Three years without a fire

Lil’ Ben is seemingly dead. Let's contemplate that, shall we?
Point: Sayid is a stone-cold killer, if there’s one thing he knows how to do it’s gun down a kid.
Counterpoint: the past cannot be changed, according to the rules of this show
True: yet the past already has been changed by the fact people from the future have gone there
Counterpoint: the island has healing powers, as we;ve seen numerous times in the past
Point: yet it doesn’t seem to have healing properties yet in 1977, or else one would think that wouldve come up in Dharma orientation or something. Perhaps the healing is a byproduct of the Incident, whatever that is.
Counterpoint: if lil’ Ben is dead, then the Oceanic group almost instantly wouldve disappeared from 1977 because then their past was changed and they never would’ve ended up on the island again. Kinda like that whole 'Butterfly Effect' idea, if you saw that Ashton Kutcher movie.
Counterpoint: so if Big Ben had been shot 30 years earlier when he was a kid, you’d think adult Ben never wouldve worked with adult Sayid.
Point: maybe the act of shooting Lil' Ben caused a split in time, with now our Losties being in an alternate reality, as every action we do creates branches and offshoots.
Counterpoint: this show already deals with time travel and smoke monsters and giant statues from ancient Egypt. If we start delving into alternate realities too, then this show may be jumping the shark big time. This isn't 'Sliders,' for pete's sake.
THe counterpionts seem to have it.
But let us praise Ben. The master manipulator tricked Sayid into thinking that killiing off Widmore folks was Sayid’s idea, a way of protecting the islanders. And I’m pretty convinced Ben hired the bounty hunter that brought Sayid back.
Meanwhile what is the deal with the Swan hatch? It was built underground, seemingly to hide it. ANd now the Dharmites seem willing to kill in part to keep it secret. It seems far more important than just for the study of electromagnetic radiation, yknow?
Random thoughts:
- It's been awhile since we had a flashback episode. Interesting return to form.
- William Sanderson! For us fans of 'Newhart' and 'Blade Runner,' it's always good to see that creepy-ass guy finding work. Here's hoping we see more of Larry, and perhaps his brother Darryl and his other brother Darryl.

Lostsources

For those of you who care, I thought it'd be useful to share some of the resources out there for Lost.
I'm sure most everyone knows about Lostpedia, the Lost wiki. Invaluable as a reference tool.
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
My favorite Lost podcast is Lostcasts, which also has a quite good Web site as well as some interesting analysis that they synthesize from what's online in various forums
http://www.lostcasts.com/
And I always enjoy the USA Today 'Pop Candy' discussions after an ep. While most of the comments are ignorable or loopy, a few raise some interesting questions or hypotheses.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/popcandy/

Back in the saddle again

Yes, yes, I know.
Anyway, let's get to the important stuff:

- So why didn't Sun and Ben end up on the island in 1977 with the other Oceanic crew who needed to return? My guess, because Sun and Ben already are on the island in 1977. We saw lil' Ben (nerd!!!) and I'm betting that Sun is there in some fashion as well. You can't have that kind of paradox, as anyone who saw Jean Claude Van Damme's Timecop can attest. As to why Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid had to return to the island in 1977, that remains a big question mark. There had been some speculating they were needed to prevent or cause the Incident (which many thought might be Ben's killing of the Dharma folks. But that happened in 1992, so no reason for the Losties to be back 15 years prior to that). But perhaps whatever is involved with the Swan hatch construction and the numbers thhat have to be pressed and all that weird light in the sky energy release is key. Who knows. This show is starting to hurt my head.
- So how awesome was that, Juliet seeming to screw with Kate and leaving her dangling briefly at the Dharma orientation? I think we're definitely going to see a love triangle around Sawyer at some point.
- So how awesome was that, Sawyer being Mister In Control and quietly telling Jack off? I like how this show started out with Jack being a stereotypical TV uberhero - good looks, in control, take charge, and over time we've seen how messed up and ridiculous he can be at times, leaping before looking.
- So now we get a sense of a couple other Dharmas who survived the purge - baby Ethan I think we're to believe grows up to be Other Ethan, and Rasinski is the same guy who drew the big mural map of the island in the Swan hatch and was one of the people punching in the numbers and then blew his brains out and left the job to that CIA guy who was living in the hatch when shipwrecked Desmond showed up, that Rasinski.
- So why did Othersburg look so messed up when Sun and Frank went over there? Am assuming the plane landed on the island in 2007, three years after everyone left, so the jungle has reclaimed some of it. After those commandoes on the freighter shot a lot of it up. Meanwhile, that runway the jet landed on - the same thing Kate and Sawyer were clearing when they were prisoners of the Others? But what prompted the Others to clear this runway to begin with? Do Sun and Frank (who I now am giving the Sully Award for the awesomest flying of the year on TV) go back in time and relate what happened to them and someone in 1977 is taking notes of 'here's all the stuff we need to do in the future - in 2004, a plane crashes, here is a list of folks on it of interest; in 2007, another plane nearly crashes, better clear off a runway)?
- So Christian Shepard was dead, brought back to life on the island in a plane crash (assuming that is in fact Christian). Can Locke do the same thing now? All this appearing all over the place?
- So where the heck in 1977 are the other Oceanic survivors, like Bernard and Rose? Are they in Other/Hostile hands? Are they actually Others now/then?
- So based on the previews, next week looks awesome. Sayid out to kill a kid. Major Lostie vs. Lostie fighting.
- So overall I thought it was a decent if not wow episode. It moved some plot points along and it was awesome to see Ben get a paddle to the head, even though it was buy crazy-eyed Sun. And I enjoyed Sawyer's Winston Churchill monologue. Remember - RIF. Reading. Is. Fundamental.

Here comes sickness

A character dead! An arm ripped off! A compound leg fracture! Awesome awesomeness all around in last night's ep.
So what'd we learn?
1) Farraday's mom knows more than anyone else, including Ben, what actually is going on. Raising new, bigger questions of who the heck is she.
2) The sickness Rousseau referred to wayyyyyy back in season one has something to do with exposure to the smoke monster, and is seeminlgy not the same as the time distortion sickness that we're seeing on the island or that the freighter crew was suffering from. (The three Frenchies who were down in the lair seemingly turned evil in some way, while young Rousseau never went down there thanks to time jumping Jin.) While it doesn't really raise new questions, the reappearance of Smoky does renew old questions of what the heck it is and why it killed Eko (and now Frenchy Nadine) and so on.
(A Rousseau reminder, she told us long ago the other people who got shipwrecked on the island got some kind of sickness and she had to kill them. Just as we saw. But who wasn't sure for a second that it was going to turn out she was the nutjob instead of her husband?) So why didn't she remember Jin, 16 years later? Even with the passage of time, you'd think you'd recall a disappearing Korean guy.
3) So CHarlotte - as we suspected - had been on the island in the past - in this case, in her childhood. And we suspect Miles has as well, most likely as the baby seen in that Marvin Kendle flashback scene. So does Farraday also have an island history? Perhaps Mother Hawking is an Other?
4) So now we know how Ben knows things have gone awry on the island since he left - he heard it from Locke before Locke died. But how were things to be better if it was Locke, and not Ben, who moved the island? Why wouldn't the net results be the same? And speaking of Locke moving the island, we either now have a situation where Locke - sometime in the distant past - is now back on the mainland or, more likely, he is on the mainland in our present. Which seems to lack a logical consistency. If he moved the island in, for example, 1600 AD, why would he show up in 2007? Also, if the island folks got unstuck when the island moved through time/space, why wouldn't they be 'stuck' again in a fixed point since Ben moved the island? (We know they're not because Farraday has yet to encounter lil' Charlotte or to get a hardhat job with the Dharma Initiative).
Heres hoping that next week Mama Hawking has some answers before my head hurts much more.

"That part was true."

Welcome back, Rochester-area Lost fans. Your dreams were your ticket out.
It's been a long dry patch without our favorite crazy nonsensical show that increasingly makes no sense. And yet we missed it terribly, didn't we?
Now let's get into the post-game.
First off, while not the best ep. ever (that might be the Desmond bouncing around in time one), it was definitely a good two-hour kickoff to the season. We had ghost Ana Lucia and Hot Pocket throwing and Frogurt getting killed by flaming arrow and nameless killer getting killed by dishwasher and a caviar sandwich. All of those little touches just reinforce what a fun romp that show is, even if you ignore the whole mystery aspect of the island.
(And I think the writers were giving a nod to how ridiculous things are ultimately, with Hurley's explainer to his mom.)
So what'd we learn last night? Not much.
We have maybe an inkling of how Richard has stayed young - perhaps he is bouncing through time himself. Or he could be ageless. Who knows. Then we have questions like how you even stop such a Quantum Leap-like existence as bouncing through time every few minutes, stopping just long enough for Ethan to shoot you. Let's ask Iggy. Interesting touch, though, how Desmond is the one X factor who can change time (outside of Dan saying what has happened cannot be changed. I loved the bit with Dan talking today to Desmond four or so years ago, and Desmond remembering it today. Very trippy.)
We still don't know quite why our Oceanic Six needs to return to the island. One bit of speculation I read - the island needs them as its Constant. That theory makes my head hurt.
Things we can speculate on:
Locke/Bentham is not dead, at least permanently. There seemed to be some deliberate dialogue by Ben dancing around Locke being dead, which I think was a deliberate choice.)
Sun is targeting Kate and maybe some other Oceanic Six for her revenge. A coincidence the lawyers show up demanding a blood sample at around the same time Sun happens to be in the States for a visit and calls Kate? Please. She maybe was even the one behind the killers sent after Sayid and Hurley. And she seems to have that crazy thing going on when she asks how Jack is with - to my eyes - seemed to be barely contained anger.
Am assuming the uniformed folks with guns who capture Juliet and Sawyer at the end are Dharma folks. But maybe not?
This ep. advanced the story and gave us a lot of action, though still not a lot of answers. Your thoughts?

Our long dark night of sitting through SuperNanny is over

I mean we all watched that, right? Huh? You mean you didn't? Ummmmm I didn't either. Yeah that's it. I was just joking. *laughing nervously*

Well, there's been so much build up to tonight that writing more would be overkill at this point. We all know the questions that are out there to be answered and the drama that hung over the island at the end of last season.

I think I speak for all of the Lost Talk editorial staff when I sum up my feelings about tonight thusly:


It better not suck.

What I Did On Summer Vacation

Some interesting tidbits to be had from the official ABC Lost podcast, which had highlights from the Lost panel discussion at ComicCon in San Diego. Of note:
There will be a Rousseau backstory episode this coming season. Not in flashback form, but we will get her story. (Side note - the show's producers said there still will be flashforwards and flashbacks, but also they are going to 'try something new.')
Vincent the dog will show up again.
Jin and Locke, we will see those characters again. In the Q&A session of the panel discussion, someone asked if those two characters were gone. And Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindeloff said no, we will see them again, that death is relative, yadda yadda. Very cagey they were. But we will see those characters again.
Kate and Sawyer will see each other again at some point.
The island did NOT travel when Desmond turned the key and the hatch imploded and the sky turned purple back in season 3.
Farraday's notepad is full of information about stuff that has happened and that WILL happen and we will find out a lot more about this in season 5.

Season 5 will begin in February. 17 episodes.

Fleeced!

I cannot claim credit for this putting of 2 and 2 together - heard it somewhere else - but it makes perfect sense.
Season one, we see a polar bear on the island. Total frackin' weirdness, makes no sense.
In subsequent seasons, we've seen what appear to be cages for the polar bears and then the skeleton of a polar bear with Dharma collar in some desert.
Significance? I think we now know.
The room with the donkey wheel was Arctic cold, right. That, plus the bear skeleton, leads to a pretty solid conclusion that Dharma was - and this sounds kinda stupid as I write it - was training polar bears to work the wheel to move the island, so that a human wouldn't be zapped to Tunisia. Instead a bear would take the fall.
So this one mystery - the polar bears - points to everything great and stupid about the show. Great = since season one, they've been working to this point wiht tantalizing clues along the way, none of which we could fathom until now. Stupid = polar bears trained to work a wormhole-manipulating wheel in a frigid undeground cavern on a mysterious island? Even the cheesiest Roger Moore Bond flick never went that doofy.
Dammit, it's a long wait to next season.

Your move, Mr. Eko

There are two types of Lost fans - those who were mostly amazed and occasionally annoyed by last night's slam-bang, two-hour season finale extravaganza, and those who hate freedom and want the terrorists to win. It's going to be a looong wait until January (yes, January) to see what happens next with season 5.

But here's some of what we know now: how Jin died, why Sawyer wasn't one of the Oceanic Six, how the Oceanic Six actually got off the island, how (kind of) Ben ended up in Tunisia wearing a winter parka, who was in the coffin, why the Oceanic Six have lied about their ordeal, whether Desmond and Penny ever would get back together, how to move a tropical island.

Of course, now we have a whole bunch of new questions - who the heck built the island-moving-wheel? are Daniel and the other Losties who were on that speedboat heading to the freighter when it blew up dead in the middle of the ocean or did they teleport with the island? Is Sun teaming up with Widmore to get revenge on Jack (Jack indicating that Sun blames him for Jin's death - which really doesn't quite make sense, but you know how chicks are - totally irrational)? Why do the Oceanic Six, including dead Locke, need to return to the island? (was it me or did kate apologizing to sleeping Aaron seem to indicate she had decided they in fact did need to return?) Why did Ghost Whisperer guy and Charlotte remain on the island?

Some fairly solid speculations - the Orchid hatch is how folks like Richard have been bouncing through time.

Some based-on-nothing speculations - Widmore once moved the island. We seem to think he's been there before, by the fact he is looking for it and that he indicated to Ben 'you took what was mine.' Makes me wonder if before Ben, Widmore was the one in communication with Jacob and he moved the island for some reason and has been driven to return yet cannot.

Nice touches - Hurley playing chess with Eko. The Christian Shepard apparition showing up and telling Michael 'you can go now' before the boat goes kablooey. Yet another partial Dharma videotape giving us just a hint of what's going on - and each time Dr. Marvin Kendall has a different name in the video. The big bad mercenary guy getting what's coming to him, though unfortunately it came at the expense of many lost innocent lives. But at least the island is now a peaceful democracy instead of a haven for terror. Whoops, political commentary in Lost Talk, sorry.

Annoyances - the wheel that moves the island and that magic realism stuff going on there; am really having a love/hate relationship with that aspect of the show. the Eko/Christian Shepard/ghosts thing - dammit, I want some explanation, some clue, something to help explain all this.

Trivia - Jeremy Bentham, Locke's pseudonym, was a noted English philosopher, best known for the idea of utilitarianism - that something's moral worth is gauged by how much pleasure and happiness it brings society as a whole, and thus by its outcome. Perhaps an allusion to choices Locke makes that cause great damage and suffering to the island in the time between the Oceanic Six leaving and Jack growing his Jim-Morrison-in-Paris beard?

In closing - that episode rocked. Your thoughts, speculation, take?

Web 2.0

A multimedia experiment, we are live blogging tonight about Lost.

10:01 - man, Locke had one messed-up childhood.
10:03 - the freighter's doctor is still alive. The same doctor we saw wash up on the shore before with his throat cut. Eeenteresting.
10:11 - the Horace dream sequence was some spooky stuff, Horace being the guy who welcomed people off the boat when they arrived for the Dharma Initiative. Then Ben had an interesting comment, "I used to have dreams." Dreams like Locke's? Seemingly communicative with something supernatural dreams?
10:20 - 'whoa' moment, Richard there at the Locke's maternity ward. A close second, Hurley's supposition as to why only he and Locke can see the cabin: "because we're the craziest."
10:26 - More Richard. I think we're starting to see indications the Losties were set there bh circumstances long ago. Young John Locke then failed some inscrutable test by choosing the knife. Interesting. Am betting the jar of dirt was island dirt.
10:36 - Dick Ide Honda just did a Lost-like commercial? Am I impressed? Am I disgusted? Am I hungry? Where are the carrot sticks? More than halfway through and not much has happened and yet a lot has happened.
10:44 - Ian raises a good question - in regards to Red Lobster, what is 'crunch fried'?
10:51 - Abaddon and Locke! I'm curious if we're going to see evidence of other characters manipulated to be on the Oceanic flight. For example, what brought Christian Shepard to Australia, I wonder.
10:58 - best line "Yeah, I'm cool with you going in alone, too." Hurley with the win.
So I was betting it was Abaddon in the cabin, but Christian Shepard also makes sense. As much as anything in this show makes sense. So what do we know now? Locke was chosen/manipulated to come to the island. Why him? Maybe the time-bending properties of the island meant it knew he'd be there one day, playing the role he is playing, so the island then had to ensure he did in fact go there to play that role (dude, my head hurts). We know Martin and the mercenaries are heading to wipe out everyone and Frank the chopper pilot seems to have some plan. That Ben's role as chosen by the island is apparently over - he fulfilled whatever task and now he's tossed aside. That Claire is a willing part of whatever the island is doing - the Claire sitting there in the cabin with dead ghost dad after having left her baby in the jungle was seemingly cool with everything.
Next week it looks as if we get some Oceanic Six flashforward.

The hours

Sigh.
According to TV Guide, this season will get an extra hour added to it - 14 hours long instead of the strike-shortened 13 hours. So why the sigh, you ask? Here's how the season finale will work - hour one of the finale will air May 15, then there will be no Lost on the 22nd to make room for the Grey's Anatomy finale. Then on May 29, the other two hours of the finale ep. Apparently the Lost producers convinced ABC those last two hours had to air together.
So a week without Lost essentially in the middle of an episode. Quelle annoying.

Lost's hips, Lost's thighs, you got me hypnotized

Due to popular reader demand (thanks for making the staff here at Lost Central feel needed, Sheila R.), LostTalk is back for a Fill In The Downtime Until The April 24 Episode session.
The basis for today's reading material will be some info from the official Lost Podcast put out by ABC and the most recent Entertainment Weekly, which had a story about Lost. If you don't want anything spoiled, avert your eyes.
- Every season finale episode has had a code name used internally by the Lost production staff. Season 3, with the first flashforward, was "The Snake in the Mailbox," the significance being that would be something you'd never see coming, a snake in your mailbox, and it would shock the heck out of you. So this season finale's codename? "The Frozen Donkey Wheel." What's it mean? I don't know.
- So this whole Desmond adrift in time thing, it started happening when he left the island. Why wasn't he so effected when he left the island once before on that yacht? Answer, according to the official Lost podcast, is that he likely never really left the influence of the island, that maybe he only got a few miles out and then boated in circles. Getting on and off the island apparently can only be done on a very precise course. The Lost producers likened it to reentering the Earth's atmosphere from space - too steep, you burn up. Too shallow, you bounce back into space.
Also, Desmond got a big honkin' dose of electromagnetic radiation when the hatch imploded after his yacht episode, that wouldve been a trigger.
- No shocker, the producers also confirmed that the adrift in time psychosis we're seeing is The Sickness Rousseau referred to.
- Finally, a second no shocker, but a confirmation of what we suspected - when we've seen Walt on the island recently, such as when Locke was shot and in that pit, that was actually not Walt but an apparition tied to the Smoke Monster. Supposedly we'll learn more about that soon.
- Coming up, we find out from Entertainment Weekly that this season we will get answers to some big questions: how'd the Oceanic 6 leave? what happened to those left behind? why is Sayid working for Ben as a killer? who is in that coffin from Jack's Jim Morrison flash forward?
- There also will be a major gun battle involving Locke's group of Losties. My guess- it involves whoever shot Rousseau and Carl. (My guess, those big gun-toting mercenary like dudes from the freighter, on a Go Kill Ben and Anyone Else cruise).
- It also sounded like we might get a Ben-centric flashback in which we see him in his globetrotting days, which could be fun.
Anyone got any interesting tidbits? Theories? Speculations?

I am Kevin Johnson

Sorry, I was out of town and away from a computer last week. But with us not having any new Lost eps. for a month, I figured we'd still do a quick discussion on some key topics:
-- Who shot Rousseau and Karl? -- It could be the Others, though the motivation for that is unclear. It could be the Freighties (remember, the chopper pilot took a few people and supplies on 'an errand.') Or, most intriguingly, it could be some group we've not seen before. Maybe Dharma survivors, hidden in the jungle the last few years after the Ben purge? The question also becomes, did Ben know some shootin' was going to happen when he sent Alex away for her own safety? He has been trying to keep Alex and Karl apart - both because of his possessiveness, I reckon, and because if Alex gets preggers, she's in a heap of trouble. And then dead.
-- What's up with the island supposedly keeping Michael from kililng himself? Am of mixed feelings about this notion. On one hand, it's kinda cool. On the other, it becomes this deus ex machina idea where any crazy s*** can happen and we just have to chalk it up to 'oh, that crazy island is being all crazy again.' Though it opens up some intriguing notions, like Richard Alpert not having aged because the island won't let him because it needs him for something maybe, and Ben and Widmore both wanting the island because of its godlike abilities. Then again, maybe Tom just swapped Michael's gun with a gun that wouldnt work - this show has a running sub theme about cons and scams.
-- The Oceanic Six. So the TV ads have made it clear, the six are Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sun, Aaron and Sayid. One thought as to why those six in particular - five of them were on the far side of the island when the hatch blew and the skies went all purple - Hurley, Jack, Kate were captured by the Others, while Sun and Sayid (and Jin) were on that rescue mission on the boat. So maybe it has to do with exposure to the electromagnetic pulse that makes you adrift in time (= 'the sickness'?). Aaron was still receiving those shots at the time so maybe that innoculated him from those effects?

Kinda sucks that we now have a month without Lost. Damn you, writers strike. You blew it up, you blew it all up. Damn you to hell.

From reader Mike Crupi --
I have to think Ben sent Rousseau and Karl intentionally into harms way. He just doesn't miscalculate like that. Also seems convenient that his 'daughter' was spared.
I like the theory about the oceanic six being the only ones who could get off the island because everyone else is sick or affected by the time drift. Makes sense, as much as something can make sense on lost.

From reader Kevin Werther --
I would gladly send my daughter—if I had one—into
harm's way to kill Karl. That guy's a turd. Heck, I
would sacrifice my daughter—if I had one—for Taco
Bell.

From reader Amy Werther --
I thought it was Ben himself who took out Karl and
Rousseau. He is a very jealous man (see Juliette's
backstory, "You're mine") and think he would do
anything to keep his "daughter" to himself.

As far as the episode, I was a little disappointed
since that was supposed to be season ender. It did
cement the fact that Ben's henchmen was correct in
saying that Kate "wasn't his type."

How does Walt go from being on the island to off so
quickly? First Locke is seeing him, then he's hanging
with his Grandma.

And why does Ben allow Michael to go back to NYC and
pretend he wasn't on Oceanic? Why not Sawyer, Claire,
Locke, etc. get off the island in the future, maybe
they do get off the island, they just lay low.

You're mine

Losttalk is back, after a one-week hiatus as we followed our favorite jam band around the country. Now let's get into the good stuff:
It was Juliette's flashback, but really that episode was all about Ben, boiling down to two key moments - when we see Ben and the Others were willing to let the Tempest powerplant go blooey, presumably so that the chemical contamination would kill off the island populace (or at least that's what we have been lead to believe by the Freighties). The other key moment was Ben's little "you're mine!" rant to Juliette after leading her to Goodwin's body. It really gives us more insight - that Ben is not only a master manipulator but also this Machiavellian child. Maybe Charles Widmore wants to exploit the island. And maybe Ben just doesn't want to share 'his' island.
Side question - so if the chemical explosion had gone off, presumably the Others had easy access to gas masks, but where was Ben supposed to get such a thing, locked up in the basement?
The Freighties know far more about the layout of the island than even the Oceanic gang does - note Daniel's handdrawn map to Tempest. Presumably they got their knowledge from Others that Widmore had captured? Or does Widmore have moles as well? Or does he even have access to Hanso Foundation information? Meanwhile, the question is why he wants this island in the first place. And how it is Desmond ended up on the island on the first place - definitely not coincidence, since he was in a Widmore-sponsored race.
Ben's ability to play Locke never fails to amuse me - by dangling bits of truth and half truth, Ben is getting whatever he wants and at the same time starting to create that insurrection he referred to (how long are Locke's sidekicks going to listen to him if they keep being confronted with things like Ben walking around free when they never were consulted).
Meanwhile, we're getting closer to seeing who Ben's mole on the freighter is - the most obvious guess is Michael. Which makes me wonder if it's someone else.
Nice moments - Tom's mustache and Ben with a bouquet to welcome Juliette; creepy Dr. Harper the Other; a quick reference to the Oceanic 815 children swiped by the Others; Harper telling Julliette "Ben is exactly where he wants to be"; Ben telling an open-mouthed Sawyer and Hurley "see you guys at dinner."
Finally, in the flashback we hear reference to one of the pregnant Others, Henrietta, dying. Henrietta? That a shoutout by the writers to the Rochester region's best-read Lost blog? I think so. I think so. LostTalk is exactly where it wants to be.
Your thoughts, insights, analysis? Let 'er rip.

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.'

Lost Talk for Feb. 15

Welcome to day one of the Lost Talk fund drive. You know, quality programming like Lost Talk doesn't come for free. We have a staff of dozens who obsess over every episode, and a crack gag-writing squad to fill your Friday's with pithy commens and one-liners. 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 our one lousy banner ad. And go see 'Vantage Point' the exciting new thriller starring that dreamy Matthew Fox and that dreamier Forrest Whittaker!

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.

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?

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?

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