You can probably smell the smoke coming from Dave's ears.

It may take me a while, but eventually my brain does occassionally get out of neutral.
This is a minor point sure, but I just realized this: Penelope is also the name of Odysseus' wife, who faithfully waits those 20 years while her hubby treks all over the known world getting chased by mythical beasts.

Surely, her name is not an accident. Duh.

Aw, Phuket

Yknow, I've long accepted the idea that when one mystery gets answered on Lost, two more pop up. But not when the episode itself is kinda lame. The secret of Jack's ink? We already knew he was a reluctant leader, no new ground broken there. But why the beating? And what about the rest of his tattoo - the pyramid and such. Are these significant?
Anyway, here's what's new:
- we now have a sense of what happened to people swiped from the tail section, and they don't seem upset about their new fate as Others. Which is odd because you'd think they'd be annoyed at the Others not radio'ing for a rescue chopper or something. What are they supposed to be watching? Juliet's trial, or something else? I got the feeling we were supposed to think that whole crowd of people around Cindy were also crash survivors, though perhaps I'm wrong.
- What was up with that brand on Juliet? Significance of it's design? Why on her lower back, where no one is going to see it unless she's in a midriff shirt at the Others singles bar?
- Jack, lay off the red meat. He throws Bai Ling against the wall demanding a tattoo. He shrieks at Cindy (though I'll forgive him that, he is in a cage). This guy has got some anger issues.
- Sawyer's a moron and now he and Kate are on the rocks. If there's one lesson I've learned, don't accuse a woman of sleeping with you out of pity because you're about to be executed. Lo, I know that lesson so well. I wonder if Sawyer knew what he was saying and did it deliberately.
- Karl - and likely a number of the Others - have been on the island his whole life. Any teen who doesn't know the Brady Bunch is obviously is from an island.
- Bai Ling has fake boobies. Just an observation.
- So Jack's ink says something along the lines of 'he walks among us but is not one of us.' But while that's the literal translation, that's not 'what it means,' Jack says. So what's Jack think they mean? "I'm a reluctant leader?" "I can't outfight eight guys on a beach?" I'm a little tired of the enigmatic thing.
- Sawyer's a moron for leting Karl go before the Losties have a chance to ask a few basic followup questions, such as 'what projects? what's going on? who are you people?' Maybe a newspaper reporter should've been on the flight.
- Interesting, that comment by Ben to Jack about Juliet, how she's "one of us." This after she tried to kill him and did shoot another Other. I think he may know some things not as sympathetic to her as she's been made out to be.
- This was obviously a relationships episode - Kate and Sawyer development, Jack and Juliet development, Karl and Alex elaborated upon. But closing with a long montage of these characters looking into the night sky and slowly at each other? Barf.
Your observations?

1.21 gigawatts

Wow. Just when I was starting to question whether Lost was losing some of its pull, out comes last night's ep and my faith is restored in its storytelling abilities.
Loved the "you're gonna die, Charlie" twist. Never saw that coming.
Loved the flashback that wasn't a flashback of Desmond. He's rapidly elevating to one of my favorite characters on the island.
In a way, I loved how creepy and possessive Charlie's becoming. Like we first saw Locke as this survivor-rock type, now we see how twisted and damaged he is, Charlie I think is morphing from the somewhat sympathetic washed up addict to someone who rooted for the husband in Sleeping With the Enemy.
And I loved loved the scene in which Desmond's buying the ring and the white haired lady says 'no.' For me, that was a 'lean forward on the couch and pay intent attention to absorb every second.' On one hand, the argument that the lady is his subconscious and that incident with the ring never actually happened in the real world makes some sense - even if Desmond can see flashes of his future, how can this woman see flashes of his future as well? And how could Desmond's mind go back in time but not his body? So maybe all that flashback stuff was all in his mind while he knocked out on the jungle floor.On the other hand, he seems to have learned some basic rules of the universe righting itself when out of whack - not something one picks up while just knocked for a loop on a jungle floor.
Which leads to the idea that maybe there was some Dharma work involving time travel or manipulation or viewing and the white haird ring seller is part of them. Dharma saw this inevitability of the island and the Losties and everything else, saw that if they don’t get Desmond to the isalnd something horrible happens, so they make sure he stays on that path.
Of course, that raises all sorts of questions about inevitability and why Dharma couldn't just not build the computer and numbers that lead to Desmond needing to be there.
My brain hurts a lot.
Some observations - the polar bear painting in Dad Widmore/Caleb Nichol's office? Significant or just a cute reference to us Lost obsessives? Could go either way.
One thing that doesn't quite make sense about the whole Desmond time warping thing (well, OK, there are many many things that don't make sense, but this one really jumps out at me). Desmond said he turned the key, his life flashed before his eyes including flashes of the future. That future had Charlie electrocuted by lightning. He saves Charlie. So how does he then see into the new future, the one in which Charlie drowns saving Claire?
Lookin' forward to next week. Discuss.

A little Lost love...

From our girl, Kristin, at E!Online. It's full of more things to ponder.

Like we don't have enough already.

Hot Carl

(Stretch). (cracking knuckles)
Welcome back, dear reader, to another installment of Nerdtal... I mean, Losttalk. It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Please, have a seat. No, not there. You born in a farking barn?
Some observations from last night:
What in the wide wide world of sports were the Others trying to accomplish with that Carl brainwashing bit? The vaguely Mister Rogers aphorisms (You are the source of your own misery) were really weird. I couldn’t read all of them - there was one about God and Jacob perhaps? Anyone fill in some holes?
So I assume this Mitelos Bioscience place is some subsidiary of/related to the Dharma Initiative. So why they want a fertility specialist is interesting and may relate to why kids on the island get nabbed, as it seems there’s something at work that causes female reproductive problems (a 24 year old uterus that looks 70? didn’t I see that in a carnival sideshow once?) So is there no mysterious island healing power after all? Do people build up a tolerance to it?
Meanwhile, is there anyone out there who doesn’t think Mitelos Bio. had Juliet’s hubby whacked with a bus?
So the stuff they injected Claire with when she was pregnant, I wonder if that was the same drug Juliet was working on, intended to keep CLaire’s baby viable. In which case, the vaccine that Desmond was injecting himself with when he lived in the hatch, was that different?
I wonder how many Others are de facto prisoners (Alex? Carl?) as opposed to willing and happy members (Tom?).
I looooved Sawyer’s “Wookie prisoner gag” Star Wars reference. Everytime I wanna dislike the character, he pulls me back in.
Finally, I have to admit, I’d like to get one sizable mystery solved once in awhile. This was a good ep. and I’m not quitting anytime soon and I like the characterizations and everything. But please, answer a question (who is this Juliet chick?) without opening up 12 even bigger ones (Mitelos? Fertility issues on the island?)
Get Lost. Discuss.

Lost: which way will the story turn?

From USA Today. There are photos and a second article linked to this one. May contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.

Spoiler: Sawyer blames the Jews for being on the island

Josh Holloway apparently is a little Mel Gibson wannabe.

Holloway Wants "Lost" Character To Die In "Braveheart-Style Battle"

January 30, 2007 5:31 a.m. EST

Maira Oliveira - All Headline News Reporter


Los Angeles, CA (BANG) - If his popular TV character gets killed off the show, Josh Holloway doesn't want fans to shed any tears over his death.

Josh has revealed he wants his "Lost" character Sawyer to die in a grisly, "Braveheart-style battle."

Although Josh is not sure about Sawyer's fate, if he does get killed off he wants to go out with a bang just like Mel Gibson's character William Wallace did in the epic Scottish film.

He told Britain's New magazine, "In the current atmosphere of TV shows the writers are willing to kill a main character without any problem. So that's a possibility. But when it happens, I want a big, bloody Braveheart-style battle. I want Sawyer to die badly!"

Josh is currently shooting the movie thriller "Whisper," in which he plays a completely different character to Sawyer.

He explains, "I chose that role because it was the opposite. The character I play is a bad person with a good heart and I thought it would be interesting to play a more heroic character."

"Whisper" is due out later this year.