LOST: Week 4

I got some random other topics on here before getting to the LOST episode. I figure, why not throw some other thoughts in here. So if you don't wanna read about LOST, but you wanna read about podcasts or the Miracle on Ice, then come on down!

I was listening today to the LOST podcast with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Pretty funny stuff. They've been doing the podcast for some time now, but I would never listen to it because I didn't do podcasts... until this summer. And then I got into all sorts of podcasts, like a fiend! If you haven't ever checked out any podcasts, I highly recommend it. It's like talk radio at its best, only it's even better because there are some awesome programs that aren't on radio, like the LOST podcast, for example.

You can find all kinds of podcasts for various interests. Sports podcasts, TV shows, political, music, spiritual/religious, comedic, news, etc. Way better than just listening to music all the time. Trust me. It's great stuff.

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The U.S.-Canada hockey game was awesome, but hopefully Canada won't get vengeance in some way, like how Japan did to South Korea in the World Baseball Classic. That sucked. The talk about the Miracle on Ice, with the Canada game being a much lighter version of it and with the Miracle's anniversary was also really cool. The Miracle of Ice is so incredible that a good movie was made about it even though everyone knows what happens and it was only 30 years ago.

Here's what I'm wondering. How awesome would it be to watch the movie "Miracle" without knowing what was gonna happen? Like, say you showed the movie to a kid, without the kid knowing anything about it. They would see the Americans getting owned by the Soviets in the scrimmage, the team not being so great, how amazing the Soviet Union is, and then WOW the U.S. wins! How fun would that be? That would be crazy. Unless, of course, the smart-aleck kid saw that the title of the movie was "Miracle" and assume that USA would win. Whatever, smart-aleck hypothetical kid.

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Now, to talk about LOST. And SPOILER ALERT TO ANYONE WHO HASN'T SEEN THIS WEEK'S EPISODE.

A young Jack in the first picture. Party of Five in the house! I don't even remember much at all about that show, but I remember watching some episodes from it, and I remember when LOST came out, and I was like, that's the dude from Party of Five. Anyway, Jack asking his mom about his appendix, the mark on his neck, the meeting with Desmond on the airplane where he asks if he's met him before, all this, at least to me, makes me think that there had to be some kind of switch or something that happened because of the Oceanic 815 flight. Something triggered inside the passengers. It's only a matter of time before they put the pieces together, I think. Maybe you already figured that out. I just like seeing more evidence towards it. Then, we find out that Jack has a son. Holy crap! Holy crap! Whaaaaaaa. Unlike Locke and Helen, where we at least had some context, this is a total surprise. And I am intrigued, ladies and gentlemen. I am very intrigued.

I'm amused at how they won't say Claire's name when they're talking about her. Jack asks them who else got infected, and they say "your sister". Sayid asks Jack who else was infected, and Lost does its typical pause and wait for the person to almost say it before switching to what they're talking about. She-who-must-not-be-named! Clairedemort!

A Hurly-centric plot gives us wonderful pop culture lines, like "I just lied to a samurai" (and the guy who plays Dogen was a samurai in The Last Samurai!) or Jacob "turns up whenever he wants. Like Obi-Wan Kenobi."

In the whole love triangle category, we have the Jack and Kate exchange along the creek, and Kate telling Jack "I hope you find what you're looking for." And right after she says that, Jack has this long, gazing look deep into her eyes. Romantic longing!

Claire's craziness is interesting. I was glad to see the Other alive still, because he seemed like a decent guy, but man, she just straight up executes that dude. No messing. Speaking of Claire though, did you know that only she and Jack were on the EW cover (http://www.ew.com/ew/inside/issue/0,,ewTax:1091,00.html)? And yeah, I just don't feel like writing their real names.

I love how they use Hurley as a mouthpiece for what fans are thinking. Like how he was confused about time travel last year. And this episode, with him wondering if the bodies in the caves are actually them, having died in the past, just like fans theorize with Adam and Eve. Then, when he and Jack are in the forest and he talks about how this is like old times when they were in the forest and were doing something for reasons they didn't quite understand why.

Dogen in the real world. Fascinating. So how long was he on the Island for in the Island timeline? Does this mean he's not like Richard Alpert, timeless and from a long age ago? Is Alpert in the real world in the LAX timeline? Also, what the heck is up with Dogen's son asking Jack if David's his son? Besides that being the truth, that doesn't seem like a logical guess at all. Jack came near the end of David's performance, and Jack's standing in the back like a random dude. I chalk that up to lame scriptmaking or Dogen's son being a weird kid who asks random guys if they're some kid's daddy.

When Jack smashed the lighthouse glass, I was pretty frustrated with Jack, honestly, but then Jacob's all like "No I kinda wanted him to do that", so mark that up to Jack being awesome yet again. At this point I'll note that this whole episode was action-packed, and the pace was good, and I really enjoyed it. Yet again though, still really confused about what Jacob wants from Jack, what's going on in general, etc. But answers will come. Oh they'll get there.

I was confused with Jin's reasoning in lying to Claire. Is he trying to mainly protect Kate in that case? Or is he just wanting to get back to the Temple somehow so that he can get away from crazy Claire? Claire says Fake Locke is her "friend", and she doesn't think it's Locke. What does that mean? Who does she see? The Man In Black's true form?

Who's coming to the Island? Widmore? That would be my best guess and the one I would find most intriguing. Although I wouldn't guess that Jacob and Widmore are on the same side.

Some random notes:

-There's a Season 1 reference again with Jack telling Hurley how he really found the caves.

-I thought Jack was gonna use the rabbit to smash a window in or something. Kinda like how he knocked the Lighthouse door down.

-Oh shiz, Claire's gonna try to kill Kate this season.

Is The Middle or Cougartown funny? Just curious. Never seen an episode of either.

LOST: Week 3

I should note that after these episodes, I'm pretty confused and sometimes not sure about the cohesion of these notes. Still, I'll try to offer a rapid reaction to what I saw. Think of my entries as quick thoughts after episodes to ponder and debate. It's kind of like the Rapid Reactions that NFL blogs would have on ESPN.com after games (uh...yeah...you know what I mean, right?). Then, you can delve into other websites for the longer features and theories. That's what I'll be doing too. I hope to be responsive to comments this week; last week I kinda slacked off in that area.

Still, here are some thoughts I typed up before watching the episode. The focus is on John Locke today, supposedly, and man, what a character? Personally, Locke's another character that I have mixed feelings about. He's done a lot of things in the past that have really irked me, like blow up the submarine, or throw the knife into Naomi's back, or join the Others kinda, and just be kind of crazy at times. He almost got Desmond/Charlie/Mr. Eko killed with his Hatch gambit, he got Boone killed, dude's crazy!

Yet, he's so damn tragic, from his father hurting him in so many ways, to his miserable life before the island, to the way Ben toyed with him so many times before murdering him. He also was such a hopeful guy on the island too, so impressed with the magic of the place. And, like I imagine you might have felt, the realization from the season 5 finale that he wasn't resurrected on the Island was just so depressing. He's dead? Cause Ben murdered him after he decided not to hang himself? That's the miserable end to his mainly horrible life? Wow. That sucks. (If you ever watch The Wire, you will discover that yes, you can have a lot of favorite characters in a show who won't get happy endings. And it's powerful. And if you think that this is going to be the first of many attempts to randomly incorporate The Wire into a LOST blog entry, you might be right.)

So the question after that was if John Locke would just never earn redemption. If he was simply dead, then maybe the LOST writers were just trying to send a message. Sure, you might dream big, and you might think you're important; but in the end, some of you are just pawns, and you, Locke, were a sad, pathetic pawn. With the Island timeline on its own, it seemed like there was no other way around that. And now, as we all know, there's the LAX timeline, which could somehow eventually, and well, it surely must, connect back to the Island. John Locke will have his redemption in some glorious way. Right? Right? Let's hope so.

Did most of you guys already think this in your mind? Probably. But I wanted to right it all out before watching this episode.

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SPOILER ALERTS FROM HERE ON OUT IF YOU HAVEN'T REALIZED THAT BY NOW THEN MAN YOU GOTTA GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER.

This was quite an episode. Locke-centric episodes are certainly among the strongest in the series, with gems like Walkabout and The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham. Terry O'Quinn just brings it. The ending gave us a strong revelation to ponder, and yet, confuse us so much more (it's still early in this season though!). Sawyer and Fake Locke gave us a neat dynamic duo. Richard Alpert acted crazier than he's ever been.

Locke in a wheelchair in a really depressing situation.* Man this is depressing. But wait, a twist! Of course. It's like one of those moments where it's like, this couldn't get any more depressing, because it actually isn't. A sometimes-used, clever TV gimmick.

The return of Helen brings some confusing questions into play...which is sort of inevitable with this Back to the Future 2 type of timeline. If Locke actually got paralyzed, likely by his father, then he kept going after his father even after Helen told him to stop, and yet they're still together. Although, maybe in this timeline, Helen just came back to him after she left him and decided she loved him so much.

*Remember when mysterious under-utilized guy Matthew Abaddon threatened to push Locke down a flight of stairs? Yeah, that was scary. Matthew Abaddon was played by Lance Reddick, who also played an awesome character, Cedric Daniels in The Wire.

It's a little weird how at ease Sawyer is with dead Locke/Smoke Monster/Man In Black. I guess after all the sci-fi crap you go through, all you can really do is sit there and accept it and roll with it. It seems strange watching it initially, and then you think and go, well.... maybe that's the logical way to react in this WTF situation. Then yeah, it makes sense that Locke is still dead and some other dude is in his body. Yeah. Perfect sense.

Whenever someone new is popping into a scene in the LAX timeline, I always hold my breath expecting it to be someone else (as some of you noted with Claire's adoption potentials last week). This week, when I first heard the voice of the lady interviewing Locke, for some reason I thought "Libby!", probably because of Libby-Hurley. And then Rose pops in. Certainly though, the top cameo went to the intro of Ben as a teacher. Another example making us wonder what this means for the Island after the incident. Ben was...in the temple at that point? So... mark this as another point that the bomb must not have done immediate damage to the Island.

Does anyone think fake Locke actually could be on the good side? I certainly don't want it to be that way, what with the way he mercilessly took over Locke's body and manipulated that whole situation (and he did manipulate Locke going back to the real world, like when he told Richard to go confront Locke after Locke got shot in the leg). Still, what does the Island need to protect itself from? It's not like Man in Black isn't already stuck on this Island. So who would be the other opponent? The only thing I can think of, which kind of confuses me, is Charles Widmore. Widmore's mercenaries in Season 4 were the only real threat that has faced the Island. In the end, it seemed to be that the main goal was to get Benjamin Linus. Still, Locke was told by Christian Shephard to move the Island to save the Island. What does that mean? I mean, of course, who is Christian siding with? Could there be more to Widmore in the future? After all, he was forbidden from the Island. But his game with Ben seems so much less important now, especially with Ben being as confused as anyone on the Island. I still think Jacob is on the good side, and maybe Fake Locke is just doing a good job of manipulating me towards his side right now.

Also, with the scene with Fake Locke and the boy in the jungle, this episode brought back mention of the gamesmanship/rules sort of aspect the show has sometimes shown with Ben/Charles and also with Jacob/Man in Black in the Season 5 finale. And who is the boy? Could it be... yeah I got nothing.

The big revelation this episode was certainly the cave of candidates that Locke showed Sawyer. A couple thoughts. I wish I could offer some crazy brilliant theory to you here, but these are just a couple of pebbles to throw into it. First, did Locke not show Kate in the ceiling, or did I miss that? Cause Jacob definitely interacted with Kate in the finale. Second, Fake Locke crossing out real Locke's name makes me feel more confident that Locke will somehow come back to show up Fake Locke and prove himself worthy of a candidate. Third, I would be more inclined to believe that there isn't a single candidate that Jacob is eliminating himself toward. Rather, a certain combo of this group, whether it be Jack-Kate-Hurley-Locke or something. Why? I just think of the "They're coming" line that Jacob said in the season 5 finale, and I feel like there's something to it.

So that's my rapid reaction to this one. I'm confused, just as I will be perpetually confused throughout the season, especially right after episodes.


"Weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to" - LAPIDUS!

LOST: Week 2

So...this is my first blog of the season. For the most part, I will be writing throughout the episode, and then putting the pieces together after. This might help make the annoying commercial breaks go by all the smoother.

I thought I should give this a try, after seeing other TV show types of blogs and thinking, hey, I would enjoy writing like that. I figured I might as well start with the last season of LOST too, because I don't know the next time there'll be another communal following of a show that I'll experience like this one. (That doesn't mean I think LOST is the best TV show ever. Or my favorite. But that's a story for another time. What's my favorite show? You can check my profile for that answer. All in the game, yo.)

Some warnings: I am publishing this note on facebook because I think that will give the greatest interest in comment replies. At the same time, I know that on Newsfeed and stuff, it'll be easier for spoilers to pop up. I will try not to include any spoilers in the first portions of my notes, since those are previewed. I have a couple requests for any comments:

1. I ask that any comments made are also somewhat cryptic so that people won't really be able to tell what you're talking about if they haven't seen the episode. Good example: What happened at the end of the episode was so crazy! Bad example: if Jack had died in tonight's episode, don't say "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE JACK DIED AND SAWYER TURNED OUT TO BE WALT!". Know what i'm sayinnnnnn'? If this ends up spoiling stuff and people get mad, we can just make this only for my infrequently updated blog (whereyounhappens.blogspot.com).

2. Please don't mention anything about previews or any commercials or things that you hear about. Some people try to avoid such things, and it would be unfortunate for them to see about them here.

If you don't wanna be tagged on future notes, whether it's because you don't wanna be spoiled, aren't keeping track with LOST, or don't care or whatnot, just untag yourself from this note. I'll just retag the people left on this note, along with anyone else who wants to be tagged. Let me know if you wanna be tagged!

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read on if you haven't seen the episode from February 9th.

First, some leftover thoughts from last week:

-Faheem and I agreed that the LAX timeline was more intriguing and better executed last week. The Jack/Locke meeting was really good, and the scenes generally flowed better. By contrast, the island scenes had slow plot development with a slow opener with the prolonged death of Juliet. I wish we would have seen her last in the finale; that was such a heroic death. Instead, we have to spend time digging her out and letting Sayid die a little more, all so that we can hear her say "it worked". Oh wait, we didn't hear her say it. We heard Miles hear it from her. AHHHHHH.

-Was less surprised than others about the Smoke Monster. I think I was just set on that revelation after the finale, and after thinking about that episode where Ben confronted Smoke Monster/Alex and Locke coincidentally disappeared. Still, pretty crazy stuff.

-I'm really glad they went with the two sideways timelines. Definitely a cool setup, as opposed to only going with the reboot or only going with the island. And there's gotta be some crazy awesome way the two will come together, who knows how. But it'll hopefully be really brilliant or something, dude.

-I think I would have had more to say about last week if I had written it more immediately. So uh, yeah.

-This will be a work-in-progress. Sure, I would like to be as organized and well-written as sepinwall.blogspot.com, but this is just a start, and I'm not putting as much time into this. But I thought this would be a fun way to have people make comments and theories and stuff. I know I tend to not want to comment on those random blogs, just 'cause I feel like it would just be a minor comment in a storm of comments. So fire away after reading this!

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Claire in LAX timeline is a tease without seeing her on the island. Unless they show her at the end of today's episode. Will I call it? I'm leaving this in either way (22 minutes in). - Yes. I called this. What up.

Kate forces a pregnant Claire out of the taxi without her suitcase, after terrifying her to death? Harming the mental state of a pregnant lady? Really? You guys really like Kate that much, compared to Juliet? Really? Otherwise though, Kate does come off pretty well though throughout the episode. Her penance to Claire in coming back to her and giving her a ride. Being a baller against annoying Other guy (that guy was pretty damn annoying) and the nice Other guy. Giving a better reason to Sawyer for coming back to the Island, especially compared to Jack's stupid reason in the finale.* Sawyer and Kate's talk was pretty good, and it was certainly moving to see Sawyer talking about marrying Juliet and forcing her to stay on the island. A nice character scene. Both actors pulled through here.

*Backtracking to the finale, one thing that frustrated me was Jack talking about detonating the bomb for Kate, when he had said earlier that it was to erase the bad stuff that happened. I wasn't sure if I was more annoyed with Jack or the writers. In the end, because of my partial allegiance to Jack, I blamed poor writing. Still, Kate's reason here (previously stated to an effect) is better than Jack's reason to Sawyer in the season 5 finale.

Screw the Japanese guy who only speaks Japanese. Annoying gimmick. Screw Japan! Screw you, Adriene! Screw you, Ichiro Suzuki! I'm cool with you, Godzilla! And you too, sushi! After the torture scene with Zombie Sayid, I was starting to get ticked off by his whole mysteriousness and lack of English. Whenever he actually spoke English, it was a relief, like, oh thank you, you actually contribute as a character.

His scene with Jack near the end definitely made me come more around to him. Still, his reason for speaking it is a little silly. What if someone just learned your language, broseph? Then your tactic of separation would be a little dumb, wouldn't it? I mean, what else are they gonna do with their free time when they're on an island?

Throughout last week and most of this week, Jack was in a weird state to me. He had this weird vibe of guilt and inaction and uncertainty of what to do that I just couldn't get a feel for his character. Luckily, his scene at the end helped remind us of Jack of yore. Mark this one up to the side that says Jack's a baller. Gotta love that he was gonna kill himself to make sure Sayid wouldn't get poisoned.

Ethan is a doctor in the real world...and seemingly not conniving in any way. First, Ethan was on the island when the bomb went off, right? So that means that he was able to get off the island still, before it eventually made it's way underwater. Gah, I wonder what happened to the island. What happened to Ellie, and Widmore, Ben, Richard Alpert, and the eventual birth of Daniel Faraday? Will be interesting to eventually see if they pop up in the LAX timeline.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode, and I thought it flowed better than the first hour of the season. It reminded me of Season 1 with the flash-sideways having Kate and Claire meet and Kate on the run. This is what the showrunners hinted at, and that's certainly the case so far. I like this mood for now. Sure, there weren't many mysteries answered or major steps in the show's mythology...but I'm OK with that for now. We still have a lot of weeks ahead. As long as they answer stuff eventually.

Finally, good to see the return of a crazy-jungle-lady-new-Rousseau-ish Claire. Darkness seeping into Sayid, and already into her? Did it come from Fake Locke/Man in Black/Smoke Monster? What's Christian got to do with all this? Hmm...

Random Notes:

-I wish they didn't show so many previews of Modern Family during these commercials. Ruining it, man!

-Will Miles be a side character from now on? Seems like he's just here now for one-liners and rapport with Hurley. I'm OK with this, but I'm just curious.

-Does anyone actually remember angry Other who Kate rocked for a second time? I don't really feel like looking back on this.

-Do they get food in the temple? They must be hungry.

-Has the Jack crew explained to the temple people about how they were in 1977 and detonated a bomb that may have killed lots of people and yet they flashed back to this time? Did I miss that? Isn't that, uh, kind of a big deal?