Friday, February 22, 2008

You just totally Scooby Doo'd me

As always, if you didn't watch last night's ep, don't read this, but instead catch up later at http://thursdaylosttalk.blogspot.com/ where you also can click on our one ad for the thriller Vantage Point!!

Like the blind guys and the elephant, were getting small puzzle pieces here and there that are answering some questions and opening up so many more. Which is why I'm lovin' this show.
So how did Kate end up with Claire's baby, Aaron? And why wont Jack come see the kid? First speculation - that Jack failed in some way to save Claire and feels guilt about it. Does that mean Claire is dead? Or still on the island?
The story Jack told on the stand about Kate, he's told that story numerous times, Kate says later. If this is part of the cover story the Oceanic Six have to tell, it raises interesting questions about why the story has Kate as a hero. Did the Losties create it to try to build Kate up later in anticipation of the criminal trial? Or is there some other reason?
Meanwhile, the story we know now is that eight people survived the crash and apparently six got off the island, implying two died subsequently (?) (Claire?). Does that mean two of our Losties are to die soon? So far we know Jack, Kate, Sayid and Hurley are among the six, Aaron is probably one. A big question mark is if Ben is one - though the likelihood is that he got off the island on his own accord. Considering the celebritydom that has surrounded the Six, Ben wouldve had trouble being one of the Six since he was not on the manifest or assuming the identity of someone else.
Ben hit the nail on the head when he accused Locke of not having any sort of plan or direction of his own, and just looking for the island or Jacob to tell him what to do next. I think that was reflected in the backgammon moment between Sawyer and Locke, when Locke asks whether Sawyer believes he knows what he is doing. (Meanwhile, on a side note, Locke is gettin' crazier and crazier. Just when you think he's bats--- insane, he does something even crazier like shove live grenades in people's mouths.)
Lots of questions abound:
What the heck is up with Dan's mental state that the playing card test was hinting at?
Where'd the helicopter go? Is it lost in the seeming timewarp around the island?
Interesting touches:
The book Locke brought to Ben in the basement was Valis by Philip K. Dick, which is this odd sort of s.f. novel in the form of dialogues about various religions.
I have gots to get me a Dharma coffee mug. And a videocassette of 'Xanadu.'

Friday, February 15, 2008

Lost Talk for Feb. 15

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Now back to our regular programming ...
Holy shmenkies! That last 30 seconds made the whole episode worthwhile - Sayid working as a hitman for Ben the vet, whacking people on some vague list Ben has! Questions abound!
- Who's on this list and why are they being whacked? Am presuming these folks, like the Accountant and the Golfer (note to self - cancel foursome with Sayid), have something to do with the forces that have sent the freighter to the island in search of Ben.
- Is Ben holding some of Sayid's friends hostage? Or is Sayid whacking these people to head off further looking for the island? Remember, Doc Ben said Sayid was protecting his friends by being a stone-cold killah.
- So both Naomi and Elsa of Berlin were wearing the same bracelet? If such is the case (can you TiVo hi-def folks verify), that presumably indicates they work for the same employer. Interesting. Was it me or did seeing Naomi's bracelet set off Sayid on his fired-up quest to get on the freighter? Has Sayid seen this bracelet before?
- So there is a time gap between the island and the rest of the world. Of course, now everything makes sense. Wait, what?
- Helicopter pilot Frank and Brief History of Time Dan obviously know who Penny Widmore is, despite their bad lying. Curiouser and curiouser. (Speaking of Dan, I didn't watch the repeat episode on before last night's new one, but apparently there was a brief bit of addt'l footage in the repeat that showed that the lady with Physicist Dan in his home when he's watching that news about Oceanic 815 was some kind of caretaker. Maybe a mental health issue there? Speculation - why is Dan crying? Because while he is in the past, that is Dan from some point in the future, sent back, maybe in some kind of Moebius Loop/Groundhog Day kind of scenario?)
- So what happened to the cabin? For me, this seems to decide it that Hurley wasn't hallucinating when he saw the cabin move. Freaky deaky.

We'll get back to our regular programming in just a moment. But just to remind you, all our phone lines are open for the Lost Talk fund drive and operators are standing by. Rochester, NY's best weekly Lost blog - with readership in Seattle and Ohio - is a massive undertaking. And even though we've now signed an agreement turning over all the gag writing to a well-known comedy writing firm in Bangalore, India, those folks still cost a pretty penny. So please, do what you can to help keep this programming going. Go to the Lost Talk at http://thursdaylosttalk.blogspot.com/ and click on that banner ad again and again and again.

Nice touches from last night:
- Ben's Scooby-Doo hidden room.
- Sawyer tossing in his lot with Locke as part of a growing group that seems to want to stay on the island.
- "Great, the freighter sent us another Sawyer."
Speculations:
- Kate also is working for Ben in the future. Remember, she was talking with bearded Jack and said 'I have to get back to him.' I bet 'him' is Ben.

Your thougts? Let 'em rip.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Oceanic Six

I cannot claim authorship of this idea, but thought it was worth sharing. We're going on this assumption six people get off the island in the future due to Hurley's reference to the Oceanic Six. But I don't think only six people get off the island, and Kate is not one of the Oceanic Six. Consider - she's wanted for murder, when she and some other Losties were looking at getting off using Michael's raft she pocketed a dead woman's ID. Yet when we see her in the future, she's not behind bars. Leading me to believe that while a group got off the island and the became minicelebrities for a short time because of their ordeal, Kate was not one of them. Raising the interesting notion that more people - maybe everyone? - got off the island. And maybe Jack and Hurley's reasons for wanting to go back have nothing to do with leaving people behind. Or at the very least, more than six folks got off the island. In which case, who are those six? Jack and Hurley are confirmed. I'm going to put Kate in the Non Oceanic Six pile. Jin and Sun? Claire and baby? Ben?

Friday, February 08, 2008

Lost songs

This comes from loyal Lost Talk reader Kathy:
Go here, this song is funny:

http://www.myspace.com/previouslyonlostmusic

I was going to post it on the Lost Talk blog but couldn't figure out how to do it. After all, I'm just a dumb student. :)

- Kathy



From USA Today's Pop Candy blog:


The sounds of Sun and Sawyer
Tired of the same old Lost recaps? A new band called Previously on Lost has come up with a unique way to celebrate the series: Each week they'll post a song on their MySpace page that summarizes the show and offers commentary.

Check out the first tune, We're Goin' Home, to hear about the premiere. Sample lyrics:

Jack can't trust nobody but himself

And Hurley's quickly losing touch with his mental health

Locke's gotta toss another corpse upon the shelf

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're goin' home

It's actually pretty cute and catchy -- especially when they get to the "Cannonball!" interlude.

Who are we to argue with taller ghost Walt?

Yay! My favorite islander, Vincent, had substantial screen time and dialogue ("woof!") last night.
That was probably the least confusing, most straightforward aspect of last night's ep. I think viewers walked away last night scratching their heads over roughly 2,600 new mysteries and questions raised and few answers:
If the four new characters were there looking for Ben, howcum Naomi had a picture of Desmond?
Why the heck are four non-special ops folks being sent to get Benry?
The Oceanic 815 flight found off the coast of Burma, was it in fact a fake planted there? That's pretty elaborate a deception to be undertaken.
Loved the flashbacks on the Freighties. And I like the Myles character - he's a nice lit match in the gasoline we've got on the island. But a ghost whisperer? Wha?
Intriguing Hurley/Locke exchange - seems like the cabin appeared to Hurley, that it is not necessarily in a fixed place. And Ben's face had an interesting reaction to the notion that Hurley also may be attuned in some way to the island.
So the Freighties choppered in with gas masks and guns and bulletproof vests? What exactly do they want with Ben? When/where was that photo of Ben taken? (Speaking of Ben, he had some great manipulator moments last night with Sawyer with the whole 'what chance do you have compared to a first-class surgeon' talk. Ben is such an intriguing character - is he evil?)
Golisano Children's ran another ad exploiting sickly children? For shame.
Speaking of polar bear skeletons in Tunisia (nice segue), has Dharma been around been around for a lonnnng time? Or, my pet theory, had it been working on teleporting stuff over time and space? (And if that's the case, why for frick's sake teleport polar bears, of all things?)
What was up with the cow the pilot Frank saw?
Finally, Matthew Abadaon, the guy who last ep. told Hurley was an Oceanic lawyer, seemed pretty insistent when hiring Naomi that there were no Oceanic survivors. Why would that topic even come up if he and whoever he represnts (Hanso Foundation?) knew where the missing airliner went down and were sending this group for Ben in direct response to the crash?
Ohhh, my brain hurts a lot right now. What're your thoughts? What'd I miss?

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

We're laying heavy money on Walt simply punting Aaron into submission

Cracked has still got it.
http://www.cracked.com/article_15838_5-questions-lost-writers-need-answer-why-they-wont.html

Friday, February 01, 2008

Oceanic 6

Here's a tidbit about the Oceanic 6 from TVGuide.com.

Who could the others be?

You're standing there over by the Ho-Hos

*Pop*
You hear that sound? That was my mind blowing after last night's season premiere. The good news is if there was any worry Lost might've started season 4 on a weak note or that the eight-month hiatus would've proven to be a problem were quickly wiped away.
So let's get into the meat:
One annoyance - 8 p.m. was another recap show? MotherSCRATCHER! Though ultimately it was a bit useful, I must admit.
Then 9 p.m. rolls around ...
Observation - Instead of the season starting with a closeup on someone's eye, it starts with a car plowing through a pile of papaya, like something out of an episode of Simon & Simon or Matt Houston. Sweeeeet.
So Hurley is one of 'the Oceanic Six'? First assumption - six people got off the island and, as we saw later, became brief media celebrities. We got the idea in season 3 finale that Jack was wrestling with some guilt over having gotten off the island when others had not. But the writers did a great move by splitting the Losties into two packs, with Hurley in one and Jack and Kate in the other, instantly quashing any easy assumptions about how some Losties got off the island vis a vis Naomi's folks.
With the Oceanic Six, now we have to wonder if one of the other six was the person in the coffin at that funeral Jack went to in the season three finale. Or, more intriguingly, it was not one of the six.
Also intriguing was that Oceanic atty. who visited Hurley in the booby hatch with his insistent "Are they still alive?" question. My theory - the Losties who remained on the island were hiding, maybe even faked their deaths, to avoid the rescuers. Why? Dunno. But now someone off the island - perhaps whoever was behind Dharma - wants them, perhaps because of their prolonged exposure to the island. Your thoughts?
A quick shoutout to Tivo, which let us repeatedly see Jacob in the cabin - a suit and white sneaker wearing Jacob who looked to some like Jack's father (dun dah dun!) Creeeeeeepyyyy. Raises an interesting question - Henry had indicated to Locke that one could only see Jacob if attuned to the island or worthy. Is Hurley attuned? What the F is Jacob? What does that have to do with Jack's dead dad, if anything? Why the white tennys? I don't know.
And speaking of weird stuff Hurley saw, perhaps the biggest 'you've GOT to be kidding me' moment was an alive Charlie - with a much nicer haircut - shows up at the nuthatch. "I am dead. But I'm also here," he said before indicating Hurley has something to do: "they need you, Hurley." He slapped Hurley. Another looney saw him. So he was real. Unless Hurley hallucinated both. Except why hallucinate Charlie with that haircut? And who needs Hurley? The most obvious supposition is, once again, it has to do with the Losties left behind on the island.
Interestingly, two of the Losties we've seen in the future off the island seem much more miserable now than they were there. Jack's self destructive and wearing a bad beard. Hurley's hallucinating and freaking. Makes one wonder what Kate's post-island life is like.
Meanwhile, life for me is good because the best hour of TV on TV (bite me, The Wire fans, I'll get around to Netflixing it at some point) is back. Next week looks good, too.