The End

I seriously don't know what to say... mostly because as I write this The Bachelorette is on and it's distracting as hell... they should change the name of the show to Pick The Least Offensive D-Bag and Hope For The Best....ugh... This is what I'll miss the most about LOST...Smart television is eroding faster than the Island Unplugged....
Let's get on with it... With a heavy heart, we bid our fair show farewell...so the question is: What did it all mean?!?!?
As I've always done, this is my opinion of what it all meant...my opinion and 1 dollar will get you a large sweet tea at McDonalds... so use it wisely..
The Island held the source of ALL LIFE in the Universe. It looked like an extra strong halogen lamp in a cave. Of course, we saw that it had a lot more detail once old Desmond got closer... a pretty mystical place, with an upside down cone that had some writing on it..which, of course only raises more questions but let's not dwell on that for now... let's deal with the facts...
So the Light had to be protected. It could not go out. If it did, then what? Would life cease to exist? Would everyone feel completely soulless? I don't know... I think it would just make life suck and feel empty and possibly prevent any new life from ever entering the world again...basically Armageddon and the complete destruction of life as we know it.. I guess....
So the Man in Black could only leave if the Light went out. And Jacob couldn't kill his own brother so once he was dead, he needed someone else to do it.
But the how was the question....in what I think was one of the coolest scenes in all of LOST, Jack told Fake Locke that they were going to go to the source, see what Des could do and then Jack was going to kill Fake Locke... point blank... finally...some straight shooting...
So Des pulled the plug on the source, which made Locke human..which meant he could be killed....In the SECOND coolest scene in all of LOST, Jack and Locke had a kick ass fight on the side of a cliff... I mean, c'mon!!! How COOL was that??
But Jack took a blade to the side for his trouble(Christ like?) and almost took the blade to the throat(which explained that crazy mark on his neck that wouldn't stop bleeding)....but leave it to Gunslinger Kate to save a bullet for Locke... she popped a cap in his back, saving Jack from sure death..
Then Jack gave the boot to Locke and that was that... pretty anti-climatic.. Raise your hand if you thought Locke wasn't going to be there when Sawyer peered over the edge... all I could think of was Cape Fear with DeNiro...Come out, come out wherever you are..... haha.. but alas it was really over..
So Jack made the ultimate sacrifice and saved the Island by plugging the hole back... but it was too late for Jack to be saved... so he went back to the spot where the show started and laid down... as he lay, he rejoiced in the Ajira plane flying over, carrying his friends off for good... and then Vincent laid next to him, I cried, and Jack died....

The redemption and journey of Jack Shephard was complete. My man has been to hell and back and now he can move on.
Which leads me to the point of the Side Flash... a lot of people are crying FOUL about the whole Purgatory theory becoming an actuality... personally, I don't have a problem with it...it was one season and it culminated in some of the most heart wrenching reunions this show has ever produced. It was like a flashback of the entire series and each one was more killer than the previous....
Jack's realization that he was in fact dead was the most moving moment I can recall... it had a Sixth Sense vibe and it was truly a beautiful moment... Sorry if you don't agree but I've devoted a fair amount of my life to this show..I don't live or die by getting answers and I've theorized crazier scenarios than anything this show has ever actually produced...so when I got the ending that was delivered last night, it was better than anything I could ever imagine...
I watched the speech that Christian gave Jack and it pretty much said it all... The people that meant the most to Jack were in the church. They needed him as much as he needed them. And that is ultimately the point the writers were trying to make....it's not about the things you consume during your life, but the relationships you cultivate and grow that make LIFE.
Some died before Jack and some died long after him. This was evident when Hurley told Ben he was a great number 2. Ben responded that Hurley was a great number 1. Which could potentially be a spin off: LOST- The Hurley and Ben Years....
But they were all remembered as they were at the most pivotal moment in their lives. When you think of it that way, you may find yourself especially touched when you rewatch the show. Watch Kate tell Jack on Island that she loves him. And that he better promise to see her again. And then when they see each other at the concert and she says she missed him, that lead me to believe that Kate lived a lot longer after she left the Island... which is sad.. and really heart warming when she sees him again.
So to sum it up, I don't care about the numbers, or the DHARMA food drop, or if Widmore was really evil or not, or if Faraday's mom knew everything from the start.....I started watching this show and fell in love with this show based on the characters... Based on their struggles and redemption and choices and journeys... of course I loved the sci-fi part of it and the religious undertones that were mixed in were pretty brilliant and subtle...
Sorry if I get a little Tim Tebow on you guys here at the end but the last scene reminded me of a Bible quote that I remembered as a kid:
John 14 1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4 “And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Now I'm not saying that LOST is that overt in it's religious undertones but it reminded me of that verse... and I would never suggest that Jack was Jesus and Christian was God and all of that...even though I'm sure I have... you know what? I am actually making that comparison.. in my interpretation, that's EXACTLY what I think the show was about... and that's pretty interesting... and open to debate... but that's for another life....

And that's my time... the term of El Prez is officially over... Think of this blog as a notebook in a shoebox. The lid is closing but it's always available to you. It's just tucked away in the back of the closet...every once in a while when you rewatch the show, feel free to pull this out, knock the dust off of it and remember the ramblings of some odd bird who really REALLY loved this show....so much that he wrote about it, ad nauseum....
I've enjoyed every minute of it and I will miss the time we shared. It has truly been a lot of fun and if we are lucky, there's some kid out there who gets inspired by this show and in our lifetime creates a show that's half as good as this and fills our imaginations like this show has.
Thank you all for reading and sharing your thoughts with me over the years...who knows....we may actually meet in a church in the afterlife one day.... whoa....

The Candidate

Wow.... just holy smokes.... wow... this show continues to, I mean, it absolutely continues to impress and stupefy and just amaze me... and based on some of the responses you guys sent me, you're in full agreement...
So let's cut right to the chase...some things were CLEARLY made obvious in this episode:

Locke is EVIL.....
He had a plan this whole time to get all of the candidates together...put them in a situation where they CHOOSE to make a decision to get them killed.. Jack was right that Fake Locke/Smokey wasn't allowed to kill them...based on some sort of "rules"... which is how he got Ben to kill Jacob and Sayid to kill Dogen... I know I've been on the fence on whether or not his intentions were pure...maybe he really just wants to get off the Island, but I think more importantly, Fake Locke just wants "out"... he wants to be done with the game.... look for more answers on the "game" next week...but more on that later...
Sayid is the MAN....
He found the "light" and grabbed that bomb like Archie Griffith.... "He...could...go...all... the...wa..." BOOM!
Probably the single most heroic act seen on LOST...it was a little reminiscent of Desmond turning the fail safe key but with a lot more impact... I loved the way Sayid went out... I don't want to see the baddest dude on the Island suffer some crappy drawn out death...live by the sword, die by the sword... the only thing that might have been better would have been a hail of bullets...or with a knife in his teeth, jumping onto the back of a fire breathing dragon...wait...that was Matthew McConnaughy in "Reign Of Fire"..... but that still would have been just as cool...
as it stood, Sayid knew he wouldn't get far with the bomb but he knew he could get far enough to buy some time... super, SUPER sweet redemption...
But before he went, he laid the lines of the night on Jack:
(I'll paraphrase because every time I watch this scene I get an adrenaline rush and I can't go 2 nights in a row waking up from cold sweats)
Basically he tells Jack that Desmond is in the well and that Jack is going to need him because obviously Locke wants Des out of the picture.
Jack says "why are you telling me this?"
Sayid: "Because it's going to be you, Jack"

Jack is the Chosen One...
Now this could still be a switcheroo on the part of the writers..."Look at what's in this hand!!"...meanwhile they are stealing your wallet with the other... meaning, based on the hit movies of the last couple of years, this thing could have an ending NO ONE saw coming, like The Usual Suspects...or The Departed...or No Country for Old Men...or the Sixth Sense.... for all we know, the damn dog could be the next Jacob...but the fact that Sayid said it, leads me to believe that Jack is the One...at least for this week... lol....

Sun and Jin are Charlie...
I'm all for duel deaths...its a great way to thin the herd in an ensemble cast... it raises the stakes of the story and makes it more real...it gets the tear ducts working and it really speaks to the essence of partnership, watching 2 people die simultaneous under water deaths.... that being said: We've seen this before with Charlie, except he did something heroic which lead to his death...I felt like with Sun and Jin, they kind of ran out of story... they were finally reunited and it feels so good, but then it was "ok..now what?"... I know! Let's have them drown together!....now I'm not totally heartless...when Jin used Korean to tell her he'd never leave her, well ol El Prez let a tear drop... I'm not going to lie... Then I got over it by getting all high and mighty about seeing another underwater death...
Of course now I'm watching it again, and seeing the exchange of looks between Jin and Jack, as Jin knows its not going to work out his way...well that was just priceless...

Locke knows how to fly a plane....
Well wasn't that an interesting reveal? It kind of seemed random, but as we know, there is nothing on this show that's not carefully planted... is it at all possible that Fake Locke will "tap" into this knowledge and light the fires on that plane? I mean, they just have easily could have said Locke was injured in that old VW bug he had back in the day... those things were notorious for catching on fire...but no, it had to be a plane.....
But the shared moment at the end between Sideways Jack and Locke was really just a great scene.. They both are trying to get the other one to jump first...something tells me when these 2 realize they are connected, something powerful is going to happen to the Island versions...
and then Jack laid the line on Locke: I wish you believed me....which is what Locke put in his suicide note to Jack...CRAZY....

The beach scene where Kate Jack and Hurley all cry... I truly believe that those were real emotions from the actors about how their time on this amazing show is coming to an end...that may seem a little hokey but these people are artists...highly emotional... you gotta tap into that to make a scene feel real...and Jack standing in the ocean, about to just curse whatever God or what brought him to this place... that was a great scene... you have to feel Jack's pain and think, really...what's this ALL FOR???

And finally, Locke knew they weren't all dead....I think he knew because maybe something is supposed to happen to him when that happens...when all the "good" is gone, he will change....will he get his body back?... will he no longer be tethered to the Island and "feel" that?....I don't know...
Next week we should get a LOT of answers, Ab Aeterno style, as we see the back story of Jacob and the Man in Black... I cannot wait!!!
That's my time tonight...I gotta go back and watch it again...lol..
Later!

The Last Recruit

I'll be honest...I'm late on this particular episode and now I've seen The Candidate and it was such an amazing episode that I'm fixated on it and unable to really get into the meat and potatoes of this episode...
I will say that I had some favorite moments:
Jack willingly jumping off the boat when Sawyer told him to... that was so cool...
And then the mortar attack and Jack blowing clear up in the air..

That was pretty much it.. I hate to slack off on this post but I want to get to the one above this one...which you may have already read.... so sorry again..

Everybody Loves Hugo

Well I must admit that this final season hasn't really produced my best work... I don't know if it's the kid, the wine shop, the full time job, the wife, the trips to Argentina tracking down former Special Ops-turned-bad guys who sell secrets to Russia, the house or what....but we are near the end and I think the over arching theme for ol El Prez this year has been to sit back and just take it all in...
The mysteries are essentially over...I don't need to dive into the secret meaning of some obscure, cool sci-fi book from 1950 in order to enjoy the show..I appreciate the effort on the part of the writers but nowadays, with the end coming soon, I really just want to see stuff blow up....
And in this episode we got a lot of cool stuff blowing up, specifically Ilana... I'll be honest: these disciples of Jacob have met some pretty crappy endings, considering all of their sacrifices in his name... Remember the guy Ben put 2 in the chest in? Yeah...He was with Team Jacob... That dude who ate smoke in the statue? Dogen? The guy with the glasses? All these fools have had their moment in the sun, only to lose out....
Which makes me wonder about who is really in charge? Is it Jacob? Is it the Man in Black?

I don't think it's either... My answer is going to be a little more... environmental. I am proposing a new-ish theory of who is in charge....The Island itself... I think Jacob and MIB are merely agents of the Island.. I don't know if even they have total control... so in my mind, I think Fake Locke is the only sane one on the Island...The only one who wants off the damn rock.. I don't know.. that may just be the theory of the day...the more I think I know, the less I actually do...

But this episode was about Hurley's road to love..very well played by the always sweet Cynthia Waltros..another character that met an untimely, kind of crappy way to die off the show... it was nice to see her again...and she has magic lips, cause she made Hurley see another world... but what does it mean?? I DON'T KNOW!!!!!!! aarggg....

The other highlight of the show is that Desmond took particular enjoyment in running down Locke.. I'm not sure if he caught a glimpse of Locke throwing him so carelessly into that well and that's why he did it, or if he really likes running over handicapped folks... I don't know how he spends his free time..

A mystery was sort of solved in this episode: the whispers.... Michael identified them as spirits who can't "move along"..I'm sorry, but didn't we already see the episode where the Island let him know that it was done with him and blew him to smithereens on the boat? Was that Jacob who used Michael back then? Or was it MIB? I mean, one of those damn people needed him and then used him and then blew his butt shy high...somebody has to answer for the fact that they can pull him back anytime they want to!!
And that somebody is the Island.. I think Jacob needed Michael, used him and then let him die....but the Island wasn't done with him... so now the Island is using him before it lets him move on...confused yet? I sure am!
But the other thing that this whisper explanation eluded to was the fact that the Island was some sort of limbo land between heaven and hell or the afterlife or what have you... that sounds a LOT like Purgatory and the writers have adamantly stated numerous times over that it's not Purgatory... I mean, adamantly.. so I'll allow them to tell their story before I cry foul... I've made it this long and been entertained, so I'll give them a little more rope...hell, there are only 4 more episodes... I think I can hold out..
That's really all I had on this episode...that's not to say I didn't see a bunch of other things but with all the excitement in my life these days, this episode was 3 weeks ago and I'm doing my best to remember it...
I did love the end and the reunion of the 2 groups, finally... hijinks from the old gang, sure to come!

Random

I happened to look through the archives to the right of this blog posting... 2008 was apparently the most intriguing year of LOST for me...32 posts... I haven't come close since... haha.. so far I've posted 91 blogs...only 5 more episodes left until the Series Finale... that would put me at 98 posts in my career, if I limit myself to talking about episodes... but I'll probably throw in one more random and then the Final FINAL blog posting summarizing my reign as El Prez... that would get me to 100. Not a stellar blog record but that's not counting the over 200 emails I sent before I got wise to this Internet thing.... that first year was a posting every day... those were the days, Edith.. those were the days....

Happily Ever After

YES!!! Desmond time!! I'm typing this up as I'm watching for the second time.... Its hard to believe that it's been FOREVER that we've seen Desmond but in LOST time, it's only been 3 days since Ben shot him at the marina and then received an A+ beatdown from Des....just like Papa Widmore is getting as I type....
I'm not sure what Desmond's purpose is...the dude survived an electromagnetic explosion in which the Hatch IMPLODED on itself, sending his consciousness on a free ride through time and space... all it seems to have gotten him was a one way ticket back to the Island so that his freakish new power can be used for some "greater good"....
So the Widmore gang built this shack with a giant set of speakers...Widmore claims that he wants to see if Desmond can survive another electro blast... so that question, combined with last week's revelation that Zoe was looking at other electromagnetically strong spots on the Island makes me think that Desmond is going to have to blow up the Island again..SO that would make 3 times the Island has blown up.... how many more times does this place have in it to survive such events?
The Sideways world has Des travelling the world as Widmore's right hand man, although Des has never met the man's family... so no Penny....nope..this Des is without his Constant..
Sorry... just noticed the painting of the scales in Widmore's office....black rock and white rock hanging in the balance... all is right in this Sideways world....
I'm not going to hover a lot on the Charlie side of the story....long story short, when Charlie was dying from trying to choke down some heroin, he saw a "vision" of a woman... "A blonde...RAPTUROUSLY beautiful..."....now I'm not going to claim this idea as my own but my friend Doc Jensen at Entertainment Weekly had a great point: perhaps Charlie saw Claire...but Jensens proposed that what Charlie saw was the Statue of Mary..the same one that housed all of that heroin on the Island... my contribution to this theory is the use of the word "rapturously"...as in caught in the Rapture.... look it up...I think Kirk Cameron has something to do with it...
Anyway, Charlie's near death experience caused him to catch a glimpse of his Island experience...perhaps it was Claire.. and he fell in love after seeing her again... but then, didn't he see her on the plane? Wouldn't he recognize her? Maybe he will in a future episode and they will reconnect...who knows...
Desmond gives Charlie a choice at the bar...Charlie responds by saying that doesn't seem like he has a choice...Desmond replies"
"You always have a choice, brutha"
THIS is the key to the 2 worlds colliding...the unreal Sideways world and the On Island world... I think that all of our key LOSTIES are going to be faced with this choice and they can decide on how they want to live... they can take the red pill or the blue pill... yep, Matrix style!! Sort of... time will tell how the writers change up one of the seminal tales of Alt universe duel existence..
The cool part of this episode was the way Charlie kind of woke up in the car when it was underwater and put his hand to the window... this caused Des to flash to the other world... very cool reveal...it was like he was possessed or something... crazy....
So this all leads Des to Mrs. Widmore, AKA Eloise Hawking...when Des starts poking around about Penny, Eloise goes all postal and puts Desmond in his place..or in some place.... She tells him that what he's looking for is in "violation" and that he's "not ready yet"...WTF??
Not to worry, here's Daniel Widmore, the artist formerly known as Daniel Faraday, master physicist.... he describes to Desmond that he spotted a redhead with blue eyes who works at the museum(Charlotte) and that he knew immediately that he loved her... and that's when things got "weird"...LOL.... yeah.. THAT's when things got weird... hahaha...you know when things got "weird" for me? September 24, 2004...when this DAMN SHOW AIRED!!! It set me on a course of blogging and reading and expounding in hallways and bars and restaurants about space and time and duel universes and Bible studies and polar bears....turns out, it's all about LOVE...
Anyway, Daniel woke up and wrote out the equation for Space Time travel, specifically using the term Imaginary Time...here's where knowing El Prez and his maniacal machinations comes in handy: I paused the old DVR and pulled this phrase from Daniels notebook. I then went to the all knowing Wikipedia and extracted this gem:

Imaginary time is also used in cosmology. It is used to describe models of the universe in physical cosmology. Stephen Hawking popularized the concept of imaginary time in his book A Brief History of Time.

The relationship of real and imaginary time can be visualised as perpendicular axes of direction.

Imaginary time is difficult to visualize. If we imagine "regular time" as a horizontal line running between "past" in one direction and "future" in the other, then imaginary time would run perpendicular to this line as the imaginary numbers run perpendicular to the real numbers in the complex plane. However, imaginary time is not imaginary in the sense that it is unreal or made-up — it simply runs in a direction different from the type of time we experience. In essence, imaginary time is a way of looking at the time dimension as if it were a dimension of space: you can move forward and backward along imaginary time, just like you can move right and left in space.

The concept is useful in cosmology because it can help smooth out gravitational singularities in models of the universe (see Hartle-Hawking state). Singularities pose a problem for physicists because these are areas where known physical laws do not apply. The Big Bang, for example, appears as a singularity in "regular time." But when visualized with imaginary time, the singularity is removed and the Big Bang functions like any other point in spacetime.

HAHAHA...WHAT.THE.HELL..... this show is amazing... so the question remains as to whether this really is "imaginary" like unreal or made up...yes, the definition above doesn't mean it that way but the definition above is REAL....LOST is all about imaginary...imaginary people, imaginary stories... brilliant..just brilliant...
Daniel then goes on to mention that in order to stop a catastrophic event, a person could set off a nuclear bomb... I am assuming that doing so wouldn't lead to the destruction of everyone involved, but merely set everyone on a new course or it's like hitting a reset button.... and Daniel did that by having Jack blow up the Hatch before it was created...which split the worlds, giving us this Sideways world...
Now this is all some heady shiyite... so let's keep it to the simplest principle: LOVE
Daniel "felt" it when he saw Charlotte
Charlie "felt" it when he caught a vision of it(we'll presume it's Claire and not the H)
Desmond "felt" it when he saw the vision of his past life and then it was re-enforced when he shook Penny's hand....
Now he's on a mission to make sure that everyone on Oceanic Flight 815 sees the same thing... the question is: Has everyone already seen it? Case in point: Jack seeing Kate on the plane and then her seeing him when she hijacked the cab....could that have been their souls recognizing each other?
Or more succinctly put by Rachel McAdams in Wedding Crashers: "True love is the soul's recognition of it counterpoint in another"...hahaha... I was going to go with motorboating but this is a family blog....lol
So I'll leave it at that... I think Widmore exposed Des to the magnetic jumbo thingys to get him to send his consciousness to the Sideways world, in order to convince the other candidates to "wake up"... that's why Desmond was so ready to help when he woke up on Island... in the Sideways world, he was "awake" and starting to work for Widmore...even while his On Island counterpoint was trekking through the night jungle with Sayid, Ninja Assassin..... I can't wait until Desmond and Fake Locke meet up!! Woo hoo....
That's my time(and space) folks...har har... Peace!

The Package

Holy cow...I just realized I never wrote about this episode! I have much respect for the love of Jin and Sun...I think I finally figured out why...I have a lot in common with them...My wife speaks 2 languages...of course she didn't learn one so that she could move to America and leave me behind..... My wife and I have a daughter...born roughly around the same time as Sun and Jin's daughter.... of course, I was actually in the room when she was born, not assumed dead when the freighter I was on blew to Kingdom Come... Sun and Jin's wedding had a guy named Jacob there... so did ours.. my buddy Jacob Tolley.... of course my buddy Jake just drank a lot of booze and ate 2 dinners...he didn't reach out and mark us for Candidate duty... Jin and Sun like to fish and garden, respectively...my wife likes to garden and, of course, I like fish sticks..
The other point is, when it comes to "true love" like we saw last week with Richard and Isabella, or with Desmond and Penny, sometimes I just don't get the same feeling with Jin and Sun...
But apparently the writers like them and they keep ramming the journey of 2 souls reconnecting down our throats... I'll take it but only for 6 more episodes...then I'm calling it quits!
We learned that Sun's pops wanted to off Jin for stealing his daughters heart... good to see that not much has changed with Papa Paik in the Sideways world... and who would do this dastardly deed? Well we finally got the answer as to why Jin was locked in the freezer of the restaurant Sayid happened upon.. Martin Keamy...
I love the homage to Pulp Fiction that is the Sideways World... random connections, told in differing time segments.. now if only Christopher Walken would show up to tell a story about this watch he carried with him for 4 years...
Like the Sawyer ep a couple of weeks back, this one served as another "bridge" episode to get the Sideways world moving along a certain path... more connections, more intrigue but really just a ruse for whatever seems to be happening in that world.... its all smoke and mirrors folks!! OMG I just figured it out... Smokey has figured out a way to trap our LOSTIES in this weird little Sideways world...All of the reflections that we've seen are the biggest clue for this: Smoke and Mirrors... wow, I think I just blew my own mind...
I'm going to leave it at that because honestly, I have the knowledge of the Desmond episode in my possession so it's time to tell that story.. but with the way the blog updates, you may have already read that entry... so without further ado: scroll up!

Ab Aeterno

Ahhhhhh.....FINALLY, the Richard Alpert Story.... Man, I have been waiting on this FOREVER!! And when it was over I had more questions than before! WTF?!?!?
So I thought the episode was pretty straightforward...Guy has girl, guy is losing girl to the whooping cough, guy seeks out doctor, guy kills doctor accidentally, guy loses girl to whooping cough, guy gets caught, guy gets sold to slavery, guy lands on Island, guy sees everyone killed by Black Smoke, guy gets befriended by Black Smoke, guy tries to kill Jacob, guy gets his arse handed to him in a beach fight, guy gets a new job, guy gets to live forever.....whew!
I'm kind of in this frame of mind right now where I just want to list out my favorite moments of the show...
1. Seeing the actor who played the Man in Black again... Titus Welliver... simply just to spell his name... This guy plays cool like nobody's business... I thought it was HIGHLY interesting to see how he tried to lure Richard into helping him...I mean, he basically directly approached him...told him who he was, that he had his body taken from him and just wanted to leave the Island... I found the honesty refreshing.. apparently Smokey learns his lesson years later, hiding out and waiting to trick his way into a body, ie Locke....
2. The love story between Richard and Isabella...LOST gets this right most of the time(Desmond/Penny) and wrong(Locke/Helen...I just don't believe that they have the same eternal love)...anyway.. The scene at the end, I really believed that Richard could hear Isabella talking to him....and it had been 130 some years since he saw her and he was still a raw nerve.... great scene and finish... and then the fade to Fake Locke looking across the valley was perfect... he was too late...
3. I guess it should be mentioned that apparently Hurley can channel ANY dead person....I found this a little convenient.. but I won't go questioning the show too much...
4. I loved the scene where the Black Rock absolutely destroyed the Statue.... great visual effects! but that must have been a tumultuous storm to throw the Black Rock half a mile inland and still keep it intact... they don't make em like that anymore..
5. The cramming down the throat to all of the people who think everyone on the Island is dead and they are all in hell... Jacob's beat down to Richard was a reminder to us all that there are real stakes, real lives being affected...A dead man wouldn't care if he drowned..
6. Jacob's highly effective battle skills...
7. The Island is a cork analogy...it turns out that LOST has been an anti drinking show all along.... as a guy who co-owns a wine shop, I have to say I didn't like this development.... corks are bad, mmkay? Let the wine be FREE!!!! It's only evil if abused..... which makes me think: If Jacob knows that there is Evil in the world already, then how evil must the Black Smoke be if he's trying to keep it there?
8. I think it will soon be revealed that the Man in Black and Jacob are brothers.. I mean, this really isn't a stretch but it only makes sense to me.... just as a side note, I think that the 2 bodies in the cave are actually Adam and Eve....from the Bible.... and Jacob and MIB are Cain and Able... I've often contended that the Island in the Garden of Eden...you can travel back through the old posts to find that theory...it was pretty good from what I recall...a mild spoiler!!!! Episode 15 is all about the MIB and Jacob....an origin story in the same vein as this Richard ep...stay tuned for that....
9. I was slightly disappointed that Jacob touching Richard was all it took to give him everlasting life....and I couldn't figure out why Jacob wouldn't use his influence on people... free will... doesn't he know people have to be told how to be free? Organized together? Every Sunday?
10. And lastly...I don't know how people could come to the Island and live and then fight each other and kill, when the Smoke Monster pretty much wiped out everybody on the Black Rock... I guess he was tired or something when Oceanic 815 landed... he only killed the pilot...

That's all I got right now... if anything else comes up I'll add it to this week's blog.. so I'll see you then, my friends!!!!

ReCon

Yeah, yeah, yeah....we get it...A Sawyer episode with the word "con" in it... At some point I hope that the creators stop drawing all of these direct comparisons to past episodes..and enough with the reflections...this week we saw Sawyer smash his fist into his reflection... I don't mean to start the blog by bashing the episode...I think I'm just seeing the end in sight and I was in denial...now I'm angry that it's ending and I'm just lashing out....please forgive me, LOST... I'm sorry...
So let's talk about the cool things in this episode, starting with DETECTIVE James Ford...so that was interesting until we found out that he was still the same scared vengeful 7 year old inside... and hey look! Miles is his partner! And he knows Charlotte! Through his dad! At the museum! Why, its as if all the former DHARMA initiative members left the Island and went into higher education jobs...
Look, don't get me wrong...I'm not bashing the show, I just felt force fed a little with this episode with the Side Flash stuff... and then at the end, Sawyer catches Kate.... big shocker...
Obviously I'm a little too jaded to give a proper write up of this episode...so I'll just highlight quickly what I did like:
1. The girl playing Zoe(which means "life") was also in one of my all time favorite movies: Singles....Sheila Kelly...expect more from her character...is she good? Evil?
2. Fake Locke telling Kate about his mother... I'm still not sure whether or not he was telling his story or Locke's.... it was very weird...especially when he pointed at himself and said "before I became this".... it just seemed an odd way to reference yourself...I almost felt like it was Locke peeking through and telling Kate before I became the Smoke Monster.... it was odd so I hope I'm on to something....
3. I like seeing Charlotte all goosed up and looking good... But she's like Miles and has been to the Island...now they are friends and she works with Miles dad...So I have this feeling that the Dharma Initiative is still kicking it in some capacity... maybe now they call themselves Scientologists... please...no Scientologists take offense...It's not a knock... just a change in cult... I mean group... aw hell...
4. I liked seeing Sawyer reminisce about Season 3 "The Cages".... maybe he was thinking back to how drawn out that whole time frame was...or maybe he was thinking back to when he had to move rocks to make way for a runway... and now there's a big ol plane sitting there... interesting...
5. Charles Widmore has something locked in the sub...my first and only guess: Desmond.....some supernatural time shifting power being Desmondo...who he will use to fight the Smoke Monster... or move the Island again...
6. Did you notice the pylons Widmore's crew was constructing? I read a great theory that Widmore might be attempting to lure Smokey to Hydra Island and trap him there... Pretty sneaky if that's the case...
7. Also Fake Locke telling Ben to meet him on Hydra Island.. I thought that was a set up on Fake Lockes part to deliver Ben to Widmore...

That was pretty much it...I didn't hate the episode but I didn't love it... and for that I am sorry...

Dr.Linus

I'm trying to write this blog from memory... I watched the episode twice but currently I am on the couch with 20/20's expose of The Bachelor playing in the background....no I'm not watching that, although I am fascinated by the voyeuristic nature of our culture but that's another blog for another time... maybe next year, once LOST is off... I can spot a book that the Bachelor is reading and decipher the hidden meanings of the narrative of said book, thereby predicting who he'll pick... until then...

This week's episode was all about the redemption of Benjamin Linus.. Off the Island in the Side Flash, Ben is a teacher in the public school system, schlepping along, covering detention and dealing with listening to Leslie Arzt bitchin about lab aprons...life is but a dream...
While there were a lot of cool, inside nods to his Island life( Gassing his dad, Uncle Rico, except this time with oxygen; keeping an eye for Alex and helping her get to the next phase of her life; trying to usurp power using some form of usurpering; when Arzt said he was a "real killer"..the look Ben gave after that almost seemed knowing) I thought the most interesting part was that he and his dad were still part of the DHARMA initiative.
This is the second reference to the Island that we've seen in this Side Flash world...remember the beginning of the year we saw the Island under the sea... and now the Linus boys used to live there... but they left at some point..
My theory on this: We never saw Ben after he was healed by Richard but I really think that he was returned to Dharmaville and he and his dad left the Island right before Jack and Co. blew the Island up....I have no proof of that but when has that ever stopped me?
Either way, the Island was sent to the bottom of the ocean sometime after Ben was there and before 2004, when Oceanic Flight 815 landed.. I think the fact that it was mentioned again indicates that we aren't done with the Island in this Side Flash world...
The other telling line in this is what on Island Ben says to pilot Frank Lapidus: "The Island got you in the end, didn't it?".... This line was SPECIFICALLY planted to let us know that what we are seeing in this Side Flash could eventually lead us back to the Island.. I think that the underwater Island we saw was temporarily "displaced" and will appear again.
I could have done without the whole Ilana and Ben come to Jacob meeting in the woods but I have to give props to Michael Emerson...his portrayal of Ben is what's been getting us coming back each week... yeah, yeah, I know Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway are the eye candy but Emerson and O'Quinn are the substantial meal...It's that acting that really keeps us riveted... it's ok if you've been fooled into thinking otherwise...

The last thing I want to touch on was the whole Jack and Richard playing with dyno-MITE!... I LOVE the new crazy faith driven Jack... he played this so much cooler than he did last year...it was very reminiscent of the scene on the bridge when he tried to kill himself...he just put his arms out and closed his eyes...except then he was all drug addled...which if I'm not mistaken, in LOST TIME was about a week ago...yeah, with this story and time travelling and all that, it's hard to remember that only about a week or so has passed... Jack was bearded, then converted by Ben, 2 days later they are on the Ajira flight(where's that plane and the rest of the passengers, btw??) and then about a week in Dharma-ville, then Ka-Boom goes the nuke and now it's a day later... weird, huh?
Anyway, poor Richard was like a lost disciple... Jacob was gone and he's left a lot of unsheparded sheep... I can't help but think about what it must have been like for Jesus' actual disciples after he died... Those 3 days before he was resurrected and ascended to heaven(please forgive my Bible School misses) must have been a time of serious doubt and question of what exactly they had been doing with their time... I think this was what the creators of LOST were trying to emulate...and then here comes Jack, all full of purpose and faith... I mean, the way that scene played out gave me goosebumps... I mean, I knew how it was going to go...It was like the writers were giving us, the viewers, a message: "We know you've been watching all this time...we aren't going to blow Jack up in the damn Black Rock boat with some dyno-MITE!...stay faithful... the answers are coming.."
I'm in it to win it! I am patiently enjoying each of these episodes twice over... this has been a great year so far....by the way, not to play "spoiler" but don't think these off Island Side Flash stories are little wrap ups of redemption...they MEAN something to the overall story and we haven't seen the last of Side Kate, Side Jack et al.....and this week we get .....wait for it.... Side Sawyer!!! Aw shucks!!!
That's my time! Peace and namaste!!

Sundown

I'm jumping right in...nothing like the night before a new episode to write a recap of the previous week....what can I say? I likes to takes my time...
Sundown was a Sayid centric episode, taking us into the Side Flash life of Sayid Jarrah, jet setting oil man and uncle to his former love Nadia....wait, Uncle?!?

That is correct because as we see in the Side World, Sayid is still beating himself up for not being a good person early on life and therefore can't have anything substantial in his life, because he doesn't deserve it.... Sayid is one of the few 815ers that truly has not found peace in his journey... we thought he did earlier with Shannon but I think he is a lot like Locke, in that he is destined to be alone... and as a man with certain talents in torture, he's a natural born killer and those kind of folk rarely ever find peace....
So it really came as no surprise that Sayid would return to his old ways when his family was threatened by a Mister Martin Keamy....It was sooo cool to see Keamy again...and the way he played the scene was straight from the Christopher Walken School of Cool... cooking the egg, trying to be all nonchalant bad ass... it turns out that Sayid is just a pure weapon of destruction, dispatching the 2 goons in a matter of seconds and then turned stone cold when he shot Keamy... so we know that there really is no redemption for Sayid in the Side Flash... he's still a killer, no matter the situation. You could claim that his hand was forced but he really could have walked out of there, called the police and let them take care of business. Or at the least let Keamy live and bug out.... but he chose to pull the trigger, returning to his natural instincts.
So it should not have been a surprise to see him turn on Dogen in the end.... My theory is that Sayid was always tilted toward the "dark side" of man, off balanced in evil...I don't know how much the "infection" is really influencing him.... but obviously Fake Locke had some doing in bringing him back to life, so maybe it's the infection, maybe its just life for Sayid..

Let's talk about one of my pet peeves with LOST...they go through all of this trouble of introducing characters and get really good high quality actors to play the roles.... then they go and kill them off!!
Hiroyuki Sanada is the actor that plays Dogen, who was most likely named after Dogen Zenji, the founder of the Soto school of Zen in Japan.... we learned that Dogen was brought to the Island by Jacob, on the indentured servant program...I'll save your kid, the payment is your undying servitude...anyone else think that Dogen doesn't like to speak English because Jacob is a white dude that bought Dogen's soul and is holding it captive on the Island? yeah...me too... but Dogen didn't kill Sayid because Sayid is protected by Jacob... but that didn't stop Dogen from sending Sayid on a suicide mission to kill Fake Locke..
But my point is that they introduce Dogen and give him one of THE best fight scenes ever on LOST, get you all excited to see what else this cat has up his sleeve and then BOOM, they drown him in some old dirty dish water... it was a cool scene but I still wanted more from this actor and character..
And don't even get me started on John Hawkes.... They bring in this high quality actor, give him about 7 lines and then quicker than greased lightning, they slash his throat and like Kenny Power's "He's f***ing out!"....

Now El Prez, why would you reference Eastbound and Down, the HBO series starring the amazing Danny McBride? Cause John Hawkes plays Kenny's brother....
My point is why not bring in some low budget actors to fill these poo poo roles? Hell, I'll fly to Hawaii and film a few spots... I'll take a knife to the throat for a dang autograph from Evangeline Lily.... I'm just saying....
This episode was by far my favorite of the year so far, mostly because of the non stop action and the freight train killing machine of Fake Locke Smokey... from his arrival in the jungle to confront Sayid to the sweeping through the Temple, straight wrecking shop, it was an amazing display...

This scene was classic... once again, Terry O'Quinn delivers a solid performance...seriously, this guy has GOT to win an Emmy this year...

So between telling Sayid that he could essentially bring Nadia back from the dead and telling Claire he could get Aaron back for her, I think we have some major insight into how Fake Locke works...I read a VERY INTERESTING comment over the weekend on some LOST chat rooms..what if the Side Flash we are seeing is the world according to Fake Locke? Sayid is back with Nadia in some capacity and Claire is essentially with Aaron. Jack is a father and a good one starting with the episode we saw and Locke is happily marrying Helen...Hurley is a man of good fortune and seemingly happy.... so all the other stuff we've seen the last 5 seasons is the world according to Jacob...pain, loneliness, despair.... it made me stop and think...I like the idea that we've been watching someone we think is good(Jacob) but in reality he might actually be the bad guy... pretty interesting, no?
No? okay...then get your own damn theory.... hahahaha...just kidding...
Last but not least I wanted to give a shout out to the writers of LOST for referencing one of the seminal movies of our generation: Apocalypse Now... if anyone's seen that movie and also watched the last scene of Sundown, they know exactly what I'm referring to...

Colonel Kurtz and the Heart of Darkness... now this makes me think that Fake Locke is indeed the bad guy... or at least a product of his circumstances... that's what I love about this show...just when you think you've got it figured out, they throw something into the mix that makes you really question everything....brilliant.....
Well that's all for this week....enjoy the show tonight...it looks like the end for Ben...lord knows they are all but telling us he's about to be killed.... I hate promos like that...
Later!
EP

Lighthouse

The title of this episode was "Lighthouse", which is also the name of a Canadian rock band that formed in 1969. What do these 2 things have to do with each other? Nothing...I just thought it was interesting... I wish it had been called 'Firehouse" because then I could have linked it to THIS, which, had I been held back one more year in high school, would have been a sweet jam to slow dance to at the prom...
But alas, I was too smart to be held back...mostly because I used words like alas..
All of this reflecting back to the old days allows me to draw a direct reference to ALL of the reflecting that was going on in this week's episode... it opened with Jack staring at himself in the water.... then there were some shots of him staring into a mirror in his side flash bachelor pad...
Which leads me to point #1: Jack's appendix scar... he couldn't recall when that happened and his mom told him that when he was 7, he collapsed and his dad wanted to do the surgery but they wouldn't let him... Let me hypothesize this: Let's say Jack was born in 1970... In 1977, a hydrogen bomb exploded on an island in the South Pacific, blowing up a time traveling 37 year old Jack Shepard...at that same moment, a 7 year old Jack Shepard's appendix burst... hey, color me crazy but that's where my mind went...
But let's stick to the facts as they were presented to us....

Jack has a BOY!! Hey, congrats! A bouncing, bright, bushy haired malcontent who likes mint milano cookies and Pepsi....named David... now I don't want to get all Biblical on you guys...aw, who am I kidding... DAVID SHEPHARD..CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD... JACK SHEPHARD...oh wait...that last one wasn't in the Bible..but if you think Jack is a nickname given to a dude named John, well then...JOHN SHEPHARD.... I guess what I'm severely hinting at is that these Shephards are the chosen ones... to do something... be excellent doctors, piano players... Island protectors... but let's stay on course...

Another reference to "candidates"... SO I guess the stuff we've been seeing all this time is Jack's audition to become Jacob's replacement...but before we get there let's deal with the son of Jack..

Much like Locke's self realization and acceptance of his lot in life, Jack and David were able to rectify their situation and go share some pizza, making Jack Dad of the Day...which was a direct contrast to his on Island statement about being a terrible father... the old Jack would have been a terrible father, with the drugs and drinking and obsessive control freak things he had going on...but not new and improved side flash Jack..naw, this dude's got it together... which is nice to see... for once...
So if you ask me, we've seen Locke doing ok and now Jack is doing ok...now if this is the life they should have led without Jacob's "influence", then it looks ok to me... Or is it Matrix perfect? Everything settled nicely and neatly without much mess?
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist".... I've always liked the idea that what we see isn't what we get... especially with this show.. and I feel like this side flash is way too nice and neat... is it real?
Again I am getting off track...How cool was the courtyard meet up of Jack and Hurley? I think they should get their own spin off Odd Couple show...

Jacob gave Hurley the words to get Jack motivated, the opposite of what Jack's dad used to tell him.. You have what it takes... that was all Jack needed to get the old adventure juices flowing... of course, all this did was set Jack up once again to be toyed with, versus being told exactly what he should be doing..no...he had to see "how important" he was to the whole story...
So without rehashing the coolness of the Lighthouse and the names on the dial, here's the cliff notes in pictures:


Big wheel with names...

This doesn't seem to be doctored at all... check out number 20: Rousseau...

When the dial hits the corresponding person, then you get a peep show into their houses...in this reflection, its where Sun and Jin got married....another shot looked like the church where Sawyer's parents funeral was...and then there was Jack's house, which lead to this great shot:

HAHAHAHAH I love high definition! You wouldn't get this great a shot with some old VCR...hahaha
It all ended with Jacob telling Hurley that some guys you can just tell the truth to, and some guys need to trek across the jungle through time and space and blow up a hydrogen bomb, which killed an old girlfriend he kissed who took his appendix out before they realize what they need to do... it's really that simple....
But before I forget, this episode had some other developments, although I have yet to see the importance of this but in fairness to all readers, I wouldn't be doing my job without mentioning Claire..

I don't particularly care for this part of the story line...why wait until the last damn season to address this "infection" stuff? It better have a good payoff... does it explain why Desmond shot himself with those drugs before he went outside the Hatch? Are we going to see this stuff play out?
And what about Claire and the time jumping? Did she jump all those times that everyone else did? It doesn't sound like it, if the Others were hunting her all that time....and she was imprisoned at the Temple at some time as well, which makes me wonder how she got out of that...did her "friend" save her? How did he get in?
And who was her "friend"?

This smiling crazy guy right here... how do you think Sawyer's going to react when he sees both Jin AND Claire?? Something is bound to go down...
All this storyline does is add more mystery...and it's time to tone that stuff down and start answering some other questions....like where the hell is Vincent? Was that him in the crib in Claire's tent? Did she eat him?? WTF?
That's all I gots peeps.... too many questions raised.... crazy....

The Substitute

First thing about this episode that I want to put out there is Terry O'Quinn is an acting juggernaut... He's like Obi Wan Kenobi...kill his character and he only becomes more powerful than before... Can you imagine what it's like to be an actor and read the scene where your character, the guy you gave blood, sweat and tears portraying for 4 years, is laying dead in a coffin at the end of the 4th of 6 seasons? I'd feel a little jipped! But my dude TO'Q just brought that much more to his love of acting and is right now playing a part that should win him an Emmy....
His portrayal of John Locke Side Flash is brilliant....To go back to playing the guy who doesn't have hope or a clear life path, stuck in a wheelchair, while also playing the newest most evil bad guy on the Island is sheer acting genius.
Ok...enough of my bromance with TO'Q.... let's get into it, shall we?
Hey LOOK! It's Helen!!
Aw sweet Peg Bundy... or if you are a fan of SAMCRO, you'd know her as Gemma Morrow, one bad mama...but I'm just bragging about other shows I like...

The Side Flash is starting to take a little shape..and the reason that might be will be explained later...for now, let's just embrace the fact that in this reality, John Locke is still a box man, lying about his walkabout, who's still bound to a wheelchair....but he's also got the love of his life, Helen with him...and they are getting married! Yay!!
And I know EG was beside herself during Locke's tub scene...that's a sweet shout out to an LFC Original! Hey E, you still have that toy Locke next to your bed?? LOL... she's gotta crush ya'll...
Again, I digress... The point was that Side Locke isn't that much different..still tired of people telling him what he can't do... and I don't know what to make of how he arrived in the wheelchair in this reality...the fact that Helen even suggested that his father come to the elopement was an indicator to me that his dad did not throw him out the window....so how was Locke injured? Will we find out?
Honestly, does it matter? It's just another mystery and this season is already short to begin with.. I think what the side way flashes are trying to tell us is that these characters are seeking their own redemption or acceptance of their lives...
So my gal Rose comes on the scene and basically tells Locke that he needs to start getting real...

That's life, she explained... If she was Clint Eastwood she would have said Either get busy livin', or get busy dying.... and Locke finally came clean with Helen that he was tired of waiting on a miracle, cause they don't exist... and she didn't leave him when he came clean either... She just told him she loved him and that's all she cares about, which is SO different than what we are used to seeing on this show...an actual resolution.. no weird looks or ominous music...an actual happy ending of sorts...

That is until Locke got his new job as a substitute teacher and now he's gotta deal with this SOB

HAHA I TOLD you guys that Ben would show up as a teacher... wow..it was like seeing Darth Vader bitching about who left the seat down... To see Ben complaining about the coffee and NO ONE was even giving him the time of day was a nice change of pace.. I hope we get to see more of this story... because if life changed for our LOSTIES in 1977, it sure changed for Ben as well... how is still to be determined..
A nice segue back to the island time is to mention the heartfelt eulogy Ben gave to Locke... seriously, that had to be the best line of LOST in a while...these guys are really packing a lot of one liners in this season that are cracking me up...

But while it was nice to see Locke finally looking like he wasn't getting the stinky end of the stick, this episode really wasn't about all of that...it was about Fake Locke, the Smoke Monster/Man in Black leading a recruiting party and swallowing up one of our fair heroes, James "Sawyer" Ford..

Seriously, how cool is this screen shot? I need this on a t shirt!
Sawyer knew he wasn't dealing with the same John Locke this time around...either he was drunk and playing it extremely cool or he really doesn't give a flip anymore... it was interesting to see the similarities of this episode in comparison of the episode where Sawyer followed Locke to the Black Rock and killed the real Sawyer Jabba the Hutt style... except this time Sawyer had shoes on...and a bad attitude.. demanding to know what was going on and getting a semi answer was actually pretty cool... but the Smoke Monster could have just as easily killed Sawyer than to deal with him, so why didn't he?

Because of this little dude.... who when first spotted by Fake Locke, had blood all over his hands... I dipped into my symbolism 101 handbook and came up with my take on that scene: Fake Locke knew that he had blood on his hands for Jacob's murder...seeing this vision reminded him that he messed up.. then when both he and Sawyer saw the boy, he appeared to be real, since Sawyer could also see him... which makes me think that Jacob was able to communicate with the boy and was using him to remind Fake Locke of the "rules".. "You can't kill him, you know the rules"... to which Fake Locke screamed out like the real Locke with a "don't tell me what I can't do!".... I love the little nuances this Fake Locke is picking up with his new body..The grasp of the machete, the taste of the bourbon Sawyer poured for him.. the yelling out of Locke like sayings... anyway..
So what are the rules?
Apparently the cast aways have been "chosen" by Jacob to take his place in protecting the Island, making them all "candidates"...I love when we finally get an answer to something that's more complicated than the question was in the first damn place...
But as Fake Locke put it, what if Jacob hadn't interfered in their lives? What if they had never been touched by him? What would their lives be like?
Well I think we are seeing this in the Side Flashes... and Locke's story so far has lead him to a happier place.. I think it's too early to see Kate's but it looks like we could say that the fact that she went back for Claire and helped her to the hospital was a sign of some redemption...may be more to come on that one...
So now Fake Locke has recruited Sawyer into helping him leave the island..and something tells me he has to get ALL of the "candidates" to choose to leave or else he won't be able to leave his trapped existence... Man, I CAN'T wait to see how his story plays out!!
Well that's my time!! See you on the flippidy flip, kiddos!

What Kate Does

It took me a minute to process this episode...It's kind of typical Lost fashion to have the second or third episode kind of be a little softer in tone...a kind of "let you catch your breath" story after a thrilling season opener...and this particular story fit the bill... a little bit of action, a little bit of mythology, a little bit of comedy.... while this episode didn't set off any bells and whistles for me, it was still pretty damn good..
Let's start with the title character, our dear sweet fugitive Kate...in the flash sideways world she's still on the run but with a heart of gold...just not for the Marshall assigned to bring her back....she's messed that dude up in every version of the LOST realities... if I was him I'd ask for another gig..

no, Kate saves her love for other people she life threatens, who just happen to be pregnant... if you noticed the biggest thing about this episode is that it's starting to reflect the back stories we've already seen... which makes me think that these people are indeed destined to be together... We've seen Jack and Locke interact, and pleasantly at that...making plans to do some life altering surgeries...maybe some coffee... jenga... and now we see Kate and Claire like some modern day Thelma and Louise...and who's playing the Brad Pitt role in this fantasy? why, it's Ethan!!

How funny was the line where he said he didn't want to stick her with a lot of needles?... Haha...considering that was almost an entire episode back in Season 2 or 3... But now our old friend Ethan is going by his given name, Goodspeed....the son of Horace and Amy Goodspeed, whom, if you'll remember were key members of the DHARMA initiative...but instead of growing up on the island and cavorting with Ben Linus on baby stealing missions, Ethan has grown up to be a nice young man with a gentle bedside member.....but, he's still kind of creepy... but I think it's another sign of what this "flash sideways" is really all about, which seems to be life after DHARMA...
Something happened after Juliet blew up the bomb but I don't know if that's what sunk the island... I think that happened later... so maybe there was some other event that caused the island to sink, thereby destroying the DHARMA initiative... I don't know the answer to this yet, but my brain is cooking something up...
Either way, I think we should expect to see more folks popping up...who knows? Ben might even turn up as an English teacher or something.... Maybe Mr Friendly will turn up as cop.... I'll let that one marinate next to the destruction of the island...so there are 2 pots cooking on the stove for those keeping track...

Back to the episode...Kate on and off the island is trying to do right by Claire and by Sawyer... I feel bad for that rascal...he had a good thing going and that stupid frozen wheel in the Island totally screwed up his life with Juliet....but he was living on borrowed time anyway and he knew it...we found out that he really blamed himself for Juliet dying...and now he's off to who knows where to do who knows what...but hell hath no fury like a man who buried a ring in the floorboards of a house he previously occupied 30 years earlier and then crow-barred open 3 days later after a hydrogen bomb detonated, blowing him back to 2007 and killing the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, that he just buried in a god forsaken jungle.. I mean, that's some real crap....
Along with this whole mind bender is our good torturing hitman kid shooter, Sayid... I've always like Sayid...yeah, he tortured people...yeah, he shot Ben when he was a boy...yeah, he shot some other cats who were trying to kill him...and yeah, he shot some other cats who he was hired to kill.... but come on! To go out like that was kind of weak... and just like Michael, the island isn't done with Sayid, so it brought him back to life..with a twist...
Yes, The Darkness is on its way to claim Sayid's heart... which will turn him into an evil crazed something or another... I Tweeted the other night that he could eventually turn into the members of Danielle's team...remember the "Sickness"?.... yeah, apparently if you experience death on the Island AND come back to life, you are susceptible to possession of an evil Darkness... just another fun layer to add to the LOST mythology...I don't see it as any other function of the story, other than to explain what happened to Claire when her house blew up with her in it...She died and when Sawyer rescued her, the Darkness brought her back to life...this according to Dogen, the island's Last Samurai, who told Jack that his SISTER was infected... someone asked me if Rouseau was Jack's sister...I think this show is so confusing that people forget that Claire and Jack have the same father...and this sort of explains why she was in the cabin with Christian 2 years ago... but not really.. I mean, there's still a LOT of explaining to do... and we'll see what happens with Sayid, as he battles the Darkness...
Jack turned into the hero we've kind of been waiting for... the kind that doesn't have all the answers but still feels the responsibility of his actions and has a leadership role that's starting to become defined...
It was great to see Dogen telling Jack that he was brought to the island, same as the Oceanic 815ers...when Jack said what brought you to the island, Dogen replied "You know what brought you here", meaning Jacob of course... but Jack doesn't really know that so we are probably going to see some more angst out of old Jackie boy... I think we are also starting to make more sense of the hierarchy that's going on with the Others...you have to keep in mind that these folks have been kind of ambling along for 3 years with no leader... as Aldo(that guy from Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia) was saying to Kate, 3 years had passed since they had been there last...which means life was still happening for the Others... hopefully we will get that story sooner than later....
A couple of things I wanted to touch on:

• Aldo and the other fella referred to Jin as "one of them"....that statement in itself reminds me of what Sayid called Ben when they first discovered him in the jungle.... and it was a title of another episode, where Juliet joined the Oceanic survivors... I'm curious as to what the "them" means....obviously it's important that Jack and company stay alive, even at the expense of the Others, as Aldo said that Sawyer shot one on his way out... so they will sacrifice their own people to keep Jack and Co. alive....I'll add this to the current cooking pots....
• Kate spotted Jack when she was escaping from the airport...Did she recognize him from the plane or was there a deeper connection, like she recognized him from a past life? Also she gave him a great look on the Island when he told her to be careful...it was the good Jack she fell in love with...not the crazy drug addled drinky jealous Jack who grew that weird beard...


• Hurley asking Sayid if he was a zombie.... I nearly spit up my pop when I heard this line...if you know anything about the behind the scenes writers, they have often jokingly referred to season 6 as the "zombie season"...this was obviously a nod to the die hard fans...
• Sayid's reaction to being tortured..I knew something was up because my man was crying and screaming like a lunatic... I know he was being electrocuted and burned with a poker, but my man has been tortured before... he's a tough ass.. he wouldn't have cried like that, unless he was possessed... by a little baby..
• The killer whale stuffed animal that was packed in Claire's bag was just like the one Kate had for Aaron when he was with her...did Kate recognize it as something she gave him in a past life?
  
• The guy driving the cab played a villain on Heroes...he acted better as the cab driver in the 2 minutes he was on screen than the 5 episodes he was on Heroes....which is proof that a minor role on LOST is better than a starring role on Heroes... quality writing...look it up..

Lastly, I want to talk about Desmond being on the plane... I think we have to assume that Desmond is still "special"... I don't think he appeared on the plane and then disappeared mid flight... LOST has never really been about that kind of magic...but I do think he booked a flight on the plane so that he could still influence these certain people... I think he has become like Faraday's mom, helping people stay "on course"...
Keep in mind that the past we have seen on LOST is not the same in this new flash sideways world... so Desmond would also be changed in that...maybe he still has an interest in these people but he might not be with Penny.... and if he's not with Penny, then he's going to be free to do other things... maybe help others get where they need to go?? And where is that?
I don't know....for now the stove is full of cooking pots... and I'm tired...
See you on the flippidy flip..
EP

LA X

GOOD EVENING, LOSTIES!!!


Let's jump right in shall we? We have LOTS to cover.... last we saw, Jack wanted to detonate the bomb and reset the whole damn thing, as if it never happened. He got all Gap Band and dropped the bomb down the Swan hole and nothing happened... But as we saw, Juliet came through for the team and beat that SOB bomb with a rock and poof.... transported them back to Oceanic Flight 815, mid air....except now, things were a little different...the same but not quite...
For example:
Rose was the one telling Jack to stay calm...
Jack only got one bottle from flight attendant Cindy....
Boone went to get Shannon, but she didn't want to come home...
Hurley was calling himself "lucky" and that nothing bad ever happens to him...
Sawyer actually seemed happy, not at all like a man who had killed the wrong guy...
Kate was still a fugitive...now this one requires a little more back story: At Comi-Con this past summer, they played an America's Most Wanted video of Kate Austin, who had killed an apprentice plumber, when she meant to kill her evil, abusive stepfather...
Sayid appeared unchanged...

So what's my point? Well something worked or rebooted these guys and it goes back to one over all theory: In 1977, Jack was hell bent on blowing up the island and starting over. But that was 1977... there were other people living on the island... as we saw in the Big Reveal, the island had been sunk...

so while the overall themes are still the same(Kate's fugitive, Hurley won the lottery), the details are different. So if they are different for these folks, what does that mean for people like Ben? Or Widmore? Where was Mr Eko? Still on the plane? What about Ana Lucia? Libby?
I think this will play out in what is being referred to as the "side-flash"... not a flash back or a flash forward... a side flash...and the creators are saying that it isn't an alternate reality, because that would indicate that one of the versions we are seeing is not real...no, they wanted to see how both scenarios played out and how they will eventually connect...
There are some slight comparisons that remind of us of season 1...
For example:
Jack is bleeding

This reminds me of him discovering his cut in his side, that Kate helped him stitch up... of course it could also mean he was shot with a dart gun and left in suspended animation but I'm getting tired of trying to come up with these larger, more sinister reasons for something as simple as a shaving cut...
Jack saves Charlie

Very reminiscent of Season 1, when Charlie also died of asphyxiation after Ethan hung him from a tree.. the only thing missing was Jack pounding on his chest...all he needed this time was some long fingers to dig out that heroin bag... if you were wondering why Jack couldn't find his pen to perform a tracheotomy, it was because Kate had pick pocketed him so she could break out of her cuffs..more on that in a second... the other eerie thing here was Charlie telling Jack he was supposed to die... Which was Charlie's life story basically... its gotta end tragic...
Back to Kate...when she escaped from the Marshall, she knocked his head against the sink, which resulted in the same bump on his head that he got when the plane initially blew apart... coincidence? I think not...
Boone tells Locke that he's "sticking with him, if we go down"

Weirdly enough I thought this was sweet... it kind of validates that Boone would follow Locke anyway, as he did on the island...until he climbed into the teetering drug plane, resulting in yet another plane crash... but that's not the point.. check out the picture...that's Frogurt, aka Neil, the dude that was killed by a Flaming Arrow after Locke turned the wheel... pretty funny...also good to see Dr Arzt, who had THE best death on Lost...
Moving on, yet staying with the side flash
Claire and Kate together again!!!

Is she pregnant? I think so...is she going to have the baby in the cab and Kate will have to help her? I'd be willing to bet YES... good to old Claire Bear back... I look forward to this one..
I'm not going to comment on Jin and Sun...their pre Island life is BORING to me... I like them a lot better once they had to fight for their love... just remember that Sun was going to leave Jin in Australia but backed out and Jin was going to get them away from her father, which would explain the large bag of cash...
Sawyer meets Kate

I like that Sawyer played a part in Kate's great escape... and he did it with his usual charm...so the question is, is he still a con man with a vengeance? Or just a con man?....
Just really quickly in relation to Sawyer and the bomb working... When Juliet was dying, she said something about getting coffee and "going Dutch"...then she said she had something very important to tell Sawyer...and then she died...which lead us to this happening:

A terrible still shot of Miles reading Juliet's last thought "It Worked"....so my theory is that Juliet saw this "side flash" and I would be willing to bet dollars to rubles that Sawyer will meet Juliet in this side flash and ask her out for coffee... I'm putting it out there now...
Lastly on the side flash thing is my guy, John Locke

Once again there is a parallel to Season 1...remember when Jack went tearing through the jungle chasing after his "dad" and Locke ended up telling him that the Island was special? At that time, jack was pretty receptive to Locke's words of encouragement... and we saw the same exchange last night...Similar to Jack opening the coffin and his dad's body not being in there, in the side flash, the airline "misplaced" Pops... but Locke was there to assure Jack that his father wasn't missing, just his body...
I also liked the fact that Jack said "Nothings irreversible", which is basically the theme of the show... and it seemed like Jack had faith in science... or he was his usual Mr Fix It self... either way, a connection was made...
And give it up for Terry O'Quinn, who played old John Locke and new and EVIL Smoke Monster Locke!!!

I mean, just look at this picture!! Damn!!! Straight up bad mofo!!
Which brings me to the biggest theory that I tweeted about last night... "I want to go HOME"...this implies that the Smoke Monster is not of this world....and Jacob is not of this world...so what world are they from?
I'm proposing heaven and I'm sticking with the movie Dogma as my sticking point... The argument there was that some cast out angels where trying to get back into heaven...their method of getting there was killing the earthly body of God and then walking right back through the gates of heaven...of course, this would mean the end of existence as we know it...
So is Smokey trying to get back to heaven? And what does that mean for the people on the island? If its not heaven and he's just a straight up alien, does he need to hijack the Temple and fly that hooptie back into space?
I don't know...
But I watched Jimmy Kimmel Live and Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were answering some questions...They confirmed that Smokey is now in Locke's body, but they hedged a little on confirming that the Dark Shirt Guy that was on the beach with Jacob is Smokey.. but 2 things are working against them: 1. Jacob told Hurley that he was killed by an old friend who had tired of his company and 2. When Smokey Locke showed up to kill Jacob, Jacob said "You found your loop hole", which referred back to the conversation on the beach with the Dark Shirt Guy...and he confirmed that he did find his loophole....So I think that Smokey and DSG are the same fellow...
But as we know on this show, nothing is cut and dried... but if you find yourself in the presence of a Smoke Monster, make sure you are standing in a circle of ash... always, always carry ash with you! Let that be a lesson... reference poor Bram, who was impaled on some wood... much like Dracula..and who wrote Dracula? Bram Stoker.... WHOA!!!
And lastly, we saw the Temple and the healing spring of life... which was muddied, most likely due to Jacob being killed... but they still stuck Sayid in there and apparently it worked...now the question is: Is that really Sayid? Could it be Jacob in a new kick ass body? What are the consequences to bringing Sayid back to life?

I don't know but we won't have to wait long to find out...I mean, they only have 15 more weeks!!!
And finally, Mr Dark Eyes himself, Richard saw a ghost from his past that scared the beejesus out of him...and then punched the beejesus out of him...Smokey is bad dude!!

I look forward to seeing Richards back story this year...the reference to being in chains was interesting, to say the least...
Well that's all from me... I'm worn out... See you on the flip side...
El Prez

PS. I'll get to Desmond next time... that was a whole nother mind bender