Lost "What Kate Does"

I think yest.'s episode of Lost ("What Kate Does") was a big improvement over last week, even if it did center around Kate, who I find predictable & dull (when in doubt, run. When certain, run anyway). Note that Claire's ultrasound was dated a month after the Sept crash of 815 in the org. timeline. So . . is this a true alt timeline, or has something manipulated the group AFTER the crash? And what is the "darkness"?

Lost

I liked this weeks episode of Lost, but we learned little other than the ID of the Smoke Monster. The A-bomb worked to create a separate timeline, but I'm not buying the 'everything would suck anyhow' storyline (not the case for the hundreds of dead, no?) . . .and that's that. Jack's broken, so this season will be about his redemption.

yay!

It’s official: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has confirmed that the State of the Union will not pre-empt the premiere of LOST The Final Season on 2/2. See you in 25 days. (from Lost's FB page)

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!

On Hate Mail, American Idol, and Lost

Yes, I did get hate email about my article yesterday. Only two mind you, but they were doozies. The first called me several names, specifically said I didn't love my family, and labeled my writing "worthless drivel". The second was kinder, but that might be because he doesn't appear to have actually read the column.

* * * *

I'll be glad when American Idol is done for the year. Not that I haven't enjoyed it, but it's such a pain to have another obligation on my schedule. It's not like you can even postpone your viewing, because the media saturation gives it all away the next day.

* * * *

I was late for work last week because of Mr. Gokey. Gokey's hometown return was a big event here, and while a top crowd of 5,000 was expected at the Summerfest Grounds more than 20,000 showed up. That meant traffic was backed up around the city, even on the south side, so I sat on the freeway listening to 'cool' alternative music DJ's blast American Idol as 'Karaoke'.

As**ole.

* * * * *

I'm not a big conspiracy person, but the first song that Danny was forced to sing reeked of an ambush. Terrance Trent Darby? An unknown Terrance Trent Darby song ? An unknown Terrance Trent Darby song that sounds like disco?

Meanwhile, Adam is handed U2's fine if over-rated 'One'. This reminded me, just a hair, of the overtly feminine songs that were chosen for the Kelly/Justin finale in Season One. That move put Justin, already an underdog, at a fatal disadvantage.

I don't think the producers rig the election, but they sure do their best to sway the vote.

I thought Danny bit the bullet and got through the first song and shined by the end of the show. Kris started the show strong but his version of Kanye, to me, sounded like a butchered coffee-shop version of a great song.

Adam . . . ugh. Every song sounds the same, a shrieking knock-off of Mark Wahlberg's imitation of Judas Priest in Rock Star. And what's with the tongue thing?You're not in Kiss, Adam.

I'm kind of hoping Gokey doesn't win it all, as I'd like him to have more than the one moderate hit the winner will produce before returning to obscurity. Still, I think he makes the finals with Adam.


* * * *

I haven't written about Lost because for several weeks, while I was at work, someone *cough* failed to notice that the DVR cancelled the recording in favor of Whatever, Martha.

I've finally caught up online. Here are some brief thoughts:

1. The actress that plays 40 year old Eloise Hawking (Alice Evans) is SUPER SUPER HOT. What a Danny girl.

2. The shooting of Ben ended in a cop-out worthy of Dallas. His memory was erased? C'mon!

3. Locke is creating his own 'destiny'. He sends Richard to recruit the adolescent Locke, he send Ricard to pass on the message that he must die, etc. So how much of it is BS? Is he destined for greatness, or just a false prophet?

4. Kate has become a boring, superfluous character, both in terms of the show itself and her interactions within the Lost universe. She could bite the big one and I wouldn't shed a tear.

5. I still say time can be altered. Maybe they have a shot at erasing everything that's happened. I just don't think detonating a hydrogen bomb is a smart way to go about it.

Lost "He's our You"

On the eve of another episode I thought I'd go ahead and post a new Lost theory that popped into my head.

A brief recap of the Sayid-centric episode: In 1977 Sayid remains a captive of the Dharma Initiative, despite Sawyer's best efforts to convince them he's not a Hostile spy. Sayid is taken to the jungle and given drugs to force a confession.


It works; he admits everything, but it sounds so outrageous it's dismissed out of hand. Later the group votes to kill Sayid. Sawyer, unable to halt the group's momentum, makes it a unanimous vote.



So much for Sawyer's wonderful leadership skills.

But young 12 year old Ben Linus seeks to befriend Sayid, who quickly notes the abusive behavior of Ben's Dad. Ben apparently lights a Dharma van on fire and sends it crashing into a building as a diversion to rescue Sayid. As they flee into the jungle Jin intercepts them and Sayid renders him unconscious or worse. Referencing a line Ben told/tells him thirty years in the future, Sayid turns to the young Ben and shoots him in the chest, presumably killing the boy.



* * * *

OK. Sawyer: Just as 'reactive' a leader as Jack was and obviously not as stuck on the whole 'don't be a Judas' thing.

But the main development here is the Ben/Sayid encounter and its impact on history. In 'real' life this would destroy the timeline and eliminate Ben and his actions from the life history of the 815 survivors. Personally, I think someone else might have simply taken his place and recreated 89% of his historical actions, but that's neither here nor there.

Why? Because Lost has gone out of the way to emphasize that in their world time cannot be altered. What has happened has always happened, even if we aren't privy to how history eventually conforms to our understanding.

Thus, we have some options.

One - the kid wasn't 'really' Ben, and the Benjamin Linus we know and loathe is an impostor. This is contradicted by prior episodes and the kid's unfortunate facial similarity to the grown Linus. Not a viable theory.

Two - He isn't dead. Could be, but what are the chances a professional killer fails to finish off a little boy at close range? Not viable.

Three: Ben dies. I vote for this one. But does time change? Again, by Lost's 'rules', no. So Ben dies, but somehow comes back to life.

Cue my theory. Ben dies and is resurrected by the island, thus cementing his obsession with the island, his belief in his 'special' status, and his role with the Hostiles.

If we accept that Ben rises from the dead, just as Locke does in the 'present', then it's a good bet that Christian Shepard's manifestation is physical and as complete as either one. Jack's Dad is alive and well on the island.

Here's where I think I *may* have hit a nerve. Locke, Ben, and Christian are 'special' and rose from the dead. Who else among the Losties seems to hold a special relationship [even unwillingly] with the island, a leadership role and ties to many of the other players in the saga?

Jack, who we first see in the jungle, having been tossed from the wreckage and laying apart from the others, his only wound a (Christ-like) piercing in his side.

Was Jack killed in the crash and unknowingly resurrected, leading him to assume the special role of protagonist throughout the series?

Regardless, Ben will 'rise' again. And he will no doubt bear knowledge of Sayid and many of the others with him into the future and force his hand. Thus, the past creates the future, and the future creates the past.

Deep huh? What do you think?

Lost Season 8, Ep. 8: LaFleur

It's a sign of social acceptance at work that the resident Lost expert was eager to seek me out after this weeks episode. I hadn't had a chance to view it yet, but he left me with a warning: it was one of the most confusing, theory-provoking episodes yet, one that shook his faith in the show.

After watching it I'm wondering if he was f*ing with me.

I liked the episode. Hell, I enjoyed every minute of it. What's more I found it rather straightforward.

So . . you tell me.

Sawyer's group jots around time again, if only for a second, and in a much earlier (?) time see a giant statue in the distance.



I'd assume this is the same statue the Losties later see in ruins a few season back.

Then they flash again, winding up in the year of my birth (1974) but agree that it appears to be over. They wander about the island, as the group is prone to do, and discover Amy in the midst of being kidnapped by Others.



The group intervenes and saves her, killing two Others in the process. They journey back to Otherville with Amy but are tricked by the sonic fence and are taken prisoner. When they wake up Sawyer is questioned by Horace, the local leader of the Dharma Initative. Sawyer cons his way through the interview but soon the camp is at full alert; Richard Alpert is inside the camp. Killing the two Others breaks the 'truce' and he is pissed.

Sawyer ventures out to talk to him and takes credit for the killings, using his knowledge of the past to convince Richard he is who he says he is and that, technically, the truce still stands.



Flash forward three years to 1977. Sawyer is now Jim LaFleur, the head of local Dharma security. Jin speaks perfect english and at Sawyers request continues to look for the other Losties. Juliet is 'undercover' as an auto mechanic, etc.

Horace gets drunk and is recovered outside the fence by Sawyer, just as Horace's wife (Amy) gives birth with Juliet's help. It's a boy. Later we see Juliet and Sawyer embrace and exchange declarations of love.


Obviously they are a couple, and via an anecdote he tells Horace we are led to believe he's well over Kate.

And then Jin finds Jack and the others . . .

Ok, let's discuss it.

The statue could be any ancient God or King, although it does have a semblance of Egyptian to it. Hey, it could be Richard. He never ages right? And his initials are R.A., and RA is the sun god correct?

The Dharma stuff seems pretty cut and dry. They are brought into the camp, earn the trust of Dharma, and eventually rise in the ranks. Okeedokee.

Juliet and Sawyer warrant no discussion, as a relationship seems rather inevitable given the situation they find themselves in. Is he over Kate? I guess we'll find out.

What's the nature of the truce? Maybe the Hostiles/Others want parts of the island (the wheel, the buried H-bomb, etc) left alone, and violating that geographic line in the sand is what brought on the attack/kidnapping.

Where's Rose/Bernard/the missing Oceanic Six? Who knows. We'll find out and their absence maybe nothing more than their relative lack of worth to this weeks story.

* * * * *

So aside from being a great hour of TV, am I missing something?

:ost: The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham Season 5/Ep 7

Thanks for your comment Sarah. I hope all is well with you.

*******

In that comment Sarah called this episode one of the most boring and a waste of an hour of her life. I have to disagree, for one reason: I've come to the conclusion that we have to change our expectations about Lost. Not lower them certainly, but change them all the same.

For four seasons we were treated to a standard format (current storyline supported by flashbacks that elaborate on life pre-island) and a consistent purpose (character development with tiny nudges forward in plot, often creating more questions as it went).

Now we are jumping left and right in time and place, or camped out in a strictly chronological time line.

I'll admit, I don't like it nearly as much. But, we are in the end game. We have a limited amount of time to discover as many answers as possible. As long as I'm still entertained - and I am - I'm sticking around.

Now as for the episode itself, the net is strangely abuzz with theories on every bit of this week's story. I don't get it. To me it seemed straightforward. Locke leaves the island and is found by Charles Widmore.



He is given Matthew Abaddon as a driver and sets out to recruit the Oceanic Six, with a side trip to see Walt. Not a whole lot happens, unless you count the Six saying 'No', and eventually Locke wants to see his ex-fiance Helen. Abaddon - who says he guided Locke onto the walkabout (and hence the island) because it's what he does - brings him to Helen's grave site.

While at the cemetery Abaddon is shot and killed by an unseen assailant



Eventually, after facing the fact that he's failed in his task, John decides to hang himself in his hotel room. Ben forces his way in, cops to killing Abaddon, spins yet another yarn about how 'special' John is, and talks him out of the act.

He gets the name of John's contact from him and then, in a wee bit of a shock, strangles Locke and stages a suicide.



On the island, in our current time (?) John is resurrected, with full memory of his death. He joins the survivors of Flight 316 and discovers Ben among the injured survivors.

* * *

So why all this over the top net frenzy? Ack, don't bring up Locke's return from the dead. If you hadn't guessed the whole 'Wrath of Khan' death bit weeks ago you're a fool.

I wasn't happy to see that flight #316 crashed.

a) because it means more innocents have died in the name of the Losties

b) it means it can't be the plane masquerading as Oceanic 815

c) it really annoys me that we're treating the island like a rest stop. What, anyone can get stranded there now?

I suppose one could question if Helen is alive or not, and if the gravestone was a scam; but either way, what would it matter to the viewer?

You could wonder if Matthew was indeed murdered, but he works for Widmore and Widmore's enemy Ben admits to the deed. That's a pretty compelling argument for closure.

And as for the murder scene. Hmm. You can argue convincingly that Ben solicits the unknown contact from Locke and then kills him to resume his place as leader of the Others. Or that he knew of Hawking but was alarmed to hear that Locke did and needed to prevent his use of her.

My take? I don't know which of the two scenarios is closer to the mark, but I know this: Ben knows that Locke will do the Lazarus bit, and so the murder is really more of a . . kidnapping I guess.

As for Walt, yeah, he'll figure into the endgame eventually. It doesn't interest me much, but it's inevitable.

Lost: '316' and some Oscar notes

I hope to put up an AI post before the Wednesday results show. I'd also like to do a post on a new reality show I've taken a shine to, but that might have to wait. In the meantime the standard Lost post . . well, the following will have to do:

I was pretty disappointed with episode '316', which brought the six back to the island. Cue a long and revoltingly juvenile explanation about the means of how to return: the Losties must play dress up and recreate as best as possible the circumstances and actions of the original flight. They must do this on board another jet which, presumably, will meet a predicted demise and carry the group back to the island.

Ok, what hooey. It reeks of 'Dork', and seems quite illogical. This isn't a one-time means of transport, this is the recommended way and means of travel to the island. You're telling me Ben did this each and every time he left the island? Please. And don't start waving the 'time jump' garbage at me. According to the same speech the island has always been moving around. So why the masqurade?

The only real mystery of the episode was the sudden and unexpected enlistment of many of the Oceanic Six. What spurred their sudden change of heart? Where is Aaron? What's with the guitar?

(my guess is that Aaron is now back with Ghost Claire, Charlie convinced Hurley, and Ben had Sayid arrested . . . but I still don't get why he's on his way to Guam)

What happened to the plane? The episode makes you think/hope that the plane survives and that the Six are merely 'picked' off the flight and tossed into the jungle. I'm not sure. That 'fake' flight 815 wreck had to come from somewhere, and it'd be a juicy if tragic twist to have the pilot (who's name escapes me) wind up as the very corpse that inspired him to seek the truth about the crash of 815.

A few loose ends:

1. Obviously the Jack/Kate/Hurley made the jump, but wound up far earlier in the islands time stream than expected, early enough to encounter the Dharma Initiative (and Jin). How will that play out? Are Ben/Sayid/Sun some other 'time' on the island?

2. I could care less if John blames Jack and killed himself over it (which I don't buy). Blah blah. I wouldn't have believed you either, ya kook.

3. Yeah, I get it. '316' is the name of the episode, the flight involved, and of course the famous biblical verse from the Book of John. Tie that in to the vein of faith/doubt that runs through it - and the outright reference to Thomas by Ben - and voila, you have the theme of the day. Leading us to the next point . .

4. Even if he isn't religious, or formally schooled in the Christian faith, Jack is a literate and educated man. Is it likely he wouldn't know of the story of Doubting Thomas, even if only from the cultural shorthand the incident inspires? There should have been a third, more naive person in the scene to shout out those nods to the obvious, not Jack.

* * * * *

Oscar notes:

1. What a bore. Pretentious and boring from start to finish, it was livened only by Heath Ledger's win (kudos) and Ben Stiller's hit (and miss) J. Phoenix imitation.

2. What an awful idea to have former winners announce the nominees! Could the Oscars work harder to present Hollywood as an obnoxious industry, populated with people with an exaggerated sense of self worth?

3. Not having seen the nominated films, I'm still comfortable making this prediction: twenty years from now - ten years from now - none of the 'big' films will be remembered or widely viewed. Instead, Wall-E and The Dark Knight will fill that bill.

4. All complaining aside, I'd rather win an Oscar than a Pulitzer any day.

This Place is Death: Lost Season 5, Ep. 5

You may be asking why I didn't blog about last week's episode. The answer? What was there to write about? It was a boring example of filler, with only two items of note. The first point, the survival of Jin, is no surprise since the actor has been listed on the credits as a cast member all season, despite his character's 'death' last year.



The second, the introduction of Rousseau's group, added nothing to the show.

This week, however, for the first time all year I think Lost was back. This Place is Death was a great episode, full of action, plot twists, new mysteries, and some answers.

Let's start off the island. Sun crashes the reunion at the docks and the group scatters. Sun's rather easily convinced of Jin's health by Ben and she and Jack head off with him to see the proof.

Back to them them later. In 1988 one of Rousseau's group is picked off by the Smoke Monster and killed. Soon enough another is captured and dragged into an underground lair near an old temple. The group attempts to save him, but in the process only cause the monster to tear off his arm to take his prey.



Jin stops Danielle from joining the rest of the group on an ill-advised attempt to rescue their comrade, and then 'flashes' forward. He 'returns' a short time later (weeks/months? certainly not longer) and finds that Danielle has killed the members of her party and is facing down her baby's father at gunpoint.

Danielle is convinced he has been changed by the 'sickness', carried and transmitted by the Monster, but her beau dismisses this by saying it isn't a monster but simply a defense system set up to protect the temple. Just when she is convinced he raises his gun to kill her but it jams - her surprise looks too genuine for her to have tampered with it - and she kills him.

This part of the episode felt rushed, almost like the writers needed to answer Questions X and Y about Danielle and used this time travel crap to get it out of the way Barring further sightings of the lass, we are left with the impression Danielle was wrong about the illness. The Monster is almost certainly impersonating one or more of the men, or they've been let in on the island's secrets and switched allegiances. I don't think anything biological is involved.

Jin then manages to rejoin the remaining, pitifully small group of Losties. After a series of quick time flashes Charlotte is stricken down, returning to lucidity to proclaim a few dire prophesies - first and foremost, a warning to Jin not to bring Sun back to the island - and then tells Daniel the truth about her past. She grew up on the island and left with her mother, who ever after claimed it was a child's fantasy. She has spent her life searching for it, and now remembers something else: as a child Daniel himself warned her not to come back, because if she did she would die.

Ok. Well and good and all that, but you do see the problem, right? Charlotte dies and in an effort to prevent it he goes back in time and warns her. Obviously it fails, because the evidence of that failure is right in front of him, from her very mouth. Therefore there is no incentive for Daniel to have ever issued the warning, because he would know from the moment it became necessary that it would fall on deaf ears. Maybe he uttered it in the past out of sheer emotion, because logically there is no reason to speak the words.

Better for them both if he told the Mom to have Charlotte attend art school and avoid the skill set needed for her return; all Daniel's done is ensure her death.

So we get to the Orchid station but it vanishes in a literal flash. Cuing off one of Charlotte's statements John begins to climb down a well nearby. First though he must promise Jin that he will not bring Sun back, and takes his ring as 'proof' of death. As he descends the well a flash brings the group forward or backward in time far enough that the well is no more, and John is believed to have perished, encased in soil.

In truth Christian Shepard/Jacob finds John in a chilly tunnel. He says the cause of the time slips are on John's shoulders. "I said you had to move the island John," he said, referencing the fact that Ben is the one who did the deed. John stammers out an explanation but it is dismissed with a quick jab at Ben. John is instructed to restore the wheel onto its axis and a light engulfs him.

Back in the real world Ben uses Jin's ring to convince Sun that she must return to the island - a brilliant use of the ring to keep the promise and yet get a polar opposite result. Desmond comes out of the shadows and more or less proves what we've guessed for awhile; Eloise Hawking is Daniel Farraday's mother.



And the quest to return to the island begins in earnest . . .

Lost: Season 5, Episode 2: 'Jughead'

Thanks for signing up Sarah. Cute pic :) Now get your sister to join :)

* * * *

A reader asked me this week if there's been a season or two of Lost that I didn't like. I have my favorites sure, but the answer is 'no'. Some seasons are more cerebral and mysterious, while some are action-oriented and designed to move the story arc forward. Overall, it's been a pleasant mix of the two.

As far as this season goes, I'm not overjoyed but for now, still thoroughly entertained. I will say this: I find it very awkward that the show has abandoned its trademark and highly effective format. You know what I'm talking about; the events of the 'present', intercut with flashbacks to the the character's past that explain their current actions and [hopefully]deepen our attachment to them. This season it's pgone. Oh, they still jump around in time, but now it's just a plain jane attempt to track the ridiculous 'time travel' storyline.

This week, in the real world, Desmond and Penny have a son. Three years later he 'remembers' Daniel's plea and sets out to find Farraday's mother. I have a theory on this: the memory did not exist until that moment, which I imagine coincides with Daniel venturing back in time to make the request. That's absolute bunk of course. If he changed the past then it immediately becomes part of Desmond's continuity, and he should have retained the memory through the whole shebang. Heck, it should also have a) proven to him that the 'plague' was a lie, since Daniel was seen sans hazmat suit and b) helped him retain his sanity as he knows there will be a time when he is off the island again.

Anyhow, he wanders around and finds Daniel's lab dismantled and Farraday held in contempt for his experiments, which have apparently incapacitated a woman (she actually appears to have the time travel sickness seen both last season and with Charlotte this year). Cue a meeting with Widmore and a parting shot where it's evident he and Penny are off to LA to find Daniel's mother. Uh, here's my two cents. Widmore gave you her address. Your wife is being hunted by Ben and his coherts, who have a reach wider than the Atlantic. Howsabout you skip the trip and just mail her a certified letter?

On the island it's revealed that 'here' in the early '50's a US Army expedition is exterminated. Their mission was to use the island for nuclear testing, and they left a bomb - the Jughead of the episode title - behind.




The Losties are mistaken for a US Army rescue party, and, skipping over a few things here, John gets his rather unproductive discussion with Richard Alpert.

A couple things of note: the US Army does not just willy-nilly land on an island and blow it up. Therefore, at that time the island was visible and accessible, long enough for the US to chart it, select it for use, and deploy a team to utilize it. Moreoever the Others aren't surprised, since they expect a follw-up attack.

So what changed? Did the bomb serve as the source for all the energy on the island? What gives?

We learn a few other things. Daniel loves Charlotte. Big surprise. The a-hole Other is none other than a young Charles Widmore. Slightly bigger surpise.


Ellie, the blonde Other who holds Daniel at gunpoint, and seems to be an antagonist to Widmore?



Well, my money is that it's Dan's mother (note how he joked that she looked familiar) and that she is the mysterious white haired woman who guided Desmond in the past and who Ben seems to fear.

So sometime in the last fifty years Widmore and the Others had a falling out, with both Widmore and White Haired Lady assuming control of competing interests.

That's pretty much it for this week. Anything else to add folks?

Lost: "Because You Left" Season 5, Ep. 1

Last night I wrote a long and introspective look into the heart of The Dan, one which, I think, was so insightful it would spare me a good year of therapy sessions.

Naturally, I deleted it immediately :)

Instead, at the request of Sarah J I present my thoughts on the season opener of Lost. It is a long standing tradition of mine to review and analyze each episode of the show, but I was forced to DVR last weeks episode and watch it later.

The two of you who care - that would be the before mentioned Sarah J and myself - will have to forgive the delay.

(btw Sarah - register on google and sign up as a 'follower' already. Geesh.)

So, let's start off-island.

Jack's still a recovering, shattered druggie. No change there. But Kate has a lawyer knock on her door and briefly show her what he claims is a court order demanding a blood test to confirm the maternity of her 'son' Aaron. The lawyer will not divulge the name of his client.

Now, to me, this is shady. Shouldn't this guy have approached her through more formal means? Why did Kate immediately buy his story? Even if true, this is the kind of thing that she could drag out in the court system for years. It would have been prudent to attack this head on, even if only prolonging the inevitable. But Kate being Kate, her first instinct was to run for the hills in a haphazard exodus.

So who ordered the test? It could be Ben's group, as it flushed Kate into the open and knocked her off balance, but then why didn't they seize the moment and bring her into the fold? No, my vote remains with Sun, who has now paired up with Charles Widmore and obviously holds a grudge against Kate and Jack for the 'death' of Jin.



[Memo to Sun: yeah, I suppose with some creative thinking you could hold them responsible. But Ben, Widmore, the Others, and, oh, your deceitful adulterous self would hold the most long-range blame for him being there, no?

And for the record: Sun was great for four seasons, but in the bad-girl/vixen role she comes off as so soap-opera it's laughable.

Meanwhile, Sayid has broken Hurley out of the mental hospital. In a wicked and original fight scene Sayid is knocked unconscious by drugs, but not before dispatching two men. Sadly, Hurley is seen with a gun in hand, leading all of greater Los Angeles to believe him a killer.


Hurley retreats to his parent's house and eventually delivers Sayid to Jack's care. Meanwhile Ben shows up to recruit Hurley, but in a burst of independence he runs outside and surrenders to the police to avoid falling into Ben's hands.

Ben is stunned and reports his findings to the White Haired Woman. We know she is connected to Desmond and in this episode is ID'd as a possible mother for Daniel Farraday. She repeats that he has no choice: bring them all back, or the world is doomed.

Who's stalking Hurley and Sayid? It isn't Ben, not unless he set it up only to have it backfire. Widmore? Possibly.

Oh yeah, f you read between the lines it seems John isn't really dead, or if he is it's only in a Spock at the end of Khan temporary way, so I wouldn't be shocked when he shows up again in the 'present day'.

Speaking of time, it appears the island is sliding back and forth in time, or at least the Losties are. They bounce from the time of the Beechcraft crash to the post-hatch era and back again. I found it all rather ho-hum, save for Ethan's attack on John.


Even that was irrelevant, if not for the fact that it later brings Richard into the frame to fix up John, hint at time travel yet to come, and bring in some much needed comic relief.

"What's this?" John said.

"It's a compass John."

"What's it do?" John said presuming it is of vital magical importance.

"It points north John," Richard replies.

[note: there might be more to this than mere flippancy, as Eko referenced North and it's come into play before. Wait and see]

The Losties eventually come under attack by a very hostile group that kills several people and threatens to torture Juliet. Who the hell are they?

* * * * * *

I wanted to devote a separate post to the whole time travel issue, but I''ll just schlump it down here. Daniel's whole argument that the past cannot be altered, that there are 'rules' against this kind of thing . . .well, it's a sci-fi staple and there's a theoretical academic basis for it. My opinion? It's bullsh**.

Saying there are 'rules' in place to prevent a change in events is preposterous. Time is, if you will, a river. It moves forward constantly, although we always have the right-here as a constant, and someday we might very well learn how to ride against the current and revisit old sights. But the river does not care who was at the wheel while you went 'round the bend two days ago, not whether it was Abe or Jessica or the King of Siam, nor does it care if you travelled its length at all. It just is.

Presuming that there are 'rules' inserts the question of an intelligent force - a creator, or at the very least a 'manager' - into the equation; it presumes that what we do is of soooo very vital importance that the universe itself acts in direct opposition to our actions; and it downright locks down any debate on destiny vs. free will, since we can't do diddly squat without direct permission.

Plus, it is a sci-fi staple and I expect more originality from this show.

That's all folks. Til the next episode, adios.

Lost: There's No Place Like Home, pt. 1

I feel like a bit of a charlatan writing a summary of Lost this week, because nothing happened. The season was supposed to conclude with a two-hour episode, with this being the first half. Then the writer's strike ruined the year and the finale was expanded to three hours, with this bit lopped off and sent away on its own like the black sheep of the family.

To me it just felt incomplete.  I think it was blatantly obvious that this was Act I of a play that was rudely interrupted.

Ok. With that rant out of the way, on with the show.

On the island Jack and Kate set out after the helicopter and run into Sawyer and Aaron. With the news of the attack on 'New Otherton' Jack sets out on his own and sends Kate and Aaron back to the beach. Sawyer reluctantly joins Jack, admonishing him that 'you don't get to die alone'.

Meanwhile Sayid has returned to the island with the freighter's lifeboat and Daniel, having voiced an urgent need to get off the isle, ferry's the first group of six back to the freighter, Sun and Aaron among them.

Which would be great, save for the fact that Desmond has found an entire room full of armed explosives aboard the ship, just waiting to be detonated.

Meanwhile Sayid and Kate set out after Jack (is it just me, or do these people wander off in the jungle looking for one another a lot?) Kate displays tracking skills worthy of the Deerslayer but it doesn't help much. Richard and the Others capture them and lead them away.

Jack and Sawyer eventually find the helicopter and learn Hurley is with Ben and Locke. Seeing as that group is headed for an ambush at the Orchid station they decide to . . go wander off in the jungle looking for them.

Off the island, in the near future, we see the Oceanic Six re-introduced to the world. Their families, with the exception of Kate's, are waiting for them.

 

In  a press conference their fictitious escape from 815 is detailed. Eight - not six - 815 passengers escaped and spent a day in the water before beaching on an uncharted island. Kate gave birth to Aaron there. Then on Day 103 they found an abandoned sailboat on and escaped to a nearby island, blah blah.

Later we see Jack reunite with his Mom and hold a memorial servicefor his father. Claire's Mom comes up to him and in a very Empire Strikes Back moment, tells him Claire was his half-sister. Oh, the shock!

Sayid is reunited with Nadia and they marry in time to attend Hugo's birthday party. At the party Hurley sees the 'numbers' on the odometer of his car and freaks out.

Meanwhile Sun has gone behind her father's back and purchased a controlling interest in his company. This was as revenge for her father's hatred of Jin, which she blames for his death.

And . . yeah, that's pretty much it. A lot of folks moving around doing nothing, accomplishing nothing. Whoo-hoo.

No big questions to ask or debate, so I'll leave you with this: Lost has two seasons left. Without question the Oceanic Six will probably leave the island in this season's finale. I assume at some point Jack and crew will return, as hinted at in his breakdown last year. But aside from that story arc, where will the future of Lost lie?

Will the show move off island and concentrate on the Sayid/Ben vs. Widmore/Desmond motif, or will it continue as is, with the Oceanic Six occupying one aspect of the show and the remaining survivors (still on the Island) continuing with their own life?

Will there be any remaining survivors? Dialogue hints say Sawyer survives at least long enough to decide to remain, but as for the rest, I can't see them choosing to stay (except Rose and Bernard).

I don't know. But I do know that I'm hoping the two hour finale wipes the floor with this below average episode.

Lost: Cabin Fever Season Four, episode 11

I can understand people who disagree with my taste in some things, but the people who scorn Lost boggle my mind. It is intricately plotted, imaginitive in its scope, and very well acted,  If I went to my grave having created something remotely as good, I'd die happy.

Thursday's episode, which I was able to view for the first time yesterday on ABC.com, continues a string of solid episodes that make this fourth season seem like an apology for the last. It even did one thing I never thought possilbe: it made John Locke seem interesting to me.

The show opens in the late '50's when a teenage Emily Locke is struck by a car.

In the hospital her injuries for her to give birth to a premature baby she names 'John'. The nurses are proud to point out John overcomes pneumonia, infections, etc in the hospital, revealing an odd if not necessarily unnatural ability to recover his health.

Born out of wedlock, the father is identified only by a passing comment by Emily's mother that he is 'twice her (Emily's) age'.

To me this comment is a revelation, as the man known as Anthony Cooper, long considered John's father, doesn't fit the description. Even if Emily is 15 when the events happen and her Mother exaggerates the man's age, that would still put him, converseravtively, at 25 to 30 at the time. Cooper is not a 75 to 80 year old man when he is killed by Sawyer.

And then the funky stuff begins to show up. In the hospital Richard Alpert shows up, looking not a day younger than he does fifty years later when he recruits Juliet for the Others.

Twice more he shows up in John's young life. At a foster family's house he poses as a  recruiter for a school for 'gifted' children, and lays out six items in front of John. He asks him which items belong to him - not which items he would like, but which items belong to him already.

From the items John chooses a vial of granules and a compass, and leans towards choosing a 'Book of Laws', a holy book of the Bahá'í Faith. At the last second he skips the book and chooses a knife, a decision that angers Richard and leads to him storming out of the house.

I am no expert, but my understanding is that the Bahá'í Faith preaches that it is a unifying force that will unite the worlds religions and inaugurate a time of peace and justice. Its founder claimed to be the next step in the scriptural line of messengers that runs from Abraham to Jesus to Mohammed, and so on.

Richard next enters his life via a high school science teacher, who mentions that John is being recruited by a laboratory in Portland (where Juliet was told she'd work, remember?). John, a victim of bullies, erupts when his teacher suggests he embrace science rather than pining for an athletic life that will never be his.

The crippled adult John is then treated to a sermon of sorts from an orderly, who is none other than Matthew Abanddon. Abanddon encourages him to take an Australian walkabout, the very one that will lead to his flight on 815, and then says John will one day 'owe him one'.

On the island John is treated to a dream. In it a Dharma employee named Horace is building a cabin, the cabin. Horace mentions he's been dead 12 years (thereby placing the Purge at ~1992) and that John needs to find him to find Jacob's cabin.

 

John journeys to the pit of the Dharma dead, where he uncovers Horace's body and pulls a map from his pocket.

On their way to the cabin Ben discounts John's attempts to pin the Purge on him, saying it wasn't his decision. He also bemoans the fact that the island has abandoned him and chosen Locke as its guardian, and warns Locke that being 'chosen' has its own price.

They find the cabin and Locke enters alone. Inside he find Christian Sheppard, Jack's deceased Dad, who says he is not Jacob but authorized to speak for him. With him is Claire (told ya she was dead folks). John emerges with a solution as to how to save the island.

"He wants us to move the island."

* * *

On the freighter Michael's duplicity is discovered and he is tortured. Keamy tries to kill him several times but is prevented by a faulty gun - or is it the island?, and then loads the chopper with enough military supplies to 'burn' the island, and dons what appears to be a detonator on his arm.  The ships captain tries to stop him and is killed, and Keamy slices the throat of the Doctor and throws him overboard to convince Frank to pilot the chopper against his wishes.

Meanwhile the captain had allowed Sayid to escape back to the island on a life raft, but Desmond chose to stay behind and wait for Penny.

As the inbound chopper passes the beach camp Frank tosses out his satellite phone, which appears to be tracking the helicopter, which Jack interprets  as a sign to follow the chopper.

* * * *

Ok, here's my take:

1. John is obviously 'chosen' and has been since birth, but in the larger view of things it would appear the island guided 815 to its doom, at least to some degree. Therefore, when you also consider that it also was able to 'protect' Michael back in the States, the force behind the island is very powerful, very far reaching, and not bound by what we would consider purely ethical criteria.  

2. Time is vastly distorted on the island. The doctor's corpse washed ashore a day or more before he was killed, and Richard is perpetually young. Yet Ben appears to have grown to adulthood on the island in the conventional number of years, as had his daughter.

3. The Sheppard family have some special status on the isle, as they all seem to have been drawn there and now two (deceased) members are representing Jacob.

4. Who is Jacob? Who is the 'leader' of the Others Ben spoke of? Is it Jacob?

5. Are Matthew and Richard on the same 'team' or acting in opposition?

6. Who is John's true father? Is it Jacob, or perhaps Charles Widmore, who may have his own secret history of time distortion?

7. How the heck do you 'move' an island?

8. Why is the island still protecting Michael, but allowed him to remain in captivity while the seek and destroy mission took off?

9. I take the items Richard displayed to indicate the inner workings of the subjects mind, like a 3 D Rorschach test. Obviously John failed, but it was because he sabotaged himself. I think he wanted to select the Book of Laws, but he yearns for a life of physical power as he does right up until the current day, and thus picked up the knife.

10. Claire's put on some weight this season, especially in the face. Or am I crazy? Is she pregnant in real-life? Could that be a reason to 'write her out' of the show at this point?

11. When Emily ran out of the hospital room, saying she 'couldn't do this' (hold John) your first inclination is to say it's a teenage Mom who can't deal with her mistake. But what if it goes deeper than that, and she cannot accept that she is involved in a larger plot? She could be a non-virgin Mary of sorts, a 'host' for a Chosen one. That could be a lot to handle.

12. To account for the three episodes lost to the writer's strike, ABC is adding one hour to each of the final two seasons and one to this fourth year.

Tags: Lost, blogplugs

Lost: Something Nice Back Home Season 4/Episode 10

Love or hate him (and I'm definitely one of the former) Jack is the center of this complex and mystifying world of Lost, and Thursday the show finally returned to focusing on his character.

On the island he is stricken with an appendicitis, an unusual occurrence for a place known for its healing properties. Is the island lashing out against the man most responsible for trying to orchestrate the exodus from the isle?

Juliet is able to perform the operation, but Jack is once again leery of surrendering control and demands to talk her through the operation by watching it in a mirror, sans general amnesia.

He starts to feel the pain and react, Juliet sensibly puts him out, Kate fails in living up to Jack's request to keep him awake, and the dang organ comes out.

This scenario, I must say, was stupid. I have a feeling the writers were trying to work in a way to establish trust/love/control issues between Jack/Juliet/Kate at the expense of putting a realistic scene together. 

Elsewhere on the island Sawyer resumes his almost parental supervision of the injured Claire as they try to return to the beach with Miles and Aaron. Along the way they come across the bodies of Rousseau and Karl (thereby verifying Danielle's death) and hide from the fleeing mercenaries.

There seems to be an awful lot of the bad guys left, considering the smoke monster went ga-ga on them last week. Perhaps there were more of them than previously thought, or maybe the monster is not the pure killer we presumed it to be.

In the night Christian Shepard appears to his daughter in the jungle. He was - seeing as he's dead - father to both Jack and Claire, although neither sibling is aware of the connection. In the morning she is gone, and Miles rather flippantly tells Sawyer that she left with her father. Aaron is found abandoned in the trees some distance away.

Let me pause here and survey the field: it is general knowledge that Claire and Jack are half-siblings, right? There were clues galore in the first few seasons, and to top it off the writers themselves outed the 'secret' some time ago.

Anyhow, back to . .well, back to the future.

It is post-trial, and Jack and Kate are now a couple, and a hot one at that. Jack seems to have taken to Aaron despite earlier misgivings and all is well. Later in the show Jack even proposes to Kate, who gladly accepts.

But . . and in Lost there is always a but: Jack goes to see Hurley, who is now refusing to take his medicine in the mental hospital. He is very much a downer this time around, telling Jack they (the Oceanic Six) are all dead and never left the island. He says that Charlie told him Jack is not meant to raise Aaron, and that he will be getting a visitor soon.

This begins to unhinge Jack, who sees what we presume is his fathers ghost in the hospital where he works. Shaken, he requests and receives a prescription to Clonazapam and begins to drink heavily over the next few days.

A short time later Jack comes home early to find Kate mysteriously out and Aaron under the care of a sitter. When she returns he confronts her and she admits to doing a favor on behalf of Sawyer. (let it be noted Jack states Sawyer chose to stay on the island, confirming his future and in all likelihood his survival to that point).

An argument breaks out, with both sides overreacting and nothing happening worth the breakup that seems to follow the fight. The only thing of value I picked up was Jack's admonition that Kate isn't even related to Aaron, which could mean he knows he is, or it could mean nothing more than she isn't his biological mother.

In the Lost chronology, I place the fight prior to last season's finale. I think the prescription and drinking foreshadow Jack's decline to come, and his sighting of the ghost explains his drunken request to see his father in that same finale.

One theory floating around that might have some weight to it. Item One: Miles can legitimately 'hear' the dead. That's a fact, at least in the Lost universe. Ok, fine. He is also an ass, but not one that's overly evil or willing to harm others, at least to this point. Yet when a stranger shows up at the campfire in the middle of the jungle and walks away with a injured woman and her infant son, he does nothing to stop them or raise an alarm.

So . . what are the chances that Claire perished in the bombing of her home last week? The island has been known to grant the dead a brief physical form when it deems it amusing. Is it possible she's been dead since then but unaware of it, as in The Sixth Sense, and that Miles recognized this and therefore wasn't upset when her father came to guide her to 'another place'?

Again, just a theory I heard. I'm not sold on it, but it does have merit.

Take it a step further and I suppose Hurley could be right, and the Six are simply manifestations of their departed spirits. Except I believe that Hurley's just plain sick at that point in the show, and wrong about their status.

Or maybe as the episode's title 'Something Nice Back Home' indicates, maybe the Oceanic Six and Jack and Kate's love affair is nothing more than a nice idea that Jack thought about to take his mind away from the pain, just as Barnard suggested.

Hmm.  A lot to think about, as usual. Wait and see.

Tags: Lost, blogplugs

Lost: The Shape of things to Come. Season 4, episode 9

Lost is back, and so my Thursday nights are once again ruined by my need to sit in front of the TV for an hour :)

The episdoe features 'flashforwards' of Ben as he awakens in the Sahara Desert, mysteriously dressed in a winter coat and bleeding from an arm wound. There is no trail leading to his location.

He overcomes two Bendouin attackers, killing one and using one of their horses to ride into a city.

 The date is October of 2005, 13 months after the crash of 815, yet Ben himself had to ask the year of a hotel clerk; did he travel through time?

He then heads from Tunusia into Iraq, where he encounters Sayid as he buries his wife, Nadia. (from this we learn that the Oceanic Six are 'rescued', at the latest, within months of the 'current' events of the island, and that Sayid is reunited with the long-lost Nadia, however briefly).

Ben and Sayid team up to killl Ishmael, a man allegedly in the employ of Charles Widmore, and  - again allegedly - one of the men responsible for Nadia's death.

Thus the odd partnership of Ben and Sayid is forged, but to this viewer it seemed rather half-baked. Sayid never trusted Ben - why start now? And why take his word on something of such vast importance as the death of your wife?

Let's go back to the island. Jack and the beach survivors find the murdered body of the ship's doctor. A subsequent morse code message to the ship reveals that he is - at that time - alive and well. More evidence of time distortion? After Jack confronts him Daniel admits they have no intention of rescuing the 815 survivors. Jack, who's been ill the whole episode, collapses in deep physical pain.

Meanwhile Alex, Ben's daughter, is forced by her captors to override the fence around the Other's compound. She does so, but types in a distress code that alerts her father. A furious firefight takes place, and the strike team from the ship kills several 'redshirts' - Lost survivors who've occupied background roles for the last four seasons.

 

The team approaches Ben's house with Alex and threatens to kill her if he doesn't surrender. He calls their bluff, only to watch with horror as they kill his daughter in front of his eyes.

"He changed the rules," Ben says in shock. He quickly disspears into a sealed room in his house, only to emerge later telling the rest of the group to run for the treeline. From out of nowhere The Monster emerges, consuming the strike team.

 

Amid their shrieks of pain and terror, the survivors split up. Locke and Ben force Hurley to accompany them to Jacob's cabin, but not before Sawyer warns Locke that he will kill him if any harm befalls Hugo.

Back to 2005. Ben is in London, and breaks into the suite of Charles Widmore. They know each other and speak with a comfortable familarity, albeit one that is stressed and filled with hate for one another.

Ben says he 'cannot' kill Widmore, but that for Alex's death Ben will return the favor and kill Penny, Charles daughter/Desmond's love. Widmore scoffs, saying he'll never find her, Ben retorts that Charles cannot find the island. Widmore says that he knows 'what' Ben is, and that everything he is he took from Widmore, and that it is laughable that Ben blames him for his daughter's death.

Okay, end of episode summary. Aside from the questions I've already raised:

Ben was very specific with his wording, and cannot kill Widmore. I take it to mean the island prevents him from doing so, as was the case with Michael's suicide attempts.

Widmore is very clear that Penny can't be found, not in a cocky manner, but in the matter-of-fact voice of someone who knows you can't find Hoffa because he's buried in the Jets' end zone. So where is Penny, and presumably Desmond?

Did Ben summon the monster, or just lure it to the compound now that the security fence was down?

My theory is this: Widmore owned the island, as much as anyone can own that crazy place, and was involved with or ran Dharma, and therefore knows that Ben betrayed that group and handed it over to the Others. I presume Widmore came in contact with the isle because of the Black Rock, meaning his connection may run back 150 years  (remember, time travel/distortion abounds within this show). It is Penny that Sayid is hunting in the future, and that leads us to my next theory.

I think I see the threads of the show coming together, and I have a glimpse in my head of how the finale will play out. Sayid and Ben will inevitably face off against Desmond/Penny/Widmore, with the rest of the Oceanic Six forced into the fray against their will.

There's more, but like the show's mysteries, the entirety of the concept was crystal clear in my head for a seond, then vanished into the vapor.

As always, we'll have to see how it plays out.

Tags: Lost