Saw it coming, and yet I never saw it coming

To quote a previous post, razzle dazzle!
While there'd been rampant speculation that Juliet was a mole, a plant, a spy in the hosue of love, that last minute or two of Lost was a humdinger.
Overall, a really good episode, I thought, that answered some questions and - of course - created many others. And we saw some hot Other skin. The issues:
- So now we know why Juliet was recruited to the island and presumably why Claire was kidnapped. Questions that have sprung out of this - why are women on the island unable to conceive, to the point that it kills 'em? How did Ben spend his entire life on the island? Why is it so important that this particular issue be solved? Why not just bring children to the island?
- Speaking of Claire's kidnapping, obviously there was far more to it than Ethan going rogue, if some implant to feign sickness was actually put in her at some point (and how crazy is that?) Was her health ever in danger, since the kid was conceived off island? Obviously the Others put the implant in her just in case they needed to fake it later. Have they done likewise with other Losties? Remember, Sawyer has that operation scar from his captivity.
- My guess is Juliet is now a mole to scout for further pregnant women. By setting up this false Claire emergency, obviously that's going to drive any other pregnant Losties straight to her. Kinda interesting, in a way, her backstory along with Jack's comment when they were on the beach together - he's right, she wants to get off the island more than anything. And when he finds out she's playing him for a sucka, he's totally going to unleash Sayid.
- Speaking of which, regardless of whether she's a mole or not, that scene when she totally shut down Sawyer and Sayyid - you don't more blood on your hands - was terrific. Though we see how the Others know so much abotu the Losties, at the same time how believable is it that they know about what Sawyer did just hours before the plane crash.
- So for whatever reason, Juliet was not flown to the island, but taken by sub. Ethan made some comment about the flight there can be "intense." Speculations - electromagnetic interference around the island making flight difficult? Couldn't get the zoning for a landing strip?
- So this Jacob presumably can cure cancer? Who IS this cat? On the other hand, who's to say whether the sister's cancer came back at all. All we know is that Ben handed Juliet these medical records. Paperwork can be faked.
- Finally, so Juliet wasn't Ben's girl at all, she was doin' the black smoke monster with Goodwin. Perhaps part of her motivation for double-crossing the Losties is revenge for her boy being killed by Ana Lucia? Loved Ben's cryptic "see you in a week."
- Next week, Locke's back! Helicopter sounds?!
- Your thoughts?

Left Behind

Let me get my juvenile commentary out of the way first: Kate and Juliet, in the mud. This island isn't Purgatory, it's Heaven.
From my POV, last night's ep was a solid triple. We got some intrigue, some mystery, another fairly interesting back story with character development. But enough of my yakking, let's boogie...
Things that make me think Juliet is a plant, sent to spy on or even do something to our Losties: she had that handcuff key all along; she was very familiar with the security fence; she's a very good liar; if the Others are taking such a big step as packing up and moving out you'd think Ben would not merely run away; the sort of weird illogic of handcuffing Juliet to Kate (I mean, why handcuffs, why not just toss 'em both in the jungle?).
Things that make me think Juliet is telling the truth: if you're going to be a mole, being attacked by the smoke monster is a risky way to go about it; and finally, if I'm Ben and Juliet is one of my top lieutenants and perhaps even my special lady friend ifyouknowwhatImean and then she betrays me by trying to arrange my very killing, am I going to use her in any of my super secret plans? Even if I held the "you want to get off the island, you better pull off this assignment" ultimatum, I still am not going to trust her as far as I can throw her in my weakened post-surgery state.
Despite my better judgment and trust, I like Juliet.
Then again, there's something weird going on. In one moment, this fertility doc beats the living tar out of Kate with some super badass reflexes and ninja moves (and where'd she learn that?!). Then Kate beats the heck out of her in the jungle. Did Juliet let Kate win as part of her plot?
So where did the Others go? A hatch? Doubtful, as none of them seem large enough to house that whole crew. The Alcatraz island? Possible. Some other, previously unseen location? Presumably the Others packed up camp because of the fact the Losties found them, interrupted their suburban idyll and football tossing. Interesting that being found is such a negative that the Others are willing to abandon Othersburg. Fascinating that Locke has gone with them. I wonder if they're taking the sub that Locke didn't actually blow up.
So I get the feeling there's a clear line between the Smoke Monster and the Others. THere had been some speculation it was doing their bidding. Meanwhile (insert Seinfeld voice here) what was teh deal with the flashing light? It was reminiscent of when the Smoke Monster seemed to 'read' Eko back in season 2, and we saw brief moments from his past in Smoky itself.
And did anyone else see what looked like brief skin blotching on Kate and Juliet after the Smoke Monster encounter? I dunno if that was significant or just a production error from shooting in low light or what. That's one problem with a show with so many Easter Eggs - it's easy to conflate nothign into something.
A couple last thoughts:
Cassidy learning to grift from Sawyer. And she seemed to teach Kate a few things, so a nice coming-back-around of Sawyer indirectly teaching Kate some of her survival skills.
Sawyer might've briefly been the de facto beach group leader, but there's a spider behind the scene pulling all the strings. Hurley = Karl Rove.
No Nikki and Paulo rising from the grave, so I'm betting they are in fact dead. Maybe they come back as zombies. I big fuzzy heart zombies.

Here we go again

Alvar Hanso seems to be at it again. Click
here to see what he's been up to. Potential spoiler: Click on the word "humanity" in the third graf for a secret message.

Sorry if this is old news.


Razzle dazzle!

The March 28 ep barely moved the plot forward, and addressed none of the island's mysteries. Yet it was a knee-slapping hoot. Personally, I loved it. Pure entertainment, which is exactly what I want from a television show. Let's examine things, shall we?
- Billy Dee Williams is the Cobra?! I never saw that coming.
- Great flashback appearances by Boone, Shannon, Ethan and that school teacher who blew up. Was Boone bisexual? We know he was doin' his sister (momentary shudder, for while Shannon is a cutie pie, she's still a relative. Ick), but that comment Shannon made in the airport seemed to indicate he swung from both sides of the plate. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
- Was great to see life on the island through the eyes of secondary characters, such as Jack's live together or die alone speech. I wonder how much of the crash sequence was recut footage and how much was filmed new. I'd forgotten how absolutely great that very first ep of Lost was, with the chaos and fire and screams.
- And it was fascinating to see how long-ago events were tied into last night's ep. When Paulo came out of the TV hatch bathroom, suddenly there was meaning behind it instead of a random event. And the mystery of the recently smoked cigarette butts in that hatch? Solved.
- So Vincent apparently could tell Paulo and Nikki were not dead, pulling the blanket off them. I hope to see a Vincent flashback episode at some point. You know that dog has seen and sniffed every mystery on this island and probably knows more than anyone else. Though he's a dog.
- Speaking of island secrets, I giggled insanely at how at moment after moment, these two asshats found so many island secrets well before everyone else - the plane in the tree, the TV monitoring hatch, the Others are not really rags-wearing primitives.
- Two word: "forensics hatch." Bwah!
- Are Nikki and Paulo dead? I'm going to presume so. They'd have to dig themselves out - or be rescued by Vincent - pretty quickly to avoid suffocation. And I assume we'd see that. But there seemed to be some finality to that episode. Then again, as Locke said, things on the island don't stay buried, so who knows. Their deaths would make sense in a sort of cosmic justice kind of way - the murderers get killed in a very Alfred Hitchcock Presents kind of way.
- Meanwhile, so Sun knows it was Charlie and Sawyer, not the Others, who kidnapped and clocked her. Will be curious to see how this evolves, what happens if she lets it slip to Jin.
- This ep was light on the content we usually analyze to death. But I still rank it as a very satisfying hour of TV watching. And next week, Kate and Juliet cat fight. In the rain. Thank you, God.
Your thoughts?

Poppa, can you hear me?

Don't know about you, but I'm getting a little tired of how predictable Lost is becoming. I mean, since season 1 and the speculation about how Locke ended up in a wheelchair, the most obvious answer has been 'he got pushed out an eight-story window by his con artist father who previously stole a kidney.' Well, duh.
Yet another episode loaded with 'holy cow' moments. Let's discuss them, shall we?

- So now the island is completely isolated. No communication, no way off, at least as far as we know. And Ben's fine with that, interestingly. Yet my assumtion is that at some future point, Dharma would have to check on the island when they dont hear anything for weeks, dont get any food drop requests. But who knows how that will work out, since Dharma seems to still be under the assumption it's running the island, when the Others have been running the show at least the last few years. (Side speculation - did Locke actually blow up the sub? He was dripping wet when he got captured. No need to go into the water, however, if he just got on the sub, planted C4, and got off. Maybe he blew up something else, moved the sub?)

- So there's a box that gives you whatever you want? This is either a fascinating turn of events or one of the stupidest deus ex machinas I've ever heard of. Though I loved the sight of bug-eyed evil con man bound and trussed up. Wondering now if other off-island characters could make appearances in the future. Wondering now if it in fact is Locke's dad or a manifestation of the smoke monster the same way Kate saw that black horse, etc. Either way, I want to see him get his ass kicked and then have Sayid go all Torture Man on him. Locke dad is pure eeeeevil.
Now consider this - there is no box at all, that's just a manipulative story by Ben, and when Locke's dad disappeared to Mexico, he really disappeared to this island. Why? Dunno.
But consider this - there've been so many instances of discovery that defy logic, like Eko finding his brother's plane. Maybe there is some kind of wish fulfillment power going on here, that this 'box' idea is true. Am beginning to think that this notion of the island having healing ability might be true, but in the sense that it gives people what they want (Locke his legs, Rose becomes cancer free).
The island also seems to have some kind of consciousness, based on that Ben/Locke exchange, with the idea Locke has a better link to/idea about the island. That adds to the idea the Black Smoke is some kind of manifestation of the island's consciousness.
And consider this bit of dialogue from last night: Ben: "What if I told you there was a box and when you opened it, whatever you wanted was inside?" Locke: "First, I'd cut a hole in the box. Then I'd put my junk in the box." Significant? I think so.

- So Locke has gone through a fascinating evolution in this show - he crashed, he was this uber-he-man hunter, then he emerged as this too trusting doofus, and now it turns out he's both incredibly scheming and selfish and so damaged and sympathetic. That scene when he was put in the wheelchair and started crying? Doesn't excuse what he's done - kill Patchy, blow up the sub - but I at least understand why.

- So daddy issues continue to be an ongoing substory. Jack, Kate, Locke, Hurley, so many people have estrangement or abandonment in their background. The significance? I don't know. But Deadpassenger and I both think it seems likely that Locke's dad is also the "Sawyer" Sawyer has sworn to kill.

- So Ben is continually fascinating. He's seemingly far more concerned with maintaining his control over the Others than anything else. Merely power mad? Or is there something else? His insistence that no one be allowed to leave - to the point he considered killing Jack - is really interesting. Meanwhile, the guy was even born on the island and he seemingly lacks some kind of connection to it that Locke has. Really curious.

- Speaking of Jack, if Locke and Piano Man didn't hate each other before, they sure ain't gonna be sharing warm Dharma beer now.

- New character alert! The Man from Talahassee (which sounds like a Merle Haggard song). I assume that's the guy who was with Ben when they uncuffed Locke, some kind of assistant/heavy of Ben's who seems to have a different level of knowledge than the other Others. Or maybe it was Locke's dad. Could Locke's dad have been on Oceania 815 without anyone noticing?

So so many questions. What do you think?

Locke talks...

TV Guide online has an interview with Terry O'Quinn, the guy that plays Locke. It's kind of interesting.

Never saw that coming

Jack likes football?!?! Totally saw him as a hoops fan. That blew my mind.
Also blowing my mind -- almost every single moment of last night's ep.:
Claire was also the lead singer to Evanesence!
Locke, who we have long thought may be a moron, might actually be something more sinister! (consider - the C4 in his backpack, throwing Patchy through the death wall, his evasiveness when asked about these things). Is it conceivable Locke is now an Other, or at least doing their bidding? At some point did he read/see something in one of the hatches telling him what to do?
Claire and Jack better not make out because that'd be extra gross since they're half siblings!
More fascinating insight from Patchy - Kate could never understand what's going on with the Others since she's not on the List - the List seemingly of people of a certain enlightened mental mindstate. Presumably this List is part of the Lists that Ethan and Goodwin were supposed to make after infiltrating the newly-crashed Losties. And there was reference a few eps back to Jack NOT being on Jacob's List - whoever Jacob is. Who is on the List? What's the significance of the List - are these people to be recruited?
We had another scene of seeming self sacrifice by the Others, perhaps aimed at keeping information from the Losties, when Patchy thanked Locke for throwing him through the security perimeter. That, the Claire/Jack connection and the List idea go toward my new grand unifying theory of the island: the Others, who predate the Dharma Initiative by many many years on the island, were/are some kind of super secret society that protects/serves the island (the black smoke monster being some kind of manifestation of the island's consciousness?). They are trying to create higher level people with the island's help - sort of a variation on the story of Prometheus. Through the island's time-bending abilities, it deliberately manipulated to get certain people on the plane as it knew the jet was going to crash. The connections between the Losties, such as the Claire/Jack thing, tell me that while the plane was not deliberately brought down, some of the people were fated to be on the flight.
Finally, that look of betrayal on Kate's face when she saw Jack and Tom throwing the pigskin around all Kennedy like was perfect. There's gonna be some asskicking.
Your insights and observations?

Sawyer to Hawaii Police: Drop Dead

Josh Hollaway is apparently developing a bit of a persecution complex, according to this report.
The man believes the Hawaii constabulary is out to get him and his co-stars.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dailynews/3991335a1860.html

Note to self: stick with Tetris

Hello and welcome back to another installment of LostTalk, brought to you by Manny's Land of Carpet. Welcome to our new affiliate in Cincinnati, KNIC.
First, some general reactions to last night's ep. -- awwww heck yeah! Some action, some humor, some delving into the mystery, some character development and elaboration on back story, a pwetty kitty cat. The show stumbled a bit the last couple eps., when compared to the Juliet episode and the Desmond episode, but it shook it off and came back swinging, I think. The ending was a bit predictable - once you saw the C4, you knew Flame was going up in flames (ha!) at some point.

So what we know now - according to what Patchy was saying, prior to the plane crash there were two groups on the island: the Dharma folks and the Hostiles/Others, and for some reason one wiped out (completely?) the other.
But he's obviously a liar. The question is to what degree he lied.
Let's examine the likelihood that the Others and Dharma scientists are separate people altogether - to my thinking, that's hard to swallow. How would the Others know how to use the technology, speak Russian, read Chinese tatts on Jack? More likely, I think, is that the Others - or at least some of them - are former Dharma. Patchy Mikhail, who's now part of the Others, keeps the communications going with the outside world, so the supplies keep coming. Or perhaps the Others were former test subjects?
Meanwhile, maybe the Others are crazy - case in point, the woman seemingly telling Patchy to shoot her rather than be captured. Then Patchy told Sayid to kill him. What the frell?
According to Lostpedia, the exchange between the woman and Patchy was along the lines of "You know what to do, we cannot risk it," "No, there must be another way," "Just do it," "I'm sorry," bang.

Regarding Rousseau - oh c'mon. You're on this island 16 years and you've not explored every nook and cranny? Am I supposed to believe she's not playing on both sides of the fence here? On a side note, Patchy's name is Mikhail. And Rousseau said at one point that her husband's name was Michael. Connection? I wonder how he lost that eye. Maybe Rousseau didn't kill him after all.

Regarding Locke - dude, don't touch anything. This guy seems somewhat dumb. I don't think he expected to blow up the Flame hatch by entering 77, but when you're in some crazy situation like that you be careful what you touch. I wonder if that's the sole communications method to the outside world, that satellite dish.

Regarding Sayid - fascinating back story, though it didn't really tie horribly much to the island half of the episode. All it seemed to illustrate is why Sayid didn't kill Patchy. But was that that dramatic a question?

Regarding the cat - was that cat which resembled the cat Nadia really there, I wonder. Or was it a manifestation of the smoke monster.

Lessons: Locke is a video game addict, getting distracted by chess enough to let Patchy escape and get the drop on him.

Nice touches: Dharma-brand vodka, Sawyer calling Jin and Sun "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon."

Sill bitter

OK, I dunno about all of you, but Lost SUCKED on Wednesday and I am too bitter about said suckage. We learned nothing, nada, of real interest. Not happy, kids, not happy.

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.

The beginning of Lost?

Less than two weeks. The anticipation is palpable. Perhaps the bigggest question: will Daneman be able to stay up till 11 p.m. to finish watching each episode?

The end of Lost?

The show isn't even back on the air and they are already talking about the end. Go figure.

Here's some more info on the inevitable end of the show. There are spoilers too.

This Lostie needs a little consoling...

From People. Maybe she can shack up at Daneman's.