Capcom's Lost Blog

"What The...?"

2010-09-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

This shirt was spotted on the Cafepress Lost-TV merchandise page. I'm curious, who makes up the logos and such for the LOST products on this site, ABC? I'm just asking, because it's rather funny if I think of it in terms of how I feel about S6. I know about what the glyphs are suppose to mean, and this logo doesn't really fall in line with that and could mean something entirely else from a more negative perspective. I'm not trying to be mean or snarky, I'm just snickering to myself about it.
:-}

"Jack Says I'm Not A True Lost Fan?"

2010-08-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

Well, the other night I landed on the Jimmy Kimmel show as I perused the TV channels, and Kimmel was interviewing Matt Fox. Of course they brought up the finale, and waxed on about who did and didn't like it, and why. Seeming to grope for the politest way to word it, Fox agreed with Kimmel that the casual viewers were probably the ones who didn't like the way the series ended, and that he felt that the regular viewers got it. He also mentioned something about how possibly the viewers who wanted answers were unsatisfied with 'The End', and then went into the lame squawk that Chris Carter gave us after the X-Files ended so badly, about how life doesn't give answers so neither did the show. Raspberries. I'm tired of hearing that excuse when TV writers seem to pen themselves into inescapable corners with their overly complicated stories, that they don't seem to be able to get out of smoothly. IMO, of course.

So Matt, sorry, but in my case you're talking out of yer butt. I was a hard core Lost fan, watched every episode many times, spent far too much money on Lost merchandise and way too much time writing two Lost blogs, and in no way can I be categorized as a casual viewer. Just the 9000 Lost related bookmarks on my computer alone would bear that out. I'm trying very hard not to get all sad and belligerent about my gut reaction to 'The End', but if I keep hearing comments like this one about fans who didn't feel completely comfortable with the finale, it's not going to be easy. I'm also tired of seeing viewers who are on the fence about the finale being categorized as mere answer-seekers only. So I'd like to make it clear...I would have liked to have seen some aspects of the deeper (and supposedly important) island mysteries get some completion, but even if those parts had been satisfied for me, I still might feel unfulfilled about the way the show ended, jumping across time into heaven. It's not an either/or deal with 'The Answers' here, so let's not categorize it that way. Lost was far too complicated of a story to lump its intelligent and dedicated fans' opinions into such a one-dimensional analysis.

I found the interview, let me know if I'm over-reacting (I'm sure that I am):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEQtsRJZg9M

"I'm Letting Go Of Season 6"

2010-06-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

Homer Simpson once said, "There's no moral to this story, it's just a bunch of stuff that happened!" That generally sums up how I feel about Lost (the TV show, not the entire experience) now that it is all over and done, and I've seen the finale. Unfortunately I have to place myself in the category, deemed by most fans who enjoyed the finale, of those who just don't get it. But that's OK. I'm happy for viewers who agreed with TPTB on how they ended the tale, I wish that I did.

Whether I got it or not, Season 6 and the finale just didn't seem to do anything for me, compared to the long strange trip that made up the first five seasons and hiatuses.The FS world didn't grab my interest at all for some reason, and the S6-present sort of felt almost like another show to me. Most of it just looked like people running to, and from, and back to again, MIB as he ran amok zigzagging through the jungle to get his holy revenge on. Revenge is best served cold? Not in his case apparently, and now we know how much 2000 years of hate can make you crazy and ruin the punchline for your resentment, haha. S6 also seemed really rushed to me as we were watching it unfold, but also at the same time felt like time was seriously a-wasting concerning the many interesting aspects that were open-ended at that point.

There were so many fascinating details in and about Lost that TPTB wrapped around our minds and hearts. We all know the unanswered questions, I won't go into them here, but the Lost storyline was like a huge octopus that branched off on vast arrays of subjects which spiraled into images in our minds like never ending fractal pictures! This was mostly due to the hiatus material that we got to play with, via the summer ARGs. What a glorious trip, I enjoyed it thoroughly. But now I almost wish that there hadn't been any ARGs and the side-stories of DHARMA, etc., because all that made me take the gory details very seriously and to expect much more than I got (IMHO) for a payoff in the end. Sort of how the pre-movie hype for Cloverfield all led to nothing in the actual movie. I know that the ARGs weren't meant to be a part of the show, but once your eyes and mind have been opened to the mysteries of the universe, there's no going back to stupid.

Even though the FS and the Limbo-verse doesn't jive with what I needed from the finale, of course I do understand all the purposeful parallels that TPTB forced, ahem, played on in the last season, and what they all are supposed to mean. Alas I fall into the minority who would have liked to see some closure in the real Universe too, and on the island (which TPTB insisted was a character of the show), not in the Afterlife universe where everything is apparently perfect and shiny and happy as long as Jack is happy. For the record, I didn't really like the end of Return Of The King with the long drawn out sappy scene of the Hobbits leaving with the Elves on the ship to Golden Land either. Man, I'm crabby, aren't I ?! :o)

But even in ROTK we got to go back to Hobbiton and see the real life that Sam had made for himself where real things happen to real people. I wanted to see people like Hurley, and yes even Kate, "work out their own salvation" as the apostle Paul put it, in the real world or on the island where their actions really mattered to me. Not in the Razzledazzle universe where amazing miracles happen only after we are tricked into thinking that it was another reality with real events, and the inhabitants finally realize that they're dead (with Des taking over for Jennifer Love Hewitt) and walking into the light. In the end the Limboverse did actually feel like the dreaded "snowglobe ending" to me. I'm really sorry.

Damon and Carlton insisted from the beginning of our guessing that purgatory had nothing to do with the show, so I guess that they made up their own kind of cross-over-ville. But did they give us a hint that we missed? The wise man Alvar Hanso, who was partially quoted by Tom in the jungle, was recorded in the TLE-ARG as saying, "The future need not be an undiscovered country". Lostpedia notes that the term comes from Hamlet and refers to the unknown that comes after death. Was that indeed a hint way back then, or just a coincidence? Well, I guess that I don't care too much now, I've let go. Namaste lost friends, I love ya all and I had a lot of fun watching and experiencing Lost with you! xo

"Deja Vu All Over The Place - S6.13"

2010-04-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

Emilie de Raven should get an Emmy for having the cutest little devil-faced pout on TV. And other than that, I've got very few thoughts or words for this episode and Season 6 in general. Perhaps we're not supposed to, I've seen that other people are somewhat dulled in the senses like I am this time around with Lost so close to the end - flying across these spiraling, bumping, helixed universes, reliving skewed flashbacks when we were starving for some new developments. So I'm not alone I see but I'm not, um, happy for suddenly feeling bereft of any reaction to my favorite current TV series. After writing over 200 excited posts in a few years about this show, you'd think that I could come up with something better than lame jokes now, but it isn't so. Oh well. So here are a couple of the things that I thought were sure to happen, but didn't, in The Last Recruit.

************

The End. I'm scared, pinch me when I should wake up.

:-o

"Ilana Loses To The Curse"

2010-04-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

Richard: Do you have the dynamite?

Ilana: (Nodding) Four sticks.

In the game of Universal Rochambeau (i.e. metaphysical rock, paper, scissors) it looks like the Curse of the Four Sticks (as my friend Wayne Allen Sallee calls it) must trump the will of the island. I didn't catch what Ilana replied to Richard on my initial watch, but the second time around it really stuck out. "Four sticks" is the phrase for any sighting of the numbers "1111", which presents itself in many forms, but usually as 11:11 on a digital clock, message machine, timer, etc. In numerology, repeated numbers like 1111 are considered a sign of synchronicitous portent -- that is, bad luck, good luck, omens, or whatever scares ya.

To tell you the truth, when Ilana was yanking that bag of unstable C3H5N3O9 around, I would have been disappointed if she hadn't blown up since we've been programmed to expect it now. And sure enough there she went into the ether! So the disappointment I'm left with is that she did die...without telling us the things that we needed to learn from her. This is getting to be a pattern here, Jacob the man with all the answers dies, Dogen who knew island secrets dies, Ilana who knew Jacob's secrets dies, dangitt everyone who knows the secrets of the island is dying!

I wonder what time it was when Ilana was jostling around that dynamite?!

Led Zeppelin wrote a song called "Four Sticks", where the story has it that John Bonham used two pairs of drum sticks to record the song. Just another brick in the wall of the legendary curses of Led Zeppelin?

Here's a Freaky Factoid about Nitroglycerin for ya: (Wiki)"Infrequent exposure to high doses of nitroglycerin can cause severe headaches known as "NG head". These headaches can be severe enough to incapacitate some people...for workers in nitroglycerin (NTG) manufacturing facilities, this can result in a "Monday morning headache" phenomenon for those who experience regular nitroglycerin exposure in the workplace...over the weekend the workers lose the tolerance to NTG and when they are re-exposed on Monday the prominent vasodilation produces tachycardia, dizziness, and a headache."

I think that Lost is giving me NG-Head! Kidding aside, I don't think that TPTB were using the Four Sticks curse on the show, but it is a weird coincidence. And I've run out of steam for analyzing or critiquing the show this week, so weird thoughts like this are all I've got for now.

"And The Emmy Goes To...Nunu!"

2010-04-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

It must have been the "Awwww!" heard 'round the world, for Jorge Garcia fans. Now the only question is, does Nunu have her SAG card?

"Random Thoughts on S6.11"

2010-04-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

OK, damn the migraine, full speed ahead. Because this episode ran all-stops-out too and blew me away, with my favorite elements in it, i.e. Desmond (and Penneh), Faraday, Mrs. H, and weird science. The Flash Sideways in this ep made more sense to me than any of the other FSs, and makes me a little more accepting of the concept. Desmond's FS scenes (or should we say his old-style mental time tripping?) created some connective tissue between the 815-time and the FS that make us believe that the weaving of the two time-threads has begun, with a little help from Dan the Piano Man.

I was surprised to realize that Des had been pulled straight from the hospital scene from last season onto the sub! TPTB still haven't told us yet why you have to be drugged to take the subway ride, and I'm wondering now if they ever will. And it would be nice if there was the opportunity for Widmore to wax poetic about how it feels to be back on the island again, but episodes and time are whizzing by, so no place for that either.

TPTB go all out as usual to give us some realistic DI science equipment and apparatus to play science with and it's much appreciated, I love lab gauges, gizmos and heavy equipment. Some events that occurred seemed kind of cheesy, like the typical lab doofus who trips the switch without following the check-list or seeing if everyone else is 'go' on the procedure, which produces the proverbial hapless worker turned into the crispy-critter. But that's not to say that there aren't any dummies like that in a real lab, in my lab someone once actually shook a bottle of nitric acid and glycerin and...well, he almost became Doc Arzt, so it does happen.

I also doubt if a rickety shack could withstand the heat that was apparently emitted from a giant red-hot electromagnetic coil like this, and it bothers me a bit on the realism scale that it's not in some kind of insulated chamber but what the heck, let's just pretend that the Professor made the giant coil out of coconuts and get on with the story. We are to believe that Des can take the heat as well in all his specialness, unlike the human roasted marshmallow before him.

We get another juicy artistic morsel in Widmore's office, and I do hope that they sell prints of this one too eventually like the others, I would really like to have one.

I half expected, if Des took Minkowksi up on his offer, that Kate or one of the other Lost ladies would be an escort babe and I'm glad that didn't happen. There's no more time for skin-games now anyway, let's cut to the meat of the answers and the story. So what was the point of wasting valuable seconds making Minkowski look like a pimpish jerk? To show that Des is far too busy to insert a little down-time into his life as Charlie warned him? I dunno, what do you think?

Did you hear it? It really was the shark music. X-D It felt like Charlie's revelations and explanations were a little rushed and too perfect of a fit, or maybe I'm just being too critical. But it seems like it might take a guy like Charlie a while to figure that out, unlike Dan for instance who is a super genius and can think abstractly. Though I suppose that a near-death experience could be impetus enough to enlighten Charlie's shallow bloody rock god conscience.

This little piggie....hhheheheh. Wait, did I say no more skin? And press a button to stop the magnetism? Oh really?

Will Des and Charlie team up to get the others together and convince them? Which leads me to another question...did the Losties "have to go back" before just to make a big mistake and change events, only so they'd have to go back again and undo the changes that they went back for the first time? It's beginning to look as though the Losties are going to be caught in an eternal loop of going back and messing it up, and going back and fixing it up, and going back and messing it up...like Mrs.Hawking's previous ouroboros pin.

I wonder if Eloise's new binary star pin stands for two the universes. Or maybe she's just a member of the Madeleine Albright giant funky pin club. At any rate, she's got me as confused as she has Desmond. She knows everything (almost) and she still cares about her garden party, where as Charlie (newly christened to the universal laws of chaos and love) sees it all as vanity, like King Solomon. And she's still telling Desmond what to do, why? Seriously, Eloise has a lot of explaining to do.

Obviously Dan's been doing as much existential cogitating as Charlie has, and also has some advice for Desmond. It's great to have Jeremy Davies back, and we finally get to see some more of Dan's logbook, which I'll try to do some investigating on for my Lost Science blog over the weekend.

Do we really have enough time left in the season to watch Desmond go through all the machinations and hoops that Jack had to go through before, to get everyone from the FS to act like lemmings and jump back over into the good old days? It makes me think that maybe some of this part of the story should have begun at the end of last season. I sure hope that we have enough time left, unless TPTB plan an epilogue feature film.

Oh those impish Powers That Be of Lost, leaving us with Desmond in his wormhole happy-place following Sayid off into the jungle to meet up with MIB. Has Desmond seen where Sayid is taking him, and to whom, in a time-jump? Why did Sayid let Zoe go? And is the whole point of the Lost universe just about love, like our religions and romantic philosophers try to tell us? The Bible says that we could have many great talents and gifts, "but the most important of these is love," and if we don't have that one, all the rest are wasted.

"Please Stand By..."

2010-04-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

...and enjoy these promo shots of Des while we are having technical difficulties.

"Random Thoughts On S6.10"

2010-04-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

* Wow, we sure got a submarine load of answers this week! Oh wait, that was the other J.J. Abrams show that gave us answers. Haha.

* I don't know what to think about the FS sequences still. They're weird, different, and still confuse me. But Greg and Wayne have talked about the possibility that the Losties might cross universes, which would be pretty neat and could explain some of the strange out-of-character behavior that the Losties have exhibited at times. Many times. And the deja vu moments as well.

* It was curious that MIB didn't have much to say to Sayid about the emptiness he feels. Something like, "Yeah, it's cuz you're dead and just a shell now," would have been useful. I get the feeling that although MIB has an overall goal, he might not have the best of strategic plans for escaping. He doesn't know too much about humans and human nature. We know that he assumes they're all idiots - and to him useful idiots - but perhaps he doesn't take into account the chaos factor and millions of variables in play when humans don't react the way that you expect them to. Enter Sawyer's plan to trip him up, perhaps?

* When Jin turned on the brainwashing program in Room23 I wonder if he had seen it before? Jin got more answers than we did this week, heheh.

* Finally Jin gets to see his daughter for the first time, how great was that. Someone at TLC or EyeMSick mentioned that it would be pretty neat if Jin is taking Sun to get treated by Juliet for the gunshot wound. OK, OK, I guess the Sideways world could be interesting sometimes.

* Thanks Lost Untangled for the cool picture of eeevil Mr. Paik. Harsh dude, making Jin pay the assassin for his own demise. I don't think even Mario Puzo thought of putting that twist in 'The Godfather'.

* Kudos to those who noticed that Keamy was wearing Paik's watch back in the Sayid episode.

* I wonder why MIB couldn't have just given those pylon stands a Jean Claude Van Damme sweep-kick to knock them down?

* Does MIB need to get the candidates off-island (or at least all in one place to kill them) to make sure that there is no new Jacob to keep him trapped? I don't think that he has plans to grant them any wishes.

* Should we derive anything from the fact that Widmore calls MIB a 'thing'?

* Aww, look at Jack being all responsible and leadery and stuff for Sun. Well I guess it's about time. It was a good scene.

* And last but not least, if Danny Faraday is married to Zoe Blowy in the FS, I'm going to puke like Muppet Dr.Chang. Blargh!!!!!

"Exodus Revisited"

2010-03-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

Today nephew-Ian wanted to see Doc Arzt blow up again, so we watched Exodus-2. Later when we saw Locke getting pulled down the hole by Smokey, and his nonchalant attitude about it, we wondered if maybe MIB was trying to get Locke's body at that point for his Loophole scheme. After all, he scanned Locke previously, in White Rabbit I think, and would have been prepared to play pretender-Locke right then after learning his mannerisms and idiosyncrasies. Smokey had fooled Locke into thinking that he was a thing of beauty and a joy to behold, so if there was any free will involved, that was taken care of. Then one quick pull down the rabbit hole and he could have sauntered back to camp with no one the wiser. Until Jack and Kate showed up to rescue Locke. It's probably not going to happen that way, but it just really stuck out to us as a quirky possibility. Just think, then Lost would have only been about 3 seasons long if the Dynamite Duo hadn't come back to help him get away from Smokey. :o)

"Ab Inferno"

2010-03-25T09:42:00.001-07:00

This week's story has as many mentions of Hell as last week's ep had attempted cons. One man's heaven on earth is another man's hell on earth, as MIB does his best to convince Richard that the island is nothing but a Hell-hole made to drive men crazy.

Richard's long desired episode was a surprisingly Gothic tale of how he too came to this island during his own "dark night of the soul," ripe for the tricks of MIB and Jacob after he survives his island arrival. I'd be tempted to say that he has a better chance of saving his soul with MIB, than with an 18th century Catholic priest, but I won't go there but to say thank the Lord for the Reformation. Overall this episode was one of the most artfully beautiful, with the backstory scenes looking very much like a painting by Caravaggio, who did a painting that we saw last season BTW.

Nitpick #1: should we call anachronism-shenanigans here? I don't think that there were modern study-bibles with the center column footnotes back in the 18th century.

Nitpick #2: throw rotten tomatoes at me if you will, but in my mind I imagined a much more science-y, or Scifi, mechanism that put the Black Rock in the center of the island, and broke up the statue. I'm just saying. That's just a product of giving us way too much time to think about what the source of those mysteries were I guess.

Nitpick #3: ducking tomatoes again, some of the Black Rock scenes dragged on a bit for my taste, I began to lose concentration here and there.

I am very confused as to what went on between the crew, Smokey, MIB, Fisabella, and all that MIB told Richard, but I hope that those things will become clear soon. It seems as if MIB has the keys to everyone's happiness or desires, except for his own. And BTW, if all of the crew was killed by the shipwreck or Smokey, who buried Magnus as noted in Radzinsky's Blast Door Map recordings? Hmm?

I wasn't very impressed by Jacob's cavalier attitude towards RA, or the way he seemingly left RA to starve and rot to be fodder for MIB's plans, but maybe that's all a part of The Rules. Can Jacob not approach them until MIB does? Or can he not help the humans until they come to him for help? And why doesn't Jacob seem to care about the fact that everyone else who he's brought to the island is dead? Maybe he just knows that they're in that "better place" or something. But now we know how RA chose the eternal island life, most likely with the echoes of the priest ludicrously refusing him absolution still ringing in his head. He surely would have chosen eternity with Isabella instead, if he hadn't have been scared into false thoughts of his own damnation.

All of MIB's talk about Hell probably didn't help Richard's psyche any either, as MIB knew exactly how to scare him into believing his stories and helping him. MIB told Sawyer that there wasn't anything special about this island, but for him the island is a living hell. It makes you wonder if the island is some kind of universal prison that he's been banished to like those prisoners in the Superman-2 movie who were imprisoned in the Phantom Zone. Come to think of it, MIB does act a lot like General Zod at times. Or it could be something much simpler, as a job that Jacob and MIB have been assigned to, and MIB just can't stand to be stuck in one place. "The mind is its own place, it can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven" ~ Milton.

Meanwhile back at the ranch-beach, the Losties try to cheer RA up, and get some answers out of Ilana to no avail. RA is inconsolable and returns to his mock grave for Isabella giving us another classic touching Lost scene to make the eyes tear up. Thankfully Hurley assists RA in finding some peace with his memories a-la Sawyer's Little House episode. And Isabella leaves me wondering what she meant by saying that she and RA are already together, as in, are we sure that it's just an island and not some way-station between Life and Death?

"Re-re-re-re-con"

2010-03-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

There was a lot of conning going on in this episode! For me, this is one of those transitional installments that takes me from one train of thought about the show into another. One of those "things that make you go Hmmm" episodes. So I wasn't really sure how to intelligently analyze this one, and I'm not sure that I want or need to just yet. Although some thought bubbles did come to mind during the show.

I don't want to make light of anyone's appearance, but I surely hope that R.M. hasn't succumbed to the Hollywood stereotypical lollipop-head-on-a-stick image disorder. Her thinness in the ep almost frightened me for her.

For some reason I also don't feel the need to figure out the details of Sawyer's con/reverse-con/doubleback-con on Widmore and Flocke. I think that I'll just sit back and enjoy it as it unfolds, in the hopes that it's something really delicious and worth the wait. Other than that, I'm stumped by this one. Was anyone else affected in the same way?

"God Plays With Us, M'Sabu"

2010-03-11T18:07:00.000-08:00

Well, numerous swigs of NyQuil later, I'm up for trying to sort out some of my reactions to Dr. Linus. The heading I used comes from the movie "Out Of Africa", where Karen Blixen's personal servant is telling her a parable to help her philosophically deal with a lion attacking the cattle on their safari. He chuckles something to the effect of, "Karen does not have this ox; the wagon does not have this ox; the lion does not have this ox...God plays with us," intimating that everything is a part of the greater whole in the eyes of God and the nature of things. And that's partially the feeling that I got from this ep. Ben does not have this island, Widmore does not have this island, Dogen, etc. Hopefully all these "chosen" (see the book Ben uncovers on the beach) players are more than just hapless pawns in a higher entity's random chess game. This also reminds me a lot of "Clash Of The Titans" (the Ray Harryhausen version, please) where the humans figures are moved around on a tabletop shuffleboard on Mount Olympus by Zeus and his cronies.

Everyone raise your hands if you want to be in Dr.Linus' class! Ben is a very caring teacher in the flash sideways universe, I was impressed. He connects with people, thinks of their welfare first, and the impetus of his actions seems to be to work for the greater goals that benefit the most people. The complete opposite of Ben in the 815 universe, who has his own sort of Napoleon Complex type issues. Unfortunately like many teachers, Dr. Linus is hamstrung by an administrator who is also power hungry. And wow, who wasn't blown away by the flipped mirror version implications of FS-Ben with his father. Amazing, and bravo Powers That Be.

When Miles ratted out Ben I was actually hoping that he wouldn't do it for some reason! I also thought that it was very interesting how Miles seemed to be caressing Jacob's ashes, he obviously has retained his profound respect for the dead, as cynical as he may be with the living at this point.

And...the island still got Frank in the end, says Ben in a moment of his newly found wisdom. A bigger hint to what will come for our worker bees in God's beehives? That is, will whatever happens in the FS still somehow bring The Chosen back to the island like a converging side-path meeting once again with the main fairway after forking off temporarily?

I was amazed at how Ben retained his conniving mind up to what he thought was the very end for him. And also really wishing that Miles would let him go so that we could see Ben running to the FDW to turn it and make another escape! But lucky Miles does what we mostly felt needed to happen that had nothing to do with Ben....discovering that Nikki and Paulo were buried alive. And he found the diamonds, go Miles!

Thankfully we got to spend some time with Richard, who is feeling jilted by the one person he trusted. I'd guess that his confusion has been building since Locke and Flocke began to tell him how great they were and that Locke was the new Leader. And here is where even more I really tend to think that when the Islanders thought they were talking to Jacob, that sometimes they were talking to MIB by mistake. I could be wrong of course, but it seems like a hint here possibly.

We also got a parallel to Michael's not being able to kill himself. Was he touched by Jacob at a time that we weren't privy to? Jack seemed to have an epiphany about that and it all came together in his head full of Jackface before our eyes. Did, or will, Hurley realize it as well?

I have to hand it to Dedjezter at TLC for the best comment during the ep which went something like, "Jack has a sense of humor...never saw that coming!" And what was up with Jack saying that if they didn't help Richard, he'd just do it anyway?! RA just told Jack that he couldn't kill himself without their help. It's not like RA's standing on a corner in Manhattan and he can ask any one of a million people passing by to help him. There's no one else on the island, as far as they know. Maybe it was just Jack testing his new funny bone again.

What Ilana said to Ben about how she'll have him when no one else will blew me away, and was telling. Here could be an encapsulation of the redemption topic. The "island" judges, or the island forgives, we know this. And even despicable Ben can be a new man if he so chooses because Ilana has forgiven him for what he did. The most important point being that Ben was truly appalled at his behavior and sorry for what he did. He can have a completely new life now -- be a new man -- very much like what the Christian bible teaches that God offers mankind.

It was delicious watching Dr. Linus negotiating an off-the-cuff coup that would make Sun Tzu proud. He goes in with one plan fully intent on its success, but after it backfires he pulls an advantage switch that gains him a foothold for helping Alex, and a few little benefits on the side as well. Schwing!

I agree with everyone that it was so nice to have a happy beach scene once again, it's been a very long time! But TPTB appeared to have left us with the thought that Widmore in the sub might spoil the beach party, but I don't think so. I think that TPTB are still playing with us too.

:-)

"Showdown At Sundown"

2010-03-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

This week's header caption is brought to you by my nephew Ian, mentioned here often, because we watched the episode together after school Wednesday. We used to rewatch with his big brother Lee also, but he's got lots of after-school sports now (hi Lee!). Ian thought that it was pretty funny how Ben reacted to Sayid's eeevilness. He made a lot of comments during the episode, so some of them are mixed in with my thoughts.

Uncle Sayid? Wow, this flash-sideways timeline is like a flash-diagonal in it's bizarreness. I figured that TPTB were setting us up for something surprising here, but I didn't expect that. I didn't foresee much of anything in this episode, for that matter.

Ian and I both agree that this was a great fight scene, although it was a shame to see Dogen's lair trashed up. Little did we know that later he wouldn't be needing it anymore anyway.

One thing we did guess was that the baseball belonged to some iteration of Dogen's son, in whatever universe or timezone.

We're both pretty confused but intrigued by Claire's allegiance to Flocke. But we're guessing that three years with the freak would change anyone. We still need to know how he got her to walk away from baby Aaron so easily, but I'm not hopeful that we will be getting any information on that ever...at all. Although it might be just as simple as her death after the explosion left her fodder for MIB to take over.

It was fun Jack-spotting in the hospital passing Sayid and Nadia. A commenter on either TLC or EyeMSick mentioned that perhaps in this timeline Jack decided to operate on Shannon's dad instead of Sarah. I'm sorry that I can't remember who said that, but it's an interesting idea to think about as to the ramifications of the difference in choice.

So Dogen gives Sayid a Sting sword to kill the Orcs with, but it doesn't work. That caught us off guard as well. We figured that MIB would kill Sayid then and there, not pull a slick bargain on him.

But bargain he did, and he began to sound a lot like a certain snake in a garden. I'm still somewhat confused about how it relates to what happened in the FS timeline though. Nevertheless, we enjoyed seeing Keamy show up as another form of his over-the-top bad guy self, although I could respect him a little more as a mercenary than just a Mafia type thug. There's no logic in that thought at all, I realize.

I'm just disliking Cindy more and more every time she shows up...and she hardly ever does! Something is just very off about her, IMO. Perhaps she's just so distraught at the death of her boyfriend Gary...ah, who cares.

Well, I'm very confused (along with Amy Lynn at TLC) that Kate spent all that time telling Claire various details about Aaron, but failed to mention anything at all about her mother having him. Telling her would also reveal that she's alive (thanks The Other Lisa at TLC) and not in a coma anymore. Not that Kate would have known about the accident, etc., but it just felt that TPTB underestimated us in this area here. Or, maybe I'm underestimating them and they have plans for explaining such a glaring omission of dialogue. Kudos to Emilie De Ravin in her Rambo version of Claire, she's doing a great job of playing crazazy.

Ian and I feel that Dogen probably wasn't being specifically punished by Jacob in having to make the choice of saving his son and being banished from The World, as some are looking at it. It's kind of a Zen thing maybe. It was entirely Dogen's fault that his son was hurt, but it's a trade-off that had merit and dignity where none might have existed otherwise in the tragic situation. Not only in making some restitution for his foolish act and to pay Jacob for the "miracle", but to honor the gift that Jacob gave to Dogen and his son of allowing him to live. It's maybe not just a one-sided bargain to avoid the shame and suffering he caused in The World, Jacob needed him for an important task and it would be something that's also an honor to uphold, especially in Dogen's culture. That's just my take on it anyway, I could be totally off.

Give a 'Standing-O' to Naveen Andrews for his outstanding performance which flowed seamlessly between the suffering tragic, a compassionate hero, and newly formed demon. He was just amazing and this episode should be used in acting classes to exhibit the range an actor can aspire to. Seriously.

OK, we're really amazed about why Kate followed someone that she knew was dead in L.A., into the jungle with a bunch of people that she hates, without showing any concern for her pals left behind in the temple with Smokey. It's just not up to her usual Amazonian Warrioress attitude. Does she have a plan? Is she playing it by ear until she gets a plan? I'm leaning towards that angle at this point. Unless she has somehow been claimed because she didn't follow Jacob's request of giving up the life of crime and it made her susceptible to MIB, that's always an option too I suppose.

I think that everyone agrees that this episode had the creepiest and most compelling ending ever so far. It was a haunting rendition of Perry Como's big hit, like it was never heard before. The use of the song got me wondering: is the falling star a reference to MIB being the Lucifer who fell from grace in Heaven? Or alluding to the possibility that the island might be a fallen "star" or meteor that landed on Earth? And what about this part of the one verse that Claire sang: "For love may come and tap you on the shoulder some starless night, Just in case you feel you want to hold her, You'll have a pocketful of starlight." That sounds like some kind of loophole to me.

"Random Thoughts On S6.05"

2010-02-25T09:16:00.000-08:00

Poor Jack is all over the place in this episode, but mostly he was pretty calm and zen until he had a tantrum, but later for that. Overall it looks as if Jack might be the one being prepped to be the new Point Man for the island, whatever island is left above water by the time the story is done. In Universe#2 he seems to be a fairly together man, although we don't really know what broke up his marriage to Mrs. Jack and separated him from his son.

OK, in the commentary version of the DVD for this ep, TPTB have to imitate Wayne and Garth here and go, "Doodely-doo, doodely-doo, doodely-doo." For Wayne's World fans only, heheh.

I thought that there might be more here in the confrontation between Dogen and Hurley. A little more Dogen is totally alright by me any time, he's my favorite new character. It felt to me as if he really knew why Hurley was there, but was just giving him a psychological security check or something, but I could be wrong.

All this talk about Kate finding Claire now has got to mean that there is going to be a big show-down between them when they finally meet up. And no one is better for the job than Kate I suppose, now that Claire has gone sour with infection and with the bad company she keeps. Kate will be up to the challenge, but she may get caught off guard by the new Claire. MIB may also have some interesting psy-ops planned for Kate as well, if he is there when the two women meet up in the jungle. If present, he's sure to throw some mental zingers at Kate in front of Claire to make her look bad, not to mention accusing Kate of botching the job of raising Aaron. That will surely be a sore spot for Claire and drag out the time it takes to convince Kate that Claire is lost to the dark side forever. I do wish that somehow Claire could be cured and that she and Aaron could be reunited. Something stuck out at me when Kate was telling Jack and Hurley her plans: why didn't Jack mention that Claire was his sister? Why doesn't he show any concern for her well-being? Why didn't he even just say, "Hey, she's my sister, please take good care of her and bring her back safely," or even, "Thanks for looking out for her, I sure don't care." I don't get it.

Hurley gives a lot of audience perspective tonight, as he has before. There must be a name for that in theater-speak. He waxes about the early days of tromping through the jungle with Jack, and wonders about Adam and Eve in the same way we have. Just one question...were TPTB giving us a hint about their origin, or putting the kabosh on one aspect of our speculation about them? And should Hurley have looked at the camera and said, "Spoiler alert!" before getting philosophical about them? Hmm.

Well, just when I was thinking that this was the first episode where I like Jack all the way through, he goes and breaks up my new favorite place on the island! And gives us a few more pages of classic Jackface in the process, be sure to check that out on the Lostemedia pages for the lighthouse scenes, heheh. Kudos to TPTB for thinking up such a fascinating concept as a lighthouse that can home in on, well, your home! A lighthouse mechanism that can reflect your life in it's mirrors all the way across the world is Jules Verne worthy. I've been out of the SciFi written fiction loop for a while so I don't know if this idea has been done recently, but it sure hasn't been on TV before. Similar virtual-vision concepts for sure (I guess even the Wicked Witch of the West used her crystal ball in a similar way), but wow, this was just a great idea for the island. Has anyone figured out where the lighthouse sits on our island fan-maps yet?

I do have one continuity question here...if Jack watched David practice his music for hours and hours when they were still a family, why did Jack tell Dogen#2 that he didn't know how long he had been playing? Huh?

Once again Hurley is the voice of the people, in expressing his weariness of secrets kept and words not spoken when needed. But Jacob assures him and us that everything went as planned. Whew.

One of the most gratifying aspects of this episode was finally finding out what Claire has been up to. Not exactly like Rose and Bernard, she's kept herself in the jungle apart from other humans and enjoys playing an axe version of whack-a-mole with the Others. In her defense though, that guy did admit that he would have killed her if he had the chance. I wonder what he meant saying that she "remembered it wrong" when she talked of her infection test? And if she was at the temple when the waters were pure, why wasn't she healed I wonder? The new Claire seems to fit that old Monty Python song:

Claire's a lumberjack and she's OK

She sleeps all night and she hunts all day

She has a boar's head baby

And a really creepy friend

Poor Claire, Charlie sure didn't give up his life so that she could become Mrs. MIB. Oh and one more thing, thanks a lot ABC for telling us last week that Jack was going to break the mirrors in the promo. Pfff.

"Where They Ought To Be"

2010-02-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

While watching this week's episode the old Shaker song "Simple Gifts" popped into my head:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

The lyrics seemed to really fit our 815 survivors in that they could use some simplicity in their lives. For another, the connecting multiversal paths that they are on, and their complicated pasts and futures, have them spinning and turning towards some kind of destiny that we and they don't understand yet. It's a gift to be simple: when have our intrepid survivors ever taken the simple path in their lives? Not often really. Tis a gift to be free: most of them search for freedom of a sort, even if it's just from their own pasts. And are they on the island due to their free will? Can they ever find peace in the simplicity of finding inner freedom? I hope so, they've been through such an awful lot.

It's as if they are on some kind of cosmic multi-helix and all of their actions in however many universes that they are living in, are twisting and turning around some axis of purpose. The way that Flocke explained to James his three choices on the island (and in life?), every choice gave the opportunity to spiral off into a separate reality. Buy maybe Flocke failed to tell James that no matter what he chose, eventually he would end up at the same endpoint, via course correction. Maybe the only thing we really choose, is how easy or painful it is to get to that last outcome that is our destiny. Our lives can get off-track and we miss out on opportunities, but can other blessings replace the ones that we lost in the past when we get back on the path? Are the substitute blessings equivalent in some purpose to the "originals"?

Even James seemed to be on a helix of two or three twisting ladders at the same time in this episode. And his two monikers and personalities even twist around the central core of whoever James really is.

When the 815 survivors are finished bending and turning and twisting on the helix of their complicated lives, will some magic door open to let them know that they are on the right path? TPTB keep telling us that they have a destiny. I'm guessing that their destiny is the core around which their parallel universes are spiraling, like the helix, and no matter how fast they may spin around it, their true paths will never veer off course, whether they live or die on the island. Maybe it's time to stop fighting life, to bend and bow with the choices, to finally find themselves in "the place just right." To go with the flow, as Flocke said to James.

"Bad Lazarus Twin"

2010-02-07T15:03:00.000-08:00

The more we talk about Jacob and his Nemesis, the more it reminds me of the StarTrek:TOS episode, "The Alternative Factor". In that story two entities show up that present a conflicting dilemma for the Enterprise. To begin with, Spock discovers an energy anomaly: as the Star Trek website Memory-alpha.org puts it: "...Spock has discovered a source of radiation that is not there – a "rip" in the universe, where regular physical laws do not apply."

The Enterprise thereby gets involved in a multiversal enmity between two time traveling characters (Lazarus and Anti-Lazarus), who have duped them into coming to the planet for various reasons of their own purposes. The interesting point about these two fighting men, is that each says that the other is the one that needs to be stopped, and they both want Kirk's sympathies. And each man is disappointed in the crew for not being able to easily realize which one they should trust. Was that why MIB said he was disappointed in the people on the beach, because we silly humans can't figure out which entity to believe and follow?

Both Lazarus men seem to be lying and Kirk can't get to the bottom of it until he goes back down to the planet: "Once there, he meets the other Lazarus, the sane Lazarus, and learns the truth. Anti-Lazarus' people discovered how to pass through the negative magnetic corridor that both connects and protects the two universes. When this happened, Lazarus couldn't bear the knowledge that he had a duplicate, and resolved to destroy his other. He is mad and doesn't care if this causes the death of two universes. Anti-Lazarus and Kirk realize he must be stopped: if Kirk can force Lazarus into the corridor, Anti-Lazarus can hold him there, and Kirk can destroy his spaceship – which will also destroy Anti-Lazarus' spaceship. Access to the corridor will be sealed forever, and both universes will be safe. And two men named Lazarus will be at each others' throats for the remainder of eternity." It reminds of me of how Jacob said that he had an old friend who was tired of him. MIB seems to not be able to stand to exist in the same timespace as Jacob, and has wanted to kill him for a very long time we found out in S5 -- at the same time that we found out that there was an enemy of Jacob.

Now I'm not saying that our island pals are matter and antimatter and obviously our universe will not cease to exist if they are both in it, because we have seen them together. But we have one seemingly passive and one aggressive entity at odds with each other, and like Kirk we're not sure which one is the benign or malignant one. And MIB doesn't seem to care what will happen to us or our universe, if he kills Jacob. Is this why Widmore and Hawking seem pretty scared? In the end of The Alternative Factor the "good" Lazarus locks himself away in the multiverse corridor with Kirk's help, to save both universes from destruction, where they will fight each other forever. Jacob seems to have already sacrificed himself, will the Losties help Jacob trap MIB in a similar way to "...save us all" as we keep hearing?

A nice synopsis of the ep and screencaps can be found at these two sites:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Alternative_Factor

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=53&page=23

"Sayid Gets Baptised?"

2010-02-04T08:44:00.000-08:00

Our intrepid island MacGyver, always looking for redemption and forgiveness, lands in grotto water once again. We've seen Sayid lament the path that his life took before, and seeking a better life to make amends for his transgressions is not new to him. In what he believes are his final breaths he now asks Hurley, "When I die, what do you think will happen to me?" Little does he know, but Hurley finds out soon enough.

It looked to me like Jacob has some important plans for Sayid, as he intently ponders his near lifeless body on the ground. He looks deep in thought about something. If the water did 'turn' and lose it's power because Jacob died, then Jacob possibly knows something about the waters that the temple Others don't yet. But before they learn the fate of Jacob and the waters, they submerge Sayid in the pool face down on Jacob's relayed commands to save him.

I wonder, is it necessary for the dying person to inhale the water before they die to be healed, and to die in the water? That's a lot like Christian baptism, "dying" to sin and being washed by the waters of the Holy Spirit, becoming a "new man" in Christ as the Bible puts it. I follow the sprinkling method myself but theology aside, I can see the case for total immersion here. Sayid's body later revives, after an odd reaction by Miles over his seemingly lifeless body. Did Miles know that there was something different going on there in Sayid? Or that it wasn't Sayid? In typical Lost fashion, when questioned Miles replies with the usual, "Nothing." Grr-arg! It also looked like the shot hole in his shirt was gone, but that could have just been the camera angle.

We don't know why the unclear water worked anyway but perhaps it was because while not present physically anymore, Jacob is still around spiritually and his powers are weaker but still somewhat viable. And since now that the water was apparently less potent, did it just not heal Dogen because he only dipped his hand in briefly? Sayid asked the correct question, "What happened?"

"Happy Lost Birthday Ian"

2010-02-02T15:34:00.000-08:00

My nephew Ian's 10th birthday fell on the night before Lost S-6 starts tonight, so he asked for a Lost themed birthday cake. Actually he's been asking for a Lost cake since before his last birthday. So he designed the cake which was a chocolate bundt cake to be the island, we coated it with shades of green icing, and he and his mom printed out pics of Lost icons to put on and around the cake including the Lost Lego-like figures, a sub, canoe, sailboat, rowboat, yellow prop plane, and of course Smokey and a polar bear. In the middle he wanted the Swan hatch and they poked a hole in it and put a tea light underneath to make the light from the Swan, with Locke at his position to bang on the hatch. All this was set on a blue plastic sheet on the tray for the ocean. He and his mom did a great job. We also decorated the living room table with island/tiki themed things, including a stuffed polar bear and a rubber eyeball (homage to Patchy of course).

Well, have fun tonight everyone! I'm in a gloomy mood today, so I hope that tonight's episode is filled with spooky and frightful things. How could it be otherwise after an entity took over a corpse and a bomb and/or energy pocket exploded?! I don't suppose that the island can be blown to bits like one of the bomb test islands in WW2, but who knows. I'll be thinking about you all as I'm watching in tandem with everyone around the world. Bon-Lost-voyage friends! See you on the flip-side of the premier. :-)

"Let's Be Frank"

2010-01-27T16:40:00.000-08:00

I am very excited to see what's in store for Captain Lapidus, I hope that we don't have to wait too long to find out. As we were reminded in last night's finale replay, Frank has been singled out as an element in some plan of Ilana's team. I just hope that our Cheeseburger-In-Paradise-Pilot with the big heart and open mind has a chance to decide his fate, when the time comes.

Some of the theories on Frank are pretty wild:
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Frank_Lapidus/Theories
including that perhaps Frank is an older Sawyer. Also, of possible interest to Bigmouth at Eye-M-Sick: "He is named after Frank J. Tipler, who has expanded on the philosophical idea of the Omega Point created by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Teilhard's Omega Point idea is a major key to the mythology of the entire show and Jacob, specifically." (Lostpedia)

I would really like to see one more flashback for Frank, to see if Jacob touched him as well. Here's my crazy thought, Jacob touched Frank so that he would survive the crash like the rest of the "touchees" after piloting 815, but MIB intercepted Frank the night before and got him drunk so that he wouldn't be able to pass flight reqs the next day and he'd be grounded, and not make it to the island. Widmore finds out later that he missed the flight and gets Abaddon on the job to get him on the freighter with the others. Just kidding. Sort of.

"Artistic Coincidences"

2010-01-04T06:00:00.000-08:00

Unusual, misplaced, or coincidental things seem to stand out to me pretty easily. Maybe it's due to 25 years of doing inspection work on semiconductor circuits, or just my natural conspiratorial brain patterns, who knows. But this similarity jumped out as I was looking through old Lost magazines to find something to draw, and you don't need any inspection expertise to notice this one. The above image scan is a combined drawing/photo illustration in the Jan/Feb 2007 issue in a style that is pretty typical in Lost magazine. It's captioned as an "...exclusive piece of "Otherville" concept art..." done by, "Art director Scott Cobb, under supervision of Production Designer Zack Grobler..." In case it's not clear in the scan, the illustration is a collage of photos and sketches designed to depict the DI compound. It reminded me a lot of the controversial Barracks poster that we've come to know.

Like I said, the designers of Lost magazine often combine production illustrations and location photos and the following image was in this month's issue in a collection of photos about the DI Motor Pool, again attributed to Zack Grobler.

I'm not trying to detract or degrade the workmanship of the Barracks poster here, I'm just making note of an observation that just struck me as being a rather odd.

;-)

"Start The New Year Voting For Lost"

2009-12-31T06:15:00.000-08:00

On the back of the current issue of Lost magazine is an ad for the Total Sci-Fi Awards, which I don't believe I've ever heard of before. Nevertheless, here we can vote for Lost in any category that it applies in the awards (TV show, director, etc.). If nothing else, it's another way that we can thank TPTB of Lost for their amazing efforts in giving us quality TV entertainment and hiatus fun, giving them the recognition that they deserve. Perhaps in these types of awards we can honor their creativity in the ways that the Emmy committee refuses to, *ahem*. There are other categories and genres to vote for there as well, if you're so inclined. Voting ends on January 4th, so get your ballots in while you finish up the leftover holiday champagne with a sparkling mimosa. :-)

Vote here: http://totalscifionline.com/features/4348-vote-in-the-total-sci-fi-awards

Happy New Year everyone, cheers and God bless! :-D

"Not To Nitpick But..."

2009-12-28T09:31:00.001-08:00

The recent issue of Lost magazine contains a nice article on some of the sets and props of 1970s DI-ville, in which the items above are labeled as belonging to the DI. If I'm not mistaken, isn't this actually one of the tents that the Islanders were living in when Daniel found them in the woods? The two critters on the campfire spit rod show an error in the picture's caption, IMO.

"Merry Christmas"

2009-12-21T20:11:00.000-08:00

Have a good Holiday Season and New Year friends. Best wishes and God's blessings to everyone, especially remembering and helping those who might be really lost in the world. Mele Kalikimaka!

"Project Memento Mori"

2009-12-16T17:59:00.000-08:00

During the wait for the poster #16 release over at LostARGs, we talked about creating a legend for the Memento Mori painting of "Mr. Black", in the fashion of the "Linder Gallery" painting that Thorsten, et.al., have shared with us. So I numbered the objects (all of them, even MIB himself and his belt -- you never know, he might use it to strangle someone). Let me know if I missed anything. Just about the only things I didn't label were the table, wall, and the wooden looking form in the back shadow by the tapestry:

This might need to be labeled, I don't know. Could it be the door of the cabin? I raised the brightness and contrast to highlight it, but it just looks like a door or panel. Update~ thanks to all the help, here is how we've labeled the objects thus far:

1) Smokey

2) Charlie

3) Bird killed by Walt

4) White tennis shoe

5) Tapestry yarn/Locke's hatch cables

6) Jacob's tapestry

7) MIB

8) Hurley's paintbox

9) Toy airliner

10) Tree limb

11) Faraday

12) MacCutcheon Whisky

13) Gas mask

14) Four-toes

15) Coconuts

16) Cabin chair?

17) Hurley's drawing

18) Locke

19) Danielle

20) Wooden dolls

21) Mary statue

22) Eko's stick

23) Backgammon pieces

24) Compass

25) Sawyer's letter/Locke's Smokey or BDM sketch

26) Flies

27) Urchins

28) Papayas

29) Polar bear skull

30) Eko and Yemi photo

31) Swan timer/counter

32) Danielle's map

33) Knife -- that killed Jacob?

34) Dynamite

35) DI beer

36) Charlie's bag of heroin

37) Watership Down

38) Charlie's ring

39) MIB's belt/rope

40) Sand/Ash

41) Yemi's cross

42) Unknown cloth

43) Hurley's Lotto Ticket

44) Locke's note to Jack

45) Charlie's greatest hits list

Now that they are mostly all labeled it doesn't seem so mysterious, but it's good to know anyway, I suppose. Thanks for any help! The original can be seen here at the gallery blog for the Lost art project: http://lostundergroundartshow.blogspot.com/

"Happy Hanukkah Lost Friends"

2009-12-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

Since all the ancient Eastern and Mediterranean religious symbols have been turning up on the island, I for one have been looking forward to the inclusion of some early Hebrew artifacts for us to study. I don't know much at all about Jewish history, but for what I learned in Sunday school in the Old Testament that always fascinated me. So I made up my own bit of artifact for the island, above. And in light of the recent reveal (show-canon or not, we don't know yet) of a new part of (or whole) tapestry included in the special DHARMA version of the Season 5 DVD, I looked for a tapestry of Jewish history for the season as well. It's not specifically for Hanukkah, but it looks very interesting.

Also found online was a nice piece of historical artifact from the Holy Land that would look good accompanying the other religious accouterments in the island temple area. Happy Hanukkah everyone. :-)

"The 5000 Fingers Of TPTB"

2009-11-20T10:04:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me today that this crazy Lost hiatus poster-buying event is a lot like the Dr. Seuss story "The 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T." In the 1953 fantasy movie, crazy Dr. Terwilliker decides to enslave 500 boys to all play the piano at once, for his amusement.

In the same way, TPTB of Lost have weekly enslaved (tens-of?) thousands of fans to their computers, hitting their F5 buttons every few seconds like robots, to participate in this super-limited poster sale. Dr. Terwilliker would be in awe. But what began as a lot of fun for all, evolved into much disappointment for many. Seconds after they go on sale they are sold out. Accounts of the making of the "Dr. T" movie reveal that at one point in the filming, almost all the boys at the pianos vomited simultaneously after one boy got sick, in a horrible regurgitation domino effect on the set. Some of the fans in this poster event have felt the same way.

And wouldn't you know, the story even has a Smoke Monster of sorts. Check out the movie, it's some silly fun. Maybe more fun than making yourself sick by F5ing repeatedly for a half hour, hoping against hope to get a little Lost swag for posterity. We really do thank TPTB for this generous hiatus scheme that they dreamt up to show appreciation to their fans, they are the best TV Powers That Be ever. But maybe next time this is done by a production team, an option for a not-so-limited appreciation might also be offered as well, so as not to create such an exclusive nature within the event. JMHO. We don't know how this DCAAPB event will end though, so perhaps TPTB have something more inclusive for all fans rigged up for the ending, who knows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_5,000_Fingers_of_Dr._T/

"A Juliet WCM For A Poster"

2009-11-01T06:04:00.000-08:00

In spite of a few water cooler moments given to Juliet, it seems doubtful that she will get a poster all to herself. But if she did, her encounter with Smokey might make a great subject. She stood up to Smokey better than most of the guys when she and Kate were getting chased by it. Not only did she seem to be fairly confident in the banyan tree when Smokey was scanning the women, but she showed her usual island gutsiness at the sonic fence as well -- most likely due to the familiarity with Smokey that she gained as an insider in Otherville.

Why this seems like a Juliet WCM for me, is because it embodies the complete 180' turn that her personality made after she came to the island, possibly exhibiting what's known as "Pissed-Off Passive Syndrome" (which I can very much relate to after 32 years at IBM). Pre-Island, she couldn't even stand up to her Ex when he brought his Honey into the lab not even caring if Juliet would see them. She actually hunkered down on the ground hiding from them behind lab equipment. Then well beyond the supposed end of her term with the Others, she stands on her feet going toe-to-toe (if Smokey has toes) with some kind of unworldly monster. It would have made an interesting poster-worthy moment, IMHO.

"Happy Lostoween!"

2009-10-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

Brought to you by poster #7, and my usual silly modifications. BTW, close-ups of the poster have been taken by the lucky owners who so kindly share their acquisitions with us, and this one has some very nice gold detailing.

"Poster #9"

2009-10-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

This week's poster is an amazing piece of Lost subject done in minimalist (some say comic book) graphic style -- the radio tower, the A-team, and Shannon's first appearance in a poster. But the color did nothing for me. I would have tried to buy it if it looked more like how I manipulated the color above (but with a blue sky -- I couldn't make only the vegetation green and the sky blue with my program). I'm not crazy about beige at all. But it's a great poster and a perfect slice-of-Lost moment nonetheless, in my opinion. The translating of Rousseau's transmission was a jolting development that introduced a storm of questions in viewer's minds. Some people don't think so, but I do.

The original colors. An odd choice to me, but I must defer to the professional here.

"For Cusick Fans"

2009-10-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

This week on the PBS series "Nova", the show veered off into more of a "Masterpiece Theater" genre, showing a two-part movie "Darwin's Darkest Hour." Henry Ian Cusick stars as Charles Darwin, looking still very much like island-Des with the longer Victorian period hair, but without the Scottish accent. Cusick plays the fatherly Darwin well, who in this stage of his life before his notes and ideas were published, balanced his passion for studying nature with family life. The 2-hour drama is interesting, but a bit heavy on the exposition. Much of Darwin's formative years of study are shown in flashbacks during talks with his wife. All in all though, a good venue for Desmond fans to see Cusick in another role.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/darwin

"We've Got A Bomb"

2009-10-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

Not much time for posting rambling words about Lost lately, I've been getting some tech training at a museum where I volunteer by day, and I've been fully engrossed in Ken Burns' "The National Parks" documentary series on PBS all this week by night. But I have been thinking about how great it was that TPTB gave us some scenes with the Hostiles in the temple-like grotto of the tunnels and taking some of the Losties there! Actually, Jack found out about Jughead before they swam to the cave, not like my liberty-taking graphic above shows, and he surprisingly believed it. He never believes anything anyone says usually, whoodathunk he'd buy that? I do have some difficulty understanding how the Hostiles moved Jughead to the grotto, I hope that we find out more about that. Maybe Smokey rolled it there, or they used Ed Leedskalnin's anti-gravity method of moving tons of coral to build a little castle garden in Florida all by himself. :-) http://coralcastle.com

By the way, if these tunnels are near and/or under the barracks, that seems to be the way that Richard evaded the security of the sonic fence when he marched in and planted the torch in the quad. Alluding to this array of tunnels also lends credence to the theory that there could be a tunnel network on the island that allowed Ethan and Goodwin to get to the wreckage sites so quickly. It also helps to picture the connection to the tunnel entrance in Ben's (and formerly Horace's?) cottage and Smokey's lair. Indeed, some details are coming together a bit for us, however sketchy.

I hope that everyone is enjoying the Lost poster activities, the latest artwork of Smokey and Eko is awesome. A very good graphic for Halloween as well.

"Some Emmy Satisfaction"

2009-09-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

It's so fantastic that the Emmy people made the choice for Michael Emerson to win best supporting actor in a drama. Of course we all love him and wished for the best to happen last night, and there will be plenty of posts today on his win, but I couldn't resist a little Lost-gloating as a fan myself. Here's an interesting website dedicated to M.E. http://www.michaelemerson.net

"What Now Ben?"

2009-09-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

This scene has been on my mind, and I've been wondering if this is the first time that Jacob ever touched Ben. If it is, will Ben be affected by Jacob's contact as we are to assume that the lives of the Losties that he touched were? Granted, Jack didn't seem to become any less of a tool after his encounter with Jacob at the candy machine, so I wouldn't expect miracles with Ben here. But since for whatever reason Jacob had withheld his presence from Ben, the gravity of this first contact could be a very profound one on such an attention hungry man. This could be the final straw that wrecks Ben's last good nerve, and becomes the release valve that blows the pressure that's built up in him after a life of working very hard on things that perhaps he never understood at all.

So it brings to mind the question of what's in store for Ben in S6. There are no take-backs when you bludgeon someone, Ben could stumble back from seeing Jacob callously kicked into the flames and feel that he made a terrible mistake. Or he could whip around and finish his stabbing spree on Not-Locke out of insane anger at being used for yet another killing. Maybe Jacob's phoenix spirit will whisper to Ben, the way that Obi-Wan whispered to Luke, that it's better this way. But Luke didn't kill Obi, so who knows if Ben can come back from the dark side after murdering the man he thought was his hero.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this event will effect Ben and what he will do next. But my imagination is leaning towards seeing the act of killing Jacob completely cracking Ben's mind under the weight of all his previous evil deeds, and then he lives the rest of his life mumbling and playing Connect-Four with Lenny at Santa Rosa.

"My Jacob Fantasy"

2009-09-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

Before we finally learned who Jacob was, in my imagination I pictured him to be someone much like Captain Nemo. They do have similar personalities as far as we knew up to Season 5: reclusive, disliking the modern world, judgemental, with a peculiar wisdom of sorts that inspired devoted followers. Of course it would be totally unoriginal if TPTB did this, and I would not expect them too. I just enjoyed combining two of my favorite old fantasy movies ("20,000 Leagues Under The Sea", and "Mysterious Island") with the similar Lost story in my mind for a while.

And now we know that Jacob is actually two people! Well not really, but we got two for the price of one when Jacob was finally revealed, which added all kinds of confusion into the mix as far as who is telling whom to do what and for why, on the island. How about that, we were so intently trying to figure out who Jacob could be, and then they threw the Bad Twin at us too (sorry couldn't resist the reference). I pretty much dare TPTB to unwind this thing to my satisfaction by the end of Season 6, but I will bow to their artistic genius when they do.

"Second Lost Poster"

2009-08-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

The second installment of Lost posters to buy suckered me in and I bought one. I'm number #105, dang so close. :-)

This poster is very reminiscent of the movie poster for "Vertigo", but with the wheelchair it fits better with "Rear Window", that had James Stewart in a lower body cast the entire movie. He played an intrepid globe-trotting photo journalist, and no one told his character what to do in that movie either!

This poster also has some personal meaning for me, since I've been spending the past few years recovering from aggressive chemo and radiation therapy which rendered me physically handicapped in many ways. So I have to keep telling myself that my limitations can't tell me what to do, although I often must succumb to them. I'll just keep this poster handy for inspiration!

"This Little Piggie"

2009-08-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

On the subject of the number of Jacob's and MIB's toes, there aren't many screencaps available to assist in the research of both of the men in question. A few images confirm that Jacob has the average number of toes on an Earthling, on the foot that counts anyway -- i.e. like the left foot of the broken statue.

As for MIB, I haven't come across any definitive caps to resolve the query of his features yet. If anyone finds a good one, let us know. Tx. :-)

"I'm Just Saying - #4"

2009-07-27T08:06:00.001-07:00

The SD convention is over now and we're back to ruminating about S5 until Lost University opens, or someone gets more information out of the odd videos of Hurley, Kate, and Oceanic Air. Meanwhile, I've been thinking about Ben and Judas Iscariot.

A few things about the finale in the statue base, and Ben overall, have been reminding me of the stories that we know about Judas. It's believed from the Gospels of the Judeo-Christian bible that Judas did not quite become a follower of Jesus' teachings and what they really meant. That is, he didn't seem to really understand that Jesus was speaking of saving Israel in a spiritual sense, and rather might have put his hopes in Jesus being an earthly conqueror in releasing the Jewish nation from the immediate physical oppressors in their promised land -- i.e., to solve all of their problems in the here and now, not in some heavenly lofty "later". If he came to realize that this was not the case, it may have made him bitter and therefore easily swayed into turning Jesus over to be accused of being a false leader.

According to the other apostles, Judas was usually the stone in the cogs for much of their missions together. For example he allegedly hoped for a high position in the kingdom that he thought Jesus was building on earth, and when he saw that wasn't going to happen, that also turned him away. He was the groups' treasurer as we know, and when Jesus was anointed in Bethany, he pretended to be concerned for the poor and the wasted money represented in using the precious oil to anoint Jesus. But Jesus and other disciples knew his intentions (and that he took funds from their moneybag [John 12:6]), illustrated in his later deal for silver coins as well. It is also thought that Judas is one of the grumbling disciples mentioned who "...turned back and no longer followed Him..." (John 6:60-71). At that point Judas might have felt as if his allegiance to Jesus was all a waste of time and wasn't going to get him anywhere. His ambitious disappointment was capped by what happened in the garden of Gethsemane, when Judas gave his former teacher over to the officials who were already annoyed with Jesus.

Judas' misunderstanding of Jesus' purpose, his misguided faith, and eventual disillusionment and betrayal, all came to my mind as Ben whined to Jacob about not getting the kind of attention that he wanted after all of his efforts in Jacob's plans. Being so worked up in his heart, Ben was an easy target for Flocke/MIB tricking him into betraying Jacob in anger, resulting in Jacob's death -- just as Judas was finally an easy bribing target for the people who wanted Jesus silenced. I also couldn't help thinking that perhaps Jacob's making Ben wait, was a type of test for Ben that he ultimately failed miserably. I also wonder if Jacob knew this the way that Jesus knew about Judas' fate.

So do I think that TPTB were specifically making parallels between Ben's and Judas' life in the final scene of betrayal by Ben and Flocke? I don't know. I'm just sayin'.

"Comic Con From Afar"

2009-07-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday's Foxtrot cartoon (click for large readable jpg) just about says it all for those of us who can't get to SDCC this week, for the final participation of the Lost powers-that-be. So, we'll live vicariously through our Lost friends who can, and who'll give us their timely reports. P.S. Bill Amend is pretty neat, and very geek-friendly in his cartoons. :o)

"Separated At Birth?"

2009-07-19T12:31:00.001-07:00

Remember the photos and book published by Spy Magazine back in the 1980s that showed non-related famous people who looked like the twin of another random famous person? Well just for fun (and because I'm all theoried-out at the moment) I've got another entry. I give you: Neil Frogurt...

...and David Bowie. Definitely twin sons from different mothers, on different continents, haha. Have a good week everyone, give a toast to all of our astronauts who went to the Moon and back 40 years ago, and hopefully we will get a little pre-ComicCon goodie sent out through the ether this week to set the tone for whatever is to come from the Lost panel coming up!

"I'm Just Saying - #3"

2009-07-12T18:16:00.000-07:00

The scene where Charlotte pokes her head up out of the lagoon after cutting herself free from the parachute so brought to mind the scene in "Apocalypse Now" when Capt. Willard's head emerges from the river. Both Charlotte and Willard are on two missions -- to find a nutcase in control of a renegade faction, and to find the meaning of their lives. You can imagine Charlotte thinking the thoughts of Willard as she ponders her next move, "Part of me was afraid of what I would find and what I would do when I got there. I knew the risks, or imagined I knew. But the thing I felt the most, much stronger than fear, was the desire to confront him."

We don't know if Charlotte was at the end of her sanity in her search for the meaning of her past and future, as was Willard. But we can empathize with the same combination of fear and exhilaration she may have felt. And we can imagine Ben reciting the words of Col. Kurtz as well: "But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. As for the charges against me, I am unconcerned. I am beyond their timid lying morality, and so I am beyond caring." I don't know if TPTB were trying to create a purposeful image link with Charlotte's lagoon moment and "Apocalypse Now", even though Lost bloggers have made other comparisons to Conrad's book "Heart of Darkness" in the early seasons of the show. I'm just sayin'.

"Some Lost Art From My Past"

2009-07-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

This old dried up, cracked, and unfinished painting that I did in high school art class stares at me from the wall every time I sit at the computer. As I spend so much time online talking to my blog-buddies about Lost in front of this picture, I decided to revisit my past in Lost style, to give a new name to my old painting. I used to call it the "Cheez-Whiz" painting, for obvious reasons. But now I've renamed it "The Elizabeth" for Lost-related reasons. It makes me dislike the painting a lot less, so that's a good thing. :o)

"I'm Just Saying - #2"

2009-07-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th, Losties! The other part of the finale that reminded me of "Planet Of The Apes", was the emergence of Richard, Flocke, and Ilana's group at the base of the broken statue. This scene was of course reminiscent of the finale of the first Apes movie, when Taylor and Nova came upon the remnants of the Statue of Liberty on the beach. We know what happened to the statue on the apes' planet, but we don't yet know for sure what broke the island statue. Although I'd guess that it might have been fairly cataclysmic since there are no pieces of the top remaining on the beach. Did it get blown to bits by the cannons of the Black Rock? Perhaps the indigenous islanders attacked the Black Rock as it approached. Or was the ship's crew just in a state of panic after they accidentally went through a violent vortex, and arrived at the island thinking that they had been attacked?

Another interesting note, is that I've heard that the book or tablet that the Statue Of Liberty is holding is called the Book Of Law. We know that's the name of the book that Richard showed young Locke when he visited his house for what we've come to call Locke's Dalai Lama test. The Book of Law is also named in the section of the bible that Mr. Eko quoted to Locke in the Swan station. I'm just sayin'. :o)

"I'm Just Saying - #1"

2009-06-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

This is the first of a few posts where I'm just going to express the thoughts that I got while watching the finale. Thoughts like, what an aspect of the show reminded me of in a cinematic, literary, biblical, philosophical, or whatever, connection. I don't want to read too much (or sometimes anything) into what the scene brought to my mind. It's just a bubble of thought that rose to the surface of my fermenting Lost brain.

For instance, the minute Juliet began to go for the bomb, it reminded me of the scene in "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes" where Taylor makes his last dying act -- one that sets off the bomb to destroy the waring apes and mutants, and put an end to the madness. Oddly enough before he does it Zaius tells him, "Man is evil, capable of nothing but destruction," similar to what the MIB told Jacob on the beach. I'm just sayin'. :o)

"Sayid's Paradox"

2009-06-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

Hey Sayidsgirl over at TLC, this pic's for you. :-) Seriously, this is such a good screencap shot, it would make a great painting (I should do that this hiatus). Poor Sayid has been through so much, and worked so hard on the island to do the right things in his life going forward, as well as simultaneously being the Losties' personal post-crash MacGyver. Yet after all he's done to attempt to chase down some redemption for himself from his past, he appears to be one of the Losties whose destiny seems doomed to follow purposes much less noble than he would like to choose for himself. Sayid knows some dangerous skills that he'd like to forget, but those abilities repeatedly come in handy for their survival since the crash on this crazy island. Events continually transpire that threaten the castaways' survival, and Sayid's experience is often the only option available to save them at that moment.

For instance, consider his decision to shoot Little Bennie at the edge of Dharmville. I wonder if TPTB want Sayid to be as confused as I am, about his decision to kill a mere boy in the attempt to stop an evil man? In the movie Kung Fu Panda, Master Oogway tells Master Shifu that, "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it." Could Sayid's solution here fall under the causal loop paradox (Wiki:A time traveler attempting to alter the past in this model, intentionally or not, would only be fulfilling their role in creating history as we know it, not changing it"), or is he merely trying so hard to change the future, that he's actually bringing it to pass? Often in life we can cause something that we fear to happen, because our extreme behavior places us in that path after all. We are left to wonder if this will be the outcome of Sayid's questionable attempt to eliminate Bennie, in order to remove the trouble that the adult Ben has caused. Did Ben the man become evil because of his father, or because of losing his innocence via the island's magical healing due to Sayid's interference? Perhaps it would have happened either way, i.e., that was Ben's destiny and whatever happened between childhood and manhood, he would still end up being the little dictator of whatever world he lived in.

So TPTB leave us to wonder, will Sayid's intention really rid the world of a manipulating, conniving, sociopathic Benjamin Linus? Or does his attempt to eliminate Bennie actually cause the rising of evil adult Ben? These problems seem to plague Sayid across the board. He wants to be a good man, but circumstances and fate seem to keep thrusting him into a role that he doesn't desire to play in life. But as always Sayid comes to the rescue for the cause, even after taking Ben's future into his own hands, because he never gives up on helping the people that he believes to be on the side of good and sincerity. Are his motives still benevolent even if his methods are not? Hopefully Sayid will come to terms with that in Season 6, if he doesn't die from his gunshot wounds. TPTB often leave Sayid in precarious places emotionally and physically, but now that he's facing death for real he's going to need some peace of mind and personal redemption even more than before. I hope that TPTB let him find it either way.

"This Is Your Brain..."

2009-05-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

And this is your brain on the Season 5 Finale of Lost!

At least it represents my brain, after watching the last episode of 2009. After all the new plot aspects, answers, characters, and information that we got in this fantastic double ep finale, I feel like Frank Lapidus watching that mysterious cabin that he doesn't understand the relevance of, going up in flames.

Like Frank's visage of the burning cabin, with the introduction of Jacob and his anti-compadre in black into the storyline, most of my previous comprehensions of what has happened in Lost thus far have instantly flamed out, and I feel as if I must re-analyze nuch of what I've "seen" happen to our Losties and their island counterparts for the past five seasons. Especially due to some apparent contradictions to previous flashbacks we witnessed, including Memphish's fascinating discovery that Sun and Jin's two weddings (pre and post Jacob visit) seem to have serious differences! Be sure to see her post on that. http://macdaddymom.blogspot.com/

Most importantly, we no longer need to wonder what Jacob looks like, and we have some idea as to what he's about, including hints that he has been on a verrrry long mission of some sort that appears to have been continually countered by his personal nemesis. That will be worth a couple thousand blog articles in itself across the Lost-o-net. In addition, we lost our friends Daniel and Juliet this season, with Juliet and her Romeo's parting scene practically squeezing tears out of my TV! Shakespeare has got some competition with that scene. And I stand up and applaud Josh Holloway's sobbing performance (which we know will get passed over at the Emmy's for some other politically-correct dramatic role).

As overwhelming as this double finale episode was, I guess that I'll be compartmentalizing my thoughts on it, one topic at a time, over the long hiatus haul. I have a situation with chronic pain that flared up in April and hasn't let up yet, and it kind of makes my brain shut off when it does that, so I haven't even rewatched the finale yet! I haven't read any of the major recap posts either, so I'm a little behind on the analysis schedule. I hope to catch up soon in case something juicy happens at this year's Comic Con that requires serious attention (hope, hope, hope!).

I very much enjoyed watching Season 5 with you all everybuddy, and I look forward to reading all of your thoughts on it through the long hiatus! :-)

"Fifteen Down One To Go - 5.15"

2009-05-10T18:15:00.000-07:00

James and Juliet have been juggling time the way they've been trying to juggle the truth, and it all began to catch up with them after the Heal Bennie mission. No good deed goes unpunished in Dharmaland it seems. It reminds me of where I used to work. And so do Horace and Radzinsky...why is it that the good managers have to kowtow to the nasty ones who always want to hurt the honest people who are just trying to do the right thing? Ah well, that's a rant for my other blog.

I have to admit that I was really put off by Locke sauntering onto the beach with another one of his egotistical "when I'm not being a crybaby I'm a hunter" boars. In my brain I said, "Oh brother." I think that Richard did too.

Locke may seem different to Richard, but we've seen this side of him before. Hopefully his current plans are more positive and productive than they have been in the past. And why is Richard so pliant when he is clearly put off by Locke's loose-cannon attitude? Doesn't he have any say in what goes on?

Oh Daniel, what have they done?! At least you got to look your parents in the eyes, together, in death. But I have to say, the question of Penny's mother and the ambiguous nature of Des' parents is making me really hope that we won't be finding out that those two are actually related. :-p

It was great getting the Red October action in the Galaga, that was fun. Not so much for Juliet, and Kate seems to be oblivious to the kind of stress that she's causing Juliet. "Hey!" seems to be her stock expression anytime she turns up where she really isn't wanted.

So, they're off to see the wizard are they? Is Locke speaking literally or metaphorically when he says that he's going to kill Jacob? He'll either kill the myth or the man, but his unwillingness to explain his motives is, again, annoying to me.

And Ben also, by the looks on his face throughout the episode. :-)

Jack's the new Dharma-shark! This scene was so neat, did TPTB find this perfect little grotto with a tunnel or did they create it? Maybe it's on the brochure of things to visit when in Hawaii. I hope that they cover that in an upcoming issue of Lost magazine like they have with their other complicated set designs!

How was Dan planning on detonating this test bomb? Will they merely break into it to expose the fissile material inside to set off a chain reaction? Either way I'm with Kate on this one, what good can come to them, in radiating the entire island?! I'm also beginning to agree with the Popular Mechanics theory that this may be why the Others' babies get mutated. The island properties may help make super-sperm, but this radiation cannot be good for reproduction. Not that I don't trust Dan, but he's gone now and Jack may be a great surgeon but he's not a physicist.

This notation in Dan's book has to do with "very small black hole" theories. The "Schwarzchild radius" to be exact and something about universe expansion. And it is related to Chang's Kerr metric. I'll try to post more on this on my Lost Science blog, because I'm wondering if the "pinhole" that Chang mentioned is actually his euphemism for a very small black hole.

"Tribute To Professor Faraday"

2009-05-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

Well, our man Dan seems to be really most sincerely dead. There is a poem that was written for the Canadian scientist Louis Slotin who worked on the Manhattan Project, after he selflessly endangered himself during an experiment accident (dying nine days later) to save his fellow colleagues. Dan plunged into danger without fear for himself to save people from the disaster of the oncoming DI Incident. The Slotin poem seems appropriate to dedicate to Daniel.

May God receive you, great-souled scientist!

While you were with us, even strangers knew

The breadth and lofty stature of your mind

Twas only in the crucible of death

We saw at last your noble heart revealed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Slotin#The_criticality_accident

Well done Jeremy Davies, you played Faraday with an excellence and sensitivity that made us love your character! Step up to your place in the SciFi Geek Heart-throb Hall Of Fame next to Mr. Spock. :-x

Once again, here's my little artistic trib to Dan the Man from a year ago.

"Happy 100th Episode - 5.14"

2009-04-30T08:26:00.001-07:00

This week we watch helplessly as Dan’s life is revealed to be a dizzying circle of destiny that he has little control over. His mother (and missing father) guide his brilliant mind toward their own goals of saving…what, the island? The world? The Universe? Whatever, it’s the “God help us all” destruction that TPTB have been hinting at since Season 2. Who knew that Daniel Faraday was the center of all of this, we thought that it was Desmond?! We also watch Dan propel himself into a spiral of logic concerning what could happen if the energy pocket under the Swan location never gets compromised by the excavation, sending the 815ers on a new course that they never dreamed could exist, i.e., getting the Big Do-Over.

So many questions are aroused by Dan’s startling new mission (which is actually his mother’s mission?), that you hardly know where to begin. The obvious being the contradictions between what he said previously about changing the past, and what he said to Jack and Kate about people being the variables in the equation of life. People are always the variables! Didn't Calvin once tell Hobbes the tiger that the world would be a perfect place if it wasn’t for all the people in it? Somehow, Dan had forgotten to include these variables in his calculations concerning the island’s energetic timewarp problems. I guess that we can give him some slack for forgetting, since he did have those memory problems and had to catch up on his theories in double-time after he arrived on the island, verified by how we’ve seen him frantically shuffling through his notes every time something offbeat happens. BTW, Dan’s reading his notes on the Scale Factor (a theory on relative expansion of the universe) as he's preparing to speak to Chang below the Orchid, which I’ll do some research on for a Lost Science post.

The next question to ponder is for Jack and Kate. That is, do they really want to change their future course so that they never crash on the island? Certainly for those who died that might be a better outcome, although perhaps they would die somehow soon anyway, as per universal course-correction. But do Jack and Kate really want to create a world in which they never meet or have the chance for redemption? One where all the interactions between the other Losties never happened and where the sick people aren't healed? Juliet and James might have something to say about that, they seem to want things to stay just the way they are now and I don't blame them. Another thing to consider about this is, what will happen when the future changes…they don’t belong in 1977 in their 2007 bodies, will they get sucked into some kind of vortex and get spit back out into their proper place in time? That’s gotta hurt. Or maybe they'll just stay put and never exist where they did later. And one more question about course-correction: how do you know which is the correction and which is the way it was supposed to be? Maybe Charlie was supposed to almost die three times.

Then we are compelled to question the heck out of Eloise’s actions. At first I didn’t see it, but she seemed to be in a painful spot at each critical turn of Dan’s life, guiding her gentle talented son towards something that was necessary but (at the end) fatal for him. Eloise is played by the same actress in the piano scene and on the island. How long after she shot and met older Dan, was she in the parlor steering Danny to his life spent "studying relativistic physics"? Did she suddenly know when she walked into the parlor that she had shot her own son in the past, the way that Desmond suddenly “knew” that Dan had given him a new memory? It sounded like that, the way that Dan accused her of knowing what was going to happen in his last breath. She and Widmore may have both known where Dan was going in life, but perhaps Eloise alone knew that she shot Dan in another time loop. Let’s hope that he gets carried to the temple like Bennie did, but I don’t have much hope for that. Anyway, you know that she was always proud of him and his special gifts, but maybe she should have taken some of Miles’ advice and told him that before it was too late.

The next probing question is why Dr.Chang didn’t believe Dan at all about his time travel. I mean, if you’re studying time travel, you might think that someone from the future where it’s become possible, might travel back to talk to you about it for some reason, most likely to give you some advice. But I suppose we can assume that somehow Chang warms up to the idea, due to the video that he made in his bungalow that he sent to the DIs at ComicCom last summer.

A few other thoughts I had were:
* Des, don’t you know that saying you’ll never leave someone will make it happen?!
* Why would Eloise say that it was Dan’s fault that Des was shot? Wasn’t it more Widmore’s fault because of sending Ben on a vengeance spree?
* I thought that Eloise was going to steal Charlie while Penny was visiting Des!
* Won’t blowing the island up with an H-bomb ruin everyone’s future as well, via either death or severe radiation burns?!
* Was Widmore in LA due to Ben’s threat against Penny?
* Jack falls back into his comfort zone of resolving conflict and fixing things, hoo-rah!
* Dammitt Kate, you and your guns you got Dan killed!
* Why did Dan need a gun to talk to his mother, so she couldn’t talk him into her way of doing things again or because of how trigger-happy she was in 1954?
* Why does Richard seem to have memory problems like Dan when it comes to recalling people that he’s met on the island before?!

* Will little Charlie not be born if time gets reset?

* I knew that Teresa was his girlfriend as well as his assistant, how could she resist?!
* Funniest line: “I just got shot by a physicist!” -- as if physicists aren’t supposed to shoot people. X-D

A great episode for a great milestone! Thanks to TPTB for giving us 100 fascinating hours of TV fun, new friends, stimulating mental gymnastics, and intellectual frustration.

"Little Big Miles - 5.13"

2009-04-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

Probably everyone would agree that it was great to see a Miles origins episode, and we now know that his story fits in with all the DHARMA drama this season. It was worth the wait to have TPTB insert it here, and his backstory was a lot more than I expected that we would get about our favorite ghostbuster.

I also really like the trusting relationship that has evolved between James and Miles in DI-ville. The two most belligerent guys of the island "intruders" have formed their own circle of trust, that helps the FBs manage to keep their profiles low and their phony story going. That is, until Mr. Nosy got his hands on the fence tape. Well, I guess that he was just doing the job that he was hired to do.

OK a picture is worth a thousand words so, 'nuff said here. Whew. I really just can't believe that Kate and Juliet didn't try to think up a better cover story than, "...uh, um, I'm sorry Roger, um, uh..."

TPTB have drawn us farther into the DI machine with every S5 episode and that's fine with me. I have been dying to know more about the DI since the TLE ARG days, and although we're getting it in the usual bits and pieces Lost is known for, it's great. Miles rolls with whatever game is necessary, to keep up the FB charade. He's good with every contingency plan that arises and is adept at staying under the radar. But chaos theory will win out as the security tape incident shows, and Hurley in all his dopey innocence is bound to let every dang cat out of the bag if he's not careful! It's also interesting that the two guys who can converse with the dead (albeit in different ways for different reasons) keep ending up together. I know, that's the way that TPTB are writing it, but it's still neat. Their banter has filled the gap where Sawyer's ritual sardonic repartee used to be, now that he's all serious security man and has the fate of the FBs on his shoulders.

Ken Leung in Miles' punk version looked so young, his voice even sounded more innocent and less marred by years of pent up feelings as the angry young dude with a 'tude. Maybe he was just being gentle with his mother, but Leung did a great job in this scene. We got some juicy details about his parents' past too, although it's not like we didn't already have enough time to mull over and guess all that info, which is the one bad thing about this show's structure...they give us fragments of hints to things, and then give us too much time to guess what's going to happen.

Is Bram a part of the group that we were supposed to fly to the island with on flight 316? I guess we'll never know what our part might have been with the reconstituted DI. Lost2010 at TLC thinks that Bram is part of the DI kids that got ejected off of the island along with Miles and Charlotte. I really like that idea and it fits with Charlotte's story, i.e., searching all her life for signs of her past and returning to the island. Perhaps these DI offspring have been on the same lifelong quest as hers, and ultimately Miles', but in a much more aggressive way. Are they backed by Alvar Hanso? Let's not even mention Hans from the last ARG, he's dead to most of us now.

Again, well done Mr. Leung and Lost writers, the scene of Miles watching his baby self with his dad gets me ferklempt every time I watch it. Especially when Chang charges out of the house after the phone call and says, "Miles I need you," and Miles squeaks out, "You do???" Great scene. Viewing Miles' recruitment by Naomi was an interesting and unexpected addition to the episode. I wonder if Charlotte got some kind of skills test. Did Naomi test Michael's deck swabbing skills as well before he got hired? :o)

We are privy to more of the secret station construction this week also, and it makes you wonder exactly how much TPTB really spend on this show. Seriously, take a good look at all the equipment and structures at both the sites! Just incredible, even if some of it is CGI, and we fans really appreciate it. Koreambear at EyeMSick and I noticed in the captions that someone carrying the bodybag mentioned something about Jimmy Hoffa...was that a hint from TPTB that Mr. Fillinghead is going to be buried in one of the cement pylons or cornerstones of the Orchid building to hide him? :-)

And then we have Mr. Faraday without his tie. I honestly thought he'd have it on till the end of the show, but he wears the DI jumpsuit very well. As disappointed as I was that the DeGroots didn't pop out of the sub, seeing Dan climb out and looking as if he has his wits about him again made up for it.

Now a little comment about Mr.Chang. I've mentioned here before that I've worked with many wild and woolly scientists during my lab career and Chang has many of the typical characteristics of the most annoying ones. Daniel is on one end of the scientific personality continuum, and Chang is on the other. There are guys like Chang who are so smart that they can't possible tolerate dealing with peons who don't have the brain power that they have, because we're like ants to them. They also think that everyone else's work and particular discipline is inferior to theirs, and to say that they have a superiority God-complex would be selling them short. Then you go to one of those company picnics where everyone's family shows up and there this idiot guy is with his family acting like Chang did with baby Miles, and you say to yourself, "This is the pompous ass that I work for????" So whether they realize it or not, TPTB really did a good job of portraying a certain type of scientist that's a jerk on the outside and the doting dad on the inside. This guy really does exist in life, not just in the DI.

Home Sweet Home - 5.12"

2009-04-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

This week on "Legend Of The Seeker", Charles Widmore rides into camp on horseback looking very medieval. I like that look for Charles, it looks as good on him as it did once on Richard, but I wonder where Richard's medieval shirt and long hair went, he seems to have remained in his modern purple shirt and short hair for some time now, even though when we first saw him with Bennie he was sporting the long hair and embroidered shirt. Does it mean anything?

Charles' lesson to Ben about insider anarchy was actually a huge part of the hippie "revolution" back in the 60s-70s. Overthrowing from within was the message of the "New Left", as illustrated in Abby Hoffman's S.D.S. propaganda publication "Steal This Book". It's also woven into the "V For Vendetta" story. As Koreambear mentioned on EyeMSick, I also wonder if Amy was one of these double-agent plants in DI-ville, which could be how Ethan became an Other so young. Or was it just a case of an angry young man growing into an angry older man?

It's annoying when Locke gets so smug when things are going easy for him. His hubris might be for a different reason this time around, since he's Zombie John now after all, but we'll see if he turns into a puddle again when the going gets tough. I'm getting very confused about how Ben says that he does and doesn't know what was going to happen with Locke coming alive. But I'm beginning to wonder if he uses the ploy of innocence that the Emperor Claudius used in ancient Rome ("I, Claudius" by Robert Graves) i.e., playing up your disabilities on the dumb side to make people think that you're less of a threat than you really are. Otherwise I don't see the gain in letting Sun think that he had no idea that John would come back to life. The way that Ben turns people against each other is also a form of insider anarchy. But to me the best line of the night was Ben saying, "Well, I just didn't have time to talk you back into hanging yourself!" P.S....is that a stuffed Hurleybird in Ben's office? :-D

All the temple scenes in this episode were very satisfying to me, I've been looking forward to it for a long time. And our intrepid Bendiana Jones dives into scouting out the lower chambers looking for his judgement. The psychological implications of Ben needing to come back to be judged for letting Alex die was reflected in the look on his face the moment she was killed. The encounter between Ben and Smokey-Alex was incredible TV viewing. ::coughEMMY!cough:: I'm guessing that Alex wasn't supposed to die, hence, why Ben was judged for it. Luckily, he truly was sorry for his mistake, unlike Eko, and Smokey grants reprieve. BTW, look closely at the temple pics above and below...both show Smokey coming from the stepped grate. Let's study the rest of the hieroglyphics to see what else can be interpreted literally!

One question about Smokey though: why can he slither through the grate holes, but not through the trunks and roots of the banyan trees to get at people? Okay, two questions: what does draining a sinkhole have to do with summoning Smokey? Please explain soon, Damelton!

I also found the judgement scene to be extremely satisfying as well. Up to now we've only seen this happening from the outside as onlookers, squinting at the images flashing around the judged person in the jungle. Now we get to see it from the inside, as the defendant being judged, and that was a very dramatic effect.

It was interesting how Widmore predicted Ben's eventual banishment. It could have been just a macho version of a parting shot, but Wid seemed to have a bead on Ben's personality from the beginning, illustrated in their continual clashes over protocol, etc.

I was very happy that Ben didn't shoot any members of Our Mutual Family! Let's hear it for bulletproof groceries, and the power of mothers and children on Ben's psyche. Then, Daddy to the rescue!

I really don't like Ilana (as a person, not a character), and I can't say that I'm sorry that we probably won't be seeing Caesar anymore. Because, dead is dead, right? Hmph, who put them in charge?! But for now I'm guessing that Ilana is most likely a part of Widmore's second-wave assault and that mega-trunk is filled with their artillery. But would the Others and the DI both have used riddles? Or had Radzinsky gone over to the Dark Side by the time he was stuck with Kelvin in his beloved Swan? That would be the kind of twist that TPTB would throw at us, but we'll have to wait and see as usual. And by the way, was that Ben's desk that Caesar pulled the hidden sawed-off shotgun out from under?! Not so corporate John, and you're still not seeing more than what's only before yours eyes.

"Lies, Truths, And The New Jack - 5.11"

2009-04-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well this episode was very involved and I still haven't digested it sufficiently to discuss it easily. We went down so many different roads here, light and heavy, and they all require a lot of thought. Aside from the usual comic relief that TPTB give us weekly, a lot of major disturbances happened, and not just in time and space.

For one thing (back to the poor kid getting shot) what the hay, what's up with Ben's gunshot wound being on the opposite side this week that it was on last week?! I couldn't help yelling at the TV as soon as I saw it, it was so obvious! Vozzek69 at DarkUFO has a theory (purposeful mindgames from the island), but I'm not sure I can go with it. There's got to be something up here though, because surely the costume department would notice that they had to have two separate bloody jackets, with two different holes in them in different places. You'd think that someone in the crew would have noticed it. To be continued, I guess. It was touching to see Roger come to his senses as a Dad finally, but older Ben makes it sound as if he didn't keep that up too well, before he gives Roger his complementary can of poison gas with his can of beer.

It seems that TPTB wanted to depressurize our brains a bit instead of making us wait for Daniel to come back onto the scene, so we get the Time Warp discussion with Hurley and Miles. And we deserved it. :-) Well we did! It's not too much different from what most have guessed, but I wanted to hear it from TPTB's mouths only, because no matter what things that we can guess, it all boils down to how they are going to make it work in their story. So I'm very thankful that they relieved some of the speculation that we'll have to do about that...for a while.

You know that this whole trip has just sprung Jack's last good nerve, and he's got nowhere left to go but around to the other side, and that would be the side of Faith one would hope. And um, nobody liked the old wino you, Jack.

But before he gets his act together completely, there's a new Jackface in town, ya'll best get used to it! And he's not going to let anyone push him into being a hero this time around. This episode is the first one where Jack actually refers to the Island as an entity in itself! Locke would be proud. It was a baby step, but it was a step nonetheless.

And on top of finding out that Jack can probably be partly accused of turning Bennie into Zombie Ben, it was also his fault that Kate lost track of Aaron! Don't think that she didn't hold that against him too!

This was such a frightening scene and it lasted a long time, the way that time seems to stop when it happens in real life. Such a tense scene, and all of E.L.'s work this episode was very good. I didn't much care for the scenes with Cassidy (what kind of morals did she expect from a Conman, and one that she conned people with herself?). But at least Kate had someone to be friends with finally, and thinking back to her giggly phone conversation that Jack walked in on that scene gets more meaning. He's probably thinking, "Why does she have a friend, I don't have one?!", heheh.

Just because we were together, it doesn't mean that we're together Freckles. Ouch. James really has matured, good. I hope that he and Juliet do stay together, but mostly because I find fickle characters that keep changing their minds very boring.

We didn't need shaving!!! Er, saving. Obviously, because we see again that Jack's hair hasn't grown back since Juliet shaved it off on the beach. Hmmm. But more importantly, what about that saving stuff, what do they need to be saved from if everything turned out hunkydorey for them in DI-ville? There must be something looming down the road a piece.

Welcome back chump! I can't help but think that most of Ben's reaction to seeing Locke was another one of those quick scenes before the show's over to make you think that one thing is happening, and then it turns out to be something else altogether in the next episode. So I'm not going to think too much about this one yet. And the next pic is for Wayne...

KLAATU BARADA NIKTO!!!!

"Natural Born Kiddo - 5.10"

2009-03-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

This episode was very uncomfortable viewing, to me. I don't enjoy the violent storylines in the show and prefer Lost with philosophical and adventurous tones, without killings every ten minutes. That's just me. So this episode left me feeling like how the kid in the picture looks.

Little Bennie has formed a fascination with the Hostiles since we last saw him. This time we see (by how helpful he is with the sandwiches!) that he really could have been a help to his dad being useful and worthy of love if he was only given a chance -- something that Sayid obviously didn't intuit at the end of show when he had to go and KILL HIM!!! Sheesh. But by the time we see Bennie here, the seeds of self-loathing and shame have taken their toll on his psyche and he's becoming the master schemer that he'll be as an adult. Or...was Bennie a congenital killer like little Sayid is supposed to be?

The conversation between Ben and Sayid at the construction site reminded me of Kill Bill 2, where Bill tells Beatrix that she's a natural born killer herself, and that she can't have a normal life no matter how hard she tries. Earlier, Sayid seemed to think that Ben had used him as his own personal killing machine, but as Ben points out to Sayid he was very eager to hop onto the killing train on his own, and now it's over. So Ben more or less tells him to go get a life, if he has one, while Ben pretends to giddily traipse back to the lovely life that he doesn't have either. The Pot calling the Kettle black? I think so.

You have to feel sorry for Horace this week, he was in a very bad spot. It's like in those cartoons when the character has a devil (Radzinsky) on one shoulder, and an angel (James) on the other, each trying to sway the decision-making process of the poor confused soul. Horace sticks with procedure though and takes Sayid for some psychedelic discipline and the funniest scenes of the episode. Sayid must have been cracking up for how scary Oldham's torturous practices weren't..."ooooh, yer gonna make me trip my brains out for answers, wow!" Heheh. I guess that we're supposed to assume that Oldham would bring out the tongue-pliers if the drugs didn't work.

And I'm going to place a small bet right now that Radzinsky actually died after he nagged Kelvin past his one last good nerve, some particularly lonely night in the Swan. Perhaps Kelvin didn't pull the trigger, but I can imagine him egging Radz on very strongly in order to put them both out of Mr.Poopiepants' misery. There's always a hot-headed Widmore and a naggy Radzinsky in very bunch.

Not much to say about Kate and Juliet yet, until we see how the new prisoner situation might unravel their cover story. If the con gets crazy, James and Juliet might not have much time to play house anyway. But Kate can't say that Sawyer didn't ask her to play house first, back when he was still Sawyer. See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya, Kate.

The Sheriff has got a lot to ponder from here on out. Hurley should not cause him any problems, unless he makes one of his famous slips of the lip. Juliet's got his back, and so far Jack is willingly playing along with his Sheriff role even if only to allow James to trip himself up so then Jack gets to laugh at him. Kate's good at lying, but how long will her patience last if James doesn't come running back as quickly as she wants? And the rest of the Left Behinders apparently don't exist anymore, so they aren't going to be a problem. But I reckon that the Sheriff is learning that it's lonely at the top.

"That's The Way They Became The Dharma Bunch - 5.09"

2009-03-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

An unexpected vacation kept me from posting on this great episode in a timely manner, but I guess I'll still put down some thoughts anyway FWIW. I loved the opening shot in the cockpit of 316, during the crash. And I will now make the type of comment that I usually don't make in my blogs...FRANK IS TOTALLY HOT!!!!! Ahem. I like pilots. And yes, I'm going to see the retro-showing of "Top Gun" at my theater next month, up in the front row. I hope that it's in 3D. :-)

Back to Lost; who doesn't think that Jin is feeling great in his new security job?! He gets to do the kind of work that he probably would have preferred to do for Mr. Paik (if he absolutely had to work for him), that is, be a benevolent gangster. This kind of work he gets to do in DHARMA-ville with a flourish. I love how TPTB wrote the dialogue between Jin, the captured Sayid, and James to keep their facade going in front of the DIs. It was all very savvy and Sayid's war-seasoned reply about whether or not he was a Hostile was pure Sayid.

It really pains me to have to relive the 1970s again in the show. The 70s were not kind to me on the whole (bad marriage, scary divorce) but I did meet some wonderful people who made sure that I came out of it OK. Too bad I couldn't have escaped to DHARMA-ville, which we got to see much more of this episode. I worried that there would be more than just side glances between Kate and James on the porch there. And as noted everywhere in the Lost-o-sphere, Jack getting vocational placement as janitor was priceless. Like James would probably say, "Payback's a b#tch," but he most likely did it to keep loose-canon-Jack on the sidelines where he might not cause too much trouble.

Concerning time paradoxes, I just put my brain in sleep-mode for that area of the story. There were some serious activities there that would surely cause a few moments in time to be rearranged, especially Juliet playing hot-potato with baby-Ethan after she found out who he was, considering the fact that he was the one who recruited her. Oops, too late, my brain just exploded again!

James' little speech to Jack was long time coming. Even though Christian tried to say the same thing to Jack at times, it didn't take because he said it in the wrong ways. James laid it out logically and succinctly. Hopefully Jack will heed the advice this time, but I have a feeling that the Jack is going to hit the fan soon enough.

Frank as the responsible pilot, has his work cut out for him in the middle of this second motley wreck he's crash-landed onto with this island. But like pilots say, any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing. It's really too bad that he wasn't on 815, because having him in charge (surely a pilot would rank over a surgeon in the castaway-leader qualifications!) would have saved us all a lot of Jack-face. And Dedjezter (at TLC) and I were right, Ben did take off alone after the crash to pursue his own interests, we just didn't know it yet when we saw him in the infirmary, thanks to Sun playing Whack-A-Ben with him!

"A (Very) Little Humor"

2009-03-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

This comic in the Sunday Funnies made me think of Lost. My additions aren't very funny, but you can probably sympathize with what I was thinking. So far I just can't get my head to understand the contradictions of what TPTB have told us about living through time more than once. It's like, "now you see it, now you don't" but with Lost it's, "now you can change it, now you can't." Don't they realize what they've done to our brains?! I'm sure they do, and I'm sure they are having a lot of fun with it. But I hope that they have mercy on us and give us a little more insight into their rules of time and space before the hiatus for Season 6. :o)

http://comics.com/f_minus/

"Introducing, James - 5.08"

2009-03-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

How do you know that you spend too much time thinking about Lost? Well for one, you have a dream that TPTB have chosen some fans to be in the show and you are one of them. You are given the script the night before shooting and are expected to have your lines memorized by the next day. Some of your scenes will be in the water, and you are just glad that you don't have to wear a bathing suit, but some of your clothes will be burned in another scene with a fire. All of a sudden "reality" turns into fantasy and while you are doing scenes with Jeremy Davies, time starts skipping all over the place. You find his mother, who happens to be Nina from Fringe(!). You escape out of a window while being chased by a train, and then all kinds of other weird things happen that are just too goofy. Then you wake up and want to go back to sleep to finish the dream! :-o

So obviously, I really enjoyed this episode! First, I was so blown away by how Sawyer has totally evolved into a person who has done a 180' turn in his life, and most importantly doesn't hate himself anymore. His transformation is fascinating to me, because I've always believed that a person can improve or change if they only want to. And Sawyer the bad-ass, has turned into James the fine upstanding citizen because he wanted to, while still retaining his sense of humor and fun (life doesn't have to be boring just because he's nice now!). The only question is, will he be strong enough to maintain his shiny new self after Katherina the Shrew (thank you Shakespeare) gets her claws into him again?

The other subject of note in this episode was the few seconds worth of the island's giant statue during one of the flashes. I won't delve into that here, as talk of Egyptian deities has been burning up the Lost blogs since Wednesday night. But I have to say that all this brings to mind the research of Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer who sailed the Atlantic in a papyrus boat (two if you count the first try that wasn't successful) to see if it would have been at all possible for Egyptians to sail to the New World from Morocco, with their limited technology. He and his crew proved that it was.

And wouldn't you know, Morocco just happens to be very near one of the Vile Vortices of Africa that we suspect might be involved in the travel from Tunisia to the island, and vice versa. Could that be how Egyptians, of all peoples, managed to make it to our island? Did one of their boats run into an unfortunate vortex that swept them through a cosmic corridor to a moving island? I've had a long-time crush on Thor (and oddly, he died on the same day my dad died) and I will be very excited if TPTB have chosen to include his amazing work in the plethora of world history that they have woven into the show. He is from Norway after all, just like Hanso. http://www.kon-tiki.no/Ny/Dok_eng/e_start.html

One thing that I will mention about Old Four Toes is that the peeps at DarkUFO seem to have found the most similar deity (Taweret) that actually has a cake on its head like Four Toes does! I have to admit, when I was looking through the list of Egyptian gods, I skipped over the ones with alligator heads and did not see this one. As a former technician in a research lab, I should have known better than to pass over any possible data!

"Fate Vs. Probabilty - 5.07"

2009-02-28T18:23:00.000-08:00

Leave it to Lost to make us wonder what kind of memory loss you'd have if you died and came back to life in a different place. Apparently you'd remember dying, but you'd have a heck of a time figuring out how you ended up on a beach in a strange suit that you didn't own. And you'd really love juicy tropical fruit. And speaking of the living dead, are we supposed to think that Christian came back to life too, and is not just an apparition? He did seem to take off his shoes as well.

** It was very satisfying to see so much of Widmore (especially at the FDW exit!) and to have him be so chatty. But why did he wait so long to help Locke? It seems like everyone in Locke's life likes to make him suffer first before they help him.

** Are we supposed to think that Widmore is confused about the time travel concerning when he first met Locke? He's lived on the island in the days before the DI, knows the FDW effects, and knows enough about the supposed portals or vortices to know about "exits", and yet he still thinks, "...that's incredible" that so little time as passed since he met Locke? Also, I'd like to know how Widmore and the islanders protected the island "peacefully" while they're killing US Army soldiers, etc.

** Oh, and the "Because you are" answer to Locke about why he's special was totally lame and I'm calling shenanigans on TPTB!

** It was so fantastic to see Abaddon too! Did he get to ask Locke for that favor he was owed? Alas, he's gone too soon.

** Why is it that whenever Locke gets foothold on his purpose or destiny, he always forgets his manners and etiquette and starts ordering people around?! Not very nice John, maybe that's why people are mean to you, because you are mean to them. Mr. Abaddon was just trying to do his job.

** Since Sayid said that he was manipulated by Ben, does that mean that he thinks/knows that Ben killed Nadya?

** I have no idea why Ben saved Locke just to kill him, or why he went berserk when Locke mentioned Mrs.Hawking. Just...so...confused... And really John, is that rathole the best room that you could get with the money that Widmore gave you? :-o

** Oh Kate, you incredible pompous ass. "Haha, charade you are!" Look at how far you've come, you still think that you're better than everyone else and can presume to know everything about people that you have no interest in whatsoever. The evil eye to you Kate. Or better yet, I'll give you the treatment that a certain celebutard blogger gives his photos.

** Is Helen really dead? Probably, but I don't know what to believe on this show anymore. I really did like what Abaddon said at the grave site though. I've always been confused about destiny, predestination, what's meant to be, etc.

** Like Jay said at his blog, that was some amazing Jack-face (about 100 of 'em in a row!) when he and Locke were talking about his father. Yes Jack, it's highly probable that you will outdo Lon Chaney, Man Of A Thousand Faces, when you are upset!

** What was the drawing of the Imaginary Space and Time doing in the Hydra? Is it Dan's or did he copy that page into his notebook? Wow. http://capcomslost.blogspot.com/2008/02/footnotes-for-future-405.html

** Was that red hair in the preview?????? :-o

** Good bye Mr. Abaddon, you seemed like a very cool guy. Hope that we see you in another life, or time, soon.

"Deja Vu All Over Again - 5.06"

2009-02-22T16:12:00.000-08:00

This was an excruciating week for me in many ways, so I haven't got much of a response to this episode. I had to watch it three times before things finally began to sink in, and I haven't even had the interest to read other recaps yet. What struck me at first viewing though, was how last week's ending was repeated in part of this week's beginning. And this week's opening scene was repeated at the end of this episode. Hmm. Are we supposed to take something from that? Dual worlds? Multiple universes? I dunno.

** Interesting development, this off-island DI station called the Lamp Post. I half expected Ms.Hawking to plug in a DI orientation video! Did the Hostiles take over all the global DI stations?

** The spiral staircase that they descended brought to mind the famous mysterious staircase at Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe. I know, sometimes a staircase is just a staircase. But it's a great story full of mystic and religious symbolism, and a mysterious piece of handiwork. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretto_Chapel

** Of course it was great to see more of the calculation room and the pendulum. Who watching didn't think that Des was either going to get clocked by the pendulum, or kick it? I hope that we find out how it works to set up the coordinates on the flipping wall chart.

** So, L.A. has an abnormal energy pocket as well? Who knew? That must be why Hollywood is so crazy. There is one off the CA coast according to the Vortices theory maps. And who could this "clever fellow" be? Alvar? Daniel? And does Dan's chalkboard match up at all with Mrs.H's? It's worth checking out. And what did she mean by "all the coordinates"? Maybe it's all the flights that go near the entire circumference of the energy area around the island. And what does it mean that the results will be unpredictable if they all don't go back, that they won't land in the correct time? Or someone will die? More "bad things", I guess.

** Interesting that Des gave Jack almost the same instructions about Mrs.H, as Sayid gave to Hurley about Ben.

** I wonder if Locke had to kill himself off-island because both Lockes could not be on the island at the same time. Maybe he just had to play dead-man-flying in lieu of CS. But when Jack was putting the shoes on Locke, it made me think that it was like Dorothy putting the ruby slippers back on the dead witch's feet, and I half expected Locke's feet to shrivel up like hers did! :o)

** Scoutpost on TLC had a good thought about the Thomas story that Ben told: "Perhaps that was the purpose of Ben's "Doubting Thomas" speech in the church. Maybe Jack will encounter a resurrected/reincarnated Locke and have to believe even though it doesn't make scientific sense." Sounds good. It's also interesting that the Bible verse about Thomas being faithful and protective of Jesus comes from within the story of the raising of Lazarus. Hmm. (John, ch.11)

** Jack's grandfather encounter went over my head, if there was anything there to be gleaned from that whole scenario. The only thing that made me sit up was the freaky bunny with the Richard Alpert eyes!

** I'm not even going to talk about Kate and how she acted. :-p

** It's great that Frankie was the pilot, and how fun was that to hear his voice first before seeing him?!

** Finally, I hope that Sawyer has learned his lesson and totally ignores Kate when they are reunited. Now that she's not "together" with Jack, guess who she's going to go run to? Dangitt, I didn't want to talk about her!

"Death And Ruins - 5.05"

2009-02-14T17:49:00.000-08:00

As much as this episode jumped around, I found it very satisfying. Not in terms of answering enough questions, or not adding any more, but just in how full it was of tantalizing scenes and activities! But some of the points that stuck with me are:

** If Sun shot Ben, would the Island make the gun misfire a-la Michael's attempts? Either Ben has no fear of her pulling the trigger for that reason (so he can be as snarcastic as he likes), OR, Ben has fallen out of favor (and usefulness) with the Island and he is very afraid that she will shoot him (and his sarcasm comes from that fear). I'm not quite sure what to think about where Ben may stand within the Island's graces at this point, now that he's made so many misjudgements along the way.

** It was great getting to learn more about the B612s of course, so thanks very much to TPTB for living up to their promise of giving us Danielle's backstory! Who knew that they had been to the ruins/Temple?! So sad that they lost a war with Smokey and disappeared down one of his vents though. Why was Montand so casually asking for help after his arm was ripped off?! "Hey help! And by the way, could you send down a cappuccino?" It was nice of his colleagues to look for him down the hole, but what happened to them all?? Did they look into the eye of the Island like Locke did? Maybe Robert shot Danielle for the same reason that Locke shot Naomi, because she would have ultimately, and sanely, worked against the island's wishes.

** Seeing Jin as the wise islander with the B612s was very interesting. For so long he had to rely on the guidance of everyone else, but here he was almost in a leader role for them.

** Some time-skips come quickly and some take longer. It would be weird if it happened every 4,8,15,16,23,42,and 108 minutes, which would kind of connect it to the Swan venting protocol. I doubt if it does though.

** It worries me that Locke keeps saying that Sun wasn't supposed to leave the island. If she was meant to stay, does that mean that she and JiYeon were meant to die? Because they would have if she had not left.

** "So, you speak any other languages?" "Just Klingon." X-D

** In the first few seasons, we were told that the island was a good and healing place. Now we are told that it is death? I'm confused...again.

** I wonder if we'll see little Charlotte saying something to Mr.Dan in the past in a time-skip about not having chocolate before dinner, that would connect the past and the future? And, totally freak Dan out. I'm sorry that Charlotte died, and sorry if we don't get to see Mader in the show any more, she played the part very well.

** The scene where the well closed up and Sawyer is left holding the rope was incredible. Obviously the FDW surface hole was not natural, which begs the question: Why did someone dig an easy access well to the FDW, if the power source is so volatile and dangerous to humans? Wouldn't that be a bit like leaving the lid off of the Chernobyl chimney after it blew and was spewing out radiation?

** It never ceases to amaze me how Locke can be so brave and so cowardly at the same time, and Terry O'Q is such an amazing actor in portraying all the mental nuances of emotions that run through Locke's head.

** Does Dan know that his mother lives in a church spending her time working on the mechanics of the Islands movements? Can't wait to find out.

** It looked as if the FDW did rotate some when Locke made the adjustment, was that the moment that Locke gets bounced off the island? I suppose so, since CS was practically saying good-bye.

Update: Jo commented on her first article about this ep that we should probably be studying up on Charthage and Hannibal, which is a very good idea. Charlotte's babbling might not have been just all filler dialogue to show how crazy she was until she died. :-o

http://jopinionated.blogspot.com/

"What's Done Is Done - 5.04"

2009-02-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

What a fun episode! Sawyer is just really working out to be an incredible character this season since TPTB have put him in the forefront of the adventures of the LB-6 (that is, the LBs without Rose and the rest). He's more trusting with people (especially with Juliet), not afraid of facing his feelings, and very different from the "new sheriff in town" attitude that he had before his life altering experiences on the island. And just when he opens his heart to someone, Kate has to rip it out. I hope that he gets close to Juliet by the time Kate comes back, and therefore won't care about her anymore when she does. Juliet's calming effect on Sawyer will hopefully lead towards that happening. Having said that:

** Here's how I would have written this line for Kate; "I've always been with you...ahem, except when I was with Sawyer." Boo, Kate, boooooo. We know better and so does Jack.
** Very interesting that TPTB have Kate coming up with the idea to lie for Aaron's sake.
** Heheh, Sun gets a "candygram" without the landshark! Who sent her the info and the chocolate handgun, I wonder?
** Again, how is it that Dan doesn't know how to explain what's going on with the mega-jet-lag? Is he having some memory problems again?
** It's a good trick that Ben is pulling to harass the O-6 into fleeing The World and go back to the island. A bad trick by TPTB for letting us think that it was Mrs. Littleton that was harassing Kate for a minute. :-p
** Would the zodiak really still be on the beach when they got there? I wouldn't think so.
** Hurley looks too cute in the orange jumpsuit.
** The Swan lightbeam, neat-o!! But why would Locke be afraid of going there, because he didn't want to risk seeing himself? Desmond could have just had the back porch light on.
** Yes, Jack "needed a change", from the crusty smelly loser junky look he was sporting there for a while.
** Does Miles not remember being on the island before (assuming that he was) because of the mega-jet-lag? Or for other mysteriously complicated reasons of his past.
** I like how quickly the LB-6 has come together to work as a team, at least in this episode. Nothing like getting shot at in a canoe to get the teamwork going!
** "I can fix this, Kate." RUNNNNN KATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
** Wow, it's soooo sweet to finally get some French connection time with the B612 (Besixdouze) and hopefully we'll get to spend some time with them and Jin (hoo-yeah!) next week. BTW, the look on Jin's face was great.
** I suppose that we are all wondering if Jin is time-skipping with the LBs. And if he is, that is really going to freak out the B612ers...and him.
** No Sun. Just no. Give up on the vengeance, it will come to no good. Maybe Sayid will roundhouse kick the gun out of her hands before she can kill anyone. Well, if Ben gets shot and killed, won't that put a crimp in the plans! :-o

"In Which We Meet More Others! - 5.03"

2009-01-29T14:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I nicked the title from a Fringe episode, but I was really happy that we got to see more history of the Others this week. Here are my bulleted thoughts on the ep without rehashing too much of what I and others have already mentioned on the interblogs:

* I appreciate that TPTB have given us some time to spend with Des and Penny and now their little family. Adorable. At least someone has gotten what they love and need on this show.
* I wonder why Des didn't know where Dan's lab was, since he had "been" there before? He looked like he was just walking around hoping to find a clue.
* It's too bad about Teresa, but could she have volunteered for the work? You know, the old Indiana Jones freshman crush kind of thing ("I'll do anything to help you Professor!")? I hope that we find out more about her part.
* Very interesting to learn about Widmore's funding of Dan's research, wow.
* Was Widmore forced to keep Penny away from Des in their past, as in, by the Time Lords? I know it's an old story, the rich old coot doesn't want his perfect daughter to find real love outside of their station in life. But he did go to a lot of trouble to try to separate them; hiding Des' letters, attempting to pay Des to leave, and the whole boat race, etc. Mrs.H didn't want them married either. But then again, if Wid wanted Des on the island he wouldn't have told him to stay out of it last night I guess. Unless Desmond's work is done, and now he's free to not concern himself with it anymore. Hmm.
* Why didn't Widmore tell Des about Ben trying to kill Penny? He was very coy in telling him to take good care of her without actually explaining why.
* I would have really liked to see Richard's face at the point where time skipped again and Locke disappeared before his eyes. :-)
* I don't understand, if Dan cares so much about Charlotte, why doesn't he explain to her what's going on with her problems? He's treating her the way the F-4s treated the Losties after they first landed on the island. Something's weird about that to me.

It was probably inevitable that TPTB would bring the history of atomic bomb research into a Pacific island story, and I'm happy about that because it's another one of my fave history subjects. They sure left a lot of clues to lead us to think that Jughead is buried in the Swan station, or they could be tricking again us to think something like that. One way that I could go with that theory is if, A) Jughead is patched up and encased as Dan described, B) the whole deal is buried in the ground, and C) some kind of magnetic containment devise is built to surround it to trap in any stray radiation. This could lead to the need for the periodical discharge of the radiation build-up every 108 minutes (this is pure fiction here, I'm not going by any real science) if the patch job was not quite good enough to contain it. Or, with the combination of the leaking radiation and the magnetic field mixing causing the same problem of buildup. And in that case, the Failsafe implosion could be the way to blow the bomb inward, so that the normal H-bomb explosion would not wipe out the entire island. Otherwise, if it's just Jughead in the cement containment hold in the ground, I can't see how there would be the magnetic force that pulls on fillings and metal keys and chains, or why the radiation would have to be discharged, or how the bomb could implode abnormally. Not that I'm Dan Faraday and know all these things, of course.

I also found it amusing that Richard's medieval look was apparently not his normal in-the-past accouterments, as he showed up nice and clean-cut in the 1950s. Perhaps by the time he saw Ben he was going through his hippie stage. To me the shirt he wore then just doesn't fit the raggedy-man costumes that Tom and company wore, it's got some kind of embellishment like embroidery and decorative buttons on it if you look close. Yes, those are the kinds of things that I notice. :-)

"Here We Go! -- 5.01, 5.02"

2009-01-25T10:48:00.000-08:00

Wake up! Season 5 has begun! I should have called this post "Shock And Awe" because that's how I feel after viewing episodes 1 & 2 Wednesday night. My brain is so full that I don't even know where to begin a coherent thought. So, I figured that I'd just bullet-point my reactions and stupefication. Suffice it to say, when they said that "bad things happened", I didn't think that they were going to be this bad!

* Marvin is one very frustrated, uptight, and rude dude. He must have a massive weight on this shoulders, and he's passing it on to those underneath him. Maybe, from what we learned in the '09 ComicCon video, he can't stand the lies either like Hurley can't.
* I'm glad that we finally know what the Arrow station was for.
* Interesting that the DI knows about the energy source, but didn't seem to know about the FDW before the sonar scanned it.
* What did Dan's jumpsuit say? It's way below where the names usually are, and my VHS pause is grainy.
* I believe that Ben knows exactly what happened after Jack left, but he's just pretending to Jack that he doesn't -- maybe Jack won't want to go back if he knows it's really freaky "miracle" type stuff that will require a leap of faith.
* Dan says either the island or the Left Behinders are moving, but he says probably the LBs.
* When Dan asked if everyone is accounted for, why did they imply only Locke? Claire's not with them either. But they didn't segue to her at all after the question, only Locke.
* Obviously a lot of the drama is going to be all the obstructions to getting the O6 back to the island, I didn't really expect so much of that.
* Are the two who attacked Sayid and Hurley the other two members that Ben spoke of? If so, then, on to the next question...
* Has Sayid abandoned helping Ben out, and that's why he told Hurely to do the opposite of what Ben says and beat up the guys who might have been with Ben and the Others?
* It's very interesting that Dan studied the DI so seriously, I wonder why? Maybe just because he knew of their work somehow.
* Did Locke's leg go wonky with Boone at the drug plane site because he got shot during the time skip? That might suggest overlapping time.
* Dumb Sawyer doesn't realize that if he takes food from the Swan, it will just disappear again with the next time skip, heehee. Probably even if he eats it? :-D
* I'm very worried about Charlotte's symptoms, even thought she's not high on my "likes" list, I actually like her better than Kate.
* I hope that Dan's mother knows what to do when Dez gets to her, and I'm very glad that Dan has some kind of plan. For what, who knows.
* I liked seeing AnaLu, but I really don't care for the living dead parts of the story the way that some viewers don't care for the time travel.
* I love that Hurley's mom believed him, I thought that she would have smacked him in the head after he finished.
*Who are those British guys? Widmore's peeps? And were they a part of the DI's defense resources at the Arrow?
* I can't wait to know more about the pendulum marker that Mrs.Hawking referred to while she was doing her calculations, but I doubt that we will learn much about it.

All in all, these were two great episodes. We got more than just cryptic hints (altho we got a lot of that too) but we were treated to more insider views of the DI workings and people, Mrs Hawking and her Time Lording, and Dan was much more forthcoming about what's going on than usual. My mind is still in a whirl!

"The Kevin Callis Question"

2009-01-11T13:53:00.000-08:00

Perhaps I've missed the answer somewhere along the way, but I've been wondering what's up with Kate's husband now that she's a worldwide celebrity who was rescued from a horrific crash. Aren't they still married? Wouldn't he notice that she was one of the Oceanic-6 in the news? Wouldn't he want some explanations from her? He didn't seem to me to be the type who would just roll over and play henpecked and go away. After all, he is an officer of the law, and the law might be important to him. (What do you think Wayne, since your dad was a policeman?)

So have I missed this topic addressed somewhere? I need to rewatch the conspiracy film on the DVD extras again, I haven't seen it since DarkUFO posted it a couple months ago, so maybe this point has been broached there. But it just seems to me that Kate's problems back home would also include having to face the guy that she deceived and blew off because she couldn't handle "taco nights". If I were him I'd want some answers.

"Dan's In The Jungle Room Too"

2009-01-06T08:47:00.000-08:00

Professor Faraday has a very nice promo shot on the 'Pier 1' set as well. There are two, and this is the better one I think. A lot has been joked about Dan's apparel, especially the ever-present tie. I worked with scientists for 27 years at IBM, and I can vouch for the fact that some of the most hard-core scientists still dress like this every day (although they start the day with their shirt tucked in) and remain in their ties no matter what kind of equipment maintenance mess they may get into during the day. They don't all do that, but the kooky ones like Dan do. The Hitachi service engineers who fix our scanning electron microscopes always remain that way too (very classy bunch!). Although aside from the hiking boots you could say that Dan looks more like an engineer from the 1960s (and probably should take his tie off in the jungle), and today's rocket scientists are more the Dockers type. ;-)

I found the promos of Jeremy Davies at this nice fan site here: http://www.jeremydavies.net/

"Ben Get's Some Promo Gravitas"

2009-01-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

ABC is really getting creative with the promo images for Season 5. In addition to the large one that includes the entire main cast (you know, the one where Daniel forgot to screw his pirate peg-leg back on), the images that they are releasing this hiatus are better then the usual ones where cast members are just standing in J.Crew catalog shots. And I like this one of Ben the best so far. I found it at DarkUFO in the Spoiler section (I edited out the spoiler info in the pic for y'all), which came from some article in some magazine.

Anyway, Ben looks pretty good here in all his serious glory, he appears ready to pounce. But as good as this looks, it's curious how the promo shots always look super-airbrushed, and the actors end up looking like their heads are planted onto other peoples bodies, and every character wrinkle has been erased from their faces so that our sensibilities won't be harmed by viewing anything less than perfection (accept for Daniel's missing leg, haha). Otherwise, I really like them! And I wish that I could be the person building these interesting studio sets, I'm really good at that, I bet that's a fun job to have.

"Anthurium Redux - FWIW"

2008-12-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

Back in May after "There's No Place Like Home" aired, I tried to find some info on the meanings of the flower used as a directional signpost to the secret hatch in the Orchid Station. I didn't find much except, "...two Victorian meanings in anthurium-giving; either hospitality or intense attraction." I didn't put much importance on either symbolic intention, even though we were given the flashback of Ben's possessive feelings for Juliet.

Then today I was reading a book that I bought because I'm going to begin drawing and taking photos of stone statues soon. The book is, "Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography." Under Anthurium, it says: "Although there is not a lot of symbolism attached to the anthurium, it is often used to decorate graves in Hawaii...a gift of an anthurium from a man to a woman is supposed to signify his enormous attraction to her, for reasons that do not need to be explained."

I doubt that TPTB purposely put this plant in the show to point to Ben's seemingly unhealthy affection for Juliet, but I thought that it was interesting just the same to imagine Ben nurturing this plant that held the meaning of the feelings that he obviously felt for her. Considering that Juliet was so clueless as to Ben's affections (even though others seemed to notice) and the way he insisted that she should have known as they stood over Goodwin's corpse, "reasons that do not need to be explained", took on some interesting meaning in distant hindsight. Just sayin'. :-)

"Happy Holidays"

2008-12-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Mele Kalikimaka to Losties everywhere! I'm really looking forward to having something new to talk about with you all in January. :-D

"Neat Things"

2008-11-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

I normally don't post the updates that can be found elsewhere, but I really like this ad for the Sky channels that was posted on DarkUFO.

I guess that new Lego Lost characters will be released soon. Just in time for Christmas I suppose. Pretty neat, but I wonder why Sayid's "chest" is more pronounced than Kate's. :o) Info on DarkUFO seems to imply that New DI Recruits can get a discount with their DWY cards.

http://meltcomics.com/Melt_Lost.html

"When Worlds Collide"

2008-11-05T15:48:00.000-08:00

In the last episode of Season 4, we were shown an alive Locke and a dead Locke. Pierre Cheng's frantic video led us to think that due to Kerr's time-shell theories, there could be two realities "existing" at the same "time", meaning that there could be two Lockes co-existing, i.e., an alive one and a dead one. This got me wondering about how Ben told Jack that they have to take "him" -- Locke -- back to the island with them. Does this mean that the alive and dead Lockes will come together and inhabit the same time and space like matter and anti-matter? Will the two separate time-shells converge into one colossal astronomical event? Is there an island in each of these time-shells? If so, will they converge in some kind of atomic collision? So far I'm still looking forward to finding out, although I must admit that my patience in waiting for this story to start to gel is getting about as thin as our patience for "The Project", if you know what I mean. Hopefully I can hang in there. :-o

Image from :http://www.skinbase.org/zoom.php?id=3233

"Second Entry:Young Frankenlost"

2008-10-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about this movie and couldn't resist skewering our remaining Freighties. :-)

And of course I always pick on Locke and Ben, here in an old pic that I made up long ago. Have a safe Halloween, everyone who partakes.

"Lostoween Is Near"

2008-10-21T06:16:00.000-07:00

Here's my contribution to this year's Lostoween season. I didn't feel as creative as last year, but Count Deadlocke did manage to inspire something suitable. Since I was so lazy, here's last year's parade of costumes for new visitors who may not have seen it: http://capcomslost.blogspot.com/2007/10/happy-lostoween.html

"Autumn in Keamyland"

2008-10-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

Since I seem to have nothing interesting to say about Lost at this time for some reason, here is a lovely picture of autumn foliage from the mystical forest in Keamyland, for your viewing pleasure -- courtesy of the fertile minds at 'Keamy's Paradise' blog (see sidebar links). People have written sentimental songs about autumn in New York and Vermont, but I have a feeling that seeing this vegetation in the woods would inspire some pretty interesting emotions as well.
:-)

"A Fox Network Idea For Lost And ABC"

2008-10-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

People who watch Fox's new series "Fringe" may have noticed that the show spends less time on advertisement breaks than most shows. I thought that this was just supposed to be the procedure for the Pilot, but it seems to be carrying on for the rest of the season.

http://www.fringetelevision.com/2008/07/will-fringe-pilot-be-remote-free-tv_18.html

Excluding the mini-recap that precedes each Lost episode, according to my VCR, most Lost episodes run about 33-36 minutes on the average. This last Fringe episode ran for almost 48 minutes, while the ad breaks are quick (60-90 seconds) and few. It would be nice if J.J. and company could convince ABC to allow them to follow the same guidelines with Lost, that they can over on Fox with their new series. Considering all the mysteries and questions that we would collectively like (read: need!) to see satisfied in the final two seasons of Lost, 10-12 more minutes per episode would really help to facilitate that. Right? :-)

"Shut Out At Emmys"

2008-09-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

Flame on: You know, it's not as if there are no other creative and talented shows such as Lost on TV that deserve to be recognized, because there are. And it's not as if good entertainment can't have morals, warnings, and messages, as the memorable Twilight Zone series certainly did for example, because they can. But maybe some day the political elitists in Hollyweird will realize that there is more to entertainment than pushing their own propaganda, and that a lot of the people in the flyover states actually enjoy pure entertainment because it is just that...entertainment, not politics. Until then, they'll just keep giving themselves all the awards, and we'll keep watching the shows that they don't want us to watch for fun. 'Nuff said. :-p And this is as close to making political commentary as I'll ever get here on this Lost blog again, I promise. Flame out.

"Jorge Wins ALMA Award"

2008-09-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

A hearty congratulations to Jorge Garcia for winning this award for his excellent work on LOST!

http://www.almaawards.com/2008-winners.html

"A Little Help From My Friends"

2008-09-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

Wayne volunteered to recharge my brain of mush with an interesting question. Here's how he put it for me in an email:

"Last night I was on the Sayid-flashback in S4. I went back at the end to replay the talk between Ben and Widmore in Widmore's bedroom. I had always concentrated on the "ah, Ben's going after Penny now because Alex died." But there was an important exchange that I should have picked up on after "Meet Kevin Johnson."

Widmore: Are you going going to kill me.

Ben: We both know I can't.

Ben can't kill Widmore because the Island won't let Widmore die, like Tom told Michael? I thought it was about committing suicide and/or "The Island has more work for you." Does that mean Widmore is protected in some way because he WAS on the Island at some time? That he isn't just looking for it again, as if it is a legend like Atlantis, but rather he was there, maybe turned the FDW and was banished? Seriously, the first time around, watching it on TV, I thought ah, going after Penny. Makes sense. But, hell, Jann, he slit Keamy's throat. Why not just pump bullets into Widmore right then and there? Why Can't Ben Kill Widmore? "

All good points. This Ben/Charles dialogue evokes SO many questions about Widmore concerning how he originally got a hold of the island (merely via the Hanso Org?), if he ever lived there, how he got separated from the island, why he can't go back, etc. And, if he needs to get back to the island for healing because he's got some mysterious "shpilkes in his geneckteckessoink" (thank you Linda Richman). And like Wayne said, is there more to the reason why Ben can't kill him, than just because the island won't let him? Sometimes I think that Ben and Widmore are dependant upon each other... that is, there might be a reason that Ben can't live without Widmore, and visa versa, because if one dies the other will too. Oy, it makes me all meshuggah!

Can TPTB answer all the Widmore questions by the end of Season 6? Will TPTB answer these questions?! We need some farkakte answers about Widmore soon. :-)

"Klimt's LOST Kiss"

2008-08-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've got no theories. I'm all theoried-out. So when that happens I play with the pretty pictures. I was looking at Klimt's painting "The Kiss" the other day, and it reminded me of The Kiss of Season 4, so I made up this little montage of Des' and Pen's special moment. :-)

BTW, here's the original painting by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918, Austrian symbolism artist).

"How Far Will Sun's Revenge Go?"

2008-08-22T04:17:00.000-07:00

A lot depends on the information Sun gets from Locke after he visits them.
I kind of think that Widmore is the other person besides Paik that Sun holds responsible for Jin's "death", or their separation, since it was his search and destroy mission that brought on the mercs. That would make the coy merger that she's doing with him all the more poetic in application, in the vein of "keeping your enemies closer", before she destroys him financially or whatever. Or, Locke could use the info of why the freighter blew up to get Sun mad enough to go back and do whatever it is that Locke needs them to do. But if she finds out about what happened in the Orchid, she could go after Ben off-island instead. Then the path of vengeance-begetting-vengeance becomes the theme of her sad future too -- that is, with Ben killing Keamy and blowing up the freighter to avenge Alex, then Sayid killing to avenge Nadia, Sun killing Ben to avenge Jin, and who knows what else in Seasons 5 and 6. (Quite frankly I hope that all the killing on this show starts to wind down soon!)

Hopefully Sun merely wants to mentally and financially twist the b@lls of the guys who are responsible for separating her from Jin (like the coup of her father's business, rather than killing him) and doesn't end up lowering herself to committing murder like those she feels are responsible. Even though she defended herself well against Colleen on the sailboat (most likely due to being pregnant making her even more defensive), up to this point I don't think that Sun is a killer per se, but you never know with this show. Most of the characters are turning tail on their own personalities, for good and bad and crazy, ever since they got to the island.

"Why Kate's Contempt For Dead Locke?"

2008-08-19T10:26:00.000-07:00

"Why would I go to the funeral?"
It was a simple reply, and not laced with too much emotion (probably to keep us from sensing too much about it), but I could see enough of a tinge of repulsion in it that I kind of expected Kate to spit on the ground after she said it to seal the sentiment. A lot of other fans sensed it enough that many voted for Ben being the dead-guy, since he has done so much to earn the hatred of any of the 815ers.

I wonder what happened between Kate and John that ticked her off so much? Could it just be because of all his efforts to keep them from leaving the island? His general half-cocked, explosive craziness? Or is it something that Locke did as the alias Jeremy, after they left the island? Makes you wonder if John might have tried to abduct Aaron somehow when he went to talk to Kate, on his off-island recruiting mission. He could have gone to her to convince her to take Aaron back to the island, she says no, and when she goes to get some iced tea in the kitchen to politely send him off, he sneaks upstairs to try to nick Aaron and she catches him and freaks out. As with everything else, we'll just have to wait and see.

"Misfiring Pens And Guns"

2008-08-14T05:19:00.000-07:00

We saw that when Claire was trying to sign the adoption papers, her pens failed to work in the same way that Mike's gun didn't work for him at multiple attempts. So come on Powers That Be, when are you going to tell us why the island wouldn't let Claire take Aaron anywhere but to the island? The psychic said that it would have to be that flight. So it looks as if the island was calling the shots there. I hope that we don't have to wait until the finale of all finales, to learn why Aaron was supposed to crash on the island (and, exactly how it is that the island has all this power to control events!). But it's such a huge mystery at this point, that's probably when and how it will be revealed...in the final scene before the blackout-boom-logo. At least maybe TPTB will give us a few hints and crumbs along the way.

Some theories on Aaron can of course be found at Lostpedia. One that sounded interesting to me was: "Jack and Kate are the "nice couple in LA" to whom Richard Malkin wanted Claire to give Aaron. He didn't know that the plane would crash, but only knew of the future where Jack and Kate were happily raising Aaron." That makes it appear that although Malkin was perhaps not an operating psychic, maybe he did get flashes of precognition like Desmond that didn't really fit together, and he just pieced them in his head to make as much sense of them as he could. Hmmm.

http://lostpedia.com/wiki/Aaron_Littleton/Theories

"Thoughts On The Tunnels"

2008-08-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

Ever since we learned of the possibility of subterranean passageways on the island, we've wondered how the DI could have created all the miles of conduits through the volcanic island rock, in the short time since they landed on the island. But after seeing Ben turn the FDW, I'm starting to think now that most of the tunnels were dug out by the ancient islanders and the DI was able to add onto the existing tunnels, with offshoots to their buried stations. A few of the points in the show that make me think this way are:

1) The limited amount of time the DIs had to dig these tunnels. It seems as if they were mostly ready as soon as the stations were finished. The DI would have to be careful drilling around underground, in case there were still any "live" lava veins in the area. Wouldn't it be dangerous to be drilling everywhere quickly without careful and cautious geological exploration of a small volcanic island ahead of time?

2) We saw the ancient looking construction and glyphs in the cave/tunnel where Ben called on Smokey, and into where he had to crawl to get to the FDW. So some sub-structures were there before the DI arrived and set up shop.

3) If there were ancient inhabitants, there's a volcano, and they could have known about any empty dead lava tubes to use for tunnels. This could have assisted them in creating the vast system of conduits without modern technology -- unless they had some kind of Alien/Atlantean equipment to use of course (j/k, sort of). Otherwise, they could have just taken their time and primitively dug their way around over the course of many decades or centuries, since it looks like someone's been on the island for a very long time.

4) The Others/Hostiles seemed to pop up in the most obscure (from the stations and barracks) positions when they began to take the 815ers in the first two seasons. Why would the DI bother to scrape out tunnels in remote areas of the jungle and beach that weren't connected with their stations or experiments? The remote surprise access probably also aided the Hostiles in their attacks on the DI.

So, it looks as though there could have been a pre-existing tunnel system left from the early days of the island. After the DI arrived, the stations then could have been considered according to where the main tunnels were, allowing them to easily create new linking passages for the stations. Radzinsky's map may also show where the DI attempted to cut off access from their stations' tunnels to the Hostiles' tunnels after trouble started. Chances are, the DI never got to finish exploring all the subterranean tubes within the island before their situation began to deteriorate.

"Atlantean Subterranean Donkey Wheels"

2008-07-31T12:50:00.000-07:00

More adventures of LOST following you wherever you go.
Today Turner Classic Movies ran the film "Atlantis, The Lost Continent". It's not considered to be one of George Pal's best efforts, but it is unusual enough to be good fun to watch and make fun of. The general story is that Atlantis became powerful and "created wonders for the good of mankind." Then all heck broke loose when false gods and egos prevailed, and world domination became its main mission. The usual revolt ensues, involving giant power crystals, volcanoes, slaves, and Manimals.

The scene that made my eyes bug out though, was the following: A bunch of slaves crawl down a hole in the ground, to a small subterranean cave, where they begin to turn a wooden donkey wheel. (!) The wormgear attached to the wheel disappears into a glowing hole, that emits vapors of some kind (probably hot vapors, since they are attempting to unleash the volcano and wreck the bad guys' giant crystal of doom). So gee whiz, where have I seen an underground donkey wheel scene before?! Like I said, there is no escaping LOST, it seems. The following are some photos that I snapped off of the TV screen, because I couldn't find any images of this set online. Sorry about the crummy quality, but I had to share this weird deja vu experience with you all.

Down the hole!

Turning the wheel to blow up Atlantis.

"Is Widmore Dying?"

2008-07-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

Does Widmore need to find the island for his own failing health?
There's been some blog speculation as to whether the true reason that Wid needs to find the island is because he is desperate to get healed of some fatal malady. Perhaps that's why he doesn't sleep at night -- because he's dying, and the fear of life's deadline looming closer every minute is pressing in on him. There may be very little time left for Widmore to find the island, which could explain why he pulled out all the stops and engaged the freelance militia to cut a swath to the healing source that he needs so badly before it's too late.

That makes some sense to me. I really could not understand why he'd contract a team of mercs to eliminate all the interference, just so he could be the first to open the Fountain of Youth Adventure Park on the island. Granted, it would make him the richest man in the universe, but I got the impression that he's almost at that apex anyway. And if he is dying, it makes Ben seem all the more cold-hearted, as he stands in Widmore's bedroom mocking a dying man's sleepless nights, when he has the keys to Wid's recovery in his hand so to speak. After what Ben said to Locke in the Orchid, you can almost image the conversation as Widmore says, "Ben, you know that I'm dying." And Ben replies with, "So?"

"Some Jack's-Mom Actress Trivia"

2008-07-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

It would be nice if TPTB could throw us some more background information about Jack's mother, somewhere in the final two seasons. For instance, why she was not the best choice for loser Christian to marry (was she too good for him?), or what her part was in the disintegration of their marriage (was she emotionally unstable?), and if Jack is a crybaby because his mother babied him after his father would shoot him down (which might explain Jack's roller-coaster emotions).

I recently came across some early career photos of Veronica Hamel, who plays the apparently long-suffering Margo Shephard. She was one of the top Ford Agency models in the 1960s and early 70s before she started acting. Not a skeevy runway-super-model type like Janice Dickinson and Naomi Campbell (and dare I say, Tyra Banks?). Oh no, Hamel was at the apex of the international high-fashion modeling world, and someone for young women to actually look up to as a role model. I know that I did, and I used to draw her face when I was a kid. Her look was the epitome of 60s fashion, and was perfect for when an image of sophistication, grace, or futuristic beauty was called for to sell a product. She was gorgeous then, and still looks pretty good for her age. Just thought I'd throw out this bit of retro trivia, while we wait for the Comic Con craziness to begin soon. Look for the new OGR letter in your email today! :-)

"The Joke's On Keamy"

2008-07-14T10:00:00.001-07:00

Keamy gets his just rewards at a new blog.
Check out http://keamysparadise.blogspot.com/ and make fun of "Mr. Keamy" in more ways than you probably thought possible. It's too funny to put into words, you have to see it for yourself. I think that Mona Keamsa, Keamy the Barbarian, The Keamy Bunch, and dancing Keamy are my favorites so far. :-) You can even submit your own Keamy art to the blog too.

"Thoughts On Eko's Book Of Laws"

2008-07-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

The following ideas aren't exactly new, but I just felt like laying them out in writing. I know that there is a holy book in the Bahai faith called "The Book Of Laws" that could be the reference in "Cabin Fever", but it's difficult to ignore the story that Eko told John in the Swan station after they met, especially when Eko could have just said, "Hey, I found this Bible with a secret compartment in it, and some film!":

EKO: I have something I think you should see...Long before Christ the king of Judah was a man named Josiah. Josiah, since he was a good king, sent his secretary to the treasury and said: "We must rebuild the temple. Give all of the gold to the workers so that this will be done." But when the secretary returned, he had no gold. And when Josiah asked why this was the secretary replied, "We found a book."...What the secretary had found was an ancient book -- the Book of Law. You may know it as the Old Testament. And it was with that ancient book, not with the gold, that Josiah rebuilt the temple.

So the point of the story is that the Jewish people had strayed from the Holy Laws, and needed to return to their true faith. They realized that gold would not procure the changes necessary for spiritual revival, only a reformation of their worship and lives would truly rebuild the Temple physically after rebuilding it in their hearts first.

From the Jewish Encyclopedia: Josiah "undertook the repair of the Temple...During the progress of this work "the book of the law" was found in the house of the Lord...The king then set himself to the task of cleansing the land from idolatry...The evidence is very strong that "the book of the law" referred to was Deuteronomy."
From the Catholic Encyclopedia: Josiah "ascended the throne when he was only eight years of age. In the eighteenth year of his rule, the Jewish king undertook to repair the Temple with the help of the high-priest...they all united with Josiah in a solemn vow of obedience to its commands. This was followed by a drastic reformation of worship..."

We're led to think that Locke was originally meant to ascend the "throne" as a boy like Josiah, when Richard came along with his test. Now that the island is in desperate need of regrouping, it seems Locke is expected to return the island to it's original purpose and order, the way Josiah returned faith and order to his people (with Richard in the spot of the king's high-priest?). Except maybe it doesn't happen that way, because the "bad things" happen instead. But then perhaps the regrouped Oceanic-6 return to help make things right again on the island, by committing together to follow the old ways of the ancient island originals? To be continued next season...

"Captain Gault or Captain Gutless?"

2008-07-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

So what gives with Captain Wishy-Washy?
Someone posted this in the Doc Ray theory section of Lostpedia, which is pretty funny: "Ray mentions that the captain is "not a man to cross" shortly after we see the cut on his face...You know, back when the captain was still presented as an unseen character who was supposedly really intimidating, instead of when we actually met him and discovered that he's a trembling wuss who can't stand up to Keamy."

This is exactly what I was thinking after the deadly confrontation between Gault and Keamy on the deck. It seemed like a big difference from the ominous "Don't trust the captain" persona that we were led to worry about previously. What the heck happened to Captain No-Nonsense before that night on deck? One episode he's barking orders at the deckhands to let the crazy people go ahead and kill themselves, and later he's kowtowing to Keamy. Most likely we'll never know, unless they give someone a flashback of which Gault happens to be a part. I find this seeming inconsistency rather odd, but maybe everyone was just as terrified of "Mr. Keamy" as Frank was, regardless of their station on the ship. Or, was Gault beginning to catch the Freaky Freighter Fever as well?

"Ben's Lament"

2008-06-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

Take a moment to play the video above and think again about Ben's life as we know it.
This is the somber Rachmaninov piece that Ben thoughtfully played while the "Hardy Boys" got the auto-call from the sonic fence that the mercs were on their way. TPTB picked a very good tune to use while Ben was probably mentally preparing for the "things to come," and which contingency plan of action he would pull from his bag of tricks. I played this piece as I was re-reading Ben's bio on Lostpedia, and it seemed very poignant. Not that Ben doesn't have plenty of comeuppances headed his way after the Machiavellian life that he led, and I'm sure he had many sweet cushy moments living in his Pottery Barn furnished Otherton cottage as King Of The Others, among the lonely moments of leadership. But once upon a time, he started out as just a kid...a blank slate like the rest of us, with all of life ahead of him. And then his mom died, and his knucklehead dad made a bad job decision, and decided to blame his lot in life on his kid. I can't give Ben any slack for his sociopathic behavior on many occasions (and especially his stalker attitude towards Juliet), but it still makes you think. It's another example of how TPTB have told a story of not only the need for redemption, but the need for looking into a person's past to learn why they act the way that they do.

Anyway, in lieu of having anything else pertinent to theorize about right now, I thought that this piece of music might set the mood for thinking about what to expect when we next see Mr. Linus on the prowl. And thanks to TPTB, I will not think about only "The Seven Year Itch" when I hear Rachmaninov from now on. :-)

See you in 2009 Ben! (And Mr. Emerson!)

2008-06-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

Rachmaninov, potato chips, and champagne. :-)

"Something's Up In Comic Land"

2008-06-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

My ARG Spidey-senses are tingling.
Some strange things seem to be going on over at the blog that posted the Mystery Tales comic in "Cabin Fever". First, they posted a final story from the comic book, but they still haven't posted the story for the cover. When posters in the comments asked for it, they gave a brief summary: "Some scientist named Jake Bronowski is on a plane that passes through a storm and he weirds out during landing because the buildings don't look the same. His best friend Dr. Polder, with whom he's been playing an ancient Egyption game he discovered, meets him but his name is now Waxman. To make a long story short, they figure out that playing the game results in a "limitless outcome of similar timelines". It's a weird game like chess game and Jake makes the "right move" and suddenly he's transported back to his timeline where Waxman is Polder again. Honestly though, the story has nothing to do with LOST. It has a strong spiritualism slant to it. It sounds more like Jumanji than anything else." When pressed further for scans of the story, they replied: "We are sorry but we've received correspondence from a solicitor suggesting it would not be in our interests to scan "The Travellers". We are sorry but it is not worth a lawsuit." As well as "We can add no more than we mentioned in post #8 above."

A game? Like, with rules? Like the rules that Ben complained got changed? An Egyptian game? Like the Egyptian glyphs all over the island? And doctors changing names? One commenter also noted that "Limitless Outcome of Similar Timelines" is an acronym for LOST. Hmmm. They also posted on the comic blog that they just found out about the Octagon commercial and site, when they were told today that the Octagon website mentions the story in the comic called "March Has 32 Days", as just about every eager LOST ARG fan knows by now.

Seriously, as FYSB asks over at TLC, that comic's very old, so when would public domain apply? And Maven found on the bottom of the site page: "blog hosted at Oceanic Webhosting Services" which connects to the old Oceanic site. So on TLC we are thinking that either the comic and/or blog are fake and whipped up for the show and game (although Sayidsgirl at TLC thinks that it's up on another auction online); TPTB did not expect anyone to find this musty old classic comic and they have asked these guys to refrain from revealing this last story which pertains to either the show or the ARG; or the comic owners are a part of TPTB and games began before we even knew it during "Cabin Fever". However you look at it for now, it's odd. But if TPTB did indeed ask them not to reveal things that they have lifted from the comic for the show, that's fair enough and copacetic by me.

Note: Jacob Bronowksi is the scientist who was in the BBC series "The Ascent of Man". LoCos at TLC have yet to find anything interesting about the name Polder.
http://www.mysterytales40.com/

"LOST Science Blog"

2008-06-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

I've decided to keep the LOST science talk in another area for the most part, so I started: http://perditascientia.blogspot.com/ to try out keeping a separate forum for it. I'm just going to post all our favorite theories, images, and conspiracies that people have posted in the LOST blogosphere, in case anyone is interested in seeing it compiled. Some are so good that they deserve to get more recognition and notice. They might be on the mark or not, but I'll post them as I find them, in abbreviated form with links. It's just something to try through the duration of the hiatus, and mostly wishful thinking that over the summer people will start unraveling ideas about what we saw happen to the island...especially after Octagon Recruiting kicks in! :-D

"Lucky Baby"

2008-06-08T14:12:00.001-07:00

I was wondering some things about Ji Yeon recently, and conversation on the TLC blog spurred me to finish this post. For instance:

(1) Since her conception was caused by the island's influence, will she be different physically? Do the island's EM effects at the early stages of fetal formation create a mutated species of some kind? Even though its influence has been cut short by Sun leaving before the complications set in, perhaps enough time passed for Ji Yeon's growth to be affected or mutated in some way.
(2) Is she the first one to be conceived on, and born off, the island? Maybe the uber-team's Miles, Charlotte, or Daniel were conceived on-island too -- we've already gotten hints about Charlotte -- they seem to each have special intellect or cognition. Ji Yeon might have some too.
(3) If so, will her future and the island's be entwined? According to the enhanced version of her episode, Ji Yeon means "flower of wisdom"...she might be a spiritual leader of sorts on the island when she's older.
(4) Was Sun able to get herself and the baby off the island, because the island allowed it? This could imply that she was saved because she is needed on the island in the future, or that she will help her mother control the forces against the island back in the world, via the newly revised Paik Industries' corporate mission under Sun's control.

It's all up to TPTB how they run with this part of the story, of course. But her complicated conception and time being vulnerable to the island's influence, does inspire much curiosity about her physical attributes and her future. It kind of reminds me of Paul Atreides' little sister in Dune, who was subjected to the Waters Of Life when her mother drank it while pregnant, and Alia is born a cognizant super-being. Maybe TPTB gave us a hint during the scenes at her birth, when she went from being in distress one minute to miraculously being born fine (and very quickly!). That is, if she is a "special" island-conceived baby, maybe she already has the power to control her environment (the same question could be asked about Locke's birth as well). Or, her birthing twist was just a quickie plot device to ramp up the drama and then set up a red herring in the process. Well it's a long hiatus, this is just one aspect to cogitate until next year.

"Using The FDW vs. The Vault"

2008-06-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hey Ben, why use the frozen old junk when the shiny new apparatus was right there?
A lot of us are wondering why Ben had to break through the Orchid's fancy chamber vault, and use the ancient looking wheel instead, to complete his task of moving the island. Some comments of Ellen's on the TLC blog led me to a few thoughts about that: "...the fact that Ben had to blow a hole to gain entrance and then chip huge icicles off the wheel with a tire iron leads me to think that it hadn't been used since the Dharma Initiative arrived and built the Orchid Station." What she said made me think that maybe it's like the difference between the results of an atomic bomb blast, and an atomic power plant.

The FDW itself seems to be a crude but powerful apparatus that might be difficult to control for applied purposes beyond it's original intention, whatever that may be. It would make sense that the DI would have had to refine and upgrade the mechanics of the ancient machine before they could utilize it. With modern equipment to regulate the power, they could create a more manageable process, so that it could be used in various controlled and specific applications via the vault and instruments built onto it. Maybe the DI had even tried out the FDW for themselves when they found it, created an incredible result (moving in time or space), and then built equipment around it to harness the energy for practical purposes. So instead of trying to get a handle on an atomic bomb, they built a modern system onto it and learned to use it as a moderated power plant to run their futuristic equipment. Like Ben said, it was used for experiments with bunnies, so it seems as if the DI did not get very far along in their tests with wormholes, or whatever, before they got purged out.

Then when it came time for Ben to move and hide the island, the refined vault apparatus itself was probably of no use to him in doing what he had to do. He had to quickly get to the true power source, i.e. the big guns that were covered up, and turn the FDW to get the huge blast that he needed. And voila, the island "moved". Well, it's just a thought.

"Trellis Confrontation 4.13"

2008-06-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

For some reason, this scene...

...reminded me of this scene.

I know, they are not really the same atmosphere or story momentum. But as Jack and John were having their 999th spat at the Orchid trellis, O-Ren and Bea battling at the House of Blue Leaves snow garden trellis just popped into my mind. And it did look as if the top of Jack's head was going to blow off as he watched Ben and Locke descend into the earth in cahoots together!