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

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.

Eight is enough to fill our lives with love

Here's a nice little look at Lost ratings/Lost filming issues, courtesy of one of my Gannett brethren.

New season of 'Lost' is beginning of the adventure's end
By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY
Will eight be enough?
Viewers will have to decide whether Lost is half-empty or half-full when the ABC adventure-drama returns for its fourth season Thursday (9 ET/PT). Because of the Hollywood writers' strike, only eight of 16 planned episodes have been produced.

Cast members say that ABC's decision to provide some Lost rather than none is smart and that they are pleased with a quickened pace and more answers to Lost's mysteries.

"We're all going to be disappointed that there are only eight instead of 16, but the eight episodes are amazing, and I think fans will be very satisfied," says Yunjin Kim, who plays Sun, the pregnant wife of Jin (Daniel Dae Kim). "I feel like this season all the episodes are self-contained. The speed of the story is faster. Each episode contains a question and an answer, finally. So there's a lot of satisfaction."

That approach may be the result of the unusual decision to set an end date for a hit series, with 48 episodes over three seasons. Knowing when the story concludes (which may be reflected in the title of the one-hour season-opener, "The Beginning of the End") has helped writers map out a faster, more focused pace, says Matthew Fox, who plays Jack Shephard, the reluctant leader of the survivors of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815.

"Lost is a story with a beginning and an end. Knowing he's got 48, (co-creator Damon Lindelof) can make each installment move the narrative forward to that conclusion with momentum," Fox says.

Based on Lost's previous production schedule, five or six more episodes likely could be produced by the end of May if the writers' strike is settled by mid-February.

Lost ended last May with a jolt, opening the door to the castaways' possible rescue while adding a twist, a first flash-forward after three seasons of signature character flashbacks.

•The island update: Hurley (Hugo Reyes) saved three survivor colleagues from the Others, a mysterious island group at odds with the Oceanic passengers. Jack contacted an offshore freighter, and he and other stranded island dwellers were waiting for its crew to rescue them. And, just before drowning, another colleague, Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), passed on the message that the boat people weren't who the islanders thought.

That leads to a big season-opening question, one that will divide the islanders as four strangers arrive: Are they coming to hurt or to help?

•The future revelation: In a surprise directional change praised by cast and TV critics, Lost's May finale looked ahead to find that Jack and Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and possibly some others from the island, made it back to civilization.

The episode ended with a bearded, substance-abusing Jack raising more questions by imploring Kate: "We were not supposed to leave. … We have to go back, Kate."

Other questions hover: Who will leave the island, and who will stay? What will become of the pregnant Sun on an island where expectant mothers die? How will the romantic possibilities play out? Of course, Lost's big questions — what and where is the island, and why are these people there? — remain. (ABC will repeat the two-hour finale Wednesday at 9 ET/PT and air a series recap Thursday at 8.)

After averaging 15.9 million and 15.4 million viewers in its first two years, Lost fell to 13.8 million last season. (Lost is the top show in time-shifted viewing, ABC says.)

A complex, serialized show such as Lost loses some of its audience via attrition, but many viewers and critics blamed a six-episode fall 2006 arc they say had too much of the Others, not enough of the first-year regulars and too little in the way of action and answers.

A longer episode allotment in the spring received a much better critical response, and the season finale (13.9 million viewers) gave Lost its largest audience in more than three months. That led to the decision to run its 16 episodes consecutively this season.

But if this season also ends up divided, cast members say, the eight episodes will stand up better because they have lots of action and all the regulars are featured. (Lost's writers would not discuss the season because of the strike; ABC execs declined to be interviewed.)

Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Juliet, one of the Others, likens the literature-referencing series to a novel. "I'm reading this book, Orley Farm. The first 150 pages are all setup. You're like, 'Where are the people I care about?' Then, all of a sudden, the book takes off. I feel that's what happened in Season 3. The writers laid their groundwork. And it hits the ground running" this season.

Lost could benefit from the strike, too, since there is less scripted competition. With time slots available because other shows have only reruns, it was moved from Wednesday, American Idol's regular night, to Thursday, and from 10 ET/PT to 9, an hour with more viewers.

In addition to new characters from the freighter, Michael (Harold Perrineau), who left the island with son Walt earlier, will return. Some on the island, most recently Locke (Terry O'Quinn) in the season finale, have seen a vision of Walt (Malcolm David Kelley).

Michael Emerson, who plays the spooky Others leader Ben, says that this season not only keeps up last season's momentum, but that the flash-forward opens great creative opportunities. "None of us knew what was going on until we saw the broadcast. I thought 'Hallelujah! This is going to make this show.' "

The future perspective is "how they're going to spin it out to be suspenseful and dramatic. Who has gotten off the island and at what price?" he says. "Now, there are these bittersweet notes of regret and missed opportunity that will come into play. To the extent the island was some crucible in which people could hope for redemption, maybe not everyone was redeemed, at least not happily."

Dude

Here's an interview with Hurley from BuddyTV.com. Here's the encapsulation - nothing all that interesting, he knows nothing. But here it is anyway.

How is season 4 going so far for you?

It's going really well. The scripts are really exciting. It's very much reminiscent of the excitement of going through the scripts we got in season 1, where it was really crazy directions and like "What's going on?" Season 4 is going to be very important for people to adjust their Tivos or record the show after Lost. A lot of closing teasers are really WTF moments, and it's going to be pretty cool.


So the cliffhanger is a big focus this season?

Every season they do like to end the show with a good little something, but there have been some great final pages in scripts we've been reading.


Hurley, in the season 3 finale, finally got to show his warrior side. Are we going to see some more of that in season 4?

Gradually I think we've seen, from season 1 all the way to the van moment, Hurley slowly kind of take responsibility, slowly start to be a leader and step up, and kind of take a more leadership role. He's assuming a little more, for sure.


Has the new shooting schedule increased demand or opened up any extra opportunities for you as an actor?

Well, I don't know yet. It's opened up the break between the end of season 4 and the beginning of the next season. I know there's still talk of the impending writers' strike situation, which might turn days off into snow days, where they keep adding it to the end of the year if we can't shoot it. Who knows.


Let's talk about the numbers. Hurley's numbers, is that an issue that's resolved for Hurley? Are we ever going to see anything about that again?

I don't know. The numbers became a monster for awhile, and then they kind of faded away a bit lately. Not much has been numbers oriented recently that I can think of.


With the new people arriving on the island, does that move the threat away from the monster and the issues that were a threat to the survivors on the island to the new people? Or is that just something new to the mix?

I think it's just something new to the mix. Sure the monster's always there, but we've been living with that there for awhile, so you might give a little more weight to the slightly more unknown I guess. But the monster is definitely still on our minds for sure.


You're probably restricted on what you can say.

Yeah, I don't have that much information. I've had scenes with two of the newcomers, and my run-ins with them have been pretty ambiguous still.


So I know in earlier seasons there's been this lore about the Lost set that when the new actors come in it's very welcoming. Now that you guys are three seasons in and have built a more hardened core, is it still that kind of an open experience?

I think so. I think it's fun when new people come and join us, because it's just new dynamics and new chemistries to form with people. It kind of keeps an actor on his toes. I guess that's something you have to ask them more than us, but I always try to make an effort to bring people along and tell them where the good places are around Hawaii to hit up. Especially cause they're all living out of their hotels at the start usually.


On that note, now that the show has got an end point, I know you guys kind of started lives here. How did the prospect of production coming to an end affect you guys personally?

I'd been house hunting, but never finding anything, so now I'm definitely looking at going back to California to be closer to the business and my family and stuff. That reality I'm dealing with. I've been in the same place for three seasons so far, so I have amassed stuff that now has to either get sold off or sent back. I'm actually gonna start maybe a public storage near my sister's house, so I can send her boxes to kind of stash for me. I don't want to have to move everything at the last minute.

So why don't you kill me

This really has nothing at all to do with Lost itself. But the two great tastes of Lost and Weird Al Yankovic make this a must see.
http://www.compfused.com/directlink/5020/

You are everybody

ABC has this really nice synopsis of the first three seasons of Lost that clocks in at eight minutes and change. It doesn't hit everything, but it serves as a nice refresher for those of us who might've forgotten a point here and there.
http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=index

Anticipation

It's been a long time. How've you been? You look good - did you lose weight?
Enough small talk, girlfren', it's time for Lost Talk.
With a two-hour season premiere on the 31st, and the hype beginning to build, I thought it time to start up the engines.

First things first, ABC has some nice stuff posted online (thanks Wendy and Nicole), including an interesting video clip from a boyfriend of a stewardess on the Oceanic flight, leading to some interesting questions, like what is this Maxwell group he references?
Also, two trailer clips for the upcoming episode are posted, both with tantalizing clues:
http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=index
The ads, if to be believed, make us think that in this episode, some Losties will be "rescued," but I use quote marks around it to indicate that things go quite awry and that some people don't leave the island and the rescuers are actually nefarious and bad. Eeeeenteresting.
Entertainment Weekly has a somewhat interesting interview with Matthew ("Jack") Fox about the show. Here's one thing he had to say:
"Jack gets people off that island, [and] suddenly he and the other people are very well-known — it becomes this massive story because everybody thought that every person on this plane was lost.... Who are they? What is everybody else doing? Jack's mission was to get all of them off. It's the overriding force behind him. So, the fact that he ends up getting off and doesn't get that accomplished — I'm very curious to find out how that all goes down. And part of that is going to be part of the reason why he wanted to jump off the bridge in the future."

Woop Woop!

http://www.eonline.com/gossip/kristin/detail/index.jsp?uuid=65b8528b-c48d-41f1-9df6-a9ac10e19e3f&sid=fd-hot2-txt

Who's doing the happy dance with me?

Whilst praying this season doesn't BOMB like the last one with what, 6 good episodes?

Make it stop...

The writers' strike, that is. I hope that the Writers Guild can come to a swift resolution on the contract negotiations. Otherwise, I hate to tell you, we may have to wait until February 2009 to see new episodes of our beloved show.

Source: Ask Ausiello at TVGuide.com

UPDATE: There will be eight episodes airing in February 2008. Get the lowdown here:

http://www.eonline.com/gossip/kristin/detail/index.jsp?uuid=1263574b-7f57-4b32-9cac-4d4caa50535a&sid=fd-hot1-txt

Lost news!

Yes! Finally. Something. As I sit here bored out of my mind at work debating on leaving early cause my boss isn't here anyway....Check this out fans. More quesitions answered via flashback this coming season. Anyone miss Hurley's GF? http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Exclusive-Lost-Resurrects/800022625

Dashed dreams...

I made Daneman's year when I told him last week that the lovely Kristen Bell, formerly of Veronica Mars, was asked to join the cast of Lost. Well, that's not going to happen. Apparently, Ms. Bell turned down the role of a "twenty-something vixen" because she didn't want to relocate to Hawaii.

Note to Kristen Bell: Um, there are worse places to shoot a TV series and currently, sister, you're unemployed.

Filling a void in Our lives

Okay, we can't let this blog stay fallow for 8 months. We need topics.
I suggest we start by guessing at what shocking developments are in store for Season 4. Apparently, Michael has agreed to come back, according to an article I read but now can't find the link to. Other wild-assed guesses?
Post away, you Lost-starved wretches.

It's going to be a long eight months to season 4

This tidbit from the Associated Press says it all:
(AP) - The average viewer of the 'Lost' season finale two-hour episode said "wow," "whoa," "what the f***?" or "no they di'in't" 32.6 times Wednesday, night according to the latest Pew Foundation survey.

I mean …
Did you see …
And that one part where …

Cripes. Where to even begin.

First off, one huge mystery - Jack was on Oceanic Flight 815 to bring his father's corpse back from Australia. So why why why do we have this flash forward in which Jack makes a couple different references to his father seemingly being alive? Anyone?
Am wondering if we will have more flash forwards in seasons 4-6 - an interesting plot device, though I makes me a bit sad because it seems that at least for Jack, ostensibly the main hero, life goes into the big ol' downward spiral to the point he is channeling Jason Patric from "Rush" and popping hillbilly heroin left and right. Fascinating though that Future Jack is so obsessed with getting back to the island and torn up inside from the lies he and Kate seem to have told (about what happened there)?
And then there's the mystery of who is in the coffin that set Jack off even worse than before. Ben? Sawyer? The funeral home was in what appeared to be a poorer black neighborhood - is that a clue? Michael?
This raises another question - in the past, the flashbacks have seemed to be the Losties thinking back to their pasts, right? So this flashfoward, was Jack actually seeing this, the way Desmond does?

Lotsa death last night. Charlie - not surprising, ultimately, but still kinda tragic. He did redeem himself in the end, though, going from junkie to hero of sorts, giving his life to try to get everyone rescued. How sweet was it that his dying action is to try to warn Desmond with the Sharpie? Realistically, could he have survived - opened the hatch or tried to swim out the blown window? Maybe. But that ain't TV drama.
Then we have a boatload of Others buying it, including Tom. The "Pringles You Can't Eat Just One" award goes to Sawyer, who apparently is finding each subsequent killing to be a little easier.

I would assume that season 4 is going to focus on Naomi's group that has been searching for the island. And one would presume that at least some of what Ben said about them is true, or else we wouldn’t have drama and conflict. My guess - the Hostiles/Others have this long long history of being servants/protectors of the island from outsiders as the island has some huge significance/importance. Maybe it is dangerous, or something there can be used in a wrong way. That would explain why they were at war with Dharma, and why the Others have been so paranoid and secretive with the Losties. Now I'm wondering if the Losties and Others will have to join up to protect things from this outside force, the Naomis.
If Naomi's group wasn't working for Penny, how'd they get that photo and why did they have it? Once the island jamming ended, why did a transmission go through straight to Penny Widmore?

And who saw her death coming? Not I, said the duck. Am presuming that Walt we saw was not Walt astral projecting but Smokey as Walt. And I realize that sentence encapsulates everythign awesome and stupid about that show. Meanwhile, since when did cute little Walt become a 6''8 24-year-old?

Hurley kills someone. Hooray. Jack and hottie Juliet kiss. Hooray. Creepy Rousseau and daughter bond by tying up Ben together. Hooray. Maybe the best father/daughter scene ever - Ben saying he was brainwashing Carl to keep Alex from getting pregnant: "Maybe I went a little overboard." He may be creepy/evil, but Ben gets the best lines.

You can feel the tension as the Armies of Sauron prepare to march... oh wait, wrong franchise. My bad.

Well, I'm pinch hitting today because Wally Pipp, er... I mean, Daneman had to work last night and didn't see the episode. So I'm going to try to emulate Daneman's writing "style" to make the transition as seemless as possible.

Let's see here (looks at Daneman Writing Style Check List, $4.99, Acmeproducts.com)… start with a joke about the episode.

You know what's funny? Hitting people in the mouth with canoe paddles until they pass out and their mouths bleed. Ha Ha. Hah. Heh.

Okay, maybe I'm not so good at the joke thing.

This episode had a little bit of everything. I'm not ready to declare it a home run, but it definitely sets us up nicely for next week. Bernard and Rose. Jack getting his mojo back. Sayid, who presumably grew up on european football, not the NFL, executing a perfect form tackle on Dudley Dooright, who apparently will do anything as long as he gets some sugar from Alex.
And Charlie getting busy with twins….And I... love you TOO. HERE'S TO FOOTBALL. Oh sorry, caught up in the moment there.

First things first: Bernard and Rose suddenly reappear. It was good to see them, but given what we know about the season finale, I think it's safe to say one, or both, are Dead Losties Walking. The writers might as well as hung a flashing neon sign over their heads saying "WILL DIE"

Also, clearly we can establish a pattern. When the previews seem to indicate Charlie will die, he will not die. It's as close to an immutable law as this show gets.

We know where the cord goes now. We know Ben is becoming unhinged. And we have to deal with the possibility that Juliet might know more about the change in plans than she let on. (There Sheila, happy?)

We know Sun will do anything to keep Jin happy. And I thought the moment between Hurley and Charlie was a nice touch.

We also know that there's apparently a stash of chicks in the underwater hatch for emergency use. For all I liked the idea of seeing Charlie redeem himself, and prepare to sacrifice himself, he still ends up slipping up by celebrating too much. I thought that was a nice touch too.

And what other show has to have a special to have the writers explain what's going on, yet still maintains any sort of audience? Unreal. Yet here I am analyzing their every thought. Those jerks. I hate myself.

I need to get me one of those sweet "Work Man" jumpsuits

Don’tcha just hate those episodes where nothing happens? I guess there's not much to chat about today.

Oh, you just got punk'd.
Razzle dazzle, last night was chock full of nutty goodness and huge incidents.

What we now know: The Others are a mix of "the Hostiles", some people recruited off island, and at least one Dharma holdover, Ben. There is travel back and forth off the island, since obviously Richard we see later in the recruiting of Juliet. Patchy was not killed, just stunned bad when he went through the sonic fence. Ben is slowly waking up the fact that the Others are not going to blindly say "how high" when he says "jump" anymore (as evidenced by that scene of when Locke pounded Patchy and no one interfered despite Ben's wishes).
What we don't know: Who the Hostiles are. How they got there. Where they got those guns and poison gas, though I presume Ben gave 'em the goods. How/why Dharma continues to provide goods for the island. One would think that somehow someone would realize that, hey, our big island experiment is suddenly hugely disrupted. How Locke beat up a guy with Soviet Army military training.
What we now know: Ben is an even more awesomely interesting/evil character than previously thought. He is murderously jealous of keeping his special status. He seems to have some special link to the island ("Jacob") that no one else does, but that Locke was developing. Ben's dad is Uncle Rico ("how much you wanna bet I can throw a football over those mountains?")
What we don't know: What happened to Annie. What the frickity frackity froo is going on with the Haunted Mansion Disney ride that is Jacob's house. Ghost? Smoke monster? Ben is psychotic and telekinetic (the telekinesis is an interesting notion, since the Others book group was reading Stephen King's novel "Carrie" when the Losties' plane crashed).
What we now know: Jack seemingly has not been co-opted by Juliet or the Others after all, and Juliet appears to be not the willing mole Ben thought she would be. Jack, the reluctant leader, has become Jack the tyrant, holding off on sharing info until HE decides what they will do.
What we both know and don't know: Richard, of the Others, seems to be the same age now as he was 20 years ago, when Ben was a kid.
What we don’t know: Is Locke dead? Dang well better not be. But Eko, when he was dying, did say to Locke "You are next." Might this be what he meant? TV Guide is promising five characters die and the end of this season. Might Locke be the first?
What we know: Best line of the night - "It's kinda hard to celebrate the day you killed your mom." Yet another character (Ben) on the show with father issues. Whether that's significant to the island mysteries or just an interesting entertainment device, dunno.

My wild-ass crazy speculations:
-- Annie died giving birth on the island, leading to Ben's obsession with fixing the whole pregnancy issue.
-- Richard and the Hostiles (a sweet band name, by the way) are survivors of the Black Rock - the slaving ship that somehow got washed deep ashore a couple centuries ago, and the island has slowed or stopped their aging (hole in that theory, Ben has obviously aged, and Claire's baby Aaron presumably is aging).
-- "Jacob" is the consciousness of the island, and it can manifest itself as visions of something you desire (your mom, your dead priest brother, a black horse) or as a black cloud (made up of that dusty stuff Locke saw outside of Jacob's pimped out crib).

Your thoughts, speculation, observations?

Get yer votes in now

At the grocery checkout line today, I saw the latest TV Guide is saying that five - 5! - people will die in the Lost season finale or in the last couple eps. of the season.
Obvs, Charlie's one - we know he's doomed. Or is he?
Who else?
Start speculating. I'm going to go with several Others - Ben, Juliet, due to some infighting we've seen hints at among the Others. Maybe Mikhail again?
Meanwhile, on contemplation, I think it likely that Kate is preggers. The fact the Others gave her that cute sundress and put her in Sawyer in those cages ... I think we were looking at all sorts of Ben manipulation meant to drive those two closer together so they'd do what we in the Lost blogging community call 'the nasty.'

Poppa, can you hear me?

I will be your father figure, 'til the end of tiiimme …

Big happenings on the island this week. Let's discuss:
- There seems to be some sense among the Others that Locke is capital-I Important. Like a chosen one. Like Neo. What that role is supposed to be, we dunno. Why it was so dang important he kill his father, I'm not sure, aside from the idea that byshedding this last tie to his old life he commits to the Others. Like a baptism. That whole bit about "I'm sorry, he's not who we thought he was" that Ben said to the crowd after Locke didn’t slice and dice Con Artist Dad. But how they can expect him to sign up for the Others when he doesn’t even know what the heck is going on is a bit crazy.
- The fate of Oceania flight 815 is an intriguing/annoying question mark. They're not in Purgatory or Hell - if it was Hell, it'd be a lot more crowded. And not as pretty. And it'd smell. And the producers of the show have sworn 1,000 ways to Sunday that the flight survivors are not dead. So what's the deal with the plane wreckage and bodies actually being found? Elaborate hoax, with faked video? Possibly. Some kind of sci-fi alternate timeline thing? Annoyingly possible.
- So we got a bit more elaboration of the Magic Box notion. Now we see it's a metaphor and Con Artist Dad was kidnapped and brought here. One wonders if other off-island traces of life of the Losties have been brought to the island. One wonders why Ben kept insisiting 'you brought him here, John' to Locke.
- What's Rousseau need dynamite for? You bet your bippy I'm curious to see. One of the great moments of the episode, Locke sitting there whittling, Sawyer locked in the brig, yelling and pounding, and Locke warns Rousseau about the dynamite "Be careful, it's unstable." Pot calling the kettle black there.
- What was Sayid digging a hole for?
- What in the wide wide world of sports is going on with Juliet and Jack? That whole interaction with Kate, where J&J seem to know something Big and Important that they've not shared yet was emblemic of everything I love/hate about this show - so intriguing and yet so annoying at the same time. "We should tell her." "Not yet." If I'm Kate, that's the moment I beat Jack's head with a rock until the white meat shows.
- Quite good episode. We saw Locke's dad bite it, as we'd all been rooting for. We saw Sawyer get his revenge. It was interesting in that it was a non-flashback episode - no backstory, all island events. And now we have so many new questions and mysteries that my head hurts.
- Did I miss any? What'd you think?

Huh, Michael Emerson is just as cryptic as the character he plays

Ben Linus himself dishes some vague hints about something, maybe...sorta.

My eyes are up here

Many questions brought up last night - let's tackle the biggest one first:
Superman vs. the Flash, who is faster? There've been many DC comics to tackle that issue, the first being in 1967 in Superman #199, in which the two ran a race for charity and had to deal with two separate underworld mob gangs trying to fix the outcome. They deliberately finished a tie so neither gang would win. And that's one to grow on.

Who's the chopper pilot? Seems pretty obvious it's someone looking for Desmond, sent by Penny Widmore - she the one who also was contacted by the Arctic tracking station at season 2 finale when they suddenly saw somethign (the island? the purple electromagnetic burst? on their screens).
One theoretical physics question to make your head hurt - was it originally Penny in the chopper, and reality changed to someone else when Des changed the future by not letting Charlie die, in a Schrodinger's Cat kind of way?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrödinger's_cat
Were there other people on that helicopter? Why'd it crash? What does its arrival mean in regards to the idea of being found and rescued?

DeadPassenger groused to me the ep. was utterly predictable in that it was highly unlikely Desmond was actually going to let Charlie die. (Damn.) Predictable? Probably. But I still give the overall ep. a solid B - it had one of the more interesting characters, Demond; it had Kate - the second hottest woman on the island - in her hot undies; it had some great moments of entertainment (Jin's sweet ghost story). And I enjoyed the underlying question of whether Desmond is being tested by Old Testament God in a sacrifice/Abraham/Isaac kind of way. It brought us a new character in the form of the chopper pilot. Did it move the plot hugely forward or answer questions? Not really. But it was still better than finding out about Jack's tattoos.

Interesting side note - the woman in the picture on the head monk's desk is the woman from the jewelry store from that previous Desmond flashback ep.

On the Kate-Sawyer-Jack-Juliet love square: so there's been all this buildup of who does Kate really want, Jack or Sawyer. Are we supposed to now think she really wants Jack and is turning to Sawyer the way I turned to the bottle when Scarlett Johansson spurned me? When Sawyer made that same accusation, Kate said "Sawyer, it's not like that." Really? Then what other way is it?

Your thoughts?

Lost Info

Check this video clip out from EOnline!

http://www.eonline.com/gossip/kristin/index.jsp

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.

The return of Ana-Lucia

From Access Hollywood. This should make the second half of S3 interesting.

An early return?

This site reports that sincethe rest of ABC's lineup is getting beaten up like the Spice Girls at a music critic's convention, the network might want to bring back lost early. A lot of "ifs" for it to happen though.

Could it be?

Kate needs a new home

Poor Kate. I'm sure one of you boys will let her sleep on your couch.

Cindy's back

As everyone who watches Daybreak already knows ... (anyone? anyone?), there was a kickass Lost teaser recently. You can see at: http://www.thetailsection.com/lost_news/lost_moment_5.php
Kidnapped stewardess Cindy is now one of the Others?
"We're here to watch"?
Curse you, Lost, why do you have to be so tantalizing?

Jack's getting a new friend...

Bai Ling is due to join the cast of Lost for three episodes after it returns to the airwaves in February. Here's an interview she did with Kristin Veitch at E!Online. There are may be some items that could be considered spoilerish, so read at your own risk.

BTW, has Bai Ling ever been in anything worthwhile? The only times I have seen her in the news is when she is rocking her hooker-worthy outfits. Unfortunately, that happens a lot.

Word on the street...

Or the beach sand, which ever you prefer, is that when Lost returns on 2/7/07, it will be moving to the 10 PM time slot. This is in an effort to bring on two new shows in the 9 and 9:30 slots, and also to prevent American Idol from beating the pants off Lost in the ratings.

I guess we'll all need to take naps after work so we can stay up late.

Sources: TV Guide.com and E!Online.com

Poor Kate

Apparently growing up was tough for actress Evangeline Lilly, according to her interview in the latest Elle magazine:

"I used to cry myself to sleep wishing I was ugly because of the way men leered at and disrespected me."

I ... I thought I was the only one to be cursed with incredible hottie status! (sob!) I'm not alone anymore! (sniffle)

That Hurley is bananas/b-a-n-a-n-a-s

Here are a couple Lost spoilers courtesy of the latest Entertainment Weekly, with Gwen Stefani on the cover. I put 'em in the comment section out of consideration for those who don't like spoilers.

This just in...

This could be GIGANTIC for the show. Other items in the article are spoiler-ish, so read at your own risk.

With three months to kill ...

Here's an idea to pass the time: Predictions.
What do you think will be revealed this season?
- Locke loses use of his legs in a car accident, but there's no real physical damage, it's all psychosomatic.
- Kate and Sawyer are being used to excavate a hatch that got buried/destroyed in the previous cataclysm that ended the DHARMA work on the island.

So, uh, nice weather today....

I feel this deep emptiness in my very soul. I may actually have to read a book tonight. Curse you, ABC programmers!

How to Fix Shows Like 'Lost'

Interesting piece in New York magazine
http://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/23763/index.html

The basic premise of the article: And for anyone who didn’t sign on from the beginning, there’s little incentive to catch up now. Why invest hours wading through past DVDs when your co-workers are grousing that the mysteries still haven’t paid off?
The argument: We need the TV equivalent of a novella: the limited-run show. Series driven by a central mystery (Twin Peaks, The X-Files) peter out precisely because they have indefinite life spans. The writers are forced to serve up red herrings until the shows choke on their own plot twists. (Whereas 24 works because it’s more cliff-hanger than puzzle—though Jack Bauer is surely the unluckiest man alive.)

Next!!...??

Some minor spoilers, though I see it more as information, on this TV Guide blog/column, thing. The Lost goodies are about halfway down the page, after all the talk about The Nine, which I missed last night. All this monsoon rain out here has me sick and waterlogged and I went to sleep. Feel bad for me! ; )

Oh, and this answers my two islands question, which Daneman so smartly already knew the answer to and was apparently ignoring me.

http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Ask-Ausiello/default.aspx

It takes two to tango

I don't have a problem with the existence of two islands. At least to my eye, it seems pretty clear that the jet crashed on the big main island, the one where the Others have their Stuckeyville town. But currently Jack, Kate and Sawyer are held captive on the smaller, Alcatraz island, which is where the Others have a workshop of sorts.
As to the whole killing of Sawyer thing, I get the feeling it's not a case of the Others as a whole wanting him dead, but are willing to let Mr. Colleen kill Sawyer out of revenge/grief. I think: the Others need Jack because of Benry's tumor; they also took Kate and Sawyer as leverage to get Jack to do what they want. Then with Colleen dying, the grieving hubby needed to lash out at someone at smirking Sawyer was a perfect target and the Others were not going to stand in the way very much.

Who are we kidding?

As annoyed as we claim we are, we're too nerdy to give up on the show now. So....this whole thing is a ruse if you ask me. If they wanted to kill Sawyer, why didn't they just do it? Seriously? I mean, I know it's a TV show, but they're just dragging out the killing. And why do they let Kate and Sawyer get it on? It's not like they aren't being watched. Not like they couldn't have tried to sneak away; yet the others are just gonna watch the homemade porn on their older than dirt TV screens. And why is it so easy for Kate to break the lock on Sawyer's cage? Right.....cause the others are perverts like Daneman and want to see Kate naked for 20 minutes, doing nothing but standing there.

I'm not sure what to make of Jack's decision to almost kill Benry so Kate can be set free. I'm overanalyzing here, but does he mean for only Kate to be set free or for both Sawyer and Kate to be set free?

Furthermore I REALLY don't get this Alcatraz thing! How are they on two islands? Seriously. Wouldn't Desomond have seen the second island during his drunken boat ride? Didn't the final shot of the opening scene of the season pan back to show a lagoon or something "separating" the island, not an entire ocean. I just don't believe it, nor do I get it. I mean we were all looking at another island when they took Sawyer to the top of the hill, but again, in the first episode Benry tells Goodwin to "run. It should take you an hour." and tells the other dude who's name I forget to go be one of them. If the islands are that far apart, how'd they each get to their designated camps so fast. What's weirder is what made Benry automatically say "go. be one of them. come back with lists and information."? If they don't answer that question this season then...well...

It seems like there are two camps of Others. One of you guys suggested that before I think. Alex would be in the "I love Benry" camp I guess. She seemed concerned about him. Juliet would be in the "I'm only going to let you think I love Benry" camp. Apparently Zeke and Colleen's husband and the other dude who went to the cages are with Benry. Right?

K. that's all. I can't see what anyone else wrote so....

Just when I want to give up...

This show is killing me!!! I was so ready to throw in the towel and they just HAD to have an episode like last night's. Now I have to watch what happens in February. Bastards.

I agree with Daneman - they could have wrapped up a few loose ends or given some indication that things would be explained. As for the whole Alcatraz deal, I don't believe it. Yet.

Who cares about naked Kate? I wanted to see more Sawyer. Regardless, it's about time those two got it on. Poor Jack, though. He was hoping he'd be the one to get Kate.

One last thing

When Sawyer was about to be shot, the guy with the gun mentioned that Jack Shepherd "wasn't on Jacob's list." According to Lostpedia, the head of the Hanso Foundation is named Jacob. Same guy? What's the point/signif. of the list? The way it was mentioned, it was tough to ascertain if being on the list was good or bad or what.

Alex reconsidered

Yknow, I wonder if Alex is a willing part of the Others after all, just playing a rogue Other to gain Lostie trust. What'd she accomplish last night? She let Jack out, but that led to Ben getting what he wanted - the operation. Ditto her rushing into the rock-breaking area - that motivated Kate to try to pressure Jack.
She did help Claire escape, but now I wonder if that wasn't what the Others wanted - they test Claire, they let her go, but this way they still have that fear thing going on by making Claire thinking she's escaping.

Stinkin' cliffhanger

Oh great. Feb. 7. Three months until we get the next ep. Threeeeeee months. What am I supposed to do in the interim?
Oh well, let's get into analysis of this ep.:
the Others keep maintaining they're the good guys, yet the attempt to kill Sawyer and the whole interlude with Alex ("they're going to kill your boyfriend like they killed mind") seems to indicate something totally different. Wonder if/why they killed Carl, her bf? Wonder why, if the Others know Alex is not exactly on their side, they keep her around and even incorporate her into missions, such as when the Others met with the search party looking for Michael.
Jack's comment to Ben - "I need to get the hell off this island" - is interesting. At least at first, it raised major red flags, that first-person pronoun. But in light of Jack's ulitimate plan, I think that was just a feint to gain Benry's trust. Jack surely must know that if you nearly kill your patient, any deals are off.
Unfortunately, Jack doesn't really know that his plan may be for naught, since the three are on Alcatraz. Unless Kate and Sawyer can get to a boat.
Meanwhile, on the main island, the one plot advancement seems to be Locke getting that 'sign' from Eko's Jesus stick. i took that quote from the Book of John to be an indicator to Locke of where he should go - north - to find our captives. Anyone have another interpretation?
One small disappointment - we didn't get a long shot of naked Kate. Like, a 20-minute shot with her just standing there and the camera just staring. Darn you, JJ Abrams.
One other small disappointment - it would've been nice to get some kind of answers during this cliffhanger ep, while we have three months off. Would it have been too much to get one or otwo mysteries answered? I mean, we have plenty of them.
Three months. Criminy.

Forget the Red Rider BB Gun...

Ask Santa, or whoever buys your goodies, to get you these.

Lost goodies on E! Online...

Again, Watch with Kristin has the latest on Lost, and some, ahem, kind words about JJ Abrams, the show's producer. I have to agree with her on this one, even if Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje wanted to go.

The link does contain some spoilers, so don't read it if you don't want to know what may happen.

Oh, who are we kidding here? You know you want to know...

Why Eko's gone

Hey! I got this from the USA Today site. This explains why he died.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-11-01-eko-lost_x.htm

Leggo my Eko

RIP one of the most interesting and intriguing characters on Lost island. RIP yet another Tailie, leaving only minor character Bernard. Am not exactly pleased with this decision. Why introduce the Tailies in the first place in season 2 only to axe 'em all? It's as if much of season 2 turned out to be a waste of our time.
So let's talk about Eko's death. What killed him? Have past hallucinatory manifestations on the island - Jack's dad, Kate's horse - also been in fact the black smoke? Maybe even Hurley's friend Dave? Rousseau once referred to the black smoke as a 'security system'? Huh? Eko encountered the smoke once before and it seemeed to be 'reading' him - there were all those images in the smoke from his past. Was it now time to judge him? The fact Locke wasn't a Nigerian warlord and butcher might indicate why he saw somethign very different than Eko did when he encountered the smoke. But why did the black smoke monster just kill the pilot right away in the firstt ep.? Eko's dying words seem to indicate there's gonna be some other judging going on soon. Apparently we have to wait and see.
As one faithful reader, Dave of Upper Monroe put it, here come all the Purgatory theories again.
Meanwhile, in Othersburg, we've got an interesting twist. Anyone else see some real irony in video Juliet warning Jack that Benry is a liar and dangerous - while she's trying to recruit Jack to kill Benry? So Juliet wants Benry gone - perhaps Alex too. I wonder if there's a strong split among the Others, or if ywe've got a couple dissatisfieds. Of course, we can't presuppose tjat Juliet in fact wants Jack to kill Benry -this might be some kind of test or manipulation again. There are so many false thrusts and feints on this island ...
Benry's talk with Jack - we had a great plan to break you - was a highlight of the ep., I thought. Presumably that's what's going on now with Sawyer and Kate. Interesting comment when Benry said that Juliet looks a lot like Jack's exwife - I take it she was made the face Jack sees most often as part of the attempt to manipulate him.
What was with those v-neck linen tunics everyone wore at the funeral? Cult like? Or does that just make more sense in a tropical setting than black?
Finally, looks like we've got yet another new character being introduced - eyepatch guy. Maybe the owner of the glass eye the Tailies found on their side of the island? How the heck do you have a remote, unknown island when it's actually two or more islands and has a population bigger than Batavia? Next we'll see a CVS.
Get Lost. Aaaaaannnd .... discuss.