reasons:

One, I didn't watch it until almost noon today.

And two, it was a pretty straight forward action episode.

Even so, some quick notes.

I think Sawyer's daughter is a con job pulled off by his ex-mark, and Kate's recitation of Jack's "live together, die alone" was a subtle rejection not only of Sawyer's philosophy but of the guy himself  (in favor of Jack).

And how Sawyer fell for that pacemaker bit was beyond me.

But all of that was mentioned days ago in other folk's posts, so on to this week:

* * * *

Locke continues to annoy me. Something about his kumbaya 'leadership' that he presents as an 'alternative' to the exclusive and just darned mean Jack makes me puke. And his freaky enthusiasm at what appears to be inopportune moments (read Eko's body language dude; leave him alone) just makes him all the more annoying

Why didn't he kick off in the hatch implosion again?

* * *

I think Juliet's pulling a con of her own on Jack. Neat trick with the placards and the video though. I hope Jack doesn't go through with the plan to off Ben. There's a difference between refusing to help someone and actively murdering them.

I can't picture his ethics bending enough to do the deed. Then again, there's the inevitable cliff hanger over the mid-winter hiatus to think of . . .

The funeral, which I'm told is in line with Hindu traditions, struck me as very commune/'family' like, reinforcing some of the Others descriptions of their life.

* * * *

I didn't catch the new female Losties name, but YUM . .

* * * *

So Eko is dead, killed by a vengeful security system apparently angered by his refusal to repent. This opens a whole can of worms in theory-land: does the monster need the physical presence of a person to imitate his appearance, since Jack's Dad and Eko's brother both had their corpses go MIA? How is it able to sense what image will most deeply affect its prey? Why is it so concerned with good/evil/sin/redemption (note: in the past it bypassed Eko when he was still on the path to righteousness)? Does it think at all, or does it simply reflect the emotions of the prey back on themselves?

One thing bothers me though. Eko,to a large part, was right about how he led his life. He certainly crossed the line many many times over the years, but at its heart his life was determined by the simple need to survive in a brutal land.

But . . .

We've all seen him try, and try hard, to change his life. His acceptance of God and his duties didn't seem genuine - they reeked of honest conversion. He started to build the church for his brother on the island. He confessed to Ben/Henry and expressed regret for killing the Others. He baptized Aaron and at every turn seemed a changed man.

Yet when confronted by his brother's 'ghost' I'm expected to believe that he angrily rejects repentance and stands by his past?

Where did that come from?

* * *

A bit of a confusing, not all together honest to the characters episode that was still very enjoyable.

And there was the hot new Lostie, don't forget.

Lost Season 3, Week 3

A vast improvement over last week, but I'm still having trouble coming up with something to write about.

Do I think Desmond has a telepathic link with Echo and Locke? No. It's possible I guess, but you can't discern that from the slim evidence in this episode. Desmond knew about the speech before Locke gave it, presumably before he even thought of it. 

To me that points towards some kind of voodoo time distortion. Sure, Desmond himself might be changed now; if you still believe the gist of the island to be supernatural perhaps he is now 'one' with the island and viewed Locke's airport scene.

'Course, that still doesn't explain him referencing the speech, not just the idea that Locke would go after Jack and Kate.

[Besides, if they were all 'connected' why the need to follow a blood trail in the search for Echo? Why not just do a Luke/Leia and 'ping' Echo?]

Or he's dead and come back for whatever reason. He looked a little Jesus-like today, no? Minus the hissy fit when Hurley wanted to debate, of course.

And how could all three survive that mess at the end of Season Two?

As to the airport scene, no real surprises - unless I missed something. Good to hear Charlie and Claire will be ok for awhile.

Were the polar bears real? They looked a little cartoonish to my eyes.

After Locke threw the knife I questioned Hurley's sudden appearance, which certainly seemed to be a 'transformation' from the bear. Is it possible that this is a hint (or a red herring) pointing to the island being part of Hurley's mind?

I have no real knowledge about polar bears, other than they sell a lot of Coca-Cola around Christmas. But is it normal for a polar bear to drag a man to his den and keep him alive for a snack?

Sure did look like kids skeletons in the cave. Creepy. But I don't think the bears (if they're real) are controlled by Dharma or the Others in any substantial way. It doesn't ring true to me, and it doesn't fit the Dharma logo among the bones.

By the way, I thought Echo calling Locke a 'hunter' was a weak and obvious attempt to spook out the audience. Not earth shattering at all.

So Locke grew weed. Interesting, but really, the guy has had more adventures in his life than Dirk Pitt. Time to finish off his flashbacks and move on.

Overall a fun episode that answered some questions and raised some others. Well done.

Lost Post Week 2

Once again it took me six days to see the episode, so sorry for the late post.

Then again there's not much to discuss. It was a pretty straightforward episode, essentially an action-adventure story with a few revealing flashbacks.

My wife, who is slipping towards the 'enough with the mysteries' crowd, loved it and thought it was one of Lost's better offerings. On the other end of the mystery spectrum, I thought it was decent, but my attention lagged at times.

What we learned: that Jin (sp?) is far from the cold-blooded assasin we presumed him to be, and Sun is herself flawed. Aside from the fact she seems oddly oblivious to the burden her marriage has placed on her husband and is an adultress, she has a life-long pattern of letting others pay for her crimes/sins.

I'm glad she shot the woman on the boat (with provocation). Enough with the 'we are the good guys, you just don't understand' jazz.

You kidnap women and children. You drug folks against their will. You maintain a labor camp. You hanged Charlie. You abandoned the survivors to the wild when you had the ability to call for a rescue. You've imprisoned/threatened/mistreated the survivors.

Whoever you are, you ain't the good guys.

We also learned Ben's full (real?) name, saw a glimmer of the failed relationship between him and Juliet, and learned that they mean to turn Jack against the survivors.

I doubt it will work. He has the whole honor thing going for him, and in addition he a) has feelings for Kate - why I don't know and b) seems to have little to return to in the states.

Pretty lean show in terms of character development. I'm looking forward to tonights episode, although part of me was dissapointed to return to the Locke-Charlie-Echo world of the beach.

On a dimly related subject, nice to see the MLB footage and hear Joe Buck on the show, even if it was to show the hated Red Sox win their &%^* title.

In the current world I'm still hoping the Mets even it up and go on to win the NLCS. I maintain my position on the Cardinals: they are a boring, antiseptic team.

And look, I know my flaws. I know that in the heat of competition I demonize the opposition. That's why I'm trying hard not to say things like: Ron Belliard looks like the loathsome character of Eddie on That's So Raven, that DavidEckstein runs like he has a stick up his bum, that for being a 'genius' LaRussa sure seems inarticulate and creepy during the in-game interviews, or that Pujos is beloved in St. Louis because it's a town that worships steroid ridden first basemen.

But I didn't say any of that, did I?

All emotion aside, I find the Cardinals a dry and boring team, and not very good this year to boot. Baseball and its audience would be much better served by a Mets-Tigers Series, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh, and the A-Rod to the Cubs trade rumors? I hope they aren't true, as I'd hate to root against the guy. I don't think it'll happen tho' - ARod needs a title to overcome his mental block, and that isn't going to happen in Wrigley Field.

 

Lost Season Opener

My favorite show is back!

Of course, it took me six days to see the recording of the show so this post is a little dated (sorry about that).

BTW, to all those idiots in the world who criticize the show for not revealing it's secrets and claim they'll never watch it again:

   a) the mystery is what keeps viewers coming back

   b) viewers are what keeps the show on TV

   c) ergo, the mysteries won't be completely answered until the finale (if then)

And I enjoy the mystery. Keep clouding the waters all you want, it only makes me think about and enjoy the show all the more.

* * *

I've given up on my idea that the cast is dead and in purgatory. Not because I was wrong - the show is still about good vs evil, redemption vs damnation - but because I think it was a concept that's been abandoned as viewers began to heavily circulate the theory.

Holding to this redemption theme, note that Sawyer, ahole of the Isle, was caged like an animal (did you notice that the Other said the cages used to hold bears? The Polar Bear from Season One anyone?), Kate was promised two weeks of misery, and only Jack - a flawed but good man - was treated with what looks like (but probably isn't) sincere kindness.

I don't interpret Ben (Henry Gale's) 'good job' to Juliet at the episode's end as sinister. Under her watch Jack let go of a troubling, selfish obsession and thought only of his ex-wife's happiness.

Redemption.

Of course they'll be some romance hinted at between Juliet and Jack. Let's just hope the actress avoids a DUI so the plot has time to develop.

I think Ben/Henry is a wonderfully evil? addition to the show and I believe the tension between him and Juliet is real and will factor in to at least our perception of events to come, perhaps as Juliet 'converts' to the Losties cause.

Sawyer's nice for comic relief but the googy-eyes between him and Kate were a little nauseating.

[side note: I don't think Kate looked good in that dress at all. She looked very thick and block-ish to my eyes. Keep in mind I didn't  TIVO it and rewind endlessly like some freaks out there, so it might be a wrong impression, but ewww]

[note my nice Tim Gunn like quote there. The Mrs. and I have become big fans of Project Runway, gobbling up Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD while waiting for this years winner. My vote rests (pre Fashion Week) with Michael Knight ]

Lots of talk out there about the significance of the novel the book club was reading (Carrie by Stephen King) and how Adam's objections to its content fly in the face of the supernatural edge we expected from the Others. Can't argue with that conclusion.

I think the web-based paranoia about how Juliet grabbed a Talking Heads cd but it miraculously played Petulia Clark's 'Downtown' (a goof, something significant?) are idiotic. Half my CD's are mixed up and in the wrong case. If you grab Metallica off my shelf you're just as likely to hear Garth Brooks as Enter Sandman. If this is anything more than a production goof I'll be surprised.

All right, I'm stuck working again this evening but I'll try to watch the show when I get home (and tonight's  Project Runway and Clean House) and post about it in the next few days.

Lost Post

Here's what I think happened: the writers took the one of the most popular internet rumours - that the whole island was a figment of Hurley's dementia - and decided to have some fun with it.

Then, snuck into it, was Henry's veiled reference to the island being supernatural and out of God's sight and that of the world.

My my, what to believe, what to believe . . .

Lost Theory

I missed half the show courtesy of American Idol, but what I saw was pretty worthy of a yawn.

Yeah, yeah, the baby was almost kidnapped by some weirdo Other medical faction. Whoohoo. Guessed that already, thank you.

Echo's little speech to the captive was pretty interesting, leading me to think he believes the Other's are more than mere humans - angels, perhaps? I don't know what the beard trimming was about, but I'm sure there's a hundred theories already in circulation.

The captive, who I'm sure is an Other, was pretty obvious about his attempt to split Jack and Locke. That it worked just points out how impotent and emotionally weak Locke really is.

BTW, if you like American Idol (AI in my parlance) check out Coldhearted Truth's blog on the sidebar. A conservative political blog, it has a seperate AI blog attached to it. It's worth a look.

* * *
Bought a laptop by the way. Not much to say about, but this is the first post I've typed out on it.

 

Another Lost post

Okay, first of all last week’s episode was goofy. Everyone I talked to seems to think it was a stunning masterpiece, a chilling epic of Lost, but that just proves I’m smarter than everyone I know.

Assuming Sawyer was capable of planning the whole thing out means you think he had the foresight to know everyone on the island was going to act out of character.

Locke, while my least favorite regular and IMHO a boob, would not have fallen for such a blatant ploy and certainly not with such meekness. He acted downright wimpy in the episode.

Jack, while prone to bouts of temper, clearly didn’t think it wise to give Chin a gun. Yet minutes later he’s knocking on the door to give him one. Huh?

Charlie wants to humiliate Locke, so he agrees to assault an innocent woman? Again, huh?

Kate’s a professional con artist, at least so far as bank robberies go, falls hook line and sinker for the ruse. Ugh.

And Sawyer himself - the new sheriff in town – is a moron. Everyone hates him now, and quite frankly, who cares about the guns? Haven’t done any of ‘em a bit of good yet.

Tonight’s episode was much better, with characters acting true to themselves. Jack is unwilling to see a man tortured and (hypocritically?) is willing to resort to violence to stop it. Locke stands his ground until his precious island is threatened. The secret of Hurley’s weight is revealed as nothing more than stolen food, but he admirably stands up for himself. Sayid is wickedly awe-inspiring (the line "My name is Sayid, and I am a torturer" sent shivers down my spine).

Of course the guy Michelle found is an Other, though you’ll probably see a balloon in the jungle somewhere just to mess with our heads.

Two quick new Lost ideas to try on you folks:

The island seems to be riddled with people that have Savior complexes. Jack for sure, but Kate killed her stepdad to ‘save’ her mother. Charlie is obsessed with ‘rescuing’ his family, Locke donated a kidney to his father, etc. I’m too tired to elaborate tonight.

The second thing is more of a question that an idea: Charlie was hanged by The Others. If memory serves Judas met a similar fate, and he’s already shown himself to be a betrayer of the group. Coincidence?

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Another Lost Theory

 

A reader recently left a well-thought out Lost theory on my non-AOL comments page. It's too long to re-post in full, but it can be found here.   Here's the gist of her argument:  

I was originally in line with your theory....but have since revised my position on the whole LOST experience...it's all about the power of the mind and suggestion. . .  Those known as "the others" to the survivors are simply those who are aware of the physic suggestion and the origin of the experiment those who do not yet have this knowledge are "the survivors".

Legitimate studies have proven that children have a heightened physic ability which deminishes over time.  This may be the reason children are garnered by "the others".  they strengthen the illusion that is shared by the collective illusion being produced by those participating in the experiment.

My guess is the reason for the connectivity and background similarity has to do with where the study subjects orginally came from....All could be part of a program that participated in such an experiment or study.

I'm impressed, but not convinced. I think the best explanation is my purgatory argument. I do concede that their is a smattering of clues lately that point to a psychological explanation: namely, that this is all a figment of Hurley's insanity.

* The numbers, which pop up everywhere, are directly connected to the event that started Hurley's fall (the lottery)

*Hurley 'recognized' Libby, the psychologist among the Tailies

*Hurley hasn't lost any weight, despite spending two months on a deserted isle. This has been commented on by both fans and a character in the show. I realize it's probably nothing more than the actor's inability to lose weight, but if it's intentional - maybe his shattered psyche can't imagine a less overweight, 'more worthy' self

*Alone among all the castaways, Hurley seems to be a neutral and universally liked character on the island. Evidence? of him being the unintentional puppet master who's unwilling to ostracize himself?

I'm sure there's more, but Ican't think of it right now. I hope it isn't true. I'd hate to have the show end the way St. Elsewhere did, with the whole thing being written off as the product of an autistic kids imagination.

Might as well have Bobby Ewing pop out of the shower and call it all a dream.

I know there's message threads that debate these things endlessly, so maybe all three of these theories have been disproved - but ya know what? No one short of the writers know the truth, and depending on how long the series runs, the 'truth' might alter as the cast and audience changes.

In the meantime, while I might pop on a message board for a minute or two, I prefer to dwell on my theories here - and I'm more than happy to hear your opinions.

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Tags: Lost

Another Lost post

An overtly religious episode, one that certainly doesn't refute my purgatory theory.

Not a whole lot to discuss, frankly. I think Claire turned on Charlie awfully quick in the last few weeks, given that he's been her go-to guy from the time of the crash.

Charlies actions in this episode seem to validate Claire's mistrust - if that is, the viewers didn't know that the dreams and sleep walking were real.

Locke continues to be an obnoxious a**, and I'm probably reading too much into his role as the guy preventing the baptism.  In the teaser for next week, Locke is again on his high horse and in opposition to Jack; the guy makes me ill.

Kate and Sawyer: He can have her. I fail to comprehend where her newfound attaction to him comes from.

Hurley and Libby: she gave me the creeps. She quickly deflected his "Do I know you?" question, and I'm eager to learn her crooked past.

She is cute though.

Was there any significance to the burning bush, especially in light of the whole Aaron/Moses theme running through the episode?

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