Watching TV Shows Live or After Completion... and LOST: Week 5

Sorry for the delay. Couldn't watch the episode live, so I had to watch it... via other means, and then write. The first portion was mainly written beforehand. Skip down if you want to read about my thoughts on the episode.

Before getting to the Tuesday episode, I wanted to again write a little bit about another topic first, somewhat related. Watching LOST can be a frustrating experience (although this topic is a little less timely after an awesome episode like tonight's. At least, I think most people will consider tonight's episode awesome). You finish an episode, and you're like WHAT'S GOING ON. Or "Why aren't they answering anything? It's the final season, and they're supposed to be giving us answers, and all I'm getting are more questions! I'm so confused. ARGH! Why are they stuck in the Temple, this is so stupid." You get my drift. You've probably been there. I know a decent amount of us were thinking that concerning this season until tonight's episode. Unless you breezed through the past 5 seasons of LOST on DVD, you've been frustrated with the cliffhanger ending of Season 1, or the poorer quality of the beginning of season 3, or, lest we forget, the confusion of the time jumps at the beginning of Season 5 or the confusion of the Ben shooting in the middle of that season.

I know some people after episode 3 of this season (the Kate-centric episode) were frustrated that things were going so slowly, and I know people felt that way after last week too. To that, I would remind you all that after 5 episodes of season 5, we were just finishing with the time jump chaos that seemed to just be all kinds of confusing (again, this point is more moot after tonight's episode. I should have written on this topic last week!). I would also like to explore an interesting thing about TV watching. Watching a show as it happens vs. watching it after the fact, on DVD/online/etc.

Season 5 of LOST was a mixed bag for me. The time travel stuff and the Dharma stuff was meh for me at times, but it did pay off at the end. When friends asked me what I thought of season 5, I would say it was good, but it's a little weird at times, I'll warn you. Don't give up on it if you're not into it right away. There are parts of it that are a little weak sometimes. Yet, as people started catching up to LOST in anticipation of the final season, with some people catching up as far back as season 2 through the current state, I got the same thoughts again and again. Season 5 is awesome. And I was like oh... cool. Wasn't really expecting that unanimous of an opinion, but that's cool... why couldn't I have felt that way?

It's interesting to consider the positives and negatives of watching a TV show after it's done vs. while it's happening. This has happened to me a couple times this year, as I watched through the incredible series The Wire and caught up on Friday Night Lights all the way to its current state, then watched this past season of it week-by-week. Watching a show after it's done is great for the ability to follow it on your terms, as opposed to worrying about season breaks, potential sudden cancellations, the fear of the show turning crappy... did somebody just say Heroes?

Take The Wire, for instance. I watched it all in 1 summer, and it was incredible. It's the greatest TV show ever. No doubt in my mind. It's so incredibly good (another blog post in the future on that). But you know how many months were between seasons 3 and 4, which I watched one after the other? 21 months. That's right. Almost 2 whole years. That's an HBO show's timing for ya. Think how much that would have sucked if you were a Wire fan back in the day. Granted, Season 3 didn't end on a cliffhanger, and the season wrapped up pretty well, but there were some definite storylines that you were left pondering about between the two seasons, and after watching an amazing season, you had to wait 21 months to watch another amazing season (a season so good, in fact, that a lot of people think it's the greatest season in any show, ever, in TV history). Or take Friday Night Lights. I got to watch it this past year, enjoying 3 seasons and knowing that it was guaranteed for a 4th and 5th season. But during Season 1, it was facing the threat of cancellation. During Season 2, it was facing cancellation AND the writer's strike. Same for most of Season 3. That's not a good feeling as a TV fan.

But if you watch it all after the fact? You thought that LOST season 1 ended awesomely, but you really wanna know what's in the hatch? Just pop in that season 2 DVD. You know how many episodes you have ahead of you. Scared of if Jack's wife is gonna make it in Season 1 of 24? Go on right through that next episode! Worried that Heroes might suck after season 1? Well, it will! So don't bother!

It's cool to be able to get recommendations from people to check out various little gold mines of shows and to be able to enjoy excellence, guaranteed before watching. Still, there is less of an exciting factor there. Unless you're joining forces with someone else as you watch the old show together, you're left to let your friend know "hey, I finished season 2... it was awesome when..." and have that sort of one-sided conversation while the other friend has to hold back on potential spoilers, etc. or have trouble remembering random tidbits of a season. It's a fun conversation, but not as good as the conversation one can have over, say, this season of LOST or Glee back in the fall (and again in April/May).

So as much as it's fun to be able to zoom through some seasons, I do really enjoy being able to follow a show in its current state and kind of just bank on it being awesome. Which it might not be. This season of LOST could still suck in the end. But I'm trusting that it will be good, trusting that my initial concerns for this season (and your concerns) will decrease as the plot moves along, and enjoying the conversations I have with friends and coworkers until the season's end.

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And on that note... SPOILERS AHEAD...

So apparently in the LAX universe, the Gulf War never happened! OK not really, but here's a Sayid-flashback episode, in the house! And we have a smackdown between Dogen and Sayid. Gotta love action-Sayid. Later, when talking about his debt, Sayid's brother sorta tries to take advantage of Sayid's love for Nadia... kinda weird. But I guess it's also weird if your brother's in love with your wife. Awkward...

Claire is like a creepy baby doll with this new haircut. I think the hair makes her face more round, creating the baby doll illusion. And yeah Claire, tell that Dogen not to speak Asian! Plus, they use subtitles. MUCH less annoying.

The scene with Locke and Sayid after the stab-that-doesn't-do-anything-wow-that's-crazy is pretty intriguing. Again, gives me vibes of Satan and tempting. Also though, this time, reminds me of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, where Anakin is promised that he can have his love, snatched from the hands of death. I really don't like thinking about the newer Star Wars trilogy, but it definitely came across my mind with that conversation topic. And what happens in Star Wars? Palpatine tricks Anakin for his own purposes. HEY WHAT ABOUT SHANNON, SAYID?

The Sayid flash-sideways didn't really do it for me in the way that Locke or Jack's did. I think I found Locke's to be sweet and poignant and Jack's to be somewhat poignant and also somewhat more relevant with things like the appendix scene hinting at potential clashings of the universes. Sayid's? Not so much. It's hard to get emotional about Nadia when she's definitely married to her brother, and the flash-sideways ends on more a plot point, as opposed to the happier endings that Locke and Jack left off on. Thus, it just makes me wonder, like my boy TV critic Alan Sepinwall (sepinwall.blogspot.com), what these scenes have to do with the plot of the show. As Sepinwall notes, maybe these scenes will be better after we know what their point is; until then, not so much. It was amusing to see bad boy Keamy again and that other dude from Sayid's past (was that the guy that tortured him in return for Sayid torturing his wife?). Also, Jin in the kitchen. Things like that make me think that maybe we'll start hitting some more castaway uniting in the LAX timeline, leading to some connection to the Island timeline. For now, though, I just don't see it.

Also, who do you think they'll still flesh out in the LAX timeline? Will they continue to focus mainly on one person per episode (Claire was in Kate's, but it was still Kate's), leading to episodes centered around Hurley, Jin/Sun, Sawyer, maybe others? If so, when will it stop? Will we have episodes ala some of Seasons 4-5, where they won't have it focused on one person in some episodes, but it'll jump from person to person within the episode?

The Sayid scene in the Temple. Whoa, as many of you probably thought. I was riveted from the start of that scene until the end of the episode, unable to even type any notes or anything. What a sequence.

RIP Dogen. Sure, I made fun of your language and found you annoying in the first few episodes, but you grew on me. Especially in that final scene about your Juliet-esque coercing to the Island. That sucks. And that explains how you got here, which is cool. Makes me wonder how he has so much power (if he actually did, which I'm guessing to be the case, since Smoke Monster didn't arrive until after), considering he shouldn't be as special as someone like Juliet. I hope they explain that later. I wasn't so sad about Lennon though. Dude was annoying. Even before Sayid kills him, he sounds annoying when he calls Sayid "Idiot!" I also thought that Sayid might kill Ben right then and there. Heck, he shot baby Ben. But I guess killing two people was enough.

Sayid... I always liked to think that he would end on the good side, that he would find redemption. I really didn't want him to die at the end of last season so that such a thing could happen. Now though, I'm fearing that to not be the case. Maybe he is just too damaged in the show. Killing, allying with Locke, Dogen forewarning that Sayid was bad now, shooting baby Ben (even though I was rooting for it when it happened, while also being really confused about the context of the rules of paradox/time travel stuff if baby Ben died). It's hard to believe that Claire and Sayid can have redemption in the end. Also, does anyone still think Man in Black is on the good side? It's hard for me to believe that.

I'm starting to think that Locke will gather and gather, recruiting, and it looks like Jack and Hurley, along with Ilana and the others, will be on Jacob's side. I still think Widmore is on the way too. Or, who knows, maybe Jacob's saying that the LAX timeline is coming to the Island... That really doesn't make sense to me yet. And I would bet that Sawyer would side with Jack in the end, and Jack and Locke will have another showdown. BUT WHAT ABOUT CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD. Has anyone else been annoyed in LOST with how it's spelled "Shephard" instead of "Shepherd"? Me too.

Theories on Kate's role? With her being probably rogue within Locke's camp and her being a non-candidate, I feel like she must have some kind of special role.

Some loose-ends. Where are Jin and Sawyer? That part confuses me. Where did Sawyer go after the cave? Is he on some sort of mission for Locke? Is Jin tied up somewhere because he refused to cooperate? Where did Ben go after seeing Sayid? And where are you, Richard Alps!

Misc. notes:

"He will come as someone you know" - reminds me of a scene in The Godfather. Know what I'm sayin'?

Miles, by himself, playing Solitaire. Heh.

Miles on Claire, to Kate: "She just strolled in here a couple hours ago, acting all weird. Still hot though."

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?

Shanahan: The New Hope

Started writing at 10:33

Why not? This topic has been on my mind too. My alternative title for this entry was Redskins Wars To Be Good Again: Shanahan The New Hope, but I don't know if that would have gone over as well. I am optimistic about this move to hire Shanahan, although I was doubtful about how good he would be during midseason when I first heard potential rumors about it (and as Alex will say, he called this early in the season).

Snyder has made plenty of coaching hire splashes. Marty Schottenheimer, who was fired after 1 season (and should have been kept. He went 8-8 after starting 0-5, is a proven winner, and would have been better than any of the coaching hires after. Just a stupid firing in general). He was fired to lead to Steve Spurrier, the big disaster of great, failed potential. Then there was Joe Gibbs, who was just too old for the game but excited everyone because well, it's Joe Gibbs! And uh, Jim Zorn was never a good idea. I also learned today that Zorn was 54 when he was hired. I thought the dude was in his 40s. So he was inexperienced AND old; what the f was Snyder thinking?

Now Shanahan has some caution flags. He might be too powerful with personnel decisions and might not be that good at it. He's older, sure. He had his best days with Elway in the late 90s. BUT, here are the positives.

Unlike Gibbs, Shanahan is only a year removed from his coaching, where he was fired in a way where he needs to prove himself again. He spent the year studying game tape in his own office, visiting training camps to get new ideas on what would work best on the field (he's considering 3-4), and he still knows the current game. Gibbs was stuck in an 80s era, bless his heart.

Another problem with this decade has been the involvement of Snyder/Cerrato in GM decisions, leading to huge contracts for an old Bruce Smith, Adam Archuleta, Jeff George over Brad Johnson, picking three receivers in the 2nd round instead of seeking OL help, throwing players like Campbell under the bus, the latest huge contract for Haynesworth, etc. Cerrato is now gone (he was also gone for Marty's one year. Interesting), and Snyder seems to be taking a step back, hiring a GM for his first time ever in Bruce Allen. Seems like Shanahan/Allen are running the show. For what it's worth, Shanahan only had two losing seasons. I can definitely, definitely live with that from my team's coach.

That's mainly it. I'm gonna stop writing now too. 10:42pm.

Quick Write: Game Fastforward

First, I'm gonna try to write quicker posts from now on whenever I think of something to write about. This blog is just gonna be me typing and thinking so I hopefully don't overspend time on this. That's the goal. The reason why I haven't been committed to updating this in the past is because I want to write these long, epic ideas of blogs; instead, it might be more enjoyable for me and also for you, the rare reader of my writings, if I had more frequent, shorter blogs. But then again this is probably just gonna turn into a long "quick" ramble anyway. I should note I started typing at 10:20pm.

So the way we watch sports games (and tv) has certainly evolved with things like TIVO and generic recorded tv in general, and also with sports with things like the Red Zone Channel for NFL games. These things have been great. The Red Zone Channel is just an amazing thing. Normal TV is maybe two games for the early NFL Sunday games and then one game in the late afternoon, along with the night games. If you're in a town where your team isn't local (i.e. being a Skins fan in Houston or Chicago), chances are you won't see your team play on TV unless it's a big game. And if you're in a town with a poor team (i.e. most Houston and Chicago teams while I've been in said place), it's not as enjoyable. You have to go to places like BWW to watch more games and your own team. Red Zone combines all that. Takes all the exciting aspects of all the games on TV, and switches from one game to the next so that you can get all the important bits. It's a sports bar on your tv (or in my case, an online stream, since I don't have that channel).

Tivo is also great because you can record things you miss. One thing Kevin the RA did was start recording games, and then start watching it during the course of the game so that he could catch up to the ending by the time it was about to happen. Pretty cool, cause the one drawback about sports games is that you usually get ruined about the result if you don't watch it live, just because everyone around you knows scores, or you hear about it somehow.

Kevin watches it in a nice, compressed version. They should have this option for you, where the program automatically compresses the game, so that it skips over all dead time between plays, saving only important non-play scenarios like a coach challenging a play, skips the commercials, all that jazz. You get a provided short version of the game, WHILE it's still happening, so that you can catch up to the end. They can come up with a program that gauges when you should start watching the game and how to best catch it back up live, even if you might end up being 5 minutes late in the end.

See, for Kevin, he had to manually press fast forward (I think with TIVO, skip ahead 3o seconds, which can have its drawbacks). This program would do the job for you. Game Fastforward. It would be the best thing since the Red Zone Channel.

RFC Beast: Halftime Report

OOOOOOOoooooo we're halfway there... oooooooO! livin' on a prayer...

We'll start off this report with an anecdote. This past Monday, I ventured downtown to ESPN Zone Chicago, where Bill Simmons, my sportswriting hero, was having a book signing. How big of a fan am I of Bill Simmons? I remember first reading him when he came to ESPN, getting hooked on one of his earliest ESPN articles about Len Bias, and I've been reading him since. Since 2001, freshman year of high school, his humor and sports viewpoint has been a major influence on me. I defend him against those who criticize his ability to write (Casey sucks), his homerism, and other stuff. I've read all of his ESPN chatrooms and articles, I've gone back and looked at all the stuff he wrote about The Wire and Friday Night Lights after watching those two shows (and no, I don't just like them because he does. Both of these shows are remarkable and should be checked out. The Wire is probably the greatest show of this decade and in the top-10 ever at the very least. Friday Night Lights is the best sports TV show I've ever seen, maybe only second to Hang Time. And it's about football. A football show done right. AKA not Playmakers).

Anyway, I imagine you weren't expecting to read that beatoff to Simmons just then, but I couldn't help it. VERONICA CORNINGSTONE AND I ARE IN LOVE, AND I WANT THE WHOLE WORLD TO KNOW. When I finally got to the table (by this point I was unfortunately by myself, as Marshall, who was with me in line earlier, had to peace out), Simmons signed my book quickly because he was going through such a long line. Most people could only get in comments as he signed with quick comments back, and the guy before me tried to make some joke about asking if there was a Teen Wolf reference in his book. Simmons just kept looking down and signing and said "yeah, it's possible". Rocked.

I didn't really have any time to say anything, so all I said was "Hey Bill, I just wanted to say I've been reading your stuff since freshman year of high school." Simple and sincere. Bill looked up and said aw thanks, and we shook hands. And that, my friends, is the hand that is writing this article today. Witness greatness. Or not.

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Now for the fantasy football league, the RFC Beast. We are halfway through what may be the greatest fantasy football season in history. It is certainly one of the more even leagues I've been a part of. In fact, I decided to utilize a new ranking system to help me decide how to rank the teams this time around, after being unsatisfied with my arbitrary debates after Week 4. Sure, rankings in things like the BCS are terrible and just disastrous, but in Fantasy Football, they work a lot better. And this ranking doesn't decide a multimillion-dollar college sport that affects the paths of many teams and players. Screw you, college football.

So how did I set up this complex ranking system? What crazy computer program did I use? It was, GASP, Excel! And I could have used pen and paper too. I looked at each week and ranked the teams from first to last that week based on their points. I did that for all 8 weeks so far, added up the ranking places that each team had (if you were first in the league that week, you had 10, last gets 1), and voila! Why do I like this? Because it is a better assessment than total points, as it balances out the effect of a team having an incredible, incredible points total one week and fluctuating their points total overall. This shows how well a team does week-in and week-out. Overall, there would have been 440 points to go around, with the average points total being 44.

Before we get to that, I wanna make a note of how intra-division matchups really got started after the first-quarter. For the last three weeks, we had everyone playing teams from their opposite division. The overall records of the two divisions after the Gettysburg showdown (yeah, I just came up with that. I dunno why): both are 20-20 combined. Yeah, I told you this league was even, including with division records.

The Jerry Hopkins Division

10. Flaming Romophobes (Record 2-6, 706 pts overall, 10th place in standings, 33 ranking score)

Khadir's team isn't doing so hot. At all. And it's most exciting highlight of the season so far? A trade with Peck of Buffalo D for NYG D. Exciting.

Despite having all the Cowboys in the world, Khadir failed to get the hottest one of the season, Miles Austin. Although he won this past week, his showing throughout the season has been more comparable to that of the Redskins (ugh, the Redskins season) than the Cowboys. Khadirty's ranking's score is 5 points lower than the next worse. That's pretty bad. Khadirty, you've been making Jerry Hopkins look bad. Time to shape up. You'll need a bigger makeover than Jerry Jones' face in the 90s.

9. Boston Lemon Party (Record 3-5, 738 points overall, 9th place, 38 ranking score)

8. Hamstars (Record 3-5, 752 points overall, 7th place, 38 ranking score)

Putting two NFC teams in last place kills me, but I can't really argue another way. I wanted to put Molly here, I really did, but I like his team better. Especially after Peck lost Owen Daniels to a season-ending injury. I also think that Peck got to worser end of his trade with Harriet, where he traded Steve Breaston and Frank Gore for Brandon Marshall and Carnell Williams. While it wasn't a terrible trade by any means, I just like Frank Gore a lot (I know he has RB depth, but I'm just sayin'), and B Marshall needs to get hotter again after some weak weeks. And the trade makes Harriet's team stronger, which puts her ahead of these two gents. Guess the woman's not at the bottom of this man-pile... uh...Molly wrote that one.

Molly's mistake of Michael Turner doesn't change the fact that Turner is still a first-round type of player, and the worse-icon-ever has been lucky to have Braylon "I-can't-feel-my-hands" Edwards be traded to the Jets (did you know the New Orleans D has more TDs than the Browns' O? That is...terrible. Just terrible. and LoLzzzz0rzzzzz. Eric Mangina strikes again!), and yeah, Reggie Wayne is good. But Molly, you still suck. Hamstars? Really? Are you in second grade still?

Bill Simmons Division (because despite my support for Simmons, I can't deny that he can sometimes suck at Fantasy Football, and he apparently forgot to switch out his kicker on bye this week because he was so busy with book signings even though he was on break during the weekend. This with the kicker who's on the Patriots, his favorite team, by the way.)

7. DoubleDsOnThatBitch (3-5, 740 points, 8th place, 41)

Before last week, I questioned if Harriet even cared anymore. Heck, she was in 'Nam, had Brian Westbrook, who was clearly injured, in her starting spot, and her drunk psycho self was roaming the streets like a drugged out US soldier in the 60s. The trade with Peck definitely makes things look better, although not necessarily spectacular. Just an improvement. Do I see her defending her title in the playoffs? Nah, not really. But this team could make things exciting. Also, in Harriet's defense, apparently she didn't start McNabb one week because she was out of town or something. That's actually no excuse, but whatever, Harriet. You're probably high on morphine.

With LDT, Gore, and Westbrook, she has 3 guys who are old/oft-injured. That still means she has a decent shot of having two of them start each week! Gotta play those odds sometimes. 3 old men trying to perform. Maybe she should take on Peck's team name.

6. Slumdoggy Style (6-2, 809 pts, 1st place, 42)

This is where things got more difficult. Faheem's team is ranked #1 in the standings, ahead by at least a game over everyone else, and he's been #1 for most of the season. But he's not the best team, at least not so far in my opinion, and it doesn't seem like he will be. Maybe he'll prove us wrong, but I don't have as much confidence in that.

What does the ranking system say? It says Slumdoggy Style is 6th out of 10. You heard me. That wasn't a typo. THAT JUST HAPPENED. So I had to weigh how I wanted to rank this. Faheem is still two games ahead of Jaimin and Ferras, and one game ahead of me, Mark, and Alex. So the question is, do I think his team has a good shot at making the playoffs, the top 4? And I think he has a decent shot still. His record gives him room to breathe. But for the sake of these rankings, for the sake of making my ranking system the end-all-be-all of this midseason report (Doesn't this remind you of the BCS? Don't you love it? There's nothing you can do to stop me!), I'll put Faheem at #6.

Slumdoggy made one of the better FA pickups of the last few weeks, if not, the season, with Miles "Roy Williams is garbage" Austin. Otherwise, Rivers hasn't been Rivers 2008 so far, the running game is a little weak (such it McGahee!), and the WR3 spot hasn't been great either. Let's see if Faheem can take on the league the way he's been taking on the U.S. Government for the last 8 years. Get it? Cause his last name is Ahmed? And he likes curry?

Tony Reali Division- I've only read like one of Tony Reali's fantasy football articles from this year (Stat Boy from PTI and host of Around the Horn for you who don't know him), but they don't seem that great. Still, this is an upgrade of a name over Champ Bailey, who had no realistic connection to fantasy football last time.

5. Ginn and Juice (4-4, 804 points, 6th place, 44)

I actually thought this team might be really good during my 1st quarter report, even considered putting it in the top-2, but I refrained. It hasn't done as great as I anticipated. Steve Smith NYG has gone back down to normal, there's still no solid WR3, and well, we're honestly at a point here where the teams that are good aren't necessarily great. I don't really have a lot of criticism here; the team just isn't as good as the teams ahead. Remember how I said this league is incredibly even? Case in point. Remember how Ferras got rid of Ted Ginn Jr.? He still doesn't have him. Alex has him. This name makes as much sense as the Utah Jazz, the L.A. Lakers, or the fact that the show Glee's biggest storyline in its season so far is an absurd pregnancy plot. But I digress.

4. el luchador (4-4, 811, 5th place, 45)

Despite all the haters in the league for Gimpy McGimperson, the Indian wrestler sex-fiend that you would keep away from your children, Jaimin's actually got a solid team so far. As I said in the last quarter, you can't deny the power of blue-chippers, and he's got the top-fantasy-qb so far in Aaron Rodgers and the second-best RB in Jones-Drew. That's legit. In a league like this, sometimes what matters is that you just have a couple of the best players. You can compare Fantasy Football a little more to the NBA than the NFL this way. Having a Jordan and a Pippen can make you a champ. Maybe.

With Thomas Jones too, he has a killer RB combo. Still, this team isn't flawless. It's more imperfect than others, with weak WRs (read: Boldin is not good this year). But hey, maybe there won't be a samurai sword to stab an oxygen-deprived and incredibly confused Jaimin in and around the crotch (I don't think that happens in the movie, but it's funnier that way).

Matthew Berry Division

3. McNair InThe Shotgun (5-3, 823 points, 4th place, 51)

Whiny Sir Whinerson has earned his way out of the Bill Simmons Division into the top division. Maybe he won't cry at night anymore. Plus, his real NFL team is actually doing well this season, so screw him.

Led by Drew Brees (or as Wilbon would say, DREWWW BREEEEEEESSS!!!), Alex's team has overcome the breakdown of his 6-RB platoon. In the dust lay some options still, although Steve Slaton? Maybe not a good first round pick. Probably should have gone with, oh, I dunno, Chris Johnson. It doesn't seem like the team has good stability, but I think Alex has been doing a good job of picking up players as quick fixes. I can't disagree with the rankings. Air McNair earns the 3 spot and the reminder that sometimes, the dead are best honored with a terrible, terrible team moniker.

2. The Long Johnsons (5-3, 879 points, 3rd place, 53)

Can I just say again, like last time, that I really love my team? I'm very happy with how things turned out, except for the fact that I drafted Calvin Johnson instead of the other long Johnson, Andre. That was a big mistake. Still, I have a top-2 scoring QB, 2 of the 6 top WRs, 2 of the 4 top RBs and Pierre Thomas, and the second-best TE. I feel like my lineup is a powerhouse. I dig it. Worries? That Schaub will fall apart because he's never had a season like this all year, leading to a decent but not amazing Flacco. That Calvin will not end up turning it around, so I'll depend instead on guys like Nate Burleson and Hakeem Nicks. Otherwise, I feel pretty good. My RB situation seems pretty solid right now. This week, I have a shot at getting vengeance on gimpy, as he beat me in Week 3 with the highest score vs. my second highest score of the week. I say bring it. I'm gonna go Bruce Willis on ya, gimpy! Zed's dead, baby! Where's my weird accent-speaking and terrible character of a French ladyfriend who wants to eat pancakes?

1. Hughes Black Cox (5-3, 847 points, 2nd place, 55)

Against all odds, Mark stays in first place! Will this be a run throughout the season, or will he fall apart like Florida inevitably will by the end of this season?! Only time will tell!

Mark's unconventional moves (to continue his QB messings, he picked up Cutler to start over Ryan for Week 8, with Brady on bye. So he had Brady, Ryan, and Cutler on his roster all at the same time. Just odd.) haven't hurt him so much. With DeAngelo picking things up and bright spots like Percy Harvin, and what do you know, New Orleans D, this team has done well so far. Enjoy the top while you can, Mark... cause you won't be there forever ...mwa...ha...ha...

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And scene.